Oregon

Oh, Eugene.

Well, I went to Eugene for the fourth time... and even though the Huskies got creamed, I had a wonderful time. The crowd was packed into that tiny little stadium, like always, and it was as noisy as ever... they booed us, like always, but it's something else when we play their fight song (in a good-will gesture of respect), and they start clapping and singing with us - and then there were the Oregon fans next to us in the stands that were rocking out to the songs we played - so that made my trip, along with being able to hang out with my mellophone friends again, and be on the only away Varsity/Alumni Band trip of all time! I'm just making history all over the world this year.

It's always odd, seeing fans walking around the stadium before games... Husky fans see us and start cheering, drunk ones jump up and down and want to high-five you, and then they all yell something such as 'Go Dawgs!' or the like. And then there's the taunts and boos and husky dog stuffed animals with nooses and those stupid duck whistles... oh, Eugene. It's pretty amusing that everyone vents their feelings about either team on us... I mean, come on! We're just the band!

Oregon's colors are green and yellow... so I saw a t-shirt that said: "Gang Green". I don't know what team they were for... A clever one, though was: Go Green, Yell "O". They are pretty excited about their O. (we enjoy calling it a zero)

The only bummer about this trip was the ridiculous movies we watched on the bus... particularly "Super Troopers", which unfortunately has JBL (and fortunately - because it was the only thing in that movie that isn't horrible) - why did he ever take that role! Ug! At least I had a YKYBWTMRWW moment. And then we watched the Waterboy with Adam Sandler. Gosh, I don't care for his movies! It turned out to be sort of funny - not clever funny - but just stupid funny. And then on the way back we watched two awful movies, both about loser guys doing nothing but getting into trouble and saying the f word, literally every other line. I almost lost it, so I got my mp3 player out and listened to my selections from the LOTR soundtracks and all of Jon Foreman's EP's. And I fell asleep after writing a little on a new project.

But our hotel was super! I went to sleep immediately after hitting the pillow, about 5 minutes after we walked in the door at 12:15am. It was the same one we stayed in for the Oregon game in 2004. For breakfast, along with eggs and toast and stuff, they serve corned beef hash! YKYBWTMRWW moment number two! And I said the whole thing when I saw them! "Mmmm, Boy! What could be better right now than a heaping helping of wholesome hash?" and later, "very small potatoes... and flavorsome corned beef... the very essence of the product." But there was a sale! Hooray for Scott! And they are really good! Too bad it didn't come with Hashbrown Private Eye, and a who-done-it.

I did a lot of sleeping on the bus, and that was certainly refreshing for today.

Jp

Here We Go Again!

First band rehearsal last night! There's almost nothing as fun as playing 'Vict'ry' for the first time in, dare I say it... the fall. It's always exciting, especially after playing nothing but Olympic tunes for the last six months. I'm rockin' out to Husky songs while we play them - and I'm loving it!

Meggan just bought 'Get Smart', season 1, the other day, so we watched the pilot episode this week and I was surprised at how much I remembered from watching it as a kid - "the old, garbage trick!" LOL

The only marching that we're doing for the game on Saturday, is a pre-game show with "Vict'ry II" into a pull-out W, the Oregon fight song into a big "UO" (the crowd usually stops booing us at that point), "Mush Huskies" into a block formation, and finally we'll play the "Banner" with the Oregon band. Halftime is unfortunately, just standing in a block and rotating playing songs with the Oregon band - a mini battle of the bands...

At least I can have a little time at home now, before I have another rehearsal at 6:30, because I just got off work for the day! Ya-hoo! Fridays are incredible.

Jp

Just Like Old Times...

Meggan and I stayed up late, talking in her room about everything: family, childhood, fiction, tv shows, friends, thinking, articulation, how HOTT was left out in the sun too long (and melted), and how BETTOR would be so much better (I need to learn how to make a website).

Gosh, I miss those long nights of like, ten years ago. Sigh.

Jp

Fun, but Painful

My Grampa and Gramma, who live in North Carolina, just arrived yesterday for a week's visit! Mom prepared this wonderful dinner to celebrate, but when I got home from work and started helping out, I burned a two-inch swath on the top of my right hand, between my thumb and my first finger. I was only putting the corn-on-the-cob into the boiling water, and the blast of steam that came out when I lifted the lid boiled my hand that was putting the first corn in.

So for the rest of the night I had it in ice water and then some burn cream while gripping an ice pack.

Jp

Westport

I took a short one-night trip with the fam on Saturday to Westpost, half-way down the Washington coast. We left in the morning, around 10 am (nice, little, desperately needed sleep in) and arrived around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We took Spiffy with us, and he spent most of the ride on the back seat, sitting up and looking around. Meggan and I played Phase 10 while Dad and Mom rode up front.

Dad was making the trip in order to fish on Sunday morning, but the weather on Sunday was forecast to include gale-force winds and driving rain, along with swift currents - too swift for bottom fishing. So all the charters were cancelled. Meggan, Mom and I were there to sit on the beach. Both Saturday and Sunday.

So after some time in the hotel room, reading in the Andrew W. Mellon biography (I started working on it!) and writing down notes, while Meggan just read... my parents returned from the docks with the weather news. Dad then took Spiffy for a walk on the docks as Mom relaxed and Meggan and I returned to our relaxing studies. :) (they are!) What's hard is not having any time for them at home!

That evening, around 4:30 or 5, Dad returned, with a whole tuna, freshly filleted. He had ran into a returning fisherman and bought one off him at an extremely good price. After loading it in the cooler we had brought with, we went out to dinner. There's this cafe place that we ate at last year, that has the best clam chowder I've ever had. That's where we went. While we were waiting for our order, Dad took me across the street to the place where he got his tuna. There were still more that the guys were working on. Tunas have dorsal fins almost as long as their bodies! And their thick sides narrowing down to a tiny tail is just amazing!

Anyway, we went in the front store as well, and there I found a cup of crab cocktail, ready to be eaten. I got some of that and it supplemented our dinner extraordinarily.

After we finished - I had a BLT along with clam chowder - we drove to the beach in time to see a brilliant sun hanging low in the sky! It was very beautiful. Mom stayed up on the bank above the beach and the rest of us both stayed with her, and went for walks out on the beach below. Spiffy got pretty tired on all those walks. Out on the beach, there were literally hundreds of sand dollars - almost as many as there were stones. Needless to say, it was a lovely, relaxing time together.

Back at the hotel, after stopping for some ice creme sandwiches, we watched an episode of season 2 Mission: Impossible on Meggan's laptop. And then Meggan and I stayed up a little more working on our various projects. She, writing her dissertation on truth in fiction (Philosophy from the U of Miami); me writing WENN history. LOL! Meggan suggested to me that I find some build-your-degree program somewhere to get some sort of credit for this project. Focusing, of course, on the history of American culture in the early '40's based off of the various episodes of Remember WENN. I'm not sure if that's entirely possible, but Meggan reminded me that many philosophers have done their works on Star Trek, with relative success.

We slept in again, and found, when we awoke, a torrential downpour. So it would be pretty horrible to try and sit on the beach, unless we wanted to try swim-walking. We went to our favorite breakfast place, an old-home-style cooking cafe called "Barbara's By the Sea". And you can see Barbara, herself, cooking in the kitchen. The wait is a little longer than normal, but your food is "just like mother used to make", without a doubt. My cheese and sausage omelet with hashbrowns and toast was savory. Mmmm.

We didn't have anything to do there after breakfast, because of the rain, so we were forced to leave for home a little early. On the way home, I picked up writing my next fanfiction, and did that pretty much the whole way home, with a break for one game of Phase 10.

Back to normal... until next weekend, when I go to Eugene, OR, for a silly football game. I'm really going just to hang with my friends, play the Husky songs again on my mellophone, and march an abbreviated field show.

Who cares about football.... :)

Jp

Oh, This Week...

I didn't sleep enough after returning from China. After my 30 hour Thursday, I went riding with Meggan on Friday and had a great time. Roo was much better at behaving, but I nearly fell asleep on the way back in the car (Meg was driving).

Then on Saturday, I went to a medieval fair in Carnation, WA, with my other sister, Andrea. It was the first one I had been to, and I found it quite entertaining, although it was relatively small. There were sword demonstrations and archery shooting, and a full length play performed by the medieval people - they did 'Sir Ywain and the Well', which I had just read last summer in Howard Pyle's 'Story of Sir Lancelot and His Companions'. I started coming down with something that afternoon, but that night, I had a long, lovely chat with my WENN friends anyway.

And then my very good friend from my first year of Husky Band, had a wedding shower Sunday afternoon, after church. It was a wonderful time, but I started to seriously lose my voice.

Monday at work, I had 30,000 things to talk about (being just returned from China), but no voice to do it with. I tried saving what I had left, because that evening, I took that same friend that's getting married (today) out to dinner at the Olive Garden, because it was the last chance I had to see her for a couple years - she's moving to Australia. Thank the Lord, we were given a booth in a quieter part of the restaurant, and my voice made it through.

Tuesday, my nose ran like a river; but us ladies from the data center at work, all went out to lunch to celebrate my boss's birthday, belatedly. Even though I had to bring Kleenex, I enjoyed it very much.

Wednesday, the river slowed down to a trickle and I started to cough. I also had a doctor's appointment for my annual checkup, one that I haven't had since community college. Ooh, what timing! And at the appointment, my nurse practitioner tried removing a lot of wax from my left ear, but it got stuck... in a way that makes it hurt at times. So mom put ear drops in it when I went to bed, to keep working on it. Before bed, though, I found some of the WENN people I know from WENNlist and IRC on Facebook, some already in my WENN facebook group, which is now exploding with activity! Gosh, I love the Internet! It brings us all together!

Thursday morning, 1 am, I woke up coughing so hard I could barely breathe. It even woke up mom, and she came in with syrup and pills and water to save me. 2 am, I woke up hacking again, but not quite as violently. Decided to go, sleep in the living room chair, to allow the stuff to drain down my throat without drowning me. 6 am, woke up for work and seriously considered not going, but I went anyway. And my left ear is still plugged. So I survived the day, and stayed up way too late again, writing my journal and then reading some of Linda's fanfiction (guilty smile). I know I should have gone straight to sleep... but I wanted to read...

If there's one thing I (should have) learned this week, it's that sleep is not overrated. I just keep pretending that I don't need any because I want to get things done - like my journal - and I can't stand saying no to hanging out with the people I care about - yeah, and I'm stupid.

LOL!
Jp

China - coming home

August 14th:

Early morning again! There's absolutely no reason why, but this time I stayed in bed until 7 or so.

I went to eat breakfast after a while (times are omitted, because I didn't write a journal entry for this day) and joined a table of Husky Band students. All quite quiet and somber at the beginning of a very long day. Even after we were all done, many of us stayed at the table and talked. The person next to me left, and then Natalie showed up. I went back to the buffet for some croissants after seeing others with them.

Afterwords, we went back upstairs and I finished my packing. I must have lay down for a while as well, but soon I went out to the lobby to wait. There wasn't enough time to really do anything, so I just played myself a game of solitaire.

People started arriving in the lobby at about 10:30. We were scheduled to depart at 11:15, and everyone wanted to avoid long lines for checking out. Natalie, Kaitlyn and I, along with some others, like Rebecca from Oregon, all got on the last bus. It was the only one without a long line to get on. The ride from the hotel to the Shanghai airport took a little over an hour, and we went though another downpour on our way.

It took forever to get in the door at the airport, because they were wiping down bags before a person could get in. We then had to wait for some mix up with the instruments, and then got in a really long line for the checkout counter. I decided to check my mellophone this time, so I wouldn't have to drag it around. I wasn't willing on the way over here because I worried that someone would damage it.

When we finally made it to our gate, it was well past lunch time, so Dan and I went to go find the Burger King that someone had been talking about. I got a Whopper and a small fry, and that pretty much cleaned out my Chinese money, except for what I was bringing home for my collection. Clarinet Matt from Oregon was at Burger King, so we ate with him.

It wasn't too much longer before the plane started to board at 3 pm. I sat and waited with Ben and Natalie and Dan until most people were on board before we got in line. My seat ended up being with Emily, the piccolo, but she asked me if I would switch with Monique, who had a window seat on the opposite side of the plane. And I said I would. I'd take a window seat any day, so we switched. The new seat was next to a Chinese-American, who traveled to Shanghai all the time for work. He lived in Oregon. And he had quite a few questions about the band and our trip; which is pretty typical when you're traveling as a band.

We were flying Air Canada, flight 026, and therefore had to hear all of the safety features in three languages... English, French, and Chinese, since we were leaving China. Once we were airborne by 4 pm or so, I started up the movies. First I watched 'Smart People', about a professor and his daughter who live in Pittsburgh (Carnegie-Mellon U.) . It was interesting, full of meaningful dialogue, and well performed.

To be different, I watched a couple of the Canadian shorts that they had, one called 'Toy Soldier', because it had a picture of one of my toy knights as the cover for it, and another called 'Salad Days' :) It was not about a beautiful, young actress, though. It was about a kid remembering fishing trips with his dad. The phrase 'salad days', is a reference to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, (1:5), "My salad days, when I was green in judgment, cold in blood." It's described as a time of youth, innocence and inexperience.

I then started 'Horton Hears a Who', with Carol Burnett... she was great! I was totally unfamiliar with the story because my mom never liked Dr. Seuss stories, and I, therefore never got around to hearing them. The tale was very strange, (the sort of thing my mom doesn't like), but I enjoyed it well enough. I think I might read the book sometime.

Well, 4 hours into the flight... so I started another movie, this one called 'Charlie Bartlett'. It was a fun movie, but one of those impossible high school movies where the star becomes popular with everyone. He's ridiculously rich, and loves to help people, which always happens in real life, right? I did like the movie though, it wasn't as silly as 'Farris Bueller's Day Off' or anything, and it was really touching a few times.

Well, 6 hours into the flight... and my eyes are almost bugging out. So I decided to try and sleep for a while, and partially succeeded, with that wake up every so often, uncomfortable, airplane sleep. That lasted a few hours. But soon, I really couldn't stand it any more, so I decided to watch the epic Chinese movie, 'The Empress and the Warriors', which was not as badly done as most foreign films you see. It was a cool story, and there were up to date special effects, since it was brand new, made this year.

Gosh, so, it was exciting to see North America again... even if it was only Canada. There were the Rockies, impressive and imposing, especially after being in flat-as-a-pancake China. No wonder everyone can ride a bike there. Try doing what they do in Seattle, for instance, and you'd have stuff falling off of bikes everywhere. LOL.

So, the customs inspector was not the friendliest person I've met. He asked me if I had any food items in my bags and I thought for a moment, and then said no. He then replied, "You had to think about that... Do you have any food items in your bag?" What a jerk! As if I wouldn't have a clearer answer after I thought about it! The mind works slowly after 11 hour plane flights and being up for... ugg, 20 hours already. Being a customs inspector for international flights, he should probably recognize that.

So we all made it onto the buses and settled in for a nice, long drive back to Seattle. Once we got to the boarder crossing by Blaine, WA, the USA made us wait for a half-hour, and then had us all get out of our buses and answer a couple questions while they searched them for illegal plants or bodies, which took another half-hour. It was now 5 pm, and we were on our way home. I made myself happy by singing the Star-Spangled Banner to myself, only two of the verses.

Forgive me a little song:

O, thus be it ever when free men shall stand,
Between their loved home, and the war's desolation.
Blest with victory and peace, may our heaven-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause, it is just,
And this be our motto: In God is our trust.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

(This is verse 4, sung and written from memory, as it is printed in our family's hymnal. Verse 2 is also printed, but it is not as memorable to me for some reason.)
Written in 1814, Francis Scott Key

America, sweet America! Land of lovely traffic rules and bathrooms with toilet paper!

We arrived at the Graves building on lower campus around 7:30 or so. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact time. Meggan and Mom came presently, and took me to a nice cafe where I had a delightful chicken sandwich. (big smile) Oh, it's good to be home.

Thanks for reading with me!

Jp

China - Aug. 13

August 13th:

Strangely enough, I woke up at 6:30 this morning, after another set of intense, but good (and a little crazy) dreams.

Angela wasn't in the room when I woke, and her bed was still made, but she must have come in at one point to turn off the light I left on for her. She had said she was going to dinner with friends of hers that lived there, so I didn't give it that much of a thought. (She was fine, and came back later)

I spent the morning listening to music and catching up the journal (finally). I also sang and worshiped the Lord for a while, out of my song book that I had put together. It was refreshing to remember him again. Not that I hadn't yesterday, looking at all of his amazing designs of the different fishes! Who can understand the creative mind of the Lord? Just singing and writing and reading and listening... what a joy to not have a schedule. I'm not so sure why I woke up so early, but it turned out to be a lovely morning.

Natalie told me last night that she was going to wake up at 9, so I went to breakfast at 9:15 and had a made to order omelet, which was delicious, and some "earth bean cake" (hashbrowns!), and some fruit along with a glass of orange juice. Rachel came and joined me for a moment, but I stayed and wrote in my journal until Natalie showed up. And just a moment later, she did.


We went back to our rooms to collect some things, and then we headed off to the mall that we ate at before. Except some of the piccolos came along too; Janelle, Emily and Monique. We walked around for a while before they decided they wanted to go to Starbucks. Natalie and I had juice smoothies while they had coffee, and we all talked for a while before we went back in to look around on all the different floors. There were Chinese knick-knack stores mixed in with the regular mall-type stores. At one place, I found this purple t-shirt in a bargain bin with a large golden "v" hand symbol on it (the "peace" or "victory" symbol that you see Asian tourists using whenever they have a picture taken), that also had a random, mini pocket on the lower left hip. Natalie loved it for its Chinese randomness, and bought it without realizing it was Husky colors, purple and gold (she was even happier when I pointed this out to her).

After that amazing purchase, we finished looking at the floors and went to the basement to check out the supermarket. We had most of our fun there, looking at all the random and strange things they sell. I particularly enjoyed the seafood section, which included whole, frozen squid and fish heads (each sold separately :).
Mmm, boy! Exactly what I wanted for dinner. I was a little disappointed that the squid was frozen though. It would have been that much weirder if it was squishy.

Natalie bought some cookie "Melon Collies", simply because of the name. And then some Aerated Fried Chicken Flavor Pringles, for the same reason. We also found a type of cookie that literally said, "For Men" as part of the name (we all got a kick out of that), and Janelle bought some for her boyfriend. There were crab crackers (made out of crab), shredded, dried squid (yum), and my personal favorite, shrimp carmel corn puffs. It was quite entertaining to read the labels. They even sold some chocolate "Truffs". I didn't buy anything, but it sure was fun to look around.

We all then went to dinner at the Italian place again. This time, Natalie and I had pizzas, while the piccolos enjoyed 9 yuan spaghetti. It took them a long time to bring Natalie's and Janelle's ice cremes, but I think there might have been a misunderstanding somewhere in the ordering process. All we did was point to pictures and hold up fingers for quantities.


On our way out the door of the mall, we walked across a tv screen in the floor, and we noticed that our feet acted like fingers on a touch screen. There was a running game where we had to tap our feet on a button in order to make your runner go. It recorded the "distance" and gave out 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. And then there was a soccer game, where you would touch the screen to kick the ball, sort of like on a Foosball table. There was also a weightlifting one, but that didn't make as much sense. We then left and headed back to the hotel. I was so hot from the weather, and so excited to get in the door, that I walked into the glass of the lip of the revolving door! It was nice and cool inside!

I then discovered that I had the beginnings of diarrhea, darn it! and on the last day too! Until now, I've had no health issues, so I think it must have been something I had early this morning. Perhaps the water or ice Starbucks used was not good. I saw the girl use water from a sink.

Natalie invited me to go with her to Janelle and Monique's room to hand out with them. For a long time we watched the Olympics, first diving (Natalie's sport in high school), then table tennis, then equestrian jumping, then cycling, then badminton. I tried to write in my journal, but really all I did was watch TV. Natalie had left to pack, but her roommate was sleeping, so she came back. She changed the channel around until she found this intense, soap-opera type, Chinese movie that had lots of faky Ninja battles that made us think we were watching a Chinese version of Lord of the Rings. It was perfect, really, because she loves that kind of movie... we laughed our heads off at every turn. It was sort of like '300', which she also loves. Too bad for her, we were interrupted in the middle of the climax battle, because it was time to go to dinner.

This, however, was different! It was at a Mongolian grill, which was very fun! One of the Oregon guys, that I rode home on the bus with yesterday, was there as well, and he kept waving hi to me as he passed by a few times. So I started talking with him and he sat down with us. His name is Matt and he plays clarinet. As we were leaving, he asked if we could hang out back at the hotel, since pretty much everyone else was going to be "partying". I said sure.

He sat in front of Natalie and I on the bus, as we had way too much fun laughing about her Panda Caakie, Cokie, Cookies (don't ask) and me getting lost in our conversation. Oh, bus trips; I will miss them.

Matt offered to meet in his room, but I thought the 2nd floor lounge would be so much better. After relaxing in my room for a few minutes, I went down with my deck of cards. He came right at 8:45, but we realized there were really no tables there. He suggested his room again, but there was a small table with chairs near the elevator, so we played there and talked for about an hour. It was a really good time, especially when we played the crazy card slapping game. We were both slow, as we were talking during it, and I was even able to win.

Afterwords, I went down to the gift shop on the first floor to spend my leftover yuan before we left tomorrow. I got a little brass horse that had caught my eye on the first day there. It was then time for bed, and time to fly home tomorrow!

Jp

China - Aug. 12

August 12th:

This morning I woke up psyched to wander downtown Shanghai alone. I was a little nervous, because I don't speak or understand a word of Chinese.

I had to catch the hotel shuttle bus to People's Square at 9:15, and I woke myself up at 8:15, before Angela's alarm had the chance to at 8:30. I first went down to the main desk, to get written instructions in Chinese for taxi drivers to take me to a certain place, or for help finding the subway - I hadn't decided myself, which I was going to use. Rachel came down while I was there, because she and Natalie were doing the optional tour to the river town of Zhujiajiao - meaning they had to pay extra for it. She sort of raised her eyebrows and wished me luck.

I then went back up one floor to get breakfast, which was 3 scrambled eggs with cheese made to order, some potato and orange juice. By the time I got back to the lobby, ready to go, the people on the optional tour had just got on their bus. While waiting, I got my maps together and talked with the other adventurous people. I decided to take the taxi from People's Square to downtown, across the river, and then on the way home, use the subway all the way back.

The bus was ready at 9:20, and everyone got on right away. After a while on the road, I asked the guide about getting a taxi and how much it would cost. He thought it'd be around 25 yuan one way on a taxi, and suggested taking the subway instead.

They dropped us off at the Shanghai Museum, across from the city's government buildings. If we wanted a ride back, they'd come at 3:50 pm and would only wait for five minutes.


At first, I thought I'd pop into the museum, since it was free admittance and it was right there. I had to walk around the building to find the front door, and there I discovered a huge line, so I just kept walking to go find the subway. People's Square is very large and confusing. Major streets ran around it, so as I found a pedestrian tunnel, I ran into a group of Australians from the "Green Band" and we went down together, all of us unsure about precisely where our destinations lay. They were not going on the subway, so when our tunnel turned out to be a complicated system of passageways that led to the subways, I went on alone. There were signs leading to "Line 2", which I needed. I looked for a moment at the ticket machine, but I realized there was no chance of me getting it right, since it was all in Chinese. Good thing there was a person selling tickets as well! I got in line, and then simply pointed to where I wanted to go on my map, and she gave me a ticket for 3 yuan (~45 cents!). Gosh, my tour guide was right! When I finally got to the platform, I ran into a lady with the Green Band, who had done this before! She helped me figure out which way was east. She and the couple students with her were going just a little further than me to the technology museum. The downtown stop I needed, Lujiazui Road, was only two stops away.

When I walked up, out of the subway station, I was ecstatic with the thrill at having made it on my first try, and being all alone in downtown Shanghai. It was so easy! And the aquarium, my destination, was on the very same street as the subway and the TV tower. I could not believe how cool this was! And, Joy! for there it was! With no crosswalk, I was momentarily concerned about how I was going to cross the 6-lane street, but after watching several others, I said "what the heck" and became a veteran tourist by just going for it.

It cost 12o yuan (~18 USD) to get in, but that is pretty much what it cost at Monterey Bay. And it was worth every Yuan. They had so many creatures that I had never seen before! I was overwhelmed with the many species, and how well the exhibits were laid out. There were five or six walk-through tanks, and two escalator tanks, and specimens from Africa, South America and the Caribbean, besides around China and Japan. There were crocodiles and penguins and frogs and turtles and lizards. I saw a saw-tooth shark for the first time as well as a lungfish, an electric eel, a Crown of Thorns starfish, Japanese cold-water Giant Spider Crabs (some of which were at least four feet across), and lots of lionfish, which are my favorite. At the giant Manta ray tank, (two hours into my tour) I sat down and wrote in my journal for 45 minutes or so (I was way behind). A Chinese girl sat down next to me once, and watched my writing intently. She tried talking to me, but I could not understand a word. She understood that after a while... I tried to ask her what her name was, using my trusty little handbook that the band gave us, but she just shook her head and smiled. We both laughed. A couple people took pictures of me sitting there, because I was so different.

Total time spent in the aquarium was four hours, and I loved every minute. The sharks were incredible! They were huge and they came so close, but my favorite part of the aquarium was the poisonous creature room. They tend to be the most intricate and beautiful designs in the ocean. There was a "cone shell" creature, as they called it, that looked like a snail, and it was walking around for me! They had scorpion fish and rabbit fish and devil fish and jellys and nudibranchs and a dragon moray eel. Other exhibits featured fishes from the Yangtze River, others had sea turtles and seals and horseshoe crabs. I really loved the tank with all the seahorses in it... there were hundreds of them.


As you may probably tell, I just adored my time there. I am into marine biology quite a bit, and even considered doing it as a major for a short time. Last year I visited five different aquariums in three states... Seattle, Westport, Point Defiance (Tacoma), Monterey Bay, CA, and Waikiki, Hawaii. My goal is to visit every major aquarium on the west coast, including the three that are in British Colombia, and wherever else I may visit. Unfortunately, I didn't go to one in Japan, but these things cannot be helped. I hear there's one in Pittsburgh... :)

The aquarium store was crazy. Not only did they not have patches (I had to settle for a button magnet), but they sold generic things such as tennis shoes instead! And once I had picked out what I wanted, I realized that I needed to get receipts from the people standing in each aisle, to take up to the register. So I went back around, putting my things back (they probably thought I was trying to steal them) and getting slips for the prices. Once I had paid, I had to go back and re-find all the things again. I dislike store shopping in China. Their processes seem slightly superfluous and backwards. Once I made it out of there, however, I had to decide when and what I wanted to eat. I finally settled on a Burger King Whopper from the mall we ate Pizza Hut at yesterday. I just crossed the streets with the Chinese, which is to go out into the middle of the crosswalk and wait for the cars to zip by before making it across. I felt very Chinese, and it was much fun. I am glad of the American system, however, and am also glad to be returning soon. China is great, but there is no place like home.

I sat down near the subway entrance, and ate my burger quietly. I then repeated the process I used to get here, and went back to People's Square to catch the bus to the hotel. If I happened to miss it, I could always get back to the subway and continue on to the stop, four blocks from the hotel. On the way there, and on the way back to the museum, I was the only white person I saw. For the first time on the trip, I wasn't surrounded by someone from my group, and it was kinda cool to be an extreme minority.

Once I got out at People's Square, I got a little lost, because it was huge and confusing. There were shops everywhere, and signs for 6 or 7 different exits in all directions. I couldn't find the words "Shanghai Museum" on any sign, so I picked a path and followed it. When I came out, I found myself at the north side of the People's Park. I went through the park (it was very nice) and finally found the right street, but I was on the wrong side of it, and there was a barrier down the middle to prevent desperate people like me from crossing 8 lanes of busy traffic. It was also in front of the government building, so there were policemen about. So, using hand signs, I asked a Chinese man standing nearby how to cross the street. He directed me to a pedestrian tunnel at the end of the street, about 75 yards away. I did a little running, because it was only five minutes until 3:50, but I shouldn't have bothered, because it didn't come for another 15 minutes. Thank the Lord! I spent the time catching my breath, drinking water and reading Romans 2, because that's where my Bible opened.

The other students on the bus congratulated me for being brave. I sat next to some brass players from the U of Oregon, who had gone to the museum... all day. Apparently, it wouldn't have worked very well to "just stop in" even if the line was short. I told them all about the aquarium and showed them a few pictures, including the little movie I took of the scorpion fish that hopped along on the bottom of the tank with his fins! Those poisonous guys are awesome!

We got back to the hotel around 4:30, and I went up to my room to relax and look though all the pictures again and write in my journal before we were to meet for dinner at 6:15 in the lobby.

When Natalie met me in the lobby she asked me about the aquarium, and when I told her about the solo trip on a subway, she was a little surprised. We told each other about our various days - she had an excellent time on her trip - and then we got on the bus as it started to rain. All of a sudden, it started down-pouring with thunder and lightning. She told me about her crazy weather experiences, especially on her trip to New Mexico, with the flash floods and lightning storms.

Dinner was excellent! There was a lovely breaded and fried fish (except it still had it's head - which weirded most people at my table out) and I loved it. No one else I've eaten with on this trip has liked fish - what a weird thing.

Back at the hotel, I had followed Natalie to her room because I wanted to know what we were doing the next day. She was excited about sleeping in and relaxing most of the day, and it sounded pretty good to me as well. While we were there, Erik stopped by and started waving to us, so we waved back... it was a game he played (sort of like not blinking) to see who could wave the longest. Fortunately, Chuck came by and grabbed his hand, so we were all able to go to bed. Janelle called Natalie and invited her to join them at the bar across the street. I might have tried it out too, but I was pretty shot already with all the walking around I did that day, so I retired to my room and journaled for a little while. Natalie went and had a drink, and we ended up going to bed about the same time, according to her account the next day.

Jp

China - Aug. 11

August 11th:

I slept so soundly! I didn't even hear Angela's alarm. I drempt about Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) chasing Natalie - for an unknown reason - and it was very strange.

Anyway, I rushed around and got ready and went to breakfast. Oh, I had real orange juice, hashbrowns, fruit, and a made to order omelet! That was an extremely welcome change from our hotel in Beijing, which served only Chinese every morning. They also served cereal and bacon and spaghetti, but I passed on those.

I was exactly on time getting to the bus, but in Husky Band culture, early is on time, on time is late and late is to be left. So I picked a seat up front, near the "adults" (the high school chaperones and the tour coordinators from World Projects) It was that or sit next to the high-schoolers again in the back of the bus.

Today's first stop was at a silk factory. We got there at 9 am and we were told we had until 10:30. The tour took 3 minutes, and then we were in a store. We were shown examples of silk worms, at their various stages and then the two different types of cocoons; one with one worm, and another with two. The second kind can either be a set of twins, or two worms that weave their cocoons around each other. Since the thread on the second kind is a tangled mass, it is unusable as what we all recognize as silk, and used for a soft fabric instead. One the other side of the room, there was a giant silk loom that was spinning, taking the thread off of 6 or 7 cocoons at a time.

The store opened with a room, full of silk bedspreads; so at first we were all confused. The guide then pointed to a hallway that led to the clothing, and practically everyone followed. I looked at a robe, but I didn't feel like paying 580 yuan (around 90 USD) for something I'd never wear. It was gorgeous though. And then there was this creme silk box, covered in orange dragons with brown flowers, with a matching silk-covered photo album inside. Unfortunately, that was around 60 USD, and I couldn't justify that either, so it also was left. Then, over by the postcards and silk embroidered pictures, I found a Chinese, Chinese history book, written in English, covering all the periods of history, from ancient times to the present. It's beautifully illustrated with portraits and pictures and maps and photos of objects from Chinese culture. I am very pleased with it, although I was surprised to find it at a silk factory.

At ten o'clock I was in a corner, looking at rolls of silk they sell for tailored clothing, when I noticed that no one from my bus was near. Apparently, we decided to leave a half-hour early. I frantically moved towards the door and saw my guide, May, looking for people. I went and got on the bus, and at least I wasn't last; but that makes twice today almost late on the bus.

Once we were all aboard, we went to downtown Shanghai, across the river. May offered to take people up the "Oriental Pearl TV Tower", the Shanghai equivalent to Seattle's Space Needle, only much taller, and with a museum of Shanghai history underneath. Natalie and Rachel (along with Chuck and Erik, I found out later) were going, so I went as well. It cost 100 yuan, because it was not included in the World Projects tour, but it was worth it! It was just the five of us and May. The views were great! One could see for miles over the city and up and down the river. I thought it very similar to going up in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Except it was the Huangpu river below us instead of the Missouri.

At one of the shops on the observation deck, I saw one of the most random things for sale that I had ever seen. It was a mini French horn, about 6 inches tall, mounted on a music box with a three inch bottle of green fluid, that at first glance, looked like a mini bottle of booze, under the valves. It turned out to be an air freshener... With Brad's hearty approval, Rachel bought it immediately for 88 yuan. It was the perfect thing for her.

When we got back down, we went through the museum. It was filled with models of houses and people - there were different sizes, ranging from life sizes to doll houses - setting scenes from different periods of their history. It was certainly very different from any museum I had seen before. Natalie, Rachel and Chuck flew through it, because they were excited about lunch. Erik went slowly and took pictures, and I took a couple pictures as well, so we ended up together. When we didn't see them at the exit, we continued on to the mall, where we ran into Natalie. She had been left behind at an ATM, and was searching for Pizza Hut, which was the meeting place. We finally located it on the fifth floor. Chuck and Rachel had ordered a large meat supreme for the three of them, because they didn't know when or if Erik and I would join them. So we ordered a medium for the two of us when we sat down.

Pizza Hut in China is very fancy. You may not believe it, but it was a regular sit-down restaurant, where the waiters wore white, the interior was decorated in glass and modern sculptures, and everything was spotlessly clean. The pizza itself was made on artisan bread and tasted delicious. When we arrived they set us plates, utensils and glasses. They put American Pizza Hut to shame, because even with all this, the prices were similar, if not less.

The buses presently picked us up and took us to the walking street, Nanjing Road, which is most famous for its great variety of shops, both big and small. Neither Natalie or I were in the mood for it, so we went to Haagen-Daz, where she had a scoop of ice creme. After sitting for a moment, we decided to go next door to a mall, partly to stay cool, partly to not be bored. Only the first goal was met. It was all high end clothes, and we were so not interested. We then set off down the street and found another ice creme place, Mr. Geleto's. We both had some kiwi flavor. Gosh, we've been eating a lot of ice creme! I generally don't eat it that much, but when with Natalie, and when hot in China, it is practically unavoidable. :)

We went into the Olympics store, but nothing really caught our eyes. Thankfully, we were only allotted an hour for the shopping, so we turned back to go to the meeting place. The sun was starting to peek out from behind clouds, so it was getting warmer as well.

After returning to the hotel and freshening up for the evening, we were taken to dinner, which also included some live dancing and music. It was pretty low-key, but some of it was enjoyable. Most of us had dressed up a little bit, because after dinner we went to a small theater to see an acrobatic show. Our group only now consisted of the Green and Red bands, and we filled up the entire theater. This was a send-off night for most of the high-schoolers, who were leaving in the morning.

I was skeptical at first about the quality of the show we were going to see, because of what the theater looked like, but I need not have worried. It turned out to be an incredible show! After a short opening sequence, one boy came out and started doing hand-stands on the tops of chairs. Only they kept bringing out more chairs, so at the end, he was doing them on top of a dozen chairs, stacked one on top of another, almost clear to the ceiling. I was amazed. There were several other acts that required great agility and balance, but the one I really liked, was the girls balancing on the bicycles. They had at least twelve on one bike by the end. Another act was a young couple flying through the air and doing a routine on these two sashes. It was well orchestrated - you had to be there for that one... it's hard to describe. And then these two young men were walking in these two spinning wheels, going around like a Ferris wheel. One of them climbed outside and started walking on the outside of the wheel as it went up 50-60 feet in the air. And then he started juggling... and then he did some jump roping... and then he walked blindfolded... all on the outside of the wheel. I held my breath on several rotations the last few times. He looked like he wasn't going to make it once or twice.

In the grand finale, six motorcycles, one by one, drove into this huge metal ball cage and drove around at what seemed the speed of light. That was ridiculously crazy, scary and awesome. Overall, the show was a real treat. After journaling at the hotel for a few moments, I fell asleep. It was another late night.

Jp

China - Aug. 10

August 10th:

I woke up around five times during the night; I didn't mind quite so much because I was on a train. I was still a little tired when I woke up in the morning, before the stewardess knocked on and opened our door a few minutes before 7 am. My neck was only slightly stiff, because of the two small pillows that were a little awkward to use. But I also didn't mind this much, because I opened the curtains and watched the Chinese countryside fly by. Here I saw rice paddies, and poor houses quite near to apartment towers and cityscapes. It took a few minutes to finally arrive at the Shanghai train station.

Unloading the train and getting organized into buses took quite a while. Everyone was pretty tired, no matter if they had partied or not. Natalie had woken with a cold.


Once we finally got going, we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast; the same round-table style as always. Along with the usual items (which was pretty odd for breakfast) there was a small pastry type thing, which was good. Chuck started insisting on stabbing all of his food with his chopsticks in order to pick it up, because it worked once. :) oh, Chuck.

As we were finishing, our guides began distributing our room key cards for our new hotel. We had the same roommates that we had in Beijing, and this time I was careful to remember my friend's room numbers.

Our new guide's name was May. She was much younger than Echo, and her English was not quite as clear, but she was equally as nice. Unfortunately, one of the trip coordinators had come on our bus, and she felt like she needed to interpret practically everything May said. I felt that she was trying to feel important, and it seemed quite rude.

May told us that today was Sunday (I had lost all notion of what day was what, since all the days felt alike) and that a bus was available to take people to a church. I went back and forth on if I wanted to go or not, because I would have liked to join with Chinese believers, but on the other hand, I didn't want to be a tourist at a church, and I was quite fatigued as well. After I unpacked my bags in my room, I promptly fell asleep for a quarter hour, as soon as my head hit the pillow.


I liked the feel of this hotel better than the one in Beijing. It's hard to describe why, but it must have partly been because we were there only as tourists, and partly because it was not quite so big. The bathrooms were clean and had washcloths, although they were smaller.

We had a tour to take at 1:30, so when I woke up, I gave Natalie a call to see about some lunch. When I went out of my room to go see her, I ran into Dan and his girlfriend Jen, the clarinet. The four of us then headed out to find some lunch together. For a while, we followed a group of trumpets at a distance, and saw that their destination was McDonald's. Clarinet Jen was the first to see it: an advertisement for an Italian restaurant on the fifth floor of the mall we were just outside of. We wandered in and eventually found it, much to our great pleasure! They served pizza, pasta and other dinner dishes, but we all settled on simple spaghetti. And no wonder! For a dish of spaghetti with meat sauce was only 9 yuan! The equivalent of $1.40 USD! The four of us had pasta and a drink for a grand total of 60 yuan, which is just under ten American dollars. We were beside ourselves with happiness, and vowed to return there again at a later date.

We got back to the hotel in plenty of time to catch the bus to the Yu Gardens, and the surrounding old city. It was a maze of small shops, crowded with people, and a pond with statues, a long walking bridge and many fishes. For a moment, I was afraid that this was all there was to see, but there was more. May led us into a gated, garden area, that was very quiet, peaceful and enjoyable to walk through. The old buildings were decorated like many we've seen so far... with sculptures ornamenting roofs and beautiful designs painted on the woodwork. The many stone pathways leading to different ponds were seemed skillfully constructed.

It started to downpour when we neared the end of our tour, so we took shelter in one of the nearby buildings. We were all very unprepared for the weather, and got quite soaked. After all the humidity and hotness we had experienced, the cool rain felt quite nice. It was still warm out, though. When the rain subsided a little, we left and started shopping for an hour or so at all the small, fun shops, where bargaining is very much encouraged. I bought a small wooden fish carving and Natalie got a big, preserved beetle for her sister (they have a fun family). After getting ice creme at DQ, we wandered around among the shops, ignoring all the people selling umbrellas on the street, and mostly marvelled at all the beautiful jade sculptures we saw.


The next destination of the day was the Shanghai riverfront walk, which is called the Bund. At first we were disappointed that we had so much time (several hours) to just walk around and take pictures. It was a large, paved riverside walk, about a mile long, with a perfect view of the downtown Shanghai skyscrapers across the river. As Natalie and I were walking, we were interrupted by a young Chinese couple that wanted to meet us (and not sell us anything - which was slightly shocking and very pleasing) and find out where we were from. They were art students from Beijing, who were associated with a traveling art exhibition.

We then bumped into other Husky Band people who told us that our time at the waterfront also included the time at the open tea house. So we turned around and headed back. We first had to use the toilet, which cost a yuan (6 cents)! (that would be a sorry thing, if a person didn't have money with them) The tea house had an exhibition of porcelain and jade on display, as well as for sale. It was very fun to look at all of the beautiful pieces. After trying free samples of three different teas, I ended up buying a can of Ginseng tea. It was excellent!


On the way back to the bus, I asked Natalie about her family, and it turns out she's a middle kid, like me. She only has one older sister and a younger brother. Her dad moved the family here, to Washington, from Minnesota around ten years ago, to work at Microsoft. What's really odd, is my good friends from several years ago (who got me into Husky Band) had also moved from Minnesota because of their dad's job in late 1997. There must be something about Minnesota that attracts me...

We loaded the buses and went to dinner somewhere further down on the riverfront. It was the same style as always, but I thought it was one of the better ones. It was dark outside, by the time we finished, and clear, so we took clear pictures of moon. We had been scheduled to go directly onto a riverboat for a nighttime cruise, but for some reason, it was delayed. So they took us on an impromptu bus tour around People's Square and Nanjing Road, where we would be visiting tomorrow. There were a few high-schoolers on our bus who insisted on acting half their age. They had bought laser pointers (which are illegal in China) and were pointing them at buildings and on walls and in front of people walking on sidewalks, in order to confuse them. Natalie spoke to Brad about it when we finally got on the boat. (I recall they had their laser pointers confiscated at the airport when we were leaving China :)


We were all fatigued by the time the cruise started; it had been a very long day. It was fun to see downtown Shanghai lit up at night however, and I stayed on deck for most of the time. After a while, I went below to the bow and sat quietly for a moment.

The trip back to the hotel was uneventful, and I went to sleep quickly.

Jp

China - Aug. 9

August 9th:

Woke up this morning after dreaming about Monk. I think it was pretty much distorted, as dreams usually are, because somehow I ended up at Kamiakin, my Jr. High school, and everything was scary and confusing. I can't remember if I was Natalie, or if I was just observing her (it was mostly about her).

Anyway, all my stuff was pretty much together, and it's a good thing, because it was almost 8am. I put my suitcase and horn on the bus and then ate a very quick breakfast, as it was closing in 2 minutes, and then made it to the lobby in time to pick up my train ticket from Brad, as well as the other three tickets for the other three girls in my cabin. None of them were there when he called our names. They eventually made it down and I distributed them and let them know what the numbers meant.

Musica Grato, from the Green Band, who we visited in 2005 on the Japan trip, were performing outside the hotel, sort of as a send-off for everyone. I went right outside to hear them after I got rid of all the tickets. They performed Pirates of the Caribbean and a Husky Band tune among a few others.

We then packed on the buses and headed for Beijing at 9:30. We arrived at our lunch stop around 11am. I must say this: this lunch was probably my favorite Chinese meal so far. There was breaded fish and tasty beef and onions. I was very full afterwords, but Natalie and Brian and I went to McDonald's anyway, in order to have normal food in our packs in case our "boxed dinner" on the train ended up being more bean paste bread. The group took off right after we got our McyD's, and headed for a great, big, condensed mall, with five levels that sold clothing, electronics and lots of jewelry. Everything was so packed in - there was hardly any room to walk - and the vendors were... a little forward. Natalie actually had her arm grabbed by sales people three different times, in order to try and get her to stop and look at their product! So we quickly went up all the levels, looked as we passed on a circuit, and then went right back down.

We had four hours to spend and nothing to do, so we sat down on the floor, next to a post, and played a game of cards. There were no chairs. I quickly got tired of sitting on the floor, so I convinced Natalie to leave with me. KFC turned out to be a couple of doors down, so we each got an ice creme and searched for a seat. Both floors were full of people! But when we came down, we finally found one that someone had just left.

After a while, I thought it would be fun to explore the street a little more, so we wouldn't be bored out of our minds. We walked for 15 minutes without finding anything, so we turned back. The sun had come out, so Natalie started to feel uncomfortable again. We then stayed in KFC until the meeting time.

This has been the worst planned day so far. It would have been a complete loss of a day, but Natalie and I were able to have a nice chat to ourselves, and we played a lot of that crazy slapping card game that she calls "Egyptian Rat Screw". KFC became a mini hang-out for some Husky Band people by 3 o'clock. Rachel and her boyfriend Chuck arrived, and Chuck joined in our game. Both he and Natalie won games, respectively. I did improve though...

We did leave on time, so that was good, at least. Unfortunately, we were leaving for the train station, where we had to wait another couple of hours. I read in my German history book, and in a story about WWII England called "Good Night, Mr. Tom" (it's been made into a movie).

When the call came to check in and board, everyone in the over-crowded waiting room jumped into motion. We were all a little tired of sitting. This was a sleeper train. We boarded at 7 pm and we arrived in Shanghai a little after 7 am. The last time I took a train, except for short subway rides, was when I was a little kid. The family took a train from Washington to Minnesota, and all I remember is that it was long, I got sick, colored in my coloring books and thought about digging for dinosaur bones in the sides of rock that flashed past my window.

So, it was exciting for me, since I haven't done it for about 15 years or more. There were four to a cabin, and I was with my roommate, Angela Chin, and two trumpets, Allison and Kerri, who are both very fun people. They and their friends even respected my not wanting to talk about sex stuff during dinner and my wanting to go to sleep instead of a "party". I'm such an old stodge, I know. I enjoyed getting to know them; it can be hard to meet people from other sections in band if you don't "party".

I was in car 15, cabin 2, bed 7, which was one of the lower beds! Yey! There was not that much space! We stuck Angela's and my suitcases under the cabin table, flat on the floor. The other two went in the overhead storage above the hallway, along with my mellophone and straw hat. The two trumpets were hidden under the beds. After we had stowed everything, I went to see Natalie in car 14, and happened to come when they needed packing advice.

Once the train started, we went to car 9, the dining car, to buy cold water. Soon after, the stewardesses delivered our boxed dinners to our berths. It even turned out to be pretty good; there was even was even some shrimp. I then wanted to sleep, because there was nothing but darkness out the window and my eyes were heavy. They all left to go "party" in the next room, so I left one side of the lights on for them, put on my sleeping blindfold that I take on trips, and fell asleep, jeans on and all. What the heck, it was only for one night.

Jp

China - Aug. 8

August 8th:

Today after breakfast, we left for the Summer Palace outside Beijing. Echo again gave us a little bit of the history behind the place. I think she told us it was built around 1750 by an emperor in the Qing Dynasty. It was used by emperors for the rest of the Imperial period until 1911. It was probably used the most by the Empress dowager Ci Xi (also called "the Dragon Lady") who was the real force behind the last three emperors, who were puppet emperors. It was burned several times in the 1800's by conquering western powers and was rebuilt each time. It was refurbished by the People's Republic in the '60's as a historical landmark and a recreation area.

I found it much more beautiful than the Forbidden City. This was because it was less imposing. There was a small lake inside it's walls, on which we took a boat ride. They had cool shops as well, so I bought myself some popcorn, a booklet of coins of all the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, and a fan with nine dragons decorating it (a symbol of the authority of the emperors). We stayed what seemed like a short time.

While we were waiting for the bus, Natalie finally bought a fake Rolex for her brother, who requested one. It made me think of Randy in New York.

Since the hotel we were going to eat lunch at, now had President George W. Bush coming, it was closed off, and we went to a pearl market/fancy buffet/restaurant instead. The meal was pretty good; I especially like the chicken and cucumber. After lunch, I went back downstairs and bought a beautiful silk embroidered picture of twelve red carp arranged in a circle. It's very Chinese and very fishy: something that will go well, framed in my room. It's my most cultural/beautiful souvenir so far.

Back at the hotel, all the Husky Band members went outside in our red polo uniforms and formed the Olympic rings with just our 100-ish people. I was in the very top of the far right ring, next to Rachel and Rebecca Kim. (I've been in band with Rebecca since 1997! Except for the 2 years I went to community college. Wow! That's a long time - Jr. High, High School and college!)

I was then able to squeeze in some time to blog before our banquet. At 7 pm, everyone gathered to watch the opening ceremony, Live, on Chinese TV, and eat a duck dinner, which was very good. After we were done eating, Natalie and I retired to her room to watch what remained of it. I then went to my room and packed my bags, as we are going to take a train for Shanghai tomorrow.

Jp

China - Aug. 7

August 7th:

Today, I got up at 8:30! What a sleep in! And then it was time again for a similar, fast breakfast, because the bus for our sightseeing trip today loaded at 9:15 for a 9:30 departure. All went well, and I made it with plenty of time.

The TV in the lobby was on when I came down, and CCTV, the main Chinese TV station, was playing the soccer game that we went to last night.

Our tour guide gave us a little bit of a rundown of the history of Beijing in connection with the Forbidden City at Tienanmen Square, and of the "Gate of Heavenly Peace" (if only) which it's name means in English. This was our main destination for the day. She said it was built in 1420, by the third (usurping) emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the fourth son of the first emperor, who stole the throne from his nephew, his father's first grandson.

The Forbidden City was very impressive. Anything built nearly 600 years ago is bound to be. Our tour guide took us through it and explained the importance and use of the more prominent buildings. It was a huge place, and only part of it is available to the general public. I was most impressed with the story of the hall where the best couple hundred students from the whole of China would come to take an examination (on any topic the emperor decided) to vie for a few positions of importance at the City. And there was palace after palace after palace. They were all ornate and beautifully painted, but we did not have time to talk about each one.

Running the length of the City, was a special stone path, where the emperors used to be carried over on a litter, whenever they traveled around the City. When it went up to the various palaces, there were special stone carvings that made ramps up and down the other sides. They were all engraved with dragons - a symbol of strength and power in ancient China. One of these ramps was made out of the largest single, engraved stone in the world. If I remember correctly, it was roughly 30 or 40 yards long. I had a great time in the City with my friends and my camera. Although we rushed a little at the end, the tour took an hour and a half.

We then got on the buses and were taken to a mall in downtown Beijing for two hours, to eat lunch and shop. Natalie and I went to McDonald's, on the second floor. Many other people did as well, so it was tricky ordering. Sort of reminiscent of yesterday's experience at the soccer game. We each got a Big Mac, because everything else on the menu looked like it either had chicken or fish. We couldn't tell, because there was no English on the signs. There wasn't even apple pie for a desert! They had something that looked like a coconut pudding in a pastry instead. After finishing lunch, we continued on and found Dairy Queen upstairs. Other than that, we just looked, because the stores were mostly designer clothing stores that looked really expensive and not in our size. There was one store that was fun to look in though... it had some pretty funny clothes with odd English sayings on them.

Outside the mall, we did stop by the really big official Olympics store, but couldn't decide on anything important enough to bother standing in the really long checkout line for. Finally, it was time to go, and the buses took us to... dinner! Good thing all I had was the one burger and a couple of Natalie's fries. It was another Dim Son style restaurant in a very fancy hotel. I had real Chinese sweet and sour pork, which tasted so much better/authentic than the American/Chinese kind I've had back home. They also had very good beef in sauce and onions, and a dish of fried vegetables in batter, sort of like tempura. It was all very tasty. And then, they had the first clean bathroom that I've seen here so far. It was very refreshing to feel clean after leaving one.

Upon our return to the hotel, we tried getting our orchestra pins from Brad, our director, but he wasn't in his room yet. After a little while of waiting around and talking about the speed of light and flying cars with headlights (thanks, Chuck), and laughing a lot, we went back to our rooms. I organized all my stuff that was not already, and then Natalie and I got together and headed over to the sports complex for a game of table tennis. Natalie said she was pretty tired, so she would probably only make it through one game. An hour later, after five, very intense, exhilarating, rousing and hilarious games, we had to call it a night. I was able to win three of them, but they were all very close. I don't think I've sweated quite so much on this trip as I did playing those games. It was very fun. We then retired to our rooms for much needed showers and sleep.

Jp