Can you really get tired of beaches?...

Today brings us down to speed and I'm getting some, I won't say well needed, relaxation on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. My aunt and uncle have been so kind as to let me spend a week with them. I'll be out trying my best at water sports and getting a slightly darker hue, and trying not to burn.

One of my first orders of business was to buy the new Motion City Soundtrack album. It's been worth the wait to buy and they continue to turn out great music. Go buy the record and support our regional artists.

I also want to report on my dad. It was his birthday yesterday and I talked with him for a while on the phone. He sounds a million times better than when I left the states and I can't wait to get home and see his improvement. Kudos Dad and keep on getting better!

Off to see if there are some waves with my name on them...

I could be Tom Hanks...

Now if you've ever been to the Tokyo Narita airport, you may be able to offer some insight. For my layover in Tokyo, the only option I had was 6 hours because of the flight schedules into Honolulu. So, as I passed through international security again, in my head I said "Man, what am I going to do for 6 hours in Tokyo?" Right behind me, the next thing I heard was "What am I going to do for 6 hours in Tokyo?" This was just too eerie for me not to turn around and ask if this guy was going to Honolulu also. He said that he was and we asked each other what we were going to do. I had no plan as usual, but he was going to spend the time in the NW World Club lounge and offered to take me as well.

This was a very nice gesture which he didn't have to do, so I have to give a big shout out to Brian from Newport Beach for being my savior in Narita. I had some visions of me in the Tom Hanks movie Terminal, but those fortunately didn't have to materialize.

In other random news...since I've been gone, how many times has China been featured on the cover of Time and Newsweek? I've caught the international editions, but the ammount has been strangely more than average lately. Guess that's the price I pay for being ahead of the curve, or something.

Sarah's smelly purse adventure...

(I do advise that no purses were injured in the course of this adventure)

My friend Sarah, well, she loves her purses. It a simple and true fact. So on her first day in China she spotted a Louis Vitton that she fell in love with. Now if you don't know what a Louis Vitton purse is, first of all you're me about a year ago, and second it really doesn't matter save the fact that it's an expensive brand of purse. OK, she saw this purse and I could see in her eyes that it would eventually be hers. And she did go back and buy it.

Sarah was very proud of her purchase and came back to the hotel to show it off. Justin and I were looking at it and one of us made the comment that it smelled like a musty basement. This didn't go over very well, and I could see that Sarah was a bit disappointed. She had bought it at Milan Station which is a glorified second hand store for very name brand merch. The Louis was not much talked about until my last night in HK. We happened to run across another Milan Station in a different area of town. We walked in and started talking about purses with one of the sales clearks and Sarah related her story with one of them. Trying to bridge the language barrier, we started to describe the smell and eventually told him it smelled like fungus. He immediatley offered to help. Sarah near sprinted back to the metro to return to our hotel and get the smelly Louis.

She not only found a better purse than the one she had, but also got an amazing deal on a leather Louis cover for her cheque book. The clerk, Keith, was very helpful when he really didn't have to be. I was impressed by his willingness and even offer to do what he could. We don't know what will become of the smelly Louis, but we do hope that it finds a good home.

And how often do you have two salespeople in a store taking turns sniffing a purse?

Is Hong Kong still part of China?

Yes I do know that it actually is, but it feels as if I'm only halfway out of China. People understand English, well some of the time. However I have no more understanding of Chinese. Here in HK they speak Cantonese and the most widely know example is the part of Wayne's World where Wayne learns Cantonese to talk to Cassandra. Case in point, I really needed a soda and broke down and went to 7-Eleven because we don't have those in ND and it was the closest thing I could find. I knew the girl at the counter was asking me if I had smaller change, but the words coming out of her mouth were nothing I've ever heard before. The other checker kindly yelled at me "It's six ninety!" I went out of there very disappointed as now I"m back to square one and don't even know numbers.

HK is still a neat city. We are staying on Honk Kong Island, where much of the scenic buildings are. The skyline is different from Shanghai as it is not a bizarre combination of extremes, but rather a classic city scape. The left behind traveling crew, with my friend Sarah as our new addition, went to Kowloon to see the sights. The best vantage point is from the Avenue of Stars, simiar to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood but with the glitz and neon that only China can make work.They love Jackie Chan, as he came from HK, but many other stars are featured.

Another great sight was the view from Victoria Peak. It's about an 8 minute ride, but the roller coaster feeling is a bit overwhealming at times. To give you an idea, it goes up at a 27 degree angle. It was a bit cloudy when we did it, but being able to be well above the skyscrapers was a unique experience.

I'm also glad to report that my dad is doing much better and I can't wait to talk to him soon! I don't know if I'll make another post here in HK, but starting Thursday I'll be available on my cell phone.

Can anyone tell me what kind of dammage there was from the wind storm? It made CNN.com and just would like to know what in the sam hill is going on.

I'm off into the Chinese monsoon season. Stay dry.

A slow boat to China...

Travel tip: Knowing when people are trying to screw you is key. If you suspect it, take their picture in case the police need it later.

Also, a shout out to my new friend Johnas who should be in Vietnam by now on his way to a much needed rest on the beaches of Thailand. So jealous!

I had a beautiful cruise on the Li River yesterday. The classical landscape is amazing and I am so glad that I came to the Guilin area. I showed up at 8am to catch my bus to the boat cruise and I noticed another westerner was signing up to go. Being the shy wallflower that I am, we struck up a conversation. Johnas is from Sweeden and traveling after completing his military service. He was certainly a chatty Kathy and I don't think he stopped talking all day.

To give you an idea of what the mountains look like, picture a flat plain. Then add the type of rolling yet separate hills that you may have drawn as a child. Sort of like that yeah. There are not really valleys as the spaces between hills are flat like North Dakota. Now also picture them covered in green. This includes all kinds of vegetation, trees, shrubs, and so on.

To be sure that I was still in China, people never stop trying to sell you something. We were looking at the scenery from the observation deck of the ship and I saw two men on a "boat" four bamboo polls wide that was coming dangerously close to our boat, but they didn't seem worried. Figuring this happens all the time and ends in near misses, I waited for the boat to be left in our wake. Instead, I never saw it in the back. The two men had latched onto our tour boat and were hawking lumps of crystal a jade carvings. One man was even selling to the top deck by standing on the lower deck railing with only his toes. I was amazed and went to the otherside of the boat to avoid their calls to buy junk.

At this point you're wondering: Where did today's travel tip come from? Yes you are observant. Before we got on the boat, the lady tour guide who only spoke Chinese told me that there would only be one ticket for myself and Johnas. This was not true as all the Chinese people on the tour had already gotten their tickets. I stood at the boat entrance and would not move until she gave us both tickets. After watching her scurry around, magically another ticket appeared. Johnas had taken a picture just in case we would have needed to talk to any authorities. Things ended quite fine.

Who knew...

Yeah, so I'm now remembering back to my ECHT days that where there are back packers there will always be e-mail.

Today's travel tip: When going to a new city (one that speaks something other than your first language especially) always have the name and address of your hotel. Sometime vague directions just don't do the trick.

As much as I don't want it to, many members of my family can now brace themselves for needless worrying. I am traveling by myself. I'm fine, nothing bad has happened, DO NOT worry. That being said, in a country of 1.4 million people can you really be alone? On the train from from Shanghai to Guilin I was adopted by the Chinese woman in the opposing bunk. She showed me what to eat when we hopped off the train and helped me find my hostel when all seemed to be close to getting out of hand. She even left her phone number in case I needed anything else while I'm here in Guilin. Today's props go to Michele, you rock and saved me from excessively needless embarrassment.

That being said, where I'm staying is pretty nice considering some of the places I stayed in Europe (Milan, you are still on my hit list). It's close to the train and bus station and no problems thus far.

Today's adventure was to the Longji terrace. This is a place populated by the Miao minority and their main ways of life are crafts, rice farming in a place that makes me dizzy, and living in amazingly crafted houses. The drive up to the top of this mountain was pretty hairy for the fact that I'm really not one for heights. Once up near the top, I climbed farther on a carefully constructed stone path that would wobble at just the most inopportune times. I watched a man plow a rice terrace with a plow drawn by an ox. These are on a mountainside so they can't be more than 5 feet wide at best. Try as I might, there was no explaining to my satisfaction how they got up there with an ox and how they both were getting down.

I stopped for lunch while I was there and ate with some Miao women. I am about 5'5" and I felt like I was a giant for the first time, save being around kindergarteners. They asked me all kinds of questions and were very impressed when I told them my parents are farmers but not quite like the Miao are. When asked what we grow, I realized I do not have the words in Chinese. I pantomimed an ear of corn and pretended to eat it. This definitely got the point across. I told them that I could never be a rice farmer in the mountains because I would be afraid of falling down. They laughed at this and I told them where I come from does not have mountains and is very flat. They couldn't even imagine that. (The whole lunch and talking was conducted in Chinese only.)

Tomorrow I head for a Li River cruise. Despite all the news of flooding, I have heard nothing of it here even from the locals. It seems to be in the surrounding provinces only.

Aunt Barb- In answer to your question Oh Yeah there are mosquitoes in China. My arms are living proof. I've not had this many mosquito bites since I got stuck up on the roof at home watching fireworks. I'm getting excited for Hong Kong next, but there are still more mountains to see.

Good bye Shanghai...

Well this one is actually in real time. I've been going back to update the days I've missed, but this one is the real deal. Yesterday a majority of the group went back to North Dakota leaving only 4 of us to stay another day in this Number One city. I spent yesterday just relaxing and taking more time to see funny signs and take pictures of them. Including the MaoFC, a funny restaurant I just couldn't bring myself to eat at. I was finally able to see people painting calligraphy in the park with brushes and water. Thank goodness for small wonders that it must have been my time to see it. We visited the biggest mall I've seen in a long time and because I packed my dress shoes, went on a mission to find some. Not realizing that 9.5 is an unheard of size in China, I left feeling pretty down.

About two blocks from our hotel, I was half spaced out as usual when out of nowhere I spotted a small shoe shop. It was about the size of 1/3 of a UND dorm room and the shopkeeper was (to me at least) shouting at the other man in the store. This snapped me back into focus as I needed to realize 2 things: 1- This guy is Shanghainese and this is a normal volume level. 2- When I began to try on shoes, sitting on a stool brought me to his eye level. I bought a nice pair of shoes for about $8 USD and this small man saved the day. He even gave me a discount without me even asking, telling me that shoes on the close by shopping street (Huahai Lu) were too high and he was glad that I bought from him instead.

This morning I said goodbye to the last of my group that remained as they headed off to the airport at 6:30am. Yeesh, I'm glad I don't have to do that for about 2 more weeks. I leave at 5pm for Guilin. It is in south eastern China and is in the mountains. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in China, and I'm on a mission to find it out first hand.

Don't know if I'll be able to access the web there, so if you don't hear from me I'll be in HK on June 18th.

I do also want to let everyone know how happy I am to hear that my dad is doing amazingly better than when I left in May. He's back in Northwood, able to be off the vent for large periods of time, and even goes driving around with my mom (although I'm pretty sure he's not doing the driving). Please give him a hug from me if you see him and tell him to keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing you back in better health, because we all know that "normal" is a very relative tearm in our family. I miss you and love you all.

Now I'm going to get on a train for 26 hours and see if I don't go stir crazy. As always, more to come...

Fashionista in training...

Before we get started today, a little business. If anyone has tried to contact me at my UND address please send anything to shanna_gratton@hotmail.com. For some reason the UND one is not getting through here in China and I haven't been able to access the info that I have stored there. Big pain I know, but such is China.

Now for the fun...
China--Land of Name Brands and low prices. I have been spending way too much time at Xiang Yang. The bargaining portion has been way too fun, and you don't want to disappoint them buy going through all that work and not buying. I for the first time actually care about names and have a little fun with it at the same time. The same goes with clothes. I picked up my custom tailored suit last week along with many others in the group. Being our last night in Shanghai, several of us got dressed up in our suits and walked around our hotel's campus taking pictures. There were 4 of us in dark suits, but the members of Team Extreeeeem put out the vibe in brilliant white. Although I felt like I was going to be on The Apprentice, it was pretty funny.

Shanghai Shortz...

Some may say that Shanghai is a place of high fashion. Our group did their absolute best to knock that down a peg last night. After going out for supper, Hayley stopped at one of the many convenience stores and spotted some colorful underwear. Her moment of brilliance came "Shanghai Shorts!" This may be the coolest thing to ever happen to Shanghai.

With many colors including blue, yellow, pink, and I believe orange, we rocked our hotel. Our teacher happened to come by and we took a group picture and were sure to show off the fact we all had the words Shanghai Shortz including the Chinese characters for Shanghai on our behinds.

Events like this never seem to happen with out libations, and some where in the night we ran out. Ben and John being the brave souls they were went out in their Shanghai Shorts to help keep the festive mood alive.

The highlights of wearing a pair of Shanghai Shorts include not being able to tell the front from the back (hence the writing) and they come in all different sizes, but are labeled the same. I wish I could figure out how to post pictures (a little bit hard when most of the computer commands are in Chinese) but will be posting them when I get back to the states.

Motion City Soundtrack

Hey the album "Commit this to Memory" comes out today. If you've even heard me talking about these guys, you should buy the album. The fact is that I'm not going to be able to wait until I hit ND to buy it and must find a CD store in Hawaii that will carry it.

Never mind that. They're from Minneapolis, I've got some six degrees of separation connection with them, and I've had their first album on permanant rotation for 2 years. That's saying something, especially if a record can hold my attention for that long. If you want to try before you buy check them out at www.purevolume.com and as of right now they are the featured artist. If you hit the site later, just search.

Now, shhhh, Just go.

Le French, le suck...

If one more of my posts gets eaten by the computer I'm gonna scream. So we had to move hotels today because of a French medical conference. I am sure there are nice people from France, but they just keep irritating me.

One of the big issues here in China is intellectual property rights. They seem to be cleaning things up, or giving it minimal lip service. This follows each guidebook telling travelers to check out Xiangyang market, or as we say the Knock-off Market. You can buy nearly any name brand shirt, pants, sunglasses, watch, purse or whatever you want. They will assure you it is of the highest quality no matter how blazingly fake it is. My favorite line is "Please look. Genuine Fake." That's honestly in a sales pitch.

But don't get me wrong, the Chinese are doing everything they can to stop this. For example at one of the entrances to Xiangyang there are many huge banners with helpful tips like "Be a responsible consumer" and "Respect intellectual property." This is followed by 6-8 Chinese people yelling at you "Lady wanna buy purse? Louis Vitton, Prada, Gucci. How about buy watch? Rollex. Very cheap, Lookie Lookie!" It's definitely a sight and worth the humor if you can stand being accosted the entire time you are there.

My favorite of these entrepreneurs is the DVD sellers. They are very aggressive and want you to come and look at their wares in a store backroom, warehouse, or suitcase on the street. The big controversy is when you could buy the new Star Wars III the day after it was released for about $1 US. But buying all kinds of DVDs for cheap has it's drawbacks. I like to call it DVD Roulette. There are several options for what you may get:
1. It plays.
2. It doesn't play because of region restrictions.
3. It plays, but it cuts out in the last 5 minutes.
4. It's in a language you don't speak.
5. It's a completely different movie that what was said.

All in all, it's a fun game and even if it doesn't play, you can still read the back covers. They are the beauty of mistranslation.

Firecracker lightning...

It finally happened. I found something that I honestly like about Shanghai, fan dancing. Nearly every morning I've been doing it and I'm so glad that my friends and I were able to jump right in.

Here's how things work. I China there's not such thing as Social Security. Combine this with the fact that retirement age is 50 for women and 55 for men. Some retire earlier because of state owned enterprises shutting down. You're 50 years old and retired now what? Well, the Chinese also pride themselves in physical fitness and having a lot of parks and green spaces in Shanghai. In the park near me, Fuxing (pronounced foo-shing) Park, there is a huge community of people doing ballroom dancing, tai chi, badminton, and kung fu fan just to name a few. I watched the first day and knew immediately that I wanted to do that. Two of the other girls, Amiee and Sara, bought us all fans and we've been going nearly every morning.

We were a bit nervous at first, but have caught on quickly and the other people doing gongfu fan have really enjoyed having us. I've been practically shoved up to the front of the group to learn things, and the teacher Yue Laoshi had been giving us private lessons after the regular class concludes.

You can't live without music...

Just wanted to let everyone know what I've been listening to since I pretty much live my life around music. Every time I leave on a major trip like this, I try to grab a random smattering of what might be good with the scenery that I'll see. The list goes as follows:

Zero 7 - Simple Things I brought this to fall alseep to or meditate, and as always Zero 7 never lets me down.

The Academy is... - Almost Here This album has been on permanent rotation since I bought it in April. It's got some catchy beats, but mostly impressed with the lyrics. A great first album from these guys, and I'm very trusting of things that come off Fueled by Ramen.

Less Than Jake - Losing Streak Always a classic and I have rediscovered it in the last few months.

Fallout Boy - Under the Cork Tree You really never know how a band will do on their sophomore album, but even with their peculiar and long song titles (Our Lawyer Made us change the name of this song so we wouldn't get sued and Get busy living or get busing dying)
I think it's a great power pop album for this summer.

But most importantly, Motion City Soundtrack is coming out with a new album June 7 and from what I've heard through purevolume.com and at some of their recent live shows, I can't wait to buy it when I get back stateside.

Eating without chopsticks...

So I'm seeing that China has a tale of two cities like any other country. Russia has Moscow and St. Petersburg, America has New York and LA, and my latest conquest Beijing and Shanghai. Now they both do have their benefits, but as is the case, people have their favorites. This is no secret to some people in my group: I'm not especially fond of Shanghai. It's a nice city, very modern, but it could be any other big city. This is the reason that I have not included much information about some of the sights I have seen. The thing that has bothered me the most is that, through my own choices, I've not eaten at as many true Chinese places.

Case in point, our outing to the Brazilian Steakhouse. While this was a reasonably priced meal, more meat than I've ever seen/eaten in one setting, and there were at least 2 servers that could have actually been from Brazil, I forgot that I was in China. I do give the restaurant high marks for creativity and flair. Never before in my life have I had two people cutting meat of a two foot skewer and letting it drop right to my plate. Some of the meat was identifiable (duck, bacon wrapped chicken, roast beef) and some was not (there was this rare meat that melted in one's mouth) but they were all amazing. There was even a French fry man if you did not have time between meat on a stick guys to make it to the buffet. Oh yes, there was also a buffet.

Food is always a great adventure and what each person's favorites turn out to be are a fun and interesting thing to find out. I never though that I would like green tea, but my beverage of choice (besides Tsing Tao beer) is a sweet green tea drink. There's going to be a suitcase full of it if I have my way. We are debating weather it will be available in the States, but I'd have to pay $2 as opposed to the 20 cents that I'm paying for a bottle now. There is also a small food shop that has some amazing little bread ball dumplings with meat in the center. I stop every time I go to the Metro no matter what the time of day.

The most disgusting thing that I've eaten thus far isn't really that bad, it's just strange. Earlier this week one of my friends was making a trip to the convenience store. I didn't want to go, so I have him money and clear instructions on what I wanted. He came back with an ice cream bar as I had asked but not the brand I was looking for. Thinking that ice cream was ice cream, I looked at the wrapper and noticed that there was a picture of what appeared to be potatoes. These days one sees many strange things on packaging so I opened it up and took a bite. If you ever wondered if frozen chocolate covered mashed potatoes were a good idea, this girl can assure you that no really it's not. The infernal thing was passed around and everyone agreed that it did indeed smell like potatoes. It went straight to the garbage and I went to the store to get the one I wanted.