Adventure day (and a bit about yesterday!)
I had so much to say about yesterday, so much in fact that I didn’t think I could possibly write a blog, not to mention I was quite tired, so I will give a quick update on here, but I believe there is a film somewhere, an interview, in which I properly express my experiences from yesterday.
We had our home stay the day before yesterday which was, in short, very interesting and a worthwhile experience. My Chinese friend was Wenwen Gao, a petite 20 year old student who lives on the outside of Jinan. Shortly after we met our new friends, we were whisked off out of the hotel and onto the streets. After a moment of complete confusion amongst us Brits and a lot of discussion between the Chinese, two of the male friends disappeared with James and Josh’s luggage and the rest of us, including James, Josh and Lara plus the female friends and one of their friends, headed off in the opposite direction! We walked for at least half an hour before they hailed two taxis and headed off to our new homes…
Where I stayed was, quite simply, in the middle of no where. It was far out of Jinan in a small community of land workers and children. The house, although large on the outside, was small on the inside as most of the space was concreted outdoor space. Wenwen has a brother, 8 years old and lives with her two parents. I had a very polite evening, listening to lots of Chinese and meeting all their neighbours and their children as they came in and out. I was quite tired though so headed to bed considerably earlier than everyone else in the house. To be honest, my experience at the house wasn’t thrilling but it was really nice because the family were so polite, friendly, smiley and welcoming. My worst experience there was most definately the toilets. The house had no running water, meaning no taps which leads to no sinks, no showers and no flushes. The toilet is, quite literally – and I’m not exaggerating, a brick hut – no door – outside with a rectangle cut out of the ground leading to a deep ditch… That, was all. I’m having difficulty with the toilets here… A lot of difficulty, more so in the sense that I don’t feel clean after using them or even as I enter them (particularly public toilets!), but even toilets in restaurants!!
The following day, ie. yesterday, Wenwen and I headed out of the house, with my black, white and red spotty suitcase, to the zoo. We waited and met (eventually), with Jeremy, Lara, James and Josh and walked, with my suitcase, down the long side road in to the zoo. We spent the day there, saw a baby Panda and Siberian tigers, fed elephants and deer and stroked camels… Not to mention we drove (super fast) go-karts around a track – grreeaatt fun! After that we headed to one of the four Jinan springs… then went to Wal*Mart and then had lunch before heading back to Jeremy’s friends house, where my suitcase had appeared (magic.) and then back to the hotel.
All in all, it was a great experience and I am really glad we did it! We also got on the *1 Yuan* busses, the bus that costs 10p to get absolutely anywhere in Jinan from absolutely anywhere – very interesting experiences there as well.
Today was another day though… And to be honest, I will probably write a lot on that too, despite the fact that I am going to try my best to keep it short and as interesting as possible…!
First thing in the morning we bundled in to the coach and headed to Shan Quing World, the adventure centre combined with a hotel, restaurant and farm plots. We did some team building activities, had some lunch, catapulted water bombs at each other, played some tennis and basketball, climbed a few walls, got changed and headed to the banquet dinner. The banquet was nice, we were sitting with very important people from the Youth Federation and chatting to them all about things and letting it go through the translator first… The food was the same as at lunch time and most of us didn’t eat much, but it was pleasant because they are so kind, polite and friendly, despite their status.
I’m tired now. Good night xx
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