allison.schantz: Last Weekend in Dongguan!!

This weekend was so much fun! We all had Friday night off, so we relaxed at our apartments and went to bed early. Saturday we left around 8:30 to go to a city about three hours away to go “drifting.” Drifting is the Chinese kind way of saying white water rafting down a small river that goes down a mountain. When we first got to the sight, we had to lock up all of our stuff in lockers in a huge locker room. There were SO SO SO many people!!

Something I have learned about the Chinese culture is that the people are always conveniently in your way. I am convinced that they practice every night moving in front of other people then stopping, so it is incredibly inconvenient to walk anywhere.

After locking everything up in the lockers and safes, we got on the bus and drove us up to the top of the mountain. We put on helmets and lifejackets then walked down a very unsafe path with stairs to get into a raft in the river. While we were waiting for a raft, the Chinese workers (who were standing in the river) threw water at all of us. Immediately we were soaked!!

While going down the river, we would go down very fast parts and then wait for a little bit in calm parts. If I hadn’t tied my flip-flops to myself with rope, I would have lost them within the first five minutes. The whole thing took about an hour and a half. The whole time we would throw water on other boats, at other people – the Chinese version of a water fight. :)

At the very end it started to pour rain and it was so much fun to sit in the boat, soaked, and get poured on. We went back in a rickety, crowded bus then changed to dry(er) clothes and came home. It was a very fun experience!!

Rain :)

Sunday, we went to Humen to go shopping. One building was full A LOT of bags, wallets, and shoes. The other building was full of A LOT of clothes. Most looked like children’s sizes, so most of us didn’t waste much time to look for clothes. :) I bought a wallet and a couple scarves. For lunch we came back to campus and went to a traditional Cantonese restaurant with the leaders of the camp. It was…interesting to say the least! A few of us traveled to Pizza Hut afterwards, because of the questionable, cold, mystery meat.

Last night was one of my favorite nights so far! We had a dance masquerade party, where all of the students and teachers dressed up and wore masks. Some students had prepared a dance, as well as the TA’s. SO MANY PICTURES were taken! It was a fun two hours to hang out with the other teachers and with our students.

After this weekend went so fast, I cannot believe it is our last week here. I am excited to see Hong Kong and to come home, but we have to get through this busy week first!