Today seemed to be a renewed day in Hangzhou. It rained the past few days and while it dampened our walks, it certainly did not dampen my spirits! It was nice to experience my first rain in about, oh, four months or so! During the past few days I haven't done a huge amount of historical traveling as I had before with Purnell 教授 (Jiaoshou= professor). Instead, yesturday we made trips to the markets! There was one very, very large market where they sold many 'fake brand' clothes and other things such as packs, cups, pillows and a variety of other misc. goods. I wasn't too fond of the area, being that it smelled rather foul and offered little room to walk.
However, afterwards we went to the infamous Silk Street in Hangzhou. Despite the gentle mist, the shops were underneath their own structures and the trees in the street blocked a great deal of any misty rain. In fact, the trees themselves grew in the 'way' of the structured buildings, so they tiled their roofs around the trees! It basically looks like the trees grew into the buildings and popped out clean through the roof! It made me appreciate them even more, just because in America the poor trees would have been chopped down or butchered heavily. In anycase, Silk Street was interesting to see and I'm thinking that as my own gift (heh, to myself!) later on I might go make a purchase of a big, silken blanket. The blankets are actually comforters, but they're not filled with cotten, feathers or anything like that... but rather pieces of silk! It's something you really don't find in the US and David (his full name is David Purnell, so don't be confused when I say "purnell 教授") claims that they're warmer and lighter than the usual comforters in the US. They're expensive though, around 200-500 kuai (136 kuai = 20 US dollars). I found a few nice things I'd like to buy people for Christmas!! (They have reeeally nice purses, Mom!)
That night we went out to a bar called "The Maya". It wasn't anything special other than for the fact that a lot of International Students went there. You could tell the owners were used to it, because their English was better than most that I've found. Although, their "Strawberry Daquiris" were labeled "The Strawberry-est in town!" and I failed to taste ANY strawberry and all the rum! I suppose I got what I paid for though, given that the more alcohol= the more your drink is worth! After that a few of the people in my group went to a club called S.O.S. I decided not to go since I had already paid for my night's worth of alcohol and it seemed silly to pay 60 kuai to get into an "all you can drink' club when I was pretty much done drinking for the night.
HOWEVER, two nights before yesturday (got that? =) ) I did go to that club with a few people in our group earlier. 60 kuai is less than 10 dollars, and so paying that and getting an open bar, music and dancing in return is pretty nice. The music is loud and there are so many glistening lights everywhere! It's a little overwhelming at first, but it was a lot of fun to go dancing. The club has two sides: a hip-hop side and a techno side. The techno side is filled a LOT of locals so we generally don't go into there, so we don't suffocate from the madness!
Onto today! Today we went to the east side of West Lake and visited a very large market area, yet again. This is probably my favorite area, because the shops sell many different things. Unlike Silk Street (where all they sell is silk-related products), this street sells tons of different stuff! Anything from your basic trinkets and gifts, to traditional medicine shops (with herbs, roots), to caligraphy sets and restuarants. I found a lot, and I mean a LOT of stuff I wanted to buy but I'm forcing myself not to. I want to wait to shop for people until November when I can see my budget AND, because if I bought the stuff now... I'd want to tell everyone what I got them! I already bought Bryan a present, but it was a smaller gift that I thought was really cute. I'm actually using it as a decoration in my room right now.
It's a paper design, hand-cut by a Chinese man. Now a days a lot of these papercuts are made by factories and not hand-made, so finding this is a bit of a treat! The lady who was selling them was really nice and told us a lot about many of the different kinds of meanings behind many of the cuts. The one I have is of a phoenix and a dragon, which is a very common theme for weddings where the females are represented by the phoenix and the males by the dragon.
After exploring the markets, we then journied into this renovated mansion that was built during the Qing Dynasty. The place was... HUGE!!! The biggest mansion I've ever seen! The mansion had so many rooms, beautiful hallways and a very large pond and garden. I can't even describe it or begin to think of how to describe it... the place is so beautiful, large and wonderous... it is something you really have to see for yourself. I could get lost in the mansion for hours and enjoy the peace and serenity of teh design. Everything- from the window latches to the gorgeous wooden door frames- was just intricate and filled with fine details.
Finally, we ended the day going to a well-known 100 year old lamb and fish resturant. We met with a few friends of David and had many different dishes before us. The way we eat group meals here is by ordering many large dishes and placing them on sort of a 'lazy susan' wheel. You then spin the wheel to whatever dishes you'd like to sample and just grab it with your chopsticks! (And by the time I get home, I'll be a chopstick expert because I have yet to touch a fork here.) I ate well although my lack of appetite for some of the more exotic veggies and meats had me running to the grocery store tonight. I had to buy more supplies anyway, so I bought some more noodle cups and some snacks! I also finally bought a large cup for tea and a bag of Dragon Well tea. The tea comes in many different grades and years, which determines the price. The newer tea is more expensive, along with the "S" grade. Their grades range from S - 5, and I bought the grade 3 tea because it jumps from 25 kuai to 45 kuai! (grade 4 is 24 kuai).
The nice thing I like here is I can get a decent meal for about two dollars or less. There is a noodle place where I can eat for 5 kuai, which is less than a dollar. Usually my meals range from 8 - 25 kuai, depending on if I eat in a group or not.
Now I am simply relaxing in my room! Tomorrow I register as a student here 'officially' and get my language courses figured out. :3
Zaijian!
