Day 418
Friday April 14, 2017:
Follow me to Anji! Day 1 (Part 1)
Today we embarked on our class trip to the beautiful Anji. Classes A3, A4, and A4 left early this morning on the 3-hour bus ride. Anji is not a very popular tourist destination but is known for its bamboo forests. Only five students (including myself) went on the trip along with our two teachers. There were two Koreans, Xiang Yi (our class leader) and Eun Jung, Bara (she is from the Czech Republic), and Zuo Tung (a nice old Japanese lady). I ended up rooming with Zuo Tung at our hotel.
First thing we did upon arriving at Anji was have lunch we turned out to be a bit disappointing. The taste was not too bad, but there was no meat, only some fish and vegetables. In the end though it turned out to be a good thing because right after lunch we went on a hike up the mountain. We felt full but not weighed down by all the meat. The hike itself was rather taxing. Although surrounded by beautiful scenery I wouldn’t say it was a very relaxing or peaceful hike. The trail mostly consisted of stairs and it was quite hot and humid today. With a little coaxing we managed to get one of our teachers to hike all the way to the very top with us. We got some ice cream there, admired the scenery then made our way down. About halfway everyone’s leg muscles were sore and shaking and there were promises of more muscle pain over the next few days. About two thirds of the way down you could choose to zip line down the rest of the way. Xiang Yi and I decided to try it and although a bit short, it was pretty fun.
Thankfully after hiking we were done for the day and checked into our hotel. Dinner was on our own so the seven of us (five students and two teachers) went to a nearby mall for dinner. We made sure that meat was on the menu this time. Afterwards we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few beers and snacks and spent the rest of the night drinking and getting to know each other a bit more. We found out that our new teacher is younger than Xiang Yi and I! We are all born in the same year but different months with Xiang Yi being the oldest.
