Guiln Trip, Day 4

Here's more or less how the two days in Yangshuo went. Before our arrival in the town, we could sign up for two of three options, one of which we would do on each day in Yangshuo. For our first day in Yangshuo, I signed up for option "C" - cooking and rafting. 

That morning, at about 9:00 AM, everyone who signed up for option "C" that day piled aboard a bus and headed over to our cooking class - which surprisingly, was held right on his apartment deck, where he had this whole array of woks and gas-heated hot plates set out. 

He taught us to make several dishes - pork dumplings, fried noodles, kung-pao chicken, finally, beerfish, the signature dish of the region (it's quite literally fish cooked in local beer). 

Here's the kung-pao chicken that I helped make.....and by helped make, I mean overdid it a little with the soy sauce.

While I had fun making all the dishes, I think my favorite one by far was the fried noodles, probably because I can make it at home or at school, and it's the perfect way to spice up a classic college staple. All one really needs to do is take some cooked ramen, fry it up with some veggies, soy sauce, oyster sauce, add some salt, and voila! The perfect little treat for the hungry man who wants to overdose on his daily intake of sodium!

The picture you see above was from the most interesting moment there. As we were all cooking our beer fish, the instructor fixed lunch for himself. After heating up some peanut oil in his wok, he tossed several gutted fish in there....fish that started wriggling about like mad the moment they touched that hot oil. The little guys basically fried alive for a bit until finally, in order to stop their incessant wriggling, the instructor took a knife, and....well, that was the end of that. 

All in all, we had a great time, topped off with an absolutely spectacular view from our little cooking area. 

Next up on the agenda was rafting. Basically, the rafts we took were much like the ones we rode yesterday, except that they were only built for two people each, and were each piloted by a local who used a pole to push them along, rather than a motor. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to prove any of this, as I didn't take my camera aboard for fear of getting it wet. As it turns out, I was right to be cautious, as some friends had purchased a water gun right before boarding their raft. Despite the cries of my raft partner and I that we were neutral ( the Switzerland of our little raft fleet, if you will) that still didn't prevent me from getting sprayed several times. 

Save for that trouble in the beginning, it was the perfect opportunity to just go limp, relax, and enjoy the cruise down the river (and not a very deep one either, at least at some points where the riverbed was just inches away from the bottom of the boat). I more or less just enjoyed the scenery, which mainly consisted of more karst, some more water buffalo, and rice fields lining the riverbanks. 

The evening was fairly uneventful, at least at first. I explored the town with a group of others (the district our hotel was located - in other words, the clearly obvious touristy part) and at first, it looked like the highlight of the night would be our discovery of a two yuan store. That's right, everything there was only two yuan each, meaning not even fifty cents. After rummaging about for some bargains (I purchased two nail clippers out of the fear that I'd never get such a great deal ever again) we entered back out onto the streets, where some of us were immediately approached by some very giggly local girls. Wearing big, toothy smiles, they asked as politely if we wanted to go with them to a "Chinese party," where they claimed free beer was being served and they could practice their English with us. 

Of course, at first all of those who were asked promptly refused, because it sounded very much like blatantly obvious scam of some sort - someone had even recieved a text message from a friend who said that a group of girls had asked him the same thing fifteen minutes earlier. However, out of the blue - Jeremy, a student from Gonzaga University - agreed to go. Why? Simply to check it out, our curious friend explained. 

Surprised, we nevertheless let the inquisitive fellow go on his way, and waited for word from him later on about exactly what this bizarre little party was all about.

Then came the shocker later on with a phone call - it was exactly what the local girls said it would be. As it turns out, they came from a language school just a block away, and every Wednesday party, they would hold a little party where they would invite all the tourists they could find to chat with and use to practice their English. Intrigued, several of us joined our friend to see it for ourselves, and as word spread, more curious TBC students arrived, where they were all promptly surrounded by eager sixteen or seventeen year olds who wished to practice their English skills. 

And so, several times I had the same conversation with various students about my name, where I came from, what I was studying, if I liked music, etc. Basically, it was all those very simple questions one would expect a beginning language student to first learn, like we would in any language class back at home.

Here, you see the signs loaded with various English phrases posted around the courtyard (and it's kind of interesting to see which phrases that they consider useful). 

After joking around and chatting with the girls of the Xijie Foreign Language School for a few hours, they finally drew the festivities to a close until the next week. After they thanked us as they all put the tables and chairs away back inside the school building, we bid our adieu and headed back to the hotel, having learned an important lesson - there's no need to judge anything only by first appearance. 

Well, most of the time, or at least in the case of the fellow I had the displeasure an hour later. I don't want to reveal what he blatantly offered, but I will say that he recieved a very, very speedy reply of "Wo hen bu yao" from me (in other words, "I really don't want.)