The Chinese and the Americans

Thanksgiving this year didn't consist of the pilgrims and Indians, it was the Chinese and the Americans. About a month ago we went to a restaurant called Phoenix.  We had heard about it through other people.  The man who owned the place was from Ohio, USA.  When we were there he told us he was planning on making Thanksgiving dinner and invited us to come.  Of course we went!

We got done teaching at 5:30 and dinner was at 6:00.  We rushed out after classes and ended up getting there a little bit late. 

Lance, the owner of the restaurant, asked me if I would say grace earlier in the week and I agreed to it. When we got there I was nervous but everyone was running late so I had a little while to mentally prepare myself.  I didn't know how to say grace in front of people who were drinking beers and going outside for a smoke.

The table was set when we got there.

After about 30 minutes Lance brought out the food  and told us to just go get it.  We all lined up and filled our plates.  Each person sat down at different times and when they did they immediately started eating.  There was no time for me to say grace.  I was half disappointed and half relieved.

The food was good considering it was made it China, but it had nothing on my moms cooking.  We sat across from two older white gentlemen named Jess and Mark.  They were from California and had lived here in China for three years teaching English.  It was fun to talk to them and see their views on life, even though they were a little different than what I see.

 Lance knew that we didn't drink so he made us our own special fancy drink.  It was the most amazing thing ever! A fancy drink requires a fancy cup, a fancy cup requires a lifted pinky.

 Thanksgiving dinner

 This is Lance and his wife. She's 23 I believe anad I'm not sure how old he is.

After dinner we just talked forever.  We talked to many different people.  My favorite person to talk to was Rose.  She was so sweet and spoke  incredible English.  She understood everything that I said and asked.  I told her she better get paid well because she speaks so well.

This is Kevin.  I dared him to stuff a whole piece of bread in his mouth but he wouldn't.  I even offered him .5 yuan!

 

So we did it together. 

 

 It was a fun night socializing and we didn't leave until 11:00 PM.  Also. Lance gave us some left overs that were gone by the next day.

We Made it to Heaven

Our last day arrived sooner than we thought it would.  We met at the lobby at 7:00AM and went to...yup! McDonalds!  After breakfast we walked to the cable cars which was about a ten minute walk. We got in line to buy tickets and we tried using our drivers license for our student ID so we could get it cheaper. Mine, Amanda's and Cynthia's worked and it was like 100 yuan cheaper. We were pretty happy about that. The other girls weren't so happy. We got on line to get on the cable car. Eight people could fit and there were already four in one so the lady took four of our girls and directed them to the cable car. They wanted to go with us though and said "wait, what about them." and slowly walked towards the cable car.  The lady was pushing them to go and soon enough the car passed by without them getting on it.  The four girls were like "ah dang, it's gone. Oh well!" The Chinese lady who was loading the cars wasn't so happy about it and did the little tick with her tongue. Jocelyn jokingly said "You didn't give me my discount so I'm getting my way".  The ride was about 30 minutes long but it only felt like 10. It was beautiful the whole way up.

When we got to the top we took busses to the Stairway to Heaven.  It was about a 20 minute, very curvy bus ride to the top.  We got off and right in front of us was the stair way.  It was like a gazillion steps!

(I'm going to be all religious for a second)
The Parable of the Stairway:  I can see why it's called the stairway to Heaven, it's A LOT of work!  It was easy when we first started, we weren't tired yet, we were confident, and  the stairs weren't that steep. We then came to a section of really steep, skinny stairs that were hard and made us wonder what we got ourselves into. After struggling and taking a few breaks we made it to the next section of easier steps again.  They weren't as steep and were wider. It was still hard, but it was easier. Sometimes the friends we were walking with would leave us and we would walk alone for a while. Sometimes we met up with people and walked with them. For the most part, we had someone by our side. We hit another hard, steep section of stairs but we pushed ourselves through it. The last bit before we reached Heaven was a long, steep, difficult section of stairs. As we were almost to the top we had friends literally cheering for us and telling us that we could do it. And when we reached the top we were congratulated by those who had left us earlier. We looked back and saw friends coming hand in hand up the stairs; we congratulated them for their hard work.  Sound familiar? Sounds like life to me.

At the top we took some pictures and walked for a while. We then came to a cave with a really long escalator.  We took it up and when we reached the top we were surprised to see another one; we took that one too.  Then there was another one! There was a Chinese man and he was debating on weather or not her should go up the stairs so we told him too. Everyone cheered for him as he raced up the stairs. When we reached the top, there was another escalator with stairs.  The man decided to run up them again and this time Amanda went with him. Everyone cheered again. When we reached the top everyone was taking pictures with her.  A man came up to me and said "Me and you?" I said "mmm....okay!" so we ran up.  Holy Hannah it was a lot of stairs! When we got to the top people took pictures with me.  Thankfully we were at the top and there were no more escalators waiting for us.  We stood there for a while trying to decide which direction we should head.  The guy that Amanda raced up with came up the escalator with two women at his sides, propping him up. They sat him down and got him some water.  I'm not sure what was wrong with him, maybe he hurt his ankle or maybe he was light headed.

We walked some more (we did a lot of walking and stair climbing)

 After a while we came to the glass walk.  We walked on glass that was thousands (as Chinese would say, meters) of feet up in the air. Before we walked on it we had to put on these dirty, wet, booties to cover our shoes so we wouldn't scratch up the glass. It was so funny seeing grown up Chinese men and women who were so scared to walk on the glass.  Their friends would try to push them on the glass and they would yell and pull back.

After the glass walk we came to a section that had red ribbons tied EVERYWHERE! It was really cool and looked awesome. After that we spent a lot of time following a pathway and just admiring the view.  It was so beautiful everywhere! The pathway we were on was on the edge of the mountain so it was really cool. It was absolutely beautiful and amazing! God is good!

We came to this cool bridge so we took pictures on it.

As usual, people want pictures with us.

One last group picture in front of Mermaid Rock.  (we named it)

After a long walk we took the cable cars down the mountain.  We were starving when we got back so we ate at.....not McDonalds! We ate at a really yummy Chinese restaurant. Egg plant is our most favorite thing ever so we got that. We went back to the hostel, packed up, and headed to the train station. We were and hour early for our train and our train was delayed for another hour. So we sat there and talked.  We played the "I'll act serious and you try to make me laugh game." Jocelyn owned us. Two hours later we got on the train.  We had sleepers this time, thank goodness! There was so much room on that train because there weren't many people on it.

Phoenix, China

The third day od our vacation started at 8:00 AM.  We got some breakfast at McDonalds (I know, we eat there all the time), then we went to the bus station. We walked inside and we didn't really know what we were doing or where we needed to go.  We were walking aimlessly around and all of a sudden they guy that works at our hostel said "hello!" He helped us buy tickets and showed us to our bus.

We had a 3 1/2 hour ride to the town Phoenix, except in Chinese it is called Fenghuang which translates into Phoenix. The minute we stepped off the bus, tour guides swarmed us, like usual.  They all wanted us to go with them or take their taxie.  We took the 3 yuan bus instead.

We got to the town and WOW! It was seriously so beautiful! Here are some pictures off the beautiful place!

We bought tickets and toured the town. We did a lot of shopping, but it was cool shopping.  It was very China cultural stuff. We also bought flower headband things from this old lady.

We got separated from Cynthia and Amanda the whole day, but we weren't worried. We saw this cute old man roaming the streets and he posed  for us, then he posed with us! haha

We got hungry so we got a Chinese taco off the street. This guy come some meat off a big stick and mixed cucumbers, onions, and green onions together.  He then put some seasoning and ketchup on it and mixed it up.  He put all the ingredients in a very thin tortilla, like a crepe and then microwaved it.  It was definitely different than a regular taco, but it was pretty good.

After we ate we walked around and took pictures.  The town was so beautiful. It is a very old town that was built in the 1700's.    We wished we would have gotten a hostel at this town because it was so beautiful.  They had gelato ice cream which is I guess, Italian ice cream. I've never had it before so I tried it.  It was good!

When it was time to go, we walked to the place where we got off the bus.  There was a bridge where we could see the whole town.  We looked down and we could see Cynthia and Amanda.  It worked out nicely and we were definitely blessed. We crossed the street to the bus stop and while we waited there we me a Chinese man named Tracy. He said he knew it was a girls name but it's his favorite basketball player's name. He's visited America and is very well educated.  He majored in economics and engineering. While we were talking to him this lady who had a child walking by her and a baby strapped to her back fell down.  I didn't see it but Cynthia said "oh she just fell!" I ran over there and helped her up and she was so grateful.

Tracy took the bus with us and helped us find the stop that we needed to get off at. He was so nice to us and such a blessing. We were about to miss the bus so we were in a hurry but I had to go to the bathroom so bad and I knew I would not be able to make it.  I had someone take my backpack and I ran to the bathroom.  When I got there, every stall was taken including one that had no door so the lady was just siting there peeing in front of everyone.  I quickly go to the bathroom and I hear someone shout my name so I yell back "I'm coming" I start running out the door and out the corner of my eye, I see Britta using the squatter with the broken door.  We both bust out laughing.  She said "I really had to go and there was no time!" hahaha

When we got home it was about 8:30 and we hadn't eaten dinner yet so we went to McDonalds! haha it was definitely an awesome and fun day!