July 17, 2013
Nanjing
Any day that starts by waking up to the glorious view of the Yangtze River and sailing under a magnificent bridge is a good day in my book. The morning was usual with breakfast (in all of its pork dumpling and brown sugar syrup glory) in our little room and meeting together to get ready for our excursion. Our cute little guide, Lily, first took us to what they called an animal garden. It wasnt a zoo, like many of the kids were expecting, but instead it was a long shady pathway with giant stone statues of different animals every 30 yards or so. There were 24 animals all together, with 2 pairs of each species. There were elephants and camels, chinese dogs and even a chinese unicorn, which is depicted as having scales. It really was a beautiful little garden-zoo, but the heat and humidity, which was in the high 90s that day, really took away from the experience. None were exempt from the sticky heat but some, like Marcus were bold and generous enough to sacrifice their personal comfort to carry the little ones on their shoulders. In all, we all had a decent amount of fun climbing on all of the statues and taking pictures in lieu of the heat. We only stayed about an hour and we didn’t even get to see all of the aminals, but I didn’t see anyone complaining about heading back to the airconditioned bus early.
On the way, poor little Joji got sick and there was a little scare that he was dehydrated. Bob was going to take him back early in a taxi but none stopped so we all mutually decided to head back to the ship early. The only thing we missed out on was some local shopping at a place called the bazarre, which apparently wasn’t all that great according to the cruise director, Dick. In the end, thank goodness for uncle Eric who kicked into survival mode to help little Joji cool down on the bus ride back.
Side note: That’s the thing I love about family. When one needs help everyone is there to do their part and lend a hand until their back on their feet. Not only did Eric help, but pretty soon Kim was on the phone with Jeffrey asking about symptoms of dehydration to get a doctors advice. Everyone was asking for updates, everyone was concerned and praying.
So we got back to the ship around noon and I took Sammy and Annika up to the card room to color (in some amazing adult coloring books courtesy of Anna) while we awaited lunch and news of how Joji was. It turns out the strong little guy pulled through without having to get an IV and he was back to his sweet, perky little self in a couple hours. I continued coloring my paisley peacocks with Merry until lunch was served at noon. It was delicious as usual and as much as I want to describe how good it was, ill spare you the mouthwatering details.
After lunch was pretty much down time. I spent a little bit of time reading Persuasion by Jane Austen up in the club and on my balcony and some time in Will and David’s room. Little did I know that both of them are amazing song writers. Will is (hopefully) coming out with his own EP and I spent a good chunk of time listening to his music and marveling at how talented he is. Seriously, check him out at clarkwilliams.bandcamp.com
Pretty soon I headed up to the club to hear David Eisenhower speak about China and the Cold War. He is a great speaker and he really comes across as a university professor in the way he lectures and in his incredibly vast knowledge of not only the Cold War and China, but also of WWII. It was an honor to hear him speak and fun to hear about some of his memories in the white house as a child. He told a story of how he wrote a book at the age of 7 and had it published by the white house secretary at the age of 10. He then proceeded to sit outside the door of the oval office and sell the copies for 15 cents each. One of which vice president Nixon bought. It was a great speech, but honestly I got a bit lost a couple of times just because my knowledge is so limited on the subject.
We washed down the speech with some yummy tea and cookies right afterwards and it was back to the room to do some blogging after that.
At dinner that night I sat with Marcos, Kim, Emma, Kate, Marcus, mom, and José and boy did we have some good conversations. One of which involved buying toilet paper in Mexico (of which Kate was thouroughly dissatisfied) and another about the dead floating pig rendition of titanic. There was another about our safety procedures for if the boat sank and many more about our interesting cuisine that night. The menu included curry squid, duck gyros, of sorts, cauliflower casserole, pork rolls, sesame buns, and pastry swans to top it all off. It was delicious, of course, and super filling.
That night there was an after dinner show that featured traditional clothing and dance of the chinese people throughout the decades. Before the show started in the club, though, me and Abby walk in and find Annika, Leah, and Joji busting out Thriller on the dance floor. Typical. It was adorable, the audience loved them, and me and Abby couldn’t help but laugh at the carefree and outgoing spirits that those three had. They truly weren’t afraid of anything.
During the show, it was really interesting to see all of the different styles of dress for both the men and the women of different classes of society. The dancing was good, but it was no broadway. It was quite entertaining to see some of the guys dancing though and holding in their laughter while they pretended to catch butterflies and court ladies. It was good and I’m glad I went despite how tired I was. I also want to add that after the little show Abby, Anna, Emma, and I all got up on the dance floor and busted a move. It was so much fun dancing, even though no one was there. I love dancing and we promised to have a formal party later in the cruise.
At long last it was time for a shower and a much needed sleep. Sleep tight, Nanjing!
