Animalia Exotica

We were fortunate enough to have the guide services of a fellow engineer today, and with his help we left the hotel at 9 am this morning (China time, that is), bound for a place called the Confucious Temple. We took the subway. You can go anywhere the subway goes for two yuan, or about thirty cents. Not a bad deal. We arrived to discover the Confucious Temple is one of the two large shopping districts in Nanjing. We entered a labyrinth of narrow streets lined with dealers of every kind. After wandering through the thicket of shops and shoppers, we emerged near the Confucious Temple. I'm not sure what, in the minds of the Chinese, links the realms of moral philosophy and trinket shopping, but the bond is pretty strong near the Confucious Temple. Anyway, it cost 30 yuan to enter the temple. Inside was the history of the life of Confucious explained in a series of carved portraits of precious stones. They were gorgeous, and though I couldn't read the Chinese narration, I came away with the impression that Confucious had a very beautiful, albeit rocky, life...!!! Good one, I know. I've worked hard to become a master of the lowest form of humor.

We left the temple and wandered through the streets of shops again on our way back to civilization. I didn't do much shopping because I didn't want to burden my compadres, but I'll probably go back some other time and buy some silly Chinese things. I especially want some t-shirts with broken English phrases. Diego saw a Nike bag he liked though, and against the advice of our guide, he paid a whopping 30 yuan, or five bucks, for it. It is a black Nike bag with a shoulder strap. Though its almost definitely fake, if it lasts until the end of the day without disintegrating into fine dust it will have been worth five dollars, that's for sure. While Diego was shopping and our guide was trying to get him to stop shopping, I was looking at the animals for sale in the market. Animals! They had turtles and gerbils and rabbits and fish and, lo and behold, puppies! I was ecstatic to find so many animals and I spent a lot of time looking at them and taking pictures of them and loving them, in general. But the state in which these animals were kept put a damper on my happiness. The turtles were stacked all on top of each other in a bin like they were toys for sale, and the puppies didn't have near enough space to move around. This was a concern echoed among our group many times later when we were at the zoo.


We left the Confucious Temple area and went to a fancy garden. I'm still not sure what this place was, but it was pretty and had a pond with big fish in it, and lots of rock formations to walk on, in and around. We spent about an hour there before leaving to get some lunch. I accidentally made us go to a really nice, expensive restaurant by asking about it as we walked by. By the look on our guide's face after the meal was over, I imagine the food was absurdly expensive, but it sure was fun. They brought us one dish with some dry ice in a cup of water, boiling mist over all the food. We drank watermelon juice, and ate tomatoes shaped like rabbits. Good times were had by all.


And the zoo!! Overall, it was a good experience. Seeing all the different animals made me indecently happy, especially the fabled panda bear. Diego and I even got to ride a camel! (One at a time, that is.) I don't think I'll ever get over my fascination with animals and biology in general, and in this respect it was a great trip. But as I already mentioned, the treatment of the animals put a damper on the experience. The elephants lived in a filthy mud hole, the penguins were too hot and some of the fish hardly had room to turn around in their tank. Granted, China has bigger fish to fry. But it was disheartening nonetheless, especially watching people feed the bears and monkeys PLASTIC-WRAPPED FOOD with no concern for the well-being of the animals. Luckily, these guys were smarter than the average bear and were able to remove the plastic before eating the cookies wrapped inside. It was all I could do to keep from screaming at the people who kept throwing them food, but I stopped myself and analyzed the root of my anger, and whether it was maybe okay to feed zoo animals people food. After much deliberation, I decided it still wasn't okay. The picture of the Mongolian bear pretty much sums up the situation. And the picture of the little kid in the balloon thing. But I think he was enjoying himself.

Man oh man, I'm going to have to shorten these blogs. Or have less adventures. Had some more Dairy Queen tonight. And got a foot massage from a man. It was a little weird. It transformed the experience from, "I'm tired and I want a lady to touch my feet for awhile," to "Excuse me, good sir, in the course of my daily activities it has come to my attention that my feet are in dire need of relaxation. Would you be interested in performing this service for me in exchange for a nominal payment?" Not quite as fun. But just as relaxing.

Exploration

Diego and I set out from our hotel today to see the Nanjing Museum. After a 15-minute, 2-dollar taxi ride, we were there. The museum, most of which was under construction and therefore unexplorable, was situated around a large grassy courtyard. We entered the only building open to visitors and were immediately met by a metal detector and two employees. I was waved through without taking off my pack or anything. The metal detector went off. The lady in front of me just ignored it and told me it was fine. White kids are always full of metal, and nothing ever comes of it, as everyone knows. Diego came through after me, but he was a little behind because he was made to take everything out of his pockets. He went through the metal detector and passed, but was made to leave his water bottle at the desk. I had two water bottles in my pack which I forgot to mention to the guards. My mind began to roam to all the evil I could commit with two full bottles of this highly dangerous substance. It was exciting; intoxicating even. I should have turned in the bottles right then and there, but I could sense their power, and I just couldn't give them up. Their hold over me was terrifying....

Etc. I'm sure I could go on forever in this vein, so I better move on. For the record, I committed no crimes with my bottles of water. Oh, but if I had.... Nevermind. We walked around the museum and were pretty happy with its exhibits. There were exhibits on silk, bronze, earthenware, folk art, and my favorite, the life of Matteo Ricci. Apparently he is regarded as the man who began the cultural exchange between the Eastern and Western worlds. He was born in Italy and died in Beijing, in 1610. It was very interesting to read about his work since Diego and I are cultural exchanges, ourselves. I also enjoyed some old drawings they had of the Parthenon and the Coliseum. Because I've been there! Wow. I was also struck by a warped painting. You could see the paint and the paper it was painted on, and for some reason it really brought the history to life. You could imagine someone working on it four hundred years ago and imagine the places its been since that moment. For those who love history, this feeling must be familiar.

After the museum, we took another taxi (a buck and a half) to this popular area called 1912. We had heard about it a lot from various people. It has lots of clubs and attracts young people. Diego and I had heard lots of foreigners hang out there, and though we have no problem with Chinese people, we sometimes like to see people who look like us. For me, 1912 was a little disappointing because it was a place I had seen before, but hadn't had a chance to explore. Diego and I walked around it for awhile looking for a restaurant. Our routine in this situation involves entering restaurants and asking for menus. If the menu doesn't have pictures, the place is out. If the menu doesn't have pictures of food that looks good, it's also out. And finally, if the good-looking food isn't cheap, it is out. This doesn't leave a whole lot of restaurants. We had gone into four or five before we ended up in one which served us tea as soon as walked in. We were both hungry and willing to work with whatever they could offer. The menu didn't have pictures (tisk tisk), but they had an English version for us to look at. The waiter kept pointing at some item on the Chinese menu and insisting we order it, but we didn't know what he was talking about so we tried to ignore him, but he was insistent. The restaurant was a special kind, I know now, where you order a big bowl of soup, then order stuff to put in the soup and get spices and stuff to make the soup how you like it. Trying to grasp this concept, explained in Chinese, on an empty stomach, was not fun. Finally we ordered some food and he brought us our big bowl of soup. Our waiter put it on a heater in the middle of the table, then brought the rest of the things we ordered: potatoes, corn, pork dumplings and a bowl of rice each. He also brought us tofu, ham and lettuce for free, since he could tell we were having a hard time. He threw it all into the bowl for us and turned it on, then we waited patiently. Well, not very patiently. We stared at the bowl. Diego was pissed. Our food was a foot away, but we couldn't eat it yet because it wasn't cooked. It was pretty lame.

But after five minutes, the pot was boiling and we asked our neighbors if we could eat it yet. They said ya. So we carefully, skeptically, began to eat. We had been told the Chinese soup shouldn't be eaten since the water in China is questionable, but I was so hungry I didn't care. And the food was really good! I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and soon forgot about our momentary difficulties. But Diego is pretty picky about his food, and he was not happy. He ate three pieces of corn and only looked skeptically at the soup. To make matters worse, it started to rain outside. And I should specify, he doesn't like rain. I like rain. After the meal, he decided to go take a nap in the hotel while I explored some more.

I walked around 1912 some more in the rain. I wore my rain jacket, but it wasn't raining hard so I didn't put up the hood. Diego and I had seen a DAIRY QUEEN earlier, and I headed there now. I bought a Tiramisu Blizzard for 17 yuan. And so it was that I wandered through the rain eating a DQ Blizzard in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

I decided to walk back to the hotel, and I stopped in a foreign language bookstore on the way. This is the one thing Nanjing has been lacking thus far: a good bookstore. This one was indeed good, good enough for me at least. They had a collection of English classics, and I bought Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, a nonfiction book on Tibetan culture and the original story of Sweeney Todd, called String of Pearls and published in London in 1846. I'm going to need something new to read during all my upcoming travels, I think! Haha, I found a Chinese book on traveling to America. I opened to a page: at the top it said 'Culture Shock' and on the page, amidst Chinese characters, were the words 'a Catholic mass,' 'a justice of the peace,' and 'the City Hall.' It made me laugh that Chinese people are culturally shocked too.

To be perfectly honest, China has been very difficult thus far. Diego and I are lonely with only each other for company, and its clear we have no definable purpose at the company. I apologize for the gloominess, but I should tell the truth. This is the first summer of my life I wish I could spend back in school. But clearly, traveling in China is an opportunity available only to a precious few, and I have an obligation to remain curious and open-minded here. I'm tremendously lucky to be here, and though its not always fun, it is always surprising, always foreign, always challenging. And there is much to be gained. Especially during our upcoming jaunt through the countryside.

Once again, thanks to everyone who reads my blog for providing me some much needed support. I talked to my mom and dad and grandma Rosemary today, which was really nice. Grandma Carol, every time I try to call you, I get this message which thinks I'm a telemarketer and I can't get through! I'm not a telemarketer!

Ok, I've been rambling a little bit. I guess that's the end of this blog. Aaaaaannnnnddddd....the end.

Leaps and Bounds

Big stuff today. First of all, the rumored trip for Diego and me to explore China is now a striking reality. We met with our boss yesterday and he suggested we visit Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an, as well as a couple smaller cities in between Nanjing and Shanghai in order for us to gain a respect for the broad diversity in the Chinese market. But I think it's just an excuse for us to travel. We will have a couple chauffeurs in our unofficial guardians at the company, and we will stay in hotels wherever we go! Our itinerary is to drive to Shanghai next Thursday (by hiring a driver and car, obviously), stopping along the way in one or two smaller cities to see the company branches there. We will spend Friday and Saturday in Shanghai. Diego and I have a USC luncheon to attend on Saturday. On Sunday (I think), we fly to either Beijing or Xi'an. We spend a couple days there, seeing the Great Wall/terracotta warriors, etc., then switch it up and visit the other city for another couple days. We return to Nanjing on Friday after eight days of travel. IN CHINA.

I'm not sure if I explained this before, but there's a holiday coming up in China on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We don't have to work on those days, so the factory is working this weekend instead. That part kinda sucks, but the point is that we have three days off, then we leave on our trip, and we come back on Friday of the following week. We have two full weeks off! Diego and I are in awe of this ridiculous opportunity and don't really know what to say to our boss to thank him enough. Mostly we just don't say anything because we're afraid we'll screw it up and he'll call it off. But you can bet he's going to get the coolest gift known to man when we return to the good ol' USA.

But that was just the beginning of the news. Well, ok, it was also the best part of the news. But we also found a rock climbing gym! Diego wasn't really too excited about it, but I was super excited. It's a little too expensive to go all the time, and I didn't want to buy any kind of membership before I left town for two weeks, but all the same, the guys there are really cool and friendly. They have a really long wall filled with holds, about three different angles, and they just set routes as they go and compete against each other. I climbed for awhile, it was really nice.

The last thing is that we found peanut butter! We've been looking everywhere! And we found it! Diego was really happy and called it his one true love. He said he knew they would find each other. I gave them my congratulations.

Into the Great Unknown

Today represents a huge breakthrough for Diego and me. Huge. There is no way to overestimate the importance of this day. FOR ON THIS DAY, WE VENTURED INTO REALMS WHICH HAVE KNOWN NO MORTAL SOUL! EMPIRES WILL RISE AND FALL, HISTORIES WILL BE REWRITTEN, THE RACE OF MAN SHALL BE SWALLOWED UP INTO THE VERY THROAT OF THE EARTH BUT THIS DAY! [imagine this next part in even larger capital letters] THIS DAY SHALL NOT BE FORGOTTEN BECAUSE ON THIS DAY, DIEGO AND KEVIN EXPLORED ONE BLOCK OF THEIR FAIR NEW CITY!

No joke. For about ten days now, we have eaten dinner at the same two restaurants. We have known two streets in Nanjing. And now we know three! But oh man, is it a good third street. There's a massage parlor approximately three minutes away from our hotel, and it's cheap. There are several restaurants cheap enough for a couple of poor foreigners. Some even have picture menus! Diego and I peeked into about every shop on the street, just curious to see what was going on. Most of the restaurateurs reacted strangely when we popped in just to have a look at the menu, but we had to do our research. At one swanky restaurant, we looked in and met a Chinese woman who spoke no English but refused to give us a menu, albeit sadly. We were about to leave when a whole host of workers came to greet us, led by the owner of the shop. It turns out the restaurant wasn't open for business for another ten days, but the Chinese man invited us inside in fluent English, telling us everything was on the house. They were testing all the food and wanted to know our opinion. We had just eaten dinner at one of our two approved restaurants and weren't hungry, but we came in anyway to have some tea. We chatted for about a half hour. The man moved to Nanjing one year ago on a business hunch, and explained to us the intricate details of his economic reasoning. He was cool. We talked to one of the waitresses for awhile too and she told us about some of the cool places to visit in Nanjing.

I feel good about today. I think it's the beginning of a more comfortable, enjoyable, adventurous time in China.

Chicken Brain

Diego and I ate chicken brain today. I get the impression that, in order to prepare their meat, they lay an animal down and chop him up from head to toe and serve the cross sections of animal, whatever they may be. I have support for this theory. See the pictures. I received both of these cuts of chicken in my lunch today. Diego dared me to eat some chicken brain out of the piece where you can see an eyelid. I told him I would if he did, expecting that to put an end to the matter. Obviously, this is the part where he ate chicken brain, and I ate chicken brain. I tried to eat it quickly, but just ended up smearing it on the roof of my mouth. It was smooth and creamy, lots of fat. I gagged a little bit; but it tasted like chicken.

Today at work a person came around with tiny gift boxes for us all. They contained a few pieces of foreign candy. When people get married in China, apparently the tradition is that they share their good fortune with everyone around them in the form of a little present. So I got some foreign candy in a tiny little box. I don't even know who is getting married!

We got off at a different bus stop this time on the way back from the office because we wanted to go to Walmart. On the way back we found an REI-like store literally thirty yards from where we have entered and exited the hotel for the last week and a half. I couldn't believe it, I was so happy. The prices are pretty typical of American stores, but the joy of these stores lies in just wandering around looking at all the cool gear. I'm sure I'll wander much in the coming weeks, followed always by a Chinese storekeeper wondering whether the crazy foreigner is going to try to steal something, I'm sure.

Diego is exercising, which he does religiously every day. I haven't been able to find the time. We have surprisingly little free time between work and getting dinner and whatnot. I hope I'm not losing all my fitness I gained training for the marathon. Ah who am I kidding, I lost it before I even came over here, haha.

World Exposition 2010, (Part Two)

Our second day began bright and early. We loaded the bus and headed for the Expo. Diego and I were optimistic about seeing some of the larger pavilions before the crowds arrived at the Expo. We got there at 8:30 and waited in line for it to open at 9. It didn't look good; there were tons of people everywhere. After a long wait, we got through security and traveled in the sea of tourists downstairs to the subway which would take us to the Expo. In China, apparently it is normal to sprint inside the subway cars and fill up the seats as fast as possible, which is exactly what our fellow tourists did. And the running didn't stop there. When we arrived at the Expo stop, tourists sprinted from the cars the second the doors opened, pushing and jostling past anyone in their way. I don't take too well to jostling, but there's only so much one person can do against a heaving, jostling, sprinting mob. It was scary.

We got upstairs and, hurrying gracefully, we walked to the Spain pavilion, which we had heard was very good. When we got there, there was already a long line in front of us. We figured it could have been worse and decided to wait anyway, and we were inside in about twenty minutes. It was a pretty cool pavilion, with a performance and some exhibits. When we left, Diego got to take a picture with a genuine Spanish lady.

We had intended to attend some other big ones in the morning, but the lines were already horrendously long. As we were contemplating what to do, I spotted Ireland, so we headed there. We didn't wait long, and it was a really great exhibit. I have ancestors from all over Europe, so I don't exactly have any heritage or homeland, but since my last name is Irish, I guess Ireland is my surrogate home. I would love to return to the Emerald Isle someday and start up a pig farm of my very own, but it's going to be a while before I've got the money to move back into that glamorous business.


We saw the Netherlands pavilion next, which was a big white and yellow walkway which looked like a carnival ride. They had sheep you could sit on, and we met some Netherlandian people who were very friendly and spoke about ten languages. As a girl recounted her languages, she said, "And I speak a little English," after talking to us completely fluently for fifteen minutes. Damn Europeans and their language skills. We drifted around for awhile after the Netherlands, visiting Romania and several smaller African pavilions before having a lunch of steak skewers and sandwiches at the Brazilian restaurant. We decided to have a long lunch, since the crowds were only going to get worse before they got better, and sat down on the grass at the Mexican pavilion. We ate our lunch despite the curious stares of the Chinese family in front of us. And behind us. Not just cursory glances, not just curious looks. These were stares. It was growing to be a common occurrence, at least. Nonetheless, we enjoyed lunch. Diego took a nap and I drew the Mexican pavilion in my sketchbook. I was very comfortable, lounging on the grass, though my comfort was slightly diminished when I saw a little Chinese girl pull down her pants and pee on the grass about twenty feet from my spot. I tried not to think about the implications of this event on my own little patch of grass.

After a long lunch, we got up to peruse some of the South American countries. In one we made a friend who gave us a personal tour of his pavilion, and in others we met locals and discussed the Expo and China with them in English and Spanish. I wish we had gotten contact information from all the people we talked to because we would have contacts all over the world. There were many very nice people, and a lot of the workers in the pavilions were about our age. It was fun to meet our counterparts from all over the world.

In one of the South American pavilions we picked up a tail. We waited in line behind a guy about our age who did a double take when he saw us, then smiled and stared at us for awhile. We said hi and interacted for awhile, as much as one can without any sort of shared language. We went through the pavilion with him and headed for the next one. It seems he was headed there too, so he followed us into it, quiet and smiling. We finished that pavilion and stood around wondering what to do, and he drifted nearby. When he followed us into the third pavilion, it was starting to get creepy. Luckily we were able to lose him by running away and hiding in a dumpster. Not really. He just drifted off after the third pavilion. He seemed pretty friendly. Maybe too friendly....


We had dinner, the same food as the night before, which I really enjoyed. My boss had brought his wife and 8-year old son and told me he needs to practice his English, so I sat next to him and talked to him during dinner ("How are you?" "What is your name?"). He pointed at two different dishes during the dinner and said, "Very good." And he was right. We had some Turkish ice cream after dinner, and went to all the smaller European pavilions. In Moldova, we talked to one of the workers for about ten minutes about her country and how nobody know anything about it. She asked us to sign the guest book and in return, she gave us Moldova care packages, which included an umbrella and coffee cup. It was very kind.

I think that's all we did on Sunday. Strangely, Sunday was the least crowded day. When we arrived on Monday, the crowds were just as bad as Saturday. When we entered the subway, I did as the Chinese do and ran to get a seat. My plan was to get a seat and then give it to an older, slower person, who suffer immensely in this subway seating system. But there was a flaw in my plan! I needed an old person! Not a middle-aged person, not a guy with a few gray hairs, but a real old person who would appreciate the offer and not just get offended. I hadn't foreseen this problem, and I was forced to reap the benefits of my lightning agility and flying elbows for myself.

Our plan to visit one of the most popular pavilions, Germany, was foiled by an immense line. Instead we continued to visit smaller pavilions. We saw Greece and ate delicious cornbread ball things, and went to the Central America pavilions, Argentina and Turkey. Turkey was interesting. The country has tons and tons of history, and its location makes it unique, halfway in Asia and halfway in Europe. The last couple hours I sat down and drew the Germany pavilion, determined to take at least something away. The drawing turned into an exploration of the fastest way to draw an umbrella, since most of the people in the huge line held an umbrella to protect them from the sun. As I drew, curious Chinese people kept coming over and peeking over my shoulder at the drawing. It's pretty unnerving to be watched as you draw, but I didn't really have a choice so I just did my thing while people came and checked up on me. At one point there must have been about ten people crowded around looking at my drawing, which I had just started and comprised no more than a couple of squiggly lines. I took pictures with several people during my time drawing, and one old man sat down and talked about life with me. In Chinese, that is. I don't speak Chinese, but I found it enlightening, nonetheless. I got his business card. The pavilions were very fun and interesting, but I think I enjoyed my time drawing more than any of the countries. It allowed me to take away something truly unique from the Expo. Amateur, ugly and unique, haha. But really, if I had a month off and some spare cash, I would just go and draw every pavilion because some of them are really astounding.


And that about sums up the trip. I was late to meet Diego because I got so absorbed in my drawing and taking pictures with Chinese people, but we were still back to our meeting place with time to spare, and we boarded the bus and headed back to Nanjing. The bus trip was actually nice, it gave me a chance to reflect, write Emma a letter and read a little bit. Returning to Nanjing was a curious feeling. When I was studying abroad, the first time London felt like home was when I returned from my trip through Italy. I really began to love the city after that. I'm far from loving Nanjing, but there is a hesitant familiarity forming between us. I'm over the initial shock of living here and hopeful for the next seven weeks.


Grandma Rosemary, thank you for insisting I attend the World Expo. As you can tell, I had an amazing time. And thank you to everyone who reads my blog, I really appreciate your support and words of wisdom.

In case anyone was curious, no, we did not visit the USA pavilion. Apparently it sucks, though that didn't prevent a long line. There was some rumor about the USA not even having a pavilion, so maybe it was a rush job or something. All I know is that the world was not very impressed.

The pictures are of the UK pavilion (the spiny thing), the Ireland pavilion (the grassy glassy thing), the Germany pavilion (the silver thing), the Netherlands pavilion (the orange and yellow thing), the crowds in the subway and exhibits inside some of the pavilions. Oh, and me and a Chinese guy. The picture of the old man and the duck was one of my favorite things at the Expo.

World Exposition 2010, (Part One)

Well...here we are again. It's been a very hectic three days at the World Exposition in Shanghai and I haven't had time to write, so here I am back in Nanjing, eating a coffee cup full of muesli and hot cocoa mix with a tea spoon, faced with the daunting task of summarizing the last three days of madness. I will do my best.

To start off, an introduction. I don't know why, but before I went to the Expo I lacked a clear understanding of what the Expo actually is. So I will describe it, in the fullest detail, for the benefit of my blog. The World Exposition is a collection of 'pavilions' (which in some cases means a whole building and in other cases only an area of a larger building) sponsored by nations of the world. The participating countries (not every country has a pavilion) use their pavilions to showcase their cultures, economies, famous people, technology, history, etc., basically whatever the country deems important enough to show the world. The pavilions are highly creative, fun places. Expo attendees stand in line outside each pavilion and are allowed to enter in groups of about fifty to one hundred, so that the pavilions don't get too crowded inside. They contain performances, works of art, videos, photos, precious artifacts and more. Each pavilion typically takes about ten to twenty minutes to visit in its entirety, though some can take much longer if you examine everything they contain. The stronger countries typically have larger, more exciting pavilions, and for this reason they are much more popular among the visitors. Waiting times for the most popular pavilions
(Italy, France, Germany, UK, Japan, Australia, Spain) regularly exceeds four hours. China's pavilion is, I believe, the only permanent structure in the massive Expo area. To visit it, visitors must first wait in line for a ticket and a time, then show up at their appointed time to wait in line again to enter. Needless to say, I did not visit the Chinese pavilion. Diego and I visited many of the smaller pavilions. I'm not sure how many we visited, but probably over thirty. Our wait time never exceeded thirty minutes, and there is plenty to see in the smaller countries. Many of the countries offer restaurants or bars somewhere on the outside of their pavilions where they serve the traditional food and drink of their country. There are also several pavilions structured around themes such as the green movement, healthy cities, etc., and some pavilions are constructed by big companies, though neither of these types of pavilions are the main attraction of the Expo. By this time you're probably a little bored of my exposition on the Exposition, so I'll tell you about what I did now.

Which was HAVE LOTS OF FUN!!! Sort of. We walked a lot, and my feet hurt a lot. After the first day I had blisters on both my heels. Now...I still have blisters on both my heels. But it was worth it. I saw so many countries, and learned so much, and now I just want to go to all these countries instead of working or doing much of anything else. Which is healthy, I think. But I'm very glad I went, especially because my grandma Rosemary gave me some money and told me to use it to go to the World Expo, and I put it to good use. I'll try, for both our sakes, not to write about every single detail of the trip, but just to give some of the more exciting single details. I think I'll not try to finish it all tonight either. Gotta sleep, you know.

The trip was organized by our company, AO Smith. They hired a bus to take us, bought the tickets and arranged a hotel for the other employees and us. All in all, about twenty-five people went. Diego and I knew about five of these people beforehand, and we got to know them and a few other people a lot better, which makes me happy. The bus trip from Nanjing to Shanghai took about four hours. There were billboards, houses, and factories the whole way, and the air never looked non-smoggy. Which made me kinda sad. As we got closer to Shanghai, the trip organizer came around with a clipboard and a list of names. We needed to sign for the tickets. When he got to us, he just pointed where to sign because it was all in Chinese characters. The guy behind us peeked over our shoulder and burst out laughing. The clipboard said 'Foreigner 1' and 'Foreigner 2' for Diego and me.

We were hungry when we arrived, and we were eager to have something familiar. Mexican food satisfied this craving for both of us, so we hurried off to the Mexico pavilion. It proved to be one of my favorite. There is a picture of it here somewhere (and if you click on it, it gets bigger). I just found it to be very creative. The pavilion was dug into the ground so that the roof formed a grassy slope where people could hang out in the shade cast by several metal kites in the air above. I just thought it made a

very nice area, and we spent some time here in the next couple days. We went into the Mexican restaurant and sat down, overjoyed to find a menu with familiar food on it. I ordered a fajita plate, Diego had a burrito, and we decided to split a platter of nachos. Not yet used to the local currency, we spent...a little more than we wanted, but it was soooooo worth it. The food was delicious and reminded both of us of home.


Leaving the Mexico pavilion, we wandered around in the area, finding Venezuela, Chile and Cuba nearby. In the Cuba pavilion, you could buy Cuban cigars. The cheapest were about 40 dollars, but it was still tempting. The first pavilion we entered was Venezuela. The line seemed to be moving, so we jumped to the end and waited for our turn. In hindsight, this was an optimistic thing to do. Since the line was moving, tons of people were trying to hurry and enter the pavilion, and most of them just jumped right in front of us since we were still outside the barricaded zone. Diego yelled at them and I brandished my elbows, but none of it seemed to make a difference. We had learned a bit of essential Espo information: Chinese people don't do lines. From this point on, Diego and I walked side by side, with broad chests and wide arms and blatantly stopped any people who tried to slip past us inside the barricades. This group was distastefully large.


Walking around the Expo was different from what we expected. We anticipated meeting a worldly crowd, composed of people from every corner of the globe. Instead, everywhere we looked, there were Chinese people. The first day was so Chinese that Diego and I would tell each other whenever either of us saw 'foreign' people, which in this case referred to anyone who didn't look Chinese. We typically went up to them and talked to them. We met people from many, many different places this way. We also met some very friendly Chinese people, though we weren't actively seeking them out with an air of urgent friendliness as we were the people of other nationalities.

We didn't have any real goals this first day, so we wandered from pavilion to pavilion looking for ones which had little to no line. There were not very many which fit into this category, which meant that we wandered a lot. We walked A LOT. We eventually ended up in the Asian part of the Expo, and we saw Vietnam, which was one of my favorite pavilions. The outside was composed of stained bamboo, and inside was very pleasant. We visited many smaller Asian countries before making our way over to North Korea. Angels graced the entrance to the pavilion. There was a rainbow on one wall, which soared mightily over a beautiful, plant-strewn gazebo. In the center of the room was a large fountain depicting several small cherubs. One held another in his arms while he released a white dove into the sky (see picture). Over several impressive nature photos hung a sign which read, "Paradise for People." At the gift shop in the corner, several booklets were for sale, written by the man himself, Kim Jong Il. They had titles like, "Let Us Create More Good Music, Dances and Films Congenial to the Sentiments of our People and the Aesthetic Sense of the Times" (see picture). It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

We passed through some Middle Eastern pavilions on our way back to dinner, which was included in our package deal. This was some package deal, by the way. We paid 520 RMB, or approximately 75 dollars, for a roundtrip ticket to Shanghai, three tickets to the Expo, two nights in a hotel and two dinners. The total cost should actually have come to about 2080 RMB, but someone at the company, most likely the man in charge, Wei Ding, decreed that we had only to pay for the Expo tickets and the booking fee. I must say, again, we have been treated with exceptional kindness. Anyway, we went to dinner at a busy Chinese place where they set dishes for you on a spinning platform in the center of the table. We ate in the traditional Chinese way, sharing the dishes between everyone at the table. The first day was a little rough because it was unfamiliar food and I was really tired, but I found some things I really liked, and the second day I really did like the food. We ate with all our coworkers and I could tell we were gonna be friends. Awwwwwwww. After dinner, Diego and I decided to try to go to a big pavilion, since we thought a lot of people would have left. We settled on Sweden; not a huge one, but pretty popular nonetheless. We waited for about forty minutes before getting inside. And it was AWESOME!! Before visiting the pavilion, I knew I wanted to visit Stockholm at some time, but now I want to move there posthaste and start a family and career. Maybe that's a little excessive, but the pavilion was so cool! It was all about beautiful Swedish design, and beautiful Swedish nature, and beautiful Swedish women, and how all three coexist in beautiful Swedish cities. It renewed my interest in design as a potential career path and I was completely rejuvenated when I left the pavilion.

By the time we left, it was about time to head back to the hotel. The Expo closes at 9 pm, so our group was meeting at nine at a location outside. We went back to the hotel and I called my friend Mark Cruz, from good ol' Klamath Falls. He's in Shanghai for another month, taking the last two classes to earn his degrees from Pepperdine. We met up eventually, and he, in his infinite wisdom, brought me to one of his favorite places in Shanghai: a massage parlor. A latenight one, no less. He said he and his friends frequent the place for its cheap foot massages. I must say, if I lived in Shanghai, I would probably have to go every day. It was amazing. We paid a little over ten dollars for foot massages which lasted well over an hour. It gave us a chance to catch up, and the Chinese ladies taught us a few words. I learned an important one when she started massaging a more tender area of my foot. Toma = Pain. Nevertheless, I felt amazing afterward and Mark took me to another one of his favorite places, a hole-in-the-wall food place where you pick out skewers for them to cook from a selection of meat, fish and vegetables. It was delicious, and we walked back to the Pepperdine compound, where Mark gave me the tour. Pepperdine owns houses in different parts of the world where students can study abroad. They have all basic amenities and their teachers come to the house. This helps to avoid many of the common issues of studying abroad; it's a very cool way to do things. Finally we two Klamath Fallsians said goodbye and I took a taxi back to my hotel. I avoided looking at the clock because it would have told me how little sleep I was about to get.

But I can't avoid looking at the clock right now, and I need to go to bed. This thing is quickly turning into a monster. There's so much to tell! I will continue, and hopefully finish, tomorrow.