In a Haze

Finally - FINALLY - I got to start a morning off right.  Marcella and I went on a run through Hangzhou, jogging along the side of a bustling street full of morning commuters.  The only maps that our hotel had were not of the area around the hotel, so we decided to wing it.  We just turned left and ran through the city,  Hundreds of scooters zipped along, every single driver doing a double take at the two scrawny white girls with blonde hair bobbing along with no apparent destination.  About halfway through our run, we looked over and noticed that we were mere meters from the beautiful West Lake.  

We had been running parallel to its shore for most of our run, not suspecting how close we were to its lapping edges.  We turned in and joined the throngs of morning walkers on the pathway, passing groups of brightly-dressed seniors doing tai chi.  Some used swords with long yellow tassels swinging from the handles.  Men with buckets and what initially looked like mops were painting delicate calligraphy on the stone tiles with water.  It was beautiful alongside the lake as the mist rolled over the mountains and a house-like boat glided from port to port.  I love exploring cities on foot in the mornings.

The breakfast buffet at our new hotel rivaled that of the previous one.  There was a wide variety of foods both savory and sweet.  I stuck mostly to savory - homemade yogurt with a slight hint of sourness, wonton soup with scallions and a hint of soy sauce, and a thousand other things.  Breakfast in China has been it's own adventure.

After breakfast, we loaded up the bus for our return to Shanghai but lingered in Hangzhou for - what else? - a boat ride on one of the house-like boats I had admired that morning.  Though the early morning humidity had  produced a mid-morning drizzle, the open back area of the boat was at capacity as we enjoyed the breeze over the water and the unmasked landscapes revealed behind the shifting mists.  Just when you were enchanted by the mysterious hazy mountains, you noticed a beautiful and ornate pagoda previously obscured by the fog.  Sadly, our "tour" involved no guidance and we were left to draw our own conclusions about the sights around us.

While the drive back to Shanghai was fairly uneventful (a blessing on this tour), it did offer opportunities to get to know group members that I don't know well and to sample the offerings of various roadside stops.  We enjoyed green bean ice cream (delicious, but red bean is still my favorite) and dried mulberries (very mixed opinions on this one from the group, but I enjoyed them in small doses), among other snacks.  It's pretty incredible how many things the Chinese shrink-wrap and offer for convenience-store consumption.  Want an egg? There are plenty of varieties all preserved in their plasticky glory in Aisle 3. The same goes for nearly every type of meat, including chicken feet.  

Its such a different conception of highway food.  I feel like it would be fascinating to read the food labels here, if only I knew how.

Lunch was at, oddly, a Walmart complex ringed by fast food restaurants.  While I am hoping to try the fine-dining experience that is Chinese Pizza Hut (joking aside, this is an establishment that sells steaks and is not a fries-and-a-side-combo-dollar-menu type place), this was neither the time nor place.  We only had time to grab takeout (a takana and seaweed noodle bowl, in my case, to obtain which I uses all my Chinese and miming skills) and didn't get to explore the wonder that is China Walmart.  I feel like it would be fascinating.  David and Chris managed to pop in and buy an entire cooked duck (for less than $2), proving (again) that I have chosen the best possible travel companions for my tour extension.

The afternoon and evening were spent, once again, in preparation for and execution of a concert.  It was exhausting and the group grew smaller every time we stepped on stage.  Several people had already been taken to the hotel early to recuperate.  Others lost their voices, and still others simply couldn't function.  I had slept poorly the night before and was struggling, too.  But apparently we sounded good and, though it pained us, we even did an encore.

The other Gleeple (we have a habit of joining words in a cutesy way) gathered for festivities, but many of us instead went off to bed.  It had been a long day, and we're only a third of the way through tour.

Spotted: Traveling with Jewish students observing the Sabbath.  I learned today about the interesting tour modifications made for the students who are observing the Sabbath.  They went to Hangzhou early and had to have someone open the scanning doors for them, among other things.  It's not easy (and rather a hassle for them) but luckily there is enough public transportation to make it work.  It's so interesting, because this has probably been happening on every Glee tour that I have been on but was managed so smoothly that I never noticed.