I met a Mexican Man on the top of a Chinese Mountain

So although my postings have been very positive we have been having some not so great things happening to some of the girls in my group. One of the girls found out on Wednesday night that her 14- year old cousin passed away from terminal cancer. After of course wanting to go home straight away she decided with the support of her family to stay because that was what her cousin would have wanted her to do. Another girl, previous to coming on this trip Dad had a massive stroke. After a lot of thinking and praying she decided to come anyway. On Friday, her Dad had very risky surgery where they were going to unblock some blood blockage in his brain. Prayers answered we found out on Saturday that the surgery went fine and he is in recovery and is doing very well.

So on Saturday some more not so good things happend as it did not start out so very well for everyone in our group. When we first met at the school, one of the girls Chelsea showed up after a very rough night and was not feeling very well. She did not want to miss out though and we all set off. About 10 minutes from the school, while going up a hill, our bus died. So we sat for a while as the bus driver (these guys are always heroes and amazing to me) got to work on the bus. While this was going on Chelsea decided that maybe going wasn't the best idea so once the bus was better we took her home. About 20 or 30 minutes from the school we had a sort of minor fiasco. One of the girls realized that she was no longer wearing her engagement ring. Hands on knees we searched the bus but with no luck. We could not find it. This though created an interesting conversation I had with some of the girls on my trip about why God lets somethings happen and about how we should learn from them. It was an interesting chance for all of us to share, and a great bonding time.

Anyways finally, we made it to our first stop. We visited this Irrigation System that was created about 1000 years ago to help the towns from being flooded. Since we were delayed with the bus and taking the sick girl home, we missed the show we were supposed to be seeing. So we just walked around the museum and learned more about the irrigation system. The stress level and really boredom of the museum was quite high. Let's just say it wasn't our favorite place to visit. After the irrigation place we went to lunch in a city. Many of the girls requested coffee so the busdriver drove us around on a hunt for some. With no luck...we got some Coca Cola instead. We were all a bit low on caffiene and going through withdrawel.
Our second stop was Mount Gingeheng. Mount Gingeheng is the birthplace of Daoism and had many different temples as we walked up it. To the peak is about 2434 m and we ended up going up probably about 3/4 because we ran out of time. The other group made it to the top, but I'm not one for running up a mountain. In perspective, it seemed about twice as big as Stone Mountain. As we went up, we stopped at many different Daoist Temples that had what seemed to be some sort of Golden gods or statues. I really do not know because I'm not too big into Daoism. I do know, that you could shake this box of sticks, and then when one fell out you took it to the monk dude and he would tell you your fortune. Some of the girls that were with me did it, and they are of course going to be rich and famous. Our walk down the mountain was much more leisurely than the walk up. It was very beautiful. It is famous for having a lot of monkeys, but sadly we did not see any. After the mountain we traveled home and we to McDonald's for dinner!! Yumm!!! I was starving and exsausted from the mountain and it tasted very good.

Once I arrived home, I discovered that my host mom was not there, but Stephanie and the little boy, still don't know his name was there with a friend. It's really funny to me because 10 year old boys here are the exact same as 10 year old boys in the US. They decided to play ping pong in the living room and kept knocking things over. Until finally Stephanie yelled at them and they stopped. It was really quite comical.

This morning I tried to sleep in and once again got up at about 7:30. I need to learn how to sleep in. So far the highlight of my day has been washing my clothes!!! I finally asked about it, and discovered that the washing machine is outside my door on the patio. She showed me how to first wash the really dirty things in a bowl with soup and then put them into the washing machine. I was a bit embaressed at how dirty my jacket was. Stephanie and I scrubbed at it for about 15 minutes before putting it in the washing machine. The jacket was originally white and before I washed it, it was quite brown and yellow. It is still in the washing machine right now, so we will see how clean it got. When it is done, I get to hang everything...and I mean EVERYTHING outside on the porch. I hope everyone in China enjoys seeing my underwear. I think I will have to take a picture of this. For lunch today we are having dumplings and then later we are going to the mall and eating KFC for dinner! How exciting is that? Well that is all for now. Love to all!

Oh and props to Michael Orr and Clark, Chelsea, Mom, Amy, Jen and Krystian for commenting. You guys get a prize when I get home. :)