Yangshuo :)

Yangshwhoa. Haha. That's how you pronounce it, with a whoa at the end there.
And that's where we just went on vacation. :) It was so much fun. I've got a few pictures, and my roommate is going to let me use her proxy website so I can put them up on facebook or maybe maybe the blog.

We'll see which. I feel like it would be easier to put them on facebook, because you can just upload all of them, and you can only put a few at a time on a blog. Not that I have a lot of pictures (my camera died before I even left the hotel. Lame lane), but it still seems more convenient to put pictures on facebook. Check there for updates, probably before the end of the week.

Anyway. Yangshuo.
We left for Yangshuo on Friday night, after teaching. We had a sleeper bus, which was pretty cool, I must say. I was on the top bunk next to April, and Mandy and Annalisa were below us. We stopped and picked up a TON of people. Like, we had more people than beds. Some people, we called them isle people (which sounds a lot like ILP people haha), and they were just stuck in between everyone on the bottom bunk awkwardly. Made me glad I was on top, and sorry for Mandy and Anna.
We got to Yangshuo on Sat morning, and April and I took pictures and then went shopping for a while. We did a boat ride, and then went shopping some more in the markets, and ate dinner around 8:30 or so, then went dancing. We finally got back home at 12, and I was out by 12:30. It was a long day, but so much fun.

On Sunday, we were all go go go. We were up and out by 9, biking. We rode up to the Buddha Mud Caves and did a tour there. I went down one of the slides in the mud cave and scraped up my leg a bit, but nothing too serious. It was SO much fun, and then there were hot water springs at the end. It was lovely. But the mud. Oh my. I'm still wringing mud out of my swimsuit. It was worth it, of course, but goodness. After that, we had lunch and then climbed Moon Hill (MJ- idk where I got Moon Crest Mountain from haha) and that was a lot of fun, but so tiring. It's not like a regular mountain, they have steps all the way to the summit. 839 steps, one way, to be exact. And they're steep steps. I sweat a lot. I don't even want to think about a physical amount, but it was nasty nasty. After that, just more shopping. We were going to go out for KTV (karaoke) that night which I was totally up for, but it got switched last minute to dancing. Which I was just too tired for. They said they'd only be gone for an hour, but it was probably only 10 or 15 minutes that they were gone before I fell asleep.

Monday morning! We rented mo-peds for the day. 60 rmb for one bike all day, with two people on it, so only 30 rmb each. And that's like 5 American. We had it from 10:30 to 6, and the girl I rode with and I lent our bike to another couple girls who went rock climbing in the morning, and we just shopped around the markets. I love the markets. They're awesome. Best thing to ever happen to the shopping world. But I spent a lot of money there. Around like 7 or 8 hundred rmb. But that includes the hostel (which was really really nice. We painted on the walls), and food, and the boat and bikes and mo-ped, and all my souvenirs. And besides all that, many of the souvenirs were for my friends, and a couple for family (Audrey- greater than or equal to a coconut, but I haven't found anything yet). And 7-800 rmb is only like 100-150 American, so that's not too bad, right? For 4 days... Right? D:

And then, we came home. Sleeper bus left at 8pm or so, and it was much nicer than the first sleeper bus, and more empty... and cheaper, too actually. And then we got home at like 4:30 this morning, but by "home," I mean to McDonald's. We got home home at 5:30 or so. It was a lovely vacation, but I'm excited to get back to my kids.

I don't think I told everyone-- Dave is staying the program. :) Donny's mom doesn't think he's learning enough or something, so he ended up getting pulled, but that's a story for a different day.

Also, and this is the last thing, I'M SO EXCITED! We're starting Kung Fu lessons haha :D Two days a week, Mon/Wed, from 1:00-2:30. It's going to be sweet. The instructor doesn't have an English name (most of the adults here don't) so we named him Jet. And as soon as Freda gets lessons ready, we're starting Chinese lessons, too :) I can't wait.

And now, I'm off to finish my laundry. It's all been out hanging to dry, and I think it's probably good to come in now. (Mom- bleached worked wonders for the smell :) This is something I can happily put on in the morning. Thank you so much!)