Sauron's Tower.

From just outside our dorm we can see a tower. For anyone who has seen the Lord of the Rings, it happens to look exactly like Sauron's tower... you know, the one with the fiery eye on it? Well, since we have been here we wanted to go up there and see it, and today our wish was fulfilled.

Sauron's Tower

Mornings here are cool. We do not need sweaters or anything, but cool. There is a canteen/cafeteria near our dorms there we went for breakfast. Just let me say that after eating two breakfasts there I am considering adopting my habit from back home and not eating breakfast at all. They eat some strange foods here.

We went for a class this morning with the Professor from U of C teaching. It was an intro to Buddhism, and though I am not technically in the class I found it very very interesting. After the class was over we were to take a trip to a historical site.

The whole crew of us went walking for a long time through the now hot day and were able to see a little more of the area near the school. Right next to the school (on the side near our dorms... where ever that is) there is a large unused green area. Next to that are some homes, stores, and abandoned buildings. There is amazing disparity even in these streets as there can be private homes with gates on one side, and squatters on the other.

Making our way a little further we came to a temple. Many of their temples are mixed Buddhist and Confucius. This one was. It was amazing. It is just fascinating to see how much effort they put into these temples. It is not just the buildings that are cared for... but everything. The temple is on a hill and all the way up there are buildings. To get there we had to climb the hill and down the other side. There are steps cut into the stone and steps made of concrete.

On the way up we came to Sauron's tower. It turns out that it is in fact a war memorial, inscribed with a message from their last President. From up there you can see all of Shantou and even to the ocean. There is a haze in the air so my pictures might not be perfect, but it was beautiful in person.

Sauron's Tower

For lunch we ate at the Temple. They brought us food and we had to eat it all or else we would be fined. Waste would not be tolerated. It was unfortunately vegetarian... I did try a little of everything I had not had before and let me tell you... they eat some weird stuff in China. Fungus... mmm... Seaweed... mmm... When we had a little too much food left we did something like a team shot where we all took a spoonful of this soggy soaked peeled cucumber stuff and tossed 'er down the hatch. In the end I do not think we were fined.

Looking Down at the Temple from the Hill

Temple Behind Shantou University

We made it back and the rest of the day has just been time to relax. We have wandered campus and tried the food from the larger cafeteria. It is enormous and there must be at least 100 different types of Chinese food you can try at any given time. All of the students live on campus though so they need to eat there every day.

Canteen

Ordering at the Canteen

Twice this month each student from Calgary needs to teach English here, which just means talking to the students that are trying to learn English. Tonight was the first night and my room mate is there now. We were there too but decided to cut out early since tonight was not our designated night. I think my number is up on Thursday...

Now, I am off to bed. It might only be 8 am there, but here it feels like night time.

I will have to post pictures later... I can't figure out how to get pictures onto this Mac...