I haven’t stopped moving (in the sense that my mental and
physical state have been by far the most exercised it’s ever been) since the
summer began, not once did I stand still. In April I finally got my official
invitation and in June my friend threw a bomb that she was getting married in
two months. June 29th was my departure (and my b-day) and June 24th
was her wedding. So during May and June I was planning my friend’s wedding (and
everything in between), trying to plan everything for China, figuring out how
to get rid of my car that had another 2 year lease, quitting my full-time job,
declining acceptance to Grad School, saying my good-byes to my best friends who
I’ve known since 9th grade, the day after her wedding. After all
that, there was 2 months of training that consisted of non- stop 9-5 language
classes, TEFL training and host family time, moving to my permanent site , 2
days later starting to teach and continuing for a full month just like that. Now
it is October and I can honestly say what my mind, body and soul were all
thinking at once- I was to the point of exhaustion and a vacation was definitely
needed to finally stand still and NOT THINK about a to-do-list. 
Since there is a rule that for the first 3 months you cannot
travel, I decided to do day trips around Lanzhou. After all, it is my home now
so it made sense to explore and know my way around. During the weekend I mostly
saw other volunteers just hanging out, going to bars, and seeing one of the
volunteer perform with his band and just relax. My waiban (the man who is
responsible for me) finally fixed my internet so I was able to set up my blog
and post new pictures. Monday was a lazy day, Tuesday on the other hand was
eventful. I wanted to start the day trips and so I decided to go to the White Pagoda Hill Park (Bai Tan Shan)
which is directly North, across the yellow river and the Zhongshan Bridge. Luckily it was only 20 minutes from my home, so I
hopped on the bus and in no time, there I was right in front of it. It was
foggy, rainy and a gloomy day. I don’t mind these kinds of days because the
weather is actually nice and cool, the pollution is less noticeable and it
keeps away crowds of people, so I had the place for myself. What fascinated me
the most was the architecture: overhanging
eaves, red columns connected by pavilions and winding corridors that are
detailed with paintings of flowers in blue, red, white, yellow, green and orange.
The place spans to nearly 8000 square meters and is covered by pavilions, rest areas, sculptures, buildings
designed for prayer rooms for Taoists and stairs leading to the peak of the
mountain to see the White Pagoda. The stairs were in every direction
imaginable, so it didn’t matter which path you took, it would still bring you
to the top. It was cool just walking up and finding new pavilions and things to
see, without a plan. I finally made it to the top, after having a horrible
stomach ache and being completely out of shape and panting and breathing
heavily as if I just ran a marathon. Little did I know they closed of the White
Pagoda.
I went to the right of it and followed the path to find
another Taoist prayer room. There were two monks switching their shifts to
oversee the area and to talk to the visitors. One of the monks was signaling me
to come speak to him, so I walked over there. He started speaking in Chinese and
slowly raising his voice. He asked where I was from and so without thinking
anything of it, I said “America, New York”. He starts raising his voice and all
I heard was Obama’s name thrown into the yelling. The other monk started pushing
him away and apologizing. I didn’t really know what to think about that
situation, except that I took his willingness to talk to me as a sign of
curiosity, and then that just turned into an ugly confrontation and all I thought
afterwards was, “Aren’t monks supposed to be nice, or keep quiet?” I just
walked away and finally got back down to the hill and sat for a while.
I was then approached by 4 students who wanted a picture with
me. One moment you get yelled at for being American (at least that’s why I
think the monk was yelling at me) and then you get treated like a celebrity. Talk
about a bipolar day! They thanked me and ran off. I finally got up the courage
to walk around some more, leaving the park and crossing the bridge. I bumped
into the same 4 students and decided it was a good time to practice my Chinese,
since these were students that didn’t attend my University or knew English. One
girl in particular was just saying “Ting bu dong” (I don’t understand) every
time I opened my mouth. Was my Chinese that
bad? I mean her friends were able to understand me, so I didn’t get it. There
was an awkward silence for a minute then she said, “You are so beautiful” with
a mumbling of “ I love you” or “in- love with you”. Clearly she didn’t mean
that, it’s just more Chinglish. I just didn’t know the exact translation. It
finally clicked, maybe she was just speechless that she was even walking side
by side with a foreigner that everything I was saying just went over her head
and her response to everything was “Ting bu dong”. I couldn’t have possibly
been that bad, I mean every person I talk to tells me for the short period of
time I studied it, I’m pretty good. We
finally parted and I went to hang out with some awesome China 17’s to celebrate
one of their bday’s. I got a text message from my site mate asking if I wanted
to hang out tomorrow and go to Bai Tan Shan with some of the students. At that
time I had no idea what it was or where it was, I just responded with an enthusiastic
“sure”. 
The next day (Wednesday) right before we were supposed to
leave, I googled it and sure enough it was the White Pagoda. I was contemplating
on skipping it since I already went there. She convinced me to go and we would
do something else instead. Once we met up with the students we decided to go on
the cable cars up to a different area of that same mountain. The view was
breathtaking seeing the mountain in clear daylight and the sky scrapers, as
well as going over what seemed to be a huge hole covered with plants and paths
leading to the same side I was on yesterday. We decided to buy a one way ticket
up and walk the rest down. I’m glad I went back and saw it again in a new
light, literally I was actually able to see everything today as opposed to the
fog. Sometimes you just have to visit the same place twice in order to
appreciate its beauty. To end the night on a perfect note, I had pizza and a
brownie with ice cream. To those of you who do not understand why this is such
a big deal, here is the reason: pizza +
brownie = western food, therefore super expensive given the allowance a
volunteer has. Every once in a while I’ll splurge, and today was no exception. With
my stomach full and satisfied, I go off to bed to wake up early tomorrow and
explore the 5 Spring Mountain. Who knew I was such a big fan of Mountains? 
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