Guangzhou at 5:03 AM

As some of you know, I was recently released into the wild. My first semester of teaching ended around the 22nd of January and I've been on rampaging around Southern China ever since. Although this is definitely one of the more rugged vacations I've ever taken. I took a shower for the first time in about 3 days tonight and it was legitimately just because I haven't been able to. (Scoff if you want, but let it be known I love showers. At a scout camp I obtained the nick name "Mr. Clean." Not because of my ridiculously muscular body, but because I often took two or three showers a day. It just feels nice. Anyways...)

So, I got to Guangzhou on the 23rd of January with my friends, Matt and Kristal Carter, and spent about three days there. The pictures above will let you know that this place is awesome. Sorry mom, couldn't find a zoo, but don't worry, I'm pretty most Chinese zoo's are similar to what you remember. We did have church in our hostile, (online) and we basically wandered the city for a few days. Guangzhou kind of reminds me of Seattle. It was overcast, green, slightly humid, and beautiful. It was the kind of city you're happy to just wander around in for a few days. Which we did.

The first few pictures are of a huge city park we played in. It had a lake, with boats. We rented one and much joy followed. It had a lot of gardens, which were splendid. It had a tower with cannnons (cannons are cooler than towers, hence the picture of the cannon and not the tower), and it had places to exercise. In one of these we found this man, probably in his 60's, doing gymnastics, I wonder if he realizes he's not a teenager. At this point I want to talk about old people in China for a minute. They are amazing. They're happy, strong, spry and alert. I could be wrong, but from what I can guess, the grandparents stay in good shape because they usually have a strong hand in the raising of grandchildren. In America our kids see their grand parents occasionally, in China, I think some kids see their parents occasionally. I think this sense of purpose helps Chinese people stay stronger longer. That and some other things, which maybe I'll write a blog about later...

(The pictures described after this will be in one or two more posts)
Anyways, we also went to some awesome ancestral Hall that was just cool to walk around in. You'll notice two things. One there is a guy in a black leather vest in one or two pictures. His name is Simon, he just kind of tagged along with us for a day or two. He's from Switzerland and he's a really nice guy, and that's not just cause he gave us some Swiss chocolate. Two in one of the pictures we're in a nice garden and there is a really run down apartment in the background. This is kind of normal in China.

Lastly we randomly found a huge bhuddist temple and spent a minute talking to the Monks. That's Matt and Simon in the picture talking to them.

The verdict is Guangzhou rocks. I'll make another post just of a few more pictures of stuff we found.