Met a fellow American today...

Rebecca and I decided to take yet another trip to Meizhou today, leaving on the bus at about 7 am. When we arrived at the bus station in Meizhou, I waited in the lobby while Rebecca used the restroom, and I just stood there kinda zoning out and staring blankly at a map when all the sudden I hear someone say "howdy." Whoa! An American! He asked me where we were traveling and I told him about how we were living in a nearby city teaching English and were in Meizhou visiting for the day. I forgot where exactly he said he was going, but he and his Chinese wife were traveling though the country, coming from Guangzhou (near Hong Kong) and passing through Meizhou at the moment. He said his name was John and he was from North Carolina, and I told him he was the first American I've seen in several weeks.

Rebecca and I chatted with him at the bus station for just a few minutes, but it was really cool finally getting to see another Westerner. It was one of those moments I've sort of been waiting for, not sure if it would likely happen or not because Westerners are so few and far between around these parts. Plus it was nice to talk to someone new who could comprehend every word we said.

From the bus station we decided to take a motorcycle taxi to the lake in Meizhou, and when we arrived it was pretty awesome. Meizhou has been the most impressive city I've ever been to when it comes to public parks - they are all over this city and each one is really great. They had some carnival rides running at this park, so we rode in the Ferris wheel and got a good view (and photos) of the lake and park. Afterwards we walked over and rented a pedal boat to ride around on the lake for an hour - it reminded me of riding my recumbent bike back home. It was a bit cramped for my long legs, but my knees are thankful for the light pedal resistance. At times we'd cut the steering to the left or right and 'cut donuts' on the lake - very slow like. Who knows what the people on shore thought of the crazy Americans. Hey, there's only so much you can do in the middle of a small lake on a pedal boat. At one point we saw an empty bottle floating in the lake, so we pedaled over to pick it up.

View from the top



We took a taxi to the shopping part of time and split ways for a few hours to shop separately. I bought quite a bit of stuff today - a few DVDs including that new Frost/Nixon film I've been wanting to see.

I picked up some gear for camping and bike touring
Sleeping bag - 1.65 lbs, packs small - about 27 dollars
Cycling gloves - they have nice padding, far better than my current Wal-mart ones - about 5 bucks
750 ml Aluminum Bottle - about $3.21
Cookset with pot and lid, skillet, folding handles, two Chinese styled bowls and one Chinese style spoon, and a scrubby brush - not the lightest, but nice - a little more than $15



I also bought a new 8GB memory card for my digital camera, I current have a 1 GB. I guess this really wasn't all that necessary, but at least now I can hold 8 tons of pictures and I got it for a decent price of about 30 bucks.

I am now past the halfway point of my stay in China. It's all gone so fast, and I'm sure the last half of this trip will fly by even faster before we fly back. I'm not homesick and I don't feel too anxious to get back yet, though I think I probably will the last week or so.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and I plan to go to church. Yes, there is a Christian church in town not too far from our school, and Rebecca attended one time so far. I really want to go and experience the Chinese version of this ritual - should be pretty interesting.