Adventures during the National Holiday

My brain feels congested from these past few weeks because I haven't been writing down everything that's been going on but here goes a summary of what went down during the National Holiday week

Sept 26: On Thursday night we took the fast over-night train to Shanghai . It was an average train ride, but I got to see the Chinese countryside and do some bonding with the peeps in the program. Everyone, of course, enjoyed some nasty bai jiu while I spilled orange juice all over my pants.

Friday: We arrived in Shanghai and spent the afternoon in the art district and saw some raunchy art, but the best part of the day came when we headed to Nanjing Lu. I got my camera stolen while trying to buy the world's greatest tasting egg tart (which it is). However, I also got to finally see the Bund.
It was absolutely spectacular. I completed my dream of flying a kite in China, and in the process I also danced with my friend, Ben and recieved my first dip(!), and was able to teach some Latin men how to do the 4-step in waltz. Basically, my first night in Shanghai was amazingly fun and very Singing in the Rain-esque
















































Saturday: I went to visit the Yu Gardens. My group and I, however, never made it into the actual garden because we got sucked into the surrounding market. No regrets, though. I finally tried chou doufu or better known as stinking tofu. I have to say it kind of reminds me of Shrek. It smelled like donkey poo but was warm and tender on the inside. Also, I tried to best snot-consistency type noodles for lunch. They were so spicy good that my nose didn't stop running for a good half hour afterwards. I kid you not.
Later on in the evening my group and I tried out our first club in Shanghai. We went to a place called Babydoll ( I think) and took along a German friend,Ben, we met at the hostile who later on saved me from being mauled by a huge, freaky European man at the club. Overall, I have to say it was a fun clubbing experience because I swear I almost got puked on my a Chinese prostitute who was tripping on E, witnessed the men and women of China get freakish, did the soulja boy dance, and more successfully taught a bunch of Chinese men how to get low during the "shorty got low, low, low" part of applebottom jeans song.

Sun: Sunday was a day of misadventures because after spending the day wondering aimlessly around yet another park my group broke up into two. Everyone but me and three other people in the group decided that we in no way wanted to go to a strip club. Ironically enough, when the four of us got back to the hostel we decided to go to the nearby KTV for some good, clean karoke. And surprise! It turned out to be a glittery brothel with scantly-clad girls everywhere. Before we really knew what we got ourselves into they were able to punk us into paying 300 kuai for some peanuts and water! So ridiculous.















Being innocent and eating icecream before being cheated at a KTV brothel.















We didn't even get to sing :(

Tuesday: We took a train from Shanghai to Hanzhou to see the famous Xihu, and it was beautiful. But because of the National holiday and a limited number of trains going to Shandong we were only able to spend the night exploring the lake. sigh, I really loved it and want to go back before I leave China. I didn't even get to see the women from Hanzhou who are reportedly suppose to be very beautiful because of the water!

Walking around the lake at night gave me such strong pangs of nostalgia. The mixture of ice cream, lights in the trees, couples holding hands, water shows, and candied Hawthorne berries ( I finally tried them, Katie) made me miss my family and all the people I love so much. Not to sound like a nerd but I kind of felt like Chihiro for Spirited Away - longing for her old life but so enamored by the beautiful night life by the lakeside and anticipating some effin huge dragon to rise out of the water at any moment. Then, of course, I let the actual moment and place take me over as my friends and I tried climbing over, on top, and even under one another just to watch the fountain show. The night did read like a Miyazaki film, though. After the fountain show, we stumbled into a jazz club where the women scolded us for bringing in boba drinks, men smoked cigars, and I ate unhumanly amounts of food and feared that I might turn into an anime pig. Then on our return walk around the lake we ran into a group of people dancing in the dark. Being the kids we are we jumped in line with them and started dancing away to the music as well. the deliciousness that is candied hawthorne berries.


part of the fountain show at xihu

Thursday-Friday: Ben, Susan, and I tagged along with Joy to go visit her parents' laojia in Shandong. Upon arriving in the Shandong, I realized that I can't make sense of the people in Shandong. Everything is forth tone and all "sh" sounds are "f" sounds. Despite my hearing comprehension going past the zero mark, the visit was so much fun and we were treated so well. We were able to visit a village where we met a overly energetic set of twins.

The night was by far the best part, however. Joy's father's old school schoolmate took us out to dinner, and I finally witnessed what a shit-show these dinners can become in the presence of bai jiu. Fortunately, I was spared from drinking because I spilled my cup all over the floor. One of my friends unfortunately was not. She ended up so wasted that puking up the bai jiu caused her to pull a abdomen muscle. That is the crazy power of bai jiu! After settling her into bed, I got to go out to a real KTV (not the brothel kind) with a bunch of 40 year old men. One of the best karoke experience I've had to date. We sang "Beijing Huangying Ni" song at least 10 times.


we had lunch at her uncle's hen ke ai de babies
the bai jiu melt down

enjoying a real KTV


because we couldn't get seats for the train to beijing we sat in the doorway for 10 hours