Daytrip to Suzhou

Yesterday we had an all day field trip to Suzhou (pronounced Sue-Joe). We were so excited to go, but not so excited to meet at the buses at 8am... on a Saturday. Luckily I was feeling much better than the previous 3 days and I was just happy to get out of my room regardless of what time it was. Unfortunately the weather was not fantastic either, but that wasn't going to keep up from having a good time. We got to the buses and made started off the day by making the wrong decision on which bus to board. The smaller bus also meant smaller, more uncomfortable seats, but we made the best of it by saying we just wanted to be on the "exclusive cool kids bus".  The bus ride, if done correctly, take about an hour and a half. Our bus driver did not do it correctly, he pulled over on the side of the freeway for reasons we still do not know and walked around the bus for a bit, then we got lost once we got into Suzhou and "toured" the city for a while looking for the first destination, the Silk Factory. It was worth the 45 minute delay because it was awesome! Not only did we get to walk right through the factory and watch the ladies work, but we also got to touch everything. The only thing they asked was that we "Don't take away the cocoons". The factory was a great experience and the store at the end had everything you could ask for, but being the cheap college student I am, I decided to wait until the markets to by my silk wardrobe.

The first stage- Live Silk Worms

Third stage- moths in cocoons (skipped the worms to moths stage)
Kevin and Drew are impressed

Fourth stage- sorting the cocoons (Tyler)

Fifth stage- Boiling the cocoons to kill the moths and soften the cocoons

Sixth stage- taking the silk from the cocoon
Eight individual threads (one comes from each cocoon) is needed to
make a single thread of silk to be used for clothing.

Final stage- Raw Silk

After the Silk Factory we got back on the buses only to get lost yet again. We spent another 45 minutes looking for the River Canal Tour. Once we made it we got off the buses and into 3 small river boats. The cruise was very interesting, but Suzhou is definitely not what I expected. All the pictures and reputations of Suzhou show a "Venice of the East" and "Canal town", they don't mention that it is a large metropolitan city with a small canal system and some preserved old buildings around it. The tour took us down the river and then turned around and came right back. They had a man on the small boat with us trying to sell us all sorts of tacky souvenirs. He managed to sell something to almost all of us so he must know what he is doing. Half way through the cruise where we turned the boats around an old woman was standing at her doorway (see picture below) cheering, giving thumbs-ups, and kissing the sky. We thought she must have been really excited to see us until we realized it had just started pouring and she was so thankful for the rain. She was praising the rain the was falling from the sky. I have never appreciated the rain as much as I did right then for that woman.

Laura and Emily

Me and Lucy

The boys buying hats from the old man

Suzhou

Suzhou

Suzhou

Suzhou

Old lady loving the rain!!

Suzhou

 After the river cruise, we got back on the buses and went for food. I am not even kidding when I tell you that we got lost AGAIN! We were starving and not excited about the bus drivers lack of direction. We passed restaurant after restaurant and we would've been happy to stop at any of them, but no, there is always a plan and it must be followed. They took us to a district with "lots of restaurants" or just one that looked good to us, and about 9 of us sat down for family style Chinese food. Our Favorite. 

We met back up after lunch to get back on the buses and luckily this time, we didn't get lost. We headed to Garden of the Master of the Nets 网师园. This place was amazing. We walked through lots of traditional looking buildings before coming to the garden. It was one of the most serene places I have ever been. We decided we would have loved to be there sometime when there weren't 20+ tour groups going through, but we enjoyed it anyways.

Intricate designs on an old building

Me at the Garden

Serenity & Beauty

Laura, Em and I

Turtle!! Turtle, turtle, turtle! 

The whole Suzhou group!

After the gardens we boarded the buses to head back to Shanghai. It is funny how we all thought the bus ride home was much shorter than the the bus ride there, it must have had something to do with the fact that the entire bus was asleep 20 minutes after boarding the bus and slept until we pulled up to campus. A good day, filled with bus rides, and serenity. What more could you ask for right. 

Less than one week until we leave for our 10 day vacation and I don't know if anyone could be more excited than we are for Chengdu, Xi'an, and Sanya. 

Get ready China!