The End Is Near

This past weekend I went to NanJing again. NanJing used to be the capital of China and there is a lot of history and things to do there. Saturday Josh, Alyssa and I went to the Purple Mountain in search of a giant Buddah. It took us all afternoon to find it and it was not easy by any means. We wandered around the extremely confusing park for who knows how long before finally finding a picture of the Buddah. We pointed at the picture and were told by means of sign language that we had to take a cable car to the top of the mountain to see the Buddah. But the cable car wasn't anywhere near where we were at that particular point in time. We had to get in a van and drive maybe 10 minutes to get to the cable car. Then we wandered around at the top for a while (We even had a map, it was pretty sad) before finding the Buddah. I climbed up and sat on it's belly to have my picture taken. This little old man came around the bushes that were kind of hiding us from view and gasped very loudly and started speaking in heated Chinese. I assumed he was getting upset over a white person debasing Buddah so I quickly climbed off. Turns out that wasn't what he was saying because his grandson climbed up on Buddah's head and had his picture taken. After grandpa left we had a photo shoot with Buddah, it made sweating and wandering around a mountain all day totally worth it.

 That Saturday the temperature reached about 100 degrees and it felt like 500% humidity to me. We made it back to the Isom's where Alyssa and I were staying and had time for a quick shower before the ladies of the Relief Society showed up for a party. That was about all the excitement for that weekend.
This week has been kind of a sad one for me actually. It was my last week teaching. In every class when I told them I was done teaching there was a stunned silence. In one class one boy asked "Why?" and that was all they said for a little bit. I am so very sad to be leaving my students. It was rough at the beginning but I've come to love each and every one of them. They are each so unique and fun. For my last class I put together some pictures of some of my favorite things in China and some things I miss from America. They really enjoyed seeing what I missed and the things about their culture that I love. They can't understand why we don't do KTV in America, I couldn't explain in because I don't understand it either. After that we played a quick game for about 20 minutes or so and then I took pictures. I would attach some pictures but it takes a really long time to do it and I can't get my yahoo account to pull up right now. I think when I get back to America (Which is too soon for comfort) I will just post pictures so expect to see lots of those later. Also, anyone that wants to sit long enough to look at pictures and hear about China I can so do that for hours.

Tomorrow I am starting a very long vacation. I am hopefully heading to the Philippines. I say hopefully because saying things are for sure in China is a good way to make them not for sure. But all the flights are booked so I better make it! I will be gone until Monday June 25th so don't expect to hear from me until then! This post is a little shorter than normal but I'll make up for it when I get back. :)