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The last few days have been great fun, as Ash and Ches came to visit us in Hefei.

I had organised all sorts of interesting travels, but the weather was against us.

We drove to Jiu Hua mountain on Friday but found it to be completely enveloped in clouds. It was a little disappointing they couldn’t see how beautiful the mountain was but it made for some interesting scenery at least, with temples and Buddhist statues appearing suddenly out of the clouds before us.

We had planned to drive back in time to watch the Sydney Kings play China in a basketball match, but missed out on getting any reasonably priced scalped tickets… or “yellow cow” tickets as they are oddly called here.

Our travels hadn’t gone quite played out as expected, but we enjoyed some excellent food, which is really all that is needed to make for a good day.

Yesterday we enjoyed more good food, visited a traditional Chinese park that has a section representing each scenic area of Anhui, and finished up with a massage.

I hope our visitors enjoyed themselves…

My day began a difficult one.

We still have hoards of tradesmen (and women..) traipsing through the apartment at unexpected times.

Today I was feeling ill and the weather was warm and muggy, not really a day that would put me in the best mood to begin with, then the tradesmen (and women) arrived.

Whenever a new trades-person (that’s the word I was after..) arrives, they tend to be a little overwhelmed by my presence and stand about and stare for a few minutes before getting on with their work. One man got such a surprise when I opened the door one day that his jaw actually dropped and he stood in the doorway for a least a minute unable to move.

When we get the same trades-people back a few days in a row, they tend to not notice me so much and I can blend back into my sofa and not be stared at.

Today I met the most irritating woman yet, who refused to give up the staring for the entire afternoon. If the stares were followed by smiles, I might be able to deal with them a little better, but this was definitely not a friendly stare.

I washed the dishes under her surveillance, then put on a load of washing while she silently examined my every move. I sat at my computer with my headphones and pretended she wasn’t there as she peered over my shoulder.

I tried a bit of staring back but just got caught in a very long mutual stare that I decided was even less comfortable than the one sided one. I stomped about and slammed a few doors, all to no avail.

Eventually I retreated to my room, closed the door and refused to come out until she was gone.

As I hid in my room I wondered if I was overreacting by being really angry with this woman, or if it was fair enough behaviour in a city like Hefei and I should just learn to deal with it.

I still haven’t quite worked out if staring is considered as rude to Chinese as it is to an Australian. If it isn’t, then I really do have to just deal with it, as I can’t possibly go about pushing all my expectations on everyone else.

THAT would be rude.

I have been looking up information on Jiu Hua mountain this evening as Ashley and Ches are arriving tomorrow and I want to be at least a reasonable guide.

Jiu Hua mountain is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China, so information on the area often includes information on Buddhism.

Here I found the four noble truths of Buddhism and my answer to my staring-trades-person problem.

The third noble truth (cessation of suffering is attainable) held my answer. We attain the end of suffering by abandoning our expectations of how things should be. Ha! kind of what I had planned, it must be the way to go.

I must now lower my expectations so much I will be pleasantly surprised daily by my trades-people when they arrive and don’t do anything positively revolting.

Wish me luck!

We saw a very tall man today.

We had dinner at my escape-from-painters hotel with friends, and were surprised afterwards to find a very large gathering of people in the lobby jostling about excitedly.  We were about to go upstairs when the crowd let out a cheer and ran for the door.

I wasn’t expecting to be able to see the mystery celebrity from the back of the crowd so was pleased to find that the towering form of Yao Ming was clearly visible above the masses.

I know it is a well known fact, and really stating the obvious, but that guy is TALL.  He really has to be seen to be believed.

Seriously amazing.

I think I have eaten a little too much mooncake.

Today is mid-autumn festival, the time for looking for the bunny in the moon (Patrick tells me), eating mooncakes, drinking tea, and seeing family.

We saw Patrick’s grandparents for the first time since we got back to Hefei, they are such a sweet pair.

Grandma was pleased to see us, but grandpa is still veeery unimpressed we went to live in Japan, so we had to promise we really hadn’t been all that nice to all those Japanese people while we were there.

After dinner we took Chandler for a run downstairs where we came across some of our local elderly friends sitting about in their underpants chatting and smoking. They all chorus “Chandler!” (or something kind of like it) when they see him approaching and fuss over him as he rests.

This evening was still quite warm so one of our elderly friends enthusiastically fanned Chandler for almost 20 minutes to cool him down.

Chandler is one very spoilt doggie.

I get all sorts of reactions from people here interested in my non-Chinese-ness.

Generally I can laugh about it, on a bad day I am irritated by it, but sometimes people leave me smiling for the rest of the day.

Patrick and I went into a small store the other day to buy a drink. The owner of the store was so friendly I assumed she must have been an old friend of Patrick’s.

She asked all the usual questions… “Where is she from?”, “Can she speak Chinese”, “Does she like Chinese food?” all the while smiling at me and looking interested in the answers.

Patrick gets grilled wherever we go with the same questions, although often the questions are asked as if I am a completely deaf and very strange circus act. People generally study me with a slightly amused but fascinated look on their face as they ask Patrick all about this odd being in front of them.

Our friend at the drink store was being genuine and friendly, so when she worked up the courage to say “Ni Hao” I replied. She nearly fell off her chair in excitement as she squealed “She can say ‘Ni Hao!”

She then ordered her assistant to bring us food and invited us to sit and chat. Unfortunately we were in a rush so couldn’t stay, but I was left in a good mood for the rest of the day.

I had to laugh again when we were in a taxi on the way to dinner and Patrick had the following conversation with the taxi driver:

“Why is she foreign?”

“… I’m not sure, why do you think?”

“I am watching her mouth while she talks, it’s very funny”

“Please watch the road”

“Oh, ok haha.”

I could see in the rear vision mirror the driver decided watching me speak was far more interesting than the road ahead. Patrick and I are still unsure what exactly she was thinking… Why am I foreign?