Holidays!!!

October the 1st was Chinese National Day and to honour that, the schools had a weeks holiday. We decided (eventually) to arrange a get-together with some of the other foreign english teachers who we'd made friends with in Yangshuo in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan Province, where we are all based.

We finally arrived after a long and tiring bus ride which involved a lot of God-awful chinese techno music and some of the most hilariously poorly acted films that the world has ever produced. It was car-crash telly. I had to watch it, it was unbelievable. Besides there was nothing else to do on this 7 hour bus-ride, seeing as my ipod had drowned a few weeks earlier...

We met up initially with three friends from Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, Canada, who are based in Liuyang, a city just one hour away from Changsha. They'd been to Changsha
before, so knew exactly where to head. In our minds, there
was only one place to head. Where else would you go to get your first taste of a big chinese city? There was no competition. It had to be...

...Pizza Hut.

Oh, come on... Please. Give me a break.

It had been more than a month since our last taste of real western food, and we were hungering badly for it.

All that Lanshan could provide us was a dodgy microwaved chickenburger and some fries - not forgetting our bizarrely bizarre experience at the new 'western' restaurant.

I love my pizza, and when you need to travel 7 hours to find some, it takes on a whole new value.

It was a heavenly experience. It was just like it is in the west, only so much better. I was so happy I practically skipped to the salad bar. And they had Tomato Ketchup!!! My heart flutters just at the memory... We ordered everything, stuffed ourselves, then went for Haagen Dazs ice-cream just over the way. Oh my God. Pizza AND the best ice-cream in the world. I almost died.

I cannot possibly begin to explain how much that evening meant to me. Wonderful, wonderful food and the company of other westerners - people who share the same cultural values as me - who I could chat, joke and be truly frank with when sharing stories about the absurdity that is life in China. I laughed til I cried. It was the one-hit antidote to any kind of home-sickness or culture shock that I may have felt and the beginning of a great holiday.

The next day, three more friends joined us from schools in Dao Xian, another town about 2 hours from Lanshan. We were now a truly international group. There were the three Canadians, Sarah, Jess and Nick, the three from Dao Xian (Aaron from California and Elisha and Liana from New York State) joining with Anthony as the American camp and me, the token Brit. All we were were missing were the Aussies, but they had other plans.

This whole experience so far has only proven to me how virtually identical we all are culturally. So we may have some differences, and they're the source of constant mickey-taking on all sides, but the only reason we are able to do even that is because essentially, we are the same. Americans, Australians, Canadians, Brits, we are just one people. I ain't gonna get philosophical or anything. There are far better qualified people to do that but it made an impression on me. Just thought I'd say so...

The group got a little more international with the addition of various Chinese friends. Sunshine was up from Uni for the week with her mate Peng Lijuin and one of the Canadians' students, Kaze, was staying with relatives in the city so joined us for a lot of the time. They were great people to have around, not least because they are friends, but because they were extremely helpful in ensuring we got around ok.

Kaze (left) was particularly helpful to us. We casually mentioned that we fancied going out to western Hunan to see the famous scenic area of
Zhangjiajie (pronounced Jang-ja-jeer by most, Tsang-ja-jeer by others. Either way, my pronunciation is never right), he told us that his mother is a travel agent and in no time had negotiated places for us on a 3-day tour with train tickets, hotels, food and park entry tickets all included, all for about 1200 yuan (about 90 quid) each. Bargain!

Anyway, in thanks we took him and Sunshine out for dinner at Pizza Hut (the three from Dao Xian had missed out the other day, and frankly, I was never going to turn my nose up to this pizza, even twice in a row). They had never been
before, so it had to be done.

The pic top-left shows us all after having devoured our meals. Also necessary was another trip to Haagen Dazs. We were on a mission to educate!!

Aaron then deposited all our money for the trip into the bank to pay the tour guide. Logistically, we could only manage this with cash. 9600 yuan of it. And, we couldn't resist a shot of him holding the equivalent of about 9 months average salary in his hand. The onlookers certainly couldn't believe it.

In all honesty we wasted quite a bit of time in Changsha. 8+ people are hard to get moving. Had we been better organised, we could have taken in a few more sights, but it was cool. We were relaxed and just enjoying each other's company. We did manage one major sight (more in next post) but other than that, spent a fair amount of time shopping. You will all no doubt be relieved to learn that Changsha sells deodorant. I bought enough to last about 4 months!! We also had enough time to make it to a bar. It was a nice place. The music was bearable too. Pop and RnB. ANYTHING is better than that techno they play everywhere else! It was a pretty sober night (for all but one of us, Sarah) but it was nightlife and youth, the other major thing apart from deodorant and pizza that Lanshan cannot supply! We enjoyed it. I hope to enjoy it again soon. This place is definitely a destination to revisit. Good times.