Crazy, Tiring, Expensive Weekend

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Well this weekend was a lot of fun! One of the Chinese students lives about an hour and a half away in Shaoxing, and her family invited us out to their house for the weekend. They sent a bus out to the university to pick us up and drive us out there, as well as drive us around for the weekend. We left Saturday morning around 9 o'clock and got there at about 10:30. Her family then took us to a really really fancy and expensive restaurant before paying for admission to a mountain full of waterfalls and trees. It was gorgeous. We spend almost all day there, and after that we went back to the hotel for about an hour before dinner. For dinner we went to another really fancy place where we all felt under dressed and like we didn't belong. After a long and great dinner, we walked down to her house which was only about a mile away from the restaurant. When we got there, of course her parents were shoving more food in our faces and told us to eat more. We hung out there for a while playing cards, majong, and just hanging out before going back to the hotel and going to sleep.

Today we had breakfast around 7:30 since we were leaving at 8:30 for another fun filled day. We were picked up early and taken to a park where we were told that we were going to pick fruit. The park had a small area to pick a traditional Chinese fruit, but also had rides, an obstacle course, and a mini zoo area. We walked around and looked at the animals for a while but they were all animals that we could find at home too. After that we went and picked fruit for a while because we wanted to play laser tag, but since it had rained the day before we had to wait until it dried out a bit first. After that, we found a ropes course and played around on that for a while. There were rope bridges connecting to towers and a climbing contraption as well. By the end of that, our hands all hurt really badly. Then we had another nice lunch, although not quite as extravagent as the others. After that we went pearl shopping, since freshwater pearls are really cheap here and her mom knew good prices and qualities. Everyone walked away with at least one piece of jewelry, even the guys. After the shopping was done, it was time to say good bye and head back to campus. It was such an exhausting weekend that almost everyone fell asleep on the bus on the way back to the university.



It's crazy to think of a place where tourists and visitors are not a common sight. But that is definitely the case here. Everywhere we go, people look at us like they've never seen Americans or tourists before and it's strange. There have been multiple times where people ask to come take a picture with us because we may be the only Americans they'll ever see. Once that happens, well then you're stuck there for about 20 minutes because everyone wants a picture and people just start apearring out of nowhere to get a picture with you. It's absolutely crazy!!



I've also learned that as much as we complain about "asian drivers" back at home, it's much worse here. It's interesting to watch how people communicate by honking their horns at each other, but the way they drive is absolutely scary. They are inches from each other and drive on the opposite side of the road at times and park in the middle of streets. I don't think I'd ever be able to drive here it would freak me out too much!



Well tomorrow is another day. Back to class and studying. It's crazy to think that basically this week is midterm and I only have two and a half weeks until the final. Need to hit the books hard!



Sara

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