The Trip of a Lifetime

It's now Saturday afternoon.  We depart tonight for the train, head to Beijing, and then fly back to the states on Monday.  I can't believe how fast this trip has passed by, but its also hard to believe how much I have grown and how much I have experienced on this seven week journey.  I wish I could journal some more about how bittersweet I am feeling right now, but I have to get out and experience my last day in Dalian, and my last two days in China :(

Every thing has been amazing for the last seven weeks.  There is not one thing that I would rather be doing at this point in my life.  Last night, we had a going away banquet with all of the students and faculty on the trip.  We were also joined by the President of the University.  We had a wonderful meal, sitting around the biggest lazy suzan i've ever seen, and played the videos that we created that show our experience in China.  The video took a lot of effort and time, but I am very proud of the final product and hope that you all enjoy it!

I'm having trouble posting the video, so if you want to see it, just send me an email!

The Comforts of a Chinese Family

Last Sunday, all of the people on the trip split up into three groups and met up with three, very welcoming Chinese families.  After hopping off of the bus at the home of our assigned family, we walked through a beautiful park-like atmosphere.  There were green grasses, lush trees, and flowers spread amongst a sidewalk that was covered by the canopy of the trees.  As I heard the sound of voices from above my head, I looked up and saw our loving family waving down to us out of their home on the sixth story.

When we arrived in the home, we were greeted with a loving kindness and quickly put on our house shoes so that we would not bring dirt from the streets into the house.  The entire family (Dad, Mom, and Son) were wearing silky looking pajamas.  One of the first things that they told us was to be comfortable and act like we are at our home. So, we sat down on the couch and made ourselves at home.  Shortly after sitting down, the Mom of the family brought out some fresh fruit for us to eat.  The fruit was delicious!  We had two different types of cherries, nectarines, and some really juicy watermelon.  It was a great way to welcome us Clemson students into their home.

After talking about things like life in America and comparing interests, we all went into the kitchen to make some dumplings.  The first thing that we did was get an overview of what we would be cooking with.  The dough for the dumplings was on the kitchen table, and the fillings for the dumplings were in the kitchen.  I started out in the kitchen.  The Dad had me cutting up Celery in no time! 

After cutting up some of the dumpling fillings, we all got a lesson in how to cut and roll the dough for the dumplings.  I was a bit rusty at first, but I think that I got a lot better after a few attempts.  Once the dough was rolled into circles, or hexagons in my case, it was time to fill the dumplings.  The Mom gave us a couple of quick examples, made it look real easy, and turned the table over to us ha.  We didn’t do to hot.  The dumplings that I made looked like tacos, but they got the job done. About 150 dumplings later, it was time to eat them.  They were delicious!

Just a sample of some of the dumplings that we made.  They don't look too bad from the picture...



For the rest of the night we all just hung out and had a great time.  We talked, I showed them some pictures from my life back in South Carolina, and we played this intense card game.  A lot of little things happened in between our arrival and departure, but the reality of the experience cannot be explained.  The family was so welcoming to us and treated us like their kids. 

This two guys in the back of the picture are the Son and his friend.  The friend is what helped set up the whole experience.  We rode to the apartment with him and left with him when it was time to go.



Gotta love the pajamas.  The Son spoke the most English, the Dad spoke a little English, and the Mom didn't really speak any.  We still had such a great time!


  



The Queen of Fruits

While eating this strange fruit that I had never seen before in my life, I decided to hop on the internet so that I could do a little research on the fruit and find out some of its health benefits.  The first site that I came upon was a site that had listings and pictures of a bunch of Asian fruits.  My initial goal was just to figure out the name of the fruit that I was eating (lychee), but then I stumbled upon this fruit that my roommate two years ago used to always talk about.  The fruit, which is called a Mangosteen, looked like something that I noticed at the fruit market by our hotel.  So, I hurried outside to make sure that it was in fact Mangosteens that the fruit market had on display, and it was!

The Mangosteen is one of those fruits that falls under the category of “Super-foods”.  The fact that I was able to go buy 5 Mangosteens for only 10 yuan is pretty awesome.  I have never seen these in the U.S., and my roommate that always used to try and sell me on this Xango Juice, which is made from the Mangosteen, charged like 25 dollars a bottle.  The Mangosteen has long lists of health benefits, and the benefits range anywhere from cancer fighting to acne treating.  This fruit is just loaded with health benefits!  A little research online will give you a better idea of how powerful of a fruit it is.  If you’re interested, type in Mangosteen health benefits into a search engine and check it out!

For this blog, I decided to give you a small insight as to how easy it is to get fruit here, and how interesting some of the fruit is.  Here are some pictures of the strange fruit that I have eaten and the place that I pick the fruit up at.



This is one of the fruit stands that I pick up produce from.  There are about 6 or 7 of these stands within a 3 minute walk from my dorm room.  Talk about convenience!



Close up shot of some fruits.  Check out all of the Watermelons in the back left!  The Watermelons in this area are amazing.  One day I bought a half a watermelon and ate the entire thing outside of our apartment.  The looks I got from the Chinese were priceless.

This is the Mangosteen, also known as "Queen of Fruit".

If you turn the Mangosteen over and look at the bottom, you will see these little petals on it.  The number of petals is the amount of fruit slices that will be inside of the fruit.  The more petals, the better. 



This is what the inside looks like.  Notice how there were six petals on the bottom, so there are six pieces of fruit inside.  The two big pieces have seeds on the inside.  The more petals on the bottom, the less likely there is to be a seed. 



The Fruit is sweet, yet tangy.  The texture is a bit strange, but the taste makes up for it.



The rind of the Mangosteen is what contains most of the health benefits.  The rind is highly concentrated with xanthones, which is one of the most powerful antioxidants on Earth.  Inside fo the tea cup is chopped up rind to make some tea!  The tea is still steeping, so I'll probably give it a try tomorrow.  Oh yea, the rind is unbeleivable bitter.  It is normally just put into pill capsules, but there are also other ways to prepare it.  



One of my favorite fruits from possibly my favorite place.  People from New Zealand are called Kiwis, the national animal is a Kiwi, and the country produces some of the best Kiwi fruits around. 

I had never seen one of these until coming to China.  This is the Lychee, and it is what helped me to discover that there are Mangosteens at the fruit market.

This is the fruit inside of the outer shell.  It has a Jelly-like texture to it and tastes very sweet.

I'm not even sure what this fruit is.  I bought a bag of them, tried one, and have not touched them since.  The texture is too different for me and the taste is somewhat bitter.  It tastes mostly like a berry.

These bananas saved my life!  The week that no one could keep any food down, I ate these every day and drank water.  I do not eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner anymore because I am well, but I still go through about 5 bananas a day. 

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As Time Goes By

It’s hard for me to believe that it has been well over a week since my last blog.  Time is absolutely flying by!  I’m not even sure what happened to last week…

On our way back from our amazing trip nearly two weeks ago, a couple of people started getting sick.  Actually, it all started about a day before we left to come back to Dalian.  Two kids got sick about a day before we left, and were either on the toilet or in their bed for the entire day before leaving.  When we started to head home on the plane, one more person was not feeling well.  By the time we landed, two more people were feeling sick!  People were dropping like flies, and it was not looking to great.  The side effects seemed to be similar to the ones people get with food poisoning, but man, it lasted a lot longer.

A couple of days after arriving back in Dalian, everyone on the trip had been hit by this sickness.  It is mainly stomach problems and a feeling of daze in the head, but it is not very quick to go away.  I lasted pretty long without getting this little bug, but at once, I got hit. I felt it for two days, thought I was completely healed, so I started eating the Chinese way again, and then started to feel queasy again.  It’s been up and down for me and a lot of people on this trip for the last week and a half.  It’s as if our stomachs just can’t take anymore of this Chinese food.

For the last few days, I decided that I would drink a lot of water and maybe have a few bananas throughout the day.  The first day of this was successful, then the second day I decided to try and eat some bread, along with bananas and lots of water.  Then, last night, I decided to go all out with my first KFC experience!  Well, I rushed into eating to quick!  I’m back to bananas, kiwis, bread, and water until I’m all well again.  I think tomorrow will be the day when I’m all finished with this little bug!

If only KFC looked like this in the U.S.!  Of all of the places in America to eat at, KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, and Pizza Hut are the ones that I have seen in China.  Suprisingly, KFC is extremely popular here.  The four places listed are all extremely nice for China, and are some of the nicest places to eat at in terms of price and cleanliness.  Every one of the four companies that I have seen here have been at least 2 stories.  Oh, those bikes to the bottom right are for...delivery! haha McDonalds also delivers.

Despite the rough last couple of days/week, the great experiences in China have not diluted.  I’d say that my most memorable part of the last two weeks, besides being able to experience the same explosive stomach problems with twenty people, is the day that I went to go play tennis with some of my Chinese friends. 

When arriving at the first court with two of the four Chinese students that I would be playing tennis with that day, we hit the tennis ball around for about five minutes before deciding to move to another court. Ha, the two guys that I was with suddenly realized why that court is free to play on.  The court was asphalt, had lots of cracks in it, and had an extremely low net.  So, they called down to the courts that are all of the way across campus in order to see if there was a court open for us to play on.  Thankfully, a court was available and so we walked down and met the other two players that we would be playing with.

After about a 20 minute walk, we were all finally able to play some tennis.  We had such a great time.  We played doubles, singles, and tried to help Shayne (one of my Chinese friends’ English name) and Geo learn how to play.  The greatest thing about the entire time that we were all together is the feeling that I had when I was with them.  I felt really free and like I was not getting judged one bit by any of them.  Also, while playing each other, no one was getting mad when they messed up or weren’t playing well.  They all just laughed and had a good time.  It’s hard to put my finger on what was so great about this day.  I felt like I fit in with them and they accepted me so quickly and were all so interested in everything that I had to say. 

Unfortunately, I started feeling a bit queasy from the stomach bug and had to depart ways with them before our trip to get coffee.  Coffee after being active in a game of tennis is something that I am not very used to, but next time we play, I’ll make sure I’m feeling better so that I can join them. 

On a different note, we only have a little over a week left in China.  It’s quite sad, but I am ready to go home and enjoy all of the life that awaits me back home.  From now until then, I will try to complete a couple more blogs.  I’m not completely sure what to write about, but I want to make it a little bit different from what I have done in the past.  I should post another one this weekend at some point.  I’ll be out taking some pictures on Saturday if I get the chance.  I hope time slows down a lot this next week!

The Most Beautiful Place in the World?

For the last five days, I was on the most beautiful trip of my life with a bunch of the people that I am studying with at Dalian University of Technology.  Every year when a different group of people study in China through Clemson, a mid-break trip is planned for all of the students and teachers to enjoy.  This year, we headed out to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region—the largest province in China.  It is located in the northeastern part of the country, so it was about a 4 hour plane ride from where we go to school in Dalian.

The first place that we arrived at on our trip is Urumqi.  Let me just say, I never thought that life could be anymore different than the places that I have been to in China prior to this mid-break trip.  I thought that I successfully made it through culture shock and was well on my way to feeling completely comfortable in a foreign environment.  Well, I was wrong.  While being in a foreign country like China, it is a normal thing to be stared at while walking around.  Places like Dalian don’t get to see too many Americans, but they do see people from other parts of the world because of the college and its convenient location.  However, the place that we first arrived at on this mid-break trip was an entirely new experience.



The first thing that I noticed while driving from the airport to our hotel is the language spoken.  Most of the province is made up of the Islamic religion, and is also bordered by all of the Stan countries such as Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, etc.  Accordingly, there is a large amount of people in the area that speak Arabic language.  Mostly all of the signs seen in this area have the Chinese symbol, and also the Arabic writing under them.  We pretty much flew out to a completely new country. 

We did a couple of activities in this area, like walk through the market streets (which I didn’t think I’d make it out of alive), attend a great performance arts show (which I got to dance in front of about 1000 foreigners!), and just stay at a very interesting hotel.  We only stayed in this area for about half a day and one night, so there wasn’t too much time to do anything.  However, I experienced culture shock for the first time.  I was absolutely worn out after only being in this place for a couple of hours!



I'm not even sure if this is Arabic.  It sure looks like it, though.  Most signs had both Arabic and Chinese symbols.



  

I did not see this Sheep get killed, but i did see it get skinned on the street in front of a lot of people.  It didn't even phase these people.  Later, we saw another sheep get killed in this street.
  

When walking around the market street after we first got there, we got what seemed like the death stare by everyone that we passed by, and people that we were about to pass 100 feet down the road.  We might as well have been Aliens standing on a huge stage with a spotlight on us.  Talk about uncomfortable.  We got mean mugged to the max.  Groups of people stared at us like you wouldn’t believe.  They would lock eyes on us until we were too far away to be seen.  We even got followed by some people.  I’ve never felt so unsafe, but I’ve also never felt so excited. 

For the rest of the trip, I’m pretty sure that I saw some of the most beautiful natural landscapes that I will see for a very long time.  We first headed out to this place called “Heavenly Lake”.  Wow.  This place was incredible.  It was about a four hour drive to get to the National Park (I’m not sure if it is a National Park or not, but it should be, and we had to enter through a building to access the huge park), and then about an hour ride once inside the park.  We were in a huge tour bus and went through extremely windy roads to get to the main attraction, the Heavenly Lake.  The lake is around 7,000 feet above ground and is filled up by the ice that melts off of the mountains surrounding it.  The water was the prettiest natural color I have ever seen.  It had a greenish-blue color to it and was clear and very fresh looking.  While at the park, I was able to go down and fill my big water bottle up with some of the Heavenly Lake water.  I drank it all the next day before heading out to the desert.



Breath-taking!  It looked even better in person, as expected.



The view from down at the bottom.  It cost about 7 dollars to go on a boat ride in the lake.  We went on one and saw some amazing views.  My camera died before the ride, so I was able to take it all in and not worry about pictures!



My experience at the Heavenly Lake area was blissful.  Everywhere I looked, and everywhere I explored was just amazing.  We arrived at this mountainous region at around 12:00 PM, and were exploring all of the way until 10:30 at night (there is only one time zone in China, so the west stays bright out very late).  At around 10:00 PM, James and I snuck down the mountain that our Yurts were on and even took a dip in the Heavenly Lake.  It was so great.  I miss the place.  We were all alone out in nature with no one hours away from us except for people in the little Yurt Villages that were few and far between in the area.  While we were in the park, we took a boat ride on the lake, hiked up the steepest mountain of my life (and accordingly the scariest), saw the most stunning waterfalls of my life, swam in the freshest water I’ve ever seen or tasted, and slept amongst animals that left poop droppings all around the area that were the size of large softballs.  Oh, I almost forgot, we also got to see a night sky that was completely lit up and absolutely covered by stars.  I don’t know if I will be at a more amazing place than this for a long time, but I sure hope that I will be!



Standing directly outside our Yurt.  It's about 9:30 at night in this picture.  James and I just came back from a huge hike and are about to go down to the Heavenly Lake for a swim.



Yurt living at it's finest!



We saw thousands of Windmills on the way to the Desert!



The next morning we got up around 7:00 and left at 8:00.  When you are in such a beautiful area like this--waking up to snow capped mountains and turquoise blue water--it is hard to start the day off without a huge smile on your face.  I walked out of the Yurt, looked to my left, and quickly remembered were I was at and how blessed I was/am to be in such a place.  Alright, so we left the Heavenly Lake area and headed out to the desert.  I am not going to talk about this that much at all.  It was no doubt an amazing experience, but what all can be said about the desert?  I will post some pictures of our two days in the desert, and try and explain some of the two days by putting captions under the pictures.  We had such an unbelievable time in the desert. 



About 7,000 people used to live in this ancient city that was carved through the desert rock.



On the following day, we rode through another ancient city, while being pulled by a donkey.  The town that set up this tourist attraction was extremely poor.  I felt a bit sad during the ride.



We got to ride Camels through the desert one day!  This poor Camel had a limp hump.  Notice how I was holding it up in the picture ha.  The Camel ride was quite the experience.  It took me up a huge hill to get to the spot in the picture.  It farted and pooped the entire way haha



We drove about an hour from the Camel riding out to another part of the desert.  The hike to where that guy is standing at the top of that hill was absolutely brutal.  The sand was over 150 degrees, very soft, and I had Crocs on.  The hot sand got trapped in my Crocs every step of the way and I had to empty them out nearly every step. 



This is the view looking inward at the Desert.  The tour guide told us that the Gobi Desert is the second largest in the world.  It sure was hot!  to the left of me, which is out of the picture, is the dune that we hiked up. 



It’s now back to school for me and the rest of the Clemson group.  We all had the time of our lives on the trip, and are still having the times of our lives now, except studying in between.  While on the trip out west, I became aware of what an opportunity it has been for us to be in the area that we were at.  If I did not have three fluent Mandarin speakers on the trip with me, none of that 5 day trip would have happened.  Without that crucial link in the group, a lot of things would not have been possible on this trip.  I did not see one American, or even anyone outside of Asian descent while on the trip except for my group.  What an opportunity.