Yesterday evening, our whole group went to Dali Old Town. I was really excited to be able to go shop at Dali and I have heard that the food there was really good. Risa, Rachel, and I milled around for about one hour, buying some small souvenirs for family and friends. We then decided to eat, finding the restaurant was the hard part though. None of us could decide on what to eat, and most of the restaurants were bars anyway.

Tonight was Mr. T's All Star Whizbang Super Duper Trivia Night, our team was Four Shades of Mal (Mao) because Mallory was our team captain. We wore the caps from the communist party, dressed in all gray, and put dark sunglasses. There were 3 rounds to trivia night, the first round was normal jeapordy, the second round was doubled points, and the third round you wagered points, if you answered 5 out of the 7 questions right you get the points you wagered, if you didn't you lost the points you wagered.

Mr. Ma is an amazing man. He has witnessed the up's and downs of Xizhou, and has been an amazing teacher to my service learning group and I. Today, we have been transferring his story into an iMovie to share with the rest of our peers and some other people in Xizhou. I have been working with my group all day to prepare this video, and only have a little bit left. It has been really fun to witness and learn from him throughout our time in Xizhou. This Wednesday is our viewing party to celebrate our times with him and create our final memories together by sharing his story.

My dumb phone is perhaps the most complicated device I have ever handled. There are separate buttons for sound, texting, and calling. And a few presses of those fancy buttons can lead to a buzzing screen or a noisy ring. There are elegant numbers and letters carved onto the keyboard, and it is actually something that isn't on the screen. As a scroll through the modes slowly, I stumble upon something unbelievable. The radio!

Today, I am going to write about something that happened yesterday. Yesterday, at the 5-4-5 meeting, we saw a double rainbow. At first, it was just one with bright colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Then a rainbow started to appear on top of the first one. It was very faint but still visible. We watched in silence as the drizzle began to slow down, the clouds began to move, the sun began to leak out of the puffs of grey and white, and the rainbow began to disappear.

For wellness today, we decided to go exploring until we found a good place to do wellness, we just kept on jogging toward the direction that seemed right, as Risa and Rachel had previously mentioned there wasa really good exersising place. When we reached the fields we were all awed, there were these big droopy trees lining the path, creating a comfortable shade for us to jog on. There was lush green grass covering most of the field and flowing streams.

Today, we went for service learning. Our goal was to ask our potential service learning partners whether they were okay with being part of our project. We went to Si Fang Jie first to find Grandpa Li, our most likely potential service learning partner but it turned out he was on a trip and wouldn't be back for a few days. Then we went to Grandpa Yang's house to check with him, but it turned out he was out with a couple of friends playing cards and chess. But at Grandpa Yang's house, we did meet Crackers.

Tourism in Xizhou has caused many effects on the community here, with both positive and negative impacts on the people, their lives, and the environment. Some positive impacts of tourism are the preservation of natural sites and wildlife. People in Xizhou have banned fishing in Er Hai in hopes of it becoming rich with fish again to attract tourism. Banning fishing will also maintain Er Hai’s clear blue water for tourists to enjoy.  Tourism will produce funds for conservation of nature, such as the mountains in the west of Xizhou.

Today, for still time we went to Joanne's Tree. I went with Mallory, Risa, and Nicole F. We climbed the tree and stared out at the beautiful view with the rice paddies and the little pond. I climbed up onto a branch, rested my head against another branch and almost fell asleep. The scene was so tranquil, I felt happy and at peace.

Today was a very relaxing day for us, we didn't have anything planned so we just chilled and chatted. We played many card games such as Egyptian Rat Screw, Speed, Signal, BS, Fight the Landlord, 24, etc. I also worked on my homework and finished my book.

Today was a very exciting day for all of us. In the morning after breakfast, the Phantom of Room Inspection appeared *dramatic music playing*. It was actually just Mr. T with a beanie covering half fo his face, singing and dancing about how he became the Phantom. He also spilled water on himself which sent us all into a fit of laughter. Then he started room inspection, our room was first. He came out and solemnly told us that we had scored a 1.1 out of the 5-star scale. Everyone started laughing at our room even though they didn't fare much better than us.

It has been almost 5 days since I have arrived in Xizhou, and the food is simply amazing. Whether you are eating in house, or out, you will love the food. Today I went to 院子口, Yard Entrance, and I had the best meal of pork with mushrooms and onions. I strongly recommend all of the pork dishes there. After lunch, for a snack we went to get Xizhou Baba, it was delicious if not a bit oily. There are also homemade popsicles all around Si Fang Jie, although I have only tried blueberry, milk, and chocolate, I have gotten recommendations for the plum flavored one.

Today was our first WIPPIS day, WIPPIS stands for Wellness, Inquiry Project, Pitching in, and Still Time. These are four essential components that make up our Microcampus trip, Wellness is basically a physical activity that we do to achieve our 30 minutes of time-in-zone, Inquiry Project is our research project here in Xizhou, Pitching in is doing our chores and assignments, and Still Time is a 30 minute break where we can go anywhere quiet to just sit there and rest.

Today, we arrived in the beautiful town that we would call home for the next 28 days. We set a new record for the earliest arrived group ever, at 2:15 in the afternoon, which gave us lots of time to unpack and explore. We met Ms. Zhang and many other staff members working in our home and as soon as we settled in we got the choice to take a walk and meet the villagers. I chose to go on the walk to Si Fang Jie, we had to talk many detours to Si Fang Jie as many roads were in construction. Mr. T explained to us the wall propaganda decorating the walls of most of the buildings.