Wednesday, June 22, 2011

More Pictures!!!!!!!!!

Check out this site to see awesome pictures of china and from our last vacation!!! : )

Photobucket.com/chinaextravaganza 

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Our last Vacation

It was gorgeous! Our last vacation was set two weeks before our 
planned arrival in America. We were heading to Guilin. Tim helped 
us find a bus to Nanchang so that we could get on our train. The 
bus was full, as usual, and we sat on stools in the isle way most 
of the time. Some Chinese people are a little too comfortable with 
strangers. This one older man kept leaning on me with like his legs 
or his arm and it was really freaking me out. I just wanted to gag 
but I tried to be polite and hoped that was just a Chinese thing. 
They should be used to being that close to strangers with their 
packed buses and crammed trains.
 
The Train ride was alright. We met a handsome young man that we 
named Tanner. He could barely speak a lick of English but he taught 
us how to play a Chinese version of scum.He played and played it 
too. Then another boy joined in. We named him Alex. He was crazy 
and full of life. He knew more English than Tanner but still 
struggled. It was a good time playing "musical chairs" with 
everyone that night.
 
We didn't get much sleep but we were off the train early that 
morning and off to find our hostel. The itineraries were left at 
our school so we had to do some adventuring out. We made it to one 
hostel that let us use their Internet to find our real hostel. 
There was an older gentleman with greying hair but he seemed fit 
and like he had travelled many places. He was also looking for the 
hostel we were going to. His confidence in knowing the direction of 
our hostel and his 'map' gave us incentive to follow him. He was 
rather cheerful and friendly. Well it turns out he apparently has 
had plenty of experience but he shared more than needed. I am not 
sure if he has heard of TMI but that is what he was spilling. We 
were suddenly creeped out and could not wait to find our hostel! We 
could not read the map and it was not adding up. The street was not 
very busy so we asked an elderly couple. The old man lead us 
through some back alley ways until we came to our hostel.
 
 
We met Lizzie, a senior high school girl graduating soon, and she 
helped guide us around town. We tried the special Guilin rice 
noodles and those were delicious! We spent most of the day shopping 
and looking around. The next day we took a bus on some very 
beautiful back roads to the Li River. We climbed aboard the 'bamboo' 
rafts that were really made or PVC pipe shaped a bit like bamboo 
and bamboo benches to sit on.


The river ride was gorgeous! The 
green mountains were sprawling across the land. We saw a bride and 
groom taking pictures on one of the small beaches and was not that 
so romantic? It made our journey so precious. To be honest though, 
I did sleep most of the way. The scenery did not change too much 
over the few hours we had on the river. I was exhausted.




*We made it 
to the city and had another small adventure finding our backstreet 
hostel, had some more noodles, and went shopping. West street was 
just one big shopping street.
 
 
We spent plenty of time there and even met another group from ILP 
along the way. That night we went and watched the cormorant fishing. 
It was really neat. An old Chinese man took cormorant birds, which 
are mean looking duck like birds, and trained them to fish. They 
have a string tied to their neck so they cannot swallow all the fish 
they catch and then the man can use the rest of the fish. He did it 
with a spot light in the night. After about 20 or 30 mins, we 
stopped and the guy let us hold the birds on our shoulder or arms. 
I did not let them but some of the other girls did.



 
 
The next morning we rented bikes and went to a mud cave. That was 
probably my favorite part, not the mud cave but the bike ride. I 
had a pink retro road bike. 



The traffic is crazy in China but we 
just had to become one with the traffic and then it was fine. I got 
to relax. The view was incredible. The mountains were everywhere 
with green foliage just streaming down them.
 
 
The mud cave was probably the biggest disappointment. It was an 
amazing cave but the mud part was not really mud. It was mostly 
just dirty water with a little mud build up. It was also awkward 
with our guide and another guy taking our pictures just watching us. 
That was a time I wished we had a bigger group so that it did not 
feel so strange. In that cave, they also has hot springs. Those were 
amazing. I have never been in a hot spring in a massive cave. That 
was a pleasant treat.
 
 
We took our time going back to the hostel on our bikes and did any 
last minute shopping for the night. Ashley and I found the two 
cutest shops! The first was just like an American boutique. It was 
adorable. We fell in love with it. Then right across the way, was 
another fantastic store. It was more scrap booking, earthy and 
indie-retro. Ashley bought four brown polka dot mugs. They were too 
good to pass up. 

 
The next day we went to the rice terraces. It was a long ride and an 
interesting one too. There was a tourist trap along the way. They 
took us to 'the Long Hair Village' where all the ladies have long 
hair. Then they tried to get us to pay 60 yuan to go to a little 
show they put on. They said that was to get into the village as well. 
The 5 of us and about 6 other people decided we did not want to. 
After a while, we managed to go into the village with no problems. 
No one asked us for money or anything. We knew it was a tourist 
trap then, if we did not already.

 
We had bamboo rice at a local restaurant which was an interesting 
dish served right out of bamboo shoots. We had an hour to hike up 
the mountain and look at all the terraces.


Then we had an hour to 
make it back to the bus. It worked out almost perfectly for Bryndi, 
Nicole, and I. We took our time coming down and got to talk to some 
nice people. Ashley and Kim made it just in time. They had gotten 
lost and taken the wrong way. They had to run most of the way down. 
We got back to the bus and rode it to Guilin. We got on a train and 
headed back to Nanchang.
 
 
The train ride was awesome! We met more really cool people. We 
played cards with Bruce Tu, who named himself after Bruce Lee, and 
we named the other guy Lewis. They were excited to practice their 
English and hang out with the foreigners. Bruce wrote an adorable

letter in Ashley's journal. It was like a journal entry from him.

Tim finally did us right and got us a school van to meet us at


the train station. Our favorite driver, Arnold, picked us up.
  
Arnold was our first driver in China. We have a special bond
 
with him. It was a pleasant trip, all the way back to our school
 
where we taught only about an hour and a half after arriving

back there. We love China. :)





 
 
 







Thursday, June 2, 2011

Another school, another Adventure!

I thought for sure, going to the other school would just be a pain.
Some more work for us to do and something we could possibly negotiate
for things we would want from Tim. Mostly because of the way he is
deceitful and the way it always starts. It always starts with us being
oblivious to when we are actually going to be doing something. We
thought this trip would be made on Saturday but instead we would be
leaving Wednesday morning. When did we find this out? Tuesday night
after performing in Mayflora's Children Day Program. We sang 'The Star
Spangled Banner' and then while Lindey sang 'My Heart Will Go On' and
Raza, the foreign teacher from Pakistan, sang a Chinese song, Ashley,
Nicole, and I painted some flowers. It had been alright. We did not
crash and burn. Afterwords, Bill told me all about how Wednesday was
Children's Day and what they would be doing. He got excited and told
me, "It's MY day!" and we chanted that it was his day, Bill's day,
together. I walked with him and his class (which was made up of all
our ILP students)  to the corner where we would split to go to our
rooms. We had a short time of waiting at the corner for his teacher.
While we were waiting, he told me, "Tomorrow, want to play game with
you." In his raspy Bill voice. He managed to say in his broken English
and pointing that I should come over in the morning to Grade 3 and
play games with them. I was so sad to have to tell him we would
probably be leaving before that time and would be gone for a couple of
days. It took him a minute to register the English but he understood
and just looked disappointed. I asked him what time, just in case we
weren't leaving. I could come over if we were leaving later in the day
but alas, we left at 7 am. It was much too early to see my kids.
 
 Tuesday night, we got to go over to some of our kids' rooms. We were
going to read them books! They loved it! I brought books but I did not
read one. I had several little boys just take off with them, switching
and looking at all the pictures. I had a very enjoyable time. My baby,
sweet Charlie, was adorable. He does not know very much English but he
was excited to have us there. He made letters with his glow sticks and
I guessed what letters. Then he would say random words in English. He
slipped into his covers and motioned for me to sit down on the bed at
one point. It was just the cutest thing ever. If you can imagine a
little boy with shorts and mayflora uniform shirt, with a funny little
attitude, trying to motion and talk to you in hushed tones. Mostly
making noises and jumping around, that would be him. He would say, "I
drinkded the water." haha and then he would whisper to me random
things. He came back to water and motioned the he washed his face and
brushed his teeth. He motioned that he washed his body and he used
quite good English to say it too. Oh I wish I could explain how
thrilled I was. I just wanted to stay there and tuck him in like my
own kid. I wanted to fold him up and put him in my pocket. At about
10:30pm, we left so that they could sleep. I returned to my apartment
in time to skype the designer for my wedding dress. It went over
swimmingly! I fell in love with my dress all over again! I just hope
that it turns out close to what we talked about. = ) Then I took a
shower and wrote myself a list of things I needed to pack for this
small trip. It was about 2 am when I went to bed.
 
I automatically assumed going to this other school was not going to be
a good time. Everything added up to a negative in my mind. When we got
to the other school, we were herded into classrooms to play games with
kids. We took pictures with all these kids we had just met for few
seconds and we just had to figure out what it was we had to do in each
class with broken English and hand gestures. The first game I played
was a marble game. I raced with a little kid to get as many marbles as
i could into a bowl. The best part was I had to use metal chopsticks.
I must say, I dominated that game. I have skill. I really think I will
come back home and use chopsticks for as long as I can. = )
 
When we were done, we were swarmed with kids. Most of them wanted to
have our autograph. Talk about feeling like a star...I tried to write
nice little messages with my name so that they would have a little
something special but sometimes their were just too many so i would
write Desi B. We finally got to go to lunch. We went through the
cafeteria and I was just thinking, "Great. More Chinese Cafeteria
food.' Instead, we were lead into a room with the lazy suzane in the
middle. We knew we would get a nice lunch as soon as we saw the
table. We were stuffed. Then we went to see some of the sites. We went
to a pagota temple and the stairs were really cool. It was pretty fun
with buzzed Raza and Tim. They both drank beer at lunch. Then we went
to the lotus fields. Tim showed us how to tell which ones to dig up
for the lotus roots. He called the mud, mood. We had fun making jokes
about it. Tim had no idea what we thought was so funny. Then he said,
"I have to take off my clothes to get in the mood." BAHAHAHA It just
went crazy from there. Raza convinced him that he did need to get in
the mud and pick the lotus root. We were all scared. He took off his
pants. Oh my goodness...It was quite hilarious but he got down in the
mud and pulled up lotus root for us to try. By the end, Bryndi,
Nicole, Kim, and I had gotten into the mud but we just rolled up our
pants. I barely got in with my feet. They sunk into the mud but it
felt good. I didnt really pull anything up that was good enough to
eat. We washed up and headed out. At our hotel, we took a nice nap.
Then we headed back to the school and had another big meal. The
headmaster took us to his office and he gave us a present. He gave us
fans that were 1 meter long. They are HUGE! We are hoping that we can
bring them home...Then we were taken out to the stage and track where
people were gathering for their Children's Day Program. They sat us
close to the front in chairs with back support. At this point, I felt
like they truly treated us better than our own school. At our own
school, we sat on foot stools. Other teachers at our school did too of
course, we werent being singled out. Then the program started and they
had an English translation for the principal's speech and the first
part. That was amazing! There was an English skit by some of the
young students. We were quite happy. Then we performed the same way we
did the night before at Mayflora. Only this time, for painting we had
to fake it even more. Ashley was the only one who really painted a
flower that night. It was the same painting we used to practice on.
The headmaster had us run up on stage while another guy was singing
and give him flowers and balloons. When Lindey did, she gave him a
kiss on the cheek. It was a great time! We had kids still asking us to
write our names on their books and papers. We had random people trying
to talk to us and welcome us. One kid reminded me of a mix of some of
our ILP students. They were being crazy but adorable.
 
After the program, we went to a small local restraunt. We had two
tables with headmasters and others from the school we were visiting.
We did not eat much but we toasted with everyone repeatedly (as is a
tradition in China). We 'Gombayed' with many. (It means, 'empty the
glass' so we downed drinks.) Everyone was drinking beer, except the 6
ILP teachers. We were drinking a milk juice drink and water.
 
Oh the memories of that dinner will be engraven in my mind. They had
us singing and they were singing. While we sang 'My Heart Will Go On',
the headmaster guy stood up with Tim and did the famous balcony scene
from the Titanic. I cannot even explain how hilarious and how great
that was. Every time i hear that song, I will imagine those Chinese
men. We had people busting out in song for a while. We convinced them
that we needed to go to KTV-which was our plan in the first place but
it was getting late. We dragged all the drunks to this karaoke party.
Tim is so much nicer when he is drunk. We have a good time with him.
We sang on and off with Chinese people for 2 hours. The smoke was
bound to kill me but I made it through. I danced with Tim once. He was 
pretty friendly by that point. I was a little nervous but I just
laughed it off. Bryndi and I sang "Baby" by Justin Beiber and that was
the funnest thing. We went crazy. = ) We were all very tired by 2 am.
We went back to the hotel and passed out.
 
At 7:30 am, we had to be to breakfast. I ate lots of food. It was
awesome to have salted peanuts. That is rare in China. Just normal,
salted peanuts. I put them in my rice porridge. Our last thing before
we went to Mayflora was to go back to that school and take pictures
with EVERY class. We were tired and felt like just advertisement. It
is a strange feeling. Everytime a group would come up, take pictures,
and start leaving I would say, "Go. Fight. Win." They would just look
at me funny but still in awe like, 'she is talking to us!' haha then i
would say goodbye and they all understood that and said it back.
 
I had a great time! Those are memories worth keeping!! <3