Sunday's with Shuang

(Alex)

Hi everybody, I know it has been really long since I last checked in, but it has been really hard either to find the time or the proper material to blog about. My time here at Hangzhou has seemed to fly by, as I am writing this I only have three (!) more days in this beautiful city. School has been quite an experience, and, while I have learned something new every minute of everyday, it has been one of those experience which has not really been conducive to a blog. Yeah, so since covering my behind is over with, let’s get to this weekend, which has been by far one of the best weekends of this trip. To start with, William took us out Friday night to Lo Wai Lo for some much needed and much loved, you guessed it Viz, Beggars Chicken. Quite honestly the best tasting and most tender chicken I have ever tried. Period. A serious competitor for my pick as best dish in China, second only to the delectable Dong Po Pork (Mao’s Pork). After a great meal, William led us for a beautiful night-time stroll along the edge of the West Lake, ultimately ending up at the place where the famous West Lake Impressions occurred, a daily event which is famous throughout China. The show was directed by the same guy who directed the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, so you can just imagine the scale and beauty of the show that we enjoyed for the greater part of an hour. I kid you not in saying that at one point, a huge metal construct literally rose magically out of the water and towered above the actors, all of whom were standing on submerged platforms in the middle of the lake, giving the decidedly ghostly appearance of “walking on water.” The beautiful lighting effects had Mark, our resident Light Guru at DS, mesmerized. It was simply one of the most beautiful and breathtaking shows that I have seen on this trip, or in my life for that matter. And before you guys reading at home think I am just given to hyperbole, please wait until you see some of the video clips Li got before you decide for yourself. After the show, we met back up with our host families who where saying their final goodbyes to the OTHER delegation from America (that’s right.) I’m not sure how much the others have spoken about the delegation from Athen’s Academy in Georgia, so I’ll give a quick overview. This week, another group of students came to Hanggao and have been taking classes with us. They are very cool, but a much larger group (twelve in all, including a teacher and the headmaster of their school), and have sort of ended up preoccupying the teachers time. It has been really cool, however, to give them our advice, what with us being such experienced foreigners at this school. Anyways, they were leaving the next day, and our host siblings, who had seen them a lot through us, wanted to say goodbye. The next day we all headed out with Rose to the Tea Museum. And once we got there, we met … Jin Shuang! For those of you who don’t know, I hosted Jin Shuang (Frank) in America my sophomore year, and became very close with him. He looked a little older, but had not changed much at all. He sends his love to everyone back home, and has great memories of everyone he met and everything he did. It was great to see him, and, an added bonus, it was a beautiful day, and the museum was really cool. It was nestled in amongst rows and rows of tea plants (??), and really exuded a sense of peace and serenity. Wandering the halls of the tea museum and learning about the different types of tea and about its preparation (apparently I have never had a real, correctly prepared cup of tea in America) really made me feel like I was experiencing something amazingly Chinese. After another great lunch, Rose took us for a walk around the West Lake, one of the first times we had been there while the sun was shining. The walk put any body of water in America to shame, the views so stunning they defy all description. I felt, at that moment, so very blessed to have been able to see this beautiful scene, hundreds of thousands of miles away from my home, surrounded by friends of the past and present. This, my last weekend in China, really reinforced my appreciation for this great experience, and has made it very hard to begin to let go. After saying goodbye to Rose and Shuang (more on him shortly), we made our way back to Star’s (Li’s host sister) house for a farewell party by our siblings. Bruce made dumplings and pork steaks, and we watched a lot of movies. It was just one of those moments where we felt so close to everybody in the room, so content and at peace, that it was with a heavy heart that we left. The next morning, Shuang met me at Sunny’s house bright and early and took me out on the town. We first went to a Chinese supermarket, where he proceeded to show me all the best things to buy for the lunch we would have later, reminiscing all the while about his stay with me. I can’t believe how much he remembered about his stay two years ago. After, I finally met his mother and father, and they made a great lunch for me. His house was amazing, and it was simply an amazing experience to come full circle and go from inviting him to my house to he inviting me into his. I was so overwhelmed by the huge overflow of kindness his parents gave me, showing me around the house and thanking me profusely in broken English for hosting their son. I could only respond “Mei guan xi” “It was no problem”, and I tried to convey the immense affection my family and I had for their son. After lunch, we went for a walk around Shuang’s neighborhood, where he pointed out various landmarks of his childhood along the way. Stopping in small little garden, we chatted for about an hour about how life was going for both of us. I felt as if this day had been two years in the making, and it was truly one of the most enjoyable experiences of my entire trip. Unfortunately, Shuang needed to head back to Shanghai at six, so it was very reluctantly that we left the garden and headed home. After making plans to meet up again in Shanghai, I said goodbye to his family, who repeatedly sent their best wishes to my family. And that’s how the best weekend of the trip ended. So that about finishes up one of my longest blogs. Sorry again that it took me so long. Miss you all, but I guess I’ll see you soon enough. I might be able to squeeze out one more blog before I’m done… but for now, Zai Jian!

Sunny Skies and Winding Down!

(Allison) 

Ok, so time is really starting to fly here in Hangzhou. Fortunately, this week – it stopped raining!! We had a few beautiful days! But then rain returned yesterday…oh well.

Last Friday was National Women’s Day here in China!

In the morning….we had Hangzhou history class – Our history teacher Zhao Yi Bin is a wonderful man.  I cannot remember if I have blogged about him already. He is very interested in ancient history – and also knowing more about how history teachers teach in the U.S. I really wish that I could speak Chinese so that we could chat.

Then off to the gym for Kung Fu class – Mark, Li and Alex are working on perfecting their series. Our teacher, Liu Laoshi, also attempted to teach us some Tai Chi. He told us to clear our minds and imagine that we were standing on a beach facing the ocean.  After our sorry attempt at Tai Chi…Li and Mark decided to play ping pong. Bruce, Alex, Liu Laoshi and I played an intense game of badminton. Our teacher taught me how to properly serve…between my serve and his skills we beat Alex and Bruce – twice!

Because it is National Women’s Day ….all of the women teachers at the school received the afternoon off to go to a tea house. Rose and I rode our bikes down Fengqi  Road (a very busy road that the school is located on.), towards the West Lake, and arrived at the tea house. The tea house was very large; we walked up to the second floor. In the middle of the second floor, there was a huge buffet of all sorts of Chinese food.  On each side there were little rooms with a big table and comfy chairs. We found some seats with some of the math teachers from Hanggao –we ordered tea – I had flower tea - Rose had green tea, and then went out to the buffet.  Once again, there was an insane amount of food. I tried some sort of famous Hangzhou snack – a flour cake with shallot and sauce.  We spent the afternoon drinking tea, snacking and relaxing. Then we rode back to the school…I met up with Lianna, Star (Li’s second host sister), Mark, Tao Tao, and Bruce…and we headed out to get something to eat and do some shopping..

On Saturday, we traveled out to Wu Zhen! It was fantastic. Derek, Ms. Zhu Wei., and Mr. Pan (both administrators at the school) accompanied us.. Wu Zhen is a well preserved historic town about an hour and a half outside of Hangzhou. Because it was Saturday, and not raining – there were a ton of people there... we meandered our way through the swarms…and explored. The town is absolutely picturesque…lined with canals, classic Chinese buildings, humpback bridges…Lianna described it as Lijiang meets Plymouth Plantation..  soo nice…. We took the bus back to the school…snacking, listening to music and napping...

Derek and I took a taxi over to the section of Hangzhou-- where he and Susan attended university. This area of Hangzhou reminded me so much of the strip of Com. Ave. near BU… college students everywhere, shops and all sorts of places to get food. We met Susan at the Curry Bistro. When we arrived she had milk tea waiting for us…mine had these little black pearls in the bottom that were made out of sticky rice!

Sunday

I do not have a cell phone here in China. It is nice…but it does cause me a little bit of anxiety … and it makes making plans rather challenging. People just say -- ok meet me here at this time¦and I just have to trust them.

Star (Li’s current host sister) called me in the morning, (I do have a phone in the apartment) and told me to meet Mark and Tao at the school gate at 1:30… I walked to the school – the sun was shining!! Tao Tao’s mom drove us over the Baishan Road – the road that runs along the north end of the West Lake… We were meeting Bruce, Star, Sue, Lianna, Harry, Alex and Sonny to hike up Bao Shu Shan pagoda. Once everyone arrived – we were off. We climbed up Bao Shi Hill and reached the pagoda.  There were people everywhere up there! (six million people live in the city and greater Hangzhou area) Just past the pagoda are all of these rocks that you can climb.…Bruce, Harry, Sonnny and Alex climbed up a very large rock..

We strolled around and hung out at the top for awhile..and then walked down the hill along a path…there were various people selling things – some of them were selling stinky tofu…it is these small squares of fried tofu…but it smells soooo bad-horrible...we picked up the pace. At the bottom -- we walked along Beishan Road once again -- people everywhere along the lake…and walking on the Bai Causeway.. The students all decided to camp out at a Starbucks¦ I decided to walk along the east side of the lake for awhile. I discovered a statue of Marco Polo – in his writings he said that Hangzhou was the most beautiful and splendid city in the world! On the way back to the apartment, I decided to check out some of the Hangzhou clothing stores…

Monday

A beautiful, sun shining day! In the morning, we had calligraphy and Chinese…after lunch with Bruce, Tao, Star and Sunny –we went to broadcast club! One of my friends from English Corner..Brianna or Chen Yun…has been asking us to come to broadcast club for a few weeks now….we finally committed to a day! During the lunch break, a few students put on a radio show...they mostly play music, but some times they interview people. Brianna asked us various questions about our lives in the U.S. and our experiences in China.

After broadcast club we went to English corner... Joe one of the students coming to DSHS this year – showed up!

After having dinner at the school, I decided to ride my bike down to the Bai Causeway…there were too many people there on Sunday to walk it. I rode down the very scenic Beishan Road … and then back over the Bai Causeway… the West Lake is so pretty and relaxing at night...

This morning -we had Chinese painting class! I love this class. Our teacher is a very talented artist.  Today, we were joined by a delegation from Athens Academy – that is located in Athens, Georgia - 10 students, a high school history teacher - Beth, and their headmaster – Robert. They had traveled in Beijing for a few days and arrived in Hangzhou – Monday afternoon. There school is possibly going to set up an exchange similar to the DS one…

Our teacher presented the new students with some paper cutting, a Chinese folk craft.  Mark and Li attempted some advanced paper cuts... Alex and I decided to paint.  I painted a fish...and then something between a shrimp and a lobster -then I attempted to paint a duck...

The Georgian students went on a tour of the school…and our teacher took us up to her gallery/office to show us some of her work. She has traveled to Europe, and enjoys painting European buildings and landscape scenes.

Off to lunch...today, instead of our usual round table, the chef and his staff transformed the room into a buffet set-up… because they had to feed the DS exchange and the Athens exchange…

The last period of the day we were invited to Harry’s class for a class meeting/party. Alex went to Sonny’s class meeting/party. We played some English games, and they put on a performance of the Peking Opera and made us join in!

Arcades, Ice Cream and a Chinese Forest Gump

 

(Li)  2/26 and 2/27

Today is Sunny’s birthday! Sunny is Alex’s second host brother. All of our siblings are good friends now (although they didn’t know each other a month ago), so we all hang out all the time. We had Chinese and Calligraphy in the morning. We watched a movie in Chinese. Although the movie was really good, it was kind of disappointing that he showed us a movie. I wanted to actually learn a lot of Chinese while I was here, and I don’t think that has really happened. But anyway, the movie was called “tough guy” or “underdog warrior”… not really sure. It was basically the Chinese “Forest Gump.” In the movie a man is in the army, but he jumps in a body of water to save another soldier. He nearly drowns and ends up with brain damage, causing him to be much like Forest Gump (mentally). The main character is incredibly strong and a good fighter, so he fights in the name of good. He gets tricked by a bad guy and ends up in trouble with the law… but I won’t tell you any more because you should see it. Not much to report about calligraphy, other than that it was good.

After school the three of us, all six of our siblings, and Bruce went to Sunny’s house to celebrate his birthday. We ate pizza, played mahjong, and watched Valkyrie. O by the way, I am really good at mahjong. My host sister taught me how to play. But yea, Valkyrie was a really good movie, shocking that its based on truth and yet I had never heard about it. It was sad knowing the whole time what the ending was. During every scene I wanted the outcome to be different. Sunny’s birthday was really fun.

Friday we were supposed to have Kung Fu, but our teacher was feeling sick and had an injured elbow, so he just gave us free time. He taught Mark and I how to play Ping Pong and we have been practicing every class since then. We are actually getting pretty good, but not good enough to beat Nat. After lunch we went to get the fabrics for our silk dresses and jackets. Mark and Alex each got jackets and pants, while Allison and I each got dresses. I ended up getting 2 dresses because I couldn’t choose between two fabrics and the dresses are actually pretty cheap. We got our fabric and headed to the tailor to get fitted.

After school Mark and I, our current hosts, Sunny, and Bruce, went out for dinner at a Japanese noodle place (Alex and Allison both wanted to go home). Dinner was good and we went to an arcade after. Arcades here are lame, in the sense that everything requires WAY too many tickets to cash in. Where as in America, you can at least get candy regardless of how many tickets you win. So we were sad that we couldn’t get anything… and no, that is not a little kid mentality—almost everybody at the arcade was a teenager or adult. We got ice cream at the arcade and hung out in the ice cream store for a while before going home.

First Days in Hangzhou

(Li) 2/19

I met my host sisters yesterday. They are both really nice. They are in the same class, so I won’t have to get used to a different group of kids or teachers at all. I am living with my sister, Sue, her mom, dad, grandmother, and little cousin. The apartment is pretty nice, but they don’t use heat!... not something I am used to. Today was out first day of Chinese classes. First we had Chinese class. Our teacher, Derek, is an English teacher at the school and he will be coming to America this year. We were glad to find out he is coming, seeing as he is awesome. Derek is similar to William; cool, fun, nice, and young. I also have to talk about Bruce. Bruce is amazing. Bruce is a senior three student (aka our grade. Senior three is the hardest year of a Chinese student’s life). Bruce, however, applied to colleges in the US and has already received acceptance letters, thus escaping the dreaded college entrance exam. He also no longer has to attend classes (amazing, right?). Because he has a lot of free time and all his friends are still in class, he volunteered to be our translator, since most of the teachers don’t speak English. Bruce has become more than a translator, however, he has become a really good friend.

We had Chinese, in which Bruce and Derek taught us basic greetings and random words in Chinese. Not much more to say about that. After a short break, we had Calligraphy class. Calligraphy is really fun. Our teacher is very nice, and extremely helpful. He is a good instructor and can usually communicate with us through body language, although we have Bruce if needed. Our teacher knows how to say “okay” and “very good” in English, unfortunately he doesn’t know the difference between the two phrases (or so it seems). In calligraphy class we also met a 70 year old, former English teacher. He exercises at the school every morning and came to meet us. He is really nice and hilarious, so we enjoy his periodic visits.

We went to lunch, where we had an amazing meal in a small, heated room with our host siblings, cooked by our very own personal chef. Our chef is actually the head of the school cafeteria, so he doesn’t cook the school food, but he is an amazing chef and has been featured on Chinese cooking shows. Not only does he make great food, but he is such a sweet little man.

After lunch we went to classes with our host siblings. Most of the classes were really boring, seeing as they were in Chinese, so I did my own thing. Sue and Star had English though, so I got to participate in that class which was…. interesting. First we heard Ferddy the Frog sing a Beatles song. Then my English teacher, who has actually been to America, Ms. Wang, asked me to read the vocab words to the class for the students to repeat.

After school we went to the grocery store. CRAZY experience, there were 9 of us and everyone was saying different things. The siblings were arguing and trying to figure out what we needed. They were trying to figure out what stuff was, such as loofahs. It was crazy. There was quite a large language barrier between us and our siblings back then. But they have all progressed SO much and they speak English really well now. It’s amazing. Then we went out for dinner… The end

Blog…. DONE

Hangzhou High School

 (Allison)

Thursday, March 5th

I cannot believe that it is Thursday already..our time here in the city of Hangzhou is flying by..

It is still raining…ho hum.. it has rained every day, except one, since we have been here…

Last week, I spoke to the twelve different classes (about two or three per day -- in the morning). They were all grade one (age equivalent of a U.S. sophomore in high school)  English classes here at Hangzhou High School.  The students were great -- they were so warm and welcoming!

I spoke to them about schools in the United States.  I shared some pictures of my family and friends, and then, if there was time…we discussed holidays that we celebrate in the U.S. The students seemed particularly interested in Easter and Thanksgiving… All of the grade one English classes are learning about festivals celebrated around the world.  The students were so enthusiastic.

Each class consists of about 54 students, yes 54.. The students stay in the same classroom, with the same students, all day long – and they will stay with the same students for all three years that they attend the school . In China, it is the teachers that come and go from the classrooms, not the students.  All of the teachers have a designated cubicle in their department's office.

The schedule here is much different than back at DSMS. The class periods are 45 minutes (about the same), but there is 10 to 15 minutes between classes. Everyone gets an hour and ten minutes for lunch. It is so nice..the students can eat at the school, or leave the campus and get food somewhere in the city. Some of the teachers even sneak in naps…so nice..  Although all the extra time makes the school day is a little bit longer (academic classes end at 3:50…and then students use 4:00-5:00 to attend clubs, extra-help, or self-study), it is such a nicer pace than my days at DSMS sprinting up and down the stairs. 

Another thing that I observed -- it is amazing… when the bell rings – the students do not grab their stuff and run for the door.. (It is ok Team Moon – we will just have to work on this when I get back..) The students actually stay in their seats and listen to the teacher finish the lesson before they pack up.

 This past Tuesday, I was able to observe Sue's history class! Bruce, our translator, came with me. He is the best! The topic of the class was European Exploration. It was such a wonderful experience to be able to observe someone doing your job..but in a different country! The teacher was fantastic, she was enthusiastic, and held her students attention by using a fantastic PowerPoint with lots of notes, photographs, maps and video clips!

Rose is going to try to schedule a time, next week, for me to go to the middle school where her sister teaches English! I am looking forward to this experience...

Tuesday night – Derek and his wife Susan took me to out for dinner to a Japanese noodle house! Then we went to the movies to see Red Cliff Part Two (with English subtitles) .. Derek had loaned me Red Cliff Part One – and I had watched it on Monday night..

Red Cliff Part One was the number one blockbuster last year (and actually of all time in China – it beat out Titanic – which he held the previous record..)  It is a fantastic movie! It takes place during the end of the Han Dynasty – it is about the wars between the emperor and some competing warlords..very similar to Troy or Gladiator – but a little more humor thrown in…  A shorter version will be released in the U.S – at some point this year..

Yesterday (Wednesday), was Helen's birthday. In the morning, Li and I enthusiastically headed out of the school gates in search of a cake! There are bakeries in Hangzhou everywhere…it is actually insane – Ganso, Dan Be, Sep, Free Muri, Rita's, Romantic Event, Christina's, Donghua – to name a few. Hangzhouians are cake crazy!  There are actually four bakeries within three minutes from the school gate.. We entered the closest – Ganso…the cakes were beautiful – but -- it hit us that we had no way of knowing what kind or flavor the cakes were¦.so we pressed on.  Romantic event…no luck, yet again…Dan Be was closed…so we turned the corner and went to Sep.  Slightly defeated by our lack of knowledge of the Chinese language, we opted to point to a bunch of different cake slices (we could see whether they were chocolate, green tea, or something else…) within a glass case, the baker put them into a lovely box, we even managed to communicate with her that we needed forks  = mission accomplished!

Off to P.E. for some kung fu, ping pong, badminton, then lunch, then English corner…after E.C.  we went back to the English office to look for Helen in order to celebrate, but she was not in the office…so we went off to cooking claass!

Our teacher is the manager of the school cafeteria, but – Brruce told us that he was previously a renowned Chinese chef - - and has been featured on a Chinese cooking show. He is very talented ¦he loves to make art out of food..he can cut a carrot into a rose, or a cactus out of a cucumber. Last week, he taught us how to create a butterfly – out of sliced mangos, banana, and tomatoes.  This week he showed us how to cut up a fish (it had already been gutted). He cut off the head, and then slit the fish in half…he then sliced the meaty part of the fish (but left the skin intact) into a grid. Then, he fried it. When you fry fish that has been sliced like this it comes out looking like flowers!  Beautiful and yummy!

Then, back to the English office to find Helen! We sang Happy Birthday to her in both English and Chinese and then enjoyed the cake!  Rose popped in and asked me if I wanted to go shopping -- and we were off!

Guitar Hero in Hangzhou

(Allison)

March 2nd

We had a fantastic weekend… Saturday we all met at the school.. I arrived at the school gate...and did not see anyone..A very nice guard came out and tried talking to me..but he only spoke Chinese...and I, for the most part, only speak English...he was being so nice, and trying so hard...

Luckily, Mark and his host brother Harry showed up and Harry was able to translate.. turns out he was trying to tell me that Lianna had already gone outside.. and that I could enter as well..

 

Two English teachers, Wang Huo and Michelle, a history teacher, Li Wang Ping ( I am going to observe her class this week), and Mr. Li who works in the Student Affairs Office.. accompanied us to a museum called-- An Exhibition of Southern Song Dynasty Guan Kiln Relics -- pottery of the Song Dynasty!!

 

The museum featured many pieces of my two favorite types of pottery - the beautiful Chinese celadon green pottery! and the classic Chinese blue and white pottery...

The celadon pieces in the museum were mostly discovered in Hangzhou near the West Lake. Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.

 

At the end of the exhibit there were several stalls that featured an activity where you could try to piece together an ancient pot, like an archeologist.....the students enjoyed this!

 

Then -- it was time to make some pottery ourselves -- using a pottery wheel... A very talented man..who works at the museum-- came over and centered the clay for us..then we went to work..

It brought me back to art class in high school...

I attempted to make a tall narrow vase..but it did not come out that well...

 

After lunch, we attempted to go to the West Lake Museum—but it  was closed – so the kids decided that they wanted to go bowling..I tagged along with them because, I was invited to have dinner at Josh's apartment – and felt it would be easy if I just stayed with them. Unfortunately, China has not yet passed a non-smoking in public places law…and you can still smoke in bowling alleys = gross.

After bowling, Josh’s father picked Alex, Josh and I up! Josh’s parents are so nice.  We had a lovely meal – Alex practiced his Chinese with Josh's parents… Josh’s  father did not believe me when I told him (through Josh’s translation), that the fish we ate was the best fish that I had during my stay in China! 

I know that Mark is going to blog about this – but I just cannot help myself. Sunday -- we went over William's apartment (the teacher who came to DS last year)! He is the cutest man alive! He picked us up in his red Jetta (but it is called something else here in China-there are Volkswagons everywhere here). William and his wife Helen (not to be confused with Helen – one of the English teachers at Hangzhou High) just had an adorable baby, in November – Emma!!  In the U.S., he purchased PS3 – and he just purchased Guitar Hero World Tour – which is amazing… we spent the day admiring Emma and making music! Of course, William was a wonderful host and provided us with a delicious lunch (Li says the best dumplings she has had in China!) and lots of snacks, Pringles, banana chips, dove chocolate and fruit!

After William's house – we met up with Harry and Sue – and traveled to Wushan Square to meet Bruce and his parents for dinner!!  Bruce's parents are awesome! Just like him. I embarrassed Bruce by making him translate to tell them how much we love him – and cannot imagine our experiience here in China without him!

This morning we had Chinese calligraphy, and our Chinese language class. In calligraphy, we learned how to paint our numbers, as well as some basic beautiful characters such as fire, mountain, and forever.  During Chinese class, we watched the movie Nanking – about the devastating invasion in 1937 --by the Japannese.

After lunch, we had English corner (which has been moved indoors because of all the rain). The regulars (the sweet girls from Class 9) and some new faces showed up. Mark provided some chocolate.  After discussing some ancient history (they are very interested in Egypt), the girls told me some Chinese folk tales that took place around the West Lake!

 After English corner, we headed to the English office to warm up..  Helen whisked us away, and took us shopping (umbrellas in tow)  for the lining of our silk dress and suits! Li and I are getting traditional silk Chinese dresses made. Alex and Mark are getting silk suits made. Last Friday, Helen took us on a very fun shopping trip to purchase the silk.

I had dinner at school, prepared by the amazing chef!  --Now I am going to watch a movie that Derek loaned me-- Red Cliff Part One (more information regarding the movie below…).

Finally… HANGZHOU!!

(Alex)

Well, we finally made it. As I write this, I am sitting in my new room in my host brother Xu Taoyin’s house (his English name is Joshua). What a wild morning. Waking up in a moving train was quite an experience, although I did sleep surprisingly well. Our ridiculously cramped quarters made it hard to stretch out, and it was a struggle trying to get all of our bags organized before the train arrived in the station. 

Pulling into a drizzly Hangzhou station, we were almost immediately accosted by a group of some 20 odd people, all of our host families, and officials of the school. We met Derek, the teacher who has been selected to come to DS this year, Naichuan, the MAN (I totally did not know he was a he) who pretty much organized the trip on this end, and who very kindly had prepared some breakfast for us in bags, both my host brothers, Xu Taoyin and Sun Xuan, as well as the other host siblings of Mark and Li. 

We proceeded rather slowly outside, where a bus picked us up and took us straight to school. And if you thought we would draw attention traveling in China… you would have thought we had three heads traveling through the school to our meeting room. Everywhere we went students would pause and point, or, those more bold would snap a quick sketchy picture of the four new-comers to their school. However, this attention was certainly not of the negative sort, with everyone going out of their way to make us feel especially at home. After a brief meeting in what looked like a business meeting room, we were lead away from each other (marking the first day we would be completely by ourselves since this adventure began) by our new host siblings, and into their respective classes. 

My first host brother, Josh, is a shy but very intelligent guy who seems to be the envy of his entire class, by merit of his hosting one of the American’s. As we shuffled into class, the students all stared at me and just began to clap… which was extremely awkward, but an obviously very kind gesture. We settled down and the first teacher of the day, an English teacher who actually came to DS my freshman year (whose name escapes me at pres. time), and I was treated to the experience of a Chinese English lesson. It was pretty basic, but everyone in the class was extremely disciplined and studious, and made far more progress studying English than many of our students back home who studied other languages. It was fascinating and revealing to just sit back and witness the very different class dynamic and the behavior of the students. 

Although after English class, I didn’t really understand any of the lessons, I really did find my time spent in the class was interesting and informative. We took a break for one of the famous Hangzhou lunches made by The Chef, who has already become one of my favorite people in Hanggao (the slang name for the school we are staying at). The lunch was delicious, as hosts and exchange students alike were stunned by what the schools kitchens provided for us. 

After lunch we had more classes, and, although it was by no means a grind, I can’t say I wasn’t a little relieved to hear the bell at 4:30 sound the end of classes. We were then taken to the Headmistresses Office for a proper welcoming ceremony. On the way, who should show up but Kathleen (Ma Chaoren), one of the exchange students with Jin Shuang, a student I hosted my sophomore year. It was great to see her again, she looked a lot more grown up, and to hear how she was doing. She sends love to all those back home in the States, especially the Maddens, and Mrs. Viz! Madam Miao, select members of the administration, Naichuan, and almost the entire English department (including William!), were present at the ceremony to speak to us and welcome us very warmly to the school.  Allison also made a very nice speech and presented gifts to the school. Following the ceremony, we were taken to the school’s very own history museum to learn more about the prestigious schools long and storied past, including, of course, pictures of past exchanges!! Mrs. Viz will be happy to know that she is forever enshrined within the museum in both photographic and written form. 

Next, out to dinner with all the welcoming faculty, which was great but served much more seafood than I cared to try… Sorry Viz! Finally, after a really overwhelming day, we went home to our host families. My family is amazing, very kind and sweet, and although their English is not very good, has made every effort to make me feel at home. It looks like a great beginning to our much-anticipated Hangzhou experience. I don’t really know the next time I will blog, although I think the group consensus is that they will come less frequently now… I don’t know. Hope everything is well back home, and hope to finally upload some pictures! 

Beautiful Beijing

(Alex)

Getting up really early this morning in the Shaolin Temple was not the easiest thing to do … especially after such a strenuous couple of days. We shuffled out of the Temple at 5:30 sharp, in order to catch our early flight out of the airport, 2 hours away from Louyang. We were rather worried by the timing, and thought more than once that we would miss our flight. Our cool-headed guide, George, assured us everything would work out, and even managed to intimidate the airport manager enough to get us out of having to pay a fee for our overweight bags. One short plane ride later and we landed in the capital of China, Beijing, exhausted and ready to sleep. 

At 9 in the morning. Our new guide, Ashley, a very small and very young looking girl, met us and began to lead us to the car. Sensing our exhaustion, Ashley decided not to push us too hard. Allowing us about two hours to recuperate at the hotel, which was very much needed, she picked us up for lunch at around 12:30 and promised that we would have a short day. We had a delicious lunch in a secluded little restaurant, which gave off the ambiance of a truly traditional and local restaurant, although it was very smoky. Soon after, we headed to the Beijing Capitol Museum, an amazingly built and organized exhibition. Ashley informed us that it had been very recently rebuilt in lieu of the huge increase of tourism within Beijing for the Olympics. It had a total of seven floors, on which the exhibitions were built along the sides of the building, leaving the center in the open air, and allowing some of the braver tourists to view the formidable height and size of the building.  A huge imitation stone column dominated the entrance, within which were housed completely digital interactive screens of some of the more lavish artifacts on display. Many photos to be put up as soon as we get to Hangzhou. 

After the Museum, Ashley brought us to the much anticipated Beijing Zoo, where we headed straight to the Panda exhibit to see the countries most famous citizens. The pandas, almost 20 in total, were definitely one of the many highlights of the trip. Watching them waddle about and play with one another completed for me what I wanted to get out of a Chinese travel experience. It turned out that we had arrived at the Zoo too late to wander around and look at the other animals, which was a bummer. I especially wanted to visit the section labeled as “American Animals”. I think it would have been cool to see what animals Chinese associate with us. 

So we left the zoo around five, calling off the Peking Duck Dinner until the night that we were heading to the Peking Opera (as per Ashley’s advice) and headed sleepily back to the hotel. Where we all are now. We all seem to be winding down lately and look forward to getting to Hangzhou… though I am sure this will not diminish our experiences to come in China’s capital. Sorry that this blog was so short… but there I think my exhausted stupor somewhat prevented me from being able to take in the full experiences of the day. Good thing I took a lot of pictures! Hope to blog soon, although this might be the last one I do during our travel portion

Jiaozi making in Hangzhou

  (Allison)

Monday – February 23rd…

I woke up today and looked out the window…rain..again… Hopped in the shower… and and quickly got ready for school. I am living in an apartment that is located just behind the school. Every morning, I get to walk or ride my bike (that the school has loaned me) to school! I love this – it is so different from my 35 minute drive to work in the morning at home. To get to school, I have to travel through the famous Hangzhou Silk Market (Hangzhou is most famous for silk, tea, and the West Lake).   As I was walking to school, I heard a car behind me honking..I just thought that it was someone trying to tell me to get out of the way (sometimes cars in China like to drive on sidewalks) ....but it was Mrs. Wu, a vice-principal, offering me a ride to school. Although I love to walk, I hopped in to escape the rain… I thanked Mrs. Wu for the ride, and then walked to the dining hall. Every morning the school cafeteria prepares breakfast for me. They leave it in a small room off of the main cafeteria that is heated (the majority of the buildings at the school are not heated). There is always a glass of hot coffee or tea, which makes me very happy!! I then ran up to the English office to check my email quickly…and then ran to our desiignated classroom. It appears to be one of the schools conference rooms. It has a very large table in the middle. Our first class of the day was Chinese calligraphy! Chinese calligraphy is a beautiful art… it is very difficult…our teacher is very talented. He does not speak English, but Bruce (our translator) does a wonderful job translating and helping us with our calligraphy…

I was scheduled to teach Class 7 at 10:05…it was 9:55…so I handed my brush to Bruce and ran upstairs..When I arrived the students started chatting very loudly (in Chinese of course..)and then they all started clapping…they seemed very excited for my arrival..!  Ms. Cui Hongxiang, otherwise known as Helen came running in...she had been looking for me!!

Lunch – everyday at 12::00 --Mark, Alex, Lianna, their host siblings, and either Rose (an English teacher) or Bruce and I - eat together. The chef does a fantastic job preparing our meals. There is always tea…but today there were little white dried flowers in my tea cup! Chrysanthemums! It was a tea made out of dried mums! It was the best tea I have had in China (..and I have had a lot of tea..), and absolutely the prettiest! Imagine a clear glass of hot water, with pretty little white (with a yellow center) flowers floating in it¦ I drank about five glasses.

After lunch, I headed back to the English office – It is nice and toasty warm there..they have setup a very nice desk for me…Helen asked if we would be available Weednesday afternoon to go shopping for silk in order to get our Chinese dresses, and suits made!

Yesterday (Sunday), I was invited to have lunch with Lianna and her host sister, mother, father, cousin, mom's best friend and her son. They took us to a very nice restaurant that specializes in traditional Hangzhou cuisine. They were so nice, and they ordered an outrageous amount of food (here I go blogging about food, yet again..)…four vegetable dishes, two pork dishes (one being dongpo pork..so yummy)…an entire chicken roasted in a pot, chicken wingss, a huge bowl of fish stew with an entire fish in it, some sort of beef dish, a shrimp dish (for Lianna), dumplings, green tea bean curd cakes, and noodles…it was insane. Sue and her mother are so enthusiastic and happy to have Lianna stay in their home..We were talking about how much Lianna and I like dumplings and noodles, and Sue's mom invited me over to make dumplings with her mother. Sue's mother's best friend's son…he's  very shy..but his mother wanted him to practice his English by speaking to me..throughout the meal he would randomly ask me a question such as what are your hobbies..and then look away…

 After lunch we met..Mark and Alex, all of the host siblings, along with Alice, Bob and Ivan ( the students who came to DS last year). We walked to a KTV…Chinese for karaoke…in China you can do do karaoke at any time of day…you go and rent out a private roomwith couches, a television and two microphones…this way.you only have to listen to the songs that you and your friends want to listen to – and not have to suffer through stranger's singing horrible songs…

 That was Sunday…back to Monday… after schooh, Sue's mother picked us up in her red Buick coop..she was very excited about having us as guests in her home -- and finally being able to serve Lianna dinner! (She has gone out for dinner every night since last Wednesday…!)

After getting stuck in some crazy Chinese traffic… We arrived at the apartment…Sue's grandmother had prepared the dough and was ready to teach us how to make dumplings!! They had strawberries and a very small orange like fruit waiting for us…Sue must have told her mother how much I enjooyed the tea during lunch because she had some waiting for me.. She gave me a huge box full of it and a plastic bag – which I think was grown by Sue's father's mother… ! 

After eating some fruit..and drinking some tea… Sue's grandmother began teaching us how too make dumplings..she rolled out the dough into small circles…Then she began demonstrating..she picked up one of the small dough circles and placed a small ball of a ground pork mixture (that included green onions and garlic) into the middle of the small circle..then she pinched two sides of the circle together… and then very skillfully folded the rest of the dough up to form the dumpling!!

Li and I went right to work.  At first, our dumplings looked nothing like Sue's grandmother…but towards the end they were coming out pretty good. We had a lovely meal (our dumplings were very good) and we were once again joined by Sue's cousin, and mom's best friend's son..

After dinner, Sue's father drove me and Sue's mom's best friend's son home (I keep saying that because I do not know his name…) Back to the apartment – I am staying in an apartment just behind the school. It is very nice…There is a huge television, but I only get one Englishh channel.

Knowing my love for movies, Derek called to let me know that the Oscars would be broadcasted on CCTV tonight at 10:30…I do not know if I will be able to stay awake to watch them.. (even though I already know the results…) >

Hangzhou Highlights

(Allison)

Saturday – February 21st

We are finally in Hangzhou! We were looking forward to getting to Hangzhou because we thought that we would get a chance to rest…but we were wrong.. We have not stopped since we got here!!  Our first three days at Hangzhou High School were wonderful…Everyone here is so nice and helpful! It has been raining quite a bit! I am very grateful because Rose (an English teacher that came to D-S two years ago) loaned me an adorable black and white polka dot umbrella, and Derek loaned me a lime green poncho --that I can wear when I ride my bike in the rain!!

On Saturday morning, Mrs. Wu (vice-principal), Mr. Xie (vice principal), Mr. Chen (our driver), Derek (the English teacher that is coming to DS this spring!), Bruce (our amazing translator), Mark (you should know who he is..), Harry (Mark's host brother), Lianna, Sue (Lianna's host sister), Alex (Alex's brother could not come because he had to go to Shanghai to take an English test), and myself piled into the school van and headed to the West Lake!

We were very lucky..(once again!) because it was not raining…and the sun was kind of shining..

The West Lake is so beautiful. Kunming Lake – the lake that abuts the Summer Palace - was built ass a copy of the West Lake. Hangzhou is a very popular tourist destination for Chinese people. A scene of the West Lake is actually on the back of the single yuan.

We walked across the lake on the Sui Causeway…it is very early spring here.. and some of the flowers are already blooming… The plum trees are beautiful…and  they smell sooo good!

We went to a park, just next to the lake, called Watching Goldfish on the Flowery Stream… There were gold fish everywhere! Mrs. Wu bought us some bread and fish food so that we could feed them.  Lianna ended up giving her food to an adorable little boy – it made him very happy!! Then we headed back to the bus..

We traveled a little outside of Hangzhou to a tea village..the hills in the village were covered with tea bushes…it reminded me a little bit of a vineyard.  Some of the farmers in the village have transformed their homes into restaurants…

We walked down the street to a villager's home… In the front of the house, there was a large patio with some small tables set up with glasses of tea, oranges, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. We sat and chatted there for a while..snacked and drank some tea..  Hangzhou is famous for West Lake Longjing Green Tea… Bruce told me that Hangzhou is a city of leisure.  People enjoy relaxing and drinking tea!!

Then we entered the house..the house was very nice and very clean. The bottom floor was wide open, and included the living area for the family.  The food is cooked outside – just behind the house.. Derek said that Chinese people prefer going to these homes, over restaurants, because the food is much better…!

We walked up to the second floor and sat down in a room..it may have been a former bedroom… it had a set of glass sliding doors and a patio looking out on the hills of tea bushes. Then, the food started to arrive..once again—endless. There was a plate of pigs feet…Mrs. Wu told us that women love to eat pigs feet because it is good for your skin and makes you very beautiful…none of us were brave enough to try them – but our driver Mr. Chen ate quite a few!

After lunch, Mrs. Wu asked us if we wanted to play Mahjong…we had no idea what that meant. .but agreed to try it out.  We relocated to another room down the hall to play.  It turns out it is the best game ever!! It is very similar to rummy  but you use these game pieces..that are kind of like dominos anyway.. it is fantastic! Sue had brought a bag full of chocolate!! So we ate chocolate and played Mahjong for about two hours..

Time to go… we hopped back on the bus and headed back to the city… Derek invited us all over to his apartment! Alex was tired and decided to go home… Mark, Li, Harry, Sue, Derek and I got dropped off at Derek"s apartment.  Derek"s apartment is so nice! His wife Susan is also a high school English teacher. She is so sweet!   Derek has an enormous movie collection – American, Chinese, foreign, documentaries..... I was so excited --because I love watching movies..He told me I could borrow anything that I wanted!! He also selected some good Chinese films that he thought that I would enjoy… Because we loved Mahjong so much – we decided to continue playing games…..so we decided to play UNO.  We were listening to Averyl Lavigne ( I have no idea how to spell her name..) and Dave Matthews Band. Derek and Susan wanted us to go out to dinner but everyone was still full from dinner..we decided to just order pizza from Pizza Hut!!  After eating pizza – we decided to watch a movie. ¦Susan really wanted to watch High School Musical 3…I have never even seen High School Musical 1…but I found it very humorous. ¦I kind of felt that I was back in Boston..listening to American music, playing UNO and eating pizza…

After dinner, Derek took me home – I got to ride on the back of Susan's electric bicycle!!!  

Another Beijing Blog...

 (Mark)

 

Bet you're all dying to hear about our adventures here in Hangzhou (which are numerous and exciting, by the way), but again, that's not what my blog is about. No, no, this time you get to read about the Great Wall and Peking Opera! This, like my last blog, was also more than a week ago, so again, I apologize for fuzzy details.

 

That day was the longest day we've had on the trip. It started much earlier (around 8:15 or so), and went till about 9 at night. It was very tiring, especially considering we climbed a section of the Great Wall! That is actually what we did first. The drive out to the wall was about an hour and a half. Oh, on the way we stopped at a jade carving factory or something, but aside from the feng shui cabbages and the dragons that don't poop, it was pretty uninteresting. As we got into the mountains near the Wall, we passed fragments that were either once part of the wall and had been destroyed/fallen apart, or that were attached to other parts and actually stretched on past the mountains. It was pretty cool. We stopped at the Badaling section of the Great Wall, also called the North Pass. On his trip to China, Richard Nixon, along with his wife climbed this section. Mao Zedong also climbed this, and wrote at the top that 'anyone who reaches this point is a hero." with these words in mind, Obama Lama set out to conquer the climb. It was absolutely amazing. We were there on one of the very few clear days we had in Beijing, and from the wall, we could see for MILES around. We could see rolling mountain tops off in the direction of Mongolia, and other sections of the wall stretching in pretty every direction. It was amazing to actually BE there.. just like the Terra Cotta Warriors. The view made the climb somewhat more barable. It wasn't a particularly long ascent, it was just that parts of the wall are INCREDIBLY steep, like probably 50 or 60 degree inclines to the horizontal, maybe even more. Most of these parts have stairs, though some of them were just inclines with a hand rail. Even the stairs weren't easy, most of the steps were knee-height or taller, making the climb that much more difficult (especially for me...). So yea, it was pretty intense, and we passed through an old guard tower on the way up, which was pretty cool. After about 50 minutes, we arrived at the top. I was looking forward to seeing Mao's writing, but I'd missed the memo: the government removed the writing and put it somewhere more special in Beijing for the Olympics. No writing for me. We stayed at the top of the wall for a while, took some individual and group photos, then headed back down.When we reached the bottom, we had a little more time to walk around the entrance area, which is filled with a bunch of different merchant stalls and such, and a few bear pits. Allison bought a bunch of stuff for herself and her class, and I was considering buying a dragon. I did a lap around the shop I was in, and the woman followed me trying to sell it. Simply by ignoring her, I got her to lower the price from 180 RMB to 30. yay for "haggling." The bear pits each had 1 to 3 black bears in them, but they were nothing like black bears I've ever seen before. They had a huge amount of scruff or something around their neck area, which made them the cutest things ever. We all just wanted to hug them, but we decided that'd be a bad idea.

 

After the wall, we headed to the Cloisonne Factory, where we saw copper pots being made, and ate lunch above a large, way overpriced store. We then headed to the Ming Tomb, which was about halfway between the Wall and Beijing. When we arrived, we first walked down the Sacred Way, which is basically just a really long walkway with statues of animals and guards and stuff on either side of it. Somehow I'd dressed warmly enough that I was fine on the wall, but I was FREEZING at the tomb, which contributed to my feeling that it was kind of boring and uninteresting. After the walkway, we went into one of the actual tombs. I was expecting this to be a LOT of fun, but was sadly disappointed. Apparently, the tomb USED to be really cool and impressive, but in the Cultural Revolution, everything in it was completely destroyed. Everything in there now is a replica, it isn't remotely original. The whole place just felt like a museum or something--it was too bright and modern to feel like a Ming Dynasty tomb. Quite the letdown, I'd say.

 

From there, we headed back into the city. Me and Lianna fell asleep on the way back, but apparently we passed the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It was dinner time when we got back, so Ashley brought us to a Peking Duck restaurant. It was the BEST duck I have ever tasted. But I felt like the whole thing about wrapping it up with veggies and sauce kind of ruined it. Oh well, it was still very tasty. As tradition dictates, we then headed to a Peking Opera performance. Our expectations were VERY low for this, as we all knew how bad it sounds to western ears, but it really didn't turn out that bad. There was a lot of music, and not nearly as much singing as we'd expected (which was fortunate... their "singing" is more like screeching). It was pretty boring though, because the show completely lacked a story. It was translated to english on an LED display, and some of the translations were really funny, so all of the westerners in the audience were laughing quite a lot, but I don't know if it was meant to be comedic. We left after about 45 minutes of the show, figuring we'd at least tried it.

 

So yeah. We headed back to the hotel, stopping at DQ on the way for some ice cream (I had a banana sprit! it was delicious!), and watched Juno, which was on HBO. Then, completely tired out from the day, we went to sleep.

 

Perhaps I will blog again tomorrow. If I do, it'll be about Hangzhou! Finally. We'll see. We're celebrating one of Alex's host brother's birthday, so I might be too tired. You can hope though!

 

10 days ago... wow, time flies!

 (Mark)

 

'Lo everybody! We're in Hangzhou now and it's awesome! but that's not what my blog is about :( I apologize in advance for this entry. I'm writing it more than a week after it actually took place, i didn't take notes at the time, and I was kind of ambivalent towards everything 'cause I was just so tired of traveling.

 

On that note, our second day in Beijing was incredibly cold. Before it, we really hadn't had sub 50 degree weather anywhere, and even the first day in Beijing hadn't been that cold. As such we were all completely under dressed and not prepared for the day. Even so, we headed out to Tiananmen Square, a little curious as to what we'd see there and what Ashley (our guide, in case that hasn't already been established) would tell us about the events of '89. On the way there, we passed the street on which the famous picture of the single Chinese student stopping a line of tanks from entering the square was taken. When we arrived at the square, Ashley gave us some info about it. For one thing, "Tiananmen" literally means "Gate of Heavenly Peace." A little ironic, I'd say. Also, the square is apparently the largest city square in the world. Yeah, it was pretty big. She then proceeded to tell us that the Square is a huge symbol for China because of the many key events that have occurred there. She rattled off a few that I don't remember, then got to the "Student Protest of 1989" and left it at that. I was debating whether or not I should ask her to go into further detail about it, but I decided against it.

 

With nothing else to say, Ashley took us across the square to the entrance to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City isn't actually a city, it's basically a mansion. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties (around the 1500s, I think), the Emperor, his concubines, and his eunuchs lived in there. The place is huge. There are enough rooms that if you slept in a different room every night, it would take 27 years to sleep in each one. There was a paranoid emperor who did just that, in fact, though I don't think he managed to sleep in each room. To get into the city, we had to cross one of five bridges that were all lined up. Only the Emperor was allowed to cross the middle bridge. The top officials of China crossed either of the bridges to the left and right of the middle, and peasants were only allowed to cross one of the two outer bridges. Even today they have guards posted on the middle three bridges, so that visitors can only cross the peasant bridges, but we assumed that if high ranking officials visit, they're allowed to cross in the middle. After the bridges, we proceeded through a giant door into the entrance way of the city. Each door had nine rows of nine tumor-like bulges on it, apparently because nine was a lucky number back then. There are also nine entrances to the city, according to Ashley, which we took to mean that there are nine sets of doorways as you walk through the city. As we walked through we stopped and looked at some of the rooms. They were all incredibly spacious... there was one that must have had about 500 square feet of floor space, and the only thing in it was a throne on a raised platform with stairs leading up to it. What a waste of space!

 

From the Forbidden city we headed to the Summer Palace. The summer palace is basically supposed to be a microcosm of China, filled with all of the most beautiful aspects of the country. Kunming Lake, around which the entire area is constructed, is a man-made replica of Hangzhou's West Lake. All the dirt and such that was dug up was just put right next to the lake to make Longevity Hill. The whole process took about 15 years. The biggest story in Chinese History regarding the Summer Palace is that of the Dragon Lady (Empress Dowager Cixi).  Basically, this woman wanted power, so she did a bit of research on the emperor, AKA bribed his eunuchs, and discovered that he enjoyed Peking Opera. She thus learned a song or two, and one day she pretended to be practicing her singing while the emperor was walking through a garden nearby. He heard her, and of course fell in love with her. She bore him a son, which was fortunate, as he died soon after. Her son was thus destined to become the next emperor, but he was too young, so the Dragon Lady took charge. She was pretty much a despot who loved living in style... she loved pearls, so eunuchs would fill kunming lake with them for her to find (along with fish for her to catch). She was never officially the Empress of the Qing Dynasty, but she was in power for 48 years. Her son was supposed to take over when he reached the right age, but for a long time he was simply a puppet controlled by his mother, until he "died mysteriously" at the age of 20. The death of her son meant that her nephew would become Emperor, but he was too young, so she continued to rule. Seeing that she would do anything for power, the nephew tried to overthrow the Dragon Lady, but was unsuccessful, and was thus placed under house arrest for 10 years. COMPLETELY coincidentally, he died a few days before he was supposed to be released. So yeah, she ended up ruling for a long time, and the fall of the Qing dynasty is largely attributed to her, but she did do one good thing. Apparently, one day, one of her eunuchs approached her and said he had found something that shined more brightly than a pearl. She eagerly asked what it was, and he showed her a light bulb (no idea where he got a power source...). The Dragon Lady loved it, and had electricity run to the summer palace so she could have light bulbs, making it the first building in China to have electricity.

 

We headed back to the hotel after the Summer Palace, as we had dinner on our own that night. Alex didn't care to go out, and I forget what Allison was doing, but me and Lianna went out and discovered the BEST mall ever. It had every store and restaurant we could possibly want, including a supermarket that sold American food. It was a lot of fun. We had Pizza Hut for dinner, marking the first American dinner all trip.

 

So yeah, that's pretty much it for now. It's getting late, so I guess I'll write about the Great Wall and such tomorrow or the next day. Just had to get this done at least 'cause Viz was getting angry!