This weekend was filled with non-stop movement. It all started when Deanna, the one and only other foreigner in Foshan, (she is from SFU and this is her second term teaching in Foshan but she is at a different school) and I hopped aboard the bus headed for Guangzhou with our to go breakfast from McDonalds. 45 minutes later we started our walking marathon and headed to Ersha Island, home to the National rowing team. 20 sport stores, 3 schools, 12 security guards, 1 police car, 2 other foreigners, several beautiful homes, and 3 hours later we still had not spotted any rowing boats out on the water practicing so we finally ended our search. Our new search now included lunch and course it also included some browsing through shops along the way. Lunch at McDonalds and then back on the Underground to Bejing Lu for an afternoon of shopping and bargaining. We joined the crowds and braved one of the busiest pedestrian streets in Guangdong. There are so many corridors and tiny shops to explore it is no wonder we spent almost 5 hours strolling down the street. I ended up buying some boots and a coat. Our very sore legs managed to carries us to the bus station to catch the bus back to Foshan our final destination. My whole body was so sore by the time I flopped into bed at 11:00. My calf muscles and the bottoms of my feet are begging me not to move them another inch. In total we walked over 11 hours with only a short break for lunch.
On Sunday Fish invited me to join her family for an outing to Gaoming, the countryside, It was a nice drive. We stopped at several villages along the way and passed many farms. Fish insisted that we get close to the cow for a picture, I on the other hand noticed that it was watching us very carefully. I was fascinated by the rice husking machine. A contraption that was wheeled form home to home to shell the families rice. On our drive home we passed through the Furniture material city of China. A 20 km stretch of furniture factories and stores. I have never quite seen so many stores selling chairs. Trucks were everywhere transporting mattresses, sofa innards, chair legs and all sorts of odds and ends from store to store. We stopped and looked around at the display center. It was 7 floors high with furniture from every style imaginable, Turkish, European, Chinese, African, Indian,... They probably even had Canadian although I am not sure what we would classify as Canadian furniture. Fish informed me that I need to return to China in a few years and become a business women buying furniture to sell back in Canada. The furniture was really stylish and there are several pieces that I could have easily bought if I had my own place to decorate and if I could transport them home easier.
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