Snow II

The computer stuffed up yesterday as I was posting so only half my blog got up. I will try to recap.

I arrived in Lige and caught up with my friends from Lijiang, Gemma and Hunter. Gemma is Chinese and speaks excellent English. Hunter was born in China but grew up and lives in Canada. They are real characters so it was a lot of fun. I checked in to their motel and immediately had a hot shower. Bliss.

Hunter took off on a hike around one side of the lake with another guy, where he had organised for a rowboat to come and meet us. Gemma and I followed after my shower and soon found ourselves climbing the snowy lower slopes of the mountain. I had washed my good hiking boots two days ago and they still weren't dry so I had on normal leather shoes. Not really ideal for mountain climbing in the snow but the first stretch wasn't too bad and we didn't think he had gone that far. Then followed the death defying climb as I clung to rocks and tree roots and branches to stop my feet (and the rest of me) slipping on the melting snow and plummeting down the sheer slope below into the lake. I am not a great mountain climber at the best of times, but in gripless shoes and in the melting snow I was terrified. We kept thinking- Hunter will just be around the next bend, but in fact it took us over an hour to get there. The only thing that stopped me turning back was that I wasn't entirely sure I would be able to get back the way I came either. The last stretch was pleasant enough, as we were able to walk along the shore on the rocks. An overhanging tree meant that we would once again have to scale the loose dirt and rocks on the cliff. I had had enough and walked around the tree through the shallows. And subsequently had wet shoes for the rest of the day.

We sat on the rocks and ate custard cakes (disgusting Chinese confectionary) and then got a boat back to the motel. Changed socks and went out for lunch. After lunch went back to the motel and spent the afternoon with the others drying socks and shoes over the coal fire and chatting. I ordered a coffee but they didn't know how to make it (even though it was on the menu). So Hunter ended up teaching the girl how to make coffee! Noodles for tea and then we went to see some Mosuo dancing. It was cold so we joined in (along with everyone else) and danced very poorly. Back to the motel for a beer and to hover over the fire and chat again.

They had to go back to Lijiang this morning. I am pondering whether to stay another night here or not.

And now: I have some exciting news. Scott got a phone call yesterday morning telling him that his request to transfer into the Bachelor of International Relations was successful. He will be a BIR student instead of a BA student this year. He was very excited, walking on air, etc when I spoke to him. Though apparently the cat could sense something was up and was getting annoyed with him. For those of you who don't know, Scott initially applied to do the BIR last year but didn't get in. They have a very low intake of students due to the specialised nature of the program and a high Enter score is necessary. As a mature age student, Scott didn't even have an Enter score. So all this year he has been doing all the BIR subjects, sucking up to the program coordinator, etc and hoping he would get high enough marks to be able to transfer. So if you see him, give him a hug for me.

I believe my blogspot setup has changed so that if you missed my earlier blogs, you can now read them in the archives. till next time...