Pastry anyone? Thank you, I'll take 3 plates full.
The view from the window of the 29th floor. Our view changed just a little because the 29th floor rotates!!
Enjoying my little jelly-filled doughnut with, can you believe it, powdered sugar!
My favorite thing in the world! All in all this was a fantastic trip. Not that I don't like Chinese breakfasts ... but french toast and maple syrup? Seriously.
Jordan is a sweetie pie but I don't think he's "all there". He has a lazy eye and always gives the biggest smiles ... and the longest hugs! Sometimes we can't get him off!
Alston is a smarty pants. He knows a lot of English but he misbehaves because of it. Still, I can't help but love his cute face!
This is me with Pace and Jesse. For a while I didn't like Pace because he would rather wrestle than pay attention, but he's growing on me. Jesse is a tough guy (he has me in a headlock) but he can be sweet if he's in a good mood.
Fat Spencer (we call him this endearingly) and Cole. Fat Spencer is mischievous. If something upsets him he has an attitude all day! But I think I'm on his good side because he shares his food with me. Cole is one of my favorites. Isn't he so cute!!
This is Ben. I used to teach him, but I don't anymore. He is the tiniest thing, and really likes karate! What an adorable kid!
My Chinese notebook!
Sucking up to Linda ... "Can I take a picture with you?"
We arrived at the Jasmine Hostel a bit earlier than expected and were excited to have a full day to discover the city. We decided that first we would take a cab to the Purple Mountains. Hands down this was the best cab ride I have ever had. We got in, showed him our special card that had Chinese on it saying "take me to (insert tourist attraction here)". When we started driving, our cab driver (a young Chinese guy, with "nice arms") started playing American music! Of course we started singing and dancing along. Pretty soon, every time our driver changed the song he would look into the rear view mirror to see if we knew it or liked it. It was so funny. We rolled the windows down and sang along to Sean Kingston, Busta Rhymes, and Akon! We were so surprised at the end of the ride when our driver asked us, in English, if we liked his music! We told him, oh yes!, and he gave Joelle his card! Best cab ride ever.
When we got to the Purple Mountains we had lunch ... a giant juicy apple and a Chinese taco! Then we began touring around ...
On the Purple Mountains there is a National Park with a bunch of tourist sites. This is me and Chelsea in front of some scenery in the "Linggu Scenic Spot" and a tomb of some Chinese guy. There were a lot of things to see on the tourist map, so we just wandered through the park, enjoyed "the charm of nature" and took pictures in front of cool stuff!
We climbed to the top of the 8-story Linggu Pagoda. The spiral staircase brought back some London memories. There was a great view of the mountains, and a lovely breeze to cool us off.
We needed a little refreshment after a while so we bought some treats ... Apparently you've been in China too long when you see/try/enjoy corn ice cream! Delicious.
We found this sign when we were lost in the forest. There was a random go-kart track with this sign on it. Yeah, you better watch out!
One of the biggest tourist attractions in Nanjing is the Mausoleum of Sun Yatsen, who is considered the father of modern China because he founded the Republic in 1911 after the revolution. We climbed up the steps (I counted 299) and then went inside to see his tomb. I kept wishing that I remembered more about him from my World History Class that I took senior year with Thompson.
The rest of the evening we spent in the city. I have now spit into the Thames, the Seine, and the Yangtze (or at least water that flows to the Yangtze)! We passed a gate of the ancient city wall, and finally found a park. We couldn't get into the park, but this sign made it worth it to me. Take some time to read the horrible English. So funny!
For dinner we went to a Mexican Restaurant called "Behind the Wall". It was actually pretty good food, but I couldn't resist taking a picture like this, because my leftovers really did look like barf ... eww. We were there for 2-3 hours talking and loving the weather.
The next morning we took a cab down to the Fuzi Miao, a really cool shopping area. We backtracked at first to an H&M and then made our way around the side shops. I actually bought some things!! Congratulations to me. Purchases include a hat, a belt, a wallet, some headbands, and a skirt. We decided to eat at McDonald's with the rationale that we eat Chinese food everyday in Hefei. However, I did buy a pineapple on the street and enjoyed it just as much!
Next stop of the trip was the Nanjing Massacre Museum. In 1937 the Japanese invaded Nanjing (then the capital of the Republic) and killed around 300,000 people, mostly civilians. The museum was really interesting. Apparently the Japanese deny the magnitude of the massacre (the rape, looting, and burning as well as the killing), so there were a lot of journals and personal testimonies about what happened. I really liked the museum and we spent quite a bit of time there.
After the museum we had the worst cab ride ever. We told the cab driver to take us to the Great Yangtze Bridge but he dropped us off probably a few miles away. After a lot of walking and help from some nice policemen, we found the bridge! There were some ladies who wanted to make us pay to go inside the park (which I'm pretty sure was free), but we couldn't argue because we don't know Chinese! So we once again wandered around and looked for a different way to get to the river. Stupid cab driver.
After dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant (again, we get Chinese food everyday in Hefei) we set out to find the old Drum Tower and Bell Tower. The city was really cool at night, and our hostel is close to Nanjing University so there were quite a bit of young people. We found both the towers, took some pictures, and then walked back.
On our last day in Nanjing we left early. We walked down a bunch of streets and ran into the Chaotian Palace. There were a bunch of people selling random trinkets, so I bargained for and bought a jade charm and a red string for a necklace. We tried to find the City Center, but had some difficulty, and then looked for the Presidential Palace, but it was taking us forever! Finally Joelle asked a young lady who pointed the way. We eventually had to ask another lady, who pointed the other way, and then just grabbed Joelle's arm and lead us in the right direction. I thought it was pretty funny, so I took a picture of her!
We checked out of the hostel and then went to lunch. We stayed at the delicious Deli sandwich shop for an hour or two while we waited out the rain and thunder and decided what to do before our 5:30 train. Finally we took the metro to the station. Chinese metros have so far been super nice. We waited outside the station, got some stares, and watched the fishermen. The train ride was smooth and we arrived in a rainy, thundering Hefei sleepy and traveled.
Not only was the water coming out of the leak in the pipe ... it started streaming through the side of the counter at this spot (see below!). Water everywhere!
All I could think to do was look at the leak and yell. Joelle came over and started yelling too! Pretty soon everyone was at our door thinking, "that must be a pretty big bug". The pipe actually ended up breaking off at one end so we started filling up the bucket with water, dumping it in the tub, filling it up again, dumping it again, filling, dumping, filling, dumping. Joelle was pretty wet! Meanwhile, we called Andy (our Chinese handy-man who works at the school) and he came over to check it out. He looked at it, called the plumber, and somehow shoved a stick into the pipes to stop the water.
As the plumber worked, we waited outside my room talking. Blah blah blah. Talk talk talk. Then we hear Andy say something that sounded like "who's beer?" Haha, we started joking about how I have a secret beer stash in the bathroom, and then wondered what he actually said. Suddenly Denny's like "wow, there really is beer!" And there really was. There is a "secret" closet in the bathroom (see above) that I never could get open, but you can access the pipes through it. The plumber looked inside and found a plastic bag full of empty bottles of brandy and heineken!!! The girls that lived here last must have been having a little too much fun in the bathroom.
Hey at least my clothes are clean ...
