i'll follow the sun.

this past weekend was vacation time again. HOORAY. we took full advantage of the days off and traveled south, to SANYA. a little slice of island paradise in the south china sea. it was wonderful.
let me give a taste of what went down in paradise.

1. i saw my first man thong swimming suit. it was on a man that looked very similar to santa claus, minus the man thong he had on. fortunately it had a great big smiley face on it. cute. and to tie everything together, he had a sweet yellow hat with a smiley face on it. i think maybe the thong and hat came together. who would pass up that combo deal?!

2. i ate more western food in a 4 day weekend than i have in two and a half months. sanya is a very touristy town and there were a lot of western restaurants near the hostel we stayed at. there was a crazy good western restaurant called "rainbow, bar and grill" that we ate at every night for dinner and a couple of nights for lunch. it was so delicious and a great atmosphere. they even had ice! and chocolate chips! yay rainbow!

3. i saw a dog with eye brows. yeah. for real. i'm not talking about hair that kind of looked like eye brows, i'm talking about actual eye brows. the dog was white, the brows were dark brown. it was the funniest/weirdest thing i have ever seen. i'm telling you these things can and will only happen in china. it is a whole different world here.

4. i had my first train experience, and i really hope that it was my last. it was terrible. it took us three hours to get to the train station, which is normal because it takes so long to get anywhere in china. when we finally made it to the train station we just happened to meet up with a group of ILP teachers from another school. they were also on their way to sanya. and, we all just happened to be on the same train, in the same car, and had our seats right by each others. we all got settled onto the party car. car number 4! and sat in our seats, for SO long! it was the longest trip i have ever taken and i never want to do it again. the train was pretty crowded and there were people everywhere. there wasn't a space open enough for another person to fit. it was a fiasco trying to get to the bathroom. oh man. i guess people can buy standing seats, which cost the same as the soft seats, but obviously aren't seats, and they just have to stand in the aisles and lean up against the seats or the people in the seats, or sometimes they squat on the floor and sleep that way. i don't know how they could possibly do that, but they do.

5. i went on my first chinese carnival ride. one night we were walking around on the boardwalk and saw these carnival rides and decided to go on one. the first one that we saw was the bungee ball thing that shoots you clear up into the sky. and the others were silly little rides. we decided to go on this one that was a big circle that you sit inside. everyone sits along the edges and it spins around. while it is spinning it tilts from one side to the other and then the guy that controls the ride makes it bounce at random times. it was nuts and we were flipping all over the place. i thought i was going to fall out at one point, but fortunately i didn't. it was crazy fun and the huge hamburger i ate at rainbow was on it's way up. not good. but don't worry, it went back down. and out. HAHAHA.

i hope that gives you all a taste of how my island adventure was. if you don't get the idea, let me just tell you: it was awesome.

until next time. i wish you, peace. love. and blue skies.