From Grits to Chopsticks

Last week, I rode the bus to visit a university in a nearby mountain town.  All of the seats on the bus were full this time, shortening the trip to about 2 hours.  The trip will take longer when there are empty seats, since the driver will divert through small towns to pick up extra riders and increase his personal revenue.  Of course, there was a Jackie Chan movie playing on the TV screen in the front of the bus:

Once you get out of our city and into the mountains, the countryside is quite beautiful, with lots of villages and rice fields:

The small town that I visited reminded me a little (well, just a little) of a town in America.  Although there is a pagoda on the hill, you can see the typical Ford dealership sign on the left side of main street (click the photo to expand):

While visiting the university in this town, I was a bit surprised to meet a student wearing a familiar tee-shirt:

Yes, our big world is a small world after all!