This weekend has been the most incredible for traveling I have ever experienced! Given last Thursday to today (Monday) off for the May holiday break, everyone here in Yongzhou, Shuangpai, and Longhui all met here in Yongzhou and we left Thursday morning to travel. For the record, this weekend I rode 13 buses, 5 taxis (and 1 moto taxi), and 2 trains (one of which was a sleeper train); I went from here in Yongzhou->Lengshuitang->Shaoyang->Longhui->Huihua->Fengshuang->Zhang Jia Jie City->Zhang Jia Jie National Forest->Changsha->Yongzou between Thursday and today. Crazy huh? Well it sure was worth it, every bit.
So Thursday we traveled (a lot) and got to Fenghuan, and it was a gorgeous evening! We sort of got lost because we didn’t have the hostel name in Chinese and people kept trying to help us by taking us to their hotels when we asked for help finding our own. Haha, I love the Chinese people-they love to help, but they’ll do anything before admitting they don’t know something (example: saying they know where our hostel is and taking us to theirs). The hostel was nice, the weather was perfect, the people are very kind, but we didn’t buy much there because things were really expensive. I did realize while I was there that I LOVE pineapple here. I used to dislike it completely back at home, but now I crave it here. One old lady in the town was kind enough to let me have a candle boat for taking a picture of her-she was cute.
Friday we met up with Jacob Harlan (founder of China Horizons) and we got to meet his family, which was exciting! Jacob is like a dad to me out here, and to see white kids again made me very happy. We visited a little, explored, and then my group parted to head toward Zhang Jia Jie. We stayed in a hostel that night and took the chance to chill a little bit after our travels. Some people in our group are really hooked on the show Avatar, so we watched a lot of episodes throughout the trip.
For those of you who know me very well, I love geology and I love monkies, so needless to say Zhang Jia Jie National Forest was by far my favorite place in China so far! These mountains are the “Hallelujah Mountains” from the movie “Avatar”. It costed 250 yuan to get in for 2 days (Saturday and Sunday), and it was glorious! There were monkies here and there, and the rocks are gorgeous! I saw more geology in that place than anywhere else in the world! We met a man (and I wish I knew his name) on the bus to the National Forest who offered us a place to stay that night for only 65 yuan a person (which isn’t bad for staying in a National Forest), and he even gave us a personal tour throughout the forest! We all expected to walk through the forest with this guy for an hour or so, get to his hostel, drop our bags off, and then go back through the trail and take more pictures. Haha, not. This guy took us upward on one of the steepest hikes of my life- the path was paved like a sidewalk, but I swear we walked up at least 5 million stairs that day. After about an hour and a half many of us were exhausted, but the man said we were almost there…another hour and a half later, we’d made it up the mountain to…to the road? no hostel? We were wiped out after the strenuous hike straight up the mountain, and at first I wondered if this guy was pulling a joke on us and was going to say “OK, now it’s time to go back down the mountain” (in Chinese), but instead he pulled out his phone and soon a bus picked us up (free of charge, that was nice) and took us to the hostel. Whew. We’d made it. Then they gave us a good sized meal for 20 yuan (decent price for the middle of nowhere), and then the guy was ready to take us to some more good lookout points for pictures. My image of that guy changed. He never let us on our own, never made us pay for anything extra, and the next Morning, he escorted us out of the park and into town to get on a train to Changsha. What a fantastic guy! I hope I can get his name. Sam and I want to repay him somehow. He didn’t have to do any of that: give us his hostel for 65 yuan instead of 100 yuan, give us a personal tour, give us extra food free of charge, take us on buses free of charge, take us to more look outs, and escort us and guide us perfectly back out of the park. I pray for him now-he’s a great guy (even if he did tell a fib about ‘almost being there’ halfway up the mountain). We saw some incredible things, all sorts of monkies and rocks, and some of us even woke up early Sunday morning to see the sunrise.
Sunday night we took my first sleeper train to Changsha. It left at 7pm and we arrived in Changsha at 6am this morning. I really like sleeper trains. I hear bad things about sleeper buses, but I really wouldn’t mind taking sleeper trains overnight again sometime. We split ways in Changsha, and Sam, Madi, and I made it back to Yongzhou. It feels so good to be home. *sigh* I love it here. This past weekend was one very packed weekend, but it was totally worth it. I’m excited for more traveling! I’m almost ready to go for round two! The next consecutive weekends I plan to go to Daoxian next weekend (to be with my buddies Lawrence and Quincy), then go back to Guilin and Yangshuo (I’m out of cheese…and I love it there), then to Longhui (to visit by other buddies), then I’ll spend the weekend of the 29th here at home (to talk to my missionary who will be home then!!!), and then Madi, Sam, and I are booking it to Xiamen for the June testing period (we don’t teach then). So yeah, I’m super thrilled about traveling more and more. After school gets out, Madi, Sam, Sam’s buddy who’s coming up to backpack with him a couple weeks, Alyssa, and I are going to Chengdu (to see some more monkies and monks), and then to Tibet. Then Alyssa (my awesome buddy from Longhui) and I will go to Beijing and then Shanghai (then to America) together, so I’m guessing I’ll probably be coming home around July 20th, but I should know by next week. Hopefully I’ll hear from EFY soon about counselor positions in the Midwest and Idaho.
OH! I can’t forget about my classes this week. Remember last week how I decided to try to remember all 800 of my students’ names? Well let me report a little on that: my relationship with each student has changed completely. When they realized I was serious about memorizing their names, told them they were important and I loved them and always wanted to remember them, and showed them I was trying, it brought very tender feelings between us. Being so far from home and constantly pressured by everyone to get perfect scores to the point of not receiving any affection and love, this has made a huge impact. “They” were the teachers, and I was the student, and they had to “grade” me on how well I remembered their names. It touched me that these students, who think it’s horrible to get under a 90% on anything and are harshly examined every week by the school, would be so encouraging and merciful when in some classes I’d only remember 70% of their names so much as to give me a 90%. Just because they knew I was trying out of love, after I’d gone over ever person and finished off the names, they’d clap, smile, and say “congratulations!” I’ve seen tears come to students’ eyes when I say “Hi Anna!” or “How are you, Yuki?” or “You look good in green, Albert Einstein” in passing some of my students. Each day after I left from teaching my classes to go back to my apartment, I felt my heart becoming more and more tender as I reflected on these beautiful students, and I thanked God again and again for letting me be their teacher. None of my students have disrespected me one bit since then; all of them try to help me out, talk to me more, visit more, and their desire to learn English has sky-rocketed, all by my mere efforts in trying to learn their names. I’ve always heard the quote “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” so many times, but it has become even more real to me. My only regret is that I didn’t try to remember their names from day one, but I am halfway through the semester, and my goal is to remember them forever, and I will. Each one of my students I would be willing to do anything for. I love them and try to treat them as if they are my godchildren, given I can’t replace their parents, and every day in class I will only feel accomplished if I have fulfilled 2 things: teaching them to speak more English than the day before, and showing them I love them.
This weekend has been life changing for me. It’s hard to describe, but this week I am a different Nikki than I was last week. My love for all God’s children has reaped a hundredfold, my mind and great have been turned to greater and more important things, my priorities are aligned as they should be, my desires are more closely secured on what they should be, and I think I’ve matured a little bit more this week. Don’t worry, I’m still too playful for my own good, crack cheesy jokes, and show off on occasion, but as far as things of a greater perspective are concerned, my thoughts have been placed on higher ground, if that makes sense.
1-Before we left to travel:
Pic 2: Delicious hand-pulled noodles, Mariah, Sam, and Savanna
Pic 3: Visiting our pagoda at sunset
Pic 4: Lighting off wish lanterns (make a wish, light the kerosene base, and send it up)
2-On our way
Pic 1-3: Scenery
Pic 4: Lost in Fenghuang
Pic 5: Fenghuang at night
Pic 6: The cute old lady-she gave that to me :)
Pic 7: Fenghuang at night
Pic 8: Fenghuang at day time
Pic 9: Fenghuang hostel
3-Fenghuang Cont
Pic 1: Welcome to Fenghuang
Pic 2: Grapes of Wrath pic-almost to freedom... (if you've read it, you know)
Pic 3: The Harlan's treating us to fried noodles
Pic 4: Stepping stone bridge
Pic 5: I have no idea
4-The Road to Zhang Jia Jie
Pic 1-3: Roadside Scenery
Pic 4: Welcome to Zhang Jia Jie (MONKIES)
Pic 5: More Monkies! :)
Pic 6: Me and something gorgeous
5
Pic 1: I love ZJJ
Pic 2: Meet the Rocks
Pic 3: A peacock. Can you see it?
Pic 4: Almost there...or halfway to go.
Pic 5: Vine swinging
Pic 6: We finally made it to the top (I picked up a few flowers)
6
Zhang Jia Jie the Beautiful
Pic 1: Exhausted at the top
Pic 2: A "Z"-for ZZJ
Pic 3: Behold...
Pic 4: Madi and I
Pic 5-6: At dusk
7
Pic 1: Alyssa and I
Pic 2: Me and our tour guide
Pic 3: Sunrise over ZJJ
Pic 4: Watching the sunrise
Pic 5: Me and Madi (on the way down)
Pic 6-7: Crazy-awesome geology, huh?
Pic 8: "Lovers Meet after a Long Separation". Can you see them?
Pic 9: Our group at the end
8-Traveling
Pic 1: Madi and I ate a whole pineapple after the hike
Pic 2: Sleeper train
Pic 3: Madi exhausted
Pic 4: Some of our group
Pic 5: Madi and Sam sleeping
Pic 6: A monkey and her baby... zhen k'ai (very cute)
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