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Published: November 3rd 2009
All the teachers and staff
Group picture of all the teachers and staff outside hotel.Hello all! It has been a while since my last addition. So far, there has always been a place to visit or people to meet or things to do for the past few weeks. 2 weeks ago I think I came down with swine flu, because I was the sickest I have been since I could remember. I stayed in bed for 4 days shivering and lived 3 of those 4 days on the toilet, if you know what I mean. Thank God for my friend James, he was very nice to me while I was sick and bought me some medicine and food everyday while also making sure I was alive. I had to cancel my classes and even today I'm still making some classes up. If it wasn't swine flu, it was bird flu or turtle flu or something, it was terrible. I never want to be sick like that again. I'm actually still recovering.
Teaching has been fine, though at times I barely feel as though I teach because every other weekend there is a holiday where we miss a day or two of classes. My students are finally warming up to me, and gasp! sometimes they even
oh the mess..in Hangzhou
The mess I made on the table after the worst service I have ever recieved..it was a crab dinner so... tell me when they don't understand! It is customary in China to give your students your contacts, and my students have been asking me for my mobile for some weeks now. So finally I broke down and gave it to my classes. I wasn't prepared for what I was getting myself into by handing out that information. They are calling me all the time inviting me to breakfast, lunch, dinner, karoke, badminton, tennis, swimming, basketball, mahjohng and other various activities. Sometimes I oblige but I don't think I will anymore because last time I went out with a student, she brought 10 of her girlfriends with her and I simply cannot entertain that many people!
Other than that, I have been traveling a great deal on the weekends, achieving one of my many purposes of being in China.
Two weeks ago, Shelly and I took a random trip to Hangzhou for three days. It is by far one of the most beautiful places in China. Hangzhou is in Zheijiang province which is the wealthiest province in China. The economic reality was evident by the sight of Aston Martins, Ferrari's, Lambos, Porsches and other fancy sports cars that roamed the streets.
symbol
the emblem of the sexology conference..lol There is a large banking and tourism economy there hence the riches. The people there were all dressed in the finest linens, and I was feeling like a pauper as I roamed the streets.
We stayed in a nice quiant hostel across the street from West Lake and roamed the streets of Hangzhou for the following two days. There was a folk art festival going on there where I bought a few gifts to take home, and a sexuality exhibit, where a bunch of sexologist were under a tent giving people free advice. After that fun, we continued to pamper ourselves with 2 massages. One full body and one foot massage. They were both pretty magical especially the guy who did my foot massage. He cracked my neck, back, hips and popped my toes. I fell into a bout of excruciating pain afterwards followed by the most intense limberness I have felt in a long time. The massages in Hangzhou are a must, and if I were to go back, I'd definitely have to punish myself again.
The rest of the time in Hangzhou, we ate (non-Chinese food) well and even had sushi! which was a treat, considering that China
pagoda
Beautiful pagoda in Hangzhou hates Japan so finding sushi in China is often an impossible task. There is an ancient mosque from the Qin dynasty in Hangzhou and the city is loaded with Chinese Muslims (along with a few Pakistanis and Africans), which was nice to see. However, I must say that the Muslims in Hangzhou follow the same pattern of Muslims I've seen all over China, they, and I hate to say it are the worst cheaters! Being cheated in China is not only probable but its an expectation. If you are not Chinese or cannot speak Chinese you WILL be cheated no doubts about that. I have discovered that while all the Chinse cheat you, the Muslims will cheat you the worst! I tried to give them the benefit of doubt of course but I've been cheated very badly by Muslims 4 times, they will often charge you 4 or 5 times the price of something (like the one time the lady charged me 25 yuan for a plate of stew and was acting like she was gonna beat me up if I didn't pay her!). Shelly was assulted (lol) by these Muslim men when she was trying to buy some of
scenery
the hills behind the hotel off lake zhelin this praline pastry. The man first tried to tell her it was 90 yuan, then when she walked away he started hitting her, then told her it was 45 yuan (which was still far too expensive) finally he gave it to her for 10 yuan. Quite unbelievable, I tell you. I was telling them that's 'haram' to cheat people but they just doubled over laughing. Sorry to run on and on about the Muslims, but their reputation just bothers me a little.
But in any regards, Hangzhou is magical and I'd love to live there. We took the fast train there and it takes about 4 hours each way. The slow train takes 10 hours, so as you can imagine the fast train is really fast!
Then this past weekend the Foriegn Affairs Office took all the teachers (well most of us) to Zhelin Lake and Xihai Hot Springs. Well first let me tell you, we were promised this would be some quality R &R, which I undeservedly needed. First day we arrived at this wonderful 4 star hotel (had my own room and everything) overlooking the most spectacular view of the lake and beautiful mountains in the back of
Zhelin Lake
The lake and all the little islands on it the hotel. The scenery was to die for! The first day we went on a hike which was splendid. There were all of these really fun obstacles to go through. There was the swing on the cable to cross the creek, and a multitude of ladders and rafts to cross other springs. It was really quite fun and I was having a blast.....until....as we were about to leave the tour guide was like ' There is a beautiful view up these stairs' I had a bad feeling instantly because I heard the old man who owned the park saying it would take an hour and a half to reach the view. Then I saw the old man wave his hand and head in the other direction. Without delay the tour guide started walking up these steps. There were easily over 4000 stairs! and yes it did take 1.5 hours to get up the stairs and the most annoying part was there were freakin bushes all over the place so you are just walking up countless stairs fighting vines and shrubbery and couldn't see anything! I was being devoured by bugs and the stairs were uneven! Everytime I got up a
hike of hell
Scenery on the hike of hell. flight of 100 stairs I would turn the corner and there were 200 more! Halfway up, my life began to flash before my eyes and I really started reconsidering if I could even do it. So literally an 1.5 hours later of climbing uneven stairs and getting bittin by bugs we arrived to this view of which I was too pissed to even enjoy. Afterwards, the climb down was even more of a nightmare! Climbing up stairs is only physically exhausting but climbing down is more tedious because you have to take care of your knees or you will injure yourself. So 3 hours later of climbing up and down stairs I was ready to strangle that tour guide because that wasn't even fun..really. It was just annoyingly painful.
And so, after a good nights rest I was ready for the Hot Springs..right..
The next day we took a ferry to 3 islands. The first island was a She-male island where drag queens performed amongst Monks who prayed in their temple. That was very bizzare. But one thing about Chinese culture is that drag queens are actually family entertainment and kids were dancing and laughing at the drag..i mean transvestites
4000 stairs
the scenery after 4000 stairs.. cause they had implants and everything. Then after the trannys performance they just stand there and let people take pictures of them.
The second island was Grandmas island which just had a load of ancient farming equipment that you could play with. Then also on the island was this very bizzare animal circus. There was a goat walking on a thin rope with a monkey on its back doing flips and headstands. Then there was this (I think it was) black bear who kept crying as the trainers tried to get to skate board and juggle a stick with 2 flaming ends. I felt sorry for the poor thing cause I could hear it crying over the circus music, and I could totally tell it didn't feel like doing anything. Then last were the 2 lions and 1 tiger that were pissed that they had to wake from their nap to do tricks. They were growling and swatting at the trainer and for a minute I was concerned but then I thought how hilarious it would be to see them attack this dude. lol..especially after seeing how he'd treated the poor black bear.
Despite the entertainment, the usual circus surrounded
view
Zhelin Lake in the am. me as all these men kept approaching me to take pictures with them. And it is official, it is me who gets the forigner stares the worst. People kept telling me that it happens to them too but once they actually spend some time with me, they quickly realize that my case is by far a special one. I knew I wasn't hallucinating.
The third island was the best, there were over 100 monkeys on the island just roaming around. They were so cute and I wanted to take one with me. So I was taking pictures of them, and suddenly this one comes out of no where and tries to steal my purse! Yes! This monkey tried to mug me! and that was not cute, cause they have really long nails and could probably do some damage. Then I got intimidated and walked the rest of the island and sat down far away from the monkeys.
The islands were interesting and did I also mention that throughout the islands there were hundreds of stairs to walk up! The Chinese are really starting to piss me off with the stairs at this point.
So finally after lunch we go to
on the ferry
On the lake in the ferry about to visit the islands. the Xi'hai Hot Springs. It wasn't quite what I expected but I loved it anyway. I didn't have a swimsuit so I had to wear a tank and underwear which was fine. There was a pool, so I got to swim and remembered why I use to love to swim so much! Then there were all these different hot springs with various herbs in them. Some were inside these bamboo houses and others were inside caves while still others were outside. Every spring had a theme. I think I sampled them all and it was actually quite amazing even despite the continued stares. My favorite was this boiling hot (yes..it was boiling) spring with Spuko in it. The aroma was fantastic and the boiling water really put me at ease after a while. Then there were also other speciality things you could pay for. Shelly paid for this pool where these fish come and eat all the dead skin off your body. After one look, I knew there was no way I would be able to do that, it looked too weird. So the Hot Springs were amazing! I would even consider taking a trip back for that.
All in
She-Male island
The entrance to tranny island. all my travels have been amazing and I'm still having a blast traveling, meeting people and even teaching. I still haven't gotten into any Chinese classes because the classes I was going to take were cancelled due to low enrollement. So I'm thinking about hiring a student to help me 3 times a week with my Chinese which at this point is a bit of an emergency. I'm craving more independence but with the lack of language skills, independence will be quite hard to achieve. Charades has been working when everything else fails but I clearly cannot rely on that as well. I will never again underestimate the power of communication. The saying that communication is key is not a joke. Living in a place where you cannot read anything around you nor can you understand what is being said is often quite exhausting because you've got to use other senses to indicate what exactly is going on.
But in any regards, I hope everyone is healthy and happy with their endeavours. Take care and sorry for the rambling
Zaijian
Tifa
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PinkiLaFleur
Dena Sanford
tranny island???
You sure someone didn't slip something in your food that morning??? hahaha From the picture of the view, I don't know that 4000 stairs would be worth it....