Wutaishan

One of the benefits of having an awesome Foreign Affairs Official who loves you is that he uses school funds to take you on a trip at the end of the year.

What’s a Foreign Affairs Official? you may be wondering.

Meet Gerry, our school's FAO. He is responsible for getting all of our necessary paperwork together for the school, giving us messages from the school, and taking care of our needs.

He’s also a Brother and he’s absolutely hilarious.

Two weekends ago he took us to Wutaishan ("woo-tie-shan"), a famous mountain range and the well-known site of many Buddhist temples.

It started out that Saturday morning at 5:50 as we rolled out of Taiyuan with a Chinese tour group. Thankfully, Gerry provided each of us with a loaf of fruit bread for breakfast.

We got there in time for a deeeelicious lunch and checked into our hotel (well, a sort-of hotel).

Then we visited some temples.

In case I hadn’t already explained this, whenever you (a white foreigner, that is) visit a famous Chinese site, expect to get your picture taken with random Chinese people who will later put it online for all their friends to see, with the caption: “Wa say! Look at the foreigner I met! I’m so cool!”

Exhibit A:

That evening Gerry took us for a walk through a park and we saw random camel.

And a really awesome gate. 

That night we had a thunderstorm—which is something we almost never get in Taiyuan—and we were ecstatic.

And the next morning we got kicked out of our hotel at 7:30 am because they needed room for people who were checking in.

Rude.

So we visited one more temple and climbed a mountain.

It was very windy at the top and I got all sorts of dust and nasty in my teeth and hair.

(these are prayers printed on fabric and strung up EVERYWHERE)

One sunburn later, we were back on the bus headed to Taiyuan, exhausted and overheated.

A hiatus to nature, an eye-opener, and a cultural experience.

It was a fabulous weekend.