Today we were going out with one of Katie’s students and
apparently to a party! Not until 10:30, though. So we stayed in bed and relaxed
for a while before I finally got out of bed to check out the new internet
situation [no more video or Facebook or anything], and then Katie got to Facetime
with her brother for a short while.
We got ready, and then headed out to grab breakfast [honeyed
toast at the bakery] before heading over to the school, ready for a fun day! We
found Abby and Greg sitting outside the gate, so we joined them, and soon Yoyo
was there- with her daughter, Dora Echo! Who, by the way, is possibly the
cutest 3 year old I have ever seen in my LIFE! She’s so precious! Super shy and
quiet, but she did offer me a little candy, yay! Haha
It took a little longer, but eventually a mini van pulled up
with the kid, Mike, one of Katie’s first graders, plus two of his friends and
his mom. So then we stuffed ten people into a seven-seater and yes, it was a
ton of fun. I shared a seat with Mike in the middle as he played with his two
friends. They were all so cute, playing around and sharing the candy we gave
them!
We spent the next two hours driving around town in the van,
passing through Huaxi Park and trying to find parking to a little shopping area
[reminded me a lot of home, wow]. Eventually that worked out, and we got to
this little place to eat which is apparently famous for their beef noodles in
Guiyang. It was so crowded! And we had to split up to four tables, it was so
crowded and all. The noodles were good, but I couldn’t stomach the cabbage for
some reason, the taste was so sour! But otherwise, there was real roast beef,
and it was pretty awesome!
And the bowls were huge! I couldn’t finish mine, I felt so
bad. It looked like I had eaten so little, but trust me, I was stuffed! And then
we bolted from there, walked a bit and got into the van, and crossed over to
Huaxi Park! Which is a famous Guiyang park that we’ve been dying to go to, so
we were very excited and loved it the moment we saw it! Very awesome!
Finally we were parked, and then we were taken to one of the
community barbeque thingies. Which isn’t American barbeque, so do not be so
deceived! I mean, they smoke and cook it but not over open flames and
definitely not with real BBQ sauce. Anyways, this one mostly had fish. It didn’t
have bones, but it still had fins, eyes, heads and scales everywhere. Which
were covered in a yellow crust of sorts. If I could have dug out the meat, that
would have been fine, but since you were supposed to seriously eat everything,
I couldn’t do it. So we ended up getting the message across that us three girls
can’t eat fish.
But we did try potato slices, and onion, a bit of tofu and
even sausage [tastes like bacon], and then someone had brought homemade
cheesecake! That was a pleasant surprise and almost American, seriously. So we
hung around there before being led around the park for a while.
Which was so lovely! We kept stopping to take pictures. It
was beautiful and people were swimming in it and people were paying to ride
horses [which are definitely a Chinese sort of breed, there’s something
different about the horses here, but Katie and I couldn’t figure it out], and
we loved it! Then Greg wanted to try the darts set up everywhere, so we all
ended up trying it out. I got 7 out of 10 with my darts, booyah!
And they gave
us two little keychain toy things. One for Dora Echo, who skipped and kept
dropping it on accident. And then we got this tan bear thing with one of the
creepiest, most disturbing faces I have ever seen!
But it was all fun.
Then we drove around, couldn’t get through one area so we
went back around another path [yeah, I was really turned around!] and we were
wondering if we might even be going home by then since we didn’t even have the
kids with us then- but then they took us to this other place. It’s super chill,
like a big wooden structure building and you can rent out a room and chill out
there. Play games, buy dinner there, bring snacks, and such.
That’s where all the kids were! The mom had made it a bit of
a party with friends and even more kids! I had a hard time keeping track of
them. There were at least five more, I think, besides Mike and Dora Echo. We
sat down with a few snacks before stepping outside to play and laugh and watch
the kids. Then we got pulled inside and we taught the kids Down By The Banks [I
call it Hanky Pank, is that so wrong?], which took a while because there were
so many of us but the parents had brought prizes which was fun and made the
stakes higher. Then we thought up another clapping game that took forever to
explain but they got the basic idea and that was pretty fun for a good while,
too!
Soon the kids were running around again! There were stairs
nearby and they were seeing how high up they could jump off- one kid was
jumping and skipping at least 6 stairs! Crazy kids! And Dora Echo was even
skipping at least 2, which was crazy. She’s so tiny! She’s 3 for crying out
loud! Being responsible adults that we are, we stood there, clapped, and took
pictures!
No tears. ;D
Haha, ehm, yeah… soon we got the kids attention though,
goofing off, so we did more Hanky Pank- one of the kids was super adamant about
being next to me and going super slow to try and get me out, the stinker!
It
was super funny and we were always trying to switch spots and stuff, it was hilarious!
Oh, and we did a ton of thumb war! Some of the kids were
slow at it but the older ones got it and took to it immediately, it was
ridiculous. We couldn’t beat one of those kids, it was pure madness, the
stinker!
But it was fun! Soon it was time for dinner. Super nice
dishes, all sorts of random things, a few soups and another fish dish, then
some funky things. One had peas and pods which I ate almost the whole thing of.
And then one dish had super duper extra long green beans, I kid you not, it was
a bit ridiculous. And Katie really liked this one… the outside was a lot like
cream puffs- flaky and all, and inside was this sesame sweet/spicy/sour liquid.
It looked like ectoplasm, black and all, very creepy, but it wasn’t too bad! It
was fun trying some of the odd dishes, seriously, although at the end we left a
good bit on the table still. I felt so bad! But we were stuffed! Why do these
people think Americans eat so much? I don’t understand…
Anyways, after that we played with the kids a little more, relaxed
for a conversation with Yoyo, and soon it was time to go with the setting sun!
I ended up dozing off for most of the trip, to be honest. I
was so tired! The day had been awesome, there was a lot of food, and sitting in
the corner, I wasn’t about to talk to anyone so I took a lovely nap! It took
about two hours- we dropped Abby and Greg off at Wal-Mart before taking us
home, and Katie played with the boys most of the time and they seriously loved
that, and it was pretty funny to watch.
Finally, we were dropped off right by our place. We thanked
them, waved good-night, and headed to our apartment! We sat down, unpacked
everything- the creepy bear keychain, the cool chopsticks from the first packed
restaurant that we sneaked into our purse [yes, they were the extra cheap ones
that get tossed out, but we couldn’t resist], and fans from Shanghai that were
a gift to us.
Fun Fact: Shanghai is pronounced “Shong-hii” by the way. I
know, I still can’t get used it. It’s ridiculous.
Oh, then we closed the night with Netflix, yay!
It was an awesome day and we slept super well!
No comments:
Post a Comment