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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

City Day

City day is always an incredible day at camp.  It's the day that the campers get to take us to their territory and show us how they live on their days off from their grueling school schedule.  They get to excited and they just love to spoil us (but we make sure to turn the tables and pay for everything for them).

They kids got in the mian bao ches (bread cars) and were off to the city around 10 that morning.  My family and the Deschaine girls stayed back for a while until S took us into town to show me around my area and take me to get a bit of shopping done before she dropped us off at my apartment.  She drew me up the best possible map and I was able to add a few other necessities to it.  I didn't realize how close everything was going to be to the college.  It's fantastic!!!  There's a grocery store about 100 feet outside of the college gates, an internet cafe, an American/Mexican/Italian restaurant 2 block away, and so much other stuff that's within super close walking distance.  It couldn't be better!  So I was able to get some shopping done also.  I got a rice cooker, some cleaning supplies, a shower curtain, hangers and a few other random items.  Since then I have come up with a massive list of things I'll need after I get back from my camp #2.  BUT, stores are close so I can take multiple trips without any problem!

Conversion of RMB to USD: 6.4 RMB = $1

Once we did all of that stuff we went to a jaozi (potstickers) place not too far from me and had the best baozi (steamed buns) and jaozi!  It was 5 RMB (less than $1) for a plate w/ about 8 pieces on it.  So we all - 6 of us - ate for 35 RMB or <$6! Then we met up w/ the girls and my parents went to get lost in the city while the girls went to get their nails done.  Almost all of us got manicures for 15 RMB and had  such a relaxing time w/ our girls while the boys went and got a 10 course meal for the 20 of them for about 800 RMB.  I think both groups loved their day.


Around 5 we met up at this new place called Salvadors.  It's the American/Mexican/Italian place I mentioned above.  It's delicious and the meat that they buy is from the farm so you know it's top quality stuff!  We ordered tons of pizzas and their upstairs area has a pool table and a foosball table so we all just chilled for a bit before heading out to the square for some Asian line dancing basically.  It started raining on us a few minutes after we got there but it didn't last long.  Once the rain cleared, Amanda and a few others started their own dances in the back.  They did all of the dances we did at our dance night and got a crown of at least 50 locals just watching and taking pictures of them.  It was hilarious.


After all of the fun we headed back to camp and everyone was so excited still that little sleep was had.  So yesterday we decided to forego rec time and have camp-wide nap time.  And for evening activity people were much more rested so we were able to to the nativity movie!  It all went so well and people are much more rested today.

Today is our final day of camp and things are still going great.  We're hanging in there and Amanda, Bailey and I are just hoping that we can get some much needed rest on Friday.  All of the students will be gone and hopefully we'll be all cleaned up and ready to welcome the other team back as well as the new North Carolina group coming in.  We'll have around 65 Americans staying the night here on Friday so we need to cram in some major rest time before they all get here and it's just loud and chaotic!

Another long post! Sorry! There's just so much to talk about every day.  Things will calm down pretty soon.  That's for sure.

Zai jian :)

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