David: China Trip Day 14

So as you know Day 14 marked my final day in China. I'm back in the United States writing this now, and it's a little late because I'm still trying to adapt to this time change lol (China's time is 12 hours ahead so it feels like the morning right now). But anyway, we started off the day packing up all our stuff and went to a park not too far away from our hotel. We just relaxed, said our goodbyes to the new people we met, and headed to the airport for pretty much the rest of the day. I spent 15 hours total on planes on my way back lol. SUCKED, but I'm here and finally back. Saw two sunsets while I was traveling home and slept the rest of the way. China Trip x TKFV. To all the homies in China, thanks again for the good times. PEACE

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David: China Trip Day 13

To start off the day we went to the Temple of Heaven. When we entered there were all types of performances going on that we got to watch for awhile from opera to regular Chinese R&B. Which was weird again lol, but I can't understand it anyway so there's not much else to think about it. After all the performances we went to check out all the touristy things. The biggest one was the supposed Center of the Earth lol. There was a little circle in the middle of a big area that you could stand on and be at the center of the whole world. Of course I got up there and threw up my OKAY!! OKAY!! signs with my friend Michael. Only problem was that the photographer didn't get the platform in the bottom of the picture... which is the whole point. BUT I'll post it anyway for everyone to see. After the Temple of Heaven we left to go to the Pearl Market. Which is a giant shopping mall with jewelry (mostly pearls like the title says lol) and then a lot of knockoff items from iPhones to designer clothing. Pretty much anything you want you can get a knockoff of in China. And everything looks almost like the real thing lol. Tempting, but after shopping around the Pearl Market I went to a mall with our host Hu Jia and got a few things there. One very special present for a friend of mine when I get back too. When we were done we left to go meet up with the group at dinner. And after dinner we walked around this park area with a big pond, restaurants, bars, and stores and just hung out for awhile and enjoyed the rest of the night. And now I'm packing to leave for home. Staying till lunch tomorrow and then getting on a plane to head back to Vermont. There will be a Day 14 post when I get back home and there will be a return trip to this region of the world. It's been a good time for sure and I can't wait to come back.
TKFV x CHINA...yerrr


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David: China Trip Day 12

Today we spent our last few hours in Ji'nan saying goodbye to our hosts and visiting Baotu Spring Park. At the park we got our first taste of Chinese Opera... Which is a little weird for my ears, but it was cool to see something so valued in Chinese history lol. The music and loud screaming in a different language was a little hard for me to listen to, but it was pretty interesting at the same time. Besides that we walked around for a little bit, and the whole park is beautiful. There were little kids everywhere too... and there's something about the babies here that make you smile lol. Most of them are fitted with pants with holes in the back too so it makes it easy access to poop wherever they are. And literally where ever. We went to a Walmart afterwards to see what the differences were (the only thing really was that there weren't as many people to take pictures of to throw up on People of Walmart and also there were some weird foods everywhere) and there was a kid full out using that little hole in his pants dropping dookies on the Walmart floor while his mom watched... yup lol. After that episode we left for the airport and said goodbye to our fantastic hosts Mr. Xing & Andy... Oh and also our bus driver who couldn't speak a work of English. On our flight to over to Beijing I met a new friend named David Dai who works for a company called Tesco, which is a British international grocery and general merchandising chain... kind of like a Walmart in the UK oddly enough lol. Lots of Walmart type stores in this post today. But he told me a lot about himself and China. He was born in China, but studied at the University of San Diego and said he loved it there. Which was interesting because when I met Eric (Day 10 post) he was very scared about going to the United States because he thought he would be outcasted like many Chinese students that come to America. Besides his personal life though he told me a lot about food, drinks, and Chinese nightlife. Which was good to hear some new information, especially from an expert who deals with things like food and drinks for his job. When we landed in Beijing we headed to our hotel, relaxed in our rooms for a little, and then went to dinner... which has probably been the best dinner I've had all trip so far lol. I liked everything that was served. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and that's where I am now. Kinda tired so I'm going to end it here. Last full day in Beijing tomorrow.
Day 12... almost over.
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David: China Trip Day 3

It was a long and tiring Day 3. We started off at Tiananmen Square just walking around. It was crazy to be in the same spot where so many important things have happened. And it was funny to see the longest line I've ever seen waiting to put flowers on Mao's gravesite. If I were to compare it to anything it was literally 40 blocks in NYC of just people lol. HUGE. Right after that we went to the Forbidden City which was crazy. There were so many people and the architecture of the buildings were beautiful. Took us a little over an hour just to walk from one side to the other, but we were stopped a couple of times to take pictures with people lol. Everyone here seems to be fascinated by a bunch of Americans walking around, specially the blonde haired blue eyed girls in our group. Next we headed off to the Summer Palace, which was also huge. There was a lake there that was all hand dug and the palace was overlooking everything. We were lucky enough to hike up to the top and see everything from up there too. Everything we've seen so far from all these dynasties and Chinese history is so amazing to see especially after learning about it in school. But it truly is nothing without the actual experience and being surrounded by the Chinese culture. Everyone always stares at us because we're the minorities and stick out in a crowd easily, but at the same time everyone is so nice here. Not once have I seen anyone be rude. All smiles and pictures over here lol. It's really been a great experience so far... And it's only been three days. So many more to go.

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David: China Trip Day 2

Blogger was messed up last night so this is David's Day 2 post. Day 3 up soon.

Ah so I'm back with the second day to my China Trip. Today we went to the Great Wall of China in the morning and it was a workout lol. Going up there were a bunch of people trying to sell you various souvenirs, but when we finally got onto the wall it was amazing. It's cool going somewhere that you always saw pictures of or studied in school cause you never know how amazing the actual experience is till you're there. And let me tell you, it was crazy lol. I can't imagine how they built that thing. Just walking on it was tough, but aye.

Anyway leaving the Great Wall we went to the Olympic Village which was cool. Our guide, Cindy (who actually volunteered at the Beijing Olympics and saw the opening ceremony), told us it was forbidden to enter it... I don't know why, and I saw people on the other side of the fence when we were walking around, but I didn't bother to ask her. Either way it was a good time walking around that area. Plus I met some new friends again and took a picture with them throwing up the OKAY!! OKAY!! sign lol. And to end the day we had dumplings for dinner. So that's Day 2 in China.

Previous Post - China Trip Day 1

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David: China Trip Day 1

So I'm finally here and after getting up at 4AM Saturday, April 18th, for a long 13 hour flight I'm exhausted. I also found a huge problem when I first started using the internet too lol. China blocked Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger (aka my life) so now I'm stuck sending this email to Gray to post up on the site. But anyway Day 1... When we first landed everything was so overwhelming. Beijing has the biggest airport terminal in the world so we had trouble getting to where we were supposed to at first lol. But nonetheless we made it through, got on our bus, and headed to our hotel. When we got there we checked in and went straight to our rooms (btw it's 3 AM Vermont time while it's 3PM China time one day ahead... so I'm pretty screwed up) and unpacked all our stuff. Then we headed to our first meal in China, which was actually pretty good. I was afraid to see what types of things would be served, but it ended up being food I was for the most part familiar with lol. And at the end of the day I made a new friend from China who's English name is Michael. So that's Day 1. Probably the most boring day of our trip lol, but they'll be many more days to come. Still two weeks left. Yerrr



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David: Gone to China!

Yes, the title is not a lie lol. Saturday, April 17th I'll be heading out to visit Beijing, Chongqing, and Qufu for two weeks in China. I'll be without a cell phone for awhile and the 12 hour difference will put me a day ahead, but I'll still try to keep up with the blogging while I'm away. I'm hoping to keep a little diary with pictures for everyone to see while I'm traveling overseas for two weeks, so everyone be on the look out! (if i have internet service while i'm out there of course lol). But regardless I'm extremely excited to be going and hopefully my new camera I just picked up last week will do me some good while I'm out there. Below are some pictures of the cities I'll be traveling to when I'm gone:

Beijing

Chongqing

Qufu

PEACE!!

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