Xi'an part I: A Good Start

Me, pre-disaster.

There we were, three friends getting ready to embark on the journey of their lives. We had thought our seats were going to be worse. Apparently hard seats in this area were niiiice. I stashed my bag and plopped down in my reclining chair and started reading. I was feeling good. Everyone who had told me traveling in China was easy had apparently not traveled with me. Check, check, check. The finals calls were being made when all of a sudden I heard Andy conversing with a man about his seat. Shanghai, the man said. Foolish man this train is headed for Xi'an, I'm going to see me some Terracotta Warriors. Right? Wait. I felt it, that rush of chemicals your brain sends out along with a chill when you realize something bad is afoot (score, slipped afoot in there).

We were on the wrong train. Andy hurriedly grabbed his bags and scrambled out the door. Our grins of comfort morphed into the grins of foolishness as we ashamedly gathered our things. I was following Andy out when I heard the beeping. The beeping that says the doors were going to close. Then -Shhhhhlllopp!

The doors sealed closed on the train headed in the completely opposite direction of my vacation. "Hey", I said. That was it, Hey. Like that was going to do anything. But it was enough, the conductor who had probably seen plenty of confused foreigners in his time speedily sent word via his walkie that I wanted off. The doors whipped back open and I tottered off. Darin somehow also made it off the train and we hopped on the correct train this time. Sadly this was more like it. A rigid bench that although giving the appearance of comfort actually is one of the most torture-some devices ever created. The seats are surprisingly rigid and no matter what position you may try, you cannot get comfortable for long, especially when you come in anglo-size. But I had books and my imagination on my side which did an amazing job of blocking out my body's signals such as discomfort, hunger, or sleep. Fifteen hours later we arrived in Xi'an, with several pages under my belt and a horibly sore neck, back and bottom. But we were there and that isn't even my worst travel story yet...

Don't miss: Xi'an part II Warriors of Baked Earth

I'm back!

That's right, ladies and gentleman, I'm back in the cold embrace of Wuhan after a month long journey traveling Asia. I'm back like Han Solo from Carbonite, or Gandalf from that long fall, or Edmond Dantes from the Chateau d'If without all that revenge stuff.
At any rate, I've got over 3,000 pictures and a veritable ton of memories/stories I think you'd like to hear. So come sit around the warm glow of your internet device and read of my adventures for the next few evenings as I tell you my tales.

       Oh and here's a few pictures, because I didn't want to start writing yet tonight. I just started school again, which if you've ever traveled for a month or even a few weeks is a very hard thing to come back to, student or teacher. Besides it'll build interest. Because you know this last month and a half of stagnancy did nothing for that.

China in one picture

I can't explain to you how much "China" is stuffed into this one picture. But I will try anyways. Ok, here we go. I'm guessing your eyes may focus on the big white school first? That's my school. And its not. I teach at the school from where I took this picture. And the two schools are on the same property and share the playground and cafeteria. Most schools look like that though, having to build up and not out. I teach on floors three and four of mine. The Chinese flag is starkly placed in front of the children during all exercises. Then of course your eyes drop down to the mass of color down there. What are they doing? Morning exercises. This is kung fu practice and after it will be pop dance aerobics.  They are good, and sometimes I wonder what one could do with a thousand kung fu fighting children.
Behind them is a massive green building. This is what all the buildings in construction look like. The safety/debris netting wraps the building like a cocoon until the final stage. If you take a landscape picture in China and it doesn't have a building in construction, it will soon.  China is sometimes OCD like that. If there isn't construction, something must be wrong, it thinks. Gotta demolish something, gotta demolish. And it does make for a whole lotta jobs because the building don't seem to last long too. Its like the everlasting gobstopper. If the building is too good, it means less jobs. Efficiency isn't always best.
The rest of the buildings are the parts you don't see from the streets, its some of the residential area that is almost always tucked behind the commercial. These apartments are a major part of Chinese culture. Many children do not understand the concept of a house with a yard. A whole building just for you. Sharing in that sense is built into them.
Standing off in the distance and off in time is Yellow Crane Tower. Every picture has to get a few more bonus points for including this. It is a reminder of the old Chinese ways that have been somewhat forgotten and left in the background with the frenzy of capitalism.
And over it all is the layer of smog. If you go from the top of the picture down, you can see the blueness fade into a dull gray, the atmosphere of the citizens of Wuhan and much of China.
So there you go, as much of China as I could squeeze into one picture. There's definitely more that I didn't see, or a picture that hasn't yet been taken that can do more, but until then, enjoy.

Wham!

There she is. Yellow Crane Tower. Wuhan's claim to fame. She makes for a pretty cool picture as seen here but she is slightly overpriced and maybe a tad less spectacular when compared to other sights in China. But its ours and somehow even though its not that tall, its tall enough to usually sneak into shots of other things. Its pretty old too. While it was rebuilt it was first built around 223 AD. Yellow Crane Tower, I see it almost every day. Go ahead make it your desktop background or something. Or imagine its a postcard and I wrote you something witty on the back of it.

Moon

I thought I would show you the lunar eclipse in case you missed it. It was pretty cool looking and make me feel like the astronomy fanatic I was during my last semester in college. If you throw in some green it fits with the season. it was quite amazing that we could see that amount of stars at night but it must have been a special night. And the light you had on Sunday morning made it possible.

Its about time I've posted some Christmas stuff

Hopefully, I'll get more and more photos of Christmas-y things posted as the celebration of His birth approaches. But its a bit odd though, I still hear Silent Night and Hark the Herald as I am eating in a restaurant or walking through a mall. I'm thankful that He hasn't been completely wiped from our culture and is at least included as a "classic" Christmas song so that I can hear the familiar tunes marking His coming all the way on the other side of the world. The photo is taken in front of the popular mall Chicony's after a fabulous meal of Korean Barbecue.

Jawas

They are everywhere and nowhere. I walk past them everyday and may never see them, even though they are covered in blaze orange. I can never for sure say I've seen the face of one of them (This is the reason for the title). The street cleaners. They are the fungus of the city. At first that may sound a bit harsh. And at first it is. No one notices them but they are there, quietly sweeping up all forms of trash. This is another case where littering isn't so bad, because it provides jobs for people, jobs which would disappear if everyone threw away his own trash or properly disposed of his cigarette butt. But there they are, the tireless, faceless ones with insatiable appetite for wrappers,a lone chopstick, another housing flyer, or anything else that touched the ground unwanted. They even have been sweeping up nature itself. Treating golden leaves as though the trees had thrown them down from their branches in disgust. Or water, one wouldn't think it possible but I have witnessed one sweeping up water to be moved so that the mighty million-footed economy can keep rushing by (I guess that includes me). The fungus is what allows for new growth in a forest and likewise this orange army keeps the perpetually slightly dirty city from being overwhelmed by trash. I respect them, and the people of Wuhan are indebted to their unceasing service.