Day 11: The Bus

Today, we had another successful day of teaching and the weather was amazing, it was such a refreshing way to start out the week. It was a bit chillier than what it has been, but it was the first time where I have felt cool and crisp air outside, it was wonderful. Another pleasant surprise was that it wasn't nearly as humid, either, and my fro of a hairstyle was non existent today. So many good things today, I just have no complaints.

We also celebrated Preston's, our head teacher Amanda's husband, 21st birthday today by taking another trip to walking street, bargaining with the vendors, and then making a trip to Pizza Hut. When we were on walking street, we had our first encounter of Chinese teens being so excited to see Americans. A group of about four girls followed us around a shop, for about ten minutes, before one mustered up the courage to ask us to take pictures with them. They wanted to take pictures with us in just about every possible situation with them: the whole group, individuals, only girls and them, only boys with them, etc. We kept trying to walk away, but we were unsuccessful in leaving them behind until we finally met up with the rest of our group.

We then took about a forty minute bus ride to get to the nearest Pizza Hut, but it was for Preston, so naturally we had to go, he and his wife seriously do so much for us. We really lucked out with getting them, they're so wonderful and so fun to have around, let alone the only ones who have any idea what they're doing. Anyways, we went to Pizza Hut and it was like a full on restaurant, nothing I was used to seeing back in the states. It was a nice sit down too, and even kind of pricy, for Chinese standards anyways. It was funny to see these petite Chinese ladies bring out all of this sick nasty, greasy American food. I didn't end up eating anything there, other than a delicious mango smoothie, because dairy really just doesn't sit well with me unfortunately. It was cool to see something so American in mainland China, though. We also drove past a McDonald's in town, so glad we are branching out all over the world. Yuck.

Since there were so many of us at one time, it was quite a lengthy process for us all to get the orders of appetizers, drinks, meals, etc. We got to the restaurant at about eight and got out at ten. Fortunately, we caught the bus right on time and we were on our way to the next stop where we transferred busses to go back to Kaiyin. However, as we were being dropped off, we saw the bus we needed to catch drive right by us, and after six thirty, busses only come every hour. So, we sat at this bus stop for a solid hour and entertained ourselves in whatever ways we could thing of: singing, dancing, buying fruit from the fruit vendors, trying to learn Chinese, etc. It was a long wait and all i could think about was how badly I wanted to climb into bed. It's been a long day, a great day, I'm just exhausted. I feel like each day I have so much to do, which is wonderful and I wouldn't want it any other way, but when bed time comes around, I just get so excited to relax and sleep. I'm so ready for bed, but, I'm still stuck on a bus.

Pictures:
#1: What time is it Mr. Fox?
#2: Walking street
#3: The wonderful and beloved Amanda and Preston