Wuhan 2.0

So... Friday afternoon I headed down to Nanchang. I rode the train with Sophie and some of her friends. It was packed! When I arrived Nathan greeted me at the station and we headed off to Metro to pick up some groceries for a curry night.
Nathan cooked curry which was delicious! He's a superb chef. Pearl joined us for dinner and we had a nice chat while watching Anthony Bourdain.

Saturday morning we woke up early-ish and Nathan made pancakes. Fei Fei joined us and got to try her first pancake. We, (Nathan, Nikolai, FeiFei, and I) headed to the train station to catch the train to Wuchang (one of the Wuhan burroughs). The train ride was pretty quick, three hours or so. One of Nathan's students had recommended a hotel which turned out to be excellent, located only a few minutes from the train station and right on a night market street. It was a steal at only 100rmb a night. We checked into this great hotel, dropped off our bags, and headed to food street, we were all hungry. It was packed! We all ordered food from different stalls, and I managed to order noodles by myself sans MSG.
We decided to go back to the hotel for a bit then it was time to hit the bars. We had a cab take us to a bar street near Wuhan University and found one that was suitable to play a few dice drinking games at until we were ready to go to a club. Eventually we tired of the bar and headed to a club that was down the street. We were ushered to a table by an incredibly nice manager and along with the bottle of vodka we ordered, given a free bowl of fruit, french fries, and cucumber. It was fantastic. The music was okay, and we had some fun times dancing around. There was a group of French people, the only other laowai, who were polite and came over to introduce and offer us drinks. After a few hours of dancing, drinking, and socializing we were beat. We left the club and found a late night restaurant where Nik, FeiFei, and Nathan all enjoyed a various assortment of food such as snail and a whole duck (which Nathan ate by himself.) We went back to the hotel after that.

Sunday we had a lot of things planned. We rose pretty early considering how late we were out and headed to the Yellow Crane Tower. It was a beautiful day and we had a great view from the top of the tower. Nathan and I enjoyed walking the grounds and I found a great deal on some antique looking silk paintings, 3 for 20rmb. I am eager to get them framed now for when Nathan and I have a house together again. After walking the grounds we decided to go to Wuhan University to poke around the campus. It's a beautiful campus and I enjoyed seeing the grounds. We eventually found our way to the large lake (East/West Lake?) and walked onto the narrow docks. Poor FeiFei doesn't know how to swim so that made her a bit nervous.
It took us ages to get a cab near the university but we eventually managed it. We had the driver take us to the ferry, then caught the ferry to the other side of the river and another of Wuhan's burroughs. We grabbed dinner there, but I think there was a bit of MSG tainting our food and I didn't feel so well afterward. We decided to head back to the hotel and passed out.

This morning we got up early and headed to the train station. Because I was going to Jiujiang and Nik, Nate, and FeiFei were heading to Nanchang, I had to sit in a different part of the train. I said goodbye to Nathan in Wuhan. The train was packed, I spent most of the time reading and napping.
I found a nice cab driver once I got to Jiujiang, and now I am home. This week I'm teaching my kids slang, and I've had a good time looking up words to teach them. I am eager to see the dialogues they come up with.
Tomorrow I have plans to play badminton/frisbee with Cary and some friends. I am also going to meet up with David's cousin, Kevin, to hang out this week and I have arranged to see Jiujiang University campus with Qiao who is seeing if they offer Chinese classes there for me. Busy week!