China Trip 13- Museum

Thursday-
Thursday was business as usual. But today I found out that we would have Friday and Saturday off. I was very excited because we had been there over a week with no breaks (9 days).

I talked Junior into walking with me (because I didn’t want to walk alone, and Brittany wasn’t in the mood). We went to the same lake I had went to the day before and Junior took me to the Zhou Enlai Memorial Museum. The park is at the museum. I walked around for hours and took a lot of pictures. It’s pretty cool, but its more for Chinese, since they all admire Zhou Enlai so much. I’m told Zhou Enlai is the man who made China what it is today. Everyone who lives in Huaian says, “It’s the birthplace of Zhou Enlai.” They’re really proud of it.

Outside the museum. It wasn't busy because of when we went.

Perfectly trimmed rows of shrubs. I learned that they meant something later.

Please ignore the sweatiness. It was super hot... almost like July in Missouri, only I heard that was pretty mild. And ignore that I suck at self portraits...

We went back to the school only to discover... we had missed dinner. I was glad. Brittany and I had already planned on not going to dinner, but I guess we forgot to fill Junior in on the plan. He was hungry so he asked me to go to dinner with him. We went to UES (United Easy Service I think) and I ate something really good :) I can remember what it looked like, but not what it was.



I feel bad about this... but here's a story. We had just ordered our food and just like in some places in the US they give you a number and then bring your food. Well, we found a spot to sit upstairs and Junior said he needed to get cigarettes. So he left. There was this group of young kids sitting near me.. and they were talking about me like I wasn't there... In English! They were like.. "I wonder if she speaks Chinese?" I just glanced over and they started laughing. I wanted to say "No, but I speak English pretty well. So if you want to talk about me, at least have the courtesy to do it in Chinese like everyone else!" But I didn't. I did get up and move. It was probably a little much, but I was just tired of being gawked at and just wanted to enjoy my dinner. I watched Junior run back upstairs to find me and thought it was funny that he couldn't... At 8pm (after dinner) I parted with Junior to try to call Barb.

I knew Barb was going on a tour on Friday, so I tried all evening to get a hold of her and see if I could go along (since I would be off). I got a hold of her at about 11. I called Junior and he came and picked me up on his bike to take me to get a taxi. That was very nice of him, because I only had to pay 15 RMB to get to town.