Jeffrey

Lijiang EOTC

I got up at 4 in the morning, and rushed out of the apartment without eating anything. While driving there, the streets were empty, no hustle and bustle of everyday life. As we neared the school however, several cars zoomed in ahead of me and my mom, which I correctly guessed to be sending classmates to the school. I got out of the house, said goodbye to my mom, and entered. I quickly met up with my friends and classmates and went into the buses which then, well, bused us to the Pudong Airport. We later found out we were in the wrong terminal for going to Lijiang. The bus was quickly called back and we headed off a short distance to Terminal 2. The sky was light and clear, and traffic was picking up by the time we entered. We passed through check-in, security, and boarding entrance. I headed onto the plane and went to sleep, fearing another bout of air-sickness. However, nearing the end of the trip, Daniel woke me up, and I felt better then ever. Of course, luck is a fickle thing, and nearing touch-down, my duodenum disagreed with me and I puked. Thank goodness for air sickness bags. We headed off the plane and we started moving...but not to the exit. I started getting alarmed and asked where were we going. Oh great. Another plane, just my luck. Where were we anyways, if we ned another plane and all? Kunming? So off we go again through check-in and all that lot, and we end up on another plane(except that Melody got left behind for losing the ticket). This time, I fall asleep before we even fly, and I suddenly wake up with everyone getting out. "It's over already?" I ask. "Yes." came the reply. I get up, get off the plane, and I DIDN'T puke! YAY! We waited for the baggage for at least 20 minutes, but then the tour guide told us that the baggage might come tomorrow morning or tonight. One thing was certain and that was the fact that the baggage wasn't coming anytime soon. We left, and went to this No.8 Restaurant and had a nice lunch, with a special little dish that was the first tofu dish that I liked. The lunch was wonderful, until I realized that I left my camera on the bus. I panicked, but asked the tour guide to call it back, and I retrieved it. Relieved, I went off with the rest of the group and went off to the Black Dragon Pool Park. We left after several moments of some people getting together and demanding someone take a picture of them. Afterwards, we separated into groups, where Yellow and Silver Group divided themselves accordingly, where the shoppers( the girls) split away from the non-shoppers(guess who is left). Mr.Sein took the boys from Sliver and Yellow around and when we come back, the girls are still in the same shop that they were in 30 minutes ago. We went off to a restaurant where we dined on something I can't remember anymore, cause it's in my stomach and all. Chase picked up darts after dinner, and pretty soon we were all playing darts as well, with some people scoring the highest score, a 9. We left the restaurant and we went off for a concert, where the leader was a blind person who was apparently locked up for 80 years, who was the first one onstage, led there by a stage assistant, and after he sat down, the rest of the orchestra filed in from the left and the right. The first song sounded similar to the third song, while the second song was called "My Heartless Girlfriend" by the member of the orchestra who sang it. The fourth song was sung by an opera character. In the end, we all went back to the hotel and went to sleep. I get up at 7:30 and get out and eat breakfast, packing my bags for what I thought was leaving, which we did in Inner Mongolia, where we never stayed in one place for more than one night. I waste my efforts after Joe tells me that we won't be leaving for another day. I ate a breakfast of 'potato men' and some sort of sausage. This concludes breakfast. We then leave in a bus to a 3000m stop and wait for another bus to take us to the cable-car station. In the meantime, me and Daniel caught several tadpoles and let them go afterwards. After the bus arrived and we went up, we lined up and waited to go in cable-cars. As I waited, one of my schoolmates suddenly refused to go on the cable-car, and I was told to go on myself. So I am on the cable-car with a group of Year 9s and all but one start shaking it and scaring me with the height. Arriving safely at the station, I got out and everybody started climbing the mountain, with a couple dropping out.I made it and personally, I was very pleased, until I found that I lost my jacket. Of course, it had snow on top, but it strangely wasn't cold. Even Kenneth wore his T-shirt there, and he wasn't cold. The last people to arrive down at the bus station were me, Daniel, and someone else that I can't really remember. Afterwards, we went to a school where we met similarly aged students and although we didn't really do much other than go around the grounds and talk, the earlier part of our visit was very interesting, with what slightly felt like a competition, with the students in the other group singing the school anthem, Yuki and Naomie singing a song, Jimmy playing a piano that was half the size of one he needed, and several other students also playing instruments. At the end, we all went for a group photo and parted our ways, with the YCIS group heading to the bus, and the other school's students going back in the school. We went back to the hotel, where everyone left to go shopping. In my group was Mr.Sein, Daniel, Salomon, Joe, Melody, Yuki, and Chloe. The girls sped of to colorful, packed shops, while the boys were kept waiting, except for Joe, who bought several things. We then go back and go to sleep. I woke up at 7:50, eat breakfast at 8:00, and after finishing breakfast, went onto the bus that took us to Tiger Leaping Gorge, so called, because a Lord of Lijiang and his entourage went out hunting for tigers and one escaped them by jumping across this place. Although we didn't go anywhere near the area, we still did a lot of hiking. This took most of the day and by the time I got to the stop for the night, I was the last one. It was very hard going up, and every 10~50m, I would feel out of breath and sat on a rock until I felt better again. It later turned out that it was because I didn't drink a drop of water, even though I had two full unopened bottles in my bag. After dinner, I headed upstairs, where I found that Yuki and Chloe had kidnapped a puppy from somewhere and Daniel and Salomon and many others people were there with them. It turned out that the puppy came from downstairs, where its mother was looking for it. So off I go downstairs, and I bring the mother along as well. After a while of adoration and "Aww, how cute!"s, they were brought back to their box and everyone went to dinner. We finished dinner, and a bonfire was lit in the center of the guesthouse/hotel/something along the lines of the previous two and a man with a pipe started prancing and dancing around it, leading a chain of people along. After awhile, only Daniel and five others remained from our group, and the others danced presumably like native Naxi people. After that we all went to sleep. I woke up after Yuki told me to do so. The walls are thin, after all. So up I get, and we all head out to breakfast. I didn't feel hungry, so I didn't eat. Later, I would regret that. After breakfast, we started again, and began the 3 hour trip to Tina's Guesthouse. On the way there, we passed by a LOT of dung, from goats and horses. Very sick. It was pretty hard to avoid without falling off the cliff, but we all did that. All the while, I was feeling a bit hungry. After the three hours can Tina's Guesthouse, with omelets and French fries to boot. That done, we took a group photo and we continued on our trip, taking 3 small buses out of the Gorge and going to the big bus. When we finished dinner, we went off to an internet bar, which I used to start writing this article. When the time was up, we left and went off to our hotels and went to sleep. I was woken up by Mr.Sein telling me about the fact I was late by 2 minutes from 7:30 to get my luggage into the foyer. I got there in less than 5 minutes thanks to packing yesterday. I drank several cups of lemon juice and then we left and went cycling. After we dismounted, we were at Bai Sha Village with many old relics of Lijiang there. I didn't pay much attention unfortunately, but afterwards, there was a time for some shopping, where I bought this interesting watch for myself, and later Salomon. After lunch, we went off to the airport, and there wasn't much to talk about. Although we did have an awards ceremony, in which everyone got a "sucker" for something they did that was unique compared to others. At 8:00 in the night, we all got on the plane again and left. The flight continued until 11:30, where we got on a bus, and went to the school, ending this trip.
 * Day 1:**
 * Day 2:**
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