Yangshuo, Day Yi

Vacation, vacation......how I love vacation. Today Chelsie and I were up before the sun and were on our way. We hailed a taxi and got to the airport. As soon as we were on the plane and about to take off, they announce that the runways are really congested so we will "wait a moment" (which always means a lot longer than just a moment) to wait for the runways to clear. This ended up taking an hour. The flight was uneventful and we got into Guilin around 11 in the morning. We found our taxi driver who took us to our hostel. We are staying at the Trippers Carpe Diem in Yangshuo and it's already one of my favorite places I've ever stayed. Our room is simple, just a bed and a desk and a bathroom. There is a common room, a pool table, a rooftop where we will be taking tai qi (chi) later this week, and a balcony with a hammock. Love. We also saw a guy doing some hay gathering....

Our hostel from the front

entry-way

It's very colorful here!

After unpacking and laying on the bed for a bit we decided to go grab some lunch. The kitchen at our place was closed so we had to go to a hostel just down the road. Guess what.....we finalllllllyyyyyyy found fried dumplings that are as good as the ones from Wuhan! After lunch we played a scandalous game of "love" Jenga. I compiled all the best ones and took a picture.......

Chelsie told me the best joke I've EVER heard. Ask me about it.

"I'm going to reward you with 30 seconds of uninterrupted eye contact"

wah wah wah

We saw a really cool plant on the way back to our hostel and I had to take a picture of it for my mom. "Hey mom, do you know what this is?!?!?"

We sat on the couch for a while and talked to the front desk girl here who helped us decide what we should do on our vacation. We already had a bunch of stuff that we had looked up and she kind of just helped us map out our days. Then the hungry monster struck again and we decided we could go to West Street which is the main foreigner hub of this place and poke around. Our walk along the Li River was gorgeous. I couldn't believe we were still in China. This place is such a stark contrast to the noise and traffic and crowdedness of Beijing - it's incredibly refreshing. Trees and bushes and plants cover every surface that hasn't been paved and it truly is a very Seuss-ish feeling.

First glimpse of the river

These trees are so cool

"Yangshuo is a perfect example of all that is good about tourism. A harmony of nature, people, and culture...I wish you all the best and my continued support"

We suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a "Hey-Lady" market (so nicknamed by Chelsie's mom and Tina). And then we found passion fruit. As a child growing up, my mother always used to buy passion fruit juice and whenever I drank it I would think to myself "there is no way there is a fruit that actually tastes like this." ....and that is what I have always believed. Until tonight. Passion fruit may be in the running for my absolute favorite fruit. It's so sweet and yummy and kind of tart. If you haven't had one, I am sorry for you. Go find one. We ventured around the market and then came to the real West Street. It was awesome. The street was built pretty much right up to the edge of several of the mountains (which were all lit up and beautiful). Unfortunately my camera takes bu hao night pictures so I can't accurately portray how gorgeous this was. We both bought a few things and the one that I'm most particularly excited about are some of the tiniest little shoes you've ever laid eyes on. I'm investing in my future child. I can't help it - China has adorable children so they have to have adorable things for them.
(You'll just have to wait for a picture of these shoes.....)
We ate dinner at a for real Chinese restaurant which was a delicious choice for me but an unfortunately not so yummy choice for Chelsie. I got my favorite traditional Chinese food: tomato and egg with rice. So delish. Then we decided it was time to head back to our hostel. As we were leaving town we came across some ladies dancing and since we've both always wanted to join one of these dance sessions......we did! One of the ladies looked back at us and smiled. I'm guessing it's not too often the foreigners actually join the dancing instead of just watching. It was a very relaxing and soothing experience and I'm pretty much positive that I will be doing it again, and so will everybody who comes to visit me. Get excited. The walk back to the hostel brought out the frogs. We had seen several that had been squished on the road, but no live ones. Well.....we saw live ones, 'nuf said.

Can you find him?

Most unusual/interesting part of today: this guy:

On our walk back to our hostel we discovered that we were going to walk into a path of pitch blackness. It was kinda scary but luckily we had our handy phone flashlights which we both turned on. We sang songs the whole way there.....included in our repertoire was Justin Bieber's "Baby", Mary Had a Little Lamb (all 4 verses), Willaby Wallaby Woo (Romp n' Roll song), My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion - from Titanic), and a little N'Sync. Needless to say we made it back safely, even if we did almost pee our pants. "It's not that I'm scared of the dark....I'm just scared of what might be hiding in the dark."

Mama Cita and Papa Frita

On Thursday Chelsie and I spent the morning planning our Halloween event. Soon after we finished we were hanging out in the art room with Yogi and Melinda and Bella and Chelsie disappeared for a minute. Upon returning she asked me "trick or treat?" Of course I chose treat (dur) and she handed me my birthday package from my mom and dad!!!! I had been anxiously awaiting this because my mom told me she was sending some goofy and random things. Well, here are the contents of said package:

Contained in the package: letter, gum, cotton balls, cookies, makeup, my best friend Becca's wedding announcement, magnet and keychain (made in China haha), postcards, some unmentionables, and t-shirt (both Colorado propaganda to entice me to move back to CO soon haha). There were also some pink flip flops. Those stayed at work to be office shoes. To show my somewhat childish but hopefully not offensive to my mother appreciation:

As a friend of mine (whom I gifted with the nickname Booty) recently said, "I don't know what fake feels like, so I gotta keep it real." - words to live by. Yo.

Are you sure she's only 2?

There was a little girl named Chen Chen in one of my classes on Sunday who was absolutely adorable (just like pretty much all the other kids....) Anyways, after class we were playing out in the lobby and we started building with the blocks. Let me give you some context so you can fully appreciate what I'm going to show you. Most kids that play with the blocks here build for about a minute or so and end up with maybe a couple blocks stacked on top of each other with a bridge connecting them. Sometimes they get the triangles or cylinders involved but still, the buildings are never more than 1 or 2 blocks high. After a few minutes I realized that Chen Chen was strategically building something and I just sat back and watched in amazement and fascination. She clearly had a design in her head and executed it beautifully. Somewhere along the line a younger baby came along and started messing with the blocks. Instead of freaking out like most kiddos would, Chen Chen let the baby do whatever and then she would just build that part back up. I was fascinated. Here is the finished product:

She was a little camera-shy :) This is with no help from me, except for a few blocks on the bottom. I asked Bella if we were sure this girl was only between 2 and 3 years old because this blew my mind. She is going to be an architect some day.

Got Spots?

Today, I got cupped. There's not much to say about it, other than it was a very strange feeling. Unfortunately Chelsie was getting her toes done while I was getting cupped, so we didn't get a picture of the process. Next time. Here's a picture of the end result, followed by a brief description/history of cupping....

Fire Cupping

Cupping Therapy is an ancient procedure in which a local suction is created on the skin, whose practitioners believe mobilizes blood flow in order to promote healing. Suction is created using heat (fire) or mechanical devices (hand or electrical pumps). The use of Cupping Therapy has been a part of most cultures of the world. It is known in local languages as baguan/baguar, badkesh, banki, bahnkes, bekam, buhang, bentusa, kyukaku, gak hoi, Hijamah, kavaa (ކަވާ), singhi among others.

History

There is reason to believe the practice dates from as early as 3000 B.C.; the earliest record of cupping is in the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest medical textbooks in the world. It describes in 1,550 B.C. Egyptians used cupping. Archaeologists have found evidence in China of cupping dating back to 1,000 B.C. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates (c. 400 B.C.) used cupping for internal disease and structural problems. This method in multiple forms spread into medicine throughout Asian and European civilizations.

Cupping in Europe and the Middle East grew from humoral medicine, a system of health ancient Greeks used to restore balance through the four "humors" in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. This system was pervasive in European and Middle-East cultures at the time. Humoral medicine had a brief revival in European medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries, and cupping was used in this practice.

In the West, cupping therapy was part of the basic repertoire of clinical skills a doctor was expected to understand and practice until the latter part of the 19th century with some Eastern European countries such as in Poland and Bulgaria continuing to practice cupping therapy to the present. In parts of Western Europe there has been a recent upsurge in the interest from both public and academic perspectives. Scientific studies researching the effects of cupping therapy attempt to better understand the mechanisms underpinning this age old medical treatment. Societies like the British Cupping Society have contributed to its re-emergence as an alternative therapy.

Traditional Chinese medicine cupping

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) cupping is a method of applying acupressure by creating a vacuum on the patient's skin to dispel stagnation—stagnant blood and lymph, thereby improving qi flow—to treat respiratory diseases such as the common cold, pneumonia and bronchitis. Cupping also is used on back, neck, shoulder and other musculoskeletal conditions. Its advocates say it has other applications, as well.

What's for dinner?

Cake. That's what's for dinner. Last night after a seriously long week, Chelsie and I went to our coffee shop (yes, we've dubbed it ours) and decided that we should just have cake and coffee (or a vanilla milkshake for me) for dinner. It was a most excellent choice. Sometimes following the rules is just stupid.

Last night I also acquired a new wallet. Come to find out, there's a bargain market right around the corner from our apartment and favorite Indian restaurant. I've decided that bargaining can be so much more fun and a lot less stressful if you just laugh about it. Everybody involved knows it's a ridiculous process and yet we all engage in it anyways. I bought a new watch and a wallet. The girl I bought my wallet from was priceless. I was having trouble deciding between 2 wallets and she said "This one matches your purse, this is the one" and I said "you know, I think you're right"....and the bargaining began. She started at 150, I started at 40. She went down to 145, I went up to 42. I kept saying "how about......" so she came back with "how about......one three nine". We were both laughing and at one point she used the wallet as a telescope to look through. I ended up paying 50. This is the kind of bargaining I like, and I think under different circumstances we could have been great friends.

Temple of Heaven

On Wednesday we headed to Temple of Heaven. We didn't have a tour guide and we didn't do any research before-hand so we had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to see. We kind of just ended up wandering around and seeing the different buildings. I wish we would have stayed in the beautiful green part of the park for a while longer....next time I guess. We ventured down the "long corridor" and saw lots and lots of people playing cards - it looked like they were all playing the same game. We were entertained (and curious) by how fiercely they slam the cards down.....it was like slap jack!

And then......we stumbled upon the temple! Left to our own devices we just looked around I wandered away from the group and got lost for a few minutes. Not to worry, I found my way back :) I think this whole experience would have been much more interesting if we had a tour guide, so that's a definite must for next time.

Some more wandering brought us to the Echo Wall and the "Circular Mound".....very literal names here. I'm not entirely convinced that the echo wall works because I could hear people yelling all around so who knows if the sound was projected around the wall or just across the space. I remain skeptical.

The circular mound was oddly beautiful. It reminded me of a place where sacrifices might have taken place way back when.... 

 

 All of this wandering about had me hankering for some ice cream. At one of the many little shops we stopped at I grabbed myself a delicious dark chocolate magnum (no, that's not a joke - that's really a brand of ice cream bars). Upon seeing my frozen treat Chelsie said "Oh well if you're going to eat one I have to eat one too. I'll be too jealous." Hahahahaha this is why we get along so well - no guilt trips about dessert in this friendship.

Hey. Keep your eyeballs on your own eyescream.

Well, that's the Temple of Heaven adventure. Oh, except that we were spit out on the complete opposite side of the park so wee had no idea where the subway was. I went up to a nice little man who appeared to be a local and asked "Zinar ditie?" and he totally understood me! He pointed straight ahead, did a motion with his hands that we figured out meant bridge, then pointed left. It would seem as though he has dealt with many foreigners asking where the subway is because he used very few words and had the hand motions down. We followed his directions and not only did we find the subway, but we also found STREET FOOD! Since leaving Wuhan and its delicious food street, I have been missing street food immensely. This was a yummy yummy yummy little biscuit sandwich with potatoes stuffed inside. I was in Heaven.

Birthday Month!

I love birthday month! I got a birthday package from my sister Brittany and her family about a week ago containing some DELICIOUS homemade cookies and adorable cards from the kiddos. I wish I would've thought to take a picture of the cookies before I gobbled them all up and the cards are at work so I will have to share that picture tomorrow.

Today I arrived at work to find a much anticipated package from Cody and his parents waiting on my desk. It was like Christmas morning :) Cody had been telling me about how they were having fun picking things out and his dad especially chose some goofy stuff. I'll let you decide who picked out what, so here are some pictures:

I LOVED that the comics were included in this package :) I was sitting in the office cracking up and my coworkers were trying to read over my shoulder but they just didn't get the jokes.

Here's an up-close picture of those awesome magnets :)

Now, not to be forgotten, is my dear sweet boyfriend who knows me better than many and most people. Which explains how he knew that this was the absolute most perfect card to get me for my 23rd birthday:

I'm just going to go ahead and give you a photo-tour of the most splendid card that, as Cody said, "was made specifically for our relationship" haha......here you go (you're welcome):

Are you disgusted that a boyfriend would send this kind of birthday card to his girlfriend all the way across the world? Well......that's why I'm dating him and you aren't. So to those of you who have already sent me birthday packages and wishes, here's my formal appreciation:

Animal Prison/Hey, There's A Person In That Tank!

We did SO MUCH tourist stuff this weekend! Tuesday we went to the Beijing Zoo with Bella and Cherry. When you walk into the zoo it looks like this:

Doesn't it look like it's going to be just the most beautiful place ever? We were so excited because it was such a pretty beginning, we couldn't imagine what the rest of the zoo might hold.
Before embarking on our adventure, we decided to help this little guy out of his shell...

We came across some zebras who were pretty much domesticated. They could come right up to the fence and people were feeding them all sorts of things - lettuce, peach pits, apples, etc. I can't imagine this was very good for the zebras, even though it was kinda cool to pet a real live zebra......

 This little guy and his friend were too cute to just not take a picture of.....

haha what a cheeseball

Something that I love about China is how close friends are. The girls link arms or hold hands when they are out together and it's such a simple show of affection between friends....I love it. Chelsie's mom put it best when she said "Remember when you were little and you would hold your friend's hand? And then when do you stop doing that, when is it not okay anymore? They just never stop doing it here...." I'm glad that they don't.

I didn't take very many pictures of the animals because they were just so sad. They were all laying down like they were depressed or trying to eat the walls of their cages because they were so disturbed. The rhino was missing his horn. The tigers were in cages the size of circus cages. The only animals that were even somewhat happy were the pandas, and that's because this is a zoo built specifically to showcase pandas...

After walking through the whole zoo, we were feeling very sad and very ready to head to the aquarium, which was supposed to be really good. It's also the largest indoor aquarium in the world! I knew it was going to be fun when we walked in and immediately were greeted with this lovely display of ChEnglish: 

I don't think many of the pictures really need explaining other than a few, and that's what captions are for......soooooo enjoy!

This thing looked prehistoric, I've never seen anything like it before

China is obsessed with entertaining their children

Seems an appropriate place for a bear statue....

For those of you coming to visit me here in China, I will not be going to the zoo with you. It was too depressing and horrific. I will gladly take you to the aquarium though, and we can go to the dolphin show that is entirely in Chinese and yet still awesome.