Round three

It's new classes, a new apartment, two new roommates, a new walking route to campus, new books. It's a new semester.

And a new semester means that everything is different.

All of this school hoopla is stressin' me out.

I just want to be here:

Jet lag

4 days after flying back from China and I'm still experiencing a hardcore case of jet lag.

It seems these two kids are feeling the same way:

8:30 on a Friday night. This is what flying back from China does to you.

Let me see Datong

There's no way I can go on blogging without telling the story of my visit to Datong a few weeks ago. It is worth setting aside all of the unpacking and craziness to write this down.

My roommate Jordan came to Shanghai to visit for a few weeks right before we came back to school. My friend Kevin and I greeted her in the airport with a giant sign and a dragon costume. The next day it was off to Beijing and Datong for the three of us. We had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into when we began the trip.

I've had been to Beijing twice prior to this trip and was excited to plan everything and book the flights and hostels. I've always done the hotel thing with my family and was excited to check out the hostel world. After arriving in Beijing we checked into the hostel and set out to explore Beijing before we had to leave on a train at midnight. We ended up spending our time on treat street and daring each other into eating starfish, sheep balls, and penis. Quite the appetizing dinner. We then showered and grabbed a taxi to the train station.

The train was ridiculous. We were the only white people in existence and the only ones who didn't speak chinese. We shared a "cabin" with three chinese people and had to stay in hard sleepers that had just been slept in by other people. 7 hours later, we arrived in Datong to find our hotel that was, of course, under construction. We hired a taxi and headed to the sites. The ride to the Yunguan Grottoes was maybe one of the funniest things of my life. The road was dirt and full of pot holes so we were playing dodge the pot hole the entire way. We saw three wheeled cars and scooters with thrones on them. After this crazy ride we got to the grottoes, not knowing what to expect. There really wasn't an entrance since the tourism in Datong isn't quite on its feet. However, after we walked up to the mountain I was blown away. Thousands of Buddhas were carved into the mountainside. There were giant ones and tiny ones and they went on and on for ever.

We then headed to the Hanging monastery after another crazy taxi ride and we hiked up to it as well. Datong is a gem. If not for the sites, for the adventure. The next day we took the train back to Beijing and hung out in the hostel (I'm a big fan of hostels now. They are cheap and a great way to meet people...even if the rooms smell like sewer). On our last day we walked on and slid down the Great Wall and explored the Forbidden City. We ended the night by taking the bus to the Olympic sites and playing a round of cards. We thought the craziness ended then after we said goodbye to Kevin (who headed back to Shenzhen). However, we were wrong. At 5 the next morning Jordan and I took a taxi to the wrong airport and had to catch another one across town to the airport in the middle of nowhere. Literally, I've never seen an airport so tiny. Only one airlines flies in and out and no one speaks english. We picked a line and after getting to the front, we were told that I had booked the flight for the wrong month. Yes ladies and gents, I did that. Ridiculous. Luckily, China is nicer than America and let us on a flight at the exact same time that day without charging us. I think they took pity on the two blonde Americans.

Jordan and I then spent a week of relaxing and city living in Shanghai.

Now I'm back in Provo. I am so lucky that I got to spend two months in China with my wonderful family. I guess it's back to real life now.

Land of the free

Hey America and blogging world, I'm back!

I'm currently in the San Fran airport and I'm so happy to be on blogger and facebook without using a proxy.

Ok, so there's so much I want to write about. I think I'll keep this one short and simply talk about my last night in Shanghai.

My world got smaller once again when I met up with Hunter Klie and his Dad for dinner in the city. My roommate, Jordan was also there with me. There I was, sitting on the Bund with my best friend from college on one side of me and one of my best friends from high school in Arkansas on the other. We ate dinner on a rooftop overlooking the city. It was one of those moments in life where I just think to myself, "this can't be real". I've had an incredible amount of those moments this summer. I am so lucky.

So here's a "then" picture and a "now" picture of dear Hunter and me.

We've come a long way since our band days. I love seeing people that mean so much to me.

Somedays

Most days are normal days and I go about doing my normal things.

But somedays make me stop. And realize how un-normal these normal things are. Today was one of those days.

I was lucky enough to stop. And realize how crazy it is that "normal" for me is living in Shanghai. It is normal that I have friends that work at the World Expo, normal that my family has no idea when they will be returning to the United States, normal that I am a minority.

Somedays don't feel real.

And I am grateful for those days.

My grocery nightmare

In the U.S. I look at grocery shopping with an indifferent view. Sometimes I look forward to getting groceries and other times it is a burden. However, I never hate going to the grocery store. The opposite can be said about my feelings of grocery shopping in China.

Today I had two experiences with grocery stores. The first, was fine. I was indifferent towards it, as usual. I biked down to the import store right outside of my neighborhood and grabbed a few things that I could find there. However, it's a small store and everything is waay over priced ($10 for a box of cereal). This meant that I would have to make the dreaded trip to a Carrefour, Tesco, or Wal-Mart. Today, it was Carrefour.

I've decided that large grocery stores in China are hell on Earth. Here is why:
-there are so many people and you can't walk anywhere. It's like Black Friday in America, except I can't speak the same language as anyone.
-there are yellow signs everywhere and it's a sensory overload
-the meat area smells so bad that you want to barf. It's also full of pieces and parts of meat that you are never supposed to see
-the fruit area also smells bad thanks to the durian (a pokey fruit that is banned from public transportation in Singapore because of its stench)
-you have to weigh all of the fruits...including bananas...who weighs bananas?
-chinese people may be some of the most impatient people ever, especially in grocery stores
-salespeople talk on microphones. They will be standing next to you, just chatting away...in a microphone...in your ear.
-Also, I never know where anything is. That's probably just a personal problem though.

I finally made it out of Carrefour after 30 minutes of what felt like a lifetime in that place. I really try and embrace all parts of culture when I'm in different countries, but this is the one I've had the hardest time with. Hence, my rant.

Ok, I'm done.

p.s.-again sorry for the lack of pictures. I've tried more proxies and still can't figure out a way to get pictures on here. The commies have me beat.

1 Firestone

Recently my house here in China has been bombarded with boxes and boxes of our stuff that we are moving here. Not only did we get a shipment from Shenzhen, but we got a shipment from Arkansas full of things that we haven't seen for over three years. A few of these boxes had things full of old gems. I found my baseball trophies, solo and ensemble awards, yearbooks, journals, and picture after picture. Pictures from my dance team days, mud fights at girls camp, canoeing, boating, my inflatable pig halloween costume (perhaps my favorite costume yet), homecoming and prom pictures, and pictures of the house that I grew up in...1 Firestone.

So this post is dedicated to my trip down memory lane that I've been having the past few days. Remembering the windows I would sneak out of, the swing in the driveway where I had my first kiss, the deck where we had junior prom dinner, the hot tub where meetings for HTC were held, the street where we would meet to play night flashlight tag and truth or dare. That place is my Stonehenge (literally the name of my neighborhood, and no I did not grow up in England). I have so many memories of that house, that neighborhood, that town. And I think I'll always be able to remember the way the grass felt there and how freeing it was to drive down Walton Blvd. with the windows down or the way the square felt at night and how drinking a Jones soda from Tiger Stop seemed to fix everything.

Thanks 1 Firestone, for everything.

p.s.-here's to hoping Espana wins the World Cup in a few hours! What I wouldn't give to watch the game there at my favorite pub with my favorite Spaniard friends.