Traveling Diary: April 2009 Archives

A Trip With The Witch

By Linda McGrew on April 10, 2009 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First, thank you, Witch, so much for giving me the opportunity to write this blog.

By the way, Witch, which refers to Linda. That's her nickname from me. 之所以起这个名字是因为她挺聪明的而且总能猜懂别人心思，象有魔法一样. 加之她经常笑我年纪太小象小孩，我就干脆叫她老巫婆

I am a hick, xiang ba lao in Chinese. My name is Chandler and I am Linda's friend in Wuhan. It's such a wonder that I can be friends with Linda - because I was born in China, grew up in China - I am from a completely different cultural background and I think the only thing we share in common is that both of us love beer, and love laughing. 文化背景不一样，所以我们之间有点小吵小闹也满正常的. 还有就是我觉的一个女生单独一人在国外挺需要勇气和智慧的，所以说在这一点上我挺佩服她的.

Well this is my brief introduction. I hope Linda's father (who I think looks like Dustin Hoffman) her brother, Ryan (who started traveling earlier than Linda which inspired her to travel) and Sister Bonnie (who has a beautiful jazz voice) as well as all her other friends; can begin to know me from this blog and what I am going to say. 经常听她提起她的家人和国内外的朋友每当她想念你们的时候，真实体会到在外漂流的人的心酸，我也真是爱莫能助

Last weekend, Linda and I traveled to Fuzhou, Quangzhou and Xiamen for 3 days.
Frankly, I had my best two days in my life on that trip - in my 21 years of life.
It was amazing. I will never forget it.

The first stop was Fuzhou. The first amazing person we met on our first stop in Fuzhou was an old man who had lived in Vancouver for several years. He said we look alike! And he believed us when I told him we are sister and brother. BTW, Linda's nickname for me is DiDi, which means little brother. 老人家说我们俩都是圆脸，有点相像. 我比对一下照片，觉得也太夸张了吧

I had been so excited all week for the trip. It was going to be my first time to see the sea.!! There is a beautiful beach in Quangzhou, and we arrived there on our second evening. Here, I did the coolest thing in my life. As soon as I saw the sea, I peed in it. Later, Linda admitted to peeing in it too. We are brother and sister!

Also, from this trip I learned a lot.
For example, Linda helped me to realize that I am an only child. Linda gave me this lesson when I finished the last sip of the water in our bottle without asking her first if she wanted it.

And I would like to call this picture "The only child always wants everybody's attention". Thanks for the lessons, big sis!

As we traveled by the sea, Linda gave me an opportunity to decide what we would do on our last full day.
I have to say, I did make a brave choice.
I decided we should go to a place. A place that we found out only during the boat ride there, was not even on the map. As we disembarked onto the island in the middle of nowhere, we soon realized it was a poor choice.
What a boring Island. However, I really enjoyed the process of getting there on the ghetto motor boat as well as returning. And Linda enjoyed being an explorer

Among many other firsts, this was my first motor boat ride. Look,I was yelling, 'I am the king of the world!!!' But it was these words that brought the security guard, since he heard me too. And he came to remove me from the boat.

PS, the Witch bought me this shirt -and this hat -

Now I really miss the sea, and the beach, and the fresh air. Seeing is believing.
Now I realize how sucky the environment in Wuhan is. But anyway, it's my home town. I have a special bond with it.

Just like Ryan's first trip to Australia inspired Linda to get out and travel, I believe I will travel more places in the future.
Another great lesson Linda gave me while we were in Xiamen was: ' you are only young only once - but can be rich whenever.'