National Week Travels

It's only Tuesday for Christ's sake......
I'm assuming that my luck of September was worn down to a nub and I no longer will have any luck in October. Maybe I need to start praying to a different God. I am in the land of Buddhism, I suppose that shouldn't be difficult to do.

Let me start by (briefly) talking about what I know you all want to hear, my vacation last week. To be honest, while it was busy it wasn't really that exciting, but I did have fun I'll say that. Monday was a sleep in day and tutor Alice day - during which time I helped her prepare for the speech contest that they will be having at all the schools this month. Her English is good but she needs some help making it flavorful and if nothing else longer. Looks like she needs help from a duh duh duh duh! writer lmao. I'm only joking, although they don't quite get the idea of run on sentences being a bad thing here so I know that I can help in that area.

Tuesday I woke up at the crack of dawn and went to grab BA (Brendon Albertson for those of you who forgot) and we hopped on (actually more sort of forced our bodies onto the already cramped) the 395 bus to Shi Jie Ji Chuang ( to those who can't speak Chinese this means the "Window of the World" which is a popular theme park here in Bao'an where you can see famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the pyramids in miniature form) and from there road the metro for another 30 minutes to Luohu. There we met up with the rest of our troop (Kim, Cara, Tiffany, Allison, and Mariam) and headed on the train to Hong Kong. If you remember Hong Kong has the lovely airport that kindly accepted some 100 odd angry, tired and over-traveled foreigners over a month ago. Gotta love 'em.

Let me stop and explain the metro and the bus system in China. It's cool, and they really try to be organized...but there is no organization. The Chinese don't understand the concept of "get in line" so they sort of mill about and hop from whichever line is moving fastest. If there is room for someone's left shoe in front of you, chances are they will cut in front of you. It's frustrating but you learn how your elbows work wonders in these situations. Same goes for the buses. Metros are bad, buses are worse. Metros are the subways or trains and are very long and if you keep moving eventually you will find some breathing room. Buses are just one vehicle and when you get on (granted if you get on and aren't closed in the doors) you are most likely to be shoved into some of the most compromising positions to where the guy next to you is getting a cavity check from the elbow of the guy next to him. I've seen people crushed, I've personally hurt people by accident in the fray and I've seen people get "eaten" by the doors. I love when you pass one of these "over-stuffed" buses on the road and it's just a see of heads and arms and legs and you can't tell what belongs to whom. Makes me laugh every time.

Why do we ride them you wonder? It's hella cheaper than taking a cab. Cab can be anywhere from 7-40yuan by the time you get to where you want to go and you can't always trust the cabbie. Sometimes they think that the best way to get somewhere is by hitting every single traffic light in the area so to rack up the bill. Sometimes they think that they know where "haibinzhongxue" is but really they don't speak Mandarin. Ridiculous. Buses are generally 2-3yuan and you can ride for as long as you like, granted that you understand Chinese enough to figure out where you're going. I generally go with someone else if I take the bus, but it's still worth it.

In Hong Kong we stayed at a hostel. Now if you've seen the movie or heard about it, don't go jumping to conclusions about thoughts of eye-gouging and the shredding of Achilles tendons. It was actually pretty legit. Maybe there was a weird Indian guy who maybe knew some English and was pretty harpy about our money not quite going through (which it did) and maybe he needed to calm the fuck down. But we handled him. The girls were on the 3rd floor with a room to themselves and BA and I were put in a dorm like situation on the 16th floor. It was simple prison style with 8 bunk beds to a room 4 on each side and I stupidly agreed to sleep on the top bunk. The beds were a matress, a sheet and another sheet and a pillow. Not bad expect when the A/C is blasting in the room and it's right next to my head.

We spent the first day wandering around Hong Kong and Lantou island. Lantou is two ferry rides and a crazy mountain bus ride away to visit the largest Buddha in HK. (I know this is all sounding very Planes, Trains and Automobiles trust me, we were thinking the same thing by the end of it). The bus ride down the mountain would have put the Mexican zip line bus driver to shame. Not to mention that HK they drive on the opposite side of the road like the English. Scary times. The giant Buddha was actually more impressive that I had thought. He stood about 9 stories tall and was on top of a giant mountain so you could see him from a good way off. The whole area was very peaceful and spiritual up in the mountains with just a dash of touristy. There were shrines and burning incense and traditional music everywhere. It felt like the China you read about in books, only it was......Hong Kong. Weird. Not to mention the fact that there were foreigners everywhere. When you get used to living in an area where everywhere you look, anyone you interact with for miles is Chinese then seeing foreigners in such large amounts that you don't know comes at a bit of a shock. We wanted to question them "Who are you? You're not with the CTLC teachers? Get out of my country."

After climbing the marathon of stairs, taking a billion photos (which will be up some day soon I promise) and seeing the ancient relics inside the Buddha, we climbed back down and had a rather decent albeit bland vegetarian lunch. (Cold tea, bland soup, veggies, mushrooms, taro and tofu) which for someone who's been eating a steady diet of really good Chinese food it was a little disappointing. After lunch we spent some time wandering around the local temples and the scary dogs who had mange and then made our way over to the cable cars that would take us back across the water to our hostel in mainland HK. We spent the rest of the evening shopping in the night shopping market and enjoying open air restaurants and some capped the night off with some alcohol. Before we returned to the hostel, Alison, BA and I wandered around looking for any decent bars to throw ourselves in. On our first attempt we promptly sat down and ordered drinks but as soon as the waiter pointed that there would be a $150 cover charge, we promptly booked outta there minus our drinks. The next bar proved to be full of men and looked a little shiesty. The third bar was pretty decent so we sat had a carlsburg (which was gross) and Allison was hit on by a friendly Austrian. We decided to end it there and headed back to the hostel, taking photos of the busy night streets along the way. At the end of the night I learned that one of the hardest things one can do while drunk is try to climb into a rikkety bunk bed. I attempted twice and on the third try griped the mattress and less than gracefully made my way into bed.

The next day we spent at a slightly more leisurely pace (if not more walking) as we took the tram up to "the peak" that's just what they call it. Sounds ominous when you say it like that. We had to stand on the tram which went up the side of mountains at a 80 degree angle to the ground at times it seemed. It was like a cheap thrill roller coaster ride. Up at the peak you could see all of HK spread out before you, buildings and ocean and beautiful foggy gray sky. We hiked around in the trails for a while enjoying the breeze from the ocean and then made our way back down. We had lunch at Japanese restaurant enjoying barbecued chicken and rice for some and udon noodles for others and then headed to the museums. I chose the museum of art of course which did not disappoint. There were two main exhibits, horses and ink brush work showing the progression of each topic through the years in China and HK. I especially liked the modern ink area where the artists start to get creative and take the ink off the paper and make it into installations or computer programs or dining chair sets. It was beautiful I only wish I could have taken more pictures, but they weren't really allowed. I caught some of the horse ones though.

We left HK about 5pm and headed for Luohu. I slept the better part of the way home because we were able to get seats. We ate at a Muslim Chinese restaurant which was halfway decent. I'm not a fan of the sauce they put on noodles but the service was very nice and the tea was hot (something we couldn't say for the HK tea, and something we missed believe it or not.) The rest of the crew headed back to their respective homes and BA and I decided to explore Dong men a big. Dong men is a GIANT outdoor shopping district in the middle of Luohu where you can buy nearly anything. We bought a couple of shirts (that fit omg) from this "funky fly fresh" (BA's term) store where we intend to go back. It was like the Holister of Chinese fashion with some grundge thrown in, perfect style. I need to go back to buy some men's cargo pants cuz the women's won't fit me. I was so pleased when I tried on the shirt that I bought and it fit, but when I walked out of the changing room one of the workers (I can assume she was) was sitting there and asked "too small?" sort of mockingly. Way to make a sale honey? I just smiled at her and said "no it's good!" and walked away to pay. Brats. Have a happy meal and gain some weight. We bought a DVD a piece at another store and then decided to call it a night and grabbed the train and then another bus back home. I love that we call it home. It is home - our respective schools. I feel more comfortable here than I do anywhere else in China. I like it, it's a good feeling. Of course, like all good things here, it is apt to change.

The rest of my vacation was spent with either BA or random Chinese friends. It was a rush of more shopping, dining out, train and bus rides, Chinese cinemas and also Splendid China. Splendid China is sort of like Disney world with a lot of miniature villages. It's a recreation of folk villages and minorities all over China as well as mini sculptures of very famous places in China. Yes, I had my picture taken next to mini great wall and also the mini Tiananmen Square. I was also forced into dancing with the Uyghers in one of their festival practices. Why do these people always want me to dance what is this? I'm terrible but at least I do it. My friend Jenny was so impressed by it though. 'Where did you learn to dance?' People I was literally copying what the other dancer was doing and not very well at that. I think they're just impressed that we're willing to make fools of ourselves which they (the Chinese) generally are not. Of course her father got a mess of pictures of me doing this as well as other photos which I will force him to give me some time this week. Silly man. I felt like this vacation was a whirlwind of things to do and places to be and stuff to see. I'm glad that I didn't go to Shanghai after all because I would have disappointed those who wanted to see me that were here in Shenzhen. I spent the last day relaxing with my friend Benny and just enjoying his company and friendly conversation and all the food that he is constantly making me eat. Horrible man. :-)

All in all it was a good vacation but I feel that I need another vacation after the fact. Luckily after the heavy rains of Saturday night the weather finally agreed to calm down and it's much cooler. It even feels like the beginnings of fall and everyone is enjoying the fact that we're not sweating all over the place anymore. Enjoy this post because the mood in the next one is a little bit angrier....a little more....shauna - like. Ta ta for now.