Green Lake

My camera batteries died before we got very far at green lake so these are the few pictures I was able to take. Green lake is a park in the middle of the city. In the Winter all the sea gulls from Siberia come and stay on the lake. It was pretty amazing to see. There were paths that wound through the lake. Some of these paths when through gardens and others through bamboo. It was really pretty Matthew and I will definitely be heading back. The pictures of the building are one of the store fronts roofs. The roof had grass growing on it. Right now it is dead as it is winter here. It doesn't feel like winter but I guess all the plants are just dormant and will soon be green again. The statue is of a woman with sea gulls flying around her. After I took this picture my camera promptly died. So more pictures of green lake to come when I go back.

City Center Gates

These are pictures of the three different city Center gates. These are in the pedestrian mall. This area is supposedly safe for pedestrians but I find it questionable with all the scooters zooming through. These pictures are from the first couple of days Matthew and I were in Kunming. The close up on the corner of the gate is off the bell. When it is windy the bells tinkle. It is a really pretty sound. Also in this area there are pansies planted everywhere and it is really very pretty. I think that this may be one of my favorite places in Kunming. I can't say I've been to many yet. I also really liked Green Lake, up by the Universities. Although Matthew and I haven't spent as much time there yet. We only visited once. Right now the City Center is really crowded because everyone is preparing for Spring festival, the Chinese New year. We have heard it will be less crowded later in the year.

Also a small note on the picture of the Toilet sign, this was in the Hump Hostel. It was a joke as they had many funny signs. Like a polar bear which slipped and was on its back as a warning for the wet floor. The bathroom was a shared, except for the toilet area. Matthew and I didn't really use this as we had our own room with a toilet. We had wanted to switch to a room which would have had us using the shared bathroom but they didn't have any available.

The Hump Hostel

These are pictures from the Hump Hostel. Matthew and I stayed there for the first three days. The bright yellow picture is off the wall on the stairs on the way up to the hostel. The hostel was on the third floor above a restaurant and a disco. This did not make for the best sleeping. The pictures of food are a noodle veggie dish, alright, and an Israeli egg dish we had for breakfast. I really liked the Israeli dish. I wish I knew how to make it. Also I included a picture of the city gate at night from the balcony of the hostel. The hostel had a really nice out door area you could sit and eat or just sit and read. I really liked the location of the hostel and the staff at the hostel where also really nice.

Second thoughts on China

Okay so they think that is is bad for your health to swallow phlegm. As you might guess this leads to lots of spitting and hawking of luggies. I don't think I will ever get used to it. As of right now I'm trying really hard not to cringe every time someone spits. There is the perpetual sound of hawking up spit. I think if I had to chose a sound for Kunming it would be that of spiting. Gross, Gross, Gross. I walk on spit everywhere I go. I stepped on one that was still wet yesterday and it was slippery. It was so gross. Even the women spit. I saw one spit and it didn't quite make it out of her mouth so it was just hanging there. Ough!

I'm going to die in China from all the smoke. I've already developed a cough that won't go away. It isn't like I have a cold it is just from all the smoke. That and maybe the dust. I'm so ready to have a place of my own where I can tell people they cannot smoke. Right now I really want to yell or growl at all the people smoking. Matthew says it is a sure way for me to be deported. Well at least I think taken to a crazy house. One begins to wonder if there is real air under all the smoke. I feel like I live in a bar 24/7. Well I haven't been here 7 days yet but long enough to know that they are going to keep smoking even on the weekends.

Kunming, A big city

2-3-2010 Today is our second day in Kunming. Matthew and I are having trouble adjusting to the time change. Yesterday I finally feel asleep at around 9am here. It was hard waking up. Matthew went out to exchange money and I got up and showered. We were hoping we might be able to change rooms. We currently have two twin beds. They are very hard. After the first night sleeping on them and having our bones hurt we put both the matrices on one bed. It helped a little but it was still hard to sleep. We still woke up at around 5 am. We ate danishes, feeding the problem and read some in China A to Z. Yesterday Matthew and I wondered around the safe streets. The ones we could see the hostel from. We didn't stared at as much as we thought we would. That was until we got lunch. Then everyone was looking at us funny. Matthew got more looks than me. Little kids like to point at us. It is kind of amusing. I have been feeling like a giant. I'm taller than a lot of men here. It baffles me. I went from being about average height and really skinny to being bigger than the average. All of the women here, well most of them, ware heels and I'm still taller than them. I'm thinking that if I buy clothes I will be close to a large. For lunch Matthew and I ended up eating at a place called 'My Favorite Restaurant'. It had an ice-cream called Dryer's, a leading American Brand. Dryer's I've never heard of it before? The containers looked like Eddie's and we thought that maybe the name was bad in Chinese so they changed it. After lunch Matthew and I bought water and danishes. Then we went back to the hostel. We were just going to use the internet to try and connect with some people here as we are feeling a little lost. Matthew wants to eat at Pizza hut as he thinks it would be easier. We didn't but we do have a really big language barrier. We ended up taking a nap. Not a short one but a really long nap. We went to sleep around 4 and didn't wake up until way after it was dark. I think it was around 8:30 or 9 when we got up. We ate dinner at the restaurant under our hostel. We didn't really know what we were getting and our waitress spoke some English but not that much. Matthew and I though we were learning Mandarin but we didn't learn enough. We ended up getting a seafood broth which had a whole fish in it. We didn't eat the poor fish. We ordered veggies to put in the broth and we kept trying to put them in but the waitress would come and say not yet. So we waited for the broth to boil. There was a burner build into the table with a propane tank under the table. Our poor waitress had to show us how to do everything. She came and put the veggies in for us and then told us when we could eat. We put potatoes, nappy cabbage, and bean curd noodles in. She thought it was funny at times but I thing she might have found us trying at times. One thing I really can't get used to is all the cigarette smoke. I find it really unpleasant. However unlike the U.S newly smoke free, China likes to smoke. I think if I stay here long enough I'm going to snap and yell at someone for smoking in doors. They smoke everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Today Matthew and I had a good breakfast at the hostel. It saved us from wandering around lost, which we ended up doing later anyway. We had an Israeli egg dish. I really liked it even though the eggs were not scrambled. I normally don't like egg whites. Around noon we left the hostel to go and see what some of the other hostels were like. We started by trying to go to Kunming Coundland International Hostel. We got really lost. On the way there we saw lots and lots of piano stores. They were all next to each other. It was odd seeing all the different brands right next to each other. I found a violin in one of the piano shops. It was really very nice. The sound was good. I would have had trouble tuning it as it didn't have the fine tuners but it played well. It was pretty expensive in comparison to what I wanted to pay. We spent over an hour after we to to the area with the hostel trying to find it before we started asking direction. Even then we had trouble. We finally asked at a bank and then we got some good directions. The hostel was okay but not as nice as the one we were at. Also it was more expensive. We were to tired to look at any of the other hostels. We went to the Carre four to get a transformer for power. Carre four is a french version of Wal Mart. It was overwhelming and we asked but couldn't find a power converter. After all the walking Matthew and I are starting to get a better feel for the city.

First Impressions

Well my first impressions after 22 hours on planes, plus 5 hours in the airports, 1 hour getting through customs: is I just want it to end. That and right out of the airport Matthew almost let us take a taxi that wasn't a real taxi. Way to go. He's going to learn how to stand up for himself pretty fast, though. I said, no. The driver said, he was cheaper but he definitely was not. I'm so tired that on the last plane I was just really glad that we had aisle seats and that there wasn't anybody siting between us so I could take a nap. It was wonderful but not nearly long enough. Everybody here smokes, let me qualify that, all the males smoke. But maybe it is just all the men who are out at 12am or later. Matthew said, they were smoking in the airport bathroom. I wasn't too surprised by that. I was really happy to have made it through the quarantine. We didn't have temperatures and they didn't hold us because we looked like raccoons. I think sleep is going to be good. I'm also really glad I have granola bars right now as we don't have any RMB, the currency here and so we can't buy food. Currently I'm just happy about the little, tiny, shower which is in our room. Matthew and I are staying at a place called the Hump we decided it was called that after we humped our bags up three flights of stairs. I'm considering what I could send home already. Maybe I'll feel differently after some sleep. I just have to tell myself it will get better after sleep. Right now I'm chocking on second hand cigarette smoke and wondering 'whose idea was this anyway?' I can't blame this one on Matthew as it was me who was coming to China no matter what. So here I am. I'll write more when I have regained the meaning of being human. Right now I'm not sure I even exist I still feel like I'm on an airplane.

Leaving for China

Tomorrow morning bright and early Matthew and I are heading to the airport for our flight. I'm all packed and I'm starting to feel like 'was it really my idea to go to China for five months?' I'm not sure it was such a good idea now. I know once I get there I will be really happy to be there and it will be really fun. The last couple of days I've spent saying goodbye to people and packing and cleaning my room from the move back home. It has been hard and yesterday I wasn't sure I was going to get it all done. Today I'm feeling better about that aspect but I'm worried about what's going to happen when I get to China. Everyone I know or have talked to who has been to China have had a wonderful time. Saying goodbye makes it really hard to go. I went over to Papa's, my grandfather, today before I left so that I could say good bye when he was really awake. I told him today if he didn't go south, he doesn't like the cold weather, I'd see him when I get back in June. I really don't know if I will though. That is the hard part about going. I just don't know if I'll see him again or not. The time I have spent with him since he has been back in North Carolina has meant so much to me. There are so many things I didn't know about my grandfather and know that I know him better I'm really going to miss him.

Last night it really started snowing so by the time my parents, Jonpaul and I got back from Papa's it was getting think enough it looked like it might be difficult to get to the airport today. This morning I had to get last minute papers for my Rotary scholarship and graduate school application ready. We took Ruff for his walk around the property in the snow. It was nice to get out one last time in the snow.

When my parents and I left they still hadn't plowed the road we live on. When we got to the main road it was pretty much okay. Getting to Matthew's dad's was a bit dicey as his road wasn't plowed and it was icy. Dad made it though. On the way out we had to get out the kitty litter and spread that so we could get traction. We stopped and had a nice dinner at a Japanese place. It was way to much food but it was good. We did make it to the hotel we are staying at for the night. I'm glad we decided not to try and drive it tomorrow morning that would have been questionable as it is supposed to be cold tonight. I just hope that our flight isn't delayed tomorrow morning.

Matthew running to catch up with the car after we got going again.