uno

Just played Uno ( thanks to steph for sending it)with my neighbors the telephone guy and the barber. It was hilarious to try to teach them to play with using limited chinese and just by acting out, The reverese are the hardest for them to figure out, but they loved it!! They just love to screw each other with those draw 2's and 4's. The saying uno thing had to quickly be changed to say Yi ( which is one in chinese). Yet a few times we let a noise muttered count as the saying of uno, because sometimes we are not too sure what the barber says! Awesome game, and they all agreed we could make big money selling this game in china. Im sure we could do it, no copyright law and all.

Easter Egg Hunt

Well after the dying we decided what easter was complete without a hunt?? Joe, the YUeyang girls and I went to the office late sunday night , hid all the eggs and wrote a note from the Easter bunny to all the teachers saying they must search the next morning. On Monday morning when we went to the office the teachers were all super excited. They said I found 3 , I found 4 , I found 2. We gave them all some american candy and watched as they still searched for more. In total they found 17, but we put out 21. Later we found out one of the teachers came in early and ate a few. We keep telling them they need to refridgerate the eggs, but they like them so much they just leave them on their desk for decoration. I am not going to being using my desk in the office come summer when no one has thrown away their egg!
In other egg news Joe had a student from the original dye day that took off the shell ever so carefully and has now taped the shell back together to save forever!! So Cute!

Easter dinner:

Well we invited the Yue Yang girls over for Easter dinner. We had what we thought was a ham, but turned out to be some other part of the Pig, roasted in a honey brown sugar sauce. It was amazing. Then we made broccoli and cauliflower and mashed potatoes. We even got to have Scones thanks to Mary Claires sister who sent her a mix. It was all too die for. The barber and phone guy came up and helped us eat a little and also danced to the new American music we had playing. Let me tell you the barber can do a good mime, you really think he might be in a box!! ha ha ha!
After dinner we got out more easter egg dye and asked all the neighbor kids to come by. we had three little boys come over and dye eggs, they couldn't believe it! At first they were just amazed , then when the eggs dried they decided they wanted to eat them right away!! , Then they had egg wars on the floor crashing there eggs together, however after one cracked and some whine/ crying was had everybody stopped that and just continued to make more. It was really awesome for these little guys! One boy who we call our mimicking monkey got so into it, he was still working at it well after the other boys stopped. This boy likes to play the parrot game. Its pretty funny, especially since he doesn't know English. We just say random things and see if he will repeat. He always does, but its a good laugh. For example we made him say "i eat monkey brains, I am a monkey , I will eat your toes!" Hes super cute. After all was done the barber gave us this thumbs up, which we now means "perfect". His nephews really enjoyed our Chinese Easter!

April so far…..
So far April has been good to us. My parents and our good friend Colleen sent us easter egg dye. Last Wednesday all of it come just in time, we hard boiled some eggs and had the students dye them for English Corner. First I brought the materials into the office and let the teachers play around with them. The teachers are just as eager to see all the western traditions as the kids are. I let each teacher dye an egg, they got so excited, one teacher was correcting papers when I explained the whole process so when she was done she just ran over and grabbed an egg thinking she could do it. She started by cracking the egg open and taking off the shell. Everyone was like nooooooo!!! But it was too late. It was sooo cute she looked at me with this face after and gave me a little whine. She made a better one later.
We then brought them outside where about 50 different kids came and went with there eggs. I had to explain to them that you could eat them , but not to keep them for too long or they will go bad. ( I’m sure there is still some un refrigerated eggs in a couple dorm rooms today!) I just want to say thanks for sending that dye, seriesly the best idea ever!! The kids really loved it, they got really creative and gave them a chance to just relax from there day to day studying. I had one girl just look at me and say , Thank you so much for giving me this egg, this has been the best day ever I have had at school. So seriesly these kids were in need of some love and you helped us greatly to give it to them. Thanks again!

Teaching:
So far I have had two really great lessons! First on one of my off weeks I taught my students about hair! I know your thinking oh the boys must have hated it, but after talking with some students Chinese boys actually spend a lot of time doing and talking about hair. We even know one boy that wakes up at 5 just so he can do his hair for the day. Interesting I know! So I decided it would be fun. Plus I really needed a haircut and I thought it would be fun to have the students choose the style. I taught them all the hairstyles and how to say the English words, like Corn Rows, MoHawk, Bald, Dred Lock,etc. They loved seeing pictures of people with styles, Then I had them choose a haircut for me, I thought I was going to get more “balds” but it actually worked out. I had them vote ( which is such a hard concept in china!) for the best one, then I had a huge bulletin that I carried around class to class so they could see which style was winning throughout the week. In the end this is the one they chose.
I then got the barber to cut my hair, I wonder how long he has been waiting to get his hands in my head!! Now every morning when I walk by his place he comes out and fixes or tells me how I should do my hair! I have created a monster! Friday it was pig tails yesterday it was an updo, what will be next. Although I love getting a haircut with a scalp oil massage and hair straightening for 8 kuai ( US 1 dollar!) He even straightens my hair for free when I ask, How awesome is that??
We also got new glasses! Joe and I have been needing some for awhile. Especially after Joe left his on the bus back in September. We went to a local shop by our school, had the eye test and everything , it was all state of the art equipment! In total both our glasses cost 50 US dollars, not too shabby!

Spring:
Now that its spring, there is endless kite flying and out door fun. Everyone is taking in the good weather before it turns hot and humid. I even flew a kite while on my daily run one day. I just kept running around the track, and even passed the boys track team with my kite. They must think there teacher is crazy, its good cause that’s what I was going for! We have been trying to run everyday we can. We find it helps us have a lot more energy for the day.

Facials:
I just went with my Yueyang girls to get Facials. Oh man was it awesome! Only 80 kuai, or like 10 bucks US. This place was amazing. You wore a towel the whole time, at first I was freaked out by that, but it was pampering at its finest. It started with a bag massage complete with oils and lotions and pressure point activation. Then a head rub/scalp itch. Then a facial that consisted of layer after layer of mask cream, oils, gauze, etc. It total it lasted two hours!! I am so upset we are finding these places so late in the game! Man I wish I woulda known sooner. Fabulous!

Chinese Firedrill:
So imagine this. Joe, Mary Claire, Amy and I are eating in Yueyang. Just 4 foreigners eating out enjoying our evening when the entire restaurant stands up and rushes out leaving after what looked to be a Chinese soldier came in and yelled something. We go to the window because theres a mob pushing out the door and why should we just add to it? We are on the second floor on this walking street hot pot place and theres crowds of people outside. Normally back home I guess we would have joined the crowd, but we can see that the crowd is looking at the neighbors place, plus we just got our food, so we continue eating. About 5 other tables do the same, I mean we paid for this food, and maybe we have been in China too long, but whatever we were hungrey. We keep eating and see another table ordered noodles to put in there hot pot. We ask the waitress hey can we get some of those and the boss comes over and interrupts her and says, no we have to close, you gotta leave. It was so funny, we actually had to be thrown out of the fire drill!!! The weird thing was no one came over to say anything to us when the whole thing happened. No younger people coming over and saying hey theres a fire. We really had to figure it all out on our own! Crazy!! So we all got up and ran down stairs, they close the shop and Joe realizes he left his book on the table.. ahhhhh man, so we wait to see if we can get it after the whole fire thing goes out. ( we have been in china too long) As the firetrucks arrive and the firemen start there work we start comparing the firemen to circus clowns. All of them running around with no idea what there doing. Yep theres a lot of them, but what is the plan of action?? Coins the phrase “Chinese Firedrill” I swear two firemen almost bumped into each other like the three stooges. It was horrifying to think that this is the way fire is dealt with. Luckily it was only a small electric fire and not worse. This situation even came complete with drunken official coming on the scene to push the crowds back and “do there part” to help the situation as much as they could.. hmmm right.

Mimi the half dead feline:
Well I have never seen a vet in China, So when Joe came home to find the neighbors cat mimi paralyzed and crying with blood coming out of its mouth, he had no idea what to do. He went to tell our neighbors, but they were giving a test and couldn’t be disturbed. SO joe waited around and finally got a hold of them. The cat broken its back. We wonder if maybe it fell down between the stairs. It was just laying right at the doorway to our stairs that go to our house. The poor thing! Joe said it was weird, they asked what we would do in America and he honestly said we would take it to the vet and kill it. They looked at him like he was crazy, then the girl just started laughing. Here we go with the laughing again. One observation about Chinese people….. if they are uncomfortable they laugh about everything. So she was just trying not to cry I think. Poor thing though, we don’t know if Mimi has survived or not. Ill keep you updated.

Alert the press, no potato mixed with eggs
That’s right you heard it here first, if you mix potato and egg in a meal or while your cooking you will get cancer!! Or at least that’s what a Chinese friend just told us. So Spanish omelets , Good earth Sunday brunch, its all out!! She honestly told us as if it was huge news in her exact words…..”tell your friends oh and your family, this is series” What will the Chinese think of next???

Ps.
We also took a ride out to hot spring and hiking area last weekend. Its only an hour away, but when we got to the national park they said there were no boats for that day. Argggg! We did get to see a really cool dam however. Then we wanted to go into the town and go to the hotsprings, but there were no cabs or busses out there, so the group we were with of about 15 teachers hailed this truck to stop and we all rode into town in the back of it. It was soooo fun but also soooo scary! When we got into town we found out the hot spring had no water there was renovation going on! Sweet!! So we went back home. Oh well we will try to go again later, it looked like a fun place to visit. Next time maybe the teachers could call ahead. Actually this is china that never happens who am I kidding!

March

March I have found to be the fastest month here. We have gone through some pretty crazy experiences, but China wouldn’t be the same without them. I have also found writing in this blog to be harder and harder as the months come to a close. Living in another country can be difficult and crazy, but as you learn to survive in a foreign culture you start to become more used to things and less likely freaked out by everyday occurrences. We have had so many “well that’s China for ya” moments that writing about them almost seems redundant. How many times can you as a reader be shocked by the train rides with spitting men, or the way our school sometimes treats us like gold and then like crap the next day” I know all of you must be saying yes we can take it , we love the shock value, but when you live here everyday things just don’t shock like they used to. So here’s an overview of shocking stories for the month see what you think. Some are defiantly worth blogging about and many you have already heard Via worried parents. Kids cover your eyes and hold onto your seats.

Joe’s Black Tongue and Hospital Experience

Well first Joe started to get flu like symptoms. He had bad diarrhea and couldn’t keep anything down even water. He first just tried Pepto Bismal and right away he started to notice his tongue was turning Black. He immediately thought he was going to die!!! We searched on the internet and found out that Pepto has this side effect among some people, so weird really weird. Joe really thought it was it for him though, he even crawled onto the floor and hugged my leg as I was doing dishes one afternoon.
He seemed to not get any better in the next few days, he even missed two days of teaching. The teachers all got worried and insisted he be taken to the hospital. We really didn’t want to take him, but with missing so many classes we felt like maybe he should go just to make the teachers feel better. So we took him, the doctors then examined him. First by putting a thermometer under his arm pit, this all while he was wearing a winter coat and two layers of sweaters.. hmm true temp , I think not. They the asked several questions in which our liason continued to refer to bowels as your shit. Honestly I don’t think the Chinese know any other word for poop then shit. She asked every question there was, then the doctor took him to another building. In china the hospital is separated into exam building and patient building. So we went to the patient building. There we got our own room and Joe started injections. I have to tell you , in China when you are sick you go to the hospital and get Ivs it’s the way its done here. We have said before that students come to class with iv bags and I even saw little kids walking around with them when we got there. Little as in 3 years old! As I am getting Joe situated with everything and the nurses find his non existent, dehydrated veins , I hear him mumble something he says “wait, wait take a picture of me”!! That’s right, everyone Joe was sick enough to be in a hospital, but not sick enough to forget his time to shine. Here’s the photos to prove he was in a Chinese hospital. Just so you don’t freak out everything went fine. The hospital here is a little scary and not as well kept as a western hospital, but as far as we know all the needled were new , We saw them take them out of a new sealed bag. Joe ended up staying the night because they wanted him to have the injections longer. He really was very dehydrated. The medicine they gave him was western medicine, although at the time we thought hmmm maybe there putting tea into his veins, but on further google check we found them to be normal iv fluids and a fluid for nausea. After two days of there fluids I wondered if they spiked it with Chinese serum because Joe was telling me he wanted to go back again that day for more. All in all Joe was there for 3 days, only one over night. It only cost 300 kuai for the bed and medicine, really cheap if you think what we pay in America!

Midservice

We had a meeting in Changsha to go over our year so far. All the foreign teachers came in and we regrouped about how life was going. Some people love there school, others can’t wait to leave. The best part was just being able to share about the same crazy things that happen to foreigners living in China. We also got some new tricks and lesson plan ideas for the rest of the year. After it all our boss even found a place to take us bowling!! That’s right bowling, I couldn’t believe how much fun it could be, we never new you could bowl in china at all , and here it is.

Teaching
In the month of March teaching went well. We were recharged from the month long vacation, so our lessons really went smoothly and the kids were genuinely interested in how our journey went. So far we have been teaching mostly from the book with a few add ins because the teachers already had started the chapter when we were on vacation.
Although this term both Joe and I have decided to start making the students give English speeches. We have them choose a topic, include an intro and speak for 2-3 minutes. I even went to the extent of having a class grade sheet made up and the directions of the speech be translated into Chinese so they have no excuse not to do it. In our classes we do not give grades so its hard sometimes to feel like we have accomplished something. This gives us a chance to have the kids feel like our classes really do matter and there not just a blow off fun time. So far the students have come up with some interesting topics. Some have been of course in the tradition of Chinese classrooms about the same thing, but some have been breaking the mold. Those mold breakers are my favorite to see.
Topics: Difference between Chinese and American families, A speech about light quoting genesis!, holiday differences, How in America we clothe our babies according to sex, Ways to stay healthy, Sports, Chinese stars, Class address(similar to the presidential address, how to be better students, often spoken with great feeling), Chinese school system, Dreams and Goals, NBA, and I even had a kid do a rap. Another wrote a riddle on the board and another told what different flowers mean. ex:red rose=love. Very creative, those board writers almost always get an “A”. I give them grades A, B, or C. C is very hard to get, and so is A. I don’t believe kids should just get an A for anything, so only the really good ones get A’s. Then I write on a slip of paper suggestions and positives with their grade. It’s a lot of work however I think its good for them to see how to improve, plus it’s the Chinese way to suggest improvement it shows I care about them.

Teaching part Deux, Basketball Boys
Well one day in March I was teaching and we were doing a group activity, Im telling you sometimes I push the limits when it comes to there being so many kids. I had this one class write stories about some magazine pictures I had cut out. An easy task you would think but to get the kids to be creative is hard, really there normally taught in a certain way that does not include anything they may be able to add input in. So I try to get them to get out of that way of learning and give them fun activities. This activity had worked in every other class I had! This was right before lunch so I could tell this day was going to be different. As I assigned numbers and the kids moved around, I noticed that the door kept opening and closing. Finally I thought you know this isn’t right , I turned around and opened the door, several students just sat outside looking out at the basketball court. I couldn’t believe it, so I grabbed up all the pictures and said sit down now. The kids all came back in and then I noticed that 5 seats were empty. The students were so surprised they had never seem me this angry. I don’t know why but like I said today was different, Teacher Emily was not taking crap from nobody. I said where? And I repeated that word while pointing at the desks. “Where?, Why?” Finally a student stood up and said outside over there, I will show you. So he defienlty ratted out his pals, but he could see I was about to kill, so I probably woulda too. He takes me outside and points to where the boys are, I asked what is their Chinese name? The boy told me all of there names and as I walked out of the class and walked up to the boys I screamed there Chinese names at them. They immeadily stopped there b-ball game and starred at me like what was she going to do? I grabbed one boy by the ear and said “Get inside, Now”. A boy tried to start talking and give me reasons , I just said “I do not care”. I was so angry they could see the flames coming out of my ears. Then as I am screaming and dragging the one boy by the ear I see Joe, the barber and the phone guy Bear starring at me from our house. The b-ball court is right outside our house. The barber just starts laughing and Bear has a shit grin the size of the Mississippi. Joe comes up to us as if he is going to help me and sternly asks what did they do , what happened. I then barked back at Joe “Nothing!” The boys all jumped. I didn’t want it to seem like I needed my husbands help to discipline my students. As we were walking back to the classroom I look up and see the whole class starring with their mouths open from the balcony next to there classroom. I really had never been mad at them before and they didn’t know what to expect. They all ran in sat down and were quiet when I entered the room with the 5 boys. The boys sat down and I told them to write an apology letter to me explaining why they left class. Then I talked to the rest of the students and gave them a guilt trip saying why do I come here, do you think I come here to play, My family is hundreds of miles away , is it fair that I come all the way here give up my family to be with you and you treat me like this? The kids all cried out Im sorry Im sorry. I said ok well you know how to act. Your not Junior students. I said if you want to be junior students I can treat you like I treat my juniors. They all yelled No we are sorry teacher Emily. I then made a kid look up in the dictionary what “waste of time” meant in Chinese and had him translate. Then I taught them teacher Emily’s coined phrase , “If you waste my time , I waste your time.” I then gave an example, You don’t work in my class then you don’t go to lunch. Ha ha haa they were so upset. The bell rang and they all looked at me like, oh god no!!! I kept them 5 minutes into there lunch, which is nothing because we are supposed to let them out 5 minutes early, so technically I let them out on time, but the other classes were out running around and going to the café before they could. I then said be better next week.
As that week went by I got all 5 letters from the boys, then the next class, everyone sat down and was quiet when I spoke, the one boy who’s ear I pulled wanted to help me in everyway possible, erasing the board, booting up the computer, it was like teaching heaven! I’m usually not that harsh on kids, in fact I am a really slack discipliner, but that day I was so mad, I couldn’t believe that I gave them such an easy task and they went out to play ball. Now the barber and Bear love to give me shit for it, they never knew I could yell either and they have kids of there own too, so they felt like they could relate to me.

Last but not least!! We found a bowling place in YueYang!!! So happy!! Now we can go bowling whenever we want, we’ve already gone once, I think China must import all the crappy balls from America, cause they really suck. We also came home to gifts from our school

, we got huge 100 pound bags of rice, two zhangguing famous jars of tofu, two boxes of fugi apples, and before we left 100 lbs of oranges, I love our school and I love Spring Festival.

Coming Home from Spring Fest. (February 25, 2007)
When we got home we were pretty groggy and all that happened we didn’t notice anything different about our apartment until the next morning.
Before we left we gave a key to our barber friend downstairs. We always let him use our washing machine because as a barber he has to wash towels everyday. One day last winter I saw his chapped hands and insisted he use our washer. He was previously using cold water in the dead of winter and his hands got so dry they bled. So we left him a key. Our computer room has a lock , so I put everything valuable ( trust which isn’t a lot!, just some alcohol< I didn’t want his son to get to) I locked the door and then hid the key in my closet drawer.
As we were leaving I can remember several of Joes students over at our house wanting to wish us goodbye. The students were there as I locked the door and I remember Joe wanted something out of the room so I told him where the key was, not even thinking that the students were right there and could hear me. Joe then took the key down to the barber and had the student translate that he didn’t want anyone in our place, just that he could do his laundry there. We love the barber so much so we never thought anything would happen. But as the next day went on we started to notice things were out of place as we had left them. First the computer room door was wide open. There were seeds and little fruit shells all over the floor and the trash can was full. On further inspection the our computer had several new games downloaded on it, and our American tv shows and movies had been erased. We had so many new Chinese download managers im surprised the computer could still run smoothly.
We then ventured into the kitchen to find dirty dishes, a pot full of moldy rice, our American food eaten. The on to the bedroom where the bed had been slept in and some boys clothes thrown on the floor. The out on the balcony hung some of Joes clothes , freshly washed.
We sorta freaked out and called our liason, she came over and we talked to the barber and found out that the student ( The chairman) and student that we have really come to be friend, had told him that teacher joe called and said he needed to fix something in our apartment. The barber didn’t know any better and he doesn’t know English , so he could call us or anything!, SO this student lived in our house for 7 days or more. He ate our food, slept in our bed, had friends over and wore Joe’s clothes and even went through my underwear drawer to find the key to the computer room! Two days after returning home we got a text message from the student wondering when we would get home. When we didn’t reply I think he thought we were far away so he tried to come over. The barber met him before he did and yelled at him saying you have some explaining to do. He came up to our door with a bag of our stuff ( that’s right folks he borrowed, or doesn’t that mean stole a bunch of Joes clothes including underwear, two backpacks, a belt and several other items) he came to give them back and Joe just looked at him and said I have nothing to say to you. And slammed the door.
In the days following we found out that our liaison actually had come by to drop somethings off ( I also gave her a key) and found the student living in my house. She didn’t even report it! She said she thought he was telling the truth and didn’t even think about calling us to confirm it. ( This is how much Students run the world in china). The next few days moved like turtles. No one seemed to care that this had happened or that our privacy had been altered. In China everybodies stuff really is everyones, so for them this was all just a joke. We would go into the office and after all the teachers heard the story it was like oh that’s so funny the students love you so much they want to be like you and live in your house. In America it was like I now have a stalker , please arrest him. But here its like ohhh ha ha ha. SO we were really upset, Joe even considered leaving. Luckily we got our boss from CHangsha into the conversation and he got them to change the locks. Oh did I mention that the student had his own key made??? As the days followed we were greeted with even more stupidity as I went to talk to our liason Mr Yen. He got fumed with me and said very sternly… This is your fault, Your fault! I looked at him and just let loose, I said don’t you ever tell me that it is my fault first and for most when someone else steals from me. It was so hard to speak slowly and use easy to understand English. I think the biggest thing was just being angry, it didn’t matter what I said he got the point. He seemed pretty floored that a women was yelling at him and after I explained to him that in America the police would be called and In china I should be calling the police , but I am looking out for what’s best for our students, he seemed a little shaken. I then just got up and left the office. I couldn’t believe he was telling me that it was first and for most my fault. I knew I shouldn’t have given my key to my barber friend, but when you say “first and formost” it implies it was all my doing.
After talking with our changsha boss, Mr.Yen came over and apologized. Except it was an apology directed at Joe and not to me whatsoever. I think there is still such a line between Men and Women here that that would just have been a step too low for him to go.
As the days molded into weeks, nothing was being done about this kid. Mr Yen even told Joe to just forgive him. Joe said he wont be allowed in my class, I will not teach him! Mr Yen said, but it’s the students right to learn! I thought Joe was going to explode his head turned so red! Finally after about two weeks it was agreed that the students parents would be called, the student would be put on probation ( which I guess is a big deal in Chinese schools), the student would be strongly recommended to leave the school and if he does anything in the next year he would be expelled. And he couldn’t be in teacher Joes class until Joe said it was ok. To us this seemed like nothing. This kid pretty much got away with it. Students get expelled in our school for going out and staying at the internet bar all day , Expelled for skipping class!, but this kid lived in our house and was getting probation!! Finally Joe and I decided, there was nothing more we can do, this isn’t our country, so we can’t say anything else.
Now we never see this student, he avoids us in the halls and even his friends are shy to speak to us. They all think we know they were in our house. I guess the ones that really don’t say anything are the most guilty. These are students that used to speak with us everyday, kids that we came to trust and enjoy spending time with. That’s all gone now. We feel a little hurt because they decided it was more fun to do this thing and risk getting caught then to have us be there friend. Its just all a little crazy.

Last spring fest stories
ok so this is going to be a speedy overview because obviously we have issues with keeping up to date and I want everyone to hear all the great things that are happening now instead of three months late.To leave off where we were we Tingri/Dingri. Did I mention no running water or electricity in this town, Man it was really weird going to the bathroom and having to flush with a bucket of ice water, and when I mean ice water i mean there was ice chunks in the water, all trying to do this in the pitch black. Our guide told us the next morning to get up at 6 so we did. It was still freezing and dark. We piled into the land cruiser and made for The everest base camp. As we neared the first of many roadblocks,( set up by the Chinese government) we were greeted by grumpy soldiers. We were told to give them our passports and permits, so we did. Joe and I waited in the car for 30 minutes while the men talked. It was interesting to just watch the way the soldiers treated our driver and guide. There was no human respect given whatsoever. It was as if the men were children. The soldiers barked at them for about 45 minutes, finally they got back in the land rover and turned back toward town. We got to tingri and they said that they had the wrong permit, but were looking to get the right one. So they called everyone they knew and we just waited. Problem: It was the Tibetan new year and there was no one in any office nearby. We were two days car ride from Lhasa and have no permit to cross over to base camp. Boy was Joe furious. We spent a lot of money on this tour guide and they didn't get the most important piece of paper for the whole trip! So we continued to get angry and after half a day of waiting our guide was able to negotiate a deal with the guard. The guard said we could go to a pass near the base camp with the same altitude, but we had to come right back. Whooopy we thought. and without giving us a choice our guide got in the car and away we were going. We made it to the pass and got to see everest although it was in the distance. We were definitely the grumpy ones going back down the mountains that day. We arrived back in Lhasa and after being on the road for two days we seemed a little more calm. We thought just forget about it, but then the tour group that we paid the money to called our guide and told him that if we complain that he wouldn't be paid for the week and the driver might be fired. Our guide then told us this story as if to make us not complain or try to get our money back. We felt horrible. How was it that they were putting us in this situation? Why was it our choice? Our guide told us he would give us money not to complain, but we said how much is seeing Everest worth to you? We told him there was no price tag and that it was a once in a life time chance that had been crushed. Finally we just agreed not to say anything and that was that. We felt bad that they wouldn't get paid and we certainly didn't want the driver to get canned, so we did what we thought was right. The next day we got on a plane headed for Chengdu. It was strange to be on a plane again. Most people fly when they are headed somewhere then headed back home, but this was just to cross China, so it felt weird to get off and be in a new place again. This was the longest vacation in history for us too. We took a look at our budget and planned the rest of our trip accordingly. We decided we'd see the pandas, a good opera, and the largest buddah in the world. Then make our way to a couple other cities before heading home. The pandas: The pandas are so cute!! up close they are the laziest animal I have ever seen. They just lay on their backs munching on bamboo all morning, then sleep all day. We visited the breeding facility that just brought 13 new babies into the world. Such a great thing for the pandas because they are still very small in numbers. Joe and I tribute this to the Chinese possibly eating all of them. :) Biggest Buddah: The biggest buddah or Dapusa can be found in Leshan, about 1 hour away from Chengdu. The Buddah is carved into the rock cliff facing a river. It is also surrounded by a large botanical park complete with caves and huge statues . Theres even a laying buddah. You climb all around the mountain passing statues bigger than skyscrapers. Finally you reach the top and you can see the giant buddah as you climb down the cliff on its right side. His feet are enormous. He was also recently cleaned and painted, but hes fully intact!Sichuan Opera: The opera was amazing! this is where we decided to spend our valentines day. When you walk in you are greeted by ladies that escort you to your seat. Near the seats are small coffee tables full of tea cups and peanuts. throughout the performance the ladies would refill the tea. The performance consisted of a variety show with musicians and dancers. This is one man that danced and performed with a puppet. They also did the famous changing faces dance with the common Chinese music in the background. If you have seen Beijing Opera I felt like this was similar, but I'm told not to confuse the two.Western food: On one of our walks around the city we saw many western shops and food stores. We bought Pepper jack cheese!!! we love cheese and its one thing china doesn't have!! we were so excited. We also saw an Ikea on the way from the airport.... Chengdu is this city in China???? At one of the restaurants we ate ate called Dave's Oasis we met a foreigner from Canada. He had been working here for 2 years now and just makes burgers and western food for people that stop by. It was a crazy place to eat, it kinda actually reminded me of my friends basement in high school. Pool table, spray paint on the wall, insence burning people smoking, yep my friends basement. The guy really liked Joe's shoes. The ones he got in Beijing. Joe didn'y really like them so he said, well you wanna give me a good deal for them? Joe tried to bargin with the guy. It was so funny Joe has learned alot from those little chinese women sellers. Finally he got the guy to agree to 160 with a free meal. He paid 100 for them, so he made a profit and got free food. Way to go Joe. Well you know us foreigners gotta look out for one another!We also met another foreigner there. He was from England and also a teacher here in China. We talked for awhile and realized finally we were going to be on the same train back to our province. When we boarded the train the next day we found he had the bunk right below us!!Train to Liujiang:Well we wanted to go straight to Guilin, but the trains just don't work that way. We decided to continue our "traveling without schedules" routine, which I am convinced is the only way to travel when you have this long or are back packing anywhere. It leaves your life and vacation out of your hands and puts them into God's. Where ever god thinks is a good place for us to go we were going. I mean if any body I'm sure God knows better then expedia or travelocity right?? So we were off. At first we were a little worried because our bed car was three foreigners, 1 middle aged chinese man and two little kids who had the bunks above us. We were alittle worried because the kids seemed to be going crazy, running all over the train, bored outta there minds. Finally when they stopped for a minute I tried all the chinese I could muster up and started talking to the little boy. He knew a little english and once his mom ( a train car away) saw that I had interest in her kid immeaditly made him get out his english school book and try to study with me. I'm not sure if at first he was too interested. We thought he just seemed alittle frustrated with not being able to play with his cousin, but as we talked he became more open and wiped that bratty little kid look off his face. We spent the entire 36 hours ( while not sleeping) on the train speaking English, sharing our western hot cocoa and playing cards with these hilarious little kids. He even thought Joe looked like mr. Bean, so the kid nicknamed him Ronnan Atkinson, which with his chinese accent came out anything from Lauren attkisn, to nonnan stikinson. He would ask just before his mom made him get into bed.. hey Ronnan Atkinson what time is it?? and he and his cousin fell right to sleep after a full day of foreigner fun. As all of us hit the shack he rolled over and looked down at me, I pretended to be asleep . then woke up and scared him, he whispered to me Ming tian jian, and then in English whispered good night, see you tomorrow. It was so cute. The next night we made Huge sub sandwiches on the train with our pepperjack cheese and we had an amazing foreign free for all. Our new English friend was so nice to talk to it was like having a road trip with your friends. We played cards and just chatted about issues. It was great. As we got off the train we said goodbye to our English friend. Normally when you get off the train the train door to the next car is closed and locked. The kids ran up to sit with their parents for awhile, so we thought aww I guess we wont say goodbye. Then as we were getting off the train through the next train car door window there they were screaming( which we couldn’t really hear) Emily!! Ronnan Atkinson!!! We waved goodbye and blew kisses just like on a cheesy movie. I just want to say I love speaking Chinese to Chinese children. They are the best to practice on. They speak slower then adults and generally just want to know general things about you. Theres never anything to difficult to deal with and they automatically without thinking invite you to be their best friend after 5 minutes of talking to you. Its really the best way to learn chinese. Oh yeah another story about these kids. We were all just playing cards when all of a sudden the girl ran in from the other car laughing , she kept gesturing to her teeth and saying the little boys name. In runs the little boy holding a tissue to a place where a tooth used to be. I guess she had tripped him as a joke and the kid ended up loosing a tooth!!! crazy!When we arrived in LiuJiang we needed to take a bus to Guilin. The problem was that it was chinese new year. The exact day of new year and there was no buses! We walked around wondering what to do and finally found a van that was offering to drive us there for 100 kuai a piece. Well without a place to go we bargined down to 75 kuai and drove all the way to Guilin. When we arrived in Guilin we still needed to go two hours to our destination Yangshou. We managed to find the bus to Yangshou at the Guilin train station. This is what I'm talking about flying on the seat of your pants. God wanted us to visit Yangshou, so somehow we got there.
When we arrived in Yangshou we were greated by the most touristy street I have seen in central Chjna. Any foreign item you may want was there. Really over priced , but all there!!
We found a decent hostel to stay in which again I will say china has some of the best and cheap hostels I have ever seen! The hostel was right on the western street, just a block down was the river. So we spent many days just walking down and seeing the beautiful hills and mountains of that area. If you’ve seen the 20 rmb bill, this is the place its painted for. The scenery actually matches the bill exactly ( its their claim to fame). We spent most of the 4 days there relaxing and just wondering around. We rented two bikes and biked all around one day, in and out, on and off the road. We biked up to the moon cave and got to go exploring inside a old cavern. Defiantly unsafe, defiantly made for Chinese sized people. Joe hit his head so many times I thought I was going to die from laughing. We were the only people in the cave at the time; I guess this is off season, so we had our own personal guide. At the end of the cavern there was a huge mud pit you could go swimming in. So we took all our clothes off and got into our swimming suits. And jumped in. There was even a mud slide. ( view photos on flickr) We got out and realized.. uh oh there was no shower!!! The guide lead us to this little spring, but the water was freezing , needless to say the rest of the day we had mud coming out of our ears as we biked around. We saw rice terraces and went on alittle hike in the bathroom slippers that the cave people gave us. Pretty hard to hike in shower shoes.
On our way back to the western street we were stopped by this women. She kept wanting us to eat at her restaurant. Finally Joe and I agreed that it would be ok, and she lead us down this street to her so called “restaurant” Finally we arrived and it wasn’t a resaraunt at all but her house!!! We sat there while she cooked for us and just couldn’t believe this is how this women makes her money. In the end she was a nice women and didn’t cheat us, we got a home cooked meal and were on our way. The next day we took a bamboo boat and had the driver drop us off down the river. We decided to walk back.. As we walked back, not really knowing where we were we walked into several graveyards. Kinda creepy especially the ones that weren’t really dug, just a pile of rocks… hmmmm so we found our way outta there quickly. We managed to make it home and go down to the river where they were doing fireworks for new years. Man have you ever seen a 4 year old hold a roman candle!!! Wow china!!

After our fun time in Yangshou we decided to go back home. We thought it would be great to just hang out and we were running short on cash. SO we packed up, ate our last American style hamburger and found a bus back to Changsha. The bus was an overnight bus, so it had these medal type bed cocoon compartments inside it. For Joe it totally sucked. His knees didn’t fit inside it at all. It was very Lost in translation for him and a hole alotta un comfortable. The bus had carpets in the aisles and there was three rows of beds in this thing. A death trap I’m sure!
Weird thing was you had to take off your shoes when you got on to the bus, so it made getting off to use the bathroom at the stops a big ordeal for everyone. We drove in the night for about 4 hours and the bus stopped , Everyone except like 7 people, I got off to go to the bathroom and joe stayed on. It was this horrible , discusting restraint where the bathroom just happened to be in the kitchen. I guess this was one of those deals where the bus drivers get a little cut if they stop the bus here for 30 mins and make the people get off and eat. I went to the bus to get back on and the door was locked. Luckily there were some girls on the bus that wanted to get off, so they found the door open button inside and pressed the button. When they got off I got on, but I was met with screaming from behind me. The driver started yelling at me in some dialect mandarin that I could only pick out like 2 words per sentence. Plus he seemed angry so he was spitting out words left and right! He said you cant get off the bus , its dinner time. I said I have already eaten, thankyou. But he continued to tell me no one could be on the bus, he even grabbed my arm trying to pull me off. I was like man ive had it with this guy, he locks people in the bus and makes me go to this horrible stop to pee and if there was a fire the people on the bus would be dead, and I just wanna sit in the seat that I paid for! So I say Joe and joe is at the back of the bus and says what… just so this guy could hear that there was people on the bus still. The driver got all huffy and I just bolted for my bed/seat. He called after stupid foreigner women. I got so pissed! And turned around and just starred at him. Then I jumped up into my bed and then the driver noticed there was 5 other Chinese people still on the bus just starring at him also. He looked at them and mumbled something and just got off the bus, locking the door behind him. I couldn’t believe that they lock the people off there own bus just so this filthy restaurant can have business, it made me so angry. You could see all the pissed off people outside the bus just standing there in the dark waiting for them to unlock the door.
Finally the bus was moving again and we slept for a short time. Then they dropped us off in Changsha and we took a cab to the train station. There wasn’t another train until 1 in the morning so we had to wait around until then. When we got on the train we thought surely there would be a seat at this time in the AM, but there wasn’t. So with our big packs we just crammed in and found a spot between the two cars and slept with ours heads resting against the doors. Luckily that space was free., but as we got off the train a women came in and couldn’t make it to the bathroom, she just puked all over the floor., then looked at me and Joe and just gave us this friendly hello smile. It was really weird , funny and grouse all at the same time. Trust me nothing will faze us after China and just so you know Chinese trains is where the sickness lives. I always get sick after being on them.! So this is what travel in china is all about. Sickness, no schedules, going with the wind. We then made it home finally at 3 am , with no sleep all day. The streets are so quiet at that time. And our school too, no students, no yelling ,everything was so peaceful.
The next morning we were faced with our liaison assistant coming to our door at 10. We told her we didn’t sleep and that we were coming back. Big mistake! She came to our house and after not answering our door she opened our bedroom window and just started screaming at us. Saying there was a lunch in our honor. I never wanted to smack her more then that morning. We got up, because what are you supposed to do when someone says there is a dinner in your honor, you cant really refuse! But we were un showered and with no sleep, we went to this thing and found that it was actually a dinner for the alumni of our school. Not a Lunch for us but more to show us off. It was awful, Luckily we got to go home quick and get into bed.

Last spring fest stories
ok so this is going to be a speedy overview because obviously we have issues with keeping up to date and I want everyone to hear all the great things that are happening now instead of three months late.To leave off where we were we Tingri/Dingri. Did I mention no running water or electricity in this town, Man it was really weird going to the bathroom and having to flush with a bucket of ice water, and when I mean ice water i mean there was ice chunks in the water, all trying to do this in the pitch black. Our guide told us the next morning to get up at 6 so we did. It was still freezing and dark. We piled into the land cruiser and made for The everest base camp. As we neared the first of many roadblocks,( set up by the Chinese government) we were greeted by grumpy soldiers. We were told to give them our passports and permits, so we did. Joe and I waited in the car for 30 minutes while the men talked. It was interesting to just watch the way the soldiers treated our driver and guide. There was no human respect given whatsoever. It was as if the men were children. The soldiers barked at them for about 45 minutes, finally they got back in the land rover and turned back toward town. We got to tingri and they said that they had the wrong permit, but were looking to get the right one. So they called everyone they knew and we just waited. Problem: It was the Tibetan new year and there was no one in any office nearby. We were two days car ride from Lhasa and have no permit to cross over to base camp. Boy was Joe furious. We spent a lot of money on this tour guide and they didn't get the most important piece of paper for the whole trip! So we continued to get angry and after half a day of waiting our guide was able to negotiate a deal with the guard. The guard said we could go to a pass near the base camp with the same altitude, but we had to come right back. Whooopy we thought. and without giving us a choice our guide got in the car and away we were going. We made it to the pass and got to see everest although it was in the distance. We were definitely the grumpy ones going back down the mountains that day. We arrived back in Lhasa and after being on the road for two days we seemed a little more calm. We thought just forget about it, but then the tour group that we paid the money to called our guide and told him that if we complain that he wouldn't be paid for the week and the driver might be fired. Our guide then told us this story as if to make us not complain or try to get our money back. We felt horrible. How was it that they were putting us in this situation? Why was it our choice? Our guide told us he would give us money not to complain, but we said how much is seeing Everest worth to you? We told him there was no price tag and that it was a once in a life time chance that had been crushed. Finally we just agreed not to say anything and that was that. We felt bad that they wouldn't get paid and we certainly didn't want the driver to get canned, so we did what we thought was right. The next day we got on a plane headed for Chengdu. It was strange to be on a plane again. Most people fly when they are headed somewhere then headed back home, but this was just to cross China, so it felt weird to get off and be in a new place again. This was the longest vacation in history for us too. We took a look at our budget and planned the rest of our trip accordingly. We decided we'd see the pandas, a good opera, and the largest buddah in the world. Then make our way to a couple other cities before heading home. The pandas: The pandas are so cute!! up close they are the laziest animal I have ever seen. They just lay on their backs munching on bamboo all morning, then sleep all day. We visited the breeding facility that just brought 13 new babies into the world. Such a great thing for the pandas because they are still very small in numbers. Joe and I tribute this to the Chinese possibly eating all of them. :) Biggest Buddah: The biggest buddah or Dapusa can be found in Leshan, about 1 hour away from Chengdu. The Buddah is carved into the rock cliff facing a river. It is also surrounded by a large botanical park complete with caves and huge statues . Theres even a laying buddah. You climb all around the mountain passing statues bigger than skyscrapers. Finally you reach the top and you can see the giant buddah as you climb down the cliff on its right side. His feet are enormous. He was also recently cleaned and painted, but hes fully intact!Sichuan Opera: The opera was amazing! this is where we decided to spend our valentines day. When you walk in you are greeted by ladies that escort you to your seat. Near the seats are small coffee tables full of tea cups and peanuts. throughout the performance the ladies would refill the tea. The performance consisted of a variety show with musicians and dancers. This is one man that danced and performed with a puppet. They also did the famous changing faces dance with the common Chinese music in the background. If you have seen Beijing Opera I felt like this was similar, but I'm told not to confuse the two.Western food: On one of our walks around the city we saw many western shops and food stores. We bought Pepper jack cheese!!! we love cheese and its one thing china doesn't have!! we were so excited. We also saw an Ikea on the way from the airport.... Chengdu is this city in China???? At one of the restaurants we ate ate called Dave's Oasis we met a foreigner from Canada. He had been working here for 2 years now and just makes burgers and western food for people that stop by. It was a crazy place to eat, it kinda actually reminded me of my friends basement in high school. Pool table, spray paint on the wall, insence burning people smoking, yep my friends basement. The guy really liked Joe's shoes. The ones he got in Beijing. Joe didn'y really like them so he said, well you wanna give me a good deal for them? Joe tried to bargin with the guy. It was so funny Joe has learned alot from those little chinese women sellers. Finally he got the guy to agree to 160 with a free meal. He paid 100 for them, so he made a profit and got free food. Way to go Joe. Well you know us foreigners gotta look out for one another!We also met another foreigner there. He was from England and also a teacher here in China. We talked for awhile and realized finally we were going to be on the same train back to our province. When we boarded the train the next day we found he had the bunk right below us!!Train to Liujiang:Well we wanted to go straight to Guilin, but the trains just don't work that way. We decided to continue our "traveling without schedules" routine, which I am convinced is the only way to travel when you have this long or are back packing anywhere. It leaves your life and vacation out of your hands and puts them into God's. Where ever god thinks is a good place for us to go we were going. I mean if any body I'm sure God knows better then expedia or travelocity right?? So we were off. At first we were a little worried because our bed car was three foreigners, 1 middle aged chinese man and two little kids who had the bunks above us. We were alittle worried because the kids seemed to be going crazy, running all over the train, bored outta there minds. Finally when they stopped for a minute I tried all the chinese I could muster up and started talking to the little boy. He knew a little english and once his mom ( a train car away) saw that I had interest in her kid immeaditly made him get out his english school book and try to study with me. I'm not sure if at first he was too interested. We thought he just seemed alittle frustrated with not being able to play with his cousin, but as we talked he became more open and wiped that bratty little kid look off his face. We spent the entire 36 hours ( while not sleeping) on the train speaking English, sharing our western hot cocoa and playing cards with these hilarious little kids. He even thought Joe looked like mr. Bean, so the kid nicknamed him Ronnan Atkinson, which with his chinese accent came out anything from Lauren attkisn, to nonnan stikinson. He would ask just before his mom made him get into bed.. hey Ronnan Atkinson what time is it?? and he and his cousin fell right to sleep after a full day of foreigner fun. As all of us hit the shack he rolled over and looked down at me, I pretended to be asleep . then woke up and scared him, he whispered to me Ming tian jian, and then in English whispered good night, see you tomorrow. It was so cute. The next night we made Huge sub sandwiches on the train with our pepperjack cheese and we had an amazing foreign free for all. Our new English friend was so nice to talk to it was like having a road trip with your friends. We played cards and just chatted about issues. It was great. As we got off the train we said goodbye to our English friend. Normally when you get off the train the train door to the next car is closed and locked. The kids ran up to sit with their parents for awhile, so we thought aww I guess we wont say goodbye. Then as we were getting off the train through the next train car door window there they were screaming( which we couldn’t really hear) Emily!! Ronnan Atkinson!!! We waved goodbye and blew kisses just like on a cheesy movie. I just want to say I love speaking Chinese to Chinese children. They are the best to practice on. They speak slower then adults and generally just want to know general things about you. Theres never anything to difficult to deal with and they automatically without thinking invite you to be their best friend after 5 minutes of talking to you. Its really the best way to learn chinese. Oh yeah another story about these kids. We were all just playing cards when all of a sudden the girl ran in from the other car laughing , she kept gesturing to her teeth and saying the little boys name. In runs the little boy holding a tissue to a place where a tooth used to be. I guess she had tripped him as a joke and the kid ended up loosing a tooth!!! crazy!When we arrived in LiuJiang we needed to take a bus to Guilin. The problem was that it was chinese new year. The exact day of new year and there was no buses! We walked around wondering what to do and finally found a van that was offering to drive us there for 100 kuai a piece. Well without a place to go we bargined down to 75 kuai and drove all the way to Guilin. When we arrived in Guilin we still needed to go two hours to our destination Yangshou. We managed to find the bus to Yangshou at the Guilin train station. This is what I'm talking about flying on the seat of your pants. God wanted us to visit Yangshou, so somehow we got there.
When we arrived in Yangshou we were greated by the most touristy street I have seen in central Chjna. Any foreign item you may want was there. Really over priced , but all there!!
We found a decent hostel to stay in which again I will say china has some of the best and cheap hostels I have ever seen! The hostel was right on the western street, just a block down was the river. So we spent many days just walking down and seeing the beautiful hills and mountains of that area. If you’ve seen the 20 rmb bill, this is the place its painted for. The scenery actually matches the bill exactly ( its their claim to fame). We spent most of the 4 days there relaxing and just wondering around. We rented two bikes and biked all around one day, in and out, on and off the road. We biked up to the moon cave and got to go exploring inside a old cavern. Defiantly unsafe, defiantly made for Chinese sized people. Joe hit his head so many times I thought I was going to die from laughing. We were the only people in the cave at the time; I guess this is off season, so we had our own personal guide. At the end of the cavern there was a huge mud pit you could go swimming in. So we took all our clothes off and got into our swimming suits. And jumped in. There was even a mud slide. ( view photos on flickr) We got out and realized.. uh oh there was no shower!!! The guide lead us to this little spring, but the water was freezing , needless to say the rest of the day we had mud coming out of our ears as we biked around. We saw rice terraces and went on alittle hike in the bathroom slippers that the cave people gave us. Pretty hard to hike in shower shoes.
On our way back to the western street we were stopped by this women. She kept wanting us to eat at her restaurant. Finally Joe and I agreed that it would be ok, and she lead us down this street to her so called “restaurant” Finally we arrived and it wasn’t a resaraunt at all but her house!!! We sat there while she cooked for us and just couldn’t believe this is how this women makes her money. In the end she was a nice women and didn’t cheat us, we got a home cooked meal and were on our way. The next day we took a bamboo boat and had the driver drop us off down the river. We decided to walk back.. As we walked back, not really knowing where we were we walked into several graveyards. Kinda creepy especially the ones that weren’t really dug, just a pile of rocks… hmmmm so we found our way outta there quickly. We managed to make it home and go down to the river where they were doing fireworks for new years. Man have you ever seen a 4 year old hold a roman candle!!! Wow china!!

After our fun time in Yangshou we decided to go back home. We thought it would be great to just hang out and we were running short on cash. SO we packed up, ate our last American style hamburger and found a bus back to Changsha. The bus was an overnight bus, so it had these medal type bed cocoon compartments inside it. For Joe it totally sucked. His knees didn’t fit inside it at all. It was very Lost in translation for him and a hole alotta un comfortable. The bus had carpets in the aisles and there was three rows of beds in this thing. A death trap I’m sure!
Weird thing was you had to take off your shoes when you got on to the bus, so it made getting off to use the bathroom at the stops a big ordeal for everyone. We drove in the night for about 4 hours and the bus stopped , Everyone except like 7 people, I got off to go to the bathroom and joe stayed on. It was this horrible , discusting restraint where the bathroom just happened to be in the kitchen. I guess this was one of those deals where the bus drivers get a little cut if they stop the bus here for 30 mins and make the people get off and eat. I went to the bus to get back on and the door was locked. Luckily there were some girls on the bus that wanted to get off, so they found the door open button inside and pressed the button. When they got off I got on, but I was met with screaming from behind me. The driver started yelling at me in some dialect mandarin that I could only pick out like 2 words per sentence. Plus he seemed angry so he was spitting out words left and right! He said you cant get off the bus , its dinner time. I said I have already eaten, thankyou. But he continued to tell me no one could be on the bus, he even grabbed my arm trying to pull me off. I was like man ive had it with this guy, he locks people in the bus and makes me go to this horrible stop to pee and if there was a fire the people on the bus would be dead, and I just wanna sit in the seat that I paid for! So I say Joe and joe is at the back of the bus and says what… just so this guy could hear that there was people on the bus still. The driver got all huffy and I just bolted for my bed/seat. He called after stupid foreigner women. I got so pissed! And turned around and just starred at him. Then I jumped up into my bed and then the driver noticed there was 5 other Chinese people still on the bus just starring at him also. He looked at them and mumbled something and just got off the bus, locking the door behind him. I couldn’t believe that they lock the people off there own bus just so this filthy restaurant can have business, it made me so angry. You could see all the pissed off people outside the bus just standing there in the dark waiting for them to unlock the door.
Finally the bus was moving again and we slept for a short time. Then they dropped us off in Changsha and we took a cab to the train station. There wasn’t another train until 1 in the morning so we had to wait around until then. When we got on the train we thought surely there would be a seat at this time in the AM, but there wasn’t. So with our big packs we just crammed in and found a spot between the two cars and slept with ours heads resting against the doors. Luckily that space was free., but as we got off the train a women came in and couldn’t make it to the bathroom, she just puked all over the floor., then looked at me and Joe and just gave us this friendly hello smile. It was really weird , funny and grouse all at the same time. Trust me nothing will faze us after China and just so you know Chinese trains is where the sickness lives. I always get sick after being on them.! So this is what travel in china is all about. Sickness, no schedules, going with the wind. We then made it home finally at 3 am , with no sleep all day. The streets are so quiet at that time. And our school too, no students, no yelling ,everything was so peaceful.
The next morning we were faced with our liaison assistant coming to our door at 10. We told her we didn’t sleep and that we were coming back. Big mistake! She came to our house and after not answering our door she opened our bedroom window and just started screaming at us. Saying there was a lunch in our honor. I never wanted to smack her more then that morning. We got up, because what are you supposed to do when someone says there is a dinner in your honor, you cant really refuse! But we were un showered and with no sleep, we went to this thing and found that it was actually a dinner for the alumni of our school. Not a Lunch for us but more to show us off. It was awful, Luckily we got to go home quick and get into bed.