Friday- Trip to Dujiangyan and Shuimo

Again, I went to Chinese in the morning and then Kevin and I (Emma and Gloria came later) stood in line for train tickets to Zhangjiajie in Hunan province because we were planning on going there on Tuesday (January 27th after we came back from Narry's relatives). We waited in line for an hour only to find out that they didn't have any tickets for a hard sleeper (which is a room with about 6 tiny beds) on any of the trains. The only option they had was a seat. Since we didn't want to sit or maybe even stand on a train for 17 hours, we just left. Kevin and I rushed back to the apartment after telling Emma and Gloria the news. We had meet Narry and Christie and quickly finish packing. Christie, Kevin, Narry and I took a taxi to the bus station. We then rode the bus for about 45 minutes to Narry's parents' home in Dujiangyan.

Bus station in Chengdu

On the way to Dujiangyan





Dujiangyan



Once we arrived at the bus station in Dujiangyan, we took a taxi to Narry's parents' home. We climbed up six flights of stairs, went in and met Narry's mother, father and cousin. Narry's family lives in the area where the earthquake happened. Fortunately, Narry's family was lucky in that their home wasn't destroyed by it. However, the apartment building right next to theirs did collapse and some people died. Narry told us that his parents were in the apartment when the earthquake happened and that several of their possessions, such as their television, medicine (Narry's father was a doctor) and bookcase, fell over during the earthquake. The bookcase blocked the front door, but his father had so much adrenaline at that point that he was able to lift it up and they were able to leave. Even on our way to their home in the taxi, I saw some buildings where some walls and windows had been broken and fallen down.
After we talked a little and ate some nuts and fruits that Narry's parents offered us, we all went to a restaurant to eat "old duck soup". The soup had vegetables and a whole duck in it. We ate as much as we could and even had some type of dessert. It was a type of fried pastry with some sort of jelly filling.
Once we were all full, we returned to the apartment to get our stuff ready to go to Shuimo where some of Narry's uncles, aunts, grandmother, and cousins live. We went downstairs to wait in the cold for the van and then the eight of us (including the driver) began our journey to Shuimo. It was probably one of the bumpiest car rides I have ever been on. I couldn't see anything, either, because it was already dark by this time. Since the earthquake had destroyed some parts of the road, the van just bounced up and down incessantly. After we were on the "main" road for 45 minutes, we then drove on the dirt road, which was just as bad if not worse because it was so uneven. I was so glad once we arrived and were able to walk on solid ground. We met the family and went to the living room to talk for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, I could barely understand what they were saying (because they were talking in Chinese really fast). By this time I was really tired and was so glad when we went to bed. I couldn't sleep very well, though, because the bed was really hard (it was a thin quilt on wood) and it was really cold. But I didn't really care.