2/27/2016

I had an amazing day! I went hiking with some of the other teachers at my school on a mountain called Lingyanshan. It's a sacred Buddhist mountain, and even though there were people bustling along everywhere, I felt a sense of peace and spirituality. The very beginning of the path was lined with stalls of people selling things like incense and trinkets and things. Then we went through an elaborate sort of gateway and the path led through a forested area with lots of bamboo and pretty trees. There were a couple of really nice pavilions made of stone. The roofs were rebuilt, but the stones they were built out of were the originals, which is surprising, because they are around 2,000 years old. At least that's what Miss Hwang said. There were also lots of prayer flags everywhere, like the kind they have in Tibet. (Look in Ally's room if you don't know what I'm talking about.) There was some really pretty song playing all along over speakers. I'm quite certain they didn't have that 2,000 years ago, but the effect was really nice. At the top of the mountain was a monastery, like the ones in the cartoons. Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kung Fu Panda kept coming to mind for some reason. There were people praying to statues, and people kowtowing, and bald monks in robes, the whole shebang. It was pretty awesome. From the top of the mountain you could see the city of Suzhou all sprawled out. It was gorgeous. I was with a group of four people, and we met with some other teachers in the Vegetarian Noodle Office. (That was what the sign said.) I had never, ever thought to imagine myself eating noodles in a Buddhist monastery. It was good soup, though. I was taking pictures right and left, so when we went through a beautiful Buddhist shrine, I wanted to get pictures of the statues. But, then a monk got after me, and I felt really, really bad. I guess you're not supposed to take pictures inside the temple. (I deleted those later.) Miss Hwang told me, "It doesn't matter. I didn't know that, either." But, I still felt bad. So, if you happen to be inside a sacred Buddhist shrine, to be on the safe side, don't take pictures. It was cool, though. Through the temple was a courtyard, and there was a lovely pagoda, among other things. You can't go inside the pagoda, but you can go up to it. I took several pictures of that pagoda. There is also a well there that was made by an emperor long, long ago for his very beautiful love, because they didn't have mirrors, and he wanted her to see how beautiful she was, and so she could dress herself up and stuff. There were so many cool things! It's hard for me to wrap my head around just how old they were, especially considering how good of condition they were in. In Nevada, there's not a lot of really old things, but Suzhou is a very ancient city. Miss Hwang and the others who were with her didn't want to do the three-hour hike to Baimajian, so they went part of the way and turned around. I went with the other teachers to the end, though. You would have loved it. It was a really nice hike, even though the hills were often steep and slippery. A couple of teachers had brought their sons, so I got to meet David and Leo. They are so adorable! I bet they would get along with Juliette's nephews really well. Leo is shy, but David is really sociable, and he talked to me a lot. His English is pretty good, considering he's only eight. We made it to Baimajian (White Horse Valley). There's a gorgeous lake there. We sat at a picnic table and ate snacks, and I watched as people took leisurely pleasure rides on bamboo rafts while everyone else jabbered in Chinese. Then, we made our way along a path to exit the park, and on the way, we went by a pretty tower. David and I went and explored it. Thankfully, the sign outside it was in Chinese, English, and Japanese, so I was able to skim through the story of the tower. It was built by an emperor in the Spring and Autumn Period for his famously beautiful concubine. It was a place for her to rest and have good mental health and stuff. Then, a previous emperor reestablished his authority (I assume this must have involved killing off the other guy), and he kept the beautiful concubine in the tower. I guess he must have fallen in love with her beauty, too. He was devastated to learn that she had gone and drowned herself in the lake that I ate snacks by, so she could be with the other emperor. There seems to be a lot of this kind of thing in Asian history. I think her name was Xishi or something like that. To end the day, we went to a restaurant that's not too far from our school. David's father's dad is a cook there, and he's the boss of that restaurant. So, we had a really nice dinner for free. There were a lot of interesting dishes. One of them was a big bowl of cooked snails. Yes, I ate some. I don't know how on earth I persuaded myself to do it, but I did. It wasn't bad. (Better than snake, anyway.) You're just supposed to eat the head, and you eat it by ripping it off with a toothpick. It was seasoned, so I think that's why it tasted good, but the actual snail didn't really taste like anything. And, David laughed at me, because I was struggling with chopsticks. I came home really full and really happy, and then I showed my roommate and all the others who came over all the pictures and made them jealous. I will find a way to send them to you. My phone is Chinese and I don't have a VPN on it, so I can't get on Yahoo or Facebook, but if you download WeChat, I can send you pictures that way. (That's the easiest way I can think of.) Currently the plan is to send them to you on Amelia's phone. Anyway, I love you, and I think of you all the time, especially when hiking's involved. Love, Chelsey