3rd weekend in Tianjin

Yesterday is hard to remember. I'm not sure why. After a few minutes I finally remembered how the day started. How odd.
I started the day still recovering from the night before; and by recovering I mean from food, not drink. For some reason I had trouble sleeping. I stayed up late talking to Cyndi and Mom, and still woke up at quarter after 6. Since I couldn't get back to sleep and still had 2 1/2 hours before we would go get cell phones, I spent the majority of that time writing the massively long blog updating everyone to the rest of my week. Finally 8:45 rolls around and it's time to head out. We (everyone except for Samuel who is feeling a little under the weather) start heading to get SIM cards. We meet up with Maiem (not sure on how to spell that), a friend of Samuel's who lives here in Tianjin. Although Kyle can speak very good Chinese, we asked Maiem to get the SIM cards set up for us. It didn't take a great amount of time to get that all set up, so afterwards Anna took me to get a cell phone for my SIM card, Kyle, Charise and Damon went to get groceries then back to the hotel, and Maiem biked off to meet someone for lunch. Anna and I cruised the cell phones for a bit and finally found the cheapest phone this place had 299 yuan($50). Didn't have much of a choice since the next cheapest was 599 yuan. Okay, I'll take it. I think it was pushing 9:30, 10:00. Since we missed breakfast at the hotel and it is one of Anna's rituals, we went to McDonalds for breakfast. The nice thing about McDonalds is that they have an allergy listing online. I know egg-xactly (get it egg... hahaha, god sometimes I amuse myself) what I can eat, and more importantly, what I can't. We were enjoying our McD's when all of a sudden, the menu boards switched over for lunch. It's 10 am! I don't know but that to me is a little early for a Big Mac or a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese-don't actually know if they have that one here. Anna ran up to get some past minute breakfast items for Samuel then we headed back to the hotel.
We had a couple other plans for the day, but some time between then and now. I got online and chatted with Mom and Dad for a little bit, then it was off to the Fruit and Veggie market and after tha, popcorn chicken from a local vendor. It's pretty darn good and so far I've been able to eat it without feeling sick. Kyle and Charise wanted to go check out the flea market quickly before the all the ladies were to meet up with Maiem at a local flea market. The other three of us just went back to the hotel. As we were walking I noticed a shoppe that looked to be a pharmacy. Sure enough, it was! My sinus/ear has felt clogged since I got here, so I wanted to see if I could find some nasal spray of some kind. We got in and started looking around. Within 30 seconds someone was there to help. Through a series of gestures, scribbles, and written word we finally got the idea across to the phramacist. I now have some crazy intense nose spray, probably with steroids, that works really well but I'm afraid to use it too often.
By the time we got back to the hotel we only had 30 mins to eat and get ready to go back out. I tell you what, all of us were dragging. Still, we hopped in a cab and met up with Maiem and her friend a couple blocks away. Within minutes of walking into this crazy, find anything you'll ever need market, we found a purse stand. Anna and I picked up the same purse with different print, lol. Why not? We were able to knock off a couple yuan by getting two. 35 yuan a piece, roughly $7. Wholly crap that's cheap! I finally just did the math... boy I'm slow.
We spent the next four hours or so walking around in a daze. There is soooo much stuff at this place it is overwhelming! Plus, the weather was just chilly enough to sap energy if you weren't properly dressed. I wasn't. It is no longer t-shirt weather for me. Maybe 15 mins before we left, we came across a man selling iPod earphones. I don't know why I could just buy anything. Pretty sure they all would have worked, but he handed me a pair and I paid for them. Did the quick math: $5, 30 yuan. Whatever. I was too tired to care. Once we got back to the enterance we decided to call it quits. The three Americans were no longer in a shopping mood so we went home while the two Chinese stayed and finished out the market.
I was hoping once we got back to lie down for a bit. However, after 10 mins or so, Anna and Samuel knocked and drug me off to the grocery store with them. We all knew if we sat down for too long none of us would be able to get up later. So, off to the store we went, came home, dropped our goodies and promptly went out to dinner. We were so lackluster that we took a cab four blocks. lol. Good lord! However, after a nice dish of Korean Bulgolgi (again spelling)-hamburger and rice-we did manage to walk back. Then it was lights out.
I slept for 11 hours. I couldn't believe how tired I was, and still was when I woke up. I got online again (as you've probably figured out by now I'm on quite often) struck up a conversation with a friend from high school, and when that was over went downstairs for a nice, safe Korean breakfast. By the time I got back the maids were making their rounds. I figured it's always easier if I'm out of the way when they tidy up.
I wasn't planning on going for a long walk, but I ended up walking for an hour. It definitely didn't feel like that, so I'll probably do it again in the near future. It was kinda fun to see all the Chinese flags up everywhere for the National Holiday-which offical begins on the 1st. I also walked a few places I hadn't been before. I was still in the same area but I stumbled across a little living community tucked away between multiple businesses and a factory/distributor of sorts. There was only one entrance on to a main drag, but when I got back into it, it was like its own little world. I realize that one of my problems here is that it is far too noisy for me. EVERYONE here honks. They drive so crazily that they honk to let the other drivers know that they are coming up and passing them. And passing other drives, between cars straddling two lines is normal here. Uh huh. Pretty nuts yet no one gets angry. Amazing. Anyway, this little community gave me a (however brief) chance to relax a bit.
I wasn't expecting anyone to be online when I got back, but a classmate from school was on... in Vietnam. This Skype thing is pretty sweet! First chatting with Ginger in Chili then Becca in 'Nam. Turns out she's coming to Beijing in Oct. for a Fullbright conference. How cool is it that we're just going to casually meet up in China. Ha! Nothing casual about it. We get so many stares as it is. It's a pretty big ordeal when we go out. Turns out she also dyed her hair darker. Great conversation since we're both going through roughly the same thing right now... "What the heck are we doing in Asia?!"
After that my day was a lot of horizontal-reading the back of my eyelids. I did actually read, but I also attempted to take a couple of naps. I felt more rested afterwards regardless of how much sleeping I actually did.
I decided on pizza since it was right down stairs and joined Anna and Samuel in their room to watch August Rush. What a good movie; very uplifting. Watching that made me realize how much I miss music. I would really like to sit down at a piano and plunk something out right now. I'm sure it wouldn't be pretty, but my voice is so out of shape that it would probably be easier.
I've been listening to Classical all day today. Not sure what got into me, but it felt right.
Well, some of you know this and some of you don't. My grandfather passed away two days after I got here. This weekend my whole family is together giving him the beautiful Veterans memorial service he deserves. Being away from home is always trying, but my goodness, being away when a family member passes away is darn right hard! I can't say that I didn't try to prep myself for it, but trying to explore a new country and having that nagging knowledge in the back of your mind knowing that your grandfather isn't going to be there when you get back, plus missing the service and the support of family is probably why I haven't been feeling as rested as I would like. Everyday is a little better than the last and I keep sending out positive thoughts :)
I also got a package from home today with lots of allergy meds and extra goodies without egg! I'm very excited to be able to read the label, even though I know mom and dad wouldn't send me anything with egg in it. It's still nice to be able to check myself without the help of an interpretur.
Well, I think that is all for now. Don't know if I've forgotten anything, but it will have to do.

The past couple of days have been a whir! My normal schedule gives me time in the morning to Blog, Skype, check stocks, exercise, eat breakfast… a nice couple of hours to wake up and get ready for work. I was finally adjusting to getting an extra hour and a half of sleep when an LG Administrator from India shows up at work. This is a good thing for the company I know, but he decided there was no point in leaving his hotel at 6:40 a.m. to come to work and sit for 45 mins to an hour. Gee, really? This is what the interns do. So, how does that pertain to me? He also gets picked up by the director's car. The director gets picked up at 6:00 a.m., Muhesh (sorry about the spelling) gets picked up by 8:00 a.m. and then the driver gets a rest, leaving me to either taxi or coming in early. Okay, no big deal. I find this out on Tuesday.

For Wednesday, I am told to take a taxi at my normal, 9:30 time so I can teach English from 5-7 p.m. Vivian, her Chinese name Zhang Jin Li if I didn't write that earlier, wrote a note for me to hand the taxi driver and all I needed to do was get a receipt to be reimbursed. Sounds good.

Wake up Wednesday as usual and notice it's raining. The Chinese HATE rain. Even if there are a few drops here or there, the umbrellas come out. One man offered me a brand new umbrella Tuesday night while I was waiting for the bus because it was "raining". A very nice gesture, but for the amount of rain that was coming down, unnecessary.

I figured I would give myself an extra ten minutes to get to work to allow for the weather. Sure enough, the majority of the trip was pretty slow going. I can't imagine the Chinese trying to drive in the snow. I doubt anything, or anyone for that matter, would move.

We (the taxi driver and I) made it to LG for just over 54 Yuan, just over what Vivian had suggested. I told myself right before we pulled up to the gate not to forget the receipt. What did I do in true Elena fashion? Forget the receipt. Guess I'm going to eat that cost.

The first part of Wednesday was to finish up what I had started on Tuesday: an online survey about Dehumidifiers. I spent most of the day Tuesday taking the questionnaire one of the previous interns had put together, which I adapted late last week, and turned it into something more user friendly. Because LG ETA (the LG in Tianjin , China) R&D had not done a survey of this sort prior, the idea needed to clear a few stops before I got the go ahead. I completed the first part of the survey Tuesday and finished the second part of it before lunch on Wednesday, and with it, most of my work for the week. The only other thing was to get it sent out. Normally this wouldn't be too difficult, but I managed to make it very difficult! I would type up a long, descriptive email, only to have ALL of it be erased when I went to check an email I was entering. Awesome. That happened multiple times, on multiple emails, for a multiple of different dumb mistakes. I was tired! All of the interns were when we didn't really have a reason to be. We wrote it off as the change in seasons which thankfully didn't go back to hot and muggy after the Typhoon hit Japan.

With all those emailing errors, I didn't have much time to prep for my intermediate English class. It was going to be rough. Right before class I printed off a little conversation assignment only to find the printer completely occupied for the 20 mins. I had other activities to do after that, but now my lesson plan was messed up. Oh well. I should have been more prepared. Shortly into the lesson, Kyle-one of the other interns-steps in and tells me we are having dinner with the Indian visitor Muhesh @ 6:00 p.m. It was 5:30 and I was just now finding this out! Guess it was a blessing in disguise since it was probably going to be a teeth pulling lesson. My students want to talk a lot but not be taught English. However, they don't have the vocab to hold long conversations...this is my problem. I've been working out some different tactics and ways to approach the situation, so hopefully I can start making some progress with them. The advanced class is going really well... I think. I've been hearin mixed results with what I'm hearing from the amount they're talking and still hearing feedback on wanting to converse more. Don't know if the messengers telling me this know who is in which class, but I think that class will be much easier than the intermediate. We discussed Politics, the Economy-both U.S. and China-the house crisis. I tell ya, it was a pretty heavy conversation!

Anyways, 6:00 p.m. rolls around and I leave my class sitting in the classroom not really knowing what to do with their extra time. Kyle and I pile into the van with Muhesh and another member of LG here in Tianjin, and head to the hotel to pick up Samuel, the third intern, and Kyle's wife and son Charise and Damon. Anna, Samuel's wife would meet us there. We had back to Muhesh's hotel, right next to the Olympic soccer field!, where there is an Indian restuarante he wants to take us. So far my stomach hasn't had any problems so I figure I'll be okay. Muhesh orders dish upon dish upon dish to give us the full "Indian experience" we eat as much as physically possible then roll ourselves home. I foolishly said that I drink and since it was basically Muhesh and me drinking, I drank more than I wanted too (three glasses as opposed to none). I felt crummy! I think the last rice dish may have had egg in it. I'm pretty sure something did. My stomach was killing me by the time we got back to the hotel. I was so tired and so uncomfortable that I went straight to bed.

The next day I had to take the bus into work. It was too hard to role out of bed at 5:00 a.m. to do exercises, so I slept in until 6:00 a.m. when Anna called to wake me up since I left my cell phone at work. I was still so full and uncomfortable from the night before I got on the bus with a piece of bread and a small Chinese bun thing so I wouldn't be as nausiated riding the bus to work. In some aspects, I like riding the bus that early so I can see the other interns, but for everything else, I like going to work later. I had to take the bus early Thursday because I was going out for Thai with the group of people who had been working on the dehumidifier. So, I missed another English class.

This is Vivian (Zhong Jin Li). She's basically the person in charge of me. She and have been getting along very well and she makes sure nothing I eat when we go out has Egg in it. Needless to say my Thai meal was much less painful than the Indian meal. Oh, and I found out the hard way that Ice cream here has Egg in it, or at least the type I ate does. Thursday, after I had mostly recovered from my Indian night, I go to lunch with Vivan as usual. It was a nice day so she offered to get ice cream and show me the little convenience store next to the Caf. By the time we walked from the Caf back to our office I was already feeling it. Unfortunately, I thought it was my stomach being sensitive to eating again. Maybe ten minutes laters my whole body started hurting. It's a great feeling. I spent most of Thursday researching Window Air Conditioner and Dehumidifier units in the U.S, and after lunch spent a few minutes trying to figure out what foods have eggs in them. Turns out I can't eat much at all. Especially if it has a sauce with it. Oh well. This will make China a little more/less interesting. I also presented my intial survey results to the Indian Consultant. He gave me a bunch of ideas to move forward with, but I'm not entirely sure that they are something we are ready to move forward with, or ideas that I, in my position should tackle. I will look into them more after the National Holiday is over.

Dinner with my co-workers is always nice. This dinner was a little more mello than the first dinner I had with them, but they are all very careful about my egg allergy. By the end of my time here I think the whole company might know about it! What's funny, and I guess appropriate, is the first Chinese phrase I understood..."Elena can't eat egg", lol. I was pretty excited when I understood that!

Friday was another early and hard to get out of bed day. I tinked around at work most of the day, had my first Interns check up meeting and missed lunch to a crazy cool ping pong tournament the factor workers held. I ended up missing lunch to watch the event, which was worth it, but come dinner I was straving! This is terrible, but all I had for lunch was a cola given to me by one of my English students when I corrected his English for his powerpoint presentation. I also spent some of the day chatting on gmail and looking up jacket and dress designs to have tailor made here. I'm pretty excited about that, but I think I'll wait for the weather to cool off a bit.

I hopped on teh 5:00 p.m. bus with the other interns, then Kyle, Charise, Damon and I all headed down to the Brazilian BBQ place they know of. It was an experience!

This was my first time eating tongue and heart... wow. (and yes, that's the tip of a Pickled Ox Tongue) Surprisingly not too bad. We had type after type of meat on giant skwers come around. I don't even know all that I tried! But, again, something some where had egg in it. I wasn't feeling to great when we left. On the way home the three of us wree suddenly surrounded by this massive shapes that came up behind us. Turns out there are tall people in China! Three extremely tall Chinese men walked by, with two more following right behind them. It was hillarious! I tried taking a picutre, but it was too dark and they were too far away to get on that wasn't blurry. I debated on running up and asking if I could have a pic with them, but thought that might be too much. However, Kyle pointed out it would only be returning the favor since so many people take pics of us, whether or not we know about it.

For whatever reason, I wasn't tired last night and preceeded to stay up til 1 am talking with mom, Cyndi and Genevieve on Skype. I also got to talk with Ginger, a cousin who is studying in CHILE! Had a perfectly clear and extremely fun conversation. I figure, by the time we both get back to the States with our languages combined we'll be able to talk to more than half the world! She knows Spanish and is learning German, and I have bad Spanish, Italian and even worse French and Chinese. lol. What a thought!

So that was extremely long winded, but that's up to the end of my second week here. Happy anniversary me!

Love you all and more later!

Quick blog then off to bed

I'm hoping if I blog tonight (your 9:30 am Tuesday morning) about my day today, I will have time tomorrow morning to work on catching up my missing week and maybe even land in China!
Yesterday's car fiasco is a thing of the past... until tomorrow. The driver and I are slowly becoming accustomed to one another. Because it was only day two or unaccompanied pick, and neither of us speak the others language well enough to hold a conversation, we covered introductions today... in the 40 mins it took to get to work. His name is Cho. I think think that was how he said to spell it.
Anyways, I spent most of the day working on a online survey for dehumidifiers. If you are reading this right now, odds are you may be receiving an email from me asking you for your response (hint hint) :)
I have started eating lunch with Vivian (her Chinese name is Zhang Jin Li) and a couple of her friends. I still get stared while I fight my way to the shortest food line, but it isn't nearly as bad now that my hair is slightly darker. Strange, but it actually seemed to help.
After lunch I was introduced to the Director's Chinese teacher. We are going to work something out where she will teach me Chinese and I will help her with her English skills. I think she has her work cut out for her.
Once work was finished, it was on to the advanced English class. I had a request to talk about politics. HA! I don't think my class had any idea of what they were getting into. We ended up discussing the economy, gender equality, scandels... wow. Kind of a heavy night tonight, but I think they enjoyed it. I even had someone from the 3rd floor (I'm on the 4th) come upstairs and join in. I'm wondering how many new students I will collect! Word of mouth around here is amazing. I can't tell if it's gossip or simply trying to get to know about me. I've had a number of people come up and one of the first things they ask, or mention is "You're a music major" or "you sing". I don't know if they are asking this because they can't understand how a music major is in the R&D development and whether or not I have the credentials, or if they are excited that i can sing. I think at first my group may have been concerned with my credentials, but the people I am meeting now would like me to sing. Lol. Maybe, I'll think about it.
The bus ride home is usually very quiet and everyone, if there are Koreans on the bus at night speak amongst themselves. I guess I sat in one of their seats tonight because I had a Korean seatmate, who asked me to scoot over, and one directly behind me. It is not unusual to be surrounded by them, but it is unusual to start or hold a conversation with them. We had a very broken English conversation, but it was enough to get my seatmate to volunteer to teach me Chinese on the bus ride if I would help him with his English. What a bartering tool!
Okay all for now. More tomorrow

As promised, the week I skipped over.

This was my post journal entry of sorts while I was sitting in the Korean Airport waiting to board. Please keep in mind I was extremely tired from traveling and seemingly the only non Asian in that section of the airport.

Sept 11/12
I've been traveling for the past 17 hrs. I am finally realizing that I am on my way to China-a country with millions, if not billions of people-virtually alone. Last week Friday at this time, I was maneuvering construction in Rockford to pick up Genevieve for a weekend with John B. at Knox. The, Genevieve spent the past three days up in WI with me. I haven't been alone for quite some time. This is borderline Italian Summer alone. At least I spoke the language.
I surprised myself at the lack of nerves I had before leaving. My biggest stresser turned out to be packing, followed by lack of sleep. Once I was in the car, which provided both an end to my packing and a chance for a nap, I wasn't going to have the same breakdown I did while leaving for my summer job in Italy. Because dad didn't want to encounter the same chaos as air India, we arrived in ample time, walked right up to the check in counter, and after saying goodbye to mom and dad, had no problem getting through security. Now all I had to do was wait. Literally. I didn't even have a long distance to walk to the gate.
So, I set my alaram and napped. I was one of the later to board and was detained slightly when I had to check my second of two carry-ons. Apparently two carry-ons and my pillow was too much. I'm okay with that piece being checked. I wasn't charged and it was one less thing for me to carry. Only down side is now I have no clean clothes to change into. Oh well.
I boarded the small verison of a 747 one carry-on lighter and ended up seated next to a couple of Chicagonians in their late 20's. Pretty good company although we didn't have any of those tell all strangers conversatoins that can sometimes fill the time void.
However, the flight seemed to go by more quickly than past trpis to Europe, even though it was twice as long.
Asiana Air is awesome to travel with! Lots of good foor and pleanty of complimentary water and juice without needing to ask. Good deal!
When we landed in Korea it was too dark to see any of the landscape. Now that it is brighter, a few small mountains in the distance, but otherwise it's pretty non-discript.
Because our gates were in the same area, I stuck around Lucy and Jaime, my seatmates from Chicago. We waited for one of Jaime's buddies to come in from Denver and once we met up with him, went to find breakfast. Turns out McCafe was the place we ended up at after a few futile attempts at a more cultural place. All McDonald's had was egg based or included eggs. I'm still not sure which foods have egg and which don't. Turns out I'm EXTREMELY allergic to eggs. Might explain a lot of weird weight loss/gain I've been dealing with. So, couldn't get anything there. Not a big deal since I have snacks along. Lucy, Jamie, (and Matt) took off at 8:45 a.m., leaving me two hours by myself. As I walked to my gate, i passed a Korean soccer team of 10 year-olds... if that. One of them realized I'm not from around here and decided to try his English on for size. The conversation was only in passing, but after that, I felt the wear and tear of travel start to set in, along with the lack of company. I hate being alone. So, now that I've finished this and touched bass with mom, dad and alex, I'm going to take another nap. One of many today.

That was before I was even in China. The next posts will consist of China!

First day of English...

Today was the first day that I didn't need to board the company bus from the hotel at 6:40 a.m. The director does not want me to teach English during working hours, so I stay after hours from 5-7 p.m. to teach English to those who want to stick around. Tonight (Monday) was my first night. Not needing to get on the bus so early means I get to sleep in... this morning was 4:30 a.m. My jet lag is getting much better, but I received a phone call and thinking it was my alarm, I was up and ready to go. Needless to say, when I realized it wasn't my alarm, I couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I did what I normally do: email, exercise, chat with home, breakfast and then I added something new. Prep for class. I've never taught a class before, so I didn't know what to expect. I created a crossword puzzle to test vocabulary, and a few short answer questions to evaluate their written skills. Because my internet at work was not up and running yet, I had to this in my hotel and email it to myself at work (email worked the rest of the web did not).
I finished getting ready for work, and not wanting to be late for the company car, I headed downstairs 15 mins. early. I will take the company car, which somehow worked out to be the Director's Audi, one of the nicest cars in the company, to work M-TH at 9:30 a.m. and the company bus home at 7:30 p.m. I waited for 15 mins, and nothing came. I waited another 10 mins, and nothing came. This is VERY unusual because most of the time drivers are early. After calling Vivan, my friendly task master, I found out the Director forgot to tell the driver to pick me up. Oops. It wasn't a big problem, I just arrived to work at 11:45 instead of 10. It was a half hour from the company to pick me up and half an hour back.
Once I arrived at work, it was a new day. I got my company jacket which we need to wear when moving between departments or going out to the cafe for lunch, AND I got internet! Now that means I need to research "Standard window sizes and wall strength" in the US. If anyone knows the email to a construction worker that would know measurements... I'd appreciate a direct source :) So, that's what I'm now doing at work.
I met up with one of the other interns, Kyle (there are only 3 of us) for lunch and found out that there is a representative from LG India here. Turns out he is very interested in the internship program and would like to meet with the three interns here... maybe an Indian dinner coming on?! I'll let you know more about that later if anything comes of it.
Other than work, and a much needed coffee break to keep me going, I passed around the eval to a few members in my group to see if they (at upper levels of English) could understand the question. Most of the questions were fine, but I'm learning that the Chinese take things very literally and do not always think in a large, broad picture. More detail/specific. Imagaine that...
Because most people stop working and start tinking about around 4:30, maybe even earlier, I taught those same team member Sleazy and Sketchy. We were referring to Used Cars and their Salesmen, and how you can't trust either of them-Vivan is looking to buy a new car and was asking my opinion.
In my response these words came up and trying to explain them became a series of elaborate gestures and pics on the internet. Needless to say we all had a good laugh in the translation process. Then, time for English.
Out of the 20 people that signed up, I had 12 attend. I am going to seperate the group into two parts: intermediate and advanced. This first class, based on conversation, was to see where everyone's English levels are at. Now, I will go back and teach vocab at a slower pace for the intermediate group, and discuss politics with the advanced group. The feeling of the group was not to learn English the language, but learn the culture, popular fads, anything to get a glimpse of the US way of life.
I think the first class went well. Hopefully my attendance numbers will keep up, and the class will continue to be fun. I did promise to make them some sort of U.S. food. If that doesn't bring them in, I don't know what will!

More later!

Weekend Adventure

I'm going to jump up to this past weekend and catch that missed week up in future blogs.
Friday night, Anna, Samuel (Samuel-22, one of the three interns here, including myself and Kyle is here with his wife Anna-22) and I decided the plans for Saturday would include McDonald's for breakfast-i guess its what they do every Saturday-a trip to the grocery store, a visit to Ancient Culture Street, the bookstore and Sushi. We got about half of the accomplished. I'm still waking up much earlier than they do so I spent sometime on Skype chatting with my parents, checking email and doing a little blogging. When they finally rolled out of bed we walked the two or three blocks to McDonalds, and I tried the Sausage-Cheese McMuffin. Not nearly as good without egg! The total for the three of use to eat was 65 yuan, roughly equivalent to $10 dollars, but I can't figure out how people can afford to live here if they're being paid yuan. It's soooo expensive! But, with the exchange rate, its average or even really cheap in some cases.
After breakfast we decided to go walking to get massages at a Spa I had seen on the way home. We walked for quite a ways, explored the area a bit and never found the Spa. It must be further out than I remembered. We did however come across this little shoppe with beautiful wood carvings in it. But, because prices were high and we were on a "massages mission", we didn't stay long.
Finally we settled on the Spa at the hotel. It was 80 yuan for a 50 min. full body massage. Basically the same techinique as the States only a little harder, more point oriented, and a lot less concerned with personal space. Kinda funny but a good massage.
After that, we loaded up into a taxi and headed over to Ancient Culture Street.
This market has just about everything Chinese under the sun. Carvings, silk, fans, Jade, you name it it was probably there somewhere.
It was a really cool contrast between the modern skyscrapers surrounding the market.
I think we only stayed for 3-4 hours, but in that amount of time managed to spend a pretty fair hunk of change, and we hadn't even seen the whole market!
That was a lot of fun. Afterward, Anna and I took a few pics on a nearby monument then we hopped into another cab and headed for Sushi.
The driver didn't know where any Japanese resturante was off the top of his head, nor did we have a card to give him the address, so he wips out this little local attractions book and off we go. He was a pretty fun driver. Samuel speaks Chinese so they were chatting away. He even taught Samuel how to say 'one way street'. I have no idea how to say it...
When we arrived at the restuarante, we asked if they had Sushi, thinking they would understand, but they didn't. We asked for a menu and they had tons of types. Unfortunately, being as hungry as we were, ours eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we ended up ordering a 265 yuan meal. Half of that was on the large, six-type, Sushi platter. oops! It was good, but we weren't sure if it was that good.
After that we went back to the hotel, I did a little more internet stuff and went to bed.
Sunday I got hit with homesickness again. I don't know what brings it on, or why it comes in various strenghts, but Sunday morning was bad. I chatted with Mom, Dad and Alex while they were visiting him at Wooster for Parents Weekend and after we finished, tinked around the room for a bit. I wasn't sure when the maids were going to come and wanted to go to the store while they were here. They didn't come until 11:00 am or so, so that left plently of time for me to tidy up, do my exercises, and a little more internet. Once I realized they wouldn't be coming til later, I made my first trip to the grocery store by myself. I've been there a couple of times, so I knew I could handle it, it's just never as fun when you go alone. I got all the things on my list, plus a new pair of shoes and a pillow for my chair at work. Both of which, along with getting out made me feel better. I also picked up some much needed fruit, as well as some darker hairdye. I'm now a brown/gray/purple color, depending on what kind of light I'm in. Overall, looks pretty natural. Obviously, I dyed my hair and also started teaching myself basic Chinese while Anna and Samuel were at church. They don't get back until 3:30 or thereabouts, so I had plenty of time to take care of little odds and ends, as well as get in a quick nap!
At 6:30 we decided we were all sick of Ramen so we decided to try out the Subway to find a Papa John's, lol. Trust me, with this much Chinese and Korean food, a little American is very welcome! We got off at the correct stop into a completely modern shopping center. It is beyond different than that area we live in. We walked around to the area we thought Papa John's was, but couldn't find it. We did however come across a Catholic Church during Mass. It's strange to hear everyone singing in Chinese! A beautiful church, but we didn't stay long. Our stomachs wouldn't let us.
After we asked around with no success, we found a large food court in the basement of one of the buildings. Initially we were going to have Pizza Hut, but the prices for pizza and salad were outrageous. We finally settled on a Paris Baggette and had some incredible sandwhiches (sans egg) which really hit the spot.
By the time we had finished up there, we were all ready for bed. Back on the Subway and a short walk home in the rain. The weather is clearly starting to switch from summer to autumn. More leaves on the ground, generally cooler weather and more rain. I'm excited. Not much of a fan of hot and sticky weather.

More later!

Welcome to China

I'm still learning this Blogging business, so bear with me. I will put as many pics up as possible, but I've been having a few technical difficulties...
As you probably guessed from the video, this is where I'm living for my three months in China. Not quite the same as home or an apartment, but it is MUCH better than the first room they put me in. That was on the 11th floor. Much more shabby. I was the company hadn't reserved a room for me, so when I got to the hotel to check in (after 20 +) hours of travel, I didn't have any where to go! We got it figured out pretty quickly, and after I saw one of the other interns' room, I ask to switch. So, excluding the occasional fight with the T.V. that doesn't always turn on, a much better room.
But, I'm getting ahead of my self. I'll start from the very beginning.
As usual, I left packing to the very last minute. Thanks fully I didn't forget more than a few minor items, but I may have packed too much. This trip spans three seasons in a foreign country and although I may not wear everything, I will make use of most of it!
Genevieve, my college roommate, came to stay with me for the few days before I left for Chicago O'Hare Sept. 10th. We had a great dinner prepared by dad, then at 7:00 p.m. we piled into the and headed for Chicago.
Now the last time I did something like this, I flew AirIndia to London. By the time we got to the airport, a good 2 1/2 hours early, the check in line was nearly two blocks long! To avoid this we arrived at the airport at roughly 9:00 pm for a 1:00 am flight. Plenty of time. Vieve left when we arrived to catch the L back to her place, which left the three of us, mom, dad and myself to locate the ticket counter. No one was there. Only a had full of people were checking in, all of which wre heading to Asia. So, after checking in that left a good 3 1/2 hours of waiting. Mom and dad were stuck around as long as they could before I went through secruity and headed home around 10:30 pm. Down to 2 1/2 hours to wait. I made it through security very quickly and soon realized that I couldn't even waste time walking to my gate because it was only two gates down. I gave up on doing any walking before the left so I found an outlet, charged the phone and curled up for a quick nap before the flight.
I would wake up occasionally for an announcement or some other random reason and realize that I was already sticking out. Of course most of the people on this flight are either Korean or Chinese, and I may have been the only blonde on the entire plane. Not only that, but I also sprawled out on the floor with a pillow and blanket. I'm sure they were jealous.
With the nap, the wait went much more quickly. I ended up sitting next to a Graduate student and his friend from college. This worked out pretty nicely since we were the majority of both the Caucasians and younger generation on the flight. Pretty easy to relate to one another.
The flight to Seoul Korea, which was were my six hour layover would take place, was one of if not the best flights I have ever had. If you ever get the chance to fly Asiana Airline, DO IT! The food was really good, the movies were new releases, and the drinks just kept coming! Staying hydrated while flying really does help. I never would have known had they not offered so many opportunities for beverages.
After 13 some hours in the air that went surprising quickly for being 13 hours, we landed on Seoul. I split from my seatmates only to meet up with them again a few gates down from mine. I stayed and chatted with them for a bit more, took turns watching bags/washing up since it was only 5 am, and took another nap while we waited for their friend to get in from Denver. Eventually we met up with him and took a stroll to find breakfast. For some reason we were unable to get into the buffet in one of the upstairs lounges, literally could not find the entrance, so we settled on McDonalds. Only one day earlier I found out I am HIGHLY allergic to eggs. Not the kind of allergic that could kill me or anything of that nature, just one to make my entire body extremely agitated and inflamed. Awesome. I love eggs and can not longer eat them. Nor do I know what is made with eggs and what isn't. That's correct, I cannot eat Chicken eggs in any way shape or form. Oh well. Just one more think to pay heed while in China. Thankfully, I had some snacks along so I nibbled on those while they ate their egg filled breakfast items. It's easy to avoid McDonalds, but boy, does it ever put a damper on a lot of good food here!
Since their flight was only a four hour delay, we parted ways after finishing breakfast.
I moved down to my gate which was located at the very end of the terminal. As I made my way past the other gates, one boy in a group of 20 or so on a Korean soccer team noticed my lack of Asian features and promptly tried his broken English with me. A few others on the team chimed in, but it didn't dawn on me until I had passed them that I may have been the only American/blonde in the entire terminal. Wow did that feel lonely. And that was only amplified by travel, jet lag and lack of sleep.
And speaking of sleep that's where I'm off to now. I know this first post isn't all that exciting, but it will get better.