National Holiday

---

Since this past week was the National Week in China there was no school for me! It was really nice. We wanted initially to go hiking for a few days in the mountains but due to illness and a few other factors our trip was cut short. We ended up going to the mountains for two days. Erin unfortunately couldn’t go with us. I went with my friend Joakim (The Swede), and his wife Jocelyn (one of the bosses from CCS). It turned out to be a lot of fun.

We traveled to a small town by bus. It took us about 1 ½ hours to get there and the bus was pretty crowded. Once in the town we realized we had taken the bus a little too far and had to walk about a mile back to another town. Once there we hired a motorcycle with a trailer to drive us to a farmer’s house that we know there. He treated us to tea and some small snacks before we set off. Also, he let us know about the wild boars that were supposedly in a pretty foul mood that time of year that live on the mountain. Luckily, he had a few dogs there so he let us borrow one and a machete.

The mountains were gorgeous, and overgrown with weeds and briars. It was a little hazy but the weather was beautiful other than that. We ended up hiking for about 2 hours to the first peak. About 25 feet below the top peak we encountered briars so thick that we couldn’t make our way through it. After trying a few different ways up and trying for about an hour to cut our way through we were starting to lose the light and decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to be on the side of the mountain when it got dark. The biggest problem was the there were no clear spots to set up camp anywhere. Also finding a flat enough spot was a big problem. After finally finding a semi-flat spot we set Jossy to clearing it out while Joakim and I went in search of wood. The problem was that it had rained for a few days straight before that and all we could find was wet wood. In spite of our extensive planning we had somehow forgotten to bring lighter fluid. That made it a little difficult to get any sort of fire going. After about 2 hours of lighting twigs and smaller branches and shavings of wet logs we were able to get one going for long enough to dry out the logs. It wasn’t anything huge but it was enough to keep us warm and give us a little light. During the night while we were trying to sleep without rolling down the hill (our site wasn’t as level as we had previously thought) the dog chased off a few boars. Lucky thing we had him there!

The next morning after a small breakfast we slowly made our way back down the mountain and back to the farmer’s house for lunch. He made some fantastic food for us and also a tea that he made from bamboo leaves growing in his backyard. After lunch we had to walk the hour and a half back down the mountain to the bus stop. Then back home for a well deserved shower.

That night we got a call from Joakim saying that we were needed the next day for a movie! They needed some foreigners to play diplomats a a generals funeral. It was really cool. We had to be there at 7:30am in our suits and funeral wear. Then we ended up sitting most of the day. It was a really good opportunity to talk with the other actors and make some friends. We tried on other peoples costumes, met some pretty famous actors (although I don’t know there names), and got a free meal, as well as a few close-ups. This may be my big break! The whole process was really neat. Lots of waiting though. We also made some extra spending money which was really cool. They also may need us again later for other things. It makes for an exciting weekend if nothing else. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a copy and send it home. It’s going to be a mini-series here in China and broadcast nationwide.

Other than that everything else is the same. I start classes on Monday. Erin is feeling much better. She just had a small case of the flu. We’re planning on going hiking again in a week or two so she’ll be able to go then. I hope everything is good with everyone at home. I’ll write again soon.

---