A little bit more of the Usual China...

So a while back, the Huanghsi team took a trip to Wuhan to visit friends, eat some delicious western food, and even go BOWLING!!!! If you couldn't guess from the cap-sizing, we don't have bowling in Huangshi. We don't have too many options, entertainment-wise, here so this trip was a lot of fun and a nice break for us! Unfortunately, I have zero pictures from the weekend with friends, but I snapped some pictures on our interesting bus ride back. Camille and I had to leave early so we took a black bus back to Huangshi. A black bus isn't exactly legal....its a small bus that is pretty cheap and leaves at no set time, just as soon as the bus is full. Because of this, they can pack on as many people as they want.

In the pictures you can see that besides the regular seats, they also placed small stools in the aisle to fit in more people. Camille and I were lucky enough to get there early and have an actual seat. But that means we had to wait a little over an hour on the bus for more people to get on!

Even the regular seats are a bit small. Our legs barely fit in our seat area. Luckily, the ride is only about an hour and a half. 

This picture doesn't even do it justice! You can't really tell how crowded it is, but this is the best I could get from my seat. Even as we were driving from Wuhan to Haungshi, the bus would just stop on the side of the highway to pick up more people. At times during the ride, people were standing because there weren't any seats! Totally normal China!

Another time, some friends came to visit us in Huangshi and we went out to the park for the day because the weather was nice and it is one of the more beautiful areas of Huangshi! They have a few rides and activities for children and this sort-of rock climbing thing in the picture below was one of them. I had to get a picture of these kids because it was just too funny. This boy had a rope tied around his waste and was being pulled up the wall by the rope. He thought this was the funniest thing in the world and could not stop laughing. We stood and watched while he was dragged by the rope and laughed for at least 5 minutes! Again, this was a typical China moment!

Many people like to take their wedding photos in this park. I have seen a lot of different couples over the year posing for pictures. Chinese weddings are quite different from American weddings as are their wedding dresses! This couple below chose bright blue and yellow for their wedding clothes. I have been to two weddings here and typically the bride wears a white gown during the ceremony and then changes into a more traditional, red, Chinese dress to toast everyone after the ceremony.

This couple chose red and black!

This is the really beautiful C@tholic Chur.ch at the back of the park. 

I had to get a picture of this rare sunset in Huangshi! Because of all the pollution, the sun is usually hidden behind layers of smog. This was a beautiful site for all of us here! So for those of you reading this, remember to appreciate the beautiful sunlight where you are!!!

So excited about the sunset! The Huangshi girls with our sweet friend, Melodie!

SLUMBER PARTY!

Camille and I had been promising the Randal girls for months that we would have a girls' sleepover at our apartment and we finally did it! The Randals moved out of Huangshi last week, so we had to have the party before the left! 

Pizza sticks, popcorn, oreos, American candy, check! Now its time for the girly movie! 

We chose to watch Ella Enchanted! I had to get a picture, because this was the first time we used our Chinese DVD player! It was short-lived however! It worked for about 20 minutes and then just stopped completely! Probably because it was an American DVD on a Chinese player. So we improvised and watched it on my computer instead! Whatever works!

And then we made Smores! YUM!!! And yes we roasted the marshmallows on wooden chopsticks!!! Chopsticks are multifunctional....I've learned a lot this year!

Roasting on our stove top! 

YUMMY!

Such a fun treat! They don't have graham crackers here and only sometimes have marshmallows!

Yay! It was finally time for bed! 3 little bugs in a rug! We had so much fun we ended up having them over for another sleepover! 

Our good friend, Wu Xia, is one of the few Chinese people who likes sweet things. I made her brownies once and she loved them so she asked me to teach her how to make them! Here we are getting ready to bake!

Wang Hao hates chocolate, so he and Camille watched dance videos while we were baking! 

After baking, they took us out for CRAWFISH!!!! Thats correct, these Louisianians actually ate Chinese crawfish! I know that in Louisiana this is a big no no, but this would be Camille's only opportunity to eat crawfish this year (I got to eat it once on my quick trip home). Not to mention, we have eaten much stranger  foods since living here than crawfish! 

They were different, but flavorful, and surprisingly good! It was funny to use chopsticks and gloves to eat them. I gave up on that pretty fast. They actually eat the whole crawfish body here, not just the tail! 

                                We even go the Canadian to eat crawfish with us! Yay Kevin! 

This is outside of the restaurant. Its funny because in a way it is similar to Louisiana, the way they had all of the tables set up outside for people to eat at! They also only get one bowl of crawfish and then get a lot of other dishes to eat with it! It was an interesting dinner and pretty good too!