From the Archives: Shanghai, Round 2

I wrote this blog a couple of months ago after a group trip to Shanghai. I got really sick before I could finish and never posted it. Here it is in all its glory:



I went to Shanghai with a small group of people for the weekend. It's a 2 hour train ride that only costs about $14 US. The trains are nice and are comparable to most of the those that run through Europe. We left after class on Friday afternoon and arrived in time to settle into our hostel and eat food at a local hole-in-the-wall that some of the students in our group had been to before. It was all excellent food, as usual. After dinner we went to a club that charged a flat fee for unlimited drinks once you go in. I think it amounted to around $15 US, which was for good reason. I'm no expert on top-shelf booze, but I do know that bourbon isn't supposed to be a clear liquid. After realizing that the Jim Beam wasn't Jim Beam, that the Smirnoff wasn't Smirnoff, and that the Jack Daniel's wasn't Jack Daniel's, I chose to stick with bottled beer. That is a little harder to fake. The club was fun, but much to my dismay the dance floor was too crowded, so I didn't bother going out there. The best part of the club was definitely the balcony that overlooks a huge chunk of the city. Shanghai at nighttime rivals all of the other big cities I have seen during my travels. Every single skyscraper is covered with lights from top to bottom. Some have huge screens that play advertisements or commercials. Unfortunately, my camera is terrible at capturing images at night, so I don't have any good pictures of that night out. You'll have to take my word for it though. It is an amazing sight. The next morning a few of us went to a huge shopping district that has all of the knockoff designer stuff like purses, watches, glasses, shoes, t-shirts, and suits. The Chinese expect you to haggle for anything you want to buy, so shopping at those types of places is always fun. I am actually a lot better at negotiating than I would have expected. You start by asking for something at a ridiculously low price. The seller will laugh and then throw out an equally ridiculous high price. After that you both work your way to the middle where you either agree that it is a fair price, or decide that they are asking too much for something. The best tactic for getting someone to drop their price is to ask for something way lower than you are willing to pay, suggest it to the seller, and when they refuse just say you're not interested and walk away. Inevitably, they will run after you and agree to drop their price to something more reasonable. Another good trick is to say you saw a similar product to the one you are interested in purchasing at a different store for much cheaper. That will usually prompt the seller to match that price, or at least come close. It's a lot of fun and even though the highest prices that the Chinese shops charge are way cheaper than anything in the U.S. it isn't really about the money. Buyers are expected barter and ask for insanely low prices just as sellers are expected to ask for insanely high prices. The coolest thing happened as I was shopping. I went in to a store that had fake watches, fake jewelry and fake suitcases (an interesting combination of goods). Inside I noticed two Indian guys going head to head in heated negotiations with a saleswoman. Now, it is important to understand that this is like a clash of the titans. Indians, like the Chinese, have a similar style of bartering in these types of shops. I remember going shopping in Bangalore and witnessing all the intense negotiations that took place within each store. You are expected to go back and forth with the seller until you both find a reasonable price. It's just like it is here in China. These guys are good. To be able to watch these two cultural groups going at it was quite amazing. I decided to sit and watch the show for a while. They were all speaking English, so I could hear and see the emotion with which they argued. The Indian guys walked away 4 or 5 times and the Chinese chased them to bring them back every single time. In the end the Indians talked the Chinese down to a reasonable price and the Chinese accepted. I could only dream of being as good as those Indian guys. After the knockoff market we all went to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink Japanese restaurant. It was heaven. We payed a little under $25 per person and were there for about 4 hours. We closed the place down. It's amazing to me that places like that can operate because we ordered so much food and alcohol that we could have, ironically, fed lots of the starving people in China. We were sat in a room with two large tables down either side. The table on the other side of the room was occupied by about 20 Japanese people our age. These were the craziest bunch of kids I have ever seen. By the look of it they had already been there for a while before us and were clearly inebriated. They were having drinking contests, singing songs, being loud and just having an overall good time. Asako, the Japanese girl with my study abroad program, became our liaison to the Japanese table and we established diplomatic ties with them. We opened with saying that we love Japan. They responded in kind by declaring their love for the United States. We then swapped drinking games. They Japanese games were much better. All of this was in English because they could speak English better than we could speak Japanese. To remedy that we attempted to learn some Japanese phrases. The most popular one was "ichiban" which means "number one". It didn't take long for me to start naming off Japanese baseball players and declaring that they were all "ichiban". Once we started learning the names of our new friends we also promptly dubbed them "ichiban". They loved it. Here are a couple pictures of them:

Still going strong:

Fading fast:

After we closed down the restaurant we parted ways with our Japanese friends and headed out to a local bar. It was a typical bar complete with darts, a couple arcade games and a pool table. We hung out there for a while and then called it a night. The next day we woke up, slightly hungover, and headed to the Shanghai Train Station. Our weekend trip was over. All of us slept well on the way back knowing that we had a successful run in Shanghai.

Letter From the CCP

Note to CCP censors: The following is a continuation of a satirical piece that likens having my blog blocked in China to being dumped by a girl. It is in no way meant to be offensive to Chinese people or the Chinese government and is not supposed to be taken literally.

In response to my blog about my blog being shut down in China I received a letter from the Chinese Communist Party Ministry of Censorship. It is in broken English, but I can make out the translation.



I guess there is no winning back the good relationship I once had with the CCP. It is time for me to let go and move on. Looks like I need a rebound country. I'm thinking I'll pursue a country that is younger and better looking, just for a quick romantic fling. Luckily I will have that opportunity when I go to the UK, France, and Spain. Take that, China. You'll realize your mistake someday.

Is it Something I Said?

For the entire time I've been in China I have been editing myself in order to not say anything that might come off as a slight against Chinese people or the Chinese government. I shelved all my racially charged jokes and refrained from being political so that I wouldn't hurt any Commie's feelings. I thought I was doing a pretty good job until I tried to access my blog to a few days ago and could not. Why is this you ask? Well, quite simply, my blog has been blocked. I was pretty surprised given that the nature of my writing hasn't been political. Could it have been the blog I did about Chinese gyms? Did I offend a scrawny guy working at the censorship office? I suppose I'll never know. If I did offend someone though, I'm sorry Mr. Chinese Censor. I didn't mean to insult your country's gyms or workout habits. I know the Chinese don't really understand the concept of sarcasm, so perhaps I should have prefaced all my sarcastic comments with an explanation. In all likelihood the most plausible scenario is that the Chinese government didn't want to expose people to such terrible writing. My blog is just so bad that they want to save people from reading this garbage. Well guess what, Chinese Communist Party? I'm from America, where we give all the idiots an equal chance to be heard! They won't block my drivel in THAT country! Instead of being upset I will wear this like a badge of honor. I can now join the many disenfranchised people of this country that have had their meaningful thoughts held back from the world. I'd be worried about my blog being blocked if it meant I couldn't access it, but thanks to my computer savvy cousin I have a way to log on to websites that are normally blocked in China. I wish the Chinese would at least tell me what I did wrong because then I could make an attempt to reform. It's almost as if I have been dumped by a girl and she won't tell me why she cut me loose. What did I do, Communist Party? Can I win you back? I promise I'll never leave the toilet seat up again. Is it because I go out drinking every night with the guys? I'll never go to happy hour again. Is it because I haven't been studying Chinese as much as I should? I can work harder! Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. In a last ditch attempt to win back the love and affection of the Chinese Communist censors I have posted a few pictures for them to see my love of this country and what they are missing out on and how much I love China.

I love you and miss you, CCP. Please take me and my blog back.

Note to CCP censors: The above writing is a satirical piece that likens having my blog blocked in China to being dumped by a girl. It compares the futile efforts of a person trying to get their blog unblocked in China to the futile efforts of a man trying to win back a woman. It is in no way meant to be offensive to Chinese people or the Chinese government and is not supposed to be taken literally.

Bigger is Better

During my Freshman and Sophomore years in college I lived in an apartment with three guys. One of the guys was Jun Zhang, a Chinese graduate student who is currently studying optical engineering and working towards a PhD in that field. During one of our many discussions about China I expressed an interest in visiting the country one day. He told me that I should really pursue that goal and that I'd love China. He also said that Chinese girls would go crazy for me. I thought he was just being a nice guy by saying that, but after being here for 3 months I can tell you that it isn't far from the truth. Now, the girls don't exactly fall head over heals for me, but I do get a lot of compliments on my eyes. The funny part is that it isn't just girls who tell me I have pretty eyes, it's guys as well. There have been a handful of people who have asked me if I'd like to trade eyes with them. I've heard that this is because Chinese people are typically attracted to big, round eyes. I can confirm this because every advertisement here features Chinese men and/or women models with rounder eyes than East Asians usually have. There is also a huge demand for cosmetic eye surgery here in China. People actually get surgery to give there eyes a more full European or American look. That seems pretty risky to me, but that's a risk some people are willing to take for beauty. I have gotten a few compliments back home about my eyes, but not nearly as many as here in China. When I look in the mirror or see pictures of myself my eyes don't seem to be any different than most Westerners, so I imagine that lots of Americans and Europeans get the same thing. Still, every time someone comes up to me and says I have nice eyes, I can't help but feel just as flattered as I was when I was told it the first time. The attraction to eyes makes sense to me, but the other thing that Chinese people find appealing on a person's face still seems strange. Of all the other gorgeous features I have on my face the one thing I always hear about from Chinese people is my nose. That's right, my nose. To put it nicely, my nose is very prominent. More bluntly, it's big. It is probably the one part of myself that I have always been the most self-conscious of. I remember kids making fun of it from elementary school all the way through the early years of high school. With that being said, you can imagine my confusion when person after person would tell me I have a beautiful nose. The strangest encounter I had was at a club one night. I went up to the bar to get drinks for my group and the bartender spoke English. She was clearly drunk, probably more so than most of the people in the club, which seems to be acceptable behavior for bartenders in China. After she handed me the drinks she told me I had nice eyes and a pretty nose. I couldn't hear her over the music, so I leaned closer and asked her to repeat what she said. At this point she proceeded to rub the bridge of my nose and say how pretty it is. I was a little freaked out, but also tremendously flattered. I felt like the Ugly Duckling. For my whole life my nose has been the least favorite part of myself, and now I find that in China a nose as big as mine is revered. Try to wrap your head around that one. I must say that it has been nice walking the streets of Nanjing knowing that having big eyes and a big nose is something to be proud of. Can you blame me for puffing out my chest a little bit? I figure that I'm entitled to live it up and enjoy my status here while I can because my ego will promptly be deflated once I step back onto American soil. Until then I will continue to flaunt my money makers every chance I get.

Beijing, Days 2 & 3

We returned to Nanjing by train last night and arrived here early this morning. Beijing was awesome. We started the second day by going to the Great Wall. I know that it's just a wall. But this wall was built hundreds of years ago on some rough terrain and spans thousands of miles. You really can't appreciate the scope of the thing unless you are there standing on top of it and looking at it the rest of it twist through the vast mountain range. After the Great Wall we went into the heart of Beijing and looked around at some shops. I was surprised to see so many upscale retail stores around, but I guess there is now a market for that in China. Next we walked along a strip of street food vendors on Wangfujing Street. There were some normal food items and then some not so normal food items. Some of the things I successfully ate: sheep's testicle, water beetle, silk worm, grasshopper, scorpion, starfish, shark, snake and dog. Then to wash it all down I had a plate of my favorite Cantonese style noodles. We wanted to have a night on the town after that, but once we got back to the hotel room we were all too tired to go out. The next morning we checked out of the hotel and went to the new United States Embassy. That was an awesome experience. It's one thing for Americans to go visit an embassy when traveling abroad, but it's quite another thing to have a question and answer session with a panel of experts who work at the embassy. Since Dr. Onate knows a lot of people in the foreign service he was able to arrange for us to talk to a few of the employees at the embassy. There were a couple people from the political department, an economics officer, a military advisor and the Deputy Chief of Mission. It is unheard of for peons like us to get face time with the DCM, especially since he is actually the acting ambassador to China because President Obama has yet to appoint someone to the top position. After the embassy we went to the Summer Palace. There were a lot of cool buildings and temples in the surrounding area. It was a really nice day out and we all walked around there for a couple of hours. To end our trip to Beijing we went to the famous Silk Street Market. It's a gigantic shopping center that has row after row of tiny shops where people literally grab onto you in hopes of getting your business. They have pretty much any bootlegged stuff you could ever want. You pay as much as you are willing to and the best hagglers can come away with some great stuff without spending much money at all. I didn't need or want anything there, but I did haggle for things just to see how low I could get the price. I won the unofficial sock buying contest that we had. The benchmark was 10 pairs of socks for 35 yuan. I ended up talking to guy down to 20 yuan for 10 pairs. That ends up working out to a little over $2 US. Once we all had our fill of knockoff stuff from Silk Street we went back to Beijing Railway Station and got on the night train to Nanjing. It was a great trip all around and although we fit tons of activities into 3 days it was not nearly long enough. If I ever come back to China I'll definitely go back to Beijing for a while.

Beijing, Day 1

Yesterday we took the overnight train from Nanjing to Beijing. Each compartment had 4 beds and was pretty small, but still comfortable for the amount of time we had to spend there. Usually it only takes about 8 hours to get to Beijing from Nanjing, but the train had to stop a few times during the middle of the night due to mechanical issues. We arrived at our hotel a little after 9 AM and immediately started our exploration of the city. Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. You might notice that I have attached a link to the place we visited. This is because I am way to tired from today to go over all the details of the places we saw, so I have decided to let you look at the information on your own. Just click on the highlighted words and enjoy. The temple was really cool and, as most things in China have done, blew me away due to its age. Most dynasties in this country have lasted longer than the entire existence of the United States. After the temple we went to the infamous Tiananmen Square. This was way bigger than you can grasp from just looking at pictures. It is also arguably the most politically volatile area in China, which you can see from the linked Wikipedia description. I won't go into details about that because I don't want my blog to get blocked, but I will say that there are more security cameras and military personel in that single area than I have seen in all of China so far. I was disappointed to find that Mao Zedong's Mausoleum was closed for the day because I was really hoping to see his body on display. I didn't know this before, but his body is still being preserved and put on display there even though he has been dead for almost 33 years. That is something a lot of people were grossed out by, but for some reason I think it'd be awesome to say I saw the body of Mao Zedong. After Tiananmen Square we went to the Forbidden City. The entrance to the Forbidden City is the picture I posted at the top of this blog entry. It is where the last (I think) government sponsored portrait of Chairman Mao is on display. The Forbidden City is huge and took about an hour to walk from the south entrance to the north entrance. After the Forbidden City we went to an amazing restaurant and had Beijing duck, which is world famous. It lived up to the hype and was the best duck I've ever had. Tomorrow we are going to the Great Wall, which I'm looking forward to. I'll try to fill you in on that after we get back if there is enough time. I am falling asleep while writing this so I'll talk to you all later!

I Should Have Learned Spanish

I just finished taking my Chinese midterm and I must say that it did not go as well as it should have. The grammar section was first and by far the most difficult since I ain't not good at learnin' no grammars 'n such. The second part of the exam was listening. That is my specialty, so I did really well on that section, or at least I think I did. Tests have a way of deceiving you. Sometimes when you think you do an amazing job you get the test back and wonder why there is a big red "C" written across the top when you felt that it should be an "A" instead. The last part of the exam was the speaking section. I stumbled through that due to my lack of vocabulary, but the teacher was very helpful and patient. My teacher told me my pronunciation is great, which was surprising. She then politely told me that my reading skills aren't that good and that I should try harder to learn the Chinese characters so my speaking ability isn't wasted. I must say that I have never studied (crammed) this much for a test before. If I studied that hard all the time for every class I've ever taken I could have graduated college with straight A's by now. Unfortunately, that would also mean I would have had no fun for the past few years. I think finding the middle ground in this situation is the appropriate thing to do. I'll keep looking.

In other news, our group is traveling to Beijing this weekend. I'm really excited! We have a lot planned. I'll have to fill you in on the trip when we get back. After that I'll only have about a month left to spend here in China. Time flies. By the way, if there are any requests for gifts that you guys want I'll be happy to get them for you. Just make sure it isn't too expensive (you can reimburse me if it is) and that it can be taken back home easily in my luggage.

Gym Culture

About a month ago, before I got sick, me and a couple other guys decided we needed to start working out to offset our mass consumption of Chinese food. We stuck to our regimen of lifting weights at least 3 times a week pretty well and I was feeling good. Then the food poisoning hit. I was out of commission for a couple weeks, but now that I've recovered we have all been regularly going to the gym at Nanjing University. It is one of the premier universities in China, yet the gym leaves something to be desired. It's like we're using old equipment from the Soviet Union that even those guys didn't wanna touch. Now, I'm not writing this blog to rag on the quality of gyms in China. I am by no means a 'roid ragin' athlete that refuses to work out somewhere if it doesn't have the adequate equipment (just look at my puny arms). All I aim to do is point out the differences in gym culture between the US and China. So, for your convenience I have compiled a nice list of things that are acceptable in gyms in China, but not in the US and vice versa. Here goes:

1. In China one of the top five universities has probably one of the worst gyms in the entire country; In America the top five universities probably have individual gyms for every student.
2. In China it is common for people to come and workout in full business attire or blue jeans and a polo shirt; In America it is common for people to come and workout in nothing nicer than sweatpants and a stained "10k Race for the Cure" t-shirt that they got 10 years ago.
3. In China it is acceptable for males to take their shirts off mid workout and parade around in front of the mirrors flexing as if they are the next Mr. Universe; In America it is acceptable for males to take their shirts off mid workout and parade around in front of the mirrors flexing as if they are the next Mr. Universe only when they actually have the muscles worthy of such narcissism.
4. In China it costs you about 40 cents per day to use the gym; In America it costs you about 5 dollars per day to use the gym, but you most likely opted for paying the monthly membership fee of $200 after being talked to by that good looking 20-something year old who works there and said that you can have a body like his/hers in no time.
5. In China it is common for the girlfriends of the guys working out to sit quietly in the side of the room and read a book as they wait for their boyfriend to finish lifting weights; In America it is common for the girlfriends of the guys working out to run on the treadmill, ride the bike, and use the rowing machine all before the guy finishes his 3 sets of bicep curls/looking at himself in the mirror.
6. In China it is common for the gym attendants to be old men about half your size and to compliment you on how big and strong you are; In America it is common for the gym attendants to be young college students twice your size and to laugh at you as struggle to bench press 1/3 the weight of their personal best.
7. In China it is typical for the gym to have a broken refrigerator that is always half-stocked with various juices, sweetened teas, and water bottles; In America it is typical for the gym to have an entire food/drink station packed with protein shakes, protein bars, smoothies, fruit, vegetables, vitamin water, and gatorade.

Those are the most blatant differences between the gym facilities of China and those of America. They are all based on my personal experience with gyms and the way I perceive the differences in American and Chinese culture. I kind of like this compare/contrast list format. I might have to do a few more of these. What do you think?

Chairman Mao's Revenge

Last Tuesday I got the worst case of food poisoning ever. As a way of coping with it (and probably a result of the extreme dehydration that came with it) I jokingly looked at the situation as Mao Zedong striking at me from the grave. What better way to harm an evil American than by giving him a little taste of intenstinal bacteria? It hit me suddenly after I had finished school for the day. It is by far the most pain I've felt in my life. The sickness put me out of commission for the past week and I have only just recently begun to feel better. I wasn't able to eat for a few days and still can't eat much in the way of real food. I'm mostly limited to liquids. At least I will drop a few pounds for swimsuit season, right? Just kidding. What was worse than the constant throwing up was the dehydration. If anything got to me the most it was that. Up until now I had never been extremely dehydrated. Even growing up in Tucson it never got that bad because my body wouldn't reject liquids as it did this time. I was constantly weak and in a state of confusion. Aside from my brain feeling completely dried out I could swear I had slight hallucinations. One night, the worst night in particular, I woke up with a fever and remember thinking I was in my bed at home in Arizona. It took me a while of looking around to remember that I was in China. It was after that night I decided to go to an international health clinic with doctors from Canada, Australia and the United States. Luckily, a classmate had been there before and recommended I go there rather than a Chinese hospital, which I was fully prepared to do. I probably would have been okay going to a local hospital, but having the option of going somewhere more similar to the hospitals at home made me feel better. The SOS International Clinic hooked me up with oral rehydration salts because I could finally keep down liquid at that point. I spent a few more days in bed watching movies and reading. This whole ordeal has been nasty. If I ever get food poisoning again here I hope it isn't nearly as bad as was this time. I now look at all Chinese food with contempt, but unfortunately I will have to change my thoughts about it once I am able to eat again. It's really my only option here. I'm not upset though. In the end I emerged the victor. Nice try communist food, but it'll take a lot more than a dose of salmonella to get rid of me.

Update

Hi everyone. I hope you haven't abandoned me. Sorry that I haven't written in a while. I think I can figure out a few more stories to tell, but for this entry I'll just update you with what's new here. First off I should mention the weather. For the past two weeks it has been rainy, cold, gloomy and even snowy. It's quite depressing. I've always appreciated the weather in Arizona, but being here with it like this makes me miss it even more. When I first came to China I thought that having to look at the sun through a haze of pollution was bad, but now I would love to have that back! It's not even so much that it is depressing that bothers me. I'm more bothered that I can't walk around the city and explore without being cold and wet. Apparently this is very unusual for this time of year. Oh well. Now that I have vented (whined) about the weather I'll talk about Chinese class. Four hours every day is no joke. I guess it actually ends up being about 3.5 hours with all the breaks we get. The class is divided into a comprehension section and a listening/speaking section. We have a different teacher for each section. A usual day consists of learning about 10 new characters, learning how to use those characters in a sentence, and then practicing how to properly pronounce those sentences. They stress repetition, which seems to be the key to learning this language. So far I am better at listening and speaking than reading and writing, but not by much. Since there is no alphabet you have to forget everything you know about language and start from scratch. One good thing about Chinese though is that the sentence structure is really simple. For example, if you want to ask someone to go to lunch with you it literally translates into the question, "Lunch?". It's almost as if you are talking like a caveman. "I hungry. I want eat" is a grammatically correct sentence. That explains the reason Chinese people speak English the way they do. Being in China makes all the difference when learning the language. After class you can go to lunch or go to a store and practice what you just learned. As of now my conversations are extremely limited, but maybe someday I'll learn how to say something other than "Hello. How are you?" or "How much does this cost?". Not knowing the language isn't all bad though. It forces you to express yourself through other means, which is a good skill to have. Sometimes things don't need to be spoken to be understood. Last night I went to a bar that's owned by a guy from Tennessee named Jimmy. It's a good spot to hang out, play pool, have a beer, and enjoy some decent American food. While I was there I met a couple local guys and played them each in pool. The first guy, Leroy, works there and speaks English fairly well. I played him and won the first game, which was close, and then basically got shutout in the second game. It was like playing a completely different person. It's a good thing I didn't get cocky and put money on the table because he would have cleaned me out. Getting hustled in a game of pool isn't high on my list of things to have happen to me while I'm in China. After I got crushed by Leroy in the second game I played the other guy, whose name I didn't catch. He didn't speak any English at all, but we still had a great time. We probably played for about an hour and I didn't lose to him once (a couple of those times he scratched on the 8-ball, but a win is a win). They were all hard fought battles though. My favorite part about playing him was dealing with the language barrier. Whenever we would miss an easy shot we would get excessively angry to show each other our discontent. We would shout obscenities in our native tongues and then try to repeat what the other had just said. If either of us sank a lucky shot, or made a really difficult one we would pat each other on the back and flash a big smile and thumbs up. We would get really excited if the game came down to who could make the 8-ball first. If we couldn't figure out the best shot to take we would help each other by pointing to a ball and then showing where to hit that particular ball. We quickly and easily established the rules through miming. A scratch resulted in removing a ball from the pocket and then placing the cue ball anywhere on the table. You had to call where you which pocket you wanted to put the 8-ball in and if you didn't make it in that one or if you scratched you lost. And finally, my favorite, the loser always racks the balls for the next game. The experience was great and showed me that there is much more to human interaction than just words. At the end of the night we shook hands and both left knowing that we have many more games left to play. I asked Leroy if that guy is a regular at the bar and he is. I plan to go back sometime soon and show him the finer points of pool once more. In closing, I'd like to mention the time I spent playing pool with my grandpa because this was the first time I have played pool in a while and it brought back some good memories. As soon as I was old enough to play on my grandpa's pool table (tall enough to see over it and steady enough to not mar his table with the cue after each shot) we would play every time I visited. We would listen to music on his jukebox, have a bottle of coke, and talk about things. The conversations changed as I aged, but the environment and feeling of playing pool never did. Grandpa had his sayings he would use depending on how the game was going. He had his phrases for winning and losing, or making shots and missing shots. When my grandma would walk in the room he would tell her one of two things; to stay (if he was winning) because was good luck or to leave (if he was losing) because she was bad luck. I still maintain that she was always good luck for me, so I was happy to have her stay in the room for as long as possible. Other than the sayings I picked up I also remember the advice about the game. He taught me to how to play the game, how to properly shoot, and how to aim so I could put the ball where I wanted. The reason I bring this up now is because as I was playing the Chinese man I found myself saying the things my grandpa would say for any given situation. I could hear him giving me tips about which ball to go for or if taking a certain shot would result in a scratch. I even sang some of the songs he would sing as we played. For some reason I had the strange urge to order a coke from the bar. Even though I am many miles away and in a foreign country it felt just like old times. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. Grandpa, if you're reading this, thanks for the training you gave me. We should play a game for old times sake when I get back, but I should warn you that I'll probably be a lot better than before. Maybe we could put some money on the table? I'll have to ask Leroy to teach me how to hustle people...

Born to Dance?

I was born to dance...in China. Anyone who knows me or has seen me out on the dance floor can vouch for the fact that have no ability to move my body to a beat whatsoever. For starters, there is no movement below my waist, which is apparently crucial to being a good dancer. I've heard that it's all in the hips. That means all I have left to work with is my upper body because moving my hips is a lost cause. Moving your upper body to a beat seems simple enough, but I manage to botch that too. I have a knack for nodding my head a lot when I dance, so what I end up doing is a weird sort of torso sway mixed with nodding my head to the beat. I still haven't quite figured out what to do with my arms during all of this swaying/nodding, so they mostly just hang around. Sometimes I'll lift them up and see if I can work any magic with them, but I quickly realize that they are much better at just swaying awkwardly with my torso. Bottom line: It's not pretty. This fact has been hard to cope with because given my background with music it would make sense for me to at least be a decent dancer. Somehow keeping time on a musical instrument, which I am pretty good at, doesn't translate into moving your body to a beat. Who knew? So to go back to my statement that opened this blog I have to point out that while I am an atrocious dancer back home I get treated like royalty at the clubs here in China. It turns out that most Chinese males are at the same skill level of dancing that I am (the stereotypes are true), but since I am an American I have some sort of special power. That special power is being able to fool people into thinking that I am a great dancer and that all the moves I do are what ALL Americans do. Popular culture here is definitely modeled after us, so they love any chance they get to see us in action. It is strange enough just walking into a club in China because everyone immediately takes notice of you. Any employees in the area practically run up to you and see if you need anything. As weird as it is going into a club it is even crazier out on the dance floor. The first club I ever went to and danced at was by far the best experience I've had while going out so far. It took a couple drinks for me to work up the courage to get out to the dance floor, but I eventually made my way to where the DJ was playing music. I started my attempt at dancing along with the other Americans that were there with me. Everyone turned towards us and carefully studied our moves. A couple of us caught on to this and quickly abused our newly discovered stardom. I lifted my right arm up and started moving it in a circle just to see what would happen. No sooner than I made the first rotation with my hand did I see one or two Chinese guys doing the same thing. Awesome. I started doing some completely random leg movements and some more guys quickly followed suit. I continued to move in ridiculous ways and watched as more Chinese people emulated my dance style. I started to feel guilty for doing this after a while, but then I thought to myself that I am entitled to such behavior since I can't dance back home without looking silly. It was all in fun. From reading this you might think we were just toying with all those people, but it wasn't like that. At no point during the night were any of the people in my group condescending towards the people we were dancing with. On the contrary, we were all very humbled and taken aback by what was happening. It was hard to discern who was having more fun; us or the Chinese. We all enjoyed the cultural experience and began to make friends. Something else I learned that night is that it is completely acceptable for males to come up to you and start dancing with you. The first instance of this happened when I was dancing near my friend Ian. All of a sudden a really drunk Chinese man came up to us and put one arm around me, one arm around Ian, and proceeded to sway with both of us. Ian and I just passed this off as drunken behavior until some sober guys started doing the same thing. It wasn't too awkward because none of them made a pass at us, but it was definitely not something that would be socially acceptable back home. Another lesson about China is that it is theoretically possible to not pay for a single drink all night when you go out to a club. This is usually true for females anywhere, but it is surprisingly the same way for American males here. All you have to do is work your way over to a table with a large group of people. Give them a nod, flash a smile, wave, and start dancing. Throw a few high-fives in the mix and you're golden. From there you need to point to a glass, mime that you are taking a drink, and you will be presented with a full glass of whatever those people are drinking. Next you say cheers, enjoy a round of drinks, hang out for a little longer so they don't get suspicious, and then be on your way to the next table. Works every time. It sounds more devious than it actually is. Those are perfect opportunities to meet the locals and practice Mandarin. Lots of these people are more than willing to teach you Chinese in exchange for teaching them English. We have all made a couple Chinese friends from going out and I hope to continue that trend throughout the semester. The nightlife is definitely a force to be reckoned with over here. It could easily consume any college student, but so far we haven't let it get out of control. Besides, if I go out too much I'll have to learn new dance moves to show everyone. And I'm running out of ways to flail my arms like an idiot.

Back to School

I was rudely awakened on Monday when I found myself in a strangely familiar place. It had rows of desks all facing the same direction. There were a bunch of people much like myself who were clearly surprised to be there. I think it's called a classroom, but I can't be sure. It's a place where you are forced to listen to someone lecture for a couple hours and are expected to retain some of the information they give you. It's all very strange, but I feel like I have been there before. It must mean that my extended vacation has come to a close. I finished last semester midway through December and am just now starting this one, so I have forgotten what it's like to have to wake up at a certain time each day and go class. And I was getting used to this whole "traveling" thing! The past week has been a good start to what I think will be a great semester. So far I have only taken my political science courses, POL 464: East Asian Relations and POL 460: International Relations between the U.S. and China. Both courses are taught in English by a UA professor. Dr. Onate is more than qualified to teach us these classes given his background. He spent many years working as a Foreign Service Officer for the State Department, 7 of which were at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He has also worked on the White House National Security Council, has served under U.S. Senators, and spent a short time as the Director of the Asian Business Region for a little company called Lockheed Martin. On top of it all he has been teaching at the University level for about 20 years. I am honestly amazed we have the opportunity to learn from such a great resource. Even the first classes have been packed with valuable information about China that I couldn't get anywhere else. Needless to say, I am extremely excited to continue learning throughout the semester. It changes things immensely when you are taking classes on subjects you are passionate about. There is a downside to all of this, however. Next week I will be starting my Chinese Language course. It wouldn't be bad, but the class is every weekday for 4 hours each day! Just to be clear, let me say that again. From 8AM to 12PM, Monday through Friday, I'll be sitting at a desk trying to learn one of the hardest languages in the world. I guess that's the amount of time you need to put in to make it worthwhile, but I really hope I don't get overwhelmed and burnt out. Luckily I am only taking 3 classes as a result of the intensive language course, which should help lessen the workload. It still amounts to 16 credits this semester. Aside from that I have looked into teaching English at local schools and have heard of a couple of paid positions. Apparently you don't have to speak any Mandarin at all because the kids you teach English to just need to refine their language skills rather than start from scratch. I hope to become friends with some of the students so that I can practice Mandarin with them. Other than that I will keep exploring the city and enjoying the time I have left in this program. This trip is a much needed change from the typical college experience I have had so far. Don't get me wrong though. I have loved every minute of my time at the UA in Tucson, but I always felt the need to do something different for a while. Studying in China definitely takes care of that.

Shanghai

Hi everyone. I made it to China safely, but haven't been able to access the internet for a while. The flight went well and even though it was ridiculously long I slept for a lot of it and had a 3 hour layover halfway there. I flew in to Pudong Airport in Shanghai where I met the rest of the students in the Yangtze International Study Abroad (YISA) program that I am part of. I got in at about midnight and then stayed in a hotel for the night. The next day we toured the city together and saw some museums and an amazing Chinese acrobat show. In most of my other blogs I mentioned how amazed I was at the age of most of the places in Europe and how it trumps the United States. Well, China trumps Europe in that department. Not only have they been around for a long time, but they have been developed for much longer than most civilizations. We looked at some artwork, sculptures, pottery and other artifacts that are about 6,000 years old! We also saw a cool exhibit about jade, which is a trademark item of China. It's fascinating how long ago they made the technology to cut and shape jade. When other people were still hunting and gathering, the Chinese were carving jade with sophisticated tools. After the museum we went to lunch and had Cantonese style food. It was all very good and the only thing noteworthy is that I tried chicken feet. Turns out that chicken feet aren't that tasty. At least I gave them a chance. When lunch was finished we walked around the city some more and really got a sense for how huge it is. Shanghai is the host of the 2010 World Fair and as a result they are heavily upgrading a large portion of the city. We visited a museum dedicated to explaining all the upgrades that are currently in progress. The buildings they have planned are pretty amazing. The designers are addressing the fact that they have very little space to work with, but so many people to accommodate. As a result, the city is growing upwards rather than outwards. This is all happening with the newest and best construction materials and technology available. Once we left the museum we headed to an auditorium to see some truly talented acrobats. These men and women were very skilled and performed some amazing feats. A lot of it involved intensive concentration and balance. Some of it just involved luck it seemed. They had to have practiced from birth to be that good. After the show we were all still heavily affected by jet lag, so we called it a night and went back to the hotel. The next day we took a train to Nanjing, which is where I'll be studying for the next 4 months. My apartment is very nice by American standards, so by Chinese standards it is one of the nicest places to live in the entire city. It's amazing that YISA could offer us these great places to stay. I am meeting up with some people to get dinner soon, so I'll write more about Nanjing soon. Hope all is well.

Down and Out in Paris and London

Although my time in Paris and London has been nothing like the George Orwell novel this trip has nearly bankrupted me! Both cities are ridiculously expensive. Munich was a little better, but still on the pricey side. With that being said, it was money well spent and this trip has had value that I can't put a price on. I have seen unbelievable history in all the places I have traveled. The architecture is unique, the buildings are generations old, and the cultures offer so much that I've never been exposed to. I have spent hours walking through museum after museum and still not seen enough. On top of it all I have met some great people. It's hard to believe that it has already been a month since I arrived in London and started traveling. My time in China will probably fly by, so I'll do my best to take in as much as I can while I'm there. I have to get going to the airport now to catch my insanely long flight, but I'll write more as soon as I can. Thanks for sticking with me this far. I hope the next 4 months are just as good!

Bryan vs. the Steak

For my last meal in Paris I decided to splurge. I was pretty hungry after visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral, so I walked around until I found a little cafe that looked like it had a traditional French dinner. Honestly, I have no idea what a traditional French dinner consists of, so it's quite possible what I had was far from the typical French cuisine. By European standards it was pretty early for dinner and when I walked into the restaurant it was completely empty aside from the waiter and the chef. Is it bad that I was excited the restaurant was empty for the simple fact that I'd get my food faster? I know you have felt that way at least once in your life. Don't deny it. The waiter practically sprinted up to me to hand me a menu. To avoid my "deer in the headlights" look I get whenever someone tries to talk to me in a foreign language I asked him, in one of the four French phrases I know, if he spoke English. He excitedly said yes, but that he only knew a little. That's one thing I've noticed about lots of Europeans. They say they can only speak a little bit of English and then they hold a perfect conversation. I guess they like to set people's expectations low and then surprise them. I told him that it was my last night in town and that I wanted a traditional French meal to get the full Paris experience. Without hesitation he suggested I get the steak dinner, which came with potatoes, green beans, mushrooms, salad and bread. Sounds pretty standard, but all those things were prepared differently than I'm used to back home. I could probably do a better job at describing what made each of them different, but like I said before, I don't really know anything about food other than I like to eat it. He also recommended a red wine and even though I hate wine I opted to have a glass. I was determined to get my French experience, dammit! (pardon my French...hahahaha. Sometimes I amaze myself with my wit). The meal was promptly brought out and it looked amazing. However, the steak was by far the largest single piece of beef I have ever seen. This thing dwarfed any steak I had ever eaten in my life until after that night. I wish I got a picture of this thing. I thanked the waiter and went to work on my meal. Everything was perfect...except for the steak. Now, I know I am going to get a lot of crap for admitting this, but I don't like my steaks too rare. Medium is fine with me, which is how I ordered it. As a man I'm supposed to want a steak that still has a pulse and is bleeding profusely, but that just doesn't taste good to me. Aside from being the largest steak I have ever seen it was also the least cooked I have ever gotten. This was definitely the sushi of steaks. "Medium" in French must mean something along the lines of "cooked for 30 seconds". Not wanting to be an annoying American tourist I decided to buck up and eat my food. Besides, I still had the other parts of the meal to look forward to. They were all delicious. The steak was going down okay and actually tasted pretty good, but another problem presented itself. It seemed like all the bites I took weren't diminishing the overall quantity of meat on the plate. It was a regenerating steak. The worst kind. I tried giving it the cold shoulder and favoring the other portions of my meal, but the steak still lingered. I tried to cut it up into tons of teenie tiny pieces to create the illusion that I had eaten more than I actually had, but it was no use. The waiter, Christope, would know I was a failure. Even the faceless chef, who I could only imagine was laughing at me from the kitchen, would know what a wuss I was. With the other parts of my meal gone I was completely full and still had half a steak on my plate. It was no use. The steak had me in a corner and I couldn't eat my way out. It was just too plentiful...and too raw. The only option I had left was one I employ in times that require desperate measures. I used my napkin to cover the remainder of my food with it. I know you have all done that too. It wasn't so much to stop the waiter and chef from seeing the leftovers because they would see them anyway. It was to help myself cope. I had to be at ease with the fact that it wasn't an American steak that defeated me, but was something much worse. It was something no man should ever get beaten by. French food. It hurts just saying it. There had to be something left inside me. I needed to rally behind something. Suddenly it came to me. I needed to order desert. If I could eat an amazing French desert and still walk out of the restaurant I would be a hero. I asked Christophe what he recommended and again, without hesitation, he told me to get the chocolate cake. I agreed. It came in a matter of minutes and I was ready. I tore through that piece of cake like you wouldn't believe. The taste was sensational. It was covered in warm chocolate sauce and surrounded by heaps of whipped cream. Phenomenal. I managed to finish it all. It felt good. Actually, it felt quite terrible because I had to urge to throw up. But it was a mental relief. I could go home happy knowing that although I had lost my dignity to a French steak I could still hang on and eat desert. I am proud to have represented America in that little French cafe. Christophe and that chef will talk about this for years to come. They will tell their grandchildren of my heroism, who will in turn tell their grandchildren. My name may be forgotten, but the legend of "the man who couldn't finish his steak but then miraculously recovered and had the chocolate cake" will live on forever.

Back in the City of Lights

I'm in Paris again. This Europe trip has made me realize that you need a lot more time to explore each city than a couple days. I won't complain too much though because it has been an amazing experience so far. I was considering going to Berchtesgaden in Germany to see where my dad and aunt spent part of their childhood. Their father was stationed there and based on what I've seen and heard of the place it must have been a great place to be assigned! It was Hitler's retreat and home to the famous Eagle's Nest. There are a couple reasons I decided against going there. First of all, it's just way too cold there this time of year considering my lack of winter clothing. Keep in mind I wasn't even planning to come back to Europe, so the most I have is a beanie, a sweatshirt, and a waterproof/windproof liner. I could handle Munich, but imagine me trying to spend time in the Bavarian Alps in running shoes. It would be tough. The second reason I decided not to go is that the town seems to shut down during the winter. There are no tours, the Eagle's Nest is closed, and the only places I have found to stay in are pretty expensive. It's definitely a better summer trip. With all that being said, I decided to start working my way back to London because my flight from China leaves from Heathrow on the night of February 1st. I decided to stop in Paris again rather than go somewhere completely new because I have figured out how to get around here with relative ease. To me it is more enjoyable to spend more time in fewer places so I can explore and learn more about what I am looking at rather than frantically sprinting through lots of cities (although it seems like I have been) just for the sake of saying I went to them. Also, getting around on last minute trains has also proven to be considerably more expensive than planning each stop a few days in advance. It's quite possible that I will have spent more on these two weeks in Europe than I will for a large portion of my time in China. For now it looks like my tour of the European theater is winding down. I would like to spend my last few days in Paris and London. There are still plenty of historical sites and museums to visit. It's also nice to slow down for a little bit and take in the environment. Not only have I never been abroad, but I have never stayed in any big cities. It turns out Tucson is a lot different than most of the world. Who knew?

Dachau

I went to Dachau yesterday, which is the home to one of the first concentration camps started by the Nazis. What an experience. It opened in 1933 and originally housed political opponents of Hitler and the Third Reich. Over the next 12 years it expanded its inmates to include anyone seen by Heinrich Himmler and the SS as unfit to live, which encompassed basically every single type of ethnicity and religion on the planet. I took a train to the site and it was especially cold and gloomy that day, which was very fitting. It started to rain when I got there and I was thankful for the waterproof jacket my dad left me when he went back to Tucson. (Thanks dad). I splurged and bought the audio tour, which turned out to be a great purchase. It had tons of info and was a lot more convenient to use than taking a group tour. The camp itself had been used as a few other things by the U.S. Army after they liberated it in 1945, but in the 80's it was reconstructed to its original state and turned into a museum and exhibit to show what life was like in the camp. The survivors had a big hand in planning its development. They made it so that everyone enters through the main gate that they had to go through when they were sent there. It was an eerie feeling passing through that gate and looking around at all the guard towers that were home to some of the most cruel guards in history. They had the right to shoot anyone they wanted to at any time, without any fear of repercussion. Picking off random prisoners was apparently a common practice. When you walk through the gates you can see a recreation of the barracks the prisoners had to stay in. I walked through those first and learned about the living conditions the prisoners had. It's amazing that any survived at all. At the back of the camp there are now various places of worship of different religions that are in use and centered around remembering the victims of Dachau. To the left of those is the crematorium. That was easily the most disturbing section of the camp. It is the only part that was left mostly untouched at the end of the war. As you walk around the perimeter you can see a few sites where U.S. soldiers buried the ashes they found when they liberated the camp. The plaques all read "Grave of Many Thousands Unknown". There is also a wall in the back that was used as a backdrop for executions done by firing squad. Within the crematorium there were also other methods the Nazis used for killing people . One of the most infamous methods they used was to pack hundreds of people into a room that was disguised as a showering facility and then gas them. There were also the not-so-subtle gas chambers that were used for even larger scale executions. After the crematorium I worked my way back to the main building where the prisoners were processed. It has been converted into an amazing museum that is among the most informative I've ever seen. It starts out by explaining the origins of Nazism and how exactly the group rose to power. Lots of people don't realize that Germans didn't just wake up one day to find their country controlled by a madman. It was a slow process that progressively got worse over time. There were legitimate social and economic concerns that the German people had that made them turn to Hitler's political platform. Unfortunately it didn't work out for the best. The museum also did a good job of explaining the opposition groups that lost out and how they were persecuted by the Nazis after Hitler was selected as Chancellor. After the overview of the formation of the Third Reich the exhibit explained the implementation of the "reeducation camps" we know as concentration camps. They were disguised as labor camps designed for criminals who needed to be shown the error of their ways in order to be admitted back into society. This was able to pass due to the extensive use of propaganda by the Nazis. They carefully engineered the illusion that the prisoners were well fed and taken care of. Sadly, the rest of the world based their reporting on the Nazi news media's own stories. It wasn't until the first escapees published their stories that the general public knew what was going on. Also, as I mentioned before, the treatment of prisoners in Dachau started off similar to a typical prison, but slowly descended into the cruelty that was discovered after they were liberated. This is mainly due to Himmler and the SS taking over halfway through the prison's use. Later on the Nazis worked their captives to death, withheld food and sleep, and carried out medical experiments on the living. The Luftwaffe ordered such experiments to be done in order to determine ways to increase the survival rate of their pilots who were shot down. Some experiments included exposing people to malaria, having them sit in freezing water until they died (to test out equipment designed to protect pilots shot down over the ocean), and placing them in an air pressure simulator to see how much the human body could take while flying at different altitudes. It was all very sickening to read, let alone look at the pictures. The next part of the exhibit went in depth into the exact religious and ethnic groups were imprisoned and what reasons the Nazis gave to rationalize their actions. When I said before that it basically encompassed every single human group under the sun I wasn't exaggerating. Literally every single type of person in this world was represented with at least one person in a Nazi concentration camp. Obviously the Jews were a large portion of those imprisoned, but even people who could be categorized as part of the master Aryan race that Hitler wanted so badly were made prisoners in the camp if they were opposed to Nazism. The Germans definitely didn't discriminate in who they persecuted. They were equally cruel to everyone. The last part of the museum showed how and when the U.S. forces reached Dachau and liberated the prisoners. There were videos playing that showed all the bodies the Army discovered as they explored the camp. Most had wasted away to nothing by that point and it's amazing they held on for so long. The exhibit also showed the world's reaction to the atrocities that took place there. It's strange that such a thing could go on for so long without being known by the general public. Another thing that made the museum really good was its use of personal examples from prisoners who were taken to the camp. It told all of their stories and really gave you a sense of how terrible it all really was. These were people like any of us that were taken from their families and robbed of their lives all for some psychopathic vision of a racially pure world. I really hate to sound like a cliche high school history teacher, but I think everyone should visit a former Nazi concentration camp. It gives you an appreciation for the freedom most people take for granted.

Zee Germans

Hi everyone. I guess my viewership is up to about 10 people now. I'm glad to have reached the double digits! I arrived in Munich a couple days ago. I was fortunate enough to meet a German guy at the hostel I was at in Paris and we decided to go to Munich with a couple other people. The train ride was longer than expected because our train was delayed by an hour do to an accident. They never specified what exactly happened, but they had a few buses pick everyone up and take us to Munich from Stuttgart rather than have us wait for a really long time. It was snowing as I got off the train, which was nice. I often forget what snow is like since I was born and raised in Tucson. I met up with Jeff and Max, the guys I met at the hostel in Paris, and they made fun of me for having so many layers of clothing. My nickname is Arizona boy. Every time we go out they give me a hard time for wearing so many jackets. I told them I would love to have them come to Tucson during the summer and they said they could handle the heat. We'll see. I explored the city the first night I was there and it was great. There seems to be a lot of stuff going on all the time. Max had us try some warm wine that was pretty good. I forgot the German name for it though. We saw a few historical sites that involved the rise of the Nazis since Munich was pretty much the birthplace of the national socialist movement in Germany. It's awesome having a local to explain things. It also helps that he speaks German. I've been trying to learn all I can, as I tried to do in Paris, but there is only so much I can pick up in a few days. I basically have learned how to ask people if they speak English and basic courtesies like please and thank you. I can only hope that people appreciate my effort. I've had a lot of intense conversations with Max and Jeff about American stereotypes and how our country is viewed in the world. They were genuinely surprised that I'm not an obese, snobby, unintelligent, and loud person because that is the common view of Americans from the European perspective. Max actually told me tonight at dinner that I have changed his view of Americans in general. I don't exactly know what I did to shape his opinion, but I'm glad to have done it. As for the rest of Germany, I'm not sure how they view Americans. So far my time here has been a lot of fun. They drink liters of beer here, which is insane. Max told me his record is 6 liters of beer in one night. It's pretty much like water to them I guess. I'm not even gonna try to match that. The food is really good. I had a traditional German dinner that I ordered all by myself. Max said my accent is pretty good. I think I just lucked out with an easy dish to pronounce. I went to a concentration camp today. I can't get that out of my head. I'll write a separate blog about that because my computer is about to die and I don't have my power cord anywhere near. See you all soon.

Inauguration Day

I had some technical difficulties with this blog recently, but I'm back. I know all 6 of you missed me. Yesterday was a lot of fun. I did some exploring around town with a couple of people I met at the hostel. We wanted to check out the Louvre, but we got there at 4 PM, which is when they stop letting people in. I guess I won't get to see the Mona Lisa. After that we decided to check out the Eiffel Tower cause it was getting dark and I had heard the view from the top is amazing at night. We rode the lift all the way up and even though it was expensive it didn't disappoint. I've never seen anything quite like it except in pictures. On the walk to the tower we had an interesting experience viewing the inauguration of Obama. We were walking down a really busy street that has a lot of restaurants and pubs when we noticed one of the bars had CNN on TV. We remembered that it was inauguration day so we decided to stop in and watch. It turns out it was an Irish pub. Just think about that scenario. We're a group of Americans in Paris, watching an American TV station of our president getting sworn in all while drinking a pint in an Irish pub. It was very strange to say the least. There were actually a few other Americans there too. We all joked that after the inauguration we could now walk to streets of France and be liked. We were only half joking because that is probably true. Either way it was cool to see the inauguration under those circumstances. Well, I have to catch a train to Munich, so I'll write more later!

Touring Paris Longer Than Hitler

Bonjour! That's about all the French I know. This place is awesome. Aside from not knowing the language whatsoever and getting lost between the train station and the hostel everything has worked out pretty well. The hostel I'm staying in is amazing. I didn't expect anything this nice. I'm staying in a room with 6 beds and an attached bathroom. It's a brand new building that has a restaurant and bar attached to it, so there are a lot of things going on all the time. Luckily the rooms are far enough away from the bar so it's easy to get some sleep. I've met a lot of really cool people here. There are a few from England, a few from America, a group from South America, a German, and some kids from Ireland. They are friendly for the most part, but I had an encounter with a guy from Argentina. I was being nice and asked a group of kids where they were from. They told me Argentina and then I said that was cool. Then they asked where I was from and I said I was from the U.S. to which they replied with a condescending and sarcastic "Oh...how boring." He and his friends all laughed and there was so much I wanted to say, but I kept my mouth shut. If I were a lesser man I probably would have pushed his buttons, but I'm smarter than that. Getting into a bar fight in Paris is the last thing I need. I just shrugged it off and went back over to Dave the Australian and Ollie from England. Both of those guys are really cool and I could see us becomming good friends if given the time. Unfortunately I'm only here for two nights, but I'll try to keep in touch with them through facebook. It's really refreshing to meet people from countries you hear a lot of things about, but never actually know anything apart from that. I hope I have broken many of the stereotypes that people have of Americans just as the people I have met have given me a better understanding of their respective countries. Time is really the killer on this trip. The one thing I've learned from traveling to Paris so far is that three days is just enough time to see all the things that I should visit and explore more. The hostel offers a free tour of Paris that lasts about 4 hours. It's noteworthy to mention, at least according to our tour guide, that when Hitler and the Nazis overtook France the Fuhrer only spent 3 hours looking around the city. An interesting side story to that is about his encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte. The French put Napoleon's tomb beneath the viewing area so that when people view it they have to look down to see it, which is there way of making people bow to him. Not wanting to bow down to anyone, Hitler had some of his men bring some mirrors into the tomb so that he could see Napoleon without having to bow. Again, this is from the tour guide, but it'd be pretty cool if that story was true. Anyway, back to the tour itself. It was an extremely compacted view of the city and was designed for people with limited time. We saw the Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, The Arc de Triomphe and a few other big name tourist attractions. The coolest thing to me, however, was the police headquarters building. The tour guide told us a really cool story about it. The building has a lot of bullet holes that are still there from WWII. When the Nazis took over Paris they also took over the French police force. That's how they controlled France so easily. The building was under Nazi control until the French resistance, with much allied help, attacked the building and shot it up completely. The tour guide said the bullet holes showed two things. One: The French were able to coordinate an effective resistance against the Nazi occupation and Two: the French were terrible shots. It wasn't exactly clear what they were shooting at based on the bullet holes, but they did a great job of spreading their shots out over the entire building. It was pretty funny. There is something amazing about seeing a building with so much history. It's probably just me, but Paris, much like London, has a very different vibe than anywhere I've ever been. It must be that most of the buildings are much older than the United States. Europe has seen a lot of action throughout human history and many of the structures are still standing. Something 100 years old is a big deal in America, but that is considered new in Europe. It's a different world. I really wish I could stay here longer, but given the amount of time I have it comes down to choosing whether to go to a couple places for a really long time or go to a lot of places for a very short amount of time. For now I've chosen the latter, but it could change depending on how much I like Germany. From what I know about the Germans so far I think I'm going to like it a lot. It doesn't hurt that it is home to so much from one of my top 3 most intriguing historical events of all time, WWII. I'll keep you posted.

Change of Plans

Hi everyone! And by everyone I mean all 3 of you. Thanks for your loyalty! My plans have changed since I last wrote about the trip. Originally I was going to stay in India until I had to go to China, but I have since come back to London and am going to travel around Europe instead. This happened for a couple reasons. The first is that it wouldn't be a good idea for my first travel experience alone to be in India during this time. Aside from the language barrier, all the big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai aren't considered very safe for Americans right now. It would also take a lot longer to get to those places since India is a huge country and I only have a couple weeks to spend there. Without being able to travel I would have just stayed with some of Neil's relatives, which I thought would have been awesome, but everyone told me I'd end up just being really bored. I took their word for it and used my flight back to London that was already paid for. It turns out round trip tickets are cheaper than one way. Who knew? So I am now sitting in Neil and Laura's friend Breck's flat taking advantage of their hospitality and free WiFi internet. Breck and his girlfriend have been unbelievably nice to me. They let me stay the night here last night along with Neil, Laura and Matt, who had stopped here for the night on a layover between India and the US. They even offered to have me stay with them for the duration of my trip, but there is no way I would make them take me in for that long. They have done way too much for me already. Last night they took all of us to dinner at a really nice place and paid for everything. They won't even tell me the total amount of the bill for fear that I will leave them money. Little do they know I'm gonna leave them money anyways. I'm so crafty. Last night was pretty fun. I said bye to my dad and Leandra because they left for Tucson yesterday morning. After that I met Laura, Neil and Matt at the airport. We met up with Breck and were planning to see the Tower of London, but Matt really wanted some fish and chips before we went. He got his fish and chips, but when we got to the tower it had closed about 5 mintues prior. I hope the meal was worth it! I'm only joking though. I still have an opportunity to see the tower. Breck got us all free tickets, which he says is the one perk of working where he does. Since we didn't get to do that we went to a pub and had a pint before heading to The Eye. It's the biggest ferris wheel I've ever seen that gives you a 360 view of London from really high up. It was amazing, especially at night. After that we went to dinner where we all were on the verge of passing out right on the table. We ended up cancelling our planned pub crawl and called it a night. I bought a ticket for the Eurostar, which is a high speed train that takes you to various places around Europe. I got one to Paris early tomorrow morning and it'll take me directly from London to Paris in about 2 hours total! I booked a reasonably priced hostel in Paris that seems to be in a good location. I'll let you know how it is once I get there. After a couple nights in Paris I wanna work my way to Munich, which is where Neil recommended I go. I'll look into where to go in between those 2 places once I'm in France. Feel free to give me your ideas. Right now I'm gonna go look for pay-as-you-go phone that works all over Europe. I also desperately need to do some laundry because my 10 day supply of clothing has greatly exceeded its limit. Oh well. I'll talk to you all soon!

Indian Wedding, Day 2

Hey guys! I have internet for a while so I'll update you on stuff. For now I'll talk about India, but remind me to tell you about the rest of my London trip and the day we spent in Dubai. I've been in India for a couple days now and am having an amazing time. We are at my cousin Laura's wedding that is being put on by her husband Neil's family who are from the town we're staying in called Chikmagalur. The whole thing lasts 3 days and we are just about to start the second day's festivities. Yesterday consisted of a welcoming prayer, the women getting henna tattoos, lots of eating, dancing and of course drinking. I wasn't sure if Indians even drank, but they rival the Europeans I drank with in London. Interestingly, scotch on the rocks is the drink of choice and one guy told me of a saying in India. He said they say that Indians drink more scotch then Scotland produces. That should put things into perspective. They had Indian karaoke last night which was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. They sang traditional songs. But for dancing they busted out American stuff like 50 Cent, which surprised me. I've met a lot of cool people and everyone is so friendly and hospitable. We are staying in a beautiful resort that is owned by a guy who apparently distributes all of the coffee beans in India. Neil's family is very high up and respected in this town, which they basically started. One of their family members owns a 200 acre coffee plantation, which I thought was big until I heard that another family member has a 1000 acre plantation. They are very wealthy, even for American standards. That must be why we are staying in such a nice area when the city is so unbelievably poor. I've never seen anything like this except for in Mexico, but even there it isn't as bad. There is nothing but trash in the streets and the buildings that are around are falling apart. It's strange that there can be so much poverty in one area and then so much wealth only one block away. We went shopping down the main road in Chikmagalur yesterday and that was interesting. Being all white, besides Vishwas who was showing us around, we got a lot of looks and approached very often. Cows freely roam the streets here and one even came into a shop our friends were in. They said the owner just brought the cow some food then pushed him out the door. Also, driving here is insane. The only rules I can see are that there are no rules and that you have to constantly honk your horn. I wonder if horns even have meaning here anymore since they are always blaring. Indian television is also pretty cool. They have a lot of the major networks like the U.S. such as CNBC and CNN, except with Indian commentators talking about their issues. There is also Indian MTV, which was about as funny to watch as Indian karaoke. There are knock offs of lots of American shows like Indian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance in India. All very entertaining. That's all I can think of off the top of my head for now and I have to get off the computer. Hope all is well back home. I'll try to post pictures some time, but it could be a while. This might be the last time I have access to internet for a few more days. My plans as for what to do after the wedding are up in the air. I'll be here on my own after the January 16th when my family leaves and that is when things will get even more interesting. Luckily I've met a lot of nice people here who are offering to have me stay with them or at least show me around, which is good. There is no way I could survive here alone.

Prologue

Hey everyone! I decided to start a blog to keep you guys posted on how my trip is going. I'm new to it, so I'm sorry if this isn't very good. For those of you who don't know, I just spend 4 days in London and am about to spend 1 in Dubai before flying to India for a wedding. I'll be in India for 1 month and then I'll spend 4 months at school in China. Hopefully I can survive and make it back to the states after that. I've never been abroad, so this should be an interesting experience. London has been awesome and I'll need to come back for a lot longer. It's probably because I'm a nerd, but the museums are by far my favorite part of this trip. Also, Big Ben is aptly named. That damn clock is huge. Well, that's all the time I have for today. My internet connection is down to about 3 minutes. I'll try to connect again in India, although I don't know if we'll have access to the interent because we'll be in a very rural area on a coffee plantation. Hope all is well. Talk to you guys soon!