CA Exchange Trip to China 2008

The End

2008-06-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Nathaniel here writing the last reflection. These past days in the office have been a mix of work and play. Some days we get work to do, but others, we have nothing at all. For example, right now, we're sitting in a cubicle with 3 computers. My two coworkers both have today off apparently, so, the 3 of us are just sitting around the computers pretty much doing nothing. But, just yesterday, they had us counting binders in the various storage rooms around the complex, including one hidden in the back of the cafeteria.

Work aside, by now we have all grown alot more familiar with our host families. After all, spending more than 2 weeks with each other means you do have to talk to each other every now and then. My host's son, Jack, calls me over to play Go with him every day after dinner, and the grandmother in my host family keeps commenting on how my Chinese has improved so much.

Actually, I think that we've just gotten more used to being in China in general. Just yesterday, Miguel caught me saying "shen me?" to him instead of "What?", and I noticed that I was accidentally slipping in Mandarin phrases while I talked to my parents in Cantonese. When I give taxi drivers directions, I'm no longer doubtful of my pronunciation. I think that all of us are feeling more confident just being here. China is a familiar place. Not quite home, but not quite foreign either.

Overall, we've had a lot of fun here, especially on weekends where we get to go out and do stuff on our own. Personally, I've experienced a lot more independence here than at home. And, though it's been fun here, it's time we came home. Good thing that's in two days.

Goodbye for now, but we'll be saying hello in person before you know it.

Nathaniel

Day 14- Internship in Beijing

2008-06-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings again from Beijing. The internship has been picking up recently as they seem to have gained more trust in us. On Tuesday we had Lucy, the HR representative, come to us in need of some urgent help. She told us that sales department needed our help immediately to help organize some paper work. Ting and I had to run up and down the office getting papers sign and organized throughout the day. They told us that because of the Olympics they needed to get all of the sale orders straightened out before Friday so they needed us to get everything done as fast as possible. It really is a lot of pressure but the change of pace is welcome.

Every morning we receive a brief introduction to a different department of NCR. Tuesday we had payment and order fulfillment come in to give presentations on how their departments are run and how they work in collaboration with the other departments to get the job done. On Wednesday morning we had a brief intro from the Software department and the sales department. The sales spokesperson really caught our attention. His presentation was very straight forward and told us that "without the sales department everyone would die." In the sales department there is a reward for the salesperson that sells the most. The prize that they get is a trip to Hawaii and other famous states throughout the United States. At one point during his presentation someone knocked on the door and called him out telling him that he had an important meeting he had to attended and he left the room and was back within the half hour. Upon his return he told us that the sales team were like the soldiers of the company and said that "real men do sales."

At home, life has been good as well. The little child i have come to know as "iveen" is slowly trying to get to know me better. He has been teaching me how to play piano the past few days and is always asking me what i think of the songs he plays.I have really enjoyed my time here in Beijing and i have learned so much during my stay. it has really been a great experience.
The end

Miguel

Shanghai number three!

2008-06-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

hey it's us from Shanghai again. Michael's going to start off with our one point of interest from the office as of last week, and then I'll tell you guys about our weekend.

Josh and I were just returning from our daily after-lunch walk last Wednesday when we realized that the office looked particularly dark. We walked in to find that the power had went out and all of the computers were powerless. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, the lights turned on and power was restored. Peter, the guy who fixes all of the computers for the employees, told me to turn my computer on and see if it worked. So I did as he instructed. As soon as I hit the power button there was a popping sound and my computer monitor started smoking. I turned it off right away, but the screen continued to release smoke. Everyone in the office rushed over to see the spectical of smoke and mutter to each other in Chinese. They were actually surprisingly nice about the whole thing. One of their monitors had been fried and people were laughing about how much smoke there was. About two minutes later, another computer started smoking and everyone rushed over there. At this point, we realized that turning on more computers would be a bad idea. The problem was eventually fixed. I got a brand new monitor for my computer and the day went on. It was our first bit of action we've had the entire internship and everything turned out okay.

ok so it's josh again. here's the weekend story:

I had quite the weekend. I would definitely not call it fun, but it wasn't bad either, and it definitely taught me how to appreciate my life. we left friday a bit confused about our weekend plans. Michael and I had been told that we were going to a place called Hang Zhou, which I knew nothing of, except for that it was a huge tourist site in China and that it involved a lake. we had heard that the guy we were staying with (who we had only met that day for about two seconds) had a house near the lake, but we were skeptical because the lake didn't allow swimming, or motor boats, or anything that usually goes along with a lakehouse. it sounded more like the lake we visited in Ji Nan, government owned and run, more of a tourist attraction for people who have lived in gross, smoggy cities their entire lives and find lakes novel. It's supposedly hugely attractive to Chinese people, but having never heard of it myself, I doubted it registered up on the American tourists going to see the highlights of China list. not that that is neccesarily bad, just definitely not the sound of a place with lake houses. no one who we know knew what we were doing at the lake except for "walking around and visting." we were told multiple times that "there were many places at the lake to visit" sounding more and more like a government owned tourist attraction, no? well the meeting with the guy we were staying with (I still don't know his name. he said it to us but we didn't catch it, and Xintian said it to me tonight but it's clearly not that catchy because it didn't stick. Michael and I called him either Hang Zhou [behind his back clearly, since that's the city he lives in, not his name] or greeny [when he wore this brilliantly colored green polo, three out of the four days we saw him, friday, saturday, and monday] when we spoke to his face we just said hey! or something like that) the meeting wasn't to reassuring is the point. it lasted about twelve seconds, and his english was so bad he couldn't even get out his first scentence comfortably. I told him to use Chinese, so he started jabbering away and I just nodded and agreed. At the end I thought we were going for dinner at 4 and leaving at five (turned out we left at five, but whatever I heard about si dian zhong was something else. that's good though because 4 isn't when I usually dine my evening meal) so yeah... nothing really productive there. Well we departed at five and by a mix of subway bus train and taxi made it all the way to his "lake house." we arrived at around 9:30, 4 and a half hour trip. so yeah see those quotations around lake house? I did that for a reason. lake house = this is guy is really poor. now when I complain about the housing situation, realize I'm not complaining, or being stuck up in any way, I'm just describing this how it was. It's clearly not how either Michael or I live at home, and not how I have ever lived in my life. that's why it was a learning experience though, and one that made me super grateful! seriously I'm not trying to sound whiny, so you have to read this as me being the most understanding affluent american who's ever stayed with a poor chinese family. I'm pretty sure he was commuter worker, meaning that he probably grew up in Hang Zhou, went to school in Hang Zhou, and now that he has akid wants to move to a better city with better opporunities for his son. To do this, he got a job in Shang Hai and lives there during the week, so he can support his family at home and (he didn't tell em this part but I'm guessing) hoepfully move the family into Shang Hai eventually. his family lives in the top apartment of a building on the edge of the city. family being his wife and absolutely adorable two year old. I'll talk about the kid later because he deserves his own paragraph. anyway, the top apartment, as far as what michael and I have seen dictates, is usually the fanciest in the building. this wasn't exactly fancy though. when you walked in there was a hallway heading straight ahead, with one turn off to the right. The turn led to a kind of kitchen/sink area that didn't really have four walls, kind of like a small hallway with large, glassless windows. the main hallway continued into what I'm going to call the living room, where the kids toys and table took up about 75 percent of the room. then there were two bedrooms, one for the family and one for Michael and me. there was no furniture except for the beds, which had been covered by multiple threadbare blankets to try and make up for the lack of mattresses. But I always say I can sleep on anything. including wooden floors, which is what this felt like. the bathroom, which had enough room for two people to stand shoulder and shoulder in front of the bath, toilet and sink, could at least be defended by saying it had running water. it was only cold water, of course, and there was no shower head, so the one time I attempted to clean myself all weekend I did it kind of elephant in the jungle style: just poring water over my head. The water I used to bathe was heated over the stove in a large jug and then poured into a basin that sat in the tub. oh and did I mention that there was no soap in the entire house, excluding a tiny sample size bottle of Johnson and Johnson baby oil? they call it baby "oil" for a reason, that stuff makes your hands slimy! so yeah I wasn't exactly the cleanest boy ever this weekend.

luckily our room had an air conditioning unit, because the rest of the house was always slightly hotter than the outdoor temperature, which stayed at around 93 for the duration of our visit. I felt bad about using it though, because they clearly weren't the richest people I know. oh and our room was also equipped with a large blue net that surrounded the bed to try and keep the various bugs from infesting our skins while sleeping. I still managed to some away with two bug bights, one on each shoulder, that are kind of... huge? oh and did I mention that they match! exact same place on each side, I'm symmetrical!

so yeah, enough whining right? seriously i'm not trying to sound stuck up, I was just describing my weekend living situation. but I'm clearly going to appreciate my shower more when I get home. Anyway, the eating situation was ok. we had two home made meals, which were not exactly the best meals I've ever had, but filled my stomach. and then we also went to this restaurant that I'd rather call an eatery. it was like a giant food court type thing that we ate at for all three meals. I personally believe that they have a vendetta against vegetarians. I mean hiding tiny shrimp in the cabbage? what's up with that. the waitress tried to convince me that if it was just a little bit of meat it didn't count, but hey, my convictions are strong. so I ate rice, edamame, and bamboo shoots. and lost some weight. and then the kid!! he was sooooo cute!! his name was qian sun I think, but anyway they called him sun sun. michael and I called him kobe though. His chinese was better than mine, which is a bit sad, but hey, he was smart! he would always talk to me in Chinese and his dad would have to translate and then I'd say some stuff back. Michael and I taught him to high five, and he loved that. oh and he had these toy trucks that he could ride and they had honkable horns!! he loved to honk them and then crash them right through the door into our room. my mommy always said that it's a good thing that they make babies so cute or else we'd kill them. I liked him =D

the lake was what I thought it would be, just with a bit less government. It was like one big park, and we spent sunday afternoon walking around it. Michael and I talked a lot. sun sun ran into a lot of people and had the time of his life. other than that I'd say we were actually bored sometimes, because there wasn't much to do around the place. we visited another temple/garden like place, basically the same as all the others we saw except this one had some caves.

so not a bad weekend again, and definitely an eye opening one. I'm learning plenty in China, though I don't think anyone planned on teaching me this lesson.

Day 12- Internship in Beijing

2008-06-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

Salutations from Beijing. I have been given the honor of writing the post about our weekend. and i begin by saying that we have been learning so much here in china and have been able to see a different side of Chinese culture.

The weekend started off like any other in that we had no idea what we were going to do until we actually got into the car. After a series of votes we decided that the first place we were going to visit was the Forbidden City. Again. Personally i was all for the second trip. The first time we went to the ancient home of the emperor i had felt as if i had missed out on some of it because we were only there for about 45 minutes. So upon arriving we took this opportunity to take pictures together and to gain a greater appreciation for the ancient city and its amazing architecture. Hunger struck us after our long and laborious rounds through the city of old and we decided that the only thing that could satisfy our hunger at that point was some real authentic Chinese KFC. Luckily for us there were two KFC's within a few blocks of each other in either direction. So after a hearty meal at KFC we decided that shopping was the next necessary task on the list.

We made our way back to the Pearl Market, which was the last market we had gone to while the rest of the class was here and started shopping. After 4 weeks in China i must say we have become quite good at bargaining. During our last transaction at the market the man selling us the items actually started buckling over in pain as we handed him the money and his parting words were "are you a woman?" Needless to say that to be called a woman in any situation, while being male, is not normally seen as a good thing we took it as a compliment toward our newly learned bargaining skills. The next stop on our list was a computer market that Ting had heard about from some fellow co-workers.

Looking out onto this new market we could tell it wouldn't not be the same as the ones we had been to before. Upon walking it we could see signs and for Apple products and for computers of every brands. Any part of a computer you can think of could be found in one of those small shops. But much to our dismay we were struck with the unfortunate truth that at this market you could not bargain for the products and to make matters worse the prices of the items were unnecessarily high considering that most of the products were made in china. Needles to say we did not stay at this market for very long and decided instead go see a movie.

This being our second weekend in Beijing we decided to do some research as to which movie we were going to see during the weekend. Must to our dismay we had learned early on in the week that the movie we were so eagerly anticipating would not be showing until June 26th which meant that we would have to wait until the following week to see the movie. So we had decided on a suitable substitute and went into the theaters hoping that we might it would be in English. While we were buying our tickets though we noticed a poster for the movie we had been dying to see while here in China, saying that it would start playing in the theater the 20th of June. We jumped for joy at this discovery and ran to get in line to buy three tickets and before we knew it we were waiting for the movie to begin. As we sat hoping and praying that it would be in English the movie started and we rejoiced to find that it was indeed in our native tongue. We sat with big grins on our faces and enjoyed the film we had been so eagerly awaiting: Kongfu Panda.

Once the movie ended up decided that some more food was necessary to continue on and made a stop to one of our favorite places to eat while here in China: KFC. After another hearty meal we made our way for a nice dessert at Dairy Queen and went to go play arcade games for a while. This concluded our hectic Saturday and upon getting our fill of arcade games we decided to call it a night and head home.

For our Sunday we all agreed upon going to church. We enjoyed last weeks service but we wanted to see what the English service was like. The sermon to our surprise was about the up coming Olympics and how the games are only here for 16 days and then in an instant they are gone and the Reverend asked us the question what do we do next? After the great service we headed out to get some lunch and afterwards get our head cut. With the help of one of Ting's family friends we were able to find a place that had a pizza buffet and a hair salon in the same building. Nathaniel and I were the only ones who ended up getting our haircut. Once our hair was cut and styled I remembered that i needed to buy a suitcase for the way back home but first we decided to go watch another movie.

At the mall we ran upstairs hoping to be able to catch a movie that was in English. Once in line we asked the cashier if there were anymore movies that were in English with Chinese subtitles. It turns out that we watched all three English movies while here in china. So instead of watching a movie again Ross and Ting decided to go play video games while i decided to go walk around the mall. After noticing that everything in china is just a tad bit too small for me i headed back to the arcade just in time to watch the guys beat the game. It was joyous moment for all and we ran out to see if we still had time to go buy my suitcase.

The market we decided to go to this time was the Xiu Shui Jie Market. Once inside we headed off to find a suitcase. Inside one of the shops I had a two female shopkeepers corner me and not let me leave. Ting had to help me get out of the situation and i was able to leave alive but still without a suit case. we wondered around the market looking for someone to sell me a suitcase for the price i wanted. We applied a new form of bargaining where we told the shopkeepers that we had already been in china for a long time and gave them our price and asked if they could sell it to us or not. It worked and i ended up getting a large suitcase for 125 yuan. We went looking around for more deals and wound up in a sunglasses shop. We had been to this shop before and they had refused to give us the price that we had asked for so we were hoping that this second time would go better for us. We were there for about an hour and in that time we got called several names ranging from "hard", "woman", "playboy", to "crazy." But in the end we got the goods for the price we wanted. In all it was a good day but rather tiring and so we parted ways and headed back to our homes.

THE END

Miguel Alecio

Day 8- Internship in Beijing

2008-06-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

So, another two days have passed at work in Beijing at NCR. Everyday now we are getting presentations from two different departments in the morning, and then after being distributed for jobs. Yesterday was certainly the most eventful and interesting day thus far at NCR for Miguel and I.

After having our daily meeting, we went downstairs to the warehouse and met up with a few engineers who took us in a cab to their off-site factory. From there we witnessed first hand how to build an ATM cash dispenser, and then were charged with the task of building our own. A job which required both of us to be extremely meticulous in following construction instructions, after about an hour we were successful in building our part of the ATM cash dispenser. As great craftsman as we were, the NCR people still decided like every other machine they should put ours to the test. Luckily for them they got some free labor for a fully functioning dispenser. Now our ATM dispenser will be shipped somewhere and put into use somewhere in the world- who knows in a few weeks or months you could possibly be using our handywork to take money out of an ATM.

Another note worthy occurrence happened about one hour ago or so today. For the first time since arriving at NCR, all three of us ate together at location other than Subway (haha). Actually it was Nathaniel's host who took the extremely courteous initiative of whisking us away from mediocre American food establishments, and took us to have dumplings at a restaurant close to work.

Besides that the last few days have been pretty uneventful, considering with work we do not have much free time, (and the fact that neither I nor Miguel have had any trouble being on time to get on buses or navigating our way to work) and so, I must draw a conclusion to a very short blog.

Thanks

Ross

Genband Shanghai Number 2

2008-06-17T02:57:00.001-07:00

Hello again from Genband-Shanghai! Josh and I had an amazing weekend and we're here to tell you all about it. The excitement began Friday night when Josh came with my host family to spend the night. Our first stop was dinner at a local resturant which was very good after a long work week. (So much free time is surprisingly exhausting) After dinner we got in the car and drove to downtown Shanghai to visit the huge TV tower which apparently has an amazing view of the whole city. However when we arrived, we didn't have much time to spend at the tower and we decided that it wasn't worth paying to go up for only a few minutes. So we decided to walk along the river that divides the city into two parts. The view from the side of the water was breathtaking. The Shanghai skyline was gorgeous and the yachts in the river were all lit up in verious neon colors. Some of the buildings actually have TV screens along their sides which caused Josh and me to do a little double-take. One moment we would see the windows of an office building and a few seconds later there would be an advertisement. My host family didn't understand why we were so amused but we thought it was pretty neat. After spending about a half an hour by the river, we headed back home. We got home at about 9:00 and watched two episodes of "The Apprentice." (My host mom loves American TV shows, so she has a ton of shows on DVD) After watching the show and eating a few slices of watermelon, we went upstairs to get ready for bed. Josh and I were actually quite tired so we were pretty eager to get some rest. Afterall, we had a whole weekend ahead of us.
We woke up on Saturday at about 8:30. We took showers and headed downstairs for breakfast with my host family. They had put out quite the spread for us. Breakfast was comprised pancakes, papaya, pears, and a traditional Chinese pastry. After a very filling breakfast, we set out for the underground market to buy a few gifts for our friends and family. The underground market is essentially a mall, but instead of big stores there are just a bunch of small shops. (you can also bargain for everything in China, so going back home and not being able to do so for a pair of shoes is going to be tough. Actually, I'm not sure what the Footlocker salesman would say if I tried to cut a deal with him.) After about an hour and a half Josh and I were finished shopping and were ready to head out. Our next stop was Ohel Rachel Synagogue. Josh's grandmother is from Shanghai and she went there about sixty years ago. The government only allows visitors in the actual synagogue one day a year: the second Saturday in June. We'd say that we got pretty lucky there. We walked around inside the main building. They had an exhibition about the Jews who had used it over the past years. After visiting the Synagogue we were pretty hungry so we went to a noodle resurant in the area which ended up being very good. After lunch we went to see the General Electric office where my host dad works. The office is quite large and very nice. They have a gym and ping pong area where we played for about an hour. We went out for a quick dinner and went back home to watch more of "The Apprentice." After a few more episodes we went upstairs and crashed. Overall it was much more exciting than our average day at the office and it was really nice to get out and about for the day.

Sup? it's Josh I'm going to take over for the rest of the weekend. So yeah, we did what all teenagers do on sundays: slept in! Well comparitively at least, we awoke at nine thirty ish, not too bad (expecially considering the sun comes out between 4:30 and 5 here... still haven't figured that one out *shrug*). So yeah we showered and had another huge breakfast, consisting of some pretty delicious fried eggs, fruits of different sorts, toast, and cheese. Yes, I know I was surprised too. Cheese! See, they don't usually eat cheese in China. Bonnie bought a large block of Mozzarela and had to come to Michael and I for isntructions. We of course told her it was best on pizza, but she has assured herself that pizza is beyond any normal persons cooking skills (yeah, it's not that hard, I know =). So instead she cut it up and we put it on toast. Well Michael and I did, because as I said before, the average Chinese person wants nothing to do with cheese. Milk is cool. Just don't add any cheese cultures.
We hopped in the car and headed to Xintian's (my bachelor of a host) place. The first thing that came out of his mouth happened to be "I left the key in the apartment." Oh well! So what do you do when you don't have a key. Eat, apparently. So an hour and a half after that lovely feast we had for breakfast Michael and I found ourselves in front of seven more excellent tasting Chinese dishes that even our growing boy stomachs couldn't accept. But never fear, we got out of that perdicament. Right as we realized that we were way too full to swallow another bite of this amazing feast that our gracious host had just spent his own paycheck on nothing short of a miracle happened: I finally communicated the idea of take out! It's not that hard, I know. I even know how to say it in Chinese. But prior to this mindblowing moment, whenever I asked to take out leftover food from a resturaunt, no matter how many languages and scentence patterns I used, it didn't happen. One time I was told that you could only take out pizza. A couple other times my idea was accepted but never followed through on. Who knows why. The point is, it worked this time! We wasted not one morsel of that scrumtious feast, leaving the resturaunt with arms full of take out containers and our consciences assuaged.
But we still hadn't found a key, right? We asked Xintian how he managed to lock the door from the outside without the key, and he told us he didn't he just closed it. So we said ok lets go upstairs to the apartment then. And he said that we couldn't open the door. And we said "why not? Did you lock it?" Nope. He didn't lock it. I don't get it. Communication block. If only I had learned the words for break the door down.
Xintian, however, had an idea. He wouldn't tell us what was going on, so we followed him into a taxi that sped (on the wrong side of the road, stopping a good ten feet into every intersection we encountered a red light at) to an apartment complex that turned out to be his landlord's. The day was saved! yay!
Next we decided to head out and see the center of the cultural life of Shanghai, what some may call the downtown area. Nanjing street is actually more of a square with streets all around it, lined by the fanciest hotels known to mankind, smothered in a swarming mass of people going every which way. We encountered a public information and donation gathering effort for the earthquake, some exellent bubble tea, ferrari and porsche dealers, the normal handful of fake Rolex dealers, and more people than frequent New York's theater district on an average friday night. And that was only the start. Turn down Nanjing North street and you reach Nanjing Walk, completely closed off to all vehicles except for the large, trackless passenger trains that weave in and out of the masses of people shopping in some of the fanciest stores I've ever layed my eyes on. No cheap tricks here, or the dirt cheap prices that usually accompany them. Hagendaz, the only ice cream dealer in the area was selling their smallest size for 47 yuan; a normal cone at the local ice cream joint is three yuan. And they had business! My empty pockets and money concious mind wouldn't let me buy socks at one of these stores, let alone the fancy track suits and designer jeans that hung in store windows, so we just walked up and down gaping at this super modern and decidedely western economic monster of a street. When we got to the end we hopped on one of the formerly mentioned trains, painted bright blue with a goofy looking locomotive on the front. The picturesque wealth was broken by one thing that brought the world back into perspective - as the train was starting up, a crippled, ancient looking man came to the window and stared vacently in our direction, eyes pleading. Capitalism at it's finest, folks! *wan smile*
We then headed for a smoke filled bar where we played pool with Xintian and one of his friends for a couple hours, before we had our next shocking experience. The "vegetable market." Doesn't sound to horrid does it? If only they had named it properly: "the vegetable and animals-that-are-slaughtered-painfully-before-your-very-eyes-so-you-can-buy-them-cheaply-and-make-a-super-tasty-feast-with-their-organs market." More repulsive sounding? Because that was the reality. I'm going to go into detail here, so if you don't want to hear gross things, skip to the next paragraph. Seriously I write vividly. I do well in English class, ok? This is going to be gross. Anyway, first there were all the body part lying everywhere. Pig legs, every organ I know from I'm not sure what animal, lungs, kidneys, stomachs, livers, gross! And then there were the fish, swimming peacefully in their tanks, until, that is, a customer approached, and the shop keeper obligingly picked one up and chopped it's writhing body in two, spilling vicesera everywhere. The cooks in the fancy resutraunts in Maine where you get to pick your lobsters from a tank usually don't kill them on the table in front of you. Not that I eat lobster, it's not kosher ; ). So back to the grossness. The worst park hasn't come yet. The eels. Oh my, the eels. The eels were held in a shallow thank. The first thing I noticed was that they were all lying on top of each other, and they were lying in their own blood. But they were still alive. They were thrashing about trying to avoid the large pair of scinister looking scissors that kept decending from the sky to attempt to chop off their heads. If only the scissors had been true to their aim. Instead they just stabbed the eels, adding more to the pool of blood they swam in. And peopel just bought them and put them in a bag and went about their buisness. I meanwhile wanted to throw up when I smelled the place; forget my feelings after I saw that.
So yeah, if you just skipped to here, from above, know that we bought some meat and went on our way. We went home, where Xintian and friends cooked an amazing dinner (I was super happy I'm a veggie kid). We sat around a small table on big comfy couches and had a relaxing end to our weekend.

Now we're back at work, and the days over. I'm out of here. stay tuned for more. I miss you mommy and daddy!

Genband Shanghai

2008-06-17T01:35:00.000-07:00

Michael and I had some trouble with the blog sorry this has come so late. We'll keep updating on the internship from now on. So anyway, our first blog written about the first work week spent in Shanghai:

Ni hao from Genband-Shanghai!

So yeah. We’re working in China? How cool is that? Pretty, pretty cool! It took us a while to realize just how cool it was exactly. It’s been a long zen journey to realizing our happiness in this company, and we might as well start from the start (because that’s where you start… duh!)

So anyway. When we arrived here we were initially disappointed. There was a lot of change for a short period of time. First off, twenty-two people that we had lived with for the prior two and a half weeks just sort of disappeared from our lives. When we thought about them we realized they were nowhere. In the time that it took the rest of the class to reach RDU, we flew to Shanghai, met an unknown correspondent from the company (felt kind of spy like =), went to work for half a day, moved in with our host families, slept all night, and then came back to work. And the whole time the friends who we had been closest with for the past half a month were just… somewhere. Nowhere. We’re not really sure.

And on top of missing them, we were bored. The company didn’t really give us anything to do. The first day we set up some computers and then were told that we could do whatever we wanted with them. Well, after having Li Laoshi drive us like slaves from 6 in the morning to 10 at night every day for weeks (I really enjoyed the trip, I promise, that’s just hyperbole describing how exhausting our activities were), the lack of planning was unnerving. We were in a completely silent room filled with people working at identical computers in identical cubicles; the first thing Michael and I decided was that we needed a job that did not resemble this in ANY way. It felt like a waste of time. We wanted to be either working here, accomplishing something, or at home with our long lost friends and families. But don’t you worry too much, the story picks up form here.

After working (or not!) for about a day and half we both came to the same conclusion. It was an ancient Chinese zen woah everything is connected moment. Michael and I had the same epiphany at the same time. And it was a positive one. We thought about our situation and hey what do you know, we realize we liked it. We were in China. That alone is amazing. I mean how many people in the US get to live in China for a month? That’s a rhetorical question, but you should be thinking “not that many.” We realized not only were we in China, experiencing a completely different (and quite eye opening) culture, but we also had something we hadn’t had in a LONG time – free time! Yeah. We just finished junior year. Since August, all our lives have been is work work work work work. And now we get to relax. We can do ANYTHING. And where do we get to do it? China! That’s not such a bad situation after all, is it?

The homes we are both in are quite cool. I (Josh in case you didn’t figure that out yet) am staying with a complete bachelor, in his stereotypical apartment (sans roomie who’s in Texas on business, meaning I get my own room and computer!). He’s quite the cool guy. We go out to dinner with his friends, the food is excellent, and it’s a super relaxed environment.

I (Michael) am living in an apartment with a married couple. They are in their early thirties and are both extremely nice and fun to be around. The woman works at Genband in a cubical very close to mine and the husband works for General Electric. The two companies are very close to each other so every morning we all drive to work together. The husband drops us off at Genband and drives himself to GE and then at about 6:00 PM, he picks us up and takes us home. After work on Thursday, we went to GE so that I could see the office there. It was very cool. (Much larger than the Genband office and very high-tech) We went to a visitors’ area that showcased the progress of GE over the past thirty years. They then took me to a gym inside the office, which was very nice, and we played ping-pong for about an hour. I beat Bonnie (my host mom) three times, while she beat me eight times. I have yet to beat the husband, but I’m not coming home until I do. (Hopefully that’ll happen before the 29th) The apartment is very nice and I am lucky enough to have my own floor. It isn’t too big, but I have my own bed, TV, and bathroom which are all very nice.

So overall impression: this was definitely a good choice. After we got over our initial doubts both of us realized that living a normal life for a couple of weeks in Shanghai is a very cool thing to do, and we’re quite ecstatic to be here.

Happy Father’s Day for all of the dad’s out there.

- Michael and Josh

Day 6- Internship in Beijing at NCR

2008-06-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

So the joyous burden of writing has fallen into my hands (with some help coming from Miguel). I will first digress to say that we are in fact all alive and well...enough. But seriously, it appears as if everyone is having a lot of fun during our stay in Beijing. This weekend the group experienced many different interesting things, many of which happened for the first time, all the while attempting to improve our language skills while navigating the massive Chinese Capitol.

The weekend started off with a lazy Saturday morning, one of the few times I didn't have to get up before 7 since first coming to China. After rolling out of bed at around 11:30- I got ready to meet up with Miguel and Nathaniel at a hotel downtown. When we all arrived the company had a driver take us to probably the largest fake mall I had seen in all of China so far. 5 stories and 2 basements of knock off T-shirts, shoes, silk, pearls, dresses, purses, glasses, electronics, and DVDs all for prices that are ridiculously low. (Strange this is the best one and yet our tour guide never took us there...) Of course this is reflected in the quality of the actual product, but right now my 2.50 headphones are working just fine, so I can't complain.

After blowing a few hours in the mall, we took a cab over to a legit shopping mall over 10 stories high with a movie theater on the 10th floor. Miguel just reminded me the floors were labeled with funny English names such as happy, sexy, dating, and X-life (which turned out to be comprised of Ambercrombie and designer clothing- who knew?). Anyways, when we got to the theater the names of the movies were all in Chinese so it was pretty much a guessing game between the three movies they said were in English to which we would see. Luckily we managed to buy tickets to see the new Chronicles of Narnia which was an OK movie, but more importantly was a welcomed surprise to finally hear others speaking fluently in English.

When the movie was over we hoped in a cab and headed downtown to Hard Rock Cafe. This again was a welcomed slice of American culture, we all agree a hamburger and fries definitely hit the spot after being away from American food for so long. Ironically, while in China we would often get menus with pictures so we could just point to what we wanted, but when we got to Hard Rock, the waitress handed Miguel and I the pictureless menus, and must have mistaken Nathaniel to be a local and handed him a menu with pictures as if he didn't know how to read English, and didn't know what a hamburger looked like.

While in Hard Rock, Nathaniel made a quite astute observation that the live performer had an NC State shirt on, and Miguel pointed out how small a world it truly is. After paying monumental prices (or relatively monumental to the 3 dollar meals we were becoming accustomed to) for a hamburger, fries, and a sundae, we made our way home by cab alone. This was a first in China and certainly was a testing experience. Luckily, we all made it home safe and well- although Miguel told us the next day how his cab driver got 'lost'- we are skeptical as to how when his host drew him maps and well detailed directions, but in the end are just glad that everyone eventually made it home OK.

On Sunday, more of the same, however no sleeping in this morning. In fact, Nathaniel contacted a friend of his family in town who took us to an international church. Pretty fascinating, we needed passports or American ID to enter the place because Chinese citizens weren't allowed in due to the fact that the church wasn't observed by the Chinese government. After the service, Nathaniel's friends were kind enough to take us out for Cantonese style food. Something that certainly brightened all of our spirits, especially Nathaniel.

Once lunch was over, we headed back to the knock off market to do some more shopping, and then headed back to the movie theater. Now this experience was much luckier than the day before. With options running thin on movies in English we opted to see the action movie, "Aroma". When I heard the title i expected it to be some British or Australian cheesy love/action flick, however to our elated surprise "Aroma" turned out to be Iron Man, an excellent movie that I had already wanted to see but couldn't considering we were on our language trip. At the conclusion of the movie Miguel beseeched us to stay an extra 12 minutes or so to watch a 15 second clip at the end of the movie. However, Samuel L. Jackson was in it (like everything else) so it was well worth it.

While exchanging perhaps not the most pleasant language with Miguel about that ordeal, Nathaniel and I walked out of the Theater only to discover a gargantuan arcade. The tokens were 1/7 of a dollar each, so of course the three of us felt it would be a waste if we passed up the opportunity on such cheap electronic excitement. Tired after about an hour of hardcore gaming, the gang headed downstairs for an eloquent dinner at none other than the beautiful institution we know as KFC. Fun Fact-KFC has the most fast food restaurants in all of China, and although the menu was altered, the fried chicken still evoked memories of home.

When dinner was over, we walked around the mall, I bought a cell phone charger, and we all got Quicksilver Beijing T-shirts which the guy at the shop told us were now being made in preparation for the Olympics. After a long day, the group parted ways by cab for some much needed rest and relaxation.

Now I am at work, where Miguel and I were lectured on how an ATM machine dispenser actually works and plan to build our own tomorrow.

Zai Jian for now

Ross

NCR-Day3

2008-06-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

Before I begin to describe my experience at NCR, allow me to share this story about my experience this morning.

This is a story about missing the bus. Have you ever missed the bus for school before? What did you do? Skip school? Ask your parents to take you? hopefully the latter.

So, what do you do when you're all the way on the other side of the world from your parents, in the middle of a a city of 16 million people, in the middle of rush hour, and you miss the bus?

Let's start from the beginning. I'm here in Beijing doing an internship at NCR. I've already spent 3 weeks here now and i'm feeling fairly homesick and lonely now that the exchange portion of the trip is over. My host employee's name is Nancy. She takes the company bus to work every day, so, I take it as well. The bus leaves at 7:20 am every morning, and it's a 1 hour ride to NCR because Nancy lives in northwest beijing and NCR is in southwest beijing. That, and it's during rush hour. Oh, and the bus stop is still not close enough to her home to walk, so we actually have to take a taxi to and from the bus stop, which is inconveniently located in between 2 bridges with no distinctive landmarks to tell the drivers(But i'll get to that later). So, that's how I get to and from work every day.

Now, Nancy is a sales director, and she takes these short business trips out to different places in China. So, yesterday, she headed out to Shanghai and Nanjing, leaving me to go to work alone. Her husband took me to the bus stop in the morning, and then in the afternoon, I took a taxi home after the bus ride. A little scary yes, but manageable. So, this morning, I get up and her husband’s not there. I thought that Nancy got back last night, but I went to bed early, so I wasn’t sure. The grandmother is up, and I ask her if I’m supposed to go to the bus stop on my own. She starts asking me if I can, and I’m like, ….ok. So, I head out to take a taxi on my own to this nondescript bus stop.

So, I take off for the bus stop. And, on the way, the taxi driver takes a wrong turn.
when I got there, I called my person and apparently she was already on the bus she tells me to grab another taxi, so I wave one over. I’m gonna try and make it to the next stop before the bus, so I hand the phone to the taxi driver because I don’t know where the next stop is, and we head off. When we’re halfway there, she calls and, well, it's too late. My taxi driver is driving slow. Like, normal for Cary, but, slow for Beijing. So, we try again to make it to the next stop.

By this time, I’m starting to sweat and I’m getting pretty nervous. When we get off the ramp, we get stuck in this really jam packed traffic circle. It’s backed up real bad with cars and bikes. While we're stuck in that, she calls and asks where we are, and obviously we’re not there yet. She says that they'll wait for me, so, I think,” ok, phew. the bus is gonna wait”. Well, we finally get out of that traffic circle, which we took twice because the taxi driver didn't take the turn the first time, and finally reach our destination. Only, no bus.

But, Nancy was there. Apparently I heard her wrong. She was going to wait for me, not the bus. So, instead of me getting out of the taxi, she gets in, and we have to take it all the way to NCR. So, I never made the bus at all.

But, that’s not all. When she gets on, she asks how I was late. Apparently, I wasn't late at first. I was actually early. I left 5 minutes before she did, but I didn't know she was at home. I thought I was the one late because the grandmother was like, "can you go yourself?" and all the other doors were closed. Yeah.. So, this whole thing could have been avoided in the first place if I had just known

Ok, so, when I finally get to here, I find this out. You know the slow taxi driver? He's new. He got his license last month. Any other taxi driver could have made it to the bus stop in time. But, out of all the taxi drivers out there, I just happened to pick him. Man, it’s going to be a long 2 weeks.

Ok, so perhaps I should talk about how things have been going. Miguel, Ross, and I have been doing different jobs this whole time. Miguel's been working in the factory downstairs. Ross and I are upstairs. Ross has been doing alot of filing, while I'm working in the finance department, inputing data from invoices into computers and labeling documents. Work is pretty lax. I don't get work unless I ask for it, and when I do get work, it's usually pretty boring and brainless.(Don't tell them I said that though).

My host family treats me pretty well. I live in an apartment in northwest Beijing with her husband, son, and parents. I get treated really well, especially by the grandparents. They do plenty of cooking and are always saying that I am too skinny and need to eat more. Life is definitely simpler compared to the excitement of the exchange trip, but I think it's more revealing about how Chinese live normally.

That's all for now. Sorry for the delayed post. There's apparently construction nearby that knocked our power out without warning. Half of this post was written yesterday. So, forgive the potential jumpiness. Will upload pictures if possible.

Nathaniel

The Last Day (For Some)

2008-06-10T05:41:00.000-07:00

So today is the last "official" day of the trip. The haze of travel time between planes soon to come doesn't really count in my mind. No more mountains, no more palaces, no more temples. No more pick-pockets, street vendors, or crazed motorcyclists. No more unidentified meat, mysterious vegetables, or non-potable water. Well, for some at least. Tomorrow the group will fly every which way; two to Shanghai, three staying in Beijing, myself to Udon Thani, Thailand, and the rest get to enjoy the marathon that is returning to RDU International. But before all of that begins, we managed to squeeze in a final taste of China today. First on the list was the Summer Palace, the favorite vacation spot for Chinese royalty hundreds of years ago. We wandered through a maze of buildings and bridges for an hour or so. A group of kids from California approached us and chatted for a while, it was a welcome relief from the monotony of historical Chinese tourist attractions (Don't get me wrong, they're great, but they all blend together after two weeks). For the afternoon we visited NCR (National Cash Registry), touring both the production floor and the office complex. The three students that will stick around at NCR for an internship for the next few weeks were given an extended presentation. The company actually had quite a history, over a hundred years in fact. For a company that makes ATM machines, I am a little puzzled at how an ATM existed back then, much less a debit card...
The remainder of the afternoon was spent bickering over prices at another flea market. I must brag, I doubt anyone beat the Ipod I found for $10. It will be a few more weeks until I come back to find out if it works. I have maybe 3 suitcases worth of little things like that to pack tonight, and only one suitcase, so I think its best I wrap this up and begin to tackle that beast of an issue. Best of luck to eveyrone thats traveling home.

Cam Setzer

Great Wall, Jade, Stores and Pizza

2008-06-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Total length commonly known as Chang Cheng = 4000 miles and 6000 km
+
Four sections complete it
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Built in Ming Dynasty but it took 2000 years to complete
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Over 300,000 soldiers and prisoners of war died making it
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In 1998 Bill Clinton was a visitor
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Highest point is 1050 meters
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5 horsemen and 10 soldiers wide

EQUALS
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
It is common knowledge that the Great Wall is greatness. Since the 6th grade we have all strived to reach the Great Wall of China. This was our Great Adventure of today. The dream became a reality. We were so excited and it was all we expected. We had an hour and a half to explore and it really never ended. In groups of different sizes and diversity put stairmasters at Lifetime Fitness and Gold’s Gym to shame. Even though it has been rebuilt many times trying to keep the authenticity, the steps were of different sizes and stability. We each broke off into determined groups setting different goals and creating our own experience. We all shared the hot weather and beautiful greenery surrounding us. It was so long and winded on a huge mountain range. The great adventure was not as cliché as we expected it to be. The immense emotion of the ancient tourist attraction was definitely an experience that can be relieved. I (Jacyln) saw a man who was wearing a business suit and a girl in high heels, who knows how they could handle the wall. When it was time to go down most of us went down a slide, that was made of metal and we rode on a small sled. You could push forward or pull back and change your speed. We sped down the mountain and pretty much all experienced being slowed by the elder tourists of the wall.

Our tour guide has been taking us to a lot of friendship stores, including where we ate our lunch after going on the Great Wall. At the friendship store I (Catherine) ran into a family that was really exciting to meet because from all places they were from Cary, North Carolina. The world is so small sometimes! Friendship stores are places that are owned buy the government, which means no bargaining and expensive stuff. After lunch we went to a jade friendship store, where they showed us different types of jade. Jade is not as simple as I thought. There are different colors of jade including green of course and yellow and purple. Jade is the 2nd hardest stone, has a soft feel (so soft that concubines used to use it as a pillow) and the sound. Jade is known for bringing good health and wealth and a good lifestyle. We spent a good hour at the store looking at all the beautiful stuff. Most of us felt drained by the expensive prices and pointless soccer ball jade, but it was neat to see the continuation of pride that this country has for its resources.

After the jade factory we previewed the Olympic facilities. We saw the Crow’s Nest where most the stadiums are and we saw the bubble that expands around the pool. Our tour guide informed us about the 7 Star Hotel that was not complete, but would be in a month. The new apartments and updated landscaping put the Olympic countdowns and paraphernalia around China to shame. We did not get to go into anything, but hearing that 16 billion dollars was put into this city was enough to understand how important this is to China. We saw the grounds where there was nothing 15 years ago, but now holds the future homes of people in Beijing, after the Olympics.

From there we went to a market with fake designers and Chinese style clothing. I think just about everyone has a valuable story to tell from their experiences bargaining. That is really when you see the Chinese language blossom.

Dinner was an American buffet. Not as worthwhile to write about, but I will say that it was the equivalent of bad Chinese food in America. Dorian got to celeb rate his birthday with a start of pizza, and fried food galore. Fortunately I think the Great Wall was enough to compensate.
Two more days and some change and most of us will be on our way home

With love,

Catherine and Jaclyn

CA Terra Cotta Warrior

2008-06-08T16:53:00.001-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T09:51:00.001-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T08:49:00.001-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T08:45:00.001-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom and Dad

2008-06-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T08:33:00.001-07:00

Another Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

Photo Gallery

2008-06-08T07:37:00.001-07:00

The Adventure

2008-06-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty tiring day with a morning call at 7:00. Breakfast in the new 5 star hotel was great. I ate fried rice and noodles and jason ate the same thing plus cereal. We departed at 8:30 on the big bus. Our first adventure was at the Temple of Heaven. We saw many different activities such as taiji ball and stick things (look at pictures and videos) :) It was entirely built out of wood without using nails. It was also 3 stories tall and supported by 11 columns which was pretty awsome. It's also called the temple of prayer for good harvest and the emperor would go there once or twice a year to pray for good harvest.

Next we went to the pearl factory where we saw how to get freshwater pearls directly from an oyster. There were a lot of pearls inside one, maybe about 30 in each. Then they brought us to the merchandise where we could buy pearls made into various jewelry and ornaments. A woman name Carrie showed us the tell us how to tell a fake pearl from a real one by rubbing two pearls together. A plastic slidy feeling meant that they were fake and a rough feeling which developed whitish powderlike residue.

Tiannamen Square was our next stop. We walked around the square watching the many soldiers and security guards/cameras patrolling the area. A ton of people were there and several merchants tried to sell us stuff such as "rolex" watches, olympic hats, and postcards. Around 11:45 we left and went for lunch which was entirely vegetarian and was quite tasty for a vegetarian meal.

At 1:30 we got to the Forbidden City fist stopping at the gardens and then going to the inner city where we had about 30 minutes of freetime to take pictures. All the buildings looked pretty much the same and the only difference were the small statues on the roof determining the most important buildings from the least important. At 4:00 we left and went to the silk factory.

They showed us how to obtain silk from silkworm cocoons and make different linens. Silk is strong, lightweight, and long lasting making it a popular type of material. We spent about an hour wandering about the store which was pretty pricy. A lot of us bought silk ties for our fathers or friends back home. Jason got a hankerchief-ish silk picture.

Dinner was as usual with chinese food and as Miguel discussed his plans for next years opening speech for the senior class, Josh and Ross made many supportive (and strange) suggestions which was pretty entertaining.

The end of today's adventure was the see the acrobatic kungfu show at 7:30. The show was basically about a monk named chunyi who mastered kungfu as a child but couldnt control his mind or desires. Eventually he became a warrior monk and eventually the abbot of the temple. Pictures and video were limited in the theater and one lady was watching out for cameras so sorry for the bad quality photos. We got back to the hotel at 9:15 and the great wall is the adventure for tomorrow.

Blogged by Nathan and Jason

Ariving in Beijing and Dinner

2008-06-07T06:53:00.001-07:00

We started the day having a wakeup call at 7:30am. Although a few of our friends (Ross and Robert) mysteriously didn’t get that call until 15 minutes after we were supposed to leave at 10:00am. Most of us were able to walk around the city of Jinan taking in the view and exploring through multiple stores. Underground shopping was also not that bad considering that this might have been the first time several of us have seen real brands of clothing instead of the really obvious fake ones. Jaclyn was afraid of bargaining with one of the store clerks for a shirt that she wanted because she thought that the shirt was real and wasn’t really sure if she could actually bargain for it. So she asked Ryan for some help and were able to get the shirt from 130 yuan to 100 yuan. I guess it was a good price considering that anything lower than that, the clerk would straight out wave his hand and say “no”. The annoying part of the store was that even though they made us wait ten minutes to get into the store, most of the stores weren’t even open. It was very stressful for those who had actually found something they liked but couldn’t get into the small shops to buy it. Although few purchases were made, most of us were psyched to go shopping in Beijing.

So we were able to get to the train station in time to have around 45-60 minutes to rest. Our tour guide, Lisa, surprised most of us with KFC. Although the sandwiches ended up being a fish mix fillet with a secret sauce, some people were able to enjoy the non-Asian cuisine. So we entered train at around 12:00pm. Most of us trying to catch some sleep before a supposedly long day were able to do so. The bullet train which I forgot to mention was a very different experience to the other trains which seemed to take forever. This ride was very smooth and the Chinese countryside was amazing. Although there were many smoke stacks and random building complexes, the scenery was quite amazing. I can’t explain how interesting it is to watch every row of trees, plants, soil, dirt, and even sometimes weeds pass by. It seems as if they decided to take down every tree in China and replant them in specific sets of rows. In a way, it was sort of creepy. So we carried on with games and chatting with friends on the three hour ride to Beijing. Most people listening to music and reading books really gave me a great opportunity to relax and do whatever. The fastest recorded speed of the train I saw was about 196 km/hr. Apparently we were riding the second fastest train in China. Who knows, it was an interesting experience overall.

So we ended up at the train station in Beijing. To most, the air was not the most pleasant thing although I believe that I have gotten quite used to it. So we walked past the gate where I first saw our new tour guide. I was quite worried because the last few tour guides didn’t exactly have the greatest English. I didn’t talk to him, but just followed him to the bus, which was the most amazing thing ever. For the past few weeks, we have been riding broken down, air-conditionless, dirty tour buses. And I saw the bus, and it was like “wow”. The bus had two doors, one in the front, and one on the side. Amazed to see a clean bus, I was amazed to see that it was also a large bus. We had enough room to sit back and relax. So the bus started moving as we were headed for our hotel. So our tour guide had spoken to several of my friends and they had told me that he was able to speak fairly well English. So he started talking, and immediately I loved Beijing. Not only was it a beautiful city and basically clean city, our tour guide could speak English. He explained to us several things such as basic information about Beijing, and who he was. His name was Michael, and he loved watching the NBA, Kobe being his favorite player, and that his favorite sport was soccer. He was a very funny guy and I knew at that point we would have an amazing four days in this city.

So we left our bus, and were standing in front of this enormous hotel. Michael had told us this was a 5 star hotel. I walked in and the view was jaw dropping. I was amazed by the beauty of this hotel. There was a giant painting of two horsemen right in front of the entrance, as well as comfy couches and a huge lobby. It was a very clean facility and it was pure heaven. We went up to our rooms to find a huge room, with a TV which was actually easy to use compared to the ones in the other hotels which took around three buttons to turn on. The beds were firm and large, and I think I could layback for a 12 hour nap. We had a little free time before we would head off for dinner.

For dinner, we went to a very nice restaurant. We had fries and different varieties of foods. Many interesting conversations spilled on the table as well as a very liquefied ketchup sauce. It seemed as though when we entered, they expected us to use forks and knives, which was the first time that really happened. And after being here in China for about two weeks now, most of us decided to ask for chopsticks which seem a lot more convenient now that we got used to them. In fact, I have a few issues in using forks now, that I decided to use chopsticks when I get back to the US.

So, for the remainder of the time, we were given free time. This is where we are allowed to go out into the beautiful city to go shopping and sightseeing and what not. Our groups disperse into the wild and amazing and very safe, as Michael had told us, city of Beijing.

Your CA China Reporters on Location,

Dorian and Izaak

Jinan, Springs and Big Buddah

2008-06-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

June 6, 2008. Therice and Melissa

We started the day off with an early morning wake-up call that was difficult to not ignore. After eating breakfast at the hotel, we got on a bus for over 2 hours to travel back to Ji-nan, the capital of the Shandong province. Ji-nan holds a population of 2 million, in a province of 6 million. Our tour guide, Lisa, informed us that Jinan was special, because in the local custom, all strangers are addressed as laoshi, meaning teacher. After the very sleepy bus ride, we arrived at the train station to check-in our baggage for the train ride the following day. While that may seem sort of strange, the reason for doing so was that we would be taking the bullet train to Beijing, which does not allow check in luggage. So, our luggage had to go the slow way.
What generated great excitement though, was the KFC across the street from the train station. After all the bags were checked in, many members of the group decided to “go to the bathroom” at the KFC. Who knew that fried chicken was so good at 10 o’clock in the morning?

Our first sightseeing stop of the morning was at Baotu spring, also known as the first spring under heaven. Jinan is known for it’s many springs, but Baotu is especially known for it’s power to provide luck and happiness to the drinkers of its water. In fact, throughout history many emperors visited the spring or were given its waters to provide them with eternal happiness. Strangely enough, the water from the spring is supposedly clean enough to drink, although only a few brave souls from our group tried it.

Also in the spring complex were the rain brook, and the shuyu springs. The rain brook is special because it looks like it has rain falling on its surface on the sunniest of days. Unfortunately for us, it was actually raining, so this theory was unable to be tested. The Shuyu springs were the site of the writings of the poems of Li Qing Zhao. A superstition goes that if you can place a coin on the surface of the spring, actually a pond, and the coin does not sink, then whatever you wish for will come true. However, due to the rain and the fish living in the water, the surface tension was not enough to keep any coin afloat. Many of our classmates lost both their money and their wishes trying this out.

In addition to fish, two seals lived at the Baotu complex. We were quite surprised to see them, although I’m sure they were not surprised to see us. Our group felt sorry for the seals, kept in such a confined space, and tried to plan a seal escape. However these plans never came to fruition, for fitting a seal onto a train would be no easy task.

After leaving the Baotu spring, we ate lunch at the Luguo mansion. In our private room, the topic of discussion went from 90’s childrens TV-shows to Starwars. After leaving lunch, Lisa taught us a Chinese tongue twister:

Zou yi zouniu yi niujian dao liu shu lou yi lou

We drove through the city for a time, then came to a forest on a hill, known as the 1000 Buddhas Hill. Surprisingly, this hill, standing at 258 meters tall, is the tallest mountain in Jinan. Driving up through the gate, we had no idea what we were in for. As we rounded a corner, a 5-story tall golden Buddha came into our sight. With eyes looking in two opposite directions, this Buddha imposed on all surrounding structures. While all us were in absolutely awe of this gargantuan Buddha, that would barely fit in the view of our cameras, we were even more shocked to find that this structure was not even really recognized as “famous” or considered a popular spot for tourists. Apparently, this structure is considered nothing compared to the Buddha made out of an entire mountain located in Sichuan.

After a few group pictures by this Buddha, we walked a little ways to the Zen Buddha temple located on the side of this hill. Inside this temple, there was a little man who you could say could be considered a kind of doctor. If you needed something fixed in your body, he would “center your qi” by concentrating. He would move all your energy with his fingers to the center of your body. By doing this, he would eliminate all negative energy inside of you, which would apparently heal you. This treatment left us with tingling fingers and relaxed muscles.

When everyone’s problems were healed, we exited the temple to a square where Li Laoshi taught the group taichi, which many of us had been wanting to learn. Taichi is very popular in China, for it is considered both a form of exercise and meditation. We were taught 3 different moves, and it was surprisingly hard to do considering the slow speed that it should be taken at.
After this, we left the 1000 Buddhas Hill and got on our tour bus once again to head on over to the Daming Lake. It was fairly large and very beautiful, especially with the abundant plant life growing on and around the lake. Unfortunately the rain and a group of Chinese people, who had clearly never seen Americans before, ruined the tranquility. This group decided to stop right in front of the place we were resting and proceeded to stare, point, and take pictures of us. Having been in China for about 2 weeks now, all of us have been getting used to this response to our presence, so once they moved away somewhat, but were still eyeing us, Josh O. decided to strike-up a conversation with them. We were happy with our ability to converse simply with them in Chinese, however rude they had been to us, and we ended the conversation soon. But, they continued to stand there, and eventually two men came up to Josh R. and asked to take a picture with him. His response was to ask for 5 yuan in return. So, a group of us crowded into a frame with these Chinese people and the picture was taken. However, after the picture they ran off, and the promised 5 yuan never appeared.

This was our last stop of the day, so we got back on our bus to go out to eat dinner and then check in to our hotel, the Yuquan Simpson Hotel. The hotel is huge, nice, and surprisingly modern; it includes a large indoor swimming pool, a sauna, steam-room, spa, and a huge ping-pong club! Tomorrow we hope to shop all morning in Jinan then take the bullet train to Beijing, the last stop in China.

Tai Shan: The Heavenly Mountain

2008-06-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

Day 11, Tai Shan, The Heavenly Mountain
Special correspondents: Michael Kahn and Josh Orol

So today was cool. The area we’re in, Ji Nan, is much cleaner than the other areas we’ve been in (at least pollution wise). You can see the sky almost all of the time! We awoke to sunlight that actually hurt our eyes, strapped on backpacks, and headed out the front door to climb one of the five famous mountains in China (our second and last climb of our foreign escapade). The mountain is called Tai Shan: The Heavenly Mountain.

The mountain was, as expected, gorgeous. Mind blowing, some would say. The bus driver took us around some crazy curves to get to the foot hills, and we probably, almost, maybe got in an accident eight times, but we made it in one piece. Our exit onto solid ground was short lived, (though quite appreciated) because to get to the part of the mountain we wanted to climb we had to enter another, slightly more daunting vehicle. The cable cars could be thought of as a safe, well monitored, and quite swift way to reach the top of the mountain. We didn’t think so. The single cable that held our little moving box about 800 feet off the ground looked a bit too thin to hold up our car, or our entire group’s cars for that matter.

When we reached the departure point, we realized that we weren’t really climbing this mountain. The cable car deposited us about ½ a mile from the peak, and our planned, strenuous climb turned out to be more of a stroll. Nonetheless, the scenery was still gorgeous. Mind blowing, some might say.

The mountain, according to Lao Shi, is a very Chinese mountain. We have no idea what that means. We do know some cool facts about it though. The mountain is approximately 1555 meters high, and while not the highest in China, holds the most historical importance. The name clearly alludes to its religious importance, and tons of ancient emperors climbed this mountain to make sacrifices to their gods. It is home to many religious inscriptions, and remains a modern day sight for prayer. At the highest peak is a temple, which is mainly used for baby making. Religious Chinese take red cloth and tie it near the temple, which will hopefully increase their chances of getting each other pregnant.

The mountain is also famous for three foods, which are made into an excellent soup (we had it at lunch). The three foods are tofu, cabbage, and water. While it is debatable whether water should actually count as a famous food or not, we thought it was quite sweet (actually, we can’t drink the water in China, so we didn’t taste it… oh well!) The food did taste exceptional at lunch, though.

After the descent (again in the cable car), we walked around a temple. It looked a lot like all the other temples in China. In fact, Nathaniel took a picture of the main building in the temple we visited yesterday, and it looked exactly like the main building we toured today. We think they just picked up the temple and moved it a bit. Or maybe the bus driver took us to the same temple and told us it was different. We wouldn’t know the difference.

Now we’re at the hotel. We’re going to get more than 6 hours of sleep tonight! Who’s excited?
Lovey Dovey Smoochy Smooches that taste like China

- Michael and Josh

Zheng Zhou to Ji nan

2008-06-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

This morning we awoke around 6:45 by the screeching voice of a cockadoodle doo. Catherine and I felt extremely disoriented because we are not use to waking up in a cage. For those of you who don’t know what we are talking about, we went in an over night not so soft sleeper from Zheng Zhou city to Ji nan Province overnight. The sleeper had two sets of bunk beds with a foot in between, a side table where our premier of Juno played for a rousing crowd of 9 people the previous night, and a room fit for a tiger. We little chickidies were so glad to get out of that cage.
We met our tour guide, Lisa, quite fashionable women, and headed down the street in our tour bus for a hearty breakfast. We ate buffet style at a nice hotel about five minutes from the train station. Some of us, including Catherine and me fell asleep at the breakfast table from lack of soft sleeping. Luckily we had a two hour bus ride in order to reach our destination Qufu, Confucius’ hometown.

The bus ride was valuable time to sleep, snack, journal write and continue the bonding experience. Half way through the bus ride we stopped at a gas station to load up on “real Red Bull”, ice cream and snacks. That was enough to tie most of us over until we got to lunch. Our favorite part of lunch, aside from the beautiful musicians was that we had pita like bread. After lunch we arrived at Confucius’ temple. There are three main spots that Confucius is known for. There is the temple, the mansion, and forrest. Its important to understand that many people were at this site because Confucius is the most influential philosopher for not only China, but all of Asia. His values, and ideals were learned by his few scholars and passed down.

The temple looked similar to the Shao lin temple most of us visited with our homestays, and the mosque we visited in Xi an. The temple had the many traditional turtle/dragon/beaver stone creatures that you could touch in different places for luck, prosperity, happiness, health. The temple is a place that people come to celebrate the influential nature of Confucius. This concept was hard to understand because this place looked like the same places Budda and other gods were worshiped with kowtowing and insense. At the temple we encountered a room where vistors of Confucius would wait and be served different amounts of food, and beverages based on their ranking. We also observed signs Confucius received from the Emperor allowing Confucius to ride through the forbidden city on a horse. We walked through a garden where only Confucius’ students could go. There were vibrant flowers, bonsai, trees and a hint of a blue sky. It was refreshing to visit a serene atmosphere compared to the busy cities. Our favorite fact of the day was that Confucius would have honorary dinner celebrations. If it was an emperor he was serving there would be 196 dishes and 404 sets of tableware. However, if it was any ordinary person they would have less than 20 dishes and a limited supply of tableware.

As we left the temple we saw horses, and birds. This may not seem like something worthy of our precious journal entry, but understand that China is a society where most animals are consumed at the dinner table. We also visited Confucius, his son and his grandad’s tombstone. It was really interesting because there were people praying and touching his grave for knowledge and wisdom. It seemed a little out of place because Confucius was a leader not a god. However, it is important to understand that this man holds the fundamentals for life.

We drove another hour out of Jin an to reach our dinner and hotel in Tai Shan. Our dinner was at a restaurant that had a cow statue at the front. We ate in private rooms and ate hot pot style. Hot pot is where you have your own small vat boiling to the left of you and you add your meat, or vegetables and cook them as you please.

From dinner we arrived at our hotel, which is extremely refreshing because we have space. Most of us took showers, and settled in, but others went on runs, and to the internet cafes. It is about 11:04pm as we finish this article and we are tired princess’.

We would like to say I love you to our mama’s, our daddy’s and our sissy’s.
And Catherine would like to say that “she is wearing her daddy’s pants.”
Love your darling daughters,
Catherine and Jaclyn (the newly budding twins)

Shaolin Temple and KTV

2008-06-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday in ZhengZhou was one of the most tiring days yet for me here in China. The adventure for most of us today was to travel to the Shaolin temple. My exchange student Elsie told me that it was around 3 hours away so I had to wake up at around 5 since we wanted to arrive there together with everybody else at 9. However since it was their first time going they had exaggerated the time and it was only about an hours drive away. I sat awake and ready to go in their building for about 2 hours watching chinese tv I couldnt understand. Also, that night me, Jason Sigmon, Catherine, and Brian had watched a movie called Forbidden Kingdom with our exchange students. The movie started at 9:15 and ended around 11 so as you can tell we got home pretty late. Don't get me wrong though, I love my host family and theyve been extremely generous. Whatever I needed they were able to provide and much much more.

Entering the Shaolin temple was pretty magnificent as mountains upon mountains full of green trees surounded the temple. The parking lot was packed and as we waited near the entrance for everybody else to arrive, I could see the statues and introductions leading into the temple. The weather was hot and muggy as usual. The major highlight of the shaolin temple were the shaolin monks performing. They were able to do really amazing things such as bend rods made of im guess pretty hard material using only their necks, break a metal pans on their heads, and pop a balloon by throwing a small dart through a pane of glass (though it took him a few tries).

The ride back was extremely tiring but well worth it as I ate at yet another yummy chinese restaurant which I have no clue what the name of was. However, after the meal my stomach wasn't too happy with me. We went to a place near their school to do an event called the English Corner where each of us american students spread out into different groups of chinese teens to practice their english. Elsie told me that the English Corner was extremely boring for them but they got some sort of extra credit for going. We got the chance to communicate and learn about more people aswell as make more friends. Then they had a square dancing performance to show us which they were pretty good at for a western performance. Afterwards we all took pictures in the square with 4 different classes. At night me, Jason Sigmon and Michael Kahn went to a place called KTV with our exchange students. KTV is a place where we get a private room with a tv and karaoke machine with many selections of mostly chinese but some well known english songs to sing. We had gone with many more people to a bigger KTV place the night before so this night was not really as fun but KTV is something I wish we had back home since it really bonds people together. It's getting kinda late now so im goin to go to sleep. Soon were off to Beijing!

Nathan

From Experimental to Industrial: Daniel's Thoughts

2008-06-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

Daniel Miller 6/2/08

Most of us woke up around 6ish this morning to get ready for our first day of Chinese school. Classes started promptly at 7:20, although we were all a few minutes late. Everybody was impressed by the idea of students staying in the same room while teachers moved from class to class (much more efficient if you ask me). Although CA did well in the football game versus our exchange student’s classes, we had a slightly harder time with basketball. Many of us ate Chinese pizza while the rest went out for lunch during the hour long lunch break. After lunch, we had some time to hang out and go shopping until it was time for our exchange students to return to class. This time, rather than joining our exchange students in their classes, we went to a painting class. We left the class with mixed feelings, some of us found our artistic skills to be somewhat lacking.

After the painting class, we left our exchange student’s school to go to a university. The university sent several identical cars to pick us up, and we reached the university in about ten minutes. While at the university, we made dumplings, and challenged some students to another basketball game. This time, CA was clearly outmatched; while our players had the heart, they lacked the endurance or the teamwork that the Chinese students clearly had. Several hours later, we got a chance to eat our dumplings. While many were obviously not aesthetically up to par, they still tasted very good.

After our self-prepared meal, we were each invited to a party at Amos’s (Dorian’s exchange student) apartment complex. Everybody enjoyed the silly string, soda, music, and a good chance to hang out and chat. Unfortunately, I had to leave early at ten when my exchange student's father showed up.

Looking forward to a good nights rest,
Daniel Miller

From Experimental to Industrial

2008-06-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hi All! Coach Moore here filling in for one of our student writers.

The day began at our sister school with students attending class with their hosts while teachers got a welcomed chance to actually get some traveling work done. Beforehand, the school took the opportunity to take a group photo with all of us and its pricipal and our host students during their 20 minute break between classes (during which time the entire school makes a mad rush outside to do various exercises and jogging). Afterwards, we meet up with the students to attend their final class of the day, art class, taught by one of the Experimental High School teachers. She taught them how to paint flowers with water color on rice paper-like material. After taking a few photos of the finshed goods spontaneous rounds of rock-paper-scissors broke out. When the battles were won, or lost, our group rounded up to head over to the Henan Industrial School; a school for high school-age students wanting to learn a trade to enter the workforce upon graduation - much like our technical colleges at home.

The purpose of this visit was simple, to eat and fellowship! We were greeted by the employees of the school and their children, many of which were high schoolers, as they lead us to the place where the food was prepared. Everyone joined in making dumplins with the hosts. We made a lot of food! While doing so, children of the employees had a chance to walk around and work with so many of us practicing their well-spoken english. Towards the end of the food preparation, a group of our student-athletes were guided outside and noticed many students playing pick-up games of basketball. Of course they could not help themselves; so they motioned to play a game with the local students. In good sport and high hopes, our guys rounded up a good 5 players. Tougher than expected, our boys would realize their defeat with bowing gestures to the opponents.

Somehow, our guys just knew they needed a second chance to prove they could play way better than before, so on more of our second tour around the campus, we again stop at the court to watch a larger Charger group take on the athletic bunch for a second match. Only this time the rectangle of the outdoors court was filled with students on every side clapping and supporting buckets made by each side. Even Jaclyn was encouraged by the crowd making a bucket during her 7 minutes or so run on the court. After providing wonderful entertainment our hosts from the school sat us down and began serving the large group. The food was tasty as both guests and hosts ate together finding out more about each other. The feast ended with watermelon - lots of it - and tons of photos of the event. Before leaving the administrators of the school presented each of us with parting gifts as a token of thanks and appreciation. The "party" turned out much better than many of us had expected it would after an already lengthy day; I agree it was a welcomed surprise.

The night ended with a very inviting cool breeze and host families from our sister school arriving to pick up our students only to head to a "student-only" party to begin at 10 PM. I'm sure our group will enjoy the night.

Coach Moore

Performance Show at the Shaolin Temple

2008-06-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

[Nathan Yip will provide text for this blog as soon as he gets a free moment. His host family lives 2 hours away from school, so it's difficult finding time before or after to write. His host entertains him up to the last moment of their day.]

Video From China Sister School

2008-06-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

Drama In Zhengzhou

2008-05-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

Jason Chow 5/31/08

We arrived in Zhengzhou by train; arriving at the station, nervous, we slowly left the train platform, to meet our students. As we rounded the corner, a large group of Chinese students noticed us and excitedly pointed in our direction. ‘Good luck’s were exchanged around our group, and, slowly, we exited through the turnstile to find our students.
At least we were all able to recognize our students. I found my student, Curtis, or 李想, and he looked excited about our arrival. As a large group, everyone moved to the right to claim our luggage. However, the luggage was extremely late in getting off the train. Therefore, we were stranded in the train station for at least 1 hour, plenty of time to catch up with our students. Seems like there wasn’t much to catch up on with Curtis; we had only met each other 3 ½ months ago. Although I was a bit worried about our luggage until it arrived.
After the arrival of our luggage, we all said our goodbyes, and split up to go with our families. I met Curtis’ parents, and followed them to their car, a nice SUV. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, since it was 11:30 PM, but there were significantly more cars than in Cary at this time of night, and the neon lights were amazing. Everywhere I looked, the city was brightly lit with neon or street lights, etc. Curtis’ parents had quite a few questions for me, and I answered as best I could mostly in Chinese.
We stopped at a small restaurant, which was mostly deserted, since it was about 11:45 by this point. I had made the slight mistake saying that I was a little hungry, and they ordered about 4 large dishes for me to eat. It seemed like the food I ate then was much better than the Chinese food I had eaten before during this trip, but even I couldn’t eat all of it. Around 12:00, we left the restaurant and drove about 5 minutes to Curtis’ apartment. At the point, the streets we were traveling on had almost no cars, but the store lights were all still brightly lit.
Arriving in Curtis’ apartment, I found out that he lived on the 4th floor of his apartment building, with no elevator. Although it looked a bit shabby on the outside, it was really nice on the inside. I found out, apparently, that they had prepared an entire room for me, a change of clothes, and a table full of snacks. After cleaning up, I presented my family with a few gifts that I had brought with me. It seemed like they liked them a lot, and afterwards, I went to sleep.
I woke up at about 9:00 the next day; good thing it was a Saturday and we didn’t have to get up early. At around 9:30, I had finished my morning routines, and exited my room for breakfast. They had prepared a few bowls of soup and some youtiao for me and Curtis to eat. Although the soup was really good, I didn’t get to try any youtiao because they presented me with a very nice cake. I was polite and had one slice, even though I didn’t want to start my day with mostly sugar.
We didn’t have anything planned, so Curtis showed me how to play World of Warcraft. Evidently, he had spent a lot of time on his computer, playing that game. For about an hour or two, I watched him play WoW, and he even let me create a new character, and play for a while. However, at 11:30, we departed for lunch.
The streets during the daytime were much different from last night. Not only was everything in a different lighting, there were a lot more cars and various two-wheeled vehicles crowding the roads. Not only was the constant weaving in and out of traffic amazing, I saw several sights that I haven’t seen before, such as a large brown chicken walking down the street, etc. After about 15 minutes, we arrived at a very tall building, where we were going to eat lunch.
It turns out that Chinese people are very impatient when taking the elevator. The restaurant was on the second floor, and I wanted to take the stairs, but as a group, Curtis, me and his dad decided to take the elevator. Forgetting to press floor two before it was too late, we ended up taking the elevator to floors 15, 22, 25, 31, and 16 before arriving at the second floor. Every time, people in the elevator, including Curtis, would mash the ‘close door’ button, even while people were entering/exiting the car.
Lunch was an amazing affair, at a nicely decorated restaurant, with a large-window view of…the parking lot. Oh well. The food was very good, and I got to try many new foods, including a spicy soup dish and a nice bowl of baked Chinese buns. There were also foods that I’ve already eaten before, but cooked differently, such as doufu and spare ribs. Overall, I was nicely full by the end of lunch, with some food left over.
Hopping in the car, we traveled to school, again weaving through traffic. Arriving at Curtis’ school, I was amazed at the size; I had never been to a school larger than about 2,500 people, let alone a school comprised of all Chinese students. Not only were all the buildings the same size, if not larger, than the buildings at CA, they were also about 3-4 times as tall! Apparently, we were going to view a school drama production that their classes had put together. We arrived at 12:30 for the 2:30 performance, and for the longest time, no one showed up except for Therice, Camden and Nathaniel.
At around 2:30, the performance started, although we decided not to start their show with our ‘dancing’. Everyone had arrived, and we were prepared to enjoy the show. It was comprised of many small skits, including some acts of music, dancing, and small plays.

Meseum and Zheng Zhou

2008-05-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Today we began with a 7:30 wakeup call; Not very different from previous mornings. There was no set time for breakfast, so people went down to go eat whenever. Eventually we gathered in the lobby at around 9:00. It was then that we were an alerted that we should get locks for our bags. Honestly it worried me that we should need to purchase locks for our bags. If someone can’t get into our bags, what will stop them from stealing it and opening it later? Nevertheless, about 15 of us went around the corner to buy locks while the others waited. After a fine display of organization and bargaining we all had a sufficient number of locks and were on our way back to the hotel. On the way back the oblivious Dorian Crawford was almost pick pocketed. Fortunately he was able to make it back safely with his iPod still in hand.

We then left our luggage in the hotel and hopped on a bus to head to a museum in Xi’an. I personally was worried that someone, who I did not know, was supposed to get our luggage checked in preparation for our train ride to Zhengzhou. Anyways we arrived at the museum, after receiving a brief introduction to Chinese history from Francis, our tour guide. I was still too tired from our mountain climb to form any cohesive thoughts and as a result anything Francis said was simply ignored by me and about half the students on the bus.

When arriving to the museum I expected it to be boring, but it was. My suspicions were correct. The museum was composed of five exhibits. The first was about… um… nothing interesting. I completely forgot what was in the second, so there probably was anything interesting in there either. The third had a film crew filming what looked like a documentary, so some of the better artifacts on display could not be enjoyed by the public. On a positive note, the third exhibit had a large Buddha and a recreation of some terracotta warriors. I think the warriors would have been pretty cool if hadn’t seen the real ones a couple of days ago. The fourth and fifth exhibits seemed unfinished. They seemed very bare and empty. That may have been because there were more security guards than people viewing the artifacts or maybe it was just me. Overall I would have to say I was disappointed by the museum, but others may have enjoyed.

Once we all got back together we had to do perhaps one of the most important things we would ever need to do on the trip. Group pictures. We took a couple standing on some benches and then a few sitting on the steps of the museum. After pictures we headed off to a monastery/tourist attraction. I enjoyed the monastery more than I enjoyed the museum. Inside the monastery was Asia’s largest fountain. Unfortunately the fountain only turned on in the evening and we were there around 1:00, but the fountain still looked epic even if it wasn’t on. There was also a pagoda, which was supposed to represent the remains of the founder of Buddhism, after he turned himself into a goose so that he could feed his starving followers. Anyways on there were like little pieces of art and gardens surrounding the massive fountain.
On the outskirts of the monastery there were some stalls where you could buy jewelry, instruments, food and other things. After looking at the stalls I headed back to the bus and we went off to eat. When we arrived at the restaurant I was happy to see that it was a buffet. Man, I really feel like a glutton. But at least I was a happy glutton. After eating we were dropped off at the hotel.

After being dropped off at the hotel, it was time to head to the train station so we could head over to Zheng Zhou. Everyone was excited to meet their host families and stay with them for a few days. Unfortunately the station was a few blocks away from the hotel and was inaccessible by car. All twenty-four of us had to walk three blocks to the enormous train station that was almost as wide as the walk itself. I (Camden) also had the burden of carrying my twenty-five pound terracotta warrior and fifteen pound sword along with the rest of my luggage. After trudging along the streets for a few minutes we arrived at the train station and passed through security. It was a little weak considering there was only a single security belt which the guards paid almost no attention to. I don’t know if letting a sword through security is normal procedure, but it sure seemed a little strange to me.

After getting into the station at 3:00 for a 3:30 departure time, we headed over to the luxury room. It actually seemed more like typical waiting station that one would find in America, but I guess it could be considered luxurious in China. The station had a small snack bar but none of it interested me. It was mainly Chinese snacks and a few drinks. Everyone else bought a couple of snacks and walked around the station for a bit, but I took the half hour to rest considering we climbed to the top of a two-thousand meter mountain yesterday.

I woke up and we headed to the train that would take us to Zheng Zhou over a seven hour period. Luckily we had an entire car to ourselves and were able to move along the cabin. First we had figure out what we were going to do for the ‘talent’ show that we were supposed to do for exchange students. With the help of a couple others, we convinced Li Laoshi to let us perform ‘Crank That.’ For half the trip, we were practicing our dance routine while Li Laoshi meditated, but we knew that would hold up for long so we broke out the portable DVD players too. Seven hours later though, we finally arrived in Zheng Zhou to meet our host students.

See us meet our host families upon arriving to Zheng Zhou: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ericmooreca/CAMeetsChineseHostFamilies2008

Camden and Ryan

Alotta Terracotta

2008-05-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

Terracotta army, flirtatious college girls and amazing massages- who knew how much there was to do in china?

Today started out with a 7 am wake up call, this was welcomed after our 4 am wake up call yesterday. We started off at a local medicine market, where we got a chance to experience some traditional Chinese medicine. Bags of dried plants, roots, and even animals emanated exotic smells, tantalizing both our eyes and noses. A few of us purchased bags of tea leaves or bottles of green ointment, which are supposed to banish all kinds of aches of the body. But, we had a long trip ahead of us, so we headed back onto the bus and got back onto the road.

The bus ride to the terracotta army took us about an hour away from Xi an. Terracotta simply means earth or clay, but the terracotta army anything but simple. First discovered in 1974 by peasants well drilling, the terracotta army is arranged in three pits. All of the pits are still being excavated, but the first pit had been cleared the most. Lines of terracotta infantry, cavalry, and charioteers stood imposingly across a massive chamber. The 8th wonder of the world and a world cultural heritage, the terracotta army stands in defense of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. Individually crafted, each soldier is a different, but unfortunately, we were told that only important figures like Bill Clinton were allowed down into the pit and that “Cary Academy exchange trip” wasn’t important enough. But that wasn’t to say we didn’t receive the star treatment in other venues. A few members of the group were getting special attention from a few of the local girls conducting a “survey” for the museum. The trip to see the ancient warriors was overall a good experience but the sight that got everyone jumping for joy was the sighting of a familiar food: the French fry. This simple fried food was enough to set the entire group into a frenzy as everyone ran to be able to get a plateful of it.

After an enjoyable lunch we had some free time to go around shop. But walking around we felt as if we were being sold the same thing just in different shops. They all sold the same terracotta warrior box set, the same small kite, and the same post cards just one store apart. After shopping we gathered once again on the bus and made our way to our hotel.

After the two and a half hour bus ride we finally arrived at our hotel. Walking into the Hua Shang Hotel, we weren’t all that impressed by it from the outside. Looking at the hotel from the outside isn't much in the way of looks but what it lacks in exterior is made up by the inside -completely different story. I have never been so wrong in judging a book by its cover as in the moment I walked into the hotel. Other than the rather warm rooms, the only downfall I could amass was the lack of hotel internet connections. So, sorry mom and dad, but you'll have to wait a day or two until we can get all caught up with a working connection... photos to follow.

However, that did not stop us from getting around in the city a bit to shop for snacks after checking in. The night concluded with reflective conversation and with many of our travelers getting awesome massages in preparation for the "Big Climb" on the Hua mountain range that overshadowed the villege-like town we were in.

Miguel and Nathaniel

Hua Mountains

2008-05-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings all! This is the great and mighty all powerful all Chinese knowing student, Joshua Rowsey. I have been held prisoner against my will, and have been forced to entertain you by providing literary illustration on what has happened today in the mystical land of China. So what can I tell you? I could tell you that I climbed a mountain, but it is the journey that this mountain brought that you may find most interesting. While taking a quick bus ride up to the base of the mountain I was presented with a cable car as a form of transportation up the mountain. While climbing up this mountain in this luxurious cable car I was thinking to myself, “Getting up to this mountain is easy”. Then the cable car stopped and I had an excellent view of the GLORIOUS Hua Mountains. With this GLORIOUS view I presented with a task: to climb this GLORIOUS Mountain all the way to the top. Let me sum of my experience of climbing this mountain in as few sentences as I can.

Climbing this mountain was a horror that can only be related to sticking a giant hot needle within your thigh and pushing it even more within you skin with ever step you take. Overall this experience was one to remember, the view that you take in while on top of the mountain is one of breath taking proportion. I was impressed with the beauty that nature has brought on this trip. Climbing this mountain can not be the only experience that I can give you, because my Chinese teacher does not believe in short journal entries. Is there more to tell? Of Course there is. As many of you may know I am a violin playing, Chinese learning, national swimming African American. But in China the citizens view black men like big foot: a very big myth. So you can expect the huge reaction when a Chinese citizen comes across one the 9th wonder of the world: the black man.

I have been stopped, looked at, pointed, and laughed at so many times that there is not enough time to describe each incident. In America I am just another student, but in China I am viewed as a celebrity higher than that of Denziel Washington, Will Smith, and Chris Rock combined. With this swarm of praise between my very diverse (not really) admirers I am part way not wanting to return home where I am just a normal student. On that note I am going to sign out, hopefully my roommate Cameron Setzer can provide you with some more insight on the magical journey we call China. A quick shout out to my parents: Yes I am still alive, and have not yet been arrested. I hope all that are reading this appreciate all the things that they have such as clean air and water.

This is Joshua Rowsey signing out,
Have a good day.

Day 4: The Temple Mosque and City Wall

2008-05-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

Today our Chinese tour group woke up bright and early, receiving wake-up calls around 4:30 AM. We then headed to the airport to catch an 8 o’clock plane Pudong (Shanghai airport) to Xi-An. The plane was slightly delayed, but we were finally able to board around 8:30. The plane ride lasted about two hours, and we arrived in the Xi-An airport around 12:00.

After claiming our luggage, we headed outside to meet our tour guide-- Francais. Francais taught us about the history of Xi-An and other areas of China, during the one hour bus ride to Xi-An. We were welcomed into Xi-An with another traditional Chinese meal. Most of us felt this meal was better than the vegetarian meal the previous day. After this we headed out to the South part of the Xi-An city wall. The wall was built around 600 years ago, and was originally designed to keep enemies out. At the wall we were able to rent bicycles to ride along the wall, or buy ice cream and cold drinks.

By this point in the day, most of us began to feel tired, so we decided to head to a more leisurely place, a Chinese mosque. There were several old relics, and patterns in both the floors and walls which dated back to ancient times. After this we proceeded to do a little shopping in the market of Xi-An. The vendors were friendlier and less aggressive than Shanghai. There also seemed to be a better selection of goods and the prices were slightly cheaper than those in Shanghai. Our bargaining skills appeared as if they had improved, because almost everyone ended up buying more items than all the previous shopping expeditions.

After our shopping adventures, we checked in to the Xi-An Diamond Hotel and took a little break. We then headed towards dinner at a Tang Dynasty Musical performance where we were served dumplings of all different types. Our group is very tired and still a little disturbed by the jet-lag. More than half of the group fell asleep during the performance, and two stayed in the hotel to catch up on sleep.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Terracotta warriors.

Bryan Apperson with Daniel Miller and Jason Sigmon

Photos to Go Second Day

2008-05-26T08:51:00.001-07:00

Yu-Yuan Garden - Group Photo

Yu-Yuan Garden II

Chinese Acrobat Performance I

Chinese Acrobat Performance II

Buddhist Temple

Monday 5/26 - Yu-Yuan Garden; Buddhist temple; GENBAND; Acrobats

2008-05-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

The day began bright and early; "sunrise" (as we never actually saw the sun through the smog) was about 5:00 am. The humidity and the heat kicked in early, with students and chaperones attiring themselves appropriately in shorts and t-thirts. We broke fast as a group at the hotel's breakfast buffet where, apparently, spaghetti was considered a breakfast food and the dim sum tasted more like french toast than the french toast. At 8:30, we left the hotel to stock up on water, gatorade and other knockabout items before our long day in the heat (it's amazing when you can actually get a bottled water for like 40 American cents).

Our first destination was the traditional (and historical) Yu-Yuan Garden in Shanghai. During our traffic-distended busride there, we got a full guided tour of the famous Bund (Wai Tan) waterfront on the Huangpu River. The Bund was the most Western-developed area in Shanghai through a good portion of the 19th and 20th centuries (mostly a result of British imperialism as a result of the Opium Wars). The trip to the Yu-Yuan Garden consisted of walking past numerous and ravenous street vendors hawking wares varying from Olympic t-shirts to knock-off Mont-Blanc pens. In contrast to the commericial hustle of the immediately surrounding area (there was a Starbucks coffee no less than 20 meters from the entrance), the garden was tranquil and historical. Our tour guide, Angela, introduced us to a myriad of ancient Chinese superstitions, most of them involving evil ghosts (which apparently can only move in straight lines and horizontally). She showed us the many features of traditional Chinese architecture to ward off these spirits including raised threshholds, zig-zag bridges and mirrors facing the entrance. We also surveyed an amazing rock garden filled with koi, manicured trees and dragon rooves (look it up...).

After exiting the actual garden, we opened our first shopping experience of the trip in the tourist trap that surrounded the Yu-Yuan garden. Many of us were relatively trepidatious in our purchasing, but some, like Li Laoshi pushed the envelope with an 85% percent off bargain. Needless to say, the rest of us did not fare quite as well and turned to Starbucks and bubble (milk) tea for comfort as we left. Miguel made his "big" purchase on the way back to the bus: two faux Mont-Blanc pens from one of those ravenous vendors I mentioned. Coach Moore was an instant celebrity amongst the crowd which were entranced by his rippling ebony physique.

Our next visit was to a Buddhist temple. Upon arriving, we experienced the pungent odor of incense. Buddhists praying for dead family members were the source of the aroma as they burned ritual incense. Additionally, the temple was having a donation drive for those affected by the earthquake. We took a less odiferous excursion into the temple complex that was punctuated with two amazing jade Buddhas. We then concluded our trip to the temple with a meal at a completely vegetarian restaurant that both satisified and nourished (i.e. it was the first fiber we had had in like three days). Again Miguel, and this time Mrs. Harron were the center of attention on the way back to the bus as we almost left them stranded next to the Buddhist temple on the sidewalk.

Our next destination was the Genband corporation's "China Overseas Development Center." Happily, we were allowed to dress more liberally on this occasion as all but a small portion of the office was off on a company retreat in the mountains. At Genband, we learned probably more in ten minutes about media gateway networking than we probably would have without studying telecommunications engineering. Mr. Ping, our presenter at Genband, was a lively and engaging character, who, in the midst of his presentation, had a contest among the students for a 100 Yuan note (about 14 bucks American). We were introduced to both a birds eye view of one of Shanghai's industrial districts via Genband's roof and a micro-view of some the world's most state of the art hardware.

After a rushed supper, we then proceeded to our final event of the night: an acrobatic performance. The show was quite entertaining despite our cramped leg conditions and extreme exhuastion. The performance included FLEXIBLE and balanced contortionists, amazing high-flying shoulder stands and a particularly hilarious section involving knife throwing (the highlight of that act was when a baloon was placed between an audience members legs, he was blind-folded and, instead of having the knife thrown at him, simply had the baloon stabbed while he contorted in fear and the audience in laughter). For some, the sleep-deprivation of the trip thus far took its toll; in a mirror of the bus-rides throughout the day, some people surrendered to the sleepy mists of dreams (or it might have been smog) during the show.

All in all, our first full day in China was one marked by a hectic pace, loads of pollution and a mountain of fun and humor. Mom and Dad, I just want you to know I haven't totally forgotten about you, I just haven't had time to call at a reasonable hour (this is Izaak by the way).

Videos from Day One

2008-05-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here they are...

Chinese Trip Day One

2008-05-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

We were all able to make it safely to China, allthough it was a close call with Daniel, who made it to RDU an hour or so late. Luckily everything turned out ok. Today we were on the plane for most of the time. We went from Raleigh to Chicago to San Francisco to Shang Hai, making a total of 20 hours of being on a plane. Being on the plane was very boring. It was hard to go to sleep, despite the fact that we were exhausted, and the entertainment offered by the airline (Jumper, 27 Dresses) was not particularly good or entertaining. Some were able to kill the boredom will conversation, while others read books or listened to music. Personally I do not know how the food on the plane was because I was asleep, but I got the idea that it was pretty bad.

When we got on the bus we learned many things about the city. For example, the Huang river, also refered to as the mother river of shanghai, cuts the city of 20 million people into 2 halves. The 400 meter wide river is spanned by a suspeneded bridge. Notably the first suspeneded bridge ever constructed in China. We also learned about the many methods of transportations, suich as trains buses and elevated roads. This creates 'layers' of Shanghai. Transportation has also improved dramatically through the upgrading of the train system. A train used to take aprproxamatly 19 hours to travel from Shanghai to Beijing. Now, the same trip takes only 9 hours. There are also many diferent types of architechture in Shanghai, you can look into the street and see a classical chinese building standing next to a tall western skyscraper. Some of the most famous architecture is found at the center of Shanghai. For example, the rotating resturant on top of the raddison building. There is also a strong push by the government to replace old buildings. Shanghai is known as both the shopping and business center of China. There are many different marketplaces and apartment stores all over Shanghai, some even refer to Shanghai as a paradise for shoppers. The thriving and diversity of domestic and foreign business working side by side in Shanghai can be traced back to opportunists or foreign adventureers who began coming to Shanghai on a large scale about 100 years ago. Besides being a center for shopping and business it also is a city that has an exciting night life. Our tour guide mentioned many things that make the city feel more alive at night, such as teenagers going out on the town (of course, we would never consider such a thing).

We ate at a place called The minority resturaunt. Interstingly enough in China minority does not have a negative conotation, it is just said as a matter-of-fact statement. at dinner we saw a variety of entertainment coupled with a plethora of food. However, when we firstg showed up at the redstruant there were already 3 tour buses present in the parking lot because clearly the place was catering to tourists. Hopefully we will imerse ourselves more in everday Chinese life in days to come.

We are all so excited to be here and look foward to a good trip.

Its really late, and we are very tired, please excuse the spelling and grammar mistakes.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Ms. Lee's number is 0118615002184550