We are still adjusting to jet lag--went to bed at 8pm and up at 3am (with multiple wakings in between though Marsjon was up at 1). We left our hotel at 5:45am to catch a plane. The plane was only 1/3 full and oh, do I wish I had taken the empty front seats. We went to our seats and settled in. We weren't there 5 minutes and the guy across the isle looks at me and proudly says: Hi, how are you? in English. I said fine, made some small chat and then turned back to try and settle in for our 3 hour flight--hoping to sleep (I won't lie, I just wasn't in the mood to chat, I was hoping to sleep). THe plane took off and I kept seeing out of the corner of my eye this guy looking at me--I knew if I looked over he would want to chat. I didn't want to be rude, but I was tired. I must have turned just enough and he goes "I teach you some Chinese" with this huge grin on his face. I was like, huh? I stumbled for a few words trying to help him see that though I was very grateful for him offering, we were ok. Marsjon threw out a few phrases because the guy was so excited to speak english and she is so nice. People in front of us and behind us kept turning to look at this guy--he was loud. Just then the girl sitting next to Marsjon stood up and motioned for us that she needed to get out (we were on a plane that sat 3 on one side and 3 on the other). We thought it was to go to the bathroom, but no, she motioned for the guy to come and sit right next to us. I didn't know what to do and thought 'quick run up to the empty seats up front.' But instead I sat down--the guy in the window seat, me in the middle, and Marsjon on the isle. He and Marsjon then proceeded to 'practice' chinese. The thing is every time he would try and help us pronounce it correctly he would spit all over my arm. I just kept looking at Marsjon trying to tell her with my eyes "QUIT ASKING HIM TO SAY THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER--it wasn't just the spit either. He was talking to Marsjon and because I was in the middled he leaned over towards her, so if I turned to look at him, I could just about kiss him on the cheek. But that wasn't all of it, this guys breath was brutal. I thought to myself--there is no way I'm going to survive the next 2.5 hours!!! After about 30 minutes I realized it was a no win situation and gave in and started trying to learn some things too. But after over an hour of this and knowing that we still have a long way to go, I could see that Marsjon was done. I tried to spend the next 10 minutes explaining that we were tired and just needed to sleep. He finally got it and we closed our eyes--I won't lie, I didn't sleep but there was no way I was opening my eyes again. I even whispered to Marsjon "shut your eyes and don't open them again." Finally, the stewardess came over the intercome announcing our decent. We spent the last 30 minutes of the flight helping him with his english and said our goodbyes. Honestly, he was such a nice guy, he was so excited to practice his english that it endeared you to him--it was just the spit, breath, and personal space that was the issue. I suppose if I wasn't so tired, I could have been a better neighbor.
We arrived in Nanning a city of 8 million people and it appears that about half of them ride scooters.
We travel to the hotel and Marsjon wanted to lay down to take a nap so she sat down on the bed and then said something about how hard her bed was! The bed I was on was hard, so I just thought she whining because the bed really couldn't be harder than the one I was on, but then she started laughing and I sat on her bed--it was solid--like you were on cement! We lifted up the sheets and there was a 4x8 sheet of plywood on TOP of the matress covered with a thin sheet. Needless to say, we reomoved the plywood (here is a picture of it--after we removed it from the bed and leaned it against the wall, we should have taken one when it was on the bed):
We went out for a walk...mopeds everywhere--on the street, the sidewalks, the crossings. We ended up at this huge supermarket (like a huge outdoor mall that is all cramed together and multiple stories. Thousands of people were out. We came to this one place with hundreds of people and some were dancing, old men were sitting on the ground on newspapers playing a card game while others watched. It was packed! After a little bit we started noticing that everyone was staring at us. We then realized that we had not seen another caucasion--at all (nor did we the entire day). It started to get a little weird especially when people were snapping pictures of us. Culture is really a cool thing and very educational!!
Andy as he is walking across the crosswalk. 
Marsjon at the square with people dancing (under the red banner) and notice the people on the right that are sitting down playing card games. We walked through this and felt a little like we were walking right through 'their' space. 
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