The Traveling Continues…

After our stop at the Pleasure Palace, we got on a train and prepared for a 10-hour ride overnight to Xi’an. We were all mostly excited, except for Meg who had a bad experience with a train in Egypt. Our cabins were tiny, but we each had a bed, a fluffy comforter, a not so fluffy pillow, and little paper slippers to wear. With a little melatonin, I was out like shout and slept great on the rock hard board of a bed.


In the morning, when I woke up, I was excited to see the countryside of China. The hazy air got in the way of most of my picture attempts from the train window, but there were beautiful, green mountains following the train tracks. We passed several little villages, workers along the tracks, and decorative gravesites as well before we got to the train station in Xi’an.

The Pleasure Palace

When we arrived in Beijing, we had the whole day to kill until we hopped on a train and headed to our first city. It was arranged for us to go to this place in Beijing where we could relax, shower, and eat. Our tour guide, Phoenix, spoke really good English, but we weren’t quite sure if she was calling it the “Summer Center” or the “Sauna Center”. So we just named it the “Pleasure Palace”. I’ll try my best to describe the unreal strangeness of this experience…probably enhanced by the hazy, drugged feeling from our long plane trip.

First of all, we walked into this really nice building with guards outside the doors to be greeted by men and women dressed in professional attire. All the windows were tinted so you couldn’t see inside. That’s the first sign of a shady building. The men and women separated, and the employees took our shoes and traded us for these pink slippers. They had to go back a few times to find a pair that fit my feet. Size nine is uncommonly large in China.

This whole experience was made stranger because no one spoke English, and we speak no Chinese (except our teacher, Jiamin). Generally, we felt like we were being herded around like cattle, or, for a more graphic description, like we were in a concentration camp. Our clothes were taken from us, we were put in matching outfits, and shuttled into showers. Granted, our matching outfits were basically pink pajamas, and it was really nice to shower after all that traveling.

Just imagine a gaggle of 18 apprehensive American girls being directed into elevators and rooms. Eventually we found some food, but it was really weird food. We couldn’t tell what anything was just by looking at it. They only gave us hot water to drink, and there were a bunch of other Chinese people in funny pajamas eating as well. It wasn’t the best first impression of Chinese food. Steamed bread that looked like the Kool-Aid Man and cuts of meat that we had no idea what parts of what animals we were eating.

Eventually we found this dark room with a huge projector screen playing movies and oversized, recline-able sofa seats for each person. Some men were getting foot massages from scantily clad women in the front of the theater, so we stuck in the back and chatted a little while watching some crazy Chinese movie that looked like a mixture between X-men and Star Wars. By this time, we had 5 hours to kill at this place and we were getting desperate. They turned on Avatar next, but it was in German with English subtitles, and probably 70% of them didn’t make any sense, grammatically or logically. So I went to sleep and happened to wake up right when dinner was being served.

And so ended one of the strangest experiences of my life.

Time Travel Is Possible!

16 hours of flying in the air and now I am 14 hours in the future (for anyone in Utah). Los Angeles, to Seoul, to Beijing. Really, I think this picture about sums up my 2 day experience.

I don’t know what more there is to say.

Seoul, Korea

There will be no pictures attached to this blog because I have no motivation to take pictures of myself after 18 hours on planes.

But I'm in Korea, just killing time at the airport. It's Wednesday here, and it's Tuesday in Utah. I slept really fabulously on the plane, thanks to melatonin, ear plugs, one of those funny neck pillows, and a blanket.

Oh, and I watched New Moon on the plane. I was already wasting time anyways...and I was rooting for Jacob.

Goodbye?

In a few minutes, I will be headed to the Salt Lake airport to begin the journey to China! Hasn't really hit me yet that the next time I leave a building, I will be in Beijing. I have heard lots of different things as to the reliability of the internet and the magnitude of the governments ban on certain sites. Hopefully, this will not be my last blog for 7 weeks, but instead the first of many epic blogs full of amazing pictures. But, just in case, this is a heads up that I have not deserted my blog, I just simply can't get to it.

I need to finish packing my pack.

Saturday in the Park

Over a tasty breakfast this morning, Ryan, Kim, Dave and I had deep, philosophical conversation. Our conclusions?

1. People are computers

2. People get hungry

This picture has nothing to do with either of those things. To me, it is a symbol of breaking bad eating habits, forgoing the unhealthy and embracing the pure. A true American thought...

After a brief handstand workshop in Ry's driveway, the race began. We had 2.5 hours to: go to the grocery store, make a chocolate caramel cheesecake, put the cake in the oven, get to Sports Authority to buy Chuck All-Stars, get back in time to take the cheesecake out, and get to the Cross Fit gym in time for Bring-A-Friend session. Boom.

This is post workout. I bet you didn't catch the fact that my shoes aren't in fact my shoes. They aren't even on my feet. I didn't buy Converse. They didn't have my size and I already have two pairs of slightly-too-big Converse All-Stars. So I borrowed Kim's. I'm a size 8. She's a size 4.

Then what? How about a 2 hours, full-body massage from Kim? Sounds good to me!

Soybeans in Cake Form

Otherwise known as tempe. It's like tofu, but it retains the whole bean, thus making if richer in protein, dietary fibers, and vitamins. Unlike most soybean products, which originated in China or Japan, tempe is from Indonesia.

Whenever I go home, which unfortunately is very infrequently, I try to take advantage of the ethnic diversity of restaurants in Madison. Bandung is on the list of favorites, mostly because of the Oseng Oseng Tempe. I can't say I'm a tempe fanatic or anything, but I do know that it is tasty.

When I was a senior in high school, I danced basically every day after school and into the night. So much for family dinners. My parents resorted to going out a lot and bring me home the leftovers. I didn't have a problem with that, in fact, I quite enjoyed it. My favorite treasures to find in the fridge were enchiladas from Mi Cocina, or Oseng Oseng from Bandung.

Tempe is also good for something else, namely being the city that my brother, David, and his wife, Adrienne, live in. I am visiting them right now.

Aren't they cute? So I am in Tempe. Unfortunately, Adrienne was called away a few days ago on a sudden adventure, and my brother is beating 7th graders with rulers at school. So what did I do today? Here's the top 7:

1. Kept dollars in the local economy

2. Created jobs

3. Helped the environment

4. Nurtured community

5. Conserved tax dollars

6. Created more choice

7. Invested in entrepreneurship

Little did I know I was doing all those things by walking into a new and used bookstore to get some books about Taoism for a class I'll be taking in China. The abundance of books I usually find at even your run-of-the-mill bookstore inspires me to quit my life of doing anything else and hide away somewhere to learn as much from books as I can. What books catch my eye at bookstores? Classics that I feel like I should read, history books that I know I won't be able to mentally digest, books about hobbies I wish I had such as photography or gardening, scientific non-fiction that might help me understand the world better, and occasionally a novel with a pretty cover and catchy title. Someday I want a big library in my house.

Other highlights of the day so far (it's only 2:55 p.m.)

~jogging and hanging around with Paul. He's all tuckered out.

~driving Dave's jeep trying to find places

~coming back to listen to a great song by Jose Gonzalez ("Cycling Trivialities") and realizing that the lyrics speak to my life.

5 days until I leave for China!