We headed to school at the normal time and I arrived in room 209 (designated room) at around 07:15 and decided to take a nap before having to meet up with everyone at 08:30. Patty came into the room and later Brandon came in. They headed off to go read outside and read before we all had to be outside of the gate at 08:30. I accompanied them after about a 30 minute nap and we all met up with Veronica, Michael and our guide Peter (from our last Hangzhou tour) and headed off to Xixi Wetlands.
One of the Hangzhou High School teachers, William, who came to Dover-Sherborn in 2008 accompanied us in Xixi. We all took photos of Xixi’s scenery and boats and took a boat to several stops where we took more photos. I was lucky enough to meet William in 2008 and so I could definitely talk to him about a similar love of movies. We discussed all of our favourite films and he agreed to show me a store before I left that sold Chinese films.
As the day went on, the heat grew on us. It was about 84 degrees and we were lucky that we kept going into air conditioned buildings. All the walking and heat made us want ice cream and shortly after leaving Xixi, we went to a restaurant buffet that we had been very excited to go to. We all dropped off our belongings and headed to the delicious buffet and got hot chocolate that was both the perfect mix of dark chocolate and richness without being overwhelming but soon after, the machine ran out of hot chocolate which was quite disheartening. It was sad to see that we couldn’t seize our chance to get all the hot chocolate we wanted. We definitely had our fill of food and Michael ate the most out of all of us, even feeling full we finally got to have our ice cream. After lunch, we met up with Vicky, another teacher from Hangzhou who came to Dover-Sherborn last year and I got to know very well and once we all went into the van, we all fell asleep after our big meal. Once arriving at the Swords and Scissors Museum, we learned the process to how they are made but also looked at different swords of different time frames and we all were really interested in how knives and swords and scissors are useful to everyday life. After much observation, we went to the Umbrella museum and the Grand Canal Museum to learn about how umbrellas have changed over time as well as how the Grand Canal system benefited China both economically but culturally!
We headed back to the school and I waited for my host mum and ventured to room 209 to see Mifield there. We watch Les Miserables (the in concert version) which I thoroughly enjoyed before having to leave. I went with my host mum to Hefang St and bought a sandstone stamp with my English and Chinese name on it, I had been waiting a long time to finally do this so it was worthwhile. We bought ice cream for my host sister and she had bought me chocolate. We went to her cousin’s house and there I met her cousin who spoke Spanish. What are the chances that I’d encounter someone who could speak Spanish? She and I spoke through dinner about how learning languages are beneficial and what made her decide to learn Spanish and where she has travelled. For me, it made me really happy to be able to speak Spanish with someone here in China since it has been a while without speaking conversationally. My host sister’s cousin’s accent was beautiful and I was extremely impressed. Rong Danqing and another cousin and I headed out to go to KTV. In trying to go to KTV, we visited two KTV locations with no luck, then took a small bike taxi to another location to find out that this other location was also full! Talk about a busy Saturday night for KTV. The chances of all locations being full was just amazing to see that was had no luck anywhere. It was nice to finally get home and rest after that day!
Until next time (with more chances and luck),
Deanna Biddy
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