Xizhou

My teacher made me write it, but I didn't know I would post it.  Just random thoughts, nothing special.  

We are now here in Xizhou.   I like being back, even though it's raining and we can't go anywhere.  Quick recap of what has happened.  I've been watching the Indiana Jones series; it's great.  We have no school books, so we do everything on the Internet.  We had a massive Uno battle yesterday.  It lasted 2 hours, yet no one emerged the victor.  We also went to Dali, the town 15 miles away from us.  We stocked up on bread, sweets, more DVDs and computer games.  I was pretty happy the rest of the day.  Right after this we will play Dogopoly,  a dog version of Monopoly.  Tomorrow we have no school because we're going back to Kunming.  Hooray!!

Kunming

The flight to Kunming was tolerable, except that our chairs couldn't recline and the food tasted like rubber and that halfway through Indiana Jones our computer decided to take a nap because it can't last longer than an hour on the lowest brightness setting.  We seemed to be carrying some "Portable Bad Weather in a Can" because it was raining in Kunming too.  

Our hotel was actually an apartment building that was being rented out as an hotel.  The designers or the room apparently thought it would be a good idea if they used glass instead of concrete as a wall for the shower.  That's when we thought of a new phrase: "It's China."  Things in China don't always make sense, such as a bootleg DVD store (my favorite one) next to a police station.  So if someone asks about how they can get away with that, we just answer, "It's China."  We have now officially adopted those words as our official catch-phrase.  

After we got settled down in our apartment/hotel room, Peter just could not resist the temptation of 1 dollar DVDs (at my favorite DVD store).  We went on a shopping spree and have accumulated: the complete seasons of Lost, all the episodes of Seinfeld, every James Bond movie, and a DVD titled, "20 of the Best War Movies Ever Made."  I think that's enough for around 3 years (give or take a few months).  

After being back in the fresh air of Yunnan, I started to feel better despite the rain.  Kunming is a big city, but with significantly less people and pollution then Beijing.  It still has its fair share of traffic though (I hate traffic), so I was thrilled to finally go back to our house in (traffic-less) Xizhou.  

Plane Ride/ Beijing

This plane ride to China was probably the easiest (after all, it was my 5th time).  I was with my mom, brother, Peter (my home school teacher) and Adrian (a friend of our parents who works with us and has been to China with us before).  I was glad that the plane was a 777, thus having screens on the back of every seat which allowed you to watch whatever (bad) movie you wanted.  One of the movies on the plane was Hancock, in which a troubled man with super powers (Will Smith) gets help from a failing business man.  I gave it an "okay" because it strayed too far from its original storyline.  The rest of the time I switched between playing with my Nintendo DS, listening to music, and reading 1984.  Since we left at noon, and the plane ride was 13 hours, we would arrive at 1 am Wisconsin time but 3 pm China time.  

The weather in Beijing was horrible, absolutely horrible.  Smog filled the air and I whenever I took a deep breath, I started coughing.  We conveniently started driving at rush hour, making our car ride an hour long.  Once I saw my bed I wanted to crash since I was so tired.  My parents thought differently though.  They made me to walk all the way across the street to eat.  I can't remember what we ate that night, only that it contained tofu, lots and lots of tofu.  In China people pick out individual dishes, for example tofu, and when the food comes, they set it in the middle of the table for people to pick whatever they want.  That way, no one gets too much and there is a bit more variety then mashed potatoes and steak.  

We stayed in Beijing for three more days, which which were full of pollution, traffic and nothingness.  After those three days, I've decided I don't like Beijing that much.  That being said, I was glad to be on the plane back to the fresh air and blue skies of Yunnan.

From Wisconsin to China

Leaving my house in Door County, WI, was surprisingly easy.  I was feeling excited, nervous and sad at the same time.  I couldn't wait to get to China and see our house, A.K.A. The Linden Center.  Our "house" is a cultural retreat in which people can go there to take educational courses. (Full info on lindensgallery.com)  

Packing wasn't as bad as it could have been; I just grabbed everything in my dresser and threw it in my suitcase.  I made sure I had my MP3 player, lucky socks and mint chocolate bars.  I love mint chocolate bars.  We left for Madison on October 20 and the next day, after a tearful goodbye from my Grandma, boarded our plane to China.  

Back at Xizhou

This is my first blog!  Hooray!  The reason for writing this blog is because I'm being forced to by my teacher, Peter.  We've arrived in Xizhou, but I will start by recounting the events that led up to us being here.