Nanshan

Yesterday i spent the day hiking in the comfort and solitude of the NANSHAN Mountains (literally SOUTH MOUNTAINS).

I went with Peta, Michael and George (Dora's brother) and after spending about an hour trying to figure out where to take the bus from, we finally were able to purchase tickets (for 7 yuan each way!!! just a little over $1CDN).

At the bus station, we were having trouble communicating, so one of the women called her husband on the cell phone who spoke exceptional english and we were able to figure things out that way.

I think i had most of the people in the station's attention: me, a chinese- looking girl, shouting (literally) into the cell phone in english and then passing the phone through the wired mesh that separated me and the ticket seller, who would then yell into the phone and nod occasionally, and then hand the phone back to me.. and i thought cell phones were such a nuisance!

In any case, we eventually reached Nanshan and were awarded with stunning scenery (towering pine trees, crunchy snow paths, a little river with a frozen surface but with running water underneath it still). The sun was out and blaring - the first time since i've arrived in Urumqi were i actually could FEEL the heat on my face.

We walked for a few hours without seeing another soul. One Kazakh man approached us in the beginning of our hike to see if we wanted to rent his horses to go up the mountain. Perhaps next time. All in all, it was a fabulous day.

We drank from the river, breathed fresh fresh air, ate our picnic lunch, had a strenuous yet satisfying cardio workout, threw 1 fen (10 fen = 1 jiao; 10 jiao=1 yuan, 1 yuan=$6.2 CDN) into the river and made a wish, ... Peta was wishing we had some whiskey with us since the snow, which was like the consistency of sand, but clear-coloured, would have provided some good ice shavings for a good drink. Instead we had some fags and cigars, good nuff.

Upon return, we had to go LOOKING for somewhere to eat.

Now this is in a country where food stalls and restaurants pop up like weeds (not to mention shut down also), but we had to actually go looking for someone to feed us - a definite first for me in China. I remembered seeing a row of little houses so we ventured that way, crossed a rickety bridge and i went 'knocking' on one of the doors. Turns out that family often feeds weary travellers.

So into their Kazakh home they invited us in, where we sat on these gorgeous Kazakh rugs, surrounded by fluffy pillows and mattresses which they prop up during the day so that they can sit around a low-rise table. Of course there is almost no corner of the world where televisions are not part of the expected decor of a home, so there we were eating little snackey foods, horse meat (DELICIOUS!), mutton kewabs, and drinking milk tea, all the while watching Kazakh music videos which i would bet are from the 80's era.

After our meal, we all had a little repose before we set out to catch our bus. I was a bit worried/ skeptical that the bus driver wouldn't come back and pick us up, only because i was not confident of my language skills.

But suddenly out of nowhere, still with nobody in sight, the blue minibus came roaring down the dirt road two minutes before our scheduled pickup time! What's this ON TIME business??? Another first in China! Ok, it's not that bad, but i was definitely impressed.

Today, i paid a visit to the PSB (i think it stands for Public Service Bureau, or perhaps PRIVATE??), the equivalent of a Chinese police station to apply for my work visa and temporary resident card. I was surprised at how quickly the whole thing took.

Kate, an EF employee, took me so she could translate. They basically need to just make sure the person in my passport is actually me, but i couldn't understand because where i was told to wait and sit down, the entire time my BACK was to the person behind the glass.

Next thing i know, i'm told i can go. SO apparently seeing the back of my head is good enough to say i am indeed the girl in the passport. Or maybe they have little hidden cameras all over the room, which was a bit sketchy looking to me to begin with. Am i getting paranoid or what. yikes.

After a nice lazy swim and lunch at The Vine (casual Western-style restaurant run by two women from Caracol in the Carribbean) with Susi, I met up with American Laura and her BF Ryan from St.Louis. I missed their American thanksgiving feast yesterday where Laura made Gumbo, very popular in Louisiana i'm told.

We went to a tea house and drank oodles of oolong tea for three hours, and talked about politics, school, Chinese chess, expat gossip, travel (they went to pakistan last summer and Ryan had been to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Samarkland, and me being me, all i want to do now is go travel and see these places).

The whole tea ceremony was quite the elaborate process and i did enjoy our own little room with sliding wooden panels.

Service was great and literally every 3 minutes the lady would come and refill our tiny teacups. I'm meeting up with them in about twenty minutes again to experience a fullout Chinese bathhouse. Should be fun.

Tonight we're going to have another welcome-a-new-EF-teacher toast; Mikael, the Czech guy, will be arriving around midnight. Copious amounts of beer and wine will be consumed as usual. It will be a lovely and painful Saturday morning tomorrow with the little kiddies, that is certain.

Kay, I'm off to be scrubbed down and exfoliated and massaged.

* hey my fav sis - i promise i'll post some pics asap, hang tight.