04-07-2016

Because I've still been lazy about taking pictures, here are some more from the Lushan Trip. These center around the travel process. This first picture is the opening to the train station. To get past the booths outside, you have to show your ticket, which you purchase from another building/section outside of this one.

I took this picture in the train station heading to the platform.

choo choo

This was the bus we took from the entrance of Lushan Park to a more central area where we intended to find a hostel. Some of us (including me) took a similar bus back to Jiujiang (our group split for convenience reasons). The bus drivers go fast for the roads being so curvy and it was honestly kind of scary. Not to mention the ride into Lushan was pretty awful for most (if not all) of us because we didn't have a proper meal before (it didn't help that I was excited/anxious about seeing new sights and such so my brain was going 932298347 miles an hour along with the bus going fast up winding paths). The trip down wasn't so bad in that respect since we had lunch before leaving.

04-06-2016

In keeping with the previous pictures of people and the fact that I didn't take any pictures today, I thought I would share some pictures of my classmates and I from the trip to Meiling. I guess it's also relevant to today since yesterday and today, I saw two of my classmates at lunch and then again this afternoon at Chinese corner (one of them is the guy with the gray and light blue shirt and the other one didn't go on the trip).

In the bottom picture you can see that a couple of my classmates are holding the Kazakhstan flag. Also, the lady with the red shirt and the white cap is the teacher (王老师) who took us to Meiling. The top picture is of all the students from my class who went - they are all from Kazakhstan except the girl with the maroon tank top who is from Mongolia. (Oh and Hannah, the one in the stripes is my classmate whose first language is Persian.)

04-05-2016

Since I didn't get any pictures today, here are more photos of the Lushan trip featuring actual pictures of people including me looking like a derp!

It was cool and kind of creepy that there was so much fog that you couldn't even see the other side of this bridge.

Look and pay for transportation in a different language or squeeze with friends? I have no idea how we managed to make such a diagonal looking line. Oh, and by the way there are two more people in the car that you can't see because they're sitting behind the line. (Don't worry, the car rides like this were pretty short, we definitely didn't feel safe doing this long distance.)

Selfie featuring my unwashed hair and broken seat on the train ride home! You can't tell from the picture, but the seat didn't lock so if I leaned it back, it would go farther than it should have and very much invaded the personal bubble of the passenger sitting behind me. Therefore, I sat pretty far forward. Thank goodness the ride was only an hour.

04-04-2016

There were no classes today because of a holiday, which is why we were able to stay at Lushan until today. After leaving, we went to Donglin Temple in Jiujiang, which is a monastery. It was very peaceful. I love this picture because not only is it pretty, but a monk walked into view just as I took it and I think it's funny (at the top of the stairs if you cannot see him).

04-03-2016

We actually made it here yesterday, but this is Lushan Park! It's beautiful here, although today was pretty rainy. I was actually looking out the window of where we were staying this morning and within two minutes the sky went from being light to dark and stormy.  

Anyways, this is a picture of a waterfall we saw there. I'm not sure of the name, but it's a lot bigger than the picture makes it seem. We were getting wet from the water even standing away from it and people had umbrellas and ponchos out.

Seeing the fog/mist move about was cool (huehue). I really like the way this picture came out which is surprising considering I don't have a fancy camera, only my phone

in the evening after a long day of walking ☁

04-02-2016

I decided to be touristy today and buy my Chinese name carved into a seal!

This is what it looks like! I can't wait to sign my name on my not so great calligraphy attempts! (Also, I guess that means I need the red stuff, but I don't know what it is called or where I can get it. If someone knows, please help! Otherwise, I'll Google 'red stuff for Chinese seal' or something of the like when I have time and remember.)

04-01-2016

This is a picture of the room where we have martial arts! It's oddly shaped - the wall with the window is curved like a semi-circle (I'm sure there's a better way to describe it that I currently can't think of). The view outside is of the tennis courts. In the background there are punching bags which we don't use as well as yellow dummy things behind those which we don't use either except to aid us in stretching. The floor is usually kind of gross with dust and dirt so I keep my socks on rather than go barefoot (we don't have any kind of special equipment or clothes we have to wear).