From Guilin to Chengdu...

Wow! Oh my goodness! I am sorry to all of you who have been checking this like everyday! I need to get better at this whole blogging on a semi-consistent basis thing! :) But SO much has happened! I'm not sure if I can tell you guys about every little thing like I could've done had I been a good blogger, but I'll give it my best shot! Let me walk you through starting from when we left Hong Kong... (this may take more than one blog) :D

Day 1
We took a short flight to Guilin. It was still a torrential downpour, I think from a mixture of it being Monsoon season and also from the typhoon still blowing over. But anywho... it was at this point in time when I realized that mopeds are the preferred mode of transportation!

So after breakfast we hop onto a boat tour of the Li River! All I have to say is AMAZING!!! I saw the stuff I thought I'd only see in National Geographic! Chinese artists and poets have used these sights as inspiration for their work for thousands of years! I'm posting a picture, but you should definitely checkout my Facebook if you want to see more---------------------------------------->

We met a few Chinese girls while on the river tour and struck up a conversation. We found out how old each other was and what kind of food they liked and such, but the cool thing was actually being able to communicate with them. It was super cool to actually see the fruits of your labor- and in this case it felt like all my years of studying Chinese paid off just because I was able to converse with one person from across the world. It is kinda a surreal feeling that you don't really comprehend until it happens to you for the first time.

When we got off the boat we found ourselves in a small rural town where many people tried to sell me any and everything!!! I did manage to buy a pretty cool calligraphy set. Oh and I guess that a Chinese version of a mocha is 2 straight shots in a cup with a scoop of ovaltine powder! I asked for a little milk, but it was another good "cultural experience." We ended up riding these golf-cart-type vehicles into the scenic farmland. However, its beauty was a bit deceiving. There were so many poor people! I even saw women using their children for money! They would dress them up and make them look all cute, put them in a hanging basket and when unsuspecting-camera-wielding tourists took a picture, they would demand money! Total exploitation! I was very upset by it!

But after our excursion into the middle-of-nowhere, China we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of chicken feet and the GI tract of a pig! :p The chicken feet really wasn't as good as the Chinese people make it out to be...and the pig intestine tasted strangely like calamari! Following that night's dinner (which was an adventure within itself) we headed to the train station where I had my first experience in a sleeper car. Us girls got the most expensive and "luxurious" soft sleepers and the boys got the hard sleeper. The only difference really was that we had doors between the different compartments, and the boys didn't and had a bunk of 3 beds. All in all it wasn't that interesting and we made it to our next destination safe and sound!

Bible Verse of the Day:

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him--but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

Chinese Word of the Day:

Da Xuesheng 大学生 "College Student"