Trip Photos

I was so happy to fly back last Sunday. Brad and Grant drove to Dallas to pick me up. My flight ended up getting in late because of snow in Chicago. When I walked outside to the curb, there was Grant, shivering in the cold and half-asleep, with flowers in hand and a colored 'Welcome Home' sign - I was so happy to see him and Brad!

I have a ton of pictures from the trip, but I'm going to try to just share a sample. First, I know I mentioned before that the smog was so awful there. You can see what I am talking about in the pictures below - the seatown was the cleanest we were in, and yet, it was still noticeably hazy.

Most of the trip was work. We would give presentations and interview students. I really hope the student below comes to Baylor because she was fabulous. Notice on my table I have lots of bear memorabilia - they love, love stuffed animals in China, who knew? We got hosted for most of our meals and they would always consist of sitting around a huge round table and feasting off a ton of dishes that would go around and around on a lazy susan - you would just reach your chopsticks out and grab whatever you wanted.

Below are pictures from a park. The architecture is so pretty and they have rock gardens everywhere. It was very peaceful to walk through the parks since every other place was so crowded.

Below are 2 street scenes. The shopping was pretty incredible - silk, bags, scarfs, pearls. You could bargain for anything - wasn't uncommon to start a bid at $300 RMB and end it at $60 RMB. If I were to ever return I would bring a lot more spending money!

My absolute favorite thing was going to the Panda preserve. They were mesmorizing. We went during the morning when they were being fed and all you could hear was the sound of them eating. The grounds were beautiful - it was like being in a jungle and everything was quiet and serene.

A World Away Pt 2

Hitting the Great Wall:

Day 8. Seen 4 cities so far. I would venture to say that pretty much every city looks the same here. High rises everywhere, lots of high end shops mixed right in with little markets. A couple of observations and experiences to share:

1. I can't get over the air quality. It's oppressively sad to me to think that the people here literally have no concept of a blue or star filled sky. You can see the faintest blue far above the haze of smog, but every picture I take seems as if my lens cap is smudged with dirt.

2. The people here for the most part are incredibly humble and gracious. We have received nice gifts from all the schools we have visited and last night we had the most amazing experience. One of the Chinese students who attends the Univ of Vermont is from the city we are currently in. Her parents own several restaurants in the city and insisted on hosting us. It was a very high end place. It specialized in organic and local dishes. We had a huge banquet room and all sorts of dishes including a hot pot full of 6-7 different kinds of mushrooms. We had fish, sausage, tofu, vegetables, noodles, rice and so much more. We toasted many times throughout the night and it was quite a memory.

3. Reading translations is very funny, we keep taking pictures of funny things we see. As in today, we went to see the panda preserve and the sign in front said we could rent strollers, umbrellas, and sewing kits?

4. People spit everywhere, the sound is so repulsive, I'm just glad I haven't been in anyone's way yet. Also, it is highly entertaining to watch the amount of multi-tasking people can do on their scooters. They can manage to smoke, hold an umbrella, pull a huge cart behind them of assorted goods, and weave in and out of what I would say is highly dangerous traffic. I think if they have driving school over here it must be called offensive driving and not defensive driving!

5. Went to the panda preserve this morning, it was such a great experience. We went in the morning and got to see them being fed. I took a million pictures and videos. We saw baby pandas, teenage pandas, and adult pandas. I wish Grant could see this place, he would be in heaven.

6. Beginning to daydream about things I get to do in just 4 days: see Brad!, kiss Lucy's squishy cheeks, listen to Grant's stories, eat Mexican food, also enjoy the nice spring weather in Texas and thank God for beautiful skies.