apparently they've had problems with this before...

(Which is quite humorous cuz I don't think we would EVER attempt to sit on a squatter)

Washy-Washies

So at all the salons here they have something we like to call a washy-washy. They wash your hair and massage your head, neck and sometimes your shoulders and arms for about a half hour and then they blow dry and style your hair all for 15 yuan (which is about $2.20 US) Yeah, its basically amazing. The other day me and some of the girls went out and got washy-washies and then went and got ice cream cones at Mcdonalds. Check out the dude that styled my hair.. :)

(Oh, and when we were in Guilin some of the girls went to get washy-washies and I decided to get my hair dyed (for about $10 US) and they started putting this orange crap on my hair and the lady spoke no english so it was really funny trying to communicate to ask what the crap she was doing but luckily the manager came over and stopped her and my hair turned out okay)

The Village on the Terraces

Miles and Miles of Terraces

Our "hotel" in the village

The view from our hotel (yes those are clouds, we were up that high)
Me and Nat out hiking on the terraces
"Leaves on Steroids" as Shelby called them

Journey Continued

moon hill

this lady followed us to the top of the hill, fanning us the whole time.. so cute.

Journey through Yongshuo

Our second day in Guillin Natalie, Shelby, Brighton and I took a scary bike ride on the streets of Yongshuo to the river where we rafted across with our bikes and then continued our bike ride to moon hill where we took a treacherous hike up a million stairs and then rode our bikes back to our hostel. Total it took about six hours and it was a ton of fun but we were wasted by the time we got back. (tired that is)

me and the shelbster with our rice hats on our bikes

yes, i have an obsession with these mountains. 

we saw a chinese lady taking a pic posing like this so we had to try..

picture of a picture again.. :/

the guy rowing our raft got tired so we helped him out for a bit

Mud Caves

So I guess its about time I post some of my pictures from our Guilin trip. It was gorgeous. Here's a few and I'll post more when my internet is working.

Dr. Seuss Mountains

The Entrance to the Caves

In The Caves (this is a picture of a picture so its crappy)
 

The whole gang and our adorable tour guide after jumping in freezing cold water to clean off

Sleeper Buses

So apparently this is a common form of travel in China but it was an experience unlike any I've ever had before. About five days ago we embarked on a journey to Guilin. We took a sleeper bus there and back for a total of about 27 hours and here are a couple of the things I learned for future reference. 

1. Don't get on a sleeper bus if you are claustrophobic in any way shape or form. I didn't know how they could possible fit that many beds in one normal sized bus until I got in the bed. (the picture doesn't capture it, but the bus is three by two by about six beds)

2. Never get on a sleeper bus without making sure your ipod is fully charged. Mine was almost dead when I left our apartment in Zhong shan. Bad call. They will blare insane techno-DDR music with a man shouting in chinese as loud as he can and if you get lucky enough to fall asleep during this you will wake up wondering where in Hades' name you are and how you can get off. Sometimes they will turn on a movie and it will come out of the speakers at a volume no human ear desires to listen to, while at the same time still blaring chinese music out of other speakers. Don't ask. 

3. Don't allow yourself to ever get too comfortable on a sleeper bus. As soon as you fall asleep they will shout at you to get off to "have a rest" where they expect you to eat dinner in the middle of the night out of what they call "hot pots" (not appetizing) and go to the bathroom in troughs. (Normal squatters look really appealing after having to go in one of these.. I'll spare the details) When I first walked into one of these so called bathrooms I thought I must be in the middle of a nightmare. Some of these bathrooms may also be next to pig sties where they keep the food. 

4. Before getting on a sleeper bus make sure you use the bathroom and completely drain your bladder. On the way back I had to hold my pee for about three hours. I was sooo tempted to pee in a bag. 

Home Sweet Home (for the next five months)

So we've been getting to know our city by exploring and finding random people that speak english that offer us their phone numbers to help with language barriers! So amazing. I love it here. 

This is our school, our apartments (that are right across the street from the school) and my roomies (when we got caught in a typhoon. no joke)

these are for quinn:)

Hong Kong

After a looong flight we went straight into traveling the city! I was so dead tired by the end of that day but it was still amazing to be there. Among other things me and some of the chicas went and saw the Big Buddah on our first day there and it was awesome. and huge. The next day we took a bus tour and saw victoria peak, a jewelry factory, took a boat ride to see the floating restaurant, and then they dropped us off at church which was probably the best part of the whole Hong Kong experience. Even though it was my second time experiencing it I was still overwhelmed with the spirit that was there. I was filled with gratitude and so humbled to be in the presence of the Filipina sisters there and to hear them bear their sweet testimonies. I was able to bear my testimony in relief society and it was just so neat to feel so at home and welcome there. Any sign of homesickness went away while I was there. Also, (after searching all over the building and asking everyone) I got to see Sister Dawson and some of Quinn's converts and friends from the mission! So amazing. That night we went down and explored the city and me and two girls familiarized ourselves with all forms of hong kong transportation because we had no idea where we were going. (ferry, taxi, mtr, bus, walking, running, yeah.) We tried to catch the lazer light show thats supposed to be one of the biggest in the world but we missed it due to getting lost. (but mostly due to stupidity) Anyhow, there are so many fun girls here. Its gonna be a good semester.

 

I'm alive!

I'm now in Zhong Shan! I got here the day before yesterday. Okay i need to update since i haven't had internet access for like four days. Its pathetic that that's a long time but it is. I'll post them in sections because I can only figure out how to add five pictures to each post.