too much bus in one day

ugh, my feet have been marinating in sewage/rainwater all day and my room smells funny, but we're finally home from pingyao, after the world's longest/most miserable bus ride ever. we left around 1pm, and i just got home about 10 minutes ago. along the way, we experienced the worst traffic jam i've ever been in, where we went about 5 km in perhaps two or three hours. there was construction work on the road, so we kept getting off the bus and walking along the highway, trying to throw stones into a pond, enjoying the scenery (and diesel exhaust being blown in our faces), and trying to avoid the hot and stuffy bus. you wouldn't think that a rest stop could be heaven, but when it has the nicest bathrooms you've seen so far in china, plus a convenience store that sells real chocolate, you start to believe that you might have gone to a very happy place. all this was smack dab in the middle of an approximately 500 km bus ride. more soon...