My second week in China is kind of a blur. We went out around Matt’s place just about every night. We went to Pizza Hut in China. It’s really funny because they have pizza…obviously… but also a ton of Chinese food. We walked along the river, everything in China has tons of lights at night. We went out to dinner with one of Matt’s friends another night. And then we tried to go see Kung Fo Panda 2 at the theater but they only had the 3D version and it was expensive so we just bought the DVD for like a dollar at the store and went to McDonalds to get some ice cream. Another night we got a massage but my lady hurt me. My skin hurt to light touch for like 2 days. Besides this and eating I didn’t do too much this week with Matthew teaching. Since I got here I have finished 3 books and over 4 seasons of How I Met Your Mother. I would also go into school and help Matt grade and stuff like that. But other then that I couldn’t go around town by myself because I would just get lost and almost no one in Matt’s city speaks any English.
On Friday Matt was done at school around noon so we were able to take the train into one of the cities right next to where Matt lives. It’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful places and they have these really pretty gardens. I guess Marco Polo called it the closest thing to heaven on earth. After we got off the train we hopped onto the subway. Then when we got off the subway there were a ton of people trying to sell us maps and tours and whatnot, just like it is everywhere else. But this time we actually took this one lady up on her offer because it was actually a good deal to have this guy be our driver for the day and take us to three different places. So we ended up with this old van all to our selves with a personal driver to pick us up and drop us off. The first place we stopped was the silk factory. It was pretty cool and we got a tour and everything. I have some pictures that I will put up later of that. Then we went to this one garden I don’t remember what it was called. But we could tell that it was about to rain so we bought and umbrella which was good except that it poured so hard that the one umbrella couldn’t cover both of us and we still ended up soaked. So when we got out of that garden we bought another umbrella so that we could both have one and try to stay at least more then half dry haha. The last place we went to was Tiger Hill. This place was really close to the other garden so we were to just walk there and our driver would meet us when we were done at Tiger Hill. But we didn’t know it would still be pouring while we were trying to find it. We only walked the wrong way for a few minutes though so that’s good. Tiger Hill was really amazing because it has this super old and tall pagoda. I have some good pictures of this too that I will put up when I get back from this vacation. After we looked around the garden we went to a couple shops around the garden. I got myself and some other people some suvineers. I was able to find a little something for Grace and something else (that the guy said is very popular) for Brianna. And a set of matching something’s for my sisters and one more person so maybe Grace again haha. Then we called our driver and started our trek back home so that we could meet the people that Matt works with for dinner which was fun but the restaurant was really nice so we both felt funny wet and underdressed haha. Then we got home and had to pack to come here (where I am writing this right now).
On Sabbath morning we walked the 20 minutes to the train station with our heavy bags because we didn’t want to leave the scooter at the station for almost a week. That was not a very fun part of the trip. Then we got on the train to Shanghai and then a connection subway to the Church. The Church is huge. We go up to this top room where the service happening downstairs is projected onto a screen and there was a lady translating everything for us. It was communion Sabbath so I was able to wash feet with this lady from Africa that spoke English very well, and was very nice. It is interesting because the foot washing process was pretty stressful because it was so loud and there were so many people trying to get the basin and you are just standing crammed for a pretty long time (just like almost everywhere in China) But it was still a nice experience. After that a bunch of the younger people that speak English meet up at the mall right across the street for lunch. And then we get back on the subway and then walk to this guy Jerry’s house to have Sabbath school. Luckily one of the guys we were walking with offered to carry my duffel bag so I only had my backpack at that was so nice! Sabbath school was really nice I enjoyed it and liked the lesson. We had to leave early to walk to the train station to catch our 22 hour soft sleeper train ride. I wish that the guy that carried my bad was going with us to the train also because it wasn’t super close, we had to walk back to the subway and then to the train from there. But it was ok. The train was really funny. We had the “soft sleeper.” We shared our room with two other people and the man that was in there was kind of odd, really nice, and kept sharing food with us, but odd. It was weird because we didn’t turn off the light until like 11pm when Matt and I finished watching the new X-men movie (which I didn’t think was nearly as good as the first three) and we weren’t sure how to get the light off. But then our roommates woke up really early and just turn on the light and start talking really loudly. I don’t understand manners in China sometimes I don’t think they exist haha. And there was also this really loud annoying music coming out of a speaker in the ceiling, which was old so it didn’t even come in clear. But overall the trip was pretty good. I was able to sleep pretty well and the 22 hours didn’t seem all that long. Ok well I will write more later about the trip I am on now.
