Jungle Hijinx

[Note: please don't forget to read James's and David's posts! They are the first posts for both of them in their respective countries.]

[Edit: Yes, I do read comments, and I enjoy them muchly. Please do comment.]

So at the request of some peoples, I have decided to write a bit about this weekend and put up some pictures and things. The program I am participating in went to Lianyungang, a coastal city, to enjoy the coast. I did, in fact, encounter the fabled Monkey King on Huaguo Shan (Flowers and Fruits Mountain), but he was slightly less imposing than I could've hoped for:

His elegant bearer is another student in the Nanjing program by the name of Jackie. The people in the background are also from the program, as you may have already guessed by the non-Chinese-ish-ness of most of them. (I have yet to see a Chinese person with red hair).

It rained the entire time we were in Lianyungang. I actually kind of enjoyed it, because I like the rain when I'm not getting wet or when I don't care, and it meant a break from the heat. But some other people in the program thought it was the most depressing place they'd ever been. The actual city itself was pretty gray and drab, and like every other place in China, had the usual ubiquitous cranes, since the Chinese enjoy building things. We went to this mountain to visit the Monkey King in the morning, and I didn't get many pictures after that first one I put up here, because my lens got rained on and fogged over. But later that day we also went on a boat ride (it was really just a boat ride - we went out to the edge of the bay and turned around and came back - I think some of the students were expecting that we were actually going somewhere and were rather disappointed). And it rained while we were on the boat, too, so once again I have no pictures. By that point, despite our five kuai (a little less than a dollar) ponchos, we were all pretty soaked, so we went to the beach and jumped in, lemming style.

After we managed to soak every last article of clothing we were wearing, Tang Laoshi* (the program director) decided we should go back to the bus before someone drowned (someone had been pulled under by the riptide the day before and drowned), so chaos ensued. No one ever really knows what's going on when you're in China. One group went back to the bus to see how much water the seats could handle (and during which time I tried to get someone's phone to play Mario for their ringtone), another group played soccer on the beach, and another group went with Ping Ping, the program assistant, to play mahjong at a local restaurant. And then I got to eat hotpot that night! at a super sketchy place in downtown Lianyungang with lots of shirtless sweaty Chinese men smoking and shouting (except for the deaf man and his friends). Tres picturesque.

The next day we went to a valley (Yu Wan, I think) and climbed up various paths and things. And I hiked down half the mountain and across this...... in my bare feet (couldn't get my shoes wet...). The Chinese aren't really big on safety. They are, after all, trying to reduce the size of their population. This shows in places like this park, where you have a rickety chain and a few posts as your only support to keep you from getting washed off of a boulder and down onto some rocks. While I and some of the other students were deciding whether or not we wanted to cross this obstacle, we saw a man grab his screaming five-year-old daughter and hoist her above the rushing water, since she didn't manage to keep hold of the chain. But we didn't see anyone die, so we went across. (It wasn't really that bad).

For your edification, a pretty waterfall from Yu Wan:

Since our weekend adventure, I have switched into the next highest difficulty level Chinese class, because my first one was too easy (I probably should've reviewed a bit more than I did before the placement test). So now I have an essay and a speech to write for tomorrow, and a hundred some characters to memorize.

Which I will attend to now.

The original Jungle Hijinx.

*Her actual name is Tang Shuxia; we call her Tang Laoshi; Laoshi means "teacher."