Shenzhen and Hong Kong

So, I took my bus to Shenzhen and stayed with Miting's family. They were great! Her mom and dad were incredibly welcoming and kind. Miting and I went and saw the Harry Potter movie (again!). We walked around the mall a lot - Shenzhen has a lot of malls.


I stayed with Miting for two nights. Her mom drove me to the subway the morning of the 17th. I went through customs and took the subway to Hong Kong. It only took about forty minutes total! I didn't even have to go to the airport to check in - the airport has a check in city in Central Hong Kong! So I got to wander around Hong Kong Island a little bit, took the tram up the Peak.





I also managed to wander over to a beach, which was amaazzzingg. Except for the little oil problem, but no one really seemed to care about that so...





Hong Kong was so incredibly different from mainland China. So expensive. And I couldn't find chocolate and peanut butter filled oreos. Which is a real shame because I was planning to fill a big bag to bring back to the USA...Probably for the best anyways. My bags were so heavy. I managed to store my laptop in a locker at the subway station, but carrying around my camera was a big pain (so appreciate the goddamn photos, right?). Of course, at the beach, I was a little lax. Not only did I enter the oil-infested waters (everyone else was too!) but I left my passport, ipod, and SLR lying in the bag. Yeahhhh....I always say everything works out, but isn't that taking it a little far? Maybe it's a good thing I'm back in the USA.

Speaking of which, yayy!!! It's been about 1 year and 1 month since I've been in the US. Last night, when my plane got in, I basically told everyone that so much said hello that it had been a year since I'd been back home in the US, that I was so excited to be back, and it was great, and yayy!!!! I got a few strange looks.

So where have I been this last year, departing from New Orleans and arriving San Francisco? Little reminder:

(in the world)

(in China)

Guangxi Province

So, I took my epic, about 20 hour-long train from Chongqing and arrived in Guilin, Guangxi feeling the need for a nice, long shower. I don't think I've ever smelled that bad in my life. The train was incredibly hot. There were no air conditioners, just little fans attached to the ceiling.

Anyways, I just lazed around that evening recuperating. The next morning I signed up for a raft to go down the Li River, from Yangdi to Xingping. It was crazy fun.

This is Chen Shi, who was on the raft with me. She's a student on holiday, just like me.

We bonded over our love of the color blue...haha.

Lunch!

Look carefully at the mountains on the bill...and now the mountains in real life:

Dinner. Yum. Except I think it gave me 拉肚子. I challenge non-Chinese speakers to look this up...I can't even say that word in English anymore.

Bye Bye Guilin, Xingping and Yangshuo! (btw, the cities I went to in Guangxi) - I leave in a couple hours on a bus to Shenzhen to see Miting! Yay!

Chongqing

Chengdu with Xie Miao: btw, Pandrrs are not cats

Finally got to see Harry Potter. It was amazing. Enough said.

Video in the mirror? I don't think I've ever seen this before. It was so weird.

Hahaa, at the Panda Museum. History bit.

Apparently, pandas are scary.

Xie Miao's wild side

Geez, pandas have attitude issues...

Goodbye Mianyang!

Two students giggling during class. The living conditions at the school may have been awful, but I'll miss all the students! They were so much fun.

Left to Right: Me, Martha, Lila (Lee - La, one of the school's teachers), Julia, and Ricki

My host family took me with them to a temple. They were there to pray that Coco might have good grades this upcoming year, and let me join in. My host mom is the most religious Chinese person I've met so far...we burned incense in front of every little outlet and temple.

The surrounding area was very beautiful, covered in trees.

My host mom. I had a hard time getting a photo of her because she kept wanting to use my camera to take photos of me - she likes painting and drawing a lot, so it would make sense that she'd love taking photos as well.

Coco and I. She's not nearly as religious as her mother and honestly thought the whole thing was just a bother. At one point, I saw her shake a big box filled with little sticks - one fell out and she picked it up and brought it over to a man, whom I assumed deciphered its meaning. Huffing slightly as she spoke, she told me that the man foretold that her grades were going to be good. I guess now she has to get good grades...

This sign has a lot of information about the temple...most temples, I can't even really always tell if they're supposed to be Buddhist, Daoist or what - but that's usually because, like this one, they're a mix of several beliefs. The sign's use of English is also just interesting/funny in itself.

They tried kidnapping me again for the night, but I didn't have PJs with me or anything at all really, so I asked if they'd bring me back to the school. Then there was even an offer to drive me into Chengdu but I'd already bought my train ticket. My host mom even offered me a job at the school - but from what I've heard, they're not allowed to higher foreigners (only use volunteers). Besides, I don't think I could take living in Mianyang, although I'll miss my host family and the other volunteers (most of whom have already returned home).

As of now, I'm in Chengdu, with Xie Miao. I'll update more about that later, but so far it's been a lot of fun, although I keep forgetting to stick to Chinese with her - I need to keep using Chinese while I'm still here and am still able to!