NOTE: I updated the previous entry about Hefei with pictures, so you might want to check it out again

You must be all going, "What?! Another trip to Hefei?!" Well, yeah. That's where we planned to have our Christmas Get-Together. However, we decided to get together on the weekend before Christmas. So let me get started telling you what happened.

Only Brian and myself were travelling to the get- together. Both Terry and Bethany had a lot of work to do, so they stayed in Wuhu. Jan had gone back to Vancouver, WA to be at home for Christmas. She's got 4 grandchildren now, so her arms are very tired, I'm sure.

The bus ride was thankfully uneventful. A lot of people noted to driver that he had a "lao wai" on board. (As if he didn't know.) There is this newspaper lady at the Chang Jiang ferry that really has a good sales pitch. The other newspaper sellers who come on board the busses seem half-dead most of the time. This lady, though, is really animated. She was fun lady to listen to even though I barely understood anything she said.

The only other thing of note we saw while we were on the bus was a bike loaded up to the hilt. Now, I mean this bike was really loaded. It was a three-wheeler with the wagon in the back. The wagon was stacked full of these sheets of something. It was styrofoam or something. In any case, the sheets were stacked up several meters into the air. Many of the sheets were actually hanging over the cyclist's head. It looked like it could all come down at any moment. The cyclist was really pumping hard on his pedals to even move his bike. After Brian looked out the window, he said, "That scene just made this whole trip worthwhile."

On the bus, we had discussed whether we should grab a hamburger at the Holiday Inn. We don't get real hamburgers in Wuhu and the Holiday Inn is just around the corner from the bus station.

So we made a bee-line for the hotel once we disembarked. We rounded one corner and walked a block. We rounded a second corner and the hotel was just in front of us. Then all of the sudden, I hear some lady say, "Brian, I am so glad to see you." I was like, "Who said that?"

Apparently, it was one of Brian's former students. He's got contacts all over Anhui province. This lady was teaching at a school in Hefei and was just sending her mother off to the bus station. Talk about a cowing-ky-dink (coincidence, for those who don't know my personal slang and idioms). Brian cannot go anywhere in the province without running into somebody.

After that was all said and done, we dashed into the Holiday Inn and took the lift to the top floor. That's where the restaurant is. The place was decked in Christmas paraphenalia. They even had a draw for some electronics and appliances. I took a closer look at the prizes on display and noticed that they were giving away the same brand and model of washer that Brian and I have back in our apartment.

We were quickly seated and ordered the burger. Let me tell you, it was a pretty good sloppy joe. I could tell by the texture that the paddy was not really a paddy. It was minced meat cooked together on the grill like a steak. All the same, it was a good burger. Brian was really stuffed. I was full too. After I was done, I just sat back and enjoyed the wonderful view of downtown Hefei.

We got back down to street level and hopped on the Number 1 bus that would take us straight to the Anhui Institute of Education (Anhui Jiaoyu Xueyuan for you pinyin persons, you; AIE from now on in). It was definitely a crowded bus. It was lunch hour, so we should have known better.

As we chugged along Chang Jiang Zhong Lu (Middle Yangtze River Road), we saw a lot of the stores were well decorated for Christmas. Hefei is a lot bigger than Wuhu, so there are a lot more products there, especially Christmas related things. I also noticed that there were a great string of red lanterns hanging from lamppost to lamppost. I looked closely and saw that they were there to celebrate the return of Macau to China. I also noticed that all the lanterns were sponsored by the Hefei Radio Station.

We got hastily off at the "correct" stop. I was very thankful I remembered enough of the stores around AIE in order to know where I was. We both knew where the foreign guesthouse was, so there was no problem there. We signed in at the front desk, but our rooms weren't ready yet, so we crashed at Shannon's place. Remember that Shannon and Lois teach at AIE.

Shannon had been washing her dishes in her tub when we arrived. Her apartment doesn't have any kitchen facilities. I was instantly drawn to the television. She had a lot more channels than we got in Wuhu. (By the way, our TV got fried about a week or two ago. Not as if we used it much anyway.) First, Brian and I were watching some MTV. MTV is a show, not a channel, in China. There was a Chinese song on, but then, it was followed by English song. Get this: it was Tom Jones and the Cardigans singing "Burning Down the House." It was hilarious watching Tom Jones. What did people ever see in him?

MTV soon ended and I started surfing around. What I noticed was Shannon's TV could receive the Chongqing Satellite Channel. For those of you who don't know, Chongqing is a city state in Sichuan province. It's miles and miles away from Hefei. I just couldn't understand why she could receive it. Watching that channel, though, gave me a hankering to go to Chongqing someday. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that this year, that is, 2000.

Also at Shannon's place was this hideous singing teddy bear. Her students gave it to her as a present, but, man, it gets "old" fast, and annoying too. Everytime you hit the bear, it starts singing this really upbeat kiddie type song and it's eyes flash a demonic red. Freaky, eh? Shannon says the song tells you how to do your morning exercises properly. I certainly wouldn't want to wake to that bear, I tell you.

That night, we went to the KFC and got take out. The restaurant itself was just packed. We went back to Lois's and hung out. I played with little Emily Sherk. Something about red Mexican jumping beans. Don't ask. I don't want to recount the whole story. But the most memorable thing about that night was trying to get to sleep. You see, there's this disco place right beside the guesthouse. The booming started at 9pm and did not end until some time after midnight. Boom boom boom boom . . .

In the morning, it got even better. The guesthouse is also right beside the basketball courts. Bright and early at six, the people would start hitting the courts. Bounce bounce bounce bounce . . . when would the pounding stop? I got smart the next night. I covered my entire head with a towel. :)

The next morning, I spent time with Shannon. We had to plan what we were going to do for our upcoming travel in January. Then, we had brunch at the Sherks apartment at the University of Science and Technology China (USTC, or ZhongGuo KeDa). That's where I stayed at on my last visit to Hefei. There were waffles, french toast, omelettes, fruit salad, and, of course, tea. But what really made the brunch special were Emily's VeggieTales video tapes. I caught the tail end of "Who's My Neighbour?" and then I watched, for the first time, "Josh and The Big Wall." For those of you who don't know VeggieTales, you're missing out. They're made for kids, but they are absolutely hilarious. They're not dumb jokes either, they are smart and on par with Monty Python.

The lack of sleep was really catching up on me in the afternoon, but I decided to go to this temple market that Ty and Shannon kept talking about. But then, there's the real challenge: getting there.

We took a taxi down to Middle Chang Jiang Road and got off at some point along the street. Then the searcing started. Ty and Shannon had both only been there once and both had stumbled upon it their first time. They called it the Temple Market, but who knows what the real Chinese name was. So, for the next two hours, we wandered in and around Middle Chang Jiang Road looking for this Temple Market. Along the way, we stumbled across a new pedestrian street similar to the one in Wuhu, but it wasn't as grand. It was a pleasant walk-and-talk, though.

We had made an appointment with some of the other teachers to rendezvous at the pagoda in the center of the market, so we were getting a little "anxie" about finding this place. We were close to the Holiday Inn by this time, so we decided to duck into their lobby and ask where this place is. Well, Ty and I were left to our own devices at the front desk to ask for directions. Where in the world did Shannon go? She's the one who has the best Putonghua. I tried to describe a market that had a temple and pagoda inside of it, but got the name of a place that I had seen during our walk-and-talk time. So I knew that was not the place we wanted. Finally, Shannon appeared and bailed out the two fumbling guys. She got the right answer and got the name of the place written on a card. Then, we were off.

The market was not really obvious to the outsider. We went through this gate and went down a really crowded alley. I guess we were in the market now. Then after a turn here and a turn there, we came across a temple and a pagoda. Pay dirt. All around this temple and pagoda were vendors. It made me wonder if the old Jerusalem Temple felt like this place.

We waited and waited and waited. Well, actually, some of us shopped, excluding yours truly. The other teachers were no where to be seen. Then one of them showed up, but the others were still missing. Well, we couldn't wait for them, so we left. As we were exiting the market, I got a good feeling of how crowded China can really get sometimes. It was a true ocean of humanity siphoning through these tiny little alleyways with shops on either side. It was fun to watch Ty though. He's a big white foreigner in a sea of Chinese faces and height. I hung back behind him a little and noticed how people would stare at him after he had passed by. Every now and then, I would hear the words "lao wai" uttered around me. Ty would also seem like he was parting the Red Sea. Unfortunately, that sea would close in right behind him and I was left to use my elbows to get past people.

That night, we spent some time sharing about our semesters thus far and had our big Christmas dinner at the Novotel Hefei. It was a wonderful buffet dinner. We also had a turkey, cranberry sauce, and pecan pie. Very delicious. Murray Sherk even dressed up as Santa himself for the gift exchange. It was wonderful meal to cap off a great weekend, but the night wasn't over yet. We went back to Lois's and watched What About Bob? with Bill Murray. Not your usual Christmas fare, but it will do.

Then that was that. Brian and I slept another night at AIE. I got much more shut-eye this time around. Oh, and I must add, I loved the 24/7 hot water in the bathroom. I even took a rare morning shower. I don't even do morning showers in Canada, so it was special.

Brian and I soon embarked on another lovely ride through the Chinese countryside and found ourselves back home in Wuhu.

"Brian. Did you remember to bring the extra burgers we ordered back to Wuhu?"