Another fun surprise was the little treat, sweet Melanie gave to me during milk break today. Milk break is basically an intermission of English class, it helps get some of the kids' jitters out. Anyways, Melanie pulled out this warm, swollen raisin (?) from her pocket and she was just so excited to give it to me. Naturally, I honorably accepted her generous gift, and then placed it in my pocket, as she had. She kept saying to me, "teacha, eat it!" but I just assured her I was saving it for later!
Another great surprise came at lunch time. I walked through the line where I get my breakfast, lunch, and dinner at, and then proceeded to the rice and soup bar. I reached to grab the spatula that sits in the large vat of rice, only to realize it wasn't white rice at all, it was fried rice! In my time here, I haven't seen fried rice anywhere and to just see that it existed was exciting enough for me! However, I did serve myself an extra large portion, I mean, it isn't everyday you get a different kind of rice with your meal. I quickly grabbed some chopsticks, sat down, and dug on in, only to uncover another surprise: American fried rice and Chinese rice is not the same thing. Theirs literally tasted of shortbread cookies, or maybe angel food cake. It was rather sweet, and I was more than thrown off; too bad looks are deceiving sometimes.
Today is also the day we are heading to Guilin and YangShuo, so we got on the Kaiyin bus and rode it down to the bus station. We had a little bit of time to kill before we boarded our bus, so we cruised the streets a bit to see what they had to offer. Our little groupie was walking and we passed a purse shop. I wasn't too interested, until I caught a glimpse of a fanny pack in the window; I took a double take, realized it was a fanny, and ran in! In order to have a complete outfit, I just had to buy it. I think it's definitely one of my better purchases here.
The next surprise wasn't the best surprise, but it sure was a very big and unexpected one. Before we left our apartments, Amanda and Preston, being the wise and responsible ones that they are, reminded everyone to take their passports and make sure they had their tickets. Everyone said that they had theirs, so when we went to give our tickets to the bus tenant and Lexi didn't have hers, we were a bit shocked. We quickly tore apart her bags, only to find that it was nowhere to be found. We couldn't just leave her behind, she is part of our crew and, it's her birthday this weekend. No one can be left alone on their birthday, it's just not acceptable. Anyways, she payed some serious cash flow to get a new ticket right then and there. Thank goodness for Amanda, Gloria (our native coordinator who translated for us over the phone), and cell phones.
Final surprise, our bus to YangShuo was no ordinary bus, it was a sleeper bus! I had never heard of these before, but they're incredible. If I were to try and describe it, I would say it's almost something a bunch of hippies would take on a music tour and smoke a lot of weed in, or maybe something you might see on a Harry Potter movie. It's a big double decker bus with bunk beds inside of it. Each bed comes with it's own pillow and blanket (a little dirty, maybe. Who knows when they were last washed, but whatever), a tv like on airplanes, a little baggage carrier, etc. I just think it's the funniest thing that there are so many people crammed on this bus, all sitting/laying in these little beds while driving through crazy Chinese traffic.
I've found that China never fails to surprise me, which serves as a constant reminder of how different China is than America. I am so glad for these surprises and to be experiencing the things that I am, however. Change can be hard or uncomfortable at times, but it makes us stronger and better people. This world has so much to offer, I can't wait to explore it even further.
Pictures:
1: the magic sleeper bus
2: our cute little bus director, Johnny
3: Chlo and I in, bed? On the bus
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