More time in Hangzhou...

Me, Jhunex (brady's roommate), Rashid, Gregory, and Olga.

This past Sunday my whole teaching staff went to Hangzhou. It was really fun. We went to one of our A-level student's restaurant. The house itself was owned by his great-grandfather, and then Billy's mother transformed it into a restaurant. It was in a valley, so there were huge hills all around with tea bushes growing on them. It is supposedly the best tea in China, and it was pretty good, but there is a lot of tea that claims to be the best in China. It reminds me of Elf when Will Farrell walks into the diner that says "worlds best coffee" and excitedly congratulates them. Anyways, we were at the restaurant for awhile. We just sat, drank tea, ate snacks, and chatted with the parents, students, and teachers of A-level. We were outside in the beautiful landscape and it was a sunny day, so it was pretty great. After we had done that for a few hours, we moved into the dining area for lunch. They gave us so much food! One thing that is fun about the chinese dining experience is that they give you so many dishes in the middle of the table, and you just share everything. Usually I like that, but since one of the teachers has had the flu pretty bad for awhile, I was extra careful about watching what he ate, and eating the other stuff. Convenient he only eats fish, nuts, and potatoes. Or at least that is what it seems like. When you are eating, celebrating and saying the chinese equivalent of "cheers" is very important, so what seemed like one by one, the parents would come to our table, say something in chinese and then we would all drink our glass. I was drinking coconut milk, which is pretty great. That kept happening, and then we realized that it was polite if we do it back, so we went around to the other tables, just saying "thank you" because that is the only thing we can really communicate to the parents who only speak chinese. After a very filling and fun meal, we went into the heart of Hangzhou and hiked up a large hill to the top which had great rock formations that you could climb all over. The hill itself was some sort of cool historic point, but not being able to read chinese I kind of missed that, so I just took in the beautiful views and was very thankful for the opportunity to be there. It was fun to hang out with my students this way and get a glimpse into what their family life is like.

My Boss John and me at the top of the hill.

On the way home from Hangzhou, Brady, Junex, and I were all in the back of the minivan and passed out for the hour trip. We were tired, but all in all it was a really nice day and a fun way to understand Chinese culture a little more.

The whole group!

A tower. It looks cool, not sure what it is though!