All the Small Things....

Today we ventured to The Nationalities Village, which is located just outside Kunming about an hour and a half from our school. Within this "Village" there are little sections from all the different nationalities of China.

The first thing we did when we got there was ride elephants. It was so fun. Alot of people in our group dressed up in some Chinese costumes they had there, and took pictures on the elephants. I personally decided against the costume. But it was so cool to be on an elephant. By the way elephants have way bad breath! Once we were done with that we climbed on some rock elephants that where there. Taking photos on them was not allowed, and the Chinese did not appreciate us doing it, but Colin let us so oh well.

Next we hit the zip line. It was probably 200 feet long and over a really pretty lake. It was really exciting and a lot of fun.

We hit a little restaurant for lunch and the food didn't really look that good but I was starving and needed something to eat. So I settled for some noodles with vegetables and Chile sauce. Besides the fact that it was cold it was actually pretty good. I think I might have finally learned how to use chopsticks too! At least with noodles. At the school we only have rice so I have just been shovelling it into my mouth - not really learning how to use them.

After lunch we kinda just broke off into little groups. It was Sarah, Chelsey, Kayla, Colin, a few of his friends, and me. First thing we found where some swings. They where hard to pump on but Colin's friend pushed me (because I cant remember his name we will name him Mike because he reminds me of Mikey, or they way him and Colin interact reminds me of Danny and Mikey). Within that same little area there was a hut and inside there was an outfit made out of grass or something it looked really cool but really itchy. There was also a rice crusher and a bean masher. It was all really cool. On our way out of that section there was a cool little tree that we decided to take a picture in. Guess what happened, yep we got yelled at again for climbing on the stuff. Next we headed over toward the Tibetan village. We never made it there though. Instead we found these goat like statues much like the elephant ones. This time we made sure there were no security guards around before climbing on them.

Next we went to an elephant show. It was pretty cool. I fed the biggest elephant my corn on the cob. One of the girls from our group got a "massage" from the elephant it was really funny. You most definitely had to be there. That was pretty much all the exciting stuff about it. After the show my roommates and I just wandered around for a little. I did see some girls riding horses and I really wanted to but they wouldn't let me. So that's pretty much it. It was alot of fun and I would most definitely suggest you do it if you are ever out Kunming's way.

Oh yeah so there was this little goat tied up next to a statue of two big goats. There was a hole in between the two goats heads. The little goat went through the hole to get away from us so I went on the other side of the statue to scare it back to the other side. The other girls where nervous that the goat would ram them but it looked harmless enough. Picture this: I'm on the one side of the statue and everyone else including the goat are the other side. We decide to leave. Kayla and Dan leave first a few strides ahead of Emily and Chelsey. I come around the statue and scare both the goat and I so it takes off towards Emily and it's afraid and has nowhere else to go so it rams Emily in the thigh! Chelsey and I can't help but laugh and Dan and Kayla missed the whole thing; it was so hilarious. Earlier Emily had commented on how you just need to be faster than the goat. She wasn't.