11 Feb 2007: Return to Gulongyu Island
A flashback to my time in Asia this spring. This took place on Februrary 11, 2007, was written up as an assignment a few days later, but couldn't be added to LJ due to LJ blockage in China.
~~~
Brianna, Grasso, and I spent Sunday afternoon at Gulongyu Island. We figured out the bus route to the ferry together, and then rode over to the island while I sipped some delicious bubble tea. Grasso and Brianna got some coffee at "Yesterday's Coffee", a rather interesting name for a coffee shop, and then started wandering a bit.
I looked at a tea shop because I have a friend who would like a tea set, and was soon pulled into the shop to sample one of their teas. The tea was alright, but didn't quite compare to some of the stuff I've had in places like Hangzhou. Meanwhile, Brianna shopped for some wall scrolls. She seemed out of practice in bargaining, and showed too much interest from the start. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her "good prices" were quite a bit higher than some friends on last years trip got for wall scrolls.
Grasso then split off to go look at hotels, and Brianna and I started exploring the island on our own. It was my first time to see Gulangyu in good weather, and I was glad that I could actually enjoy it. At the beach, we saw some people in giant plastic balls floating out on the waves, which we found a bit amusing. Not long afterwards, we were approached by a group of Chinese tourists from Northern China Xinjiang Provence - famous for its sweet fruit). In the group was a middle school teacher, her student, and
two other friends of theirs. They said that Brianna and I were the first foreigners that they had ever met, which was very surprising. Since they were from a small village in a rural area, they didn't get any tourists. The English teacher had very strong English, and her student was a good speaker as well, although he was more shy about using it. The teacher was very strong willed (and a bit forceful) about wanting us to get her student
to practice English with us, taking us places and getting our pictures taken with them, and getting our emails so that we could become pen friends with her student. After awhile of walking around and talking, she suggested that we eat lunch in a nearby restaurant on the beach. We got many different kinds of seafood dishes, which were a novelty to people who couldn't get seafood in their hometown. There were lots and lots of clams (bivalves aren't typically my seafood of choice, but these weren't bad), some
crab, some fish, some kind of crustation soup, some vegetables, and something served on a halfshell that I couldn't get over the texture enough to eat. It was a very interesting meal, and we were soon all stuffed. Our hosts insisted on treating us, which was very nice of them. After a little more wandering, we rode the ferry back to Xiamen together then said our goodbyes. Brianna then took the bus back to campus, a bit tired from the busy afternoon.
Afternote: At the time I didn't know much about the Xinjiang Province, but would hear a lot more about it later in the semester, making me wish that they had emailed us (we gave them our emails, but we forgot to get theirs x.x)
I forgot to take my camera that day *facepalm*, but here is one Gulongyu pic from another day to show a bit of what the island looks like:
Asia 2007 Stories Table of Contents / Picture Album
~~~
Brianna, Grasso, and I spent Sunday afternoon at Gulongyu Island. We figured out the bus route to the ferry together, and then rode over to the island while I sipped some delicious bubble tea. Grasso and Brianna got some coffee at "Yesterday's Coffee", a rather interesting name for a coffee shop, and then started wandering a bit.
I looked at a tea shop because I have a friend who would like a tea set, and was soon pulled into the shop to sample one of their teas. The tea was alright, but didn't quite compare to some of the stuff I've had in places like Hangzhou. Meanwhile, Brianna shopped for some wall scrolls. She seemed out of practice in bargaining, and showed too much interest from the start. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her "good prices" were quite a bit higher than some friends on last years trip got for wall scrolls.
Grasso then split off to go look at hotels, and Brianna and I started exploring the island on our own. It was my first time to see Gulangyu in good weather, and I was glad that I could actually enjoy it. At the beach, we saw some people in giant plastic balls floating out on the waves, which we found a bit amusing. Not long afterwards, we were approached by a group of Chinese tourists from Northern China Xinjiang Provence - famous for its sweet fruit). In the group was a middle school teacher, her student, and
two other friends of theirs. They said that Brianna and I were the first foreigners that they had ever met, which was very surprising. Since they were from a small village in a rural area, they didn't get any tourists. The English teacher had very strong English, and her student was a good speaker as well, although he was more shy about using it. The teacher was very strong willed (and a bit forceful) about wanting us to get her student
to practice English with us, taking us places and getting our pictures taken with them, and getting our emails so that we could become pen friends with her student. After awhile of walking around and talking, she suggested that we eat lunch in a nearby restaurant on the beach. We got many different kinds of seafood dishes, which were a novelty to people who couldn't get seafood in their hometown. There were lots and lots of clams (bivalves aren't typically my seafood of choice, but these weren't bad), some
crab, some fish, some kind of crustation soup, some vegetables, and something served on a halfshell that I couldn't get over the texture enough to eat. It was a very interesting meal, and we were soon all stuffed. Our hosts insisted on treating us, which was very nice of them. After a little more wandering, we rode the ferry back to Xiamen together then said our goodbyes. Brianna then took the bus back to campus, a bit tired from the busy afternoon.
Afternote: At the time I didn't know much about the Xinjiang Province, but would hear a lot more about it later in the semester, making me wish that they had emailed us (we gave them our emails, but we forgot to get theirs x.x)
I forgot to take my camera that day *facepalm*, but here is one Gulongyu pic from another day to show a bit of what the island looks like:
Asia 2007 Stories Table of Contents / Picture Album