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!). 

CHINA: Day 14

Wednesday May 30, 2012

Today was our last day in China.  That thought kept hitting me throughout the day and I definitely didn’t love it.  I can’t believe we have already been here for two weeks.  Time has really flown and at the same time it feels like forever ago since we were in America.  I definitely have mixed emotions about leaving.

This morning it was pouring rain for the first time since we got here.  Rain in China means that there are a lot less people on the sidewalks and a TON more people in the subways.  I thought the subways were crowded before, but that was nothing compared to today.  When our subway pulled up, I thought, “there’s no way we are getting on there!”  It was sooo crowded!  Somehow we all squeezed on, but we were so squished!  Not too pleasant.  I had barely made it on so I was pressed up right against the door, and at the next stop this became a problem.  All of the people squished up behind me wanted to get off, and there were tons of people at the station wanting to get on.  And I was right in the middle of them trying not to get pushed off with the flood of people, and at the same time being pushed on with all of the other people getting on.  At one point I was literally hanging onto one of the bars so that I wouldn’t get pulled out, and my purse got caught on the shirt of a girl walking off.  I was being pulled in two separate directions from hanging onto the subway and being pulled by my purse.  In all honesty, I was a little terrified.  Eventually the doors closed, and I was lucky enough to still be on the subway when they did.  The rest of the ride was absolutely ridiculous with the amounts of people that continued to pour on when there was literally not a centimeter of space anywhere.  By the time we finally got off (which was super tricky in itself) we all felt extremely violated and I vowed to never get on a subway again.  It was so awful!

After our subway ride from Hell, we had a meeting at Martin Hu and Partners Law Firm.  Martin Hu stayed with Rod Smith (SVU’s President until about a year ago) and became very close friends with their family.  He is now a very successful lawyer in Shanghai.  Our meeting with him was pretty informal, but we had a lot of fun talking to him and all of the people that work with him.  We didn’t learn a lot about being a lawyer in China, but I still learned a lot.

After our meeting, we had lunch at a fancy little dumpling restaurant that was pretty good, and then headed back to our shopping place that we went to yesterday.  Our goal there was to return or replace some of the DVDs that we had bought that weren’t the best quality.  That ended up being pretty tricky and frustrating, but somewhat successful.  I was definitely more successful with some of my other shopping. 

From the shopping place, we wandered over to the urban planning museum.  I wasn’t really in a museum mood, but it was a super cool museum.  It was just floor after floor of models and designs and layouts and blueprints of the city of Shanghai and how it was built.  There was one floor with a scaled model of the entire city.  The model was HUGE and took up that entire level.  Shanghai is such a big, modern city.  That was really cool to see.  Then we took taxis back to the clothing district so that the girls who had ordered dresses could get them fitted.  Since I didn’t have a dress, I just wandered around and waited for a while until we were ready to head back to the hotel.

We went to a really nice Chinese restaurant for our last meal here.  We were separated into two separate tables and left to order for ourselves.  Our table (the one without Joe and Sharlet) chose to start our dinner off with these huge cups full of the most delicious ice cream and a couple of plates of fruit salad over shaved frozen coconut milk and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk.  Soooo delicious!! The rest of the meal was really good too and we couldn’t believe how fast we ate all of it.  After we were completely stuffed, we ran across the street to another DVD store that the boys found.  The DVDs were a little more expensive, but they were also much better quality so that was nice.

Once we got back to the hotel, we all had to undertake the task of getting all of our stuff (new and old) back into our suitcases.  Pretty tricky, but we made it work.  Then, at around midnight, a group of us decided that our last night in China couldn’t be spent in the hotel room.  So, we grabbed a couple of taxis and headed out on the town.  We took the taxis back to The Bund and had fun wandering down it with the boys and their lasers and masks that they had bought.  Because it was so late, it wasn’t lit up like it had been when we went before, and it was also really deserted.  It’s always weird to go somewhere in China where there isn’t tons of people.  It was kind of fun though.  We had one group of kids come up and ask to take pictures with us, and one prostitute who tried to get the boys to go have a massage, but other than that it was pretty quiet.  It was definitely the perfect way to end our trip.

Soooo sad to leave this amazing place

After watching a movie (well, some of us slept through a lot of it) we decided that we had to let our last day in China come to an end and finally went to sleep at about 3 am.  

CHINA: The End

Thursday May 31, 2012

Well, it’s over.  You never realize how much you love a place until you have to leave it.  I have gotten so comfortable in China that it really feels weird to leave.  I will spare you the details of all of today’s traveling and just say it was a very long day (or two days?) and I couldn’t have been happier to finally see my mom.  I definitely had mixed emotions about leaving, but here are the things that I was excited to get back to the states for:

1.       Not having to worry about whether the place that we are going will have Western toilets

2.       Being able to breathe in the clean air and see the sky rather than the smog

3.       Good air conditioning

4.       Being able to blow dry, straighten, and curl my hair without being afraid of getting blown up

5.       Being able to walk out of my house and get in a car rather than walking, taking the subway, taking a bus, or taking a taxi

6.       Driving in a place where people obey traffic laws and watch out for other cars

7.       Cheeseburgers, spaghetti, PB&J, bread, cheese, French fries, and pretty much any food besides rice and chicken

8.       Being able to drink water wherever I find it, and not just from bottles

9.       The existence of trash cans, clocks, and drinking fountains in public places

10.   Not feeling like I have to use hand sanitizer every 5 minutes on not only my hands, but everything around me

11.   Being able to understand what everyone is saying and have them understand me

12.   Having access to my full wardrobe (and collection of shoes) again

13.   Getting to sleep in and take naps

14.   Being able to use my cell phone

15. Finally getting to see my family again

So, as true as this list may be, it makes it look like my trip to China was miserable.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I honestly loved every second of it.  I have realized that the American culture is definitely the one that I am most comfortable with, but I loved being able to participate in the Chinese culture for a little while.  More than the culture, I love the people themselves.  When we were at the airport this morning, we were all feeling pretty sad about leaving and Sharlet said, “I just need a Chinese person to come be really rude to me.”  If the people weren’t so sweet, it would have been so much easier to leave them.  Most of the Chinese people live very simple lives, but they are so kind and so enthusiastic and so full of joy.  They are such good people and I am so glad that I took this trip and gained this love for the Chinese people that I honestly have never had before.  I feel terrible about the way many Americans view groups of Chinese tourists because when the tables are turned, we are treated like royalty.  The lesson of not judging people before I know them has been pounded into my head so many times over the last year, and I think these last two weeks were the grand finale of that lesson that I so desperately need to learn.  People are amazing. 

I cannot even tell you how much I have learned over the last two weeks.  The trip was for an International Business class and, while I did learn a lot about that, I learned soooo much more than things related to business.  I learned about a completely different culture than anything I have ever known.  I learned to try new things.  I learned to appreciate the idea, and reality, of the “American Dream.”  I learned to give people the benefit of the doubt and to hear their story before making judgments.  I learned that I am in love with Asian babies and I want one so so bad.  I learned how strong the gospel is and what a huge impact it can have on a life – especially my own.  I learned to be grateful for rather than complain about the government system in America.  I learned to be grateful that I am not an only child and that my kids won’t have to be either.  I learned how to haggle.  I learned how to communicate without using words.  I learned how to be less concerned about having personal space.  I learned to appreciate the little things.  And, most of all, I learned to be grateful for the incredible life that I have and the incredible people that I have in it.

The last two weeks have been amazing and life-changing.  This was definitely a trip that I will never forget.  I absolutely love my China family and how much fun they made this trip. We honestly had the best time together.   I love the country and the people of China, and I would go back in a heartbeat…..and I plan on doing just that!  

So Close!

Man I am a slacker! I wish I could use the excuse of being really busy, but that's not actually true anymore. The last two weeks have been really chill. Two weeks ago we went up to DC to take a break and hang out with Emily. We didn't end up doing a whole lot (hence the "taking a break" part). We mostly ate and watched movies and slept. We wandered around Georgetown on Saturday and I decided that I would be perfectly happy getting a little apartment right in the middle of Georgetown and going  to grad school or working for a little while. It's such a cute town!

Also we went to Georgetown Cupcakes. Totally worth the long wait and $3.00. Delicious!

The rest of the last two weeks have been spent going to class and getting ready for CHINA!! Class has been really relaxed and I have even almost enjoyed it. Dr. Kellogg is super crazy and absolutely hilarious. She mostly doesn't care about this class too much. She really just wants to go to China. We all feel the same way. So far, getting ready for China has included packing, cleaning, learning some Chinese, learning about etiquette in China (Chinese people are so easily offended!), practicing squatting to prepare for the lack of western toilets, getting pedicures (and getting hit on/asked on a date by the 45 year old Vietnamese man giving me a pedicure), sharing music, making friends with the other kids going with us (and determining the ones that are going to drive us absolutely crazy), watching Mulan, freaking out about crazy/nasty Chinese food, figuring out the money situation, shopping, updating my blog, breathing in the clean Virginia air, buying lots of hand sanitizer, and eating all the American food we can get! This is going to be a whole new experience in both good and bad ways. I don't know what to expect. I'm nervous about the masses of people, the smog, the lack of sanitation, not being able to call Mom whenever I need to, the ridiculously long plane ride and, of course, the food. But, for how nervous I am, I am ten times more excited. I can't believe in less than 48 hours I will be getting on a plane to China. I still can't believe I am actually going. It's so surreal, and probably still will be even when I am standing there on the other side of the world. I. Cannot. Wait! I better keep working on my packing. I don't know if I will have access to my blog when we get to China, (Communism messes with stuff like this. I know we can't use Facebook or Google) but if I do I will keep you updated. We have lots of crazy fun things planned for when we get there.

P.S. I got my iPhone today. I am in love! It's beautiful. The end.

Paintings that a certified master Chinese brush painter came into class and painted for us. She was AMAZING!

Asain buns and Mulan night. We are so ready!
P.S. please note the unintentional Asian eyes on my part. I am going to fit right it!