慈溪

So, I can't sleep...

Why?

Because tomorrow, I'm picking up my mom and sister from the airport in Shanghai!! Ahh!! It's times like this I can't believe I actually live in China... Needless to say, I am extremely excited! I can't wait to show this crazy, chaotic country to two of my favorite people.

But, they're not here yet, so I figure I'll make best of this excitement-induced insomnia and tell you about the trip I just took to Ningbo.

So, last Wednesday, Rachel and I met up with one of my (now former) students, Arlene. She led us to the bus station where we took the 2-hour bus ride to her hometown, Cixi (pronounced: "Tsuh-Shee"). Turns out, we didn't actually go to the city of Ningbo (as I originally thought), but rather this area called Cixi, which is a part of the greater Ningbo region. When Arlene described Cixi, she told us she lived in the countryside... and then she said the population was only about 1 million. Only 1 million - ha! Clearly, we define "countryside" and "small town" quite differently in the USA.

Anyhow, we spent the night in a lovely hotel in Cixi and woke up the next day to go on our Yangmei picking adventure. We went with Arlene, her mother and uncle, and her younger sister, Hazel. The berry pickings were a little slim since it had rained the night before, which caused a lot of the berries to fall from the trees prematurely. Regardless, we picked roughly 3 kilos of berries... and, yes, we ate all of them that day. And, the crazy thing? We never felt full - these are magical, magical berries people. Rachel and I are pretty sure we ate an entire tree of them, and we didn't even feel bloated! If only the yangmei season were longer... it's only 10-15 days long each year, so they won't be selling them much after today. I suppose that's why you have to eat so many of them while you can! Here are some pictures of our yangmei-picking experience:

Hiking up the mountain to the Yangmei trees

The size of your average Yangmei

Hazel and I with our Yangmei basket

Arlene, her mother and Hazel eating Yangmei straight from the trees

They gave us these jackets to prevent bugs from crawling into our skin... ew!

After Yangmei Day, we spent a lot of time with Arlene and her family. We shopped, ate, sang KTV, ate some more, visited Arlene's house, and even did some dancing! 

Cixi is famous for its duck necks, so of course we ate some!

The lunch that Arlene's family prepared for us - full of seafood !

Arlene's Mom teaching me a dance

Arlene's family owns a slipper factory... which was literally 10 feet from their house!

So, as you can see, the first three days we spent with Arlene and her family were plenty of fun! But, I have to say, the final day we spent with them was probably the best... which I'll talk about in my next post because this one is too long and uploading pictures is becoming difficult. I'll update it shortly!