Guilin Trip, Day 7

That morning started out rather interestingly when I finally got a good look at my mattress and realized I was gazing down upon a perfect example of how international copyright laws have absolutely no power here in this country whatsoever (though I shouldn't gotten that message sooner from the little store next to campus that sells literally nothing but pirated DVDS). 

And seriously, WHO on God's green earth is that supposed to be on the far right? 

Anyhow....a sizable chunk of the day (and by sizable chunk, I meanly roughly a third to a half) was taken up by our journey to the next stop on our itinerary. It was pretty rainy that day, and when taken into account along with the reality that the roads were not only poorly made, but at some points still even under construction....well, I had a lot of time to think, you could say. I also could've written in my journal, but that's near impossible when literally all the roads are as bumpy as they can possibly be. 

But at least the long drive got off on a fun start (to use the term very, very, very loosely here) early on while taking the mini-buses from the mountain village back to where the regular buses were parked. While zipping down those extremely narrow and treacherous roads, our driver accidentally brushed up against a normal-sized bus coming up the other way, and battered his side-view mirror a little...I think. None of us could see any serious damage, but the driver sincerely believed that he had been terribly, terribly wrong, and thus he marched right outside and started arguing furiously with the other driver. 

Here's some of the TBC-ers waiting patiently for the little fiasco to be sorted out. 

And here's another photo of us waiting.

And another...

Dum de dum dum....still waiting.....

Haven't moved yet....

Have they finished squabbling yet?

Guess not, by the looks of it.

Hey, I think we're actually....wait, wait, false alarm....

Still sitting around on the bus, waiting to get moving.... anyone know any good sing-a-longs?

At one point, out of sheer desperation, I scribbled upon the window "help us" in Mandarin, followed by a plea to Save Our Bus.

Others quickly caught on, and soon we had covered the windows in cries for assistance in a wide variety of languages. 

That manner was finally settled....er, somewhat. As the drivers bickered on, everyone in my little bus clambered off, split up, and got aboard the other little buses bearing TBC students back to where the main buses awaited us down the road. 

Anyhow....some four or five (six, maybe?) hours later, we arrived at the last stop of the trip - a hotel known for its outdoor hot spring. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of it to share with you, but I promise its for entirely understandable reasons. After all, wouldn't I have looked a tad...er, "suspicious," if you will, had I gone wandering about the springs, blatantly taking photos of everyone in their bathing suits? Plus, not everyone there were TBC students, so would you have really wanted a bunch of snapshots of middle-aged Chinese men lounging around? 

If so....then please don't tell me, because I don't even want to know. 

The rest of the day more or less passed by pretty uneventfully. Most of us relaxed in the springs, took a break for dinner in the hotel and mass for those who wanted to attend (in Father Roberto's hotel room - needless to say, it was kind of cramped) followed by even more time relaxing in the hot springs, which some of us did until they closed for the night at around midnight....a group that included yours truly. Hey, the ultra-pruny fingers I ended up with were completely worth it.

All in all, it was a wonderfully relaxing time, which was just what we needed for the days to come - the airplane ride back to Beijing and midterms! Wheeeeeeee! Ha ha ha....wait a sec, those weren't very fun....wait, what the.....