Monday, May 2, 2011

Day 25 - Missions in Guangers

Day 25 – Missions in Guangers

The day began with us trying to complete the towel mission. I knew I would not be happy if I couldn’t shower without a towel for 5 days, so Josh, Marlie, Matthew, and I walked off the island and into numerous stores, trying to find towels. It took us much longer than it should have. We came upon a store called “Women & Baby Essentials” finally. SURELY there will be towels there! There were, but only after trying every floor and then looping the floor we needed the wrong way. But, success! We returned to the hostel and we ALL took showers. So after about two hours (there were only two available showers on our floor) we were able to head out for the day.

We collected Andy from the ferry (since he was still at the other hostel and had to come to our island) and took the subway to the People’s Park. (人民公园 ) The People’s Park is a park that seems to exist in every large city. The park itself was nice, but our wandering and chatting was far more memorable. It was more exciting to be talking with two cool new people. They told us how they gave nicknames to every city they’d visited together. Yangshou became Yangers, Hong Kong was Honkers, and Guangzhou became Guangers… there was obviously a pattern. When we told them we worked in Kaifeng, they misheard and only referred to it as Kung fu from there out.

This was also about the time that we noticed a LOT of people were playing a hacky-sack type of game, but with a crazy feather/rubber/metal contraption instead. And they were really freaking good at it. Very tight motions, and kicking from behind their back to the center of their 4-8person circles in parks. We thought it was neat, but didn’t make much note of it until later.

It was also when we noticed all the freaky trees like this, which seemed to have additional trunks growing from their branches. What?

Andy and Matthew told us of a tower, which they’d dubbed the “Sexual Tower” and their desire to see it. They tried to show us in the distance where it was, but it was never very clear due to the smog. I think the only reason it was a “sexual” tower was because it had a very appealing curve to it. So we took the subway in the general direction of the tower, to see if we could find it and climb it. We couldn't see anything, since we’d gotten ourselves in a very building-heavy area. We spotted a tall hotel, and so walked in and found the elevator and went as high as we could. The floor we got off on was deserted and a bit dark, and not exactly hotel-looking (more conference rooms and things), so we felt we were intruding somehow. We snuck around and found a window and saw we’d overshot the location by quite a bit still. Sad.

We happened to pass a pub called Elephant and Castle (on our way to the hotel), and went there for dinner and drinks. It was pretty empty, but we gave ourselves enough entertainment. We all ordered cheeseburgers (that were FANTASTIC) and the best Guinness I’ve had in China that they poured into iced glasses. I also had a Strongbow once I realized they had it as well.

While eating, we started teasing Andy about how he was similar (not really) to one of the other American teachers, Ben. Mostly because Andy liked Subway and oreos like Ben does. But we said to truly be like Ben, he would need a Chinese girlfriend, and so we dared him to hit on our waiter/bartender. She’d been very friendly with us already and spoke decent English, so the next time she came out, Andy asked if she wanted to play pool.

The rest of us made fun of Andy from afar and just generally heckled him. By the time we were leaving, we’d established that Jenny (her English name) was now his girlfriend and his one-true-love. JUST as we were walking out, we spotted a postcard of a rainbow-looking tower in the pub. Andy realized that was our Sexual Tower and asked how we could get there. Our mission could be complete!

Before we completed our quest, we stopped at another bar near the subway called the Hilltop Bar and sat outside playing Circle of Death (which we had to teach to our Brit friends) for an hour or so. Also at some point, when Andy, Marlie, and I were all in the bathroom, our MALE waiter told Josh that “your friend is cute”, and throughout the night our waiter had been a bit ambiguous, as Andy had been fake-hitting on him and generally we were being silly and so we still have no idea WHO he meant was cute. Andy, Marlie, or me. I suspect it was Andy, because that would be the funniest.

And NOW it was time for our Sexual Tower adventure. The Elephant & Castle pub had given us superb directions, as we exited smack dab at the base of the tower. AND IT WAS SO WORTH IT. It was dark by then, and so it was beautiful and rainbow-colored like the postcard. The whole area was filled with lights and lasers and it was a perfect adventure.

We had to pay 50 yuan to get to the middle C deck, on a super speedy elevator (my ears popped), and we didn’t quite want to splurge the 200 something to get to the top. This was about when we learned that the Sexual Tower was actually called the Canton Tower, and had been built for the Asian Games that had recently taken place. So it was a very NEW tower, and also the tallest one in the world. (It surpasses the CN Tower.)

We took lots of ridiculous photos and what Matthew called “awkward tourist poses” (what do you do with your arms? Your hands? If you start thinking TOO much about it, it gets seriously awkward.) Or yelled things like “do a meerkat pose!”- and ran around on the deck, seeing the city from a different height and angle.

We returned to the hostel after about an hour of being generally very silly, and were probably a bit obnoxious on the subway, since we were all high on endorphins from completing our mission of the Sexual Tower, and also bursting out clapping and singing the Korean pop song, “Nobody” by the Wonder Girls.

None of us were in the least bit tired, so we took a detour to the 7/11 for snacks and sat by the “rivah”, chatting. Andy had purchased oreos, and we teased him further about his “girlfriend” Jenny and that he was secretly Ben in disguise.

NEXT UP! A day partially without our Blighty friends (aw- also, another of their terms), new additions to our dorm room, and the first International Sugarcane Games.

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