Dancing with Bear

So we thought we were going dancing with a friend which to us means dance around the room in a crowd of people doing the same thing, like at a club. Well we ended up going Ballroom dancing!! When we walked up the stairs we were greeted by lights and two older ladies at a table. We went with bear ( the phone guy) and his wife who we named "Honey" (we also named there son cub, but he didnt go with us) We pay the ladies and feel really high school danceish. Then we enter the big room where there are two ladies line dancing and a bat is flying around the room. I thought what is going on here??? We sit and have a beer, ( the only ones drinking anything all night!) The music starts and more people show up. The room then becomes filled with people ballroom dancing. and I mean really ballroom dancing. They were doing some amazing dancing like on tv..minus the elaberate costumes. Joe and I ended up doing our best and dancing around as much as we could stepping on each others feet mostly. It was really fun though. Then this guy came up to our table and I totally thought he was a teacher from our school I knew I had seen him a bunch. He asked me to dance so ofcourse I had to. We danced this really awkward slow dance where I tried to speak chinese but he didnt respond to anything I was saying. Then after it was finally over I went to sit down and asked bear what he taught. Bear said oh no hes not a teacher. Hes the guard at school!!! Sweeeet so now everyday when I leave campus or basically whenever i step outside my apartment I have this creepy guard waving at me. Its really funny!

Does everyone know that the chinese lunar calender is 1 month later then our western calender? Well it is and it makes planning anything in China horrible! You'll ask people hey what are you planning to do this year?? and they will tell you , well in the 5th month I will go to.... In chinese the months are not named like in other languages like spanish and english, they are named by number. This makes it really confusing when you ask someone about the date of something and they respond "the fifth month" now that is normally may right? well not in the chinese luinar calender! Its June. So we had a hell of a time planning our May break vacation. We had 1 week off for laberer day , a holiday celebrated in most communist countries and a few radical americans wish it was celebrated in the states. Its a day for workers to be off. However I saw alot of restraunt, hotel and general public service people still working. So its a holiday for some.
Our friend the barber invited us to his home town and we said yes, months ago because he told us our vacation was going to be in the fifth month. We thought he meant June he really meant the regular calender. So we decided we must hang out with him instead of going to Yunnan as previously planned.

The barber home town
The barber is from the province just north of Hunan. Its called Hubei and its only about an hour north of Yueyang. We rode a bus up until Dong ting Lake, where we got on a ferry and rode across to the neighboring province. The ferry was really scarey, we got out of the bus to just watch it all happen. The ferry was packed and we thought we might sink. Defiently regualtions on weight were not watched or monitored here. So we thought well if we stand outside the bus its better and at least we have a fighting chance of not drowning!! We made it across safely and just as our bus was next in turn to drive off the ferry the bus in front of us got stuck. We had to nudge it a bunch of times to get its wheels on the ground. When we finally made it to the barbers family home we were really surprised at how big it was. His sister lives there with her husband ( who talks like the god father) and her son (who's nickname is mimi, which means secret, dont know why) They have 3 bedrooms and a huge apartment with a balcony over looking the back road. There home is on the second floor and the buisness is on the 1st, they make wooden windows from scratch. The toliet is upstairs and the crazy thing was that when you flushed it all the contents just went right out the back and into the grass below. Really weird! They also just threw trash off the balcony. I dont know if they have a mass burning or not, but it didnt smell or anything. It was just another normal daily activity.
We also went out and caught frogs and fish in the small ponds around the house. They take a huge battery strap it to their backs , then wear weighters and go in with these huge sticks armed with dumpling strainers and wires all attached to the battery. Then ZZAP the crap outta the frogs and fish. Dinner is easy as one two! The frogs were really funny, they just stand right up , then 15 minutes later they come alive again, so you have to keep them in a bucket.
We went out to eat a few times where the locals were pretty amazed to see two foreigners. We also noticed that alot of the barbers family members had huge scars on their faces, makes us wonder if they too were in the same motorcycle accident that the barber was that made him get his jaw rewired! Speaking of motorcycles.... Joe got to ride one of theres, it was only down the block, but he had fun. The bikes gear were all backwards so you clicked up instead of down a few times. Then he said he smelled something burning and he looked down and relized he was touching the exhaust pipe! He burnt his leg a little. We had an awesome time at his place, they treated us like real family and we drank and had great food every night. The drinking was a little exsessive but I think they think we are american and we do that sorta thing. However on Sunday I was happy to be leaving and not drinking anymore beer!

We then traveled west to Yichang.( the place of the three gorges dam) The bus ride was long and bouncey!! When we finally arrived both Joe and I were exhausted and just wanting a good meal. We ended up meeting a kid that went Three gorges university and spoke good english. He helped us find a hotel and we took him out for dinner. He ordered the three colors icecream. I kept asking him, well what are the flavors, but he was like I dont know theyre three colors. I said well dont you want to know what flavors and he was like ehhh It doesnt matter. Ok whatever.
At that restraunt we were walking down the stairs and joe saw a huge spider! the size of my palm. I thought it was going to jump down at us so I ran so fast out of that place.
The next day we found a tour and went to see the dam. Its huge!!! Mostly long more then tall, it stretches across the gorges and looks really spectacular. We saw so many foreigners it was scarey. I thought I was going to faint when one of them said to me " they can build this, you think they could build a decent toliet". I know I am a foreigner too, and I thought those things too when I first got here, but something about her attitude made me mad and I just gave her this look like you know honey I have lived with a squatty potty for a year now! and when you think about it, sitting down is kinda gross!, but I just thought it and didnt say it. It was like she and her family were taking a stab at one of my family members or something. I just didnt like how she was being that typical rich american on a trip to another country and making judgements, like why cant they join the civilized world. It just made me kinda angry.
After it all the dam was pretty cool. we'll put photos up soon!
We then had to travel back by train, but the train only went to wuhan so it ended up taking 10 hours to get home. Joe didnt get a seat so he stood in a different car from me. when we finally got home we went straight to bed.