So we had 2 vacations in the past month...the first was from March 16-19th and we went to Xi’an! I was so excited to go because Xi’an was the main place I didn’t get to see last year! We flew there to save time and got to our hostel at about 1am on Friday morning. We just walked around Xi’an that day...looked at the bell tower, drum tower, and the Muslim quarters. Did some shopping, then went back to our hostel that night for a free dumpling party!
Saturday was when we went to the Terracotta Army. We went to Qin Shi Huang’s tomb at first...kind of...it’s full of mercury, so basically all we actually did was look at a man-made hill from a safe distance, haha. There are 3 pits of the warriors, so we went to pit 2, then 3, then 1 (that’s in order to save the best for last). You are able to see some of the warriors up close in pit 2, so that was really neat...there is soooo much detail on each of them! I had known that each of them has a different face...but actually seeing the detail on them-the shoe soles, the hair, the armour, and their faces, and knowing that each one represented an actual person is crazy! And pit 1, seeing thousands of these warriors...wow. We also got to shake hands with the man who discovered them!
On Sunday we did more shopping at the Muslim quarters, then went to the Great Mosque as well. That was really neat. It’s gorgeous, just this quiet area right in the middle of everything with beautiful buildings and greenery that the Chinese Muslim people go to to pray. It was really neat actually.
We left that day too...2 girls flew home, and the other 3 of us took the train home....28.5 hours. Haha. At least we had beds though...sooo much better having a long train ride when you have sleeper tickets, believe me! We got to Guangzhou too late for our light train back to Guzhen, and the buses weren’t running anymore, so we took a taxi home. We were all starving by this point...we had expected there to be cup of noodles for sale on the train, but the food going up and down the aisle was not cups of noodles...so we made do with our 2 apples and 2 bananas...for nearly 29 hours. I practiced my Chinese with our taxi driver on the way home from Guangzhou, we gave him an English name, and told him we were hungry, so he offered to stop and let us get something to eat, but we just figured we’d eat when we got back to Guzhen...so when we got back to Guzhen and he started turning onto the street of our apartment, I said ‘NO! We want hamburgers!’ He thought that was funny, that we had him drop us off at McDonald’s instead, haha....good trip overall though...we stole some pizza, had some cabbage thrown at us, and met a dumpling master named Fly.
2 ½ weeks later, from April 1-4th, we were on our way to Yangshuo!!!!!!!! Oh Yangshuo! It was my favourite vacation last year. Everything there is absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous! We took a sleeper bus there...and it was a very bumpy ride. Brianna asked me at one point if I was sure Yangshuo was worth the bus ride, and my response was Yes. Definitely. Absolutely. No question about it.
We got there a couple hours earlier than expected...our bus was going very fast...thus the bumpiness. So we got to our hostel and checked in. While eating breakfast with these crazy mountains surrounding us, Brianna and the rest of the girls agreed...the bus ride was worth it. That day we went and rented scooters and drove around the countryside near Yangshuo, taking pictures and basking in the beauty...if anyone reading this doesn’t know what I’m talking about...just search google images for “Yangshuo”, and imagine seeing all that with your own eyes.
Monday would’ve been my Mom’s 52nd birthday...I thought of her while cruising down the Li river on a “bamboo” raft that morning. Again...gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. That afternoon we went to the mud caves as well. We went with 2 other guys from our hostel, Max from Holland, and Joe from England. Max was actually mine, Celine’s, and Marina’s roommate in our hostel. On the ride to the mud caves it came up that we were Mormon...so most of our discussion with them the rest of the day was about our church. Neither of them had ever met a Mormon before...what they did know about our church was just from South Park, haha. Joe had said that he wasn’t religious, he was Catholic. Haha. And Max said that he was a realist...he couldn’t believe in things that couldn’t be proven...so I guess in other words he had no faith. Strange. That night we offered Max one of our Book of Mormons, but he said it was too heavy to carry around in his backpack for the next 5 months. The mud caves were great though. We went to some hot springs in the cave after the mud to clean off, and while soaking another lady came and sat with us while her family went into the mud, and she said her and her family used to live in Illinois, so I mentioned that I’d been there once to Nauvoo, and she asked if I saw all the sites there and so I said yes, but the temple was under construction when I was there, and she says that it’s beautiful, so yah...turns out she was a member of the church too!!! We just thought that was the craziest thing! I mean, what are the chances that the lady you’re sitting next to in a hot spring in a cave in mainland China is a member of the church?! To make things even crazier, she knows guy who is here in China teaching English with a different program who also turns out to be friends with 2 of the girls in my group! It’s such a small world...
On Tuesday we checked out of our hostel in the morning, then went and rented scooters again. We went and saw the Big Banyan tree too. We took a bus home that night...the bus left at 7pm, so we decided to get home with an extra day off, rather than get home at 4am, then have to be at the school 4.5 hours later...so we got home at about 4:30am on Wednesday morning and were able to have the whole day off still before having to teach again on Thursday....it was a great trip too...we ate countless chocolate pancakes, found a fake Subway restaurant, and held cormorant birds, monkeys, and dressed up in traditional Chinese garb and took pictures with all 3 (not at the same time though, haha).
My time being back in China has been great...I try to spend as much time with the kids as I can...trying to stock up on all the Chinese baby love while I can...it’s gonna be rough going home again...I can’t believe today is the half way mark! L
