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.

The Nine Dragon Wall, My zodiac sign, and The Epcot Experienece

There are three nine dragon walls in china. Each dragon plays with a unique ball and each dragon is colored differently and has a 3D appearance. The Chinese dragon is said to have nine sons, each with distinct characteristics.
1. Haoxian is Reckless and adventurous.
2. Yazi is brave
3. Chiwen watches from a distance to give an early warning
4. Baxia protects the travelers from the water.
5. Pulao likes his own voice, so he tends to hear himself roar
6. Bixi is an excellent pack-animal.
7. Qiuniu loves music
8. Suanmi like smoke and fire

9. Jiaotu keeps his mouth shut and guards peace and privacy.
My zodiac sign is a Taurus. I think that my zodiac sign describes me ok, what I mean by this is I tend to be “feeling good”. I don’t really think that I switch off the world around me which is why I think this sign describes ok. I try to stay informed on what is going on in the world, and I certainly don’t ignore it. What really caught my eye while I was reading about my zodiac sign is that I control the people’s relationships around me and allow certain people to get so close. I believe that, that definitely describes me.

Unlike the rest of the class I went to Epcot in Disney for my “china town experience” because I was in Orlando for The Cheerleading Worlds. The travel around the park was hot because I had gotten used to the cold weather around here. Before we went to the restaurant we saw Chinese acrobats, they were so cool. There were two groups of girls and one group of boys. These kids were literally bending in half, and the boys did a lot of holding each other up in handstands. When we got in to the restaurant we, mom and brother, had pot stickers. They were delicious! I had sweet and sour chicken for my main course I think that the chicken was really good. After our meal we went to a movie about china that Epcot provided called the “china experience”. I learned so much about the importance of the Silk Road; it helps the farmers a lot. Not only did the video show us the agricultural side of China, but the industrial side of China. At night in cities have a busy life, with shops and street venders. It also showed how culturally diverse food is in big cities Shang Hi.

China Vs. Google the internet war

People from china who were demanding civil right hacked into Google’s system, and igniting a war upon china and Google. China was rated high in using the internet, and the people were upset with their restrictions on the things that they are allowed to see. So a group of people hacked the system, and made Google really mad. They decided that to fix the problem they will just listen to what they want, give them free reign over the internet. China made Google make restrictions for a reason, so giving the people back free searching is getting rid of what they wanted for china in the first place.
In the china newspaper it really emphasized how Google had gotten attacked by hackers, and they also mentioned a lot about how many people in china actually use the internet, which is a lot, compared to other countries (China uses the internet a lot, mostly for email). Unlike in the U.S paper the thing that was most emphasized was how they are hiding so much from the Chinese people, like if you were to search Tiananmen Square in China you would see a peaceful place, and a huge gathering center. When you search it in any other country you would see a tank from 1989! Both Newspapers talk about how this is a civil rights violation. The main difference is how we see the violation because china does not, and cannot see what they are missing because it simply isn’t there.