Wo de Sheng Ri Kuai Le! (My birthday happy)

Saturday June 5, 2010

Our field trip today started at the normal time we start class, so no sleeping in. We went on a bus ride for a trip about 1hr ½ away from Kunming. We went to a flower market, which is apparently the biggest in the area- where everyone gets their flowers. It was a slightly run down area, definitely not in the city. Many people have definitely never seen Americans, because we got the biggest stares here. People would walk and turn their heads as they past us, just to stare. It was great. When we got on the bus, they gave me BEAUTIFUL flowers for my birthday. I have no idea what to call them, but I kept wanting to call them lilies, which I know is wrong. They were giant, and smelled amazing.

We then went to Shu Lin- Stone Forest. I would google it to get an idea of what it looks like. It is literally a forest of stones (this is ironic because on my 18th birthday, we went to Stonehenge). The stones are really tall and really cool looking. I think I heard that the story is that the stones are men that were turned into stone. The true story is that they were once under sea. It was wet and rainy, so we had some trouble with slips along the way- there are lots of stairs that don’t quite have enough grip. Despite the rain, there were TONS of Chinese people there. There were a number of stones that you had to touch or not touch for good luck. Shu Lin is huge, and we only saw a small part. The tour guide we had spoke Chinese, and they wouldn’t let us wander around. It was still fun though. We wanted to go down the “Narrowest Passage” and Dr. Atkinson (the teacher with the Journey to China trip) told us to go quickly so that the other tour guide and Chinese teachers wouldn’t see us. It was truly narrow, but it led us upward to a great view. We ended up finding everyone without a problem. A few people slipped, including myself on one set of stairs. After that, half the group got lost, but we eventually found each other.

After Shu Lin, we all wanted water. There are a series of stores after Shu Lin, and everyone headed to the first store. I felt bad for the other stores, since they probably get the least business, so I went to the second store. However, I made a bad decision. They cheated me. I opened the refrigerator for water, which was on the bottom shelf. When I grabbed one, coke bottles came flying out at me. I tried catching them all, and looked to the lady working for help. She just stood there watching. I was able to get some of them back, and then the lady was holding a coke that had spilled to me. She was making me buy it. I then realized that they had been stacking coke on top of the water, which was not good- because they would always fall. I told the man working that this was not okay. He began taking some of them out, which made me feel like I helped future customers from my same problem. (I don’t even like to drink soda.) I talked with Jeremy and Rachel for a minute, looking around the store. I looked back at the refrigerator and saw the coke bottles were put right back in place on top of the water. They were doing this on purpose- to make people pay more. I was very, very angry. I got the man’s attention again, telling him this was not okay. I yelled at him a little, feeling like my mom. Haha. I told him he was not a good person. (This was all in Chinese.) I was very angry, and couldn’t believe they did that. It was not right.

On the way back, we drove around a lake, which made me really miss summer. I love swimming and lakes, and I don’t get to swim here. :( When we got back to the hotel, Yang Laoshi ordered food for us, and it was amazing. I want to find out where it came from. I ordered noodles, because you are supposed to eat noodles on your birthday for longevity. Yang Laoshi gave me a present, which was a bobble head little girl, with Chinese type cuteness. It wasn’t something I would pick for myself, but it was sweet and made me happy. We invited him out for Karaoke, which made him really happy.

We went to the best KTV (Chinese karaoke places that are more common than starbucks) in Kunming, called Top One. It is in the Kun Du district, which is filled with clubs. With Karaoke in China, you get a private room. It was really nice. The school arranged for me to have a cake, which was truly amazing. I want to find out where it came from. I wanted to take the rest home, but they said it would go bad overnight. The Chinese just don’t understand cake, apparently. We sang Miley Cyrus, had a girls and boys “duet” of Grease, learned a popular Chinese dice game, and got Yang Laoshi to sing. Alyssa’s new Chinese roommate gave me a really pretty metal bracelet.

After Karaoke, we went dancing at the Top One club, which was just around the corner. It was packed, and it took a minute to get a table. I made some Chinese friends at the table next to us, especially two that kept telling me I was really pretty. They were gorgeous, however. They probably loved how white I was. In China, girls try to be as white as possible. So, the whiter you are, the prettier. All and all, it was a fantastic birthday.