A land flowing with . . . squirrel-shaped weavers

About a month ago now, Dave and I hopped into a bus with one other teacher (a Brit named Bob) and about 20 Finns, who have come as foreign exchange students, and headed to the “Paradise of China”: Hangzhou. We were really excited about the trip—not because we believed the guidebook, which told us that it was “a land that flows with milk and honey”—but because it
was our very first opportunity to leave Shanghai and see other
parts of China. Four bus-ride* hours later, we arrived at this beautiful city.

The best part was that there were green, living things all around us. (As opposed to Shanghai, which is very metropolitan and quite
gray.) One of the main
attractions is West Lake. People walk around the lake or take boat rides. It’s absolutely beautiful, even on a rather hazy day.

We also visited a tea house (which ended up being 80 percent sales pitch) and saw a Chinese show that included amazing costumes, acrobatics, singing, a story (mostly in Chinese) of the history of Hangzhou, and several outstanding special effects.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip happened shortly after visiting the Leifeng Pagoda. We took a nice stroll around the lake and then stopped for a quick lunch. We are somewhat limited as to what places we can eat at because we really like to order food from a menu that has either English or pictures. We found a place that looked promising, so we took a seat and started perusing the menu. As soon as I saw the words “Squirrel-shaped weaver,” I knew what I was going to order. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to find out a weaver was, not to mention a squirrel-shaped one. Dave and Bob ordered something sensible, and then we waited . . . and waited.

Now you have to understand that food here normally takes about 5 to 10 minutes to prepare back in the kitchen. I guess it’s the nature of stir-fry. So after 20 minutes passed, we got the waitress’s attention and pointed at the receipt. We were running out of time. She was really nice—she took our receipt and headed back to the kitchen. But then she returned a few minutes later and casually set the receipt back on our table. Another person from the wait staff passed. And we had a replay of the same actions. Finally, after 30 minutes had passed (and we now had no time to eat our food), we had to leave. I guess I’m doomed to live without knowing what a squirrel-shaped weaver looks like.

What followed next was a rather brisk walk back to the bus and a trip of about 4 hungry-bus-ride** hours back to Shanghai. All in all, a really fun time. Hope you enjoy the pictures that follow.

Desiree

* 1 bus-ride hour seems equal to approximately 1.25 normal hours, making our trip feel like 5 hours.

**1 hungry-bus-ride hour seems equal to at least 1.5 normal hours.