Mid Autumn Festival, Moon Cakes, Rain, and Pizza.

Well, we made it "home" after our first trip away from the prison walls of this high school and we've been spending the last 2 days doing nothing but sleeping in and watching movies. We left on Saturday (I think. The Chinese don't keep track of days so we really get confused) for our small 2 day adventure to the biggest city nearby, Hangzhou. Our original plan was to go for 3 days, 2 nights, but after booking a hostel that we later found out was already full we had to make last minute plans to stay at the only hostel available for the weekend in the city with no ratings whatsoever on the booking website. I knew cockroaches were in store and insisted we only book the place for 1 night. After the 1 hour bus ride and 30 minute cab ride, we successfully arrived at our hostel only to be told in broken English "we are booked." Luckily, he was able to walk us to another hostel nearby that appeared as though it was owned by the hostel we actually booked. Tired and confused, we left our things and headed off to see West Lake.

After about 5 minutes of walking, the rain started and did not stop for more than 15 minutes at a time during our entire trip. Luckily after hiding out for a little bit in a tunnel underground we came up to find a woman selling umbrellas and happily handed over 12 yuan ($2) for a measly little umbrella. We spent the first day trying to figure out how to get around town and enjoyed seeing West Lake (despite being drenched). After a long long walk, we made it into the city for some Pizza Hut followed by Dairy Queen and eventually an evening cup of Starbucks. We have no guilt for eating American food while being here....not even a hint of it. That night we walked more around the lake to eventually arrive at the Leifeng Pagoda. It was a pretty amazing sight at night because it is completely illuminated in a more remote part of the city. We spent the rest of the night enjoying the view of the city at the top of the pagoda and stopping on every floor inside to check out the artwork. Both exhausted, we hailed a taxi for the short 10 minute ride back to our hostel.

I made Joel walk into the room first to kill all of the cockroaches and of course just as we open the door, a giant one scurries out towards me in the hallway. Despite their inability to harm me in any way, they are the most disgusting insect ever created. Aside from the incredibly hard bed and the bug on the headboard above my head when I woke up, the stay wasn't all that bad (okay, it was, I'm just trying to say something positive).

Day 2 was full of more rain and frustration as we struggled to figure out the bus system and how to get around the city. We headed to the National Silk Museum which ended up being pretty cool. We both decided that had it not been free, it wouldn't be worth it to go, but seeing how silk is made along with a lot of other old silk costumes was definitely better than walking around in the torrential downpour that continued outside. After this we had lunch and attempted to go see a fountain show at West Lake that never occurred. Our spirits crushed, we headed to the grocery store with an imported foods isle and decided to make our way home. Our inability to catch a taxi at 4pm (due to the holiday and the weekend in a very touristy city) ended in an argument, a stop at the tourist information center, and finally a trip on a bus that would take us to the right bus station to get home. The last bus to Anji leaves from Hangzhou at 630pm and we arrived at the bus station a little after 6 to make it on the 610 bus home. On a positive note, the bed at the hostel really made me happy to lay my head on our bug free, box spring of a mattress.

So...enough about Hangzhou and onto the moon cakes. Prior to leaving for our break, Joel and I were given 4 boxes of moon cakes (32 total moon cakes) and about the same amount of "orange juice" (10% pulp, 90% Sunny-D) from the school for Mid Autumn Festival. Curious about these moon cakes, Joel bravely decided to try each one of the 4 kinds. I will just tell you that one was filled with the lovely surprise of a cooked egg yoke and the rest were never identified. I'll leave you with a picture of these horribly disgusting "treats."