Chugging away to Chuxiong.
Woke up around 6 this morning. Took some of that medication that ZTG supplied me with. It hasn't been working at all really. As I headed out for breakfast, I didn't realize it was on the second floor across the patio. So I hopped in the elevator and there was some dude there. I realized at this point that the chinese people that I met that morning don't understand how elevators work. I got in the elevator from floor 3 and pressed the 1 button. The other guy in the elevator then pressed 5. um...huh? Of course, we went to the 5th floor, he walked out, looked around and said, "WTF" then got back on and gave an embarrassed smile. Oh, the elevator must have been going up and stopped at 3. But why the hell did the guy press 5? No clue. We then headed back down to 1. We got down to the 2nd floor and there were these women. This old lady got on and off the elevator three times and finally decided to stay on the third floor. Then a couple other folks got on and pressed 4. No wait! 3. Wait no 4. I was stuck in that elevator with these people for about 5 minutes. wow.
Finally figured out where breakfast was. I sat down next to the older couple thats on the tour, they are part of my table group. I have found that on these tours, whoever you sit with on the first meal of the trip is who you sit with for the rest of the trip. Very interesting. Fear of change or something like that. She asked me how my head was feeling and I motioned that my forehead and eyes were aching (like when you got that zone out feeling) and my nose was clogged, but my throat was fine. She threw a bag of medicine on the table. It turns out she is a doctor. (and now that I think about it, she may have been the lady that diagnosed my lack of food poisoning) She gave me two pills and then two potions. Thats right, she gave me potions. Two little glass vials with a hard straw to stab the cap with to drink out the medicine. God did it taste awful. They all laffed at the table. Then, for my throat, she gave me four pills to take. Jeez! A total of 10 pills (four from in my room from ZTG) and two potions. Man, for this type of thing back home, all I had to do was take one, that's right, one Sudafed 12 hour non-drowsy and I was fine. China needs Sudafed. She told me to drink lots of water.
We then headed out on the bus into town and stopped at a place by the Anceint City Entrance that we went to last nite. We got out and walked into the old city. We had another tourguid for this as well. I immediately ran and took a foto. The ZTG then came to me and told me that if I want to go off on my own or if we get seperated to meet back at the bus in two hours and be careful because this place has 36 entrances. wow. Alot. So, I scampered off thru the city on my own exploring. It was really good to see in the sunlite. The sun was fighting to come out again. It was bright then cloudy then bright again. I went into the back alleys to see the real places.
This is were I met another white person. Her name is Lauren and she has been here a bit. Her husband is in the Shoe Business. I wonder if the Triads have a hand in there as well. We chatted for awhile. She is from Dongguan I think which is just a few hours from Zhongshan. She and a few others drove out here by van. It took her four days but she says she was glad because they really got a great view of the chinese countryside. They had all the issues too. Yaks, goats, and broken down vehicles blocking the road. People running up to the side of the car peddling their wares. (i dunno about that last part, but it would be cool wouldn't it. It would be like in Indiana Jones whenever they drive thru the desert cities - Cairo and the middle east. A donkey and its cart blocking the road and people shoving stuff in your face. Hardcore. Then you get to ride a rail car thru a cave over molten lava.) She is from Colorado. Worked with K2 for some time testing equipment. Thats the job I need when I get home. Then came to China. She was at the Jade Dragon Snow Mt last nite as well and all her fellow travellers got altitude sickness and she mocked them. Well, she laffed, but didnt mock them. I would have mocked them. ;-) We mentioned that she and her husband are planning to stay here for the long term and she wants to learn the language real well. She asked how long I was in for and I was like, my contract is up, I am totally out of here. I aint ever doing business with the chinese again. That brought us to where we both agreed on feelings about the chinese.
You will find that when foreign teachers get together in China, they all have pretty much the same feelings about China. Except Toby. We all love the land, art, and history, its gorgeous. But when it comes to the people, we all have bittersweet tastes in our mouths. We both agreed that we both hate generalizing about the chinese as a people in a negative way, but that the chinese make it soooooooo easy. She mentioned that she has been here for awhile and that she still feels that she has yet to meet a chinese person that does not have a hidden agenda. She has many chinese friends, but she just has yet to meet one to trust all the way. Me, I can't really make that statement 100% yet.
-----And ****, if you are reading this, Lauren is from Colorado, therefore not a Yankee and she has some of the same opinions as me. I dare you to come to this country for more than 6 months and work among the chinese as I have and if you do not feel just a bit the same way about the chinese as I do, then kudos to you.----- So anyway. I met a very cool person from home and in a very cool place. We exchanged emails and fone numbers.
I ran off to take more fotos. I found some awesome views of all the rooftops of the city. Absolutely gorgeous. Check out the fotos of Lijiang Ancient City in the daytime. Fotos. As I was coming down from the rooftops, I ran into the gang again going in the opposite direction. I started going around with them and checking stuff out. Sue, Wife Lady, and I did one of those dress up in ancient chinese garb. It was quite humorous. Check out the fotos.
About 15 minutes before I had to leave, I ran to a camera shop to have all my fotos transfered. This guy was really slow, I mean, it worked, and he was super nice, but he was really slow. It was like he someone hit is slowmotion button or something. I then headed back to the bus. But I got lost. I went down the wrong street. I had to have a woman working a fone store talk to Golf to figure out where I was. Boy, am I a jackass.
They showed up about 10 minutes later and we met up with everyone for lunch. The doctor asked me how I was feeling and I told her great. Everything was fine. I had to blow my nose hardly at all. It was all clear. Very nice. After dinner we spent 6 hours driving to Chuxiong for some reason. It was a gorgeous bus ride. I enjoyed it alot. We drove back thru Dali to head to Chuxiong. It was pretty funny to drive by there again. I was like....lets go! The drive to Chuxiong was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. The sun was out and it was on this drive that I got some of the best fotos of the countryside. When we finally got to Chuxiong we had some dinner. The a few of us went to a computer bar so we could check our email and so Golf could transfer fotos.
Boy was that an experience. While I was waiting for Golf to finish his stuff (there were no computers open but one) I was looking at all the chinese folk playing computer games. Most of them were playing the same thing. I dont know the name of this one, I was unfamiliar with it. Some guy came running up the stairs bringing a bunch of food for everyone. While I was standing around, folks were lifting their heads from their computers and performing doubletakes. Surprised to see a white person in their mists. I painfully watched as this one guy sitting next to Golf was trying to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I was like, NO! NO! You do this! He just sat there while he ran into the ocean, drove into the ocean, and allowed himself to be pummeled by the police officer. He giggled everytime he died. Either he was having fun with the game or he enjoyed making a white man drown in the water and get pummeled by the police. I think it was the former, I don't believe he knew the controls. I checked my email and responded to a couple and then headed out. I was super duper tired and I passed out on the bed at 9pm.