Lantian Hotel Pingxiang

... felt a little sick when i had to watch some girls puking.. blahh

Last week one of the students from a lower classed stopped by our house and told us she wanted to take us somewhere. We asked her where and she said- wo bu ji dao (i dont know in chinese) .. she couldnt speak any english! i was a little reluctant, but we went with her and 3 other girls who spoke no english. They took us on their motor bikes for a long ride out of Xintian to some other small farm town ...

... of Hunan Province where we live and teach. It is a huge city! I had Thursday and Friday free from class, as my students had an exam. We were able to get Kori's class canceled on Friday, along with our FAO Brown. It is about a 6 hour drive to Changsha. When we arrived, we checked into a hotel room and went out to explore. The shopping was quite amazing in Changsha, and we walked around shops for a few hours. We stopped at McDonald's or KFC ...

... If you can't guess what that means then forget about it. So, i have taken some very beautiful head shots of the guys that did it. Roman and Pat are missing. Roman wasn't there until later and Pat was being difficult. Thanks for rounding up the other guys, Luke!!

Besides drinking and staying up all night, there is nothing much to report. See for yourself....

... Kuinka sitä ihminen voi erehtyä! Kiinassa pieni kaupunki tarkoittaa jotain ihan muuta kuin Suomessa. Kyselin asukkailta, paljonko kaupungissa on asukkaita, jolloin sain vastaukseksi että noin 1-7miljoonaa ihmistä. Tarkistin asian wikipediasta: Zhuzhoussa on vaatimattomat 3,65 miljoonaa asukasta. Eli ei ihan maaseutua varsinaisesti.


Erika itse asui kaupungin laitamilla, Zhuzhoun Foreign ...

... is a published poet, 2 books in total.

We grab a signed copy of her book, it is in chinese. However we notice a few words of English, PJ Harvey, Nirvana. Leo explains she learnt english by listening to music and watching Independent films.

A good journey and interesting people.

现在再 见

... three sides. Bill also said that the guards in the pit looked "smart" in their uniforms. We were plotting out our way to the army museum when we were bombarded by motorbikes and taxi drivers. The one motorbike driver was extremely insistent. I am not sure what is in the air today, but we have been asked repeatedly so far. As we were crossing the street the sky opened up and started to dump rain. We ducked under a tree for 15 minutes until it let up. While we were ...

... At this point we all have a bit of a panic attack because we realize we have no idea where we are and are in a strange country where people are waiting to prey on us and get our dollars, and we don't know a word of the language. We run away from them and try to find a real bus, but we have a super hard time even finding a bathroom, and meanwhile are descended on more and more bus guys who we think want to rip us ...

... the situation. The trip to Nanning took nearly 8 hours, not 4 and I won't get into how miserable it was. The bus from there to Pingxiang in the morning wasn't much better. We grabbed lunch in town and then negotiated a cab to the border in the pouring rain. We walked to Vietnam in the rain and eventually made it through customs smoothly. I say smoothly because it was without incident, not because dealing with ...

... China is a fascinating adventure littered with some of the world's greatest sights and most varied landscapes. With no time for Yunnan and the foothills of the Himalayas, a return to China is already on the cards. With a natural yet underlying tension between economic opportunity and political freedom, the future of China is unknown. But the Olympics in August will be one of the defining moments of this great nation's history. The global spotlight will have no boundaries...

... He'd managed to find an english speaking Chinese lady who pointed us in the right direction and got us on a train to Pingxiang at 8am. Plus a middle aged Korean Couple who couldnt speak Chinese or much english. Dave called us the Motley Crew. The most unlikely bunch, and we all stuck together to the next town. So we spent 4 hours on another train ( i reckoned it was the oldest i've ever been on), sitting on hard seats. We picked up a Swedish guy on the way ...