Did you pahk the cah?

Scott and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Boston with the fam. It was his first time to the city, and I think he really liked it. (I'm slowly trying to turn him into a Yankee...baby steps). For most of my family up there, this was their first time meeting Scott and they couldn't get over his Southern accent. Of course, Scott couldn't get over their New England accent. I think I've lived with Scott so long now that I don't even notice his accent anymore. Maybe he's slowly turning me into a Southerner and I don't even know it!

Boston is one of my favorite cities, ever. There's something about the quaintness of having history embedded into the modernity of the city. And the colonial architecture is among my favorite. Scott's favorite parts were the pubs. This is why we go well together. Anyone up for another trip to Bahston?

My cousin, Michele, on the Duck Tour. Not just for tourists!

Chilling out Memorial Day at the lake in New Hampshire.

The view from (on) the Charles.

A baby Louis Vuitton under her underarm

Yesterday I decided to get off of my lazy ass (I've been nothing but a bum since I got home from China. I had to be, to catch up on all the TiVo'd shows I had missed) and go for a walk around Lake Lynn. This is my new favorite place for a walk/run - a 2.3 mile loop around a very pretty lake. This was the first time I had been back in about 3 weeks.

Babies were everywhere! And not just the human kind. Little geese with webbed feet that were way too big for their bodies; baby turtles on logs with (supposedly) their parents; and baby ducklings that kept following each other around in circles. The best part was when baby humans would look at the baby geese, who, in turn would eye the baby humans. You know they were each thinking to themselves "That is one wierd looking baby!"

I love that other people have babies so I can enjoy them without having my own. So much better than TiVo.

Safe and Sound

After 26 hours of traveling, I finally made it home safe and sound Saturday night. As much fun as I had in China, there's nothing like returning to the comfort of your own country. I had to smile when I saw the farms of Minnesota and Illinois as we flew in. Home at last!

China is so rich in history and culture, and I would love to return sometime soon to have the chance to see those things I didn't get to see on this trip. The 2008 Olympics will be really interesting, especially since this is China's chance to show the world that communism can be successful and to show off their mysterious country to everyone else.

In all the cities we visited, the pollution was a constant. At first I thought the haze was weather-related, but I came to find out it's the pollution. Everyone burns sulfur-rich coal, and natural gas is very rarely distributed to many homes. While our nation still has a long way to go to protect the environment, we're lightyears ahead of China. The next big thing, I think, will be for our government to help China with this issue, especially since they could potentially reek more havoc on the environment as they undergo their industrial revolution.

As I mentioned before, my new goal is to learn Mandarin. We used to think that Spanish was the most important/practical language for Americans to know, but after this trip, I'm convinced it's going to be Mandarin. As China becomes more and more capitalistic, and as more companies and firms open business there, it's going to be so important to know the language. The problem is, it's so difficult to learn and read. I heard it takes 1,000 hours to learn the language. I think that has got to be an underestimation.

I hope to post some pictures and video soon of the trip! Keep posted...

Qingdao

Qingdao is so different from the other four cities we've visited so far. It's a very deceptive city - by just walking through the streets, you think it's a very quaint town, but when you view it from above, you realize just how big this city of over 7 million is.

The Germans once occupied this area, and much of the architecture in the old part of the city is heavily German influenced and gives you a sense of being in a European city. Qingdao is also the home of Tsingtao beer, which was also started by the homesick Germans who were once there. The city was then occupied by the Japanese, and there are some trademark architecture, as well.

We visited two companies while we were here - Haier, which is a huge company that seems to be like a mini GE, and Tsingtao beer. Both were pretty interesting visits. My friend Annie and I had a fun Qingdao day yesterday, complete with exploring the markets, eating some authentic noodles, playing with a Chinese baby and getting massages (yes, this makes my 3rd massage of the trip, but when they're only $20 for 90 minutes, can you blame me?). Apparently, Qingdao doesn't get a lot of Western visitors, so this is the first city where practically no one speaks English. My "ching", "she-she", "Nihow" and "dwai boo chi"s can only get me so far (please, thank you, hello, excuse me). But it's a very friendly city. With a beach!

I had another adventure today - going up the TV tower to get a better view of the city, walking along the pier which houses the octagonal structure used on the Tsingtao beer label, and finally finding some jade that I could actually afford...assuming, of course, that it's real jade.

My Chinese baby experience involves a unique custom used with children. Apparently, the use of diapers is not heavily used in China. Instead, children wear pants with a slit in both the front and the back, and when they need to go, the parents learn to read the signals and get them to a bathroom, or a place where they can go. So you'll see all these babies around with their little buns hanging out. Annie and I were at a store and there was a little boy toddler there, who knew "hello" in english and took a liking to me (I got my fair share of baby slobber and friendly bites). I wanted to ask the baby's name, but the parents did not know English. So I pointed to myself and said "Laura", pointed to Annie and said "Annie" and then pointed to the baby, hoping they would make the connection. They got excited and started to smile and I got excited that they understood me. Until they opened up the front slit in the baby's pants to reveal his goods. Apparently, they thought I was asking if he was a boy or a girl. Yet another reason I want to learn this language!

We're off bright and early tomorrow morning for our 24 hour trip back to Durham. If only I can fight off this cold so I'm not completely miserable on the flight back!

Xi'an

Xi'an was our first (and only) city without a company visit, which allowed us more time to explore the city. Compared to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, Xi'an is much more run down and dirtier. It used to be the capital city of China, before Beijing, and was a hub back in the day. Now, much of the economy, 25% I believe, relies on tourism.

The biggest tourist attraction in the area is the Terra Cotta Warriors, which was an awesome site to see. I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it's incredible that these warriors were created and the intricacies and features of each of the warriors and horses is incredible. It's also amazing that these survived for thousands of years, without being discovered until the mid-70s. On the other hand, the emperor who ordered these warriors to be created, the first emperor of the Qing dynasty, was an absolutely ruthless dictator. These warriors were meant to protect him from enemies he may encounter in the afterlife and are part of his burial site. Over 40 years, these warriors were created by over 700,000 people, who were then buried alive so that the whereabouts of this site would not be known. That's in addition to the 48 concubines who were also buried alive for his service. It's crazy how sometimes such beauty can come out of such oppression.

We also visited the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, which was a very peaceful area, as was the Great Mosque in the Muslim Quarter. Xi'an is neat, but I think Beijing still ranks as my favorite.

Beijing

I love Beijing. And I wish I had a few more days to spend here. Finally, after a week, I feel as though I am in China and everything feels different from America.

We started our visit to the Great Wall, and there's really not much to say except awesome. The climb to the top was brutal, but the work to get there was well worth it. The views are absolutely gorgeous - the wall lines the mountain ridges, so you are literally on top of a mountain looking around at pure natural beauty. And the wall itself is amazing. It's the only man-made structure to be seen from space and it is about as long as the US. I can't believe that this was made with pure man-power, and it's such a sturdy and large structure. Truly an amazing experience.

We spent the next day going through Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City. Tianamen Square is definitely a strange contrast from the great wall, in a way. It's very, very large, but lacks the beauty of the great wall - very soviet inspired. And I couldn't resist taking a picture with Mr. Mao. The Forbidden City is beautiful and China is really doing a big push to restore it in time for, you guessed it, the 2008 Olympics. It seems like everything they're doing is for the Olympics and there is so much construction going on in the city. Again, amazing.

Our group participated in a tea ceremony, which was very beautiful. Everything during the simple ceremony was done with grace and harmony (common motifs in Chinese culture) and the tea was great. It had to be- it's the only tea approved by the Chinese government.

If I had to choose just one city to come back to so far, it would be Beijing. There is so much beauty and culture here and so much history to really experience. When you hear about the 5,000 years of history, much of it happened here and I wish I had more time to really explore and see more of the sites.

Maybe I can come back in 2008....

If you can read this blog, consider yourself lucky

Apparently, the Chinese government blocks all blogs from being viewed in China. I discovered this fact after trying to retrieve my blog to make sure everything posted correctly. The internet kept "thinking" and thinking, and finally directed me to a search page, much like you'd get in the US if you've typed an internet address in incorrectly.

One of the strangest things to get used to on this trip is the role of communism in China. The concept of government-owned property is mind-boggling to me. The citizens here don't own their own houses or their own land. They can't. If the governement decides to build something better (public or private) on the very spot the person has lived for 50 years, they can do it. What's even harder to wrap my mind around is that the citizens don't "care." This is part of life and they accept it, and don't think any differently about it. Such a strange concept coming from a culture that is all about private ownership and the importance of owning our own homes and land, and the anger we feel towards our government if they try to take it away, for public domain, for example.

Funny thing is, Hong Kong allows you to view blogs. This is a part of China, but their relationship with the mainland is so funny. Capitalism, private ownership of land and property, and goverment deregulation of many things.

So consider yourself lucky that you can read this blog. That our government doesn't play big brother (current politics aside) and that we have freedoms that not all people in the modern world enjoy. I'm sure the Chinese government would love that I'm saying this. Maybe that's why they're blocking my blog.

Hong Kong

I can say that, although I enjoyed my visit to Shanghai, it wasn't really anything that special to me. Hong Kong, however, is different. I love Hong Kong. In fact, I would be happy to live here for a few years. It's a beautiful city and it carries a strange romantic and colonial air. Although the city is truly modern and at the top of the economic food chain, it still retains some of its pre-modern specialness and has such beautiful natural parts of it, as well.

We are staying at the Intercontinental Hotel on Kowloon, which is absolutely gorgeous and reminds me of the British era gone-by of steamboat trunks and big adventures. We took a ferry to Hong Kong island and visited Victoria Peak, which had beautiful views of the harbor and Hong Kong from 500 meters high. Getting up there was half the fun - riding the funicular at a 50 degree angle!

We then came back to Kowloon and visited the bird and flower market near the north, which was filled with bamboo cages of all kinds of different birds and flower vendors selling every color and variety of flower imagineable. We were one of the few, if not only Americans there, and it was so neat to be around the local people and experience some of their shopping. I'm on a mission to find out why there is an entire market that can be supported on the sale of pet birds...

We spent the rest of the day walking around Kowloon and I hope to get back to Hong Kong island tomorrow to do a little more sightseeing. Love Hong Kong!

When is a chicken foot not a chicken foot?

Answer: when you trying to eat it.

Our friend Jun, who is Chinese and on the trip with us, invited some of us out with his college friend. I was so excited for an authentic Chinese food experience, and got a little more than I bargained for. We ate at a restaurant in Shanghai known for its extremely spicy food. I enjoy spicy food, but this was beyond anything spicy that I've every experienced...so spicy that my tongue literally went numb and began to tingle. I think this may be what it's like to be high on LSD.

The food was a little crazier than I thought it would be. We were served cold chicken feet, a delicacy in China. For the record, chicken feet doesn't taste very good. It's very fatty and very tendony. There as also frog, soup with duck blood and liver, and fish head soup, to name just a few of the tamer entrees. Although I tried a little of everything, I went home a bit hungry that night and with a very angry stomach.

We've had some interesting visits to GM Shanghai and Intel yesterday. Last night, we had some drinks at Cloud 9, the highest bar in the world, next to what will soon be the tallest building in the world come 2008. It will be the World Financial Center in Shanghai. The construction here is amazing and happening at a tremendous rate. I had read that China is driving up commodity prices, especially in copper and nickel, due to construction, and I can now totally believe it, just by witnessing what's going on in Shanghai.

We also did a little karaoke last night...the karaoke bar was amazing. Each party got their own room, complete with their own machine and drinks. I sang "Like a Prayer" and have to say that I was one of the hits of the night! :)

Went pearl shopping this morning and bought some pretty things. We leave this afternoon for Hong Kong.

Shanghai

So I survived the 14.5 hour plane ride and have arrived in Shanghai! It is absolutely amazing...it's so much bigger than I thought it would be, and probably bigger than any city I've ever been to before. There are about 14 million people who live in the city (about 18 million who work) and the skyscrapers and buildings seem to go on forever.

For our first full day, we visited the Bund, an area by the Yellow River that's European in its architecture. Shanghai was settled by several different countries back in the day - France, Japan, Britain - and so many of the areas of the city reflect these influences. From The Bund, we took a water taxi over the east side of the river, where we went up in the Pearl Tower, one of the largest towers in Asia. From here, we saw some great views of Shanghai. We then made our way to the Yu Gardens and Bazaar, which had tons of shopping and made for some great people watching. There was a gold fortune tree in the middle of the Bazaar which held lots and lots of red ribbons. Each ribbon had a different fortune and, being the typical tourist, I bought a fortune and threw it up in the tree. It was a career fortune, in keeping with the spirit of what brought me on the trip.

We had lunch there and tried some neat, new foods - sauteed bamboo shoots, pickeled edamame, and crabmeat dumplings, which may or may not have contained crab ovaries and internal digestive organs. Who said ignorance isn't bliss?

We had our first company visit to Shui-On, a real estate developer in Shanghai. They are doing some interesting things in restoring the city and revitalizing it. Of course, it may be contraversial that they have to displace current residents in order to do it. I think, though, that our concept of land rights is totally different than the Chinese. Selling an apartment doesn't mean that you're actually selling the property - you are merely selling the right to live there. And since the government owns the property, you can be displaced at any time, for any reason. Something that's a little foreign, and unjust, to us Americans.

I've had a great time so far. Hopefully, we'll have some more fun adventures during the next few days we're here!

Hep B shot? Check. Hep A shot? Check. Cipro? Check. Typhoid Fever Pills? Check. Tamiflu? Check.

After countless hours at Student Health, I am fully vaccinated (a big shout out to Louis Pasteur) and ready for whatever China throws at me. Avian bird flu thinks it can take me down? All I got to say is "Bring It!"

For the next two weeks, I'll be traveling to five cities in China - Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Xi'an, and Quingdao.

I will try my best to post here regularly, to keep everyone up to date on my travels and to share my experiences with you. This is going to be an awesome trip!

See you in China...

Better than voting for American Idol

Who doesn't love a good wedding? And who doesn't love voting for one?

My friend Martha's brother is getting married this year, and he and his fiancee are one of three finalists to be chosen for the "Show Me St. Louis Wedding." In case you're not from St. Louis, this is a la "The Today Show", where voters get to vote for their favorite couple to receive an expense-paid wedding. Once the winners are chosen, people get to vote on the dress, flowers, rings, and all other wedding-hoopla that the couple will wear on the big day.

I don't know the other two couple contestants, but I do know Martha and her brother (Matt) and they both rock! Plus, Matt's finacee seems pretty cool. So I am supporting them and have already voted today.

Click to read about Matt and Whitney. And then rock the vote!

Dirty Toes and Padded Rooms

I love dirty toes. Dirty toes are a sure sign that summer is here. There's nothing like wearing flipflops all day and taking them off when you get home, only to have blackened toes and feet bottoms from all the summer dirt. You don't get dirty toes in winter. Or fall. Only summer. And there's nothing like jumping on the shower and watching all the dirt flow down the drain.

These are things that float through your head when you've spent eight hours on end in an 8x8 enclosed cage, studying for two more finals. Of course, two more finals mean that I'll have to return tomorrow to the cage, and hope that they've taken the hint and padded the room.