Stew!

So it has been awhile and my reasons for not updating are several. First, I've been pretty busy. My good buddy Stew came all the way around the world to see me so I had to make sure he had a good time. Second, health was conspiring against me as I had a head cold, followed by some funky infection behind my ear, followed by food poisoning all of which kept me either in bed, at the doctor's office, or huddled around a toilet like a sad little monkey. Third, I'm kinda lazy. Fourth, it is so nice outside I want to slap myself to make sure it is real. Life's too short to be crammed behind a computer updating my blog all of the time, right? I need to get out to interact! Explore! Be!

But now Stew has gone, I'm relatively healthy and trying to catch up with my work.

Justin's arrival coincided with the beginning of the May Holiday which gave us a week off to celebrate the toils of the worker. I had to go to Chengdu for a meeting. Stew arrived in Beijing at the same time. I bought a train ticket for him to Chengdu and gave him very specific instructions on how to get on the train and get to Chengdu. Miraculously, he managed to make it all of the way across China without being able to speak a word. I was pretty freaked out until I saw him walk out of the train station.

With Stew safely in tow we were able to enjoy the week off by going back to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha again, Shell took him to see the pandas at the panda breeding center, and then we were off to northern Sichuan to a small city called Songpan where we went horse trekking in the nearby mountains. We ended up at a small Tibetan village where the people treated us very kindly and Shell and Stew ended up with ferocious sunburns.

My friend began to feel under the weather so I offered to either take him to a local drug store or to a Chinese doctor. He chose the doctor and ended up with a large needle in his butt and a fist full of herbal remedies and a nasty tasting tea to drink. After all of this he admitted that he felt good as new and was fine for the rest of the trip. Maybe there is something to be said for Chinese medicine.

After that we hopped on another bus for a couple of hours and went to Jiuzhaigou National Park, as seen in the famous movie "Hero." It was quite strange to have my hiking buddy here in China with me in a place that looked very much like the places I love to go in Idaho. It gave me an odd deja vu feeling that I wasn't really expecting. The park was much too expensive and it brought back a familiar argument that I have made in the U.S. about national parks, which I love to visit. They shouldn't be so expensive that they prohibit poor people from visiting. Whether it is Jiuzhaigou National Park in China at 220rmb ($27.50 US) or Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. at $25.00, the cost shouldn't be so high that the wealthy are the only ones allowed access by default.

Anyway, Jiuzhaigou was somewhat disappointing because it was so costly and there were 9 zillion people there because of the holiday. My advice, if you are in the area, skip it and go to a park in the U.S. to get the same experience with less people.

After that we came home and Stew was able to attend my classes with me where my students grilled him about his life, job, interests and a host of other questions. He was a hit, the students really enjoyed spending time with him and I think the feeling was mutual.

We took him up to Lanzhou the following weekend where Michelle had a meeting (She is on the committee that plans our summer teaching projects, so she had to work while we played.) My friend was able to meet the other volunteers and the whole group of 8 of us went for Chinese massages, which were very relaxing and at 25rmb each, quite a steal (I can get 9 massages for the price of one ticket to Jiuzhaigou!)

After Lanzhou, we went back home for a week of fun and teaching and then we were off to Xi'an where we saw the Terracotta Warriors again and Stew tried his hand at bargaining at the Muslim night market. He had a blast and picked up almost all of his souvenirs in one trip. It was there that I said goodbye to my good friend as we sent him on a train to Beijing where he caught his flight home.

It was really nice to have him here with us and it reminded me of how much I miss seeing everyone back home whether it is friend, family, students or co-workers. Even though we are miles away from you all, we still think of you every day.

Take care!

Photos

Pic 1: Taken at Jiuzhaigou. Graffiti, in English, but oddly spaced. I'll leave it up to your interpretation.

Pic 2: Pandas enjoying some delicious bamboo. Mmm.....bamboo....

Pics 3-10: Aren't here yet because Blogger hates me...stay tuned.