Pinocchio in China

Now that I have been here for almost a month, there are so many things that I have found peculiar, awesome, rewarding, funky and downright odd. One thing that I have come to learn is that our experience here is whatever we make it to be. With that being said, we are making this everything we want it to be. Now that we are back from my birthday weekend adventures there is so much to tell, and a ton of excitement with pictures as well. I really wish I had an outlet that is not blocked for me to upload such things, but everything is heavily blocked due to National Week which starts on Thursday. Why are the Chinese so worried about losing their secret fried rice recipe?
Classes have definitely been an adventure full of laughter, the slaughtering of English as well as Chinese, and some rather slanted stories of history. It is amazing to see the perspectives of various countries in relation to world events such as the World Wars. Within the past two days alone, we were taken on two field trips. One trip was to a 1,200 year old temple, and another to the post office to send a post card. Supposedly I was the Champion and received a Beijing Olympic Medal for my post card sending skills. I guess the $36,000/year at Messiah is finally paying off. I hope that one day I can make a commencement speech on my accomplishments in life. 
Yes, Friday was my birthday, and was one of the most interesting days and weekend for that matter of my life. This weekend was a series of adventures, accomplishments and a basic test of our Chinese Skills. Our program directors Chinese wife took us to a local Chinese medicine practice that happens to be the oldest in the nation and before the PRC was only practicing on the Emperors and their families. Four needles, a wicked massage, and some miscommunication later we were feeling great. The doctor told me I needed a little more Ying since my Yang was high which boiled down to needles in my hands and feet. Oh my wordI mean who would pay for such things.Besides me, I have no idea since it is by far the weirdest sensation in my life to have all four extremities shooting signals up my nerves into my brain. When I started to levitate and see through the walls I knew something was wrong..but the doctor said it was a normar side effect.well, actually he said Ting Kung Pao Chicken Bing Dong, and Yili translated it for us. Dinner that evening after we navigated through the alleys of a seafood market purging fish guts and crud water into the street, a residential area and some dark unmentionable areas that struck fear into our hearts was rather delightful. Who else could say they ate on the 24th floor Pizza Hut which is like the Ritz of Xiamen.Weird huh? Yeah, it was definitely weird, but happened to be an incredible evening, view and experience. Dont ask what happens after you eat cheese pizza with cheesy crust after a month of no dairy. On this note.ever been to a country that eats dog, snake, pork, chicken, and more but has no dairy.they even dare to sell Oreos without milk.which is completely against UN protocol.
As usual in China our adventures seem to continue. Early the next morning five of us guys packed our bags and hopped on a bus for Chogwu, a fishing town over two hours away. Did we have any idea where we were going? Nope. Did we care? Nope. Did we have any plans? Not really.but it is all part of the adventure. This was the first time I had been off Xiamen Island, so it was great to see more of Fujian Province. The bus ride was mind blowing. As we drove on our private Haggy bus with only 4 others, we were marveled at huge buildings and infrastructure projects halted, nice buildings surrounded by rubble and people everywhere. Or course, we finally arrived in Chongwu, got out of the bus, and still had no idea where we were or what we were going to do. I brought along two sheets of notes that had some ideas like an ancient wall, a beach you could sleep on and a sculpture garden, however the directions were extremely vague. As we walked in search of the walled city we were confronted with the unthinkable. There she was, clothes-less, mangled hair squatting in the street picking weeds..first thought was that we just got off a long bus ride, but when the naked women looked up at us it became real very quickly.Where the heck were we and what was Chong Wu. Luckily she was just an adventure in the beginning of the trip and we had not actually taken a bus to a nudist colony.what a blessing.
Chongwu is an ancient fishing village that has a 7meter high stone wall completely encircling the ancient part of the city which was built in 1378. Inside the wall, were run-down stone houses, walk ways, open sewage lines, and street mazes. Ok.who would ever think to just drain the toilets into an open sewer line that runs into a troth along the street.what a great ideaI just thought it was extremely aesthetic to watch the local meals flow through the streets. Ha Americayour streets may be lined in Gold, Chongwu is lined in fertile poop. We continued our quest to find the beach, with the potential to sleep on it after we played colonial soldier marching along the wall, looking out to the ocean and playing with old canons. When we finally broke through this ancient wall, we rode motorcycle taxis to a local restaurant. Its not every day that you have a pick of motorcycles to ride through a city that does not have traffic laws. It was an incredible sight to see the only 5 westerners in the city on the back of these bikes blasting through the city. Though we almost lost Hoover to a bus and fruit stand, it was the time of our life.
Turns out that the area we were visiting speaks a different dialect of Mandarin, so communicating with the locals was a trip. There was one point, when I realized that we were up against impossible odds of finding a tent to rent. Before we knew it, we were handed a piece of cardboard with written characters in Chinese. It didnt take long to find ourselves in the land of Narnia with over 200 statues, finding a random man who took us to a building, handed us two tents and set them up on the beach..Basically we rented out this 9 hectre sculpture garden with our own private beach. Now, it was definitely not Ocean City or Avalon for that matter, but it was pretty cool. Did I tell you that at night they turned on carnival rides and sold us fireworks to blow off the beach? Now, we were either being tapped for Hollywoods Pinocchio II or this place was just awesome. Sleep was nonexistent due to a random trumpet, fireworks, the melody of Chinese songs and the snaps of some type of firecracker being used in the nearby temple.but it was worth it If we had only knew peak firework sales times were between 11 pm and 1 am..There was one point I was either going to buy all the womans fireworks to stop others from blasting them off or shooting bottle rockets out of ours towards her. Not only did we lack sleep, we were woken up by the tug of our toes at 6:30 am. At first we had no clue, but then we put the pieces together .when all the people disappeared, the man put our tents away, shut the metal garage door on the store front and time seemed to stop.lets just say the sky wasnt too pretty and we finally got the thought that maybe a Typhoon was coming in. These are typically not fresh thoughts in our mind back home, but definitely are common here. The day ended up being gorgeous and our adventure was amazing.
Needless to say, my birthday was incredible and my times here in China are going really well. National week starts later this week which celebrates the PRCs 60th anniversary which is big in China. Due to the 12 animals and 5 elements used in the Lunar Calendar, after this year the cycle starts over.on that notehats off to communism and all of its wonderful advancements. Before I go to dinner, I have one more story from this afternoon. There I was, running along the beach with Aaron, gazing into the beauty of ocean and mountain backdrop, when we hear Firer in the Holre and a huge explosion.
Life is good!