Hello Tea! (Guilin: Day 1)

Ni Hao!
We started last night and most of today with a 20 hour train ride so we'll just skip right over the depressing, agonizing details of that.

Oh, such fun we've had since we FINALLY arrived at Wada Hostel in Guilin!

The night started with a trip downtown, admiring baked goods down 'walking street' and dreaming of what we'll get from there tomorrow morning!
We went to a restaurant for dinner that was reccomended in the 'Rough Guide to China' that we have, claiming that you can eat well for 25 yuan...
though the claim was very wrong, the food was pretty good and we had a nice time struggling with our chopsticks (okay, that was just me...) but I'm finally getting good!

Did you know???
In China, if you go to a restaurant the waitress will stand dangerously close to you at your table and wait for you to choose. Sometimes they will wait FOREVER (because Stuart and I are very indecisive when it comes to food) while you look at their menu with literally 50 options.
It's quite obnoxious and very stressful.
Now you know!!!

After that we killed a little time by getting some amazing coconut mango bubble tea and an iced latte and then...
Hit the Night Market!

Before we knew it, our tiredness and agitation had vanished from the train ride!

The market was awesome, hilarious, and so much fun!

We passed 2 stalls selling food and both of the people, as we walked by, held up a container and said to us "Hello, tea?" So, once we reached the next one, almost in unison with the stall person, I said "Hello Tea!" It was embarrassing and hilarious.

We saw these army guys that you throw against the wall and they stick and tumble down (the type of thing you see at the dentist office for brave little kids who had fillings) and we thought Charlie and Micheal would love them. I said to Stuart "If she says 10 yuan, I'm seriously gonna bust a cap!" (I was sick of people thinking they could rip us off, and the thing was worth MAYBE 2) so I asked her how much, and she wrote on a paper... you guessed it, 10 yuan! I said "No, no, no" and she said, "how much?" and handed me the pen. With great defiance I wrote: "0" and walked away with my hands in the air yelling TEN!?!. Stuart said that the girl beside her was having a laughing fit, but I'm guessing she wasn't pleased... haha

We saw a stall selling sugar cane juice and here's how they did it: they crammed a big sugar cane (imagine a large bamboo stick) into a juicer.. and that's it. Stu and I decided that for 3 yuan, it was worth a try.
Turns out it wasn't worth a try and was probably the grosest thing we've tried in China yet!!!

I bought a bracelet from a guy just because of how funny he was selling it to me (and, truth be told, I quite like it!)

We stopped in at a book store to see if they were selling English books and... there it was... the greatest thing I've ever seen...
Aisles and Aisles of dirt cheap and oh-so-cute writing books (with different colours and pictures on every page!) What's a girl who loves to write to do!?!
I'll tell you what she does... spends half an hour drooling over all of them, piling them in her arms, and carefully chosing the perfect one while her husband waits patiently.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh, what a beautiful store.

Back at the market we ended up getting this really nice ... well, it's hard to describe it, you'll just have to see it at our place when we get home, I think.
It's this glass thing that they put your picture in (it's way better than I'm describing...) it looks like crystal or something... anyway, we got our wedding picture in one for about 5 bucks after much bartering at 2 different stalls (and it looks fancy, not tacky!)

Suddenly it was nearing midnight and we were quite hungry so we took a pit stop (for the first time, I can proudly say) to KFC for some popcorn chicken, and boy was it good!

(KFC in China is like Starbucks in the statesl, there's practically one on every corner)

Now, back at the hostel, we're ready to say "Good night!" and send everyone our love!