Mid Autumn Festival

In China they have something called the Mid Autumn Festival. It's usually in September, so not exactly Mid-Autumn, but that's cool. It's when the Autumn moon is fullest and it's to celebrate the harvest. The government says that you get 3 days off for it, so we got Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. Yes, Saturday counts as one of the days, and because we got work off it also means that Sunday is a work day. YAY.... it also comes right before the National Holiday Break (a whole week!) So our schedule went/ will be a little like this:

Week of	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Sept 16	Work	Work	Work	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Work
Sept 23	Work	Work	Work	Work	Work	Work	Work
Sept 30	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday
October 7	Holiday	Work	Work	Work	Work	Work	Work

Crazy confusing, but okay. So for our 3 day holiday we didn't do too much since our passports were with the Chinese government- they were getting them amended so we would have the right visa status. So we just hung out, watched movies and went to a zoo-meets-amusement park here in Weifang.

This cool guy was making cute animals out of clay. I kinda wanted one, but what was I going to do with it? And I feared it would not fare well on our trip back to the US.

Outside the park....

This symbol is supposed to represent "more money"

They had a bunch of legit military equipment towards the front of the park

Including full size airplanes. Like real airplanes that actually flew.

Red Pandas! I once wrote a report on them in like 6 grade because I loved them so.

We thought this was an impressive zoo... kinda. I mean look it's kinda like their natural habitat...

We actually got pretty close to this guy

And look! Look at these tigers... sure the wall we were standing behind was a bit... umm, well short. Like if the tigers really wanted to, they could come for us, but I'm sure they're well fed enough to behave, right?

I mean look at that guy! He appears happy (or contemplative of which of us he'd like to eat).

Then we are told there are more tigers, and these were them... it just starts getting sad at this point.

BUT check out how close we are to a tiger! I don't think I even used the zoom on my camera.

Aww look at this baby Tiger. He's kinda in a nice spot. That door leads into a room. That's nice right?

Aww look! Mom is doing something cool!

OH! Wait... Mama is trying to get her baby some food... as in that child right there in the frame. She was trying to figure out how to get to that child, TO EAT HIM! Most people there found it to be quite amusing. 

Baby is sad Mama didn't bring home some 'Chinese' food for dinner. HA!

This was in the "Wolf" area. Yeah that's a housebroken dog if I've ever seen one...

That's a bit more like it - though he is as skinny and sad as Wile E. Coyote

These bears look so sad. That's all I can say right now.

I seriously want to break them out and release them into the forest... if there were a forest nearby...

OH this could be cute right?

He's only doing this because people were throwing him apples. At least it was apples right?

And this is the face of a Bear who was tricked because people can't throw apples properly

Do you see that Charlie Brown walk? 

This lady was throwing little pieces of hot dogs.  HOT DOGS!

She was also terrible at it. She couldn't throw worth beans.

But hey! at least we got close to a bear. That's cool right?

To be honest, the lions were kinda boring. None of them were being fed or trying to eat small children.

Mostly just sad. Though this little boy was adorable.

This is when the Lion had a mind meld with Chad and screamed "Help me!!!"

This jaguar was straight up stalking the small children outside the glass. She wouldn't have even noticed if they threw a huge steak in her cage.

Are you seeing this?

On a happy note, if you are a small child you can ride Lil' Sebastian (if you don't get this reference- do yourself a favor and start watching Parks and Rec on Netflix)

We totally paid extra to go into the reptile house. It was incredibly creepy. And not just because of the reptiles. 

Another animal thinking about eating a child. Seriously though, the one staring at the kid started biting the others neck once the kid left. Like the kid made him hungry.

Even in the zoo we can't avoid the stares.

This, of course, is the saddest hippo in the world. And there are undoubtedly some starving in Africa right now.

PILES OF TURTLES!!!!

Why did we even bother snorkeling in Hawaii? Check out these sea turtles in like a foot of water! Just like the ocean, so great...

Sad looking peacocks... Sensing a theme?

For some reason, the zoo clipped off everything awesome about a peacock- it's tail. 

I could see this ostrich trying to kill a small child

Jail works. This monkey is all the proof we need. All he needs is a small tin cup to run along the gate.

Help me...

Chad's second mind meld of the day. 

The Pandas at the Zoo were quite the different story. They had their own special place wherein they had their own outdoor play area, and when it got too hot out (which it was the day we went) they got a nice cool room to lay in.

So I took the first picture. And once I walked away from my awesome viewing spot in the front of the crowd this guy decided to turn around and be awesome for Chad. So I hate him/her.

Don't they actually look happy?

Check it out! It is hamming for the camera.

OF COURSE we had to do the bumper cars after seeing the Pandas. 

Turtles for sale! We almost bought one, but worried what it will do when we are away next week. Just to be clear, these are LIVE turtles and fish for sale in sippy cups. China FTW.

This is a nonverbal conversation that occasionally has to happen in China. We went to the zoo place with our liaison and her family. Driving back she asked if we were hungry because she knew of a good place where we can get a wrap with donkey meat and chili's. We did not stop- and this was the message I typed out to Chad. Keep in mind this is the day after I ate pig's hoofs, chicken feet. and a fish that was staring at me. (We had a department party dinner for Mid Autumn Festival) 

Part of the Mid Autumn celebration is to go look at the moon so we did that. There were a lot of students just sitting on the field watching the moon. It was kinda funny and kinda fun.

Another tradition is eating mooncakes. Mooncakes can be super delicious or gross. We have had both, but I feel like we were tricked. At the celebratory dinner they served Mooncakes that were super yummy- one was fig filled and the other was Hazelnut filled. They then sent us home with more and we assumed they would be the same. The ones we have had at home have been taro and black bean paste. Not as good.

We also saw students try to send off a paper lantern. Instead of it flying off into the night sky they almost burned down the school instead.

To end it I always feel like you need to hear about more food we ate. This is a corn thing. It's pretty much cornmeal and water then shaped into a cone and baked. It lacked some serious flavor, but it was filling. This was invented during a famine. But now they eat them on the regular. For fun. They explained it's because it's "healthy".

This is our lunch one day. Spicy squid, rice, cloves and green beans, egg and tomato, and shredded potatoes. Oh and dates! If you eat in the teacher cafeteria you always get fruit with your food. This day it was dates and they were super good. I cherish the fruit we get at the cafeteria. It makes eating some of the other food worth it.