the hilly city.

I have officially thrown any attempt to be cute out the window. I broke down and bought a pair of Crocs. What’s worse is they aren’t even real Crocs. They’re knock-offs. $1.50 at the night market. What a great purchase. The four of us girls decided to buy them to wear in the mud caves on our trip to Guilin. I must admit- they were a good companion through the train rides and trips to the hostel communal bathroom and showers. I wish I could upload pictures of my light blue shoes with holes. At least my Asian tour guide for the caves told me they were “very very beautiful”. What a compliment.

Guilin was unreal. If you have a chance, google it and look at pictures. The most amazing mountains ever. They look like camel humps. We stayed in Guilin city and took a bus into the town of Yangshuo every day. Yangshuo is very touristy so it was fun to see other white people walking around. Plus, the town had tons of westernized restaurants so we ate pretty well this week. The streets reminded me of Europe a little bit. Cobble stoned and crowded with vendors selling fun souvenirs and such.

The first day consisted of the Li River bamboo raft tour that we booked through our hostel. So relaxing and gorgeous. I took tons and tons of pictures. Then the next day we hiked through the mud caves. I was the designated photographer for all of the girls that we went with. I opted out of going into the mud…I am not that low maintenance…haha. The next day we rented scooters and scooted our way around the back roads of Yangshou. Kim and I got into a little accident that scraped us up a bit. But we were fine and took it easy the rest of the day. The weather was so different from Weihai because Guilin is in the southern part of China. The whole week it felt like it was mid June. I was sweating like a pig. It was such a great vacation! I still can’t believe I am traveling around China just with three other girls without any adult supervision or help. We do it all on our own and I must say, we rock it.

Our whole group of ILP teachers went to Guilin so we all rode the train together to get there. The train ride there was 40 hours. We thought it couldn’t get any worse than that. But like everything in China, we were surprised. The way back was 46 hours. Almost two whole days on a hot, smelly, very uncomfortable hard sleeper train. On the way there my friend’s and I wrote funny poems to make the time pass. I saved them so that you all could enjoy.

Lauren White-

40 hours here on this train
It’s amazing that we all haven’t gone insane
No AC means unbearable heat
Our sweat soaks through the sheet on this hard seat
The men hawk fat lugees and the babies all scream
I wish I could wake up from this awful dream
From the speakers blares opera and Asian pop
We’d get there much faster if we didn’t constantly stop
Who knows the creatures that scurry about
Flies and crabs and spiders no doubt
What I wouldn’t give for a large hot fudge sundae
Cookies, pies, and cakes in a pleasant array
Or a handsome young man with wit and charm
To hold me in his big strong arms
If I didn’t have this lovely little day dream
The thought of doing this again would make me scream
With awesome, fun friends
The fun never ends
They can make a train ride from hell
Seem bearable and swell

Lauren Warner-

Our traveling group is made up of four
Rachel and Kimbo, Laur White and Laur War
Our adventures here in China have been a blast
Imagine a 40-hour train ride actually passing by fast
We’ve partied with rock stars and danced in taxis
Good thing we brought tampons, China only has maxis
We stay up and chat until late in the night
A sleeve and a good movie hits the spot just right
Tai Chi by morning and teaching by day
We look forward to night when we go our own way
The night market vendors all now know us by name
Just by being Americans we possess great fame
Despite dirty streets and oh such nasty smells
We’ll stay 3 more months so put off the wedding bells
Boys don’t you worry, we’ll return to you some day
But as for now we’re in China loving life along the bay.

Rachel Holt-

Teacha! Teacha! All the kids scream
Some are insane and some are a dream
Opening starts it with singing about a duck
Closing ends it with running amuck
Kitchen is filled with a chocolaty mess
Games we play are much less complicated than chess
Gym consists of Ringo jumping and climbing
Drama is all about reading and rhyming
Then there is shop, which we all dread to teach
Arts and crafts we’d rather, because it’s not such a reach
Pretending they’re trains, they chug down the halls
They line up to “be good” and fold their arms stiff as walls
They all scream and yell to know the next flashcard that’s coming
But they won’t get a token unless they’re quite cunning
By the end of the day they’ve worn us all out
But we couldn’t love them anymore, that’s without a doubt.