Today is day 17 in China, and day 2 on vacation. This morning, we
got up at 6:30, help! The two little ones were even slower... I really
wanted just to go down by myself and ditch them, but I couldn't. I didn't
even know where the breakfast room was! Finally, after an eternity,
they finished, and slowly put on their shoes. The weather today was
pretty much the same as yesterday. Cool weather, but today there was
the sun out! That was good, otherwise it would have been way too cold.
My legs were ready for tons of walking today!
On the bus, I got super bored. Everyone was asleep, except for the
kids playing games (would they ever stop?!). Outside, it looked like
nothing I had see in Hangzhou. In Hangzhou it was all buildings as far
as I could see. But here, there were farms, with large plains of corn,
and other plants. It was a vast plain of green grasses separated into
many rows and columns. It was much more relaxing to look at than the
tall buildings. Closer to the road, there were green trees. When I looked
closer, I saw white things on the outside of the tree. I couldn't tell
what it was. It kind of looked like there were flowers on the tree,
but a tree can't have so many flowers! I was confused for a minute.
When I asked the guide, he said that one side of a leaf on the tree
was green, and the other side was covered with tiny white hairs, making
it look white. I was delighted, because I never knew leaves could be
fuzzy on one side!
After going further, we came to the mountains. It was a huge mountain
range, surrounding us. There was long, swaying grass on the hilly mountain
slope. There were oddly and randomly placed clumps of dark pine trees,
that were not tall. The dark green color of the pine tree contrasted
against the light green of the grass, making it kind of uncomfortable
to look at. The houses were in the huge valley, with many mountains
on each side, and the floating clouds above. It was an ideal place for
a little village like this! It would be so wonderful to live here!
We finally got to the bottom of the mountain range. Each group of
houses surrounded a rectangular, flat piece of empty land. They were
super unorganized though! There were tall houses and short houses...
ick, and it made it uncomfortable to look at. The arrangement of the
houses made it look like they hadn't planned anything: There was a huge
house squashed next to a couple little houses. It would've been alright
if the biggest house was in the middle.... but it wasn't. The houses
weren't even the same shape! To me, it looked like each house was built
by a different person and they clumped it all together randomly. It
was so unorganized that it would be easy for me to get lost.
When I looked at the old Chinese houses, I wondered what it would
be like to live in one. Some of them weren't too small to live in side,
after all, the biggest thing would be the bed. They were about the size
of a large bedroom. All four walls of it were flat, which gave the feeling
of safety inside. I could live quite nicely and comfortably, actually.
But, if I lived with someone else, it would definitely be too small.
But then, I couldn't live by myself, so the house didn't suit me (even
though if it was bigger, it would be cool to live in-mostly because
of the look from outside).
There were Buddhas in all of the temples. The Buddhas would be really
proud! There were so many! They must have really valued their Buddhas
to build so many. All of them were painted in bright, shining colors.
The people building them must have spent a ton of time and lots of effort...
so I thanked them for their labor, letting me come and worship them.
It made me feel lucky and fulfilled to be able to come here, see them,
and pay my respects. I felt more relaxed and at peace as I knelt
down and prayed to them. It wouldn't be right to come here without seeing
them.
Worshipping was pretty much all we did the whole time. Luckily it
wasn't boring, it got kind of like routine to me. Poor Jasmine, her
knee was hurt and she had to kneel on wood. They would be forgiving
of JJ though, because they were good buddhas! :) The whole day was spent
on them.
The hotel was an okay hotel, with okay food. The food was mostly spicy,
but I could eat it, not that I liked it. I stuffed myself with food,
and felt exhausted. I went straight to my bed. My legs were super sore
from all the walking today. That surprised me, because all we had done
today was walk on mostly flat land! Despite my sore legs, I couldn't
help feeling happy about more walking tomorrow. We washed our hair and
got ready for bed. I fell asleep right away.
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