The Bus

Allen, a student, ordered a better bus but I guess the company didn’t feel like giving him what he requested. There were 29 of us but only 28 seats. This bus had seats that fold out into the isles to make full use of every square centimeter. I saw the bus driver working on the tires after it got us to the hotel on Saturday which didn’t bode well – but it was the next day that it actually broke down as it was coming to pick us up at the entrance to the park. Since it was in the middle of the road (normal for all cars, trucks etc) it ended up blocking the buses going down which was probably a good thing because the blocked bus driver got out and helped our driver fix our bus. The bus made it back but not until the bus driver took a wrong turn and we ended up going the wrong way round the Hangzhou Express Ring which added an extra hour or so to coming back. Most of the kids didn’t notice, they were asleep.

My Nanny(ies)

I guess that most of the ZUFE students had seen the downloaded or pirated version of the Nanny Diaries because the girls and guys that helped me the most called themselves my “Nanny” which was an apt description. From feeding me every variety of Chinese snack (spicy bamboo shoot strips on a stick were my favorite), carrying my backpack and taking turns trudging up the stairs with me definitely didn’t make me feel like the responsible adult in the group. It was nice. I sort of liked being dependent instead of independent for a while.

Before & After

See ---- I wasn't the only one tired from all those steps.

Spring on the Mountain

Even though you could see your breath as you huffed up the mountain and some of the snow hadn’t melted, the flowers had already decided that it was time for spring. I recognized Rhododendron because we used to have tons of it planted around my Delaware childhood home, and rest of the flowers were pretty but un-nameable. The pretty yellow one pictured above was my favorite.

Is The Translation Lacking or Is It Me?....

I know I was never very good at figuring out symbolism in my high school and college literature assignments so this is really way beyond me. I challenge all the members of my book club to see if you can figure out some of it. Most Chinese stories and legends have a lot of symbolism and really tragic endings. I haven’t heard any ancient Chinese legends where the boy and girl live happily ever after in the here and now. Some of them do get together in the afterlife but I don’t think that counts.

I am thinking this one is not one of their tragic love stories it might be about the cliff directly in front of me as I am taking this picture. Is it telling me to think about jumping?

You can click directly on the picture to make it a little bigger.

Daming Mountain - Sunday

Sunday morning was a little drizzly and foggy but the trek was still doable. After a wild (similar to Mr. Toad’s) bus ride with lots of hairpin turns we got to the starting point. We started climbing about 9:30 and got to the top by 12. I told you it was a lot of steps. Along the way we got to bounce across 2 exciting shaky cable bridges, eat some hot and spicy bamboo shoots, play in the snow and of course, take lots of pictures of the beautiful scenery even though the fog made our photos look a little washed out.

I had taken a class trip with this group when they were freshman in the spring of 06. They are now juniors and it is really nice to see how they have matured and grown not only in their English speaking abilities but in their personalities.

After they told me we had only gone 1/3 of the way I wimp’ed out and let the guide carry my backpack, but to my credit I didn’t go running for the cable cars – I kept climbing. (I know what Zac & Nicole are thinking– but remember I am way older than these college kids and there don’t seem to be many mountains for me to practice on in coastal Georgia – and I did make it up to ALMOST the top of Daming Mountain.)

Daming Mountain - Saturday

Daming Mountain is about a 3 hour bus ride (if the driver doesn’t take the wrong exit- but more on that later) south-west of Hangzhou city but still within Hangzhou boundary.

Side Note: I haven’t quite figured out how they can figure the population of a city when the boundaries of it are the size of one of our counties, and within those boundaries are many little towns/cities (with populations bigger than 200,000).

Anyway, back on subject… Daming Mountain which is pronounced like DOMing Mountain but should be pronounced like Damning because I sure d^&* well felt my age and there sure were a lot of d^%$ steps up to the peak. To relieve your suspense I made it 7/8 of the way – that last little hill to get to the top was not worth my huffing and puffing so I gave the kids a break and me a much bigger break and sat for about 15 minutes while they finished the rest and took the obligatory photos at the top.

We got to the mountainous area about 4 pm Saturday afternoon and checked into our little hotel. We walked around the area ate the local food for dinner and I taught 5 of the girls how to play Yahtzee. I wish I had thought to bring a Twister game with me. Somebody remind me to pick up one when I am home in August for vacation. This age group would be perfect for it. Plus they have all seen it played on the Friends TV series, which is very popular over here.

More on Daming Mountain in the next blog – but here are the photos of the trip I took