Suzhou

                We left this morning and went to Suzhou first on our agenda was to see the humble administrators garden. Yes it was a beautiful garden and there was lots of stuff crammed into the 5.2 hectares that the garden covered. After going to the Humble Administrator’s garden we all went to another garden, then we ate lunch and after that we went to a silk factory and saw how silk is made. At the end of the silk factory there was a store with silk products, I bought a scarf and then we went back to the dorm.

Calligraphy

                Today we went to Dr. Chen’s cousin or something like that and we had a meeting with him and he lectured us on Chinese calligraphy because he is a famous calligrapher. We learned all about the various things that he does and the different arts and styles behind calligraphy. He also wrote 1 character for each one of us. Lots of fun, I only fell asleep once.

Beijing Day 5

Today we went to the PaJiaYuan market and the silk market which was lots of fun I was able to haggle items down and bought an ivory chess set. At lunch we went to eat peking duck and it was great. Tonight we also flew back down to shanghai and the dorms.

Beijing Day 4

Today we went to the summer palace and the birds nest. I had not yet been to the summer palace so that was very interesting. There was lots of traffic in Beijing today, not that there isn’t every other day. While on our trip to the summer palace another girl got her ATM card stuck in a ATM card I really have no idea how they do it. I mean you put your card in and all you have to do is take when it spits it back out, but that was okay. Later while at the summer palace we went through the long corridor or hallway I do not know the English translation but it is something along the lines of that. After going through the long hallway we went on a boat ride on one of the dragon boats which hold about 40 people this was lots of fun because there was a tour group from Greece on the boat with us and they brought a boom box, like a full sized boom box, and had a kind of dance party thing and it was really funny to see that in China. The birds nest was nothing to write home about.

Beijing Day 3

Today we woke up early and went to the Great wall. More specifically we went to the MutianWu section which is known for its beauty and lack of tourists it is approx. 3 hours away from beijing so it is less crowded than the Badaling section which is closer to the city. despite the fact that it was raining actually pouring all day and one girl had an asthma attack and had to go to the hospital, we all had a great time i think. i was sick yesterday so that is why i skipped that day.

Day 1 in beijing

Today we woke up early around 5:00 and brought our belongings to chris the TAs room to store it while we were in beijing. we left the dorm at 6 and arrived at the airport at around 7:30 we checked in our luggage and ran to our gate to barelyt get there in time for our 8:00 boarding time. we arrived in beijing and we went direectly to the Temple of heavan which was exhausting. our flight was originally going to get there sooner but due to weather and various problems we got there late so we were unable to go to WangFuQin street or some other places and this set off our whole schedule but after temple of Heaven we went to our hotel which was 5 stars and very very nice.

Consulate

Today i got to school a bit earlier so that i could pick up my text book which i had copied. after that i went to class and we learned some new stuff and we sang some songs towards the end i also learned that we were going to go to the consulate general to meet some people. so that was cool i ate lunch and then at 1 we all got on the bus and met some other state department group from chicago, and we went to t he consulate but of course i just heard this so i was forced to wear very informal dress. in any case it was not too big of a deal because i was sitting next to some kids from chicago and it made me feel over dressed in a t-shirt. anyway still have alot of homework every night :(

Independence Day

We had lots of fun today first we had a test in the morning then we learned taichi at culture class then we went out to eat and had Chinese food and went shopping at a really big mall

Shanghai Expo 2010

[11:46:41 AM] John Santolucito: ill just write to u about it
[11:46:46 AM] John Santolucito: okay here it goes
[11:46:49 AM] Mark Santolucito: ya
[11:47:01 AM] John Santolucito: i got up early like 6:15 and then studied cause i got the test tommorrow
[11:47:05 AM] Mark Santolucito: you can do a condensed version if you want
[11:47:08 AM] John Santolucito: and then i ate breakfst
[11:47:20 AM] John Santolucito: and then i walked to the school
[11:47:30 AM] John Santolucito: and i noticed i forgot my camera so that sucked
[11:47:36 AM] John Santolucito: and i didnt have tome to go back
[11:47:42 AM] John Santolucito: so i didnt get any pictures
[11:47:44 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh thats to bad
[11:47:48 AM] John Santolucito: and then we got on the bus
[11:47:53 AM] John Santolucito: and we went to the expo
[11:48:01 AM] John Santolucito: we waited an hour to buy tickets
[11:48:08 AM] Mark Santolucito: i thought you already had ti
[11:48:10 AM] John Santolucito: then w waited 2 hrs in security
[11:48:10 AM] Mark Santolucito: x
[11:48:24 AM] John Santolucito: we had reserv to buy tickets
[11:48:30 AM] John Santolucito: so wwe didnt have to wit as long
[11:48:30 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh
[11:48:37 AM] Mark Santolucito: wow
[11:48:41 AM] John Santolucito: and thenwwe went to us pavillion
[11:48:45 AM] John Santolucito: we had vip
[11:48:51 AM] John Santolucito: so we didnt have to wait in line
[11:48:54 AM] John Santolucito: it was good
[11:49:14 AM] John Santolucito: but the pavilion was all about americans being idiots and not being able to speak chinese
[11:49:18 AM] John Santolucito: and it sucked
[11:49:27 AM] Mark Santolucito: hahahah
[11:49:27 AM] John Santolucito: but there were 4 videos
[11:49:36 AM] Mark Santolucito: videos?
[11:49:39 AM] John Santolucito: that was just the first 3
[11:49:43 AM] John Santolucito: like movies
[11:49:55 AM] John Santolucito: four imax movie theaters u go through
[11:50:06 AM] Mark Santolucito: wow cool
[11:50:08 AM] John Santolucito: but they have speakers like omni theater and
[11:50:13 AM] John Santolucito: artificial sun
[11:50:17 AM] John Santolucito: and artificial rain
[11:50:22 AM] John Santolucito: and all that stuff
[11:50:24 AM] Mark Santolucito: wow!
[11:50:25 AM] Mark Santolucito: thats sick
[11:50:27 AM] John Santolucito: to recreate weather
[11:50:39 AM] John Santolucito: so i got soaked wen it rained in the fourth movie
[11:50:48 AM] Mark Santolucito: hahah
[11:50:56 AM] Mark Santolucito: how long were they?
[11:50:56 AM] John Santolucito: and then i bought two t shirts for u and bill
[11:51:02 AM] John Santolucito: likd 20 min ea
[11:51:05 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh cool thanks
[11:51:12 AM] John Santolucito: we wait in lin like 5 min
[11:51:19 AM] John Santolucito: normally is like 4-5 hrs
[11:51:25 AM] Mark Santolucito: wow!
[11:51:29 AM] Mark Santolucito: you got really lucky then
[11:51:32 AM] John Santolucito: anyway then we went to the china pavilion
[11:51:38 AM] John Santolucito: it was rlly good
[11:51:44 AM] Mark Santolucito: how much were these tix?
[11:51:44 AM] John Santolucito: amazing rlly
[11:51:48 AM] John Santolucito: idk
[11:51:53 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh
[11:51:55 AM] John Santolucito: 300 RMB last sunmmer
[11:51:59 AM] Mark Santolucito: what wsa at the china pavillion
[11:52:06 AM] Mark Santolucito: how much is that
[11:52:08 AM] John Santolucito: alot of cool stuff
[11:52:18 AM] John Santolucito: Dr. Chen said i should talk to some chinese people
[11:52:25 AM] Mark Santolucito: ha
[11:52:27 AM] Mark Santolucito: awesoem
[11:52:30 AM] Mark Santolucito: he must like you
[11:52:31 AM] John Santolucito: so i talked to every chinese person that we stopped by
[11:52:32 AM] John Santolucito: in line
[11:52:35 AM] Mark Santolucito: haha
[11:52:42 AM] John Santolucito: cause we waited in line 4 hrs
[11:52:43 AM] Mark Santolucito: were they surprised
[11:52:47 AM] John Santolucito: to get into china pavilion
[11:52:50 AM] John Santolucito: ya ther were
[11:52:52 AM] Mark Santolucito: what i thought you had vip
[11:53:01 AM] John Santolucito: well we got into china pavilion like 30 min
[11:53:06 AM] Mark Santolucito: ya?
[11:53:16 AM] John Santolucito: but then we had to wait to get into elevator
[11:53:20 AM] John Santolucito: but watec
[11:53:35 AM] Mark Santolucito: so you waited 3.5 hrs for an elevator?
[11:53:36 AM] John Santolucito: and then we saw all kinds of cool sstuff
[11:53:40 AM] John Santolucito: umm ya
[11:53:42 AM] Mark Santolucito: like tech stuff
[11:53:45 AM] John Santolucito: there was like 10000 ppl
[11:53:50 AM] Mark Santolucito: !
[11:53:51 AM] John Santolucito: waiting in lin
[11:53:55 AM] Mark Santolucito: !!!
[11:54:03 AM] John Santolucito: 700k to 1m ppl come every day
[11:54:09 AM] Mark Santolucito: wowo!
[11:54:14 AM] John Santolucito: ya alot of ppl
[11:54:16 AM] Mark Santolucito: thats crazy
[11:54:20 AM] John Santolucito: more than the pop of boston
[11:54:26 AM] Mark Santolucito: do you go back again
[11:54:32 AM] John Santolucito: no
[11:54:36 AM] John Santolucito: very very expensive
[11:54:41 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh
[11:54:48 AM] Mark Santolucito: how much is 300 RMB
[11:54:53 AM] John Santolucito: like more than 150 USD to get in now
[11:55:08 AM] John Santolucito: 300 RMB was 1 year advance to get reservation to buy the ticket
[11:55:16 AM] John Santolucito: 300 rmb is like $50
[11:55:27 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh to reserve for this year
[11:55:30 AM] Mark Santolucito: wow
[11:55:31 AM] John Santolucito: ya
[11:55:53 AM] John Santolucito: anyway then it was like 1630
[11:56:02 AM] Mark Santolucito: haha
[11:56:08 AM] John Santolucito: so we were told we had 430 hr freetime
[11:56:15 AM] Mark Santolucito: awesome!
[11:56:22 AM] Mark Santolucito: whatd you do
[11:56:26 AM] John Santolucito: so i went to greece pavilion first
[11:56:32 AM] John Santolucito: rlly cool i got suvlaki
[11:56:35 AM] John Santolucito: lamb
[11:56:40 AM] John Santolucito: good stuff
[11:56:50 AM] Mark Santolucito: does each country have one
[11:56:54 AM] John Santolucito: yes
[11:56:59 AM] John Santolucito: then i went to italy
[11:57:05 AM] John Santolucito: i got pasta for dinner
[11:57:09 AM] Mark Santolucito: awesome
[11:57:12 AM] John Santolucito: well first dinner
[11:57:14 AM] Mark Santolucito: did they all have tech
[11:57:15 AM] John Santolucito: penne
[11:57:21 AM] John Santolucito: well its tech
[11:57:27 AM] John Santolucito: but more so culture
[11:57:30 AM] John Santolucito: like
[11:57:37 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh cool like the world fair i guess
[11:57:40 AM] John Santolucito: they show their country culture
[11:57:45 AM] John Santolucito: it is the world fair
[11:57:50 AM] John Santolucito: they renamed it
[11:57:55 AM] Mark Santolucito: oh
[11:57:57 AM] Mark Santolucito: awesome
[11:58:05 AM] John Santolucito: now its
[11:58:09 AM] John Santolucito: Exposition
[11:58:11 AM] John Santolucito: ???
[11:58:20 AM] John Santolucito: not rlly sure where they got that name
[11:58:23 AM] Mark Santolucito: haha
[11:58:23 AM] John Santolucito: but anyway
[11:58:33 AM] John Santolucito: after italy i went to Luxembourg
[11:58:38 AM] John Santolucito: kinda dumb
[11:58:45 AM] John Santolucito: they prtty much said
[11:58:45 AM] Mark Santolucito: haha
[11:58:52 AM] John Santolucito: we r the richest country in the world
[11:59:17 AM] John Santolucito: and we made our pavilion out of this extremely expensive steel
[11:59:21 AM] John Santolucito: cause we are so rich
[11:59:28 AM] Mark Santolucito: hahaa
[11:59:32 AM] John Santolucito: and we can afford to not recycle
[11:59:42 AM] John Santolucito: pretty funny
[11:59:47 AM] Mark Santolucito: haha awesome
[12:00:00 PM] John Santolucito: i got a sample of this like steak wrapped in potato stuff
[12:00:05 PM] John Santolucito: pretty good
[12:00:09 PM] Mark Santolucito: from lux
[12:00:14 PM] John Santolucito: ya
[12:00:19 PM] Mark Santolucito: cool
[12:00:27 PM] John Santolucito: keep in mind i have to wait along time to get into these places
[12:00:39 PM] John Santolucito: like 1 hr+
[12:00:42 PM] John Santolucito: wa
[12:00:42 PM] Mark Santolucito: is it mostly chinese
[12:00:44 PM] John Santolucito: ea
[12:00:50 PM] John Santolucito: 85% or more
[12:00:56 PM] Mark Santolucito: coo
[12:01:16 PM] John Santolucito: all the while when i was in line i was talking chinese with families and introducing myseld
[12:01:31 PM] John Santolucito: and all that stuff
[12:01:40 PM] Mark Santolucito: awesome
[12:01:49 PM] John Santolucito: so i went from the extreme wealth of Lux
[12:02:00 PM] John Santolucito: to the africa pavilion which was just depressing
[12:02:14 PM] John Santolucito: like
[12:02:17 PM] Mark Santolucito: haha
[12:02:59 PM] John Santolucito: i cant believe lux is spending so much money while the african countries all had like little huts the size of idk my room
[12:03:06 PM] John Santolucito: and were selling trinkets
[12:03:08 PM] John Santolucito: for money
[12:03:19 PM] Mark Santolucito: huh
[12:03:36 PM] John Santolucito: lux spend 1b+ on their building
[12:03:41 PM] Mark Santolucito: wow
[12:03:44 PM] John Santolucito: ya
[12:03:53 PM] Mark Santolucito: and africa is starving
[12:03:57 PM] Mark Santolucito: crazy
[12:03:57 PM] John Santolucito: yup

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
i wrote a fricking book about today i spent 2 hours and now its all wasted and it got deleted and i dont think im ever going to write on this blog again but everyone plz write there name and adress so i can write them a postcard

Bamboo Mat

Today i woke about at the regular time about 6:30 laid in bed till 7:00 took a shower then ate breakfast. my breakfast consisted of the usual rice milk, kinda wierd, mantou with some vegetable dish and this like big bun filled with noodles and vegetables actually pretty good. after that i wrote in my journal and then left for school around 8:30. it only takes me maybe 20 min to get to school walking but i like to be early and i wanted to look at some bamboo mats for my bed because it makes it cooler. i didnt see one that i liked but i figured i would have more time to look in the afternoon so it was ok. we had classes and we spent half the day reviewing so that was good. and i was able to catch up a little bit. after that we went and ate lunch which was actually not very good but i figured that was okay because i knew that at night my host family would give me lots of food. after lunch we had culture class and we talked about US China relationships currently and historically. after culture class we had tutor groups during which time we reviewed the idioms hat we need to know for our strive for excellence groups. after that we had buddy activities which i think are a waste of time but we were able to hear our tutors sing the chinese national anthem which was nice and we sang our anthem for them due to the closeness of independence day in the states. on my way home i bought a bamboo mat and we had an enourmas feast for dinner. halfway through dinner my host family came in to our home and brought red bayberrys which were very very tasty after that i had to do homework.

Classes :(

we had classes today :( but i have noticed alot of different things with my host family. For example i have noticed that while my host family has an A.C. a dishwasher a plasma screen TV fans and many other luxuries they are rarely used. It is as though they have them to well... have them so they can say i have A.C. but it is never used. it is very odd. They also have many very old books that are in a bookcase none of which are suppose to be taken out. although my host father did take out a book and allowed me to read it. it was very interesting it is about how to act in america and all about american customs and manners and how to act around americans. it is like a guide to americans for chinese people. very good read i am a little overwhelmed with the workload ,of the classes, though.

Yu Gardens, Pearl tower and Sun Yat-Sen's residence

Today we all gathered at the botttom floor of the compound at 8:00. we all met and walked to the front gate of East China Normal University together. We got there around 8:30 and waited under a bus stop place because it was raining so hard. at 845 we all went into the bus that had just arrived. after that we all went to the Pearl tower first and i enjoyed it alot i like the glass floor the most. then we went to the yu gardens and ate lunch after that we were allowed to shop at which time i purchased some small items for my family members, which i later found out i was ripped of for but i dont i feel it was worth it and i learned a lesson from it so i will not let is ruin my trip then we went to sun yat-sens residence he was the "george washington of China's history" then we went and ate dinner and watched an amazing acrobatics show.

Moving into Home stay

First of all i skipped a few days just because there is so much going on here. I get lots of work and i had a test yesterday.
Everything that was really important happened at 1:00 so i will start my day there. at 1:00 we had a meeting about our host families and what we should anticipate we were told all about how we need to respect Chinese culture and about when to give gifts and such, nobody was really listeneing though because we were all so excited for the host family activities. after that got over it was about 1:45 and we were told to go take a nap or something until 2:30 when we were going to be assigned to our home-stay families. this made it more difficult for them to do the presentation. so they went over a few minutes which made everybody even more anxious. after that we filed in and formed up a line and all the males were called out first which was made especially awkward by the fact that my last name is Santolucito and that was the last one due to the nature of an alphabetized list. after that i met my host father and we went to my room and gathered my bags and we took a cab to get to our compound. after that we went up ten floors to our area. when i went inside i had to put on these like slipper things that were a little wierd and i found out that all chinese homes have these and walk inside with shoes or socks is not acceptable and that if u are inside u wear these slipper things they were kind of like flip flops but slippers. so that was interesting. after i got all unpacked i gave my host family the gifts that i brought for them. they liked the inflatable globe that i could use to show them where i was from a lot. after that i did some of my homework which was to create sentences from some of the vocabulary that we had. after i worked on my homework for a little while at 5:30 we ate dinner which was very good they retaught me how to use chopsticks telling me that the way i was using was the american way of using chopsticks and that i needed to learn the real way of using chopsticks which was the Chinese way in which the placement of one finger is minutely different but that was fun to relearn something even if it did make me look like an idiot at the dinner table. i have noticed that the chinese host family i am with constantly has th television on. i have yet to see it off and on top of that they seem to like to take pictures, lots and lots of pictures. While i was eating dinner, granted that i was having great difficulty eating with this new and "improved" way of using chopsticks, the host family just kept getting me to eat more and more and more. i ate more than i ad ever ate before. i didnt even know i could eat so much. for example there was one dish which i knew was pretty common in china it is a a kind of soup that has tomatoes and eggs in it like scrambled eggs and fourths of tomatoes it was good but they put the serving bowl in front of me and i started to put it in my bowl but then they said no no no that bowl is for you and they had serving bowl sized dishes that they wanted me to eat all of, my mother brother and father all shared another set of serving bowl sized dishes and then id i was i was full they would get defensive and ask me what they did wrong in the cooking process and why i didnt like it and on and on about how i needed to "chi yi dian duo" eat a little more. i am so stuffed anyway after that i opened up skype and talked with my grandmother and mother and brother and ended up translating. and that was about all of my day i will try and keep writing

Pizza and illness

A post at last. I am writing this as if I wrote the day of. I am sorry I could not write too much about today but I was very sick and had irregular bowel movements. I do not know the cause of this illness but I have formed a hypothesis. The only logical explanation is that it was something that I drank because I never eat food outside of the program meals and weird junk food I brought from the states. I believe that it could be caused by the water that I drank at lunch today. There were many water bottles that were sitting on a table that were for us. I was thirsty so naturally I took one, I opened it and noticed it as unusually full. I dismissed this observation as the company accidentally putting more in this bottle. Later I realized the seal must have been broken. This most usually indicates that the water bottle was refilled using tap water or water that is cheaper than bottled water. many street vendors do this I was not too worried cause we were in a restaurant this I now know is not a safe assumption. Sorry again for the shortness of my replies I have also been swamped with homework and quizzes. But I am learning soo much I suppose I could study more but I really don’t feel that I should waste this wonderful opportunity studying all the time. I will work on writing more.

Dear Followers,
I wont be able to write too much but here it is. today i woke up late about 7:00 and went running I went to breakfast then went back to the dorm and ate some freeze-dried granola with blueberries and milk. it was good and a great way to start my day. I then went to the shanghai museum and then to the shanghai urban planning museum and finality to the Bund when we got back to the dorm Dmitri and i went and played ping pong i got back to the dorm studied a bit then fell asleep.
p.s. sorry it is so short i will try and write more tomorrow.

Dear Followers,
Today I woke up at about 6:30 and started studying for the quiz. I kept studying until about 7:30 then i went to breakfast and had... breakfast. After that i went back to my room and studied a bit more then i went to class and had the quiz. it went okay out of the 24 Qs on the test i think i got 2-3 wrong. Really a drag cause i studied so much. Then we went over a bunch of grammar patterns ffor speaking which was a bit depressing cause they were so easy but my humility in writing kept me intact after that we went and ate korean food for lunch again, i am really loving the variety. after that we went and had culture class. cuulture class was pretty fun we talked about modern china its size population political problems i.e. Uighurs and Tibetans and the somewhat larger problem of taiwan. We then talked about the five major river systems and the geography of china vs. America. Dr. Chen, our professor, told us about how we have a quiz on thursday. OH right i forgot to mention that we also have a quiz in my language class the same kind that i spent hours studying for then still made mistakes. so after culture class we all went to tutoring. Our tutor was busy so a grad student came and tutored us which was pretty cool. He helped me on my studying technique and i think it should be much easier now. after that we did this buddy worksheet but our buddies were not there so we ended up doing it with our tutors but it was fine because our tutor was a grad student so he was more knowledgeable about the campus however we still came in second place because the group in front of us didn't do a question so they were able to get back sooner. for dinner we had western food which was really wierd. there was imitation tomato soup and imitation pasta. to top it all off there was this salmon, if you wanna call it that, that had this congealed fat and lemon juice sauce on it. after that i went and watched some people play ping pong for half an hour and then a elderly man taught me some tricks. then i went back to the dorm made some freeze dried pasta and started writing.
p.s. i am going to work on adding pictures.

Dear Followers,
Sorry about the lateness of my post but after reading this i hope you will understand. day two in china was very busy and eventful i will do my best to include everything in this post. I didn't really sleep too well but that must have been the jetlaggggg. I woke up every hour or so and at about 4:30 i was so awake i decided to suit up and go for a run. The run went well i got to the track at 4:45 and there was a line to get in. Well first of all i have to explain that to get in you go through this like rotating door thing were it counts the number of people that go in. so it was 4:45 and i was waiting in line for almost 15 min to get in. once i actually got in I did a pace workout just to see how the air was effecting my running. it was a tad bit difficult to run when theres more than a hundred elderly couples fast walking around a track. ya it paints an odd picture but you would have to be there to really understand how ridiculous it is. so after running i went back to my room and im not really sure what i did till 8:00 but i guess i took a shower and did skyped some people. at 8:30 we went to breakfast, my absolute favorite meal of the day in china, tasty warm soy milk, rice buns filled with mushy spinach and leaks and then a bun with
egg yolk and bean curd on the inside, doesn't get better than that. so i ate and then went to the on site orientation where i met a bunch of important people who i dont remember, so they cant really be that important. then i went to my chinese class which consisted of all of three people which was very challenging but in a good way. it is really crazy, you know my brother went to interlochen where he was surrounded by people who shared his passion for music, i never really understood why he liked it until now. every single person on this trip loves china and learning chinese. anyway i have a quiz tommorrow we will see how that goes i was studying until 12:30 which technically isnt included in this post but ya, it was alot of writing i also learned about his new memorization program called Anki its pretty cool. after class we ate korean food for lunch and then had culture class. culture and history class was a little boring cause i have already taken it but i can always learn more. after that we went to our tutors mine is this girl named su so thats cool. Dmitri and Gianna are in my group Dmitri is from D.C. and Gianna is from L.A. then i went back to the door fell asleep slept through dinner woke up got something to eat then studied for endless hours. :D

Planes Ride

Dear Followers,
Today I left my home at 4:15 AM to reach my first destination of a very long trip. We drove to Bradley international airport. It was so early that there was barely any traffic and we got there in 30-45 min. Upon saying my goodbyes to my mom and brother i went into the airport to see a rather large line, yes, a line at the check-in counter at 5:15 AM, they had two people working at two separate registers. One worker had a man with a show dog who had an enormous kennel at at least the size of a standard refrigerator in the U.S., the dog was a purse sized dog as well. So this held up one line and the other line was held up by a couple with three children and four strollers. I mean really why do you need four strollers for three kids ??? anyway they needed to be checked and that held up the other line. I ended up waiting in line until about 5:50 at which point they decided to open up a third register, only took them 40 min to figure that out. I was able to quickly check my bags and put them through this x-ray thing which was kinda cool. Luckily they didn't choose my bag for a "random" inspection which consists of breaking/opening the lock on the bag if there is one and turning the bag upside down and then jamming all the passengers crap back in. So i got through check-in okay and i got through security without any problems. I got to my terminal and was starving it was about 6:30 and my flight was set for departure at 7:15 and boarding at 7:00. so I ran to the little store thing near my gate and bought some granola parfait, I've become quite fond of the stuff. After which i got on my plane and flew to Chicago. I was unaware of the time difference so I thought that we arrived at 9:40, it was actually 8:40. This had me worrying because my next flight started boarding at 10:00. our gate was taken in Chicago so i sat within 1000 ft of my next plane waiting until 9:10, keep in mind i thought it was 10:10. I kept calm and got off the plane sprinted to the next gate to find a bunch of kids from the group playing cards and completely relaxed. I was freaked out until they gave me quizzical looks and i looked at the Clock in the airport to see it was in fact 9:15. so i went to Starbucks and ate a piece of lemon lb cake, another granola parfait, a blueberry muffin and a raspberry danish. this all went well i got on the plane and ended up sitting next to a middle aged man who was on a trip from the university where he worked, Wright University in Ohio, he said that he was going to dalian in the northeast of china. That was nice i slept for most of the time though and watched a couple of movies. We got to Shanghai and had a 1 hr 30 min bus ride to get to East China Normal University. When we got there we had about 2 hrs of free time to get settled my roommate is Jammel Maddox as planned and he is very nice. after settling down i went to the ATM and got some money out. We went to dinner and had a lot of small dishes and i ate a lot and loved it.

P.S. I might not be able to write this much all the time but i will always have updates everyday

Washington

The last two days we spent in Washington at the PDO, pre departure orientation