I go to PADI University

Rando side note on teaching in China: In every class, you will have some of the same kids- There will be a fat one who's so chubby they have to waddle, can barely make facial expressions because their eyes and mouth get lost in the chub, and generally is angry about something. There's the smarty pants girl with thick glasses who raising her hand all the time and always knows the answer (aka the Chinese version of me as a little girl). There are the annoying boys who run around screaming an doing karate or kungfu, and are generally mean to the teacher and have no idea how to speak english. There are the quiet nerdy boys who are so thin they look like they're going to collapse, wear big nerdy glasses, and never ever talk. There are the curious, but kind of stupid girls who just wonder around a lot. hmmm I think that's it for the stereotypes of chinese students. But they're reliable, seriously.

Anyways, on to the real purpose of this post- Tuesday afternoon, a day after our return from Chengdu, we were just hanging out in our room when Lila, our fav teacher, came up and told us we should take the next 3 days off and go travel. On the one hand, it's great to have time off to travel and is amazing. But on the other, it's frustrating that they can dismiss us at random because they really don't need us. So we decided we'd take the last 3 days and travel as Lila told us to (and she said we needn't go to our 5pm class on Tuesday either...). And Tuesday night when we were supposed to get 3 new volunteers, they of course didn't come.

Wednesday morning Martha, Ricki, JR, and I hopped on a 4 hr bus to Leshan (Mt. Happiness) to see the biggest stone carved buddha in the world! The bus ride was fine and cheap, a little over $10 USD. We got there and didn't have a hotel booked so we just walked down the street until we came upon one, which was pretty nice.

Ricki and Martha enjoying the western bathroom

real beds!

Then we went and had a quick lunch down the street and went to nearby Emeishan, which is a really awesome mountain that JR and I explored more the next two days. But also at Emeishan are some cool hot springs, which in typical chinese fashion, are more like nice pools that you pay to get into. It was so nice to swim a pool and just relax for a bit. They had various "fruit" pools which basically were just colored pools, but supposedly "rejuvenated your skin" and "removed signs of aging". The coolest thing they had though was a fish pool where you could pay to let the fish eat dead skin off your body! So of course, JR, Ricki, and I did it. Martha "doesn't do fish" haha. It was so hard to get used to the little fish sucking or biting (whatever they do, I don't know) at your feet. I'm not even that tickelish and it was insanely tickling. After awhile though we got used to it and enjoyed it. And by the end, my feet felt kinda they way they do after a real pedicure (OMG I can't wait for a real pedicure- hint hint mom). Then we came back to our hotel in Leshan, ate dinner, played cards, and went to sleep early.

Thursday morning we got up pretty early so as to beat the lines at the big buddha temple. Because it's a world heritage site and stuff, the tickets were expensive so I was glad I had my student ID with me for a discount. But my other friends didn't so I gave Martha my International Student ID Card, which worked fine even though we look nothing alike. And I gave Ricki my PADI open water diver card (for scuba diving), which 1) isn't a student ID at all and 2) has a picture of my from 8th grade with blonde hair (Ricki's a jewish brunette). The woman at the ticket counter was like, this isn't an ID. and Ricki was like, ya it is, I go to PADI university, and pointed to the PADI sign on the front of it. It was priceless. And she got the student ticket. :) Then we explored the temples around the buddha for awhile, and finally saw the buddha. It seriously was hugeeeee, 273 ft tall! The feet can seat 100 people they're so big. And apparently it was built in 700-800 AD. pretty sick.

the path we had to climb down to get to the bottom of the Buddha. The walls are all carved with little temples and stuff= really awesome

Martha, Me, Ricki, and JR in front of the Buddha! 

JR and I being old people with some awesome bamboo walking sticks given to us by an older Chinese couple

After seeing the buddha, we went back to Leshan and had lunch. Ricki and Martha decided to go back Thursday afternoon to Mianyang because they had to pack and get ready to leave :( so JR and I stayed on and went to Emeishan to hike and explore. Thursday afternoon we hiked around and saw lots of temples, monkeys, waterfalls, mountains, rivers. It was soooo beautiful! And not too hot but we were still sweating up a storm because of all the stair climbing. Hiking in China isn't actually hiking the way we think of it. It's more like walking along paved paths with stairs to various places, all crowded with slow, loud, littering chinese people. Not to hate but seriously Chinese people are so loud they make any tranquil serene place stressful. And they throw their trash everywhere. Some monkeys came over near us and some chinese people ran up and gave them food- a big no no, and then started giving them their trash- wtf?! why would you do that?! And when you look into any lake or anything, you see water bottles and other pieces of trash, it's so sad and gross. The idea of conversation hasn't happened here yet...Anyways, hiking was great.

the monkey and I before the chinese people scared them away

a waterfall we saw while hiking

the bridge to the monkey reserve, definitley not that safe. 

That night JR and I came back exhausted to our hotel, ate a quick dinner and went to sleep early.

The next morning we got up extra early so we could go to the top of the mountain. To get around this park though, it was super confusing. There were buses everywhere and various tickets we had to buy, etc. JR doesn't speak chinese so that was all on me. The buses ended up working fine but it was a bit frustrating at times. So it took about 2 hrs by bus to get to the cable car station. We wanted to hike up but realized we didn't have time, and that it was raining really hard and was kinda gross out. The cable car was sooo fast so that was cool. At the top we walked up to the temple and the scenic area, but since it was raining and we were so high, there was really bad fog and we couldn't see more than 20 ft in front of us. :(

the golden summit temple

the view behind me was supposed to be amazing

then we came back down and it actually took awhile so we were glad we left early. We quickly showered at the hotel and packed our bags to get the bus back to Mianyang. The hotel couldn't find a cab for us so instead the owner drove us himself, free of charge! so nice! That was the last nice part of the day...

We got to Emei bus station at 1:15 pm, thinking their was a bus to Mianyang at 1:50 because that's what they told us the day before. I didn't realize that that bus wasn't running every day, so when we went to buy our tickets, she told us there wasn't a bus until the next day. So we freaked out and bought tickets to Leshan, the town we were in the day before because they seemed to have two or three buses a day back to Mianyang, one of them at 2pm. We got there at about 2:10, so we missed the 2pm bus (if it even existed). So then we decided to take a bus to Chengdu (the city we were in the previous weekend) because they have a lot of buses and trains to Mianyang so we got on the 2:40 bus to Chengdu. That got in late and when I asked about going to Mianyang at the bus station, they said we had to go to another station in Chengdu to go to Mianyang. The worst part about all of this is that none of the schedules are online or easily accessible or something because no one can tell you what time these things run unless you go to the actual station, which makes booking return buses/trains/flights impossible until you get there. So we hopped in a taxi to the next bus station in Chengdu, which ended up being an hr to get there (and also very expensive). We got there around 6pm (when we should have arrived home on the original bus from Emeishan), not knowing if there was even another bus that day. But luckily there was one at 6:30pm, which got us in at 8pm- just in time to say goodbye to Ricki! So sad!

Since most of us are leaving soon, Lila and Candy, both teachers at the school, bought us some gifts! They're so nice! Then we had to say goodbye to Ricki, which is when it hit all of us that we've spent almost every second of the entire last 5 weeks together and now it's all ending! It also made me appreciate the fact that I'm still here for another week and 7 hours.

Lila and I with my new earrings and bracelet

the girls and Lila at Ricki's departure :(

After Ricki left, two new volunteers showed up. They are both from the Netherlands, one boy and one girl. They knew each other from home, speak great english and no chinese. Apparently they came to Mianyang with 3 other girls on the same flight last night, but the other girls were sent to another school in Mianyang! So we're all quite confused about where they are, but hopefully when Martha, Margaux, and I leave, they'll all come here and be together again.

I taught two classes this morning, and then helped the newbies settle in and get some stuff. Martha is leaving tomorrow :( so tonight we're celebrating her last night here and going KTV (karaoke). Margaux is staying in China, but leaving the Children's Palace some time this coming week. JR is leaving on Friday, and I leave Saturday (the 6th), then stay over in Shanghai one night, then off to Atlanta (via Detroit, ew)! So I get back to the US on the 7th.

This Monday-Thursday is a national holiday so JR and I are going to Xi'An, the ancient chinese city where the Terra-cotta soldiers are. Margaux spent a whole semester there so she's going to tell us lots of good things to do. The new volunteers are probably coming with us too, but they're waiting to buy their tickets until they know if their friends at the other school want to come. Josh is now permanently living with his host family and they're taking him away on other travels. Al doesn't really travel with us ever so he's not coming either.

Only one more week here! Oh my! I'm definitely glad to be going home, but will miss china as always! But I definitely can't wait to start my senior year at Vassar!!!