Travelling to.... a bamboo forest?

Today was a relaxing day, we walked nearby to a forest type area that had a lot of bamboo that was on campus. We walked around the area, I took a few photos and then we left and went to another park right next to us. This park was not really a park, as much as it was a small area with cool architecture and a place to look at giant fish. there was a small-ish square pond that was about 5 feet deep. the fish in it were very large, some about 4 feet long and very fat. We fed them bread and some people in our group tried to touch some of them when they came up for food. We left the area and walked back to campus and ended our day, it was very uneventful overall. Ashley and I went to a nearby shop and bought some baozi, (which is just bread with some meat inside) and then went back to the college to relax. at this point in time we are thinking about going and getting a back and/or foot massage from a place thats in front of the school. For an hour of massage, it costs only about 50yuan, which is incredibly cheap when translated to US money and compared to their massages.

What day is it?

So the past few days have gone by very quickly and I realized that my computer was putting down the incorrect date. so after adjusting my clock to be correct I am now somewhat in time with... time.
A couple of days ago, We went to the West lake to go sightseeing and just to look around, we met a strange old man that said he learned how to speak english from before wwII. We talked with the man for quite some time before getting on a little buggy thing and taking it around the lake. When we got to the other side, I believe we took a van/taxi to a very nice eatery place. we tried many different kinds of things and most of it was very good. afterwards the group of us headed back and we went to bed soon after.
The next day we went to west lake and hiked up a very large "hill" at the top of which was a pagoda. the climb was extremely long but had some very scenic stops along the way. One stop included a small waterfall that came from the mouth of a golden dragon. I took some good photos which I will upload soon along with many others. I have found that though I dont normally take pictures, in one scenic walk along any area in China I can easily take more that 100 photos. The group of us was very tired and so after stopping at the bottom of the hill to eat we headed back to campus.
Yesterday we went to a museum which had a shrine like temple for a guy whose name sounds like yoo-ay fay. I am not sure how to spell it so I will just put the pronunciation. I took many photos from walking around. the group of us took a short rest and then went out to shop on a street somewhat far away, though the street is notorious for having a large shopping area. the shopping street was extremely long and had many many shops with random trinkets. We didnt buy much because we found out we were going back the next day. so after walking around for a long time we grabbed some food from (I think) 85 degrees Celcius. we then took a taxi back to the school and went to sleep.
Today we went back to the street with all the shops and went to a nearby temple that sits atop the hill next to the street. the temple/pagoda had a bell that was to be rang 3 times, I am unsure why it was 3 times, however it is likely because it was for luck or something similar. After going tothe pagoda we continued on our way to the shop street. We walked around for a little while before visiting a local Chinese medicine place, which had a lot of traditional Chinese medicine. It was very interesting because there were a lot of people still going there and buying old medicine to be made into teas and were supposed to help with almost anything. We left the medicine clinic and went inside to a nearby tea shop, which we were happily welcomed to sit down and drink tea. the lady that owned the shop gave us MANY samples of tea, and a few of us sat there for about an hour before buying a couple types of tea and then heading out. though when I left with Ashley and a couple others, many still stayed in the tea shop and drank the ladies tea for nearly 3 hours total. She was extremely kind to us and we made sure to buy many things from her shop. I then went with Ashley to a few shops and eventually stumbled upon a silk shop of which I bought a very nice robe and got a free pair of slippers, the robe itself only cost about 30 dollars, which is incredibly good for being made of pure silk, it is very soft to the touch and super comfortable.
For tonight this is all I will blog, the group is in the office (we met a friend of Will's, she is a Chinese student and very nice) and they are watching the IT Crowd, which is a very funny series if no one has seen it yet. Tomorrow we are supposed to register for classes though I am unsure of when... then in the afternoon we have something else to do, of which I am also unsure. These past few days have gone by very quickly and it is hard to organize everything together when I am trying to remember where I am, where I am going in the city and also learning the language. I also have to do this all while going with the group to strange new places. Overall it has been fun and I am ready to keep moving forward and get to our classes.

22nd/23rd

Hmmm, I do not seem to remember a whole lot about yesterday afternoon, mainly the group of us went around the town looking around and eventually made it to getting our cell phones. our phones are pretty silly looking and extremely basic/slow. nothing like the ones we have in the states. Afterwards a couple of us went to a Muslim restaurant and ate some noodles which were very tasty, I ordered (I believe) beef, with noodles, and mushrooms. The plate was very filling and I also had a tea of some sort. After this I headed back to the college and went to sleep at a fairly early time, I believe around 9 or 930.

Begin the 23rd;
I woke up fairly early again (I have yet to sleep in until my alarm) at about 7, and did the usual routine of showering and getting ready in the morning. The group of us made our way to "the office" and sat down on our computers for a short time before Li told us we were going on a trip. The trip which was fairly close, and only took a short bus ride to a taxi/van ride to XiXi wetland which was a place that had houses/huts that were kind of like a museum. inside the huts were many artifacts from (I think) the Qing dynasty of the people that used to live there. after taking a few boatrides around the islands we had to walk back to the entrance, which didnt seem so bad until we got lost multiple times and ended up walking an extremely long distance. We finally found the exit and took a taxi back to the school, where I now am writing this blog post befor going back outside to get some dinner and possibly watch the movie "wizard people" later.

new day... sorta

So I am going to continue writing today as it is really February 21st, but I felt like organizing the blog by date rather than events.
The day began with a nice hot shower, and a super cold room floor, though the shower was nice. After the shower the group of us went to "the office" which is for us Central students and has free wifi. After this we took a short tour of china, of which I took many photos and video along the way. We quickly stopped at a store and Will La'Croix picked up this quad-decker sandwhich thing. i picked up the last one there and bought that with a Minute-Maid orange juice drink (all in chinese of course). The sandwhich had, some kind of meat, mayonaise, egg, and some chicken with about 6 slices of bread, it was super tasty. the drink was good, though it was SUPER pulpy (hey, i guess its fresh fruit). after getting this food we continued along the road looking at more buildings and cafeteria's. We then stopped in front of a huge 30/40 foot statue of Mao to play hacky-sack and hang out. after playing a terrible (many) round/s of hacky-sack we headed back towards the dorm and ate at a place with a logo of a pacman eating a dot. though I am unsure of what EXACTLY we had, it was very good, including the duck and random pot-stickers. at this point in the day it is 1pm, and am writing this blog and about to head out into the 50 degree weather which is incrediby good today. So until possibly tonight, i may blog tonight or tomorrow. pictures will be uploaded sometime soon.

Arriving in China

So as this post shows, I have arrived in China. Yesterday was very very long and by the end of the day i felt super lightheaded and wanted to sleep immediately. however we had to go eat at a buffet/restaurant with Li Shumin (the director) and a bunch of her colleagues. Before we did arrived though I had to go through a 14 hour flight with no plug ins for my computer, and then arrive at the airport. from the airport Ashley and I got our visas checked and made our way to "long distance bus" which would take us to Hangzhou. when we arrived, we thought that all the others would be way ahead of us as we had taken longer to fill out a sheet that the plane had ran out of (some medical form the others already had).
so when we got to the bus stop i was surprised to see that ashley and I were the first there. we waited quite some time before we decided to go back up the elevator to try to find them. then after waiting even longer we finally saw them at the end of a long hallway and we finally met up to get on the bus. the bus ride itself cost 100yuan which isnt very much (think 6.5 yuan to 1$ american), and we thought the bus ride was about 2 hours long. well 3 hours, a hurt neck, and even more tired/cramped legs later we arrived in Hangzhou. once we realized that we were not dropped off in the correct place, we had to take a taxi (HA, because we all speak chinese so fluently) to the actual Zhe Jiang campus. the taxi ride was super short and did not cost very much at all.
At this point we quickly registered to the international university (once we found it 30 minutes later) and then left for our buffet dinner. The dinner was very good, though most of us were tired and grumpy and did not eat much/enjoy what we had very much. though looking back to yesterday, i wish we had not been so tired and grumpy as the food was very good. after this we headed back to our rooms, unpacked and got situated with everything and then went to bed on a super hard piece of bed and what felt like a 20 degree room.
End of day, February 20th, 2010

Time to pack?

Just putting this post here so people can find my blog for future reference and follow/bookmark it. not much to say besides that I leave in 2 days and I haven't had anything packed yet. I still have a few things to get done but I am otherwise ready to go.