Alright, another weekend has passed and this one was (I think) my favorite. Oh my goodness, wait until you hear about all that happened. On Thursday a student named Lotus approached the 3 TAs during class and asked if we would want to do something with the students sometime. Uh, of course!! We discussed and came up with a few good ideas and before 6 o’clock that night we had a typed up itinerary for the weekend sent to us. It had every meal and activity planned out. It’s so efficient over here, I love it.
So Friday night rolls around. We’re pumped for the weekend and are headed to the local roller skating rink (they call it dry skate here). There were 4 students and then Brandon, Desiree, and I. The rink is like a 15 minute walk from campus and it totally was not what we expected. The setup was very interesting, it was like on the second floor of a shopping mall type thing but it was in a corner and just all open to outside. There was also a patio area with pool tables that you could rent. That was an absolutely terrible explanation but hopefully the picture helps a little (it probably doesn’t). So we rent skates for 10 yuan/$1.66 and are ready to try not to embarrass ourselves. Which is a challenge when you’re skating in a 30 foot by 90 foot rink with professional skaters everywhere. I’m talking like spins and jumps and lifts.
They were absolutely flying by us as we clung to the sides and tried not to die. They would do this thing where 3 people held hands in a circle and then they would gain speed and one person would fly out and be parallel to the ground. It was pretty neat, until one time they clipped a guy skating passed with the dude who was flying in the air’s feet so he went down pretty hard and then like 7 people were behind him so there was a pile up and it was terrible except that I would be lying if I said I didn’t laugh. I think I laughed through most of the night actually. I mean, by the end of the night there were probably 35 people on the rink and 15 of them were dead serious and like competing with each other to show off. It was clear they thought they were hot stuff (evidence: several of them poured water over their heads while standing in front of a fan and then proceeded to run their hands through their hair). Which I found to be quite funny since we are literally talking about roller skating right now. Between that and skating/watching with Brandon and Desiree, I laughed so hard I cried at least 4 times that night. Of course we made a train with the students too, that’s obligatory every time you go to a roller rink. They even played some non-Chinese songs while we skated! M.J. and Ke$ha were a fabulous change from the Chinese techno. It was definitely an interesting night and I had an absolute blast.
Plus after we were done skating we went outside to play pool for a little bit and we saw a huge crowd gathering around a circle of candles. We couldn’t quite see what was happening but it looked like something romantic so the girls all rushed down there of course and Brandon and Jack stayed upstairs to play pool. So you can kind of see that there are tons of candles in a circle and in the middle of it it says T (heart) T. Lotus explained that it’s just like a big gesture a guy makes for a girl. Okay so you’d think this is like an engagement right? No, he was asking her to be his girlfriend. FLOWERS, CANDLES, A CROWD, AND A SPEECH FOR THAT?!?! Apparently that’s not unusual here. Desiree was freaking out about it all, it was so funny. Step up your game, American boys. China knows what they’re doing in the romance department at least. But it makes sense because there are so many more boys in China than girls so in order to find a wife they really have to pull out all the stops. It was pretty cool to see something like this happen in real life and not on YouTube 2 years later.
So Saturday was the big day. Hiking and hot springs. Rock on. Alright so Dr. Walker, Dr. Cheng, and us TAs met up with a group of 9 students at 11 in the morning and head to the bus to take us to the big adventure. Of course Cheng scoped out the area a few days before so he’s the one who gave up the idea to come here. So we followed him towards the mountain. Now, when I think of hiking I think like chill walking through the woods with some friends, sharing some laughs, and stopping for a picnic or something along the way. I guess hiking isn’t like that here because this was like The Great Wall: Part 2. Not that I’ve ever really been hiking at home either but I think my imagination could be kind of accurate. All I’m saying is that we took one set of stairs alllllllll the way up to the very tippy top of this mountain. The stairs here are just killerrrrrrrrr. But I think Desiree, Brandon, and I laughed the entire way up. Whether we were actually laughing or crying I’m not sure (just kidding, it was laughing.....I think).
Da crew.
The stairs were actually pretty scary at some points. There wasn’t much room to maneuver and people were coming were going up and down at the same time almost the entire way up. Like at some points of the trail, if you take a step off the path, seeeee yaaaaaaaaaa. But I guess I can't complain since someone at some point did take the time to carve stairs into the side of a mountain so it was easier to climb.
We were very appreciative of the stairs.
The big deal with this mountain is that there are water spouts that are always pouring out fresh water once you get pretty far up in the mountain. But I meant, it is a HIKE to get up that far and then to carry containers of water back down?!? There were little old women carrying like multiple gallons of water at once and then men in actual business suits carrying 2 of those huge jugs of water that are in office buildings on either end of a pole that they held on their shoulders. I couldn’t believe it. I just kept thinking that the water would have to make me immortal in order for me to hike up this mountain to get it. But we made it up the mountain that far and it’s not like I’m not going to drink the sacred China water (even though it’s basically forbidden for us to drink the water here. Remember, we aren’t even supposed to brush our teeth with it?). It’s kind of a part of the experience in my opinion, and I’m still alive writing this post so wooooo. But we really can’t figure out why they go up the mountain to get it. The water here is so cheap. Like a normal sized bottle in a little store is like 20 cents so Dr. Cheng said it’s not a matter of affordability but we seriously can’t figure it out. Maybe it’s for that fresh from the mountain taste? The water tasted like……..water. Nope, that’s not it. We’re still stumped.
We’re almost at the top and then we see a group of shirtless men in this flat area just chillin. They built a gym out of the surrounding trees and stuff. There was a pull-up bar and bench thing and then all of the guys were just sitting around talking. So you have to hike up a mountain in order to go work out ? That’s so hardcore.
10 minutes of hiking later we come across a group of women sitting on a blanket playing cards and their kids running around the mountain playing. The wives. So the men go have bro time and the women go gossip and play cards. On the top of a mountain. Like, there’s no way to get there besides hike. I guess that’s a relaxing Saturday afternoon in China! But we all walk passed them and they start freaking out and pointing and yelling like beautiful and handsome towards us. We totally have that effect on people. Win for Americans, I’ll take it.
Then we reached the top!!!!!!!
Mountaintop life.
Now to head down the mountain. Which was tricky because the stairs were so messed up at some points that it was seriously frightening. Dr. Walker and a student fell down a couple of times but no serious injuries. Remember the crazy yelling wives from before? So they made us all stop and have a quick photo shoot. They just kept taking selfies with each of us and yelling and then they literally forced us to take cups of their homemade wine. It wasn’t that bad but there's just no way I could actually drink an entire cup of it. I miiiiight’ve dumped it out in the grass while Brandon hid me but how cute is it that they were so nice to us?! Such sweet mountain ladies!
I think this picture adequately describes the situation.
Okay, hot springs time. When Dr. Cheng went to the hot springs alone, he came back and described it to us as “a resort with lots of hot springs.” So yeah. Those were our expectations. Now looking back I’m thinking I got a lot more out of the day than I was expecting. It was at a resort type thing and anyone can pay to get in. 60 yuan for a pass. $10 for a spa day? Great deal! So we exchanged our shoes for the slippers that they require you to wear, and head to the locker rooms to change.
OH.
MY.
GOD.
Modesty is not a thing here apparently. I am so scarred. I’m not even trying to be a baby about this. When I say that we were surrounded by old naked Chinese women, I mean WE WERE SURROUNDED. There was no avoiding it. I think I brushed up against 3 different naked butts as Desiree and I sprinted out of there to go change in the bathrooms in the lobby area. There wasn’t even a changing room option in the locker room at all! But we had to go back in at some point to put our clothes in our lockers. Ugh. Then in order to go outside to the hot springs you have to walk straight through the shower section of the locker room. I can’t even. Nightmares.
So anywayssssssss, we make it out to the actual hot springs and it was so awesome!!!!! We were surveying the area when we suddenly realized that every single guy there was wearing a speedo (including Dr. Cheng…………………………….). More nightmares. There were separate pools with a variety of temperatures and once you got used to the natural sulfur smell (rotten eggs) and speedos it was one of the coolest places ever. Plus we had and awesome view of the mountains as the backdrop. So pretty!!
OH.
MY.
GOD.
Modesty is not a thing here apparently. I am so scarred. I’m not even trying to be a baby about this. When I say that we were surrounded by old naked Chinese women, I mean WE WERE SURROUNDED. There was no avoiding it. I think I brushed up against 3 different naked butts as Desiree and I sprinted out of there to go change in the bathrooms in the lobby area. There wasn’t even a changing room option in the locker room at all! But we had to go back in at some point to put our clothes in our lockers. Ugh. Then in order to go outside to the hot springs you have to walk straight through the shower section of the locker room. I can’t even. Nightmares.
So anywayssssssss, we make it out to the actual hot springs and it was so awesome!!!!! We were surveying the area when we suddenly realized that every single guy there was wearing a speedo (including Dr. Cheng…………………………….). More nightmares. There were separate pools with a variety of temperatures and once you got used to the natural sulfur smell (rotten eggs) and speedos it was one of the coolest places ever. Plus we had and awesome view of the mountains as the backdrop. So pretty!!
We hung out in the hot pool for a while and then headed over to a smaller hot pool that had those little fish in it that eat your dead skin (it's hard to see the tiny fish in the picture, but there are thousands of them in there!) I’d heard of those before but it’s such a freaky concept. You can just chill in a hot tub while fish are eating your skin. Weird, but awesome. If you sat still, which was impossible since it tickled so bad when they bit you, you could have like a hundred fish surrounding your arms and legs. I think the guy next to me was super mad because I kept laughing and accidentally moving when the fish were on me so then I scared all of his away. Sorry. Awkward. I couldn’t stay in long, I’m just too ticklish. Plus that dude was giving me some serious side eye so it was time to check out the big pool. The whole thing was such an awesome experience. Who would’ve thought that I’d be chillin in a hot spring at the bottom of a mountain in China? Sometimes I forget that this all isn’t just a dream.
Sunday was a chill day of sleeping in and playing basketball for a while with some students and then grading papers for a bit. And that wraps up another amazing weekend here in Chongqing. As strange as it all was, it was the most fun I’ve had since coming here. I think a big part of it is that I’m more comfortable around everyone now and we all can just be ourselves and have a good time together whether we’re climbing a mountain or grabbing lunch in between classes. We’re finally starting to get in the swing of things here and it’s pretty exciting. Even though I’m homesick, I’m having the time of my life and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Peace.
Sunday was a chill day of sleeping in and playing basketball for a while with some students and then grading papers for a bit. And that wraps up another amazing weekend here in Chongqing. As strange as it all was, it was the most fun I’ve had since coming here. I think a big part of it is that I’m more comfortable around everyone now and we all can just be ourselves and have a good time together whether we’re climbing a mountain or grabbing lunch in between classes. We’re finally starting to get in the swing of things here and it’s pretty exciting. Even though I’m homesick, I’m having the time of my life and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Peace.