So Monday was our day off here in Wuhan. I was a little worried at first, cause of the week we have been here I haven’t seen anything remotely exciting. Our hotel has got to be in the poorest, most ghetto part of the city. So you don’t think I am exaggerating here, we have seen tents and people living in dirt caves. And by the way, Wuhan is 10 million people. It is composed of 3 “small” cities that make up the city limits. One of the cities looks like Las Vegas, in the fact that every sky scraper has flashing fluorescent and neon lights. No reason for this, just pretty to look at. 
Anyways, we decided to spend the afternoon with the interpreters. This city they are all high school students and yes they are legal. 5 of them took Jake (asst. carp), Chris (my asst.), and myself to the East Lake of the city. I didn’t know this driving in, but there are a ton of lakes around the area due to the Yangzi River that flows through the city center.
We got to the center part of the lake by driving down miles and miles of 2 lane roads with lines of trees on each side about 10’ from the lake itself
on both sides. It was absolutely beautiful getting there. We then climbed 2 of the mountains next to the East Lake and saw a few really pretty temples built during the Ying Dynasty. We climbed almost 300 steps to get to the top of one of the temples, in which looked out over the city. Surprisingly enough we picked the perfect day, because the sun was bright and you could see the skyline pretty well. And when I say the perfect day, I mean the first day in about a month since we have seen the sun. After going through the temples and up the second mountain (not really one, but the locals called it one) there was a 
slide/loge that you could take to ascend down the side of the mountain. It was awesome, I felt like I was bobsledding.
We walked around a lot and then decided to rent motor boats on the lake. They were only $50 Yuan for an hour and you could get up to 4 people in them at a time. We got in the boats and putted across the lake. The boats were the scariest thing ever. They only had one speed and they came with 2 oars (I guess for just in case.) So here we are sitting in the boats going about 2 miles an hour and we are trying to paddle at the same
time. We went out to a few of the islands and drove around an abandon house in the middle of the lake which was cool to take pictures of.
After that we ended up eating at a hot pot. This was the first time I have eaten “hot pot” in China, though it is one of the most traditional food styles. Usually you have one large pot that simmers meat and veggies in a bowl for all to share kinda like fondue. However, we went to a nicer place where you got your own pot, and there was a buffet of raw ingredients to choose from. To be honest I am kind of over trying to eat
some meats here, it just isn’t working for me. They brought shaved lamb to the table that looked a lot like ground chuck. And on the buffet were a beautiful/ just lovely assortment of fish heads. I may have a desire to explore new foods, but let me be the first to disappoint and say fish heads are NOT one of them. Did I tell you that I didn’t eat a single fish head? K got that settled. So I did however eat a lot of lotus root, kimchee, rice, lamb, rice pucks, and other things I really didn’t know what I was eating. The sad part when it comes to food is that I pretty much stay away from most seafood. Most of our locals have 
said that they don’t get a lot of fresh seafood and that is pretty apparent from the smell of it. But I can eat veggies all day long.
Side note: We had a company dinner the other day, and on the menu was duck head. And yet again, I ate no head…
Anyways, we decided to spend the afternoon with the interpreters. This city they are all high school students and yes they are legal. 5 of them took Jake (asst. carp), Chris (my asst.), and myself to the East Lake of the city. I didn’t know this driving in, but there are a ton of lakes around the area due to the Yangzi River that flows through the city center.
We got to the center part of the lake by driving down miles and miles of 2 lane roads with lines of trees on each side about 10’ from the lake itself
on both sides. It was absolutely beautiful getting there. We then climbed 2 of the mountains next to the East Lake and saw a few really pretty temples built during the Ying Dynasty. We climbed almost 300 steps to get to the top of one of the temples, in which looked out over the city. Surprisingly enough we picked the perfect day, because the sun was bright and you could see the skyline pretty well. And when I say the perfect day, I mean the first day in about a month since we have seen the sun. After going through the temples and up the second mountain (not really one, but the locals called it one) there was a 
slide/loge that you could take to ascend down the side of the mountain. It was awesome, I felt like I was bobsledding.We walked around a lot and then decided to rent motor boats on the lake. They were only $50 Yuan for an hour and you could get up to 4 people in them at a time. We got in the boats and putted across the lake. The boats were the scariest thing ever. They only had one speed and they came with 2 oars (I guess for just in case.) So here we are sitting in the boats going about 2 miles an hour and we are trying to paddle at the same
time. We went out to a few of the islands and drove around an abandon house in the middle of the lake which was cool to take pictures of.After that we ended up eating at a hot pot. This was the first time I have eaten “hot pot” in China, though it is one of the most traditional food styles. Usually you have one large pot that simmers meat and veggies in a bowl for all to share kinda like fondue. However, we went to a nicer place where you got your own pot, and there was a buffet of raw ingredients to choose from. To be honest I am kind of over trying to eat
some meats here, it just isn’t working for me. They brought shaved lamb to the table that looked a lot like ground chuck. And on the buffet were a beautiful/ just lovely assortment of fish heads. I may have a desire to explore new foods, but let me be the first to disappoint and say fish heads are NOT one of them. Did I tell you that I didn’t eat a single fish head? K got that settled. So I did however eat a lot of lotus root, kimchee, rice, lamb, rice pucks, and other things I really didn’t know what I was eating. The sad part when it comes to food is that I pretty much stay away from most seafood. Most of our locals have 
said that they don’t get a lot of fresh seafood and that is pretty apparent from the smell of it. But I can eat veggies all day long.Side note: We had a company dinner the other day, and on the menu was duck head. And yet again, I ate no head…
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