A World of Adventures

Living it in Portugal!

2010-11-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

There are many things to like about the effects of the EU, but the ease and convenience of travel is definitely high on the list for me. To celebrate this opportunity, two friends and I packed our bags and headed out for an adventure to Lisbon, Portugal. For my good friend Daven it was a surf destination, I wanted to explore another country, and for Alex I am not sure…probably to keep us out of trouble, which was a good idea. Regardless, the trip was a blast and we had the time of our lives.

Upon arriving in Portugal we no sooner hopped on a bus for a local coastal city with hopes of catching the weekend’s best surf. Ericeira has notably been known as one of the best surfing towns in Europe and contains arguably one of the top three beaches for surfing. The town itself was absolutely incredible. Looks of a freshly painted white city, small time beach feel and the grandeur of cliffs falling into the crystal blue Atlantic Ocean taunted us all day. This was a great start to our journey. Though the surf shop was closed, I think Daven still had a blast exploring the beaches and town. I mean, who can beat a ham and cheese sandwich on the rocks as waves crash feet away! For me, I was being continually reminded how much I enjoyed Portugal…which I later discovered is one of my favorite countries I have been to which is saying a lot when I am in my 20th something country.

Spending our first days out was definitely a nice way to see more besides the city. Luckily though our Hostel is located in the middle of what I call the historic district, 5-7 minutes from the nightlife area and about a 3 minute walk to the beach. Best part is the fact that our Hostel (Lisbon Lounge) has been rated separately the BEST and CLEANEST hostel in Europe the past 3 years from Hostelworld.com. In the end, Lisbon Lounge definitely lived up to its awards. An incredible hostel which was spotless, fully staffed 24/7, private chefs, 2 smiles cleaning every crack and even a Bartender/DJ to set the mood. Just not your typically hostel and a reason not to leave our own place, which is funny in that the future held an adventure much greater.

Our first night in Portugal was kind of a whim of adventures. We had no clue where to start so we had a Portuguese style dinner in our hostel which was 4 courses with the main dish being Portuguese Chicken. Our chef recommended we attend a once a year festival at the LX Factory which was a manufacturing district with converted factories into art exhibits, studios and create marketing studios. The festival was more like an open house and packed with some really eclectic pieces of art, women in cakes and an acrobat show to remember.

Saturday we stayed busy all day with the idea of hitting all of the tourist things Lisbon has to offer. Daven is more of an outdoors kind of guy which has been incredible to get a healthy balance of both. I must say, without him counter balancing my “mortar and concrete” desires, I would not have seen as much of the natural beauty that I have gazed upon. Together we are a pretty good power team in seeing all a city has to offer from sun up to sun down. We set out Sat to see all there was old:

-Castelo de Sao Jorge

-Mosteiro de Sao Vicdngd de Fora

-Thieves Market (Funny name for a flea Market)

-Panteao Nacional

-Praca do Comercio

-Se Catedral

-Torre de Belem

-Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (Where we saw the President of China is a visit to Portugal! )

-Weird Statue to the Conquerors?

All in all after today I have realized that Lisbon and Portugal in general besides beautiful is one of my favorite places in the world. It is one of the oldest cities of the world, but just had a natural, unrestored historic feel. Trolley cars whipping through thin hills of cobble stone, incredible sites and helpful happy people. Plus the adventures in-between our site seeing makes everything so special…needless to say an incredible dinner at the famous Principe do Calhariz for the grilled Portuguese delights and all else that came with…plus, who could give up being moved 3 times during the meal. At least I had the company of Daven and Alex…this is after Alex was drilled by our hostel roommate why she was traveling with 2 guys…maybe because we are friends? Duh. As with many great days this fall, we find ourselves venturing out at night to find what is hot in the local area. Tonight’s venture took us to Barrio Alto which was about a 5 foot side cobble road with a steep steep grade navigated by a vernacular which was lined with bars and bands playing in the streets. It was an incredible stop to debrief from the busy day, plan tomorrow, take in the sights of all the people and listen to some interesting music. Today was a good day!

Sunday had to be one of my favorite Days…but definitely our longest. We decided no trip would be complete without the adventure of a road trip, so we rented the smallest little 2-door Ford with only 400 Km and headed out for an adventure. I must say…I was impressed with my manual driving skills for the first time since I learned years and years ago down the beach in an old VW pickup truck…thanks Bill Miller ( One of the many lessons I still use today). We began by taking the Basque da Gama Bridge which is the longest bridge in Europe and when in a car on EMPTY it makes for an adventure! We were heading for the city of Setubal which took us about an hour to get to. Our hopes and what ended up happening is we ventured into the Arrabida Natural Park. It really was a gorgeous park with incredible views and a really nice day! Pictures can only speak the words I would love to be able to find. Speechless views and adventures!

We ended up having the car to keep which is kind of funny because at 2 am when I jokingly mention we should take the car on an all-nighter road trip, I found myself packing the car and setting out for the road. 3 am and drving through the empty historical streets of Lisbon were definitely an adventure to remember.

We ended up trying to make it out to Sintra National Park in search for Cork Trees and the Western most point of Europe for the sunrise. Besides relearning stick and the 4 am costal views on our way to Cascais and our first stop in Cabo da Roca, we parked the car for a 45 minute power nap. The hurling wind of the cliff and the idea of being as far west as you can get in Europe was too exciting to sleep, so we set out to continue our drive through Sintra and back to the airport. Dropped off the car at the airport, missed the sunrise and had 30 minutes to spare.

Daven and Alex made the perfect travel buddies and I really think we all had an adventure of a life time….definitely some incredible laughs! Thanks EU for making it possible and thanks to the beauty of freedom!

Fall break with Mary

2010-10-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

DAY ONE (Wed. 20th) Happy Fall Break!

MARY:

“Happy Fall Break Mary!,” stated Larry in the middle of Barcelona’s subway system. Most college students spend their fall break catching up on sleep and enjoying the relaxation of home. Of course, I had to be different. (Sorry Mom.) Instead, I started my fall break by waiting at gate A25 to board a direct flight to Barcelona, Spain. After a stressful week, I was excited to leave the country as well as enjoy the culture of Spain! I’m very impatient so eight hours of flying made me very anxious. At least, I had an empty row to myself.

When I got off the plane, I was nervous that Larry would be waiting with a moped. Yet, Larry assured me that Barcelona is quite different than Heidelberg, Germany. Instead, he surprised me with a banana and chocolate, besides being incredible (Larry added this), he definitely knows my eating habits. Larry was ready to start my grand tour of the city and he knew exactly what I needed to stay awake. Our tour began at the Sagrada Familia which we later visited but is directly across from Larry’s front door. It is funny because he is not fazed by this immense piece of architecture wonder since living here for a few months, yet millions of tourists come to gaze. We literally spent the morning walking up the Avenue de Gaudi. The walk was gorgeous, but very hilly. Our first stop was the Hospital de la Santa Creu. The hospital is under construction, but the architecture is incredible. I wonder if the patient’s attitudes are more positive based on their beautiful surroundings?

LARRY:

I knew the best thing to do when Mary had arrived was to keep her moving and awake. With her MAC completion the following week I had 2 goals all week, to keep her healthy and having fun. The nerves as I waited for her at the airport were incredible. I knew she would have emotions of vary degrees running through her mind and I was just excited and ready to go. Like horses are the derby, we started the week off running and now that I look back it was well worth it! Avenue De Gaudi runs in an odd diagonal direction from the Sagrada Familia….at the top is the incredible Hospital de la Santa Creu. Though under restoration, this campus was designed by Domenech Montaner, one of the greatest Catalan designers of the modernism movement. The diagonal direction road of Avenue de Gaudi is partly thanks to Montaner despising the grids of the city and building the hospital on an angle.

MARY:

Our walk continued with an extended park tour of Parc del Guinardo, Parc del Carmel, and Parc Guell. We stopped at the top Parc del Guinardo for lunch and to admire the great view of the city. The views were unbelievable since you could see from the mountains to the sea. However, Parc Guell, designed by Gaudi, was my favorite. Gaudi’s unique style is captivating and I loved the lizard statue.

In the evening, we met up with some of Larry’s friends for a Barcelona soccer game! The stadium was huge and roaring with fans! The Barcelona club team won and even scored a goal during the last few seconds of the game. I am excited to see what adventures the next week brings. Hopefully, Larry’s Spanish skills will make up for my Spanish vocabulary, which includes hello and the light. (Hola y La Luz)

LARRY:

The day really turned out to be incredible and Mary was a trooper to say the least. Parc Guell seemed to have been her favorite part. Originally built for a wealthy business man, aspects of the park are just unbelievable. From the goofy style houses at the entrance in traditional Gaudi design, the famous waved bench covered in broken colored tiles, the “Doric temple” with 86 stone columns which was originally built to house a market and the exotic mosaic roofs which Mary really enjoyed. It is nice to finally be able to share the city with someone.

The Barca game was incredible! Sorry Messiah, this was an interesting game….between the people, the energy and the game, we were just enjoying our time. Luckily Mary got a nap in so she came alive and really enjoyed herself. It was well worth attending and being a part of the experience…plus they are one of the best teams in the world

DAY Two (Thurs. 21th) Gotta Run

MARY:

Larry had class in the morning, so I decided to go for a run along the beach. Running next to the yellow breeches by Messiah is nice, but it is easily trumped by the Mediterranean Sea. In the afternoon, I met up with Larry and we walked down Passaig de Gracia, a famous shopping street. During our walk, we saw the Pedrera, an apartment building, designed by Gaudi. After Passaig de Gracia, we went to Plaza Catalunya to complete one of my check list items, kiss by a fountain. Before heading home we walked down Las Ramblas, which was decorated with restaurants, more shops, and human statues. Also, we checked out the Boquiera Market. The market had a very similar atmosphere as the Reading Market Terminal. We tried the fruit smoothies and picked up some candy treats. I had to try the black licorice for Dampa, my grandfather.

In the evening, we met up with Larry’s friends to celebrate Miriam’s birthday. His friends are so nice and they immediately welcomed me into their group. They seem to know a lot about me...I wonder what Larry has been telling them! We had dinner at a Japanese buffet. Everyone left stuffed! After dinner, I was able to meet up with Diana and Chris, friends of mine from freshman year at Messiah. It was crazy to be reunited in Spain!

LARRY:

Waking up early was exactly what the doctor ordered. I had class in the morning and I knew Mary wanted to go for a run. One of my favorite parts of Barcelona is being able to run along the beach in October. Crazy enough there are still nude people on the beach this time of year. It is really a year around nice weather kind of place. For the experience of complete solidarity on the along the gorgeous Mediterranean, I guided Mary in the right direction and headed out for a class. As nervous as I was, I knew traveling alone in a foreign country tends to be an adventure. One of my second favorite parts about Barcelona is that you can walk just about any way as I proved to Mary yesterday. This afternoon I wanted to show her my walk to school and some of Barcelona’s most famous parts. Our journey began on Passaig De Gracia which is one of the wealthiest parts of the city. The neighborhood of Gracia is very young and upbeat which is incredible. I have 2 good friends that live there, so it is common for us to chill in and around Gracia. The Passaig runs from the bottom of Gracia to the center of the city and is loaded with a ton of designer shops, nice restaurants and things to take pictures of. I walk down this every day to class and have yet to see someone carrying bags…it is a place to see and be seen I guess. The Passaig de Gracia dumps out into the Plaza Catalunya which is one of the biggest plaza’s in Barcelona. There is a Corte Ingles which is a huge mall, banks and fountains. Typically there are a ton of events, exhibitions and pigeons in the plaza so I knew this was a must see! J Our feet were tired and we wanted a break so we only took one more walk down Las Ramblas…home of tourist central and pick pocket heaven. Las Ramblas is the most famous street in Barcelona for its history as a commercial center, animal shops and human statues….it now has a title as being the biggest hot spot of pick pocketers. Mary loved this street with all the energy and the Boquiera…the oldest market in Barcelona!

DAY Three (Fri. 22th) All Aboard

MARY:

Today really challenged my Spanish limits. Larry’s group was heading to Girona for a class trip. Due to insurance coverage, I was not able to ride the bus with the group. This left me in Barcelona with only two options. Spend the day in Barcelona with no help or get on a train to Girona. With some guidance and a map from Larry, I was on my way to explore another city.

I used the Barcelona metro and train system without any issues. Still seeing Larry walk up to the train station was a huge relief. We walked around the historic district and met up with Larry’s friends along the city wall. Before, heading home we stopped at one of my favorite places, a book store. Oddly enough, I found my new favorite children’s author, Leo Lionni. My advisor has been reading his books to my class throughout the fall semester. I came upon Little Blue Little Yellow, Pequeno Azul y Pequeno Amarillo, in the book store! A must buy for my advisor. Larry and I ended our afternoon in Girona with an incredible cup of chocolate and coffee gelato.

LARRY:

Planning Mary’s trip was exciting but I knew there was a lot I wanted to show her and experience with her. The thrill of waiting for her overwhelmed my mind and inevitably forced me to look past a very big detail. I had forgotten all about my day trip to Girona and Figueres in northern Spain. This was our last group trip and one I didn’t want to miss because the Dali Museum in Figueres sounded incredible. I quickly scrambled into planning mode and set Mary up with detailed plans on how to meet us in Girona after the museum which was in the next town. The Dali Museum was incredible and it is crazy to think the whole thing is filled with only one artist’s work. I was rather impressed to be honest.

The next stop to Girona was just as interesting. This northern town filled with history and hilly cobblestone streets was incredible! The tight windy alleys of rough roads and incredible buildings were a pleasure to explore for an evening. A great day is best topped off with a relaxing train ride home and a brief nap. Its only day three and we both are getting tired. Do we stop now and miss some of the events and sites of the city, or do we keep plugging away and figure it out later.

DAY Four (Sat. 23th) Twelve to Twelve!

MARY:

Well waking up at noon always adds more stress into my day. We decided to start with a workout along the Mediterranean Sea. After completing the hard work out, we took a stroll along the beach. The weather was great and we decided to take a short swim. I am very excited that I can officially say that I went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea! I even found a cool lifeguard stand that reminded me of my recent life guarding certification. Around nine, we headed out for dinner. We stopped at the Plaza Espana to see a fountain show. Sadly, the fountain is under construction until mid-November. Larry promised to take pictures for me. We headed to dinner after ten at the Plaza Real. We had paella, croquettes, and Cataylan dessert. The dessert was my favorite, as always. The bottom layer was hot chocolate with a slap of nut ice cream on top. The top was covered by Cataylan crème, which tastes like burnt marshmallows. It was delicious, but I generously shared my dessert with Larry. I gave him a two spoon limit. Afterwards, we met up with Larry’s friends at Mary’s Place. What a perfect name!

LARRY:

Inspiration for today’s blog came from our conversation at dinner tonight. After waking up at 12 and not finishing dinner until about 12 I just knew that today was a 12 to 12 kinda day. Running along the Mediterranean has been one of my favorite aspects of the city. I knew that I had to take Mary at least once while she was here on the run I usually take throughout the week. Starting off at the Sagrada Familia, down the Diagonal and across the beach and back up La Marina, it’s an incredible run to say the least. By the time we got to the beach, Mary let the the views get to her….next thing I knew she was playing life guard and swimming in the Sea pretending to save people drowning. She definitely enjoyed the morning so far!

An afternoon of shopping and some more exploring and our day was only getting better. Dinner tonight was at an incredible restaurant called Les Quinzes Nits. There are a few of these types of restaurants in Barcelona and Madrid and the way they work is that they bring in training chefs to cook. Essentially you get an incredible meal at an unbeatable price. All I wanted Mary to be able to taste was Paella so that she had the full Spanish experience.

To top off the night…taking her for some dancing at Mary’s Place was a definite hit.

DAY Five (Sun. 24th) To the Mountain!

MARY:

Everyday Larry points across the mountains to a building and say, “Tibidabo, we will go there.” So today was finally the day. We took the metro to the base of the mountain and started hiking for about twenty minutes. We found a trail filled with bikers and runners. The atmosphere was great and the view of the city was incredible. Everyone seemed to be on an athlete’s high. The trail was completely flat, which was great for our sore legs. However, that quickly changed. About twenty-five minutes into our run, the trail decided to make a steep turn. Larry and I kept trudging up the mountain. I refused to stop running and finally after forty-five minutes, made it to the top. Getting to the top was a huge fitness accomplishment. The trail was definitely a steep climb and windy. I was ready for Tibidabo two, but Larry declared that we would never be running up that hill ever again.

LARRY:

Sundays are always an adventure in Barcelona. Typically many of the museums are free and there is a lot to do. The morning was spent just as Mary described. Honestly, the views from the top of Tibidabo were breathtaking. Today and tomorrow are the last full days I had with Mary so we had to make them worth our while. After our journey to the peak of Barcelona, where it is said that Jesus was tempted by the devil and would be given Barcelona as his personal city, we headed to the gothic quarters of the city. Mary and I walked all throughout the Gothic Quarters so that she could see what Barcelona once looked like back in the day.

We walked through the streets of the historic quarters, did a ton of shopping and headed to the Picasso Museum so that Mary got some type of education for the classes she skipped. It is crazy to think how fast Mary’s time here has flown by…she really seemed to have an incredible week, and I know that she got to see everything Barcelona had to offer. Tonight was a night to relax, start to pack and to get some work done. Especially after dinner which was spent at my neighbor Eira’s house, I knew Mary got the Spanish and Catalan Experience…All the sights, foods and experiences.

DAY Six (Mon. 25th) Triple Header

LARRY:

Our last day together…where did the time go? Today we had a ton to do to make this trip complete. Amongst packing, shopping and exploring we had to make it to the three top tourist attractions in Barcelona. First stop was Casa Batllo. A bit expensive since it is privately owned but it is nice to know your donations for entrance are solely what goes into maintaining and restoring the Casa Batllo. This home was designed by the great Gaudi for a businessman years and years ago on Passaig de Gracia which happened to be one of the most prestigious roads in Barcelona. The house itself was incredible and Mary really enjoyed it. Rounded walls, circular windows and incredible colors. The house was designed off a nautical theme, and everything was created off this very idea.

Next stop was the Pedrera, an apartment building designed by Gaudi with an original apartment still intact from the 20’s. This is probably one of the second most popular sights in Barcelona and it was absolute a wonder. The design of the building and roof with all of its curves and details was well designed. The apartment was Mary’s favorite part I think. She seemed to love the historic aspect of the apartment with all the old antiques designed by Gaudi and a look into what life might have looked like in years past. We were on the move so we had to keep our day going.

Last stop was by far my favorite. The Sagrada Familia, across from my home and designed by the great Gaudi himself. This magnificent architectural wonder has been being built since 1892 and isn’t supposed to be completed until maybe 2025…the Pope is coming next week, hopefully to get their butts moving. This was my favorite thing we saw probably because of the grandeur and incredibleness of the interior. Designed like a forest of trees, it was a unique feeling to be inside as it is being built above your head. We were a part of the history here and that was a neat feeling. This was a great way to end Mary’s trip here in Barcelona. Well, actually nearly missing her flight was a great ending to remember but as a whole the trip was a blast!

We saw and conquered! (and it was great to share my life here in Barcelona with her.)

DAY Seven (Tues. 26th) I Miss You

Ending

MARY:

I had an incredible week in Barcelona. Fall Break in Spain was one of the wildest ideas of my life! I enjoyed every minute of the trip. This fall semester is going by so fast, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to explore a new country. Besides, Larry and I have to continue our tradition of meeting up during his world adventures. I wonder where we will meet up next!

Rain Paralyzes Barcelona

2010-10-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

I didn’t believe it at first, but when I was told that rain makes Barcelona stop in its tracks I quickly realized that it is true. Yesterday I made the effort to make a trip with some friends to Monserrat which I have been wanting to go to. It is a local mountain with some hiking, beautiful views and an incredible Monastery on the top. Well, upon arrival we were told the train wasn’t working that takes people from the base to the peak of Monserrat, so we were out of luck. Wet from the Barcelona rain (wasn’t raining at our final destination), we hoped on the Metro to a different train with hopes of disappearing to another destination for a day of relaxation. Tarragona here we come, bought our tickets and waited, waited, and waited. After 45 minutes I knew something was wrong, and there was. Train was cancelled. But because why?

After two strike outs we knew we couldn’t try again, so we stayed in Barcelona for an incredible Japanese lunch and an afternoon or relaxation. Later that same evening on the news we heard that Tarragona had been having awful storms and the train was cancelled due to that. Everything happens for a reason. I think because the city is so used to having incredible weather, a day of rain is the perfect excuse to relax.

I am kinda missing the beautiful weather from last weekend. We went to an incredible airshow on the beach which was a ton of fun! Saw a ton of planes, soaked up some rays and had a goodtime! So for now, I am just going to sit back and relax.

Ps…Mary comes in a week…can life get any better than that???

Life in Barcelona!

2010-10-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

I think I have finally gotten into the swing of things here in Barcelona. It has only been a month and with 2 left, I feel like I am settled in and ready to just soak in all that gets offered. Life at home has been incredible. I love the care of Juana, visits of Eira and her family and the feel of being a part of the people that actually live in Barcelona. Finally, I can leave my house and not have to gasp or gaze at the most popular tourist attraction in Barcelona. Instead, I chuckle at the cameras, fake poses, and tourist looking individuals trying to appreciate their 20 minute view of this piece of art.

Classes so far have been incredible. I get nervous at times because our grade rests on only 2 exams for the most part and two 10 page essays, but in the end, I remain optimistic. The university has been really interesting in just the amount of days and holidays we have had, which has been nice to relax and experience the city.

Juana has been incredible! Just about anything I love to eat she makes, we learn new things and always have a few incredible laughs! and Gazpacho! Meals are good, class is good, the city is good. Life is good.

Antonia and Jauna

The Last Exchange Student

My happy Spanish mama

Dark Nights of Barcelona

2010-10-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

There is something calming about a city at night. During the day everything is moving, working, and making commotion. The smells, sounds and sights are alive, but by night all of that seems to calm and a new city comes alive. Walking home the past few nights from the Barca Night Bus has been rather interesting. The silence of the once bustling streets seems odd, but it tends to be rather soothing. Attractions like the Sagrada Familia sit empty, restaurant chairs are stacked and the people are asleep. Why is pure darkness, quietness and emptiness so peaceful? I think it is the drastic difference that ignites a different insight, a different feeling, and a different view of the city. All of a sudden the streets are filled with faded stories, sleeping homeless and a bit of rest for the day to come.

Am I a man of the city? Or still a country boy? Maybe this is why I find peace in the darkness of Barcelona, because the city is too much to bare 24/7. The beaches and night clubs may be alive, but the rest of the city sits in silence, darkness and a restful state. For tonight, I must rest, and tomorrow will bring yet another insight into this incredible city.

22 years and still kicking...

2010-09-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

Celebrating birthdays abroad are never the easiest thing to do, but some how they end up incredible!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, adventures and dinners!

La Mercè 2010

2010-09-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

I have been doing awful with blogging. The plan was to use this as my journal as well, but I guess I am slacking...or am I. I mean, how many times can I write about my week of classes, great food and adventures with friends.

Since my last post, everything has been going really well. Life at home with Juana is incredible and my time in Barcelona has been very enjoyable. I must say though, this past weekend was a huge highlight. Every year at this time, the city of Barcelona celebrates La Mercè. This annual grand festival has been a tradition since 1871 and is still an incredible event. 1.4 million people participated in the weekend's activities. Thanks to my neighbor Eira, I was set up with a program and knew exactly which events I need to attend....without the trust advice, we would have missed some of the most spectacular events I have ever seen...and that says a lot....but hey, it was my birthday weekend, so I was ecstatic it went to well.

After class on Thursday, the fun began which turned out to be a weekend full of light nights and good times! Thursday was an incredible day to kick of the events. First a group of us went to the historical wine, cheese and meet tasting that has been held during Merce for years with hopes of promoting Cataluna's businesses. The day only continued with a visit to my dear friend Paula. Paula and I studied at Temple together down in Philly, but lives in Barcelona. She had invited myself and another friend over for dinner and to catch up. It felt so good to see her again, and to be able to enjoy the first night of the festival with a local. Turns out, we ended up joining her and her friends for another girls birthday. What a blast! From a concert in Plaza Catalunya to a 5 band music extravaganza at "The Forum" we really had an incredible night....and to think...I can speak Spanish until 4 am with no troubles.

Friday the 24th of September only added to the weekends excitement. We were up and out by 10 am to see what trouble we could get into. Come 12:30 we were at the Plaza Sant Jaume for the "Diada Castellera." This is one of the oldest traditions that we saw besides the parade later in the day. Here, teams compete to make human towers by stacking and climbing onto each other in hopes of producing the highest tower. The crazy part is the last person, a young child who has to climb to the very top, raise their hand and then come back down....seems like child services needs to be called here in Spain. By nightfall we enjoyed the Parade of Giants in that the city parades its giants which are regional to specific neighborhoods in the city.

The incredible part about this weekend was the amount of FREE concerts and events. It is really a thank you and culture push for the people of Barcelona...All day and night :) there was something to do, a concert to see or a dance to dance.

Saturday the 25th...Day of my glorious birth...was yet another fun day. We have been non stop, but we have one weekend to enjoy this cultural party and festival...why not soak it all in? Today was the day I knew was going to be a blast....Morning and early afternoon was spent relaxing on the beach with friends which was nice after the past 2 busy days and 2 more to come. After a lovely birthday dinner, we were headed to the "Porta de I'infrn and Correfoc" Translated as Gates of hell and fire run...It is exactly as it sounds. Thanks again to Eira who made this weekend incredible (Though had to miss it for a trip with friends) we were prepared to cover all skin and for the time of our lives. Pictures say a thousands words, but the premise was that devils ran through the streets spitting fire and torches at the crowd. Yes. People got burnt. Yes. Things caught on Fire. and Yes. This was ridiculous.

Lastly, to end the weekend on a great note, Sunday we went to the PiroMusical which as a 30 min. power hour (Diff. Song every minute) set to fireworks. Again...Pictures say it all.

Between the people, culture, food, music and adventures...La Mercè 2010 was one of the most incredible weekends of my life!

12 Hours to Western Spain....

2010-09-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

There is a good feeling about being settled into Barcelona these past few days. After the first week of nerves, broken Spanish, and mysteries of Barcelona, we were off to our little trek to Western Spain and now back and settled into our new lives. It is amazing how fast the time is going by.

Our trek was incredible. We all loaded up the coach last Friday packed with 2 sandwiches and a 12 hour ride ahead! By now, after IBI, I am pretty good with long coach rides, and my body is ready to relax and fall asleep. part of me wanted to stay away and see the country side, but to my surprise, I was graced with desert all the way to Leon.

I have never really seen a desert, so it was incredible to see, but after hours of sand you get pretty bored. I am told the reason for all the desert is because years ago the Spaniards cut down all the forests to build ships and in turn destroyed the terrain. Our first stop was the little town of Tarazona. We actually only stopped her for lunch, but it was a pretty incredible place to stop. A little town built into the hill. Full of life, a river running through, and a very European looking church.

After 12 hours of pure fun, we had finally arrived in Leon, our first destination. We have been studying Art History in class, and the purpose of the trip was to actually see what we have been learning. A huge part of it is to help us with our language skills and comprehension...Art History....what a topic to pick. Leon was absolutely incredible. A beautiful city full of little restaurants and Tapas Bars. One thing I love is to be like the locals....so I set out on my own to find a Tapas bar filled with Spaniards. As always, I found myself the lone white man amongst all natives and with a deal of a life time. When you buy a drink here in Leon, you get a free Tapas with it. Sooner than you think, I became a connoisseur in all the local cuisines and drinks. We had a blast in Leon and really saw a lot of incredible churches and buildings.

After a few days in Leon, we headed a few days to Burgos. With a similar feel of Leon, yet colder weather, we had continued our adventure through the history of Spanish art and architecture. I have really enjoyed learning some of the old styles of art, especially when we get to see them in front of our eyes. As a group, we are having a blast exploring the tiny streets of these little towns and being a part of the local "system."

All good things must come to an end, so after another lunch visit now to Zaragoza, we were back in Barcelona on Wednesday. So far, this week has been incredible. Classes have begun, life has settled, and I am feeling good about being here. Time is flying by, but I am trying to enjoy everyday as if tomorrow was my last. Walking to class has been a blast as well as experiencing all there is in Barcelona.

This weekend should be fun to get out a bit and besides next weekend being my 22nd birthday, the city of Barcelona is celebrating a huge festival which should be incredible! More adventures ahead!

Hasta Luego!

Life is a System of Systems

2010-09-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

In all my travels, I have come to many conclusions. My thoughts today as I made my morning commute to school (35 minutes) through the streets of Barcelona, is that life is nothing more than a system of systems. A collection of systematic processes that we live out because we are systematically trained to.

For instance, we go to school, graduate, go to college, graduate, get a job, find a partner, have a family, work, retire, die. Now don't get me wrong, that is a TON of fun, exciting options and opportunities and it is most important to remember that your life is what you make of it. That I am trying to say, is that this is one of the systems that we are programed to follow in life. It is possibly a stability system, one that we perceive as success and a society norm. The economic system we support in our daily life is another system in life's grid, the consumption of energy could very well be a system of its own.

One may wonder where all of this is coming from. Well, as I walk to school everyday, I at first can see the systems swirling around me. Stores opening, deliveries, parents walking kids to work, and most notably the 4 S's theory of transportation in Barcelona. Sexy Suits, Stilettos and scooters. What I mean by the 4 S's is that every day I see some of the most well put together (This is what I mean by sexy.....but I needed an S word) men and women in suits and full business dresses riding and parking their scooters to go to work. As I watch all of these systems swirl behind me, I start to see myself in the middle of it all. I am becoming a part of the Spanish system. As a student, regular of the morning commute and a supporter of the economy, I am becoming a one with the revolving actions.

There is something incredible about this. I guess the most rewarding part is the things you learn, about the place, people and the culture. These are the very things that broaden our minds and make us a better asset to the system. These are the reasons we have these opportunities, the reasons we have been created (to glorify and grow), and the reasons why life is good.

Barcelona Port

Just as this shipping port manages to systematically unload, organize and redistribute thousands of crates a day SMOOTHLY for the entire world, our lives are a collections of systems we learn from, acquire and create to be better ourselves and the world.

With the bad comes the good.....

2010-09-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

There was something about walking up to this entrance to the university today which reminded me that with the bad comes the good, or in a better way....with the good comes some bad. It is hard in the thick of a moment to remember that there is always a light in the end. This weekend, Saturday I should say was an interesting day...almost as if I hit culture shock in one day. Regardless, the weekend continued to be a blast, and led up until this moment....the end of my first day at the University...classes start the 15th of September, but our BCA language class continued today.

Sunday turned out amazing with a tour of the Parque Guell and all the designs of Gaudi. As you can see below, it really is an incredible park to see and explore.

The weekend turned out to be a lot better than I thought. After a busy day of Spanish lessons and a fun afternoon I felt a lot more comfortable to talk with my host mom Juana and enjoy the life I was given here. Even today, during out first day at the University, I was really excited to practice my Spanish and live the life of the Spaniards.

As you can tell by my pictures of the University...we are living the good life!

A Lunch to Remember

2010-09-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Some lunches are not that difficult to forget. My lunch on Saturday was one of those days. Nervous as I was to be in the house for the first full day had my nerves all excited. On top of that, I found out that we were having a family reunion, in that Juana's (My Mom) son and daughter (with her husband and 2 kids) were coming for a visit. At this point in time, I was pretty insecure with my Spanish and I didn't know what to think.

Well, it didn't take long for a blank stare to overcome my face and pure exhaustion to drain my body from life. Due to the fact that Juana's daughter is married to an incredible man from Africa, the table not only spoke Catalan, but French was also tossed around a bit.....in addition to the English from Juana's son and sometimes Spanish translations he offered me. By the end of the meal, I was pretty exhausted and ended up passing out in my room for a good two hours.

I better pick up the language quick or I am in big trouble!

-lpw

Juana Sanchez...mi madre de Barcelona

2010-09-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

Today was the big draft today and the pick has been made!

As excited as I was to move in with my host family tomorrow, I was even more excited to see who I would be with! Today we got our placements and here is what I learned:

Juana Sanchez
Sardenya 311-313 (4FL,3a)
08025 Barcelona

All I can say, is that I am really excited. From what I was told, Juana is a single women in her 50's and has a cat and just got a puppy. It is hard to imagine I am going to be a proud father of a new dog...such a responsibility!

The most exciting part is that I am living directly across from the Sagrada Familia which is one of the most famous pieces of architecture in Barcelona....( There are a lot though....masterpieces I should say) Hearing about the location is exciting for me, since I am told it is one of the most beautiful parts of the city and I can walk to the university compared to many of the other students who are a 30 minute ride by subway.

So, tomorrow is the second big day when I move in, and I cannot wait!

Disappointment Strengthens us...

2010-09-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

When Tedd always said to me...Don't expect anything and you won't be disappointed, I never thought I shouldn't "expect" to not practice Spanish in Spain. Let me try to explain...

Living on the coast this week, has been a blast but I am ready to move into my host house and live the "good life." Today was a day that all I could do is laugh...and it went a little like this. I was going for a run on the beach but before I left I stopped to say hello to a few friends soaking up the sun on the Mediterranean. As we stood there, I saw what looked like a small city in the distance on the the coastal line in the water...Was it an island or Barcelona...I wasn't sure, so I built up the courage and went on a questioning adventure.

The first woman I walked up to (only because it was the only woman with a top on on the beach besides us) responded to my question with: I only speak Russian (in Russian). What the Heck! I fly all the way to Spain...use my spanish and get a russian?????

Try number 2: Walked to a man sitting watching the crystal clear waves crash on the sand to get: No Tengo una idea....ok, that was progress but nothing more than 4 words.....Great!

As my group of friends could not hold from laughing I continued my journey onto the 3rd....which was supposed to be the charm. After my tongue rolled out a beautifully constructed question about what city was in the distance.....I was answered with English in a British accent. Great! So now I realize my Spanish sucks enough that this guy I knew English, and yet again....my skills were pointless.

Very frustrated and confused why I was in Spain, I moved on and headed to the boardwalk for my run. As you know, I hate to give up, so I went on to ask the 4th person....my last try...I thought.....and as with the past 3 try's I happened to ask an older couple that only knew Catalan and absolutely no Spanish...this time I was screwed.

I moved on, venting through my run, but wondering what I did wrong. As I ran for about a 5 minutes, my eye spotted a woman that I thought knew her stuff, so I stopped, asked and BAM! Hit in the head again with an English answer of....sry, I am not sure, I am not from here.

That was it. I was done trying, and I guess I should have never EXPECTED to use my Spanish in Spain! At least I thought I was done until I saw a life guard and knew that this was the perfect person to ask what city was in the distance.

Me: ¿Cuál es esa ciudad en la distancia?

Him....Senor, que es un barco. (It is a ship)

With embarrassment, I continued my run laughing and realizing I was here to make mistakes and learn from them!

That is Spain. Life is good!

Swimming with the Jelly Fish

2010-08-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

It is hard to imagine with only 3 weeks of downtime, I am back up and running on yet another adventure. Even though my three weeks were packed with visiting friends, the shore and family, it was nice to lay my head down on a familiar pillow for a few days. IBI was definitely a blast, however now that I am in Spain for my second day; it feels like IBI has continued. The people are drastically different, but the feel of being in yet another hotel, living the life of a European and soaking up the Spanish culture seems very familiar.

The past two days have been a whirlwind I have not experienced yet this past year in all my travels. I am assuming the reason behind this has been my reliance on the language and my prayers to quickly have the Spanish come back to me a.s.a.p. Our adventure began with our long flight to Barcelona and a week stay in the suburbs of the city center itself. Castelldefels is a gorgeous little town from what we have seen so far. Yesterday (Day 1) was busy with orientation, exhaustion, and some exploration. We are only 3 blocks from the beach, so a short pilgrimage to the Mediterranean was in order. The water is warm and unbelievably clear which is incredible and extremely desirable.

Today had a totally different feel then our first, we hit the ground running with early morning language training and conversation boat camp. I made the mistake of naivety by introducing myself by my mostly common Spanish name Lorenzo, and I now regret it for the nerve-racking sound of my name being called by many of our professors currently with us for our intro courses. If a question isn’t being asked, then Lorenzo “en la playa or donde es Lorenzo?”

I can say with confidence that the nerves are beginning to settle and working on my focus of truly learning Spanish has kicked in. Our time so far has been an adventure and a lot of that is thanks to our reliance on the lengua (language). I always get asked by you guys why I am leaving again…and my best explanation from today would be where else could I run past the Villas on the board walk along the Mediterranean?

Adios amigos…..

Good by London...hello Paris!

2010-07-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well, our time in Holland is officially over, but it has been a blast!

We were able to head to Tilburg for the largest carnival in Europe for our last night in Oisterwijk and had a blast…it was pretty big and as grotesque as we expected. As you can imagine, it was a busy night and a nice way to end our time in such an incredible place.

We are on the road again….headed to Amsterdam first. Got to roam a little here and there, went to a few museums and to the Anne Frank house which was an experience. I highly recommend it, and it really put life under the Nazis in perspective.

Upon entering The Hague, we hit the ground running. We went to the famous Dutch DELFT factory that produces the blue and white porcelain which was wild. It was really neat to see and a huge part of Dutch history. Lunch in Leiden was pretty nice and the diamond polishing plant was something else to see….watch out ladies…we bought no diamonds. J

Monday we headed to Aalsmeer, the largest flower auction in the world. I have never seen so many flowers in a day (13 million). The building itself was something else, and really an experience. Ronny our coach driver headed all over the area to show us a little more of Holland before we left. Windmills, cheese and wooden shoes filled our minds and photo cards. Today was our day to visit Ahold Corp…owner of Giant and many other grocery businesses….one of the largest in the world. I was even able to catch up and have dinner with Bote, an old friend and exchange student of Randy’s from about 5 years ago which was great…plus we got to see China town of The Hague.

It is hard to believe we only have 9 days left…IBI has been an incredible experience, but all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow we head off to Paris and then to London before returning home, so there is more to come, but I am sure some busy busy days that will fly by!

Unbelievable time in Utrecht

2010-07-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Every other year, a group of Dutch students comes from CHE (Christeluke Hogeschool Ede) during our J-term to be on campus, experience American culture and to be a part of a partnership Messiah has had with this school in past years. We had the incredible opportunity to visit the school during our time here in Holland and it was an absolute blast. The leadership there prepared workshops for us on doing business with the Dutch; we got to interact with some Dutch business students and friends who visited us in previous years. The visit was incredible and CHE happens to be the only Christian University in the Netherlands and one of few in all of Europe, which was neat.

After our visit, we had got to go and explore downtown Utrecht, which I later find out is the home of one of my closet friend Randy’s grandmother…pretty neat. Utrecht was the Venice of Holland….old cobble streets weaving around canals and lined with eateries and shops. I must say, it was rather incredible and an extremely romantic city. Crepes for dinner and a walk around town made for a lovely evening. Life is pretty good here in the Netherlands!

The Dutch are Alive!

2010-07-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

Being here in Holland, Netherlands, Nederland, land of the Dutch…who knows….has been incredible. The world cup has been an integral part of our experience here. We have been going down town to watch all the games and be a part of all the action, as you can see from all my pictures below…The Dutch are really proud of their country, especially when it comes to football.

On Saturday we mounted on our bikes and biked across Europe. From the Netherlands to Belgium only took us a little over 1.25 hrs to get there….About 32 miles round trip for a waffle. Crazy? I think not….We had an absolutely blast. About 15 of us headed out on a journey through the rain that didn’t seem promising. Needless to say, Chris and I kept our group biking south and we made it to a land of milk shakes and waffles. It is one of those things you just need to check of the bucket list.

Oisterwijk has been really fun so far. This weekend a carnival is coming to town which should be pretty cool. Last week they had a neat beer tasting, but we weren’t able to be a part of it. I am sure it was a blast. The hotel even had a nice set up for the 4^th which was nice since we are so far from home. How can you beat burgers and hotdogs without buns…especially when you usually have buns with lunch every day here….gotta love it.

And don't forget our bike rides to Tilberg (10k) almost everyday and underground parking. THIS IS HOLLAND!

To Holland we go!

2010-07-08T03:16:00.000-07:00

I realize I have not written in awhile, and I have no excuses for that. I could tell you how busy I have been in Holland now for two weeks, taking classes, biking to Belgium and day trips here and there, but you will find it all hard to believe….well don’t. At this point in IBI, we take a little different schedule. We put much of the travel aside and buckle down for about 3 weeks in Oisterwijk, Holland for some academics.

Home of only 19,000 people, it is almost as if we are in the smallest town of Europe, but we are having a blast….there are less residents here than students at most state institutions to put it in perspective. The town itself reminds me of downtown Doylestown, quaintly outlined with boutiques and cafes, Oisterwijk has a charm to offer us relaxation and concentration for the 3 weeks we spend here. On top of that, IBI charters the Hotel Boschoord for the entire time for just our use. We all have our own single room, eating facilities and conference rooms situated in the woods surrounded by bike trails, running paths and tons of lakes. Better yet, the Hotel had been recently purchased and revamped completely, so it is rather comfortable for us to use…and we are given our own bike to roam here, there and everywhere!

At first, I was not really too excited to put all the excitement on hold for 3 weeks. I love being on the move and in a new country every 6 days. Speaking of this, next year, IBI will not be returning to the Netherlands and will instead go to India and China for the 3 weeks usually spent here. At first, I was a bit disappointed with feelings of missing out, however, 1.5 weeks into our stay here (plus already having been in China) I would not trade this time in for anything. If you don’t know better, India and China in the program will be a blast and smart for the strategic future, but knowing what Holland is like….I love having the break…. Plus Holland in the World Cup has made it even more interesting!

Our time in Boschoord is busy with class for most of the day, meals and some fun exploration of the areas around….all of which I love to talk about!

Swiss Cheese

2010-06-23T12:19:00.001-07:00

I realize it has been awhile, but give me a break, I am in Europe. What have we been up to....well, we have been running all around Switzerland. Not only the most beautiful country in the world, but also the most expensive and we love it.

Our first stop was the mountain on the lake in Austria on our way. We had an absolute blast. The guys and I rented a boat for 10 Euros for the hour...boated into the center and jumped into the beyond cold glacier melt....what the heck were we thinking...within seconds, our bodies were numb and we were being pulled back into the boat. It sure did taste good though. Second stop was to Lichtenstein for lunch...one of the smallest countries in the world...and it only took 10 minutes to go through, but we were there hahah

Our time as been incredible. We begun in Lucerne which cannot get any more touristy. The beautifulness of the city draws in a lot of people in the summer, but it truly was something else. Gorgeous bridges, crystal clear drinkable rivers, old buildings lining small cobble roads and so much more. Lucerne is really pretty, plus home to an incredible Swiss watch store to drop some dough....how could I resist?

Next stop was Geneva, but no IBI journey is complete without some stops....this time, we stopped in Lauterbrunnen area in alpine valley, and it was well worth it. As some went up into the cable car, we choose to hike to the base of the waterfall. Silly us in dress shoes and flip flops, we had no clue what we were in for. We finally got to the base, soaked by the mist, but loving the view of snow capped swiss alps. This is the good life. This is IBI.

Our finally destination was Geneva, which may be the most expensive city in the world, or at least up there. McDonald is even like $15. The city itself is really neat and there is a ton to see... especially cars. We are only passing through Geneva though for the experience. Even as I write this blog, I stare out my window into the heights of the Alps and the Beauty of this place.

Tomorrow we begin our journey back to the Netherlands....first to Chamonix, France to climb Mont Blanc, then to Keoblenz, Germany for the night, and finally to Oisterwijk, Holland. We are in for yet another adventure, and I am always ready!

Swiss Cheese

2010-06-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

I realize it has been awhile, but give me a break, I am in Europe for crying out loud. What have wee been up to....well, we have been running all around Switzerland. Not only the most beautiful country in the world, but also the most expensive....but we love it.

Our finally destination was Geneva, which may be the most expensive city in the world, or at least up there. McDonald is even like $15. The city itself is really neat and there is a ton to see... especially cars. We are only passing through Geneva though for the experience. Even as I right this blog, I stare out my window into the heights of the Alps and the Beauty of this place.

Australia in Austria

2010-06-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Today was just another one of those incredible days...

Michael, Jamie and I woke up at 6:30 to take a run through the Alps. It was absolutely relaxing and the views are amazing. Gazing into the depths of Innsbruck and the vastness of the Alps was breathtaking. Austria is such a beautiful country, and it really makes me want to go skiing.
After class, the boys and I were ready for an adventure, and that is exactly what we got. We were told for about 6 Euros we could take a cable car to the peak of the mountain here, so we were all excited. Needless to say, we got up to Part 1 of the 3 part system, to find out that we had to pay again (15 more Euros) to get up to part 2 for only 20 minutes since they were closing. Half went, the other half decided to go hiking instead…if we couldn’t get to the top by car, we would walk it.

After about 45 minutes of hiking the Alps we came across what seemed to be an odd rope fence. Not even thinking, I went to hop over holding down the top rope and BAM….My hair was poker straight, the arm shaking and a scream from my vocal cords….you can guess it…I had just been electrocuted.
The guys and I continued on to find orselves in a cow pasture surrounded by cows and then the unexpected appeared. We had found a restaurant at the top of this mountain. Upon asking if they take credit cards (we were told yes) we sat down for a 12 Euro bbq overlooking Innsbruck and the Alps. By the time the check came, we found out it was cash only, and we had to scramble to find enough money to pay.

Innsbruck is an absolutely beautiful city and I would love to come back and go skiing some day!

Coach Ride of a life time...

2010-06-14T09:57:00.001-07:00

As promised, the ride to Innsbruck was incredible. I feel even more enamored and speechless by the breathtaking views and stops we made on the way. For those that have been, you may understand, these are images that you cannot capture on film. Needless to say, my eyes are wide awake and my mind is spinning.

MUNICH Drive-by

Before crossing into Austria, we made an historic stop to Dachau, Germany which house a concentration camp in the 30’s. Though used as a work camp not a death camp, thousands had died and even more had disappeared. Before arriving, we were told a little about the camp which was to help us gain a better knowledge of it. I guess the one thing that really stuck was that the camp was built to hold 6,000 people, and upon American liberation, 32,000 prisoners were found. Seeing something like this is absolutely humbling and sobering. It is an experience in which pictures say more than words. See the story through my eyes:

View of tracks that prisoners came in on.

View down the cell block...just as many behind me.

Prison on the property

Fence around the camp.

Gas chambers disguised as showers...

Our last 2 hours to Innsbruck was rather quiet on the bus as people contemplated what we had just seen. At least the 1^st hour was…it is just one of those things that you just cannot imagine…real horror….real terror….real hell. As usual, I tried to find some trouble and ended up in the front of the coach with our driver Ronny. Chillin in the “Best Seat of the House” as I like to call it is always a blast. Ronny is our driver for the next 40 some days and happens to be the owner of the coach company we used. (16 coaches and 32 drivers.)….best part, is that he has been with IBI for 30 years, so he knows it inside and out. Ronny is always a blast with his great sense of humor and Dutch stories, together, we make an interesting team. As we gazed into the gorgeous sceneries of the passing by Alps, little villages and castles in the hill, there was so much to think about. Unfortunately, the rains came down and the floods came up and the view of the house went splat. Not only did the view, but as we slammed on the coach brakes…I received a nice splat into the windshield….nothing a windshield couldn’t fix. Hahah

Innsbruck is absolutely gorgeous as it lies in the valley of the Alps. The city itself sits shadowed by the immense snow caped (well some snow is still left) mountains. Only 3 adventures have occurred so far that I am sure to remember. Let’s start with the 20 minute gallivant to a laundry mat (Bubble Point) to find out that there is one 3 blocks away…Wow, way to go Lar. Great Job. Bravo.

Oh and how about the European haircut…worse than China…can I look any goofier with a haircut from someone that only speaks German???? I just do not know…these foreign haircuts are always an adventure….for 20 Euros I guess I should just be happy.

Lastly was my incredible run today. Though I want to go back and take pictures, I found an athletic trail that roamed through the Alps with look outs over the city and into the face of other mountain fronts. I even came across another hill of cross that was filled with ancient tombs and old crosses. I cannot feel any more blessed than moments like these. The things my eyes have been able to see and witness are incredible and I can only imagine what is to come.

Did I mention we are staying the Olympic park? Yep…home of the Athletes and Winter games for many years. Besides roaming around with the Austrian team, it is almost like a huge playground for IBI. Tracks, soccer fields, stadiums and so much more is all ours….as Dr. LaFrance says…..We are living the life….this…is…IBI.

Goodbyes to the Czech

2010-06-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

There are sometimes in life, when you just have no clue what to say. Our last days in Prague were absolutely incredible and to an extent it was part of those experiences that are just so hard to put into words. Starting with Friday, we all knew we had to do something big for the first game of the World Cup. Mexico vs. South Africa was the starting game, and what better place to watch it from within the HardRock Café of downtown Prague. Between the foreigners, plethora of Americans and the tables of supporting Mexicans, it was a rather interesting game….full of chants, cheers, and boos. Who can been the chandelier to linger over us as we watched the match.

To make the evening even more enjoyable, many of us knew that our adventure to Prague would be incomplete without hitting up the largest nightclub in Central Europe. 5 full floors of pure fun and dancing. Four hours later, sore calves and a splitting headache, I can officially say we did it…or at least survived. Class all day and curiosity in the evening makes from some incredible long days, but hey…this is IBI….an academically rigorous program….one needs to work hard to play hard. Needless to say, we had a blast in the dance club and it was an experience of a life time.

It was Friday that led to one of the most extraordinary nights thus far on IBI. The night we have all been waiting for….USA vs. England in the World Cup. Luckily, in the center of old city, Hyundai had sponsored a huge (10 x 15) game viewing station with food vendors and so much more. Being inside the little town center, surrounded by historical relics and castles was incredible. Luckily, a lot of the guys were wearing USA jerseys so it didn’t take long (30 seconds) for a crowd to come flocking. First, we met 3 US army guys who drove 2 hrs since they knew there would be a concentration of Americans and Brits. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by fellow Americans and eyed by large pockets of Brits. The game was intense as England scored first and the US tied up the game. I have never felt so patriotic in my life. From US chants to the National Anthem, I was even fine with being sprayed with beer as with the entire crowd when the US team scored. It was definitely a night to remember.

All in all, Prague was rather enjoyable and we truly had a blast. The late night 45 minute walks home were calming and peaceful as the cobble stone streets lay empty and shop owners closed up. It was almost like something you would see in the movies. As always…we are up and out….early Sunday morning for a ride to Innsbruck, which I hear is incredible.

Checkers in the Czech!

2010-06-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

After such a beautiful ride, we were in the Czech Republic and living a new dream. Being back in a post-soviet nation had a lot of parallels between Lithuania, Latvia and Russia. There is so much similar, and so much that just blows your mind. One thing I love about the CZ is the fact that there is limited modernization. The entire city seems frozen in time…once you look past the exotic cars and various impressive store fronts; all you see is old historical buildings.There are numerous medieval churches and incredible architecture.

Yet again, we were off on a 2.5 hr walking tour through the city to get acclimated and to see what the CZ had to offer. City after city, they begin to blur, but there is so much culture and numerous differences to take in that it becomes overwhelming….hence the exhaustion…needless to say the 6:30 breakfast to fit in our action packed days and classes. But hey…I am getting 12 credits will in a European class room.

Today was by far one of my favorite corporate visits of the trip. We had the opportunity to tour the STANLEY (since they merged 3 months ago) Black and Decker factory here in the Czech Republic.

You may be wondering what they make…well, they produce all of the Dewalt Tooling equipment. Wow. Tedd, you would have really loved to see where these pieces come from…needless to say, drop you drill 2 meters….they are supposed to withstand breakage, plus there is 30% glass mixed into the plastic to increase durability. The tour itself was really neat to see.

The factory produces everything from pouring the plastic to making the motors and packaging. Plus, the fully computerized inventory warehouse with magnetic floor tracking systems to move the forklifts was incredible.

There is just so much happening right now. Yesterday I felt like I hit rock bottom. I was running on E. Funny enough, as I entered breakfast this morning…for the first time, only 6 out of 42 were there….Dr. LaFrance got a little nervous I think, but we all just needed one morning to catch up a little. To think…I got to sleep in until 6 am.  One has to work hard to play hard…and that is exactly what we need to do. What a thought life huh? Studying and exploring 13 countries in 10 weeks….I may give up and sit at home. Just kidding.
I do miss Heidelberg though. As a Shanta Betz truck came bellowing past our coach today it just reminded me of Heidelberg and Germany in of itself, a place with deep family heritage and some fun adventures…Though updated, the same posters Tedd once collected still wallpapered the city streets.

I am looking forward to the rest of our CZ experience, then off to Austria on Sunday to start it all over again on Sunday.

Heidelberg, Germany…the State College of Germany….and I loved it just as much.

2010-06-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

There were many aspects of Germany that I loved, especially our time in Heidelberg. After coming from Moscow, it was nice to be in a quaint small city, to relax and soak in some sights as well as culture. Hotel Leonardo was in an excellent location and was in close walking distance to downtown Heidelberg and the “walking” street. Let’s just say our time in Germany through us a few surprises, some better than others…..hahah

For starters, upon arriving, I knew I needed to get some wash done. There we were…9 guys with trash bags of laundry in search of convenience and wash….as always, we found our self lost and in need of directions….and of course some women looking out our bags asked if we were looking for the laundry mat and proceeded to supply us with directions. How could she be so assuming that we needed to do wash…that could have been our life possessions for all she knew? Regardless, we finally found the wash facility and for a small (ridiculous) fee, we got everything washed….dried…and folded…yeah, I said folded (for a fee). I had to do what I had to do. J Needless did I know that the promised same day service would be incorrect, and I would be stuck with no clothes for the next day….well, I did have the stale underwear, t-shirt and shorts I had been wearing for some time now. Logically….what do you do???? GO SHOPPING! A few Euros later….I had a new polo and some lovely (horrible) Euro undershorts.

There is so much to do here in Germany. The one day we took another trip to Mannheim and to Frankfurt to do a few lovely corporate visits…

First stop was the Daimler-Benz plant to see the production of Mercedes buses and coaches. What an interesting thing to see. We really had fun poking our heads around the plant watching the process of buses be made practically all by hand with over 4 miles of wiring!!!

Next stop was the Deutsche Bank and the European Central Bank…both of which were truly incredible, especially with the recent crisis going on in Greece. The ECB was buttoned down tight with security, but it was still a blast.

Our tour of the Heidelberg Castle was priceless. I love seeing some of these incredible landmarks left untouched to an extent. So much is refurbished, it is hard to understand what it would be today without man’s help. The castle was absolutely breath taking…well, the tour was a bore, but the castle itself was fun.

Needless to say, Dr. LaFrance had us buckle down this week with just a few (a lot) of classes and work. We are definitely earning our credits, but still enjoying every country for what it has to offer. J

By far, the best part of Heidelberg was my adventures with my red “hog.” With the anticipation of Mary coming to visit, I decided to rent a red scooter to roam all around Heidelberg and see the city from a different perspective….and let me tell you, it was worth every Euro that was spent. After our exam on Saturday, I went to pick up my hog with a few of the boys who caved in and rented ones too. We spent about an hour roaming all around the city, and “Scooting” around to see what we could find….after only a few wipe outs, we were on our way, and having a ton of fun. My plan was to pick Mary up and the train station and Scoot away into the hills of the city…needless did I know she would be wearing a dress.

All it took was a quick outfit change and we were on our way. Let’s just say, it was an incredible day….one of my best on IBI. We headed all over the hills of Heidelberg on that little scooter. Through the woods to scenic views of the city, through the small streets of a European town, into the University walkways and back again….we even woke up early to take an early morning scoot up to the castle so that we could see it in the morning before church. The streets of Heidelberg were empty that early Sunday morning, but we really had a blast. There is so much more you can see when you have a scooter…things we would never be able to do if we were on foot.

Heidelberg was an absolutely beautiful city. There was so much to do, so much to see, so much wrong with taking the back streets…opps….good song….It truly was a busy young hip town, and had a heavy international influence that had an incredible feel. I know I am going to miss this place…a lot.

For some reason, I felt really good in Heidelberg….some great connections, incredible people and so much to do.

Off to Germany!

2010-06-03T14:21:00.001-07:00

We are on the move again. A good friend from California pointed out to me the other day how fast our pace was, and as usual I probably loved it. I do love it, wish we stayed 2 weeks more in each country to really dive into the culture, but that is life. Sometimes it is hard to believe I can and did have breakfast in Russia, lunch in Sweden and dinner in the Netherlands, but it’s all possible. Our journey continues at an even faster pace, but it is a beautiful price to pay for 12 credits in 10 weeks.

Our journeys are always interesting when traveling with 41 people. We finally arrived in the Netherlands for our night in the middle of farm country. So far, one thing I can say besides the foul odor of Dutch farms is that the Dutch are incredible at architecture. From dealerships built into the sound barrier to works of steel and glass art, they are rather savvy.

Upon coming to the Netherlands, we were picked up by our dear bus driver Ronny, who has served IBI for 30 years now in his fleet of brand new Mercedes Coaches. This is the life, or as Dr. LaFrance says…THIS….is…IBI. Gotta love the guy….and give him credit for taking 41 college students across the world. Back to Ronny, he is a hilarious Dutch man ready to show us the time of our life in Europe, which is only complimented by his 30 years of IBI experience which covers laundry to internet and restaurants.

Our six hour ride from Amsterdam to Mannheim, Germany was a delight. I was able to get a ton of work done in addition to all the rest I greatly needed. Sleep is a scarce commodity here in addition to water and a few other familiar items. I love the group so far. We have a solid group of guys which was vital since about 32 of 41 are guys (one of which married) and about 9 girls (one engaged, two who I traveled with before and 5 new friends). Funny enough, most of us are in relationships, so it’s like Dr. Phil on tour in Europe….just kidding, but a visit from Oprah would be neat.

So…..Mannheim. We stopped on our way to Heidelberg in order to stop at the John Deere factory. Even though it was my least excited corporate visit, we had a lovely time. Tractors, tractors and more tractors. How else would someone want to spent an entire afternoon in Germany? Hundreds of green tractors…except the blue one which is number one of 30 ordered for a farmer in the UK with only blue equipment. John Deere was neat to see and hear all about the company and its practices… They are great and painting the green paint on everything to say the least.

The fun really began when we arrived in Heidelberg. What a place….Thought not blood related, my “step” roots come from Germany, so there is a neat sense of history I feel. Walking around the old city, eat traditional German knockwursts, and seeing the very circus posters that family once collected when they were the same age is really neat and gives me excitement. We all try to soak it in as we are intensively studying economics and global marketing during the day, but there is still plenty of time to explore, see and experience. This really is the life.

So far, this IBI experience has been more than I ever anticipated. It is faster, longer and more incredible than I could imagine. Part of me wants to fail class so I could do it all over again next year (esp. when they are stopping in India and China next year), but I won’t…so don’t get too excited Tedd and Mom. One thing I do know is I have found my calling in life. My mom asked me days before I left what I wanted to do with all of this experience, college and life and I looked her right in the eyes and said: “I wanna be a fireman.” Well, until my next post in the coming days….I have found my calling, saw my post and have decided to be a Russian Fireman….watch out post soviet flames, Sir Lawrence is in town.

Can there be a calm after a storm?

2010-06-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

So 7 years ago I traveled to the Baltic states, and now I am back…At this point I have hit them all…Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania…. and feel nothing different. Haha. So far, I am thoroughly enjoying my IBI trip, but it has been non-stop. At this point, I am sitting in the middle of Holland’s farmland with nothing to do and trying to catch up on the blog.

Sorry for not being available, but we have had a huge lack of internet in Russia….but that is life. So let me try to recap.

45 of us load up our tour coach for our journey to Riga, Latvia to catch the train. Besides the shirtless Lithuanian bus driver, the lack of air conditioning, and a long journey with nothing to see, we were ready for the journey to continue. Trust me, we are tired already and supposedly our time in Russia is supposed to be non-stop.

Best part…arriving at the Lithuania,-Latvia border and finding out it was closed. CLOSED? How the heck do two countries of the EU decide a border is closed??? Well, I guess they can, and that is what they did. Luckily, they graciously let us in since we have 45 tickets for the Riga train. Oh the train…packed with deodorant-less Europeans…Gotta love them.

7-hour bus ride and a 14 hr train ride, and we were finally in Moscow Russia! Of course, we had four nights in this glorious country, with so much to do and not enough time. This is my second time to Russia, so I had low expectations, which came to fruition. I had a ton of fun, but Russia is such a wild place. There is a ton of depression, alcoholism and corruption to an unbelievable extent.

Let’s try to hit some Russian highlights…

Chinese Iron Lady

Tried to order an iron up to the room to clean up my clothes a bit. We had no idea that we would be in corporate casual this entire trip! I have yet to wear and shorts or t-shirts…just tons of dress shirts and khakis. My iron only took 25 minutes to be delivered and it turns out the lovely Chinese delivery lady went to the 7^th floor, not the 5^th and gave one of the ladies in our group a hard time for not accepting the iron I had ordered….good times haha

Circus

Off to the circus. Dr. Lafrance took us to a Russian circus so that we could experience all the Russia had to offer. Though the Russian circus was more of an acrobat show, it had so much to offer. Women hanging off ropes, seal boy, strongest man that did weird things, tigers ready to eat their trainers, Russian clowns toasted with vodka, some poodles that walked on 2 legs. We had quite the time, and sure did laugh a little bit at the freak show.

Boat Cruise

Last night, we took a gorgeous trip up the Moscow River to watch the sunset and relax for the evening. It was the first time we could sit back and relax after our 7-11 schedule we had been keeping all week. We got to see a ton of great Russian landmarks and had a ton of fun.

Ballet

How often do you get to go watch a 3-hour ballet of Swan Lake? I highly recommend it if you get a chance. Nothing better than some stuck up 50 year old next to you with a Chinese fan and a pair of miniature gold binoculars…. hello lady…we sat in the 4^th row.

New Jerusalem Monastery

Among all the churches and gorgeous cathedrals we went to, this monastery was incredible because it was complete un-refurbished. The walls crumbled, the steeple was slanted and the seats were nonexistent. It was a really incredible thing to see….a church just as it sat and was left….no frills or thrills.

Museum, Museums, Museums…enough said.

Our time in Russia ended with an early morning tour of the IKEA Russia headquarter which was the busiest store in the world, Needless to say, IKEA also managed the attached mall with the largest grocery store in the world with only 95 check out lines….I think they needed 5 more….supposedly with all open, there is still a line on the weekends.

Did I happen to mention my favorite corporate visit thus far? Mars Candy in Russia….Have you ever seen Twix, Snickers and M&M’s mass produced by the millions? We had the honor and pleasure to watch this incredible process, try M&M’s hot off the press and learn about the Willy Wonka of 2010.

Here I am sitting in Amsterdam. 6 am wake up call to head to Germany tomorrow. Tour of John Deer, then off to Heidelberg....and we are off again!

Until next time....

Days of our Lives

2010-05-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

These may be the days of our lives, but definitely not like the TV drama.

These are the days of 7 am wake up and past midnight adventures....these are days of different countries every three days...these are the days we explore Europe.

Now....when you look at my pictures, please remind yourself that this is an "Academically Rigorous Program" as our director reminds us.

Past few days have flown by, and we are already hotel hoping. We went from Vilnius to Klaipeda and hit up the presidential palace and a castle to make the trip all the worth while.

We are posted at the University at Lithuania for about 5 days now, so its time to unpack, explore and repack....our new motto.

When in Lithuania.....

2010-05-20T21:32:00.001-07:00

I never saw myself up at 5 am to watch a Lithuanian sunrise. Unfortunately, it is not by choice and my racing mind was not able to stay asleep until the 7:45 wake up call. But hey, how can I complain….yesterday I was in Newark, and today my orange juice is poured in Lithuania…..I sure hope they have orange juice!

Well, we finally made it; at least 23 of 41 have as far as I know. (The rest are on their way) Our journey began at the Newark airport yesterday in which 23 students, mostly of Messiah, embarked on a journey that is supposed to last 10 weeks and consists of tromping around Europe. I say supposed, since I do not believe that it has actually hit yet. As usually, our travels were long, adventurous and packed with new acquaintances…lets just say the man next to me on the 7 hr leg to Copenhagen was the VP of a plane engine manufacture and had a thick polish accent which masked the shear idea of his presence in Connecticut for the past 40 years. No sleep and 7 hours later I find out his hobbies include his interest in his small production winery, a honey bee farm which he was inspired by his father to have, and his big hunt adventures through the barrens of Canada, Idaho and Colorado. Somehow, I meet the most interesting or at least talkative type.

These adventures always consist of at least one or two flight attendants as well. This time, a lovely middle-aged Danish women with adventures of Asian travel, famous movie stars, and a three day date with Alex Baldwin….If you come across this blog Alex…..yes, I found your Danish Delight….raspberry and cheese filled.

We continued from Copenhagen to Vilnius, Lithuania to be eagerly greeted by our Director, professor and friend Dr. LaFrance, who has been ready for us I am sure…..well, maybe not all of us….but he was ready anyway. After about a 2 hour walking tour through Lithuania….a country rich in Communist remnants, old European city feel and the “First, Biggest and oldest” in everything.

How can every country I go to have the “First, Biggest and oldest” in everything??? Well, anyways….

By the time dinner and a lovely night stroll through down town Vilnius, we were ready to hot the showers and off to bed….which leads me to now….wide awake and counting down to the start of a busy day. US Embassy visit, orientation, class, and a “fancy dinner,” I am told we are jumping in head first whether we want to or not.

Regardless, I am ready and excited for a nonstop, road trip-esc, and adventurous journey….one in which the stories have already begun…..from our thick accent Lithuanian tour guide alerting us that she has “Already seen, two times, Gypsie Albanian family pass us…please park your things. Be careful.” (I had no idea what I was looking for, but I didn’t see any scarves, tambourines or carriage carts…) to a private tour in a Catholic Cathedral which led us to opening a gate to enter the underground catacombs to be pleasantly greeted by about 40 young kids running out of the underground layer….Great.

Until we meet again….Zai Jian (Goodbye in Chinese).

Philly fun.

2010-05-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, my semester in Philly is officially over, and I must say it is rather bitter sweet. Coming home from China was a hard transition. It wasn't hard in that I did not enjoy being back, it was hard in that I kind of missed the life style. Not every day does a 21 year old have the complete freedom to be in a foreign country where language is a barrier and roaches and chicken feet run wild.

My time in China is a memory that continuously pops in my mind, and the relationships I made are still prevalent today! Living in Philly for the semester was...well, a blast.

Philly Ball Game

I had some rather incredible adventures in the city, but more importantly was the learning and growing experience that came with it. Being a part of the Philly community, something that I lived only 40 min away from, was a time for me to really dive into a culture that was in my backyard, but still so foreign. It took no planes, uncomfortable experiences (debatable) and no foreign language (hmmm...Philly Slang) to find a culture much different than my own, but such a blessed encounter.

Service Projects. Philly's games. Sledding down Art Museum Steps. Sumo Wrestling. Broad Street Run. Bowling. Ice Skating. Ice Cream Wednesdays. Adventures. Exploring. Philly Zoo. and so much more.

We really had so much to do. Best part....we were still at Messiah, yet in a totally different city!

All in all, it was an incredible semester....and who would have thought, I would have found some Love in the city of Brotherly Love. Yeah, she may make me run until my legs fall off, but hey...that's a track star for you....

When all is said an done, another chapter of life has passed and I am moving on to conquer new things...

With my head high, and strength...well who knows where, I am heading off for a 10 wee adventure this summer to Europe on the International Business Institute. It should sure be an adventure!

The blog is back up and running! I will try not to keep it dry......

First stop: Europe (Summer)

Then: Barcelona, Spain (Fall)

and then.....Costa Rica (J-term)

SIT BACK AND RELAX....It is gonna be an adventure.

(Not at the table Carlos)

Chinese Turkey

2009-11-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

With only two weeks of my Chinese adventure left, there are so many things to be thankful for. Though there are still aspects of this nation that I respect but may not understand, it definitely has been a learning experience. One thing I definitely do not understand is why the Chinese do not celebrate Thanksgiving. They pick up every other American holiday except the most uncommercialized, and I mean come on…the Pilgrims and Indians are cool people too. In all honesty, they claim to celebrate Thanksgiving but without Turkey and stuffing it just is not the same.

Our CSP Thanksgiving Dinner

The past two weeks in my internship has been an absolute blast. Every morning Jon and I get picked up by our driver and taken to The Pack Fortune (www.thepackchina.com). Our company is a manufacturing plant based out of beautiful Xiamen that produces over 80 million custom paper shopping bags and millions of garment bags, gift boxes and specialty retail items a year.

Our Paper Bag Plant

From the first day I spent 8 hours tying knots on Chanel bags, I have gained such an appreciation for the simple label “Made in China.” If you look at it as a means of outsourcing or a mysterious label that you never think twice about, you will never allow your mind to broaden and soak in the truth. For Jon and me, we now know what it means to be made in China. From the raw materials, administrative support, the hands themselves and the cargo containers we have gained such an appreciation. This is where I give my first thanks. I am just so thankful for my family which has taught me to take in every moment, love what I am doing and learn all I can. Thank you Gram for teaching me all you have in the past, and for supporting me to continue learning, appreciate what surrounds me and to keep up the hard work. It really means a lot to me and as saw on Skype…puts a smile on my face.

Getting Ready with our Adviser Ashton to conduct an Interview

(Which we now do alone...haha)

I have been able to experience just about every aspect of this company. We have conducted interviews (which is a riot when you are trying to read Chinese characters while not understanding even one and trying to look professional), developed a marketing campaign, taught courses on cultural difference especially in western business etiquette, global conflict resolution, acquired new customers for the company (Dallas Cowboys), and even helped a factory line worker advance to the office. It is weird walking through both six floor factories and seeing so many familiar names: Chanel, Prada, Lexus, Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, Cole Haan, Victoria Secrets and more.

Checking the line.

With that in mind, we have probably broken every rule of the company without even knowing it; including drinking at my desk….and I am talking about tea here people so get your mind out of the gutter. For me, this internship has been extremely rewarding. Learning all of these new skills is great, but I am even more blessed to be giving back to this nation and its people. In every little way, from eating lunch in the canteen to practicing English, I hope that I would be able to touch the lives of these people in thanks for all they and their country has taught me the past few months.

Jon teaching our first class.

Though this year I was not fortunate to indulge in turkey, stuffing and cranberry, I have understood what it feels like to be truly thankful for all we have. When you live somewhere with nothing of the norm, you feel thankful for every little thing you have. Granddad, thank you for being such a blessing on my life through your gifts, lessons and support. I would not have been able to grow as much as I have, experience all I have and built the relationships I have without your help, which I am gratefully thankful for. Though thanksgiving is a time to be spent with family, being thousands of miles from home makes it extremely difficult, but I tell you now family and friends, you are all in my heart during these days. I am thankful for each and every one of you, especially my friends who keep me smiling and in check! J

Sorry, that this note is not nearly has humorous as my previous…I guess it will show you how thankful for humor you may be. I did have one of my co-workers prepare and sing a song from the Sound of Music for me. Stuff like that never gets old…or Cockroaches…They never get old either. Two weeks from this moment I will be boarding a plane to come back to the US of A….and not sure what I will be thinking. I know that as I look back on the tarmac I will be burdened with sadness from all the memories, relationships and adventures I leave behind….but I will also be excited to come home and be surrounded with people I love most.

Coming to China has been one of the most incredible things I have done and I am not only thankful for the experience but for all the people (esp. my incredible family) who have gotten me here today!

A view out our office complex.

Zaijian Zhongguo.

What would you do for a Klondike Bar?

2009-11-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

We have just returned from our Trek around China and feel like a whirlwind surrounds us. All the excitement continues to run through our veins. Since I last wrote we have traveled Beijing and Shanghai. Let’s just say I have taken over 5,000 pictures since in China which is a little over 10 gigs of memory. Though I have no idea what I will do with them I am sure to have a plethora of memories. Our past 10 days begun with an 11 hour sleeper train from Xi’an to Beijing. Checking the weather back home in Xiamen was a mistake since it is still 85 degrees and we just got word that Beijing had 5 inches of snow dumped on them. Arriving in Beijing was a blast and we ended up having more snow during our stay. I have now seen all climates in China even though the last two Beijing snow storms were artificially created by seeding the clouds with moisture producing chemicals. Makes you wonder……

Temple of Heaven

Beijing was an absolute blast! As I climbed the Great Wall, I stood with pride and a huge smile…..one of my life dreams had come true. We also spent a ton of time touring the city to see the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City. I had to give a history tour of the Forbidden City which was great with 2 inches fresh snow and my little tour surprise. As we have traveled around China our group has seen masses of Chinese tour groups wearing lovely vibrant hats and tour leaders with flags…..so I went ahead and made 17 newspaper sailor hats and flag to make my tour Grade A Chinese Material. To my surprise, walking through Tiananmen Square (Which probably is the most visible, guarded and treasured place in China) with 17 Meiguorens (beautiful country people=Americans in Chinese) brought a lot of attention. How dare they look at us funny when they wear stupid pink, purple or lime green hats. I tried to keep my anger down before I turned them into Fried Rice for starring.

Tour Guide Larry

I did get to see a lot of great things in Beijing. I had breakfast the one morning with Chairman Mao Zedong which was great...dead 30 years but still looked pretty good. Unfortunately, the cat got his tongue that morning so he didn’t have much to say…or maybe my Chinese is that bad still. Trip highlight was definitely meeting up with Denny (fellow Messiah Classmate now graduated and MED member) in Beijing. He is currently completing and Internship and soon to begin working full time for HOPE International here in China. At this time, he was living with one of my guy’s (that I was an RA for last year) parents. I got the real tour of Beijing! To start: two absolutely incredible meals, shopping at the Pearl Market and Silk Alley, time at the Olympic Water Cube and Birds Nest Stadium, some historical streets, Worlds largest LED roof, the CCTV building and burnt down hotel from Spring Festival, and so much more!

Denny and I

I could talk hours about all my times in Beijing, but it was the food that was much impressive. Trying scorpion for the first time gave me a knack to try new things. Before I knew it we were eating dog and then I am sad to say but had a taste of cat. You would have thought I would stop there, but there is so much you would do for a Klondike Bar when you eat Chinese food for 3 months. By far, the weirdest thing we have tried here in China was ……never mind I probably should not talk about it…..or should I? You know what….I think I should feel honored with the bragging rights that we tried and ate sheep penis. It was a huge accomplishment for some of us not used to going outside our box but it sure was an adventure.

Shanghai was not filled with as many wild experiences, but it sure was just as fun if not more. Our hotel was an absolute blast and we ran all over the city. Saw some incredible architecture, the Shanghai Museum, the 2010 World Expo Sites and the Urban Planning Museum. It is always fun trying to see how many buildings we can try to get to the top floor by playing the Ting bu dong (I don’t understand) card. Our time was short but definitely a rush. I have seen so much of China and there is so much more to see. It is great to be back in Xiamen. Internships start tomorrow which should be great and I am super excited! We have a driver to pick us up and lunch is provided…life doesn’t get better than this.

Me in Shanghai

The National Bird

2009-11-05T04:55:00.000-08:00

This country never, and I mean never, seizes to amaze me. Today was the culmination of a two week 3,000 year history whirlwind, and to think it started off with me sleeping through an earthquake. My very first earthquake occurred this morning as some got ready and while I dreamed of 10 Chinese Dynasties, dozens of emperors and 3,000 years without fortune cookies and wonton soup. What has this world come to?

We did in fact have our history final today which know frees us for a week tour through Beijing and Shanghai and a 4 week internship and Xiamen delight. I must say, it is a great feeling. I am reminded everyday that surprises lay behind every corner in this country. Honestly, the bottom-less kids’ clothes for ease of access on sidewalk toilets are epic. I am contemplating buying a pair for myself so that I can share every aspect of my life with the world. The constant array of people never gets old either. It is true, when you put 1.3 billion people on a postage stamp they tend to be everywhere. At first I was uncomfortable with the 250 lb man sitting on my lap on the bus but now I am used to having a few visitors sharing seats on public transportation. Sharing is caring.

While we are on the not about sharing, I want to proudly announce a new addition in my life. I have decided to get married and will be bringing home a beautiful Chinese woman with me. I am told that she comes with a 30 day trial period and manual is included. Mom, Dad I introduce to you the love of my life…..Ming.

Happiest Day of my life!

The weather has been cold here which is a nice break. The 85 degrees it still is in Xiamen must be calling me, but how can I miss dog season. It is finally cold enough for dog to be on menus. As I walk down the street and see fifi after fifi I wonder….will they be my dinner tonight? I have yet to indulge on this delightful treat…I guess my stomach has had plenty to overcome with all the street food gracing our inner lining with msg and who knows what. Yes mom, Imodium was a plus. . .and no Phil…I did not take the wrong pills.

Want to buy a puppy or Kitten?

There are some things about China, or at least this area that boggle my mind. For starters, the smog. Here I am…wake up and pull back the blinds to gaze on the beautiful……grey smog filling the air. How pleasant I know, but this is life for these people every day. Smog, Smog and more smog. Yes, it is a sign of advancement and industrialization, but it is also a reminder that China is a developing country. Another sign of this is the national bird….the crane. Crane after crane line the sky!

All of us have come to the realization that life is just different here. Right down to walking down the street and being stopped by a complete stranger who learned a new word from “American Movie” and wants to know what it means. Though there are differences we still enjoy every day. These are the things that help us to grow and they are the memories we will tell for years to come.

Life is good!

The Pleasures of Xi'an!

2009-11-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

There is water dripping down my window as I sit here on my bed with the lamp dimmed, trying to recall the day. It’s midnight, and even though we are waking at eight tomorrow to go out on a class ‘field trip’, watching the lighting and listening to music has proved very relaxing before bed. I am hopeful that the rain will wash some of the smog from the sky, as it as not rained since I’ve been here; never thought I would pray for rain, but this is a great change.

Today started off with an eight a.m. quiz over the Song dynasty, which including questions about how the Chinese decided to revitalize Confucianism in order to preserve their culture from foreign influences. After that we had a standard two hour lecture over the next dynasty, then a presentation over the Mongols by Tyler, a fellow student. We were supposed to then watch a movie concerning Chinese history (yesterday we watched Mulan and took notes on what was culturally accurate and inaccurate), but since the projecter we usually had was being used for a French conference, we had the rest of the day off. My roommates and I, along with a couple others, decided to out into town for afternoon; we met up at twelve and head out to the bus stop on a main road, a short ways from campus.

We paid our 1 yuan fee and boarded bus 603, and I rode in the top half of the double-decker for the twenty minute ride into the center of Xi’an (the part with the giant wall around it. In an early post I mentioned that the wall is really big, but since then I’ve found out that it is 19 miles long. It has huge gates on all four sides, which are almost like castles in themselves. The center part of the city has a bell tower and a drum tower, both of which are focal points for everything else; we were going to up into them but found out it cost 30 yuan to do so. Most everyone had a list of things they wanted to buy from the ‘tourist market area’, which has all kinds of stores selling random Chinese stuff. It is funny to go through the stores looking at things to buy, because many of the shops have the same items and start with extremely high prices, for which you barter them down from (if they say 400 yuan for something, you can probably get it for 60 or 80). As soon as we reach the area where all the shops are, I stepped into one and began to look at some different silk ties. There is always so much to see, buy and experience in the market.

A view of the street with vendors

You can spend so much time within the market. Looking for that perfect gift would seem easy with the thousands of options, but it ends up being much more difficult. I tend to leave the market absolutely exhausted from all the bartering and searching, but it is worth the good deals. I was able to find a ton of great things and even made a few stops for some yummy street food!

A cart on the street selling food (of some sort)

It is easy to loose contact with the group when we are in the market, so we tend to regroup at multiple points during the adventure. When I ended up meeting up with them in the end, the others were just about done shopping. I pretty much go into a bartering situation knowing that I don’t really need what I’m looking at buying, and if the price doesn’t work out it’s no loss. Sometimes I would just barter to have fun talking with the shop owners, because they do it all the time and have all kinds of techniques to try to persuade to buy their stuff, which I then attempt to turn around on them. Once you let them know that you understand how the systems works, there is a kind of a mutual understanding that allows you to joke with them and work out a reasonable deal.

One of the girls in our group had told us that this past summer when watching the travel channel, Samantha Brown had visited a restaurant in the area on her show, so we found it and tried the famous Jiao zi (like dumplings) there. We had plans to go see a popular light show of sorts at a nearby pagoda later that evening at 7:30, so to burn the two hours until then we headed to a nearby Starbucks after the meal. Being one of the only place in China that accepts credit cards in China, we took advantage of not having to spend our ‘trip cash’. I simply got a java chip frap., which could not have been more appetizing, while the air outside cooled as the sun disappeared. We stayed and talked on the couches there for maybe an hour, then headed out to go find the giant pagoda with the light show. Since we had no idea where to go, Aaron asked the Starbucks workers if we could have a small map of the city hanging up, and sure enough they let us take it.

Me, Matt, and Trinity outside the restaurant that was showcased on the travel channel

We walked across the city towards the south side of the wall, then exited through the large gate into the rest of the city. We somehow got separated from Brett and Lucas when they stopped to use an ATM, and since Trin left us after lunch, John, Matt, Aaron and I head off towards the pagoda, following our small tourist map. While walking we past by a long line of people out side the wall, which turned out to be hundreds of people waiting at the bus stop to catch a bus. We walked for a while, asking directions with our map from different people on the street to make sure we were going the right direction. Since we had about an hour til the light show started, we figured there was no need to take a taxi. After walking for quite a long ways we finally thought we were closing in on our destination. We stopped in at Dico’s (a Chinese knock off of KFC, which is really good) so John could use the restroom and so Matt could pick up a chicken burger with fries and a drink. By this time the show was about twenty minutes away, so we started walking much faster to get there. Once there was only a few minutes before our deadline, we began running down the sidewalk trying to make it on time. Our main problem we soon discovered (after running for about 10 minutes) was that instead of being 4 blocks away, were actually more like 40 blocks away; the picture of the pagoda was on the edge of our map because it wasn’t actually on the map, only in direction of where the map ended.

A gate in the city wall... It's a really big wall!

We finally saw spotlights sweeping across the sky and eventually made our way (a long way at that) to the park the pagoda was in. The park was quite large and had hundreds, if not thousands of people walking around. By talking to someone we discovered that another show was to start at 8:30, so we went walking around for thirty minutes. While walking we noticed that down the middle of the park, leading to the pagoda, were large wet concrete areas with lights built into the ground, each about the size of a basketball court; it turned out that the light show was more of a water show with lights. While walking before the show time, we came across a large open area where a hundred or so Chinese women (most were older) were line dancing to music. Of course we took the opportunity to join in and take some pictures of ourselves looking like fools trying to keep up. We soon made our way back to the other side of the park where the light show was to begin. Each basketball-sized area was separated by a ten foot section of long stairs, where we made our way through the large crowd which had gathered around the perimeter, as well as on the stair sections. The show began and for about 20 minutes the fountains shot off powerful spouts of water into the air, with multiple displays of light illuminating them, all choreographed to different songs throughout playing over surrounding speakers. The show was quite impressive and lightened all of our spirits, as it was one of the most entertaining and enjoyably things we had experienced since arriving in Xi’an. Towards the end of the show the jets of water began to go higher into the air, and when combined with the wind picking up the entire crowd (exactly where we were) began to get soaked by the water blowing towards us. Hundreds of us began to quickly make our way away from the where were getting so drenched, and since one of the areas of the fountains was not on for a short part of the show, some people began to cut across it to get to a dryer location. Right as they were half way across, sure enough the jets they were standing on shot into the air, catching one man right in the chin.

The fountain/light show behind me; while it's not that impressive here, actually being there was awesome!

Once the show was over, most of the crowd (which was in most likely over a thousand) made their way toward the main road at the end of the park. At this time is also began to sprinkle, but since we were already fairly soaked we didn’t mind. The road soon turned to slight chaos as people rushed to board buses and hail taxis. We found our selves right in the middle of the struggle to find transportation back to campus. Since we didn’t know the bus systems very well, and could have easily taken a bus the wrong direction, we decide to grab a taxi. Only about one out of every 200 taxis that drove by were empty (or available to get in), so catching was turned out to be a challenge. As one taxi drove by (traffic was slow because of the horde of people crossing the street), Lucas yelled out that the man in the front seat was handing money to the driver to pay. So ran up beside the taxi to lay claim to it, racing many other Chinese men trying to do the same. I managed to attain a hold on the passenger door handle before anyone else, and jogged along side the taxi until it stopped at an appropriate spot to let it’s passenger out, all the while boxing-out anyone who might try to climb in before we could. We jump in, told the driver the name of our university, and he began taking us there. The trip wasn’t too long (only going a couple yuan over the standard starting fare), and on our way the sky began to flash with distant lighting.

I paid the driver eight yuan, and we made our way through the main gate of campus towards our dorm/hotel/where we sleep at night building. While half way across campus the sky began to rain some, eventually turning into the heavy drop now falling outside my window. Once we returned we took showers, played a couple games of Chinese chess, and examined the items others had purchased during the day, each sharing a unique story of how they either go received a great price or a not so good deal. While it ended up being a long day, in no way was it tiresome or wearisome; traveling the streets of Xi’an (the capital for many of ancient dynasties) proved enjoyable. entertaining, and enlightening. I look forward to what the rest of my time here in China holds, and what other adventures lay ahead.

Living in Xi'an

2009-11-01T01:28:00.001-07:00

Well I’ve arrived in Xi’an a couple of days ago, and have been settling in here. We’re staying in hotel type rooms at a university, and while the university is not the newest or most up kept, it has been a nice stay so far. Meals here (in the canteen) are even more inexpensive than in Xiamen. This part of the semester is our ‘history module’, which consists of two weeks of straight history. On Monday we had a quiz over sixty pages of our history text, then a two lecture from a Chinese professor (she studied in the states and speaks great English), then a thirty minute presentation from a student in our group. We’re coving Chinese history from around 1600BC to present day, which is quite a bit of events and people, but I have been surprised how interesting it all is.

We’re located about a twenty minute bus ride from the actual city of Xi’an which is surrounded by an extremely impressive wall. The wall looks to be at least a hundred feet high and probably forty wide. The walk would probably take two or three hours to walk around the entire way. The city inside the wall is really nice and has a lot of places to shop for stuff. It also has more upscale places, such as Starbucks, and really nice parks with fake trees and grass. We mostly spent our time looking around the Muslim quarters, which is an area of town that has a lot of vendors and street food.

A Chinese Ranch

2009-11-01T01:26:00.000-07:00

Waking up at 5:00 am is never easy. The roomies and I gathered our bags and made our way down the campus gate where our bus to the airport would meet us. Our group loaded up on the bus with our luggage underneath, and drove a short ways to pick up our director, Dr. Jay, who was waiting at a bus stop. As we drove the city was seemed near empty with no one on the streets. After driving across the Xiamen island for forty minutes we arrived at the airport where we checked our luggage in and waiting for our flight to Gui Yang, where we would meet our contact for the next few days of our trip.

This part of the semester is known as our ‘service project’. While groups in past semesters have done things such as teach English at a local Xiamen school, our director spoke with his supervisor in Washington D.C, and received permission to take our group on a trip somewhere he had never been before, stating that we ‘were a bit more adventurous then usual.’ Going into the trip we did not have exact details of what lied ahead of us, except for a for vague elements, including no electricity or running water at the rural location and that we would be building some type of road. So we boarded our plane at Xiamen airport, beginning our adventure. Since we would go straight from our service project to our history tour, we packed enough for a three and a half week trip. For domestics flights in China (at least at smaller airports) you take a bus from the terminal, and board the plane out on the tarmac by stairs. Our flight, for whatever reason, first went north to Chang Sha, which took about an hour. This was only a twenty minute stop, which was enough time to go into the airport and stretch our legs. Then we got back on for our three hour flight to Gui Yang (pronounced Gway Yawng). Once we landed, we walked down the stairs from the plane where I was met by cool, crisp, wet air, which was a sharp contrast to the warm climate of Xiamen that I’ve been in this whole semester. Where as usually going into fall weather the days would gradually get colder, here I went straight from warm weather to a feeling of late fall. Once we recoved our checked baggage we met our contact at the departure gate of the airport, a tall American man who’s name is Tim. We went out with him to a restaurant a short walk from the airport, where we ate lunch. We split up into two groups and sat around two tables; Tim was at our table which let me get to know him a little bit. He told us some of his story and what he is doing in China. He also mentioned things about how the province we were in was one of the poorest in China, as well as the city we were going to was one of the poorest in the province. We then took a two hour bus ride through rural China to a city called Duyun (doo-yun), which is where Tim and his family lived.

Tim and his wife Debbie have both been in China for twenty years (and actually have a really neat story of how they actually got married in China). They have two kids, Mark who is 14 and Rianna who is 16, both of which we got to hang out with the past few days. About fifteen years ago they moved to Duyun to teach. While it would be difficult to explain their whole story here, teachers in China can only teach for so long until they must return home for a couple years, so they ended up started a ranch for beef cattle, called the Thousand Hills Ranch. Before the ranch, while they were still teaching, they also started a program called 3E, which stands for Education and Economic support for Ethnic minorities (their website for basic info is 3edevelopment.com). We found out about the ranch and that it would be where we would be staying for the next few days. The 3E program was set up to help kids with scholarships for school (from elementary up through college). Also, at the ranch aside from raising beef cattle, they also have Christian focused camps during the summer for Chinese families, as well as foreigners (US, Australia, Europe), to come relax and have fun. One of the camps is also for high school seniors who have been receiving the scholarship, in order to prepare them for college through sessions covering time management, financial management, studying, etc. The ranch and the 3E program essentially allows them to connect with the people in the villages around the area, impacting their lives directly.

The bus ride wasn’t too bad, and even watching Con Air dubbed over in Chinese was kind of fun; we arrived in Duyun and were met by Debbie in their pickup truck, and loaded our bags in the back of the truck and took taxis to the hotel we would stay at for the night. Then went out to eat and explore on our own; the town is relatively small and was neat to walk around. There is a river going through it with several walking bridges across it. There is also a street called ‘stone street’ which is a restored version of the ancient design. The street curved down a hill and was lined with intricate deep red wooden store fronts. While walking around Aaron, Matt, and I stopped and watch some men playing Chinese chess at a table on the sidewalk. After watching for a bit they discovered we knew how to play (learning how was one of the requirements for our contemporary society class because it’s so popular). One of the men gave up his seat and ushered Aaron to sit down and play, so he began playing the Chinese man still sitting. It turns out that even though we have played each other quite a bit in the dorm room, the Chinese men are still a thousand times better at it. Later that night I played another man, and every move I would make he would in turn show me why my move wouldn’t be a good choice, and then show me a better move. He still won with no problem.

Playing Chess with Aaron

While we were walking around we found some canvas shoes that were army-olive green with black rubber soles. We each bought a pair for fifteen kuai, allowing me to save my tennis shoes from being ruined at the farm. We went back and met the group for dinner, where we were joined by a couple of young guys from south Carolina, who were teaching English there at the schools (Zach and Matthew). Later that night they took a few of us out walking around the town, where we sampled street foods and explored the night market.

Me on Stone Street enjoying Life

The next morning we met up downstairs of the hotel, and were met by Tim and Debbie, as well as Julian who is a New Zealand guy who has moved permanently to Duyun with his wife. The family owns a small truck and a SUV, which along with the van they rented, carried our group out to the ranch. The trip was about a hour and a half. We winded up paved roads for a about forty minutes, until we came to a village where we turned onto roads consisting of stone and mud. Since the seat in the back of the van was broken, four of the guys got out and road in the bed of the pickup since the roads are so bumpy. We left most of our luggage locked in their office in town, only bringing a backpack each. We wound up the mountain roads through three villages, until we reached the ranch at the top of the mountains. The ranch is about 1000 acres and has an interesting story of how it was acquired. They have three structures on the property, along with barns for the live stock. The main building is a house they have made with a large dinning room and kitchen and living area. The second building is where our group for the week; while the power lines to it have been down for a couple of years, the building was pretty nice. It is two stories built into the side of the mountain with two big balconies and a large living room with couches. There is a bedroom down stairs, and two up stairs, which contain a bunch of bunk beds. They have a lot of sheets and pillow cases which they keep washed so we had clean bedding for our stay. The ‘lodge’ has a concrete to collect rainwater, which provided water to flush the toilets (we had water coolers for drinking). The roof was tin, so when it rained at night you could hear every drop that fell from the sky.

The Crew Working on the Road

The last building is one big empty room for activities (especially on rainy days). It has a arched metal roof and was probably about 100 ft long. This is where our service project was for the week. The path from the road to the entrances of the activity building was dirt and would get quite muddy when it rained. So our job was to dig out the dirt down to the bed rock (about a foot and a half or so) so it would be a clean path. We spent three days digging out dirt and moving large rocks as well. Once we had the dirt removed, we poured concrete, with the supervision of the Chinese ‘ranch hands’, who are men from the nearby village who work on the farm. We mixed the concrete on the ground and complete two porches, and a ramp from the road to the bedrock.

The Group working hard

The terrain of the ranch, along with the overcast weather, made me feel as if I was traveling in Ireland. There was hardly a flat piece of land, as all of it was rolling hills/mountains. They had stone walls, which were built with the help of the village men, to act as fences (they also had a lot of barb wire fences up). There is a main road constructed from stone that winds up over the steep hills to the different buildings. It was about a five minute walk along this road from our lodge to the main house. Debbie cooked meals for us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; which proved to be some of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time. For lunch the first day we had a Chinese ‘hot pot’, then for dinner we had hamburgers with French fires. The rest of the meals went as following (this just what I had but there where more choices):
Breakfast - peanut butter sandwich or cereal or noodles, Lunch – spaghetti, Dinner – pumpkin or potato soup, Breakfast – same, Lunch – hot pot, Dinner on the last night – a combo of leftovers from the other meals, along with delicious homemade doughnuts for desert. One of my favorite treats was to make a hot cup of ‘Russian Tea’ on a cold morning or evening. The mixture consisted of half orange tang powder and Lipton instant tea, along with some cinnamon and clove spices.

Playing Chinese version of Spoons

The second night we were there we had a camp fire a short ways from the house. The air was cold making the warm fire really enjoyable. We sat around talking for probably two or three hours, and after a little while they brought out left over supplies for us to all make a smore each. I spent at least ten minutes roasting my mallow to perfection. Eventually the clouds began to clear and you could see every star that had been placed in the sky.
On the last day Rianna guided us on a hike out to a water fall on the property. The hike winded along trails through the mountains for about two or three miles, many times proving steep and windy. I had an image in my head of a little stream falling maybe five feet over some rocks, but when we arrived and looked over a rock ledge into the hole beneath, where a flow of water was falling at least a hundred feet. The bottom looked like an oasis from a movie with thick green grass surrounding a deep pool of clear water. We spent about an hour at the top playing in the water and taking pictures. We took a different way back through the mountains, which was slightly shorter but a challenge none the less.

Off the Edge of the Waterfall

While we where there to help by clearing the road for them, Tim really stressed the importance of relaxing and refreshing our spirits. In the mornings we sang worship songs, and at different time when hanging out after meals I got to hear a lot from Tim and Debbie of some of the things they have learned along with their stories. I have hardly even explained the past few days, but know that even I typed twice as much I wouldn’t be able to convey the experience of going there. Two of the mornings when I woke up there was a solid cloud of fog surrounding everything at the ranch. Walking up the stone road, past the cows and stone walls, and up the rock path to the house was amazing. I could only see a few feet in front of me, and the air was crisp and cool. It is somewhere I could definitely return in the future, but who knows…!

Roaches never get old....

2009-10-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

This week has been yet another busy week here in China. Between CSP friends, Chinese friends, finals, business visits and packing for the Trek, I have been pulling some long hours. I must say though, it is well worth it! One of the biggest reasons for coming to China was to learn a bit more about Chinese Business as well as get a basic understanding of Eastern Culture, and that is exactly what I did this week.
This week the business students had an opportunity to visit Optera which is a Michigan based company specializing in touch screen production. The story behind this visit is even more intriguing. Before coming East, I was very much interested and involved in the concept of networking. On our flight from Hong Kong to Xiamen, with some standard networking of fellow students with a western family, we were scheduled to make a visit to a manufacturing company based here in Xiamen. It turns out, that Optera holds the largest share of Apple’s touch technology production for iPods and iPhones. This organization also is a large producer of the Lexus and Toyota GPS touch screens with its Xiamen counterpart TPK. Let’s just say your iPhone (Phil, Anderson’s, and Randy) and your Lexus GPS (Dan) was manufactured in this plant. I was absolutely amazed at what my eyes had an opportunity to gaze upon. I actually had no idea about how the production of touch screens happened, and have never seen a manufacturing plant in this type of setting. For starters, it was by far the cleanest plant I have toured and is thanks to Apple being their most rigid buyer in that all products must be produced in “Clean Rooms” with employees using Hazmat suits. I had an absolute blast and would love to tell you all about the production of touch screens (sometime) which is rather interesting. I can confidently say that such visits get my blood pumping and mind spinning.
Another great aspect of my stay in China has been spending time with Chinese friends. I really enjoy spending time putting our cultural differences aside and hanging out as friends. I do love the fact that we can laugh about our cultures and share stories about our life. Trying new foods is always a must when I am out with my friends. Usually it is not because I want to, as much as I just don’t want to offend anyone. As sad as it sounds, my favorite so far was a Japanese Restaurant which was incredible to have authentic food while being so close….and boy the Wasabi is much spicier.
As this week has come to an end and we prepare to leave for our Trek around China I have had some time to do some reflection. I have come to the conclusion that one of the best ways to educate ourselves is through travel. When we open our eyes, we attain new lenses that help us to look at the world in a new light. Many of the problems we have experienced here in China are cultural differences, and with a better understanding we can integrate more appropriately and live as the locals do. One thing I have found important to me is learning more about my own culture. While living in the States, we just do not realize our own cultures because it is the norm. When you take yourself out of the norm you begin to see the huge gap. We (The US) are merely one nation joined by many others in a diverse and changing world. I will say though….there are some things I will never get used to…like Roaches and rats.
Sometimes change from the norm comes across as a violation of our character and what we feel is right, but it truly is a tool that is used to teach us more about ourselves and how we can better integrate. On the note of change, I will no longer be spending Christmas in India. Though a huge disappointment, because of my past and current travels, I can understand the importance of our own cultures. Arjun passed on some incredible news that his sister is to be engaged and in Indian culture the priest decides on the engagement date…which happens to be in December, and he will be traveling with his family to Dubai for the month. Though I may not get to India this time, I am truly excited to try again. It was more of a lesson for me to be blatantly reminded that our culture, though we may not be able to put a finger on it, guides who we are and how we live.
On a fun note, this past weekend I ventured out into a botanical garden which included a rain forest, cactus garden, European Flower garden, a bamboo area, a palm resort, the highest peak in Xiamen and much more. I cannot describe how large it was except saying you could spend days there. Throughout the visit, I never felt like I was in China….I was all around the world. Something that I did not realize about Xiamen before coming here is the actual size of this island. I am on a huge Chinese Island. I also took a risk and got my first Chinese hair cut. I will leave it at this…he did exactly what I said since his ideas were a little too wild.
Tomorrow morning we are up and out at 5:30 Am and heading on our first Trek adventure. We first will fly to GuiZhou to spend a week in a rural mountain village for our service project. No running water should be another humbling experience, but this will help me to see how China is still a developing nation. Before long we will be in Xi’an, Beijing and Shanghai which is really exciting.

Wish me luck. Pray for us. And expect some great adventures.

Naked Turtles

2009-10-06T02:38:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, I remember being told that if you dug far enough into the ground, you would reach China. As I am now many years older and can realize the truth yet impossible nature of that experience, the thoughts of digging a hole to America come to mind at times. In no means do I dislike my experiences here or have feelings of homesickness, I just truly miss one aspect of life….convenience. We are spoiled individuals in multiple ways, and life in China has taught me so much about it. We really need to work for things here, right down to eating. The once a month treat of filling Chinese food and using chopsticks is a daily thing. Yes, the food is different, but chopsticks are a ton of work that we don’t realize when we dine at P.F. Chang’s and Panda Express. Some things we take for granted (aka conveniences) are things that we struggle with daily. These include protecting ourselves from foreign germs every second, access to internet, familiar foods, understanding of languages, and all those things we call “home.” Sometimes a simple taco, cheese, milk, and chips would be really nice. You really learn about yourself when you are put in such situations for a long period of time….meaning months.
Sunday marks the start of a two week count down until our trek through Xi’an, Beijing and Shanghai. As much as I am extremely excited, I am also going to miss aspects of Xiamen. Besides the summer, I hardly have the luxury of running up the beach on a daily basis….the California students who are with me getting that all the time which must be nice. The past week or so has taught me so much about Chinese culture. At first, some of these things just seem ridiculous or instill anger in my heart, some blow my mind and others just leave me in a confused state. When I reflect on all these situations, I can only shake my head and realize that it is part of daily life here, and truly interesting. Here are some of those experiences that just make you wonder…
• Sitting on the bus or in a restaurant and see a friendly cock roach running across the table…For me….this was an absolute first, however it is life here. Now I realize why I take my shoes off when I enter my dorm room….
• I go for my run, see kids peeing in the streets, smashed roaches in the road, poop chilling on the curb, workers trimming the flowers and trees perfectly, a Bentley and a Masarati passing BMW’s and Mercedes on the road, and men in suits getting on the buses.
• Beautiful Beach homes emptied out with cameras and odd devices affixed to the roof with a guard sitting at the front door and government postings surrounding the building
• Walking in a Wal-mart and seeing a wet seafood market in the middle……While gazing at all the products, the sight of shell-less turtles catch my eye, especially one crawling out of the box….all I can think of saying is “Qing Wen (Let me please ask…) get your turtle!” Within seconds of being amazed by that, I was graced with chicken feet sprawled across my feet from a box that was dropped 10 feet away shooting frozen chicken feet all over the place
As always, there are many more things that I could add to my ever ending list of incredible events. I often get to laugh at many of these experiences, especially ones like the Wal-mart experience, and try to understand why things are the way they are. There is one conclusion I have come to understand, and that is that there are two worlds co-existing and living amongst themselves. China is a developing nation living amongst the developed with the constant influence of the western world intertwined. It is a concept hard to understand unless you live within it. I see these things that are much different than the life I am used to existing with a life that is much more advanced than I have seen. These are the two worlds that I see existing amongst each other.
On an incredible note, this past week has been eventful with National Day which is actually an 8 day vacation as well as the Autumn Moon Festival. We have spent a lot of time hanging out with Chinese friends who have guided us through Chinese culture and have given us an incredible tour of Xiamen. ZhongShanLu is what I consider the “downtown of Xiamen,” and happened to be our romping ground for the weekend. I found the street to be filled with authentic Chinese shops, modern shopping plazas, bootleg DVD stores, restaurants, and street vendors. We ate Sea worms….gross, we tried some “famous” Chinese soup…which was drug through the sea of people, across the gross floor, and dumped into a basin, and we went into this cd store, winked and asked to see DVD’s…..and then immediately we were brought out of the store, down an ally and into an apartment filled floor to ceiling with DVD’s. Aaron and I call this our nights out on the town, and they sure are eventful.
It is hard to believe that the first week of October is over, and I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. As a Zambian friend of mine says… “That is Life.”

Life is what we make of it, so I am going to try to make mine….an incredible life.

Swimming with Dinner

2009-10-01T00:40:00.001-07:00

It is not every day that one can shower with his dinner. Last night, a few of us went out to dinner for what ended up being an experience to remember. I guess the naivety of foreigners can turn into some fairly funny situations. It all begun with a waitress pulling a fish out of the tank about 10ft behind our table. As with most fish of the sea, the slimy creature slipped out of her hands and under my seat. Flopping all around and sliding amongst the cleanliness of the floor was the preamble for the seasoning entertainment to come in the kitchen. The truth of the matter is that we took it as a funny experience and laughed it off. It wasn’t until the waitress went in for a second one which put up a fight sending a tsunami wave of water down my back that was the icing on the cake. Was this normal, or just my lucky day? We are still not sure, but it definitely made for the start of an interesting evening.
Due to National Day today, the country of China has begun an 8 day vacation which makes for an interesting time in the town. Last night we were invited to a Moon Cake Party which was a blast. A few of us hung out in a Chinese friend’s apartment drinking tea, eating moon cakes and trying some of the unknown we have been afraid to tamper with. It was an incredible time to learn a little more about them and China, to share Western culture and to experience life beyond Xiamen University. Because of National Day, the city and country for that matter has had some interesting events. A huge parade to flex the muscle of China, Female dancers in front of McDonald's (Bet Dan’s McDonald's doesn’t have that) and moon cakes are everywhere. This is an extremely important time for the Chinese and we are in the middle of it.
The past few nights we have been soaking in the culture. We went to a Communist History presentation and a talent show the other night which commemorated Western and Eastern culture for the international students. It was nice to finally here others playing some more familiar tunes. As the weekend approaches and class work dramatically lightens these next few days, I look forward to a fun time. Before I know it, we will be off on the Trek, traveling the vast nation of China and experiencing its differences. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss you all, but it is more of a …I wish they were here to see this…kinda feeling.

Life in China is amazing.

Pinocchio in China

2009-09-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

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!

A Kung Pow Chicken Birthday

2009-09-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

There I am, sitting in my room, gazing into the Taiwan strait at the vast mountains, shipping boats and small fishing rafts, when I hear “Firer in the Holre” and a huge explosion. There I am, walking to the CSP office, passing a row of homes, when I hear “Firer in the Holre” and a huge explosion. There I am, concentrating during Taiji, breathing slowly and self reflecting, when I hear “Firer in the Holre,” a huge explosion, and the building shakes. Time after time again we duck for cover and run for the closest hideout in fear that Taiwan has invaded again or that Japanese Pirates have taken over the waterway in front of campus. Unfortunately, it is nothing of the sorts, just the Chinese building a tunnel by using dynamite, straw hats and manual labor. I have a multitude of stories that will just make you shake your head. Here is a quick one. Brad and I went out with some Chinese friends last night and they took us to a fruit smoothie place for desert. While we stood and waited, we heard this harmonious bong of a gong slowly getting closer. As we gazed into the distance there was nothing to see, but we were expecting the Buddhist Monastery to be making a nightly march down the street. Needless to say, as we reached for our smoothies, we were abruptly pushed by a man with a bicycle suited with two back saddles the size of barrels loaded with “something unknown.” As he pushed through the unnavigable sidewalk filled with people, marketers and pillars he played his gong and marched on. As with many things here, I could not resist from laughing, the man caught my eye and began to yell something in Chinese. Terrified I offended him, I asked my Chinese friends what he said, and they translated: “You there, try, good rike popcorn.” Life here is different to say the least.
My time here has been fun filled and adventure packed. Last weekend we took a hike up the beach and ate at a restaurant called the Red Armadillo. Burritos and burgers are glorious after a month of Chinese food. We also were able to take a hike around Xiamen which included the South Putuo Temple which sits next to campus. We are waiting for it to cool down to go hiking and biking around campus….it is still way too hot to do those types of things. Sunday we went to church in Gulang Yu which is a local island. It was great to roam around the island and explore. The island was built up with western houses from overseas Chinese who made profits offshore. It was a pretty cool place. Visitors wanted our pictures because we were white and shop owners wanted us to buy, buy, buy. These stores had secret rooms with secret rooms of pocketbooks, watchy, and wallets. Polos and knockoffs were everywhere!
So far, this week has been extremely busy with class, field trips and quizzes. Learning Chinese is not easy. Wednesday our Chinese Business professor took us to a Chinese company called Silver Data that operates the same technology as Google Image but on a more advanced technological satellite aspect. I am still not quite sure what they did, but it was really cool and we got some great pictures. We are in the process of planning our Coca-Cola tour and our I-Phone touch screen factory. This is the kind of stuff I like.
In reference to the big 21st tomorrow…celebrating birthdays in China is great because it last two days. Tomorrow (Friday) is my birthday in China and Saturday is my birthday in the States….I love it. Word on the street is that tomorrow morning the guys are delivering a gift and breakfast in bed. As long as it is not a “Massagey” or a possible future bride, I will be ok. It happens that Pizza Hut is one of the nicest restaurants in Xiamen. When you want to take a women on a nice date to propose or just something special…Pizza Hut is the white table cloth affair. I am told tomorrow evening we will be dining over Pizza Hut….reservations at 7 pm for the 24th floor downtown “Paradise in the Sky Pizza Hut.” What a memory this will be. Saturday we plan to pack our “backpacks” (Just for you Tedd) and go to an adventure to Chongwu which sits a little bit North on the coast about 2 hours from Xiamen. I never thought I would be spending my 21st at a Chinese beach resort with a walled fortress and fishing village…I guess not many people can say they spent it as we plan to. Only in China….
Though I do miss aspects of home, I am really enjoying my time here. I think I have definitely gotten over the anger of culture shock. Many of us were hit like a brick truck the past week with frustrations on life. Culture is much different here, and the language barrier is a huge factor. For instance, we typically do not get drinks with meals which is different than home. They just don’t drink with meals here besides the small glass of tea to start. Like what the heck??? There are some things I probably shouldn’t blog about, but there sure are some wonders here. No worries mom, I am trying to not come home married. I think we all could probably get married at least once a day here….they seem nice like nice ladies though. As I prepare for my second Chinese exam tomorrow and our business weekend, I hope you all are doing well. I miss having you all in the various aspects of my life, and cannot wait to share my journeys with you all. I hope you are enjoying this fall weather and are preparing for a wonderful October. One thing I can say is that time is flying by here in the People’s Republic of China.
Until we meet again, live well!
Larry

Life in Xiamen

2009-09-15T05:23:00.001-07:00

Life in Xiamen is moving along, and I am enjoying it. My classes with Chinese professors started Monday, and it has been an incredible experience. Our Chinese professor is a Chinese Techno loving type. Our first official lessons started off with learning the word sexy and having a 10 minute disco dance break. I must say, it’s much different than Messiah professors, but I think we could institute some changes in Grantham. Shortly after our lesson, we were off to have our first of many experiences with our Contemporary Society professor. She is an overenthusiastic laser pointer happy woman. Besides the choppy English, fast power points and the laser pointer all over the room, we are staying in tune to her lectures.
This morning we had an incredible visit to a local factory that Dr. Jay scheduled for us. He knew the owner of the business as an incredible business man and an influential “Church Worker.” Basically, he runs his company with a business as missions structure where he can freely evangelize throughout his working day. The company was absolutely incredible and seemed to be a viable, profitable and self-sustaining business. Meixei was the name of the actual business, which was a mere parent company to the various divisions within the manufacturing building. The building itself was a 5 floor building with only one of the floors rented out. Turns out, the floor rented out is to a leather company that really took off when President Obama was pictured boarding one of the Presidential Helicopters with a leather bag that he was given at a debate produced by that very company…. Small world, huh?
The owner of Meixei, Bill, was an incredible man. In his eyes, success in Chinese business involves constantly updating his production line with new products that have larger selling markets. He currently has 200 some employees but has had up to 600 before the recent economic downturn….You must be wondering what types of products we saw being produced. Well, I wish I could have brought some home. His main industry is reproduction of stained glass products. He is the largest and sole producer of reproduction Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright Stain glass pieces in the world. His company is actually contracted by the Metropolitan Museum and the Tiffany museum headquarters in Florida to reproduce miniature versions of these famous pieces. The company also produces other items on smaller scales for worldwide retailers. Another floor of the factory that housed a branch of MeiXei produced Kevlar and resin bushings to replace bearings. He was producing these products on contracts for many companies throughout the US and Europe. This venture was really interesting for Bill’s involvement in improving the manufacturing process using lean production principles. His US counterpart could pump put 7.5 million units a year, and with a little reconstruction, Bill was able to pump out 21 million units of even better quality using what he called “Phenominons” such as using gravity to move materials and a process to rotate the bushings that was designed off of 7-eleven hotdog cookers. Lastly, we saw his newest venture that begins full production tomorrow and first shipment leaves Xiamen on Friday. This new department Bill will produce cement and fiberglass table tops used for decks and outdoor eateries in addition to the fire pits and pots made out of similar material. I enjoyed this one the most, for it was a product I have seen in the states. Interestingly enough, he sells these products which then get marketed under various names depending on the US buyer. Makes you wonder….do we really know what we are buying or at least the brand? I do now…
This afternoon I have my second class in Tai Chi, which has been incredible. It is a form of Chinese relaxation that involves the control of our bodies through breath, mind and our muscles, and happens to be much harder than I thought. It does feel good to be settled in and learning the language. I am beginning to be able to order more easily and communicate a little better. I guess when you need to survive you learn to adapt quickly. Emersion is the only way to grasp understanding in my eyes. It is almost as if chopsticks have become an extension to my fingers, but I like it. This week looks like yet another busy one, so I hope to post a blog in the coming days but it may not be until the weekend.
As someone close to me always says…..God Speed.

Only in China...

2009-09-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

There are many things in China that I could honestly say….”Only in China.” The fact that I have to bypass the Chinese Communist Government to post a blog for family and friends about my experiences in this country is a start. Instead of allowing me to educate the world on such an interesting culture, they try to block me from the outside world. Well China….I got through. Or at least I think I did. Mom if you get a call saying I am gone, you can assume that the Communists took me away. I mean think about it….Dr. Jay has advised us all to watch what we say, assume our rooms are tapped and put our cell phones in the other room during class so we can speak a bit more openly. As I keep on saying to my roommates, “We are not in Kansas anymore.” Xiamen is much different than Hong Kong. Dr. Jay was right to say that HK would be a good transition, and now I believe him. There is absolutely no English here, stuff is so cheap, the city is much dirtier and the scenery is just….well…..Chinese like. Some of the things that we take for granted such as eating, are harder work than usual. Besides using chop sticks, spicy food and the rush of being pulled into restaurants to eat, we have the daily task of a method I call “Pray, point and eat.” Yeah, we know a little Chinese, but not enough to order a simple meal. Wonton Soup and General Tso’s chicken is obsolete. I did see pickled chicken’s feet, mush with mystery on top and the occasional fish head or unknown seafood. Did I mention yet that people poop on the sidewalk if they cannot make it to a bathroom? I mean don’t worry, they bring a bag to pick it up….hence why our shoes don’t enter the room, and one reason why we bleached our floor last night…..
This leads me to a funny story…or at least we try to keep it as a funny story in our minds. Basically, we were kicked out of our rooms last night. Here is how it works….They say something we don’t understand, and we nod until they start moving our stuff……Just kidding……We arrived with reservations for university dorms to stay in double rooms on the same floor. Lucas from Santa Barbara and I decided to stay together. We set up our room all sweet, bought some things to make it feel like home and got all settled in. Then one morning we woke up to our air conditioning leaking all over Lucas’s bed. Ever try to get something fixed in another language? I have…and let me tell you…besides laughing so hard then having a veil of anger consume you still doesn’t make you understand a lick of what is happening. Yesterday we were told by our leaders that we would be moving to a different room where the air worked, but then we were told there were no open rooms so we were going to chill. Not a big deal, we rearranged the room so it didn’t drip on us and continued with life. Well…..at least we thought so. By 8 pm last night we were all rounded up for a meeting. Basically….we were all leaving and moving rooms. Only in China as I like to say. Turns out that Xiamen University has contracts with countries to guarantee housing and schooling including India and Africa, which we don’t have. So…..as a group, we packed our bags and went on a big move. For Lucas and I we moved to the six floor with Aaron and Matt to a 4 person suite with an ocean view. Though we are split up as a group, we have a pretty good gig you could say. Not every day you look out your window at islands, smog and cargo ships.
I can honestly say I am still enjoying China. Classes are enjoyable and life outside of class is an adventure. The business professor is incredible, and we all really enjoy his classes. For reasons that I can explain when I get home, we cannot talk much about our program including the classes and professors. Now I know why I didn’t hear much about the program before I came. Top Secret CIA training, but don’t tell anyone. Life here is much different than the states. Last night after the big move, we went to the English corner which is a place where Chinese and Westerners can congregate and practice English, build relationships and enjoy life. It was a lot of fun, but we were pretty tired after the busy day. Now that we are semi settled in, we find ourselves trying new things. Funky fruit, unknown snacks, odd flavors and traditional teas. Tonight was marked by the hysterical sight of Lucus and Matt break dancing with 4 Chinese near our local lake. I guess they brought a “New Styr(L)e to China. Ra Ra Ra. All fun must come to an end at some point, so I must be off to study….I guess it is for my benefit to know if I am ordering seafood, dog or chicken.
Miss you all.

Larry

When in Rome....

2009-09-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

Today marks my last day in Hong Kong. As each day goes by, I feel like I experienced one of the most interesting things in my life. As of today, yesterday happened to be a day full of interesting things. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, I saw the biggest of the biggest. Not only the biggest Buddha, but the longest escalator and the world’s largest light and sound show in the world.
Even a day later, I am not sure what I saw exactly. An incredible part of this program is freedom. We have been traveling the entire city of Hong Kong on our own trying to find some of the most bizarre and “Un American” wonders of the world. Though some are not suitable or at least reportable to the whole world, I plan to share them all at some point…maybe not. Between the message parlors, fraternizing with the Chinese and worshiping idols, we have been keeping a tight tourist schedule.
Here is the true down low. The past few mornings we have been studying Chinese hard core. I guess it is about time I figure out what I am eating and stop ending up in the women’s room while in search for a toilet. My past week in Hong Kong has been quite an adventure, however yesterday was the icing on the cake. Aaron, Tyler and I set out on an adventure that turned out to be a journey of wisdom, laughter, spiritually, pirates and a few surprises. After about an hour train ride past Disney Land, we hopped on what we thought was a reputable bus company. Well, let me just say that we pay for such adventures in America…..It is called Six Flags and the ride is El Toro. The bus ride was the best roller coaster ride of my life. Hair pin turns, 80 kilometers an hour, shear drops, stone walls less than an inch away from the window, and huge mountains…just an incredible 45 minute tour out of the city. No Buildings. No people. Just tropics…..clouds….sun…..and rolling hills. We eventually got to the big Buddha after two pairs of underwear, but what adventure isn’t complete without extra pairs. After an unbelievable Zen walk in the middle of nowhere was this golden egg. The Tian Tan Buddha. completed in 1993, was located at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island and sat 110 feet tall weighing 280 tons. After 268 steps, heart failure, and a blister I was one happy camper… I mean who wouldn’t be…I got to gaze at a $68 million hunk of metal, or was it the view that cost that much. Either way, I will have Tedd start working on building me one in the backyard. I did always want one.
Shortly after yet another 20 minute trip on the roller coaster, we found ourselves in an incredible fishing village. As always we got talking to this elder who had a fantastic story that had something to do with Pirates, politicians and funny houses leading to the ancient history behind one of China’s ancient villages. PS....They call it the Rome of Hong Kong. ???? Whether he was a voice of truth or not, it was an incredible story and gave us some great laughs.
Fast forwarding, our evening begun with the world’s largest enclosed escalator. Who wouldn’t want to ride a $38 million, 25 minute ride, escalator consisting of 20 escalators and 3 moving pavements for a total of 800 metres and climb of 135 vertical metres. I have never seen anything like it, but when in Hong Kong do as the Hong Kong people do. Even better, was the world’s largest light and sound show on the Hong Kong Island’s waterfront. Look it up. It was an adventure.
So much to say, so many pictures to post, but not enough time. We catch the first plane to mainland tomorrow. Dr. Jay is getting us ready for the culture shock. One thing I do know is Blogs and face book are blocked…we are working to try to “fix” the issue but we will see. All I can say is that my time here has been incredible and I am enjoying every day!
Thanks for reading and hope to have more….some day!

_Larry

The Vegas of Hong Kong

2009-09-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

So I officially survived my first and only weekend in Hong Kong. Our program director, Dr. Jay, has been around the world, and to him Hong Kong is one of his favorite cities in the world. He also warned us that it’s a good transition into mainland. . .reasoning being is because it looks like the US just is covered in Chinese symbols and language…therefore the sites of Xiamen won’t be as foreign. Am I scared? Yeah I am terrified…..just kidding….I like to keep my parents on the edge of their seats. I really enjoy it here in Hong Kong. For those who have asked where exactly I have been in Hong Kong my answer is everywhere. I am trying to soak in as much as I can while I am here. Our home base is at a YMCA camp in the New Territories right down the street from Ma on Shan on the East rail. Much of our play has been down in Kowloon. That is where we spent time going out to eat and to the night market the other day…which I must say was incredible. Lucus and I took an adventure down to the night market. It is called Men’s Street because of all of its products for men. There was a lot of cool stuff, but the sights were even more stimulating. The China you always thought of was exactly what we saw. Olden signs, bikes, fish, traffic and people everywhere were the main event. Best part was walking into a restaurant containing no English. Lucus and I pulled the old pray, point and order. With open minds and hardy stomachs we went to town on whatever it was. Dog, pig intestine, frog, or possibly even worse.
Now that you have an awful taste and may feel a bit sorry, pull out your check book and send me a monetary present to dine at the finest of the finest where I could possibly get pig’s feet under glass. One thing that is for certain is that the diet here is much different than expected....for instance....there is no fiber. Thanks mom and Tedd for the Ducelax….I have become the trip pill pusher to get things moving throughout the group. We still are wondering if it’s worth the sleepless nights on the toilet (Which are Squatty Potties….I will let you guess)…..This is the part of the blog where you put another zero behind the number on the check in front of you….
Our trip or at least my trip, since we make it what we want it to be has been adventurous. I love our group and since many of us are business majors we have a lot to talk about. We did get to go through a wet market yesterday which was a lot of fun. As you can imagine….it was wet. ..Wet meaning the floor was covered in water from the plethora of seafood, veggies, hanging meat and the “unknown" dangling from the ceilings. To be honest, it was a bit over whelming to see all the action in the market, but it was quite the experience.
Yesterday was an adventure to be much appreciated for years to come. . . The Vegas of Hong Kong. We took an hour ferry from Hong Kong Island to an island known as Macau. Macau was once a Portuguese controlled island now home to Casinos, architecture, fun and Fernandos (The world famous meat restaurant). The buildings were absolutely amazing and we had a blast just looking around. Don’t tell anyone but we did have the opportunity to play a little Roulette over tea and coconut cake. After a few bets we were off to check out the ruins from the olden days of Portuguese control. The streets around Macau were littered with Portuguese signs complimented by Chinese characters and English with the feel of Europe. The ruins of the old church were incredible, but the excitement afterwards was even better. No sooner did we leave the ruins, we noticed an infiltration of Macau Police around the ruins and shut it down. Then we noticed the presence of some type of foreign secret service scoping out the local area. It was clear that someone special was about to visit the ruins. Though we did not end up seeing anyone special, spotting 4 sniper teams on roofs was by far a blatant sign. Definitely a Jason Bourne experience and view from the 360 degree lookout of the city.
Time in Hong Kong will come to an end on Wednesday and may mark the end to the freedom of Facebook and blogging. We will see when the time comes…

For now….Life is Good.

Alone in the City

2009-09-04T01:41:00.001-07:00

Today I had quite an adventurous morning. For starters, I woke up at about 5 am and hoped to spend some time journaling. By 6 I was ready to get some fresh air, so I strapped on my sneakers and went out for a run. Ever run along a beautiful lake in Hong Kong? Well, I was rather impressed, and as you guessed….I have run along a beautiful lake in Hong Kong. Once my lungs got used to the deep breaths of smog I was on a role. As with any day, I learned a lot today. Firstly, I was amazed by the amount of people awake at such an early hour. Dr. Jay tells me that when Marco Polo, “a world traveler of sorts,” first came to China, he noticed the people were early risers. I was amazed at all the runners, walkers, bikers and Tai Chi “relaxers” that were along the path. Also, I was amazed at the mindset of the elderly to stay fit….meaning that canes and all were apart of these morning activities. Secondly, I was intrigued by the sense and possible spirituality of fitness and overall health that is instilled in these people. Not only did the various activities structure this viewpoint, but the focus of Hong Kong dollars to build a beautiful fitness trail, Zen environment and overall “health club” along the sea had a lot of influence.
My day continued with hopes of attaining an Indian Visa for my trip to India. Dr. Jay allowed me to skip class this morning to get my visa. It takes about an hour and a half to travel to where I needed to go. See, Hong Kong is made up of many small islands, so maneuvering amongst them takes ferry rides and trains. (Cleanest most advanced subway I must say). Interestingly enough was the first half was like riding a school bus surrounded by uniforms and the second half was a black tie affair. Travel alone in Hong Kong is fairly safe, but I just enjoyed the adventure of maneuvering around a city that I could not speak the language….or at least a lot of it. Long story short I was unsuccessful in attaining a visa and need to wait until I get to Beijing. I did in fact meet a nice Chinese and later a British man who were interesting to talk to about current business trends and economic/political difference in China and America. I guess no trip of mine is complete without a little fun, adventure and a conversation!
Lastly, I must warn that come Wednesday my use of facebook and possibly blogs and e-mail may become rendered useless. Dr. Jay has warned us that in preparation for a National Chinese holiday in October, Mainland China has blocked access to such websites. Though rather disappointing, it is culture and I guess the point of the program is to experience culture. Who needs facebook anyway right? Some might attest including myself. Regardless, life in China well at least Hong Kong has been an adventure. Tomorrow we will be spending time traveling to a Portuguese influenced island called Macau….Not only is it famous for Fernando’s and Casinos, it happens to be a large North Pole for Santa.

Hope I am keeping it interesting!

_Larry

A Country Hidden Behind Masks

2009-09-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

For starters this blog entry is a mix between travel, the first day and posted the morning of my second day!

Flying thousands of miles, multiple airports and a day in Hong Kong is best ended by a hot shower and rejuvenating rest. I have absolutely no idea where to start talking or even processing my journey to a nation hidden behind masks. For starters, meeting in LAX was an adventure in itself. Trying to group together 12 students in a central location can always be an exciting time. Even better is handing them passports and leaving them to sit for a four hour waiting for our flight out to Hong Kong. It was an incredible time to get to know each other and at least have a preview of what to expect in weeks to come.
The flight was as always a typical 14 hour waiting game in a surprising spacious seat. At least I was able to trader and sit new to Lucas who is one of the CSP students from Boston going to school in Santa Barbara, Cali. It was an enjoyable flight and a nice landing in Hong Kong.
Some Lessons so far…..Well, it is clear that Hong Kong is very much its own entity in relation to China. It is a more advanced, wealthy and free nation where China is suppressed by regulation and an overlooking eye. It is also known as one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Do to the lack of space, people find ways to show wealth in smaller sizes. Cars, watches and luxuries take place of McMansions and huge estates.

Some adventures:
-Nearly getting hit by a car but thanks to a gracious Chinese Conrad who put out his hand and yelled "Ho" my life was saved
-Walking into a ally to find a restaurants to eat at that consisted of pointing at rather interesting Chinese characters hoping for a delightful meal
-Oh and did you know that sweet and sour chicken here has bones in it? Or that everything has bones in it for that matter. I guess we are truly blessed to have boneless chicken in our country.
-Breaking an escalator
-Having a Monk try to convert us to Buddhism
-Having the afternoon to ourselves to roam Hong Kong and try to get ourselves back to camp
-All time favorite.....Myself making up skits of bathing and drying off in hopes of finding a towel to buy with friends...I think the best part is when a women pointed, said Japan, and handed me a notes which I later learned said wash cloth instead of a store name.

All in all, my time in China or at least Hong Kong has been incredible. I now sit in a Library courtyard listening to the ring of calming Chinese music watching crowds perform Tai Chi as a morning relaxation...
Weather is hot and sticky. Almost 90, and the skyline is always covered by I light smog. At first I was disappointed with pictures, but I guess it is exactly what I see with my eyes.

Life amongst the smog.....is still a good life.

I AM HERE!

2009-09-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

With only 2,298 miles left to Hong Kong I figured there is no better time than now to write the first blog entry of this journey. Traveling, needless to say, is always a pleasure. Who can resist sitting in a chair for 15 hours, dry air, solidified food and the joy of sitting on top of a complete stranger? For me, I got lucky and quickly switched seats to be next two one of the other China Studies Program students which gave us an opportunity to get to know each other better. So far….this China Experience has been a blast. We all met in spurts inside LAX and ended up at the gate 4 hours before departure. Much laughter, introductions and names were thrown around as we waited for time to pass and to break some of the initial awkwardness.

Nothing more than excitement and curiosity floods my mind. I am sure the exhaustion will kick in at some point but for now, I am ready to go!

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We just arrived in Hong Kong and are sitting in the airport waiting for our charter bus. We made it through the airport and past the heat sensing lasers that zap any with fever in fear of swine flu. We only lost a few students in that process.

The airport is a huge and extremely advanced....if it wasn't for the masks and foreign symbols I may think I was in NYC or still LA.

With me luck as our journey begins and we continue in our first ten days in Hong Kong!

The Calm before the Storm

2009-08-31T04:26:00.000-07:00

Many believe that there is a calm before the storm. To me, this saying resembles a huge false truth. Think about all the storms in your life, would you say there was this frozen atmosphere surrounding you in pure silent bliss?

Needless to say, today is the great storm for me. Flight leaves out of Philly Int. Airport at 2:55 heading to LAX and then off to the beautiful Hong Kong. Leading up to this day has been nothing close to calm. Though these past few days have been rather enjoyable, they were packed with goodbyes, last suppers, packing, repacking, don't know how to pack, preparing and praying....and what trip preparation doesn't include a few surprises. I must say, my last day in the US of A was a rather enjoyable day. Great night of sleep, packing break at Ringing Rocks, a wonderful lunch, an amazing Skype session with Messiah's finest and some unexpected but meaningful farewell visits.

What am I thinking....
At this point I am thinking about saying good bye to a country of the free, silverware and the normality's we as Americans look for in our daily cuisine. Granted I survived the depths of the African Safari earlier this summer, I look forward to experience a developed China built above the underground 3rd world. This summer was an incredible journey and time spent in reflections and trying to establish a better sense of me. This journey will only continue through my adventures in China and India.

Besides putting my luggage in the car, some last minute phone calls, and a brief moment of prayer, my journey will commence today and I am sure will be yet another one of my adventures of a life time.

Countdown

2009-08-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

One Week to go....

Maybe time to start packing?

Definitely getting more and more excited by the day!

Preview

2009-08-14T11:27:00.001-07:00

I have started this blog to have a spot I can upload pictures and write blogs on my travels the next few years as I travel the world studing, working, learning and living!