I got to do lots of stuff with lots of people.  

One of my students invited me to his hometown in Luohe, also where a fellow teacher's house is.  So I went to all the sites. This included a bird zoo/carnival, a number of temples, and an abandoned theme park/getaway resort.  I also went to my friends village (located about 30 minutes out of town), where I got to see his family and eat super delicious home made Chinese food.

The zoo was interesting.  It had a number of birds that were very beautiful, a few carnival rides (Ferris wheel, bungee bounce thing, cheesy small roller coasters) and games (darts, sandbags, hoop toss) and a lot of beautiful scenery.  It felt, as an American, like going to the Arboretum but with a lot more stuff (possibly similar to Knott's but with no roller coasters). Anyway I saw some ostriches, eagles (who were very cooped up), de-feathered peacocks (for sale at the shop), and any number of other birds.  The park also had lush scenery giving it the arboretum experience.

The next day we went to my friend's hometown.  We went on a walk through the newly harvested corn fields (which I knew by the lack of sidewalk access due to cultural public practice of using sidewalks as means for drying corn), which had numerous burial mounds and headstones sporadically placed throughout.  We arrived at the river bank, with the river about 50 feet below.  The river was 50ish feet wide, and littered with fishing farms, abandoned peddle boats (the kind that have bicycle peddles connected to a ferry style propeller), and a few other people (some of whom were fishing with rods, but most of whom were swimming for leisure.  One was doing her, and what looked like the rest of her family's, laundry).  The river itself was not especially polluted, though the banks were strewn with litter and abandoned objects.  Among such objects we found a solid, unsunk, and closed top peddle boat, and made our way up the river.  Getting in rhythm seemed to be a problem, but we managed to make it to a bend with relative ease in an hour or so before a water bottle stealthily found its way into the paddle-thingy and we had to make an emergency docking to dislodge it.  Not being a sea captain, I plotted a course, for nearest land- which I would later realize, was about 3 feet of muddiness which my first step off the boat took me straight to the third- glad it wasn't deeper :D  We managed the fiasco well, and went off on our homeward voyage.

I had lunch with my friend and his grandmother (his father works in inner Mongolia, and his mother has the night shift at the hospital) and ate delicious delicious food all based on beef- glorious.  Too glorious.  Nainai (grandmother in Chinese) was beyond persistent in ensuring I was full... to which I felt sick and a little guilty for continuing to try and tell her I was full- seriously, no really, can't eat anymore, going to pass out from food coma- full.  I later found that words are not the primary means of communication at the dinner table, and typically (or so I observed when my friend was put under similar duress) one does use words, but also physically makes it impossible to be doted upon- by making one's bowl unavailable for donations by others.  I think this is one of the best cultural experiences I have had so far in China, because I was able to see a real huge difference in culture (which cannot be translated through words) and also how it was dealt with by a Chinese person (and not given a luke warm response after asking someone about it, but seeing what actually happens).  Americans mean what they say, Chinese do what they mean.  I did not move my bowl, and so obviously still wanted more food... until I rudely left with my bowl overflowing >_> lesson learned ^_^

The last part of the adventure was probably the coolest.  We went to what was once another arboretum-esque park that had since been abandoned.  Trees and weeds overlay-ed the roads and paths, and concealed much of the 2 full size roller coasters, bumper car building, arcade, and 6 story pagoda from view as we entered via moped.  There was a lake in the center of the park which had 2 large islands- one inhabited by the pagoda, and the other by a small garden and restaurant building.  We took a quick tour around the place with the moped noting also that there were lodgings and a dock that bridged to the restaurant island, and then I asked if we could stop and check out the pagoda.  Pagoda island is a large island neighbored by two smaller islands which have bridges going to the mainland and pagoda island.  On pagoda island we travailed thick foliage to reach our destination.  Inside, broken glass and bottles littered the floor.  Six flights of stairs later we had a beautiful view of the entire park.  That is when I decided the roller coaster needed further investigation.  We romped through some more foliage, covering ourselves in thistles, and took the other small island route to arrive at the south side of the lake and move toward the roller coaster.  It was half painted (in that it was painted once, but still had metal showing under parts of the thin layer of paint) white and mottled with rust spots.  We poked around and tried turning it on (but there was no power).  Then the stairs were noticed.  The stairs that went to the top of the highest drop. >_> Well, stairs, obviously, were meant to be climbed.  Hands covered in dusty Chinese paint from gripping the railing- I made it to the top.  It was very high.  I would estimate it was about 75 feet up and maybe 1000 feet down.  We got off the roller coaster and headed back to the moped around the west side of the island.  While walking to the moped, we saw that the gate leading to the restaurant island was locked.  Then we noticed a paddle boat.  We mounted up and went the whopping 20 foot distance to the nearest scale-able fence off the dock and climbed it.  The restaurant island was boring, but the restaurant, which was locked, was filled with wonderful and fancy dinner settings.  After circling the building looking for hidden keys, secret doors, and broken windows, I gave in to the fact that I would not be able to enter the building peaceably.  However, there were two more on the mainland side of the dock.  Upon investigation, they were unlocked.  The rooms were wood walled (and smelled brilliant).  The two rooms were identical.  Each room had a half wall dividing itself in two with a large dinner table on one side- adorned with 3 cups (shot glass, water glass, wine glass), beautifully folded napkins on full size plates, accompanied by chopsticks, the center was covered by a lazy susan which had a number of serving wares and a giant fake bouquet of flowers at the center-  and a big screen TV facing a couch with a small sun room alcove with a coffee table and four chairs on the other side of the wall.  A bathroom was hidden in the corner (western toilet).  It was awesome.  After bemusing ourselves with the fanciness of the abandoned restaurant, we made our escape and went back to my friends house.

Wow, hope that didn't get too boring... that's really long.  I was trying to be more descriptive.  Hope I don't sound obnoxious.  That was pretty much the 3 days I spent in Luohe minus the temples... which were similar to the other temples I've been to.  After that I hung out with some friends, worked at my Saturday school, and continued working the kinks out of my Chinese chocolate chip cookie recipe (there is no brown sugar here, but there is something that looks like it called red sugar... I was hoping- like in the use of black tea in the West and red tea in the East- which are identical- that they would be similar in taste and chemistry, but they aren't... )  Still edible though :D