Guangzhou-la!

At 4:30 in the morning, one wonders how it is that one has come to be sitting in McDonalds of all places, listening to a Vietnam vet tell story after story, while drinking the worst coffee in the world.

Guangzhou, the capital of neighbouring province, Guangdong --  also known as Canton.  Also known as one enormous shopping mall.  There really isn't much to do in Guangzhou other than shop and we all know how much Rachel LOVES to shop...I'm being completely sarcastic.  The only part about shopping that I like is bargains but I hate actually shopping for bargains with other people let alone half of China.  Plus I'm such a cheapskate and I can always think of things I need more.  And Chinese laobans (shop-keepers) are scary when they get angry at you...did you ever wonder how 'chinese burns' got their name? Lets just say that I know first hand what it means to have one's arm twisted into buying something...literally.

Ok now, I see the confusion on your face.  Well, to cut a really long story, this was our last effort to hopefully annul my request for residency in the USA (that has been going on since January '08).  We just had to get someone at the US Consulate to apply the official seal to all our verified documents to prove that I'm no longer in the USA so they won't deport me (from American)...but I'll stop there before I start ranting and raving.  Not really knowing how long this would take or if they'd need to keep our passports over night like they do when you get visas and stuff, we planned to spend Thursday till Saturday and come home Sunday.  Guangzhou is about 11 hours away from Nanning by bus but our driver apparently had a lead foot because we made it to Guangzhou in record time of 8 hours hence the reason we found ourselves in McDonalds at 4:30am because it was the only thing open.  So we had time to kill till our 10am appointment at the consulate so this delightful old American Vietnam vet. told us his entire life story for the next 4 and 1/2 hours...

The US consulate took all of an hour.  Once the lady said, "ok that's it.  Next," we just kind of kept standing there -- nothing at the consulate has ever only taken an hour before.  "Don't you want our passports?  Don't we need to go through security again?  Shouldn't we wait for our number to be called in about 2 hours?"  "No, you can go now."  "Are you sure?"  "Yes.  Please."  So dumbfounded, we wondered over to the metro to try and figure out what we were going to do till we met our couch-surfing host...oh yes, here's another one for you -- we hadn't met the people we would be staying with yet.  Well, we had on the internet but that was it.  

(These are our Couch hosts and their friends at this quaint little board game place!  We had so much fun listening to all the Bi-hua (Cantonese) being spoken and playing game after game...Jason is a Settler's of Catan addict now.)

When my sister came to visit me in the States, we went to NYC and stayed in some random guy's apartment that I'd met on a website called couchsurfing.com.  Ok Mum, before you start freaking out, check out the site and you'll see what a wonderful thing this is.  Basically its a way to travel on the cheap, stay somewhere for free and make new friends with the premise that they'll show you their city and their culture from their perspective.  I love it.  So this is the second time we've ever done this and we hooked up with this lovely couple -- a guy from Canada who teaches English and his girlfriend, a local from Guangzhou...and their 4 cats and 2 dogs.  It was a full house.  

(Good thing I'm not dyslexic or anything...)

Between the markets, the temples, ending up in opposite places to where we wanted to be, playing video games, great conversations, having animals vying for our attention (well Jason's attention -- animal's LOVE him), monsoonal rains and travelling time (Guangzhou is so huge -- we felt like we had culture shock that first day!) we came home EXHAUSTED.  But as all the furniture we want for our someday apartment where ever that might be is still in Guangzhou (I told you, I never buy anything the first time I see it), I guess we'll be crashing our friends...or someone elses...couch again sometime.

See, they do have freedom of speech here...

On a side note, after yet another sudden, monsoonal down-pour, we found ourselves in the same complex as a Starbucks.  Now, I don't know why I thought that I would like a Starbucks in China when I don't even like them in America but THIS is supposedly an iced coffee.  What it is in fact, is the most expensive tall cup of milk with a slight hint of coffee flavouring I've ever had.  Ah, Starbucks...I still have nothing nice to say about you other than it was my own silly fault!