Water City

If I was not so dense, then perhaps I would remember the real name to the Water City, but anyways, thats where we went on Saturday. I apologize now because I kind of anticipate this entry being one of the more boring that I have made so far. I do not have any funny stories, and my pictures are mediocre at best, but perhaps this will be more of a focus on the people who I have spent the weekend with. If I do a good job then maybe it will be even more entertaining for you to meet them, than any crappy pictures of christmas lights on temples that I have submitted thus far.

Both Saturday and Sunday I have had the pleasure of traveling around with Lucy's parents, daughter, niece (I believe) and Roberto. On Saturday Alice and one of my teachers Bian (whose full name I can now present as Bianweihuan) also came with us on the water city tour. It was interesting because it also seemed to be some type of a historic museum as well. Take this picture of printed cloth for example, still made the old fashioned way and hung out to dry. Being what it is, there is something classic and beautiful about it to me. Dont you agree?








On a side note, they also have asian tour groups in China...I guess thats obvious, but they are different here. Here they wear hats, and their leaders walk around with a flag and a bull horn. I think they do this so no one gets lost and everyone looks silly...but not as silly as that guy in the middle of the picture who is too cool to wear his hat...the guy who is mean mugging me.



Here we are at lunch. Good looking group right? Chinese meals are interesting. Many of you know, but then many of you dont...that it is normal to spit bones and other grissel onto the table. Also, in China, you dont get boneless, skinless, chicken McNuggets either. EVERYTHING has bones in it, so you get all these neat little piles of bones sitting around the table which people just spit up. I dont know if you can see it in this picture, but there was this stuff called "smelly tofu"....and indeed, it smelled and tasted like camels. I'm serious. I tasted it then had to give it to Bian. Also, you dont have serving spoons, everyone just goes at it with their chopsticks that they just recently licked clean. Whatever though, its fun and all part of the experience. We are all family right?


Something new that was introduced to me is Chrysanthemum tea. Apparently its good for the eyes and health. Its been the hot thing for the past couple of days for me. Supposedly you can just use any old white chrysanthemums...its not bad.

Ok, now today, we went and climbed this mountain that is on the north side of West Lake. At the beginning of the trail, a bunch of people gather everyday to practice Taichi, sing, or practice this thing that I think is a chinese yo-yo. You got a rope between 2 sticks, then you spin something that looks like a big hour glass and balance it on the rope. You can toss it up and do all kinds of zany stuff with it. The thing that I liked is that people just go out and do it. If people went out and sang in the park, other "normal" people would kind of think they were weird.

Anyways, so neither of Lucy's parents speak english, nor does Lucy's daughter or niece, all to my dismay because I would have really liked to talk to them. Her parents have seen alot I bet, and her mom is a very famous herbalist. Lucy was trying to get her daughter (nick named Nei nei) to speak to me in Chinese, but I really couldnt muster up much of a response other than "Shenme?" (pronounced shunmuh). Then she would repeat herself slowly....then "Shenme?"....then she would go "ahhhhhhh!!!" and run over to her mom and ask her a question the rate at which normal people speak.

So here is Lucy's dad in a tree. He is 67 and just decided to hop up there. Lucy asked me if I can do that and I told her No.

Then there is Lucy's mom with her niece (and dad crashed out in the back post-tree climb)

Here is a good picture of Nei nei scratching some of her mesquito bites on her legs. If I ever complain of mesquito bites again, then punch me in the face. I had her count all the bites on her body, and we got something around 200. True story. Here is also a picture of a Daoist temple in the mountain we were hiking...not as minimalist as I would have thought.



So then we came down from the mountain and walked the walkway across West Lake. This time we could see around and I have to say that it is very nice. There is a very large amount of lotus flowers growing in the lake as you can see. I believe it is also called Lovers Lake, or something like that because long ago there was a snake that turned into a girl, fell in love with a man, then Budha got pissed because he said that snakes and man cant be together (as shown in my Wumei pictures) so he locked her in one of the temples by the lake. Later the guy came and rescued her. I'm butchering the story, but whatever you get the idea. Everything here has a story like that. Its a stereotype, but its also true.


One last picture that came out blurry, but I like it. Its a good picture of everyone in it. Its funny that we all dont speak the same language, but can still have a time such as that shown in the picture....or wait, everyone can speak Chinese but me...sooo whats so funny? (even check out Lucy's mom in the background.