Sunday Bike Ride

I already posted the best pictures from our bike ride Sunday afternoon (the naked children) but here are some other ones. It was amazing out there! I am really loving beach cruisers right now too, and I think I will purchase one upon my return to the US. 

Oodles of Noodles

This plate of hand pulled noodles is some of the best Chinese food I've had so far. So delicious! But if you happen to see the chicken on there, please realize that even though it is cut into small pieces and served over noodles, it still has the bones in it, blast.

I want to know why America doesn't have some sweet cooking skill. Like Mexico can make their own tortillas (Matt and I found out the hard way thats harder than it looks) and China can hand pull their noodles (very interesting process by the way) but we just have slapping some meat on a grill. How boring is that? I want to be able to awe foreigners with my mad cooking skills, but so far, I have nothing. 

Emma

Isn't she sooo cute? I love this little girl, we hung out with her and her family in Yangshou, her dad, Jacob, is the program director for China Horizons. We sure like that family! Emma kept posing for me while I was taking pictures of her at Pizza Hut, she is a doll. 

Pictures

Just some random pictures I took around Yangshou that I know won't fit in any other posts. 

Best. Hostel. Ever

Let me just start by saying that this room was about eleven dollars a night. And it was the nicest place we have stayed so far! Isn't it awesome? Our room had a really 'ski lodge' feel to it because of the slanted ceiling and wood floors. The bed was SOFT, something we hadn't experienced in China (the bed in our apartment feels like a rock, no joke) and we had a BATHTUB, also something we haven't ever seen here. 

Basically, the best eleven dollars I ever spent. This room was wonderful. I want to ship it back to America and live in it forever. 

Rafting pictures

Here are some of the pictures from the river rafting/floating we went on. 

Yangshou (Finally)

Ya, I know that we went to Yangshou like a week ago. But it. was. HEAVEN. Seriously one of my favorite places ever. The town was really clean, and surrounded by mountains (something I miss). Our hostel was right by some really cool shopping (perhaps I will blog about what I got, if anyone is interested) and some good eatin. 

We left Friday right after classes (our train left at one) and got into Guilin around three. Then we went to Pizza Hut. It was marvelous. Then we got on a bus and headed down to Youngshou, which took about an hour. We then checked into our hostel and went out on the town. It was already dark but man that town was alive! We're used to Dong'an were things die as soon as the students go back to class after dinner, so it was weird that so many people were out. It was also weird to see so many white people. I didn't like it. Oh well.   Then we got some magnum bars (real ice cream is so nice after eating their weird frozen milk imitation ice cream) and went to bed.

Saturday we got up and went on a float down the river. It was sooo beautiful, but wouldn't you know that my slr would die as soon as I stepped onto the raft? Typical. Luckily, I had my point and shoot, and I had forgotten how much I like that camera, so I wasn't too upset. The ride was awesome! It was such a gorgeous area, I just couldn't get over it. 

After we got done with the rafts, we went back into town, ate lunch (hand pulled noodles) and shopped for the rest of the afternoon. We found some screamin' deals folks, it was amazing. We found a shop that was going out of business, and so everything was on super clearance (no bartering, happy day!) and it was amazing! Plus, it also gave us a good baseline for what things cost. True Religion jeans, about seven dollars. Armani ties, seventy five cents (granted, these are probably knock-offs, but they look pretty legit to me, and thats all that matters right?) 

After we finished shopping, we had dinner (pizza and a McD's milkshake) and got a movie. Matt found 'The One' with Jet Li, so we crowded six people into our hostel and we watched that. 

Sunday morning we had church, then rented some bikes for the afternoon. We went on a bike ride through the countryside and it was so much fun! Thats when we saw the naked babies. The scenery was pretty much amazing, and it was nice to get away from the more touristy areas for a bit. 

Then we came home! (and we got our first ever seat tickets for a train! Every other time for one reason or another, we have been standing.) Wow, sorry that turned into such a long post. But it was basically one of the best weekends ever!

Meet Mary

Mary is our cooker lady. We named her Mary after got sick of calling her 'cooker lady'. 

She makes the most delicious food for us to eat. I live for her stir fried potatoes, and whatever 'rou' (meat) that is that she cooks up for us. We found Mary's 'restaurant' the first week of school, and we go there almost daily. I LOVE it. Seriously. Last night, Matt and I had this dish that was to die for. I actually enjoyed eating string beans! So yummy. 

I would also like to point out that Chinese takeout does not come in those cool cartons. Not even at the nice restaurants. It all comes in those plain, white, boring Styrofoam containers(pictured above holding my rice).
*I would also like to mention that the picture of all the bowls on the top page is how you pick out your food. You don't look at a menu, you just point to the things you want stir fried together and Mary turns it into goodness for you. It's really weird, but kinda cool. You just have to get over the idea that you have no idea how long the meat has been sitting out.  

Made my LIFE

Aren't those the sweetest pictures ever?!?

We were just taking a nice afternoon bike ride around the countryside of Yangshou (more to come about that) when we see off in the distance two children, just walkin down this path. It was just sooo perfect, I jumped right off my bike and ran to a better vantage point. I mean, that kid is wearing a hat, but nothing else, classic. As soon as they saw us taking pictures they ran away... I don't think they are too used to foreigners.

These pictures aren't the best quality, but years from now, when I look at them, I'll remember the funniest site ever

Current State of Affairs

Today, October the 19th, we have been in China for two months exactly. I would like to make these important statistical updates.

One: the number of naked children I have seen.

Two: the number of naked men I have seen.

Three: the number of times I have taken a sleeper train

Four: the number of times I have had a standing ticket for longer than three hours

Five: the number of times we have had real American meals.

Six: the number of Chinese phrases I know

Seven: the number of people you can fit on a queen and king size bed pushed together

Eight: the number of months we have left

Nine: the number of times our power has gone out for a couple of hours

Ten: the number of seasons of Friends we are downloading and watching

Letters to Shane

A couple weeks ago, I wanted my students to write a letter to an American pen friend (blast those UK textbook authors). I also wanted them to have something to be responding to, so I enlisted the help of my brother Shane. I asked him to write a letter to my classes describing his school life in America. He wrote me a slang filled, sarcastic, and grammatically incorrect letter that put American students to shame. I know he was just joking. But so was I when I gave his email address to all of my 1,500 students, so that they could email him back. 

Too bad none of them know how to operate anything outside of QQ (Chinese MSN messenger). I was really hoping that he would open his email to find thousands of letters that went something like this:

Dear Shame, (yep, Shame)

First of all, let me introduce myself to you. My Chinese name is 啊鸭. My English name is Tina. I am from China. I'm 16 years old and I really want to make a friend with you. If you wouldn't mind. at weekend, I very like watch TV and with aunt go shop. I space time is hand-outing and write. I'm study high school. I enjoyed subject is English. chemistry. and physics. I am interested in read composition books. 

Ok, now would you mind asking some questions?

1. do you like China?

2.Would you please tell me about you life in America?

3. do you like Dong'an food?

4. do you rather to friends?

5. would you mind give me a photo of you?

thats all my questions. Thank you answer this question. I hope the magazine will pass the litter to you soon.

Best wishese:

啊鸭

Want to know how I know they would all look like this? Because a couple of my student opted to give me their letters to pass on to Shane (or Shame, as I shall now call him). All of the letters I received followed this format, and I put the best two letters together for you! And yes, I carefully checked the entire letter to make sure that I quoted the authors exactly. As you can see, I have my work cut out for me, but I very like teaching. 

My Momma

My mom has a blog.

She started it in 2008. Then she didn't post for months. Now, she has posted six times.

Post #1: How Mitch needs a haircut

Post #2: How she secretly likes the Wii (she also mentions a visit to Matt and I)

Post #3,4,5: How she replaced the pea gravel in her play area with grass.

Post #6: How she is turning into a cat lady.

Since she has started her blog she has had:

4 graduations: mine and Matt's from COLLEGE and Jeff and Annie's from high school (It may be Jeff's one and only, hehe)

3 children participate in two State swimming competitions. Both times her boys team's took the title. Last year Shane was the fastest sophomore in his event, and he took seventh. 

3 children move to foreign countries.

A trip to Mexico

2 trips to Texas to visit her family, once when her niece got married. 

Becoming a 'great' aunt.

A few Senior Proms

Backpacking with the family in July (significant since it's been years since everyone in our family has gotten together for a trip since Shane and Jeff don't believe in coming to Mexico). 

and a fabulous family portrait session

All this, and the only thing someone can tell from reading her blog is that she has a backyard. And now she loves it. What the random? I just thought this was interesting... and I tease her about it all the time. 

Bottom line... if you want an update about the Williams family, you're better off checking the blog of the daughter that lives halfway around the world. Don't worry though Momma, my love for you isn't based on the content of your blog. 

Get ready for it:

I'll warn you now that the posts below are incredibly random and not at all in chronological order. Sorry about that. I just added the picture above because we have about a million pictures from our trip to Zhangjiajie and I need to get them posted sometime! (And just in case you were wondering, I am blogging about that gradually. The total wealth of information would probably just overwhelm your desire to continue reading my blog, so I'm breaking it up.)

Conference, Asia style

So, we had General Conference a week later than you folks back in the states. Mostly because we would have had to wait until midnight and four in the morning to watch it. 

It was really cool! And Saturday night, we ladies (me and two girls in our group, Brooke and Haiden) decided that we wanted to be adventurous and try to make pancakes for breakfast on Sunday. Seems easy right? Well, it's not. Standing in the grocery store at nine o'clock at night and purchasing ingredients by their texture (well, as far as we could tell feeling through the bag) is no small feat. The flour did have an English label, it said 'baking powder'. I guess technically it is powder that you bake with. But we needed real backing powder too, and I think we ended up with corn starch (we decided to forgo that). Who needs their pancakes to be fluffy anyways?

Making them was an adventure as well. We have yet to see measuring cups, so things were all approximated. We cooked them all one by one in the wok, chopped up some chocolate pieces to sprinkle in the batter and topped them with peanut butter, bananas and strawberry jam. Actually, they turned out pretty good! And we felt pretty empowered by our small accomplishment. 

Information Leak

I have just received intelligence that we will be traveling to Guilin this weekend. And guess what that means? Hint: it makes happy to my tummy.

If you guessed that I get to go to Pizza Hut, then you are absolutely correct! 

If nothing else, this China experience has made me appreciate the little things in life (okay, so I guess going to Pizza Hut is a pretty big thing when you live in Dong'an). Please don't judge me because of my obsession with food.. I can't help it. Americans just don't realize how lucky they are...

Some more Chinglish

You have to click on this picture so that you can read all the translations on those signs! Our favorite is the 'negative ions' one. I need to start all my sentences with 'friend...'

World's worst job

These little old men carry people up and down the mountain ALL day long. I think that would be a terrible job. They move pretty fast too, they would always make us get out of their way. We were so tired just getting ourselves up there, I can't imagine hauling another person up and down those stinkin' steep stairs. This is one of the very few parts of level ground too. Most of the time it was straight stairs.

Right place, right time.

When Matt and I rounded the corner and saw this, it was amazing. The light was just right! A minute later our friend caught up to us, and it was gone... good thing I got like twenty pictures. It was cool just to be there because it was so quite and peaceful surrounded by trees, with this one ray of sun coming in. We are sooo happy we walked up those 7,000 stairs instead of waiting in a three hour line to ride the tram, it was just such a better experience. 

The Monkeys

We saw monkeys! Sorry the quality is bad, we zoomed in as far as we could and then cropped it a bunch, but you get the idea. Too bad seeing monkeys in the wild wasn't on my bucket list... or I could cross it off now. Drat. 

The fun stuff

So, on to the meat of the trip finally! Zhangjiajie was really an amazing place. It's a National Park so it was more organized that just traipsing through the Chinese jungle. We got there on Monday morning and took a tram (not included in the tour fee, lame) up to the top of one of the 'pillars' (as they called them) and wandered around there for a bit. So, nothing too exciting on Monday. The pillars in the picture above are all over down there, and they are so amazing. We are sooo glad we went and we probably could have spent a week exploring this place!

Some Pictures

I'm really sorry that these are so small, but I have no way to organize them, since I just email my blog the posts. If you click on them then you can see them in all their glory. These are just some pictures I took on Monday. 

The story behind this picture

Matt and I just got back from a trip to Zhangjiajie. It was the Chinese National Holiday on the first and so we got a week off school! I believe that events occur as a result of the events proceeding them, so I will start from the beginning to explain just how Matt's feet came to be poking out from below a train seat headed to Changsha. (this is basically an overview of our entire trip, details are coming in the following posts, so don't freak out yet, and I know it's long, but stay tuned, we'll get there)

It's Saturday morning. Matt and I had spent the night at our friend Jason's apartment (in Yongzhou) in preparation for our early train to Xiangton. We travel with ease to the train station in the neighboring city (sometimes quite a feat, as bus rides here never take the same amount of time twice) with time to spare. We load said train and realize that instead of purchasing 'hard seat' tickets, we had gotten standers. Let me quickly explain the ticketing system here. There are four main classes on every train: standing (not in a separate car with no seats, just in the aisle), hard seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper (Matt claims there is a 'soft seat' that we have not yet encountered, what say you Olivia?). So basically, standing stinks. Luckily, we were able to find some seats that had been abandoned by travelers who had already reached their destination. We had been on our *supposedly* four hour train for three hours when we learned that it was in fact a SEVEN hour train ride. Ah man. This city is a three hour car ride away. Basically, we got on a slow train (sorry, I should also mention that all trains are not created equal. Some like to just randomly stop in the middle of nowhere for a couple hours). So that wasn't super fun but whatever. The three of us eventually found a vacated area that we could play games in, so that helped pass the time, and also helped confuse several Chinese nationals who I'm sure were trying to figure out how we were playing Citadels.

We arrived in Xiangton and stayed the night with our friends there. It was awesome. We ate delicious food (see post below). 

Sunday night, we boarded our 9 o'clock train to Zhangjiajie. This time we had hard sleepers. I am totally in love with them. Basically the car is set up with stacks of three bunk beds and you can sleep the whole way (but I will explain more about them later, I don't feel that my adoration for them is pertinent to the 'Matt's feet' situation). We arrived in Zhangjiajie at seven in the morning, but not without first being approached by a tour guide who managed to trick us into thinking that a tour was the best and cheapest way to experience Zhangjiajie. I think several factors played into our foolish decision. First of all, we didn't really have a plan, we just wanted to explore and have an adventure and second of all some key points about the tour were lost in translation. Our friend Jason majored in Chinese, so he knows whats up, but I think it was more the cultural translation. When the tour director said all fees were included, we 'stupidly' assumed that that meant all the fees. Haha... no. Apparently, transportation to our various destinations was included, however not the return trip. Oh, there were buses taking our entire group back to our hotel for the night, but of course we had to pay ten RMB/person to take them. Anyways, I am trying to not be bitter about this, so I will move on. If you would like to hear more about how we got rocked, please email me and I could rant for a good five pages. 

Sooo, we gave this guy a good chunk of our change (we haven't gotten paid yet, so funds are limited) and he hurried us out of the train station before we could purchase our return tickets. The National Holiday is a crazy time to travel because you have a billion people here all on break. Literally. And in China (we thought) you can't buy tickets from a city unless you are in that city (like, you can't buy round trip tickets, you would have to buy a ticket to your destination and then buy the return ticket when you got there). So basically, we have no tickets home at this point in time. This time being Monday morning. So we did our robbery tour thing (more about that later, this post is mostly about the traveling portion of our adventure) and got back to the train station late in the afternoon on Tuesday (keep in mind for later that we woke up at five in the morning and spent the whole day climbing 14,000 stairs). Guess what? The only tickets left to Xiangtan are standing. For nine hours, and nothing ever goes straight through to our city (We are headed to Yongzhou from Zhangjiajie). I definitely didn't want to stand for that long, we addressed other options with the nice ticket lady and learned that there were hard seat tickets to Changsha arriving at 11 that night. However we would then have to wait until 4:30 to catch a train to Yongzhou. We stepped out of line to asses our options. We finally decided that we would get the tickets to Xiangtan, even though they were standing, hoping that we could again find seats. We got back in line, but now those tickets are sold out. We again convene out of line, mostly complaining about the tour that ruined our lives and decided that we would take the tickets to Changsha and sleep at the train station. By the time we got back into line, the seats are gone. All that is left is standing. We were really angry. We were really tired. We were really frustrated. I'm sure this will be funny in a month. 'Whatever' we say, and after purchasing the tickets (immediately, since we had already realized tickets were selling like hotcakes) we BOOKED it up to the platform and just made it onto our train.

I would just like to mention now that I realize this post is getting long. I know that you are my true friend if you made it to this point. If not, I probably never liked you much anyways. Anyways, we get on the train and happily find seats, but, on these trains that only means you have a seat until the next stop. At that point the ticket holder could board and kick you to the curb. We were able to maintain our seats for two stops; still about four hours to go. So ya, we were just chillin' in the aisle. It's really weird just standing there next to someones seat. Finally I sat down in the aisle. Matt followed. With about three hours to go, Matt got tired (this is when you should remember our early waking and strenuous exercise) and cramped sitting Indian style on the aisle floor. So, he made me stand up, and he somehow maneuvered himself under the seat he used to be leaning against. And this my friends, is the very anti-climactic end to the story of how Matt's feet came to be sticking out from under a train seat in a 'wicked witch of the east' style. At least the Chinese people were very entertained. Cool story eh? (I will admit, this post sounded much more interesting in my head, but now that I have typed it I might as well post it right?) I will also just add that when we got to Changsha, we went to the McDonald's there, got lots of food (we had only snacked since breakfast, now twenty hours previous), and slept there. I slept at a McDonald's. Not quite as cool as sleeping out in front of the train station, but I was too tired and sore to move there.

Luckily, this story has a happy ending where our tickets from Changsha home are hard sleepers. I was happy for about five hours til I had to wake up and get on a bus to Dong'an. (I would also like to mention that the return trip took about ten hours, whereas getting there took about twenty. Go figure, they must have a method to the train madness, but I certainly don't know what that is.) I was tired and gross and sore when I got to Dong'an, but I was happy to be home, and even more happy that it felt like home. Wow that was a long post... well, now for the pictures and the fun things that happened! Huzzah!

Looking Pitiful

in these pictures we were faking... but it didn't take long before they became reality... we were sooo dead tired. 

Matt

This is the full effect of what I like to call 'Matt under bench'

Some more pictures on the train

Picture number one is some kids playing a game that involved toilet papering their own faces, and then the little boy that refused to like us at the beginning of the train ride. It's amazing what six hours and a little patience can do... he even gave us some of his chestnuts at the end!

Picture number two is the super crowded train. This is us moving, not boarding. See how you just awkwardly stand there? Then there's the lady selling some weird bendy stick thing. Then again the little boy, he sure loved to have us take his picture!

Sleeper Trains

This is a hard sleeper. We slept in a soft sleeper on our trip from Beijing, and hard sleepers are really not that much worse and they are cheaper! 

I really can't explain my love for these cars full of beds, but there is just something about being able to get on, kick off your shoes, fall asleep in your clothes and wake up in a totally different city! And as you can see in the pictures, they give you a pillow and blanket! Does life get better? I submit that it does not... well, except taking a soft sleeper I suppose. The main difference is on a soft sleeper you have your own compartment and there are only four beds instead of six. As you can see on the hard sleeper you don't get much more privacy than covering yourself with a blanket.

I like sleeper trains. I wish America would follow suit. I would way rather take a train that I can sleep on than a plane that I have to sit through. You can go a long way in a nights sleep!

(okay, there will be one more post after this... but I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'll spread this trip out over a couple days, check back tomorrow for some more exciting adventures!)

First of all...

The food was awesome. Matt and I just got back from our trip to Zhangjiajei, but first we stopped in Xiangton, which is where our program director and his wife live. When we got there we were starved so we went to Pizza Hut right away, which was like a dream come true. Why, oh why, isn't there one of these great places in our area? I mean, Dico's has made my day like three times already, but it just doesn't cover my cheese cravings. The pizza was AMAZING, and we got this mashed potato appetizer (with cheese in it, gotta milk it right?) and a slice of ice cream cake for dessert. Ahh, I've dreamed about that meal everyday since. It was painful to look at the pictures and not know when I could again partake of the goodness. Anyways, Xiangton just got a Dairy Queen, so of course we couldn't discriminate, and we got a blizzard. Have they gotten better in America too? Man. It's lucky that Matt and I can't really eat that much any more (we usually only eat twice a day, and we have to share a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast because it's too much) because this night could have ended up costing us a fortune! I didn't want to stop eating! But Pizza Hut was about 15 dollars (still cheaper than America, but TONS more than anything else here) and the blizzard was just over three, I think that's about the same? We don't frequent the DQ (much more Wendy's people). Anyways... we had McDonald's as well. And I loved every single calorie in that big mac. Matt got two burgers (one in a combo) and I got a combo and then we got a shake and a pie thingy, and it was still only ten dollars. I love China, almost as much as I love cheese.

Basically food wise, this trip was the BEST.

Who would have ever thought that Pizza Hut, DQ and McDonald's could be considered the best three places they could eat?

Happy DAY!

Yes ladies and gentleman, Matt and I are traveling to a happy city, a city that has a pizza hut. I think we may each order our own larges. Or possibly two each... we aren't sure yet... but just imagine if you had spent the last month and a half on a cheese free diet! 

Oh the GLORY!

 

I don't think you could possibly understand the joy that is filling my heart.

This makes me feel better...

I realized in the Canadian Airport that I had not finished my Hepatitis vaccines. Whoops. Talk about just a little too late. I was researching Hepatitis this morning, figuring that I should know more about my new worst enemy. It didn't really help that I saw this list on Wikipedia. Hepatitis in China, it would have it's own category. 

I really don't want to get severely sick in this country, Matt and I were sick last weekend (leave it to other countries to break down my superior immune system, the last time I was sick was our Honeymoon in Mexico) and it was terrible! Since we go out to eat for almost every meal, we almost died of starvation. We had oatmeal in the house... and that was it! Luckily, we made it until we were well enough to make the trek to Dico's, french fries never tasted sooo good. 

Just a couple of random notes from our time being ill:

Mr. Beard called to check on us (because we called in sick for school, something I have never done before) and he wanted to know 'is it a cold or H1N1?', apparently those were the only two options. 

Nights were bad... I remember one night deliriously crawling through the living room back into our bedroom. Not so fun.