Hangzhou Highlights

(Allison)

Saturday – February 21st

We are finally in Hangzhou! We were looking forward to getting to Hangzhou because we thought that we would get a chance to rest…but we were wrong.. We have not stopped since we got here!!  Our first three days at Hangzhou High School were wonderful…Everyone here is so nice and helpful! It has been raining quite a bit! I am very grateful because Rose (an English teacher that came to D-S two years ago) loaned me an adorable black and white polka dot umbrella, and Derek loaned me a lime green poncho --that I can wear when I ride my bike in the rain!!

On Saturday morning, Mrs. Wu (vice-principal), Mr. Xie (vice principal), Mr. Chen (our driver), Derek (the English teacher that is coming to DS this spring!), Bruce (our amazing translator), Mark (you should know who he is..), Harry (Mark's host brother), Lianna, Sue (Lianna's host sister), Alex (Alex's brother could not come because he had to go to Shanghai to take an English test), and myself piled into the school van and headed to the West Lake!

We were very lucky..(once again!) because it was not raining…and the sun was kind of shining..

The West Lake is so beautiful. Kunming Lake – the lake that abuts the Summer Palace - was built ass a copy of the West Lake. Hangzhou is a very popular tourist destination for Chinese people. A scene of the West Lake is actually on the back of the single yuan.

We walked across the lake on the Sui Causeway…it is very early spring here.. and some of the flowers are already blooming… The plum trees are beautiful…and  they smell sooo good!

We went to a park, just next to the lake, called Watching Goldfish on the Flowery Stream… There were gold fish everywhere! Mrs. Wu bought us some bread and fish food so that we could feed them.  Lianna ended up giving her food to an adorable little boy – it made him very happy!! Then we headed back to the bus..

We traveled a little outside of Hangzhou to a tea village..the hills in the village were covered with tea bushes…it reminded me a little bit of a vineyard.  Some of the farmers in the village have transformed their homes into restaurants…

We walked down the street to a villager's home… In the front of the house, there was a large patio with some small tables set up with glasses of tea, oranges, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. We sat and chatted there for a while..snacked and drank some tea..  Hangzhou is famous for West Lake Longjing Green Tea… Bruce told me that Hangzhou is a city of leisure.  People enjoy relaxing and drinking tea!!

Then we entered the house..the house was very nice and very clean. The bottom floor was wide open, and included the living area for the family.  The food is cooked outside – just behind the house.. Derek said that Chinese people prefer going to these homes, over restaurants, because the food is much better…!

We walked up to the second floor and sat down in a room..it may have been a former bedroom… it had a set of glass sliding doors and a patio looking out on the hills of tea bushes. Then, the food started to arrive..once again—endless. There was a plate of pigs feet…Mrs. Wu told us that women love to eat pigs feet because it is good for your skin and makes you very beautiful…none of us were brave enough to try them – but our driver Mr. Chen ate quite a few!

After lunch, Mrs. Wu asked us if we wanted to play Mahjong…we had no idea what that meant. .but agreed to try it out.  We relocated to another room down the hall to play.  It turns out it is the best game ever!! It is very similar to rummy  but you use these game pieces..that are kind of like dominos anyway.. it is fantastic! Sue had brought a bag full of chocolate!! So we ate chocolate and played Mahjong for about two hours..

Time to go… we hopped back on the bus and headed back to the city… Derek invited us all over to his apartment! Alex was tired and decided to go home… Mark, Li, Harry, Sue, Derek and I got dropped off at Derek"s apartment.  Derek"s apartment is so nice! His wife Susan is also a high school English teacher. She is so sweet!   Derek has an enormous movie collection – American, Chinese, foreign, documentaries..... I was so excited --because I love watching movies..He told me I could borrow anything that I wanted!! He also selected some good Chinese films that he thought that I would enjoy… Because we loved Mahjong so much – we decided to continue playing games…..so we decided to play UNO.  We were listening to Averyl Lavigne ( I have no idea how to spell her name..) and Dave Matthews Band. Derek and Susan wanted us to go out to dinner but everyone was still full from dinner..we decided to just order pizza from Pizza Hut!!  After eating pizza – we decided to watch a movie. ¦Susan really wanted to watch High School Musical 3…I have never even seen High School Musical 1…but I found it very humorous. ¦I kind of felt that I was back in Boston..listening to American music, playing UNO and eating pizza…

After dinner, Derek took me home – I got to ride on the back of Susan's electric bicycle!!!