Guilin and Yangshuo-pictures!

What a trip! :) I got back almost a week ago, but since I got back, I've been busy catching up for those 3 days I missed... and I've just been too lazy to post pictures. ;)

Here's the filthy train we took from Wuhan to Guilin...

Here's what 15 hours on a train without sleeper seats will do to you!

Here's the group of girls I traveled with (from left to right):
Hadeel from Sudan, me, Areen from Palestine, Luiza from Algeria, and Rahma from Tanzania. (And I probably butchered the spellings of those names!)The girls loved hearing me even TRY to pronounce their names throughout the trip... haha. I only knew Luiza before the trip... the other girls are all friends of hers, and they all go to a different university here in Wuhan. I met them at the train station before leaving for Guilin... I was afraid that we wouldn't have much in common, and that the trip would be awkward... but we got to know each other pretty quickly (15 hours on the train helped! ;), and we got along great! (I'm starting to realize that I have surprising amounts of things in common with people whose backgrounds are totally different from mine!)

Being a foreigner in China automatically makes you attractive and "popular"... and the fact that our group was so diverse only added to the attention we got. (We started joking that WE were the main attraction, not the caves and such.) Most people just took pictures of us without asking... anytime we were posing to take a picture, random Chinese people would get out their cameras and take a shot. But we didn't have to be posing... they took pictures of us just walking by, eating, etc, etc, etc. One couple even started walking with us while a friend took a picture of them! It was really annoying after a while... I don't mind attention, ;) but it never ends here!

At least this girl was nice enough to ASK for a picture. :)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we got up bright 'n' early on Monday to take some bamboo rafts down the Li River. It was beautiful! (More pictures are in my albums--see links below.)

I'm just so glad I have opportunities like this... :)

Here are links to my pictures:

Guilin and Yangshuo, part 1

Guilin and Yangshuo, part 2

lovely :)

Well, the long train ride was most definitely worth it. We spent Sunday and this morning (Monday) in Guilin, then grabbed a bus up to Yangshuo. Both cities are really beautiful, but I think Yangshuo is my favorite of the two. We're going on a boat ride down the Li river tomorrow morning (leaving bright n' early at 6 AM!!), and then heading back to Guilin in the evening, so we can see a few more things there and then catch a 7 AM train back to Wuhan on Wednesday morning. This train is supposed to take 16 hours, but at least we got beds this time around! I'll be posting some pictures and stories when I get back.

I'm skipping 3 days of classes for this trip, but I think I'm actually learning/practicing more Chinese than I would on a regular day in class. I'm getting to the point where I can carry on a conversation of some sort, so I've been chatting with the shopkeepers and such. :) It's definitely a much more enjoyable way to learn the language that sitting in class is!

I'm really loving Yanshuo... it's a smaller city, but it has a lot to offer... actually, I'm enjoying it so much that I'm starting to consider moving here and taking a teaching job at a language school we saw! (After I graduate, of course-no worries!) ;)

on the road again...

I'm in Guilin! Yesterday afternoon at 3PM, I got on a train with my travel buddy Luiza and 3 of her friends. (I hadn't met them before, but they're nice girls! One's from Tanzania, another is from Sudan, and the other is.... I think from Algeria, like Luiza. I'll have to ask again... I'm still working on learning how to pronouce their names!) We were told the train would take about 12 hours... but we didn't arrive in Guilin until about 5:30 AM!!!! (That's about 14 and a half hours!!!!) And when we booked our tickets, the bed spots were all already taken... so we were in "regular" seats all night! It was definitely not the most pleasant trip. (I was even checking online for plane tickets this morning, because I would much rather spend some extra money than ride back the way we came... but there's only one, and it's over 700 RMB, so I guess I'll stick with the train... hopefully we'll get bed spots for the way back!)



I've been on trains in Europe plenty of times but Chinese trains are a different animal completely. They're incredibly dirty, the people are loud, and they have no qualms about ignoring the "no smoking" signs. And the train was really crowded for the first part of the trip. The seats were all filled, and there were people standing in the aisles for hours on end... here, you can buy a train ticket to stand in the train if you want to save money. There was an empty seat next to me, so some of the "standers" took turns sitting in that seat for a while.



But I'm gonna quit whining now... my friend Becca is in Ghana right now, and she just spent 10 days traveling around Africa on busses and sleeping in bus stops... so she's probably laughing as she reads this. ;)



Being a foreigner here automatically draws attention... but when you're traveling in a group, you attrat even MORE attention. And in Chinese culture, it's not considered rude to stare at people, read over their shoulders, etc. So people on the train were kneeling on their seats, looking over the backs of their seats, etc, watching us play cards, eat ramen noodles (I've never enjoyed ramen noodles as much in my entire life!), read, talk, etc. I honestly can't wait to be home where it's not weird to be a white girl! (Actually, I spent about 75% of the ride wishing I was at home in my soft bed!)



But that's over with now... and I'll never have to do it again, until Wednesday, when we head back to Wuhan... after that, I'm avoiding Chinese trains at all costs!



We got to our hostel around 6 AM... as the rest of the city was waking up. So we checked in and tried to get some sleep. I slept off and on, waking up about ever hour (it was so loud outside our window!) until about 10, then I got up and took a shower, and read the Word had a nice Western breakfast in the lobby for a while. :) And now I'm taking advantage of the hostel's computers and internet while my traveling buddies are getting up and getting ready for the day. We're going to spend today in Guilin, and then head to nearby Yangshuo tomorrow morning... supposedly, this area is one of the most beautiful parts of China, so I can't wait to see it for myself! :)

let's hope the train ride was worth it... ;)

Wuhan School for the Blind

If you read my Happy Easter post, you might remember that I mentioned visiting the Wuhan School for the Blind. It was a couple of weeks ago, but I never really got around to putting up the pictures...

The kids were really excited to welcome us!

We told them the Easter story, and then some of the Chinese helpers translated for us...
We taught them "This Train" and had them dance around like a "train"... they loved it.

The kids were anywhere from about 8 to 18 years old. And most, if not all of the students live at the school. I was amazed at how much energy and confidence some of these kids have! I expected them all to be shy, quiet, and reserved, and to stay in one place. That was the case for a few of the kids, but a lot of them were running around (literally-running!) like any other kids. And they rarely ran into other people- they have incredible hearing. One of the little boys was even doing cartwheels all over the place! And when it was time to go into another building to start our program, they were the ones showing us how to get there!

After our "program" was over, we fed the kids some cake and juice (they loved it!) and sat around talking to them for a while... I got a chance to practice my Chinese! It was a lot of fun, and it's near to our university, so I'm hoping to get a chance to go back! There's also a school for deaf kids down the road from there... Who knows, maybe I'll get to go there too! :)

Click here if you want to see some more pictures...