The Wonders of China

So our first full week in Asia was spent in the great wide world of China, and it was incredible beyond belief! As you can see in the little spiritual reflection below, I was totally in awe at the incredible spirit in China! So if all of that hasn't said enough about the spirit of China let's get on with a bunch of the grand adventures we had while in China. The purpose for visiting China was two fold. Myself and Bill have a very good friend, Braden, teaching at a similar program in China. Braden and another friend Ari are doing a similar English teaching program in China but they have already been going for a few weeks. So China was a chance for us to get some grounding before coming to Thailand and starting our English teaching program and of course a chance to visit and experience some of the wonders of China! For the purpose of learning from Ari and Braden's teaching set up it was extremely helpful. We were able to share teaching materials with each other and we were able to get some experience in an international classroom. Even that little time there has been a huge benefit to us as we have been setting up our teaching course here in Thailand.

Okay now on the the grand adventures of China. There is no down time here, our adventures started the very first day. First off we were surely greeted at the airport with face masks and thermometers and informed we couldn't stay in the dorms with Braden and Ari, they were afraid we had the swine flu and they didn't want us to become "faces" of people who brought the swine flu to China. After all that to do though we spent all of our time, save sleeping in and on campus and at the dorms. So who knows, sometimes you just have to please the right people.

Anyhow, quick excerpt for a funny story, though there are too many to tell this one was great. Since we now couldn't stay at the dorms and the school hotel was full we ended up staying at a pretty sketchy hotel the first two nights. As we're driving down this random alley way to our hotel you can see a fairly tattered Chinese national flag hanging outside the parking entrance for the hotel; then Bill, in all seriousness says, "This is a five star hotel?" Braden and I were flabbergasted and answered almost in unison, "Bill, that is the Chinese flag." It was so funny. I don't know if any of you are laughing but it was so great, especially if you would have seen the quality of the room we stayed in. It became one of the many running jokes for the week.

Okay moving on to one of the greatest stories. Did you all know that Braden, Bill and myself are rock stars? That's right, you know bonified rock stars . . . or something like that. The first night we were there, Saturday, they ended up having a rock concert on campus. So we got there a few hours after it had started and met some friends near the front of the stage. Well, it turns out they really wanted the Americans to sing and it didn't help that our Egyptian friends were more than excited to get us up on stage as well. Now keep in mind this is a pretty legit rock concert, there were probably 750-1000 Asian students and rock bands performing at this concert. So they keep asking and asking us to get on stage, they're trying to find songs we know and on and on. So we finally consent and don't you worry we surely performed Journey's - Don't Stop Believing on stage at a Chinese rock concert. We sounded terrible, we were so off tune, we didn't know all the words and they absolutely love it! They went crazy, especially compared to how they reacted to the rest of the concert - definitely the tamest rock concert I have ever been to. We were definitely the crazy Americans there the whole time. Anyhow, after that they wanted us to sing the closing song of the night, which we did not want. We ended up sneaking out and the next day the students told us they were chanting for us. They wanted the Americans to come back and sing. As I'm sure you can figure out they don't see to many Americans in this part of China, so apparently they thought we were pretty cool. I'll try to upload the video and you can experience the awfulness of your performance for yourself but it was crazy fun. Oh and who knew I lived one of mom's dreams, so watch and enjoy and live vicariously if you so choose. :)

One more adventure for this post, then I'll have to break it up because these are getting too long, I am just too long winded. So the next day we went to Xi'an for church and spent the day there. Church was a little branch with an incredible spirit, it was such a neat experience. We also ate our first real dumplings in China and they were so delicious.

That afternoon we went to the Big Goose Pagoda which is famous for a water and light show they do, which we have heard is actually the show that inspired the Belagio's water show - this one is much bigger though. (It was awesome, but that story comes later in the week) Anyhow this day we dressed in Chinese traditional wear and took pictures. It was so funny, but the best part was the crowd we drew! This tended to be a common theme in China, we ended up drawing a lot of crowds - those crazy Americans!!!! Anyhow we had like 50-75 people totally gathered, gawking, pointing and taking pictures of us. Maybe the whole week could have just been labeled - they drew a crowd. ;)