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Week 7 in China

Challis Hackley
Dec 4, 2017
3 min read

What I Learned

The little things are hooks.

There are these little gray out-croppings on our seats on the train. I finally learned their purpose. They’re coat hangers.

Walmart is cheaper.

The Walmart downtown is one of the the few places that I have seen that have any sort of halloween decorations for sale. We made a trip there jsut for that and came out with a lot more than we bargained for, but all for a reasonable price. I will definitely be going back.

Hong Kong Netflix is awesome.

Because I use a VPN set in Hong Kong, that's where Netflix thinks I am right now so I get the Hong Kong version of Netflix. I'll tell you what, I like it quite a lot better then the U.S.A. version. I think I might just keep my VPN when I get back to the states and see what other countries have on Netflix.

What I Did

Monday

First full day back form Beijing and I was already planing my next vacation. Booking my hostel for Yangshou.

Tuesday

Before we left for Beijing, our coordinators gave us a ¥100 gift card (for those of you keeping track at home, that's about $15) to a local bakery. Tuesday night we decided to check it out. It was really nice. I like how they do bakeries here. You grab some thongs, a tray, and some parchment paper to cover this tray and then you go around to the displays and choose what you want. That is literally every bakery here. We got some tasty baked goods and then tried some of their steamed milk. I liked the banana cream. Yum.

Wednesday

There must have been something in the water because all my kids were freaking savages that day.

Thursday

We set out on the town after teaching to try and find a cat cafe: a coffee shop where cats live and you can go and have something warm to drink and pet cats. We searched high and low and mimed for directions multiple times but we never did find it. The best we could understand from our little conversation was that I had been shut down or moved. Oh well, I’m planning on trying again soon.

The trip downtown wasn’t a complete loss though. We got some dinner and I tried my first mango ice. It’s a popular thing here and pretty tasty, one of the few chilled drinks they they offer.

Friday

In honor of Friday The 13th I decided to watch a scary movie and that's how I discovered the magic of Netflix when you have a VPN. Kung Fu Panda 2, Rise of the Guardians, Sinbad, Despicable Me 2, both How to Train Your Dragon movies, my new favorite anime Haikyuu!, The Great Gatsby, Pitch Perfect 2, the last three batman movies, all three of the Lord of the Rings movies, Doctor Who, Interstellar. Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, The Book of Eli, and I am Legend. And those are just the ones I noticed on my home screen.

Saturday

That day I spent a lot of my day in downtown Nanjing. I made a trip to Walmart, where you can get cheese and spaghetti sauce for a reasonable price. I also went to trip and went to Xuanwu Lake, which as a little bit of everything. There are boats for rent, a bonsai tree garden, statues and rock gardens, a small amusement park with carousel and bumbler cars, tai chi classes, memorials, and probably much much more but you can only see so much you can see. It is definitely somewhere I will go back. I want to ride some bumper cars!