Counting down... kind of

I know it's been forever since I've written. Sorry for those of you who try to keep up with what I've been doing. I figure I need to save some stories for home!!! (Yeah right! All of you will be so sick of hearing my stories... just slap me when it gets to that point.)
Anyway! This last weekend was pretty low-key, but it was really neat. On Friday night I went salsa dancing (I had done that on Tuesday, too, but had only stayed for the "lesson"... imagine that in Chinese!) with Peg. We met a guy who is some kind of hot-shot at the club and who had actually lived in Minnesota for many years! He even has a daughter who still attends Highland in St. Paul. How crazy is that? And he was a really good salsa dancer, so that was fun. Then, right before I left, the instructor asked me to dance. I felt like such a dweeb trying to show off in front of all these Chinese people with the good-looking instructor guy... not to mention that my shoes were falling off the whole time, so I was not concentrating on the lead. Oh well! I had a blast anyway! Who knew there was a small population of Chinese people who can salsa dance?!
Saturday morning we left early to a place translated to "Thousand Island Lake." It's this huge, really deep lake with so many islands on it. Unfortunately, a typhoon was headed our direction as we sat tight in our hotel rooms on one of the islands! We survived because it didn't hit us directly, there was only a little bit of rain. I even went swimming at the pool that day-- hey, I wasn't about to pass that up! (It was an infinity pool!!! So awesome!) We went into town that night (barely surviving the drive up and down the winding mountain roads!) for an absolutely awesome dinner (no surprise there!). We spent the rest of the night on the patio drinking and just chatting. It was so good to relax and enjoy the last weekend with this group of women and Jacky. I am going to miss him so much. He has been an amazing guide and friend. More than once I have said that he is the perfect man. He's responsible, caring, organized, outgoing, and all those other things that you want in a friend. I don't even know how to begin to thank him. (Okay, I can't start thinking/talking about it or I'll start to get teary!)
Sunday was a nicer day, so we went on a 5-hour cruise around the lake, stopping at some islands. The first island had a temple/pagoda up at the top, but we only had about 40 minutes before we had to get back to the boat. Luckily, we had the chance to travel in style: a sedan chair! That's what it's called when there is a chair between two poles that are carried by two people-- a man in front and one in back. For 35 yuan (about 4 US dollars), two men would carry you up the mountain to see the pagoda, and back down to the boat! I felt totally guilty doing it because it's such hard work, but the men were friendly and laughed at me when I looked terrified that they were going to drop me off the side of the mountain!!! (Oh, don't worry... there's video to prove it!)
The second island was not quite as exciting, but we got to take a beautiful chairlift ride to the top of that mountain to see the sights. Even mom wasn't too scared of the heights because it was so breath-taking (Jacky's newest word, thank you very much!). The third island was odd. It was called "snake island" and just had a bunch of cages of snakes... I never figured out if there were any in the wild there, but I didn't see any.
The fourth and fifth islands were not the greatest, but we did get to go on a high bridge that was basically rope and boards. The signs specifically say "Do not purposefully swing" or something like that in bad English, but everyone pays 5 yuan to go on the bridge, and then I think they feel the need to turn it into some kind of an amusement park ride, swinging it every which way and getting some kind of sick pleasure from watching people who are scared. Molly and I braved the crazy Chinese tourists and made it across in one piece... barely.
So now I only have about 3 days left of teaching, shopping, and just generally saying goodbye to Hangzhou. I don't want to bring it up because it will be difficult to leave. At the same time, I'm very excited. I'm the definition of mixed emotions right now. I know I am leaving a lot of work behind me and a lot of uncomfortable situations, but I am also leaving good food and very nice people. I know I am coming home to good food and nice people, but I will also have a lot of work and uncomfortable situations there as well! And just as I am getting to feel comfortable here, I am beginning to really miss everything and everyone at home! Oh geez... time to go compose myself before I teach a class. This could be a tough one, too, because it's the last of its kind that I'll have.
Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll have one more chance to post before I go to Beijing! But if not, wish me and my parents (my daddy's coming, too!) good luck on the rest of our journey!
Love you and miss you all and I'll see you or talk to you soon!