Zunyi Hotel Zunyi City

... about:

The spark that started our interest burning to create this bigger Big Trip might have been in Prague, the snowy, wintery night I booked my round-the-world ticket that would eventually take me to China.

"Hey Dan" I think I remember saying, " Wouldn't it be nice just to take a ticket like this and just go. Not work, just go."

"Um, sure," he probably replied.

Okay, so maybe that doesn't sound like such a grand beginning. But little things grow to big ...

... However, part of being a traveler is knowing when to move on, and so, with our latest work contract expiring this month we are getting ready to say "Zai jian" to China.

In our China time, the first one and a half years based in Guangdong Province and the rest here in Guizhou, we have been lucky enough to travel over a huge part of this intriguing land, taking in minority cultures, world-class scenery, mind-bogglingly ...

... thin-capped mushrooms, but we gathered them up anyway and climbed the stairs to the school roof.

At first, there were sighs and moans. "It's too hot," I caught one girl mumbling.

Then, I picked up one of the chimney/mushrooms and put a piece of white paper on the ground. Angling the top of the awkward, floppy thing toward the rising sun by holding it above my head, I finally caught a white, gleaming crescent on ...

Zunyi is a city most non-Chinese people have never heard of. It's famous historically, mainly among the Chinese, for being the place where the Chairman became the chairman. Other than that there aren't really any tourist attractions. My enthusiastic guide nick, however, Beth's student, took it upon himself to spend his only day off (students there go six days a week, as do workers ...

... They really learn fast and I like that about these classes! I don't like that some of them call me DADDY! ahahaha I guess it's good practice! hahaha. At nights on Mondays and Tuesdays I teach the daycare staff! while this is a fun class, its different than all my other classes because I am not teaching children, I am actually teaching adults! Its kind of weird at times! I am REALLY glad I am teaching here! Where have I traveled ...

... open and closed over my skin, sloughing off the dead cells. Dan had a peeling sunburn on his arms from our adventures in the rice paddies last week, and, once we were brave enough to submerge more than just our feet in the pool, the fish cleaned that up for him. We sat in the water for a long time, enjoying the novelty of the fish nibbling on us. After the first tickling sensation it started to feel more like a scratchy massage to me; although Dan ...

... they were not blocking the streets. The streets were crowded, yes, but the people were fantastically happy. As the time grew nearer to the relay actually starting-8 a.m.-- every service van or police vehicle that ran down the cleared street was greeted by huge cheers of "Jia You," or " Add Fuel." This common idiom is about the same as shouting "Go!" or "Come on!" in English. One T-shirt we saw tried to literally translate the cheer: "China, Refuel!" Dan and I wandered ...

... when the three-minute quake shook our city. Belinda was in the hair salon, and ran out to the street with her hair still wet, wondering what was happening. Alicia was taking a nap on her couch. She grabbed her dog and went outside, thinking there was a problem with her apartment block. Louis was in a meeting, he and his coworkers were on the third floor and walked downstairs. Some of my high school students were outside playing sports. A few of ...

... years old. Perfect. Going back down to the main drag, Nathan and Wu Lei argued with some drivers until we got a tuktuk to drive us up the mountain for 5 yuan each, and we went up a bumpy and beautiful mountain, holding on to each other and hoping not to slide out the back. At the top of the mountain the biggest sight seems to be a humongous concrete wall inscribed with red cursive calligraphy. The text, I found out from my adult students later ...

... day for a flight to leave. When they heard a different flight to Hangzhou was leaving, and that they weren't going to be on it, they started to protest en masse. Security came in legion, but mostly waited while the travelers shouted and complained. The unusually cold weather did us a good turn, however. We found that we were some of the only people venturing about Guizhou province as ...