It's a love hate relationship, and right now it's love!

As my time in China comes to an end, my feelings about China seem to be much more extreme. I oscillate between loving China and loving my life here and being so sad that I have to leave and getting so aggravated with some "China moment" that I can't wait to get out of here. It changes probably daily. Like on Sunday it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. I went to church with Laura, which was interesting to see the community there. It is all foreigners from all over, but alot from the US, alot of whom I had never seen before. We sang songs for the first part, which I liked, then it was coffee break with free coffee, which I also liked. Then was the sermon part which was about fathers and disciplism. It had some good parts that I picked out, but it's always nice to go to church and just use it as a time to reflect, which I did. Then I went to rugby, which was HOT but also very fun. People kept asking me when I was going home and it made me think about that I actually am going home really soon. It doesn't seem possible. I kept thinking "I really am going to miss it!" Then I went swimming and hung out with Huangjie a little before going home to do some homework. It was a good China day.
Then some bad things happened, like on Monday I was making Bruschetta for a dinner we were having and I burned my hand really bad on the spatula. The dinner was fun though. On Tuesday morning I went for a run and on the way back I started across the street and a motorbike hit me and knocked me down. I just scraped my hands and knees, but I was OK. As I was getting up out of the road, the lady who hit me is just smiling and laughing and then she drives away. That just put me in a bad mood all day. Then you just get annoyed with all the people yelling "hello" at you and laying on their horns, and cutting in front of you in line, and having absolutely no decency at all. Chinese people are so nice to you face to face, but aside from it's like they have tunnel vision and they can only think about themselves and seem very rude. Then something good will happen, like I'll eat some really good Chinese food and I'll feel better and not want to leave again. It's all very crazy. I think I'm starting to get more annoyed because I know I am going home soon so I am finally letting myself get annoyed. Before I knew that whether I liked it or not I had to put up with it so best not let it get to you. But now I'm almost done and all that pent up frustration is just coming out.
However, right now I have had a string of good China days. I have just been taking them one at a time, enjoying myself, I think by Friday I will be ready to go home. Like, last Wednesday, Fourth of July, was Matt's 21st birthday. We had a party for him on the 3rd because his mom had to leave on the 4th. Matt and his mom made ribs and we made make-shift pizzas, which were really good! And I made a birthday cake, lemon with chocolate frosting (Matt's request). I wanted to make a good cake, so I made a lemon layer cake with lemon filling in the center, homemade chocolate frosting and candied lemons on top for decoration. It turned out being really beautiful and delicious! I was so proud of it, definitely the best thing I have baked in China so far.
The thing that I will miss most about China is the newness of it, there is always opportunity to try new things and go on an adventure. Yesterday, after almost 11 months in China, I was still getting to try new things. Yesterday for lunch I had frog legs and they were actually pretty good. Alot like fish meat, very tender. Then I had sushi for dinner, which I thought I didn't like, but was delicious! I think China is expanding my taste horizons, which I am very excited about. The UW kids and I also went on a field trip to Zigong, the Salt Capital of China to go to the Salt Museum and the Dinosaur Museum. If you have not read Mark Kurlansky's SALT, do. It is an excellent read and it talks all about Sichuan and this place, Zigong, which has been producing salt for millions of years. The Chinese people were salt pioneers and alot of cool inventions and innovations came out of the Ziong salt wells, like using natural gas to heat the evaporation pans or new well drilling technology. We went to see the Shenghai Well, one of the only remaining old wells, which is still functional and producing salt. This well is just over 1000 meters deep (amazing for how old it is) and they drop a big, hollow iron pole down that has a catch at the bottom to hold the brine in. Then they reel the pole back up and release the catch to get the brine out, then they do it again. The brine is then transported up to the processing area where natural gas burners still heat giant stone evaporation pans. There was salt in different stages of completion and salt grime was everywhere! It was really cool to see though.
Then we went to the Dinosaur Museum, which was less cool, but very fun. Kind of like a really hastily done dinosaur Disney land. There were lots of fossils, but with the usual Chinese hilarity. They named all the dinosaurs funny things like "Sichuanosaurus Zigongensis" and "Giantspikosaurus". The best part was this giant rubber mechanized triceratops that you could put 5 kuai coins in and it would move and poop out this little egg. Laura and I paid to do it, but it wouldn't poop out the egg so the lady came over and gave us a bunch more coins, but after like 3 tries and still nothing she reached her hand up the dinosaurs butt and pulled out the offending egg. The egg could be folded out into a dinosaur transformer sort of thing, very similar to something you would get in a Happy Meal.
For the rest of the time in China I am just trying to take it one day at a time and have fun. My mind literally cannot handle thinking about going home right now.
But, whether I'm ready for it or not, I am coming home in no time at all and really I can't wait! I'm so excited to see everyone! I just know I'll miss China when I go, which is a good thing.

Cupping, yes that's a verb

I thought I was running out of new things to do in Chengdu, but fortunately I was wrong. China is a place that never ceases to surprise and amaze me. So tonight we went out to dinner with Andrea, Barb, Matt, his Mom (who is visiting for a few weeks), Deborah, Ben, Laura, Eddie, Eddie's fiance (who is originally from Chengdu but is studying at ASU getting her PhD), and myself at a good Sichuan place by Andrea's house. While we were eating Matt's mom mentioned how they had seen someone with all these weird circular bruises on their back and we explained to her that they were a type of Chinese massage that uses cups and heats up the air with fire inside and then puts them on your back to pull all the toxins out of your body. Laura started saying how she wanted to try it and Andrea mentioned how there was a good place just around the block that she goes to occasionally. So before I knew it Deborah, Laura, and I were heading over to get cupped. Andrea came with us, but she just got a massage. There were several beds squeezed into the small room off the street, but they lead us outside and into their house above the shop where they had another room with three beds in it. Andrea stayed downstairs though. We all laid down and it started with a very intense full-body massage, including forehead, feet, everything. Matt's mom, Matt, and Ben came in to watch as well after grabbing some stuff from Barb's apartment. Following the hour long massage, the cups came out. After preparing our back they took this little piece of wood or something that looked kind of like a pottery carving tool and rubbed it up and down our backs rather forcefully. It made red marks, vertically with the strokes on Deborah and Laura and patchily on me because it hit my ribs. After our backs all looked they had been ravaged by wild dogs, they took out the cups. Mine came first. They take a piece of cloth or something and light it on fire and put the fire in the cup to heat up the air and then quickly take the fire out and put the cup face down on your back, causing your skin to be suctioned up into the cup. They do about 10 or so cups until they are all over your back and, as Matt said, it looks like if you were electric, you would light up. They stay on for about 10 or 20 minutes and when they come off they leave big red circles on your back. It felt so weird, but at the same time exactly how I thought it would feel. Anyways, that was my Chinese adventure for today. It was very interesting. And now Laura and I feel like our China experience is finally complete and we can go home.
On the bike ride home from the cupping experience it also started to POUR and thunder and lightening and we got soaked, but it felt so nice after the hot couple of days we have had here, plus I love thunderstorms!! I took it as a good sign.

Final Thoughts

I am writing this on the plane as I fly over Korea and Japan. It still hasn’t really hit me that I am gone, I am leaving, I am going home. People kept asking me all week if I was excited and I would say yes, and I was, but I was also really sad. I am conflicted. Chengdu has been my life for the past year, for better or for worse, and I was leaving at a time when I felt like I was just starting to get settled in and find my place there. Maybe that means its time to go though, or maybe it just means I’ll be back. I am sure as soon as I am home I will be so excited to be there, but right now I can only think about all the things I am leaving behind; friends, China adventures, bad air, good food. However, now I can make Chinese food and I will keep in touch with all the great people I met here and no more China adventures just means on to new adventures.

This last week was amazing and crazy. I was hanging out with the Marines a lot and their house is really Western, so it was a little bit of transition. I made cookies and peach pie and got to watch ESPN and the Simpson’s on TV. I had all my finals, all 7 of them, last week which was a little stressful. I didn’t study as much as I usually do, but fortunately they all went pretty well. I also just decided that I was not going to let myself get stressed out about this last week, so I made sure I did a lot of fun things too. It was weird because all week I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that I am going home. I just couldn’t believe it or even start to think about it. I just had to take it day by day. Enjoying every minute and soaking it all in. I also had a lot of goodbye events that I had to go to. Huangjie and I, of course, had one last dinner together. She also told me she wanted to buy me a present so before dinner we went to the Shopping Street, Chunqi Lu. She took me into a jewelry store and told me to pick out a necklace. I couldn’t believe it. I started refusing adamantly saying that it was too much and I couldn’t accept it and she could just buy me dinner and I would feel too bad if she gave me something so nice. But she, as usual, would not be dissuaded. So in the end she picked one out and gave it to me. It is very pretty, but all those things about feeling really bad receiving such a nice, expensive present were true. I wore it that night when we went to dinner, which thankfully she allowed me to pay for. I also went to the pool to say goodbye to all my swimming friends. We took lots of pictures, which hopefully someone will send me, and they were all so nice. I really was sad to say goodbye to all these people who have been so good to me. Then we had one last goodbye dinner with the UW group and associated teachers. We went to a restaurant that Andrea picked out called Da Rong He that was literally one of the best restaurants I have been to in Chengdu. It was a twist on regular Chuan cai, so new dishes and done perfectly. Delicious! A perfect send off. Then Laura, Deborah, and I went to the Marine house for some of my peach pie. After that I went to Shamrock Bar to have a goodbye party with all my expat friends. It was really a wonderful night and I am really going to miss it.

Now after a LONG flight, I am sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting to get on my next flight to Seattle in a few hours. I walked into the terminal and saw Burger King and Peet’s Coffee and I just couldn’t stop smiling. I’m here! It’s a very weird feeling, I guess I don’t really know how to feel. Tired and relieved a little bit. I had to ask one of the airport people if I needed to re-check my bags or if they would be checked through and as I was walking up I started thinking about asking the question in Chinese and suddenly realized, no, I can just ask in English. Everything is so much easier here, that’s what I notice most so far. Like tap water. If I want water, I just walk to the tap and put it in a glass. No boiling, no finding a water machine. It is no longer the coveted substance it was for an entire year. But I am home, so I am signing off here. Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Daily Dose of Daoism

Today in my culture and society class we talked about Daoism. It was especially relevant because thinking about re-entry makes you think alot about where you are going in life and your goals, etc. Although I don't agree with everything in the Daoist school of thought, it makes a very good base for thinking about how to find happiness in life, it is very good at cutting through all the bull shit and helping you remember to think about where you are, not just where you are going. There was a story i particularly liked that goes.....

There is this millionaire walking on the beach in Hawaii. As he's walking he comes across this man lying on the beach in the sun. He starts chatting with the man and asks him what he does for work. The man says he is a fisherman.
Then the millionaire asks "why aren't you out on the ocean fishing right now?"
The fisherman responds, "why should I be?"
"Because the day is still young, you still have a long time to catch more fish."
"Why should I want to catch more fish?"
"So you can sell them in the market and make more money."
"Why do I want more money?"
"So you can buy a bigger boat."
"Why do I need a bigger boat?"
"So you can go deeper into the ocean and catch more fish and make even more money."
"Why would I want to do that?"
"So that one day if you work very hard you will have enough money that you will not have to work anymore and you can just sit here on the beach and enjoy life."
The fisherman said, "but I am already doing that."

I like being busy and working hard, that is what makes me happy. But i still like this story because it makes you think about how skewed society has made the purpose of life. People make it seem like you must have money and success to be happy, but its not true. You just must find what makes you happy. Actually, its more like you must learn to be happy in what you find. there is no holy grail perfect life. I think people who go searching for happiness will never find it. The thing is that THIS IS LIFE, right now, and its going by faster than ever. Maybe you get another shot and maybe you don't, but either way you should definitely make the most of the time right now and find a way to be satisfied with the things you are doing. I think I am doing pretty well too, which is why I disagree with other Daoist teachings. Daoism is so passive. I agree that you should live simply and naturally, but I don't think that means you have to live "without action", because many times it is that action (successful or not) that gives me happiness. I am so happy with my life right now, I wouldn't change a thing. If anything, I just wish that I had more lives and more time so that I could take advantage of all the opportunities I am confronted with but don't have time to experience. Life is full of choices and I just wish you could get a few more goes so that the choice changed from yes or no to when.

Being in China has changed how I think about life and it has broadened what I view as "options". People say as you get older you have less and less opportunities and I don't know if that's true, but I feel like right now that life is full of endless opportunities which makes it impossible to know how your life is going to go. I know for the next two years I will be in Seattle finishing school. I am also am starting to work on this internship as an engineering consultant for big companies helping them figure out how to be more sustainable, which I'm really excited about it. But after that I have no idea. Maybe take a little time off school. Maybe go back home to U of M for grad school, maybe go to Iceland for grad school. Maybe start working as an engineer for a while before going back to school. Maybe something I can't even fathom right now, who knows. But that is too far in the future and life will probably change alot before then, no it will definitely change alot before then.
I came up with a metaphor for life the other day that I kind of like. Life is not a path, whoever came up with the metaphor that life is a path is lacking the imagination and sense of adventure that makes life worth living. Life is not even a bunch of paths that you have to choose from, Life is like bush whacking. Think about that for a while. I think it fits pretty well. Sometimes there are thick bushes, but the vistas make it all worth while........

3 weeks!!

Hello everyone! I am back again and I have just 3 weeks left until I am back in the United States! I also bought my ticket from Seattle to Minneapolis and I will be back on July 17th at 11:00pm. It's very exciting but very scary too because I have a ton of stuff to do before I leave and no time at all. But, I'm not too far behind and going to Juizhaigou and traveling with Alex was definitely worth it! Back in Chengdu, Alex and I spent a fun-filled afternoon with Laura at the Wholesale market in the north. We explored the Chinese medicine market and stalls upon stalls of the same little stores selling bulk toothpaste, Chinese snacks, tea, alcohol, and various other amenities. We then wandered into the hotel supply store where we found the wholesale restaurant supply stores, a gold mine. Of particular interest was a watermelon knife that Laura bought which we had to try out that night, but we all left with loot. The next morning, on the 12th, Alex left and hopefully made it home OK and in time for jury duty, oh the American Legal System. I went to school that Tuesday, went to rugby, ran some errands, and wrote a ten-page paper for my women's studies class about Women in Ancient China all before hopping on a bus to Juizhaigou the next morning at 8:00am. The main road to Juizhaigou was taken out by a landslide so we took another one-lane road and were stuck in a tour bus traffic jam for the first 6 or so hours of the trip. 12 hours later I arrived in Juizhaigou and found the rest of the UW group. The next week or so flew by in a whirl wind of field research and I was so happy to have the opportunity to participate. The research is a collaborative effort between the park science department, Chuan Da, and UW and there were professors, students, and park employees all working together on interdisciplinary projects focusing on understanding past, current, and future human impacts on the park and surrounding natural environments. I helped out mainly with the ecology and geology teams; other teams were wetlands - mapping the wetlands in the park, anthropology - talking with people about preserving traditional practices, especially in relation to the environment, archeology - self explanatory, and bamboo - trying to understand the regrowth of bamboo in the park, which is also a habitat for the giant panda. I helped set up plots to record plant presence and diversity with in the park and helped map terraces that have been occurring in the park, possibly as a secondary result of human activity. I learned so much about different fields of research and really enjoyed working with everyone. It was a great experience all around. In other exciting news, I came home to discover Laura's sister gave birth to her 3rd child, Cruz Emmanuel Lopez who is cute as a button. Congratulations are definitely in order! Also another reason to be excited to go home and another reminder that time, in fact, does not stand still while we are here and many things can happen in a year.
I got back tonight and am starting on my mile-long list. Blog, check. Write more later if anything else interesting happens.....i mean when :)!

Yunnan: Part 2

PART 2:

We left Lejiang via minibus on Friday morning for Lugu Hu Llake. The bus ride was crazy - it was supposed to take maybe 7 hours according to our book, but I am guessing that if you measured the distance as the crow flies from Lijiang, it was probably 60 miles away. We had to take this small road winding up and down mountains the entire way and most of the time it was all cobblestones, which made for an interesting ride (read: longest and bumpiest bus ride ever). The scenery was amazing though, we drove through some of the poorest parts of China, through the mountains, and it was crazy to see where people were trying to farm. We also didn't realize that the bus we took was going to stop all the time - at scenic overlooks, for lunch, etc. When we got to the lake but not all the way to the town we were going to, Lige, we stopped for 2 HOURS while two couples from our bus wanted to go out in a canoe type boat to some island. Sarah and I were pissed because the entire bus had to just wait for these people and the driver wouldn’t just take us to the town and come back. Sarah says that's just China for you, and logic isn't really one of the Chinese strong points.

Lige (lee-guh) was also a little weird - we read about it in our book as one of the quaint little towns on the shore, but it seems like in the time since that was written, Chinese tourism has taken over and they tore down the entire town to build a newer version of the same thing. So that means that the ENTIRE town was new buildings and everything seemed half finished, but already open for business. The scenery once again, was its saving grace. The lake is very blue, and surrounded by mountains and not much of any development.

We had one of our best meals in China on Friday night, of traditional Mosu dishes. Alas, something in it didn't seem to like me because I spent all day Saturday being sick. It wasn’t very fun, especially since Sarah and I wanted to spend the day playing in the lake. For some reason Sarah didn't get sick, but she's been living here awhile so was probably immune. Sarah did go out and explore while I tried to recover, and she also did some swimming in the lake. I picked a good day to get sick though, since the next day we would be traveling again.

Sunday I felt better and we set off on kind of an adventure to get back to Chengdu. We asked around and were told to go stand on the road and wave down the bus on its way to Yan Yuan, which comes by “some time after 10am.” We were a little nervous about making the bus, since it all seemed so chancy, but sure enough, around 10:20 we flagged the bus down heading to Yan Yuan. Three hours later we boarded another bus to Xichang, where we planned to catch the overnight train back to Chengdu. Sarah knew someone there who had reserved us tickets for the train, so we just had to pick them up when we got there. Everything worked out surprisingly well, and our timing was perfect – we got back to Sarah’s apartment around 6:30 this morning. Sarah made it to class for the first time in a couple weeks while I went back to sleep! It is my last day in China, and I’m not sure yet what we will do, though tonight we are going out with the UW students for one last supper that will hopefully not make me sick!

Yunnan: Part 1

This is Alex again, I am going to divide this final blog in to 2 parts since apparently I made my last entry too long! (sorry Taylor).
Part 1: We left Chengdu last Sunday on an overnight train to Kunming, in the Yunnan province. The train was quite an experience - we slept in hard sleeper which is a bed, but they are stacked 3 high and not in private cabins. It wasn't too bad - we had the top bunks so we kind of could escape from everyone staring at us, though we couldn’t sit up all the way. We got to Kunming on Monday morning and immediately found a bus to Dali, which was our final destination for the day. The "bus" was more like a packed van and it was a LONG five hour trip. When we got there, we actually got dropped off in “new” Dali, i.e. Xiaguan, and we had to take another bus to the old part of Dali. The town itself was pretty cool - cobblestone streets and nice shops and restaurants. Dali used to be surrounded by a wall but only really the gates are left.

There were a lot of westerners in Dali and they looked more like they belonged at Woodstock, sporting long dreadlocks, shapeless clothes, bare feet, etc. I'm not really sure why they were there...maybe preparing for a sojourn to Tibet? Obviously the residents of Dali had taken note because all the shops sold things you expect in some pot shop. Furthermore, all these old women dressed in Bai (an ethnicity) clothing keep asking us if we wanted to buy pot from them. It was very disconcerting; don't worry, we passed.

From Dali we took another bus to Lijiang and this one kept stopping at random places and letting people off/picking them up. The old part of Lijiang was cool as well, full of winding cobblestone streets and old buildings. However, yet again, Chinese tourism at its best, the place was packed with shops selling the same thing and had a lot more Chinese tour groups there then Dali. This means that Sarah and I felt like zoo animals whenever we were around them because they all stare and try to take our picture. One day we got a ride to Baisha, which was supposed to be a cool town north of Lejiang. It was pretty cool, just another little old town, but still touristy and people trying to sell us stuff all the time. Sarah wanted to see some frescos we had read about in the book, so we went to see those in Baisha – they were probably really pretty once but had been pretty much destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

We decided to walk home from Baisha by wandering around through the countryside in the general direction of Lijiang. I think that has been my favorite part of China, walking through the country where there is no tourism. All the farmers were threshing their wheat, and they seem so shocked to see a westerner off the beaten trail. It is interesting that here you only see old/middle aged men, but mostly women, in the fields working the crops because all the young people have gone to the cities to find jobs. It makes me wonder who is going to farm when these people are too old to keep farming.

The pictures do not have anything to do with what Alex wrote, I just like them so here is a short explanation of each: (1) famous three pagodas in Dali, (2) Alex walking/wandering outside Dali, (3) our hostel called "Tibet Lodge" or something like that on one of the busiest streets in Dali, very good people watching, (4) Alex and I in front of the famed ancient water wheel in Lijiang, (5) Naxi script, one of the last pictographic scripts left in use today, (6) batik (a special kind of one-color dyed cloth) being made in Lijiang.

Hong Kong is Another Country, Literally.

Hey everyone, this is Alex contributing to Sarah's blog while I am here in China. I have been here almost 2 weeks now, and am having a lot of fun, though it could stand to be a little cooler!

Before our trip to Hong Kong, we went to see the Chengdu pandas, which was pretty exciting. I have seen pandas at the National Zoo in DC, but it was really fun to see so many pandas all at once, and all the babies as well.


We left last Friday for Guangzhou with Sarah's rugby team to play in a tournament and I was immediately amazed by all the white people in China. There were 6 men's teams there and 3 girl's teams, though the Chengdu girls didn't have enough for a whole team so they mixed in to the other 2 teams. It was POURING rain all day, which helped with the heat, but also made the rugby pitch a giant mud puddle. I of course couldn't play, but I had a lot of fun taking pictures and watching them all play in the mud, though I was a little jealous! The men's Chengdu team did really well, placing 2nd overall.

Sarah and I left the rugby team and Guangzhou the next day and took the train to Hong Kong. We stayed at the YMCA for pretty cheap and were really close to the water - look up a map of Hong Kong and it makes it more clear. We were right next door to the Peninsula, a fancy hotel that is the place where people used to stay before heading out on the Orient Express. Hong Kong was definitely different from Chengdu and Guangzhou - there were designer stores EVERYWHERE and the prices were much more expensive. There were also a lot more westerners so we didn't feel so stared at. On Monday we walked down the "Golden Mile" which is the main street in Kowloon, and wound up at the Jade market. We knew there would be lots of fake jade but we did our best to look for some quality jewelry. They are always willing to bargain though, which is interesting, and we ended up making some purchases that we hope are real. But you know, real or not, it is still pretty.

On Tuesday we set off for the beach on the eastern coast of Hong Kong, north of the city (Kowloon). We had read about this beach in our book, and it involved taking the train, then 2 different buses followed by a lengthy walk along the Machelhose Trail, so we figured its description of "remote" was probably accurate, and something that appealed to us. The directions from our guide book were really good, and so we made it to the trail pretty easily. The Machelhose Trail runs across the entire width of northern HK, and total is 60 miles - we walked the very last bit, which we guessed was a few miles and through the mountains, which made for some hilly walking. The entire trail, however, was paved in cement and had street lamps every so often, which struck Sarah and I as extremely odd since we didn't see a single person and the "towns" we went through consisted of a couple groups of abandoned and dilapidated houses in the middle of nowhere.

It took us about an hour and a half on the trail to get to the beach, and once we got there it was worth the extremely sweaty walk (the temperature was probably in the 90s). The beach was in Tai Lan Wan and was amazing - it is the kind of beach you dream about - white sand, blue ocean, green mountains, not a sign of civilization in sight, not even other people. Plus it was hot and sunny! The strangest thing was that we kept seeing these bulls running around, apparently without owners? They even showed up on the beach while we were there, and looked like they were enjoying themselves.
We spend the afternoon at the beach and then walked home in the evening so the walk was cooler and didn't seem so bad. We had to switch buses in a town called Sai Kung, and we decided to eat dinner there before catching the next bus back to the city. Sarah and I thought that there were probably a lot of rich Europeans who visited/lived nearby the town because the harbor was filled with Yachts and the restaurants along the water were really fancy seafood places. The did have cool huge fish tanks outside every restaurant with all of you choices for dinner I suppose. We chose a smaller restaurant that had Italian-ish food and ate outside - the food was actually really good and satisfying after our day at the beach.

Wednesday we woke up and took the "ferry" to Macau. I say "ferry" because we soon realized it was more like a boat airplane with assigned seats inside an air conditioned (i.e. ICE COLD) cabin. Regardless, we got to Macau in about an hour and once again got more passport stamps. Macau was not quite as we expected - after getting off the ferry you are greeted by the Asian Las Vegas strip - endless glitzy casinos. We wanted to go to Macau because we had read about its Portuguese colonial houses and Chinese/Portuguese food. We got out of the casinos and wandered around until we found the old part of town, which had a nice big square and some pretty buildings, more like what we expected. We also had to get new money, because like Hong Kong, Macau has it's own kind of money.

After exploring a bit we walked along the water to this hotel Sarah had read about that was a former army fort. We had been told to "have a drink on the terrace" and so that was what we did - we had iced coffee because once again, it was HOT and we were sweaty from walking around. After our refreshing drink we did some more walking, visiting the Ah Ma Temple, and afterwards picked a restaurant to try the famous food. Sarah got Bacalhau, Portoguese dry salted cod and I got "African" chicken, both specialties in Macau. We were also very excited about the warm bread, since good bread is scarce in China.












Thursday we spent the day across Victoria Harbor on Hong Kong Island where most of the skyscrapers are, as well as more designer stores. We first sought out Dim Sum, which the region is known for. They walk around with trays of little Chinese hors d'ouvres type food and you just pick what you want to eat with your tea. The place we went was really good and Sarah and I tried a lot of different kinds of food, all of which was delicious.


After eating we visited the longest escalator in the world, which if you didn't know, is outdoors and goes uphill in the middle of Hong Kong. We rode all the way up to the top, and it really is long, though I was somewhat disappointed because it is not continuous, it is more like a bunch of normal escalators in a row.

Once at the top we decided to head over to Victoria Peak, which is one of the most famous places in HK and to get to the top you take this really old funicular. On the way to the tram we went through the HK zoo, which was small but OK, we saw a bunch of kinds of monkeys and apes, and they all looked pretty healthy. We rode up the funicular to the peak and it was fun but kind of scary since it was REALLY steep but they've been doing it for over 100 years so we figured they knew what they were doing! The top of the peak was a little touristy for Sarah and me, I have learned so far in China that any chance to put a mall and shops somewhere, they will. We took a walk along the old loop road that circled the peak, and it was a nice way to get away from the tourists and enjoy the view.

We wanted to leave Thursday afternoon because Sarah had a presentation Friday morning that she wanted to be home for, so next we took the train back to Guangzhou. I guess now we should have been more suspicious of all the stamps we got in our passports, because on arriving to Guangzhou and going through customs, I was told I was not allowed to come "in to China." Since we had a flight from Guangzhou to Chengdu Sarah had run ahead to try find a cab, so did not realize I had not made it through customs. See, we were under the impression that when they say HK is now part of China (it has been 10 years now since it came back from Britain) that by going to HK we would not be leaving the country, and therefore my VISA would still let me back to the rest of China. However, arguing with customs officials, especially in China, is pointless and they told me I had to immediately go back to HK. They also said that if I was from another country, like Canada, I would be allowed to stay and apply for a new VISA there, but because the USA doesn't let the Chinese do this, that the Chinese do not let Americans stay and apply there. So at this point i was freaking out because Sarah had no idea what was going on and I had no way to go find her. They kept bringing me around to other people and to the train, saying I had to buy a ticket and leave, but I kept trying to relate to them I wasn't alone and had to find Sarah. Finally Sarah came back and saw us and found out what was going on. We really couldn't do anything though and so had to get back on the train we had just gotten off of, and go 2 hours back to HK, where they welcomed us with open arms. By this time it was 11pm, and all we wanted to do was go to sleep, so we found a hotel close to the building where we would have to go in the morning to see about a VISA.

We got there in the morning and all I can say is thank god this happened on Thursday because otherwise we would have had to wait in HK over the weekend. We got there early enough in the morning so I could choose the rush service and go back in the afternoon to pick up my new VISA. Sarah and I spent the day just hanging out - it was really hot and sunny again, and after I picked up my VISA we once again attempted to go "back" to China.
We successfully made it through, exactly 24 hours later, and took a cab to the Guangzhou airport, where we knew we would have another potential battle awaiting us over missing our previous flight. We got there around 9pm and the lady told us the next flight to Chengdu was not until the following afternoon, at which point we wanted to cry. But then she asked some other guy and said they could get us on the 9:10 flight with only an extra supplemental fee. The lady was really excited and so were we, because we just wanted to get home - we got our tickets and SPRINTED through the airport - thank god airport security is not so strict in China because we just carried our bags full of shampoo and other liquids without a problem and made it on to the flight. 2 hours later, we were back to Chengdu, and soon after we were asleep at Sarah's apartment.

This is China.... the photo collection

After the unfortunate-ness that was Friday night, this weekend was great and this week looks like its only going to get better. Saturday I slept in (with the lack of an alarm because it is on my phone) and was semi-productive in the morning. At noon I decided to reward myself and go for a run, then I met Deborah and Ben at the Bookworm for a Photo Scavenger Hunt that my friend Ashley organized. There was a long list of things we had to find, including best pet fashion statement, elevator without a 4th floor, biggest crowd of gawkers, most bicycles being ridden in one picture, best decorated 3-wheeler, busiest Internet bar, "Cheng ren yong pin" ("Adult Items") Shop with the most customers, most exotic fruit, nastiest shao kao (street-side grilled meat and vegetables), most outrageous item being transported by bike, license plate from the most distant province, best "Chinglish" sign, an ear cleaner in action, best Chinese slogan on public display, most absurd photo of your team, craziest/weirdest thing you see today, a building that (according to national statistics) was erected in 1680 and serves a local population of 40,240 people, an object around which security was heightened after an incident that occurred in Beijing a week ago, and the "best" example of the public service that Chengdu Municipality recently stopped charging 0.2RMB per use for. We only had 2 hours to get all the photos and we did not get all of them, but we had an excellent time. See if you can guess which picture goes with which category.
After we got back I had to run before they could announce the results (we didn't win I now know) because I told Huangjie I would come to swimming. When I got there she asked me "Where's your phone?" and I started into the "I still don't know, I'm going to try again on Monday, blah, blah, blah" and then she says "In my bag." I was so excited I could have kissed her. Apparently she had tried to call my phone again this morning and the guy answered and she went to pick it up for me. I told her I was SO grateful and so sorry I couldn't go out with her to pick it up and that she was the best friend ever and that I would have died in China long ago if it wasn't for her, which is all true. So I have my phone back! Yay! It was a beautiful today, and although it felt good to get in the water, there were A MILLION people there so it was really annoying to swim. After swimming Huangjie, her friend from the bank, her friend's husband and three friends of theirs, Andrea, Laura, Deborah, and I all went to Huangjie's friend's coffee shop for Spaghetti and coffee. We couldn't all sit together because the tables weren't big enough, but it was really fun to just hang out with the girls and all the food was delicious. They even served us steak! Deborah also told us that you could rub the white part of the watermelon rind on your skin and it would make your skin nice, which (to her dismay) we all took great pleasure in trying for ourselves at the table. And it does feel excellent, I highly recommend it. Deb recommends it in the privacy of your own home. I feel like its up to your own discretion.
The next day I went with Laura to a performance put on by the disabled association in Chengdu, which some of her sign language friends were performing in. Different groups performed Tibetan dancing and signing, Kung fu, contemporary dancing and signing, and the like. I was really impressed. However, it was REALLY HOT. Just sitting and watching (it was outside) we were sweating buckets! Then we went to a tea house for some study time before I went to rugby and she went to sign language class. I played scrabble after rugby, like always, but I didn't win. I didn't lose either though, so that's OK.
Now I am just looking forward for Alex to come tomorrow night! I am going to try to go to the Orthodontist as well tomorrow because my bottom retainer came loose on one side last week and I found out the location of a good Orthodontist here in Chengdu, so wish me luck. Well, now I am going to sleep in this sweltering heat. I need to buy a fan. Good night.