Where's the bathroom?
Before I share the story of the last 2 days, I would just like to say that we are all well and good right now. Parents and friends, keep praying that the health of the group stays this way for the rest of the trip. Here is the slide show from the last 2 days. Enjoy!
So...here's what went down: Tuesday we left our mountain resort and rode on a bus back to Guilin. When we arrived in the city, we went straight to the Reed Flute Cave. This was incredibly neat. This was a huge cave. Throughout the whole thing, there were different signs that told you what you were suppose to see in the rocks. There were things like "centipede running from a magic mirror" and "snowman" and "farmer's garden." It was very neat and very slippery (as made evident by one of our members). As we are walking through the cave, we are unaware of the mounting doom that will befall us...
After we finish in the cave, we travel to lunch. We sat at 2 separate tables this time, but the food still kept coming. They actually had french fries at this dinner. As we were finishing our meal, Fran came in with a large delicious birthday cake for Ed. We sang, cut the cake, and devoured it. We still had no idea what was going to happen...
Fran suggested that we all get a foot massage. This is a technique called Reflexology. This is a belief that every thing in your body affects your feet, so if you massage the foot in the right place, your body will be healed. There is this chart that shows you exactly where on the foot each body part is located. If it hurts when they massage that point, that part of your body needs detoxifying. So almost all of us got this massage. Not only did they massage your feet, they did legs, neck, shoulders, and back as well. It was amazing.
From there, we went to the airport to take our flight to Xi'an. It was there that I started feeling like I might throw up. I apologize if any of this gets graphic, I will try to keep it nice for you. Andrew wasn't feeling so hot either. When we got on the plane, the air conditioner doesn't work when the plane is on the ground. Yay for us who were sitting beside the smelly French people who didn't use deodorant. This did not help matters. Just to save details, Andrew and Meg both got sick on the plane. I tried to sleep the whole time. We didn't know that Will and Ed were not feeling well either. They were being tough.
When we arrived, we exited the plane on the runway, which was odd, and then got into buses that took us to the airport. A few of us were not doing too well. We met our new tour guide, Alex, and got on the bus. Andrew, Meg, and I tried to sleep all the way to the hotel. While we were asleep, Alex was telling the rest of the group that there had been some aftershocks from the earthquake in Xi'an that day. He said it wasn't a big deal, but he wanted us to be aware. We got to our hotel to learn that the smelly French people are staying here, too. The staff of the hotel can actually speak French, but not English. For the rest of the night, Will, Ed, and Danielle joined us in the sick boat while Meg went to the healthy side.
As Wednesday morning arrived, Robert was trying to see how everyone was doing. We really did not feel like getting out of bed, but we really didn't want to miss the Terra Cotta Warriors. After talking with Alex, we switched the itinerary for Wednesday and Thursday. That meant that the sick people could stay in bed and get well and the healthy people could go see the mosk and the city wall. The day of rest really helped. It was fun trying to communicate to the cleaning ladies that we were going to need more than one roll of toilet paper because we were all sick. Pantomiming is fun.
When the healthy group got back, they ventured to the grocery store to buy food and water. I think we all really want some good American home cooked meals right about now. After chatting about the events of the day, I went back to sleep, so I have no idea what went on after about 7 pm last night. I'm sure someone will fill me in. Wednesday afternoon we were all feeling much better and we were making jokes again. I think that we will all be ready for the Terra Cotta Warriors today and the train ride tonight. I'm pretty excited about that. I doubt the train will have internet, so I don't know the next time a post will come. Despite the sickness, we are all still in high spirits and are having a blast. We are really excited about the next few days to come! Please be praying that we all stay healthy. Love you all (and miss a few of you...j/k)!
Peace out
Ashley
