Back to a world

I've returned to a world with free access to blogger and Facebook! I arrived in Nepal a few hours ago and am awaiting the arrival of my sister! First thoughts of the city... small! But still crazy. No stoplights or buildings over five maybe four floors. It's cold here too! Without heat. Reminds me a bit of Wuhan in the winter.

They have electricity outages often so it's not very reliable. I got here at 6 and it didn't come on til 10. They also have water shortages and have been told their water is quite expensive. I haven't noticed yet. Enjoy these few pictures I took from the car to my hotel.

10 Things you can do in Wuhan

I decided to go back to my Chinese hometown of Wuhan for the October holiday. I had a lot of fun doing the things I can do there and did there for four years. Here is a list to summarize my trip back "home".

10. Watch "ants" work out and run back to their classes at Becca's high school. We also played a trick on them. That I would be their mean teacher after the break They were afraid!

9. Eat hot, dry, noodles AND Zhou Hei Ya (spicy duckneck),

8. Blind massage AND a massage with Rob all the way from Wuhan!- my timing there was perfect.

7. Lunch with smiley Renner, my buddy (otherwise known as bubby- there once was a misspelling in a text.) Also lunch with Elsie.

6. Ride a motorcycle taxi!- no picture of this one, but I was super excited. They are hard to find in Beijing since the gov regulates them a bit more here.- Maybe that's saying something,..

5. Ahao and Zhang!!! They have been awesome hangout buddies for a long time.

4. Coffee with Mouyee- well, I had coffee, she had wine. :)

3. Drink with Brian!!! Yes, his picture is an advertisement!

2. Hold Linda's baby, have a facial, and afternoon tea with her. What a blessing!

1. See countless friends, encourage people in their Walks with Him, be encouraged in my life, see the overwhelming love and blessings my great DAD has given me. I'm thankful for the time to go and visit.

I'm Back!

I made it back to Wuhan without any difficulties. I arrived in Shanghai Friday night and after dropping my bags off at a fellow FoCer's house, I met up with an old Chinese friend. She didn't realize I was arriving from America, so she was a little surprised about how tired I was. Man, was I tired!!! I tried so hard to focus but sometimes when I was talking my words began to slur and I couldn't always focus on what she was saying. It was still really good to see her though!

Coming back to Wuhan was great because my friends Adam and Linda picked me up with their car. It was soooo nice to have them waiting there for me once I arrived. The ride back was great and I made my way into my apartment. Yikes, is it cold here! I don't like it at all, not after being warm in my house in America. I miss heat in the bathroom and living room. I spend most of my time in my bedroom now with the heater on, it still isn't as warm as I'd like, but.... BALI here I come!!!! I leave again on Saturday, I'll try to  keep you updated on my traveling! :)

Enshi

About a week ago China celebrated their National Holiday. This means that every business and school closes for 7 days so people can go home and/or go traveling. It's one of the worse, if not the worst weeks to travel. However, it does give us an opportunity to see a new area of China. Last year I went up north to ride on the camels, this year I went to Enshi.

I know, it's like I'm always on vacation, but this is the last one until Christmas for me :) Enshi is in the same province as I live, but quite a ways west. It's surrounded by mountains so the best way to get there is by train. After an 8 hour train ride we were met by a friend at the train station. He took us to our hotel and treated us to dinner.

The trip was awesome! I got to meet another friend and have dinner with him, see his family and his home, and even try some special Enshi breakfast food- dog meat! The first day we hiked around the "Grand Canyon" and the second day we went deep into the country-side and saw the real country life of some people. Country life in China is much different than America!!

The final meal was the most interesting meal I've ever had. We were given a stack of shallow, clay bowls. These bowls were meant for drinking alcohol (although sprite is also ok :) ). After you finished your drink you would smash the bowl on the floor. So during the meal you would hear bowls shattering all around. It was pretty neat!

Enough with my words... enjoy some pictures!

people

people

everwhere!!! These pictures show the number of people hiking on this 4-hr long trail...

After narrowing the people down to one lane, we had more space to walk... beautiful views!

My friend, John Wayne, with his family in their kitchen

to the left is the kitchen, to the right is a walkway to another kitchen and a bathroom

a path in the country-side

country-side... notice the lack of roads?

corn field and path

Great Wall of Enshi

We got to hang out with this girl as her parents (Linda's cousin) drove us around.

Linda

The bowl

You drink from it....

... and smash it!

Our table

The bowls after we were finished with them :)

delicious!!!

I got even closer to Linda on this trip. She's a blessing!

A bridge near our hotel.

First days of traveling

Here is a blog I wrote the first days of traveling...

The last two days have been full of exercise. Once I finally got to my hostel (I took two flights and an overnight train) my students and I explored Lijiang. The hostel guy suggested a bike ride so off we went! We were planning to see an old town and some beautiful scenery by a lake. What he didn't tell us was that we would have to bike up a mountain! We ended up walking quite a ways with our bikes. We saw the town, but then missed our turn for the lake. By that time we were enjoying the downhill, and didn't want to turn back to find the lake.

Day two started off with an early bus ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Wow!! We hiked down 2000 meters walked around on the bottom for a while, then slowly, very slowly, made our way back up to the top. Along the way we had ladders to climb, rocks to maneuver over, bridges to cross, horse poop to avoids, and A LOT of stairs!  Even though I felt like death by the end, it was so worth it. The sights were amazing!!! We were down inside of a gorge and I was blown away by the beauty. 

After a short nap back at the hostel, I ventured out for a short walk alone. I loved walking around in china with amazing views alone.  I sang hymns out loud and marveled at the vastness of His creation.  I'm thankful I got this time to relax before heading into a busy year of teaching and studying.

Even as I think back on this area, I'm in love. It was such a great peaceful place to be. It's crazy that in this country of a billion people there are places where no one is to be found. I was alone and it was great!

Horses along the way. They want you to ride them up when your half dead. Great marketing strategy!

You couldn't take a bad picture!

A bridge along the path

They had these great rests spots along the way. Very helpful!

View from my hostel

LOVED this area. This bridge is called G-d River Bridge :)

Hard to see, but there is a milk cow in here

The menu at the hostel

This one's for my dad! It's another cow. This is their "barn"

Beautiful!!!