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!

Wuuuuuuhooooohan

Before Nathan arrived on Friday, Cary, Jennifer, and I had a delicious meal of homemade spaghetti at Cary's place. He is a good cook and at some point I'm going to talk him into a deal where I buy the groceries and he does the cooking. This seems like a good plan.
I met Nathan at the train station around 8pm where we bought our train tickets for the next morning (7:45am) to Wuhan. We decided to stay in and sleep since we were both exhausted and knew we had an early morning on Saturday.

Bright and early we woke the next morning, showered, packed, and headed to the station. Our train actually ended up departing early, but we made it. It was a long ride which we mostly napped through. Upon arrival at Wuchang (a borough of Wuhan) Nathan and I immediately went to buy our train tickets home for the next day. Unfortunately the latest and most convenient train was at 10:15am. After waiting for half an hour to get our tickets it was time to find a hotel. Well, lo and behold, there one stood right across the bustling street.
We made our way to the Crowne Hotel and checked in. It was quite a nice place complete with complimentary breakfast in the morning. We dropped off our bags, asked which bus to take to Hanyang (another borough) and set off.
It was a mighty chilly walk to the bus. On the way, Nathan literally saved my life by grabbing me and spinning me around before I got hit by a bus. It was certainly a close call. We finally found our bus and headed off to French Street to find the Aloha Hawaiian restaurant.
Upon arrival at French Street it took us a few minutes to find the restaurant, but when we did, bliss. The food was amazing, the owner was nice, the area was great, and best of all, it was all heated. Nathan had a huge burger while I scarfed down some enchiladas. Tasty-licious.
We wandered around the neighborhood the restaurant was near for awhile before hopping on a bus back to Wuchang. We went back to our room for a little nap, deciding we would head out to see Hankou (another borough) once it had gotten darker.

After sleeping and watching a movie or two, we headed back out into the cold, misty night. We grabbed a cab to Hankou and asked the driver to take us to the Yellow Crane Tower. He ended up dropping us off in the middle of an intersection, pointing where to go. Except... we took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of a busy street food street instead. It was amazing! They served everything! We were tempted to grab food, even though we were still full from before, but held off in hopes that we would find the sushi restaurant we had been planning on eating at. After the food street we found a shopping street with tons of vendors hawking various goods. Nathan asked for directions a few more times, and eventually we found the tower. Only... it was closed. We took a couple pictures of it all lit up, then hailed a cab to take us to Jiqing Street, reportedly a hot spot in the evening time.
The driver dropped us off and we looked around confused. This was a hot spot? No one really seemed to be around, no live music, just a few street food vendors and some cold looking people. We decided to move on and search out the Japanese restaurant. We hailed another cab and off we went.
The driver dropped us off at a giant mall. We wandered inside and I was almost overwhelmed. Floors and floors of glorious shopping! Not only the legitimate stores, but those small street like stalls were set up in the back. Heaven on earth. We looked for the restaurant and after asking where it was a couple times, were turned back out onto the street. We decided we weren't really starving yet, so we went to the walking street we had seen earlier, then on to the street-stall shopping street. Nathan bought nice leather gloves and I bought... nothing!!!! Can you believe it? I'm still in shock. I need to find a girl who will want to go back with me so that I can actually get my shop on.
Eventually I got hungry and cranky, so Nathan and I found a 'French' restaurant. We ordered some food which turned out to be pretty decent then headed back to the hotel, exhausted.

This morning we enjoyed a very Chinese breakfast before catching our train. It was a long train ride, but very pleasant and we had some nice time to talk and nap. Nathan headed on to Nanchang, and I hopped off in Jiujiang.
I grabbed a motorcycle home, and now here I am. It's only 6:02pm, but I am wiped.
My secretary's are watching a movie tomorrow and I need to mail Christmas cards/presents. Shame on me. They will be late. Sorry!

I'm honestly considering moving to Wuhan, perhaps for no reason other than the AMAZING SHOPPING! And... perhaps the western food. Mmmm... enchiladas.

By the way... this is gorgeous in purple and light blue!!!