Adventures in China: Suzhou...paradise on Earth...meets a Typhoon

So might I just start this story with this...This weekend we planned a delightful relaxing girls weekend adventure. We planned to spend the weekend in two cities nearby Nanjing. We planned to go to Suzhou and explore the city Tuesday and then go off to Tongli for a little sight seeing on Wed. We planned to stay the night with our friend Ben and just have a delightful weekend of exploring the cities. We did however forget to plan to check the weather before making any of these delightful plans...So we start out our trek on Tuesday quite tired from events the day before and caught a train to Suzhou. Three of us went from Nanjing and we met a friend from Shanghai in Suzhou. We had heard there was a chance of rain but none of us knew what was to come. We decided to rest when we got to Suzhou and then headed out for a delightful walk around where Ben lives. We ate dinner and headed back to the apartment to go out... We went to a great little American bar and caught up on the Olympics...somewhere in this we heard about a Typhoon hitting Shanghai but decided people were crazy and it was fine....So we go to bed that night thinking of the great adventure we will have in Tongli the next day. We wake up to a Typhoon...and that is where our real adventure began.

We woke up to sideways rain and lots of wind. We decided to take it easy enjoyed a nice breakfast and quickly realized the rain was not passing so we cancelled our plans to Tongli. We got a little restless in the apartment so the girls decided to go to the shop to get somethings. We head out of the door and we are not out five seconds and a new gust of wind and rain hits. Screaming like girls we are all trying to figure out where to go because our umbrellas were not helping with the rain. We all scramble like ants and found shelter under an overhang where some lady decided she would poke her head out of the door and laugh at us for getting soaked.

We make it to the store and then decide to trek it onward to TGI Friday's for a little Typhoon party. I enjoyed a lovely Jack Daniels steak so good.....How I miss that food :).

We decided that we should probably head home since Tongli was out of the picture and we were all still tired so we headed to the train station wondering if we would be able to get a train. It became extremely apparent that we would not be getting a train as people laughed at us as we walked into the station while other people looked disgusted with life because all the trains were halted. Annoyed at the idea of not being able to go home we decided to go get a massage and just relax. We leave the train station...4 people 2 umbrellas and all our stuff...and the Typhoon decides to pick up at this point. We had to walk to the road to get a taxi as we walk we are being pelted by sideways rain and trying desperately to shield ourselves from the rain. Finally reaching the road all hopes of a taxi were quickly taken away as taxi after taxi passed us by we were soaked and cold....we ended up under a bridge looking like little pitful drowned rats... Some of us having spaz attacks because we were stuck with no train and no taxi we look up to see a bus full of Chinese guys laughing at us from their nice dry bus as we were rejected and told no by yet another taxi driver. Finally we meet a guy that offered to take us in his car for 50 rmb...dejected wet and frustrated we pile into his tiny little non air conditioned car....Where we had the most disgustingly stuffy hot ride of our lives. We arrive at the massage place and then we got the most delightful oil body massage with hot stones...Nice and relaxed we head out in semi dry clothes from our bags..back to Ben's apartment...in the process once again getting wet and pelted by rain two of us give up and decide to dance in the rain....and jump in the puddles...great fun....we finally get a taxi and get back to the apartment and decided the rain has settled so we would go to dinner....It was great we had wonderful pizza hut and then we had to walk home....Another band hit Suzhou at this point and we were left 3 umbrellas 5 people and sideways rain. Long story short yesterday was spent completely soaked swimming through a Typhoon....

Things learned this weekend...Planning makes everything go over smoothly and you know what is to come....Not planning while sometimes can ruin your plans for the weekend...can also lead to adventures that make you laugh the hardest and bond with people...and make for the best stories...

You can either laugh about a situation or get upset about a situation...It is always best to laugh uncontrollably at every chance you can cause it will certainly be more fun.

Spaz definition

an awkward, clumsy, or eccentric person..

to move in an awkward or clumsy way (usually followed byout )

to become more angry than a situation warrants

to twitch:

This word may be used to describe a few people in our little adventure. :) :) :)

A photos says a thousand words...in this case it is a person description of a word...SPAZ
What happens after you are stuck in the rain with 2 umbrellas 4 people and sideways rain with no taxi...