The Final Day

Wisely or not, Jorge and I had agreed the previous night to not get any sleep in order to try and maximize the time on the flight home by spending it in a deep somber. As a result, we sat around talking for a few hours until around 3:45 or so before our separate ways, me to my room and him to his, knowing that our luggage was due outside of our respective rooms at around 7. Heading back to my room, I groggily took my last shower in China and dried myself off while packing at the same time.

There was a real sad feeling that came over me as I started to pack. Part of me was simply ecstatic to be heading home to see my wife. We hadn’t been apart that long for several years and I anxiously awaited the opportunity to see her again. Still, there was another part of me that couldn’t believe that this trip, which I had looked forward to since it was first brought up during orientation, was coming to an end. It’s my belief that there are very few events that truly change your life. I have to believe that having a child is one of them and another certainly has to be when you get married. This entire trip had to be another. How often do you get to experience the wonders of a nation that had only opened its borders to the U.S. some 30+ years earlier and walk the Great Wall of China and Tiananmen Square within days of each other?

As I placed my luggage outside, I knew I only had a little bit of time let in China – a feeling that was even stronger when I walked downstairs to meet the rest of the group to head out to the airport. I saw everyone gathered around talking and I pinpointed Lili and Molly. Lili had honestly become like a sister and Molly had become quite a good friend as well in the short time we had gotten to know each other. I became teary-eyed when it was time to say good-bye to them and I gave Lili a hug as she wasn’t going to be going to the airport with us. She had previously given me her business card and I was sure that I was going to e-mail her as soon as I got home to keep in touch. She had indicated that she was going to be coming out to the U.S. within the next year and more specifically, L.A. where she was going to visit me so I could be her tour guide around the City of Angels.

Pulling away from the hotel, I sat and stared out the window as we made our way to the magnetic train station, then the airport where we met our luggage and did all of our checking in on our own. Shortly thereafter, we were on an airplane headed back to the states. Incidentally, we crossed over the international dateline on the way back, meaning that we left on a Thursday at noon in China and ultimately Los Angeles at about the same time on the same day, despite the near 13 hours of plane travel. The best part of that is that I plan to put “time traveler” on my resume.

Of all the sites that we saw in China, I don’t think any of them compared to the beauty of seeing my wife coming into the terminal to meet up with me in Los Angeles. Embracing her tightly was one of the best feelings ever and I didn’t want to ever let her go. As great as China was, I loved being back in the arms of my wife and I never wanted to leave her side again … until I go back to China the next time. This time, I’m going to get to that last tower at the Great Wall!

 

 

Day Eight — The Last Full Day

By this time, I was getting sort of homesick. I woke up and China was outside my window, but I really missed my wife and Lean Pockets. Chinese food is good and all, but it can get old like anything else you do each day. I was enjoying each day and for that matter, every moment, but I longed for the comforts of home where I was king (note to self: erase that part before my wife reads it). I loved being around the combined cohorts and loved being in China, but there really is no place like home. While I longed for home, I also knew that once I got back home, I’d miss every moment of China and wish I could be back there for longer to experience more of what that great country had to offer.

 Starting off this, the last of our full days in this glorious country, we woke up early to make our way to yet another international school. While the other school was nice and quaint in its own little way, this school looked much more professional as it was housed in a large building of around five stories tall, complete with a nice playground outside. Of course, once we made our way past the security gates and inside the building, we were able to see just how nice this school really was. With a nice gym on the top floor of the building, complete with basketball courts, a rock-climbing wall and a dodgeball area, which gave me the chance to hit Midge with a ball while she wasn’t paying attention. She shook her fist at me, but I think that’s just how short people express gratitude.

 After leaving the school, which had more kids, teachers and other faculty that spoke English fluently, we made our way to a place that several of us had been clamoring for for quite a while – a place to buy knockoffs of all of our favorite brands. We didn’t get more than a few steps inside before getting sucked in to a small shop where they had knockoffs of many top brands, including Polo, LaCoste and other brands which cost too much for my anemic bank account back home to endure. This part of the trip sort of highlighted one of the great memories I’ll take away from China – the bargaining with vendors to try and get the best price possible, followed by the bragging of the price you were able to get down to to whomever would be willing to listen to your exploitive victory. Here, in this tiny strip mall on a small street in Shanghai, we went to work trying to get the best deal possible on knockoffs throughout the mall. Starting off at 10% or so of the asked-for price, we tried our best to get the lower prices possible on tennis shoes, t-shirts, jewelry, watches, sunglasses, DVDs and more from the various vendors within the confines of this mall.

After this shopping trip, we concluded our tour with a boat ride which was simply marvelous. Coasting along at a nice clip with raindrops hitting the boat and river alongside of us, we sat back for a while watching the magnificent view of Shanghai buildings that was compounded by a slight mist that was created by the rain and simply enjoyed the view. Of course, we were also able to enjoy a little bit of music and dancing on the first floor as well as a way to have fun and escape the rain at the same time.

Afterwards, we concluded our final night by heading back to the hotel a final time. Of course, we had to wake up early in order to pack and head out to the airport or risk staying in China for the rest of our lives. We all said good-bye to each other, save for myself, Jorge, Jill, Jairo, Lily, Molly and Dan who agreed to meet in the lounge a little later where we sat and talked for a good portion of the night. It was a great final day to end our final full day in China, sitting back and talking about the cultural differences between our countries, how much we would miss China but also how nice it was going to be to be back home at the same time. A little while later, the hotel closed up the lounge, leaving us in this slightly-dim area to ourselves, the last of the group. It was a little surreal. These people had become very close to me and it was a little upsetting to know that a few hours later, the trip would be over.

Day Seven

For the first time since we got to China, I had the chance to finally get to do something I rarely do … even back home: sleep in! Back home, I always felt like sleep was a waste of time and didn’t like to do so since I figured there were far more important things for me to spend my time on, such as working on homework, working out or playing video games. After numerous days of riding buses around China following plane rides, I figured I could do myself the favor and just relax for one morning and sort of lounge around the beautiful hotel room that was provided to me. Of course, knowing me, I should’ve known better since I wasn’t able to sleep and instead woke up and watched some ping-pong on television, complete with Chinese commentary, naturally. All the while, I looked forward to what I figured would be another great day in the city of Shanghai, complete with more Chinese food and sightseeing that I would never again get to experience.

 Of course, when the time came to meet up at the bus, I wasn’t disappointed. I eagerly made my way past the friendly hotel staff onto the bus, taking my regular spot towards the back of the bus, and prepared for whatever Lili and Molly had in store for the group. Our first stop took us to yet another Chinese food restaurant where we indulged ourselves yet again on the delicacies of China before we headed out to a silk place where the showed us some lazy silkworms whose lives consisted of eating all day and making silk whenever requested. Following the natural progression, we then went into a shop and looked around before heading over to a theater where … me, Jorge, Jill and Lili ditched to go to a local mall so we could go shopping. Back home, a trip to a mall isn’t anything special, but here in China, it’s different since virtually everything is foreign to us Big Noses, the nicknames the Chinese used to describe American tourists. We looked around for a while before realizing that the items there weren’t for us, which led us to another store, which was across the street. Lili, not being completely familiar with Shanghai, led us to an underground subway where we ventured underneath the streets and appeared on the other side inside of the shop which we had seen. Following a few more trips of this nature, we decided to head back and soon realized that it was raining outside. Because of this, nearly every cab was taken and we spent a good hour or so trying to hail down a Shanghai cab. Jill and Lili were able to take shelter under Lili’s customary red umbrella, but Jorge and I had to endure the conditions that nature had laid upon us. Drenched, we finally hailed a cab and ended up back to the hotel late that night.

Normally, this would have been a poor way to end the day, but frankly, I didn’t care. There was something that was just enjoyable about being in China, running around looking for a cab among the hundreds of cars and bikes that passed us, drenched but laughing, being in a country so far from home while the rain poured down on us, that just made it so fun. I went back to the room that evening, shook myself off like one of my dogs, kicked off my shoes and hopped in the shower, still chuckling over the evenings events.

Day Six

I used to wonder what it would be like to be a rock star with early wake-up calls, bus rides everywhere and plane rides every other day. This trip gave me a taste of it and while it was great, it was really tiring. This morning, we had a wake-up call of 5 a.m. so we could pack our bags and leave those suckers outside of our doors so that they could disappear and meet us in Shanghai like they had done from Beijing to Xi’an and from somewhere to our rooms in Beijing. One thing that was weird about out trip was knowing whom to tip and whom not to. I didn’t tip the guys who brought our luggage up cause I honestly had no idea if I was supposed to or not, but found out as we stood up that I was to tip “Smiley,” the guy who massaged my feet, ankles and calves while staring at me. Cab drivers, however, refused to take tips. Waiters and waitresses? Nope.

We had a fun little experience in the Xi’an hotel as we stood around waiting for delivery of our boarding passes. We were standing around talking when someone noticed that we were getting our pictures taken with locals without even noticing it. These locals would walk up near us while someone snapped a quick photo. When we realized what was going on, myself and a few others invited them in to take a photo with us and we gathered around and took pictures with these “fans”, further adding to the feeling that we were celebrities of sorts. That was also compounded by the pointing and stares and whispers that we would experience whenever we went anywhere. It was cute throughout the trip and made you feel kind of important, so it didn’t bother me at all and kind of made me smile when I would notice it.

Following yet another plane flight, this time to Shanghai, we touched down in Shanghai, a city where change was noticeable even from the air as we flew over the ocean and the port before touching down on the ground in the final city of our China tour. We also met our final guide, Molly, who was joined again by Lili, whom a few us had really taken in as one of the group. She had become a really good friend, particularly after our time together in the karaoke bar in Xi’an where we all exchanged the definitions and pronunciations of curse words, a few of which she used freely to the delight of us all. In fact, a fast learner, she learned how to pair them with hand and facial expressions to add emphasis to slang and amuse us that much more.

Our first stop in Shanghai was another food place, this one not nearly as good as the ones we had visited in Xi’an and Beijing, which left some of us skeptical about our food future in this new city. In fact, even Lili said she didn’t like the food in Shanghai, which worried us further. Luckily, this seemed to be the worst of our eating experiences for the trip.

After this meal, we made our way to our final hotel … and what a hotel it was! A $500/night hotel, this place was gorgeous and I had a huge room, with a huge bed (with padding!!!) and an air conditioner that got my room to lie 4-degrees Celsius as I just wanted to know what it was like to be cold again after so many days of humid heat. The bed was big enough that I could lay each way and not touch the ends, the shower/bath was beautiful, the complimentary water was heaven-sent and there was a huge, flat screen television that was far nicer than anything I had back home. Did I mention it had air conditioning?

We then made our way to an historic restaurant that Ulysses S. Grant, Albert Einstein and some others had eaten at (How did Grant get out to China? Boat? Jeez!) and then went back to the hotel. From there, a few of us went to a local nightclub that featured Disney characters all over the wall. We got to talk to Molly and found out that she was a lot of fun to be around and we all had a chance to dance together as a group. It was a really fun night and one that I won’t ever forget. I got to bed around 2:30 in the morning, tired, exhausted and looking forward to more the next morning.

China — Day Five

After recuperating on the above-mentioned bed o’ plywood, it was time to rush downstairs and grab a bite to eat with the members of my immediate cohort and others from the Irvine group, whom we had all gotten to know and enjoy the company of. In that way, it wasn’t only a matter of getting-to-know the culture of China and the people we had the pleasure of coming into contact there, but also our cousins from the Irvine cohort. We hadn’t seen the majority of them since we all had orientation together (or most of them, at least) and it was nice to be able to see them again and catch up on exactly what they had been doing for the previous quarter-year or so and compare notes on teachers, experiences and more. Being able to catch up with them was part of the fun and certainly added to an already amazing experience that won’t ever be topped.

On this day, we would all board the bus again and take our usual seats. It was sort of a given at this point that the people who truly wanted to listen would take seats near the front of the bus, the noisy, rowdy group would go to the rear to joke around for most of the ride, and the ones who were too late to make it to the front to avoid the rowdy group would be forced to the middle where they wouldn’t be able to hear our guide, nor would they be able to escape the pack in the back. On this day, that wrath would also fall upon a guide at a temple that we went to who had many of her comments met with light-hearted joking by various members of our group. It got to the point that she even called us the, “Crazy Group,” a moniker we adopted for the remainder of the trip. It was this guide who informed us of several interesting notes about the way the emperor lived and how women in his presence would react, such as painting certain designs on her face to avoid turning the emperor down while still informing him that having relations that night was not going to be ideal.

 After the tour, we made our way to an area where they sold art. Not really interested in purchasing art, I made my way outside where Jill was talking to Rocky Stone, our guide for Xi’an. It was moments like this that I found really interesting. For about 15 minutes, we were able to sit and talk to him, taking in cultural ideals and traits from the land of China while finding out how they viewed us. It was truly a memorable conversation as we found out that Chinese feel that people from the U.S. look the same, are aggressive and live very nice lives. In fact, we even discovered that The Rock (a nickname Jorge came up with) aspired to one day become an action star in Hollywood.

We then made our way to a furniture factory, which did very little to stimulate me, before making our way out to the countryside to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, three bunkers full of soldiers made by an emperor so he would have soldiers to watch after him postmortem. This was truly a spectacular sight and one that I had looked forward to before we even made the trip. Seeing thousands of warriors made of terra cotta was amazing and became yet another sight that I’ll never forget. Although the phrase probably seems overused in this paper, you really have to see it to believe it.

Following this, we made our way out to a Dumpling Dinner where we saw another performance, this one highlighted by a group of young girls whom has two sticks with a string in the middle and a projectile they caught and flung around with the strings. Although they made a few errors, their overall performance was so entertaining that they deserved the rousing ovation that they received. The dumplings were OK.

That night, we came back to the hotel and hit the sack again. While it seemed as though we were having so much fun, I really missed my wife and thought about her all the time. China was great, but it would have been so much greater with her. Even with that huge void in my life, I was having the time of my life and knowing that we were going to Shanghai the next day was something that I was really looking forward to. Maybe the people in that town had heard of ice and soft beds.

Day Four

For some reason, I couldn’t sleep the previous night. I kept tossing and turning on my plywood bed, splashing in sweat thanks to the lack of air conditioning in my room. What made it even nicer is that even though the window to my room swung wide open and it was cooler outside, the ledge was covered in dirt and feathers … and I don’t think I saw any birds, so you try and figure that out. So, while it was around 43,000-degrees in my room, I decided to bear it while waking up each 19 minutes. I finally relented and turned on the television, because I figured instead of sleep, I actually needed some Chinese television. Imagine my surprise when the first face I see when the television cleared was LeBron James at the free throw line, getting to hoist up another miss in the NBA Finals. Naturally, I watched the rest of this game, marveling at the announcers and the six words (five if you don’t count the cough) they whispered during the second-half the game and of course, watching my favorite sport take place some 15,000 miles away or so.

After the rest of my group caught up to Joe-time, we made our way to breakfast and then to a number of locations … the first of which was the Forbidden City, a city within the city of Beijing. When describing China, it’s hard to come up with different ways to explain how truly great each place seemed to be. So, while saying that the Forbidden City was marvelous or spectacular, it’s hard to give it a phrase that truly justifies how wonderful it was, much as it is with any of the places we visited. This City was marvelous … which again, doesn’t do it justice. It’s also huge and walking around it is breathtaking. Some interesting little tidbits about the city include the fact that when the emperor went somewhere, everything had to be lower than him, so people would bow down or jump to the ground. Also, there’s a Starbucks there.

  Following this, we went to the Summer Palace where the emperor would go when it was too hot at the Forbidden City. Considering they’re like three miles apart, I’m guessing that it couldn’t have been much cooler, but it gave him another place to keep more concubines, so I understand. After all, the 9,999.5 rooms at the Forbidden Palace couldn’t hold enough for me either. Another great place to visit and we took a nice boat ride across the water (as opposed to whatever else you’d take a boat across) and then on to the pearl shop where we saw a guy name Rick kill an oyster and snatch around 67 pearls out of one oyster. Some were pink, some were white, and some in our group were called “Barbie” by Rick. Rick, sorry to disappoint, but her name is “Midge”.

Sadly, this was our last stop in Beijing as we then made our way to the airport where we took a quick, two-hour flight to Xi’an. Walking out into this much-less-crowded airport, we came across our second tour guide, Rocky Stone … no, really. Luckily, Lili stayed with us for this and the third-leg of our tour, but Rocky certainly proved to be the character that his name would suggest, just not the boxer guy. We all had dinner at a restaurant close to the airport. It was discovered that it was Eric’s birthday and the whole restaurant watched as we sung to him and all ate his cake and stuff and he looked so cute with his little crown on … another great Chinese moment.

We then made our way to the hotel, another nice Chinese hotel except something was wrong with this one – the air conditioning seemed to work a little. Hmm, someone screwed up. Because we were in a new city and it was still sort of early, me, Lili, Jorge, Jill and Jairo went out to a karaoke bar and drank and talked until the early morning hours before turning in to get ready for another action-packed day.

That night, I fell asleep on the world’s second-hardest bed.

 

China — Day Three

At this point, a few of us broke off from the main group to make a trip to the Beijing International School of Singapore, or BISS for short. Now, keep in mind that I normally hate kids and went to this portion of the trip because I thought we were going to some sort of university or college of some sort, so when the bus dropped us off on the street before we walked through an alley of cars with no brakes or brakes that connected to their horns since they both seemed to go off at the same time, I began to suspect that no college could be that small.

Entering this school full of English-speaking teachers, faculty and students was an interesting surprise, considering we were in the middle of China, but was extremely entertaining to say the least. The children were unbelievably well-behaved and even said, “Excuse me!” and phrases that I hadn’t heard from even adults in a while. We were ushered into a conference room where we heard wonderful stories from some of the faculty of the school, including the principals of both the elementary and junior high-level students. Perhaps the highlight of the pre-tour part of our visit came from a recently-graduated student named “Yuri” who told us all about her time at the school, and the fact that she was from Japan but was heading to the states to go to college in Massachusetts, I believe. Later, we found out that she had wanted to go to Pepperdine, but was denied entrance and was waiting a year to learn Chinese and try again. I wonder if she would’ve changed her mind had Farzin gone to BISS with us, but I’m straying off topic. We also met with their Director of Business, who had graduated from Pepperdine a number of years earlier. Small world, for sure.

After our visit to the school, went to lunch and then to a tea store, where the representatives showed us how to drink tea and which ones were most popular and so forth. We then made our way to a great show put on by the Shao-Lin Warriors. Truly mesmerizing and entertaining, the show was spectacular and would have been a great way to end the day … but alas, there was more.

When I was young, I remember watching demonstrations that were taking place in China in which a young man stood in front of a tank to keep it from progressing. I never found out what happened to him, nor was I very interested in it at the age of ten or so. Still, that image was forever etched into my mind. So, when I found out we were headed to Tienanmen Square. This vast region in the middle of the city just felt historic while walking through it at night and whenever someone would come near me, I would utter, “I’m in China and walking through Tienanmen Square.” Though most kept away from me after that first utterance, the vendors listened to me as I walked around and took pictures. In fact, I’m sure they were encouraging me while sticking kites in my face, but I was too in awe to listen – plus I didn’t speak Chinese. I kept imagining being that young man in this huge square while protesters and police were yelling at him, but it’s too hard to imagine. Truly, this was a magnificent site and possibly the highlight of the trip just from the feeling you get while being there.

On the way home on the bus in between whoops and laughs, I looked outside my window and saw a dog. When it looked at, it put its head down but maintained eye contact. I nodded. I think the true details and translation of that silent interaction will forever remain between us.

China — Day Two

Back home, waking up at 5 a.m. is typical of one of my work days where I often get to work by 6:30 or so and leave around 3 in the afternoon before rush hour traffic hits and a couple of hours before my lovely wife gets home. In China however, waking up at 5 a.m. is approximately the equivalent of waking up at 8 p.m. in the states, or right around my bedtime (I am a growing boy, after all). Still, waking up knowing that China was right outside my window made it a little easier to bear the early morning (or early evening, depending on how you saw it) start. Unfortunately, for some reason, I woke up long before my wake-up call, which was scheduled for 7:30, meaning I was able to get in some much-needed television watching. More Paris Hilton television watching didn’t really suit me, so I headed over to HBO where I got to watch an Eddie Murphy movie, complete with Chinese subtitles, for a couple of hours until the day got started … and oh, what a day it would turn out to be!!!

To start the day off, we visited a jade factory where we were introduced to the wonders of jade and the many carvings, earrings, and other types of jewelry that jade can be made into – including a ship and if you want more details on that, ask Eric. Perhaps the thing I was most fascinated by at the jade factory was how well people there spoke English. Jade was beautiful and all, but it was nice to be able to have a conversation with someone from China without having to depend on Lili.

After that, we hopped in the bus and made our way to perhaps China’s most famous site – The Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China is just like the one that sits outside my condo, except the one outside my condo is red brick with some cement on top … oh, and that one in China measures around 4,000 miles long, was built more than 2,000 years ago, was built to keep forces from invading the southern parts of China and is supposedly visible from space. All that nonsense aside, seeing this spectacular image as you approach by bus is a sight to behold. On television, it looks like just a wall but when you’re driving up on it, it’s unbelievable. The thing just takes over the side of a mountain, slithering up it to the very top before climbing over to the other side. Needless to say, it’s impressive. Actually getting to it and climbing over its various-sized stairs and scary handrails proved to be quite the challenge, one I was not ready for with my jeans and sneakers on. Still, I tried to keep up with the leaders of the pack, who made it to the very last tower, which I believe was the sixth one. Sadly, I made it to the fifth, looked around at the women in high heels passing me and decided that I had gone far enough, a decision that’ll likely haunt me for the rest of my life or until I find something that is more impressive that I fail at, but that’s another story

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Following the Great Wall of China, our exhausted band of travelers made our way to a restaurant where we had – Chinese food!!! After this, we shopped at a store with all kinds of trinkets and whatnot before going to get foot massages. Having all 30 of us in the same room was nice, as was soaking my size-12s in a tub of tea, but the nicest/most uncomfortable part of the trip was having a guy massage my feet for 20 minutes, staring at me and smiling. Good times, for sure. That was interrupted by a doctor who came over, looked at my tongue and told me I was fat, then another trek in our now-very-familiar tour bus.

 At this point, I pretty much relied on instinct to get me through dinner and whatever else happened after that. Something about climbing that wall in 147-degree weather with no visible sun that sort of drained me. I remember getting back to that hotel that night and plopping down face-first onto my plywood bed. Day two, one of the greatest, most fun days of my life, had come to a subtle end.

First Day in China

 

After a long, grueling trip that saw us flying over Canada, then Alaska, the Pacific Ocean, Russia and finally on to China, a trek that lasted somewhere between 11 and 12 hours (somewhere along the way, I lost count), we were met by the expected unexpected – long lines at every post as we attempted to make our way through the airport in Beijing, lots of noise, smoke, foreign languages (to us at least) and an overall culture shock that has to be experienced to be completely understood. What seemed like complete and utter confusion was cleared away by the appearance of our guide and soon-to-be good friend, Li Liping, or “Lili” for short, who soon thereafter whisked us away on a tour bus that proved to be an escape from the onslaught of heat and smog that met us as we left the confines of Beijing Airport. We made our first trip to a temple, the Temple of Heaven, which was simply awesome as a first visit.
Walking around this gorgeous temple made the jet lag and exhaustion disappear for a while as we viewed the gorgeous creation and took pictures of sights unlike we had ever seen before. Frankly, it was hard to think of words to describe this temple. A huge temple stretching over several acres was simply awesome and seemed like an ideal way to start the trip. Incidentally, the trip also introduced us to vendors whom would clamor around us at many of our stops, doing their best to peddle the trinkets, Rolexes, postcards, roller skates, Gucci purses, kites and many other items off on us for various prices. Soon, we all learned how to bargain with these vendors, creating great deals for those who ventured into that segment of China’s tourism industry. 

 

After walking around and taking pictures for a while, we made our way back to the hotel where we were informed that we would be on our own for dinner that evening, something I wasn’t too fond of as I didn’t have any Yuan (the currency of China), didn’t have a roommate nor anyone I could turn to for company for the evening, and didn’t know where to go to grab a bite to eat. On top of that, I entered my hot hotel room and wasn’t able to figure out how to turn on the electricity until I called the front desk and was lucky enough to get in touch with someone who spoke English. Shortly thereafter, a maid came to my room and slipped a card into a slot near the door, which turned on the electricity, though the air conditioning in my room was and remained an issue as it did little to cool the stuffy room. I later received a phone call from Jorge, a member of my cohort who wanted to know if I wanted to grab a bite to eat with his roommate, Jairo, an offer I was glad to accept.

After going to the front desk to try to explain that I had locked myself out of my hotel room because I stupidly took the key from the slot that the maid had placed there and that would not open up my door, I met Jorge and Jairo and the three of us began trekking around the streets of Beijing – with no Yuan and no knowledge of the language outside of a few phrases that Jairo had picked up from a small dictionary that he had brought along. As we entered several restaurants, we soon found out that while the language barrier was frustrating and the stares and pointing was a constant due to our appearances and foreign language, the money issue was something that we weren’t able to overcome. After walking the streets for around two hours and getting turned down at nearly every restaurant including KFC and McDonald’s (McDonald’s turned us away?!?!?!?), we made our way back to the restaurant of our hotel where we were able to sit and enjoy the buffet. Noshing on sushi, rice and a variety of other Chinese dishes, conversation was light as we were finally able to settle down and relax and get some nourishment after a long day of flights, temple visiting, bus riding and enduring really hot weather.

After dinner, we sat around talking for a minute before all making our way to our individual rooms. I hopped into a cold shower and then came out to watch one of the three stations on TV that I was able to understand – HBO, CNN and BBC. Watching the news about Paris Hilton somehow bothered and comforted me at the same time. It was a little bothersome to see that she was news even in China, yet, it reminded me that life was going on back home and gave me a taste of the life back home while making me think of my wife. In fact, it was her who I thought of as I laid down on the world’s hardest bed.