The Chinese think I'm crazy

It gets a little on the cool side and nobody eats ice cream but me. Everyone is bundled up to their eyeballs in coats and I'm walking down the street eating a Crispy Cookie Chocolate ice cream bar (3 yuan). Delicious. I eat one ice cream almost everyday. Got to get my calcium in.

I'm down from Mount Emei a day early. I walked all the way to the top and part of the way down but I was cold and wet and tired and the two Swedish girls I was with wanted to take the bus the rest of the way too. I'm ahead of myself though.

The trip so far has been spectacular. It hasn't gone entirely to plan but I've been having a great adventure.

Highlights so far (I'll outline everything in great detail when I get back):
Visiting old friends in Panyu
Touring the school I taught in......several years ago
The Longi Rice terraces
Saw a mullet in the Chengdu airport! Bonus!!!
Wenshu temple--best Buddhist temple I've been too yet
Hiking up Emei Shan with a Buddhist pilgram (we never successfully communicated in anything better than pointing and grunting vowel sounds but I could tell he was a very nice person).
Sleeping in a Buddhist monastery on mount Emei
Meeting tons of awesome people

Food highlights:
Old Man Zeng's Noodle shop in Panyu, everything was good, but the jin jiao (fried dumplings) almost made me cry, best Chinese food ever
Magnum bar in Guilin (only 4 yuan (about 50 cents compare that to 2 Euros ($3) in Spain)
Qiezi bao (spicey eggplant) in the Wenshu Temple
Bing (pancake) somewhere in Mount Emei
Shui jiao (boiled dumplings) down the alley in Emei City

Still can't upload pictures. Maybe in a few days when I get to Beijing.

For the count, so far I haven't lost anything vital. My jacket technically is in the lost and found in San Francisco. We switched planes and I remembered I left it on my seat after they took the plane to the bay and then we flew out before the lost and found opened. I left my bamboo stick in the monastery this morning, and today I dropped my contact on the floor and after searching for a few minutes didn't want to find it anymore and through the other one away. All and all, I'm feeling pretty good for not having my own personal keeper on this trip. :)