Changde

Hopefully this is not a really boring account of my weekend and will actually be an enjoyable read. After two quite challenging Grade 3 classes at a public school on Friday morning, I was so ready to get away for the weekend. Our Friday afternoon though, was full of creativity on mine and Frederikke's part. We were making musical instruments from reused items ready for the second part of our environment lessons. Not exactly how we wanted to be spending our time but we also didn't want to have to worry about it over the weekend. In the evening, we went to Changsha Cultural Evening at Orange Island, there was awards for various things, like photography. There were performances from many acts from around the world, lots of talent so it was a great evening! Then of course, we headed to Crave, met some more new people. Then to Hawa, I spent around an hour talking to a guy from Cote D'Ivoire, I was actually able to have a coversation in French. Although I did fail my French A-Level, I really want to improve. It would be really strange if I actually went home from China having improved my French more than my Chinese. My Chinese is going "ok" I guess, it is really difficult but I am able to ask for the things I would really need, like directions and how much something costs. As long as I am able to get by, I think thats ok for me. After speaking to my new Ivorian friend, I really want to concentrate on getting better, I shocked myself with how much I do actually know, but my grammar is pretty bad. So getting back to the apartment at around 3am, we had planned to be at the train station at 6:30am, this didn't happen. We agreed that we would leave at 7 and get the later train. We woke up, still feeling slightly light headed and went to the train station. We asked for the tickets but were told no and that the train timetable we had seen online was wrong. Thanks China! We left and were approached by a random guy asking if we were going to Zhanjiajie, so we said Changde and he whisked us off to some random place behind the station. Probably not the smartest thing to do of course but yeah. We couldn't believe it when the "bus" pulled up, it was a mini-van. The door opened and there were no seats to be found, just a few plastic stools that definitely weren't suitable. We just got in and laughed and laughed about it amongst all of the random Chinese people that weren't even phased. Even Tro-Tro's in Ghana had seats... Half an hour later, the van stopped and we were all told to get out, there was a coach waiting for us to get on, what a relief! 2 hours later, we were in Changde! But then we needed to get to Taohuayuan for the Peach Flowers we planned to see. We asked a few people at the station about the buses to get us there but had to go to a different station. When we got there, we were directed outside to a "car park" full of random little buses. We found the one going were we wanted and asked if we could get some food quickly, she said yes and we went. Two minutes later, we turned around and heard beeping, they were leaving, so we had to leave the food and run back to the bus whilst it was moving... We never seem to know what the hell is going on but that's all part of the adventure right?
Taohuayuan, was a really peaceful, there was a Lake right in the middle and one side, the Peach Flower mountain/garden and then our accommodation and food places on the opposite side. We dropped our things of in the room and went to the Peach Flowers, I think we were actually too early or too late... Although, we had been told that this was the right time to go. There were some and they were really "pretty". We also didn't realise that we would be basically climbing a Mountain. On the way up, there were some cool things, there was a guy who was writing peoples names on weird scribes and he wanted to take pictures with us, that part of living in China is getting really annoying but his voice was quite soothing so we didn't mind so much.
At one point, we entered a Buddhist temple and were given incense sticks to "offer to the Gods" I guess. Then we had to kneel down and pray in front of the statue. It then took a turn, there were maybe 5 guys in the room and then me and Frederikke. We were about to leave and they called us over to a table with a book to write our names etc. Then he said "Money", as clear as anything, the only English word he knew, we told them that we didn't have any and there response was "You're from Denmark and no money?!" (in Chinese of course), we got a little freaked and just left as quickly as possible. Then there was more hiking upwards! I had 2 hours of sleep the night before...
Zhangjiang- we went here in the evening, we weren't sure what there was to do there but it was one of the closest places to where we were staying so we got on a bus and were shoved off when it was our "stop", we looked slightly lost when we got off so we were approached by a lady who spoke English. She turned out to be such a lovely person and her English name was Amy... Basically sisters! Asking where we were from, she thought we were Russian as that's what someone on the bus had said... ahhaha oh! She recommended a restaurant for us to try so we went, when we eventually found it, we sat down and they only had a Chinese tick menu. It was pretty hard trying to use our Mandarin to order but then a girl must have overheard and she came over to help, we just ordered some random stuff but it turned out to be really good so alls well that ends well.
We realised that there was a river in the city, we went off tto find it in the rain, it was dark and smoggy... not exactly the perfect setting for appreciating the aesthetics of a river, but we tried. We got back to the hotel, extremely tired and fell asleep to a really enthusiastic Chinese talent show. When I woke in the middle of the night I managed to turn the tv half off and then I vaguely remember us waking up to the sound of the heavens opening. Sunday! Sunday was a great day. We got to Changde, after an uncomfortable bus ride, I sat next to such a sweet little family. A young couple with their baby daughter, they were kissing and cuddling her all the way, I got a picture of her, it's lovely to see how much they cherish their children here. Another difference between here and Ghana. Not that I'm saying they don't love their children but they're born and raised with different ideas. I find it quite hard to get my head around the fact that our reasons for living can be so far apart yet we can all end up being so close to eachothers lives.
The first walking street of the Hunan Province is in Changde, so sure, we had to go and have a look. It was really quiet and there were just a lot of expensive shops. We wanted to find something really good for breakfast/lunch, Frederikke saw a sign for coffee, not actually sure were the sign was pointing but we walked into the nearest door. What happened next is quite cool. There was no coffee, only a piano school and an English tutoring school... We looked so confused, then two people came from the English school and asked if we needed help. We told them we were looking for some food and it turns out, Habby (one of them) has studied in Newcastle, she was so excited because I'm from Northern England, so yeah from here, we spent the whole day with her and one of her other teachers. Who is Chinese but lived in Vancouver for 10 years. One of the things I love about travelling, is just that. We wandered into a random building and ended up meeting some really cool people who actually made our trip. Chances? They shown us the Poem wall, hundreds of poems written by famous Chinese poets and there is even a famous line from Shakespeare featured there. I really had such a meaningful conversation with Habby, I won't write anymore than that on my blog. I will just say that, being able to relate and impact on someones life within two hours of meeting them really is something. She gave me a Times magazine issue that I had really wanted to read, although it was from November last year. We got in a car back to Changsha around 6:30pm, we decided that we needed another massage (Chinese massages can be addictive), when we got back, we went straight to a "spa" and had a very strange experience with a hollow glass ball and fire... on my feet and oh a wooden tube stuck to my foot. It was really good though, they are so good at it here, they actually make a difference to your body. This concluded a really weird/fun weekend spent in and around Changde.