Mon, June 9, 2008

Travels again … Breakfast at McDonald’s was at 8am, and then we packed up to get on a bus at 9:30am. We all crammed on a bus and drove to a warehouse to pack up our equipment and separate onto two buses to prepare to cross the border into Mainland China. Off we go …

It wasn’t too bad to get through customs. It was just a bug mess of cases and dancers. We all have to unload both buses and carry our things across the border through the departure/arrival hall. At 1pm, we were finally able to begin our travels to Guangzhou. With customs behind us, we were on our way. All of us were put on one bus – so all seats were full. The other bus had all equipment and luggage. The first thing we talked about on the bus was some cultural notes for language phrases, bargaining tips, etc. Then we got our itinerary for the day as we only need to check into the hotel and have the rest of the night to ourselves. My roommate is Callie for the next two nights, and she is AMAZING!!!! I love her, so I am so excited for these next few days.

During the break before dinner, we were able to go to the Guangzhou Zoo. It was nice, but the animals were all in small cages made of cement. They looked so thin and sad. I felt bad for them. Also, we couldn’t see the Great Panda because they were put away for the day. I did see the Red Panda. And I also saw a hippopotamus! – and I thought of my sis, Nor and Al, the whole time ;-D

Well, there is free Internet here, so my computer is public domain to all the dancers. It’s now a party in my room! Yeah!

We had dinner in the hotel and it was great authentic food. It’s hard to know how to eat everything, especially with only the use of chopsticks. Lee will not let us use utensils, even if they offer it to us, but it is bad manners. We all should learn to use chopsticks, but how does one eat chicken w/ bone? It’ll all work out, though … I did finally have myself a chicken head. There isn’t much edible there. Too bad, too, because it seemed pretty good. I didn’t like the brain too much, but the eye juice was amazing and the tongue/mouth muscles weren’t too bad. Because I did that, apparently Lee and Linda plan on inviting me to the VIP reception dinners so I could eat the “unique” food that is given to the guests of honor. Both Linda and Brittney could not bear to watch me eat any part of the chicken head. They couldn’t even believe that I’d consider trying it. I love to shock people! And it never hurts to do something out of the ordinary and try new things.