One CRAZY Month

Since January 22 (34 days ago), we have:

Spent only 4 of those days at home

Taken 8 trains, 3 planes and been in 4 airports

Stayed in 11 different hostels,

in 11 different cities

Seen all four of our parents

and covered about 4,415 miles of China (farthest distance: Sanya-Beijing, 1,886 miles)

Needless to say, I have a lot to post about. 

And I start teaching again tomorrow, at least we hit our six month mark here somewhere in the crazyness.

4 more months...

Facebook *Lite*

This invention is amazing. 

I spent the last twenty minutes of our hotel time in Hong Kong getting my facebook fix for the next four months... then I come home and I am greeted by a new version of facebook that takes less 'internet power' (whatever the correct word for that is) so I can run it through the proxy avoidance program I use. 

Brilliant. 

Hallelujah Mountain

Matt and I just went to see Avatar, since we are in Beijing! I was a little put out by the 120 yuan tickets (about 18$), but Matt informed me that for us, this was a once in a lifetime chance to see Avatar in 3d, in a theatre. Dang his logic. Big cities are the only places that have movie theatres, and most aren't equipped to handle 3d... so it was a true story.

Anyways... to the point of the post. Remember when I blogged about our visit to Zhangjiajie? Well, the 'floating mountains' are totally reminiscent of the peaks in that National Park. Seriously! The mountains in the movie were partially inspired by this place.

After the release of the movie, the tourism directors in Zhangjiajie decided to change the name of one of the peaks to Hallelujah Mountain (article here). It also talks about how China has effectively banned Avatar in China, only allowing it to be seen in 3d, since there aren't too many places that can show it. Weird eh? Name a mountain after it, but don't let anyone see the reason why... (and if we learned anything from Harry Potter, its that if you want everyone to see something, tell them they can't)

The moral of the story is... I have come as close as humanly possible to visiting Pandora. And it looks just as epic in real life, even if the pillars aren't floating!

I forgot...

to post a picture of what I ended up ordering at that place with the crazy menu. I'm not sure if this particular item was even on the menu, but I like to just wander around the restaurant and see what other people are eating that looks edible. 

This was a noodle 'crepe' (can't think of another word to describe it), that they cooked on a skillet, and then wrapped up meat and some sort of leafy vegetable inside. It was okay. But the meat had a texture like it had been dunked in rubber. It did end up being better than Matt's dish, he decided to go with the Guangzhou specialty... and we're pretty sure it was intestines (his dish was on the menu). It was pretty nasty looking, and I may have accidentally deleted the picture of it. Sorry. Just imagine Matt smiling at the camera holding in his chopsticks a tubular piece of meat. 

I love speedos

'nuf said.

Out in the boonies

While we were in Sanya, we took a couple day trip into the highlands of the Island of Hainan. We went to a bunch of different minority villages, and some of them had houses that had walls that were literally woven. 

Impulse buying

Somehow, we ended up with this little number. 

We were walking home after our monthly salary withdraw, and I guess the money was just burning holes in Matt's pockets. 

And for those of you who think this stuff is sold only to entertain tourists, we saw about six old Chinese men wearing the exact outfit in the block it took us to walk home from where we bought the getup. 

Psych!

I was terribly excited to finally be past the blockage that is the internet in China... and I think I may have jumped the gun. I am back in Dong'an for a quick pit stop before we head up to Beijing to meet our parents (mine and Matt's! Cool huh?), and I found out that the program I was using to blog doesn't work on the computer we have to use here. 

Dag nabbit. 

So now I can only blog normally when we go on vacation, and happen to get wi-fi in our hostel room. 

This little set back has made me incredibly unmotivated to blog ever again. But that could be the Kristal-that-just-spent-36-hours-in-a train/train-station talking. Maybe if I get a good nights sleep tonight, I'll be more motivated to blog about the last week and a half... and trust me, there's lots to say. 

I was talking to my mom the other day, getting the normal news. "So and so is engaged, (amazing how much I hear that) so and so is pregnant, Annie is moving to Milan on Wednesday, Shane is-"

Wait, WHAT?!

Annie is moving to Milan? Like, Italy Milan? This was on Monday, and she was leaving in two days. So much for being kept in the loop.

How awesome is that? 

Let me just say that Annie and I are totally opposite in the fact that little sisters are 'supposed' to look up to their big sisters. She always used to tattle on me if I wouldn't let her hang out with me, she would 'borrow' my clothes and ruin them, she did this weird grinding thing with her teeth in her sleep when we used to share a bed (not to mention she kicks) but now, Ann is one of my heroes. For real. I love hanging out with her. Fresh out of high school she moved to India all by herself. She didn't go with a group, or with anyone she knew... crazy girl. Now she is once again residing abroad in Italy. You should really check out the rest of her blog post that starts like this:

"So I live in Italy now. Im annie the nanny! for the past week we have been in cortina, if any of you are watching the skiing world cup thats where i was."

That girl has gumption. She's fearless. She is good at everything that I'm not. I want to be just like her. 

I miss you Ann. Next time you are in the country, please wait for me to get back before you leave again.