Changsha

This weekend, the school we teach at took us on a free vacation to Changsha! It was pretty awesome to get to see a new city, go on adventures, and get to know the other group. It was also pretty awesome to not spend any money on anything!

So right after school on Friday, Sparky and Bob drove all of us to the train station. We had all 12 of us Shiqi girls, plus all 14 of the Kaiyin group, plus about 6 coordinators, so we were doing a lot of head counts and attracting a lot of stares. But we made it through security, boarded, and after a couple of speed train rides we were in Chongsha!

We got on a tour bus and went straight to our hotel. We had a break before dinner, so we went to our rooms to "rest". Mckenna and I were roomies for the weekend, and Larkin and Emily were right next door. It was a party! And the rooms... oh, the rooms. I don't know if it was a really nice hotel room, or if my standards have decreased dramatically since the last time I stayed in an actual hotel, but it felt like we were living in luxury.

First of all, the beds. We walked into the room and immediately flopped on our beds. And they were so soft. I can't remember the last time I slept on a bed that can be described as "soft". (Actually, I can. It was January 14th. In my own bed. In America.) But these beds were an absolute dream! I was literally crying tears of joy. Judge me if you want, but it may have been the happiest moment of my life.

Second of all, the carpet. When is the last time I felt the feeling of carpet on my bare feet? (You guessed it. January 14th.) I think the only thing that got me out of that wonderful bed in the mornings was knowing that I got to walk barefoot on actual carpet.

Third, the shower. There were two shower heads: one on the wall, and one straight above your head so you could feel like you were in a warm, clean waterfall shower. It was steamy and wonderful, and best of all, it didn't smell like a giraffe like our bathroom in our apartment always does!

We had dinner that night in our hotel. There was pork, beef, eel, tofu, pumpkin cakes, fish balls... you know, the usual. I ate way too much. Then we went back to our hotel room and had some good old-fashioned sleepover fun! There was jumping on the beds and dancing and singing and embarrassing-picture-taking... all the good stuff. Then I remade my bed and crashed for the night.

The next morning was the signing ceremony. We knew that Bond was signing with a real estate company to build a new kindergarten, and we had to perform at the ceremony, but that's pretty much all we knew. So we showed up to this place in our matching orange jackets and I immediately felt out of place. There was a full on red carpet. There was a girl painted gold. There was a clown. There were black guys playing bongo drums. Then we went inside, and there was a girl playing the harp, a magician, some girls in crazy dresses, and a dessert bar. So naturally we all headed straight for the free cake.

Then we went outside, where there was a tent set up for the performances. We were told we weren't performing until after lunch, so we sat back at relaxed. There was another magician, some underwear models in wings, some Latin dancers... it was the weirdest show ever. Then we were informed that we were performing "The Cha-Cha Slide"... um, okay? So like 8 of us got up on the stage and did the dance for the audience. Finally, all my years of going to stake dances have paid off!

Then we went to lunch at a random cafe. They brought us fried rice, beef soup, and fried eggplant and green beans. It was delicious. Then we went back to the party to perform!

When we went back, it had started raining pretty hard, so the majority of the audience had left. I'm really bad at estimating numbers of people, but there were only maybe 50 people there. Which is good, because our performances were really not the best. First, 6 of us girls sang "LOVE" by Nat King Cole. The music was turned up really loud, so no one could hear us, and we had to hold the microphones, which got awkward. Then we performed a dance to "We Got the Beat", which we had already performed at the banquet before our Sanya trip, and that was a little rusty, but whatever. Then we did a dance to "Weight of Living", which went pretty well considering the fact that we choreographed the whole thing last week. The Kaiyin group also did some performances. I think we were all pretty excited when that was over.

That night after a nap and dinner, we went shopping! We finally got to see some of the sights in Changsha, and I really loved it! We went to a shopping street with a bunch of traditional shops where you can get scarves, dresses, jewelry, fans... pretty much anything your heart could desire. It was a very Chinese place. I loved it.

The next day we visited Hunan University. We hiked up a mountain there to the Buddhist College, where I guess monks go to study? It was a beautiful temple with amazing statues and shrines, and the 2 oldest trees in Hunan, which, according to the plaque next to them, survived a bombing in the 30's. So that's cool.

Then we hiked back down, rode the bus to McDonald's for lunch, and headed back to the train station. When we got back to Zhongshan, Sparky was waiting for us with the party bus, and I was actually glad to see my apartment again, even though I will always miss my hotel room!

Alright. That was a little rambly. Sorry. But I'm going to Beijing tomorrow! Woohoo! Wish me luck!

Zhangjiajie

Last weekend 9 of us went on an adventure to Zhangjiajie! It was absolutely gorgeous, and finally getting out of the city showed me a whole new side of China. There were a few mini-tragedies, but we made it home alive, and that's all that matters.

After teaching on Thursday, we went back to our apartment to quickly pack up our bags and then headed to the train station. We took a bus from our apartment, and somehow we ended up with the only slow bus driver in all of China. We realized we were going to be late, so instead of switching to another bus like we normally would have, we decided to take a taxi. We got 3 different taxis to take us to the train station, and showed them the time on our tickets so they knew how much of a hurry we were in. Our driver looked at us like we were crazy, but he drove as fast as he could! We got to the train station, ran inside, went through security as fast as we could, and ran up the stairs to the platform. The train was about 5 minutes late, and we made it with time to spare! Except... not all of us made it. Christina and Shawna were in the last taxi, and apparently they pulled up right as the train left the station. Fortunately it was only a short train ride to Guangzhou, and we met up with them at the train station there.

Then we took the metro to the other train station to catch the 13-hour train to Zhangjiajie. 13 hours is a long time... but we played a few games of Mini Uno, chatted, and slept a lot, so it went by fast.

We got to our hostel without too much trouble, changed our clothes, and headed to Zhangjiajie National Park! The mountains there are SO beautiful. They call them the Avatar mountains, because James Cameron modeled the landscape for his movie after them.

See the resemblance?

We spent the rest of the day in the upper part of the park, looking at the views and such. Then we decided to hike down the mountain. 

Here's the thing. The Chinese do not understand the concept of a hike. A hike in China just means going up and down a ridiculous amount of stairs. So we hiked down the mountain, and I've never gone down so many stairs in my life. Occasionally we would hit a set of stairs going up, and I've never been so excited to go up stairs before, just to get some variation. I may have gone a little crazy up there on that mountain. 

We finally got down and caught a bus back. I crawled into my top bunk to relax for a bit... and woke up an hour later. So I found some food, took a shower, and went back to sleep.

The next morning we went to Tianmen Mountain. We rode a gondola up to the mountain... and the views were amazing! I took some beautiful photos of the landscape. When we got to the top we walked on a glass walkway along the edge of the mountain, which was so awesome, and only a little bit terrifying. Then we walked around the mountain on a ledge for a while.

This is when disaster struck. Christina decided it would be a good idea to take a picture with our feet dangling over the ledge. We were in a hurry, so I stuck my camera in my pocket and joined them. Mckenna was taking the picture, but she wanted to be in it too, so I quickly stood up to go trade places with her. As I was standing, I felt my camera slip out of my pocket. I thought it be a short drop to the ledge where I was sitting, but I was wrong. We all watched as my camera tumbled in slow motion over the side of the ledge. We were really high up, so I had a lot of time to stand and watch it. We all stared in silence as it fell. Then it hit a rock and shattered. And now I'm camera-less. 

Which is why this blog has no pictures that aren't from Google Images. Sorry!

So we mourned the camera for a minute, then we kept walking. I had some kettle corn for lunch (there weren't a lot of options...) Then we went to a really cool Buddhist temple. There were huge statues and paintings and even a couple of real Buddhist monks! We weren't there for very long, but it was very cool to experience a religion so different from mine.

Then we headed to the Stairway to Heaven! 

999 steps up to the top. The view from the top wasn't spectacular, but sometimes you do things just so you can say you did them. And I did it! And it felt awesome. 

The next day we went back to Zhangjiajie to explore the bottom part of the park. It was pretty cold and rainy that day, but we still got to do awesome things, like feeding wild monkeys! 

Then we had to get back on the train and go back home. This time we took a sleeper train, which is definitely my new favorite way to travel. We sat on the beds and talked for a while, and made friends with one of the Spanish guys that we were near. Then we went to sleep and didn't wake up until we were in 

Guangzhou again! It was great. A short speed train and a couple of buses later, I was back in the tiny bedroom I call home!

Sanya

Wow. I'm really bad at this blogging thing. Like, really bad. So I'm going to make a resolution, right here, right now: one blog post a week. If I write it on here that means I really have to do it, right? So if I don't stick to my resolution, it's up to you, my many faithful readers, to call me out on it. Deal? Deal.

So, like 3 weeks ago I went on vacation to Sanya! And it was awesome. But getting there was not so awesome...

We took a sleeper bus from Zhongshan to Haikou, which took about 11 hours. Sleeper buses are just like normal buses, except there are no seats, only cramped little bunk beds. And they make you take off your shoes and put them in a bag before you can get on the bus. And sometimes there's a really cranky man working on the bus who not only expects you to be able to speak Chinese, but also doesn't understand that you can't read Chinese. On second thought, sleeper buses are nothing like normal buses.

This isn't a very good picture, but it gives you an idea!

Anyway, we got on the bus straight from a banquet put on by the school, at which I drank approximately half of a 2 liter bottle of Coke, which resulted in a very full bladder for the entire bus ride. I was about to explode when we finally got to Haikou at about 6 a.m. When we arrived, we had to find the other bus station to catch the bus from Haikou to Sanya. There were some very friendly men who were more than willing to take us in their vans, but we decided a city bus was a better method of transportation. So we got to the other bus station, got on another bus, and eventually (finally) made it to Sanya.

Once we got there, we found our hostel, changed into swimming suits, and headed straight to the beach!

I brought a volleyball to the beach with me, so Mckenna and I started passing it back and forth. Some random guy decided he wanted to join in, so the three of us had some fun for a while. Then he left, and we thought that was the end of that. But about 5 minutes later, he came back! He started pointing down the beach at a volleyball net, so we followed him and his friends. And that's how my all-time favorite game of volleyball began. At first there were just a few of us... 

But then we started to draw a crowd.

 There are some interesting folks here in China. Anyway, more and more strangers came to join our game, we played until we were exhausted, and it was amazing. Turns out, volleyball transcends language and cultural barriers. And that's pretty cool.

We spent the rest of the day chilling on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and enjoying life. That night we were pretty hungry, so we went to this place called the Dolphin Bar & Grill... and it was the best decision I've ever made. I ate legit Mexican food. There was guacamole involved. March Madness was on in the background. There was American music playing. I felt so at home! 

The next day, we woke up and decided to go out on the town for some breakfast (another wonderful decision). We found a stand just across the street selling street food. I have no idea what it was, but it was delicious!

After breakfast we went back to the beach to get a very interesting pedicure...

It was the strangest sensation ever. Tiny fish taking tiny bites of your foot skin is not relaxing! It was 15 minutes of the most uncomfortably ticklish experience of my life. I was freaking out a little at first... 

But I think by the end I got my emotions under control.

After that I hung out on the beach for a while, read my book, took a nap... Sanya. What a dream. At one point someone bought a coconut, so naturally we had a photo shoot. 

The next day we explored the pier, bought some souvenirs, and packed up. We said goodbye to Chris, who ran the hostel and became sort of a substitute dad for us while we were there. 

Then we went to the train station and embarked on a 14-hour train ride, on which I didn't sleep AT ALL, but I did meet a lovely Muslim couple who taught me some Chinese words and who I accidentally taught the word "armadillo". I also read a book, invented a rap, and contemplated life. It could have been worse.

Then we finally made it back to Zhongshan and I took a 5-hour nap. The end.