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Published: August 6th 2007
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Yes, you can go play before dinner.
Finding a swing before dinner was hard because everyone's mom let their girl go out and play Being that March 8th was International Women's day, it was only naturally expected that we would celebrate in a grand way. My seventh grade office kicked off the women's day celebrations early by ordering a 15inch size cake, having it delivered to the office, sending the bill to our office leader (a man), and serving up cake slices the size of my entire head to all the women. There was much giggling and devouring......it would be a long celebration. The chinese are unexplainable and funny quite often, but somehow the men tend to be alittle easier to handle or understand. The dress much closer to the western style. Most can small talk about basketball or football (soccer), most don't scream when something exciting happens, and the majority of them are pretty chill. In the end, the balance out China.
Seeing as it was International Women's day, our school left the men behind. My good friend, Ms. Huang....a fellow english teacher in the seven grade...decided early on she wasn't going to spend the weekend with just women....oh how i wished i heeded her advice....smart woman
I had heard rumors....early on in this year that this woman's day would signal a
Not as easy at it looks.
trying to show off didn't work so well whole day off. I almost started counting down the days. As the week began, I quickly became aware that the once imaginary whole day off was shaved down in reality to only half a day.....on a friday, a day in which i only taught half a day. So my women's day was just an ordinary class schedule followed by what would be "too long to spend with the women teachers at my school". I consider myself a feminist by not a monogamous feminist......especially in china, men are essential for sanity.
The menu of fun-filled activities started at 12:30, just after our lunch of neck bones and fried mystery meat. We all jumped into two large buses and were greeted by, who i think was supposed to be, our prince charming. Our tour guide was a 20 something, pretty good looking as I was asked to judge repeatedly, male who would serenade us not just once but several times. Often times to the beat of a clapping bus. I have about zero idea of what he said, but know that he talked long and often and too frequently disrupted my nodding sleep.
Some 3 hours later, after a quick
Push me
apparently noone knows how to swing....it's china, what did i expect? WC stop where we women flooded both the women's and mens restroom (plus of traveling solo...without men) and arrived at the road that lead to the entrance of the hot springs. It was strawberry picking time. So 75 women ran into the fields with their buckets and bags scooping up as many strawberries as we could handle. This part was actually fun, as I am a big fan of strawberries and I was much better than singing on the bus.
30 minutes later, after our strawberries were weighed we were off and heading towards the hot springs. Upon arrival, I felt like I was at a big water park. The hot springs were just a series of large swimming pools. We checked into to our hotel rooms, I jumped on my bed only to be reminded that all beds, even at the expensive hotels have the softness of a rock. After momentarily laying their in pain, Belle and I began to search our room. Bathroom consisted of a jacuzzi type tub....but only it was sunken into the ground. So to take a shower you actually walked down 2 steps...It was really weird and I almost slipped 3 times. It's
Glamour shots
Every tree, waterfall, entrance offers the opportunity to strike your best pose. At times, I couldn't handle it. like when the chinese try to expand and add western influences (a bath tub) they just miss the mark and in fact create something even weirder and harder to use.
After dinner were I was the only one drinking, we headed to exchange our outfits. Which brought oohs and ahhs from all around because I was wearing a bikini....It's amazing, by western standards, asian women have amazing bodies, but you wouldn't know it because they are all covered up in their granny swimsuit. The mean were speedo's and the women were not swim suits, but whole swim outfits, sometimes with skirts coming down to their knees. I saw only one other teacher in a bikini...scandalous.
The next 2 hours were spent swithing for this pool to that pool each making one part of your body superior to what it was before you set foot into the water. "Amanda, this one is for strong bones!" "Amanda this one is lucky!! See it looks like gold!" Actually it looks dirty, but of course in china they have a way of making people want to swim in the dirty pool.
We wild teachers were in bed by 10 and up
The longest boat ride
We were packed in with our lifejackets being pushed down a river that was at times only 4 inchs deep. I wanted to jump in just for some excitement We were packed in with our lifejackets being pushed down a river that was at times only 4 inchs deep. I wanted to jump in just for some excitement
again early for round 2. This day would be spent exploring an ancient Chinese village. China is one of the oldest countries, but you wouldn't know it because everything was destroyed and rebuilt to be bigger and better. So there are 10 famous "old" sites and my province. We were lucky enough to pay to enter one of them.....Us and about 13 other tour buses.
We returned in the early evening and I quickly scurried to my room for some alone time. I really do like my school and the teachers, but these chinese tours........
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Cindy A
non-member comment
85 more days! yeah! Grap all the moments you can.