T.J. In China

Please enjoy our guest author for this week- T.J. is in China!

Hello Everyone, This time it is T.J. writing from China! I got into China on the 2 of December, China time, and I will be here until the 16th of December. So far, I have seen a lot and experienced a very different culture then back home in the States. Anyways, this is my first blog and I am going to try to give you all the details of my first week here. Well, here it goes.

Day 1

My trip started out of Seatac at 12:30 on Sunday November 30th. I flew of Northwest air on an Airbus 330. The first flight was to Tokyo Japan and was 10 hours long. My seat in the airplane had its own TV screen and control that allowed me to pick movies, games or music to listen to. On the first flight I watched Wanted, Batman Returns, and Walli. It was a fun start to the trip. When I got to Tokyo I had one hour and forty-five minutes to wait for the next flight to Beijing. This trip again was on an Airbus 330 and was about 4 hours long. When I got to Beijing, at 10 p.m., I had 10 hours to sit around for a morning flight at 8 a.m. This is when I knew I was no longer in the U.S.A.

In Beijing I had to walk from terminal 2 to terminal 1 which was a ten minute walk. Not bad, but this walk I would have on my backpack and be pulling a fifty pound rolling bag and also another forty pound rolling bag. It was interesting. Along the way everyone asked if I needed a taxi or a hotel. I said no and found my way to the ticket counter of Hainan Airlines. Once there I found some chairs to sleep on. After an hour or so a lady with an ID badge came to me and said I must go to a hotel or upstairs to sleep. I thought awesome a place to sleep that I don’t know about. I told her no hotel but maybe upstairs. As we walked she told me it would be 300 "Kuai" or ¥. I started to point at chairs and say, “But I will stay here for free.” Anyways, we get upstairs and walk to a restaurant and she told me to wait as she talked to a man. We then walked through the restaurant to a back room that had three “beds” in it. They turned out to be massage tables, but still comfortable. I paid the lady and lay down to sleep for a few hours. It was nice to be able to sleep and not worry what was happening to my bags.

At 5:30 the next morning the man that the lady was talking to came in to get me up. I had already been awake for awhile so it was not too bad. I think he was getting ready for breakfast, haha. Then it was off for my last leg to Xi’an. I went through security that is very similar to security in the U.S.A. and then to my gate. As I boarded the Boeing 737 for the one hour thirty minute flight I notice that I was the only American on the plane. It was very strange, also knowing that I was one of the few that recognized the English announcements.

When I got to Xi’an there was a man with my name on a piece of paper! My driver to Brad’s school. When we got to the car he also had his wife and two children with him. On the drive we dropped them off at his house. The driver, Mr. Mu, knew about two English words, wife and house. Also, driving in China is very different from the states. First of all, there is a lot of swerving and no blinkers. Second, red lights mean very little except if there is a traffic camera on the corner. Third, be happy if there are traffic lights, we came up on a few four way intersections that had no light and no stop signs! Also, people just cross the street, even on a highway that has four way traffic each direction. But, all and all a few horn beeps, near misses and we made it to Brad’s!

At Brad's!

I made it to Brad’s school. It is behind a blue gate with a guard on duty. Check out the pictures on his site if you haven’t seen it. Once we were inside we waited for Brad to come out and then we took my bags and walk to the far side of the compound where his apartment was. It is on the school grounds which made it very easy to get to work. Brad came up with me and showed me around his place. The time was about 12 noon. We got settled in and then we got on Skype to call the parents to tell them that I had made it and all is well. After that Brad went back down to school and finished his class.

When Brad was done with school he came back and we both took a little nap. After that we decided to go out and walk around. We walked down an ally that they call the village because the ally had stored lined down both ends. The store looked like storage sheds that would be opened when the store was open. The stores included: Clothing, shoes, electronics, food, barber shops and others. The interesting part was that the five or so different store just repeated over and over. There were so many people that the small stores were all packed with people. A few times we saw people selling things on blankets. Brad said that if the police came they could pick up their things and move away. Also, I saw a lot of puppies for sale. As for pets, here people tie up cats and dogs are mostly strays. One cat we saw was tied to a tree!

At one of the food places, Brad and I stopped to eat. It was the first Chinese place Brad ate at and it would also be my first. The restaurant had a picture menu that you could point at and Brad was able to talk to the young girl that was waiting on us. Brad ordered eggs and tomato on rice and also a dish that was like hash browns on rice. I ordered chicken with peppers on rice. After we ordered, they took the order and made it on a grill that was on the street. When the food came it was as tasty but different. Brad said that he was sorry but chicken comes with bone and all just chopped up. Brad said it was like Sesame seeds, you have to spit the bone out. It was alright but not something I was use to.

After dinner, we continued our walk and walked by two colleges and looked into a mall. The clothing mall had stores like you would think but only clothing stores nothing else, no food, no major electronics, no furniture, only clothing. After the short mall visit, we walked back to the village café that has the hot chocolate that Brad has talked about before. It was delicious and a very nice spot. Brad didn’t like the location that much because it is mostly foreigners that go into it. After that, we walked back to the school and Brad’s apartment where we watched Kung Fu Panda and went to bed.

Wednesday the 3rd

This morning, December 3rd, I woke up to the sounds of dogs behind Brad’s apartment and the children of the school doing there morning exercises. There is a boarding school of about 350 students that get up every morning and do exercises. After that I typed this log up and took a shower. Brad’s shower is very very low pressure but it does have hot water. After that Brad joined me for lunch and then we both walked down to his class. He has five girls and one boy that have a lot of energy.

Today, they were studying for a science test, but first they wanted to interview me. The questions seemed to be the same: what is Brad’s girl friend’s name? and do you have a girl friend? A little later we went down for P.E. that was going to be kickball with some balls that I brought from the states. Kids were going everywhere but it was still fun. Now, Brad is off to a Chinese class and then we are going to go find some food.

Dinner was down the road at a Chinese restaurant. Brad ordered us some macaroni style noodles dish and also some sweet and sour chicken, this time with no bones. There was also some entertainment at the restaurant. It was a cat that was wondering around the restaurant. An older lady, with a coat hanger, was trying to catch it but it kept getting away. At one point, it jumped on a chair under one of the tables and the lady look under the table but never on the chair. The car kept meowing and it was making me and Brad laugh. Finally, the lady found the cat and took it to the back room, where the kitchen was. The cat did make another escape later after we got our food so our chicken was still chicken, I think. After that, we jumped on a bus to down town.

The bus we got on was two levels, so we got on the second and moved to the front. It is a scary ride from up there and it feels like you are going to fall on the cars in front of you because the bus goes fast and stops fast. When we got downtown, we walked by the bell tower and the drum tower. They are lighted up at night and look awesome. Then we walked through a few of the market places that have everything a tourist could need. The sellers knew just enough English to say, “Buy this T-shirt” or “Come in here.” We also stopped at a Dairy Queen; it is one of two in the city. Downtown was very cool and I think we may go back soon. We rode a taxi back to Brad’s and then headed to bed.

December 4th

On the 4th it was a very nice day out. Brad headed to school and I cleaned up his apartment. It was just a little dirty, haha. After school, we met up with Cari, a good friend of Brad's, and then we went shopping for their gift exchange that they had this weekend. We also hit another famous Chinese restaurant, Subway. Other than that it was an easy day.

Brad's Birthday

On Brad's Birthday we opened presents from home at lunch and then went down to his class. The students gave Brad some gifts and Cari also made a cookie cake that we ate and made a mess in his classroom. After school, we headed to Brad's group and had a game night with some of the people that he knows here in the area. It was a lot of fun.

This Weekend

Every year, the community that Brad knows celebrates Thanksgiving on Saturday and Christmas on Sunday. They call it Christgiving and they do it this early in case people head home for the holidays. So on Saturday we had a giant Thanksgiving dinner and on Sunday we had a brunch. There were also a lot of games and skits.

Monday

We met up with one of Brad's student's families for a dim sum breakfast. It was all you can eat with a lot of Chinese dishes. The dishes include both breakfast and lunch items. The food was very good and we got to try a lot of interesting things. Probable the most interesting of course was a plate of chicken feet. I hesitated for awhile but decided to try a little of it. It was like eating a chicken leg with very little meat on it and a very small bone in the middle. There is a picture of it that I have a link to at the bottom of this page.

After a delicious breakfast we got a taxi cab to the terracotta warriors. The eighth wonder of the world! This is a tomb that has thousands of soldiers that were made in clay to protect the emperor Qin Shi Huang. The soldiers were made in 200 B.C. and were discovered in 1974. It is amazing to see. The pictures show you a little more about it and the many soldiers that are there.

Today

Tuesday, I woke up today and looked through all of my pictures and loaded them on to Picasa. Please check them out. I also put this blog together and now I need to get out into the sun. I may post again next week with the rest of my adventure. Brad is in school now but told me to say hello to all of you. Thanks for reading my long story. Tell next time, so long from Xi'an.

From T.J. In China