Pandas!

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Last night I had to go to sleep before writing. I was the only one awake in a dormitory of 9 other Chinese girls. Now it's 7:30am and they are all already awake and gone. I sat bolt upright now as one of them turned on the overhead light. I thought it was the afteroon. I'm glad to know I haven't slept the day away. I haven't had time to clean my clothes yet but I'll take a shower and at least change my shirt. Tonight I'm to be on a train for 20 hours so I'll be close to Cam's home sometime tomorrow. I wish he were there but he's not. It'll probably make life with his family easier that he's not there though.

It's K's birthday today and I'm on the train while they're all out partying. It really makes me miss them. i missed a party for Cat's birthday too but I was travelling to Nepal so I didn't have too much reflection time. I thought this train was 20 hours long but it's 30. The woman under me is from Chengdu and has a very strong accent. I was doing some translating earlier between her Chinese and that of the man below her (both Chinese people just the man's not from Chengdu and the Chengdu accent is really strong).

Lucy texted me a little while ago to tell me she missed me and had dreamt about me. She was surprised I understood her written Chinese but I told her I've always got people with me who can help me read it. She assumed they spoke English but the majority of chinese I meet when I travel can barely speak English at all. Doesn't mean I don't talk to them. I have to or boredom or confusion hits me.

Today was a really awesome day. I woke up and took 2 buses to the Panda Reservation to see my first ever pandas. Actually the first panda I saw was Jingjing - the Olympic mascot who's only one year old but pretty big. They were sleeping in the trees so we went to see their new baby pandas in the nursery - so adorable! They were old enough to have fur but still no bigger than a human baby. We couldn't take pictures of them - too sensitive but what a great feeling. It's the same awe and amazement you get when looking at a human baby. So precious! Afterwards they closed the nursery to the public and we watched a man coax Jingjing and another slightly larger panda out of the tree to eat. With Jingjing he actually had to climb into the tree and cuddle and baby her to eat. What a great job he ahs. I bought a panda scarf for Cam's mom at the gift shop before leaving.

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