Hangzhou

Well- we had our first "day off", but that seemed to be more stressful
than our regular days. For the normal school days, we each teach three
classes that are 45 minutes each- and we have the rest of the day off.
So we either teach from 8:40 until about 11 or we teach from 2:00 until
4:40 or so. The rest of the day is ours. We do a lot of reading, we
go into town for dinner, we scan the television for any American tv-
even if it's in Chinese- or we just hang out. I have had several
nights of 11 hours of sleep believe it or not- (most likely because we
are so tired from our strenuous work days). It seems weird, but the
heat really does zap our energy. For the last few days it has been 35
degrees- Celsius. I have no idea what that is in Farenheit, but it's
really freaking hot.

So- back to my original point, we decided on our free day to travel to
Hangzhou to see the West Lake. Keep in mind that there are about 35
"West Lakes" in China, this being the uber West Lake apparently. We
had Emily take us to get bus tickets, and we got cabs at 6:30 in the
morning to catch the bus to Hangzhou. The ride was estimated to be
about 1.5 - 2 hours depending on how fast the bus bobbed and weaved
through traffic. Luckily? Ang and I were fairly close to the front of
the bus as she tends to get motion sick fairly easy. However, this
also put us at the front seat advantage for all of the car accidents we
almost got in.

We arrived in Hangzhou safe and sound, and right away at the bus
station, we were approached for a tour of the West Lake. Originally
our plan was to see the lake, hang out for a while, and head back to
Yuyao. Even with Emily with us though, (Emily again being Chinese, so
she was able to convey our request for a tour... supposedly) we ended
up getting screwed again. Sure enough, we had a deluxe tour- it was
165RMB, which is just over $20- and the tour was to go to 8 different
places in Hangzhou. So- we discussed briefly and agreed to the tour.
We got in the van, and off we went... to the travel agency. We arrived
there after about 20 minutes in hair raising traffic (I have never seen
anything like the driving here- I know I have talked about this before,
but it's like -as Ang pointed out- a live game of Frogger. You just
always hope you don't get the Buh-duh sound that it makes when the frog
gets squished.) At the travel agency we paid our fee, and then got on
a bus. We were under the impression that we'd have a private van -
like Michael did- but whatever, we were flexible right? So we boarded
the bus, with Emily- and off we went. The tour was from about 9:30 or
10 until 6:00 pm and the entire thing WAS IN CHINESE. We did in fact
stop at 8 different places, but we didn't know what many of them were
becuase there was no English anywhere. We were told at the bus station
that we would have an English guide, but that was apparently a lie to
get us on the tour. Hmph.

The West Lake was beautiful, but again, we didn't know anything that
they were saying about it at all. There was one lady on the tour who
spoke English,and she was able to convey our - ok my- frustration at
the fact that we had paid so much for a Chinese tour and we needed some
English. It didn't go over well, but at the West Lake, they did switch
tourguides to get us an English speaking one. Unfortunately, her
English consisted of "I'm sorry" in both the question and answer form
in case we asked her anything- she'd use the "I'm sorry" or if we
commented on anything - she'd say "I'm sorry." She had however
mastered the "this way please" and "no" when we asked if we could stay
on the bus instead of continuing on the narrative filled tour. Oh
well- it was a funny sight to see a Chinese tour group, and then 6
white folks trailing along as she spoke into her little mega phone.

We got home at about 9:00 after another 1.5 hour bus ride and taxis
back to the school... what a day. The experience came to it's real
peak when the next day all of my TA's asked me to explain what I had
learned about the West Lake to the kids... hmph- that didn't take real
long.

:) Carla