When we got to the hotel we went out to eat. The people in the town who have restaurants stand on the street and if you slow down they shout at you to come to their restaurant. It's actually pretty affective, I think. So we ate and it was super yummy. I used to be keeping track of all the weird stuff I ate, but it's just too hard to remember now because the list has become so extensive. During dinner a little boy came up to me and asked my name. It was so cute! And there were two cats there that were adorable. Susan and I fed them fish.
The next day, Monday, we did lots of things! We first ate breakfast, and then we went to this amazing Canyon. It was so beautiful, but there were so many stairs! Chinese people must have a lot of drive to put so many stairs in instead of just making a smooth path down the mountain. We stopped at this place with these huge rocks, and water running over them, and took our shoes off so we could walk in the water. It was so nice. Then we saw two huge spiders, the size of tarantulas (!), but they were very pretty colors. Then to get back across the Canyon we took a Zip-line! It was awesome.
After our hike-ish thing, we went River Rafting. It was scary, but really fun! It was scary because I'm pretty sure the life vest would have drowned me instead of saved me had I actually needed it. I probably could have brought an overcooked noodle and that would have been safer. Let's just say they weren't in the best condition. It was a lot different than River Rafting in the USA for two reasons. One was that all the little waterfalls or rapids we went down on the Chinese river were man-made. They were kinda like little ramps. So that was frightening. And the other reason was that we get COMPLETELY soaked. When I say completely, I mean it. I was soaked to the bone. Even the people who wore long ponchos were soaked. They pretty much wasted their money. And we kept having to bail water out of the raft because we were going to capsize or sink because we were filling up quite fast! Susan and I went together, and we were screaming so much everyone kept laughing at us, it was so funny. The really gross part came afterward, when I had to go to the bathroom. The bathrooms were… so, so gross. The toilets were these huge long lines in the floor where you pretty much just had to squat. It was SO gross. Not to mention everything was overflowing. I decided I could wait! Then we had to change in the locker room, which was just a room with a flimsy door, dirt all over the floor, and about 50 naked Chinese ladies. Not the most pleasant experience.
On the way to dinner that night I saw three pairs of little green eyes coming towards us as we were driving. It was actually kind of freaky, and we passed it too quickly for me to get a good look at what they might be. Here are my two guesses: It could have been a medium sized dog with two little dogs, one of which was riding on top of the other. The one on top was the only one I actually saw clearly, so I'm pretty positive it was a puppy. My other guess is that it was a small goat of some kind, with some tiny animal with a puppy on top of that animal. Personally I'm going with the first theory, the other one doesn't sound that right. But actually, neither sound that right so maybe I was hallucinating.
Today was a very relaxed day. I slightly slept in, talked with my lovely sister, Fiona, who I love and miss so much, and then I just went out and explored the center of Nanjing. It was super fun! First of course I had to get Zhen Zhu Nai Cha, my favorite tea which I missed so much. Then I discovered... THE MALL! And this wasn't like the mall I went to a few weeks ago that was under the Subway Station. This was like an American department store, except about 10 times bigger. So I obviously got lost about a hundred times. First of all I decided I wanted to get myself a sweater, so I bought one for myself. It's green, and really plain, but I like it. Then I bought this shirt for my sister that was words on it that make no sense what so ever! It is complete gibberish. And, it was on sale, which was good because I didn't want to spend a ton of money on something that made no sense. Once she gets it I will post a picture of it, but I want it to be a surprise. It's a great purchase I think. Then I bought something else for my parents, and a new eye-lash curler (finally...I really needed one). Then when I got home I found out it was my host mom's birthday on Sunday! Of course. So Susan is going to the mall with her friends tomorrow and she said she will look for stuff that I can buy her, and then I can go another day and get it--probably Saturday. I already have Susan's birthday present! Actually all their birthday's are before December, so that's a little easier to remember. Susan said we get to eat lots of cake on Sunday so we are both super excited!
I hope I can post more soon.
Zai Jian!~