The Mud Journey

As it turns out, plenty. Our trip hit a small hitch right at the beginning. Laura found our bus driver at 9 am with a bus half full of passengers already in his minibus. Originally we had negotiated for 11 people, so for less people, we should have been able to bring the price down because 11 was breaking the law, while 10 remained safely within the confines of safe driving, as safe as it can be in China. This simply wasn’t the case. Our driver wanted the same price for 10 of us and the reason for the minibus already half full was because he wasn’t sure we would actually show, so he had begun to load the bus anyway. Negotiations concluded – we packed into the bus and began the Peep slaughter.

The what, you ask?

In celebration of Easter the previous week, I received multiple packages of love from my friends in America.

Thanks, Jen Conner for these. Thanks, Audrey for the other goodies!!

Everyone loved starting their morning with a malnutritious snack for crack babies and nuclear war survivors. What are Peeps but the quintessential American holiday treat? Puffy marshmallow, made from mainly chemicals and sugar, covered in yellow – you guessed it, chemicals and sugar. YUM! Our bus driver, as you might be able to tell as I tried to feed it to him, LOVED IT.

Noms!

I knew from this slaughterous beginning that our trip would be amazing. Other highlights from the journey down -

• Sean, sitting in the decrepit seat that leaned back and made you feel like at any moment the seat was going the become unhinged and that you would fall out of a moving bus. Because his seat was tiled back halfway – it made it optimal for him to practice his ab workouts.

Sean, who by the time he arrived in Cangyuan was destined to have the most awesome abs ever.

• Lucas, who spent most of the ride wearing these di-vine sunglasses

He also tried on my hair.

• Ken, who acted many times like the deus ex machina – but only for food. Any time I pulled out a snack or treat, Ken’s mouth would magically appear in between the seats that Lucas and I were sitting in -  ready to consume whatever goodies I held in my hands.