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I'm sitting in my room after another exausting day in CHINA! for the past two days we have been typical american tourists (tour bus and everything). I have seen, tasted, and experienced some of the most bizarre and amazing things since I've been here. on monday we went to the Shanghai museum, people's square, and numerous shopping streets. Today we went to different shopping streets, Lu Xun's house ( a famous chinese writer whom I actually learned about in my asian studies class), we also took a boat tour along the river and walked along the bund. I can't possibly tell you all of the things we've been doing, but Chinese culture in general has been quite the expereince. Our tour guide's name was Lemon, yes, lemon like the fruit, and she was crazy. She carried aroudn a neon green stuffed flower toy that she held above her head as seh speed walked through all of the sights. She was quite a character, I'll tell you about her later. (Here is a joke she told us before tonight before getting off the bus--what are two dreams a panda has?...one is to find a doctor to treat it for its black eyes and two, to have a colorfull picture taken of itself..ha ha ha)
First of all, it smells. the second we stepped out of the airport you could smell the city. it is a sort of putrid almost sewerish smell. You can see the pollution in the air (tonight when on the river bank the sun was setting, but the sky is so murky and cloudy from pollution you could't really see a clear sunset like we are used to). Also, becuase of the pollution everything looks dirty. All of the buildings seem to have a dusty film on them. I can also detect the pollution just walking around, I think I can almost feel the difference in my throat, as if it's soar or I'm really parched.
The Chinese people are unlike anyone you've ever seen. walking down the street, or even into our hotel, you will hear the sound of people 'hauking up a lugie', ya, acutally spitting openly on the street. There are people everywhere!! I am still amazed at the amount of people. there are bikes, cars and people literally swarming everywhere. When walking the cars have no regard for the people, and as soon as teh light changes they will drive, likewise, the people have no regard for the cars and they keep walking in masses accross the streets. There have been numerous times when our bus was literally inches away from the people crossing the street. During rush hour the streets/highways are packed bumper to bumper, unlike any traffic you've seen in the US. I would never, ever drive in China. The first day, when we were arriving at the hotel our tour bus had to back into an alley to drop us off by the hotel. in order to do so it had to turn horizontally across the street (blocking the entire street) and slowly back through a narrow narrow road. While tyring to accomplish this cars began to line up int eh street honking impatiently. It was crazy, As soon as the bus moved, even the smallest bit, the cars would inch forward constantly honking at the bus. It was quite a scene.
Shopping in China is crazzy. you have to bargain with people andyou're supposed to go down 2/3 in price what they offer you. Basically, thye tell you a price by typing it into a calculator and you say no no no, and type in your price, and the bargaining goes on for a while. Most of the shopping streets we've gone to sell the same things targeted at tourists. I haven't really bought that much yet, but its fun looking adn experiencing. There are always people in teh streets badgering you to buy their light up toys, 100ft long kites, or little roller skates...all of these little vendors sell the same thing andyou see them everywhere.
Today, after going to a buddhist temple we had time to walk around and get lunch. On the streets there are alos always poor people begging. Today when returing onto the bus after wandering after lunch there were at least four beggars shaking empty cans at us americans sayign the only english word they know 'Herro'(hello). It is so hard just to walk by and pretend they don't exist. most of them have deformities, some with no legs maneuvering themsleves on a small peice of wood with wheels, others are pushed in wheelchairs and have swollen arthritic feet and knobby hands.
The food here is..ummm...how should I say this, very different, I'm trying to get used to it, not so good...we have free breakfastin our hotel every morning, but its definately not breakfast i'm used to. I wake up wanting cereal soo badly, but we have greasy noodles, steemed buns with somehting inside them, occasionally bread, and o, this morning they surprisingly had some sort of chocolate muffin. All of the food is really greasy and you are nevery really quite sure what you're eating. tongith i think we had quale eggs...?? I had some sort of little bun with sesame seeds on the outside and something that almost tasted like a fig newton on the inside, I haveno idea what it was. Sometimes I just want 'regular food' its hard eating like this all the time, i'm trying to get used to it. most everything is served family style. the tables have 'lazy susans' in the middle and you order many dishes and eveyrone shares. it's like that time we went to dimsum with aunt janet's family. I haven't gotten sick yet..so i'm keeping my fingers crossed. the water isn't safe, so we alwasy have to get bottled water (even to brush our teeth with)...
I'll definately write more later, but I have to go, I think a bunch of us are going out to a chinese dance club..coool!! i have no idea what to expect but sounds crazy...
I know this is all very streem of conciousness...but we've done so much in the past few days I'm trying to remember key things and jsut let you know how I'm reacting to the chinese culture. I haven't really had time to write down my thoughts and 'keep a daily journal' because I've been so tired and our days have been scheduled by the hour..but don't worry I definately plan on it as the trip progresses and I get to Qingdao.