rubberneckers.

Rubbernecking describes the act of gawking at something of interest. It is often used to refer to drivers trying to view the carnage resulting from a traffic accident. The term literally refers to the craning of a person's neck in order to get a better view.

Rubbernecking has also been described as a human trait that is associated with morbid curiosity. The term rubbernecking was an "Americanism" coined in the 1890s to refer to tourists. One writer described the "out-of-towners" stretching their necks to see New York while having misinformation shouted at them, and artist John Sloan depicted them as geese in a 1917 etching called Seeing New York.

The term is often used to refer to the activity of motorists slowing down in order to see something on the other side of a road or highway, often the scene of a traffic accident.  -Wikipedia.

Traffic today was crazy. It took me 33 minutes to get from exit 1 to 10 and I had to go to exit 40. Win. To top it off, it was pouring rain, lightning every five minutes, and there were four accidents that people HAD to rubberneck at. One car hit another car from behind, one car had a popped tire, a bunch of cars and a schoolbus did something that was serious enough for the ambulance to show up, and one car was pulled over for speeding. It was so frustrating sitting in terrible traffic only to realize later that the whole reason for the hold up was because people are too nosy for their own good!!

Wikipedia even says a 2003 study showed rubbernecking was the cause of 16 percent of distraction related traffic accidents! It goes on to say, "[Rubbernecking] features in the 100 Most Dangerous Things in Everyday Life and What You Can Do About Them book and is said to be factored into highway design. The book advises that the safest course when there are flashing lights and an accident is to keep moving, "there is nothing to see here". Rubbernecking's impact on traffic has been the subject of studies." Good advice, Wiki. Good advice.

The first thing police should do when they want to pull someone over is install a giant tarp around the area so nobody can see anything. Srsly. It is ridiculous. It took me 2 hours to get to work today. It took my friend 2 hours and 45 minutes. Absolutely ridick. Gotta love the real world and commuting!

On another note, xanga, you've served me well these past few years. From picture posts to thought-provoking entries, we've been through a lot together. Butttt it's time i moved on. Hopefully I won't be as corny in my next blog. =P

JOYYYY!!!

WOWWW God has been revealing so much to me lately and I have just been filllllled to the brimmmm with his joy!!

"you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." -psalms 23:5

I can't really explain what God's joy feels like unless you've experienced it before. This past weekend God taught me a lot of things and it was just sooo amazing to be reassured that He knows what He's doing and that I can and should trust in Him because He knows what's best and His plan is perfect.

jeremiah 29:11 is the cliche verse, "'for I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Well while I was skimming my Bible last night, I came across this verse, and noticed that I highlighted verses 12 and 13 as well. Turns out verse 11 has been stealing the spotlight this whole time, because 12 & 13 say, "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Like I said before, God's been revealing a lot of things to me lately. He's filled me with peace and joy inside, and I have never felt this joyful in my life! It is the best feeling everrrr and I pray that you will all be able to experience it for yourselves!

It's also funny to see how God's been allowing me to share this newfound joy with others too! For example, I had an interview for a leadership position in this community service club event thing tonight, and as I was sitting there waiting, a girl walked by. I smiled at her and she smiled back.

If you didn't know, I LOVE the quote by Leo Buscaglia, which says, "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." But I never really smile at strangers like I should...but for some reason, God made me smile at that girl. It was a two-second interaction, but she smiled back at me and I realized how easy it was to just curl the corners of my lips at people.

Then another girl walked up to where I was and I asked if she was there for the interview too. Then I just uncontrollably started a conversation with her! Her name is Veronica, she's a freshman from Massachusetts...an hour away from Boston, closer to Providence, RI. She is still undecided but is considering Smeal Business or International Politics. I told her how I just switched outta Smeal b.c I didn't like it and how Accounting was hard and all that stuff, and I might've scared her a little...but I assured her that she would be much better at it than me. Then we went to interview and I was so comfortable there with Veronica in front of these two boys.

I don't know why but then after the interview I was still filled with joy and could not control my smile! I tried to stop smiling and it was funny b.c I thought, "Oh stop it, God." He was filling me up with all this joy and I couldn't wipe it off my face if I tried! Well then this older lady walked by and her face transformed from a tired, sad face to a bright, cheerful smile after she saw my smile! And it was so cool to see just how strong the power of a smile is! Haha I just feel so happy and almost crazy for being so joyful...but God is awesome.

And so, I decided to write about it and share this joy with those of you who are reading this. Please be encouraged and know that God loves you and knows what He is doing, even though a lot of times it doesn't seem like it. Trust in Him and seek him with all your heart. And be joyful. Always. =)

It's Time to Start.

Be glad and appreciate what you've got because it could all be gone in a moment. A phone call could change your life and you may think that all that you know is about to change. This may be true, but remember that it may all be for the best in the end. You'll grow and learn from new adventures, and those that you surround yourself with will grow along with you. Every decicsion that you make has the possibility to affect another person, and you should be glad that you have the opportunity to change someone's life for the better. You've changed mine and I am forever grateful. What are you appreciative of?? Just remember that every change is an opportunity for growth, and you should embrace the gift of change that you may be given. Even if nothing ends up drastically changing in the end, it shouldn't stop you for being so glad to hold what you have now.

Peace, love and happiness.

i lied to kumar today.

i've been meaning to write something for a while but averaging a 3 am bedtime for the past week and a half has not been very beneficial.

okay...i wrote that last sentence exactly 10 hours ago. let's see if i can remember what i wanted to write about...

sophomore year has been going by very quickly. i like how everyone just jumped back into college life and didn't have to feel that freshmen awkwardness again (although it really wasn't that bad at all last year). i'm glad that my crazy outgoingness has reappeared this year since it kinda died down after the first couple weeks last year. i love college and i love life.

recently i have been overwhelmed by God's awesomeness. i have been feeling very confident in myself and i just want to share this confidence with everyone else. i always said i didn't care what anybody else thought of me but now i really just don't care. i flail my arms and skip around campus and in crowded dining commons without a care in the world and lemme tell you, it is so nice to be this carefree. dr. seuss said "always be yourself because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." i've always liked that quote but it's kinda schweet to see how well that applies to my life now. i've been meeting a ton of new people and enjoying my life to the fullest...and i think part of the reason is because i have been reading my bible lately. i didn't do such a good job with that last year, but this summer i picked it up and God has been working in my life! i have been tasting joy and believe me, it is a freaking sweeeet fruit (reference, anyone? haaa).

my friend jess procrastinates from schoolwork just as much as i do, if not more, and i remember always walking into her room last year to find her reading her bible instead of surfing facebook like anyone else would (don't get me wrong, she still surfs facebook every five seconds), but i always found it to be both admirable and perplexing. i mean, yea. the bible is God's word and we should read it and be excited to read it...but this strange desire to choose to read some book written in fine print over stalking someone's photos online just didn't make sense to me.

until this year.

for some reason, i now have this crazy desire to pick up God's word and consume it daily (ha, not literally..). it feels like i'm reading the book all over again because now every little verse means so much more to me! it's like that true story about jean-dominique bauby (portrayed in the movie "the diving bell and the butterfly"...highly recommended)...a famous french editor of elle magazine who suffered a stroke and woke up only to find that the only part of his body that was not paralyzed was his left eyelid.

his left eyelid.

needless to say, his whole successful, "perfect" life was crushed into pieces. luckily for him, he crossed paths with a very patient nurse who came up with the idea of reciting letters and having him blink when it got to the letter he wanted to use to spell out what he wanted to say. and with her help, he wrote a book (same title as the movie). i saw that book at borders. it's only a couple pages long, but i flipped through it and it was crazy to think that every. single. letter. on every. single. page. took a tremendous effort to travel from bauby's brain to the paper. every single letter was thought about very carefully.

similarly, every single letter in the bible is God-breathed. hebrews 4:12 says, "for the word of God is living and active. sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." and just going along, verse 13 says "nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." that reminds me of this picture i saw online. it was a billboard that said, "i saw that. -God." it made me chuckle...and then a little nervous. God sees everything that i do?! and into my heart? man oh man.

wow this entry has progressed into something i wasn't expecting. back to what i was gonna say...but before that, lemme share some stories from today that will hopefully lessen the degree of judgement that you will lay upon me after you read my story (haha it's not that bad..). so i am a fan of this whole "prak: practice random acts of kindness" business. it's my banner on my phone and one of my life mottos. well walking back from class today, i got to live out this motto.

a girl passed me on her bike and hit a bump in the road and her wallet bounced out of her backpack. through my peripherals i noticed the guy walking in the other direction snap his gaze down onto the wallet and then back up to me and i knew that i was the only one who could relieve this girl from a very stressful situation later in the day. so i grabbed the wallet and quickened my pace. smart move, sang. she's only on a freaking bicycle. so i had to run after her and yell, "excuse me!" multiple times and make a complete fool out of myself in front of the swarms of people walking to and from classes. i finally caught up to her and she didn't respond so i pushed her backpack a little and she looked at me.

"excuse me, you dropped this."

i didn't even have time to get a good look at her face because of the momentum that i had built up running down the hill. i handed it to her and she said, "thank you so much!!" and i walked away. didn't turn back. it felt good to help her out, even if i did make a fool out of myself...but then again, i don't really care what anybody thinks of me anyway so it's a win-win situation.

then not even ten meters had passed before i noticed another girl struggling and hurridly waddling along with a ton of containers and boxes stacked up in her arms. they looked heavy. she headed towards a building and must've been worrying about how she would handle the door so i ran over and asked if she needed any help. after opening the door for her i offered to help her carry some but she said she was okay. i should've offered again because i was done for the day, but i'm sure she made it up the stairs okay.

after reflecting on these two praks right now, i'm reminded of how God pursues us and runs after us just like i ran after these two girls. i'm not trying to compare myself to God at ALL. i'm just saying...it's cool to be able to see just a glimpse of God's unreasonable love and desire to help us and to know us. a few weeks ago, i played volleyball with some people from aacf. i met a bunch of new freshmen and it was really interesting to be completely free of judgements that night. this probably sounds cheesy, but i saw everyone as a child of God. it was really awesome to be able to, again, catch a glipse of life through God's eyes. everyone is beautiful and created in His image. every detail was thought about.

which is funny because this sunday at calvary the sermon talked about how God "determined the times set for [us] and the exact places where [we] should live...so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. for in him we live and move and have our being." (acts 17:26-28) so we were not born where we were born, when we were born, by chance. he hand-picked every little detail about our lives. he sat and spent time thinking about every letter to the story of our lives. talk about beauty.

ii corinthians encourages, "therefore we do not lose heart. though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

"for what is seen  is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (4:16-18)

yes, life may suck at times...but these troubles are "light and momentary." they are temporary. they will not last forever...so don't worry! you don't have to like it now! God renews us through his word, through the holy spirit, and through others "day by day" and we cannot even begin to fathom the wonders and "eternal glory" that he has prepared for us to enjoy in heaven. even if we don't see it. that's where faith comes in. "by faith we are saved." oswald chambers wrote, "choosing to suffer means there must be something wrong with you, but choosing God's will even if it means you will suffer is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering;

"he simply chooses God's will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not."

the road to heaven is not meant to be easy. "do not lose heart."

wow God is crafting this entry because all i was thinking of writing about was how i lied to kal penn today. haha yes. kal penn, kumar from "harold and kumar go to white castle," one and the same. his real name is kalpen suresh modi but he changed his name “almost as a joke to prove friends wrong, and half as an attempt to see if what I was told would work (that anglicized names appeal more to a white-dominated industry), I put ‘Kal Penn’ on my resume and photos." his audition callbacks rose by 50%. fancy that. so anyway, i read in the school paper that penn is here at penn to register voters and canvas with presidential candidate barack obama's state college campaign. well on my way back home after class today, i noticed an unusually large crowd of people in front of the hub..and an unusually large amount of cameras and cell phones being raised in the air...at first i thought it was a practical joke, but i walked closer and realized that mr. kal penn himself was standing there signing people up to vote and taking pictures with people!

times like these are why i carry my camera with me everywhere. so any opportunity is never missed.

i spot kevin lee in the crowd and just as we approach mr. celeb, kal walks away, steps up on a platform, and announces that he doesn't like mobs so we should form a line. kevin and i squish into the line and a man overhears kevin saying he didn't sign in, so he points him out and hands him the sheet. i decided to play it cool and when they asked if i signed in already, man i sinned! haha i said "yes" so assuredly too! we weren't allowed to take pictures with kal unless we signed in...well kevin and i walk up to him and i tell kal that i went to freehold township too! (he went there!! =O!) he was like, "did you? that's awesome!" and we had a mini-conversation about it. of course the only teacher i think to remember is galinski because i remember how she and golub graduated with kal and now they teach there too...well he played it off as if he actually knew who she was and then asked if krais was still there. it was cool to relate to a hollywood star! i was like, "yea i think so! the balding man?!" and he was like, "haha yea!" someone should tell krais that. pretty cool. then kal asks if i'm registered here at school or jersey and i coolly affirm that i'm registered here. "good!"

man i just freaking lied to kal "kumar" penn! ahhhh. oh well. it was cool. he was really down-to-earth and made it clear that he was "not here to hang out with you guys" but to help out with the political campaign of our generation. he's just another normal guy, really. if i ever get famous, i wanna be as humble and real like him.

.. haha wow i guess God's a better writer than me because those last few paragraphs were terrible. oh well.

welcome to chiner.

(WOW i forgot how time-consuming picture posts were. what was i thinking?!)

So it has been a little more than a week since my return to the land of the free….toilets (you think I’m kidding), and I’ve been collecting my thoughts and trying to start my memoir (hah, like a page) since. Thus, I haven’t had the chance to sit down and really dive into all of the culture shocks that I experienced during these three long weeks…but I better start diving now because I’ve got a long way to swim and I don’t know how long it’ll be before I forget how to.

Approximately a month ago, I hopped onto a plane and introduced my butt to a seemingly-cushioned seat for 13.5 hours. Half a day to travel halfway across the world, pretty much. It was my first time to the motherland (actually it’s more like the grandmother land..) and I knew I wasn’t gonna come back the same person.

Upon my arrival at the Beijing airport, I noticed that the hordes of Chinese people didn’t strike me as strange. Surprisingly. My uncle told us to go “sing a song” (is that a Chinese thing?) before we left the airport since the ride to the hotel would take a while, so I skedaddled into the nearest restroom and pushed open the door to the second stall (even though studies have shown it to be the most commonly used stall..) and I was immediately greeted by a squatting woman nonchalantly saying, “Someone’s in here.” Right. Squatting. If my life was a movie, a flashback to the squatting toilets I encountered in Taiwan 6 years ago would’ve taken place right then, and my stomach sank. I hated those toilets. Culture shock #1: all toilets in China are squatting. Ta da!

However, the director of my movie threw me a life saver when I pushed open the third stall to find a normal, western-style toilet. Thank you, God. I go in and find no toilet paper anywhere. Not even a toilet paper  dispenser! What? So I report back to my uncle, who tries to stifle his laugh,“Yea all of China is like that -- they’re trying to be resourceful….oh, you didn’t know that?” as he hands me a packet of facial tissues to wipe my cheeks with (badap chh!).Culture shock #2: It’s BYOTP in China – Bring Your Own Toilet Paper.

Not a single light pole was naked as we drove past the Olympics banners, and there were dozens of people weeding the nice landscape around the airport in preparation for the Games. Dozens of landscapers wearing straw hats. Dozens of construction workers wearing straw hats. Dozens of people walking and biking wearing straw hats. Culture shock #3: Chinese people really do wear straw hats! And they walk/bike everywhere so they're not obese like Americans! =P

We check into our five-star hotel and there is no air conditioning in the elevators or hallways. They say they are “saving energy and the Earth’s resources”; I say they are cheap Chinese people who don’t know what five-star means…but that might just be the spoiled American in me talking, I’m not sure. This hotel was actually the best out of all the ones we stayed at. They seemed to get progressively worse as the trip went on. Culture shock #4: China’s five-star hotels are equivalent to our two-star hotels…at best.

Anyways, after a joyous reunion with our relatives who moved to Beijing this past year and our relatives who arrived at Beijing a week earlier, we head out into the world that is China. Culture shock #5: Chinese people smoke…everywhere. “No Smoking” signs are just for show and mean absolutely nahhhsing. Hotels, stores, elevators, bathrooms.You name it – they’ll smoke in it. And it’s always Chinese men who smoke, neverwomen! We saw a grand total of maybe three female smokers there. Thirty percent increase in a secondhand smoker’s chance of developing heart disease and lung cancer? How lovely! Not. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could see an enormous cloud of cigarette smoke above China from space. Seriously. They should just botch the whole One-Child Policy and enact a Smoke-For-All one instead. =P

Since Chinese people are so “aware” and gung-ho about “saving the Earth,” babies and toddlers run around in pants with holes cut out where their butts and crotches are. Forget diapers -- they’re too expensive. When the kid has to go, the parent picks the child up and lets it hover over the nearest plant or wall. Nasty. And slowly, the sight of tiny(-er) penises as you turn the corner becomes normal. Culture shock #6 & #7: Chinese people don’t use diapers & China smells like urine. How delicious.

My second day on the other side of the world was spent getting my makeup and hair did (not done) and taking glamour pictures since that is the thing to do when you are a Chinese-American girl and in China. Now I’m a fan of natural beauty and laziness, so I was in awe even after the lady put foundation aka magical-pimple-remover on my face, haha. Anyway, this other girl was there and it was very evident that she went tanning. She was so proud of her fake orange tan! She said that 99.9% of people in Beijing like to be pale and she is (unfortunately) part of the 0.01% that likes to be tan and people are prejudiced against her,haha. I told her that she would fit in perfectly if she was in America. Then all the makeup artists told me that they loved my skin color because it looks so healthy and asked how I got it. I told them that I just go outside and playin the sun. They said that being too pale looks sickly. Culture shock #8: Chinese people don’t mind being tan! Kinda hard to imagine when people on mopeds are always wearing those Darth Vader visor shields…Observe.

After my lovely photo shoot in the scorching heat, we decided to be spontaneous and go get my hair chopped off. I was already planning to cut my hair short this summer (about time for a change, no?) but not my second day in China! I see-sawed for a few seconds before finally deciding to just go for it because when else would I be able to get my hair cut in China?! Right. So we went to this high-class hair salon that had TVs on the ceiling above the sinks where they wash your hair (pretty awesome) and they went ahead and worked their magic. Their…Chinese magic. I don’t know if I was just not used to it or if it was shock or what, but I hated my hair right after. I thought I looked like Maya Rudolph from SNL when she wears that ridiculous helmet hair wig and sings like a maniac, impersonating Whitney Houston.

It was bad. But as the trip went on, the haircut grew on me (literally) and now I like it! I think it’s a time for me to strengthen my self-confidence and make sure people are liking me for who I am on the inside (cheesy!), haha. Well, at least my haircut helped me fit into China and adjust to the heat better! Culture shock #9: Everyone in China has short hair and long sidebang things like Victoria Beckham…but less pretty. =P When I came back home, my boss pointed out that I left part of me in China…literally! My hair! He was like, “You left your DNA in China!” Haha oh boy. Weird to think about but I guess part of me is stuck there forever! =O

The third day in Beijing we went to the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. The emperor used to talk to God at the Temple of Heaven and the pagoda buildings are all made of wood. They said not a single nail or piece of metal is holding the structure up!

Kinda awesome considering how old it is! It was so hot that day. Oh yea, everyone carries sunbrellas (guffaw) in China. I used to think it was silly because I thought Chinese people were just that afraid of being tan, but after going there and experiencing the scorching heat in the Middle Kingdom…I understood and started using umbrellas too. They help a LOT. They probably make it a whole 10 degrees cooler. Culture shock #10: Chinese people don’t wear deodorant because they’ll just sweat it off anyway.

That famous road in Tiananmen Square is filled with cars and is always busy. And the famous, ginormous picture of Chairman Mao hanging up on the wall? They said a new one (exact replica) is repainted by a different person every year and hung up. I’m sure it’s an honor but how boring is that? Painting someone else’s idea that looks exactly like another person’s idea that looks like another person’s idea and so on. And it’s all the same idea! I bet those artists would be good at the telephone game, haha (lame).

The Forbidden City wasinteresting. It was kinda surreal being just five feet in front of the emperor’s bed…especially after you take into consideration just how many emperors have slept there over the centuries. It was a small bed too. Well, the last emperor was only like…two years old when he became the ruler of China. My dad was watching The Last Emperor on TV the other day and it was actually somewhat interesting because I’ve actually walked on those very roads before! Culture shock #11: The Chinese culture is so freaking old and unique! I just looked it up and the first dynasty (what an awesome word, dynasty…how ironic b.c Chinese people “dine nastily.” Hahakidding. Kinda. =P) started before 2070 BC and the last one ended in 1912, which to me sounds fairly recent, but in four years will have been a century ago. =O!

We went to a giant Christian Church in Beijing our first Sunday there. It was hugeand a really pretty building too! 
     
They had an English and Chinese service. We got there a little late and apparently people get there like thirty minutes early to get good seats…so we couldn’t fit into the Chinese service. The English service was good though. Worship was awesome and reminded me of Trinidad because I stopped singing for a bit just to listen to everyone else. Man, our God is big and is everywhere! Schweet. Culture shock #12: There are a lot of Chinese Christians. But then the speaker had a terrible accent and I couldn’t understand her English so we spent the rest of the service fanning ourselves with whatever pieces of paper we could find in our purses and in the pews, haha.

Then camp began! The whole entire team didn’t even get together until the day we left for camp so it was awesome to see God unite us and see the planning process along. I was doubtful about teaching step to the Chinese farmer kids at first, but we decided that it would be a much better idea to teach the other volunteers before the kids so they could help. Who knew we’d be able to fit in the learning process on our two-hour bus ride to the school! There was absolutely no room at all!

In the end, four of us performed for the kids just hours later that night at the opening ceremony. Praise God for fast learners! Camp was awesome. I got two mosquito bites on both my ankles after the first night. They ended up swelling into itchy tumors. Gross. So I discovered a new perfume/scent in China that Iliked so much I practically bathed in it everyday – bug spray! The kids warmed up as the camp went on and they picked up step quicker than I thought!

Something exciting happened everyday. We decided to break the ice the first day by going around the classrooms and having the kids introduce their name, their hobbies, and their favorite food. Well this one girl who was obviously the pretty, popular girl of the class, failed to mention her favorite food, so we reminded her and she was like, “nothing.” We figured she didn’t understand the question so we clarified and she was like, “I don’t like food. I’m anorexic.” Uhh…nobody else thought anything of it and I thought she was kidding at first so I was about to laugh until I realized that she wasn’t….and it was just awkward. I guess I was too ignorant to know that already-skinny people in China had problems with self-image too. Good story.

We had a water balloon fight the second day and we all got completely drenched. Culture shock #13: The students’ sinks and toilets and showers are all communal. I don’t know how they do it.
 
 
Day 3 we had a digihunt (scavenger hunt) and my team won! My dad gave a talk on dining etiquette and there was a demonstration. It was funny because the students didn’t know how to use forks! They just scooped up their salad as if their forks were spoons, haha.

It was my cousin’s birthday on the fourth day and it most intense cake fight I’ve ever been in, haha.

The last day, I introduced box ball/four square to the kids and they loved it. They also played capture the flag on the hard turf and the day ended with bloody scrapes and happy faces, haha. Also, it was the last day of camp and it was really sad to say bye to the kids.

Then we climbed the Great Wall at night! Hundreds of thousands of men died while building this great Wonder of the World. There’s a Chinese saying that says you aren’t successful until you’ve climbed the Great Wall. Well, I guess I can say that I’m successful now! What an intense climb! There were locusts and giant cicadas everywhere though…gross.

The lights were so pretty and we got to watch them turn them off at the end! Not everyone gets to see that, but man. How anticlimactic -- It was like a giant light switch. =P

After camp, we went on a tour in Yunnan. The morning of our flight to Kunming, there was a suicide bomber there. Scary. Anyways, we had to sit on a tour bus driving up and down mountainous roads for hours and hours and hours. Lucky for us, the lady sitting next to my sister and I got car sick and was constantly throwing up into bags. It was absolutely disgusting. After our painfully-long bus ride, we arrived at our location. People in Yunnan are all farmers and really poor. We stopped at a rest stop and had to pay 50 cents to use the bathrooms! Whaaaat? There was a man and woman collecting money at the entrance…what a job! So we walk in and find a dozen squatting toilets…without doors!! There are only little wall dividers that are at most three feet high, so you are forced to watch everyone else do their business. It was naaasty. None of the Chinese people were fazed by it though, so we had to man up and separate ourselves from the situation. Absolutely disgusting. The whole place smelled like human waste.

I feel sick thinking about it so let’s talk about Culture shock #14: Chinese people relieve themselves in the open…and sometimes into five-inch cracks in the ground. Yes, that’s right. We went to another “restroom” that had no doors (just short wall dividers), and it was just a crack in the ground that you had to squat over. There was what looked like half a sewage pipe stuck in the crack and no running water so there was just crap caked in there. Keep in mind it smells like crap everywhere. And there is no soap at the sinks either! Just lovely. GAG, the end. This picture doesn’t do it justice but I was not going to photograph people’s feces for anyone to see.

The tour was very interesting. We went to the Snow Mountain and the Stone Forest, which were absolutely beautiful,
 
and we visited dirt-poor villages as well. Like…dirt-poor. When we were there, there were men clearing out their sewage system, which was basically a giant moat around the town that was caked with poop that they were scooping out bucket by bucket. The roads looked like they were straight out of history books (bad simile), and their school looked like it had been demolished decades ago. (Turns out the kids still attend that school…)

Culture shock #15: People still live like that today. Who knew.

Culture shock #16 and #17: Chinese people do not believe in lines and they are always in a hurry. When you ride the elevator down to the first floor, you get trampled before you can get out. When you ride the subway, the stampede of anxious Chinese people run you over before you can get out. Instead of waiting in a line for the bathroom, Chinese people cut you and wait directly in front of the stall that they want. Lines just do not exist in China. Chinese people are SO rude! We went to a buffet during our tour and it was the most chaotic thing I have ever experienced in my life. People pushed from all directions and barbaric instincts came out as they fought for food. It was like they haven’t eaten in ages! At first I waited patiently in line, but after discovering that the line wasn’t moving because people were just constantly cutting me, my survival skills came into play. I didn’t know I was capable of shoving people and shouting insults at them to their faces (in English, of course. =P). They grabbed serving spoons out of each others’ hands and even scooped food off the carts that the workers brought in to refill the empty trays. It was absolutely pathetic. China has no manners.

Another day, we bought water bottles and walked into a supermarket and someone stopped us and told us to pay for it. We told him we brought it in and he was like, “Prove it.” Culture shock #18: In China, you’re guilty until proven innocent. Also, you have to pay for grocery bags. Sometimes you get the first one for free! Annoying, but it does make sense. Save the Earth! I heard some places in the US are doing that too now. Culture shock #19: BYOGB!

Then we went to Shanghai for a few days and it was so nice to be back in a city again! Major difference between Beijing and Shanghai? Beijing has no a/c and Shanghai blasts it out onto the street. We visited the building where communism began in China,and it was kind of ironic, because that building was surrounded by fancy restaurants and stores and such. So much for anti-capitalism, right? =P

Speaking of restaurants, KFC is the fast food chain there! We took a pretty long break there and my uncle pointed out that there is never one second where the counter has zero people waiting to order. It is always booming there. The chicken is good too! They don’t have mashed potatoes or coleslaw or anything though because Chinese people aren’t used to eating that kind of food. They have strawberry egg custards and their iced coffee is delish though! Yum!

Also, Culture shock #20: Pizza hut is a high-class restaurant in China.Seriously. It is two stories and there are nicely-dressed waiters who seat youand give you a menu and it is expensive! Weirddd. I didn’t get to go but my momand sister did, and they said the pizza wasn’t even that good. Go figure.

Oh yea, I ate bugs in China!! HA I don’t know why, but I’ve always wanted to eat a bug…just to say that I did…and I had fried locusts in China! It actually wasn’t bad at all! They were crunchy and salty…kind of like friedshrimp with the shell. I don’t know how I got over the fact that they looked disgusting though. Here, I’ll just show you! Don’t judge. =P 

Culture shock #21 (for the three weeks I spent there, fancy that!): Chinese people eat bugs...and they taste good too!

Security was crazy there but it was only natural considering oh, y’know, only the OLYMPICS are there this year. By the way, the opening ceremony? Freaking awesomeeeee! The fireworks of the 29 footsteps walking tothe Bird’s Nest? Inspiring. Director behind it all, Zhang Yimou? You’re the man.

Man, if you read all of that then one of two things must be true. #1: I’m an awesome writer, or #2: You’re just that bored. I’m gonna go with the latter. =P Moral of my story: Be thankful for what you have…especially if you live in the US. Seriously, we take the little things like toilet paper, grocery bags, and air conditioning for granted way too easily. But in all honesty, China wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. It’s really pretty and there is a ton of history and culture there…but…unless I help out at the camp again in the near future, I think it’ll be a while until I visit the grandmother land again. =P

(man my picture posts aren't what they used to be...HA!)