Our Last Day in China

So today was our last day in China. If you think we were going to go out with a big bang, it was yesterday. Today it was raining all day, so we slept in and pretty much took it easy. Our plan for today was to have Lydia, Max’s friend from Shanghai, show us the cool things about Shanghai, but most of those things require better weather than we were dealt.

This after noon we meandered through some of the really nice malls for a little while before catching a movie. We saw Knight and Day with Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. I can’t recommend seeing it, but it didn’t completely make me want to shoot myself. Plus I’m no movie critic and I didn’t have the best particular attitude going in. When the movie was over we went to the real part of Shanghai, the Bund.

The Bund is a stretch of Shanghai along the river where in the 1800’s western settlers came in and built some really pretty western architecture. The buildings today are used as headquarters for the biggest banks in the world. We saw it at night and light up this place is truly a beautiful sight. The buildings were really pretty and across the river of yachts was the Shanghai skyline. In the distance across the river was the 2nd tallest building in the world as well as some of its close competitors.

Now the only problem with the rain is that being taller than the average person in China makes their umbrella height, your head height. Now cram the thousands that were at the expo that day onto the four foot wide sidewalks on the way to the Bund and try walking down the street. It kind of makes you want to step into the street and let the bus filled with midgets just take you out of your misery. No worries though, cause no one did that, and we could release our frustration by yelling at them in English because our communication does have its benefits. If you can keep a smile on your face while yelling, they just think you have issues.

After the Bund we made our way back to the hotel and decided to call it a night. We were all still pretty tired from yesterday and have to be up early for our flight out tomorrow. So our flight back tomorrow is 15 hours in duration and 2 hours in time. I hope it just feels more like the 2 hour flight than the 15 hour one. Since we are leaving tomorrow, this is going to be my last blog. I am very grateful to have had you guys reading what I have to say about our trip. It has been a real treat for me to be able to write about our days here and I hope you enjoyed it at least a little as much as I have. Our trip was truly amazing. Everyday seemed to be something exceeding all expectations. Thank you so much again to the Zhang’s for hosting us, you guys were amazing and we all expect you both to make the trip to America to let us return the favor. Thanks again to parents for all that you have done to help make this trip happen. We love you guys and will be home soon. Also thanks girlfriends, for putting up with our 3 week break. We love you guys too and will be home soon. Now I may put up a diddle or two every now and again so feel free to keep checking out the blog. Thank you again for reading and we love you guys. See you soon.

Peace

Olympic Sprinters? Yeah They Have Potential

Yesturday was the last day of our jam packed 20 hour days. We woke up at 6:30 to be sure we were at the world expo with a good spot in line. They open the doors to the expo at 9 and by the time we got there, there were probably a few thousand people already waiting in line at the 1 of 8 gates we went to. Needless to say our good spot in line was really a mediocre spot, but there were still many thousand more people coming in behind us. On average the world expo has 300,000 people a day in attendance and has been open from April to December, which is kind of ridiculous for an event that I hadn’t even heard about until Max told me we were going.

So in order to beat the crowds we mapped out a plan. The typical wait for some of the main pavilions like Saudi Arabia and China are around 10 hours. So we decided to sprint from the main gate to the Saudi pavilion without concern for trampling old ladies or babies. Then because Max’s friend was meeting us with VIP passes to the China pavilion we were going to do that one at 1pm without having to wait in line at all. Then the rest of the day we could just chill and go to the smaller pavilions that didn’t have lines at all like Jordon, New Zealand, Algeria, places like that. Flawless right? We had the best plan to get the most out of our day. Well that was all well and dandy until even with trampling old ladies and babies we still had a 6 hour wait to see Saudi. So we missed our appointment with China and had to just spend the rest of the day avoiding lines.

The truth of the day though was not that Saudi was the coolest pavilion we saw. It may have had the longest wait by 5 hours and 50 minutes, but Gordon’s favorite was by far the New Zealand pavilion. Now the Saudi one had a really cool I-max show while we stand on a moving sidewalk, but the 6 hour wait was not quite worth the 10 minute walk up a spiral staircase.
With a little disappointment for having wasted the first half of our day, the rest of the day completely made up. After Saudi, Max went to meet his friends and Gordon, George, and I went off to do some little ones. Max and his friends wanted to see China, and we were going to do anything but wait in another line. So we split up to meet back at the entrance later that night before we were going to leave and see one of Gordon’s Dad’s students perform at a Jazz club near by. When we went off we actually walked all the way around the whole expo seeing just about every country represented. This was pretty awesome because in my opinion you get to see the best part of every pavilion without waiting in line, the architecture. Some of the pavilions had cool stuff inside, but the best part was the crazy designs of the buildings. The expo itself was massive, and the buildings were not giant sky scrapers, but they were really cool examples of some of the best modern architecture in the world. What happens is each country has about 2 years to build a cool building to show off their country however they can. The event used to be the worlds fair meant for trading goods, but now it’s just a way to publicize your culture and show off your countries swagger.

We walked around the rest of the day making sure we saw all the major world powers pavilions at least from the outside and made a stop at the USA pavilion. As we were walking by there was a black guy with a cello warming up on stage. My first thoughts were “oh shit this is going to be embarrassing, we are trying to show off as a world power to the Chinese by playing cello in front of them, who have Yo Yo Ma. What the hell are we thinking,” But as they guy went on and began to play some classical songs he went on to play some poppy American songs and then the real unique thing was when he started beat boxing. Yes, he was a beat boxing cellist who was trained classically. Then this guy with a bandanna and dred locks jumps on stage and starts reciting poetry. Being the only three Americans in the crowd we spoke up and showed our obnoxious American roots, asking where the guys were from. The cellist was from Kentucky, a student at Yale, and has been living in China for the past year studying abroad. The other guy who turned out to be a rapper was from New Jersey and has been living in Beijing since he graduated college and couldn’t find a job. We sat around for the show and it was actually really cool.

When the show was over though it was time to meet back up with Max and head out to Gordon’s Dad’s student’s concert. We showered quickly at the hotel and caught the subway to get to the show. We hadn’t taken the subway yet in Shanghai, but it cant be much different than any other subway. Well this particular experience was worth mentioning because our hotel is right next to the expo, so kind of on the edge of Shanghai. So when we went to get on the subway, there was no one already on the subway. We were the first people in line and our eyes light up as if we were going to get a seat on the subway. The doors open and we quickly walk on, only to be almost knocked off our feet by these little Pokémon looking kids that bumble rushed the subway like it was the end of the world and this was the last train to the moon. Seats were filled before we could blink and I’m sad to say that we although already halfway sitting, we lost the game of musical chairs. So when we got off at our stop there were many more people on the subway at that point and the line for the escalator was to the point that it would be faster to take the stairs. Now Max, Gordon, George, and Max’s friends that were with us, decided to just wait and take the escalator, but I saw those little punk kids getting ready to race up the stairs. I thought to myself, “These little Chinese boogers can’t really be as swift and fast as they proved at the opening of the doors.” So I tightened the dock siders and tapped into my Usane Bolt mentality for the race of the century. Now I’m gonna let you know right now the little shits got a head start so it wasn’t a very fair race and I feel a little betrayed by the system itself, but they did get the best of me that time. I cant say it was my best performance, but I was floating up the stairs as light on my feet as Muhammad Ali and with the escalator crowd cheering me on I felt a lot like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky when I reached the top. I think a rematch is in order, so dad lets go ahead and order the plane ticket back, just give me like a month or two of training and I’m going to stomp those little kids into those stairs right there.

When we made it to the club Gordon’s Dad’s student, Alec Haavak, had reserved us a VIP table upstairs. We all were starving so we ordered some food and nice wine. The club itself was really nice. It was dark with a crisp jazz ambiance filling the room. Downstairs was a bar and some tables with chairs and the upstairs had a small railing with a balcony looking over the stage. All around the balcony were these U-shaped red suade couches which normally require a 500RMB balance minimum. The show itself was awesome and the scene was really cool. Alec came out and played a first set from about 10:30 to 11:30 before he came up and sat with us to talk. He was really nice and it was cool to here him talk to Gordon about Mr. Bowen and big time jazz business.

We were really tired from walking around all day so when we finished the bottle of wine around 12, we decided to head out back to the hotel to call it a night. Completely pooped I pretty much crashed instantly when my head hit the pillow.

Marty

Wonder Which Food Will Kill You First?

The main course of today began in the city of Suzhou with lunch. The prequel though was our departure from Max’s house this morning. We woke up bright and early around 7 to shower eat breakfast and be on the road by 9. The trip to Suzhou was about 2 hours given traffic with another 1 ½ hours to get to Shanghai. Max’s dad had to rent a mini van thing to get us there because our entire luggage wouldn’t fit in even the biggest trunk of a car.

So after an intense game of luggage tetris with Gordon’s awkwardly enormous bag, we said our good byes to Mama Zhang. It was really sad to leave and it sucked that it was so rushed. She had to make it to work, and we had to make a lunch appointment with one of Mr. Zhang’s friends. We told her thank you in our best butchered Chinese and we were off on the road to Suzhou.

In Suzhou we met with one of Max’s dad’s friends from college to eat lunch on our way to Shanghai. The whole car ride we basically slept, but when we got out eating lunch the food was an immediate awakening. As if the meals we have been having weren’t memorable enough, this restaurant easily met the standard. When we got to the restaurant we were once again escorted through a really nice building with walls covered with bottles of wine, to our own private room in the back with the giant spinning glass table like the very first meal we had here. The food also was right up to par. Max’s dad’s college buddy realized we had been in China for a little while now and asked for some of our favorite dishes to provide as well as some new ones, believe it or not, more interesting than anything we’ve had yet. The two that really stand out were our first experience with duck tongue, and this really special fish from the Yangtze River. The fish we ate was the first thing here we have ever had where they bring out an individual entrée for each person. Typically a dish is put on the spinning table and passed around the table for each person to take their helping, but this fish was brought out on individual plates for each person. This was also the first dish Max ever asked us to finish. Now immediately realizing it was special for him to ask us to finish it, our curiosity got the best of us asking him why. He told us it was a delicacy and was really expensive. If we were to waste any part of it, it would be disrespectful to the host. This for Gordon was hell because he has had food poisoning from fish on multiple occasions in the past, so pig brains no problem, but fish, only for Max. Now after we were done eating our fish delicacy from the Yangtze, Max told us this fish in particular requires the chef to have a particular license to serve, which is why it’s so expensive. George immediately is reminded of something he had seen on the discovery channel about special fish you need a license to cook, and as were finishing the fish decides to tell us about how the Japanese fish he saw required a license to serve because it was a poisonous fish. Max with a huge grin on his face then tells us that George is wrong because the fish isn’t Japanese, its Chinese, and we just ate it. Oh yeah, and that one drop of that fishes blood would kill an elephant. But no need to worry, because if it were prepared wrong we would already be dead, and were not.

Grateful for lives, we got back in the car and made our way to Shanghai. The drive to Shanghai was just another hour and a half in a car and before we knew it we were in Shanghai. The rest of our day was just relaxing for a big day tomorrow. We walked around the city for a while and went out to find a hole in the wall place for dinner. We found this place that was okay and decided to have McDonald’s burgers for desert. The hormone filled pasteurized food with our standard helping of high fructose corn syrup really hit the spot and was a great compliment to our other poisonous meal today. A little giddy and excited for tomorrow we made our way back to the hotel and sat and had a nice cup of coffee before heading to bed.

Tomorrow we are planning on leaving for the world expo by 7:30 in order to try and beat the crowd to the Saudi Arabia tent. Were meeting one of Max’s friends from high school in China and she is hooking us up with VIP passes to the Chinese tent in the afternoon. We are also planning on going to one of Gordon’s Dad’s student’s concerts at the best Jazz bar in Shanghai after the expo. Anyways I’m going to get some rest for our big day. We still love all you guys at home. We all miss our lady friends and hope you miss us too. Families, this is our last stop so we will see you all soon. Hope all is well and the blog is not getting boring yet. Much love, peace.

Marty

Last Night with Our Chinese Family

Today was our last day in Nanjing. Last night Buddha was sad that we were leaving and cried all night long occasionally yelling really loud. When we woke up the rain had stopped and it was actually nice a cool today. We slept in and woke up ready to start our day around noon. George and Max had gotten up earlier to go eat breakfast, but Gordon and I slept in. For lunch we went to the same sushi bar we had been to earlier to eat off the conveyer belt again.

When we were done eating we walked around the city again for the last time. Stopping by some of the same shops we had been to before to pick up some last things. After we walked around for a little while, we decided to go play some pool in one of the pool halls max likes. The building that had the pool hall was enormous. We had to wait for the elevator to come down from the 21st floor before we could go up to the 14th to play pool. On the first floor in the lobby there was about 25 people roller skating like it was a roller rink. When we got up to the pool hall we got two tables and just switched back and forth playing each other. There were actually a lot of people there and they had snooker tables too, which is like Canadian pool, where the balls are smaller, the pockets are smaller, the tables are bigger, and there are different rules to the order of making the balls. After every time we finished a game one of the waitresses would run over to the table and re-rack it to start again. The tables were nice and we played all the way until it was dinner time.

For dinner, Max’s mom had picked out this really nice restaurant for us on the 7th floor of a really nice huge mall. The mall was really fancy and had a giant dinosaur skeleton at the entrance we used. It also had really top of the line stores like Burberry, Giorgio Armani, Louis Vuitton, and many others. Our restaurant was on the top floor and Mrs. Zhang already had our table waiting when we got there. We had a little private hut looking thing where we ate with Max’s Mom and Dad. The meal was really good. We ate the usual, pigeon, pigs feet, baby crabs, and duck. The restaurant was really nice, but the meal was really chill. We relaxed and enjoyed each others company for the last time.

After dinner we came back to Max’s house and began to pack our stuff. Tomorrow we leave for Shanghai and are staying for 3 days, but we fly out straight from Shanghai so we won’t be coming back to Nanjing anymore. The Zhang’s gave each of us these really nice traditional Chinese tea pots. We packed everything up and said goodnight. Tomorrow morning after breakfast is going to be the last good bye. There may or may not be tears, but we are extremely grateful for the dear hospitality the Zhang’s have shown us. It has been an amazing trip and they have been the best hosts in the world. They really have made us feel like part of the family and it’s a pretty special thing to get that from people you can’t even speak to. We’ve been insisting that they come to the US, just as much as Max insisted that we come to China, so I hope someday they are able to make it. I hope that they know that we love them and that we are so grateful for everything they have done for us. It’s going to be very tough to say good bye in the morning.

Marty

The Great Marty Gordon and George

Sorry, but I have actually gotten 1 day behind in writing these blogs. It was difficult to find time to write in Beijing, because each day lasted forever and was very exhausting. Were back in Nanjing for the last time and I’m going to try and catch up here.

Yesterday we went to The Great Wall of China. We woke up early to be sure and have enough time on the wall because it was also a 2 hour car ride from the hotel. Max’s dad arranged for us to have a driver and surprised Max with his favorite car, an Audi A8. So Max was pumped from the minute we saw our car and while Gordon George and I were just waking up, Max was picking his jaw off the ground to get in the car.

When we got to the Great Wall it was much more than you ever get to see in the pictures. The entrance and parking lot are like all tourist attractions, but the wall itself is more amazing than any post card can capture. When you first walk in, you go through a museum of the history of the wall before actually getting on it. At the entrance there is a giant plaque given by the New World Wonders, declaring the Great Wall to be one of the 7 wonders of the New World. You then walk out of the museum and all you can see is wall. The small portion that was open to walk on was probably 4 miles or so long, but only a tiny little part of the wall that actually is expanded throughout most of the country. The emperor who built most of the wall was Qin, the same guy that later built the terra cotta warriors. This crazy emperor used the work force of the entire country for many years to build the giant defense system. It was never finished even though the project was continued by the following emperors.

Unlucky for us, the one day that we get to see the Great Wall, it had rained the day before, so there was a very thick fog left over. We didn’t get the typical day at the Great Wall because normally it is scorching hot and clear skies where you can see the miles and miles of wall. The fog made it pretty bad for pictures, but it also made it great for walking. We honestly would probably not have walked the whole thing if it were really hot. But we had a nice cool fog that set a really cool atmosphere. Not being able to see 50 feet in front of you made it seem like a great day for the Mongols to attack. The fog made it really easy to imagine guarding your country thousands of years ago from horseback Mongolians trying to invade.

Now the wall itself was not what I expected. All the post card pictures you see with the aerial view of the wall bending around the top of the mountain is not really an aerial view at all. The wall is built with thousands or steps and extremely steep inclines so the aerial view you are seeing is just someone standing on the wall looking down at the rest of the wall. They are not on top of anything or standing on some ladder to get a better picture, they are just looking down the 45 degree slope that most of the wall is built on. So as you walk around the wall it’s not just a casual walk, it really is a hike. Most people don’t actually walk the whole thing, but watching the elderly women and children make the distance is good inspiration to keep going. When you first walk up the entrance you can go right or left. Initially we went to the left because there were less people that way. We walked that whole side until the blocked door prevented tourists from further exploration and we turned back to try the other side. Walking back we passed the entrance and took off on the more crowded side until we made it to the other blocked off end. At that end there was a staircase to the base of the wall and the walk back to the car was along the bottom of the wall. The whole scene was really cool, but the fog played a pretty big role on the overall atmosphere of the day. It would have been nice to see the typical views and get the typical pictures, but it was really cool to have the battle scene fog on the stage all day. The thing though that I’m never going to get used to is the fact that we can go to the Great Wall of China, where there are thousands of people from all over the world flying in everyday to see one of the 7 wonders of the new world, and people were getting just as excited to take pictures of us instead of the wall. It was amazing how many people took pictures with Gordon George and I, and especially seeing how happy it made them. So I don’t really know how I feel about it, but my most shocking and amazing thing about the great wall was really the great Marty Gordon and George.

After we left the great wall we got dropped off at the water cube and birds nest where the 2008 Beijing Olympics were held. The square they are in is really big and a lot of people still visit to see the stadiums. We walked around and took some pictures outside, but to take a tour of the inside is pretty boring because all you can see now is the empty seats. Sometimes they still use the building for big events like concerts and things, but only the best of the best get to perform there. The buildings themselves were much cooler and much bigger than they seemed on TV. The water cube is actually being renovated to be more open to the public. They are taking out like 70% of the seating and putting in a water park.

Leaving the birds nest and water cube we went back to the hotel and hung out for a minute, showering and getting ready for dinner. We didn’t have any big plan for dinner, so we were just going to walk around and find a nice place to eat. We ended up going back to this really nice area of Beijing, called the Village, where we found this nice little pub that actually served hamburgers. We had gotten there pretty late for dinner, but before the night crowd had begun to walk around so we had a nice, much needed, cheeseburger for the first time. By the time we were done eating it was about 10pm and had started to rain pretty hard. We decided that because the world cup final was coming on at 2:30 we could either go back to the hotel and go to bed, or stay there pretty much all night to watch the game. With the verdict of, it’s the world cup finals, were in china, and we don’t have to wake up early tomorrow, we decided to stay up and watch the game. Since we were there so early, we had the best table in the place to watch the game. When it got a little later the bar ended up packing out and it was completely filled with Netherlands fans. We met a few people from Yale, Brown, and Duke who were on a study abroad trip and they ended up watching the game with us. The game itself as you know if you watched, was pretty boring, but it was really cool to be watching in the bar with all those people from different parts of the world.

By the time we made it back to the hotel it was already sunny out. Luckily we didn’t have a whole lot planned for that day so we slept until we had to check out of the hotel. Before our flight out we decided to go back to Tian’ Anmen square to hang out and take pictures. We ended up chilling in the square just sitting around near the giant picture of Mao. The hundreds of guards walking around as well as the many more cameras gave us a great sense of security while we were hanging out.

When we left Tian’ anmen square we went back to the hotel and caught our flight back to Nanjing. When we got back to the house we just went straight to bed and are hanging out all day today.

Sorry there were a few days of absence with these blogs. I hope no one was worried, we have just been really busy, and finding even a few minutes to write is more rare than a solid poop. I had to throw that in there, cause what’s a good blog without the mention of poop. Anyways I hope every one is still reading and still enjoying. Be sure to keep checking out the pictures on www.flikr.com/photos/martyprevitte and we will see you at home in less than a week.

Marty

The Not So Forbidden City cont.

I’m sorry I had to cut the last part short, but the timing around here is tricky. Trying to balance sleep with exhaustion and seeing everything makes it difficult to write the blog at the same time everyday. Anyways most of our time yesterday was spent in the Forbidden City. We got there around 12 and didn’t leave until 5. It took that long to see everything, but we also wanted to take our time and not have to rush. On the way out the most random thing in the world happened. We are passing the biggest building again on the way out and decide to get a picture with the Hill flag that max had made and the next thing we know some girl walks by and says, “The Hill School?”, “Hill sucks go Lawrenceville.” Instinctively we start beating her in the Forbidden City and kick her down a giant flight of stairs as we quickly walk away like nothing happened. No but she really said that. Before Max could punch her in the face we peacefully explained to her how she was mistaken, as well as letting her know that “everybody knows…L’Ville blows.” As Max explained to her that we beat them in every sport including a 6-0 record in Ice Hockey, the most important sport, she quickly realized she was wrong and joined us for a picture with our Hill flag in defeat.

After spreading joy and knowledge all over the Forbidden City, we left and took the subway to meet up with one of Max’s friends from Carleton that we had met the night before, named Alex. Alex had planned a really nice dinner for us at the oldest place in all Beijing to eat the most famous dish from Beijing, the Beijing duck. The restaurant he had made reservations at is literally the nicest place in town and happened to be booked for that night, but because he knew people he was able to get a table arranged for us that isn’t normally used as a table. The dinner was amazing. We had appetizers of cucumbers and duck liver in a mustard sauce, while we drank coconut milk from a Chinese Island they said was the Chinese version of Hawaii. For the main course we had purple sweet potatoes, camel hump, duck heart, duck brain, and of course the real Peking duck. The sweet potatoes were not as sweet as normal, but were okay. The camel hump was delicious. It had a great sauce with chili peppers and orange slices that made it sweet and spicy. The meat itself was tough like jerky and was really thinly sliced. The duck heart was really good too and tasted like chicken, go figure, but was a different texture. It wasn’t like bloody or anything, it was actually kind of dry but had good flavor. The duck brain was pretty gross. I actually don’t want to talk about it. The Peking duck though was really really really good. The way you eat it was like fajita’s almost. The duck came out and was cooked, not like steaming, but was hot. Then you take a tortilla or lettuce leave and put the duck with a little piece of cucumber, celery, and cover it in the delicious plum sauce. The tortilla’s were really thin and were pretty small so you were really making like bite size wraps, but they were so good and the plum sauce was delicious. This restaurant was so cool though, that they bring out your duck after its roasted and show you before they cut it into the slices. They also give you a card with the exact number your duck was of their total existence, as well as a website where you can go to see how your duck was raised as well as what it ate and where it was from. I would tell you the number of the duck right now, but I have the card and no Max to read the Chinese number for me. Sadly to say my Chinese numbers stop at like 99.

So after we stuffed our faces with duck organs we met up with another one of Max and Alex’s friends from Carleton who happened to be doing an internship in Beijing this summer and his study abroad in the fall, named Cameron. We checked up on George who was still not feeling well and went out to chill at a tea bar and play a little poker. Needless to say the best man ended up winning poker and walking out with about 250 RMB which equals about $40. After the tea bar we went to a bar bar called Lush and ended up spending the money on drinks for the 5 of us while we hung out for the rest of the night.

Taking it easy, we left the bar pretty early and went back to the hotel where George was finally feeling better. Needing a good night’s sleep we got ready for a great date with a great wall.

Marty

The Not So Forbidden City

When yesterday began we had planned for all day to be completely devoted to the Forbidden City. We got up and took our time to go eat breakfast on the way, but I had forgotten my wallet in the room so we had to run back there to pick it up. By the time we had gotten back to the hotel and I had my wallet, Georges stomach was completely in knots. The food had taken all this time to hit him, but when it did, he wasn’t feeling up to walking around all day. So George stayed back in the hotel while Gordon, Max, and I went to the Forbidden City.

We hopped in a cab and quickly were on our way. This time the cab ride though went right through what looked to be the 5th Avenue of Beijing. As we approached the Forbidden City we saw a strip of the nicest foreign cars in the world. There were Lamborghini, Ferrari, Pagani, Rolls Royce, and a few other dealerships with their cars behind glass, less than a mile from the south entrance of the Forbidden City. Pretty soon after seeing the crazy cars, we were standing at the edge of the walls of the Forbidden City.

The City itself was another one of those whoa moments, where it really hits you that you’re half way around the world, seeing one of the coolest most historically significant places in the world. This attraction was beautiful, huge, and completely packed with tourists. Waiting in line to get a ticket to get in was over 30 minutes itself. Even at the terra cotta warriors there was no where near as many people as we saw yesterday at the Forbidden City. The wait though for the ticket was well worth it. As you walk in from the south entrance you are making the same ceremonial walk that every emperor of China for thousands of years walked. Only up until 1924 did the last emperor move out of the Forbidden City and it became a historical monument.

As we walked in the first two buildings we see are the biggest buildings in the whole palace. They are the largest wooden standing buildings in China, and are massive. Completely swamped in people at the base, it is still an amazing sight. Each tile of the roof is hand carved with a dragon on each, and the detail is incredible. The columns are a detailed red with gold designs and the tiles making the roof were gold. There are cast iron statues all around with the different animals that have different meanings. There were turtles that represent longevity, and beasts that represent protection, to name a few. The city itself is massive, but only a small portion of the overall city is open to the public. The Chinese were big fans of symmetry so the inner portion, which was open to the public, was a small proportional part that was open to us, and the outer ring that wasn’t open to us, can basically all be folded down a giant marble line that runs through the city. To understand the massive size of the city, it used to hold 9,999 ½ houses. The strange number is because they used to believe that the number 10,000 could only be used by the emperor, and because there were other people in the palace there could only be 9,999 ½ buildings. Some of the other cool facts are that the emperor was the only person in the whole city with balls. All of his male servants, dukes, soldiers, everyone, were unics; so that there was no chance of them sleeping with the empress and ruining the imperial blood line. And although the emperor was the only one with balls, there were over 3,000 women at his wish every day. He had his wife the empress, and 3,000 concubines, which when Max was explaining this to us, originally told us he had over 3,000 cucumbers.

Joking about the cucumbers for the rest of the day we walked around the magnificent palace until our legs dead tired. Then we stopped for a bit and walked some more. In the north end of the palace was the emperor’s garden. This garden was really cool with giant rocks, cool trees, and really pretty flowers. By the time we made it back to the garden though, it had started to rain again. This time we were able to by umbrellas and although pictures didn’t turn out as well, we stayed dry. In some of the side buildings there were a lot of the treasures that belonged to the emperors. A lot of the treasures from back in the day were looted during the Boxer Rebellion, but many were still there. There were really cool jasper and jade tea pots and even swords. It was really cool and there was a whole room devoted to broken pottery that had been shipped from special kilns all around the country. Some of the giant marble slabs that had crazy dragon carvings in them were also imported from different parts of China, and some of them were so big and shipped from so far away that they had to slide them across ice for 28 years before it made it to the palace.

Right now I have to cut this short again because we are going to the great wall today but I will be able to finish tonight and let you know more about it.

Sorry,
Marty

PEOPLE WE CAN TALK TO!!!!!!

Today began bright and early with our flight leaving at 8am, meaning we had to be at the airport at 7am at the latest and waking up at 5:30am to be on time for all of this. So we rolled out of bed and Max’s dad drove us to the airport. When we got there we waited in line to check in, and as we got towards the front, the machine mysteriously broke. Max then went to the front of the line and told the lady, but apparently it wasn’t her problem so we had to go to the express check in line and were able to rush through security to make our flight right as it was boarding the last people. We were on our way to Beijing and everything was fine except the yelling kid in the seat in front of me. Normally I am fine on kids, I actually love kids, but this was the first kid to really make me want to physically kick like the last shot in a Fifa world cup final. Besides the kid it was a really smooth flight to Beijing and Max’s dad arranged for our driver to pick us up from the airport in an Audi A8, which was really cool. So we made it back to the hotel and decided to grab some lunch at a Korean restaurant near by. The Korean restaurant was really cool because it was like a little grille where they brought all the meat out raw and you cooked it yourself. It was nice because when you cook your own meat it means every bite is hot and cooked the way you want.

After lunch we decided to go see the temple of heaven. This was the place that the emperors in the past would go to pray to the gods of the sky and the heavens. It was really neat and hard to describe. I don’t really know a whole lot about it and will probably appreciate it much more when I read up on it, but Max was really excited the whole time. The architecture of the buildings was very traditional Chinese and some of the doors to the different gates were really elaborate with cool designs. It was pretty cool walking around. So far this whole trip we have been really lucky with the weather. In Nanjing which is known as one of the 4 oven cities of China we have had overcast days where hasn’t been rain, but it has been 10 degrees lower than usual. In Beijing yesterday it was 110 degrees, but today it was probably only around 85. Everyday has been sunny or overcast and until today it has only sprinkled while we were driving and stopped by the time we arrived. Today on the other hand our luck ran out. When we got to the temple of heaven we were able to buy our tickets and get just inside before it started to rain. It didn’t pour, but everything in the temple of heaven was uncovered and you had to walk at least 15 minutes to get to the exit to try and catch a bus or taxi. Of course we didn’t have raincoats or umbrellas, so we were basically stuck in the rain. There was covered gait where we waited about 30 minutes for the rain to stop, but it only died down to a sprinkle the whole time we were there. Near by there was a giant coke umbrella, like the kind vendors use for their stands, so Gordon grabs it and we all walk to the exit completely dry. The security was yelling something at us as we walked across the main area of the temple, but we couldn’t understand and Max just kept following us. When we made it to the exit we dropped off the umbrella and made our way out before the security really caught up and we made our way to the bus stop.

After the temple of heaven our next stop was Tien’ Anmen Square. The plan was to get there at 7:45 to watch the flag lowering ceremony that they do everyday. We had a little time before then, so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed over. The flag lowering ceremony was really cool. Even in the rain, there were at least 150 people there watching an event that happens every day. The guards were extremely succinct and well practiced. They raise and lower the flag each day to the giant picture of Mao that you see in all the history books. Behind the flag opposite the Mao picture are two giant screens playing music and pictures of China’s big historical sites. Because it was raining we didn’t get any pictures, but they got a lot of pictures of us. There were tons of cameras all over the place from the entrances to the exits not to mention the hundreds of guards all around making sure nothing out of the ordinary took place. The ceremony itself was really cool and we would have taken pictures if it weren’t for the rain. So instead we met of with some of Max’s friends from Carleton and at a nice bar they knew of.

Max took us to meet up with 3 of his friends from Carleton at a place called the village. The village was a nice shopping area with lots of nice bars that was pretty popular for the fellow palefaces in Beijing. Beijing is a popular tourist area and has more white people living there than any other of the cities we have been to so far. This area was really cool and it was nice to be able to talk to other people that could speak English. This was our first time being around people that Max didn’t have to translate everything we said. So we went to a Mexican restaurant and had some margaritas while we talked and hung out with his friends. We left the bar pretty early because once again our day tomorrow is starting really early.

Tomorrow we are going to see the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is so big that it takes all day to walk through so we have to get up early to go see it. There is rain in the forecast so we are hoping that it holds out for us and is not too bad. Also there is a student from Beijing that was accepted to Hill in the fall and the admissions office hooked up with Max for us to talk to this guy and tell him about Hill and what to expect for the fall. So tomorrow morning we are meeting up with the student from Beijing and his mother for them to tell us about Beijing and the Forbidden City, while we tell them about The Hill School. It should be an exciting day tomorrow so I hope you guys have a great rest of the day and I will let you know how tomorrow turns out.

Marty

You Play Good Ping Pong for American

This morning Max and I decided to wake up early and go to play ping pong with some of the locals. Max knew of this spot where a lot of good people play, but we had to get there early because they are all old and like to play in the morning. So we woke up at 6:30 to go play ping pong against the old people. When we got there the place had some tables outside along with some basketball courts, and badminton courts. We went inside where the good players are and there was probably 20 tables lined up in a big hallway. At first Max and I play a few games to warm up, while everyone is staring at the people less than half their age as well as the foreign kid. After a little while I decided to ask one of the guys who were taking a break if he wanted to play. I had seen him playing before and could already tell my odds were slim of winning, but I was feeling good and ready to play. When he came over he talked to Max a little and we began. I was really on top of my game, but this guy was much better than Max so it took some adjusting to a new partner. He played really fast and I made some nice shots, but I fell to my first opponent 11-8. Oh yeah, he was at least a 65 year old 5’2” dainty china man, but he was good. So after my brutal loss Max and I played some more and a woman came over who had been hitting on a table near by that said she wanted to play with me also. She was probably around 55 years old, but was probably the best person there. She gave me a few pointers while we hit and I had found my new coach. After we played for a while my next opponent approached the table. We didn’t actually keep score, but we both were keeping mental score that was getting intense. I was pumped from my lesson, and I was determined to take down a true native that didn’t suck like Max. After about 15 minutes of play I was able to determine, due to my mental score, which is subject to change, that I had won our unofficial match. Now this even younger probably 50 year old woman was also the worst person in there that goes to this ping pong champion building facility for the elderly, but I had finally taken down a true Chinese ping pong player.

Now obviously the rest of the day doesn’t matter, but I will tell you what we did anyways. With a victory under my belt, Max and I headed back to the house before Baby George and Gordon even woke up. When everyone was finally awake and ready we headed out for lunch. The place we had originally planned on going was closed for renovation, so we found this really nice sushi place to eat at instead. This sushi bar was really cool because it was like you see on TV in Japan. We sat down at a small table for 4 and a conveyer belt full of sushi constantly passed by the end of our table. We could chose whatever plate we wanted and the price of the sushi was determined by the color of the plate. At the end of the table there was also a faucet for hot water because we each had individual tea bags. The restaurant had a small menu of hot food you could order, but the sushi was delicious.

After lunch we walked around some of the shops in Nanjing doing some last browsing for souvenirs because we only have a couple more days in Nanjing before we head back to the US. After walking around for a while we went back to the house and chilled for a little. A little later Max and I went to go play basketball in one of the parks and George and Gordon decided to take naps and chill at the house. The place Max and I went was a court that he usually goes to at one of the colleges in Nanjing. Now basketball is a true American sport that I should really be able to dominate these little Chinese people at, but while most American kids grow up running and jumping I was only rolling and skating. Needless to say my basketball skills are very sub par for America, but I figured I would try my luck here with some shorter people. When we got to the court and I was able to scope out the competition I really began to like my odds. Max and I jumped in to a pickup game quickly and sadly to say I fit right in. Although the skill level of the game may not have been up to American standards it was a lot of fun. Max and I both made a few shots here and there, but were both dominant players for our teams. We won some games and lost some, but it was really fun to be able to play a pick up game and not be the worst person on the court, which the only time I can say has happened before is when the hockey team would attempt to play basketball.

When we made it back to the house and finished taking showers it was perfect timing for dinner. We went to Max’s grandparent’s house on his dad’s side for dinner. They had made homemade dumplings for us, which were really really good. Gordon’s stomach was a little upset, but Baby George, Max, and I stuffed our faces eating more dumplings than would seem humanly possible.

After stuffing our faces with dumplings we ended up just going back to Max’s house to pack and get a good night’s sleep for our flight to Beijing in the morning. Our flight is at 8am so we have to leave the house at 6am. Completely pooped after a tough day of competition its time to hit the sack. Tomorrow we plan on wandering around Beijing without a formal schedule, so I will let you know how it goes tomorrow. Until then, goodnight.

Marty

Reflection

Our day began today at 8am so that we could catch our 11:30am flight from Chengdu to Nanjing. Everything about today was not as exciting, but was really necessary. Our flight was on time and pretty basic. We ended up back in Nanjing around 4 and ended up hanging out around here. We walked around the city some and ran a few errands that we had been planning to do before we head to Beijing. One of those errands we had been planning on was going to see Karate Kid in the theatre, but they ended up not having an English showing of the movie. Instead we went to the bootleg DVD store and bought it on DVD, mind you this movie is still in theatres, so we could watch it back at Max’s house. Max’s mom cooked us a home made dinner tonight and it was delicious as usual. We are all still kind of adjusting to the food, but right now our systems are completely flushed with this new fuel. Besides the hanging out and walking around the city some, we really just chilled and relaxed which was much needed.

This point in our trip is a little over half way and seems like a pretty good time to just reflect. All of the blogs so far have just been lists of the things we have done with a little commentary on each event. Overall though, our trip has been amazing. Its tough to have time to just sit and think about all the amazing things that we are just being flooded with, but the moments it really does hit you are breathtaking. Sometimes it is still hard to believe that I am half way around the world right now with 3 of my best friends. It is really weird to think that back home in NC it’s only 1pm not 1am, and yesterday. It’s pretty ridiculous to think back 3 years ago, before Hill, and ever imagine being here today. I am so thankful, and I know George and Gordon are feeling the exact same way, to have this kind of opportunity in my life. Thank you, Dad for allowing this trip to happen. Thank you, Max and the Zhang’s for having us here and setting up this whole trip. After spending time in the big cities as well as the villages, being in the US and being in China, its very easy to see that there are people so much less fortunate than I am, and I just want everyone to know that I am grateful for these opportunities that I have been given.

There are all kinds of people out there in the world, but the characteristics that make people likable are all the same. Generosity, consideration, respect, and love are all things that people even half way around the world can communicate with even if you don’t use your mouth to do it. It’s very easy to become consumed by daily life and not think about these things, but when you have no other way to communicate you can actually see these thoughts in people’s faces. I may not speak Chinese but its almost like I can still talk with Max’s mom because when she gets worried when she thinks Gordon doesn’t see a step in the street and thinks he is going to trip, Max, George, Gordon, and I, can all look at each other, smile, and say, “All moms are the same.”

We still have 10 days left here in China, and I know they will all surprise me as much as these past 13 have. It seems like it has all gone by so fast. I hope everyone is still enjoying the blog. We love you all so much and will be back before you know it, bringing all these stories with us. Tomorrow Max and I are waking up early to play ping pong with the old people at a local ping pong pro shop so I need my rest. Hope everyone has an amazing day!

Marty

My First Experience with the Village People!

I’m sorry that the last blog fell short of expectations, but this trip that I was rushed to make was more than exciting. So the trip began with the wake up call at 5am and we rushed to the bus station to catch our bus at 6am. We expected a 10 hour bus ride and to arrive in the small town of Dunba around 4pm. Instead of what we expected our bus ride took instead of 10 hours a total of 16 as we arrived in the village around 10pm. The trip itself was the exciting part and although the bus ride took forever, there was never a dull moment. From the instant we got to the bus station the excitement began. Now we have all been eating the Chinese food for every meal and our stomachs have all be great, except for Georges bladder, until we knew we were about to get on a 10 hour bus ride. So of course when we wake up this morning both Gordon and my stomachs are in knots and once we leave the hotel there is no bathroom to be found. The bus was leaving in 15 minutes and if I didn’t get a chance to go before the bus ride I was going on the bus ride. So we took off to find a bathroom and it was down the road at the only place open, a dirty little restaurant with bathrooms like the worst truck stop you could imagine. So I go in holding the little bit of toilet paper Max’s dad carries with him because, oh yeah, in China you are supposed to bring your own TP. Now this was my first real experience in a public bathroom because there is a huge difference in public bathrooms and private house bathrooms. For instance the toilet, in a home bathroom there is a toilet, and in a public restroom there is a hole like you would dig for yourself in the woods. Now I have actually never been real camping so I am not advanced at the squat and poop technique, but it was game time and it was now or never for me to learn. So I manned up and made the bus with my stomach feeling much better. When we got on the bus it was as serious as a plane because your bus ticket had your seat number on it and they packed everyone in so there were no open seats. Because the bus is much cheaper than flying or anything else and because we were going to the most undeveloped parts of China, there were man peasants on the bus and some people were even carrying giant bags of rice as their luggage. Some of the families with smaller children would not get a seat for their kid, but just make him sit on the floor in front of them, even though the kid was probably 8 years old. Now that we were crammed on the bus and already not looking forward to the 10 hour bus ride with our stomachs just starting to feel better, we took off down the road, only to get a real glimpse of what the ride was going to be like about 10 minutes in, when we left the city. The seats on the bus were hard. It was like a slightly upgraded school bus. Now picture that school bus going off roading along the edge of mountains and continuing to pass other busses and construction trucks on a two lane road, that was really 1 and ½ lanes. Now I was fine with the ride, but Gordon who is afraid of heights, was a little uneasy for most of the ride. Overall it was fine and we all would have been fine, but throughout the trip we made two major stops. The reasons for the first stop was because the road we took to get here, and I call it a road because it was so small, but according to Max it was the biggest highway to get out here to the Tibetan mountains. So the road we took was along the edge of where most of the destruction from the earthquake in 2008 hit. There were a lot of military trucks driving up and down the roads still aiding earthquake victims, as well as being in position in case of a Tibetan uprising, but they caused a lot of traffic and there was one part of the road that a rockslide slowed down to one lane that had been backed up since the night before. So at this stop we had to wait about 3 hours for a huge construction truck that had to go very slowly around each turn, until it finally stopped to let us pass. The next big stop was when we were at the bottom of the mountains along the river. We were driving along and all of a sudden another huge traffic jam. When we got to these stops the driver would let us out to strectch and check out what was going on. So we walked about a quarter mile through the traffic up to the front of the stop and there was a huge crane and hundreds of people looking over the cliff. Apparently according to one of the people watching there was an accident where some people were trapped in a machine that fell into the river. The river itself was extremely rough and commonly used for extremely bold white water rafting, but even the best swimmer would have been sucked down by the current. By the time we had gotten to the front it was not likely that the one person still stuck underneath would still be alive, but they still tried to get the machine and the person’s body for another hour. Some of the people watching lit inscents to honor the person’s death and after the crane moved there was barely enough room for the busses to get around. After those two major delays we were on our way and for a school bus off roading through the mountains on unpaved roads we made pretty good timing. The rest of the trip went pretty smoothly stopping to get gas and cool the brakes of the bus we made it to a tiny little town on the edge of Tibet. At this point hardly any of the people of this town had ever seen white people, so now more than ever we were getting some pretty crazy looks. Our driver met us in the little town and he actually had a van. So we drove probably another 20 minutes up the mountain into a Tibetan village, which no Americans other than documentary people with rare cases are able to visit. The house we are staying at is extremely cool and reminds me of the dream clubhouse of any kids dream. It feels like I’m in a dream Boone because the mountains are enormous the weather is amazing and the house is incredible. When we got to the house our host made us a delicious meal with some Tibetan style corn bread that Max loved and made sure to request for the rest of our meals there. At this point it was pretty late, it was dark, and we were all really tired from such a long day in the car, so we decided to crash and get ready for a big day on the mountains. The beds we slept on were like 6 ft coffee tables with a rug on top. There were two identical rooms that this family housed guests and there were probably 8 beds in each room. The house had electricity, but all they had were lights. They had no appliances and no running water. The sink and shower they had were just hoses connected to the spring up the mountain. Their bathroom, as you probably have already figured out the theme, was a hole in the floor, except this family actually covered the poop with seeds and used it later as fertilizer for their fields. The next day we slept in until about 9:30am and Gordon was actually woken up by Max having a conversation with a cow outside Gordon’s window. When we all were awake we had a nice breakfast and our host took us to a cool spot on the way up the mountain to take pictures. He dropped us off and we decided to hike to a spot that Max’s dad new about. Mr Zhang had been to this person’s house a couple years ago and had hiked in these mountains before. There was a castle looking tower in the distance so we decided to hike to that and see if we could climb the tower. The trip itself was a fun hike with cows goats and pigs along the road. Every so often along our hike through the woods we would come across one of the villager’s houses and if they were home they would usually let us come in a rest a little. Every house we came across had guard dogs usually chained up on the roof. Most of the houses had pigs, chickens, goats, cows, dogs, cats, and were painted with really bright red, yellow, and green colors. Along the path we were also able to refill our water bottle with spring water. This water was cleaner and tasted better than I’ve ever had from Dasani or Deer park. When we made it to the tower, the door was locked and there was no way to climb up although we could climb up into a window the room with the window was completely sealed off. When we were resting by the tower the weirdest thing happened. Out of nowhere a monkey comes climbing down a tree nearby. We had no idea that monkeys were even indigenous to this area, but I took a video so you could check it out (Monkey Video Link). After our weird encounter with the monkey we kept heading up the mountain to a spot on a cliff that Mr Zhang knew about from his previous visit. From sitting on the cliff we had 360 degrees of post card views. It was really something that you can only see in pictures because the mountains were so beautiful with the peaks in the clouds. On the very top of one of the mountains it looked like there was either a house or a monastery but it would have been a multiple day hike just to get there. The Sichuan province itself has the nickname of “heavens garden” and these mountains although further west seemed like they reached right up into heaven. Standing on those cliffs was so peaceful and worry free it made you feel like you really were on top of the world. Instead of now turning back to go to the house, we decided to go further on to see some of the local government buildings. We walked down to the town center and met some of the villagers. The little town looked like an old western town from the movies. When we got there we sat and rested for a bit and some of the locals asked us to play basketball with them. It was really funny because some of them were actually pretty good, but the court they were playing on was really ghetto. The court and goals they had made street ball courts look like NBA stadiums. The court was part of the play ground at the village elementary school. We decided not to play because we were already exhausted and had a long hike ahead of us to get back to the house. That at least was our excuse to maintain our pride in the strange case that we would have gotten beat on the court. So we headed back to the house, this time following the roads, but the sun was blazing and burning us all the whole time. Our now sun burnt sweaty selves were tired and ready to just sit down and rest. When we made it back to the house we all lazed around until dinner time. For dinner the owner of the house treated us to a chicken soup, where they actually killed the chicken and cooked it that day. The dinner was very good and we celebrated a long journey with some of the local liquor. The owner of the house actually makes the liquor himself and all of the ingredients in it are also home grown. It was pretty tasty but also pretty strong for something that was about the equivalent to vodka. After dinner the owner of the house and his daughter came out with some traditional Tibetan clothing for us to see and even try on. Also the little 7 year old grand daughter of the house showed us a dance she had learned at school. As we were sitting down eating the local school got out and some of the kids were walking home. One of the kids who was probably 10 stopped by the house and brought us some apples he picked on the way home that were really good. We ended up teaching him how to give dap, which for you old people who don’t know what dap is, it’s a hand shake that all people under 30 do. So hopefully that little guy will now go back to school and be the badass on the playground teaching all his friends how to give dap. When it got dark out we all were just chilling outside talking and hanging out so Gordon got out his computer and we actually had a little dance party with our host and his granddaughter. It was so funny because Mr Zhang is just as goofy as Max, so when he was dancing it was hilarious. Then Gordon put on tick tock, by Ke$ha and the little granddaughter knew the words in Chinese. A few hours and a few drinks of the “chinka zhou” later we went to bed. A long day behind us we got some much needed sleep before our 6:30 am bus ride in the morning back to Chengdu. This bus ride back to Chengdu was much less eventful than the ride there. Our driver was much smoother and this ride had no long stops. So we got back to Chengdu to check into our hotel around 5pm. Tonight we all were craving some real American food so we went to KFC for dinner. The good old southern fried chicken really hit the spot. We all were really tired from being on the bus all day and the past couple really long days so tonight we are just taking it easy and going to bed early. Tomorrow we fly back to Nanjing and get ready to go to Beijing and Shanghai before we head back to the states. The end of our trip seems like the near future as we’ve been counting down the days and planning out everything we still want to do. I’m sorry about not being able to post while in Tibet, but internet wasn’t really an option. I hope you do enjoy this blog though and I should be keeping the regular schedule from here on out. Well once again its time for bed so I will let you know how tomorrow goes. We miss you BK, Anna, Lauren, Kelsey, all the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends, and anyone who is reading this. Be sure to check out my flickr account for more pics from the triphttp://www.flickr.com/photos/martyprevitte/ We miss you all and will see you soon. Marty

A Panda Named Amanda

The time you are receiving this blog may seem a little weird considering it would make the time here 5am, but dont worry because its correct. Today we are waking up at 5am to catch a bus an hour away at 7 and to ride for 10 hours westward into China towards Tibet. The place we are going today is a mountain village right on the border of Tibet, but dont worry about us because we are not going backpacking or roaming around the woods, we are just going to chill with some of the villagers. This would be like if we went in America to go stay on a farm with some family just to see what it is like, Max and his dad wanted to show us a different scene than the big cities we have been staying in so far this trip and the village we are going to will be a drastic change. The reason we have to take a 10 hour bus ride to get there is because this place doesnt have an airport near by. When we get there we wont be having internet so this will be my last blog for 2 days, but we will have electricity so I will be able to still write. We wont have running water though, so we arent going to shower for the next two days and were going to be pooping in the ground, like real men. Im really excited to see what this is going to be like and I'm sure it will be very interesting.

Yesterday we ended up sleeping in until about 11 and grabbing a bite of lunch before we went to the national giant panda research facility. The giant panda is the national animal of China like the bald eagle is for America. Chengdu where we are staying has the biggest breading and research facility for giant pandas in the world and it was just 7k from where our hotel is. So we took a cab and walked around the panda zoo for a majority of our day. There are only like 500 giant pandas still alive in the world and we were able to see some of them in person. It was really weird because its almost like they weren't real because I am so used to seeing the stuffed animal ones that their faces were just not animated enough to look real. They were real though and they were as cute as you could imagine. The facility itself was really big and the pandas were all kept in air conditioned cages because the summers are very hot for the giant pandas. It took us a long time to walk all the way around the facility and it was really hot inside so we were dying to make it from cage to cage all day. The pandas really had it made because they could just laze around all day with as much bamboo and their air conditioned rooms made it look like they were just relaxing all the time. They were really slow and would just flop on their backs and let their arms just flop wherever they landed. We got to see full grown ones as well as the little cubs. When we saw the little cubs they were so cute cause there were 3 in the same cage and two of them were playing while the 3rd was just being lazy in the corner watching. The two that were playing were both trying to get on this wooden platform and trying to keep the other one from getting up. When one would climb up the other would pull him down and then the other could climb up and take his place. It was like little kids playing king of the castle or something. The other really funny thing was that the farther west we go, the less likely it is that these people have seen white people or black people for that matter, so when we were at the panda facility it was like we were also an exhibit. There were these two guys and a little kid in particular that actually stopped Gordon and asked to take a picture with us. As we made our way through the facility we were almost to the end and we kept seeing signs for a red panda exhibit. When we finally found what it was, we cam across an animal that none of us had ever seen before. I havent even seen this animal on the Discovery Channel or national Geographic. It was like a mix between a panda and a racoon and these things were really cool. It looked like it should be the coolest house pet ever. Apparently though it is called a red panda and there are about 5,000 in captivity, but there has never been a successful release of one into the wild. If they were to be able to survive on their own, they would repopulate quickly because the only animal known for preying on them is the snow leapard which is much more endangered.

When we left the panda place we ended up going back to the hotel for a little bit because it was already almost time for dinner. For dinner we went to this really really nice 5 star restaurant that was the best hot pot place in the city, in the city known for its hot pot. This place was a 5 story restaurant where we took an elevator to the 3rd floor for our meal while they had a traditional chinese opera perform when we had finished eating. The hot pot itself was awesome. It is kind of like a fondue but we had a waitress do all the cooking for us. She would bring out raw meat on a plate and dunk it either in the boiling spicy soup, or the boiling chicken broth flavored one. After a few minutes of cooking and soaking in the soups we could eat. The food was delicious and there were spices in the hot one that would make your whole mouth tingle for like 5 minutes after your ate it. The food we had was delicious and as soon as we thought we were almost done she brings out one last meat dish before the watermelon. If you thought some of the foods we ate earlier were bad like the chicken feet or the pigeon, then you might want a trash can near by because the last dish was a pigs brain. Yeah. So when she brought it out, it looked like something hannibal lector would be eating, just raw pigs brain on a plate exactly like you would expect a brain to look. So the waitress cooked it in the soup and Max told us how every good hot pot place as really good pig brain and its something that he actually really enjoys. Gordon George and I used this time while it was cooking to find our balls to man up and try it. And it was really weird tasting. The texture was the worst part cause it just took the taste of the soup, but it was slimy and soft. After that we clensed our pallets with some nice tea and got ready to watch the show.

The chinese opera was really cool. It had traditional dances like we saw on the water in Nanjing, but also had a really cool face changing guy that did a sweet dance while changing different masks really quickly. It reminded us of ancient chinese magic.

I'm sorry that this blog is getting cut short, but we are in a rush now to catch our bus to the village so I will be sure to tell you all about the end of the opera and our village adventures when we get back to Chengdu. I hope that everyone is doing well and we all miss you a lot.


Marty

How Do You Say Lost in Chinese?

Today was the first day we got to sleep in for the past 4 days and boy was it much needed. The days here seem so long because we are so busy and always doing something. When we woke up this morning Max's dad took us down the street to a local buddhist temple. It was really brightly colored and was made with the ancient chinese architecture. There were many rooms and they had different statues of the different gods to pray to in each room. In the middle it was really open and there were little stands where they were burning in-scents. Because the temple is in a tourist town it has a little gift shop in the front, but other than that it was a very spiritual place and was very cool to see. When Max got in he prayed to one of the gods and showed us how a traditional Buddhist would pray. It was pretty similar to kneeling and bending up and down at the hips like islam. It was pretty cool and I actually prayed to one of the Gods that Max told us represented long lasting and healthy relationships. The temple itself was pretty small and low key which reminded me like a Buddhist version of College Park Church.

After we saw the temple Max's dad took us to a place he had found the night before for lunch. The food we had was really good but we made the mistake of telling Max we were hungry. Apparently in Chinese the meaning of hungry is different than in America because the amount of food his dad ordered was about 3 times as much as we could eat, even when we were hungry by American standards. The food was really good but we had tons of left overs. After lunch we went back to the market for a little while just to pick up some last souvenirs we didn't get the day before. Today was just supposed to be chill because we had to check out of the hotel at 2pm and catch a flight to Chengdu at 8pm.

So we made our way through the market this time haggling much smarter with the shopkeepers. Some of our new tricks we had up our sleeve included when Gordon wanted to get something that I had gotten yesturday the shopkeeper set her price much higher than I haggled her to, so I showed her my version I bought and Gordon told her what I paid and she had no choice but to give him the same price. She actually thought it was funny that we caught her and she had a pretty good laugh as she lowered the price. The other funny thing we really used to our advantage was the walking away technique that we mastered yesturday on accident. Today we set our price lower than what we were willing to pay and literally walked away if they wouldn't drop, and like magic, as soon as you turn your back the next thing you hear is "Okay, Okay, Okay, your price."

With a much more successful day of haggling under our belt we were about to leave and George was making his last deal. I stayed back to help with the haggling and because we were cutting it so close to check out time Max and Gordon walked ahead. When George and I pick our heads up to leave after we get his last item Gordon and Max were nowhere in sight. Thinking that they just turned the corner and were heading to the post office, which was the next stop before the hotel, George and I pick up the pace to catch them. We walked around the corner where it seemed like a reasonable place to stop and wait for us and we still couldnt see them anywhere. Confused we turned back around to see if they stopped somewhere earlier on the same street we were. We walked all the way back to where George got his last thing and they were still no where to be found. So we start walking and leave again to see if they were farther up. Now we were really getting nervous, because of course I haven't paid any attention to where this market was in comparison to our hotel and George has no idea either. Gordon, who is not with us at this time, is the only other one that knows how to get back to the hotel besides Max. So we go back to check and see if they are now looking for us in the market still walking down the same little street for the third time before we just think they have gone to the post office without us. Its getting closer and closer to the check out time and neither George nor I am sure of how long its actually going to take to get back to the hotel. We decide our best option is to just try and retrace our steps back to the hotel and meet them there in time for check out because they probably just went to the post office and are already on their way back to the hotel anyways. Well the great navigators that George and I are, made it about 100 yards across the street before we realized that was as far as we could remember was the right way. At that point George thought we should go to the right and I thought we should go to the left. So first we went to the left, until, a quarter mile down, I second guessed myself. So we took off in the opposite direction making it another quarter mile past where we started before we realized we were right the first time. When we realized we were right the first time we didnt really know the right way, but we did know that we were going the wrong way. So as we pass the same point directly in front of the market for the third time the local taxi drivers knew we were as lost as we did and began yelling at us to let them help, but we dont know the chinese name of our hotel to tell them where to go. Also recognizing a street name would have been as likely as getting mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day. But lucky for us there was a map on a bus stop near by that, although was completely in chinese, had the international you are here sign to save the day. We did know that our hotel was right by the south gate of the city wall so we were able to find our way based on some of the pictures on the map. Finding our way just in time we made it back to the hotel at exactly 2pm. Unlucky for us we found Max's dad in the lobby, but no Max or Gordon. We used Max's dads phone to call Max and He and Gordon were still at the market looking for us now for 30 minutes. Since neither George nor I can use our phones here we couldnt have called Max to find them and apparently they were standing in the front of a little shop about 50 yards ahead of us just waiting the whole time. So by just our luck we managed to cross paths at least 5 times, while looking for each other, and still couldn't find each other. But they ended up making it back before we were charged for a late check out.

After our little lost stroll through the city, we went to meet up with our same guide we had when we first arrived in Xi'an. The guide was working at a hotel and we met up with him to hang out before dinner. The hotel actually had a room specifically made for an ancient chinese version of table tennis called "Ping Pong." Maybe you have heard of it, but it is a mysterious game that we had a ton of fun playing before dinner. Gordon, Max, and I used to play a lot at Hill, but George never did and Max's dad had never played with us before. We played a king of the table style tournament where the winner stayed on after games to 11. With this great opportunity for elementary learning we finally learned to count to 10 in chinese, which I now remember why kids get so excited when they first learn to count. After our king of the table tournament we played some best out of 3 series' of China vs. USA, where Gordon and I took on Max and his dad. The first series USA defeated the originators of the game, 2-0, but the second series China made a come back to win 2-1. In the rubber match series we were cut short by dinner time and the drivers arriving when USA was up 1 game to 0. Therefore USA is ultimately declared the best ping pong players in the world! All joking aside it was really fun to play with Max and his dad and Max's dad is actually pretty good.

After ping pong we went to dinner with the guide and some of his friends. The dinner was really good and we ate tons of Chinese BBQ. Completely different than American BBQ this was really just pork, lamb, and chicken shish ka bobs. They were covered in spices and were really tender and delicious. At dinner we were eating right before the dinner time crowd was setting in, so we saw the waitresses and chefs coming in for work before the crowds got there. We got to see some of the rituals that the waitress staff and chefs have to go through before work and it was actually pretty weird. When the waitresses get to the restaurant they all wait outside in rows like a military platoon. When the restaurant manager is ready he goes out and calls them in. When they get inside the restaurant they line up in order from tallest to shortest for inspection. The manager would look at each of their clothes as well as hands and hair before each waitress must do a full turn inspection to pass. These rituals although very strange to us, didn't phase Max at all, as if its really common over here. The whole dining experience is different in general here because here they dont tip, ever, and they dont clean up after themselves, even in fast food restaurants, because it is considered the job of the waitress.

After dinner we went to the airport to catch our flight from Xi'an to Chengdu. Chengdu is the capital of the Sechuan province and is know for its spicy food and the hot pot in particular. The flight and airport went much smoother this time compared to the airport in Nanjing. The only problem was our flight changed gates and was delayed about 30 minutes. Landing in Chengdu we found our driver and made our way to the hotel to chill and rest for tomorrow. I really have no idea what Max has planned for tomorrow and I dont even know what time we are going to wake up. I do know that in Georges guide book it says there is the nations largest giant panda reservation about 7 miles from where we are staying, so hopefully we will be able to fit that in and I can bring back a kung fu panda. I guess I wont know for sure until tomorrow so I will see you then! Remember to check out my flikr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/martyprevitte/ where I am posting more pictures and maybe some more videos soon. Goodnight/good morning and we miss you guys. Also we heard some terrible news tonight in an e-mail about one of our classmates and friends Jonathan Silverstein, from Hill, who passed away yesturday in an accident. We would like everyone to keep his friends and family in your thoughts because we definitely will be here. RIP Jon.

Marty

The Eighth Wonder of the World...Thats What She Said

The beginning of this blog should really start where we left off last night. So we ended up going to the bar last night and making friends with some of the local people from Xi'an. One of the guys there got really drunk and now me and him are brothers. It was really crazy cause the people we met knew the owners of the bar and there were only like 10 people in there so we basically had the place to ourselves. Also there was a band that was really good. They did a bunch of cover songs of like the Red Hot Chili Peppers song hump de bump but the singer sang in chinese and he was really good. His voice was really pure and you would have loved it. So the band would play for like 15 minutes at a time and then just chill cause it was so low key and the drunk people would just on stage and grab this other mic that wasnt turned on and sing into it which was really funny. But after we made friends with the drunk people they insisted that me and gordon go up on stage and sing a song. It was ridiculous how pressuring they were about it, we literally were pushed up on stage and forced to sing. Gordon ended up climbing behind the drumb set and they handed me the mic that actually worked. It was so embarrassing for me because I dont know all the words to any songs except like the Avett Brothers which they definitely didnt know. So the band started playing sweet home alabama and Gordon who actually plays drums killed it. They were loving it all until it was my time to sing and I have no clue how that song goes except the chorus. So Max jumps up on stage and starts free styling the verses and I would just come in with the chorus. It was really funny and I wish that someone would have had a camera. So the rest of the night we just chilled and hung out with the crazy drunk Xi'an people. Dont worry because we drank a few but didnt get out of control.

The next day started at the butt crack of dawn aka 8 am so that we could get a jump on the other tourists at the Terra Cotta Warriors museum. So we woke up and had a little breakfast wrap from a local vender that has a little bike with a cooking oven on the back. She was a really old lady and Max told us she was deaf, but she was a great cook. She made these flour tortillas by just putting like a pancake mix on the flat stove and using this cool tool she had to flatten it out in a perfect circle. Then she cracked an egg out on top of the tortilla and used the tool again to spread the egg all over the tortilla. She would flip the tortilla to cook the egg and then paint a chili paste on the tortilla shell before adding the fillings of like crispy wavy chip type things with some diced green onions. The wrap was really good and made for a great breakfast. we ate those waiting for the driver to come and take us out to the country to the museum of the terra cotta warriors.

When we got to the museum of the terra cotta warriors we were able to get half price tickets for showing we are students. Also we were able to get a tour guide that spoke english, even though she had a pretty brutal accent that was tough to understand even in english. It was pretty funny though because I didn't have my school ID, but lucky for me they don't know what schools are what so I just showed them my drivers license and they thought it was a school ID. So the museum was really cool and I was able to take tons of pictures. For those who dont know, cause I didnt, Terra Cotta is just a type of clay. So the people are just clay warriors. It was really amazing though. They have found hundreds of thousands of these 6ft tall clay warriors in 4 different pits that were underground. The testing on the soil and erosion dates them back to the Qin dynasty which is the first emperor of China in 221BCE. Apparently this guy Qin was a really ugly short guy was not very popular in his province, but then he decides to unify all of China by getting a universal language and currency. This made him from the ugly guy no one cares about to the biggest boss of the country, and he then got whatever he wanted and all the people of China were really willing to work for him. So he decides it would be cool to build an army of these clay warriors to put in an underground city to protect his soul after he dies and is buried underground. So to accomplish this he pulls all the artists of the country out to this farmland to build these warriors, but in order to keep this burial ground a secret he kills all the artists after they finish. Now there are some unfinished warriors so they think that the project was never completely finished, but there are hundreds of thousands of warriors built in a 40 year period so the project itself was a pretty big success. Each warrior was hand made and had its own weapon. Each warrior is different than any of the others also, each literally has a different face, and different armor, and different feet. Their weapons were made of wood or bamboo besides like the metal head, so the weapons eroded, but each warriors hand is closed where the weapon was. Recently they have actually discovered records of chrome plating, which was only invented by by the Germans in the 1920's, over 2000 years later. So the craziest part about these people is that they were a complete secret. When the emperor Qin died the dynasty was overthrown 2 years later and some of the warriors were found and destroyed, but the emperor killed all the people that built the warriors so that it was a complete secret and not even found until 1974!!! It was a freak accident it was found in the first place. A farmer stumbled upon it while digging a well. Now he's super rich and has a Chinese book and English book about the warriors. We actually got to see him in the gift shop signing every book sold. It blows my mind that these artifacts that are over 2000 years old were just found in 1974. Understandably one of the first things our tour guide told us was that these terra cotta warriors are considered by many archeologists as the 8th wonder of the world.

After the terra cotta warriors we went to a market place to eat lunch and shop for some souvenirs. The market was a long skinny road with shops on either side all selling pretty much the same trinkets and you haggle with the shop keepers on pretty much everything they have. As you walk deeper into the streets and more towards the middle of the market the venders get very pushy with trying to sell things. You really get harassed even if you look at something. Its funny at first but then one of those things that are really annoying because they think that if you even look at something or stop to look at something that you are going to buy it, and they spend so much time haggling that they think when you leave your just haggling. It sucks because you feel bad having to be a jerk and walk away while they're still talking, but as you walk away their price miraculously drops. As I looked at a watch today I decided I didnt have enough money to buy anything else, but just walking away was not an option for this girl working the shop. She started the price at 60 yuan which would be about $10, and as I walked away not wanting to buy the watch, or anything at all, she could suddenly sell it for 50, 40, 30, no 20 but thats my final offer. It probably would have been easier for me to just buy the watch for what would now cost me like $3, but not having much money in my wallet at the time left me walking away with her basically yelling at me, "final offer 20!"

So we had some lunch in the market eating just a casual meal of like a couple dishes here and there as we walked through the market, just repeating some of our favorite things we had before. So now that we were done with lunch and shopping we went back to the hotel to relax for a little bit and get off our feet. Max's dad had the idea then that we should see the Xi'an city walls which the entrance is right near our hotel. Now this was really cool because touring the Xi'an city walls means riding a bike across the 10 mile 5 story high wall that surrounds the city. The walls were like something you would expect to see in a midevil castle because they had little holes for archers on the outer edge, a smaller side on the inner edge. The view from on top of the wall was amazing. We had perfect views of the skyline as well as a birds eye view of some of the surrounding parks and buildings. Because it was so late when we did this there were not many people up there and a lot of people were in the parks. While we were up there I took a video with my camera and you will hopefully be able to just follow this link to watch it on the chinese version of youtube. I cant actually post it on youtube because just like facebook, youtube is blocked. So Max is trying to hook up the video.

After our 10 mile bike ride around the city it was getting dark and we were all dead tired from a very long day. We went back to the hotel and showered to get ready for bed. I began writing this and around 10 Max was getting hungry again, but nobody else really was, so Max and I went to KFC down the street. He has been insisting that we try the KFC here because he thinks it is so much different. The only real differences I noticed were a smaller menu and like one unrecognizable dish was on the combo menu. Other than that the dining area was nicer than usual but the chicken was pretty similar. So we ate our chicken and went back to the hotel. Tomorrow we get to sleep in which is very exciting. We dont have anything particular on our schedule so we are just going to putz around Xi'an taking pictures and chilling until our flight out at 8pm to the Sechuan province. But now its time for me to get some sleep so I look forward to letting you know what we do tomorrow after it happens.


Goodnight
Marty