Canadians and British

Last night we stayed up late hanging out at the hostel. The other 5 played card games while I sat and read a book. Our British friends Andrew and Sarah joined us and we sat around chatting for a while. There was a Canadian couple at a table near by that chimed into the conversation. The man was in his early 30's and she was about 28. James, you would have loved the conversation that followed. The Canadian ocuple had been traveling for about 5 months. We started out talking about politics but it moved more into a conversation about culture of sorts. The Canadian woman commented on how she found it, for lack of a better word, curious how the chinese women would be dresed so prim and propper and then go into a bathroom and crap in a trough. The canadian man talked for a while how his patience with certain things done here had slowly worn, like the spitting. He also said that half of the world's smokers liv in China (regardless of the fact that one sixth of the world lives here, that's still a lot, and believable from walking around). When things about America came up one could tell the other two couples tjip toes around saying what they thought on certain subjects. They obviously did not have a high opinion of President Bush. The couldn't understand our gun laws and why people felt they had a right to a gun It was interesting and sad to see what they thought of us. The conversation was much longer, touching on Vietnam and rasicm. Today I spent the day walking around Beijing by myself. Since I committed to Honduras for the next year I"ve been more aware of where I'm spending my money, or atleast trying to be. The others went to see the Olympic Stadium and possibly the Summer Palace. I walked the streets of Beijing. I was very careful to write the landmarks down so I didn't get lost. So many here drive scooters; I found you can buy one for 2,980 yuans. I went in this indoor marketplace. It was amazing how full of stuff it was. We think in America they are producing stuff for us here, one goes into markets like that and sees how much these 1.3 billion people are buying, that thought is put to rest. I went into a 3 story jewlery store that was probably the largest I've ever seen. I walked on a single road for hours and there was never any end in sight; this city is unbelievably large. On a said note, it's nice that I can say "the nice chinese man in the blue shirt" everyday to describe the guy who runs the hostel, as he never changes his shirt.

Nathan's Broken Ankles

Out hostel is at a central location for many of the things to see in the city. We decided to go to the Forbidden City today. Inside the first courtyard there was a fenced off area where a commie was shooting hoops on a grass terf court. Nathan was watching him and the soldier motioned for him to come in. Nathan proceeded to get his ass whooped in a game of 1 on 1. To be fair the guy was 6'2" atleast, but Nathan still embarrassed our country. There was a crowd of atleast 200 watching the event. We made our way into the city (which was the emperor's palace). The city was huge. It was just one courtyard after the next. On exhibit was of broken bowls; it sucked. But the city was fantastic. We made our way up a hill to a Vairochana Buddha temple that provides a panoramic view of the whole city of Beijing. While we were up there Brian and I convinced a commie to take a picture with us, acting like he was arresting us. Everyone else was too afraid to ask but he was really timid about it. Here are some thoughts we've had since we've been here:-There are so many people here it seems there's people sitting around doing pointless jobs. Today we saw guys making marks in stairs with a hammer.-Everything is extremely commercialized. In the Buddha temple they were selling merchandise.- We decided the moat around the Forbidden City probably had seaweed, as the greatest defense against attackers was and is 'icky toes'. We've started taking on old people hours. Awake at 7, supper at 5, in bed by 9:30 or 10. We love you guys.

Ni Hao from Beijing

Well we're in Beijing. Good times have followed us the 14 hr train ride it took us to get here. Yesterday for lunch we had a fantastic meal at Wuyve Renjia (still in Shanghai). Most of the meals we eat now we order like 4 dishes and then all just eat out of them. Our meals end up costing us about 3 dollars a piece. All the girls that are good friends walk around holding hands and the guys walk around with their arms around each other. Brian and I followed suit. People spit here a lot. The tea place we went to the other day had a bucket for one's spit. Yesterday afternoon we went to Fuxing Park and watched some guys fly kites. This one old guy that could be anyone's granddad seemed especially pleased with his kite. His was WAY up in the air and he was content to spend his time just staring up at it with us looking at us every once in a while and smiling. Last night we went to catch the subway to get to the train. The subway was just as one would imagine it, crowded. Getting onto the car one had to shove their way in. Nathan had to lower his shoulder to make it in and see that he was not left behind. The people getting off were just pushing their way through. No joke, saw atleast 2 women crying. We had a room on a train, well kind of. The way it was set up was we were in a car and there were 6 bunks, 3 high on each wall. Graham and Layne's tickets were for a different room though so we tried to switch them out and were essentially successful. However, around 11 o'clock a guy came into the room and was asking for our tickets (so we figured out). I woke up and handed him my ticket then went back to sleep. I woke back up a few minutes later to see him with 5 tickets on the table yelling (Katie almost in tears). For some reason I went back to sleep. But what happened was he was saying that we only gave him 5 tickets (there are 6 of us) so someone didn't have a ticket. A girl that spoke english came in and translated for us. The situation was kind of smoothed over. The next morning we figured out that Nathan had handed him his ticket, the guy had given it back and then Nathan had slept through all the yelling and the looking for the 6th ticket (which he held). This morning we ate at McDonald's. We wanted something to eat fast. We realized how it's a hip experience for them. Everyone in there had a very stylish haircut, stylish shirt, cool sunglasses... After walking around for a while we found a hostel. I like this place. It's toward the center of the town. Our floors and walls are 150 years old. Beer here is 5 Yuans (Hey-o!). We met a cool British guy here who has been traveling around with his girl friend for a year. They've been all over the place. South America, Australia, Asia. This afternoon we went to Tienanmen Square. It was humongous. Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Forbidden City.

One last thing. Yesterday we were in the men's locker room in the Marriot Hotel in Shanghai (Katie was not). We were in the hot tub... naked... Brian, Graham and Nathan were going to go get a cool towel from the fridge and then go into the Sauna. Brian ran to the fridge and Nathan ran behind him. Brian hit the breaks, Nathan did not as quickly... Let's just say they got real close real fast.

Pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/JGTheisen/China?authkey=h_H4_wPEr5o

Ganbei!

Our first full day in the city. We spent about 8 hrs just walking around. The area we're staying in is really nice but it doesn't take long to get into the heart of the city. Turns out a lot of children in the city have slits in their pants so that they can just squat and poop anytime they need to. Just thought I'd throw that one in. We were walking in a sort of open street/marketplace when we found a large group of old people dancing. A man came up to us and told us how these people dance every morning, so we joined them. Here's something you might not have known, they sell DVD's in China. We found this out on every corner of the city. We spent about an hour drinking tea in this little shop. Jasmine, green, and black tea. We went to this food court to eat lunch. Today's meal was a lot more succesful than yesterdays'. Each of us payed about 11 yuans (1 to 6.89 conversion rate) so we each ate for under 2 dollars. A girl next to me was holding her chopsticks funny and I tried to imitate her. She and her lover tried to correct me. Turns out the chinese love the joke when I grab a chopstick in each hand and shake them near my plate while making a noise that sounds like "rahw rahw rahw." I'm sure they thought I was a moron but I did this several times to the delight of many in the restraunt. The river that runs through the city may be the grossest water I"ve ever seen. I'll do just about anything but it would cost thousands to get me in that water. In one of the marketplaces we met a group of girls in their early 20's. One thought it was funny when she got my attention by touching my butt. I introduce Graham as "homo" which apparently means monkey in Chinese. They thought this was hilarious as they put their hands over their mouths and giggled. We went back to their loft where they showed us their art. We talked about it for a little while. We were saddened one hour later to find the same art in other shops. Our entire relationship with those girls was a lie. Brian made out with one of them (just joking, but seriously...). I spoke in the last update about crossing the street. We realized everytime you cross the street it's a lot like frogger. Toward the end of the day we walked through some really impoverished areas of the city. I don't want to point out the obvious, but it was tough to do. I'll turn down guys on the corners trying to sell me bootleg CD's but waking past those other people is too much at times. We did manage to find a McDonald's where Brian got his nuggets and Nathan and I each ate a double cheeseburger. Our train for Beijing leaves at around 7:30 PM tomorrow (Friday).

Mao says "Hello"

To our great surprise, Monday began with a gift from Anna (& co.) when she gave Graham, Brian and me a robe with Maps printed on the back. She gave Layne and Nathan fanny packs and Katie girly magazines (one of which was in Spanish). The robes are fantastic. Anna told us that we had our initials printed on our chest in Chinese. We would later find out this isn't true. The flight from Chicago to Shanghai lasted about 14 hours but as Nathan put it "I don't remember a time when I wasn't on this plane." Nathan and I landed the emergency exit row so we had room to spread but there still was no escape from our prison. Brian managed to get a seat next to a certain young lady, with whom he spoke for hours. There was a divide among the flight attendants as to whether they liked us or not. I wore my robe from the airport in Chicago til just before landing in China. One of the flight attendants told me I was "just the cutest thing." There were two Chinese flight attendants that did not share her thoughts. They pulled me aside and told me I looked ridiculous. Graham and Brian went to get their robes (which are pink, mine is blue) and the flight attendants told us we had poor fashion. She then informed us that the writing on our chest did not say our names. We don't know what it says now. We also don't know whether this was a mistake or if Anna did this as a joke and it says kick me or something (we tend to believe the latter). Nathan and I shared White Russians over Russia. We arrived in China at 2:00 pm (this area of China is 12 hours ahead for future reference, thus making it 2 am eastern time). A driver and Layne's dad picked up us from the airport and we drove somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour til we got to the city. The hotel we're staying in is really nice. We sleep on the floor in the living room of Mr. Madden's apartment. Once we got here we went out and tried a restraunt. I accidentally ordered fish head stew (no joke), but it turned out to be good besides being extremely spicey. The city is weird. If you were to look at it you could feel like you were in New York City from the buildings. Nathan and I were talking about how it was just such a different urban feel though. There don't seem to be traffic laws here. Just because you have the green walk sign doesn't mean that cars are going to stop for you. Bikes and mopeds just seem to go all over the place, whether it be the wrong way on a road or on the sidewalk. We finished off the night by lounging in the hot tubs in the men's locker room. Finally after being awake for days we passed out at 9 or so last night. We love you guys.

Here's our rough itinerary

http://people.clemson.edu/~LMADDEN/china/calendar.htm

Note: as I'm updating this thing I'm probably paying at an internet cafe at the various stops. Thus I'm going to write this blog in a notebook and copy it over really fast so I'm not on the internet for long periods of time just thinking about what to write. I say this to let you know, there's bound to be typos.