Borders and Badges...

"Badges? Badges?! We don't need no stinkin' badges!"

That was for you, Dad... And any one else out there who wastes time by watching Mel Brooks movies...

Anyway, we got back from our trip on Friday night around ten o'clock. We had left GH that morning at six thirty... Yeah, it was a very, very long bus ride. So I wanted to recap the trip as quickly as I can, and then I'll add some pictures later. And since I was on a bus for over thirty hours last week, I had a lot of time to think about how best to go about the recap. As a result of over-thinking, today's blog will be brought to you by the letter B.

Bus: the ride to GH was as long as my flight back the Chicago from HK...
Bumpy: Think hand-laid cobblestones, but without the cobble and pretty-ness. And dirt roads with deep ruts.
Bamboo: it grows everywhere, and is used for everything from gutters to wall studs to fencing, and much more...
Bananas: the way I went... though they also grow everywhere. Speaking of, how do you plant a banana tree?
Buffalo: of the water sort. They make good road blocks.
Burns: dust in my eyes. "It burns! It burrrrrrrrrrrns!"
Butts: of the cigarette sort. Probably could have built a model bus from all the butts flicked out
the windows. And there was that one that came back in and burned a hole in Hannah's bag...
Blown: wind-blown, that is. My hair was a mess...
Buck: naked. A man, working near the road. Though he had his shirt around his shoulders...
Boredom: eased by imagining I was white-water rafting down the river next to the road. That
helped me forget the bumps for a while, until we left the riverside...
Blank stare: is how all the Chinese look at us. Just, look...
Bouncy: up and down, up and down...
Balancing Act: our bus, top of the mountain, five hundred foot drop, sheer cliff face, no guard
rail.
Blue trucks: that tried to run us off the mountaintop
Boulders: perched precariously on mountaintops, threatning to crush us
Bu zhidao: yeah, I have NO IDEA what they are saying to me...
Backpack: mine came off the truck wet, and smelling like year old sweat and overall stench
Bottles: of water, and juice, and soda...four, and I never drank all of any of them
Beautiful: when the Chinese did speak to us, they told us we are "hen piaoliang"
Bum-Numb: the condition acquired after a fifteen hour bus ride
Bathrooms: of the squatty variety
Bees: buzzing in and out of the hole while you squat... I was wondering how Hannah would react
if I got stung and succumbed to anaphalactic shock while squatting...
Backaches: I'm going to need a chiropractor sometime soon...
Basic: by Charmin...
Big Ones: wet wipes...Thanks Emily!
Bags: Hannah's got searched at the checkpoint...mine didn't
Beats: Thank goodness for mp3 players and Anberlin. Saved my mind...
Bowls: of rice for lunch, and breackfast and dinner, if you're interested...
Bars: of granola, if you're not.
Border: I think we spent a whole 30 minutes in Laos...
Badges: in the form of passport stamps.
Bruises: my right arm is really sore...
Back on the farm: finally.
Bed: a good night's sleep

Well, that's our trip to GH, brought to you by the letter B. Please join us next week for a program brought to you by the number 4...