That night we ate dinner with three of the Chinese teachers. They are great fun. Maggie, Sand, and Ida. They took us to a new place to eat, but it was weird and crowded, and we didn't care for the food as much as our usual place.
Grace, our liaison took Martin and I out to get a card for Huguanyan Park. The lake where we were a few weeks ago. We can buy a card pass that will allow us to enter the park no charge for like three years! The card is 50 RMB. Day passes are also 50 RMB. Makes a whole lot of sense to buy a card. But the place was closed so we couldn't get one. So we ate a McDonalds. I mentioned to Grace that my neck and back have been very tight lately and I would love a massage. So she offers to show us the place where her brother-in-law goes for massage. What an interesting experience! We took a long walk to a new part of town that I've never seen. It was like a totally different city! The roads were a lot more narrow, and it seemed so crowded and claustrophobic. It was dark by the time we got to the street lined with many massage parlors, lit up with pink lights. Dude, this is NOT what I was expecting! She took us to the "pink light" district. (They can't use "red" cuz its their national color). I made it very clear that I wanted a "true" massage. She said I could get one from a blind man.... so yeah.... I don't know about the massage anymore. I might just decide to live with the knots in my back. Wow.... Unreal.
October 1 was the National holiday. We didn't do much. Shopped a bit, and walked around. It was SO crowded everywhere we went that it wasn't much fun to go anywhere. We had dinner at a nice restaurant. At the table next to us, an old man was yelling and screaming about something.... something made him mad. It was interesting to see how every one else just let him yell and scream and make a lot of commotion, trying to get him to settle down. I was in my apartment around 930 pm when I the fireworks begin. I watched them from my window. And I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but these fire works were the best I've ever seen! It was like a US grand finale the entire time for 1/2 hour, and then some! Saw some I've never seen before, too. They were shooting them off over the bay. I had a great view from my window. Wish I would've known about them before so I could've seen them from the park, or the roof.
Well, we have these 5 days of vacation because of the holiday. I wanted to go somewhere, but the others convinced me it would be cheaper, less traveling, and just as fun to go to Dong Hai Island beach only an hour away. Nigel is the only one who went away. He went to Shichuan to see the pandas. He loves the pandas; that's his name in Chinese. So four of us, Brenda, Martin, Arthur, and I went to DongHai. It was pretty fun for most of the time. The beach was fairly clean, and not as crowded as we had expected. We were the only foreigners there and got SO many stares! The people are SO rude when it comes to staring. They will literally come three feet away from us and just stand there watching us. Arthur knows enough Chinese to say, "get lost." It gets to be very frustrating when people treat us like a spectacle. So we did a little swimming. Had some laughs "people watching." Terrible, I know. But there are SO many things here that you would never see in the States that you can't help but laugh. Like women who where their high heals and try to walk in the sand, grown men wearing spedos with rubber floaties around their waste, naked kids running around and swimming, the "life-guards" blow their whistles like crazy, but never leave their seats- you have no idea who they are blowing their whistle at and they probably don't even know how to swim themselves. And you would not find a single person sun bathing here. They wear long sleeves and pants in 95 degrees just so they don't get dark. It's a completely different world.
Here's where the day went not-so-wonderful: Brenda went for a swim and I was left with the guys. They were checking out girls like mad, and finally found their victim, called her over, and eventually got her number. They told me to stick around, cuz when I'm there it makes the girls feel "safe." I'm not unfamiliar with guys picking up girls, but I was disgusted cuz of the things they were saying about the girls and what their plans were. It was very disturbing. Then Martin says that they need to find me a guy. I told them I wasn't interested. They were trying to convince me that a casual relationship is fine, that I need a "friend." Well, I don't want the kind of "friend" that they have in mind. I was trying to explain my values to them and they litterally laughed in my face. Said they need to get me drunk, that I need to loosen up. Its a complete joke to them. I've never had to explain myself to these kind of people before, but I realized that they wouldn't be able to understand anyway. I can't expect them to understand. But I do wish they'd at least respect the fact that I have values. But I have a feeling that it's going to be their new project to see if they can break me down and join their world. P4Me!!! P4Me!!! To be honest, I know that in my own strength I will not be able to withstand this... They tease me to no end, laugh in my face, and call my uptight. I need His strength, love, wisdom, words to say! I've never been in this position before. I've always been surrounded by people who held the same values as me, or atleast understood them.
Once the subject was changed, things were fine again. We took the very late bus back to the station. From there we took the tuk-tuk type taxis back to the school... That was a blast! Two of us in each tuk-tuk, racing in the evening rain! So fun. Then we ate at our usual place. Yum! Today, I don't know what the day holds. But tomorrow we are going to the Haibin hotel to make use of their super nice spa/pool area. The whirl pools sound like heaven for my back... Seriously. I wake up with knots in my neck and shoulders every morning. I think I'm just not used to this hard bed yet.
I've got so many pictures from yesterday. I will try to send one. Let me know if it works!
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