the last days of the farm

yup, that's all. i'm leaving tomorrow bright and early. it has been a very unique experience and i learned a lot. for instance, the stalk of the lotus plant forms a natural straw and when cut, bleeds a white milky substance. also, water bamboo is tasty, eaten raw or cooked with soy sauce and sugar. pumpkin leaves are buttery and delicious, even if they were only used to feed pigs in china for hundreds of years. finally, and probably most importantly, i can peel a tomato in one long, curly strip.

so in xichong it has been raining since late may. the past few days have been the first bits of sunshine that i have seen in a month, and they have been lovely. i took the opportunity to go out to work the fields, sort of. i took the opportunity, but once i got out there, it was taken back. the man in charge of the field workers thought it was too hot for me to work. so after only 30 minutes of turning over some soil, i was given a straw hat (super chic!) and sent to sit in an empty cement room alone on a wooden bench. i would have rather worked the fields. so i decided to walk around the farm instead. this was also not allowed. the rest of the afternoon consisted of me sneaking away from the cement room and being hunted down and led back, with a few ripe fruits or vegetables to eat along the way. then i would pretend not to understand a sneak away again. good thing i had my camera, otherwise i think i would have passed out from boredom.

here are a few farm photos (green! green!). the rest are on flickr.

okay, nevermind. they are all on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeking/collections/

so tonight is hot pot one last time and tomorrow, pizza in chengdu.