I came up with a new theory this last week.  I was asking students about their hometowns.  Of course in the questioning comes one about the size of the city.  Inevitably in China there is no sure answer.  For my city I have read estimates of between 4-6 million people.  I have also heard upwards of 10 million because of the number of migrant workers in the city.  Who knows?  I don't know a lot about populations estimates of Chinese cities.  What I do know about is KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut.  Don't laugh.  This is serious science going on here.  I have done a lot of traveling in China and I have also done a lot of eating as well.  I could probably name 95% of the Mexican restaurants in China.  And I can definitely name the big 3 western eateries.  If you know anything about China then you know that KFC is the first western restaurant to arrive in a city that is not family run (the restaurant not the city).  No acceptions.  And the last to arrive is Pizza Hut.  So here is my theory.  I have seen cities with no KFC's.  Generally a no KFC city is below 300,000 people.  Now there are acceptions to this rule but please bear with me.  If there is one or two establishments then the chances are that the city is in the 300,000-500,000 range.  Once a city hits three KFC's then it will usually have a McDonalds coming shortly thereafter.  So, if a city has a McDonald's then the size is usually around 500,000-1,000,000.  At this stage the cities might have multiple establishments of either the KFC or McDonald's variety.  After a city gets a McDonalds then it can receive a Pizza Hut, the epitomy of western food, right?  If a city has a Pizza Hut then it is a given that the city is over 1 million people.  However, my city of between 5 and 10 million only has one Pizza Hut.  So, where as the number of KFC's and McDonalds establishments do have an affect on determining the number of people, the Pizza Hut is not necessarily the same.  Now, this system of calculation is affected by the location of the city as well as by the economic standing of the city.  If it is in the east and wealthy then it may have a larger number of establishments for a smaller number of people.  Therefore the system must be interpreted by a person that has the ability to know the area as well as the general wealth of the people.  So, if I ask a student if their city has a Pizza Hut then I can plug that data into my theory and know that it is one of 100 cities in China that have the privilege of owning a Pizza Hut, and so on.  Give it a shot the next time you are in China.  Just ask how many KFC's there are and then find out the location of the city, east, west, south, or north and you will be able to give as accurate a measure of the population as anyone in China.

Right now I am laying in bed.  I am wearing body armour (like long underwear for the athlete), a shirt, shorts, snow boarding pants, socks and a stocking cap.  I have been this cold before.  Most of those times, however, I was camping in the mountains (either in Colorado or Sichuan) or I had fallen out of the boat while white water rafting.  There are two reasons for my coldness.  The first is that buildings in China are made to last.  They are made from concrete and steel.  Aside from that there is a coat of paint on the inside and outside of most buildings.  Once, when I was camping near Winter Park, Colorado.  I was told if I took some of the hot stones from around the fire and put them in my sleeping bag then they would keep me really warm.  I took two nice and toasty rocks from the fire.  They were so hot I could barely hold them.  I rolled them down to the bottomof my bag and slept like a baby.  Well, I slept until around four in the morning when the stones had lost their heat and began to turn to solid ice or so they felt.  I am sure that I was butt of a pretty good prank that night.  Here in China my apartment is somewhat similar to that sleeping bag.  Since it is made of stone and steel it can get really cold.  It was actually warmer outside today than it was inside.  But when the sun goes down it just turns nto a giant refrigerator.  The second reason for my being cold is because someone doesn't want to turn the heat on.  Our building is heated old school with the hot water pumping through the radiators.  When it is on, our building turns into a nice oven.  Last year it came on around October 25th.  The rest of the city has heat going through it.  (Somehow in China the heating systems can run throughout the entire city to all of the city's buildings, even in this rather large city of millionsof people.)  Someone in the city obviously feels that there is need for heat.  Unfortunately those people who make the decisions don't live on this campus. 

 

 

Am I pumped or what?  My Wolverines are fighting for the National Championship this year in college football.  For the first time ever in the history of the Big Ten the number 1 and 2 teams in the country are meeting.  I know, you are expecting me to be disappointed by the fact that I can't watch the game here in China.  But you are wrong!  There is a sweet new computer software that allows you to watch television anywhere in the world if you have a high speed internet connection.  Normally my internet is not high speed in practice.  In theory it is supposed to be but usually I can't even download email.  But with this new television software it just opens up and flows.  So usually me and a couple of the guys here hook the computer up to the television through s-video and kick back and watch american television on our tv's here in China.  Unfortunately watching live television from America in China consists of figuring out what time it is in America.  And it just so happens that if I am going to watch the big game on Saturday, I need to get up at 4am here.  Will I do it?  I plan on it.  However, I will get on a train tonight to return home from my semester's travels.  So I will be pretty tired for a couple of days.  I actually just saw that 48 of the fifty states in America that voted said that Ohio State would come out on top.  I am pretty sure that China is rooting for Michigan.  Needless to say, if I am getting up at 4am to watch football I had better be really pumped up about or else sleep might sound better.  You better watch the game too!!!

So what do you think?  Do you like my pictures?  I sure enjoy taking them.  It helps me to remember a lot of things about my situation.  In some ways I hesitate to take so many pictures because I feel that I may lead some of you to believe that all I am doing here is traveling and taking pictures.  I do travel a lot but I am sure busy with my work.  I just had some great conversations tonight with some new friends.  My pictures help me remember.  They help to save things for me for a time when I am not so busy.  For a time when I can look at them and see with a different perspective what it was that I was able to experience.  And in a way I hope that they bring you along for the ride.  I have been on a three year adventure now.  I have seen a lot of places within China and in Asia in general.  In so many ways my life here has been so easy.  And in others it has been one of the most difficult things I have ever encountered.  Sometimes there are things so familiar that I forget I am so far removed from family and old friends.  Other times I may even be so disturbed by what I am experiencing that I feel helpless and lonely.  And instead of allowing my emotions to swing to such drastic extremes back and forth I just take a picture.  Sometimes I share them with you and sometimes I just save them for me.  Some of you may have had similar experiences or been in the same places.  Some of you may not even be able to imagine what life might be like in a place so removed from your culture or location.  So I take pictures.  Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words.  Sometimes they are unexplainable but easily understandable.  Either way, I hope that you can continue to be a part of my life as I live.  I hope that through a photo you can see a smile, a tear, an emotion that will help you to understand that life here looks very different in many ways but is in essence very similar to what all people know.  I hope you can see that He has a love so great that He raises the sun to shine on all of us here just as He does where you are.  Enjoy!!!

I have a little free time today.  I am waiting to make a phone call but my friend is busy so I will write in my blog.  Hope you don't mind.  I have been reading "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton.  Ever read it?  I really like it.  I love books like this one because they make you think.  You can't help but think if you read it.  I wish I was able to craft words in a way that would wrap around other people's minds and infiltrate their being.  But I can't.  So I will use the words of those who can.  At one point he makes this statement, "The sense of the miracle of humanity itself should be always more vivid to us than any marvels of power, intellect, art, or civilization.  The mere man on two legs, as such, should be felt as something more heartbreaking than any music and more startling than any caricature.  Death is more tragic than even death by starvation."  In that last sentence he really sparked my interest.  Why is it so easy for us to overlook the magnificance of life (humanity) and focus on the smaller things? I recently wrote about seeing a girl hit by a car and watching her lay motionless in the street.  My first instinct was to think of how tragic it was to be in such a situation.  But the whole world in is in such a situation.  We all die, do we not?  The fact that death exists at all is the most tragic.  Who can escape it?  Is there another way?  And I am not painting a picture of anger at the One who allowed death into this world.  To allow life in this place requires that death accompany it.  The worst part of the whole thing is that I quickly lose sight of what is so important in life.  Living!  I begin to focus on always being healthy and free of pain.  In this world that humanity has shaped, I focus on finite instead of the infinite.  I focus on the pain of death instead of the life that is behind it.  How will I ever succeed in this world?  There will always be pain, suffering, anger, and death.  What hope do I have in money, my career, my friends, or family?  All of those things too will pass away.  But let me grasp the Infinite that is unmovable.  That I too may be swept into eternity. 

Yesterday was my second official visit to a zoo here in China.  Both times feeding the animals was encouraged.  I like that.  Unfortunately I am too acustomed to not feeding the animals so I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Well, except for the time when we paid 5 yuan to go inside of Monkey Mountain.  Who wouldn't do that?  Let me tell you who.  Everyone except Aaron and I.  Scaredy cats if you ask me.  Just because rabbies cases have risen by like 1000% in China this year isn't a good enough reason to miss out on this opportunity.  If you notice in the pictures there are five consecutive shots of Aaron getting yelled at in Chinese.  I was lucky enough to catch that on film.  Apparently his method was one that might provoke monkey attack.  We made it out ok, but only after a huge monkey tried to beat Aaron to the door.  That's not hard to do if you know Aaron. 

 

It was the first time I have seen cats and squirrels in a zoo.  I actually think there were a couple of different kinds of dogs too.  One of the odd things, there were many, was that the leopards were all caged up in a small space and the lions, tigers, bears, and emus all had their own vast resorts.  Maybe resort is the wrong word since the bears were eating carrots.  I don't think carrots make for a good bear meal.  I also saw hippos eating peanuts and a monkey that was catching some kind of food with his instead of his hands like the others.  That was pretty cool.  We all took turns after that trying to do the same thing but we weren't as good as the monkeys. 

 

I must mention one last thing and then I will finish.  There are three photos of a girl in a glass enclosed room playing with snakes.  I think we that saw this would unanimously decide that this was one of the most disturbing things we have ever seen, if not the most.  I wish my articulation was better but it was just wierd.  I paid a little extra so three of us could go into the snake room.  There was this strange music playing the whole time but we weren't really sure why.  As we made our way past the snakes that all looked the same and the sea turtles that were crammed in so tight that there was barely room for them to move we came to the origin of the music.  The girl in the glass room.  At first it was like, "oh cool.  A snake show."  But as we watched it just seemed almost as if this girl did not want to be there.  As I took the pictures I started to realize something was not normal.  There was just something about her demeanor.  I could be way wrong but it almost seemed like she was being forced into the room.  I will leave it at that.  I don't want to creep anyone out but I was creeped out.  The oddest thing I saw at the zoo yesterday was a human.  I just wasn't expecting that one. 

All I need is a little more time.  Just give me until Sunday to have a new post on my blog.  By then I will have visited my city's zoo.  A zoo where you can in fact feed the animals.  I am looking forward to it.  I have high hopes.  I know it is not as good as some zoos in the northeast where there budget is a little strapped.  In those places you can actually pay for the zoo to feed a cow to the tigers while you and other spectators watch.  It is a rather good answer to not being able to supply food to the animals because you don't have enough money.  But I would say that it might also make for an interesting dilemma for animal activists.  Do you stop feeding the cows to the tigers for the protection of the cows?  This would of course cause the demise of the tigers.  Unfortunately at my zoo we don't have that interesting dilemma.  I will be sure to take pictures of me feeding something to animals.  If you are lucky then we will find the game where you can shoot a bow and arrow at live chickens.  If you actually hit one then you get to keep it.  Wish me luck!!!

I have been sober now for most of my adult life.  Being sober is an interesting thing.  There are so many different things in life that can confuse and distort our minds other than just alcohol.  One time in college I was literally in terrible physical sickness because of some things I had done that I knew I shouldn't have.  A good friend of mine, after observing me for a few days, finally spoke up and said, "You are doing this to yourself.  Get over it."  In other words, my own mental anguish over something was causing my own sickness.  Sure enough, his words sobered me right up and things returned to normal.  Sometimes family matters can have a similar effect.  Sometimes dating relationships can wreak havoc on the mind and body and their ability to function in a normal way.  And usually after an outside influence that is not bogged down with the same issues comes in and addresses the issue then things start to clear up.  There is definitely something powerful about friendship.  For some reason it can keepus sane or sober.  Now, if you will, throw yourself halfway around the world.  Pick yourself up only to find yourself surrounded by a totally different culture, which is exhilarating at first.  Another aspect to think about is that most of your friends, those sobering people in your life have been left behind where you came from.  And the food tastes different.  Can you imagine the things that your mind can concoct?  One time some of my friends thought I had run a man over in a parking lot and then driven away.  They believed this because he was accusing me of this.  The more they thought about it the more disturbed they became until finally I saw them and was able to assure them that this was untrue.  But for a moment those feelings of fear and pain and possibly distrust had become so real.  Sometimes all it takes is a glance.  Sometimes it is a hug.  For me in my first fall in China it was a friend's short story about his family.  I was not in high spirits which can be the case in the fall in China.  One day I got an email containing a sotry about a friend's family I knew well.  And honestly that was first time that I had really laughed in over a month.  But whatever I had been mired in I had finally broken through with the help of an unknowing friend.  What is it that is causing you to be dragged out of reality?  Do you need a hug?  A hand?  An old friend who is wiser than they know?  What in this life can sober you?  And if you know what you need then why do we so often stay away from it?  Out of fear of rejection?  Disappointment? Some people can't imagine what life would be like without ever having drunk alcohol.  Others may not have a clue what life is like being mentally sober.  Where are you?  What is is that is bringing you down?  Is it location?  Spiritual?  Mental?  Without those helps around us, outside of us, then we would all be big messes.  Myself included!!!  So thank you all for reaching out to pull me up.  I hope that one day I can have the blessing of being the rock that you need that will bring reality back into focus. 

How are you doing today?  I am doing pretty good.  I am just preparing to go on another official visit to a few schools.  I will be heading down to Anhui province tonight on an overnight train.  Thankfully with my new phone I can sleep in comfort because it has an Mp3 player.  I have only been on one train in China where no one was snoring excessively loud throughout the night.  I am looking forward to the trip though.  I will be gone for two full weeks visiting three different schools.  That would mean that I would miss a few classes while I am gone.  However, I have a good friend Aaron who is willing to cover my classes for a couple of weeks.  It isn't too much work but when you have to start making up a few weeks it can really add up. 

 

So how is the weather back home?  Is it getting cold yet?  It is starting to cool down here.  Last year it was already pretty cold by this time.  I would say that we have been pretty lucky.  I just missed the Carthage Maple Leaf Parade last weekend.  Just thinking about it brings back a lot of good memories.  I would have loved the chance to walk down Grand and stop by and visit Coach Armstrong and the Aaronsons on the corner.  I probably would have seen a lot of old friends.  I may even have seen my mom cruising around in her police car somewhere.  I am sure everyone had a great time. 

 

The third school I am visiting is my old school, Yangzhou.  I am happy to be going back for a few days.  I really miss my old friends.  By old friends I mean the foreigners as well as my old students.  I hope that I have the chance to visit with a few of them in between my different meetings.  Going back to Yangzhou is somewhat like going back to Carthage.  When I go back I see different people I first met when I arrived in China.  I might see tham at the local "Welcome" restaurant or walking through the campus somewhere.  It is always nice to see a stranger's face light up whenever they realize they are not actually a stranger.  I am looking forward to that.  Well, I hope to see you soon.  We will only be strangers for a moment, I promise!!!

If you are a person who believes in luck then today is my lucky day.  Well, it is lucky for my blog at least.  In China it is a well known fact that the number 8 is rather lucky as it sounds similar to the word for wealth.  The longer you stay in China the more you will learn about this luckiest of numbers, 8.  When you get a cell phone you can just have any old number for free or you can pay more money and receive a lucky, one with the number 8 in it.  The more money you pay the more 8's in your number.  (I took the free one.)  You might soon find out that the wealthy people in China who have automobiles will also spend a lot of money to purchase a special license plate with more 8's on them than the normal plate.  I find this a rather strange thing because wealthy people have already been blessed with the gift of wealth so why the need to get more luck.  You may notice that the workers who line some streets waiting for jobs to come by are holding signs that say, "888".  Usually the signs say what the individual is skilled at doing.  Apparently some of these guys are just good luck so why not advertise that.  Once you are aware that the 8 is so lucky then you start to notice more and more.  So today when I logged on to my blog I realized that it had just recently received its 888th visit.  Wow!!!!!!!!  I am a lucky man, or at least my blog is.  I am almost certain that most of those visits are from people looking for a random mix of words that I have used in my writing instead of actually people interested in what I have to say.  But, hey, what does that matter considering how lucky I have become.  I just figured I would make you more aware of the luck that I have.

Yesterday was pretty heavy.  Most of the morning went along as normal with Sunday meetings and such.  Then I headed out to go to the gym.  Just after leaving the school I saw an accident, or the remains of an accident.  By remains of an accident I mean that there were a large group of people standing around the accident staring at the scene.  This is often the case here in China as the concept of time is quite different than in the west.  In China, to a lot of people time is a matter of space being filled.  The most common way to get paid here is by the month, so the idea of time as money hasn't played such a major role here.  When there is an out of the ordinary event during a day then a lot of Chinese people will just stand around and observe until it is over or has moved on.  In this case I believe it had just happened.  Apparently a bike had been in an accident with a motor scooter.  At the center of the crowd was a young girl, college age, holding her friends head in her lap and she was just weeping.  The friend was obviously unconscious.  As a foreigner in China I am part of what we refer to as cultural incidents.  This is when I would do something different in my own country than in China and don't know how to respond in this new situation.  In America for instance, I would have called 911.  I would have made sure that she was breathing and alive.  If she was then there would be a few options.  Stop a car, get a taxi, do CPR.  But it is different here.  What do you do when you are the outsider?  Is it acceptible to try and help.  There are already 50 capable adults around that, in my mind should have already helped as much as they can.  I didn't know what to do.  I sat around for a minute or so thinking of all the things that I would if I had been in America.  I contemplated helping even if others were to try and stop me.  I felt as helpless as that little girl holding her friends head in her lap.  Culturally I didn't know what was acceptible.  By the time I left, only a minute or two after I had arrived, I had done nothing.  I honestly think that the girl was not alive.  There were no signs of breathing and I had no idea how long she had been there.  I just drove away in the end.  All day I continued to think about that girl.  I thought about who she was.  Was she a student?  Who were her parents?  Would they have been more proactive in the situation to find a solution?  What will her friend think about everything?  Was anyone else concerned about helping her?  So many things were going through my mind all day. 

 

I had a friend who works in an emergency room tell me once that when asked why they hadn't spent some time overseas working in a medical capacity to help developing countries, he responded, "I save people's lives.  I put my hands in their chest and bring them back to life in an emergency room.  In a developing country people who need this attention cannot get to me fast enough."  And in a lot of ways that is very true.  Even in China, where the country is developing at an extremely rapid pace, the health system is one that lags behind.  It lags because of the traffic, and because of the laws that have not been formed or enforced yet, it even lags because of the afternoon break time where emergency room workers are napping for a couple of hours and "unable" to help.  There are so many things I felt I could have done in that situationto help.  But that situation would have been way different than what I would have even suspected.  The main reason yesterday was so heavy was because of my reaction.  I didn't even try to help!  I stood by and contemplated it.  But in the end that was no better than just passing by.  This little girl was a living being who deserved to be cared for.  I didn't do anything to help!  Somewhere it says, "Whatever you have done for the least of these you have to done for me."  Yesterday I realized the power of peer pressure or being out of your element or whatever.  I realized that I do not try sometimes even when I know I should.  The system can be a powerful thing and it can keep you from acting, even when the action would result in possibly helping the life of a child.  Now that is a heavy thing to be under sometimes. 

Strangely enough, I am going to pick up three more (and possibly 5) boxes today at the post office.  Maybe I should be in another line of work.

I know, I am slowing down again.  I wish my life was all exciting stuff like orphanages (which, is exciting in a different way), broken ipods, new phones, and travelling.  But it isn't.  Today I just got up a little late and met with my friends for a nice sunday morning gathering.  Afterwrds we went to what we call "the pink panther".  Sounds cool, but it is just another chinese restaurant that is painted pink.  And I meant it is just another restaurant, not another pink one.  However, I bet if we were looking we could find quite a few pink ones too.  Then I came back home and watched an episode of prison break, which strangley seemed like an episode of lost as it flashed back to previous relationships the characters had before prison.  Now I am at home trying to decide if I should work on a Sunday or just rest.  I am also considering cleaning, which usually doesn't happen until after my travelling is finished, this semester would mean I wait another month or so.  And of course I would like to go the gym today.  My shoulder really needs a more consistant rehab than I have been giving it.  My main energy expenditure has been the constant flow of parcels I have received.  I have in the last week made five trips to the post office for usually three boxes at a time.  I know, you are all thinking how nice it is to get mail.  It is great, usually.  In my case getting mail means I get on my bike, ride for about 5 kilometers and then pick up someone elses mail.  I have yet to actually receive anything for me.  All of the 14 packages I have received have been for either Eric, Tyler, Aaron, or Anna, with Anna leading the charge with like ten.  So I have come to be know as the boxman.  Every other day people see me leave campus on my "hog" and return fully loaded with boxes.  Maybe one day one of the boxes will be for me!  A man has a right to dream doesn't he?

Some of you don't know this but my sister and her family live in Hawaii.  I just learned that there was a god sized earthquake there recently.  Pretty good sized in fact.  I just heard from her today and found out everyone is safe and sound in their family.  They were without power for Sunday but life is back to normal now.  It happened about 7 in the morning so the kids actually slept through it.  I slept through a good sized tremor in LA once when I was a kid too.  It changed my life.  I am glad to hear that everyone is ok though.

 

Today is my last day of my first trip this semester.  I am finishing up at my second school this time around and then I am heading back home tonight.  I get on the train around midnight and I was only able to purchase a seat for the roughly ten hour ride.  There is this mysterious black hole in China where apparently all of the tickets go for the sleeper cars.  Just three years ago I never had a problem buying a sleeper ticket except at the national holidays.  Now it is pretty much impossible to get one any time of the year.  We shall see what travel looks like around the time of the Olympics in 2008.  One change that is coming is the new speed limit for trains in China, up to 200kph.  That is roughly 125mph for you Americans.  I am not so sure I want a ticket on that train just yet.  But we don't have to worry about speed for a few months yet.  I am sure I will be thinking of all of you tucked nicely in your beds tonight as I ache and pain my way back home in a hard sleeper.  I guess the up side of it is it only costs 28 yuan or $3.50 to travel for ten hours by train.  If it ain't comfortable at least it is cheap. 

I am on the move again.  I am traveling around Shandong province here in China for this past week and this week.  I am actually cruising along at about 90 mph in the back seat of a nice Buick.  We like to drive pretty fast here on the highways.  Sometimes we equate speed with driving knowledge and experience so we like to go really fast.  Usually you notice it in the cities more because there are many more obstacles.  I have made this trip before so it is not too bad.  And of course now I have a sweet cellular modem so I can get online whenever I want.  That is real nice.  And I have that new cell phone I was talking about a few days ago so I can listen to musuc on that as well.  I did learn something today that I think is valuable for anyone traveling to China soon.  It is a bad idea to go to a banquet before you go on a ride for a couple of hours.  This morning at 11:07 I found out that we would be having a banquet at 12:00.  This isn't terribly uncommon in China to find out on such short notice.  However, I also found out that I would be traveling to another school three hours away shortly thereafter our meal.  And if you have never experienced a banquet in China then you need to know that we like to toast.  We toast the relationships we have as a group and then we usually toast as individuals.  We toast the new people (of whom I am usually one) and we toast the old friends (again, that is me).  Luckily we can't drink alcohol or else there would probably end up being a lot more drinking.  In the end though I usually go through a liter or two of Coke and a few cups of tea (this depends on the food, today's was seafood).  So what seemed to be (and in many ways is) a comfortable has become uncomfortable.  I should be there shortly but if you know me and car rides then you know that shortly may not be long enough.  I will be sure to put up some new pictures soon for those of you who love me and actually look at them.  And according to the stat program that tracks my blog that does not include anyone that I know but rather a few people in Turkey, Lebanon, Malta, and Colombia.  So I hope all of you enjoy even though you do not necessarily know me.

This week is my first week out traveling.  I stay pretty busy on the road.  I have observations in different classrooms to do.  I meet with people on an individual basis.  I have meetings with the school officials.  And I try to squeeze it all in a half of day per teacher.  Most of my time is accounted for.  In this particular city though there are not a lot of eating places near the school so I am always at a loss for what to do when I am free for a meal.  You can probably guess it, but my default is KFC.  It is just too easy.  Why would I ever go to KFC you ask?  My response is, why would I ever go anywhere else?  It is a little strange in the Chinese culture to walk into a Chinese restaurant and eat a meal by yourself.  And of course Chinese restaurants usually have menus that are written in Chinese.  That can make life difficult.  Then there is the fact that Chinese cooks don't use recipes (this is something that the Chinese are very proud of).  That means that it can be hard to find similar dishes at two different places in your own city let alone another city.  There is one common dish throughout China but I doubt I will ever sit down for a meal of plain rice.  And in fact at lunch yesterday they told us they didn't have any.  So I tend to come to my old default, KFC (occassionaly McDonalds).  They have picture menus.  They have ice in their drinks.  They have ranch dressing, BBQ sauce, tortillas or cheese, beef,bread, mustard, and pickles depending on which place you default to.  And I can sit here all day in the air-conditioned lobby because that is what a lot of Chinese people do so I don't stand out that much anyway.  So here I am, sitting in the corner of KFC eating my mexican fajita wrap (almost worth the trip to China) and doing a little paperwork.  Does life get any better?  I think not!

In my last blog I told you I was leaving soon for my first official visit.  I am well on my way but boy did it take some shmoozing.  There is definitely an art to being a foreigner here in China.  If you know how to play the part then you can really get away with a lot.  By getting away with a lot I really mean you can do normal stuff without having to go through all of the strange hastles that usually accompany normal stuff.  And I meant a little bit that you can get away with some other small things that most Chinese couldn't. 

 

Let me give you an example.  Say you are supposed to get on a train tonight for a business trip.  Certain school officials may or may not be picking you up at the train station in the morning.  And you probably already have a schedule prepared for your stay at your destination.  (This may or may not include important meetings and/or meals).  About halfway to the train station you notice that your ticket has the date of the following day on it, not this day that you are going to the train station.  What do you do?

 

A. Turn the taxi around and save the fare for the return trip?

B. Go on to the station in hopes that they will be miraculously blinded the 5 times they check your ticket before getting on?

 

If you answered A then you just postpone your trip a day and move back the schedule.  Probably not the first time that has happened.  No worries.  If you answered B then please read on. 

 

So you get to the station and guess what?  The power of the (lao wai) has kicked in.  The first ticket lady is possibly blinded by your boyish charm and your handsome (yes I know I used it wrong).  You get right through check point one no problem.  Checkpoint two is a bit of a problem however.  Number two is where they actually punch the ticket and then you head to the correct track.  Ms. Number 2 actually notices the wrong date.  She tells you to leave and come back tomorrow.  What do you do?

 

A. Pat yourself on the back for making it this far and turn around and head home?

B. Give her your best scene making Chinese arguing skills and expect that she is uncomfortable with the strange foreigner and lets you through?

 

If you chose A then you are obviously new to China.  If you chose B then you just got down to the train.  Good work little fella'.  Now at the train you hit checkpoint 3.  Ms. Checkpoint 3 could be tricky.  Sometimes she is taking the tickets at the door and exchanging it for you berth card.  There could be the obvious wrong date problem and then there could be the "the real ticket holder has already shown up" problem.  How do you handle this one?

 

A. Sneak through the open windows like the other people without tickets?

B. Flash that million dollar smile and hope she is confused by you "lao wai"?

 

If you chose A then you are crazy because foreigners can't sneak anywhere in China.  You would be back to the lobby waiting for the next day's train.  If you chose be then you knew exactly how that would play out.  The "lao wai" diverted Ms. 3's eyes from the date directly to your handsome.  Good choice my friend.  Get on that train like you own it. 

 

Now you are on the train.  There are a few problems.  First, it really isn't your bed.  Go ahead and sit in the aisle seat for now.  Everyone is doing it and it would never draw attention.  You should, however, stow your stuff like you belong there.  Try to put it in an unbelievably difficult place in case your plan starts to fail and they want you off.  (This will buy time and possibly some leniency.)  Now, which seat do you sit in?

 

A. Near your supposed bed to show confidence in your ticket?

B. Down from the bed so Mr. Checkpoint number 4 takes your wrong ticket before he gets to the right ticket holder?

 

If you picked A then you haven't been paying much attention.  It is definitely B.  Get that plastic piece in your hand as soon as possible.  China is willing and waiting to make acceptions for those who are pretty much there anyway.  Again, tuck it away in another difficult place to  buy more time.  The goal is to get the train moving before you have been busted.  Whoa!  This foreign face is amazing.  Three for four and you haven't even had to act like you don't understand anything yet.  You are on a roll my friend but not home yet.  In a few minutes Mr. Checkpoint number 4 (with whom your handsome doesn't seem to work quite as well) is going to discover the real ticket for today.  He is going to tell you to get off and come back tomorrow.  Are you prepared?  Do you have an answer to this problem?  Do you...

 

A. Realize you can't get away with anything else and get off the train?

B. Gaze out the window and finally play the "I have lived in China for 3 years but just can't understand a word of the language" card?

 

Nice move my friend.  Just keep speaking English like you were teaching it and pray the train moves before you get the foot.  If you are lucky there are no people around who speak English and want to translate for you.  If you're not, and you're usually not, then you hurt a couple of bystanders as you pull down that terribly placed backpack that weighs about fifty pounds thanks to the teachers you will be visiting tomorrow wanting all that good food from your hometown.  You definitely can't injure someone in China and just leave (Please make this your last resort, you never want to hurt the innocent). 

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!  You have made it onto your train and now all you need to do is haggle your way into a sleeper bed for the 13 hour overnight trip that you don't actually have a ticket for.  After all of that I am guessing it will not be a problem.  (No innocent bystanders were injured in the research for this blog!)

I splurged.  I bought a new phone.  I have an old phone still but it isn't mine.  I also spent about $200 this summer using a prepaid phone so I thought I would get one just for me.  It is really nice.  I have to be honest.  I kind of feel like I went a little overboard.  I probably did, but when you consider what can be put in a phone these days then I actually got a great bargain.  To start, it is actually a PDA.  I am guessing that means personal digital assistant but I really don't know.  Do you know what my initials mean?  Exactly.  Anyway, the other functions are that it has an MP3 player (which my iPod just quit working), an MP4 player (which means I can watch video), a 2 megapixel camera, it takes decent quality video, it can be set up for Microsoft office (which means it is pretty much a miniature computer), and it allows me to get my computer online through it if I desire.  Not to mention the various bells and whistles, games, calender, alarms, and such.  I have had it for a day and I think I love it.  And hey, if it lasts for a year then it would be a better deal than buying an iPod.  Did I mention I can make phone calls from it to?  Yeah, the functions just keep coming.  And, unlike those phones you buy in America that can only be used by the phone company you purchase it from, I can use this phone in most countries around the world.  Beat that.  It is practically worth it if I paid double.  Now if I could only figure out how to turn the thing on then I would be in business (and probably the coolest guy you know).

Our holiday is over here.  Today, Sunday, was the first day back in class for our students here.  Yes Sunday.  It is a little too long to explain if you don't already know so we will just say that is the Chinese education system at its finest.  Beginning this week I will begin my traveling for my official duties.  I leave Tuesday night for an overnight trip to a city by the sea.  There are four teachers there this year so I will spend three days there.  I realized this year that my city has a lot to offer as far as food stuffs are concerned so I have sent out a shopping list to my school about things that I could bring to them if they desired.  So far I have been asked to bring cheese, mustard, pepperoni's, olives, soups, cereals, and salsa.  They will be hard to carry but will bring a blessing from heaven straight to a few stomachs.  I will not return until the following Thursday of the next week.  I will stop on the way back at another school.  I am looking forward to seeing what is going on in the lives of the teachers I work with.  It is always a blessing to see how the work is going with their students and if there is anything I can help them out with.  I will be sure to keep you posted with a few updates every now and then.  And of course I will take a few photos of my surroundings along the way.  If you are not already in China then feel free to come on over and take a look for yourself.  I would love to show you arround.  I am a great tour guide. 

OK, so my updating skills aren't quite what I was hoping for.  I did get the pictures on here for the most part but I struggled with the words.  I would love to tell you that words just couldn't express what I was feeling this week.  In some ways that would be true.  Mainly I was just dead tired.  A couple of people got sick this week and so we were dealing with that.  Then I came down with a fever one night.  I fought through it the last day but it wasn't too bad so there's no need to feel sorry.  In total we were there for four days.  We just came to observe and prepare the first day and then we had things planned the following three days.  A total of nine people were there.  We had an amazing time and I am certain that lives were changed.  The question is, who's lives?  I hope that we had an impact on the lives of the little ones we befriended.  I truly believe we did and will as we try to keep communication ongoing.  The truth of the matter is that it revealed an immense amount of truth to the nine of us that came.  We realized that it only takes a little to change a life forever.  And when you are willing to give a lot then the world better watch out because there are going to be waves.  These kids survive on pretty much the same food for every meal, rice, cucumbers, a little tofu, and some meat.  And yet they are thankful for what they have.  I am so spoiled that I probably could not feel satisfied with what they have for one meal even though it sustains them for a lifetime, or at least a childhood.  I think that every one of us that went would love to have taken home a child or two.  It would seem simple to just say, "Would you want to come live with me and my friends?"  Unfortunately the system is not set up to be that easy.  From what I understand it is a lot of work and there are a lot of hoops to jump through.  I am sure that is the way it is throughout the world.  But there is definitely something about being there, about holding the hand of a child.  There is a connection in the heart when you see them cry or when you learn how to say something in sign language and are able to communicate for the first time.  There was no shortage of tears this week.  Not all of them were on the outside, but there was definitely weeping in the hearts of nine individuals who learned that it doesn't take a whole lot to love for only a few days. 

 

Now the chaos of the children in our lives has subsided.  However, we are faced with a new chaos.  This time the chaos is in our hearts.  "What can I do?  When can I come back?  Did my visit help change a life?"  These questions and thousands more that I am unable to verbalize will be flowing through our hearts for quite some time to come, hopefully a lifetime.  We now know that a small gift or amount of money can have a huge impact on someones life.  An impact that we miss out on a lot in the west.  I know that every time I visit an orphanage it changes my life.  I just hope that eight other lives were changed this week.  I hope that twenty lives of those kids we were with were changed.  I hope that the chaos never stops, that our hearts cannot contain what we felt this past week.