Horse Trekking!

Mama Naxi/Noxi (can't remember) was kind enough to set us up with a horse trek into the neighboring cliffsides. 

Sadly the horses already looked so tired and this was in the morning...

Nonetheless, we all were thrilled by the prospect of a chill horse ride through the wilds of China.

I was more concerned with staying on my horse....

The hills were treacherous but the horses were relatively steady despite the insane incline.

Of course the landscape was absolutely gorgeous.

They also provided a meal of an original hot pot... though it lacked flavor. Still we were happy to get some food.

We were then taken to a lake with horses in the front yard of this boat house type deal.

The sunflowers were huge and were all over the place!

This man acted as our tour guide of the lake. He also was the engine for the boat.

Lots of vegetation and sadly little dead fish that floated along the surface. Saw lots of beautiful dragonflies and other bugs that skittered along the lake.

Last on our day's schedule was a trip to a traditional Naxi village.

Few photos taken because the place was chock full of goods that we all got carried away in bartering.

A place to rest my head...

and to dance until I drop ;)

New destination... We finally caught up with our other half after our shenanigans in Guilin.

We spent the better part of the sunlight hunting down our hostel and finding some sustenance that wouldn't horribly upset already delicate stomachs...

The area was decorated here and there with these wall murals that were quite massive. You couldn't quite get a full capture of them because the streets were randomly narrow with tiny bridges over the vast waterways that weaved through.

A dear friend and I went hunting for some food and we stumbled upon this adorable restaurant that catered to a multitude of tastes.

Dancing, singing, karaoke, club, bar, and good ol' fun.

Most importantly... burgers.... :DDD

Water Buffalo Pools

After our river adventures, the group split up into two parts; one to get tattoos while the other went on a bike ride to hopefully go swimming.

We found a few water bison/buffalo just wading around in these pools with their nose rings tied with rope to a nearby tree.

They seemed so chill, which really fit the atmosphere.

This was our final destination. When we arrived a couple of people had just gotten out to leave for some other fantastic location. Everyone but me jumped in, which I now regret but I didn't want to swim that day. Perhaps I'll return to this amazing locale at some point in the future.

The bike ride was long but filled to the brim with amazing views of the landscape.

After our day in the sun we were forced to separate and choose once again as a problem occurred with train tickets. Either we could stand in a 17 hour train ride or wait a day and hope for tickets on another train( or two). Seeing as I felt horribly sick (contributed to my not swimming earlier) I elected to wait a day. I was a little heartbroken because that meant I would miss out on Cormorant fishing and potentially another site that was absolutely gorgeous.

Instead we had an early birthday celebration with lots of drinks, dancing, and awkward stories to tell the other group once we met up later on.

I even got roses out of the whole shebang :D

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 19th - 23rd

Day 22 – June 19^th

I’m locked inside my apartment.

Turns out if you lock the outside cage door you really do turn the apartment into a cage. Eff… Thank god Sarah came back for her lunch break. We ended up heading out to the noodle house where we met a fellow foreigner from Cali. Apparently he also teaches English at a nearby institute. What are the chances?

With it being my day off I spent my time revising Matt and I’s university class then played Harvet Moon and some Pokemon.

My schedule for next week is kind of inconvenient. I don’t have the consecutive days off.

Day 23 – June 20^th

BOOOOOORED DAY OFF. AAAAAAAAH

Day 24 – June 21^st

Taught my first class at Nokia. This was my only class and was at 6:30 pm. Class seemed pretty cool. Most of the students don’t have an English name.

Taught my first class at Nokia. This was my only class and was at 6:30 pm. Class seemed pretty cool. Most of the students don’t have an English name, which makes pronunciation for me a little interesting. I’m butchering their names and I don’t even remember all of them. One of the students (quite possibly the youngest) asked me what I do on the weekends. I’m curious as to why he asked. 

Day 25 – June 22^nd

Day off = lazy. Heat = lethargic and anti-movement. Thank god for books and my DS.

Day 26 – June 23^rd

Annika got into contact with me today and tried to figure out a time to come out and visit me here in Xiaoshan. Kind of fell through because of the lack of decent directions and time in general before I was supposed to teach classes.

I was supposed to teach my Nokia class again but it turns out that J.C. switched me with his business class with Jenni. Either way not a bad switch I would get back to the apartment half an hour later but it would be for a good reason.

Jenni is one of the best students I’ve had aside from the Nokia group. I ended up teaching about entertaining clients, which she already seemed to know about but had other questions that were actually related to what the unit taught.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 9th-10th

Day 12 – June 9^th

So, woke up at 6 am again. Why do I keep doing this? Sat around and finally decided to say good morning to A Yi. I assumed she had gotten the call from Jim about me moving out so I just got ready and started reading Path of Daggers. Unfortunately I’m seriously losing my wits end over not having more to read. I’m going to have to make a run for the city and check the foreign language bookstore. Hopefully they’ll have something for me. Who knows?

So I sat around then A Yi brought me an unwrapped Zhong Zi…? The triangle of glutinous rice and pork. I swear that stuff that makes it slimey must be the fat. I read somewhere that these are boiled for a long time so I can only assume that causes it. I’m no cook but I’m pretty sure there’s no liquid out there as comparable to that.

A Yi left about half an hour later. I guess Jim didn’t give her a call. I sat around for a while since I only had once class and it being at 6:30 felt no rush to head over to the High Long Plaza. Turns out I was wrong, it started thunderstorming or threatening to do so as I worked on a thank you post it note collection for A Yi. I wrote a message in English, Pinyin, then in Simplified Chinese characters. God that is difficult. Augh. Anyway got that going and hurried my way out of A Yi’s. I’m going to miss her. I saw her at the office once so maybe I’ll see her every now and then. :D Here’s to hoping!

After I arrived I saw Jim and he handed me the keys and gave me instructions for the apartment. Looks like I’ll need to figure out the internet after I figure out just what the hell I’ll need for this place. I wish the rain would let up though, it’s annoying carrying around an umbrella when it’s so windy and thus useless.

Two workers took me to the apartment and helped me set it up like seting out the sheets and such. I honestly can’t remember their names for crap but they’re sweet. We went to Lotte Mart right afterwards and we bought a ton of noodles. One even came with Tupperware. I then bought myself the same old delicious and sweet fruit cup I had discovered just recently and then we made our way out of the store. Just as we got to the ground level, one of the workers’ bag had broken. We piled their stuff into mine and then each took a handle as we walked back to the plaza.

I ended up getting duck and rice, figured I would maybe get enough meat off of the damn bird this time. The workers had bought a vegetarian dish and offered to share with me. It had all kinds of veggies, some I was familiar with and others I don’t know but equally delicious. It was really good.

It turns out that my class was cancelled.. sort of? Maybe the student forgot… Oh well. 

Day 13 – June 10^th

Woke up several times this morning. MY body is not happy with me right now for whatever reason when it comes to sleeping. Remembered I had classes at 1 so I decided I would get a shower and grab stuff for the apartment. I checked through the kitchen and noted that there were bowls and some potentially useable cookware. Grabbed a bowl to discover it was covered in some kind of brown sticky grime. Oh god. Tried to wash my hands and maybe the bowl and found sticky stuff on the sink faucet too. WHAT IS GOING ON?! I splashed and rubbed the faucet down with some water then checked the stove. It’s gas, easy enough right? Wrong, I don’t apparently know how to start a gas stove.

The microwave played a bit of a game of peekaboo with me before I got it working. The fridge has a really funny smell, not like just food that is different from even Korean fridges, just… funny. I’m a little worried about using the thing. I’ve kept it off/unplugged for now.

I’ve made two trips to Lotte mart today. I’ve spent about 300 RMB altogether. I still need more stuff. Augh. At least the rice cooker seems to work.

Taught 2 out of 4 classes. Students just don’t seem to care to sign up for SPA classes… Taught Della and Gemma as well as Steven’s class. Steven can do the English pretty well as well as John. I’m a little confused as to why they act out wait.. damnit.

J.C. and Zack took me out to the street food street. Got to meet their favorite vendor and we got some rice dumpling type thing covered in spicy spices and a fried pumpkin thing. They’re so good. 

This humid weather is not pleasant please go away or at least just give us rain.