Wuhan

10/29/2011 China Date and Time

Wuhan-Somewhere between Wuhan and Guilin.

Ok….So sorry about my last post. It was a real downer, but I guess there are a ton of different emotions available, and that’s what hit me in the middle of the night. Ok, so we arrived at WuChang station and took the bus to the hostel at 5:30am.

We walked down beautiful paths, and it had just rained so the streets were clean and it smelled beautiful. It was so nice. The hostel was still locked when we got there. There was a number to call to let us in, but we did not see it until we had waited outside for a few hours. It was such a nice cute place that the seats outside were fine.

 A revival of China loving feelings began to flow. The beauty that China offers everywhere is so different from America.  There are temples everywhere in China, beautiful exotic trees with huge leaves on them, and BEAUTIFUL bridges everywhere. I thought that we would have to visit big cities like Beijing and Shanghai to experience temples, but I have found that in places smaller like Xian and WuHan they are everywhere.

We sat talking early in the morning, and heard a Monk singing in the distance. It was so cool, and so enchanting. A man walked passed us whistling to the tune of the song. It reminded me of Church bells chiming songs in places I’ve lived. I remember singing along with them too.

There were these two cute dogs sitting on the other side of the glass door waiting to be let outside. After a few hours of waiting we wanted to be let inside for the same reason the dogs wanted out! Once we found the number, the attendant let us in and we were up in our room and off to sleep.

The loft we stayed in in the Hostel called The Loft, was super cute. You walk in and the walls have a few simple stencils of New York’s Chrysler building on the wall. On the second level up was a sleeping area next to a table and two cushion mats to sit on. I pulled out my sleeping bag for extra cushion, as many of the beds are firmer in China, and snuggled up in the bright canary colored bedding and went to sleep…,

Right before I feel asleep I heard commotion out side. We looked out the window and there was a big group of older people standing in front of the adjacent building. A young man was trying to herd them together, chasing after strays, and shouting at them pointing at his watch. After a while they all walked out into the street and got into a line, two behind two. He handed them all pendants, and then they all sat down on the sidewalk again…waiting.

I went to sleep. After a few phone calls Curtis joined me and it was off to dream land.  Speaking of dreams… my dreams have been so funny since being here. They are such new dreams in comparison to my regular dreams. For instance I dreamt about almond sized ninjas the other night!! I’ve dreamt of cleaning the streets, of teaching cooking classes, of touring toy factories where security doesn’t prevent me from going in rooms that say no entry, and running into our friends Jeff and Kendra at random places in the world, all relating to what’s been happening recently. It’s fun and new!

We woke up cause I was hungry and went to look for food. On our way the group of older people were lined back up and started moving down the street parallel to us. They walked 50 feet and then stopped. We thought they may be touring since there were a lot of artsy things right near us within walking distance, but they had stopped in front of a door where food was being prepared and they were each receiving meals. I’m not sure what was happening. I wonder if it was a retirement home.

Anyway, we too found food. We saw Pizza Hut and ventured in. The food was terrific. It was a full-blown restaurant. I had spaghetti noodles, with fresh smoked salmon, lightly roasted asparagus and a tasty white sauce. I also had a potato soup with actual ham pieces. It was soo wonderful. Curtis had a popcorn chicken pizza, and some crisscut fries!!  I kept thinking that everyone from Wuhan that comes to America and goes to Pizza Hut feels disappointment….although Pizza Hut’s pizza is pretty great so maybe they decide its alright.

I forgot to mention that on our walk to the Pizza Hut there were beautiful dragons in the water, and a lotus lake and gorgeous bridges, and spectacular gardens, and of course as we entered the city some poo on the sidewalks and common walkways and stairs. However, it recently rained, and so it was no biggie!

Anyway, on our way home we stopped at a shop to buy food for the train. We saw really crazy looking fruits that seemed tempting to try but we settle for oranges. I found fortifying conditioner with English writing on it!!! We bought REAL pringles and picked up some tasty snacks. I was going to buy a face cream, but every cream and lotion, for girls and guys, has face whitener in it. I found that interesting. Oh, and AND I found…raisin bread versus bean bread. It was a gold mine.

We headed back and went to bed again. We woke up and ate some raisin bread and snacks and then went down stairs to the lobby and wrote a little. Whenever we walk through the lobby everyone bursts into hellos, and asks if they can make us anything, and are overly accommodating. Curtis busts out his Ni Hao and then everyone tries to speak Mandarin to him thinking he speaks it, but we need to learn the phrase “that’s all I’ve got”.

We were the only white people that I saw in the city and in the hostel. It was fun.  I am grateful to be in a place where people are so kind and so helpful and so happy to hang out with us. I ended up heading up to bed and Curtis worked for a while, and suddenly it was morning.

Like always we packed up, and headed out. The hostel attendant was there in the lobby waiting to check us out…sleeping on the bench near by, and gave us quicker directions to the station and we were off.

People were waving today, some boys on the bus were smiling and staring, people at the train station kept waving to us, people gathered around to see us, people were taking pictures, and asking to get pictures taken with us. It was fun. After making sure we didn’t have anything on our faces, we decided they were just very happy to see us!

Curtis Take: Julie is literally like a celebrity everywhere we go here. I’ve traveled before and without her I got a little attention but with her around, everyone takes notice. The entire train station was looking at us. As we were about to head on to the platform to get on the train, I was a bit ahead of Julie and turned back to see a girl come over and asked to get a picture with Julie. She asked another lady nearby, who was holding a baby, to take the picture. Julie and her got together and the picture was taken. The girl was beaming! As Julie turned to come toward me I noticed the girl, behind her now, eagerly looking at the camera screen to see how the picture turned out. All of a sudden she was grinning from ear to ear, jumped in the air and squealed like she had just met her favorite rock star! No joke, that really happened. I love being Julie’s entourage!

Now…Curtis is sleeping on the top bunk of the soft sleeper, which unlike the hard sleeper, is the same size as the bottom sleeper. I’m here typing while our other train mates speak in a language I don’t know. It’s been fun trying to talk to each other. When the train sellers come by my new friends help teach me how to respond. They offered me some dried gizzards, and coffee beans to chew on, but I told them it was ok because I had my raisin bread and ramen. They are super nice, they are eating ramen also! Ok well..off to Guilin.