Two Weekends Of Humble Pie: The REAL Update

Well you can be sure I'm learning a lot of humility because I'm about to share with you exactly how much my pride's been sucked right down the drain. I guess we'll work from last weekend. My team and I went to the mountain I'd talked about hiking in an earlier post for a little R&R and some planning time (also the fellowship and fun). Friday night we headed up to the top of Geleshan to the hotel. By the time we got there it was dark and to get to the hotel, you must cross this bridge that is hanging between one part of the mountain to another. Being as dark as it was, we had no idea how high up this bridge was. I've included a picture, but just to help you imagine, think of the bridge to the castle where Fiona is waiting to be rescued in the movie Shrek...this was just like that, all swaying, old, and rickety but minus the boiling fiery lava below. The next morning I realized it wasn't quite as high as I'd thought, and was secured by some pretty hefty cable wires, so nothing to fear.
So we played a card game called Dutch Blitz that night and awoke the next morning for some mountainside fun, or so I thought. Two things we really wanted to do: Forest Karts and Free Flying (both to be explained in a minute). We headed to the Forest Karts first. These are like dune buggies, much bigger than the average go-kart. You can see us in our pictures, we look like life-sized Lego Men with our yellow helmets. There were four of us: David, Matt, Anna, and I. The guys running the deal told Matt that women couldn't drive, and Matt quickly assured him that we had vehicles of our own in the States, and that in fact, we were definitely capable of driving these....and you can see where this is going. The fellas headed down the mountainside on their ride, while Anna and I eagerly anticipated our turn. When the guys came back around, we hopped into our two-seater buggy and took a quick picture, then hit the gas and went bumping down the trail. I should preface the rest (in my defense, though not to justify) in saying that it had rained the night before and the trail was wet and slippery. About a third of the way down, we rounded a corner and began to slide. Before I knew it, there was nothing I could do to keep us going straight and BAM! we nailed a tree and it won. It was the first actual vehicular collision I'd ever been in (apart from bike wrecks). Anna and I both had a day or two's worth of headache and whiplash and I swore at that moment that I'd never drive anything in this country again. The trees and underbrush prevented the guys from seeing what had happened, but they definitely heard it and got pictures of us as we stumbled back up the trail on our walk of shame. I had just confirmed anything these Asian men (and American men for that matter) had ever thought about women drivers. I'd just ruined the chances of any girls ever getting to drive the Forest Karts again. What an accomplishment! After I brushed the dirt off my shoulder and cowboyed up to my responsibility for the wreck, we headed back up the mountain to go free flying, which is really only a long-distance zip line...but oh-so-awesome. It extended from one mountaintop to another and is over three football fields long with a drop of about 100-something feet. There's a couple pictures of this in action as well. This was so much fun, though my head still throbbed from our bump into the tree; good thing for the helmets. (And glad I'm telling this after-the-fact so my mom won't worry.) So we returned home to crash (not literally this time) and rest from the adventures of the day. And I'll never stop hearing about what is now being referred to as "The Incident" for the rest of the year. At least my Dawgs won the next morning! Ok, so another slice of humble...THIS weekend. I was supposed to go out of town to Xi'an with all the girls for a weekend of just hanging out and getting to be tourists. Yesterday (Friday), Anna and I were going to meet Kelly and Beth at the airport. That morning I had sent Beth a message to remember her passport, to which her reply was that she'd forgotten and could I please get it for her? After lunch I came home and my sole responsibility for our trip was to make sure we had the address of our hotel printed off in characters so we could show the taxi driver how to get there. I was having some internet problems and it took 45 minutes to complete the task. (Did I mention I had approx. 1 hour to pack up and be at the travel agency?) So with 15 minutes left, I was frantically trying to stuff everything in a bag and take off. I remembered to get Beth's passport, but in my hurry, I saw hers sitting on my bed and shoved it in my bag thinking I had my own also. We got all the way to the airport (another 45 min. away) when I met Beth, gave her her passport, and then realized what had happened. I'd left mine back at our house. To make the story short, the airlines wouldn't allow me to fly, I couldn't go standby on another flight, the train to Xi'an had already left, and the flights the next day were too late and expensive to even attempt. So the girls are at this moment in Xi'an and I am here with the guys. Two weeks in a row I screwed up beyond belief and have no one to blame but myself. So, my head is obviously filled with marbles, but my language is getting better! And despite all this, it's been a great weekend thus far! I went with some friends to the orphanage this morning (I love little Asian kids...they're so CUTE!) and even though we didn't get to play with the kids due to some administrative confusion, we'll get to go next weekend, so I'm really looking forward to it. Spencer's mom is in town and is a professional massuese (sp?), so I'm about to head over to get a massage! Tonight the Dawgs play again, and so it's been, without a doubt, crazy yet wonderful. Plus I found out I get to be in two of my best friend's wedding and I got to talk to my dad on his birthday yesterday! YAY! Haha. I love this place. Come What May. I'm having photo difficulties, so I will get the Incident pics up soon.