Chickadee China, the Chinese Chicken...

I found out that I would have another vacation before I head home, so I decided I would really like to go to Anji.  It’s actually a part of Huzhou, (where I am), but a different county up in the mountains.  Anji is where all the bamboo trees are, where they filmed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  I had worked for this guy Gary who owns a school a couple of times, and he gave me the phone number to an American, Branden, living in Anji.  After texting a few time with Branden, he said he had a friend coming up and I could take a ride with him.  Awesome.

This guy Kevin and his girlfriend and 2 more guys, brothers and I all drove up to Anji together.  I was excited that a lot of people were going.  It took just a little over an hour to get there after picking up beer and food for the trip.  The scenery on the way was really beautiful. 

Anji

The hotel we’re staying at is a B&B owned by this awesome family.  Checking the place out, I see the back yard, which is all mountains, is full of chickens.  The grandfather at the place was out there trying to catch us some dinner.  When he caught his foul, he nicely asked me if I wanted to kill it, by handing me a razor blade.  Hard pass on that one sir.  Next was time to clean the chicken.  I had to watch the whole process because it was new to me and pretty interesting.

The "boy" cleaning up the chicken.

 

Later, we headed out to go swimming in the mountains.  We hiked up rocks, and through small streams to get to this beautiful area to go swimming.  It was pretty amazing.  In the evening we had dinner (I tried pig intestines, and did not like them), and we drank beer, and listened to Jack Johnson.  Almost reminded me of home. 

Dinner Time

 

Making New Friends

 

Branden and Tony at the Swimming Pool

 

View from the Pool

The next morning I had a knock on my door around 8am.  The little 5 year old, who I will refer to as “boy” since I do not know his name, wanted to play with me and my Kindle.  That thing is a “kid magnet”.  It was a fun morning of Temple Run and Fruit Ninja.

The "boy" and his Grandpa drinking a Corona.

 

Later that day, I went downstairs and didn’t know where anyone else was.  The family invited me to eat lunch with them, which I was happy to.  There were shrimp and crawfish, all with the shells (not too easy to get off with chopsticks), and some snail like creatures they taught me I had to basically suck out of the shell.  It was almost impossible to have any table manners.  Thank goodness I was in Bamboo town, so there was always that to eat.  The family didn’t really speak English, but pulled out a book to tell me it was nice to meet me.  It was really sweet.  They also fed me beer and bái jiǔ at 11 am, so that made me happy (and a little buzzed) too.   For the rest of the day we went swimming again in the mountains, had dinner (hot pot, and I had pig skin (do not like that either)), drank more beer, played games, and listened to music.  All together it was an awesome trip and I met some amazing people.

View from my Room

I now will teach for the next 13 days straight, have a day to pack, and then ready for the long ass trip home.

See you Soon!!!

Jamie