Wushan Square, Party-Party & Wuzhen!

Okay peoples, be prepared for a large amount of reading!

sooo since my last entry I've been extremely busy! There's just so much to tell you that I don't know where to start... I think I'm going to do the nerdy thing and categorize everything by day.

FRIDAY:
So today we had classes in the morning and I finished up all my homework for the weekend so that we could have some wonderful misadventures! Friday arvo, the gang got together and we headed out to the infamous Wushan Square. This place is one of THE 'tourist destinations' for Hangzhou. It's got all the nic-tacs from fans and umbrellas through to glass ornaments and caricatures. However, the truely exciting part is the little side alley which sells all of the traditional Chinese dishes!! Mhhh hhmm... anyone for some duck blood soup?? Or if that isn't really your style, how bout just the duck head itself?? ... chicken claw maybe??

Well... yes, you guessed it, I'm to much of a 'chicken' to try any of that stuff, but I did get stuck into an interesting rice dish served with fruit inside a pineapple, a spicy chicken kebab looking thing and some weird fuit salad looking drink. (which probably wasn't that smart as it was cold water, but hey, I didn't get sick so alls good!). --> you can check out the pics in the photo link for my blog!

Anyway, after all that delicious food, we weren't really feeling the need for a huge free buffet, so we turned up at the winery at 9pm instead and just enjoyed a nice glass of wine. But guess what!... to my very happy suprise, this winery is just around the corner from the uni and it's TOTALLY AUSTRALIAN! The AFL was on the TV (don't worry, the rugby is meant to be on later)... and all of the wines were Australian. I had a lovely cab sav!

So yes, I'm very excited about this little place, and by the sounds of it, they've got another 'free buffet' style thing happening next Friday, so I still get my free Han Bao Bao (Hamburger in Chinese).

As for S.O.S.'s grand opening... pretty bad actually, it was crowded, smokey and they only played techno music... so there's not much to say there, apart from the fact they had cool glow in the dark ice cubes! (which I'm sure had some kind of interesting chemical... oh well... don't fret I didn't eat the ice!)

SATURDAY:
Well today wasa relaxation day! I started my morning with a lovely jog around the campus, ending up at the post office where I picked up my 'care-package' from the parentals... (CHOCOLATE!!!!!) Thanks guys! Picked up a croissant and coffee for breaky and went back to bed. The rest of the day was spent in bed catching up on readings, doing a whole lot of research for Dad for business stuff when they come over to visit and watching lots of episodes of Bones! :) SOOOOOOO GOOD!

SUNDAY:
Today was very exciting! Kelsey and Dalila and I caught a cab across town to the East Hangzhou Bus Station and then caught an 1 1/2 bus to a small water town called Wuzhen. You can check out the pictures on my blog as well. It was absolutely beautiful! We paid an arm and a leg to get in the door (120 kuai) but it was so tranquil you couldn't help but get lost in the little alley ways of this peaceful little town which is built on a river.

We spent the entire day here, after we saw the 'tourists' area, we then decided to head out into the 'real' China in Wuzhen. It's amazing the huge difference! (see the pictures to know what I mean). I don't think they're used to seeing 3 western girls walking down the main street, so we spent the entire time smiling and waving, getting asked for photos and saying 'hello' to everyone. As this is probably the only English word they know, EVERYONE says it to you!

However, we kinda got sick of it, and by the end of the day when we had to wait 1 1/2 hours for our bus, we just pretended we didn't hear and talked among ourselves.

Another thing that made it very tiring, is that there is probably about 50 people with rickshaws waiting for you to get tired and ask for a ride, so they literally follow you down the streets yelling at you 'lai lai' (come, come) to hop in. They even chase the buses down the street as they are arriving! (ahhhhh mayhem!)

However, even with the crazy stalker rickshaw guys, it was a great day! ... we slept most of the ride home and was in bed by 9:30 for classes on Monday.

MONDAY:
Okay, so the last day to catch you all up on, but it's also one of the most exciting!
Because I GOT A BIKE! Yes, it's very very cute and it's orange. it's got TINY little wheels, but it's the most amazing little thing because it folds in half so I can carry it inside and store it in my room. Brett and Megan have them as well and we all went for a lovely bike ride this arvo to Ying Li Temple. It was beautiful. (you can see the pics of my bike and the temple in the link)

These bikes are so fantastic, it means we can get around town so much easier and stop off whenever we want. It also saves us a heap of money on taxies. We got them for a steal! ... bike, bike chain and basket all for 295 Kuai! YEY!

So yes, this is all of my very exciting news, you're all up to date! ... leaving it there, because we're all about to head down for dinner!

Love you all, hope you aren't asleep after all of that typing you just had to read... WAKE UP!

Bye! xxoo