Monday morning

Wow, what a day, I have so much to write about and so many photos to share. It is late and we are exhausted, so we will see how much we get accomplished tonight. We will post multiple entries for today so I can keep everything straight. We started the morning very early with a 7 am walk to a local park to watch "morning exercises." We saw some Tai Chi, badminton, and several ping pong games. The most interesting event though was the exercise "equipment." There were many people using the equipment, like you might see in a health club, but here it was outside, and not quite as intense. All of the kids enjoyed playing on the equipment and the people seemed to enjoy watching us as well. Ballroom dancing was starting at 8 am but we needed to head back for breakfast and the bus, so we only saw two dancers. We also saw people practicing caligraphy on the street. The park was next to a "boarding" pre-school. Children ages 3-5 live at this school Monday through Friday and then with their parents on the weekend. The school allows the children to "get ahead" with their education. Since it was Monday morning, we were able to see the parents with their children as they arrived at school for the week.