"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." - Robert Louis Stevenson

[We'll see if I can keep up with this-- it seems like every minute of my travels from years past should have been captured with a thousand words each, but never could I have found the time to record them all. And now as a matured wanderer of the world, I suppose a log of my thoughts might be good for posterity's sake.]

I've been in China now about a week- more than a week gone from the States. The differences that seven years absent of a return have made to the nation I once called home are more than palpable.

I departed Atlanta Hartsfield at 11:33 AM last Friday the 20th for Minneapolis, where I met my dearest mother for yet another transfer flight to yet another transfer destination- Tokyo Narita International Airport. (The flight was exactly 12 hours, but it was the first time in the past few years where an international flight I've flown had no individual TVs-- torture, I tell you! But I digress.... We Americans are more than just spoiled.) Here we were hassled by a two hour's wait which turned into two hours of trying to procure the right boarding pass for our Air China flight to Shanghai Pudong Airport. (But to be honest, I would have been pleased to be 'inconvenienced' by an overnight stay in Tokyo- she's on my list of to-go's for sure.) Oh, I encountered my first bidet for which I was apparently too bashful to try-- maybe I'll grow the guts on my flight back from Bangkok.

Our penultimate destination held us at almost 11 PM China time, where the negligence of the airport staff misled us to the domestic sector of the airport while our baggage floated toward the international claims. The security guards crowded the entire plane's passengers into one room (first lesson- no personal space in China) where every man and woman was shouting in Chinese about not being able to catch the last bus at 11 to their prospective homes (second lesson- no inside voices in China). Once at the baggage claim, my mom finds that her suitcase is missing (stuck in Tokyo) because we switched flight carriers (Northwest to Air China). My backpack was lucky enough to find its way-- but after losing my bags for two days in Tanzania last summer, I've learned to pack at least a day's worth of necessities in my day pack.

Anyhow, Shanghai-- we made the last bus at 11:05 PM to the stop near our hotel where as soon as our feet touched the ground, we had trailing us workers from small hotels haggling to get our service, regardless of how many times we explained we already booked a hotel. "Your hotel doesn't have windows.... The beds aren't comfortable.... I'll make our hotel a hundred dollars cheaper just for you!" Lugging our stuffs we struggled in the dark streets (no taxes to pay for that wonderful luxury called street lamps) to find our hotel, which turned out to be quite nice for the $40 we were paying (and there was a window with even a river's view- those hagglers know how to lie alright).

The time change is a drag-- we slept for only a few hours and woke up at 6 AM with absolutely no desire to keep dozing. Our morning was really our night (China is 12 hours ahead), and as we wandered in search of a supper, all the smells of customary Chinese breakfast enticed my nostrils-- soy milk soup, fried breadstick things, steamed buns and dumplings, everything!!! Basically my heart is still pounding every time I walk past a street vendor with some delicious treat that I haven't had the conscience to miss the past several years... and now I'm always hungry! And for everything. The most rare fruit (lychee, different berries, watermelon- ok not so rare but I once had to go to the hospital for eating too much watermelon in China-- believe it), or meats (turtle, frog, duck tongue, eel), or whatever other flavor (mung -sp?- bean soup, zhong zi- sticky rice wrapped in leaves basically, tofu bean curf sauce thing, bok choy, and oh, my God, the ice cream popsicles that are like 10 cents each) I can find that isn't found in the States-- I devour. Half the things I can't even name in English! But... I digress-- we ate that morning for less than 3 American dollars a giant breakfast that left me unbuttoning my pants. Next we shopped on Nanjing Road for the afternoon, but prices there were still too expensive for our Chinese tastes. I mean, a $5 (30 Yuan) shirt is too expensive! Haha. We left on a bullet train to Hefei (capital of Anhui Province) in the afternoon which cost a mere $20 for the whole ride. (Another development is this train- it used to take 9 hours from Shanghai to Hefei, but now it's only 4, and with stops too!)

I found this sign funny:
The sign reads "Soft Waiting Lounge" and "Rigidity Waiting Lounge." What they meant was one side was the first class and the other was the coach class. You'd think for a busy train station in the largest city in China they'd hire better translators....

Another observation about China: there are people EVERYWHERE. It is kind of insane, especially in the big cities like Shanghai and Hefei. But 1.2 billion people isn't a joke. I didn't realize the population in Hefei (which is my hometown that I grew up in and always assumed to be a small town just by the nature of my childhood) was nearing 1.5 million people! One of our family friends who happens to be the head of the city government's accounting department said even that number is inaccurate as a new census including the metro area near Hefei is about 3 million! This is my impression of the city (taken in Hefei):
People walking, bicycling, motorbicycling, driving, bussing... everwhere. Driving is also ridiculous here-- well for one, obviously Chinese people can't drive because they're too short to see over the dashboard (joke). But seriously, no one maintains the lane-- if there are 2 lanes, 3 cars will drive across them. The dashed lines are more suggestions than rules. One thing that I found in common with Tanzania is how honking is ubiquitous and not rude or a sign of agitation. Instead, if you'd like to pass another car, you don't use your blinkers, you use your horn... which consequently leaves the city echoing with buzzing car toots. (You're startled the first few days, but your ears will drown them out as simple background ambience soon enough.)

There is also construction everywhere. Sets and sets of buildings on the horizon appear as if some monstrous baby (see Spirited Away, haha) was placing Lego pieces neatly on our roads. The China of yesterday is being slowly replaced by a new face. You see the crumbled dirt roads and alleys of Shanghai in one second, and ten yards away is an air-conditioned high rise with stores like FCUK and some French boutiques.
Top: back streets near our hotel. Bottom: chic Nanjing Road mall.

Well, my mom and I anchored in our seats on the train, and before I passed out, I noticed the men sitting next to us drinking warm Tsingtao beer (for some reason people hate cold drinks in China- always hot tea, warm water, and tepid cola) to accompany their packaged tofu, eggs, and meat-on-a-stick kebab things. Quite made me feel at home somehow. We arrived in Hefei on Sunday night where I was reunited with my grandparents (whom I call my Waigong, Waipuo)!! I thought I would burst into tears of happiness, honest. They were my parents for 8 years of my life, and I owe more than who I am today to them.... I love them so much!

Well, I'm really quite worn out from recapturing just the first two days of my trip. (Blast my silly verbosity!) So far China has been more than graceful to me, a dove that has flown away from her mother as they would say here. I'll try to write more tomorrow about my experience in Hefei and also more importantly, our trip to Huangshan Mountain which was absolutely gorgeous beyond words and pictures! Miss and love everyone back home.