Day 71 -- August 3

I slept in much later than intended. I think I am getting a bit of a head cold. Everyone who went on the trip is feeling slightly under the weather. Hopefully if will work itself out. I’ve been drinking a lot of water and just generally trying to not get to worked up. Which lead me to waking up at about noon today, even for weekends that’s incredibly late. I actually had to rush a little bit to get myself together so I could meet Jillian and her classmates. Jillian’s Laoshi was taking us all to the Opera. We met at Guting station around 2. From there we decided to walk over. I turns out we were at the Botanical Gardens again. Jillian and I laughed because they were fairly close to where we were. We hadn’t needed the MRT to get there. We wandered around the lotus ponds for a little bit then headed into the opera.

    Chinese opera is very difficult to explain having seen it. I was allowed to take videos so I have a few clips. I preface them by saying that this not how people normally talk. The tones are very strange and the singing even odder. This was a very different experience for me, but it was a good one. Don’t ask me what is happening or what is being said, I have no idea. Loashi had given us a quick run down of the story but I have no idea where we are in these clips. Enjoy! *So there is an error with the uploading videos right now. I will try again later and it may just be on a different post, Sorry!*

    After the play ended, we went up to the stage to get some pictures. It turned out Laoshi knew one of the actresses, so then we ended up on stage getting group photos. It was actually kinda funny because at one point Nick Jillin and I all got pulled into a photo, simply because we were the Americans in the group. It was a fun time for everyone. then afterwords it was decided that we should all go to dinner. We ended up at a sichuan place, famous for spicy. Jillian and I were both bold and got the extremely spicy noodles. My lips went numb by the end of the meal and every once in a while we would have a coughing fit. It was really good though.

    I headed home on the MRT then ran into Johnny. He was headed for the DingHao (local grocery store). I went with him and got some granola for snacking purposes. I also got some after dinner pineapple on our way back to the dorms. Overall I feel like it was a productive day in general. I enjoyed getting to do something off the beaten path. It was fun but i am very tired now. Tomorrow might be a recuperation day, I don’t know yet though. I may go find a coffee shop and study for a while. So many possibilities, but for now I will lay down and sleep. Good night everyone!!