Last night I packed and played the game “Keep it or Leave it?” where I decided what I needed to keep and what could be thrown away. I left sweatpants and a few other small things. Went on a short walk with Edek and Dave and then came home, showered, and passed out.
5:15 a.m. wake up call. Boo.
We left for the airport around 6:30 a.m. Chaos as we all tried to check it. My bag was .1 kg over, but it was fine. We seemed to JUST make the plane. I sat next to Annie and Josh at the window. The ride was a quick 1.5 hours. I read China Daily with had some interesting op-eds and a hilarious page of weird headlines. I read that there was a synagogue bomb attempt in NY. We landed in Nanjing. There was a false alarm where I thought I saw a couple trying to join the mile high club. No go.
We got right onto a bus at by noon were at lunch. Mediocre as our new tour guide George bought us here. He talks too fast but is funny. I also broke up a verbal fight between Harper and Sepencer at lunch by rasing my voice for the first time and yelling “PEACE” and then singing “If you’re peaceful and you know it clap your hands.” Only Ma and Li Yan clapped with me. I use kindergarten negociation skills.
Sun Yet Zen’s (spelling?) moseluem was up a lot of stairs. Thankfully it was unlike Mao’s and his body wasn’t visible.
The Rape of Nanking memorial/musem really affected me. There was a room with darkness and candles and music that was just like the Holocaust museum in Israel. I was frozen for a few moments and then started crying. I was quiet for the rest of the time. I may be overly sensitive, but stories of hatred and war really affect me.
We are on a 6 hour bus ride to Anhui. It’s just getting dark but I can still make out the mountains around us wheich are beautiful.
Jenna, a beautiful blonde who went on the same dialogue two years ago, is joining us for Anhui and Shanghai. We are basically smuggling her in as she just got here today and China is still freaking out about swine flu. She set us sister cities with her hometown of Salem and is coming to make a presentation. She is very sweet and has spnet 3 summers in a row in China.
Anhui is apparently a small rural village. We get no dinner tonight is the rumor or we get cup of noodle at a rest stop.
It’s the point of the trip where we are all restless. REST STOP!
Hana