It has been a long....long....time, suppose I will post!

Well getting comments from my parents saying that I don't post anything ever (which is true) I suppose I could post something. Sorry to everyone that has been anxiously awaiting my new post, if you still are waiting then there must be something wrong with you! I shall now tell you what I have been up to lately.

Had my midterms this week in Listening, Speaking, and Grammar. All of which went fairly well. I got in the 90's on both me Speaking and Listening, now I just need to see what I got on my Grammar test (which I think will be about the same). Classes are fun to go to and getting along with everyone in my class is getting easer the more and more I understand Chinese.

Central classes are quite good and fun. History class we have been taking trips to some bas ass museums even if Mike and Talbot (my two classmates) disagree. For some reason I enjoy old broken jars and pots more than others. Business class is fun and Jing Laoshi is hilarious. For one class outing he took us to a bar to "get to know Chinese businesses." However, we got there and just hung out with him for a few hours. He actually is a good teacher though, teaching Chinese Business basically all through roundabout ways. Getting to know the culture is an important part of getting to know how their business works I suppose.

As for outings, Talbot and I went to a Buddhist Temple. Even though is was being whored out for tourists so that monks can't really do much of their own.....Monk work, It was pretty beautiful. There were carvings in the rocks of many a Buddha, also Talbot had a sip of well water from near the top of the mountain that the temple was on. Apparently it tasted great and was very cold.

Other than that just getting used to daily life if has been interesting. People are very nice and children are SOOOO easy to understand.

Now I have posted something, I suppose I could do it again next week. See ya then.

I have fallen in love

.......With a tasty Chinese dish called Dong Pourou. Its Pork with the fat and skin in some sauce. It is SOOOOO good. Other than that China has been wonderful. People told me I would have a hard time getting used to the food but its all been very delicious. Also other than the food my adventures have been extending. I haven't posted for awhile but we visited places such as: Yellow Dragon Park, The Mausoleum of Yue Fei, Traditional Street, The City's God's Temple, and West Lake. All of which have been amazing. The landscape here is gorgeous and amazing. When we went to Yellow Dragon Park Talbot Will and I broke off the beaten path and climbed on a ton of rocks that other Chinese people were climbing on. The signs said dont, but the Chinese rule for safety (even with driving) is DON'T BE STUPID terrifying at times, but wonderous to behold. Those pictures are pretty sweet and as I said I am attempting to upload pictures but it is taking quite a while. Afetr scaling the moutain hill that was Yellow Dragon Park we ate some food around West Lake and by the way, all of our meals during our excursions are HUGE and delicious. We finally met the one other person that is in our group named Robert. He recently married a Chinese woman who seems very nice, however, he was wearing a turtleneck.....and  that about explains it all (power complex as well). We registered for the school today so soon I will have a student I.D. It was the first time I saw many other minorities. It was like being in America all over again. Even though it was like America, I didn't like it.

So about the people here. They are all so very friendly, they treat white people like celebrities. Many a time we all have been pulled to the side of the street to take a picture with complete strangers. I have yet to get tired of it because they all are all just so nice. Yesterday we took a trip to a place thats called traditional street in english, where Will Talbot and I sat in a tea place tasting teas and talking to a really nice girl for like an hour and a half, which was ALL free. It was amazing. That is all for now, sorry it was so short. Pictures are coming!

XiXi Wetlands and Random Adventures

Yesterday we took a day trip to a place called the XiXi Wetlands. It was quite nice out, t-shirt and shorts weather if your from Iowa. We had took a boat around to a few islands saw a silk making museum and I took a lot of pictures. The water here is green and its supposed to be quite beautiful if it is, maybe I will warm up to it some more eventually. Anyways I made this post just to mention that I'll be posting some pictures today, so enjoy!

China!

Hello everyone! I arrived yesterday night. I was not feeling too fantastic after the 14 hour plane ride during which the pilot decided to have some fun during turbulence and drop 5,000 feet. Terrifying or fun? I will go with the first. We took a bus from ShangHai airport to Hangzhou which was 2 hours. On the way the buildings and city never really stopped, which reminded me how emensely huge China really is. When the group got to Hangzhou the bus driver decided he was going no further into the city and we were not anywhere close to the campus. So our friend Alex hooked us up with a cab and got us about 15 minutes walk from the school. It was quite the experience. After we got our rooms which I will have pictures of coming soon, we went out to a buffet with tons of food to eat, and awesome mango and watermelon juice. Then we went back to the dorm town (which is larger than the size of Pella) and started to get ready for bed. Thats all that happened really last night.
Today was the dawn of a new begining. After waking up to the sound of fireworks at about 6 i went back to sleep until 8, took a very hot and nice shower and got ready for the day. We met up at Central's office building which is where I will be connected to the internet at, talked about things and went on a tour of campus. Li Shumin (our Central College connection) took us around showed us where the laundry place is along with a kitchen to use. Then we saw a convienence store which sold a salami, egg, and chicken sandwhich that two of my friends had. I took a bite, it was pretty tasty. After we ended the tour by an ENOURMOUS Mao statue Li Shumin left us to help someone else renew their visa stuff, my friend Will who had been here since last summer showed us a couple of cool things: The first was an awesome drink place for Milk Tea, I don't even like tea and it was good, it had these weird gelatin things in it which were actually pretty good, the second was a place I had been told about before I even left I don't know its name but it was referenced as Pac Man's for its logo looks EXACTLY like Pac Man eating a bit. I will have a picture so you can see for yourself. Well thats about where I am at now and will update everyone later.

Approaching Zero Hour

Well its 12:25, I will be leaving for the airport in three hours. Am I excited? Yes, yes I am, however its not affecting me because I'm still tired as crap. However, I am determined to stay up until then. Also, my bags are about as medium amounts of full as possible, which is good I believe, so that I can bring stuff back! I would post a picture but I have already packed my camera. I have a friend coming with me too, his name is Boba Fett. Never mess with the Fett man!

A Post for Krystal Rusk

 AHEM! So I am having a Good Day. There are only four days left until china and I wonder to myself, "Where are all of the Scientists Now?" They must be elsewhere because they are not telling me of the weather and geographical conditions in China. It will only be a Matter of Time until I find out for myself however. How I'm feeling is hard to put into words, and I'm having a lot of trouble trying to Hold it In. I'm will be sure to keep my Beady Eyes on the Horizon as I arrive in China, it is going to be so amazing and it is starting to make me have trouble trying to sleep. You could say that everything is still seeping in Under My Skin. Its as if I'm Lighting Myself on Fire instead of sleeping! It is quite mental. My Hearts the Same its as if I'm getting Static to the Heart and it will never slow down. Sometimes when I'm dreaming about China Miss Templeton's 7000th Dream pops into my head, I really don't like that song all to much so I don't know why its there, then it goes away and people are singing Victoria, Victoria, at what China is to be. Four days left, and I'm very excited. Hope this post is fun for those who will understand!