June 7 – No. 1 Lover’s Lake!

So today we went to West Lake, which is the “No. 1 Lover’s Lake in all of China!” we have no idea what this means or how it’s measured (marrigage proposals here? Children conceived here? Used condoms found here?). we take a boat tour of the late …. Which really is quite pretty with the lovely surrounding park and bridges … but the highlight of the trip isn’t the beautiful scenery and peaceful serenity … it’s the fact that we have become the CSULB version of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. If you know anything about California or CSULB in general, you know it is diverse beyond belief. And that is true for our tour group, which accurately reflects the makeup of our state and student body. We have Latinos, African Americans and Asians on the trip … as well as pacific islanders and gringos. Needless to say, this is not a combination that is frequently seen in mainland china. Five minutes into our boat tour, locals start asking to take photos with Danny, one of the African Americans. The upper deck of the boat, probably held 40 people, and 35 of them were Chinese, and 35 of them wanted photos with Danny. Then the two girls in tank tops. Then the girl with blue eyes. It was total chaos, but fun. The tour guide was kind of getting mad since no one was listening to the story of the No. 1 Lover’s Lake … but she had been overruled by something a little more entertaining. One of the locals asked Danny if he was into boxing, then asked if he liked Tyson, and pretended to bite his ear. Then he was like “Holyfield!!!!” another guy was like “Tyson!!!” it was a little odd, but danny diplomatically stated that he was an “Ali” guy …