Day 5: March 30, 2004

This was the day that we were leaving Beijing and going to Nanning. We boarded a 3-hour plane ride. Nanning was less city-like and dirtier than Beijing. We were going to my distant cousin, Kevin's grandparents' apartment. That would be where we staying.

Later in the afternoon, my sisters, dad , two of his friends, and I went to a park next to a pond. There were a couple of rides and activities. My favorite was riding on a rowboat. It took me some time to get used to the oars. It was kind of hard leaving the park because my sisters were stubborn and did not want to leave. Soon, they had decided to leave.

I guess that was everything important I did today.

Day 6: March 31, 2004

Today was another day in Nanning. After eating breakfast, we went to bowling somewhere in town. It hadn't been ten minutes until the whole city's power had been shut down to save energy. We exited bowling area and wasn't asked to pay the full price.

A moment later, we went to an outside marketplace. My dad said that we could actually buy a dog to play with in China if we'd like. There were plenty of dogs to play with. I found a puppy that was perfact – the rest of the family agreed. Except for my sister, (who is picky, unreasonable and stubborn) who chose a less cheerful puppy. We couldn't refuse because she would throw a fit. When the puppy finally got to the apartment, it whimpered a lot! I spent a lot of time trying to cheer it up. The only possible ways were to give it food or let it sleep in your lap, which I can't do all the time. This went on for some time. My mom noticed that we were getting bored and took us to an arcade. We played there for a while. My mom had forgotten the time, and when she checked it, we were late for a dinner. Soon we were rushing out the doors.

We were having dinner with some of my parents' friends. My dad had decided to give the puppy to them since they had experience with dogs. This was just a normal dinner and we all finished and left. That was pretty much the end of the day.

Day 7: April 1, 2004

Today was April Fools Day! When I had noticed that, I April Fooled my sister the whole day.

Anyways, the beginning of my day was spent at the Qing Xiu Mountain park, which was like the park that I went to on March 30th, except not really many rides. We played for a while, then went to eat lunch.

In the afternoon, we checked into a new hotel (I forgot to mention that we checked into a hotel when we came into Nanning so we would have another place to stay.) The hotel had a park right in front of it, so we went there (that is, my mom, sisters and I ). It was tough getting there , even if it was right in front of the hotel. Walls, bushes and tress and apartments were in our way. It was a nice place when we finally got there. When I said “park”, I meant piece of earth filled with grass, tress and bushes next to a lake. The walk back was easier because we took a shortcut by climbing a wall, even my mom.

Later that afternoon, it was getting hot and we decide to go swimming outside. When we got there, we felt the water. It was freezing, even if it was warm outside. My mom had paid us each 50 yuan (Chinese money) to swim and she didn't want to waste it. I was glad to go.

In the evening my parents forced us to go to another dinner with people, except this time in a nice restaurant. I kind if enjoyed it, because at the first floor, there were animals inside tanks – that would be eaten. I saw different animals: giant sea turtles, sea snake, bunches of clams, and even alligators! I thought that it was unusual because I thought you couldn't hunt alligators. Anyways, it was a good dinner. That was the end of my day.

Day 8: April 2, 2004

Today, most of my time was taken traveling to Lingyun, which is where my dad's parents live. After a 5-hour drive, we were in Lingyun, a town surrounded by mountains. All my relatives gave me the same greetings: “We missed you so much!”, and “Wow! You've grown.” Then it took me some time ti tour their house and get used to it again. (P.S. Two of my other cousins, A Cheng and Luo Rei also live here, but Luo Rei really has grown and spends all his time at school.)

Just before nighttime, we all celebrated our arrival by shooting lots of fireworks! The fireworks here are different that the ones in America. They have spinning-top fireworks, flying butterflies, and “flower” spark shooters. Then, it was time to go to bed.

Day 9: April 3, 2004

This day was less packed of stuff, but they're still the same. I guess much of my day was spent at the river.

After playing a little basketball, we (that means A Cheng, his friend and I) went down to the nearby river at low tide. There was a bunch of stuff down there. Some people were washing clothes. We were trying to catch some fish for fun, then let them go. There was a bunch of shrimp down there too. I didn't understand how A Cheng and his friend could catch fish, but all I could catch was shrimp. When I finally went back to the house, my sister wanted to go with us to the river so we went back. This time I found a nice method to catch shrimp: Take a basket, hide it in rocks and scare shrimp into it. Then lift the basket up. It will drain the water and you'll find shrimp jumping up and down. Finally, we all went back home (that means my grandparents' house).

That late evening, we played with fireworks again. This time it was kind of different. We made firework contraptions. Example: A spark shooter lights a top, which spins and shoots sparks to light a rocket-firework. Another thing we did was actually kind of dangerous. We took a large tube and put different types of fireworks in it (mostly the tops). It would then produce flames but it would not catch on fire. That finished the day.

P.S. One of the fireworks that shoot into the air and explode into sparks accidentally shot at the house when it tipped over.

Day 10: April 4, 2004

Today was almost the same as yesterday (or not). The beginning of the day was spent picking strawberries. We went to a field where they allowed you to pick strawberries for a price. The field was very large and finding good strawberries took some work. Most of them had white patches. We had picked quite a few strawberries.

Later that day, we went to the river again, except this time at a different site. The water was calmer, muddier and deeper that the water near my grandparents' house. We still caught fish, but using a different mehod: Put a bag with the openning to a pile of rocks. Then one by one, throw the rocks away. The fish would be scared into the bag. We got loads of the wormlike fish with no scales. There was one that had scales, but it died. We took a bucket of fish home. I was surprised that they ended up on a dinner plate.

That evening was kind of boring. I went to A Cheng's house, bought new shoes and then went to Luo Rei's house, which had no people in there and was unlocked. What was really bizzare was his room. The walls had posters on them. Posters of bunches of TV shows and one of a character in the videogame Final Fantasy X. After playing table tennis we left his house and that was pretty much of it.