9.1.08

If you want Haylee's phone number or address, email Cathi.

Hey There Mom and Pop (and Family),
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> I have been having SO. MUCH. FUN. We just got back from Yangshuo in Guilin Province on Saturday morning. What a great trip! We stayed at a little hotel called the Bamboo House Inn and Cafe. It caters to westerners so I got to have (drumroll).................BACON AND EGGS for breakfast every morning I was there!!!!!!! In a word, YUM. It was a great little taste of home. Bamboo House Inn is located in a tiny shaded alley perpendicular to a street they call West or Western Avenue which is FILLLED with all kinds of little shops selling clothes and jewlery, Chinese knick knacks, knockoff purses and wrist watches, scarfs, hats, stuffed animals and oh so much more. A shopper's dream. The best part of all is hageling. Typically, the vendors selling in the streets will jack prices up by 5 (or even 10) times so you have to play this crazy game of walking away, looking interested, coming back, walking away again etc., etc unitl you reach a price you can both agree upon. Typically it goes something like this: Westerner walks up to street vendor's wares, Chinese vendor says, "You like? I give you good price", Westerner says "Bu Yao" (not want) until they find something they do want and say to vendor, "How much?" Vendor grabs calculator and types 280 yuan (aprox $40), Smart westerner acts as if you just insulted their parents, grandparents and favorite childhood pet then stiffly walks away. Chinese vendor will say, "Ok, ok how much? You say how much?" Westerner will quote a ridiculously reduced price (i.e. 50 yuan...$7 USD). Chinese vendor's turn to look offended/disgruntled and will say, "What?!!! To little! This very high quality! How much How much?" Westerner sticks to price and walks away...Chinese vendor shouts "ok 140....(westerner still walking)....100....(keep on walking) ok ok, you say" western says "55"...keeps on walking, Chinese vendor will keep going down until they say "OK, OK 55" and then you pay. It's so fun. I hope we can all take a trip to China as a family someday, especially to Yangshuo (yang-show-uh). I love the Chinese people and the landscape in Guilin is the most beautiful I've seen yet. Our first day there, all of us rented bikes from the hotel (10 yuan for the WHOLE day...that's like a buck 30) and rode out into the counrtyside to a little river. There we caught a bamboo raft heading down stream and enjoyed an hour of simply relaxing under the shade of an umbrella, watching the beautiful scenery slip past us. Every so often we'd float past these crazy old ladies anchored in the middle of the river on their own bamboo rafts trying to sell us beer or cooked skewered rats on a stick (nope, not kidding). "Hkghullo (hello with a chinese accent), bee-uh (beer)" was their constant refrain. Stragely, they all seemed to be toothless and hunched. There were also a whole bunch of kids on bamboo rafts out in the middle of the water with computers hooked up trying to take our pictures and then sell them back to us on a laminated postcard. These chinese are quite the business opportunists. Eventually we got to the next little mooring area and rode our bikes to a place called Moon Water Cave. The whole cave system has an underground river with various waterfalls and muds pots. So we went and SWAM IN THE MUD!!!!! Ahahahhahahaha! It was so great. I didn't bring a swimsuit with me to China so I ended up having to buy one there....and it was pink...and ruffley......and had a nasty little frilly skirt attached. I looked so retarded, it was great.
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> Today was my first day of teaching and boy am I tired. My classes are all about an hour and half long and I taught THREE today. For the first half of class I had the students divide up into pairs and ask each other get-to-know-you questions. Then they had to stand up and introduce each other to the class. The chinese people seem to love to perform and I had 2 kids in my first class and 3 in the third stand up and sing songs in English in front of everyone!!! I was even coerced into performing...I sang them the national anthem....terribly. Ha Ha! They're so cute! They all clapped and told me I was " Sohr b-you-tea-ful!" (so beautiful) They all love blonde hair.
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> I'm still getting over my cold...mostly just snottiness left now. And who knows if that will ever go away fully. :)
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> I've been eating lots of delicious chinese food especially, baozi (bow-dza) and mantou (mahn-toe)...homemade bread dumplings and steamed bread respectively, which you you can buy from little carts all over the campus. OHHH it's all SOOO good. MMMMMmmmmmm.
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> K well that's about it. Please please send me e-mails/letters/phonecalls/facebook notices....anything! I'm dying for news from home. This goes for anyone who ends up reading this letter. I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear from you. Please call me!
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> Love you!
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> Haylee
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> PPS Mom, why haven't you called....Did you get my last e-mail with my phone number on it?
> PPPS Dad, can you come see me on one of your trips? Maybe we can meet in Bejing or Shanghai. What do you think?