April 22- What I've Been Waiting For Posted by Happy Blogger , 10.5.11 at Tuesday, May 10, 2011, in

April 22/11
We went to a tea ceremony at a place called Dr. Tea. Anyways I sat in a smaller 'executive' room where we tried 4 types of tea. Jasmine tea which is half green tea with jasmine blossoms. Then we had oolong tea, which to drink properly you must slurp to get the proper taste (and there is a difference!) We tried a tea called pu-er tea which is the only tea that has no caffeine, and its not made out of tea leaves. IT's great for health, and it tastes like nothing, so you can mix flavors with it-(drink and make kissing noises to get the taste). Last was this fruit tea which kind of looked like trail mix, but tasted amazingly sweet even though it had no sugar. Then they had these mugs that would change color when hot water was poured in. Then there is the 'pee-pee boy' that sprays water when water is properly heated. So I bought all that. Then we went for lunch which was the BEST FOOD thus far. We tried 8 different kinds of dumplings yummmmm! Then we went to a silk factory and got to see how it's made- very cool! It's so stretchy! It was very expensive though and I was running out of money. Then we headed off for the 'Silk-road market' where we would get to use our bartering skills. Well it was very busy, and the people knew we are tourists so there was a lot of "come here, special price for you" "what you like?!" "Come here, I have something perfect...."Anyways, I suck at bartering but bought what I had to buy. It was pretty funny they have these chairman Mao flasks and Obama in communist China outfits. Some of the spelling was funny (because most of this stuff is fake) the brand FCUK had a belt, but it flat out read "FUCK". Bahaha, oh I wish I had my camera at the time. Rachel was a crazy bartere, Alayna was about to buy something for 55, and rachel persisted on 20, the lady called her a crazy bitch and hit her on the head several times with a t-shirt. It was soooo funny, and there is video proof coutesy of Koltan. After I felt very overwhelmed and tired, but that soon ended when we got to Hutong (which is China before it was modernized). Walking through it was so beautiful, and I was sooo happy because this was the "China" I was looking forward to seeing. We got a rickshaw tour which was very cool, because there were many restaurants along the way with their own falre/music. It was very diverse and cool. Ten we went and ate supper in a familys home. Yet again, my favorite meal. Everything seemed alot less greasy and very real! How refreshing! at the end our hostess sang to us "The more we get together the happier you'll be". It was probably the most touching moment thus far on our trip, because we all sang along and it was beautiful. We also sangthe "Fang-Yang " song and a bit of "Hakuna Matata". Apparently this washrooms had no doors and it was a squatter without toilet paper so I refrained from using the washroom. The ride back with the rickshaw was CRAZY. they are crazy drivers here! CRAZY! But this was a very awesome day, despite the fact that mother nature currently hates me and my body. Great, next morning we get up at 3:15 am. Woooooot! lets go pack shall we?!

Starting the day off with a tea ceremony was just perfect! Considering I'm a tea-aholic, I was in love with every moment there; learning about all the proper/traditional ways to drink tea. It was kind of annoying, because even though we had a small room, my counsellor found the need to translate everything the poor chinese women were saying to help us understand better. Seriously, they didn't have that bad of accents and we could understand them perfectly, she just had to become super redundant and repeat everything they said to us. At the end, I bought a picture changing mug/pu-er and lychee tea and I got a 'pee-pee boy' for free! I believe this was the only lunch I had ate that much food at for a while. The dumplings were amazing! When we were in the silk factory, I was actually fairly shocked at how good the prices were for silk bedding and what not. Too bad I didn't have that much money. Oh well. I found a little silk kimono that goes over wine bottles, and I thought of my mother and bought it for her. When in the silk market, I walked around with Joanna, Wilson and Tom and some other people that tagged along in the end. I truly hate shopping in Calgary, so being in an even smaller venue with much more people made me more claustrophobic than ever, and I am suprised to this date I didn't end up having a panic attack whilst in there. Once back on the bus, I took a couple minutes just to breathe and then all was well. Being in Hutong was the most authentic experience we got to have of China. Eating the dinner served by the family was amazing. After a couple days of eating restaurant meals, eating a home cooked dinner just hit home with most of us. The family consisted of an elderly wife and husband, and when the woman started singing to us, it almost brought me to tears. At the end of the meal, I thanked them for supper, gave them some gifts from Canada (Maple Syrup/Maple cookies!) and got a picture with them. All the food in China kind of messed up my system. I felt weird pretty much the entire trip. By the end of the night, I felt on top of the world (more so than I did after climbing the wall) because we had a great lunch and dinner, and I got to see what I wanted in China.

-Happy Blogger