无桥(Wuqiao)!

你好啊！好久不见你们！！(Hey! Long time no see guys!)

Here's a good fact for you guys! Blogging when you're tired leads to you not including everything you want to talk/blog about...I left out the field trip I went on last weekend, to Wuqiao!

Wuqiao covers an area of 583 square kilometers with a population of 280,000 and 444 natural villages under its jurisdiction. More than 1500 years old, Wuqiao is an old county with a vivid and rich history and culture. Wuqiao is situated in the center of the Huabei Plains and has a pleasant climate for most of the year, and can be visited any time of the year.

Wuqiao was the first Chinese city to open up its doors to the world under the "Open Door" policy.Now Wuqiao has become a flourishing city. People in Wuqiao today, young or old, often possess astonishing acrobatic ability. This county has produced many famous acrobats. Wuqiao performers can be found in acrobatic troupes throughout China and around the world.

Our field trip began with a hellishly long bus ride, almost 3 hours! Okay, maybe it was two, but if you know me well, you'd know that one of my defining traits is impatience! When I'm excited about something, I want it to happen immediately, and a two thousand hour bus ride is considered cruel and unusual in my book! Okay, back to the facts, our driver today was the beloved Mao Shifu! I'm not sure if I've introduced 茅 (Muh-ow) 师傅 (Shi-foo; Note, pronounce 'shi' as if you were about to swear..!) to you guys, but if I haven't, I will recitfy that oversight right now. Mao Shifu, to put it simply, is the best driver in all of China! He navigates the treacherous streets as if he was born driving. He never gets lost, and never loses his cool. He also has never been cut off in traffic, which is an accomplishment, for in China it is not uncommon to get cut off, while you're cutting someone else off! 真的（jun-duh; really)! As testament to the greatness of this guy, two of my study abroad mates, Trevor and Mike (Sonar) composed and performed a song in his honor. Which made the bus ride slightly less torturous.

Two million hours later,maybe three, we arrived at Wuqiao! At first I wasn't very impressed, actually I was really disappointed. Once we exited the bus, all I could see was a run down restaurant, and a parking lot-thing that had a ton of broken bikes and motorcycles in it. I looked at our Director, Teng Laoshi, possibly with a "what the hell were you thinking bringing us here?!" look on my face, but as I wasn't looking at myself at the time, I cannot say for sure that it was there. After we stretched and unwound from the arduous bus ride, a little sprite of a women appeared. I'd say she walked up, or even approached, but I honestly didn't see her approach, so when she began speaking to us, in Chinese, most of us were startled...not me of course, it takes a lot to startle one such as I.

The appearance of the fairy lady, she really was a small woman, signaled the beginning of our tour. She led us around and talked to us in Chinese and English. Honestly, I understood her Chinese way more than I expected to, so I guess that my Chinese comprehension level has risen. We walked around the outside of this huge square like structure, saw some cool statues, and got bit by a ton of misquitos. I saved my classmates from getting bitten by killing the hated misquitos whenever I saw them land on them, often with an open-handed smack...two in particular, Trevor and Koblar, received the most of these. Funny thing is they didn't seem too appreciative of my efforts; Trevor actually chased me for a short distance, haha! I told them I'd get them back for their repeated smacks on my back, they said that they were killing misquitos then. But, I normally drench myself in Off misquito repellant, and I'm sure that there weren't any misquitos anywhere near me, another clue to this was the mischeivous smirks on their cursed faces whenever I looked at them...

After walking around, we entered the structure. My previous disappointment faded away. Wuqiao is a beautiful place, green vegetation is everywhere, with hues of red and pink sprinkled throughout, flowers of course, oh and vases too! The first attraction we viewed was an agility and balancing act. This lady would balance a rod on her bottom lip, or forehead, and place objects on the opposite end; the objects were teapots, plates, and vases. Following her was a act in which a female, using only her feet, manipulated a giant vase. She'd tumble it end over end, spun it by running with her feet, and to us further, she duplicated all of these feats with a little boy holding tightly to the vase. She then moved on to a feat of strength and balance, a long pole was placed on her feet, and two ladies sat in harnesses on both ends, she then began to rotate them round and round, speeding up as time progressed. Her act was the end of this particular attraction's schedule, so we moved on.

The next show we saw was one in which slight of hand was used. Once we entered, I was immediately singled out, to my abject horror, to come to the very front with the guy entertaining us. Luckily all he wanted to do was to show everyone that I was an African American, I even got a front row seat out of it! His show wasn't that impressive, he would continuously switch a small soft plush ball in and out of teacups, which were placed upside down on the table in front of him. He'd talk to distract the crowd, and move the ball from teacup to teacup. Since I couldn't understand a word of what he said, I wasn't distracted, and after five minutes of close observation, I fugured out how he accomplished his 'magic'; The balls he works with are soft for a reason, soft objects are easily gripped by the fingers, and being small as well, are easily concealed. When he'd place a ball under a teapot, he never actualy placed it under the teapot, all he did was lift the cup, and set it down, while setting it down, he'd manipulate the ball through his fingers till it was secured between his pinky and ring finger, the crowd never saw this because he'd hold his hand in such a way as this would be shielded from their view. I don't wanna take away from what he did, his hands and fingers have a great deal of dexterity, I think I'd have to practice for a month or so to perform those motions at the speed he did, and I know what he did!

After the slight of hand guy, came the small monkeys. This part of Wuqiao I did not enjoy. Actually I hated this part, the monkeys looked scared to death, and it made me really mad. So, I'm gonna not write about this, but I'll post the pictures. We saw a run down lionness, which was also pregnant, and was forced to slide down a rusty metal slide. An old tiger that you could actually ride, my Director didn't have to tell me no for me to not get on it. The last thing I wanted was to be in a closed cage with a tiger!

The next part of our Wuqiao experience was borderline gross. It centered around self torture; There were a total of tree men, one's specialty was bending a thick iron blade by beating it against his ribs, and straightening it by beating it against his head. The second guy was probably the most impressiv out of the three, he was a really old, really fat guy. He broke bricks with his hands and head, and chopped lettuce on his gut with a really sharp cleaver, he demonstrated how sharp it was by slicing fruit and lettuce and some wood... The last guy was by far the grossest! He swallowed steel balls that were bigger than an average sized fist, and then he made them come back up! Gross right?! He then proceeded to swallow two sword blades, and inserted about  foot of wire in his nose, and made it come out of his eye sockets. Which caused our Director to gag. Needless to say, I did not take any pictures of this! After the gruesome threesome, we headed to a pavilion for the main attraction, Wuqiao acrobats!

Wuqiao acrobats have definitely earned their reputation, they were magnificent. I often found myself clapping like a little kid, and heartily wishing I'd brought a camcorder with me. They performed balancing acts that I'd thought impossible. I loved the show from beginning to end, and wish I possessed the words to effectively paint a picture of what they did. Hopefully you'll be satisfied with the pictures I've taken.

After Wuqiao, we ate lunch, headed home, and ate dinner, all three events were uneventful, so I will not bore you with the details...but what I will give you is an update on Justin! I'm glad he's my roommate, for it seems only Justin can continuously injure himself. If his stomach isn't hurting (because he's eaten something he shouldn't have!), he's fallen and hurt his knee, head, or shoulder. I woke up Sunday morning and saw that Justin's face was discolored, I vigorously shook him and asked if he knew that he had blood on his face. He answered positively, and proceeded to tell me about his day. During martial arts class, he had to chase our teacher, or our teacher had to chase him...it was a game of cat and mouse. Well whomever was doing the chasin, Justin decided it'd be a good idea to fall and hurt his knee. So there lay Justin bleeding profusely on Chinese soil, looking not unlike a small child who wanted his mother. They patched Justin up, and sent him on his way. Then that night, drunk Justin decided he was strong enough to give a piggy-back ride to Mike (Sonar), and then Trevor thought he was strong enough to give them both a piggy-back ride, at the same time! So, with Sonar on his back, Justin began to run at Trevor with the intention to jump onto his back, but his intentions and what happened are two entirely different things. Justin tackled Trevor instead, and they all came tumbling down... The funny thing is that Trevor and Sonar were fine, just a little dirty from the ground. Justin, on the other hand, bruised his shoulder very deeply, and cut/scraped his face. Justin now has trouble getting dressed and undressed, and I am not about to help him. I will continue to stare at him and shake my head while thinking that only someone like Justin could possibly do all that to himself in one day. The next morning, after he told me, he managed to smash his toes with a chair. So, I'm looking forward to, and the same time dreading, what poor Justin will do to himself next! Oh, and don't you worry, I will relay every detail, because Justin doesn't have access to this blog, so I will reap no repercussions from divulging these facts! ;-)