Advertisement
Published: August 30th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Mysterious Lunch
I'm not really sure what this was, but it wasn't bad... Today I learned just how beautiful Hangzhou is. We went hiking in the hills and it is amazing! The first part was a little painful though; the stairs were quite steep and went on forever. But we finally made it to a more level area, or at least a path with no steps. Periodically, we could see patches of the city between the trees, but once we reached the top, we could see the whole city stretched out below us. Absolutely breathtaking! Between the humidity and the light rain, we were all dripping and out of breath. Miss Li told us the trail from end to end is about 7 kilometers and we will be doing the whole thing later this semester. She wants to give us time to get ready for it though, so we didn’t do the whole trail today. We went down one path to the botanical gardens near campus, came out in a village and found the small south gate leading into campus. My feet were quite sore after that walk!
After we showered, we wanted to go to a restaurant called Grandma’s Kitchen. Miss Li didn’t go with us, so we were on our own for
Natural Spring
Locals come here to get their water for the day. There are about 20 springs like this throughout the city. ordering. I was looking forward to trying it out, but the others were worried that the menu wouldn’t have pictures showing what the food looked like (every other restaurant we’ve been to has had pictures). They decided they didn’t want to risk getting something gross without knowing what it was so we left. I have to admit I was a little ticked at them. This is the whole point of being here—trying out new things and taking some risks. How else are we going to participate in the culture here? We can’t have Miss Li babysitting and ordering for us all the time. They decided to go to a Korean restaurant nearby. To make me even more annoyed, they were not deciding on any food! They just looked at the menu not suggesting anything. Eventually I just started saying dishes and Justin helped me pick some. We tried a few new things like stir fried squid (I’ve only had fried squid), a soy bean vegetable stew, some kind of green potato pancake, along with sushi, stir fried beef and vegetables, salad, and some others I don’t remember. Everything turned out to be really good! I think we were less shy
tonight, so we actually had a good time talking and laughing.
After dinner, we went back to the Central apartment to check our emails and talk to people from home. Miss Li goes home at 5, so MuBin comes at 6 to be in the apartment with us if we need any help. MuBin seems like a pretty cool guy, and I hope he can help me with my Chinese once classes start.
Every day here, I am completely exhausted. I fall asleep by 9:30 every night. It’s probably still jet lag, but we have been doing so much during the day, I think that tires me out too. I’ve actually fallen asleep writing in my journal a couple times, so I’ll say goodnight before I do that here. 晚上好!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.117s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0767s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jhassman
Jason Hassman
Hiking
That trail looked very beautiful. I am impressed by the stone and the carvings/style used! I also love the traditional Chinese architecture! Don't be afraid to add lots of pictures of the buildings (or at least take a bunch and I'll see them when you get back)!