Vanessa's Journal

Feb. 17

Today I got myself to the Chengdu bus station to head back to Wolong. As nice as it was to eat cheese for the first time in months, I was ready to leave. One gains a new sense of repulsion for the excessive noise, people, and concrete in the city after one spends months living on a pristine and peaceful mountain. 

Once back in Wolong, I decided to exercise good judgment for the first time in a while and not rush by hiking up to Wuyipeng today. I got some much needed emailing done and tried to get my thoughts organized regarding my plans for the next few weeks. 

 I also went to my friend Mingjiang’s house for dinner and ended up sleeping over. They are such a great family and it is nice to know that I can go there if I need anything. I had a nice dinner with them. It seemed like they had a fun, albeit exhausting New Year holiday with Mingjiang’s mom’s family in a nearby town called Xiaojin. It sounded like they were “roughing it” for a few days, as their mom’s relatives live up on a mountain that is a four hour hike from the road! They all seemed glad to be “back to civilization” and repeatedly said “there is no place like home!” Indeed, I was excited to hike back up to Wuyipeng the next day to return to my “home away from home”.