Wonton Soup for the Soul: Surprise!

See, it didn't take me another 4 months to give you an update. It doesn't hurt that I actually had a break from my normal routine and was able to travel a bit because we had a Monday holiday.

For the holiday, I was invited to Zhenjiang, the hometown of one of the Chinese teachers at my school, Cissy. I went, along with my coworkers Marcus and Tamara, plus Tamara's boyfriend and her mother, who was visiting from Canada. Zhenjiang is about an hour away from Suzhou by train. They all went there on Thursday, and I joined after work on Friday. Cissy and her uncle picked me up, and took me to his house, where I had the most amazing home-cooked Chinese meal ever. I kid you not, I counted at least 20 different dishes on the table, each more amazing than the last. After that Cissy took us to a nightclub, where we had fun being the only Westerners and making lots of Chinese friends.

Saturday morning I slept in for the first time in ages. Cissy took us to an underground shopping center where she convinced me, Tamara and her mother to get these crazy fake fingernails. I chose white with cherries, and they lasted exactly 2 days, when one broke off and I ripped the rest off within minutes. Then we all piled on to a super busy bus and headed to the countryside, where there are hot springs.

The hot springs were amazing. The water looks gross- murky and brown, and there is so many minerals in it it turns your skin yellow. But it's bath-water warm and makes your skin feel soft. There were both indoor and outdoor pools of various temperatures, and several different types of super hot tubs that fix various ailments. But the best by far was the fish pool. It's a giant pool filled with probably thousands and thousands of tiny little fish. The fish eat skin, so as soon as you get in they swarm you. I can't even describe the feeling- it's ticklish and weird. You can certainly feel them biting. But they eat your dead skin so you come out smooth as a baby's bottom. One of the coolest things I've ever done.

That night we had another amazing dinner with more of Cissy's family. We then went to karaoke, which, I'll admit, is not my favorite thing. Sunday we said goodbye to Tamara, her boyfriend and mother, and Marcus, Cissy and I headed to Nanjing, the capital of our province. The place was a complete zoo, because it was a holiday weekend. We shopped and shopped and shopped and ate and then shopped some more. I will proudly say I spent a whopping 3rmb the whole time I was shopping, on a small gift for a friend in Suzhou. We visited the Confuscious temple, and saw a lot of really cool things. See pictures. We took a boat ride along the river, where we saw a tour boat hit a tiny little row boat occupied by a civil servant who was cleaning the river. The hit knocked him down, and he promptly got up and beat on the big boat with his scoop. Very funny.

After running for our train, which was caught with seconds to spare, we headed back to Zhenjiang. Despite being tired, we found a bar for a few drinks, and ended up spending many hours playing drinking games with a group of Chinese people sitting near us. It's amazing how friendly people can be, especially when they are not used to seeing foreigners all the time.

Monday we traveled back to Suzhou. The weather the whole weekend was amazingly warm (spring, or maybe summer, is finally here!) and Sunday was especially warm and beautiful. I ended an amazing weekend by walking around Jinji Lake with my friend Danny and having a great Indian dinner.

So yes, the warm weather is back. With the warm weather comes things I've missed: riding my bike without gloves, couples in matching t-shirts, men exposing their stomachs. Suzhou summer, how I've missed you!

Weird things I have eaten update:
Tofu cooked to taste exactly like duck
Duck guts
Bull frog

All of it, especially bull frog, is really yummy. Next up? Dog.

On that note, I'll leave you with some photos from my trip.

XOXO,
RDG