Nature Exists.

Sometimes, you just have to get away--especially when you live in a city with more smog than the Industrial Revolution (I can't verify that fact, but it wouldn't surprise me). 

Anyway, the nearest getaway for us at Zhong Bei ("Jong-Bay"), a university on the edge of town that's at the foot of the mountains (mountains?? MOUNTAINS??!?!). Another team of teachers form our organization is there, which automatically makes us friends, which automatically means we can come crashing in whenever we really need it (if we ask nicely). 

I needed it. 

So last weekend I dragged Alex out there with me and we had quite the adventure. 

The trip over to Zhong Bei consists of three different bus rides. Sounds like fun, right?? Right. 

Wonder of wonders, as we waited at the first bus stop, a car full of some of our teacher friends rolled by and they kindly offered us a ride to our next stop. SWEET.

So we hopped on the next bus in a much shorter amount of time...and then stayed on it for the rest of eternity. We each had two bags and about two inches of breathing space. I love China buses. 

When we finally got off (right in the nick of time), we happened to meet somebody who was going to the same place as we were. So what did we do? We hopped in his buddy's car and we all rode there together. (sorry mom and dad for making poor decisions) (I'm still alive!). 

And then...there we were. Omagoodgracious.

We met up with our teacher friends and they directed us to a path leading up the mountains. I said "Oh! A short hike!" I should have learned by now that "Hike" in Chinese is translated "Climbing a ridiculous amount of stairs" (I made that up) (but really). The stairs, however, were worth it. It's the most beautiful thing I've seen since being in China. 

WHOA.

On the way up, we heard some crazy yelling and "AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" noises. My immediate thought: "Who fell??" Ends up Chinese people like to yell at the top of mountains like Yetis. We did it, too. It was AWESOME. 

There was also this really cool pagoda that looked like a snake. 

At the pagoda, some random little girls squirmed their way into our pictures. One of their moms used to be a teacher at our school. Cool!

It was a really neat pagoda. 

When we got back, we found our friends' children looking for grubs in the dirt. Apparently these grubs had been eating the grass...so the solution was to tear out all the grass and dig out the grubs. 

Oh, China. 

The rest of our time there was spent in bliss: eating pumpkin bread, watching Veggie Tales and Spirit, taking a shower in a shower that had a tub under it, drinking Starbucks coffee from a coffeemaker, and going to a park for some alone time. Yes, I used to take these things for granted. 

For a day, I breathed fresh air and it was oh-so-wonderful.