Golf, Doritos, and Motorcycles

As promised I was a little more active this weekend, well not on Saturday, but I was very active on Sunday. I got up early to begin my economics midterm which was thankfully an open book exam. I finished the first question and then went to breakfast with Selina. After breakfast I made a reservation for Selina, Maggie, and I for Thanksgiving dinner. Most of the western restaurants downtown are hosting a feast and we selected the Bob Cat Brewery for our night out. The menu sounds absolutely delicious so hopefully it won't disappoint. Oh, and to my family who's visiting my casa for Thanksgiving, be ready for the iChat call!!! I will try to stay awake long enough so most of y'all will be at the house :)

After I made our Thanksgiving reservation Bill and I left at 12:30 to go to Pudong to find a driving range. We ended up going farther on the subway than ever before and it was very strange to be in Pudong but not have huge skyscrapers surrounding us. Without big buildings everywhere you can really tell how poor the air quality is too. We took a cab from the subway to the driving range which was located in a suburban neighborhood. It's the first suburbia that we've seen and it was just like any neighborhood back home. The one difference was that none of the houses were identical, the colors and structure were different for every house. We rented a seven iron for an hour and went to the second level of the range. Bill is left handed but hits right handed which I found fascinating. I was pleased to discover that after not hitting a golf ball for about 3 months I hadn't completely forgotten how to swing. All of my shots went relatively straight and I only got one blister on my hand. For the whole hour Bill was asking me all kinds of questions about playing golf at school. We hit balls for the hour and then headed out to find another cab. Although the weather wasn't that great we wanted to visit Century Park which is the largest park in Shanghai. We grabbed a cab and headed over there. While riding in the cab Bill quizzed me on what direction we were going in. Whenever I go anywhere with him he always asks me direction questions because he knows I have no sense of direction. I actually get frustrated when I can't guess which direction we're traveling in. I can tell he enjoys the looks of utter confusion and exasperation passing across my face during these quizzes!

We got to the park around 3 and walked around for two straight hours. The park is HUGE! It took us two hours to finally walk around in a circle and there were many territories that we didn't discover. It was very crowded with a younger crowd and many families. If the weather had been more accommodating I would have taken a nap in the grass, it was perfect. We walked through a flower garden, saw some cool statues, and saw really old bonzai trees. When we were walking towards the exit that lead to the subway we saw a crew of workers planting a tree. They had the tree, which was huge, attached to a crane and they were lowering it into the middle of a bunch of other trees that had already been planted. It was very different to see them plant the tree that way. I also enjoyed the park because for a while Bill didn't know which direction we were headed in. I kept asking him where we were going and he kept getting more and more frustrated because he couldn't figure it out. It was pretty great :)

After the park we headed to the central part of Pudong for food. We ate at an Italian restaurant in the Super Brand Mall and then we tried to find the western grocery store. Looking for this store was a lot like being with Selina because neither one of knew where it was. We walked down many an unnecessary street, saw an ice cream store, bought some ice cream, and finally called Maggie to look it up for us online. We finally found the store and we each made a few purchases. I got a bag of Cooler Ranch Doritos. Guess how much they cost. Are you ready for it? One bag of Doritos cost $1o. Ten US dollars for a bag of chips!!! I am saving them for when I am stuck in my apartment writing my 15 page capstone paper. I have a feeling I will be needing some comfort food. Once I selected my chips I saw they had a huge wine and beer section. I don't know why but the fact that I can buy alcohol from a store hadn't hit me until that moment and I got really excited and bought a Guinness and Carlsburg. When I was checking out I noticed that both of the beers combined cost less than the bag of chips. A little absurd, is it not?

We took the subway back and when we got to the station closest to the dorms Bill asked if I wanted to take a rickshaw or motorcycle taxi back. I had never been on a motorcycle before so I immediately opted for that one. Technically that motorcycles aren't licensed to be taxis but the locals use them all the time. I told the driver where I wanted to go, hopped on behind him, and off we went! There was a red light when we first started out but my driver just wound in and out of the cars and I was amazed that he didn't hit any of them. We went through a huge intersection and didn't really stop to look if there were any cars coming, he just kind of did a stutter stop and kept going. I had a little heart attack at that point. It was about 60 degrees outside so the weather was perfect for the ride.  He was going to drop me off at the back gate of Fudan but I didn't want to get off yet so I told him in Chinese to keep going and I showed him where the dorms were. We got off and paid them and I turned around to Bill and said "That was awesome!" and he laughed at me. I absolutely LOVED riding on a motorcycle. I plan to ride many more motorcycle taxis before I leave.

Tomorrow I'm going to a traditional Chinese opera downtown with a few people. I've heard that you either love Chinese opera or you hate it so we will have to see. We've also moved from book 2 in Chinese to book 3 this week. Some of us are more excited than others but it doesn't look too bad so far. I also added pics of Sunday on my picture site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/29895521@N02/

A Few Updates

Well I have officially given myself 1 hour to procrastinate before I start studying for my test so I thought I would give you all a few updates on what's been happening. As most of you know my ability to contract sickness when the weather changes is unparalleled and I'm thrilled to inform you that that aspect of my immune system has not changed. Going from the dry and extremely cold temperatures of Tibet to very humid and warm temperatures in Shanghai wreaked havoc on my sinuses and I was sick all last week. I don't have any Thera-Flu or medication over here so I used sleep and water as my defense. After missing class on Tuesday, sleeping all weekend, and remaining inactive for the whole week I'm feeling much better. My parents have suggested trying acupuncture to help with my sinuses and I think I might try it out just to see what it's like. And who knows, maybe it'll help.

Last week I did manage to accompany a group of my classmates to the new 007 movie at a movie theater. It was in English with Chinese subtitles. We debated going to see it in the theater or waiting until they have it on DVD two days later but we decided that Bond deserved or company at the big screen. It was really good but a little frustrating because when the characters started speaking in Spanish the subtitles were still in Chinese. I know a little Spanish but not enough to follow when they speak so fast. Hmmm... that's awfully similar to my Chinese situation :) The rest of the week was pretty uneventful but I did make an observation about class attendance. Usually at this point in the semester you start to notice a little thinning in the class ranks. People start to skip class more often but they show up most of the time. I have never seen so many students skip class as often as they have started to do here. And I will not exempt myself from this group either. I can honestly say that getting out of bed to go to class is a very difficult internal struggle. Even doing my homework takes all of my will power. Having the same class every day is starting to wear on all of us and it's only going to get worse because we have two 15 page papers due on the 23rd of December. We are all at the point that we just want to travel and not do any more work. We have one more 3 day trip to a small province that's 2 hours away and a few of us want to take a weekend trip to Beijing as well. Hopefully those two trips will help with the restlessness that's been spreading.

Yesterday I finally made it over to the fabric market to get a few jackets made. It is 4 stories of every kind of fabric imaginable. You can select one of their designs or bring in a picture of what you want made and they measure you and tell you to come back a week later. I can't wait to see how my stuff turns out! After the fabric market and our trip to Tibet I have decided that I will have to buy another suitcase if I'm going to be able to bring all of my stuff back. 

This week for our contemporary society class we had to interview one of our Chinese friends about the one-child policy in China. We had a series of questions about what they thought of it, how they felt about the preference for a male child, and whether or not they wanted siblings growing up. We had to type up field reports and email them to our professor and she selected a few of them to present in class. She selected mine because I talked about being an only child and how Ruby's experiences were similar or different from mine. It's a pretty interesting topic because everybody's interviewee was in favor of the policy. They all believed it was necessary because China has so many people. If I was in the politics class I would consider doing my final paper on the one-child policy. However, I'm in the economics class and have no idea what I should write my final paper on. Economics isn't exactly my forte :)

Well, my 1 hour is up and I don't have much else to tell you because all I did was sleep last week. I plan to go on a few adventures this weekend and next week so I will have some more stories later. Oh, and I also have one request for all of you: on Thanksgiving, no matter how full you are, eat an extra plate for me!!!

Oct. 31-Nov. 2-- The Train Back to Shanghai

We got up at 7:30 to eat get ready and eat breakfast. We met Joe downstairs at 8:30 and headed to the train station. I, however, was not ready to leave. The prospect of returning to Shanghai with two months of class left and only a 3 day travel weekend to look forward to didn't hold great promise for me. There is a tour that goes through Tibet, down to Nepal, and then over to India that I would like to do some day in the future. Perhaps after law school :) We got to the train station at 8:45, said goodbye to Joe and Mr. Huang, and entered the station. We waited for about 45 minutes and then boarded the train at 9:30. At first we thought we had the compartment to ourselves, Selina had a bottom bunk and I was in a top bunk, but at the last minute an old Chinese couple came into our compartment. They caused us to constantly worry for two reasons. Number one, the man had a severe cough that made it sound like he was drowning in his lungs. This cough made solid sleep very difficult for the next two days. The first night I found myself laughing in my bunk because every time I was about to fall asleep he would start coughing again. I could hear Selina below me and she was having a hard sleeping as well. Number two, the woman was on the other top bunk and was too short to really reach the foot holds when she was getting down. She had to turn backwards when she got down and I was so scared that she was going to fall every time. However, she was very sweet and kept offering us food because she didn't think we were eating enough. I think she found the two us very entertaining because when we got off the train for our stretching breaks she laughed at all of our shenanigans. Her husband also laughed at us on the train because we would talk by me bending over the side of the bunk and we would hand each other snacks by waving it around until the other saw the waving hand and took it. Overall, they were very nice and made the trip very interesting.

I wish I could tell you that there was a great murder mystery on the train and that we were all gathered into the dining car and individually questioned by the police inspector only to discover that it was Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with the candlestick but, alas, it was relatively uneventful. I finally finished "The Stand" and also read "The Invisible Man" and "The Time Machine." The TVs in our compartments worked this time and I watched Forrest Gump and Harry Potter 3 which were both dubbed in Chinese but I've seen both of them so many times I didn't need the sound to know what was going on, and sometimes what was being said. On Friday night Selina and I went outside our compartment and pretended to trick or treat outside each compartment door. We had bought some Dove chocolates in Lhasa and used those as the candy. We had a great time celebrating our Halloween on the train. We went back into the compartment and took pictures with the night vision on my camera to add to the creepiness factor. This train ride seemed longer than the last one because we didn't have anything to look forward to, just class and homework.

We got back to Shanghai at 12:30 and got a cab back to Tonghe. We dropped off our stuff and headed down to Hannah's for a real breakfast and then came back up for a shower. You don't really appreciate a good shower until you've spent two days on a train without one!!! I would probably need to take two to feel truly clean again :) I decided to start uploading pictures for everyone and typing up my journal notes. I was walking through my room to my bed and there, next to my closet, were my tennis shoes. Right at that moment this amazing journey came to an end. I have tried to describe it to you the best that I can but the over all influence this trip has had upon me is something I will never be able to fully describe :)

Oct. 30- Last Day in Tibet

We woke up at 8 on Thursday to drive back to Lhasa. We ate breakfast which consisted of yak baozi, steamed buns, and rice porridge and left the hotel at 9 AM. We took a different route back that followed the Brahmaputra River through the mountains. This route was weird because there are checkpoints every hour or so that monitor how fast the drivers are going. If they are caught driving too fast at the first checkpoint they are fined 400 kuai. If they are caught driving too fast a second time their license is revoked. The drivers have all seemed to find a way around this system though. We were driving too fast every time so we just pulled to side of the road for a 10 minute "picture taking opportunity." As we got out to take pictures several other cars pulled over as well for a 10 minute break as well. The only checkpoint that we didn't have to stop for was when we ate lunch for 30 minutes. Also along this road we came to a section where the road had cracked a lot from the cold so they had taken out sections of it. It was like driving through a Tetris game because all the patches of road were shaped in squares and rectangles. It was a very bumpy-zig zaggy- off roady trip for about an hour. The coolest thing about this different way back was that we got to see more villages and people. I saw a woman herding sheep along the river on a very steep mountain incline and, like the dog at Potala Palace, they made it look so easy.

We got back Lhasa at 2:15, dropped off our stuff, and headed back to Barkor street for some last minute shopping. I got a few more gifts for friends and family and then we walked around the street stalls for something to celebrate Halloween with. We came upon a cart with older looking Tibetan objects and Selina bought skulls prayer beads made from yak bone and I bought a set of 3 skeletons made from yak bone. After about an hour of walking around I noticed how much thinner my wallet was. It's amazing how much money you can spend without even realizing it!!! We returned to Tashi for dinner and got our respective teas and pancakes. We also got a very popular Tibetan dish called Tsampa. It's barley flour rolled into little balls and then you put in your mouth and then drink yak butter tea to help it dissolve. I'm not a huge fan of butter but I tried it anyways. The barley flour wasn't bad but the tea was like drinking liquid butter so we decided to dip our barley flour in the honey from our pancakes instead. Barley is the biggest crop that the Tibetans grow in their fields. We took a rickshaw back to the hotel and packed our things because we had to get up early for our train. This time I made sure that my triple checking didn't leave anything behind!

Oct. 29- Yamtso Lake, Tashi Lhuan Po Monastery

On Wednesday we got up at 7:30 in preparation for our next journey. We left the hotel at 8:30 and began the 7 hour drive from Lhasa to Shigatse. The first part of our drive took us by many local dwellings. The one thing I noticed with every house no matter how small or old it was was that they all had colors. Whether it was around the door trim or along the roof line every home was painted with blue, red, yellow, and green. I thought that was incredible. Later we drove along the Lhasa River which flows through the river valley. The river was huge and eventually turned into the Brahmaputra River that flows all the way down to India. The way the Ganges mountains reflected on the river like a mirror was awesome. In places it was as still as glass and in others it rocked like the ocean. We drove along the river for about an hour and then passed over a bridge. Once we crossed that bridge we were no longer in the Gandes mountains but instead we were driving through the Himalayas. Along the base of some of the mountains we noticed ladders that were painted in white. Joe said that the Tibetans paint them on the base of the mountain because they believe the mountains lead to heaven and the ladders act as their wish to some day reach it. It reminded me of American Indian cave paintings.

As we climbed up the mountains a certain beloved aunt came to mind as we wound back and forth in a zig zag pattern for at least an hour. The highest point we came to was 5000 meters up and you could see the river below us. Before the river had looked enormous but from that hight it looked like a snake curving it's way through the valley. We came parallel with the clouds for a moment which was really cool. Once we passed over to the other side of the pass we came upon the Yamtso Lake. It's one of the holiest lakes in Tibet and it was beautiful. I've had a hard time describing it but I will do my best. Where the sun hit the water it looked like turquoise with diamonds sparkling on top. With the water below, the snow covered mountains looked even brighter in the background. And we thought Lhasa was cold! The frigid wind up there went through your bones and didn't leave until we were in the van for several minutes. I took many pictures of the lake so hopefully they will better convey the image of it better than my description. After driving for another hour in the van we could still the lake. I kept taking pictures through the window because the light kept striking the water in different places. It looked utterly untouchable tucked away in that Himalayan pass.

We drove through snow covered mountains for a few more hours and then stopped to eat lunch in a small town. We had yak jerky, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, rice, and potatoes. The yak jerky was pretty good and was a lot like beef jerky but it was a little tougher. Our favorite thing was the scrambled egg with tomato and we hoped we would be able to have it again. I started laughing in the middle of the meal because never in my life did I think I would be having lunch in the middle of the Himalayan mountains while exploring Tibet. After lunch we drove some more and stopped to look at a glacier at the top of a mountain. It looked like jagged snow hanging off in shelves from the peak. About an hour after that we stopped in the city of Guantse, I think but I can't remember how Joe said it, and saw a fortress built up on a small mountain. He said that in 1904 Guantse was a hero city in Tibet because the British tried to invade and they were stopped at the fortress. After the city we began to drive through the agricultural valley that was close to Shigatse. We could see many Tibetan men and women working in the fields and along the road. It amazed me to see the women carrying bales of hay or barley that were four times their size on their backs. Their strength is incredible. Also along the road we could see herds of sheep, donkeys, cows, and yaks. Wild dogs also ran around freely. The donkeys and sheep hung the closest to the roads while the yak stayed secluded in the fields. It was so cool to see how most of the Tibetans spend their days. They work, and by the looks of it, tirelessly.

We arrived in Shigatse around 3:15 and Joe let us unwind for about an hour before taking us to the monastery. Shigatse is the second largest city in Tibet with about 50,000 people while Lhasa has around 250,000 people. When we got to the hotel we were given a key and led into room 2207. After resting for an hour we met Joe down in the lobby and drove to Tashi Lhuan Po Monastery. It was built in 1447 and houses the Penchan Lama when he lived in Tibet. The Penchan Lama and Dalia Lama are on the same level. The stones in the monastery had been worn smooth from centuries of being walked on. The workers and monks were repainting parts of the walls because at the end of every rainy season they put new coats of paint on. The first room we entered housed the largest bronze indoor Buddha in the world. It was 30 meters tall and used a half a ton of gold plating on it. It was magnificent and I was surprised when Joe told us that the inside is hollow despite the heavy bronze and gold layers. The next room we entered was the tomb of the 1oth Penchan Lama. It was HUGE and used 600 kilos of gold plating. On the walls around the tomb there were thousands of Buddhas and other murals. Joe said all the Buddhas looked the same but when you looked closer you could see that their hands were in different positions. That's how they can tell all the Buddhas apart, by their hand position and sometimes what is draped around their necks. The last room we came to was a tomb for the 4th-9th Penchan Lamas. The ceiling of this room was much higher than the others and the outside architecture was more detailed. As in the other tomb, their were small Buddhas painted on the walls but these were not filled with color, they just had a gold outline. Joe said that all Buddhists strive for emptiness so these Buddhas were showing that desire. Because this tomb was much older than the 10th Penchan Lama's the walls had turned black from so many years of burning candles. We exited the tomb and walked back down through the monastery and I discovered that I envied them the solitude that the monastery provided. It was in the middle of the city but it so peaceful and you couldn't hear a single car.

When we got back to the hotel we tried to open our door and a red light kept coming up on the lock. We kept wondering why this was until we looked at our key and saw that it had 2201 on it and not 2207. Because we were led to our room we didn't think to check that they led us to the right one. It was really humiliating trying to explain to the front desk that our key was for 2201 but our bags were in 2207 because when they asked why we couldn't really explain. We definitely felt stupid when they had to open room 2207 so we could move our bags down to room 2201. Joe took us to dinner at a local Tibetan restaurant that caters to foreigners. Like all Tibetan restaurants it was very colorful and they had the scrambled eggs with tomatoes! After dinner we headed back to the hotel and ended up talking for about 2 hours about everything from family to handwriting to boxing. It was a good bonding talk, as if the two of us need to bond anymore :)

Oct. 28- Free Day in Lhasa

Tuesday was our free day in Lhasa so the first thing on our agenda was to sleep in. I woke up at 9 and tried to not move until Selina woke up so I could stay warm. She woke up around 10 and it was too late for breakfast so we had Chips Ahoy cookies and more Ritz crackers for breakfast. I'm pretty sure we got all the food groups in there :) Once again we got ready at a jogging pace and left the room around 10:45 for our independent exploration. Technically foreigners are not supposed to go anywhere without a guide but Joe said if anyone stopped us to call him and he would come find us. Every time we passed a soldier stationed around we hoped he wouldn't stop us and thankfully we didn't get stopped all day. The rain had stopped and the sun came out periodically so we had much better weather to walk around in. In the internet cafe Selina had looked up popular local spots in Lhasa so we had a few of those on our list of things to do. First we stopped at on outdoors store to buy thicker socks. We learned from the first day that your feet get cold very quickly up there. After we bought our socks we walked for about 30 minutes to a pedestrian street near Jokhang Temple. We went into a local restaurant called Tashi for a brunch meal. It was tucked away in part of a family's living quarters and it was very colorful on the inside. They had a huge menu that was in English and Selina ordered honey ginger tea and I got some lemon tea. To eat Selina got a banana pancake with honey and some fried apple momos and I got an apple pancake with honey and steamed apple momos. Besides the braised eggplant that pancake is the best food I've had in China thus far. At this point we had been out and about for an hour and a half and I was loving it.

After we finished at Tashi we headed down the shopping street to buy some souvenirs. I made a bee line for a local music store and bought a Tibetan CD. I'm actually listening to it as I right this and it's pretty cool. It's chanting with soft instruments in the background. Anyways, the first store we entered sold a lot of things made from yak wool. They had really cool stuff but we didn't buy anything since it was the first store. A couple shops later I bought a prayer wheel and a warm hat made from yak wool. It felt really warm and it looked a little ridiculous on me so I couldn't pass it up. After we finished with the big shops we headed toward the street stalls. I bought a necklace with the Buddhist chant on it and then we went looking for Barkor Street by Jokhang. Selina pointed in front of us and said that she thought the Temple was that way and I thought it was behind us. Then I looked to the right from our exact position and there was Jokhang Temple. No matter where we're going Selina and I never have a sure direction but we always seem to find what we're looking for by accident. There were many street stalls open in front of the Temple and we perused them for a while. I stopped at one of the stalls to look for a gift for a friend who will remain anonymous and I picked up a prayer wheel. I was spinning it the wrong way and didn't understand what the man and woman were telling me until they came around the cart and showed me my error. I was so embarrassed and apologized profusely and they just waved their arms and kept saying it was alright. As I now know you're supposed to spin it clockwise, not counterclockwise. I bought a gift from their cart and turned to wait for Selina to finish bargaining at another stall. As I waited there I felt a tap on my shoulder and the man from the cart I had just visited draped a string of prayer beads around my neck. His wife came up behind him and said that they were giving them to me for no money. Of everything I got on this trip those beads are by far my favorite. The man and woman looked so pleased to give them to me and I was genuinely touched at the gesture. They're very simple beads which makes it even better. They smell like the incense from the temples we visited which is so great because that is one detail that I can't really describe in the right way.

After the prayer beads I bought a t-shirt that says Tibet and has pictures of yaks above it and underneath the yaks it says "yakyakyakyak." It's the kind of shirt you would buy for a little kid which is probably why I liked it so much :) Next, we went back to the first store we went in and got all the things we liked the first time around. I bought a yak wool jacket that has fleece lining. It's really warm and Selina would say it's cozy but I like to say it's squishy because the fleece and wool provide a good padding layer. Once these final purchases were made we went to the Summit Cafe for a glass of hot chocolate and some leisure time. I read my book and Selina wrote in her travel journal. As I was reading Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" came on over the speaker and I couldn't help but smile. Only Johnny Cash would be playing in the middle of Tibet in a small local cafe. We left the cafe around 5:30 and headed back to the hotel. I got some good pictures of the mountains surrounding Lhasa that were not visible the day before. Every Tibetan that we passed smiled and some said hello in English with big smiles on their faces. They are the most unique people that I've ever encountered and I found I liked them immensely. We went to the internet cafe for another hour and then retreated to our hotel. We weren't hungry for dinner so we snacked on Ritz crackers again. Overall our free day was a tremendous success and I fell more in love with the city with every passing minute. You simply cannot go to a place so deeply rooted in religion and spirituality without having a religious experience of your own.

Oct. 27- Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace

On Monday morning we had a 7:30 wake-up call. I was so out of it I couldn't figure out where the ringing was coming from. After I remembered that we were in Lhasa I thought it was my phone so I threw it on the floor but the ringing continued. I finally realized it was the hotel phone and answered it. I was kind of warm until I thrashed about looking for the source of the ringing and then I was freezing all over again. It took all of our willpower to get out of bed and get dressed for the day. I literally ran all over the room to try to generate a little body heat. We went to the hotel breakfast which was about the same as what we had on the Silk Road Trip. The two ladies who were monitoring the buffet were wrapped up in huge down quilts. I had peanuts and 2 steamed buns. We met Joe down in the lobby at 9 and he had brought me an old pair of shoes to wear so I wouldn't have to buy any. I was extremely grateful because it was 40 degrees and raining on our first day there. Mr. Huang said that at this time of year it never rains because it's very dry. Of course, on our first day there what does it do, it rains. Actually it was more like sleet than rain. We drove from the new section to the old section to see the Jokhang Temple. 

The atmosphere around that Temple is indescribable. There were monks sitting outside and chanting with circular tins in their hands and they kept pouring some kind of grain over it. Joe said it is a very common way of praying. In front of the temple there were dozens of Tibetans prostrating. They had pads underneath them and they would bend to their knees, stretch out on their stomach, come back to knees, stand up with their hands together, reach their hands to the sky, and then repeat it over and over again. The Jokhang Temple is the holiest temple for Buddhist Tibetans and Joe said that most consider their lives incomplete until they visit that Temple. He said that many prostrate for every step they take towards the temple no matte how far away they are. Many Tibetans die while trying to make the pilgrimage to Lhasa. When we were in the temple Joe pointed out that there were teeth in the wooden pillars. He said that if a Tibetan dies while making the pilgrimage their teeth are brought to the temple and put in the pillars so that their spirits finish the journey. Hearing this and looking around at all the Tibetans gathered in the temple, some of them so old that they had to be carried on another's back, I could feel the enormous power and spirituality surrounding that place. There were lines to enter each room and many people were holding their prayer wheels chanting "om mani padme hum," a Buddhist prayer. Others carried containers of yak butter to pour into the candle holders. As I thought about how far some of those people had come just to be able pray in that Temple I couldn't help but feel like an intruder. There we were sightseeing while the Tibetans were praying for spiritual fulfillment. In the middle of the temple we saw where the monks gather for their group prayers every day. They sit on cushions that are lined up in rows. The temple was lit by candles and was very cozy on the inside. The intense spirituality radiating from that place is, to say the very least, awesome. 

After the Temple, Joe led us down Barkor street that makes a semi-circle around Jokhang Temple. He told us that on our free day it would be a good place to come to for shopping. I made a mental list of many things that I wanted to buy and hoped I wouldn't exceed my spending limit! Once we made the loop around the street we got back in the van and headed to Potala Palace. We were dropped off in front to take some pictures and Joe told us that the Palace took 49 years to build and is 400 meters across. It was absolutely huge and just perked on the side of a mountain. Apparently only monks, wealthier citizens, and the Dalai Lama were allowed in the Temple when it was first built. We finished about one hour early before our designated tour time so Joe took us to a local shop to look around and have some tea. The tea was so good and burned my hands because they were so cold! Selina and I both bought paintings of mandalas that were painted by monks with mineral paints. Mandalas come to the monks during meditation and they do a little bit at a time as the vision comes to them. The more detail the painting has, the longer it takes to paint. Selina and I are almost twins but one thing we differ on is color preference. She was drawn to a bright colored mandala while I immediately went for a black background with gold and silver paint. The shop keeper told me that mine probably took over 2 months to paint because of all the detail. While they were wrapping our paintings we sat and talked to Joe and he asked what our names meant in English. Selina told him that her name means Goddess of the Moon and then he asked me what mine meant and the only definition that I've ever found says that Cody means pillow or cushion. He thought that was really funny and so did Selina and you have to admit it's a little absurd. After our purchases were wrapped we headed over to the Potala Palace for our tour.

As we made our ascent to the upper part of the palace it began to rain harder and the thin air made me feel severely out of shape. At least I like to blame it on the thin air :) When the Dalai Lama stays in Tibet he lives in the Palace but the current Dalai Lama is living in exile in India. Joe said that the Dalai Lamas that have lived in India live longer than the ones that live in Tibet because life is harder in Tibet. We rested towards the top while Joe got our tickets to enter the upper part of the Palace. As we sat there, a small dog with legs about 8 inches long came up the stairs and made it look like nothing. He stopped to look at us and kept climbing the steep stairs like they were a flat ramp. It was a real morale booster that a dog with 8 inch legs could go up the Palace easier than we could. The first room we entered was the Dalai Lama's office. The intricate detail that was involved with every aspect of that office is mind blowing. Every piece of furniture and every inch of wall was covered with complex carvings and pictures. I've never seen anything like it. We saw where the Dalai Lama meets with his advisors, where he does independent study, and where he sleeps. In the room where he does his study only the Dalai Lama is allowed to go. There was a huge rug on the floor of that room and it was amazing to think that only Dalai Lamas have stepped on it. Colors were also very prevalent not only in the Palace but everywhere in Lhasa. Colors are very important to Tibetans and each color symbolizes a part of the earth. Blue means sky, red is fire, yellow is earth, and green is plant. The monks wear the dark red and no on else is allowed to wear that color.

After the Dalai Lama's office we saw several tombs of past Dalai Lamas. The largest we saw was for the 5th Dalai Lama and it had over 3000 kilos of gold on it. After the 5th Dalai Lama died the government kept it from the people for 15 years because they wanted them to keep building the Palace. The 6th Dalai Lama stayed in his hometown during this period and was known for writing love poems and romances. He was looked down upon because thought he only cared about all of his girlfriends. I just thought that was an interesting piece of history for you :) After we finished going through all the rooms we walked down the back of the Palace. The wet and slippery steps made the going very slow but we all made it down without incident. Joe dropped us off for lunch and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves. We went to an internet cafe for an hour and then ran back to the hotel because we were so cold. We would have walked around more but the cold wet weather did not look appealing. While our room was not much warmer than outside at least it was dry. We found several Chinese soap operas on TV and found one that was very entertaining. It had a love triangle, a crazy old Chinese man with afro hair, and an evil kung fu guy who escaped from prison. We had fun inserting our own lines in place of the Chinese ones. As dinner time approached neither one of us wanted to get out of bed and go back outside so we ate Ritz crackers with peanut butter for dinner. We hoped that the rain would cease for our free day in Lhasa on Tuesday!

Oct. 26- Arrival in Lhasa

On Sunday I woke up at 7:00 and saw that Selina was still out like a light so I pulled the window back slightly and was greeted by a winter wonderland. Our country landscape had turned into miles and miles of snow covered mountains overnight. Having grown up around snow, and not seeing it all too often in Texas, I got really excited. There's something to be said about watching China's landscape change outside your window. I thought how incredibly beautiful it was and then I thought "Why didn't I bring tennis shoes?!?" When Selina woke up I opened the blinds and turned my ipod on for some music and the first song that came on was "Snow" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Selina and I looked at each other and started cracking up in our beds, it was a little too coincidental for 8:00 in the morning! We ate the same breakfast as the day before and then I read some of my book. And then I read some more, and then I read some more. I stopped to buy watermelon from the snack cart... and then I read some more. I know, I know, it's a little too much excitement :) In between reading and snacking I took many pictures of the changing landscape outside. I even got a few pictures of yaks!

After several more hours of reading, snacking, taking pictures, and sometimes napping we arrived in Lhasa at 9 PM. We were ready to get off the train but were also a little sad to be leaving our home for the past 49 hours. That feeling didn't last long as we stepped off the train and saw the Lhasa sign and felt the cold weather around us. To say we were excited is a huge understatement. Outside the station we followed the crowd of people down to the area where passengers are picked up. We were told to look for a sign with one of our names on it and Selina finally saw a man waving a sign that said "WALLACE-CODY ROSE." We waved to him and he beckoned us over. He told us that his name was Joe and that he would be our guide during our stay. After introductions were made he looked worriedly at my shorts and flip flops and asked if I had warmer clothing. I told him I had warmer clothing but that I forgot my tennis shoes back in Shanghai. He laughed and said we could go to a store tomorrow and buy some shoes. We walked over the van that we would use for our travels and met our driver, Mr. Huang. He also got a good laugh at my flip flops :) Joe took us to our hotel and told us to meet him the following morning at 9. Our hotel was a 2 star hotel which means it had hot water but it didn't have a heater. The temperatures at night got down in the 20s in Lhasa. We were absolutely FREEZING!!!!! The only time I was warm in our room was when I took a shower and as soon as I turned the water off I was freezing all over again. I slept in the fetal position in socks, sweatpants, and my hoodie every night.

A few fun facts: Lhasa is about 3,650 meters above sea level and while on the train we went over the highest railway spot in the world at about 5000 meters. Selina and I were both thankful we didn't get altitude sickness!

Oct. 25- Day 2 on the Train

I woke up at 7:30 to the view of small hills and country landscape. As on the Silk Road trip, I was glad to see the country and be out of the city again. Selina woke up a few hours later and we had bananas, banana bread, and tangerines for breakfast. After we ate I laid back down and read more of "The Stand." It's funny what random thoughts pop into your head when you've been on a train for 13 hours. As I lay there reading I thought "tennis shoes... did I bring tennis shoes?" I looked over my book and did a mental check of my bags and then I had an image of my shoes laying in my apartment back in Shanghai. That quadruple check of my stuff really paid off :) I told Selina that I forgot my tennis shoes and she reminded me that it was snowing in Lhasa. It reminded me of the time I went to see Grams and Albuquerque was having a really bad snowstorm and I showed up in flip-flops. I could just hear her giving me the same lecture as I sat there on the train! I was just glad that I forgot my shoes and not my passport or travel permits. Then we would have been in real trouble.

We stopped in Xi'an around 10 AM and got out to stretch and run around before we had to get back on the train. It felt so good to stand in a vertical position! We also got excited because now we can say that we've been to Xi'an twice. We ate our snacks for lunch to tide us over until the dining car opened for dinner. I read my book most of the day and made about a 200 page dent in it. It's so long it looked like I hadn't read anything! Before we left I bought a few more books to bring with me for when I finished "The Stand." The one I looked forward to the most was a collection of Hawthorne's short stories. Selina read this for a while and after she finished "The Minister's Black Veil" she asked me why the minister wore the veil and I just laughed. I had such a complicated answer for that question that I didn't even try to respond so I just said "That's the question isn't it?" She said she wants me to read it again on the trip and give her an English major's perspective on it. I'll probably end up boring her to death :) Later in the afternoon we played cards. We are both pretty pathetic in the knowledge of card games so we played Crazy 8s, Go Fish, and Black Jack. It's sad, I know. At least we didn't resort to playing War though! After a while I came up with a card trick, or maybe not so much a card trick but a way to entertain ourselves. It was really stupid and didn't make any sense whatsoever but we both found it to be very entertaining and hilarious. I think being on the train for about 24 hours at that point had something to do with our extremely easily entertained minds. We ate dinner in the dining car around 6:30 and then came back to the compartment to read. Our bunkmates got off around 9 PM in a city we didn't know so we had the whole compartment to ourselves for the rest of the trip.

24 hours down, 24 to go!!!

Oct. 24- Departure to Lhasa

Friday morning we had our midterm in Chinese class and I found I had a very hard time focusing. I was not the only one, however, because everyone was excited about their upcoming trips. Selina and I definitely did not study as much as we should have because we were too busy running back and forth to each others room saying how excited we were to finally be leaving. Overall the midterm was not a huge success but I managed alright under the circumstances :) After the exam was over we came back to Tonghe to triple check that we had everything and then just sat around and waited for our departure time to come. To waste some time we went to send the postcards that we had written and then went down to the ATM to get money for our journey. Of course, the ATM by school wasn't working so we had to take the bus to Wal-Mart and use the ATM over there. We returned to our apartment with an hour before take off so we checked our stuff one last time and headed out at 5:30 to head to the train station.

We decided to take the bus and subway to the train station to save money. Trying to shove your way onto a bus with a backpack, duffel, and food sack during rush hour on a Friday afternoon is quite an adventure. We literally pushed our way on and had to stand right next to the door and try not to fall out whenever the door opened to let more people on. When we got to our stop we gladly jumped off the bus and entered the subway station. I got stuck trying to go through the entrance where we slide our railway card. My bag got wedged in the turney thing and after I got my bag unstuck my shorts got caught behind me and I had to jump to get it unstuck because I didn't have a free hand. I'm sure I looked ridiculous! After clumsily making my way to the platform, we boarded the subway and sat until we got to the train station platform. As usual we didn't know which way the train station was when we got out on the street but I recognized the characters for train on a sign so we eventually found the station with about an hour to spare. We ate KFC for dinner in the station and then boarded the train at 7:30. We were so glad that we forked out the extra money for a soft sleeper and we both had bottom bunks and shared the compartment with two Chinese men. We were so excited the first couple of hours and then we realized that we still had 2 days on the train left to go!!! Let the adventure begin :)