The Moon Festival

In China there are many holidays, perhaps even more days off than back in the states, which is totally awesome for me because that means I get lots of breaks from teaching and a chance to explore the area of China I live in.  Right now is one of those holidays where people get 8 days off to visit their families in order to celebrate the Moon Festival.  From what I have come to understand it is kind of like Thanksgiving, but with lots of Moon Cakes, instead of turkey dinners.  They also sing to the moon at some point.  There are two big days during this break the Mid-Autumn Day Festival and right after that is National Day.  Since we had some days off my roommate and I made some plans to go into Xi'an (a larger city near us about a $45 minute bus ride) with two other foreign teachers from South Africa who teach in a smaller city near us called Xingping.  The original plan was we were going to relax maybe do some sight-seeing near the hotel and then do some clubbing at night (I don't drink, so clubbing was only marginally exciting for me, but I was happy to go and stay out for as long as my eyes would let me).  I knew I had to go back to Xianyang on Sunday morning as I had agreed to do some promotions for the school (I get $100 RMB for every extra hour I work ).  The plan seemed great, but we know how plans usually go: nothing like they were supposed to.  So it went like this.

On Friday, we headed off to Xi'an by bus, I still don't have my bus balance so I fling around a lot and Chinese people feel sorry for me and give me their seats, even old men and women (either you take the seat or someone else will, so I usually just sit and it makes that person happy).  Since it was the holiday buses were quite full and it gets really hot inside, unless the bus has windows you can open ($3 RMB) or an operating aircon ($5 RMB = about $0.75 USD).  I was lucky to get a seat as the bus ride is about a good 45 minute drive.  Once you get into the city you have to change buses and this time I didn't get a seat, but I was happy to stand it's kind of like being on a roller coaster. Our hostel was very nice, but also very expensive $100 RMB a night (so for two nights I paid $200 plus a $100 RMB deposit... Next time I will just find a cheaper hostel as I only use the room for sleeping).  The staff were very friendly and most of them spoke English, so it was easy to ask questions.  A lot of foreigners stay at this hostel because it is easy to communicate with the staff, other westerners stay here, western food and the rooms are clean, internet and aricon in all the rooms.  Even though there is western food, the food is quite expensive (a burger, which was delicious, was $54 RMB).  

After we ate we decided to walk around Xi'an for a bit.  We looked at all the decorations on the buildings celebrating the Moon Festival.  We also bought some China flags (mine was only $5RMB for a small flag like you buy during the 4th of July) to show how much we love it here.  We got back to the hostel and I tried to take a nap and I think I succeeded until a man started cutting through metal outside and so sleeping was no longer possible.  I relaxed with my friends from Xingping hearing their stories of their travels into Thailand.  I love hearing other people talk about what they have experienced, it is so cool.  We decided we would go to the zoo the next day with two of their chinese teachers from Xingping, but we would have to get up at 7am in order to meet them by 8am.  We were sad about the early time, but excited to see the panda at the zoo. It was getting late in the day, so we got all dressed up and went to Burger King for dinner.  

After our bellies were full we went to a club called Muse.  Inside this place was super nice looking, but also very busy.  We wanted to get a table, but all the nice round cushiony tables had been rented out for the night and all the other tables were occupied.  We had a chinese friend with us, his name was Felix and he helped us out a lot with translating.  We ended up getting a tiny nightstand thing between two nice tables were we put our drinks down.  We literally stood and drank for 3 hours (since I don't drink Felix ordered me some water, such a sweetie, too bad chinese people drink scalding hot water instead of cold water, so my water was literally too hot to drink... Felix ordered me some ice).  The music was nice, but there was just so many people I felt uncomfortable and everyone was looking at me because of my blonde hair, so if I even started to dance people would all look.  There was no windows in the club and smoking is permitted and everyone smokes, so my eyes began to burn a lot.  I made it to about 1:30am (really late for me) before I had to call it quits (I also knew I had to get up early).  I told my friends goodbye and Felix walked me out and told my Taxi driver where to take me.  I passed out and woke up to hearing my friends coming up the hostel stairs.  I glanced at my watch, it was 5:30am.  I let my roommate in and she passed out on the bed almost immediately.  

At 7am my alarm woke me and I realized my roommate was not going to go to the zoo, but luckily her cousin, Damian, had stayed awake and was ready to go (I wouldn't have been able to go by myself as I have no cellphone and have no idea what the CT's look like).  So it was just us two with a tiny map, trying to find these two women.  We called them up and they told us we have to take the metro to get to them, whereas we thought we were meeting them at the metro.  So we figured out where we had to go and we paid $2 RMB for the metro train and loaded ourselves in and we were off.  During the ride everyone again was staring at us, while we were finally realizing how freaking big Xi'an actually was (it is bigger than LA I believe). We found the CT's and I was introduced to Coco and Ana, such funny friendly girls.  

We took a bus to the rural part of Xi'an and got off at this random stop and we were herded into a minivan type car, apparently we were going to visit Coco's old kindergarten where she used to work.  This place was in the middle of nowhere and it was awesome.  The kindergarten itself was super colorful and the kids were adorable. Again everyone stared at me and Damian because they have never seen foreigners before.  They fed us Chinese bread and some potato slices.  We waved goodbye and got a free ride to the zoo from one of the teachers.  As we were driving Coco told us we can get into the zoo for free, but we have to hop a gate first.  We just said okay. When we got there we couldn't find the gate, so we paid $100 RMB to get in and we were told the panda had died.  We were bummed but we still wanted to go inside, so me Damien and Ana (Ana had never been to a zoo before as she is deathly terrified of snakes; don't ask me how that translates to why she has never been to the zoo it was just her reasoning lol) continued on while Coco waited outside (she thought we were only going to be inside for two hours lol we were inside for 4.5 hours).  

The zoo's in other countries are much different, as they have different regulations and less strict policies towards the treatment of the animals.  This zoo wasn't the best zoo ever, but it was still cool to see all the different animals they had here in China.  The zoo it huge, which meant most of the animals have lots of space to roam.  We went on the safari ($30 RMB per person) which meant we had to get onto these trucks with cages in the back, but we had to get  into the cages and we rode around in it taking pictures of all the animals (reminded me of Jurassic Park the entire time).  We saw almost every animal, even went to the circus, although I couldn't watch everything as they began to hit the tigers when they didn't listen.  We saw an equestrian show as well and even contemplated going into the amusement park for one or two rides.  

As we were leaving I noticed some men taking pictures of something, so I walk over to investigate and there sat a teenage panda.  I called my friends over and we were so happy to see a panda.  He was eating his bamboo and we realized that the panda had just been brought in a few minutes ago (they had literally just delivered it to the zoo).  Hopefully that panda will survive a lot longer than the others, only 1,500 panda's are left in the wild.

We finally leave the zoo and we are ordered some lunch, even though we said we weren't hungry, but once we began to eat we realized we were hungry.  All the women touched my hair and complimented my eyes while I ate.  We got a taxi to take us to the bus stop and we took the bus to the metro and the metro back to the hostel (we of course got lost quite a few times, but we made it back).  We ate dinner at the hostel (another $54 RMB) and decided we weren't going out, as I had to travel back to Xianyang in the morning and the others were going to go see the Terracotta Army (it was a bummer I couldn't go, as I had already agreed to do promotions, they got to do a lot of stuff for free because this Chinese man who was friends with my roommate from Xianyang paid for everything like; lunch, the tour, a mini-van with aircon, a mountain tour, mini terracotta statue's, an English speaking tour guide, a palace tour and a ride back home. Super jealous lol).  I will just have to go another time.  

The next morning we check out of the hostel and we go our separate ways.  I find my first bus and then get off to find my second bus back to Xianyang.  That is when I see the monstrosity that holiday's reek upon traveling in China.  There was so many people waiting for the same bus, which happened to be my bus.  It looked like the city has just received a bomb threat and everyone was trying to flee the city.  I waited an hour and a half, but every time I tried to get to a bus they would run and push in front and I hate being squished.  So as I was trying to figure out how much a taxi would cost me a bus pull right in front of me and opens its door, just as I was about to get in I was squashed from all directions.  I was so squished, that I could move my arms and every direction mob went I went.  It felt like my arms were breaking.  Somehow I was squeezed into the bus and I managed to get a seat, thank god.  My arms were burning from being crushed by all the people and their damn moon cake boxes, I can literally see the bruises forming on my body.  So the bus ride was kind of hot and about an hour long back to my city, so it was decent.  When the bus dropped us off at this random place, I was like well shit, I have no idea where I am (I had an inkling of an idea) and I have no phone, so I just followed the giant mass of people.  I saw some familiar things, but that doesn't mean anything in China because there are a lot of duplicate things.  I got thirsty so I stopped to get a drink and asked the lady if she knew which direction my place was (I literally just said the hotel's name that I live by in chinese, they all know it since it is next to a park) she pointed in the direction I had already thought it was in so I had been correct in where I was, the lady even told me what bus number to take.

I finally arrived home, but I went straight to my school and waited for the CT to arrive.  They told me what I was going to do and gave me a bright pink shirt to wear (ugh!).  We went into a mall and to the kids play area where I took off my shoes and hopped in with them and played London Bridges and Duck Duck Goose while singing the ABC's.  Then I was herded to a toy store where no kids were (one it is the holiday, so most people are with their families and two what parent with any sense would willingly bring their child into a toy store and think that the child will not want anything, just saying). So since their was nothing to do I headed back to school and then back home.  As I was riding the bus (sitting in a seat because a woman gave me her seat) back I realized that I hadn't eaten at all yet (was almost 5pm), so I decided to go to a small restaurant where they know me.  

All the staff waved at me when I walked in and I ordered sweet & sour chicken with rice and shrimp with cashew nuts.  As I was eating the shrimp with cashews, it brought on a memory of me and my mom sitting down at our secret Chinese Restaurant in Concord, California.  We would order kung pao chicken and a shrimp dish like the one I was eating.  It was funny because I got teary-eyed while eating dinner and I remembered that while I had stayed at the hostel I had been trying to find something in my backpack and I pulled out a set of keys my mom had given to me for my PT Cruiser because I was going to take my drivers license test in July before we realized she was dying.  It is funny how moments like these drag you back into the past and make you miss so much, but as you once again become aware of your surroundings, that memory floats away.

Tomorrow I do two more promotions and hopefully they pay me right after, so I can have some spending money while everything is on sale for the holiday.  I start work on Thursday where it's 7:30am 7:30pm (same for Friday - Sunday), so it is going to be a long weekend lol.