day10: why do I travel???

My views of why I travel have changed a little. I go to other countries to expierence their food, their cultures, their history. But I go to other countries to do one more thing. I think that it is also important to enjoy every minute of it, not let opportunities pass you by, and mostly be yourself, and do something crazy because before you know it the opportunity is gone, and there will never be a chance like that again. I learned this with Mr. Shagrin when we ran through the fountain at the Wild Goose Pagoda. There was the best view of the Pagoda through the water that was spraying everywhere, of course, and he yelled, “This is why we travel”. Everybody was staring at us, and they started doing what we were doing because it only takes a couple of seconds, minutes, or hours to let an amazing once in a life time opportunity to slip through your fingers. I know that when I travel I don’t want to have to regret anything, and when there is an opportunity to travel you take it, because no matter what you do, you can never quite have the same experience at home. You can look at pictures of the great Wall, but in person it is so much better. I can’t even describe it the way it is in real life because there are no words for it. You can’t just go to go; you have to go to live. Life is short, and it’s opportunities are endless, but some of them go away, and they may never come back, even in our dizziest daydreams. Don’t get me wrong I still travel to experience the food, to learn some new things about history and culture, but only now do I know that I also travel to experience the country. You have to see the country from a lot of aspects to do that, but it is most definitely possible.

day9: My Personal top tens of China

Expierences:
1. Running through the fountain at the Wild Goose Pagoda
2. Climbing the Great wall
3. Fainting in customs
4. Forbidden City
5. Terra Cotta Warriors
6. Hot Pot
7. 13 hour plane ride
8. Human Frogger through the street of Xian
9. Haggling for a bag I really wanted
10. Trying to communicate with people who don’t understand what you are trying to say
Funny Moments
1. Running through the fountain at the Wild Goose Pagoda
2. When Ty had to go to the bathroom on the bus
3. Scott used a Yuan because there was no toilet paper
4. Singing karaoke on the bus
5. Brandon broke his room key in half
6. Being slap-happy after the dance show
7. I went to use the hotel phone and it fell off of the wall broken
8. When I learned what defenestration means
9. Mason dyed his hair purple and Ms. T found out.
10. Nick ate a preserved egg
Learning Moments
1. The Great Wall is made out of sticky rice
2. The Great Wall is really steep and the steps are really small
3. People sleep on jade beds
4. 15 layers of brick in the forbidden City
5. When you have real pearls, and you rub them together they make powder
6. If you have a lot of rocks, you have a lot of money
7. Summer Palace was a gift to the emperors mom
8. Oxidation made silk from tombs turn to dust and the paint came off of the terra cotta warriors
9. When you have real jade, if you hold it up to the light you can see crystals
10. Peasant up rise broke a lot of the terra cotta warriors
Food
1. Rice (Xian)
2. Duck (Beijing)
3. Hot Pot (Xian)
4. Litchi (Xian)
5. Dragon Fruit (everywhere)
6. Noodles (Xian)
7. Fish (Shanghai and Hong Kong)
8. Smoothies (Hong Kong)
9. Sesame seed dumpling (shanghai)
10. Soup Dumpling (Shanghai)
Interesting foods would include:
11. Chicken feet curry (Beijing)
12. Tree fungus in the salad (Shanghai)*
13. Preserved egg (plane ride to Xian)*
14. Possible pig intestine
*the food I didn't like

day8: First Impressions of Hong Kong

There are a lot more skyscrapers in Hong Kong. The buildings are also skinnier and higher than the ones in all of the other cities. In Hong Kong the buildings were more spread out because there are so many mountains, but, they go four times as high as the ones in Beijing and Xian. The buildings in the other cities were shorter, wider, and closer together. Plus some of those buildings were falling apart, where in Hong Kong the buildings all looked new and nice. Shaghahi was very western, but it also had some eastern influences. Hong Kong is completely different than that, it is almost always western. Shanghai was almost the exact opposite because the buildings were smaller and wider and really close together. In Hong Kong there was actually a little bit of space to breathe. My first reaction to Hong Kong was wow it’s humid. Whenever Jacob walked out of a building his glasses would fog up. We went on the biggest suspension bridge in the world. It was kind of like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but way bigger. The beaches were pretty, but they also looked really rocky, and the sand was a yellower color. I’ve been to other beaches like playa Del Carmen (where the sand is really sticky), and Punta Cana (where the sand is really soft and powdery) and both of their beaches had naturally white sand. The beach was still pretty though. It was also nice to see blue water, because everywhere else the water was a murky yellow-brown color. It might have been blue because it was an ocean and not a river, but I don’t think it matters. Blue water is blue water, and you have to love it. It was in the middle of the Dragon Boat Festival, so there were a lot of boats in the water, and the beaches looked super crowded. Our individual tour guide Jennifer was crazy! She tried to sell us some phone thing, and do a currency exchange with us. The funny part was while she was doing this our teachers turned around and signaled, “Don’t buy it”. None of our other tour guides did that before, so it made her like she needed a little bit more cash than the rest of them.

day7 Yu Yuan Garden and Buddhist temple

There is a lot more history in Beijing and Xian then in Shanghai. In the old city there was the Yu Yuan garden. The garden was just amazing, absolutely beautiful. I pictured the archecture to look more like that everywhere in China. One really cool thing was that with all of the coy fish there was one turtle. Then, we went to a Buddhist temple. The temple was really cool. They had a fish that was one hundred fifty eight years old. Everything there was so peaceful, like nothing that I’ve ever seen before. It might have been really peaceful because we weren’t allowed to talk, so everyone was quiet for the first time in the whole trip. The building also looked very comfortable because after all of this sightseeing I think this was the first time there was carpet, plus they also had pillows for when the people kneeled. There was a little bit of history in the temple because there was this statue that a man found, it was too heavy for him to bring on a boat with him, and the other statues, so the locals convinced him to keep it in Shanghai. We also saw them in the middle of a ceremony. It was really interesting to see, but I had no idea what was going on. Then, Brandon, Ty, and I went to go see that one hundred fifty eighth year old fish. It was a lot bigger than the rest of the coy. So, he kind of stood out. Some of our class fed the fish, and after a while Mason, Brandon, and Scott just stuck their hands in the water to feel the suction on their hands. The next big thing we did was go to a market. Culturally through haggling I learned that the people will do whatever it takes to get money and they aren’t afraid to cheap you out and make you pay extra for something that isn’t worth it. Some examples of this is on the first day in Wanfujing street Claudia didn’t know she could haggle for something, so she didn’t and ended up paying way too much, and Scott got a polo that the guy told him not to tell the boss about because obviously he under paid. I mean in the US we don’t haggle, so how are we supposed to know that they start with an inflated price. That is why haggling tends to be in more third world countries because they need the inflated price to make the money, unlike the US where we tend to be doing good, so we don’t need to make a quick buck.

day6: First reactions to Shanghai, Home visit, Market, and Acrobat Show

My first reactions to Shaghai was how this looks more like home, or what I would picture England. Here they have a farm right next to a skyscraper. I think that this is the idea of East meets west.
I mean when we went to the Bund the people spoke almost no English, but they loved the lime green shirts or our hair because I was with Nick, Ty, Brandon, Jacob, and Scott. Two of us had blonde hair. We were in about six pictures with strangers, it was crazy. The home visit was super cool. The house was small; all it had was a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a dining room that was connected to this one hallway. It made us think of what is really necessary at home because she has so much less than us, and seemed to be living a good life. There was a question and answer session, which gave me a chance to interview the lady, but I didn’t have my binder, so I only got some of my questions done. It was nice to learn from much form the eyes of the people, and not just from a book, a teacher, or a tour guide. Then, the lady said that we could have a look around. The more I saw it the more and more I realized that more than half the things in my room are not needed. After, the lady had Claudia play on the piano we went outside. They had an outside “gym”. In the U.S. we would consider it a small park. Then, we went to a market. When Sandy said “market” I think everybody thought a grocery store, but this was a legit market. It had everything from clothes to vegetables. They scaled and chopped the fish right there in front of us. That was so different because here all of that stuff is already done for us. Everything was super fresh. We saw the fruits and vegetables and they were so big, when we go to a grocery store they are a lot smaller than what they had at that market. We got a lot of pictures, and it was just an amazing site to see. Then, we went to an acrobat show. When the people were bending in half or tumbling through hoops, I would’ve been more impressed if I wasn’t a worlds cheerleader because I know a lot of people who do that stuff all of the time, and I see it on a regular basis, but the acrobat show wasn’t just flipping and bending in half, or even stunting. They also had a magic portion, and my personal favorite a motorcycle portion. The motorcycle portion was really cool because four people went into this large metal globe and rode around in it.

day5: Terra Cotta Warriors, Hot Pot, Wild Goose Pagoda at night

History: In Xian people focused a lot on the Tang dynasty because a lot of things really prospered here at the old capital. They also focused on the Qing Dynasty like Beijing because they left a lot of things there, like the terra cotta warriors and the great wall. It was also a high point in Chinese history.
Culture: there are some language differences, but there can only be one China, and in turn they are one people, one country, and can be grouped the same. Some examples of this are their everyday lives as an average farmer or city dweller. Their differences arise because they are from different parts of china, just like the south is different than the north in the United States.
Food: In Beijing the food tended to be sweeter than in Xian, where the food was spicy. Also in Beijing we ate a lot of duck, Xian had a lot of noodles and dumplings. They also tended to had spicy food, which is what they are known for. Both places had a lot of fresh fruit, I liked that. At every meal for “dessert” we had watermelon because in China they don’t really have dessert. Both cities did have some questionable food, some of which I wish that I didn’t eat. But the majority of the food that I didn’t know, or even seen before was delicious. If I had to pick the place with the better food, I’d have to go with Xian because don’t like sweet foods as much as I like spicy foods.
We started our day at 7:00a.m. With breakfast, but that was too early after the night that we had before, most of the time I was ridiculously tired. First, we went to the Banpo Ruins museum. I learned that they had a matriarchal system which means the women had the power, not the men. It was really cool to see the ruins of the old grave sites, and houses, which was more foundations because everything looked pretty much destroyed, hence the word ruins. Also there were some skeletons at the grave site. The sad thing was that there was also some jars. I learned that in the jar would be a baby because if a baby dies they go in a jar instead of a casket, and get placed by the house. Next, we went to the hot springs palace. It was free to touch the water with your hand, so we did. I thought that the emperor must have loved it there because the water was the perfect temperature. We went to this one museum type thing in the middle of the hot springs. It had four floors and a balcony. Everything was honestly beautiful. Then we went up in these cable cars, which were a waste of time and money. After all of that we went to lunch. The lunch was just ok, and Scott got sick…twice. Then, we went to the terra cotta warriors. There was this one video that was really bad, Ms. Greenswag and Brandon said that it had to be from around the 80s. They had a circular all around screen, like the one in Epcot. I don’t really know who stole whom. After the movie we went off the see the warriors. Some of them were destroyed because when people get sick of dynasties they get a big uprising cause some chaos, and then select a new dynasty, well when they went off on their rampage the broke a lot of the terra cotta warriors. Some of them they tried to piece back together. Some were so smashed up that they couldn’t. They had a couple different rooms, and each room was a completely different experience from the other two. The last room was really hot though. WE went back to the hotel for a little bit. Jacob took me, and then Brandon caught up to buy Scott some crackers and water because that was all he was allowed to eat, for when we woke him up to move him to his own room. Then at 6:00p.m, Mr. Ewen took us out for dinner. It was our choice to go out for noodles, stay in the hotel, or go to a restaurant they found the day before. I chose the restaurant. My table had a hot pot. It was kind of like fondue, but there was a spicy side that would keep getting spicy the more you cooked it. Then, all of the students at my table, except Alexa, went to the Wild Goose Pagoda with Mr. Shagirn, Ms. T, and David. To see the fountain show, we thought that we were just going to see the Pagoda at night, but there was a show. Natalie and I took pictures in the fountain after we saw some random mad do it. Then, Mr. Shagrin said, “Let’s go to the middle”. So, we ran through the fountain, and stood on this one flower in the middle. Except Natalie who ran around the fountain crazily. David and Megan stayed back, so they were dry, and by the end didn’t smell like puke. But it was worth it because there was a great view of the Pagoda, and Mr. Shagrin yelled, “This is why we travel”. He was right. We don’t just travel for culture, or to learn, but we travel to be ourselves in another country, doing something crazy that could never happen at home. Finally after running around for a while we went back. We split up. The teachers and David went one way, and the student went another. We were walking closed to the Pagoda when these students came up to us, and asked if we could take some pictures with them. We ended meeting this whole big group. We said Ni Hao, and they said Hello. Then we took pictures with them. After that we got close to this really big fountain, and we got some random lady who spoke NO ENGLISH to take pictures of us. It was really hard to explain how the camera worked, because the camera took two flashed and you had to hold the button down for a long time. After that it was almost impossible to find a cab. One stopped in the middle of the road and got open and stuff, but it was pretty shady and definitely illegal. Mr. Shagrin said that he looked like he was ready to take us down to a dark alley and beat us up, which was pretty believable. Finally, we found another cab. This one was questionable, but we took it anyway. Don’t judge us; we needed to get back to the hotel because it was already past room check. We all smelled like barf from the fountain water, that’s why as soon as I got to the hotel I took a shower, but it didn’t matter because we were singing “build me a buttercup” and the “Oscar Meyer Weiner” song. I think Ms. T had a problem because she looked like she was ready to spew all over the van, but she didn’t. We played human frogger quite a bit tonight. Once to get to the pagoda (almost got ran over by a motorcycle), another time while we were trying to get a cab, and a bus almost hit us (it skinned Mr. Shagrin’s arm) and another time just to get to our hotel. As soon as I got to my room I took a shower and rinsed my clothes because I smelled so bad. Tomorrow we leave for Shanghai.

day4: The long day in Xian

we woke up at 3:58 because the Hotel called us, it’s 10:10p.m. And everybody is ridiculously tired. Scott fell asleep standing up! The only reason we are so tired is because we had to go to Xian. The flight felt so short compared the the last one that was 13 hours. The food was interesting. Ms. T gave me her food because the people skipped me. Turns out she isn’t very open to all of the food, which is ironic because she is a foods teacher. Nick ate a preserved egg, but we didn’t know what it was at first. Our whole row on the plane was laughing at the face he made.
As soon as we got our bags off the plane we went to the City Wall. The lady said it was 70 degrees outside, it was definitely not 70. We went up in this building that had a view of the entire old and new city. It was really cool.
Then, we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda. I went with Miss T, Jacob, Brandon, Nick, Ty, and Scott to the top. There was a great view of the whole area. Then we walked around the grounds. There was incense burning in the front, and a huge Buddha statue on the side.
For the first time we had a dinner that was pretty western. Then we walked around the outside of the hotel. There were a lot of shops, but nothing to buy. Plus they sold mostly electronics, which David said don’t buy because they don’t last very long, and it is a waste of money.
Later that night we went to the Tang Dynasty dancing show. Everybody, including the teachers, dozed off a little bit. It was really cool, but we were all so tired that we fell asleep anyways. The girls danced around with long sleeves, and they flowed beautifully around in the air as they spun around, and the men did a warrior dance where they banged on drums. They also had some interesting instruments that I’ve never seen before; some even imitated the sounds of certain birds.
After the show everybody was so tired except a few of us who were slap-happy. When we got to our rooms we crashed, except Scott who fell asleep earlier standing up waiting for the elevator.

day3: The Great Wall and Karoke on the Bus! Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup!!!

The first thing that we did today was go to the Great Wall. The Great Wall was just breath taking, all of the pictures that I have seen don’t even begin to cover what it looks like in real person, and there aren’t very many words to describe it. The steps were really small, and steep. Also the people would just go to the bathroom in these little lookout towers.
As we are leaving Beijing behind and going to a new city, I hope that it is just as amazing as this one. In Beijing I had my first experience with haggling. When you feel like you are going to get a good deal you get an adrenaline rush. You want to see how far you can push them. The historical side of Beijing is like nothing that we have here. There is so much history everywhere, and in the U.S. when you see a 200 year old building its super impressive, but in China the buildings are from thousands of years ago, and the people seem to know the history really well too. Also, everybody seemed to be so happy. They all loved us. I don’t know if it was because some of us are blonde, including me, or just because we are Americans wither way it was great. I think the most interesting thing of Beijing is how there can be a brand new building next to something from thousands of years ago.
As I leave Beijing I have many memories that’ll be with me forever. I don’t think that anyone will forget how I fainted in the quarantine section of the airport when we were first getting into the country, good thing the let me in! The funniest thing that happened had to be when Ms. Greenswag, Ms. T, Jake K, Beth, Mr. Ewen, Mr. Shagrin, Natalie & Shelby, Nick, Jacy, Brandon, and David sang karaoke on the bus. Everybody had a good time and it was honestly hilarious.
In Xian I am mostly looking forward to the Terra Cotta warriors because it is amazing that the citizens made so many for the emperor for AFTER he died. The afterlife must have been pretty important if they did this for him.

The Black Hawks won the Stanely Cup!!!!! Before we climbed the wall we heard Ms. Swag say that the game was tied 2 to 2, then right after we climbed it we asked for a Black Hawks update, she yelled,"Stanley Cup Finals!!!" Everybody screamed. Megan started freaking out, because she wasn't sure if her dad taped the game! HAHAHA! He did!

Day2: School, Forbidden City, and Summer Palace

Day 2: Compare China Education System to ours, History of what we learned, Compare the Emperor vs. president. Funny and different things that happened today
In china the people seem to know their history very well. They kids are also very good at English, where in America hardly anyone knows their language. They also aren’t afraid to say who is good at what in their class. Every day they do morning exercise which is kind of like line dancing, but with even less moving. Where we have gym that consists of a lot of sports and is actually a little bit more of a work out than what they do, but everybody participates. At home hardly anyone participates in gym. They are very smart, and all of them have really big plans to go to college. Their days are very routine and strict. Also their classes were small and they all had to wear a uniform.
The Historical aspects of today include the Forbidden City and summer palace. The Forbidden City was the new capital of china after the moved it. The capital was originally in Xian. The Emperor thought that he was god like so they had 999 rooms, just under one thousand because one thousand was thought to be a god like number. Everything was painted in red and gold because those were the imperial colors of that time. Also just in case an enemy tried to get in to the city the people laid down 15 layers of bricks, so he’d be safe in his palace. The summer palace was a gift that the emperor gave to his mom. There was this one really big rock that the emperor got. The mom was nervous because the family the emperor got it from spent all of their money on the rock, and became broke making it unlucky.
The emperors have more power than a president; a president has to deal with checks and balances. The emperor can do whatever he wants to. There is no voting with an emperor he just does what he wants.
I had a really gross thing for breakfast. I don’t know what it was, but I never want it again. The paintings on the walls at the Forbidden City and summer palace were so pretty. I’ve never seen anything like that before at home. Also, when we got to our rooms at the end of the day we watched a cartoon. I thought that china was so much more advanced than that! It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. It had to deal with sheep and a wolf that wanted to eat them.
Day 3:
The first thing that we did today was go to the Great Wall. The Great Wall was just breath taking, all of the pictures that I have seen don’t even begin to cover what it looks like in real person, and there aren’t very many words to describe it. The steps were really small, and steep. Also the people would just go to the bathroom in these little lookout towers.
As we are leaving Beijing behind and going to a new city, I hope that it is just as amazing as this one. In Beijing I had my first experience with haggling. When you feel like you are going to get a good deal you get an adrenaline rush. You want to see how far you can push them. The historical side of Beijing is like nothing that we have here. There is so much history everywhere, and in the U.S. when you see a 200 year old building its super impressive, but in China the buildings are from thousands of years ago, and the people seem to know the history really well too. Also, everybody seemed to be so happy. They all loved us. I don’t know if it was because some of us are blonde, including me, or just because we are Americans wither way it was great. I think the most interesting thing of Beijing is how there can be a brand new building next to something from thousands of years ago.
As I leave Beijing I have many memories that’ll be with me forever. I don’t think that anyone will forget how I fainted in the quarantine section of the airport when we were first getting into the country, good thing the let me in! The funniest thing that happened had to be when Ms. Greenswag, Ms. T, Jake K, Beth, Mr. Ewen, Mr. Shagrin, Natalie & Shelby, Nick, Jacy, Brandon, and David sang karaoke on the bus. Everybody had a good time and it was honestly hilarious.
In Xian I am mostly looking forward to the Terra Cotta warriors because it is amazing that the citizens made so many for the emperor for AFTER he died. The afterlife must have been pretty important if they did this for him.

day1: Plane ride and First day in China!!!!

It’s about 10:15p.m. In China. I hate all of the clocks here because they are on military time, and I don’t know how to use them as well as a normal clock. My day started at 6:30a.m. In the United States, technically it’s between two days, but that doesn’t matter. At 6:45 we had to be at school. We came early because my family is the type that is typically late, and this time we didn’t want to take any chances. Our teachers wanted us to get to the airport early. I stayed up really late the night before, so it was hard for me to stay awake. I had a bagel and a smoothie for breakfast. The smoothie was huge! It didn’t really matter that it was really big because it was also really good. After waiting a couple of hours, finally at about 11:40 we boarded the plane. It was the biggest and smallest plane that I have ever been on! It was the biggest plane that I have ever been on because there were two seats on the right and left, and five seats in the middle of the coach section. First class had these nice chair-like beds. Unfortunately, it was also tight. There was practically no space. They started movies almost as soon as we took off, probably because everybody had their own personal TV in the chair in front of them. I watched about half of Dear John, while making a bracelet for my cousin. Then, they gave us lunch. I had beef and noodles, it was ok. My brother kept getting up and moving around; when he did that I’d put down his tray table, and sleep on that. At first he was ok with it, but later he had a problem with me. Apparently, the tray was on top of his legs, and when I was on top of it too his legs got smashed. To me, it was so comfortable. I slept in between his tray and mine. I put my pillow on top of the two trays to cover the crack, and my head went in the space from the two seats in front of me. After a while of his complaining I moved. Luckily for me I brought an inflatable pillow. I slept on the bottom half/his shoulder area, while he slept on the top half of my pillow/top of my head. I felt like every time I woke up they would be giving us more, and more food. The only problem with them giving us all of the food was that it kept getting worse and worse. I had WARM yogurt! We landed around 3:00p.m. Local time, which is 4:00a.m. In the United States.
When we got off of the plane I was feeling really dizzy. It was really hot in the airport too. I told Mrs.Greenswag and Mr.Shagrin that it felt like the room was spinning. We were standing in line at the customs/quarantine section. Then it was my turn, right before I walked up I told Megan that I was either going to get sick or faint. Once I gave the lady my passport I felt even worse. Mrs. Greenswag asked if I was ok, but I couldn’t answer, it felt like part of me was floating up. The next thing I knew I was on the floor. Ms. T had my feet and Mr. Shagrin had my head. Luckily, the people still let me go through. Mr. Shagrin made me drink some water, and a chocolate cliff bar that was melted and got everywhere.
We got to this crazy hotel, the rooms were two stories. I got the top half and Megan had the bottom. We ate dinner at the hotel. They had this fruit that kind of tasted like a fruit tart. I also ate something that was most likely a piece of vertebrae. After dinner we went to Wangfujing street. There was a lot of stuff, but I didn’t see anything that I liked except a terra cotta warrior for my brother. It was my fist haggling experience. I was really nervous, but it was kind of fun.
China feels like a dream. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been awake for so long, or because everywhere I go it is both very different and the same. It’s different because everywhere I go there are glowing neon signs, and the buildings are a little different. The city is a city though. What I found weird was that on one side of the street there could be a brand new beautiful building, but on the other there could be a shack-like building with bricks falling about of it.

The new generation in china

In the movie Young and Restless in China, every single person emphasized love, and how they would become successful in life. It changed my views in china dramatically because I didn’t really know how hard these people are willing to work; all of them are breaking old traditions in some way. The all find that making money and working hard for their dreams is really important. I also was surprised to see that one of the government-owned business would dump clay into water because that is what a lot of people use to drink, and it would ruin the farmers’ crops.

The social classes are really separate. People are either rich or not, but this generation of Chinese is willing to work harder, so they do not have the struggles of their parents. They kids only take baby steps towards their goals though. For some, getting more money is just becoming a migrant worker. This means that they will travel through fields for work.

The people who live in the cities tended to have bigger goals, and knew that even though they had to work hard for it, they could make their lives better. The people who lived in rural areas became more of migrant workers. Their lives were more limited just for the simple fact of they don’t know the world as much.
My favorite story in this film was Wei Zhanyan because she went against her whole town and family by not having an arranged marriage. Wei Zhanyan knew that she would not like this, and she ended up falling in love, with a real person that she didn’t meet just for five minutes.