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Monday morning the teachers at New Times, the managers, and the foreigner jumped into a bus and drove an hour south to the Er Long Shi Tai national park. The park is surrounded by farmland and is beautiful.
The drive seemed short, we were telling jokes and looking at the beautiful scenery. As per my CIA/parents conditioning when I was a baby I wanted to sleep the minute I got into the bus, but Caroline wouldn't let me. So instead I studied Chinese and told some clean jokes. And Sym, if you're reading this, the giraffe in the refrigerator joke from middle school was a huge hit!
We arrived a little after 10 o'clock and carried our picnic supplies 300m up the mountain to where we were going to eat lunch. We stopped in a shady clearing and broke out more food that I though was imaginable. Roasted chickens, beer, rice, soda, bread, tons of fruit and vegetables and two watermelons. We ate and played cards for a few hours, I learned a new game, and then broke camp around 2pm.
I had thought that we had eaten about half way up the mountain. How wrong I was.
The teachers at New Times
Wendy, Seven, Caroline, Jaycee, and Zhang Lao Shi We were maybe 1/10th of the way to the top, and at the flattest part of the entire hike. The first 2km were not terrible, the path was shady and only a 20 degree incline. The trail is tiled with stones that were once glazed so some parts are very slippery. We walked together and joked around, but we began to notice that the people coming down the mountain looked incredibly tired. Jackie asked how much farther it was to the top and the people said another 2 km! As we climbed the group started breaking up, I found myself walking alone for the last 1 km of the hike.
The last kilometer was a favorite. The path was nearly 50 degree incline. And, have I mentioned the Chinese love stairs? The last 300m were 700 steep stairs. Really, it was fun. I stopped half way up the stairs and took a 20 minute nap. I finally reached the top around 4pm and the others were resting in a pagoda and finishing off the last watermelon and beer.
The view from the top was beautiful, I understand why all the students in the competition talked about the green
grasslands. The rolling hills and the blue sky is all it took for me to want to move permanently to Inner Mongolia. My pictures do not do the scenery justice.
Around 5pm we climbed back down the mountain, took one last group picture and drove home. My legs were completely out of my control and watching my friends waddle down the mountain was hilarious. Unfortunately, Tuesday morning, I was incredibly sore.
Tuesday: Jessi called me and told me that Lele (my Matouqin teacher) wanted to have a lesson that night. For the record, you hold the Matouqin between your legs. I was shaking the whole lesson. The Matouqin is a lot of fun, but I am really bad at it. I'm hoping that taking lessons for five months will get me to a point where I can play something more interesting than "hot cross buns." We'll see. Apparently you hold the bow "underhanded." The running joke of the lesson was how stiff I was. Lele plays so fluidly and I look like I'm doing the robot. Jessi kept shaking my arm to help me loosen up but it wasn't working.
Things are going well, Thursday was a
bad day at school. All the teachers are stressed out and we might have freaked out on each other a little. But I love them and they love me, things will be alright.
I have another lesson tonight and I need to practice. If things go well my souvenir from China just might be a Matouqin!
-Kaye
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Aunt Esther
non-member comment
Hi Kathryn
I am enjoying your blog. Sounds like you are having fun besides teaching...great. Love, Aunt Esther