Lao Tzu.

Whenever we drive to the train station we always pass this big sign with a picture of a cool stone statue on it! We have wanted to go but never knew how far away it was from us. We finally talked to Mr. Li and he said it was really close and we could get there in no time!

So today was the day to go visit this interesting statue! We had the school taxi guy drive us and it was unbelievable. We didn't realize that it was a national park. Or at least I didn't. I always thought it was just some random statue in a weird spot. But it was so pretty!!

If you don't know who Lao Tzu is, then go google him right now. It never occurred to me exactly who he was, but I was looking up quotes by him today, and they are really good!! After seeing the statue we hiked up the mountain and took different paths. That was something new and fun. The scenery was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and the company was amazing. I love when I spend time with Emily, Hannah, and Abi. I absolutely love those girls.

the cow with a leash.

Each morning a few of us always wake up early to go eat breakfast (we eat every meal at the school cafeteria which is a 2 minute walk away). They serve different kinds of bread, and this water with rice soupy thing. Best breakfast ever!! We love it.

Well today it was just me and one other girl, Hannah, that went to breakfast. We ate our delicious meal and started walking up the street to our apartment. Out of nowhere this cow starts trotting down the road towards us (with it's leash on I might add). It was winding from one side of the road to another. We thought it was rather odd but didn't think much of it because the cows are always out to eat plants and stuff. It finally stopped winding back and forth and ended up coming at us straight on. 

We didn't know what to do so we kind of tried moving to the side and got behind this tree, but anywhere I'd go, it would go! Hannah thought it was hilarious! The cow finally lunged itself into a bunch of bushes next to the tree and I took off running. Hannah told me that it wasn't going to chase me and that she didn't want to run. Yeah her plan sucked. The cow started chasing both of us!!! We booked it so fast up the stairs and I ran into my apartment! I was laughing so hard because the cow was practically tripping over it's leash while chasing us! That does not happen very often. Good memories that's for sure:)

loves.

stupid spider.

Sooo I've never been afraid of spiders until I moved here. These ones are huge!! And just downright creepy looking.

The last 2 nights some of the girls in our group have been woken up at 3 in the morning because of big spiders in their room. These things are freaking fast too! So it's hard to catch them.

Last night I was laying in my bed and I was watching Netflix on my phone. I was laying on my side facing the wall when I see this little shadow moving across the wall. I didn't know what it was and didn't think it was from my movie. I looked again and thought oh it's just a spider. I flipped on my light and a huge spider darted across the wall and under my mattress!! I screamed bloody murder and ran into Emily's room. I woke the poor girl up but I had to get it out! Thank goodness it was only at 10:30 though. 

She follows me into my room and we move the mattress; nothing. We had no clue where it ran to! She just told me to not worry about it and go to sleep. GAH!!! There was no way I could do that. We both said a bunch of little prayers in our hearts, and I wrapped myself up like a mummy in all of my blankets, and went to bed.

The day went on and some of us were watching a movie at our apartment like always. I was going to shower so I went into my room to get all my stuff together and walked over to my window. I was about to close the drapes when something touched my finger. I look and it was the massive spider from the night before!! Once again I screamed bloody murder, Abi and Hannah saved the day! So freaking funny watching us get that thing, but I am grateful it's gone!!

loves.

more trains and train stations.

We finally made it to the car we had to stand in. There were people sitting in their seats, and standing in the aisles. It was sooo crowded!! I guess Asians don't care how crowded it gets, as long as they get their money they are happy.

I found a spot to stand next to a ton of old people, and this Italian guy. It was a 5 hour train ride. Bleh!!! You better believe I sat on that floor. My feet and body were killing from hiking and running! It was so disgusting and I had to get out of the aisle because people had to walk through and the carts with food needed to pass.

So freaking annoying and I'm pretty sure the Italian guy never wants to go to the United States because I was so crazy hyper and now he thinks all Americans are crazy:)

We made friends with some people who are actually English teachers up in Beijing. Praise the heavens because they helped us with a lot of things to get us to the next train station. Writing everything in Mandarin helps so much it's not even funny. After talking to the cutest people ever we got some more pics with them and played games. It was a long 5 hours but it was fun.

Long story short, we arrived in Changsha and needed to print our tickets for today. Abi stood in line for more than an hour, witnessed an almost out of control fight, and made it. 1:30 a.m and we had to find a taxi to take us to the other train station across town. We didn't want to spend the money to stay in a hostel so we slept at the train station. Yes, you heard me. I fell asleep on the floor (shocking, I know) then ended up in a little ball on the chairs. I slept like a baby too! We had to wake up at 6 and go through security since the train station wasn't even open. Now it's 7:30 and I'm pooped! May or may not pass out now. We've had long days and nights this trip.

loves.

sprinting like a lunatic.

Funniest moment ever happened last night. I still just start laughing because we looked like fools. I'll tell you why...

After dinner we all met up and headed towards the train station to print out the tickets. Abi had to stand in line forever because for some reason Jordy's ticket wouldn't come up and print. Even though we had paid for it over a week ago online.

As Abi and I were passing out tickets, we realized that we had 7 minutes to catch our train. Jordy still had no ticket. So we all start sprinting towards the stupid security line and find information desk guy to help. He started running and we were chasing him through a gate until he stopped, turned around, and walked us back to the information desk. He pulled out his translator and told us we missed the train. 

Out of nowhere this man walks up and speaks English really well.. He starts talking to like 4 information desk people and they tell us we have to go buy new tickets since we missed our train. This is all happening while Abi and Jordy are still trying to get her a ticket. (The ticket office is outside from where we all were and a little down the way.)

Once again, out of nowhere this lady walks up and tells us we have 10 minutes and she will get us on this train but we will just have standing tickets. I run to this little opening in a window and start screaming Abi's name. The lady told us we had to run, and Jordy didn't need a ticket. They start sprinting out of the ticket office and don't even go through security. Train station people are screaming in Chinese to tell the security to just let them through, as I'm trying to yell at Abi what's going on. 

By this point the train is supposed to leave in 5 minutes. Our interpreter guy tells us to follow this lady and to run!!! 8 girls with massive backpacks on, and some roller bags are sprinting by every single Asian and they are just staring. We sprint down this tunnel thing and round this corner. Stairs. After all the stairs that I had climbed the few days before there was no way my body was going to let me walk, let alone run up them. As we are sprinting like crazy up the stairs (yelling at each other to keep going) I can hear Chinese people telling us to hurry onto the train. Literally barely made it with 2 minutes to spare.

I was absolutely dying laughing because there was no way that all 8 of us just sprinted like lunatics through a freaking train station and caught the train!! People were giving us the weirdest looks as we were walking by to get to our, because they witnessed the crazy Americans almost missing a train that wasn't theirs! Good memories for sure though:)

loves.

tianmen mountain.

Holy poop!!! Today was crazy and breathtaking and just beautiful! We woke up at the butt crack of dawn (AKA 6 a.m) to get our day started. I hate how hotels make you check out at noon because we were going to be gone all freaking day!!

I packed up my bags and we put them in some random back room near the lobby. We made our way down an alley and bought the best bread I have ever eaten! And it was only $0.50:) 

Basically extremely long and stupid story short; after buying tickets, and waiting in line for over 3 hours, one of our girls lost her ticket. So our head teacher who is a SAINT stayed behind because nobody wanted to spend money and buy another ticket and wait in line. So freaking annoying!!

We took a cable car up the mountain. And when I say up the mountain, I literally mean straight up. If you're afraid of heights, you would have pooped your pants! It was so high up, and unbelievable. Like, oh my goodness pictures aren't even close to what it was like!

Twenty minutes later we finally made it to the top of the mountain! Woot woot!!! Can I just tell you the air was crystal clear and I could actually breath for once. We made it off the cable car and it was a tad bit nippy outside. Good thing I was smart and brought my sweatshirt unlike everyone else in my group and China. My friends were wearing shorts and tank tops, and the Asians were ready for prom, winter, or a fashion show. No matter what it's like outside, they dress to impress and wear heels. Hiking up the mountain yesterday, heels. Walking around a billion feet above the ground, heels.

We heard about about this glass walkway that was at the top so of course we had to do it! They made us put on these weird red cloth things over our shoes. No idea why, but we did! Haha As usual there was a veryyyy long line to get on the glass walkway and we met this lady Shelley. She spoke English very well so we stuck with her all day. 

The thrill of being on the sketchy walkway was so cool! Looking down, you know that if it broke you're screwed. No way of living. Some people were so nervous doing it and we were loving life! Emily started jumping on the glass and a bunch of Chinese women were freaking out hahah I wish it would have been a longer walkway but it was still cool.

Once we got off the glass walkway we turned a corner with a bunch of red fabric hanging all over from the trees. I didn't want to pay the money, but I guess you would write your dreams or wishes on them, and then tie them in the trees. They were stunning all just hanging up there!

So basically I'm a celebrity here. Tall, white, blonde, with blue eyes. Anytime we would stop to take pictures with each other, people would always have to stop and take pictures with us. It's gonna suck coming back home and not have people stare at you like a piece of meat:( haha

We walked around some more then made our way down the mountain because we had to make it for some food and had to catch our train. After saying goodbye to Shelley we just happened to run into her in this adorable Chinese restaurant. She helped us order because clearly we can't speak Chinese! She honestly is the sweetest person and bought my meal for me! Shelley wouldn't let me pay and was pushing me out the door so I couldn't give the Chinese lady my money. 

I love how everyone is so kind here and when they speak English they are willing to help you in a heartbeat!

loves.

zhangjiajie.

We arrived at the train station after traveling through the night. The man who owned the hotel peddled up on his little bike and was so excited to see us! Most people who say they are going to pick you up bring a car, but we had to walk behind him and his bike. Haha 

After checking in and getting settled, we set out to go to the Zhangjiajie National Park. We had to catch a bus and drive for a good hour or so. When we got on the bus it was very packed! Some lady and her kids were scooting over so we could sit down next to them. The little girl was so dang cute!! I wasn't going to squish the poor girl, so I picked her up and put her on my lap. She seriously was so dang cute!!!

Some of the girls made some friends with these people that spoke some English so we hung out with them all day. I was thinking we were just going to have a nice hike to the top, but it wasn't your normal hike. It was complete stairs! And weird rocky ones too. Soooo freaking hard. I better have nice legs by the end of this dang trip! 

There were these people throughout the trail that had these chairs and were carrying people up or down the trail if they couldn't do it! And they were old men carrying them. They are ripped  just like you dad;)

Along the way you could hear screams. I totally thought they were people screaming for joy because they made it to the top but, nope. They were wild monkeys!! When you look at them they're adorable, but they can be kinda vicious. My friend crouched down next to one, and it lunged forward at him with the most evil face. I was waiting for it to attack me so I sprinted by that thing.

Being at the top of the mountain was breathtaking. The mountains here are unlike anything else. I wish I could describe them but it's impossible for me. Haha They go straight up and have the coolest looking trees. We hung out at the top and took so many pictures with all the little Asians. I'm basically a celebrity here.

They seriously have the best fruit here!! I bought this massive kiwi and ate it in peace while breathing in the fresh mountain air. I am in love! The only place I've been able to breath on this vacation. So much smoke and smog everywhere. Bleh!

The rest of the night was really chill because we hiked down the mountain, and took the bus back. After, we got some din din, showered and I crashed. We've been going all day so I just crashed. I'm excited for what's to come!

PS! Have you seen the movie Avatar? In that movie they have the floating mountains, and these are the mountains they based that off of.

loves.