A Crazy Trip to Lang De

Hey Everyone!

I can't even believe how quickly the weeks have been flying by lately! Only 9 weeks left until I'll be home! It's crazy.

It's been a pretty routine week. It got so cold so fast! I had to wear a coat in my apartment because it didn't have a heater like Lindsay's. I asked Sylvia if one could be provided and luckily she said yes, thank goodness! Now I am staying nice a warm :)

The English teachers have been asking us if we have ideas for celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with the students so we have been trying to come up with some ideas! Some of the teachers have already begun decorating the hallways for Christmas! I thought people back in the States were getting too eager but it is even more so in China, probably because no one here really celebrates Thanksgiving.. obviously.. so they're jumping right to Christmas! Lindsay and I went to Starbucks for hot cocoa on Friday and they were all decorated for Christmas and playing Christmas music! It's too early!!

Anyways, on Wednesday one of the math teachers, Mia, invited us to play badminton that evening. She is also the homeroom teacher for the class that my favorite boy is in (the one with some special needs) and she loves seeing the way we interact with him. And her English is really good! So we went to the school gym on Wednesday night and played badminton with her and another teacher whose name I don't remember. It was actually a lot of fun despite the fact that neither of us really knew what we were doing! The school's coach was there playing on the court next to us and he gave us some pointers on how to serve. It was so nice to get to know some other teachers.

So, Saturday was a craaaazy day. Bear with me, it is quite the story! We got up early, took a taxi to the train station and took a two hour train to Kaili. From there we were planning on going to a minority village called Lang De but we weren't particularly sure how to get there, just that we could get there by bus. When we got to the Kaili train station we saw a lot of buses so Lindsay asked a police officer which one would take us to Lang De. Suddenly they were surrounded by people that wanted to help us which was awesome! We followed a girl onto a bus that took us to the bus station a few minutes away. She even helped us buy tickets to Lang De which was so kind of her!

We had about half an hour till our bus would leave so we walked around Kaili a little bit. Then when we went back to the bus station we couldn't figure out which bus was ours and no one seemed to be able to help us! We were freaking out because it was suppose to leave in like two minutes when the driver of our bus waved us over and sure enough, that was our bus. He must've seen us frantically looking around and figured we were his missing passengers. There was a girl on our bus from the Czech Republic and some Chinese people that spoke English so we were able to make sure we were going to the right place.

The drive to Lang De was about 45 minutes and it was a gorgeous ride! The village is just surrounded by beautiful green hills and rivers. The bus dropped us off outside the village and we just sort of followed a path that we thought would take us to the village. Well, it was a beautiful, peaceful walk, but it was also in the middle of no where and was taking us in the wrong direction. We thought we were good because we were sort of following one of the Chinese girls that was on the bus. We figured she knew where she was going... but no. So after walking for awhile we asked her if she knew the way (she spoke English) and she said she was lost too. So we all turned around and headed in the other direction and it turns out we just went down the wrong path. This girl ended up being a true life saver for us but I don't remember her name!

Such a beautiful place! Even if we were a bit lost...

This is our Chinese friend with Lindsay and a Bull! They didn't want to get too close...

So we found the village and and were told that a performance of the Miao people was going to be taking place soon. We wandered the village a bit with our new friend then waited for the show. There were some TV camera crews that I guess were going to be filming for something which unfortunately caused the show to be delayed for quite awhile. The TV people kept making all of the tourists move out of the shot so we couldn't see very well. But then, the TV people wanted us (and some of the other tourists) to join in a dance! It was the weirdest thing and we didn't really know what was going on! We ended up walking around in a circle with some of the Miao women to the beat of a drum while some guys played their big flutes. It was so strange, but kind of exciting! And hey, we may have made it on Chinese TV!

Apparently the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch came through here!

Cute little Miao girls in costume!

Such a cool little village! I can't imagine growing up here!

Look at that tall flute thing! The performance finally beginning

There were 2 couples there with the TV crew that may or may not be famous? They danced with the Miao people but clearly didn't know the steps

I'm trying to get better and taking videos but I'm not much of a videographer... But here ya go! A short video of part of the performance.

We watched some more of the dancing, then we had to go to catch a bus back to Kaili. We were totally relying on our Chinese friend because without her, we would have had no idea how to get back! And it so happened that she was trying to get back in time for the exact same train back to Guiyang as us! But it turned out we could only get a bus to Leishan which was actually further from Kaili but at least we would be able to get a bus from there to Kaili. So we got the Leishan bus station and our friend helped us get tickets to Kaili. Unfortunately, we didn't think we were going to make it back in time for our train. Somehow, she managed to convince the bus driver to leave 15 minutes early! I think there was one seat left they were waiting to fill so she went ahead and bought the last ticket! And it turns out that 15 minutes made a difference!

So we were on the bus for about an hour and got to Kaili bus station about 20 minutes before our train was suppose to leave... and we still had to get to the train station. We practically jumped off the bus and right into a taxi. We got dropped off at the train station and just started running! It must have been quite a site... haha. We ran to the ticket counter and our friend convinced the one guy in front of us to let us go first. Then we ran through security and got to our gate 6 minutes before the train was suppose to leave! Luckily it ended up being delayed about 10 minutes so we did it! Haha all of this buying bus tickets and running to catch our train in a foreign country made me feel like I was on the amazing race or something!

Honestly, I don't know how we would have made it home without our Chinese friend. I am so grateful that she took us under her wing! We probably would've ended up stranded in Lang De or Kaili, possibly overnight if we hadn't met her or if she hadn't been trying to catch the same train. I definitely felt like the Lord was watching out for us that day! And although we made a new friend, I think we decided we'll want to make sure we are a little more prepared before heading out on our adventures from now on... haha :)

Anyways, sorry for the long and confusing story, but it was a long and confusing day! But certainly one I will never forget!