China day 2

                This morning I woke up and prepared for one of the activities that I have been looking forward to since I discovered I was traveling independently. The three of us got into a van with a small group of people to the Rice Terraces. The woman who was our tour guide, named Sophia, was awesome. Her short stature and sweet smile put all of us at ease as we traveled over 2 hours away from any major city in China.

                On the way to the Rice Terraces Sophia told us about how the Yao people migrated from Guilin to escape war. She also told us that the Yao people have some very unique ways of attracting their future mate. A woman shows her attraction to a man by pitching his butt; the harder the pinch the deeper the attraction. A man shows his attraction to a woman by touching her foot. The men also have unique things they look for in a wife. The men want a woman with big hips for children, large feet to climb the mountain, a loud voice to yell for the husband in the mountains, and small fingers for better pinching! Another thing that is very different about the Yao women is that they only cut their hair once in their life, and that is on their 18^th birthday. The Genesis Book of World Records holder for the world’s longest hair is a Yao woman whose hair exceeds 2.1 meters. You are probably wondering what do they do with all of that hair? Well, a woman’s hair helps show the men and the community at what stage of life they are in. There are only three hairstyles in the community: one where they wrap the hair in black cloth which means they are not married, one that is wrapped in the style of a “cat tail” as they call it to signify they are married with no children, and one that is wrapped in the style of a “dragon” which means they are married and have children.  

                The first stop was to actually go and visit the Yao people. We got to watch a show that helped show us some of the culture’s rituals and life styles. The end of the show was the weirdest part. They showed us how they wrap their hair. I was honestly in shock. I could not understand how their heads hold up all that weight.

                After the show our group went and ate lunch at a local restaurant. This is where Brittany, Ada, and I got to know the two guys that were with us. One of the guy’s names was Carlos and the other is Sergio. Carlos was born in Brazil, grew up in Germany, and just finished a year fellowship in Bio Chemistry in Hong Kong. Sergio is from Switzerland and is in China visiting his brother who lives here. The five of us hit it off right away! In talking to Carlos I discovered that he used to work at the headquarters of BASF, which is the company my dad works for! So strange!!!! We all sat there talking about our lives and what we were all doing in China. As we got into the car to head to the actual terraces Brittany, Ada, and I knew we had just made friends for life.

                On the way up to the terraces we had to drive up the side of a mountain. The roads are crazy! It was like a roller coaster complete with sharp turns, obstacles, and high speeds (don’t worry Mom we didn’t crash lol). Once we arrived at the terraces we started hiking up the mountain to get a view from the top. It was a little overcast and windy so the temperature was chilly, but nothing compared to a Cleveland winter. The hike up was beautiful! The higher we climbed the more detail I could see in the sides of these mountains. The elaborate twists and turns in the rice fields are something to marvel at. When the group reached the top I was almost speechless. To see all of these fields that used to be full of rice was incredible. I mean, who thought to plant rice on the side of a mountain. I think one of my favorite parts was at the top of the mountain we climbed we could see other mountains full of rice fields playing peak-a-boo with the clouds. I am honestly still trying to process what I saw. It is hard to imagine everything that I have seen. I will be processing for years to come I think.

                While at the top I noticed a guy that I met briefly at the Yao People show. His name was Adam. So, I decided to go over and talk to him some more. At the Yao people show I learned that he was teaching English here in China, and I thought this was a perfect time to pick his brain about how he got here. So at the beginning of our discussion I asked him where he was from. He told me he was from Ohio, and when I asked where my jaw dropped when he answered from Akron. I could not believe it! Akron! As Adam and I spoke a little longer we began speaking of where we had originally come from. Come to find out he knew of Greenville, Ohio because he is originally from Carrollton! Can you believe that, two people meeting in random Guilin, China having grown up 45 minutes away from one another? It felt like such a small world. We exchanged emails to keep in contact, and then I had to quickly disappear because my group was leaving.

                On the way back to our hostel we met a traffic jam on the side of the mountain. The weirdest part about the traffic jam was that everyone just turns off their car and gets out. Sophia was telling us that they never know how long they will be stuck there so instead of wasting gas they turn their car off. She then told us that people often get bored sitting in their car usually alone so they all get out and talk or help if there is an accident or something. I found this very strange. I made the comment that you know someone is really badly hurt or worse if people are turning off their cars in a traffic jam in the states.  Luckily this traffic jam was only about a half hour. So on the road again back to the hostel.

                Once we got to the hostel the five of us shared dumplings and rice for dinner. During dinner Carlos remembered it was his birthday! How do you forget something like that? Well, needless to say we celebrated his birthday. Brittany and Ada went and found a bakery that was open late and bought a small cake to celebrate with. While celebrating his birthday with cake we made another friend. His name was Neil and he was from Sweden. We also all discovered that we all planned on doing similar things the next day so we decided to join up and go together.  

                One more really weird thing happened to me this day. This group of people came into our hostel at about 1am to check in. Out of nowhere this guy asks me if I know a guy named Brody. I say well, I know a Brody. This guy proceeds to say yeah Brody from Baldwin-Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio! I had no idea but a guy from my school is studying abroad in Hong Kong and I had just met his roommate. The school he is studying at was on spring break and so Brody’s roommate in Hong Kong had decided to come to Guilin, and recognized my BW t-shirt I was wearing. How crazy!!!!!

Even though we knew we had a busy day tomorrow we stayed up almost all night just talking and laughing. This day had been a great day!