Favorite Bizarre Moments from Spring Fest...

Hangzhou:

So we walked around the plaza and souvenir market and a girl came up to me. I could tell she was working up the courage to talk to me, so finally she said, “You are beautiful!” I said “Oh! Thank you.” She continued walking with Kim and me. Then I stopped and said to her, “Can I help you?” and she said, “Yes!” and skipped away. Then I watched her for a bit thinking that she was trying to pick our pockets or do something. But nope, she just skipped away to lala land.

Also in Hangzhou:
After eating dinner at Pizza Hut, Kim and I went outside and I noticed a crowd of people across the street. I wanted to see what was going on, so we watched for a few minutes. Then they started to run. I thought maybe there was a celebrity or somebody important coming. Nope. It was the bus. They all ran like there was a famous person on it or something but there wasn’t.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain):
The showering facilities are hilarious at the hostel we stayed in. You assemble it yourself. When the old grandma took it out of the box, I couldn't help but crack up. Are you serious? The shower hose attaches to the sink and it drains into the toilet. And it leaks from the sink where it attaches to the faucet. Oh I wish I had taken a picture of it.

Back in Hangzhou:
We missed the 1:30 bus to the Pudong airport in Shanghai unfortunately by like mere minutes. So we got on a 2 pm regular bus to some other bus station on Shanghai. We ran to the subway and I definitely ran over some woman’s feet with all of my luggage in the subway. I felt a little bad about that. We ended up getting on the Maglev fast train at 6 something and we actually got to the airport at about the time our plane was leaving. We missed our flight. We bought two tickets for the next morning to Guilin and then Kim asked, “Uh excuse me, do you know where the Burger King is?” Yes, we just missed our flight and yes we just paid an extra 390 kuai to get a flight tomorrow and we have nowhere to sleep tonight but we’re more interested in Burger King, the shining jewel of Shanghai’s Pudong airport. That was an interesting night.

In Shenzhen:
We woke up at like 6 am one morning because of the Thai lady who wouldn’t stop burping and snoring next to us. Oh my goodness. I don’t know what was wrong with her GI tract. She was nice but man…those sounds were just not right. She belched loudly for at least an hour in the morning. Kim said she woke up and stared at her like, "Are you really gonna do that?" Yes, she really did that. I tried to sleep through it but it was impossible. It was like an earthquake coming out of her esophagus.

We had breakfast at noon at the hostel and then we went back to the room and the Thai lady prayed with us. She gave us her business card for Bangkok, Thailand which was quite funny cause we actually ended up going to Thailand.

Hong Kong:
We ended up going out with Dani as a last minute thing to Lan Kwai Fang. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life. It ended late and there was a brawl in the street. Kim and I were running away from the fight but they were like rolling down the street and fighting at the same time cause they kept up with us as we were trying to run away. And an ambulance came and the guy jumped out like a superhero and in a dramatic way asked, "Where was the fight?" And took off in the direction. It was crazy.

This spring festival was more memorable than last year's for sure and I managed to keep all my stuff which is good. It makes me a little sad to think that I'll be going back to America and I won't have these adventures anymore.

Some thoughts...

Last night, I went bowling with a bunch of Koreans that live in my building. Which meant that most of the time, they were speaking Korean and whatnot. I was the only non-Korean person there which didn't bother me. Sometimes I forget these things. I guess if I wasn't used to this sort of situation, it'd bother me. I guess it's just something I do. I don't usually hang out with other people who are Indian, I don't know why. Maybe because I didn't grow up in an area with tons of Indians. Actually, now that I think about it, I never had Indian friends until college. Mostly because I didn't know any other Indians until there was a small population in my university. In middle school and high school, I always hung out with the southeast Asians it seems. Or at least they were my closest friends.

So the trend continues in a different continent. You'd think in China surrounded by 1.3 billion Chinese people, I'd at least be hanging out with a bunch of Chinese people or the other Americans from Drake. Nope.

Tai was right...my life is ridiculous

A few days ago, I went to work out at the gym near my school. I saw a plump, naked woman there which is perfectly normal at gyms here. I had a feeling she'd start a conversation with me so I avoided eye contact and tried to get my stuff to go work out. "Hi," she says timidly. I knew it! Let me say she was more afraid of speaking in English than of being naked in front of me. So we talk for a little bit, she says that she's seen me before at my school. I told her I am a teacher and she told me that she is a student. I awkwardly avoid looking at her. So I got my water bottle and went to work out. I worked out for about an hour or so and went back to the locker room to retrieve my purse. She was still standing there....still naked. At this point, I was like okay whatever and got my things and left.

Then I thought about it for a while. Did I stun her with my "foreignness" so much that she couldn't put on any clothes for the next hour? Was she reliving the moment over and over in her head so much that she forgot she was naked? Does she just hang out at the locker room buck naked for kicks? Anyway, I realized that my life really is ridiculous as a friend once pointed out to me.