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Back in Beijing.... back at work....
Well here I am. Having just caught up on everyone else's goings on I now have no time to write much for myself. Travelling o'China was amazing. I will be re-arranging the website to accomodate old writings about the trip and stuff going on in the present. Work sucks and teaching sucks. I wanted to turn over a new leaf this term but I already don't know what I am teaching tomorrow. I need to sort myself out cos all this leaving till the last minute only results in a headache. That could be because I haven't eaten anything all day though. Damn stress.
Oh to bed I go. Luckily I'm going to have a hot pot at the best restaurant in Beijing (free beer and ice cream!) tomorrow night so that should put a positive slant on tomorrow.
Night night.
Tuesday is better...
I woke up feeling quite positive today and after a not too bad day teaching, I decided to listen to Radio 1 for an hour before I go to the Hot Pot Extravaganza. I'm listening to the Chris Moyles show and Will Young is on and has the most infectious laugh I've ever heard- so sweet and makes you happy. I shall never make negative comments about him and his music again.
*** Oh I forgot to add this yesterday.....
During a lesson for the teachers at lunchtime I had written a passage about my pet dog for them, and one phonetically confused student seems to think that,
'Si likes shitting in my lap'. Laugh or correct her? Laugh. Every time.
Global Cafe, Yangshuo- 23rd January 3.10pm
I'm here! Just as predicted- drinking coffee, eating a banana pancake and half watching the Matrix 3. I can tell that I am going to have a fierce coffee addiction after this week. The rest of the journey was pretty painless. A guy arrived in my compartment and although the conversation was strained at first, we actually had some really interesting conversations about the Royal Family and education. I was also unindated with children and parents who wanted their kids to talk to me.
This one kid was really strange. Her English was absolutely amazing for a ten year old. I couldn't work out how she had managed to learn so well because neither of her parents could speak English and she said she didn't like studying. Her speech was peppered with 'I think I can say that...', 'How do you say...' and 'Yes, that's true'. Even though her words were extremely good for her age, she had an immature tone that was almost rude at times. It was very funny!
I arrived in Guilin at 8am this morning and got a bus straight to Yangshuo. When I arrived I was surprised that there were no touts ready to 'greet' me and I headed to the hostel that had been recommended to me. She started off trying to charge me 50 kuai for a dorm bed but after some haggling and professing my poorness she offered me an oddly shaped room sharing with a British guy for 20 kuai a night.
I had some breakfast in the hostel and then sorted my things out. To my extreme disapointment I could not get the hot water to work. Will have to try again later. All the time I was pottering around, my room mate was asleep so I've yet to meet him. Judging from his things that were scattered around the room I can safely presume he is an English teacher. Other than that, I guess I'll find out...
After that I took a walk around town. When I reached the river the scenery was really amazing. So beautiful and as I kept walking there were less and less people. It was so peaceful. It's quite foggy today so I hope my pictures come out ok. I'm hoping that at some point the sun will shine cos then it will be a little warmer. Its definitely not as cold as Nanchang though!
After walking around for a while I stumbled upon an internet cafe and had a well needed sort out of my emails on a decent connection. About time! Good news: J should be arriving here in the next few days. I've been feeling a little lonely and it will be great to catch up. Haven't really seen that many foreigners here considering its supposed to be such a hot spot. I guess they are out and about doing things. Hopefully I will bump into a few tonight to hang out with.
Right, I'm off to explore a bit more. Hopefully I'll find someone to do a tour with tomorrow. Can't just sit around watching movies and drinking coffee all day!
Huo Guo he Ci Ci (Hot Pot and Kind Words)
Well the hot pot was pretty excellent as usual. For those of you that may not be familiar with Chinese hot pot I will enlighten you. Usually you have one big bowl in the middle that is filled with stock (and sometimes weirdness such as sea horses and duck heads) and has a fire underneath. Then you order plates of thinly sliced mutton, vegetables and various types of noodles and then put it in the pot and cook it yourself. One of the reasons why this is the coolest hot pot restaurant though is because you have your own little pot and fire, which means you can add what you want and nobody can steal all your food. Then you can drink the soup afterwards. Very yummy and warms you up on a cold day. Then free beer to wash it down with and a milk ice lolly! Could you ask for more.
A 20sixer made this comment to me earlier and I had to record it to say thank you and so I can read it to cheer me up on the occasions when China gets me down (I hope you don't mind):
'Emma, I enjoy your blog tremendously. I admire your spirit and your courage.'
It reminds me how a simple, sincere compliment can really raise your spirits- I shall be making more of an effort to say nice things to others. You don't know when it might really make a difference to someone's day, month or life.
Lisa's Hostel- 24th January, 10:30pm
When I was walking around yesterday evening looking for somewhere to eat dinner I saw 2 people who came to China on the same programme as me (BC). However since I didn't know their names I didn't go over and talk to them.
Only a few minutes later I bumped into a BC girl from Beijing and she was with another from Shanghai. I don't really know them that well but it was nice to talk to a Westerner after 6 days of meiyou (not have)! I went to dinner with them both and then they invited me to spend today with them.
After a ridiculously long lie-in I had breakfast (well brunch... and nearly lunch actually) in the hostel before meeting A and M. We considered going on a boat tour but it was getting late in the day so we changed to a bicycle plan to Yueliang Shan (Moon Hill). Howver it turned out that M could not ride a bike. We toyed with the tandem idea but A and M were too wobbly. After a lot of discussion they sold us a man to ride the tandem and two other bikes for the day.
First we headed off down some country lanes which were really cool and the scenery was soo beautiful. It turned out he was taking us to a place where we could get a (very dodgy looking) raft down the Yulong river to Yueliang Shan. However since it was expensive and M can't swim (I know- no swimming or riding a bike- what did she do in her childhood?!) we decided against the idea and got back on the bikes. After riding for a bike we got to the Bayun Tree. It is supposedly more that 1400 years old. Its said that if you post a wish on a red piece of paper and pin it on the tree it will come true.
[P.S. Just got a text from E and she said she just saw me on TV! It was on that Waiguoren Talent Show I went to watch. How funny!]
There were quite a few wishes on there. It was really weird in the actual park- you had to walk around a certain way and get a boat to the tree. Even though it was possible to walk to the tree the guy would not let us... very strange.
Next we cycled to Moon Hill. We were short of time so I walked up quickly, chatting to people along the way. The views were amazing cos the skies were actually pretty clear today and the sun even shone for a while. On the way back we hadn't got very far before the tandem got a puncture! We had to walk quite a way before we found a guy to fix it and by the time he'd done it, it was dark!
We got back to Yangshuo around 7 and then had a well deserved nice meal in the Blue Bird Cafe. We decided we wanted to do a boat trip tomorrow, so we trawled around the travel agencies and hotels looking for a good deal. Whey are these things so complicated? We eventually found a not too bad priced tour up the river from XinPing in the afternoon so that should be good as the scenery is supposed to be the most beautiful there. Am planning not to be so lazy tomorrow and get up and do stuff in the morning. On that note, BED!
Pictures speak louder than words?
Two women while away the day in a temple at the top of a mountain in Dali...
Blue Bird Cafe, Yangshuo- 26th January 4pm
Yesterday was really good. In the morning I checked my email and walked around a bit. Then at 2pm we set off for XinPing on a bus, in order to get a boat from there upstream on the Li Jiang (Li River). XinPing itself was a bit of a dusty town that seemed to be existing on the boat trade for tourists. A guide met us from the bus and we walked down this side street to get to the river.
It full of people going about their daily business. Through open doors you could take a glimpse into the life of a Chinese villager. I could have stayed there and took pictures all day (if they would have let me) but we were hurried to the boat. We got on this quite new little vessel that resembled a canal boat, with a Chinese couple and their child. The guy looked like a Sino-Franco artist, very funny! He also spoke in this amazingly hateful tone- it was like everything he said was poison. It didn't help that he was complaining the whole way that the driver wasn't taking us far enough. Luckily I decided it was amusing otherwise it may have ruined an otherwise peaceful journey.
Floating on the river between these amazing karst cliffs was so beautiful. I've definitely overused this word when talking about Yangshuo but its the only word that comes close to describing this undescribable place. We then took the bus back to Yangshuo, and had a great dinner in cafe under the moon. Usually A can be a bit difficult to talk to but during dinner we hit on the topic of TV, films and cute/talented actors and she really became animated. It was a great conversation and the 3 of us got on really well. They left today. I'm really glad I bumped into them though, it was nice to spend a few days with others and it eased the loneliness.
Last night a new room mate arrived. She's a Japanese student of Chinese who's been in China for nearly a year. She said that she likes to go off into villages and talk to people. Was interesting to hear about China from a different perspective. I wonder if she suffers any prejudice from the Chinese. There is a strong anti-Japanese sentiment here that I have come across in many parts of China. I imagine that it stems from the invasion but that was years ago, and the racism that I have come across has been mostly from young people. I guess its comparable to an anti-German feeling in the UK which I personally have never found in young people (apart from football but thats a different story!). Its interesting.
Anyway, today a guy was asking me about my hostel as I walked out and then we ended up having breakfast together. He was a guy in his 50s I guess, who has been living in China for about 3 years. I would put this guy in the non-weird category though- he was pretty nice. He recommended a good tour guide to take me out on bikes to a village called Fuli today.
We took some very bumpy country lanes to get there but it was fun. I took a few pictures and we had a good chat. We took a little boat to cross the river to get to Fuli and there she bought me some sugar cane to try. You kind of chew it to suck out the juice and then spit out the rest. It tasted like drinking sugar water and it was fun to eat! We came back along the main road and there were too many hills and tunnels- scary!
So here I am eating another pancake. So good! Will try and book some transport to get out of here tonight and take a look round the shops I think. Still no sign of J. I'm starting to get worried. I hope she turns up tomorrow!