Okay, again, I've procrastinated and so I have quite a bit of catch-up to do. So the last thing I talked about was my dad's birthday. That weekend, a bunch of people went to Nanjing to "hike" Purple Mountain. I met up with Aimee, Savannah, Danielle, and Olivia to head up to Wanda Plaza together. It just happened to be Pi Day, so at 3/14/15 9:26 am we all ate an Orion Pie since that was pretty much the closest thing to pie we had. I'm pretty sure the other people on the bus were really confused by the fact that a) Savannah opened up her suitcase to get out the box of Orion Pies, b) we all sat holding the Orion Pies for like 10 minutes, and c) when the time came all the sudden all of us were taking pictures/eating the Orion Pies. Yeah, it was quite the 25 minute bus ride.
When we got to Wanda, we only met up with Kirsten so while we waited, some people went into Starbucks. Danielle and I sat outside the store to wait. Soon, an old beggar came up and started begging, but unlike most, he was quite persistent and also rather touchy. He was touching Danielle's legs and kept trying to prod her for money for like 3+ minutes, so I told her to go in the store. He then came over to me and I gave him the coins I had, hoping that would satisfy him and he'd go on his way, but then he wouldn't leave. He kept prodding for more money and even though I told him I didn't have any more, he kept doing the touching thing. When Kirsten came over, he also did the same thing to her, and after poking us in places he shouldn't have, he finally left to go into the store where he continued to prod for money from the other girls. It's one thing when they just beg, but he was quite persistent and would touch each person in areas that were quite uncomfortable (chest, butt, upper thigh, etc). Let's just say that once they came out, we were all happy to get away.
We found Ari and Koy in the station when we went to buy our tickets, found out Tyler forgot his passport so he had to go back, and also Chris and Natalia were going to be late, and Kyra was sick. The decision was to get our tickets and either wait for them in Zhenjiang or in Nanjing. Our train left in 20 minutes, so we just waited in Nanjing for everyone to get there. We met up with some of the girls from YangZhong, Alex and Adison, and also the 3 from Zhenjiang that were behind. While waiting we were hungry, so I convinced Kirsten to get this purple rice porridge that I was getting. She had a slightly difficult time with it because it was pretty bland (except for the parts that actually had a little sugar in it) and the texture was thick, etc. I thought it was pretty good though.
Well, after that, church
and traveling home were pretty much normal.
When we got to Wanda, we only met up with Kirsten so while we waited, some people went into Starbucks. Danielle and I sat outside the store to wait. Soon, an old beggar came up and started begging, but unlike most, he was quite persistent and also rather touchy. He was touching Danielle's legs and kept trying to prod her for money for like 3+ minutes, so I told her to go in the store. He then came over to me and I gave him the coins I had, hoping that would satisfy him and he'd go on his way, but then he wouldn't leave. He kept prodding for more money and even though I told him I didn't have any more, he kept doing the touching thing. When Kirsten came over, he also did the same thing to her, and after poking us in places he shouldn't have, he finally left to go into the store where he continued to prod for money from the other girls. It's one thing when they just beg, but he was quite persistent and would touch each person in areas that were quite uncomfortable (chest, butt, upper thigh, etc). Let's just say that once they came out, we were all happy to get away.
We found Ari and Koy in the station when we went to buy our tickets, found out Tyler forgot his passport so he had to go back, and also Chris and Natalia were going to be late, and Kyra was sick. The decision was to get our tickets and either wait for them in Zhenjiang or in Nanjing. Our train left in 20 minutes, so we just waited in Nanjing for everyone to get there. We met up with some of the girls from YangZhong, Alex and Adison, and also the 3 from Zhenjiang that were behind. While waiting we were hungry, so I convinced Kirsten to get this purple rice porridge that I was getting. She had a slightly difficult time with it because it was pretty bland (except for the parts that actually had a little sugar in it) and the texture was thick, etc. I thought it was pretty good though.
Well, after that we went
on the subway and headed to Brad’s (I had to lead the way since apparently
others didn’t remember or know), and got some food on the way. We ate, left our stuff at Brad’s and then
headed out to find Purple Mountain. By the
time we got to Purple Mountain, the rain had started. We found Tom, Julie, and Evan there and went
with them for a bit. We were going to
see the plum blossoms, but by the time we got into the area it was raining
quite a bit and most people felt that 60 yuan was too much to pay when it was
raining as much as it was. Thus, we
decided to go to the tomb. Tom and Evan
decided to meet up with the others (who didn’t feel like being in a group with
17 other white people, I can’t blame them).
Well, Kirsten and I ended up separating from the group a bit. We got to the tomb area, but by the time we
got to all the stairs to go up, my knee wasn’t feeling too great, so I decided
not to climb a bunch of wet, probably slippery stairs. Oh, and we met up with Brother Fish and
Daniel (both are doing the Flagship program).
The park was going to
close, so we went back and got everyone back together. Brother Fish took us on the bus to XinJieKou
(like an hour to an hour and a half bus ride).
I ended up sitting across from the rest of the group (other than the
ones in the back). But I was next to
some boys. I overheard them practicing
English and what they could say to me. Finally
after 20 minutes or so they decided to actually talk to me. I responded in English and then at one point
I decided to respond in Chinese and that surprised them. I never know how long to continue a
conversation in English or whether I should just give them a break and speak
Chinese. Anyway, I started talking to
them and it was fine for a while, but then it started feeling awkward because
we were on the bus for another 30 minutes and so they ran out of the usual
topics that people like to ask and I didn’t know what else to talk about. At one point, one of the guys (he had talked
more than the other 2) was holding this little animated dog thing and he said
he wanted to give it to me. He said that
girls like cute things, and so I probably like the dog because it was cute. I really didn’t understand why he decided to
give the dog to me since he bought it and didn’t know me at the time so he
probably bought it for someone else.
Anyway, we ended up exchanging QQ numbers. A few days later Mr. Yang (as he decided his English
name was) told me that he adores me and that he misses me. Now, I can understand that there are probably
some translation issues there but how would he miss me from just one meeting on
the bus?!
Finally, they got off
the bus, we went a little further and when I showed the rest of my group the
dog they would first think it was cute, then I turned it on and it was SUPER
creepy. It got nicknamed the demon dog
because the eyes would light up neon green as it barked. Really quite creepy. So we got to XinJieKou and went out to get
food, then we went back to Brad’s before heading in our separate directions. Natalia got the idea to leave the demon dog
in Brad’s coffee table, and I didn’t know what to do with it so I just gave it
to her to do what she wanted with it. I
still don’t know if they’ve found it yet or not.
