Adventures on the Bus

Each day when I return home from school, I take the bus and occasionally I take the bus to school as well. Let me tell you, there is nothing like a window into Chinese culture than public transportation. And often I have such interesting things happen.... so much so that I going to start a new category dedicated to my adventures on the bus. This week I had two amusing happenings. Early in the week as took the bus home, I had my textbook out and was practicing writing characters. I was covering up the characters to see if I could write each one correctly. As I was writing, I noticed there were several Chinese standing near me watching me write. Now I must mention as an aside that many Chinese find it humorous and intriguing to see a foreigner writing characters. So as these people were watching me, one of the men pointed to one of the characters and told me that I had it slightly wrong. After closer inspection, I spotted my mistake. I thanked him and kept practicing. A little while later, he leaned over and showed me another mistake. I again thanked him and kept studying. When I looked up he was getting off the bus and I bade him goodbye. A few moments later, a women leaned over and showed me a small mistake. This continued for the rest of the bus ride home. I think a total of 4 different individuals helped me study. :-)

Another day as I was coming home, I got a seat in the back of the bus. I sat down by the window and since I was not really in the mood to talk (after just finishing one of my tests), I plugged in my iPod. Pretty soon the bus began to fill up, but even as the bus got full no one sat down beside me. Granted I am often the only foreigner on the bus and people have told me that I am the first foreigner they have ever seen ride the bus. But I was humored as there were people standing and no one wanted to brave sitting by the foreigner. I guess I have been known to do scary things like speak English. One man finally sat down next to me and then promptly fell asleep. Well, he at least appeared to be sleeping, but every few minutes he would peek at me from the corners of his eyes. It was all I could do NOT to laugh. I was talking about it later to some Chinese friends and one of the women confessed to me that if she got on the bus and saw a foreigner she would stand rather than sit next to them. But really, aren't we all suspicious or uncertain of people who are different than us? Just makes me think how I have reacted that way to someone in the US. And what a humbling realization that is.

Midterms

Life is racing by. And in the midst of it, I am neglecting you, my loyal blog-land friends. Since I last updated there has been trick or treat (yes, even in China... well, at least in our neighborhood), I went on a field trip with Tori's class, and Chinese classes are marching along. I just finished my first midterm. I think that I did fairly well on the written part, but I feel like some of my tones might have been off for the speaking part. I have my second one tomorrow and I think it will be harder. We shall see.... I am seeing Chinese characters in my dreams. :-) So, I am off to study and write characters until my hand can write no more! It is my goal to update you all on the past couple of weeks tomorrow after the test. So, hang in there, my friends, more interesting news and stories are coming....

In the last post, you were right that is indeed a toilet. And really the thing that bothered me most was not the trough aspect, but the lack of a door. The whole time I was hoping that no one would come in! Maybe I should have labeled this, "did you really want to know?"

Can you guess?

do you know what this is?

Interesting hotel

In Yangshuo we stayed at the Rosewood Inn. It was a great hotel and our room was a family suite - which meant two bedrooms! Hooray, a separate room for the kids! The hotel was in a great location and only accessible by walking. But the thing that made it the most interesting was the bathroom. Look closely, do you see anything missing in our bathroom?

So, you might be able to see the shower head on the wall. Yes, this is the shower! You can't see it from the picture, but there was a shower mat on the floor with the outline of feet on it (maybe in case you couldn't figure out where the shower was). But possibly the funniest part was there was a squeegee to get all the water off the floor. Even with the interesting bathroom, this was possibly one of the best hotels we have stayed at in China.

Longsheng

On our last day, we took a trip from Yangshuo to Longsheng. The drive was long (3.5 hours) but oh-so worth it. Longsheng is home to one of the minority groups living in China called the Yao people. This area is mountainous and also home to some of the most famous rice terraces in China. We had yet another delicious lunch and then spent the afternoon hiking around the rice terraces. The women of the Yao people only cut their hair 3 times in their life - at 18, 36, and 54. We asked two of the women to show us their hair and how they arrange it on their heads. It was fascinating. I think one thing that surprised us was that they kept the sections that were cut and arranged it together with their hair. How they arrange it also tells if they are married and if they have had any children. So intriguing. But I will let the pictures speak for themselves....

You can see the village nestled among the rice terraces

Hiking along the side of a rice terrace

Look at how long their hair is!

Unbinding their hair. Notice the woman in the middle holding the hair that has been cut?

All of their hair arranged. I think that would be really heavy.

Yangshuo - Day 3

I am determined to finish telling you all about this vacation. Eventually. On our 3rd day in Yangshuo, we rented e-bikes and drove into the countryside. I think that this was one of our favorite days as a family. We got off the beaten path some and the scenery was beautiful. We meandered our way to a restaurant overlooking the Li River. After a delicious lunch, we took another path back to Yangshou. At one point, the country lane (which at this point was just for bikes and pedestrians) was so narrow that only one bike could fit. We had such a great time on the e-bikes that Andy and I have actually been pondering getting one.

Andy and his girls.

The road less travelled....

Me with the T. She was waving goodbye to some pigs. Tori adores pigs.

Tori making friends with the people at the next table. I personally think that she was after their grapes.

View of the Li River from the restaurant

The farmer's restaurant was located in a very old small town. Looking into one of the houses.

Part of the small path. What breathtaking scenery....

Finishing the day off with ice cream (gelato, or in Becca's words "that yummy Italian ice cream")

Yangshuo - Day 2, the 2nd (delayed) installment

Aren't these an impressive sight? Here is the delayed 2nd installment of our second day in Yangshuo. After a yummy lunch (女子吃 - hao chi! "good eats"), we had a bit of a drive to board a boat on the Li River. The Yulong River was relaxing, but the Li had some truly spectacular views. The boat traffic was pretty heavy at some parts - in fact, we even saw a smaller boat run into a larger one. I think that is the first time I have seen a boat crash. All of these mountains have names. The driver of our boat kept calling out the names to us (of course in Chinese). We understood some but not all of what he was saying. This 2 hour cruise was a great way to see the mountains. At the end of the cruise as we were getting to the place where we were going to dock, we encountered a TON of boat traffic. This gave me another first - I had never been in a boat traffic jam before.

Taking a break to play by the side of the river.

 手 (show - "the hand") 

This is what a boat traffic jam looks like....