So behind

quick recap!

Thursday, April 1st.  Spent time in the OR watching c-sections.  Nothing much else happened at work.  Went to class and was supposed to go to the night market after with Grace, Li Jun and Audrey but ended up getting out of class late.  Today's lesson was about xiao long bao and la mian which made me really hungry.  So Jenny told me about this place nearby the school that had la mian.  I walked around for a while before finding it.  It was really fun watching the guy pull the noodles.  I got chao la mian which was kinda like eating spaghetti.  It came with a bowl of soup too.  Jenny says that fried noodles/rice often comes with a bowl of soup because fried food is sometimes hard to swallow so the soup is there to wash it down.  After eating, I went home and was about to go to bed when Grace came by.  She showed me all the stuff she bought at the night market.  I was sad I didn't get to go.

Friday, April 2nd.  Last day on OB/GYN so I brought my SLR around with me all day.  Got some good pictures of the cafeteria.  Spent the morning watching c-sections and the afternoon talking with Judith and Dan Yan.  Eventually stopped by Audrey and Grace's office to say hi.  Went back to my room to clean up and ended up taking a nap.  I thought I was going to have dinner with Grace and Li Jun but they ended up eating without me which was fine because I was so sleepy.  They came by after dinner and we went to Li Jun's apartment and met her husband and daughter.  Their apartment was super clean and they gave me a dumpling and some amazing fruit to eat.  I learned that when people buy apartments here they come completely bare--as in cement floor, walls, and ceiling that they have to decorate themselves.  So expensive!  After that, Li Jun's husband drove us to the Wushan night market.  It was super crowded.  I'm so glad I went with Grace and Li Jun because they helped me bargain.  I hate bargaining.  We bought bags, wallets, earrings, hair ties, and had a great time looking at all the other stuff.  There were sunglasses, perfume bottles, flip flops, paint brushes, fans, scarves, watches, socks, underwear, contact lenses, contact lens cases, luggage bags, umbrellas, key chains, jewelry, antiques, paintings, blankets and lots more.  It was so crowded and loud.  Per Grace and Li Jun's recommendation, I had to try and only speak Chinese and also put my large camera away so we could get better deals on things.  :)  We stayed till they closed at around 10.  We tried to catch a cab, but we ended up taking the bus instead.  There was a food cart grilling meat 'n veggies n i got enoki mushrooms and some bok choy.  Had to take it on the bus since it came right when my food was ready.  It was so crowded on the bus and my hands were full so I had to wait till we got off to eat.  IT WAS SO GOOD!  :)

Saturday, April 3rd.  We woke up early to go to Wujin, a village along a canal that has been changed into a tourist spot.  -__-  It's about an hour and 15 mins north of Hangzhou.  The ride there was fun cause I got to talk to Audrey about her travels to all the continents and her experience as a pilot.  We stopped on the way there to experience the usual tourist tea tasting.  I can't remember if I had actually been to this place before or if it was just because it felt like previous tours of China, but it was not very exciting.  I wish I could have understood what the tour guide was saying but I still need to learn more Chinese.  For lunch we chose the "better" looking restaurant on the main street and ended up finding small bugs in our vegetables.  Grace also had ordered drunken shrimp which ended up being really gross.  Basically it was a bunch of live shrimp in a tiny bowl with some red sauce on top.  The shrimp kept moving around and flicking their sauce on us.  A couple even flung themselves out of the bowl.  We had to cover it with another bowl.  I was too disgusted to try to eat one.  We tried to get a picture of Grace eating one and while she was holding it in front of her face, the shrimp wriggled itself out of her chopsticks and onto the floor.  We all screamed.  Worst meal of the trip thus far.  After lunch, we walked around looking at all the souvenir shops and then eventually went back to the bus to head back to Hangzhou.  On the way back, we stopped at the usual tourist silk factory.  Since we had all seen this before we decided to leave.  We wanted to take a cab, but apparently from 4-6pm, the cabbies are all changing shifts so it's very difficult to find a cab.  Seems like a bad time to be changing shifts, but that's how it is.  Also, there's no number you can call to have a cab come and pick you up.  We found a map and saw that we were very close to where my Chinese school was so we decided to take my usual bus back home.  It was horribly crowded the whole way back--the worst I had ever seen it.  I guess it was because it was the weekend.  I think they all hated the ride a lot.  By the time we got home, we only had about 45 minutes before we had to leave to go to West Lake to see the Impressions night show.  Grace and I went to eat noodle soup in the caf, Li Jun went to eat at home and pick up a sweater and Audrey went back to her room to eat carrot sticks and rest a bit.  We all were going to take a cab but Li Jun's husband offered to drive us yet again.  After we picked up our tickets, we went to the entrance to have them scanned.  The security guard stopped me because apparently my ticket was a child's ticket.  That was a mess that took a while to sort out, but thankfully we were early enough that we didn't miss the show.  Because it was supposed to rain, they gave us all ponchos.   So fun.  I had a great seat that was right in the center.  The show itself was enjoyable and short.  My favorite part was when the ninja-looking people were throwing water in the air.  I think it was a story about a couple and the girl dies/turns into a crane.  Somehow in the end the man turns into a crane too.  I'm not sure why the ninja's were there, but they were awesome.  The soundtrack was really pretty.  What was annoying about the show is that all the people in the crowd were always talking.  It was like they were watching tv or something.  They also didn't clap for anything.  I felt really bad for the performers because they were performing on the water and it was so windy and freezing cold!  Also they were flinging water in the air and/or having mist sprayed on them.  So cold!  After the show we walked across the Broken Bridge to meet Li Jun's husband so he could take us home.  It was a really nice walking around the lake at night.  The day was crazy busy but a lot of fun.

Sunday, April 4.  Today was Grace's last day in China.  We went to go to see a pagoda with Audrey in the morning that was by the canal.  It was built in the Song dynasty to help calm the tidal bore that happens every autumn.  I wish I could see a tidal bore.  The pagoda was pretty neat and it had a great view of the city but it was so smoggy and overcast that all the pictures look dreary.  After the pagoda, we went to eat a Grandma's Kitchen.  Grace was trying to get rid of all her money so she ordered 13 dishes for the 3 of us.  Needless to say, it was way too much food.  It was really good though and really cheap!  After that we went back to our rooms to exchange pictures and get ready to take Grace to the airport.  It was sad seeing her off because the last few days had been so much fun.  I really liked being alone the first week and experiencing things on my own and trying to figure things out but it was also really neat to have someone to share the experiences with.  That afternoon I cleaned up my room and did laundry.  Doing laundry here takes forever because the dryer doesn't seem to heat up till after it's been on for about 40 minutes.  Strange.  Definitely nice to have clean clothes tho!!