Dong Ming - Day 4 (11.27): The Day After

I could probably write up today’s activities in about one paragraph, since it was a fairly relaxed day. Being who I am, I won’t, of course, but I will keep it brief.

I spent the morning cleaning up my room and organizing my things, followed by uploading the photos from the last 3 days and finishing up the wedding blog. Then I took a shower and got ready and met up with the Wang’s (Jenn, Wei, Fei and Xiao Yan) for lunch. We met up with Mr. and Mrs. Wang at a hot pot restaurant and ate some delicious boiling grub.

Jennifer and XiaoYan getting ready for hot pot

After that it was goodbye to the elder Wang’s (they rode their bikes home) and it was off to a visit to the school next to my hotel. Unfortunately they are on a break for the next four days. The school runs non-stop for 4 weeks and then takes a 4 day break every month. But fortunately Wang Wei’s 1st Uncle’s wife works for the hotel I’m staying at (is one of the bosses) and the hotel is owned by the school. She gave us the grand tour, taking us to the wushu guan, cafeterias, showing us where the dorms were, basketball courts, and of course, the mandatory statue of Chairman Mao. The school houses about 2,000 students in their dorms, about 40% of which are enrolled in their wushu curriculum (the rest being normal middle and high school students).

Inside of the wushu guan. wushu carpets are always a soothing sight

Xiao Yan prepares to impale me

Not sure who he is, but he must have been reeeeeeally tall … unless this is not to scale …

After the tour of campus we came back to my room to show 1st uncle’s wife my pictures from the wedding (thank goodness for Picasa’s slideshow and starring features). Then we said goodbye to her and got in Wang Fei’s car to head out for some foot massages.

Looking at my picasa slideshow

The foot massage place was pretty nice and since everyone in the Wang Family has made it their mission to find me a wife (”You’re 36 and not married??? I think I know someone …. “) I was given the cutest girl to work on my feet. (I’m not complaining, mind you.) We were there for about 90 minutes and then were ready to get our grub on again.

Waiting for massages

Back over to the place we got the Yang Ro La Mian (lamb noodle soup) where we sat up on their second floor area and partook of the delicious noodles and meat. We also met up with Wang Fei’s friend, Da Lu, who joined us for the rest of the evening.

Xiao Yan the day after her wedding.

After dinner it was off to some KTV action. Fortunately the place we went to had a decent selection of English songs (once you were able to find them) but since it couldn’t lower the key at all I ended up singing at the top of my register for most of the night. The result was a slightly sore throat, but it was still lots of fun. I like KTV.

Xiao Yan and Wang Fei

And then the evening was over. I got a ride back to my hotel and arrived around 11:00. I worked on my blog and here we are. I’m not sure what is on the schedule for tomorrow, but since there is no chance to do wushu in Dong Ming it will probably be nice and relaxing. I heard something about visiting the Yellow River so that might be what is in store for me.

In any case, just 2 more days before the three of us head up to Beijing and the adventures goes on to it’s last phase. It was a quick trip, especially for Jennifer and Wang Wei, who are really only here for a week or two before heading back to the U.S. It’ll be sad to see them go, but I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. They’re still here and we can still enjoy each other’s company while it lasts.