The Twins clinched a playoff spot today:) You probably don't realize how happy this makes a random 21 year old guy in Asia. But I kind of imagine that I am like the Twins. They started this season terrible, but have stormed back to within 2 games of the best record in baseball. I, too, have started less than fabulously. But like Michael Cuddyer, I am going to find my swing as well. But for now I'll celebrate for my wonderful Twins.

Last weekend The Director declared group travel weekend, and the most important thing you can remember about this post is that I am not exaggerating. I think an annotated schedule will do best:)

• 3:30 pm depart school on bus and drive for hours over something like a road.
• 9:00 pm arrive at Rui An International Hotel, go swimming in outdoor pool
• 10:30 pm I had dinner with the Director
• 12:00 pm do my "pre reading" for my Monday morning 1 on 1 class
• 1:00 am go to sleep
• 5:30 am get wake up call from front desk
• 6:00 am stumble into breakfast, eat a bowl of zhou (cooked rice boiled in water) and a bao zi
• 6:40 am depart for coast
• 7:30 am board a terrible boat
• 7:30-9:00 am watch everyone around me throw up
• 9:30-12:00 swim and eat sea food (I felt terrible about picking a crab! :(
• 1:00 back on the boat
• 3:00 start riding bus up a big mountain
• 4:30 mountain road blocked by avalanche
• 4:30-7:30 hike up mountain road to "stairs to daoist temple"
• 8:00-9:00 literally hike up stairs in pitch dark for an hour. Use camera's for light to see
  
• 9:00 eat Monk vegetable dinner
• 10:00 discover Wen Zhou "party club" (observe here) has also hiked up the mountain and is blasting techno, jumping over their bonfire and roasting meat. Weirdest thing I ever saw.
• 10:30 I went to bed
• 8:00 get up
• 9:00 ride in pick up truck down mountain to avalanche
• 10:00 get in new bus, ride to Scenic Region
  
• 12:00 have lunch, hike into scenic area (more steps!)
• 1:00-3:00 go swimming by beautiful waterfalls in really cold water
• 3:00 nearly fall off of rock cliff thing to doom
• 4:00 ride bus to Wenzhou
• 6:00 have dinner and wander around their main street
• 7:30 get back on bus to drive home
• 1:30 am get home
• 8:00 am have my 1 on 1 Chinese government class.... ack!

The pictures are as follows: our sand castle creation of The Great Wall, fishing boats on the same island, the view from the mountain top,
the stairs we hiked in the dark.

Just a disclaimer: it may appear that my life in China is filled with one fabulous experience after another and this may cause you be filled with senseless jealously. I assure you, you can spend that emotion else where :)

Last weekend our Director decreed that this is "individual travel weekend!" So off I went as an individual to the small town of Wu Xie, a resort really, on the edge of a National Scenic Area. I stayed over Friday night and then hiked into Wu Xie Saturday morning. That's not quite true. I more hiked up and down Wu Xie more than anything else, but it was very beautiful. Living in the city in China you occasionaly wonder if the sun does exist (the locals all just claim it's "cloudy").

But in Wu Xie I found some beautiful country. But I also found some peasants and their villages,

as I hiked all they way out of Wu Xie and literally into the middle of no where. But I guess it ended well, because they told me to hike up to the next village, over the mountain (easier said than done) and then 3 kilometers to the bus stop. They also offered me boiled water with hair floating in it, but I turned it down. Thankfully, a random man from Shanghai had also wandered out there and we ended up making the trek together. He wanted to know what villages were like in the US. And so now, 3 hours before our Director decrees "Group Travel Weekend" where we don't return until Sunday midnight, I would kill for a "no homework weekend." But that's just not the way China is.

I hate the phrase "This is China's most famous _____." Unfortunately, this seems to be my roommate's favorite one. Every where we go, he points at things and says, "Do you have this in America? No? This is China's most famous steamed bun making machine." It makes me want to grab him and take him to Cub Foods and ask, "This is Green Giant. Do you know Green Giant? No? Really? This is America's most famous frozen green bean producer." In other news, I have started studying the Chinese Bamboo Flute. My teacher is this Chinese Yoda combo, and when I went for the first time yesterday all he said was,

"You have come to study the di-zi." I am so bad that when I practice I wear ear plugs.

Yesterday after class I had a terrible headache. We have been in class now for over a week, and I no longer respect 8 am orgo students at NU. I'm sorry, but try 8 am class except it's the professor and you. Then teach the class in Chinese. I am terrified of Mondays and Thursdays. In other news, people say that my Chinese is improving, but all I am is one huge ball of frustration. I suppose "slowly, slowly" as everyone except my teachers believes. This weekend I went to Su Zhou with my roommate. We visited two famous gardens, here is a washed out photo of me in the "Humble Administrator's Garden" and a picture of Su Zhou's main street at night.

List of things I have eaten so far

• sheep meat
• jelly fish (a very small quantity!)
• frog legs
• duck tongue (possibly, not really sure)
• mian tang (water from cooking noodles, awful)
• shrimp (ok, not weird but listable anyway)
• weird looking fish

List of health problems so far

• stomach problems
• stomach problems
• 拉肚子 （result of stomach problems)

Perhaps I need to reign in what my Chinese classmates keep ordering. But yesterday I did voyage to the supermarket, buy a frying pan, buns and meat and make some hamburgers. Best hamburger ever made. Flat out :) In other news, I met my penpal in real life today. Six months ago I just randomly clicked on her xanga, now here I am. What a weird world. She is very friendly.

A lot of people would like to lay claim that they have caused a traffic accident just by standing on the corner. But, few would actually be telling the truth when they say that their

dashing good looks (more likely, dashingly different looks)
caused a wreck.

Fortunately, I can not claim this either, but it was awful darn close. Being a White person in Hangzhou is interesting, because there are very few. So everyone stares at you, some come up and speak English to you, I am yet to have a photo request. My transition to life in China continues. I visited 西湖 （West Lake) the last two days. It is extroadinarily beautiful.