Chengdu

A twelve day vacation! Its about time! We left on a friday after teaching our last class and could not have been more ready for a break. We first flew to Chengdu within hours and had a van ready to take us to our hostel, our hostel was glorious... All 11 of us shared one big dorm room with 5 bunk beds and then the whole top floor shared a community bathroom and shower. The beds where way hard, we thought the other beds where hard but atleast they had an inch of padding, these were strictly wood and a piece of cloth but by the end of the day you where so tired it felt like a slice of heaven. The first night we only had a couple of hours to sleep before we had to wake up and....... VISIT THE PANDA BEARS!!! Its one of the biggest panda reservations, or as Brittany says, "Panda reservoir" haha It was raining but it wasnt to bad, It was so awesome to see these cute little pandas eating away on the bamboo, they seriously just sit and eat. Thats the life if you ask us. We also were able to see new born pandas, the more new ones were so ugly but the month old ones were so small and crazy. We were there most the day but once we got back we went exploring around the city trying to find a bank and yup you guessed it we definantly got lost again! It took us a good two hours in the pouring rain to find it and once we did it took twenty minutes to get back.. laugh it up... We even stopped at a fruit stand to get tomorrows breakfast. Were going to miss the millions of fruit stands when we leave, every where you turn there is fresh fruit! The following day was a day of relaxation so we walked down the road of Tibet, we were that close! After walking for what seemed hours we stopped in a really nice clothing store, they had a couch so of course we grabbed some magazines and read and took a nap for probably an hour or so, funny thing is that we were the only people in the shop and the lady couldnt speak English so she couldnt quite tell us to go, the couch was the most comfortable thing since the plane. Somehow Natty convinced the store lady to let her take a magazine she really liked. On the walk home we happened to run across a starbucks.. haha ironic eh? It follows us everywhere! We walked in the have some dessert and while sitting there having cup cake talk the most amazing thing happened, Lexxy looked at us and said, "Its time." she flipped a 180 within days, you may not think its the same Lex when you see her. Its cool to say you changed in Chengdu, China while eating in starbucks. This same day we had some people from our group leave for a two day hike so we had some strangers as roomates, worse then that they were drunk and being on the top bunk we were able to watch them make out all night.. it was disturbing! Too bad we didnt have any popcorn. In the morning we slept in only to wake up to fresh fruit on the open deck for breakfast, it was a bit brisk but felt refreshing, while sitting there at the table someone had a great idea to get a massage. We had heard about this place that will give 60 minute massages for 3 dollars! It took us a couple buses and a few miles but the journey was well worth it. Six of us went and all at the same time, Britt had a blind girl workin on her, apparently she was compensating for her loss of sight, you know.. strong hands and all haha Lexxy had some old lady, very rough old lady, she would pull so hard on her arms and legs that her whole body was tingling after and not the good kind either. Natty claims her man was gentle.. probably for fear he may break her in half! We had also heard about this mexican resturant called Tex Mex that we really wanted to try so we decided to go for dinner. It took about another 2 hours walking and luckily we found 2 chinese girls that knew where it was so we made friends and followed them there. Not only was Tex Mex cheap but it had salt and pepper, real ice cream, french toast, tacos Etc. We all shared some chips and salsa and then had our own entree and then some dessert, the oreo flurry was the best thing that had happened to us all week! In fact were ashamed to say we went back two more times.. Man thats embarassing! Later Wednesday we finally left for Beijing by train which would take us 32 hours, it wasnt so bad, two nights and day.... Tune in for more lost adventures in Beijing...