Sanya :)

At long last :)

A brief note about parent teacher day that morning: the parents were a big distraction watching their kids, I was exhausted and felt like a mess but the day went okay. I didn't get yelled at and if there were glares I wouldn't know because I was trying so hard to control the children that I couldn't even look at their parents! and the follow-up meeting the next week the moms were super nice, just asking about their kids individually and how well they speak English. They were more worried about things like the kids getting enough water or if their gross sweaty back towels get put out to dry often enough. So I'm off the hook, phew! Even with the injuries that seem to keep happening in my class I left the classroom unscathed Friday afternoon. And ready for Sanya :)

We headed to the bus station shortly after lunch. One thing we say about China is that it doesn't rain here, it "mists"--meaning there are never water drops falling from the sky ever, just a light little misty thing. It's very strange. Well it was misting that afternoon and I told on of the girls in our group, Anna, how weird it was. I should have held my tongue because as we got off the number 10 bus to the bus station it was a downpour. Oh one other thing you should know: in order to not get robbed, we sometimes wear our backpacks on our fronts. Not the most attractive thing ever, in fact it looks downright silly...but hey it keeps your stuff safe! Now picture me at this point, glasses, green UVSC sweatshirt (now vintage, gotta love it!), sweat pants, not able to reach my umbrella, running for shelter to the station. Yes, I couldn't help but laugh at this scene. It only added to the moment that a Chinese woman came up from behind me and started running in time with me, holding her umbrella over my head with a big smile on her face. Thank you, random kind Chinese stranger :)

We got on our bus an hour later and as we settle in I noticed I was the lucky duck sitting behind the toilet. It was alright but became a problem about 5 hours into the trip..I won't go into details about that. Amanda's bed was right next to a speaker blaring music to a very questionable in-bus movie that was playing. I will never understand Asian entertainment. Literally because of the language, yes, but as far as content as well. So weird.

You should understand this about sleeper bus rides-- they are pretty confusing. You sleep in hour chunks, wake up randomly, can't find a comfortable position, it smells bad, random Asian jingles are going off on cell phones, there are stops occasionally at these sketchy little restaurant markets with gross squatters where everyone has to get off the bus, there are these NASTY furry blankets that come with each seat that I make a point of never touching (I WILL get diseases, I'm sure of it) and they smell like stinky feet because you take your shoes off and put them in little bags when you get on the bus. Just to paint a little picture for you :) This bus ride was, I think the most eventful of the 4 I've taken so far. There was the most INSANE car accident I've ever seen. It held us up in traffic for about 40 minutes and when we passes it we were all completely shocked at the scene: three white-hot car frames with flames maybe 7 feet high billowing up from them. Very scary! It was like watching a stunt act at Universal Studios. I was very glad at that point to be in a bus that would win most car accidents. Later we were woken up and told to all get in our beds. A policeman came on the bus and shined a very bright flashlight into each of our faces. I guess everything was okay because we drove on without any difficulties…but right after we started driving a man came opened the door and emerged out of the bathroom..where I guess he had been hiding..so funny! I think I laughed for about 10 minutes. Things are so sketchy here it’s ridiculous. Once again we slept for I don’t know how long and woke up very confused to the driver herding us off the bus. We gathered our stuff and were told to put it on another bus. Apparently we were at the harbor? No one was really sure. So everyone put their big luggage under the bus and...it drove away? Um. Okay. Interesting. At this point we just hoped we'd see it again! We waited in line for the ferry (but we'd just put our luggage on a bus? This is just how it is with China..) and just got on! But the ferry was HUGE and there were large trucks and tons of buses being loaded on so it was pretty safe to assume that ours was among them.


And my name was on the ferry. A nice little bonus at 1 in the morning :)

The hour long ride to island province of Hainan Dao was mostly uneventful. The ferry pulled up to the harbor and we wandered off..good rule of thumb here is to just follow the Chinese people so we that’s what we did in this situation. Tour buses like ours started pulling up and we all anxiously stood in the “rain” waiting for our to show up, admittedly crossing our fingers that we would ever make it to Sanya. Eventually it came! Back on the sleeper bus, driving to the most southern tip of the island to Sanya, I was in and out of sleep for a couple of hours and eventually managed to sleep until 10.

I woke up to a bright sunny day outside and looked out the window to see crowded sidewalks and lots of street vendors. Once again, REALLY confusing! We got off the bus, puffy-eyed, and wandered in circles around the bus station until we found a random man with a van offering us to give us a ride. Heck yes, we told him. We got to our hostel and plopped down our stuff. This room was different than our hostel in Yangshuo- it was a big room with 5 bunk beds, a table in the center and big blue lockers to keep our stuff. I had a bunkmate already sleeping soundly :) We were exhausted but we pushed through it-- the beach was calling!! We’d seen it on the way in and there was no stopping us. We got changed and wandered through a couple alleyways to find it..
,
..and stopped for some lunch first. And this was the scene that met us:




And this is how I felt about it :)

A day basking in the sunlight is best spent with the camera in its case, so just know it was wonderful, but I took a break from mindless paradise to get a couple worth mentioning here.


Little Chinese vendors came by selling us pearls (relentlessly..)


..and mangos :) So yummy! And incredibly messy, it was fun to wash off in the ocean afterwards.

We basked in the sun all day and it was heavenly! The sun was warm, the water was too...ah...I can't even describe my happiness without wishing I was back there, moving on!

We headed back home for showers and realized how sunburnt we were. Painful, but completely worth it :D Stopped for some jiao zi..

..and life couldn’t get much better right then!

We rode an insanely crowded bus downtown to explore an outdoor mall. Lots to see!


A giant Buddha. All the Chinese people were holding his beads so you can guess why I am. When in China!



Waiting for our frozen drinks, this family wanted us to pose for a picture with their kid. It might bring good luck or something. Once again, language barrier..

We were too late to catch a bus back to the hostel so we had to resort to other means of transportation..a motorized taxi!



We squished all six of us girls on the back of one and just laughed the whole time (in between feeling absolutely terrified for our lives) and it was quite fantastic.

The next morning was Easter Sunday! And I doubt I will ever have another Easter quite like it. Not exactly your typical Easter pictures, right??





Once again it’s hard to sum up such a relaxing, wonderful, perfectly lazy day so here are the highlights:


A jellyfish washed up on the shore! I only touched it because of Finding Nemo- I knew the top wasn’t going to hurt me ;)




The ever-persistent fruit vendors. This particular lady would NOT stop heckling us to buy her mangos and coconuts. She took a break in the shade between efforts.




Back at the hostel waiting to go out for the night. Such an interesting experience staying in places like these! Hostels are so cheap it's ridiculous.

Hand pulled noodles later and some last minute shopping at the mall for Chinese beach souvenirs. Top the night off with a beach walk and it was a very unique Easter indeed. Not enough celebration of the Savior or the Resurrection for me but it was an Easter I’m sure I will never forget!

The next day we packed up and sadly left our beach paradise. At this point I was nursing a pretty bad sunburn and was a little displeased with myself at how I’d finally traveled to a place the same latitude as Hawaii and I burned myself. Better luck next time, I guess!

Bus ride for a couple hours to a ferry. It can make you feel a little crazy getting on a bus you know you'll be spending 11 hours on...


Ferries are exciting places! Lots of wet stuff and weird smells. Plus a room dedicated solely to instant noodles...who knew?!


A little break for a Titanic moment :)

The bus ride home was for some reason SO BUMPY. At one point I stood up to tell Erin to come sit and talk on the bottom level, and the bus jolted really bad. I grabbed the side of one of the upper beds to keep myself up but my momentum was going and I sliced my finger on the metal siding. I don’t know how to tell you how bad it was because I wouldn’t look at it..we disinfected it and made a bandaid.

I spent the rest of the ride sleeping really lightly chasing the make-shift bandaid around my bed. What a night!

We arrived home, tired and sunburnt but happy. An orange juice from McDonald’s and a steamed roll from the cafeteria and we were happy. It’s amazing how we can go away for a weekend and I can miss my hard little bed here back in Kaiyin. It feels like home!

Such a wonderful vacation!! Totally different than our trip to Yangshuo but I don't think I could say which one was my favorite. It's incredible how many different experiences China has to offer. I really love it here :)

Next vacation in 2 weeks! Beijing, here I come!