Finn in China

Sim Sim

2009-03-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

This is my new dog, Sim Sim. He was previously owned (along with Trixie, Luke and Kat's new dog), by our friends Angelyn and Jessica. Sadly, they were not allowed to house dogs in their apartments, so we lovingly took the puppies in. Although I would never reccommend owning a puppy when you live on the 7th floor of your apartment building, I wouldn't trade this little guy for the world. Its nice to have some company in my apartment as most visitors are entertained in Lukat's place (where the leather furniture is). So Sim Sim and I are enjoying our co-bachelor pad.

Well, in any case, here are some pictures of the little guy.

More to come soon!

-Finn

New Years Resolution

2009-03-07T22:11:00.001-08:00

Sooo....remember that time I made a New Years resolution to blog more often? Well I've never been good at keeping up with those, but I suppose forgetting to post until March is a little extreme. Sooooo, I'll do my best to give you the rundown on what happened.

Spring Festival:

OK, so as you may or may not know, China's big Christmas-like holiday is Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year. Now, when I say that it is Christmas-like, keep in mind that it is nothing like Christmas....except for the long holiday that everyone recieves.

After getting back to China in mid-January, I set out on a 3-week vacation with my friends Trent and Jesse. I'll give you the super-short rundown of the trip, and post a link to my photos on facebook. I would put some up here but it would be frustrating seeing as I have like 300 photos...150 of them on facebook.

1st Stop, Xian:
Although our initial travel wish was to travel to Harbin for the famous Ice festival, tickets there were impossible to find. We eventually wanted to travel to xinjiang province, in the west, so we decided it made sense to go west first anyways. Although Trent had been to Xian before, he patiently visited there so that Jesse and I could get a glimpse of China's ancient capital. We had a nice hostel downtown close to a beautiful bell tower. We stayed long enough for Jesse and I to venture out to the home of the Terra Cotta warriors (a magnificent display of an excavated ancient army of clay soldiers built to protect the tomb of the first emporer of China). Before we left the city, we also caught the fountain show at the Big Goose Pagoda, which was cold but beautiful (and also the future site of Trent and Jessica's engagement!).

2nd Stop, Urumqi:
After a 38 hour train ride from Xian, we arrived in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang province. Although we had been warned, nothing quite prepares you for the temperature in Xinjiang in winter. If the actual temperature wasn't enough to freeze you, the piercing winds would usually do the job. We saw some beautiful sights in the city such as Hongshan park, but it was tempting to simply remain in the lobby of our hostel, which had a wonderful heated floor! Now the ethnic makeup of the Xinjiang region is mostly Turkish-muslim, and not Han Chinese. We saw a nice mixture of the two cultures in Urumqi, but our next 2 stops were like visiting a different country. Before we left for the next city (Kashgar), we ventured out to Tian Chi or "Heavenly Lake". Beautiful does not even begin to describe this place. It took us all day to get there, but it was well worth it. We arrived to see a frozen lake, blanketed in snow, and surrounded by beautiful snow-topped mountains. We walked around for about an hour, taking way too many pictures. Trent and I couldn't resist heading on to the surface of the lake itself...and Trent couldn't resist making a snow angel in the surface of this glorious lake. We had to return because our cab driver was not too happy with us, but we could have stayed up there all day. It was simply breathtaking....easily the most beautiful scenery I have seen in China...or maybe anywhere.

3rd Stop, Kashgar
Kashgar, which I'm convinced translates to "thousands of men standing around in furry hats", is in the far western portion of the province. We took a 24 hour train to get there, and spent about 3 days in the city. Since the tourism industry isn't very busy during the winter, the hotel we stayed at was completely deserted save for 1 cleaning lady. While there, we experienced a great deal of Turkish-muslim culture, food, and architechture. We visited the city mosque and a beautiful tomb as well. The food mainly consisted of lamb kebabs placed inside of traditional muslim bread and folded in half for a "Lamb Taco" which we enjoyed almost daily.

4th Stop, Hotan:
Well the bus ride to Hotan was epic. Trent shared his love for music with an old arabic man, Jesse shared his hatred for arabic music with the whole bus, and Trent and I performed both an arabic song parody and a new song "Bus to Hotan" to the tune of "A Whole New World" much to the chagrin of our fellow passengers. I will say that I have never laughed so hard during a bus ride. Once we got to Hotan, we dropped our things at the "Happy Hotel" which had mattresses that made us not-so-happy, but we weren't complaining. Soon after we met up with a Japanese friend named Kuro who we had met earlier in Kashgar....small world. With his Chinese fluency we were able to score some cross-desert bus tickets for the next afternoon and we had dinner together to celebrate. We left just after visiting the ancient city walls...they were about 200 years old. Not very impressive once you've been to the Great Wall. Sorry Hotan.

5th ...err...ride?
We then took the Sleeper bus express across the Taklamakan desert. The trip was interesting. Maybe it was watching poor Jesse attempt to fit his 6'6 frame into a compartment built for a 5'8 Chinese person...or maybe it was the viewing of "Prey" (a movie where lions come out of tall grass to devour people) and the subsequent rest stop in the middle of nowhere with tall grass all around. Fun times.

6th stop: Back in Urumqi.
Out of money, somewhat under the weather, and travel-weary, our crew rested at the wonderful Matian youth hostel for around 3 days while waiting for the train to Chengdu. The only noteworthy event was a glorious trip to the Texas Cafe...mmmm....nachos.

7th stop: Chengdu
After some guy-time out west, it was time to reunite with my fellow Brelands in Chengdu. Luke and Kat awaited our arrival from a dismal 50 hour train ride in which an old lady and her terribly behaved grandson hijacked my bottom bunk. In Chengdu, Lukat happily showed Trent, Jesse, and I the sights and sounds of their former home. We ate more tex-mex, we saw beautiful Dufu's cottage, and we even somehow managed to get return tickets to Shiyan in time for Trent's classes! We did not, however, make it to see the pandas :-(

After Chengdu, we came back to Shiyan on a 16 hour train. Although it was the 2nd shortest train ride I had been on for that vacation, it felt like the longest by far. We were so ready to be home that we stayed up and chatted excitedly as we approached the city at 1:00 AM.

OK, here's the link to my facebook pictures. The Spring Festival albums are in chronological order there so start with one and work toward 3. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2039582&id=147800604

You might have to have facebook to look at the pictures, I'm not sure. If it says you have to be my friend to look at them, feel free to add me if we're not already friends.

OK well I'm off to bed. I have classes early in the morning tomorrow, so I need my sleep.

OH! We are now the proud owner of 2 puppies! Our friends at the automotive college couldn't keep the dogs that they were given as a gift, so they gave them to us because our school allows pets. My dog's name is Sim Sim, and Lukat's dog's name is Trixie. I will post again soon about our lovely puppies and I promise actual pictures will go up of them.

I hope you are all doing well! I miss you guys back home, but life is getting more interesting here by the day, so we are keeping busy. I will post again soon.

Peace,
Finn

On the Road again

2009-01-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

So this Spring Festival (the big one in China...think Christmas with more explosives), and Trent, Jesse, and I have hit the open road in search of adventure and enlightenment...ok maybe just adventure.

Our trek was scheduled to go through Beijing, but due to China craziness, we had to reroute through Xian, which is nearer to our city of Shiyan, and closer to the far western province of Xinjiang where we hope to end up. The change in plans has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, as I have gained a great appreciation for the city of Xian. Although it is pretty expensive, the sites are really cool, and it has some great Western food availability (we had DQ blizzards today!!!!).

So far, we have seen a fountain show at the Big Goose Pagoda, done some intense bargain shopping in the Muslim quarter, gone to see the Terra Cotta warriors (google it if you're not familiar, you'll be amazed.), and walked along the top of the ancient inner-city wall of Xian, which is really well preserved and nicely decorated for the festival.

Tomorrow morning, we leave at 5:30 on a train to Xinjiang, the far western province of China that is famous for outdoorsy things like huge mountains, vast deserts, oh, and of course camels. Seeing as it is sandwiched between Tibet and Siberia, you could infer that its a pretty chilly place in the winter, so we've stocked up on layers, gloves, hats, etc etc. The train ride will be 36 hours long, and probably the worst part of the travel experience. We are lucky to have good sleeper tickets, though, so we should be OK.

We should have internet in the hostel in Urumqi (again, google it if you need visual help), so more posts should follow after we do some AMAZING sightseeing out west. I am sorry to say, however, that I will not be posting pictures until I return to Shiyan, so you'll have to wait on that.

I miss you all back in the states. Stay healthy and warm! I'll try to post again soon.

-Finn

Home again, home again

2009-01-13T06:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I've had a wonderful visit back to the states. Ryan and Karen had a beautiful wedding and, try as we might, we 3 bedraggled Brelands could not detract from its splendor. Christmas was equally as majestic and perhaps a little more crowded, as we fit over 20 people in the house in Decatur for fun and festivities. Then I proceeded to Nashville for a few days to visit with some old friends and ring in the new year. It was great to see so many friends and family together while we were back. I could not have asked for a better gift. As we were making preparations for the return, Luke and Kat decided they hadn't had enough Mexican food, and elected to stay for another week, which meant fun for Finn alone in China! Having almost no knowledge of the Chinese language, and about 3 days of travel time ahead of me, this was shaping up to be a fun event. I'll give you a rundown of what its like to travel to China all by your lonesome.

DAY 1:
5:00 AM- Arrived at Nashville airport only to be told that my flight to Newark has been cancelled. After much typing, airline attendant tells me that I will switch flights, going now through Chicago. Flight leaves Nashville at 9:30
5:30 AM- went back to take a nap at the hotel
9:30AM- said goodbye to Mom and Chris and boarded Plane to Chicago
12:10PM- Landed in snowy Chicago and rane Home Alone 2 style through the airport to catch the 12:30 flight to Beijing
12:25PM- was told that the flight to Beijing would be delayed until 4:00 PM
4:00PM- Was told that flight to Beijing would be delayed until 6:00 PM
4:30PM- Had a strange conversation with an ex-military guy and a bartender who was convinced that the US military could control the weather.
7:30- Finally departed for Beijing

DAY 2:
Skipped due to international date line

DAY 3:
12:20 AM- Landed in Beijing
12:40 AM- Got offered a taxi ride for 250 kuai. Attempted to barter down to 75 kuai and got laughed at.
12:45 AM- Tried my luck with a metered taxi outside...resulted in a 50 kuai taxi ride. Nice.
1:30 AM- After a drive-by ticket/ink swap with Andrew, arrived at Beijing train station to wait for the 3:30 train to Shiyan.
3:30AM- Boarded 26 hour sleeper train to Shiyan.
6:00 PM- Got offered snacks by a little Chinese boy.
6:30 PM- Got my book stolen by a little Chinese boy.
6:45 PM- Read two pages of said book out loud in English to a little Chinese boy.
6:46 PM- got a very funny look from a little Chinese boy.
9:00 PM- Went to sleep

DAY 4:
4:00AM: Got woken up by the train-ticket-giver-man
5:00 AM: disembarked in Shiyan
5:20 AM: arrived at the bottom of 7 flights of stairs with 80 pounds of luggage. Booooo
6:00 AM: Passed out in Chinese bed.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Well it certainly was an interesting feeling, rolling into a Chinese city at 5:00 in the morning and thinking, "ahh, I'm home". It is nice to be back in Shiyan. Today I ate at my favorite noodle place and watched Die Hard 3...then slept. It was a pretty productive day, to say the least. Well....all you folks back home should know that I arrived safely, and am alive and well. Those of you in China should know that I'm back and looking forward to some vacationing, China style! I suppose thats enough for tonight. You all should know that IF I had made a new years resolution, it probably be to blog more frequently. But since I didn't, I'm not sure what you should expect ;-)

Peace,
Finn

Top 10...or 20...whatever

2008-12-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

OK, well our first semester in China is coming to a close. Hours of grading papers, doing laundry, Christmas shopping, airline ticket purchasing, and other such wonderful activities have filled my recent weeks, and thus I absolve myself from any lack of blog posting on my part. But lets not make tonights post about filling you in on weeks of incredible stories and long-winded account of China craziness...no no this week deserves a succinct expression of my soul's true feelings...

A top 10 list.
well, 2 to be exact, but lets not be picky. Enjoy.

Top 10 things I will do when I arrive in the States.

10) Stare at white people...they will be everywhere
9) Speak English to anyone and everyone who will listen. Total strangers especially.
8) Watch Football at a time other than 3:00 in the morning
7) Taco Bell
6) Five Guys and Fries
5) consume copious amounts of Pepto
4) Drive a car for the first time in 4 months (not counting my gas station commercial)
3) visits to friends and family, of course
2) Engage in some much needed football gloating (watch out Auburn fans)
1) 2 words....Cheese Dip

Top 10 things I will miss about China

10) Getting stared at while I walk down the street...I'm kind of famous here
9) My students. They really are so incredibly nice...don't worry I have pictures
8) My favorite Fried Rice guy/Drink stand lady/restaurant owner that wave at me every day
7) Chinese taxi rides...the only way to travel. Part transportation, part sheer terror, part amusement.
6) Walking 7 flights of stairs 2 or 3 or 4 times a day...ok not really.
5) Sim Sim and Trixie, Ang and Jessica's new puppies. Don't worry, I have pictures of them too.
4) Droves of middle school students walking by and shouting "HELLO" at random intervals.
3) DVDs... 7 kuai (1 dollar). Can't beat that with a stick.
2) Random text messages wishing me a "Happy Everyday"
1) My Shiyan Family. They mean the world to me.

Well, if you are still a loyal blog post reader, that probably means that I will see you soon upon my return to the states. Pray for us as we travel...we have a LONG process ahead of us. Hit me up stateside for various stories, pictures, slideshows, etc. I can't wait to tell everyone about our life here. See you soon!

-Finn

Fun in Shiyan (with pictures this time!)

2008-11-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

Well, as winter closes in on our little Chinese city, we are enjoying the holiday spirit that is growing among our little band of Americans...well except for Trent (he's holding out until after Thanksgiving to think jolly thoughts). Amid this budding holiday atmosphere, us Americans have met a few times to celebrate in recent weeks.

I have already blogged about the Bama party in my last post, but I just couldn't deprive you all of some pictures. Thanks to Mom and Chris, we were able to decorate pretty well for the party.

The next week was pretty special. With 2 birthdays and Haloween just a few days apart, it was pretty hectic. It all ended in a glorious Halloween party hosted by the folks over at the auto school. The party had an 80's theme (which is oh-so-perfect for China), so I decided to go as Goose from Top Gun, while Luke and Kat went as the couple from the A-ha music video for "Take on Me" (youtube it if you've never seen it...its worth it). Here are some random pictures...enjoy!

You would think we would be all partied out by now, right? Wrong. Last night, after hearing the election results, myself and some fellow Obama supporters gathered to celebrate the event. After youtubing some Obama speeches and comparing our electoral map predictions, we proceeded by voting on a variety of election-style activities. The leading vote-getter was the "pin the lips on a pig" game (thanks Kat). This was followed by Obama trivia, "youtube your favorite George W. Bush quote", and eventually a viewing of "Recount", a cinematic retelling of the 2000 election problems in Florida. Sure, the events of the night were rather partisan, but let it be known that an invitation was extended to all, but only Obama-lovers accepted...so we played Obama-loving games :-)

Lest our intentions be mistaken, let it be known that we are simply excited for the future of our country. No gloating was intended to be sure. Over all, we pray that God's will would prevail, no matter who the leader of the country is. OK, enough political sidestepping. Here are the pictures!

As you can see, we were pretty excited and had a lot of fun. We are so fortunate to have so many good friends here (on both sides of the aisle, for that matter), they really make life in China much easier to swallow.

Well thats about all for tonight. Sorry for skipping over the usual strained attempts at humor, but it just takes much energy for pictures AND creativity. I hope you are all well back in the states. Take it easy and drop us a line sometime. We love to hear from home, and we miss you all terribly!

Peace,

Finn

Yes...It's true, I stink at consinstent blogging.

2008-10-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, a LOT has happened since my last blog post. An overwhelming mixture of remorse, excitement, guilt, and a strong desire to put off my lesson planning has led to this: my first post in weeks!

Yes, I am still alive and well. Classes have been going smoothly despite the odd absence from some of my students who have been cajoled into volunteering for the "3rd World WuShu Championships". I know... some friends of ours tried to tell them to put "3rd International", but what can you do? My missing students, however, have been replaced by the 2 or 3 random visitors per class that come in just to observe a foreign teacher...all the while messing up my beautiful seating charts! They have now begun to put in requests ahead of time and usually insist on participating in class discussion/homework etc. Such is China.

It is starting to get a little chilly here in Shiyan, so I have been trying my best to take advantage of the dwindling opportunity for outdoor activity. Yesterday, a group of us Americans went hiking up by the lake. Jessica and Trent somehow ended up taking a free boat ride around the lake with some Chinese strangers while the rest of us took a refreshing (and sometimes muddy) hike along the mountains. It was simply beautiful, and a nice change of pace from the busyness of city life.

And now for something completely different

Shortly after our return from October holiday, my friend Trent and I were asked a strange favor by one of our Chinese friends. They wanted us to be in a Chinese commercial...for a gas station. I know, I know, props to China for having an eye for excellent acting talent...err white people. So the next day, we are picked up in a car and driven to the office of this China Petrol place. They drove us out to their gas station and gave us a 30-second explanation (through a translator) of the commercial plot. We were to drive the Boss's car up to the pump, converse with the friendly gas station attendant, go inside to pay, and then drive off. Asking us whether we could legally drive in China, I shrugged and showed my Alabama driver's license. Apparently this was enough because they began to usher us to the car (after a round of rock-paper-scissors between Trent and me to decide who the driver would be). And then....the unthinkable happened.

As we are walking to the car, a van comes out of nowhere and nearly careens into a couple in matching jackets that is walking along the sidewalk. Thinking of it as no more than a drastic driving error (they are common in China), I was waiting for the expected apology and parting of ways. No such luck. After a seemingly endless stare-down between the driver and pedestrians, I watched in disbelief as the driver slowly disembarked and marched toward the male half of the couple. The next five minutes of my life were probably some of the stranger ones in my experience. The driver attacked the guy who had been happily strolling along just 30 seconds before. Props to the pedestrian, though for keeping his head down and trying to minimize the situation...not that there was anything minimal to the jumping-karate-kick to the back that he recieved. The girl (who was clearly previously involved with the crazed driver), tried to restrain said driver and put him back in the van....bad idea. Just as I thought he would start his van and be on his way, the driver throws it in reverse and BACKS INTO the girl, knocking her to the ground (no injury apparent thankfully). He gets back out of the car, begins shouting at the girl and shaking her, and then picks up a large rock to go after the other guy with. To this point, the 7 or 8 men in their 20's and 30's who were standing around the area had done nothing but watch. Trent decides that he has had enough, and throws down his umbrella to walk toward the driver. In retrospect it was probably not a GREAT idea seeing as he spoke no Chinese and was likely to recieve a rock to the face, but it was at least enough to spur our onlooking hosts into action as they managed to get the driver to leave the station with his ex/present girlfriend/sister/whatever she was.

Yeah...woah. Imagine if an American guy had dared assault a girl in the presence of 7 or 8 bigger guys in public. I've never seen it happen, but I'm reasonably certain that a severe beatdown would have ensued.

So, naturally, we proceeded with the commercial as if nothing had happened. So with no script, and my commercial director and his translator in the backseat, I got in the car, pulled up to the pump, and the gas station attendant asked me in perfect english "Hello, welcome to China Petrol. How many Liters do you want?" LITERS!? After a millisecond-long flashback to high school Chemistry conversions, and a subsequent millisecond-long deliberation on the fuel capacity of the Honda crossover prototype, my brilliant mind landed on "Fill 'er up." Thankfully, the attendant nodded, and directed me inside; cameras in hot pursuit. I approached the counter and was faced with episode two of my conversion nightmare. "How many liters did you purchase?" I kept my cool long enough to muster a random guess: "13?"

"OK" she says, "That will be 100 Yuan".

I opened my wallet to reveal the 60 yuan inside. I sheepishly offered it to the lady with a whispered apology, but she seemed to indicate that this was acceptable. I turned to leave the room and walked until the camera went off, then turned back quickly to retrieve my 60 yuan (they had promised to give me money to use in the commercial so I was surely not going to let them keep mine).
"Oh well" I thought to myself, "we'll get it right on the second take."

there are apparently no second takes in China (sorry, but I'm going to ignore a possibly brilliant segway to something deeper here), so we went on our way and had some lunch.

The answer to your question? Yes, they are supposed to send me a tape, and no, you can not put it on YouTube.

In addition to relaxing hikes and crazy commercials, we have enjoyed some American comforts as of late. Thanks to our AWESOME grandparents, the Breland crew was able to host an Alabama Football party last night. After recieving the Bama-Georgia game in the mail on Friday, we quickly invited all of our American friends to come and enjoy Fajitas and Football (kinda catchy come to think of it). All went well until some imposters posing as our real friends pulled out handmade Georgia signs late into the 3rd Quarter (the first time UGA scored a touchdown) and began to wave them around and dance. I have since forgiven the heinous act, but have resolved to confiscate any Anti-Alabama materials upon the next football watching ;-)
So thanks to our stateside friends and family for the WONDERFUL packages, and thanks to our American friends here for keeping the SEC rivalry feeling alive and kicking.

I suppose thats enough for tonight. I still have to come up with a lesson plan about Halloween and its getting late. We have an exciting week coming up with 2 birthdays, Halloween, and the promise of KTV. So maybe I will have more to blog about in a week or so.

Take it easy back there in the states. Take some time out of your election-season fervor to remember your friends here in China. And remember that whether your party wins or loses this year, we are called to a higher Kingdom defined not by our differences but our love for one another. There's your mushy thought of the week.

Peace,

Finn

Qingdao-No Plan

2008-10-07T04:15:00.000-07:00

This was our motto for the second half of the trip. After spending many wonderful hours at the Temple of Heaven, Great Wall, Behei Gardens, and Tienanmen square, our intrepid band of travellers was ready for some rest once we hit the city of Qingdao.

Qingdao is definitely one of the coolest cities I have ever been to. Basically, one half of the city somewhat resembles a European city on the Mediterranean coast. Perhaps a seaside city in southern Spain. The architechture is actually Germanic from what I gather because of a prior occupation in the 1800's. The other half of the city just looks like a bright, clean Chinese city. The combination made for some wonderful town wandering and even some visits to some awesome westernized places. We caught a live classic rock cover band at the Lennon Bar (yes, as in John Lennon). Any time that you can catch the full solo in Free Bird while in China....you've found something special.

There are many beaches in Qingdao, but I don't think the Chinese quite understand what a beach is supposed to look like, or what they're supposed to do there. For the most part, these beaches were a smelly combination of jagged rock and tidepools. The chinese would walk around with long sleeved shirts and pants rolled up to look for crabs or other small creatures. I don't think they particularly enjoyed this, I think they just guessed that you are supposed to hang out at the beach, and hunting crabs seems to be the logical thing to do in a rocky/dirty area.

Thankfully, our crew made the long trek out to a beach that us Americans could feel comfortable at. With a long shoreline of sticky, but otherwise pretty sand, the beach we visited was a welcome reprieve from the chaos that is the Chinese lifestyle. We waded into the water, layed out on the sand, and read our books. It was well worth the 2 hours of travel time that it took to get there.

Those of you who know me very well know that I am not one for seafood. Having mentally prepared myself for the coastal city fare of fresh seafood, I felt like I would be OK. I was wrong. What, might you ask, is the favorite street food of the Qingdao resident??? Skewered Squid. Now I'm not talking about slices of squid meat...I'm talking about floppy tentacles and all, thrust onto a stick and barbequed over a coal pit. Thankfully, Qingdao has other forms of good barbeque skewers. The pork was especially tasty.

I am sad to say that I left Qingdao without taking one picture there. Having used all of my cheesy tourist powers on Beijing, I was quite sick of my camera by the latter half of the week. I will toss up some Great Wall pictures on the next post, but if you just can't wait, check out my facebook page for some cool photos.

I hope you are all doing well stateside! Classes are going well, and I am enjoying life in China. I would like to take this conclusion to give another shout out to the Alabama Football Team. Thank you for waiting until I leave the country to start kicking some tail! Keep posting those comments and let me know what you want me to blog about!

Peace
-Finn

Best Week of my Life? (If not, its definitely top 3)

2008-10-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

So, this past week, myself and various others from the Shiyan crew embarked upon some wonderful travels. I can't imagine fitting all of the stories and photos into one post, so I will try to give the summary here, and perhaps include some photos in later posts.

Last Friday, Trent, Angelyn, Jessica, John, Megan, and I boarded a train to Beijing. If you have never travelled by train, it is an interesting experience. Since we had hard sleeper tickets, we had a relatively comfortable ride that included some friendly hangout time as well as the Name-that-state-capitol game (thanks for the road map cards Darla!). Soon after the commencement of our railway shenanigans, we were interrupted by close to 30 Eastern Europeans who entered our sleeper car. While we were rather excited to see other people who looked like us, they were clearly not as excited to see us. One woman approached us (six of us were sitting on two bottom bunks that we had tickets for). The interchange went something like that.

Hungarian Lady: "Excuse me, are your tickets valid here?"
Americans look at eachother with confused expressions
Hungarian Lady: "Do you speak English?"
More confused expressions: of course we spoke English...we were white and in China!
Megan: "Umm....yes"
Hungarian Lady: with apparent irritation "Well could you all go back to where you belong? We need room because we have many luggages"
more confusion

Unless the lady had wanted to leave all of her luggages in my bed, there was nothing more we could really do. She got the picture and left flustered. From then on, American/Hungarian relations were strained to say the least.

We survived the rest of the trip and arrived safely in Beijing the next day. Blessed with a blue sky and armed with a copy of John's trusty Lonely Planet book, we made it to the hostel and unloaded. After an ill-fated dining choice by a part of the team that included myself and therefore will not merit explanation in this blog, we met up at Silk market.

You may think that you have bargained before....in fact you may have done better than me, but the atmoshpere in this multi-tiered/multi-boothed bargaining behemoth of a market defies description to the average western audience. From shirts and North Face Jackets to pearl necklaces, to pipes to video games, there was plenty of opportunity to come away from beijing with some serious souvenierage. Regretfully, I was travelling with naught but a large backpack, so my purchasing options were limited. I could not, however, resist the prospect of a good poker set with clay chips for 90 Yuan (originally priced at 700 Yuan). which comes to about 13 U.S. dollars. Good deal if you ask me. After splitting up to seek out our bargains, we ate a glorious dinner at Subway and headed over to check out Mao's portrait and some other famous landmarks for the evening.

The Great Wall!!!!

The next day, we headed for the centerpiece of our majestic vacation: camping on the Great Wall of China. Our bus/car ride to Mutainyu (a section of the wall that is nice but not too tourist-infested) took us to the bottom of the mountain which was crested by the Wall. After lingering at some of the shops near the trailhead, our intrepid band of backpack clad Americans began ascending at a vigorous pace. 30 minutes later, we were catching our breath at the top of the first staircase which read (450 meters to the Wall). Having skipped the cable car in favor of hiking up the mountain, we soon realized that our ambitions were larger than our quadriceps.
Nevertheless, we reached the top of the mountain and walked the glorious few steps to mount the Great Wall.

Nothing can prepare you for an experience like the great wall of China (except maybe 3 hours a day on a stairmaster). But seriously, it is breathtaking. We tooked countless pictures atop the Wall and could barely contain our excitement. We walked around the wall for awhile, waiting for nightfall. While we planned to sleep on the wall, we weren't sure how technically legal it was. After most of the tourists left, we set up our 3 tents on top of the western-most tower that allowed foot-traffic. After a light dinner and some wonderful singing, we settled down for a rather chilly night atop the Great Wall.

The next morning, John and I hiked up a RIDICULOUSLY sloped section of the wall to a tower overlooking our campsite in hopes of catching the sunrise over the mountains. Although the dense fog left no sunrise to speak of, we got some cool foggy shots. Nothing quite like waking up before sunrise on an ancient monument like the Great Wall! After breaking camp, we walked down to the far end of Mutainyu, where there is a LUGE track you can take to the bottom of the wall. The 40 quai was well worth it. At the bottom, us boys chowed down on some amazingly delicious banana chocolate pancakes while the girls sought out a cafe for some much-needed caffiene.

While in Beijing I also visited the Temple of Heaven and Behei gardens. Both of which were absolutely incredible. I'll leave it to the photo installment, however, and let the pictures speak for themselves. I have plenty more stories to come, especially from the second half of our trip, but I fear that I must go and plan a lesson for my class tomorrow. I promise I will blog again soon, and hopefully get some pictures up. In the meantime, take care back home and I will talk to you all soon!

-Finn

Travel

2008-09-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Our wonderful hostel in Beijing has an internet cafe of sorts, so I figured I would take a minute to notify you all that yes, I am alive! Sorry I have not blogged for awhile, but I think once you see the pictures from the Great Wall, you will think it well worth the wait! I have to go now, as we are going to be eating our first Mexican meal in A LONG TIME! Soon, we will travel to Qingdao to meet up with Luke and Katherine before heading back to Shiyan. More to come. I hope you are all doing wonderful!

-Finn

Fun Times in China

2008-09-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

Well folks, almost a month has passed since we left the U.S., and we are all still alive and well. This has been my last week of freedom before I begin to teach classes on Monday, so I have behaved accordingly.

This past monday was a Chinese holiday called "mid-autumn festival". Although various sources have told me several different meanings for the holiday, the long and short of it is this. During the full moon, Chinese families have a reunion of sorts and when they gather they eat something called moon cakes. Sounds delicious, right??? WRONG! My first bite into a mooncake (which looks like it will be a sweet taste from the outside) resulted in a mixture of flavors including, but not limited to, peanuts and green peppers. Ick. Maybe its the Chinese variation of fruit cake. Everyone gets them, but no one (at least not Americans) likes them. Not wanting to shirk on any holidays, including those of our host country, we participated by bringing a box of mooncakes to our favorite restaurant owner, Happy Lady.

During the actual day, however, a large group of us gathered together and rented a large boat to take out on the reservoir that day. You know those Chinese postcards with the foggy lakes and the oddly pointy-yet-wooded-mountains? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was in one of those. The scenery was breathtaking, and we had a lot of fun. We played Mahjong on the top deck of the boat and played cards below deck. We even docked briefly to toss an AMERICAN football! Good times.

The best part about this trip, however, was definitely the ride back. Now I don't know if you've ever heard stories about Chinese bus rides...but you're about to now. Since the lake is about a 45 minute bus drive from the city, there are few buses that travel the route, and the local country folk apparently have limited opportunities to hitch a ride into town. With this in mind, we boarded an already crowded bus, and a few of us managed to get some seats (I was seated next to the door). As we travelled down the country road, more and more people piled onto the bus, until it was beyond a shoulder-to-shoulder situation. It was beyond discomfort. It was RIDICULOUS. Apart from the driver, there is another lady who works on the bus to take money and seat people. At this point, her job was to disembark, gather newcomers and forcefully push them inside so that the door could shut behind her (and sometimes it didnt shut at all). I was haplessly seated below a handrail at just the appropiate height for 3 chinese boys to be able to stand in front of me and level their armpits right across from my nose. With a chinese boy practically in my lap the whole trip, I was especially grateful that I was seated next to a window for some much-needed ventilation. So if you're wondering how many people can fit in a bus...I know....exactly.

Luke and Kat have been doing well. This week, Kat hosted the weekly estrogen party that the American ladies have formed in the city. Our dude-fest is not quite as organized or tasty, but usually ends up with some wonderful rock band performances. Luke is doing well despite a rather heavy course load. We've been told that we should be done early enough to manage a return trip to the states in time for some important weddings (congrats Ryan!) and maybe even Christmas! The prospect of an early return is at least enough to keep us going when classes get rough.

Well, I'm off to research some way to catch Bama football on the internet, as we begin conference play this week. Any suggestions would be welcome! I hope all is well back in the states.

Peace and blessings,
Finn

Pictures and Captions

2008-09-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

EDIT: OK, so I just tried to publish the post below, but the picture layout didn't quite cooperate. The picture captions therefore may be a little off as far as photo-layout goes. Yes, I'm too lazy to fix it, so I will rely on yall's astute observational skills to deduce the matching caption.

This oh-so-aptly titled post has no stories, adventures, or anything of the like, but I suppose that a few of you blog faithful might get a little tired of my wordy posts every once in awhile. Anyway, you know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words. So lets just pretend I worked really hard on a 13,000 word post. I'll feel diligent, and you can have a break from wading through paragraphs of my ramblings. I will be including quite a few pictures of some of our American friends in Shiyan. We have been VERY blessed to have some really great folks to show us around the city and provide some much-needed companionship in ENGLISH!!!

O.K. so I know it looks dirty (I'm hanging laundry to dry in the 1st picture, so it looks a little crazy), but I figured some pictures of my apartment should be shown. As you can see, its pretty spacious.

top left: Den Top mid: bathroom Top right: kitchen

B-left: Comp. room/2nd bedroom. B-mid: My Bedroom B-Right: dining area

Just a few random shots here. The picture on the left is a gathering with (from left to right) Angelyn, Kat, Megan, John, and Luke. Our friends Angelyn and Jessica just got a new Kitty named Lucy, who is perching on my shoulder in the top-right picture (yes, I know I look crazy, but the cat looks darn cute!). And I promised a shot of Luke and Katherine together, so here it is!

Some great flattering pictures of our friends Angelyn, Jessica (top left), John (bottom left) and Trent (right). We all went out for Crawfish one night, and some couldn't resist the temptation of playing with their food! Not being big crawfish fans, Luke, Kat, and I had McDonalds beforehand.

This is the Lady who runs our favorite restaurant down the street. We call her "Happy Lady" for obvious reasons. She makes some great food that I'm not even going to try and spell.

O.K., well I hope you all enjoyed this week's rant-free edition of my blog. You're getting better at comments! Good to hear from you all. We are still doing well, and I don't teach for another week! Well I'm off to bed so I can wake up in time to catch the Alabama gamecast online. Roll Tide!

How do you say "Emergency Room" in Chinese?

2008-09-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

"I have an emergency"

Although we wanted to know where the Emergency room was, this was about the closest thing in Katherine's phrase book. So there we stood, all 3 of us at 2:00 AM in the rain outside of a Chinese guard post near the hospital. The guard looked at us, puzzled, as Luke repeated the phrase about 3 more times. Having gotten over the fact that yes, 3 very wet and tired looking white people were speaking Chinese to him and no, he was not dreaming: he nodded his head and lead us to...the...emergency room. I hesitate because the "emergency room" was a doctor sitting in front of a computer, smoking a cigarette. "Do you speak English?" Luke asked in Chinese. He seemed to indicate that yes, he did speak some English, just before he let loose with a barrage of rapid Chinese that not even Luke could make out. Between the 3 of us, we eventually managed to describe the problem with Luke pondering Chinese syntax, Katherine flipping through her phrase book, and myself holding a chinese-english dictionary in one hand and motioning wildly with the other (If you ever want to know how to say I.V. in Chinese, just make a circle in the air with your right hand, and mimic the flow of water with your other. It gets the point across while having the added bonus of being very entertaining).
After a quick blood test and some questions, Katherine was placed in a barracks-looking room of sorts to recieve her IV, while Luke waited next to her, playing his PSP to pass the time. I meanwhile, was pulled aside by the Doctor several times, because he seemed to think that 1) I spoke Chinese, and 2) I should be the guy to recieve her upkeep instructions (neither of which were true). After a bit, I went back to catch some rest while Luke and Katherine stayed on at the hospital. They managed to get out unscathed, unless you count the constant wailing of the patient in the bed next to her.

So how, might you ask, did we end up in the hospital in the first place? Good question, we're not sure either. All we know is that Katherine was pretty dang sick for at least 30 hours straight, and we were getting a little worried. 4 hours of IV fluid and about 12 hours of sleep later, she seems to be doing quite well now! She is understandably going to take it easy on the food for the next few days, but from what I can tell, she'll be right as rain in no time!

So we've had our adventure for the week, and we're already fed up with adventuring! Back to teaching, eating wonderful food, and hanging out with friends and Family. This weekend we have some friends coming to visit from Wuhan, and we may even travel up Wudang mountain. Everyone is excited about upcoming plans for October holiday, which will be our 1 week vacation that occurs 1 week after I start teaching! We have a pretty big group planning on some cool travels, so get excited for some ridiculous travel stories.

Well, as you might have guessed...I'm a little tired, so I'm off to bed! Hope yall are doing well. STAY HEALTHY! From what I can tell its no fun to be sick! But hey, good news is, the ER visit, including IV cost, etc. was less than 10$ U.S. not bad at all!

Goodnight/afternoon and God Bless!
-Finn

1 week down, 51 to go (ok, more like 42, but 51 sounds more dramatic)

2008-09-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

So I'm convinced that the whole self-esteem deal is outdated, I've found a better solution to the whole believing in yourself thing. Go to a foreign country: preferably one that doesn't hate you/your religion/ideology/skin tone etc. O.K. Simply put, come to China!

If you have any doubts about how special you really are, all it takes is a stroll down the street in Shiyan, China. Jaws will drop, lives will be put on hold, babies will wave, Old people will stare, girls will giggle, and school children will shout "Hello" as you walk by (note: this does not apply to persons of Chinese or Asian descent, and for my insensitivity I apologize). Now I know what Britney Spears feels like (except without the Paparazzi, plastic surgery, or drug problems). Chinese people will simply NOT stop staring at us Americans as we walk down the street. Now don't get me wrong, they do not do this to be rude. In fact, the Chinese have been MOST hospitable to us, and are often eager to try out the 1 or 2 english words that they know when they see us. Rude or not, it is certainly an interesting experience to be the focus of a whole city street as you search the side stores for a good noodle stand. I waver between feeling important and worrying that there is something stuck in my teeth, neither of which are usually true or good feelings ;-)

I have, however, discovered that some are not quite as nice as many of the locals. I have developed what could only be described as a rivalry full of loathing, fear, and often angry exchanges. Who is this vile nemesis who strives to thwart my every endeavor you ask? I'm not sure of his name, but I'm pretty sure that an American family would lovingly name this evil spawn something like "sparky", "skippy", or "Punky".

Yes, there is a dog that dwells a floor below me. Although this 6-inch tall ball of fur appears harmless, it will occasionally lurk on the 6th floor landing, just waiting for an unsuspecting resident to cross its path so that it can go into a yapping/chasing frenzy. Not having had my rabies shot, I have treated many of these such encounters with great caution, often retreating back up/down the stairs until yippie/skippy/sparky's owner comes out to silence the beast. This morning, while we were walking downstairs to procure some lunch, we met the beast on his way up from the 3rd floor to the 6th. Having encountered the thing several times with no positive outcome, I warned Luke to stay back and let it pass. However, the dog simply looked on, docile. When we retreated back into the doorway for a second, the dog passed and ran quickly up one floor, where it immediately commenced its ferocious yapping as if we were suddenly encroaching its territory. Although Katherine has assured me that the dog won't bite even when it is in full attack mode, I seldom leave the apartment without a water bottle, umbrella, or some other blunt object just in case!

This will be our first relaxing weekend in Shiyan since our arrival a week ago. Luke, Katherine, and I are all excited and hope to have some fun. Luke and I have taken to playing ping pong on the outdoor sports courts (they have stone tables set up among the basketball courts). Sometimes students come to join in, and sometimes they simply stare at our awkward attempt to do the game justice (after all, who would hold a ping-pong paddle by the handle? Stupid Americans...).

I think we are all glad to be settling into the swing of things, and Luke and Katherine seem to be enjoying teaching more and more. I am 2 weeks away from teaching now, and Luke is still urging me to learn some Chinese! I have some software here in the apartment, so my next two weeks will likely be more productive than this one. I hope you are all doing well back in the states! Feel free to comment, and look me up on skype (this means you, friends and family!), we love hearing from home so don't hold back! In fact, my feeble brain is constantly running out of topics to blog about, so if you have questions you would like me to answer in my blog, feel free to ask me. OK, thats enough for tonight. Goodnight all, and God Bless!

-Finn

OK, we caved

2008-09-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well, as you can see below, the craving finally got to us. After a 10-minute ride on the K-5 from the Tai He hospital, through the roundabout and just past the KFC, we glimpsed a sight so beautiful, we danced with joy....the golden arches.

With great gusto, we chowed down on some expensive (but well deserved) western food. I indulged in a plain double cheeseburger, Katherine chose 2 single cheeseburgers, and Luke had some spicy chicken nuggets. It was heaven. Now don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of the Chinese food thus far. It is simply a matter of variety (and the ability to safely order variety of food without fear of accidentally ordering live squid). Back in the states, I would probably try some fast food Monday, some Mexican food on Tuesday, Italian on Wednesday, Chinese on Thursday, homestyle cooking on Friday....well you get the point. Here, we are working on expanding our food vocabulary, but we usually end up ordering the same thing repeatedly.

Thankfully, Katherine has kept up a little record of our favorite dishes, which she asks the waitresses to write down after we devour it (pictured right).

Thanks to some exploration and some good friends, we have begun to navigate our way around the city. It is very beautiful here in Shiyan. Compared to Wuhan, the city is much cleaner, and much easier to manage travelling around. We have some favorite restaurants already, but nothing yet can compare to my neighbor's cooking! I suppose I should post a few pictures of the city so you can get an idea of our new home. Below, are pictures from the People's Square (left) and the front gate of our college (right).

I was going to share some pictures from Luke and Katherine's first day of classes, but I can't quite work the photo editor in Chinese, and they would be sideways otherwise :-( A battle for another day perhaps.

As for today, Katherine and I went to meet Luke in his classroom before lunch at McDonalds. Katherine's arrival was greeted with applause from the Chinese students (I just got wierd looks!); they were very excited to greet their new teacher's wife. We sat in on the last 5 minutes of class which seemed to go REALLY well. As envious as they are of my 3-week vacation, Luke and Katherine are settling into teaching just fine. After McDonalds, I convinced Luke and our friend John to travel up the hill to the school basketball/ping pong courts for an afternoon of ping pong (we had to stop at a supermarket on the way back from Mickey D's to get the paddles). Passers by watched with great interest as we battled it out on the little stone ping pong tables in the open air. It was a lot of fun, but certainly tiring. After a little rest, our friends John and Megan introduced us to the wonderful world of Shiyan DVD shopping. And so we ended the night with a movie.

I hope you are all doing well back in the states. Sorry the posts aren't quite as frequent as they started out, but life is busy here! Feel free to comment, Uncle Skip is the only brave commenter thus far, and we love hearing from home!

Oh, and one last thing. ROLL TIDE!!!!!! Woohoo, how 'bout that game????? We didn't get to actually watch it, but the ESPN gamecast was enough for us early Sunday morning as we crowded around my computer screen. That being said, thanks for the score discretion, folks, we'll be trying to watch games after the fact in the future.

Peace and Blessings,

Finn (and Luke and Katherine, but they're sleeping right now!)

We have found the interwebs!

2008-08-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

So, as you may have guessed, my apartment is now hooked up to the internet! Skype, facebook, and (of course) blogspot are now easily accessible at any time. We're still working on the cell phones but we have phone cards for our home phones so we're chugging right along. Luke and Katherine's internet worked briefly....then their computer (the one the school provided) kinda broke, so the school is sending someone to fix it Monday.

Today we had a dinner with all of the American English teachers in Shiyan. Laughs and good times were had by all, and Barry almost mastered the art of picking up watermelon with chopsticks. We have a REALLY great group of folks here, and it was good to communicate with over 2 other English speakers in one sitting!

Luke and Katherine are doing well. I think they have not rebounded from the jet-lag quite so wel; they are in bed pretty early every night, but I tend to stay up and watch a little West Wing now and then. Perhaps they are trying to prepare themselves for the upcoming schedule! Luke and Kat start classes on Monday, but I apparently won't have classes for another 3 weeks! I have all freshmen classes, and all Chinese freshmen are required to do some sort of training, so I will be free to hang out for a bit around the city before getting to work.

Sorry there's nothing very new or interesting to report in this post, but I suppose a boring post is better than none at all. I hope everyone is doing well stateside...but clearly something's wrong back there if we're nominating governors from Alaska to VP slots....unbelievable. As far as I'm concerned, Alaskans are geographically Canadian, and therefore unfit for the office of VP, but what would I know? OK, enough for my political rant. I'm working on getting my Mac internet-ready but its proving difficult. I may have to swap my photos over to the desktop to put them online, but don't worry, they'll be up soon!

Peace,
Finn

Oh! and ROOOOOOLLLLLLLLL TIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. please don't let us know game scores until you know we've watched it...we're trying to watch online after it happens, but we don't want to know the outcome 'till we see it. Thanks!

Finn's first morning in his Chinese apartment (step by step)

2008-08-29T02:20:00.000-07:00

1) Got out of bed, still in boxers, and proceeded to stumble about the apartment after 12 hours of jet-lagged sleep.

2) wandered into 2nd bedroom with no curtains up, got stared at by a Chinese guy cooking breakfast in the apartment building across from mine

3) set up curtains

4) shower time: I wandered into shower/bathroom/laundry room (you have to walk across the shower area to get to the toilet and washer, which are set 6 inches above the shower area).

5) started shower, only got cold water.

7) Tried to work Chinese water heater.

8) Got burned by chinese shower.

9) Tried again to work Chinese water heater.

10) got slightly less burned: commenced showering.

11) tried to differentiate Chinese Shampoo and conditioner with little success.

12) turned on the sink to shave...cold water

13) stopped up the sink, pointed shower head into sink for hot water.

14) shaved

15) Used a sgueegee on the floor as I had managed to soak everything in the room with water.

16) Got dressed, headed out for Chinese breakfast (hot noodles, egg and beef)

These are the steps I would recommend for anyone's first night in China. It certainly makes for an interesting experience when you can't read ANYTHING in your apartment.

Well, Luke, Katherine, and I are in Shiyan now. We have set up in our apartments and are doing well. I have many many stories to tell, but I am typing right now on my neighbor's computer. Our internet is sadly not set up yet, and we have no Chinese cell phone for the moment. We have alerted the school though, and tomorrow morning we will be getting phones and internet.

Shiyan is a beautiful city. Although busier than you or I could have imagined, the people are friendly, the air is clean, and the mountains are gorgeous. Sadly, it has rained all day today, so Brad showed us where to buy umbrellas. We grocery shopped a little and had lunch with some of our fellow American teachers that we ran into on the street. We ate at a place they call "happy lady's" because the owner of the small restaurant is a short portly Chinese lady who CONSTANTLY grins from ear to ear. She was SOOOO sweet and we ate very well (5 of us ate for just over 5 American dollars!!!).

I will have more pictures coming, as well as some other stories, but for now I think I will get out of my neighbor's hair and go watch a movie or something. Thanks for your patience. I promise we will do better at blogging/facebook/skype when our internet is hooked up. Until then, goodbye, and God Bless.

Finn

Pictures from Wuhan!

2008-08-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

RELIEF!

2008-08-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

Our long day(s) of travel have come to a temporary stop! Today, Luke, Katherine, and I landed in Wuhan, China, where we were greeted by a fellow American teacher from Shiyan and two Chinese representatives of the school. After some hurried goodbyes to our travel companions, we were hurried onto a small van and driven to downtown Wuhan for our first meal!

Well, if you have never had authentic Chinese (and I have not), it is an interesting experience. We all sat down, were offered tea and other beverages as our hosts perused the menu to order dishes for the whole group. We also each received a hot towel with which everyone wiped their faces (surprisingly refreshing, you should try it sometime). The dishes came one by one and were placed on the lazy susan in the middle of the table. Not wanting to offend, I sampled some of the saucy tofu cubes and carrots that didn't quite look like carrots. From there, we moved on to some AMAZING spicy pork dishes (one looked like ribs, and the other a sort of bacon-like meat mixed in with peppers and spices). "Water-boiled fish", beef and shrimp, a dish that I would identify as spicy french fries....the list goes on.

Needless to say, we are all stuffed and exhausted. Our gracious hosts directed us to our 14th floor hotel rooms where we have hot showers and internet! As much as I would like to post a myriad of pictures and tell dozens more stories, I am DESPERATELY in need of a nap.

Peace,

Finn

3 flights down, 1 to go...and a train ride

2008-08-26T16:10:00.001-07:00

This morning at about 5:30 AM local time (somewhere in the afternoon for our stateside friends), a group of around thirty exhausted, smelly, cramped Americans stumbled into the Hong Kong airport, which was probably a humorous sight to see! After a 14 hour cross-pacific flight (with no sunlight the whole time!!!), we were able to watch through the glass siding of the Hong Kong airport as the sunrise revealed the most magnificent fog-crested mountains! It was certainly a reprieve from the back of another passenger's headrest.

Though the worst part is now over, we are now waiting at the gate for our last flight which will take us into Wuhan. We have fortunately located Free WiFi (props to Hong Kong for providing what Dallas AND L.A. would not), so everyone is facebooking/emailing/watching Michelle Obama's speech on Youtube and loving it...ok maybe that last one was just me.

We are safe, tired, happy, excited, and experiencing a whirlwind of feelings (physical and emotional). We will post again once we are in our new apartments! woohoo!

Peace and Blessings,

Finn

WE ARE ON OUR WAY!!!!

2008-08-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Huntsville airport, we are able to fire off one quick departure post! Hugs have been exchanged, passports have been checked, Luke has been unnecessarily scanned in security, and the obligatory water and tic tacs have all been purchased.

So now we await the boarding call for our flight to Dallas. From there, we will stop in L.A., change airlines, fly across the Pacific Ocean, stop in Hong Kong, then continue to the Wuhan airport! As exhausted as we are from a LONG night of packing and goodbyes, we are all running off of a seemingly endless supply of nervous energy and excitement (which I'm sure will expire halfway across the Pacific).

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers as we fly. We hope to update as soon as we can find the internet in China, so keep checking up on us! It may be a couple of days, so be patient with us!

Peace and Blessings!

- The Brelands

Departure

2008-08-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

We leave for China in 17 days!!!

Luke, Katherine, and I are all running around frantically to see friends and family, pack for a daunting 11 month trip, and take care of all our pre-China concerns and errands. Forgive us if we are stressed, but we are oh-so-excited!