CHINA: Day 7

Wednesday May 23, 2012

This morning was supposed to start with a tour of the British School of Beijing (the only international school in China).  However, because we got back so late last night, we missed the part where we were told what time to meet in the lobby to leave.  There probably were ways to figure this out and meet in the lobby on time but, in all honesty, we were exhausted and not super enthused about touring a school.  Bad, I know.  So, Kenz and I slept in (along with all of the other boys who went to the Olympic Stadium with us last night).  Joe did come and knock on our door right before the group left to see what we were doing, and we apologized for sleeping in.  The group that was actually going to the school ended up being pretty small and it was decided that those of us that weren’t going would go with Sharlet later to meet up with the group at the zoo. 

We wandered around our alley for the morning, and then headed to the zoo with the rest of the group.  The zoo was really big and beautifully landscaped, but not much different than any other zoo.  I soon realized that my new, fake Toms were not the ideal shoe to choose for walking around non-stop all day.  Between my aching and quickly blistering feet and the sweltering heat, I soon realized that the zoo was a lot less thrilling to me than it had been in my childhood.  I was done about ten minutes into it.  However, Branden had never been to a zoo before so we did a speedy tour of the whole thing for him.  I mostly just wanted to see the pandas (we are in China after all). When we finally found the pandas, we were a teeny disappointed.  I don’t know what we were expecting, but the few pandas sitting in corners eating bamboo didn’t really thrill us like we hoped they would.  They were still cute though and I really couldn’t come back from China without seeing a panda, so I guess it was worth it.

After we were completely burnt out on the zoo, we had a couple of hours to kill before we were supposed to meet for dinner.  We were headed back to the subway when we discovered an underground mall.  Shopping pretty much takes priority over everything on this trip, so of course our journey to the subway was put on hold.  We discovered that this mall was a little higher class than the places that we had been shopping and definitely not a very touristy spot.  After wandering around for a while, we decided to grab some lunch.  Kenz and I decided to go to KFC and discovered that it was nothing like an American KFC.  They had some chicken but they had a whole bunch of other weird stuff too.  We decided to keep it safe and just order some French fries; which was a lot more complicated than we had anticipated.  The people spoke no English and the pictures on the menu weren’t very good for pointing at, which is how we usually order when we can’t communicate.  Eventually we got it figured out though.  The boys got some sushi from a different restaurant and we had a good time watching them eat real Chinese wasabi (I didn’t try any, but apparently it’s waaaay hotter than wasabi that you get in America).  That was super entertaining. 

After lunch (and some napping on the tables) we got back on the subway.  When we got back to our subway stop, we decided to just wait for the group there rather than walking all the way to the hostel and back with the group.  While we were waiting for everyone else to get there, the boys starting humming….and then full-on singing, hymns in the subway station.  They were really good too.  We got some pretty funny looks.  Unfortunately, when Joe and Sharlet got there they told the boys that something like that could get us kicked out of the country.  The government takes the “no proselyting” rule pretty seriously and if someone with authority had found out that there were some Mormons singing hymns in the subway station, we could have been in big trouble.  We stopped before that could happen.

For dinner tonight, we went to a night market.  It was a long, narrow street full of food booths with all kinds of crazy foods.  The first thing that I saw when we got there was a whole bunch of scorpions wiggling around on sticks waiting to be cooked.  Soooo creepy!  After seeing them moving around like that, I couldn’t bring myself to eat one.  Some of the boys did though.  I decided that I had to be a little bit adventurous though so I ate snake, squid, and squid eggs!  Yuck!  It makes my stomach turn just thinking about that.  They really weren’t that bad honestly, but I definitely will stick to beef and chicken as my meats of choice. 

After eating, we wandered around the area for a while and explored the shopping that was there.  Branden and Zach helped Kenz and I get some pretty good prices on a couple of things so that was super exciting.  I love watching those kids bargain. 

As much fun as I had today, I was definitely excited to get back to the hostel.  I literally tore my feet apart with my new Toms today.  By the end of the night I was walking so slow and literally limping down the sidewalk.  I felt ridiculous.  Branden even offered to give me a piggy back ride or grab me one of the little bicycle taxis.  Super sweet, but I assured him I could handle it.  It felt so good to take those shoes off by the time we got back, and I don’t know if I will be putting them on again anytime soon.  I did get lots of compliments though.  Like Mom always says, “Beauty is pain.”

CHINA: Day 8

Thursday May 24, 2012

Today was kind of a different day.  This morning we had our briefing with the Embassy (or something).  It was a pretty long subway ride, so Dr. Kellogg decided that she would take a taxi because she doesn’t do too well with walking long distances.  Shannon and I ended up staying with her to take the taxi too because we both have super blistered feet that were not going to love the walk to and from the subway.  Zach stayed to take the subway too because….well….I don’t actually know why. 

The taxi ride was, of course, super scary.  When we finally made it to the building (which was a huge building that took up an entire block) we wandered around for a while trying to find the entrance.  We couldn’t find it anywhere.  So we decided to wait by the subway exit/entrance for the rest of our group to get there.  We waited for a long time and they never showed up.  After a while we decided to go down into the subway station and try waiting at a different exit/entrance (there were 4 different options) and hope that we would find them at a different one.  We waited outside the subway for a while and Zach went in and out of the subway a few times, but we never saw the rest of our group.  Our meeting was supposed to start at 10:00 and after waiting until about 10:25, Dr. Kellogg finally turned to us and said, “Well, who wants to go to the Pearl Market?”  We all laughed and agreed, but I was a little wary of just taking off.  Once you get separated from people in Beijing (with absolutely no way of contacting each other) you’re not going to ever run into them unless you have already planned a time and place to meet.  Before we left this morning, we had made a rough schedule of how we would spend the day (after the briefing, it was pretty much up to us what we did) but our next solid meeting time was at the hostel at 6:00 for dinner.  I knew that if we left now we wouldn’t see the rest of the group until then.  However, Dr. Kellogg told us that even if we could figure out where our meeting was, it would be rude to walk in late, and none of us were super interested in sitting around and waiting for them to get done.  So, we grabbed a taxi.  (P.S. we ended up being at the building across the street from the building that we were supposed to be at. Oops.)

When we got to the Pearl Market, Dr. Kellogg went up to Rui Pei Pei’s to make some jewelry, and Zach, Shannon and I did some more shopping.  Watching Zach bargain with the people at the Pearl Market is seriously one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  He is so good at it! He flirts and argues and smooth talks his way into whatever price he wants.  He always wins in the end but sometimes they aren’t too happy about it.  One lady disliked him so much that she told him his wife was going to find a new husband!  Hahaha! We also love the salesladies shouts of “You crazy!” “You joking!” “Give me serious price!” “Give me no joking price!” every time we tell them how much we want to pay for something.  “You crazy!” has become kind of our China trip catch phrase.  We all say it all the time now.  I don’t think the vendors love when we throw it back at them though.  Once we had bought the things that we wanted to, we went downstairs and had Subway for lunch and then headed back to the hostel to change our clothes (we were in business clothes that we were supposed to wear for our briefing) and take a 20 minute power nap. 

After our little break, the three of us decided to go to the Military Museum.  None of us had a lot of (or any) interest in that, but that’s where some of the group had talked about going this morning so we thought we might run into them there.  But we didn’t.  The museum was either mostly closed or super lame, but the whole thing was outside and there were just a bunch of American planes and tanks.  We took a couple of pictures to show that we had been there and then left about 2 minutes after getting there.  It wasn’t the most thrilling place.  Plus, we had become a lot more interested in something a couple subway stops away: the amusement park.

We had seen the stop for the amusement park on the subway map all week, and we all thought we should probably go there sometime.  So today Zach and Shannon and I decided that, as long as we had nothing better to do, we might as well go check it out.  Our plan was to just go see if it looked fun and check on hours and prices so that we could tell the rest of the group if it was worth going back tomorrow or something.  However, once we got there and found out that it was only 20 qui to get in (like 3 US dollars) we couldn’t resist going in.  From the outside, the place looked pretty legit, but once we got in we realized it wasn’t actually too impressive.  The whole place was pretty old and ghetto looking…..and completely deserted.  It was so weird but there was honestly hardly anyone there!  It was kind of eerie really and we felt like we were in the perfect situation for a horror movie to start any minute.  We soon realized that the 20 qui that we paid to get in only got us into the park, not onto any of the rides.  We decided that as long as we were there we had to ride at least one roller coaster, so we picked the one that looked the most intense and paid 30 qui for a ride pass.  The roller coaster was one where your feet dangle and the safety restraint comes over your head and locks in between your legs.  Zach was the first one to get on and when the guy pulled the thing down over his head and tried to get it too lock, it wouldn’t go.  He started shaking his head and waving his hands and motioning for Zach to get out (this place was obviously not a tourist spot because no one spoke the teeniest bit of English). We were super confused, but Zach got off.  Then the guy motioned for Shannon and me to come get on.  We did and he pulled down and locked our safety bars.  Then he pointed at us and gave a thumbs up and pointed back to Zach and shook his head.  It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but eventually we realized that Chinese roller coasters are made for tiny Chinese people, and Zach couldn’t fit in it.  He’s not a big guy at all, but he is bigger than the toothpick Chinese people (as we all are).  Shannon (who is a tiny little gymnast) and I definitely felt smashed in that roller coaster, but at least we fit.  We felt terrible that Zach couldn’t go on, but the two of us went anyway.  It was actually a pretty fun roller coaster, but not worth paying 30 qui to go again.  Once we got off, we got the roller coaster man to try again to fit Zach on.  It wasn’t going to happen.  We all cracked up for a while about him being too big and went and found a different roller coaster that he could ride.  Too funny.  Note to anyone going to China: if your self esteem is fragile, the amusement park is probably not the place for you to go.

After that adventure, we headed back to the hostel to meet up with everyone for dinner.  While I had had a lot of fun with our random group of 3 today, I definitely felt lost without Kenzy and was excited to meet up with the rest of the group again. We ate dinner at the same restaurant we went to the first night, which was good but nothing too exciting.  When we got back to the hostel, Shannon, Taylor, and I decided to do some laundry before we went to bed.  That was an adventure in itself as the machines aren’t too high quality, but we got it done.

All in all it was a pretty fun day (for my little group anyway) but I think I will be sticking with the majority and not breaking off to take a taxi from now on.

P.S. my blisters felt much better today once I put some bandaids on and got them in my Nikes rather than my new Toms or my dressy business shoes.

CHINA: Day 9

Friday May 25, 2012

This morning started off with us hopping on a bus and heading out to the countryside.  We had about a two hour drive out to this small, poor, village outside of the city.  We were going to a place called “The Special Commune.”  We didn’t actually know what it was until we got there.  When we arrived, we were a little early so we wandered around outside until someone showed up.

We were pretty fascinated by what we saw while we were wandering around.  There was a big, rundown, hotel-like building surrounded by an orchard, a farm, some smaller buildings, and an old playground.  It was all pretty ghetto looking, but kind of cool at the same time.  They also had some dogs there that we were pretty excited about.  One dog looked like some sort of husky-mix and I absolutely fell in love with him.  He was sooooo dirty and tied up and eating disgusting looking food and his fur was patchy and matted and gross.  He didn’t look like he got too much love and attention.  So I gave him some.  He seemed to enjoy that quite a lot.  I really wanted to just take him home with me and take care of him.    He was such a beautiful dog, but by the time I was done petting him, my hands were black.  I was very grateful for my wet wipes right about then.

After about 15 minutes a man named Brian and his wife and baby showed up.  They were the creators/owners of the Special Commune, so they toured us around and told us about what they were doing.  The Special Commune is a home/retreat/activity place for adults with special needs.  In their hotel building they have rooms for people with special needs (and their families if they have them) to stay in.  Besides housing and caring for these people, they also give them responsibilities and keep them busy.  They have a couple of theaters where they put on shows, a café where they have mostly food that they grow themselves, a gift shop where they can work and sell their own creations, and an art gallery where they can display their talents.  I wish I could remember all of the details, but it really was a cool program that they had set up.  The people that come to/work at the special commune don’t have to be residents there, but they have that option if they want it.  The idea is that then people from the community will come and hang out at the special commune and enjoy their shows in the theaters or eat in the café.  The whole thing was still in its beginning stages, but we were quite impressed by the idea that he had going and I think it could really take off.  After our tour, we helped them set up their gift shop/art studio and some of us bought crafts from some of the residents there.  Brian is desperately looking for people to come and help them out with this huge undertaking that they have put on themselves.  It could still use a lot of work and definitely some more people to do that work.  They assured us that if any of us needed a break from school or the states, they would be more than happy to house and feed us if we came and worked for them.  Kind of tempting in all honesty.  Brian gave us the address to their website, but it doesn’t really work.  But here is a blog that I found that explains a little more clearly what I have been trying to say….if you are interested http://vivianesview.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/volunteering-with-intellectually-challenged-youth-in-china/ and here is a link to a site that I found with a bunch of pictures of the Special Commune in full swing http://www.flickr.com/photos/specialcommune/page10/.  I know as a group we became very interested in this program, and I am sure we will be talking about and raising money and awareness for it at SVU this upcoming year.  Such an awesome place!

Special Commune (Sorry it's blurry)

After the Special Commune, we went back to the Pearl Market. (Again?? Yes, again. We love to shop).  It was our last day in Beijing and people had some last minute shopping that they wanted to get done here.  We had some more fun with the crazy Chinese salesladies (Especially watching Branden buying jeans. Probably you had to be there. Too funny.) and all got some great deals on a bunch more stuff we probably didn’t need. 

After shopping, we went back to the hostel, took a little break, and then met back in the lobby.  Joe and Sharlet were going to take us to the tree that David O. Mackay dedicated to sharing the gospel in China.  We rode a couple subway stops to a beautiful park next to the Forbidden City.  The park was huge and full of beautiful landscaping and little Chinese gazebos.  And TONS of trees.  Obviously, this wasn’t Utah, and finding a tree that had been dedicated by a Latter-Day Saint prophet (though he wasn’t a prophet at the time) was not going to be very easy in a country like China.  Sharlet told us that when it happened, it was a very quiet thing with just President Mackay and a couple other elders.  As such, we couldn’t ask anyone where it was because no one would know anything about it.  It also wasn’t going to be marked with a plaque that would have said something pretty close to “This tree was dedicated to the fact that there is a God and he is more powerful than the Chinese government, and someday that will be made apparent to them.”  Okay, it wouldn’t have used those words, but that’s kind of what we are saying here.  So, the only way we could find the tree was from a picture on Sharlet’s phone that she had found on some LDS website.  We found the area of the park that it looked like the picture had been taken in, but there was really no way for us to know the exact tree that had been dedicated.  After we had looked for a while, Sharlet gathered us together and told us that it wasn’t about finding the exact tree.  That wasn’t really the most important thing.  What was important was that we were standing there very close to where that spiritual experience had happened and, even more so, that it had happened at all.  We didn’t have to touch the exact tree that had been dedicated to know that a prophet of God had been there and had said a dedicatory prayer that that country would one day receive the gospel just like the rest of the world.  And while it’s slow and quiet and small right now, it is happening.  Even with all of the restrictions placed on the church in China, it is still growing little by little.  We still have a long ways to go in China, but we are not completely shut out of this country.  Sorry Chinese government, but God is in fact more powerful and will get His way in His time.  (Don’t tell them I said that or I could probably be thrown in jail!!)

For dinner, we got some take-out from Pizza Hut and all gathered into Joe and Sharlet’s room and ate pizza and talked about the amazing week that we had had in Beijing.  Then we packed all of our new purchases and dirty clothes into our suitcases to get ready to head to Shanghai in the morning. 

Beijing was smoggy and smelly and crowded and pretty ghetto in some places, but absolutely amazing.  I have already learned so much about this culture that is so different than ours and I am completely fascinated by it.  I’m excited to move to a different city, but I am going to miss our dirty, but friendly, little alley with its food, shops, and naked little kids running up and down it. 

CHINA: Day 10

Saturday May 26, 2012

This morning we all loaded up our stuff and hopped into the vans to head to the train station.  We were all extremely glad that Joe had reserved some vans to get us to the train station rather than making us do that whole luggage on the subway adventure that we had done the day we got here.  I probably would have gotten a taxi for myself if my other option was to do that again.  But, I obviously wasn’t the only one who felt that way. So we took vans.

I was a little nervous for the train station when we got there.  Joe and Sharlet had told us that it was sooo important that we all stay together once we got in here because if we got separated we would never find each other again.  And, of course, we were expecting it to be very crowded (it’s China, it’s always crowded).  So, I was a little stressed that I would get separated in the throngs of people and then I would be stuck in Beijing forever.  It ended up not actually being that bad.  There were a lot of people, but nothing too crazy, and the train station was pretty much one huge, long room so that wasn’t too complicated.  We got there pretty early so we had time to grab a chocolate muffin.  We also had time to learn that the restrooms were squatters and, coincidentally, discovered that we didn’t have to go that bad as soon as we discovered that.  It’s been over a week now and I still haven’t used a squatter. 

The train ride was pretty uneventful.  We slept, watched movies, played Fruit Ninja, and laughed at Dallas’s extremely loud snoring.  It was fun to see the countryside part of China that we really hadn’t gotten a lot of yet.  The farmland and landscape is a lot different than what you would see in the states, but so pretty.  I was also surprised to see that the smog was just as bad out in the middle of nowhere as it was in the city.  There is just so much of it!

When we got to the train station, we offloaded and were met by some nice men from our hotel holding a sign for us.  They took some of our luggage off our hands and led us out into the parking lot where the hotel vans were waiting (again, so much nicer than hauling all of my luggage through the subways and streets of Beijing).  The ride to our hotel was long, but it was fun listening to our hotel man tell us about Shanghai, and to look out the window and see what an incredible city it is.  It’s much different than Beijing, but I can already tell that I like it.  The city is HUGE and modern and has a much cleaner feel to it than Beijing does.  It’s less about the traditional, Chinese culture stuff and more about Chinese business.  I have decided that I like Beijing better to vacation to because you can learn a lot more about the country’s culture there, but if I were to live in China, I would rather live in Shanghai because it feels more Western and upscale.

Our hotel is the Holiday Inn Express which, compared to what we have been staying in, feels like something ten times better than a Holiday Inn.  We are pretty excited about these new accommodations.  We also aren’t in a sketchy alley anymore and the subway station is now about a 3 minute walk from us rather than 20.  I’m okay with that. 

We had about 15 minutes in the hotel to put our stuff down and get excited about how soft the beds are, before we met downstairs to head to the tailor shop.  The subway system in Shanghai is a lot crazier and hard to maneuver than the one in Beijing.  We almost lost Kenz and Avery at our first transfer.  It’s just a crazy system and the millions of people all moving in different directions makes the whole thing really tricky.

The tailor shop looks a lot like the Pearl Market, only all the booths are different little tailor shops rather than the large variety of things at the Pearl Market.  Roger and Paige Bird, Americans with SVU ties who now live and work in Shanghai, met us at the tailor shop to help direct us to the shops that they use and trust.  We got there not long before closing time so we were kind of in a rush.  Between that and the fact that I was being picky and indecisive, I ended up not getting any dresses made.  It just didn’t work out.  Oh well.  Lots of the girls got dresses and the boys all got suits and dress shirts made.  And, of course, it was all super cheap.  Gotta love China.

By the time we got done at the tailor shop, the group was verging on ravenous with how hungry we all were.  We literally hadn’t eaten all day.  Some had grabbed food on the train or on the street around the tailor shop, but some of us had had a muffin at 9 in the morning and literally nothing since then.  It was now about 8 at night.  We have already learned that the boys get hangry (hunger induced anger) very easily.  So of course they had been at that point for a while and it was only getting worse.  I never thought I had that problem, but between being starving and being frustrated about not getting a dress, I was starting to fear for the lives of anyone who said the wrong thing to me at that moment.  We were not a happy group.  We were trying to decide where the best place would be to go eat when the Birds stepped in and offered to feed us at their house.  They are angels.  While we were taking the subway to their house, they took their car and went and got take-out from a pretty decent fast food Chinese restaurant.

We loooove the Birds!!

Their apartment was beautiful and the food was great (and there was tons of it).  The place was pretty quiet there for a little bit while we all just shoved food into our mouths, and our moods slowly improved.  I can’t even tell you how much we love the Birds after tonight.  They are awesome.  I have also decided that I could probably have Paige’s life.  Her husband owns the company Abbott in Shanghai.  They have a gorgeous apartment, a nice car complete with a driver, great benefits through the company that allow them paid for trips to the states, and she spends her time shopping and exploring Shanghai.  If you are going to live outside the country, that is the way to do it.  I’m starting to be more and more open to the idea of living in China (or any other country).  But probably only when I’m married and can have a life like the Birds.

After dinner we chatted for a little while, took some pictures, and then headed back to the hotel.  We were so exhausted by the time we got there.  Thank goodness for our incredibly comfortable beds!

CHINA: Day 11

Sunday May 27, 2012

We were supposed to have church at 8 this morning, but the Birds, being the angels that they are, invited us to come to their ward which started at 11.  That was the best news.  Church was a long ways from the hotel and was held in this huge conference room.  The room was soooo hot and I was soooo tired.  I may have slept through a lot of Sacrament Meeting.  Oops.  I wasn’t the only one though.  We were all struggling.  We have been going so hard all day, every day since we got to China, and it finally caught up with us today.  We all just wanted to curl up on the floor and sleep.  I honestly have never been so tired in church before.  It was rough.  Sunday School was worse because the room was super small and about 20 degrees hotter.  I felt like I was suffocating.  I love going to church (especially in China) but it was definitely a struggle.

We were all very excited when it was decided that we would put our afternoon plans on hold after church to take a nap.  That was definitely needed. 

After we all recuperated, we took the subway to People’s Park.  The first thing we saw at People’s Park was “matchmaking corner.”  Not a joke, people go down to this corner of park with pictures of their children or grandchild and….matchmake.  How bizarre is that?  When Joe first told us about this, I thought it was kind of a joke.  It’s definitely not.  There was tons of people there wandering around with pictures talking to each other and trying to decide who would be the best match for their kid.  So crazy! I was just dying to ask them all these questions about how it all worked.  How do your kids feel about this?  How well do the matches that are made work out? How can you decide who would make the perfect spouse for your child by only seeing a picture and talking to his parents?  Does the girl who is in that picture know you are down here trying to find her a husband?  The whole thing was so crazy to me, but it’s just a different culture and, I guess, really isn’t that strange.

While there, we also found English corner.  This is where Chinese people go on Sunday afternoons to practice their English.  They all just meet up in English corner and then talk to each other in English.  Obviously, when a group of Americans showed up in English corner the people got very excited.  They all wanted to practice their English on someone who actually speaks fluent English.  They just flocked to us and started talking to us about all kinds of things.  I was impressed with how good their English was (I wish everyone in China spoke English like that!) and how comfortable they were talking to us.  That was a super fun experience. 

After the park closed at 6, we walked down this huge shopping district full of people.  We found an Italian restaurant that we got super excited about and decided to eat there for dinner.  I was thrilled to see spaghetti on the menu (I have been craving that).  It was definitely no Olive Garden….or even close….but it wasn’t terrible.  From dinner, we continued walking down the street to The Bund.  The Bund is this big walkway on the river that gives you the perfect view of the skyline on the other side.  By the time we got there, it was dark so everything was lit up.  I wish we could have gotten better pictures, but you really have to see it in person to understand.  It’s absolutely amazing!  The buildings are almost futuristic.  It’s so much different than like the New York skyline, which is impressive but mostly tall, rectangular, gray buildings.  Shanghai is full of buildings of all shapes and sizes and colors, and when they are lit up they are even more impressive.  They told us that 15 years ago, what we were looking at across the river was completely empty.  Now there is not an empty spot of land anywhere.  The interesting thing is that it was all built up and developed for no more reason than that the government wanted to have claim on the biggest city.  They built up this giant and impressive city themselves, and then sold off the buildings to businesses, etc.  Kind of interesting that they would spend all that money to build buildings that no one had even asked for.  Once again, different culture. 

At one point, the boys decided to walk on their hands for a minute.  You wouldn’t believe the huge crowd that gathered around that.  The people were looking for a show, so they did some more handstands and cartwheels (really nothing that unusual or impressive) and the people just continued to gather.  It was so crazy and so funny!

On our way back to our hotel, we ended up getting off at the wrong subway stop and while we could see our hotel from where we were, there was just no way to get to it.  We got back about an hour and a half later than we should have due to that little misstep.  We were a little frustrated about that, but it was a fun adventure I guess.  We were mostly just super excited to finally make it back.

CHINA: Day 12

Monday May 28, 2012

Today we did a lot of the International Business part of this trip.  We took the hotel vans to a more industrial part of town about an hour and a half away from the hotel.  There we met with the managers of Melaleuca and Nu Skin at their respective buildings.  Both talked to us about their business and how things were run.  Then we were given a tour of the factory to see how their products were produced. 

The meetings and tours were very interesting, and it was fun to learn about how businesses are run in China as opposed to in the states.  Unfortunately, I was pretty exhausted so my attention span struggled a little bit.  The biggest thing that I took away from this was that I should keep going to school so that I don’t have to be a factory worker.  Can you imagine standing and placing plastic bottles on an assembly line all day every day?  All of those jobs looked absolutely awful!  And, in China, they are working for such low wages that it doesn’t even seem worth it.  But, those people can feed their families with the money that they make and are very grateful to have a job at all.  That thought definitely makes me even more grateful to live where I do and to have the lifestyle that I have.  My life is so good.

By the time we got back to the hotel, our day was pretty much gone.  The boys had made some friends at English Corner yesterday that they had agreed to go on a little group date with tonight.  If we are being honest, I was a little nervous about them going out with some girls that they didn’t know in a huge city in a foreign country.  Seemed a little sketch to me.  But, they are big boys who can handle themselves so no one really thought anything of it.  The funny thing is that if the tables had been turned at it was the girls that were going out on a date, not only would our chaperones not have let us go, but neither would those boys.  Double standard? Well yes, but that’s probably okay. 

Joe and Sharlet had dinner plans with some of their former students and some of the boys had dates, so the rest of us got stuck with McDonald’s for dinner.  Nice.  Luckily, I wasn’t too hungry so an oreo McFlurry and some French fries were just perfect for me.  After dinner we went back to the hotel and while some played cards in the lobby, Kenzy, Shannon, Zach, and I watched Mulan in our room.  Watching Mulan while in China definitely had to happen.  That was pretty fun.

Eventually Branden and Avery showed up and told us that their dates never showed up.  So, they went on a little man-date instead.  Also, Dallas was supposed to meet them somewhere with his date, but he didn’t.  They ended up coming back without him and hoping that he wouldn’t get himself into trouble.  Dallas showed up a little while later and told us about what a great time he had had on his date.  We gave him a hard time about leaving the other boys and going out with a prostitute (He didn’t really but there were lots of things said and done that made it look that way).  Once everyone was back, we put in Branden’s new movie, Red Tails, which is about the Tuskegee airmen.  It seemed like a good show, but I fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and ended up just going back to my room and going to sleep.  This China stuff is exhausting!!

CHINA: Day 13

Tuesday May 29, 2012

Today we had another meeting with a company, but it wasn’t until 3:00 so we decided to fill our morning with our favorite thing: shopping! A bunch of us were wanting to find the cheap DVDs, so Joe asked around and found out where we could get them.  When we got to the subway stop that they had told him, we found a huge shopping district.  Only it wasn’t the cheap, fake, touristy shopping that we were looking for.  It was mostly big, fancy malls with lots of name-brand stores.  Not really the ideal place for finding illegal DVDs.  We only had about 45 minutes there so we ran all around the area trying to find where the DVD store would be.  We were completely unsuccessful.  Luckily, at the next shopping area where we were supposed to meet the rest of the group, we had a little more success.

This shopping area was an underground thing that you walked right into when you got off the subway.  It went on forever in every direction just full of little stores with all kinds of cheap things.  This is the shopping that we love.  While Kenz and I were looking at purses, Sharlet came and found us to tell us that they had found the DVDs! We followed her down the hall until we came to a store that appeared to be full of socks and underwear.  We were a little confused until we walked into the store and saw a bunch of our people sitting on the floor in the corner surrounded by DVDs.  Obviously you had to know where to look.  We spent a long time sitting in there looking through movies and continually being handed more by the guys working at the store.  When we had loaded up on all the ones that we wanted, we fought about the price for a while and eventually walked out of there with tons of new movies for about 1 or 2 US dollars each.  So cool!

After shopping, we went back to the hotel where Roger Bird had arranged for a bus to take us from there to his company, Abbott.  That was super nice of him.  Abbott was definitely my favorite company that we visited (not just because they had M&Ms and Diet Coke for us).  I love Roger and his whole presentation was absolutely fascinating to listen to.  He talked to us for about 2 hours and I just hung on his every word.  We learned a lot about his company and his life in China, but we also learned a lot about the Chinese culture and what it’s like to run a business in China.  So interesting! If you want to be successful in business, China is the place to go. 

After our meeting, we had about an hour to kill so Roger directed us to another shopping area about a block away.  We found lots more DVDs and other fun stuff there that we were quite excited about.  After we had all spent some more money, we went back to Abbott where Roger was waiting to take us to dinner.  The restaurant that he took us to was a very upscale Tibetan restaurant.  I could already tell that I would like dinner tonight when I had just stepped in the door.  The rest of the Bird family met us there and we were led upstairs to a long table. 

Once we were all seated and had our drinks ordered, Paige Bird told us that we should go check out the bathrooms.  She also told us that we should take both genders with us.  We were a little confused but figured we better listen.  When we walked into the bathrooms, they were super fancy and we were quite impressed by them.  Then we glanced over to the mirrors above the sinks and rather than seeing our reflections, we saw the boys!   That definitely made us jump.  The bathrooms were just normal, fancy bathrooms except for that there were giant holes in the walls above the sinks where the mirrors should have gone.  We all got a kick out of that and spent some time taking pictures and messing around in the bathrooms.  So funny!

We definitely had too much fun in these bathrooms!

Roger ordered dinner for us and it was DELICIOUS!  Hands-down the best meal we have had here.  The courses just kept coming and while sometimes I didn’t know what I was eating, I didn’t really care.  It was soooo good!  I loved the Birds even more after this meal.

After dinner, Roger’s bus took us back to the hotel and at 9 we headed over to the boys’ room where Linda (the tailor) was coming to do suit fittings for them.  That was pretty entertaining.  Linda is this adorable, 4’5” 20-year-old who is just hilarious! She was so quick and just gave the boys the hardest time!  We absolutely love Linda.  The boys all tried on their new suits (Can you believe they got measured for them on Saturday and now they are already done on Tuesday???) and then did a little catwalk modeling for us.  That was good for a laugh. 

All in all it was a really fun day (probably because we finally had a really good meal!).