Dylan's experience

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Once I was in Australia and I had my phone, I was happy. I had a western toilet and a soft bed and a TV. School was way shorter which was so great. I had freedom which was so good because here I don’t. The roads are different here - like you don’t even know until you see it for yourself… some people spit on the road and not everyone uses the rubbish bins. I can’t even start with the food, it makes my body feel so weak. One good thing is that the hairdresser cut my hair really well after they washed it and gave me a head massage.

Soon we are going to Beijing which is going be fun but I’m low on money which is not good because I need money for all the opportunities in China. I’m really looking forward to going home to Australia but it feels like I’ll never leave. I just want to get out of here and go back to Cairns.

Recently we had three days off! I got picked up at 8am and we went off to the mountains. We were half way through the trip and our host went to his friends house and said, “We are staying here for an hour,” but it turned out to be six hours. I was quite frustrated because I did not know what the plan was. We thought we were waiting for Yashoda but Yashoda went to the meeting place with her family. When we got to the meeting place there was a hotel and I calmed down because it was really nice and we could rest.

The bed was soft and there was an electric blanket. There was some play equipment downstairs and we played with my basketball. We went hiking Chinese style. Chairlift up part of the mountain, bit of a stop for tea, another chairlift through the clouds, with a hike on some paths with a lot of stairs. Then we ran back to catch the last chairlift down but it wasn’t the last one and we had heaps of time. There was mashed potato and beef with the dinner.

We went to a town called An Ren. I got a toffee dragon, like a lolly on a stick. Then Yashoda and her family left at 1.40pm on a bus back to Chengdu. We (I was with Inigo) went back with Tim’s father (our host) much later. We didn’t get back until 9pm and I was so tired but it was great to get out of the city for a few days.

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