Yangshuo Day 3

Day three brought the pain... excruciating pain. In my arms, hands, and even fingers. Theresa and I decided that kayaking on the Li River would be a good idea. We were right but that doesn't mean that I am not seriously hurting now because of it. We kayaked for a little more than four hours. I am not sure how far we went but I think it is fair to say we went a pretty good distance. I have to admit that I got frustrated more times than once. I have never been kayaking and did not realize that it wasn't going to be easy just keeping the kayak straight. I got turned around several times, stuck in the current of a passing motor boat, grounded on some rocks a few times, and the worst- pushed into piles of seaweed and goo. Basically, kayaking wasn't all peaches and cream but it was a good time. While on the river we saw people fishing on bamboo rafts, wild dogs running on the land, gaggles of ducks that seemed infinite in size, cows grazing, and water buffalo hanging by the river's edge. Our "guide" told us that we could take our time and go as fast or as slow as we wanted but to be sure to stop when we reached the big bridge. After about two hours on the river I was beginning to think the legend of the bridge was all a hoax. My arms pretty much felt like they would just fall off at any moment. Around three hours in Theresa and I both seriously had to pee.... We decided we would pull up to the land to pop a squat. I was laughing hysterically while we squatted next to our kayaks by the river. Some cows were there to watch over us. You know, just in case. We got back in our kayaks and it was off to search for the supposed bridge yet again. We kayaked for about another hour before I exclaimed, "Ah!!! The bridgeeeeeee!" and then began rowing like there was no tomorrow in order to arrive at our Mecca. As usual, the landscape was stunning, the nature was plentiful, the animals were beautiful, this vacation is awesome.

After our adventure we needed some serious naps. We changed into our pajamas and hit the hay for a couple of hours. When we awoke from our naps it was time for part 2 of day 3: The Liu Sanjie Impressions Light Show. The show was set on the river in between many lit up mountains. Apparently the same guy that designed the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics also designed this light show. There were hundreds of people in the show. They each sang and danced on the river in a fashion that didn't even seem real. I have been debating what my favorite part was and I think it was when a bunch of people in lit up dresses/suit-things came out in a huge zig zag line across the river. The suits turned off and on and sparkled across the water. It was seriously cool.

After the show Theresa and I made it back to our hostel for dinner and then went to bed. It is now the start of day four and it is looking like we will be having a more restful day since the past few have really used up a lot of energy and strength. Check back tomorrow to read about what we are doing today!

Mandarin lesson:
 Dēngguāng xiù 灯光秀 (light show)

Yangshuo Day 2

The view from here =)

I will upload more photos SOON! But this is just a sneak peak so you can see how beautiful this place is!

Never have I ever been to a butterfly garden, had a mud bath, gone caving, hiked up a moon shaped mountain. Oh wait- Yes I have! I just did that yesterday! Day two in Yangshuo was even more amazing than day one. Theresa and I started our day off with my first real breakfast since arriving to China, complete with french toast and OJ! We then took a taxi to the bus station in town where we proceeded to then take a bus to Butterfly Spring Park. We had researched the park prior to coming to Yangshuo and we knew this was a place we would want to see considering there was supposed to be a butterfly garden with (no lie) 100's of thousands of butterflies. The website said the butterflies would fly around you while you walked through their garden of wonderland like a freaking fairytale dream come true. Well, the website was a tad off base because when we entered the garden I think we saw a total of maybe five butterflies. Thanks again China. We had to walk through a cave to come out at the other end of the mountain where we encountered a pretty terrifying bridge. It was seriously a bridge out of a movie... you know the ones where someone begins to cross just fine all while laughing at their partner and then suddenly a board breaks and the troupe runs across as fast as possible while the wooden beams are falling into a black abyss? Yep... that kind of bridge. (Again, I am sorry that I will not be putting pictures up for a while since I am not on my computer and the internet here is so horrible that it takes hours to load photos.) Thankfully Theresa and I both made it to the other end of the death bridge and then proceeded to hike a buttload of stairs (as usual since China doesn't believe in walking on dirt or grass) up to a pretty lookout on the mountain. We headed back down in search of the butterflies and we passed a pretty waterfall and a few shops. We did eventually find the butterfly garden and you already know how I feel about that...


When we were done with the five butterflies we took a motorbike to Moon Hill. Again we were prepared for a hike, we were not prepared to be greeted by three gillion stairs. I was weezing and panting the whole time as we hiked alongside our tour guides up to the top of the mountain. The mountain has a huge hole in the middle (note- Moon Hill) and I was so ecstatic to reach the moon so I could finally have a rest. After regaining my lung power, I explored the area a little bit with T and we snapped a few pretty photos (sorry, again, no evidence of this). The view from the top was amazing. Pretty much this town is breathtakingly gorgeous and I cannot even believe it exists.

After Moon Hill we took a bus to Moon Water Cave where we were in for a few more stairs and a whole lot of fun. We hiked, climbed, wadded, and crawled through the cave. Our tour guide stated, "Watch your head," more times than I could count. With our hard hats in tow we made it all the way through the tunnels and into a glorious pool of mud. Theresa and I both covered ourselves from head to toe in thick, gooey, sticky, brown mud and laughed and floated and even slid through the pool. I am still picking mud out of my scalp and ears... To "wash off," and I use that phrase loosely, we bathed in the hot springs for a few minutes. Seriously, we have been missing out on all of the beautiful things this world has to offer.

We made it back to our hostel with plenty of time for dinner (fried dumplings and sweet and sour chicken) and a round of Scrabble. We sat on the terrace for a few minutes and enjoyed the silence and fresh air and then went back to the restaurant for dessert (toffee apple thing and apple crumble with ice cream). We read one of last year's issues of Time Magazine and got pretty excited when reading The Best Inventions of the Year. For real, people invent the coolest things. It was then off to our room and to bed.

Day three has been just amazing as the other days and I can't wait to share about it later!

Here's a teaser of what's to come-

Mandarin lesson:
Shuǐniú 水牛 (Water buffalo)

Yangshuo Day 1

Theresa and I made it to Yangshuo yesterday afternoon. We stayed up super late the night before and to get up at 5am to catch a taxi to the airport. Our flight was of course delayed about an hour. We sat on the runway for what felt like forever due to the "high traffic." I thought... let's just start scheduling flights more efficiently, okay PEK? Anyways, we landed in Guilin around noon and I was immediately shocked by our scenery. I knew this place was going to be beautiful but I was not prepared for just how truly stunning the province is. We rode for about an hour and a half to our hostel in Yangshuo. After absolutely no sleep and a long morning of traveling, T and I took it relatively easy when we got in. We went to lunch and played Jenga and then hung around the hostel for a few. Around 5 or so we decided we wanted to go exploring so we strapped on our walking shoes and headed to West Street. West Street is basically a huge tourist trap of a night market. The walk there was (as this whole city is) beautiful. We walked along the Lijiang River and watched people fishing and swimming in the water. We went into a few shops along the way and eventually ended up on West Street. The street was severely crowded but was incredibly awesome. The town is built right under the karst mountains so there were shops literally built into the foot of the mountains. Seriously, this place is awesome. We did a little bit of shopping (I bought an amazing red dress) and we perused the different offerings at each place. There were tons of foreigners and we quickly realized just how good the local people are at English because of this. It seems to me like the city makes most of its money from tourism as everyone has a hand in foreign support. After walking down West Street we stopped for dinner. Theresa had a yummy meal and I had an okay meal. I ate some sort of breaded/fried eggplant. I cannot really describe what it was. After dinner we decided to head back to our hostel. While walking we heard a loud BOOM and immediately thought, "Fireworks!" We ducked through a little corridor and low and behold there were people across the river setting off fireworks. When they were done we continued towards 'home.' I had to stop to use the restroom so we walked through a little square (these are all over China near parks). There was a group of ladies dancing so we decided to join them. I have been watching the ladies in Beijing and also when I was in Wuhan and I have always thought the dances were so complex. I have been surprised by their beauty and how the all know the choreography. Well, T and I decided to try our hand at park dancing with these majestic ladies in Yangshuo. The woman in front of us looked back and smiled as if to say she appreciated us taking a part in their culture. When we were finished dancing we started walking back again. We went the same way that we had on our way to town and we figured it would be the easiest way home. All was going well until we realized we were headed into the pitch black abyss of the woods basically. Yes, there was a dirt road but there were no street lights or reflective arrows or anything at all that said, "Follow this brightly lit area where you can see all that is laid ahead of you and everyone will see you coming." Theresa and I locked arms and used our flashlight apps on our phones to light our path. We sang Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, and a few RnR favorites to keep from totally freaking out. The singing kept us relatively calm until I swear to God something jumped up behind us. I grabbed T's arm and looked behind me thinking, "Okay, this is it, this is how I am going to die." Thankfully our death was not surely imminent and I had apparently just been spooked. There was one point soon after the panic that I put my "flashlight" to the ground and realized I was about a half an inch away from stepping on a snake. Awesome. At that point there was really nothing short of a lion chasing me that was going to have me start cringing with more fear. We finally made it back to our hostel and the comfort of a semi-lit path.

So day one was really amazing and a little scary. Basically, I love it here. I would move here in a heart beat if I could. We had many more adventures today that I will blog about later. I wanted to get yesterday down before I forgot anything.

Also, my computer is a little under the weather right now. My power cord is broken and so basically it is SOL until I get a new one. I am blogging with Theresa's computer and probably will not upload pictures until I get mine back up and running. Sorry =( Check out her blog to see how incredibly beautiful this place in. You would be TOTALLY jealous.

Theresa's blog here!

Day 2 coming up soon!

Mandarin lesson:
Shānqū 山区 (mountain)

Happy birthday to Theresa!

Two days ago I wrote a note to Bella saying, "Theresa's birthday is next week. Can we have a party for her on Sunday?" Bella told our boss and she informed us that we could have a party for Theresa but it had to happen after work on Sunday instead of during our lunch break. I was a little irritated with this idea at first... because I thought, "Why can't we just do cake and stuff during lunch so we can still go home on time?" Well... I found out yesterday exactly why we were unable to have our birthday bash during working hours. It involved a lot food, a whole lot of beer, and a decent amount of dancing. I cannot even believe how much I enjoyed the people that I work with last night. They are the absolute best. Seriously, all of my qualms with some of them were forgotten during our fun times last night. I am completely loving these people. My bosses definitely know how to throw down and it was a great time had by all. I will refrain from placing some of my favorite pictures/videos on the internet mainly because we are still decked out in our work gear and at the office. But I will tell you that it was an awesome time and Theresa and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Present time in the castle.

This is one excited birthday girl

There was a serious amount of food

More food...

Just when we thought the eating was over... Peter ordered MORE food. A delivery man showed up with crap tons more at like 10 pm. These people really enjoy eating.

Really? Someone thought chicken feet would be a good dish?

Oh wait... we are actually going to try those?

I said I thought my palette was expanding in China.

My boss said last night that maybe we need to drink a few before class sometimes because we are so much fun and who wouldn't enjoy themselves?!?! Hahahaha We sang Justin Bieber on chair tops and danced in bubbles and loved every moment of last night.

I can't believe I am already headed into my fifth month in China and before I know it this experience will be over and I will be back home in America living across the country from my wonderful roomie and across the world from my wonderful friends. I don't want to take this experience for granted and I hope I can have more great days like yesterday. Theresa has been such a great friend and is making my experience here so much more enjoyable. The girls at work are maybe the nicest people in the world and they are a lot of fun to be around. I really love everyone here and I think I lose sight of that sometimes because of the stress at work and the fact that some days I am horribly homesick. There have been times when I have thought that going home would be the best option for me because how easy would it be to be around others who speak my language and see the same familiar faces and be able to find everything I need at the supermarket without having to ask someone while using funky hand gestures and a Chinese dictionary? There are days I wake up and I don't want to go outside because I know outside means I am back in China and inside means I can pretend to be home while I eat my ridiculously expensive foreign cereal and watch countless episodes of Friends. There have been those days when taking the bus makes me want to jump off a cliff, seeing kids peeing on the street makes me want to scream, and hearing the sounds of loogie hawking makes me want to vomit. There have been those horrible days. But you know what? In between all of that crap and my pompous American outlook, there are moments of just complete and total beauty. I am so lucky to be living in a country where the people love you upon first meeting and they do not judge you because of your clothes, hair, accessories, make up, past, job, or money. They meet you and they literally love you. This is a country of people who genuinely care about their neighbors. It is a country of people who love their lives. It is a country of people who dance in the park, laugh with their children, hold hands with their friends. I am so lucky. I want to remember how lucky I am to be here right now. Even on the bad days I want to remember that I am part of very few people who get to have this experience. I get to live in a world and be a part of all of these beautiful things while seeing a culture so different from my own.

Here's to not taking things for granted and for remembering that I have great friends and more unforgettable moments than I could have ever dreamed of having in my previous life.

Happy 23rd, Theresa!

Mandarin lesson:
Jiāyóu! 加油! (Come on!) Gānbēi! 干杯！ (Cheers!)

Counting down and working out

Theresa and I are only three days away from our very first vacation in China. See, my desktop countdown doesn't lie:

For all of my fellow Twihards, please note the 55 days until Breaking Dawn part 1

So you may remember that a few weeks ago (when Mom and Tina were here) Theresa and I joined a gym. We have been trying to work out pretty consistently. Thankfully I have T has a roommate or I would never willingly exercise. She has been whooping my butt into shape by doing Insanity at home and weights and more cardio at the gym. I am lucky to have such a good (and free) personal trainer. Last night, Theresa and I decided to take our first class at Le Wellness. We went for an aerobics class but realized that our schedule was wrong and ended up taking a Salsa class. Now, I have taken many different classes at gyms in Roanoke. I have been in pilates, yoga, body pump, cycling, body jam, and more. All of these classes give you a great workout and leave me in a decent amount of pain the next day. Well Salsa at Le Wellness also gave me a great workout and I am certainly experiencing a decent amount of pain... but I was also left with an enthusiasm for gym classes that I have never had before. Our instructor was amazing. First of all, we saw her taking the body sculpting right before teaching Salsa so just the fact that she is that hardcore is awesome. Second of all, she exhibited a level of energy never-before-seen by me in a gym class. I was actually able to follow along with the moves (even if I did feel a little silly) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself the whole time. After warming up and doing 3 or 4 different routines she came off her teaching podium and onto the floor with us. She had us all dance in a circle and move to the center and back out. She had us moving and grooving while following her around the circle. Then at the end she had people go in the middle to show off their skills. There were a few men in the class and one was very impressed with his dancing abilities, that's for sure. He came complete with a dorky hat and break-dancing moves. One of the girls got pretty up-close and personal with the instructor and some of our classmates while she grinded down on the dance floor. I was laughing almost the whole time and I really loved the class. I am hoping that working out can be fun more times than not.

Mandarin lesson:
Wǔdǎo 舞蹈 (dance) Jiànshēnfáng 健身房 (gym) Hàn 汗 (sweat)

Drama never ceases

How is it that even when you move halfway around the world there is still drama in your life? I try to throw cliches at myself to calm down.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Leave the drama to your mama.

But somehow here it is. Annoyance never stays at bay for long.

I am trying to envision what things will be like for me when I move back to Virginia in June. I know it is a long time away but really it will be here before I know it. I was hoping that with a year's break from everything life would be a bit easier at home. I am realizing that is probably not the case. Maybe I should move to another country again instead of going home for good? I was thinking Italy would be nice.

I am considering starting back to school this Spring. Yes, this Spring. I want to get certified to teach English Language Learners. I found an online program from Shenandoah University. I am not sure if I want my Master's in ELL or just the certification. I think for now I could start with the certification (which is only 12 credit hours) and then work on the Master's when I am finished. I don't really want to devote a lot of time to getting the certification right now but I think it would be worth it to start the program. I need to figure out the cost and what kind of work I would have to do on my courses.

Good things are coming from this experience. I have learned that at work you have to be flexible (Gasp! Dr. G- all these years you were right). I have gained confidence when communicating with parents and my boss. I have also realized that I love working with younger kids and children who do not speak English. Oral English is my favorite class here to teach by far and I enjoy it mostly because it is so freaking cool to hear a kid speak in a language opposite of the one they know. Last week there was a little girl whose first language was Korean. She did not know Chinese or English. She followed along fine in the gym and music room and was able to use the vocabulary that we were learning. Once we got into the art room we were starting to realize that she wasn't really able to follow either of our directions (Chinese or English). Her mom ended up coming in once she saw that her daughter seemed a little lost. She told us that she only spoke Korean. I mean, how incredibly awesome is it that this girl could pretty much do what we were asking and she didn't understand either one of us?? I am also holding steadfast in my decision that early childhood and kindergarten education is where I want to be. Working with these little ones is sure to put a smile on my face even when I am having an Alexander day.

Mandarin lesson:
Xìjù 戏剧 (drama)

Bye Bye Birdie

Mom and Tina were up at 3:30 this morning to get ready for their ridiculously long flight back to America. I took some time off work this week so I could hang out with them. On Thursday we went to the Yashow Market and spent a serious amount of time shopping. We were there for so long that I thought I may start hitting people that were shouting, "Hey lady!" or "Come have a look." Mom and Tina stocked up on souvenirs. They both bought a few jade pieces. My mom is one heck of a hard bargainer... She was offering to pay stupidly low prices for things. She tried two buy two pieces of jade for 10 RMB. She definitely did better than Tina and I. I felt bad for the vendors that had to deal with my mom. She was one tough cookie. I bought a bracelet and a jewelry box from one man and I had an entire conversation with him in Chinese. I was very impressed with myself. I certainly wasn't using appropriate grammar or speaking in full sentences but he seemed to understand me okay. My mom bought a few bracelets and a present for my brother from the same guy and she bargained so hard that he ended up giving her something for free. Why doesn't this ever happen for me? After hours of bargaining for trinkets and things we made our way to the bottom floor so I could get some new "TOMs." I bought them for 50 RMB and I congratulated myself for my good bargaining skills. I am pretty sure my mom would have bought them for 20... but hey, I did pretty well.

After the Hey Lady Market we went to lunch and then out to Tiananmen Square. Forbidden City was already closed so we didn't go in. But we did catch the end of the flag lowering ceremony and had a good laugh when trying to capture the perfect Mao pinching picture.

Tina pinches Mao

Chelsie pinches Mao

We are pretty happy to be at the square

While at Tiananmen we came across two Chinese girls about my age who invited us out for a drink with them. We realized pretty quickly that these girls were scamming us but we went with them anyways because they were friendly enough. We went to a tea house and you had to rent out the room. We had beer and coffee and some conversation. We ended up with a pretty hefty tab because of the room rental but we paid it (split between five people) and headed out. The girls definitely worked for the place because I find it pretty hard to believe that they would have known where this back-alley tea house was. It was a little annoying but not so bad. I actually enjoyed talking to them.

Last I checked Mom and Tina were about here on their route to Detroit for their layover (this was about an hour ago):

I hope the flight is more on track than it seems from the crooked path.

 Mandarin lesson:
Fēijī 飞机 (airplane)

Temple of Heaven

Today made three days in a row of being totally tourists. We headed out rather late this afternoon for the Temple of Heaven and stayed for a few hours. The park was a lot bigger than I thought it would be and it was really pretty. Apparently the Temple of Heaven (surprisingly) used to be where the emperors would worship heaven and pray for a good harvest. We came across some really great Chinglish today... I would like to eat at the dive-in kitchen for sure.

The temple itself was very pretty. I really enjoyed all of the colors and the many different buildings. We had some pretty spectacular photo opportunities today.

The Long Corridor

After we saw the main event we found another Chinese calligraphy artist to paint my name in symbols for me. You can watch the video to see my new painting and hear everything that the letters of my name mean.

My favorite part of the day was yelling into the Echo Wall. Check us out! It took a minute to figure the wall out but I think eventually we got the hang of it. I think at the end of it all we were still a bunch of dweebs yelling at a wall.

When we were finished with the Echo Wall we found our way into the Circular Mound. Again there were many photo opportunities to be had.

Peace, mom.

We are sitting on the Heavenly Center Stone of the Circular Mound

On our walk out of the park we saw a man doing water calligraphy. I absolutely love the process and it is really beautiful. I like the simplicity and impermanence of it all.

Yet again we had a really great day. We ended it by having pizza for dinner at The Tree. It was absolutely delicious. We also bought a few more DVDs and got me some new tennis shoes so I will not grow more blisters on my feet. Be on the lookout for a post on Chinese voodoo medicine. Seriously, the stuff is freaky.

Mandarin lesson:
Tiāntán 天坛 (Temple of Heaven)

How to fold a dumpling and more

So I said last week that I would tell you how to fold a dumpling. This was maybe the only part of dumpling making that I could actually contribute to. It took me a few times but by my third or fourth dumpling mine looked just as good as the locals' dumplings. So, step-by-step, here are the dumplings:

Basically this is just going to be a random post of photographs... Here are a few more from The Great Wall... Check out all of the stairs. I mean, who would have thought a wall was made up of only stairs? I had really envisioned a nice path suitable for a stroll.

Lots of steps

Peek-a-boo!

Stone steps, brick steps

We needed a jumping picture!

Caved-in steps

The first steps of the day

Obviously I have some video footage from the day, too. Here is my first glimpse of the wall (which doesn't show on the video because of the fog, Tina and Theresa trying to be cool by running up one of the many sets of stairs and also me on the toboggan ride down.

Even though the zoo was incredibly depressing I did end up with a few good photographs.

I hope Peeta and Gale aren't jealous...

I thought camel humps stood up?

She fits in at the zoo perfectly...

On to the aquarium-

This poor turtle was stuck in the coral for awhile...

I loved the jellyfish!

The dolphin show was awesome. Would have been cooler in English I think.

Mandarin lesson:
Hǎitún 海豚 (dolphin)

We're goin' to the zoo

The four of us ventured out to the zoo with Bella and Cherry today. It was really very depressing. The animals were in horrible living conditions and I basically wanted to cry the whole time. I was happy that I got to pet a zebra... and the pandas seemed a bit happier than the rest of the animals. Animal rights activists would have a field day at this place. I didn't get many pictures of the animals because it was too depressing. It got to the point that I could not even look anymore. I walked through exhibits with my head down.

I am petting a zebra! They liked me because of my shirt.

Rhino... missing his horn.

My new umbrella =) I can't wait for rain!

After the zoo we went to the aquarium which proved to be a lot happier. I am definitely glad that we got out of the misery at the zoo and landed at the aquarium. We had been out all day and after our hike yesterday we weren't totally up for seeing every exhibit today. We skipped the "petting station" and the sharks... I kind of wish we had seen it all but we didn't eat anything all day so dinner was a must after awhile.

Hey, what's that?

My favorite exhibit of the day!

After the zoo and the aquarium we went out for coffee at Central Perk and then went to dinner at a yummy Chinese restaurant T and I found a few weeks ago when we were attempting to book our failed trip to Inner Mongolia. Speaking of vacations, we are having one in two weeks. T and I are going to Yangshuo for a week! I pretty much can't wait!

Back on the orange couch. I am so Rachel!

We have more adventures planned for the rest of the week. I am definitely enjoying exploring China and seeing everything that it has to offer.

Mandarin lesson:

This has been a mandarin lesson before but now it is written in coffee.
Péngyǒu 朋友 (friend)