3 am

Well, we've made it as far as Canada on our journey home for the summer. It's 3 am, and I am wide awake with jet lag. The good news is that in 7 hours, we'll be meeting up with our families at the airport!

On our way here, we flew out of Beijing, which is getting all ready for the Olympics. It's safe to say, though, that the city's strategy for cleaning the air pollution isn't working yet. Having lived in China for the past year, we had forgotten what smog-free air was until we landed in Toronto this evening. What a pretty sight...

We'll probably not be updating the blog for a while, since we'll be busy visiting in the States until the end of August. Be back then!

A Little Side Trip

This week we went to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain). It's only about a 3-hour bus ride, and is thought to be the most beautiful mountain in China. The mountain is only about 6,200 feet, but don't let this deceive you. It's many sharp peaks make it a tough climb. Our plan was to go up the easier (and less steep) eastern route (5 miles), have lunch at the summit, then come down the tougher and more beautiful western side (9 miles). This was our plan, and it was going beautifully until somewhere between getting on the Western trail and getting to the bottom, we made a wrong turn.

This turn took us down into the canyon formed between the many peaks--since we were going down, we figured we were in the right place... until the path started going up again. And then it went up some more. Our second mistake was following some Chinese tourists who seemed to know their way, leading us to take a second wrong turn and ending up back at same peak of the mountain that we had left 4 1/2 hours earlier.

We were exhausted, frustrated, filthy and no longer enjoying the hiking. Without enough time or energy to hike back down on a path actually leading to the bottom, we decided to take the cable car, only to find out it quit running at 5pm.

So, we were stuck. Many tourists plan to spend the night on top of the mountain to watch the sunset and sunrise; but we hadn't wanted to stay overnight, so we hadn't booked a room. After three tries, Matt found us a place to sleep. This morning, everything seemed a bit better, and we did see the 5am sunrise; after which, we immediately began walking down the same way we had come up the first time, determined to get off the mountain and be done with the whole thing.

We estimate we walked approximately 17 miles up and down uneven stairs, although our legs feel as if could have easily have been 30 miles. Things definitely didn't go as planned, but the views were amazing--definitely the most dramatic mountain peaks we've ever seen. And, hey, we have a good story out of it--I'm sure we'll find it all funny when the pain in our calf muscles wears off.

The Other Face of China

This past week, I (Amy) traveled to a county in the southwest part of our province to visit a student's hometown. This is a part of China that will never be seen by Olympic tourists, as the "villages" near Beijing and other big cities have been tweaked to make them more "accessible" for tourists.

To give you some background about the rurality of where I went: we took a 5 1/2 hour train from Hangzhou to Lishui; then we took an additional 2 buses for 2 hours to get to the villages. The county is called Jingning and is an area populated largely by the She minority group. There are numerous villages throughout the mountains.

I was looking forward to the natural beauty and mountainous scenery, and I was not disappointed at all. The landscape is similar to the Smokies, with the addition of bamboo trees. The best part was that this was more untouched and less touristy. It was amazingly refreshing.

I was also looking forward to seeing the "real China." Many of the people in China do not live in cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Hangzhou, but rather live in small towns and villages. I wanted to see this side of life. I loved the people in the villages; it's a world where everyone knows everyone, people chat with neighbors outside after supper, kids play in the street in the middle of the village, and life is actually lived instead of rushing from place to place. However, to say the least, being there threw me into a bit of culture shock. Having lived in Hangzhou, one of the wealthiest cities in China, I was not prepared for the poverty and backwardness that is still the norm in the country. The house where I stayed was much poorer than I had anticipated, with concrete floors and walls, no running water, a communal outhouse, giant spiders and other critters. Being there, I finally understood the high stress the my students often talk about, feeling a huge responsibility to get good jobs so they can provide a better life for their families back home.

Our New Place

We are moved in, unpacked and already loving our new apartment. It is nicer, newer, and quieter. It's also much better for having friends over. We love being out here where our students and friends live, rather than an hour away. On Saturday night, we walked to the supermarket; during the one-hour round trip, we ran into at least 30 people that we knew! What opportunity!

Here are some pictures of the new place, minus the living room. I'll post pictures of it when we get the sofa recovered (it's currently a very ugly faded red, white and black); it will be all black soon.

(You can click on the picture to make it bigger.)

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July yesterday along with some other Americans (and an Aussie) by eating pizza, ice cream and Oreo cookies. Living in China this past year has made us feel even more appreciative of our country. We have learned that there are many things that shouldn't be taken for granted. Happy 4th!

Pink!

My friend Joni and I decided to get highlights in our hair for summer. She was getting red, I was getting strawberry-blond. We were surprised how well the conversations went, considering our very limited Chinese vocabulary. We told them what we wanted, picked colors and the process began. One hour later, I had hot pink hair (very hot pink). Luckily, it faded a little after several washings the next morning. And although I would never have intentionally done this to myself, it's kind of fun! (This is the faded version.)