Camille's 11/9/17 Blog Post



Today we went to the butterfly spring park, the Duan family tie-dye wholesale, took a cruise on a lake, and went shopping in yang ren jie. Starting off the day on the bus we passed strawberry fields while our tour guide Kevin told us about the park. At the park one of the first things we saw was a clear blue pond. The water was so beautiful that it looked fake, and fish swam throughout it. Trying to get a better view of the mountains, we hiked up what seemed to be ten billion steep steps. Although the view was beautiful, I could barely process it because of how tired the journey up had made me. 

Once we were done there we went to a room filled with butterflies. A few of them landed on me, and a man with a giant camera took pictures of them. The funniest part of being there was when a grasshopper jumped into Shannons hair and she started freaking out in the middle of the garden. While we were in there I bought two necklaces to give to friends, and then it was time to leave. We boarded the bus and went to lunch, which was very tasty. 

After lunch we went into the town and decided to go see a tie-dye house. Walking in, it was very different than I expected. I thought we might see some standard tie-dye T-shirts, but instead we were met with a giant room filled with tapestries covered in unique and beautiful designs. Although we had expected to just go in and see it, maybe even buy a few things, we ended up staying to make our own ones. For just 50 yuan, about $8 U.S., we got to choose a butterfly or flower design and make our own. The pieces of cloth had small dots for us to sew thread though and pull tight, which would be the tying part. When we had finished they went and dyed them for us while we all looked around for stuff to buy. I ended up buying a small tapestry, a cloth bag, and something I don’t know how to describe.

 When they gave us back what we made, we untied them to see the final product. Everyone’s came out really nice, but I messed up on mine so the butterfly’s left wing is too small. Although we had planned to walk around town, that detour took our time and we headed to the cruise. On the boat it was only our group and three other passengers. The lake was amazing, and the view of the mountains was even better. Me, Shannon, Anna, and Nicole spent the majority of the cruise looking out at the water and singing very offkey. 

We got off the boat and back onto the bus, where we drove to a restaurant for an early dinner. At dinner we mixed up the usual tables, so I was sitting with mostly different people. Dinner tasted very good, and we had plenty of conversation, but eventually we had to get going. After stopping at the hotel, Kevin walked us to an area of town that reminded me a lot of Old San Juan. We passed shops, got to pet some dogs, looked at a church, and went to Kevin’s daughters school. 

After that we had an hour to walk around the roads. We stopped at multiple shops, and did a lot of bargaining. I bought many gifts for my friends including a whistle shaped like a rat, a weird bird keychain, a wooden pagoda, soaps, and much more. when it was time to head back we all stopped to get ice cream first, then went to the hotel. Finally starting to wind down after a long day, we started study hall, where I am currently writing this.

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