Well, there's some good news and some bad news. The good news is over the past few days I've had a lot of time to get a lot of things that needed to be done completed. The bad news is, of course, as I am wont to do, I didn't accomplish any of those things that I had to do (well really how much do I HAVE to do while I'm here? Answer: Not much).

This sore throat hasn't been too bad as far as pain goes. I don't know if it is they mystical Chinese herbal medicines that I'm taking or it just isn't that bad, but most of the time I feel fine. I do however feel the moral duty to keep from infecting my classmates, they paid money to be here and I would hate to be the cause of ruining some of their fun. So for these few days I've put myself on quarantine.

This means there has been a serious lack of exciting events in my life these past few days, and a serious spike in getting back in touch with people in America. It's also seen a major spike in rekindling old love affairs with pointless websites I once perused while in America.

Ironically enough there was one thing which I was going to post on today's blog that had some smidget of significance and wasn't mindless babble. Unfortunately during this long and rather boring introduction I have forgotten what it was I was going to say in the first place. Regardless, it wasn't that interesting. Seriously.

Well, seeing as there really is nothing interesting one can say when they have spent their entire day lying on their bed, I'll leave you with what I have written thus far.

I can't believe it has been a week since the last time I updated my blog.

There hasn't been a lot of new events that have transpired here. There have been some new developments, but perhaps it would be best not to post those on such a public forum as this?

This week I found a way through the Great Firewall of China so that I could watch Conference. Originally we were supposed to watch the sessions as a branch at our local meeting place, but the DVDs we received didn't work, so it seemed like we wouldn't be able to watch Conference until after we got back to America. After extensive looking I found a way to get to the Church website through a proxy server. It took hours to download just the audio of the proceedings, but I　felt it was important enough to be worth it.

While this week I have taken a lot of time out of class to do my homework and to go above and beyond the requirements in order to get the most out of my time here in China, I have also begun to wonder if the reason that I am here isn't most beneficial for it's capacity in intellectual progression, but for progression of my character.

I apologize if this reads a little, funny, but I've been spending the last few hours translating ancient Chinese to English for homework for one of my classes. Before that I spent a few hours writing an essay for my writing class.

Now I'm lying here in my hard bed with a hint of a sore throat and a touch of a cough, wondering what there is that I can write which would be of worth to read in America. Perhaps it would be best to just leave what I have written and sleep for the time being. I will be posting more often from hence.

The weekend was so short. Actually I didn't get a weekend this week, and I'm a bit tired.

I got to go to church today, which was nice, because I don't always get to go here. When we're traveling there isn't anywhere to attend, and next week is the week we are observing as General Conference, so by the time the first of November rolls around I will have been in Nanjing for 2 months, and only have attended church 3 times. It makes each time when I do get to go to church that much better.

After church we had class with our BYU professor. He took us on a short tour of a few sites in Nanjing. All in all we were supposed to tour three sites, but because the bus driver was 35 minutes late picking us up, the trip was poorly planned, and everyone was already tired from having 7 hours of make-up classes on Saturday, we cut the field trip short at 4 hours. Eeek. Sundays are much better when you can take a Sunday nap.

After I got home I sorted through a few more of my pictures from before, and then I got to my homework. We were supposed to hand write a 300 character essay for tomorrow mornings class. Most students don't get past about 100 characters, I'm guessing because they're just being lazy, but today I decided to go above and beyond, because lets face it, what else do I have to do while I'm here besides learn Chinese? So I wrote an 800 character essay to turn in tomorrow. I figure the more I write the more mistakes I'll make and the more I'll learn.

Before I sign off for the night and get some sleep, there are two stories from today.

One was while we were out touring with the class. Some lady approached me and asked in English if I could take her picture for her. I said yes in Chinese and she was shocked, just like everyone else and their dog that I spoke Chinese. She gets to talking with me and offers to be my language study partner, a quite popular way to make friends here. They help you with Chinese, you help them with English - a symbiotic friendship. Only I could tell she wasn't really interested in learning English from me if you know what I mean. I pulled a classmate over (female) fast and said I didn't need a language partner, but this girl was looking for one. Then I got out of there. Too many experiences like that lead me to think that it isn't possible for me to make friends with any females here, but I'm fine with that.

Second story. I received a marraige... proposition... today. Well, I guess I can't really tell this story online, you never know who's reading, right? Spiked your interest haven't I? Ask me on MSN or Gmail chat and I'll explain more.

Bonus pic of the day:

It has been a few days since my last post. It isn't my fault. I swear.

The Chinese government has cracked down on its internet censorship recently, and I haven't been able to access Blogger. Now it's all better.

Not only can I access this website again, I can upload pictures (finally)! Now my blog won't be so boring.

I don't think that I can really make up for the days when I wasn't able to post, so here's the Reader's Digest.

I am still going to school, and nothing really fun is happening right now.

I go to the underground fake markets every now and then to add to my fake brand name collection, still haven't found any of the brands that Courtney wants though.

We don't get a weekend this weekend. We had class on Friday and today, and tomorrow after church we have class again. It's a blast.

On the plus side I have noticed that my Chinese has made marked improvements since arriving just over a month ago. I'm hoping that I will continue to improve at a faster rate until I return home, and I'm bringing a lot of movies and books to continue my improvement at home.

I'm gradually sorting through my pictures from the trip and finding those that I want to keep and those I want to delete. I still have around 2000 that I haven't sorted through, and I find I keep around 25% of the pictures I've taken. After I sort through them all I have to fix the coloring and white balance on Photoshop, so I still have a lot of work to do.

So I guess that's about it- I'm keeping really busy, I'm getting used to life here, and my English is getting worse. Life should slow down a bit now too, the first month was full of traveling and vacations, from here on out there isn't much of that. Now is a time to buckle down, study hard, and get things done. At least I know I won't be like other students who came here with me who now are skipping class so that they can stay home and play World of Warcraft.

Here's a bonus:

No post last night. In fact I don't really remember when the last post was. It wasn't a very exciting last few days. Just more school and homework crammed into the past few days and preparing for another vacation. This must be what Jessica's life feels like.

I've got to write this fast, I've still got to pack for the next 8 days, and I have to leave at 2:30 for the train station. I won't get to Guilin until tomorrow night around 5 PM, so I'm looking at another 24+ hour train.

But I'm really excited to go to Guilin, and the nearby city Yangshuo. It has been ranked as the number one (or number two sometimes) photography destination in Asia. I'll have to keep you updated on everything that I'm up to, and I'll try to post some pictures soon, it's been hard to find time to get everything all squared away, and deciding which of the 1200+ pictures I took on my last trip is quite the daunting task.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly though during the next 29ish hours. I love to travel to new places, but I hate actually traveling to get there. When I travel to and from destinations I've never been to before I feel like Jeff, always worrying about what could go wrong.

But I really do need to leave. I'll update again when I get to Guilin.

Today seemed to fly by.

I feel like I accomplished less today than I have in days past, when in fact I'm sure that I've actually gotten much more done than usual.

I woke up at 7:30 and was out the door by 7:45 for class. I'm glad that tomorrow I get to sleep in. I don't have class until 10:00 AM tomorrow.

Classes seemed to go faster than normal today. It seems like I learned less though. I don't particularly remember what we talked about today, but I have notes, so I'll learn the material one way or another.

After classes I headed home, grabbing lunch on the way. I spent the afternoon emailing people that I have been meaning to and needing to email, but haven't had time to email because I've been out traveling.

When that was all over I headed over to the local DVD store to pick up some movies that I found on the internet which are supposed to be good. I've found a gold vein in Chinese cinema, a rare few directors that actually make good movies in Chinese. Watching movies has always been a good way for me to learn.

I headed over to Dr. Honey's for FHE. It went just like any regular FHE. I held his kids while his wife taught the lesson, he prepared the dessert, and all the students didn't pay any attention. Just like Provo.

To end the night I got some real life practice using my Chinese (not like I don't get enough of that living here or anything). I spent most of the night updating my English resume and translating it over into both Mainland Simplified Chinese and Taiwan Traditional Chinese. I was surprised at how much faster the process went now that I understand a lot more about the language. Of course I'm going to take them to my teacher tomorrow for correction, at which point I'm sure she'll stare blankly at me and tell me she has no idea what it is I'm trying to say, but for now I feel very accomplished.

Now, not to disappoint anyone, I've got the link to the video from the TV game show I was on last night:
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60953
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60954
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60955
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60956
Look for me in the third row (from the bottom) about 1/4 of the way over from the right. I'm the last one with blue pom-poms. I'm also one of maybe 3 white guys in the crowd, so while I haven't watched the whole thing, if there are closeups one might be of me, I don't know.

As a special bonus I offer this link:
http://net.lib.byu.edu/tutorial/art/

Enjoy!

Unfortunately I don't have time for a long post. Tomorrows post will contain a special surprise though (a link to a video!).

Today was a normal Sunday. Church in the morning. I got a calling as a FHE coordinator. That means I have to figure out how to hold FHE in a ward where the young adults like anywhere within a 3 hour radius (by train), and no one really has the money to travel. I'm sure it will all work out for the best in the end though.

During the afternoon I watched a very good movie - Finding Shangri-la. I would definitely recommend it if you can find one with English subtitles anywhere.

The best part of my day though had to be tonight. My roommate got a random call from a friend, "How would you guys like to be on TV?" Well you only live once right, so of course we accepted.

He had made his way onto a game show here that was being broadcast on the national TV channel here. He needed to have friends to help him with the various challenges to win money.

We went, they explained all the games to us and planted us in the audience. I'm going to post a video tomorrow of the show so that you all can see my 15 minutes of fame here in China.

Unfortunately my friend never made it out to compete, so my roommate and I never got called down to do any of the games, but we were still sitting in the middle of a small stage audience and I'm sure that we made it on the show multiple times.

That's just about it for the day. Apparently I'm becoming some sort of super star here in Asia.

I've returned.

And Nanjing feels like home.

Yesterday I wasn't able to post anything because I was on a train, but allow me to fill you in.

The first thing we did in the morning was go the the Terra Cotta Warrior site. It felt a lot more like traditional American historical sites- fairly interesting, not particularly exciting, but something that you have to go and see in person at least to say you've done it. After, another 'just to say you've been there experience' was going to the tomb of the first emperor of a unified China, Qin Shi Huang Di.

It seems like not much happened on Friday, I guess that is probably true. We went to lunch (at a restaurant inside of a pyramid with the sphinx in front of it), and went to the train station.

Got on the train, and about 24 hours later got off, at home, in Nanjing.

After resting up a bit my roommate and I rode our bikes down to the Confucian Temple, aka: the street where all the street vendors sell fake goods. I bought some Dulce and Gabbana jeans. American price: $420 USD. Chinese price: $11 USD. I win.

That's just about it for the day. Time for me to clock in for the night.

Today was a good day, quite uplifting. Of course the day is only half over, but that doesn't mean that it will get any worse from here.

This morning after waking up we decided to go out and see some things, being that we're going to be on a train for the next 36 hours. We rode our bikes out to the lake, Xuanwu Hu, and rode around the entire thing.

After that relaxing activity, we rode our bikes out to the Confucian Temple in southern Nanjing, Fuzi Miao, and walked around the shopping district for a while.

Finally we rode home and bought the necessary food and drinks to hold us over on the train for the next day and a half.

Now I'm packing for the big trip. It won't be a few hours until I'm on a train headed for the 'desert which people enter into and do not return from'.

Perhaps it isn't a good idea to write my blog so late at night. I am constantly reading over old posts and finding small mistakes that need correcting. Yesterdays post probably didn't make as much sense as I would have liked it to.

Today there was no class, so it was a day of adventures. It was overcast most of the day, so it was cooler, but not cold. I wore a sweater and was a little warm all day. Rumor has it that it is supposed to be hot tomorrow.

After getting up in the morning I Photoshopped pictures from Shanghai (they still aren't posted yet, but they will be tomorrow) until it was time for lunch. After lunch my roommate and I decided we needed to do something we hadn't done before, so we climbed up onto the roof of our building. It was quite adventurous and I got quite a few good pictures taken of random things that we found up there. After climbing down we decided we needed to go and find some more things to make our life more comfortable.

One of those things was a laundry service. I like to wear my shirts a little small and so they stretch out over the day as I wear them. Every time I wash and dry them however, they shrink back to their original size. The slight snugness of my t-shirts when they are fresh out of the wash has become quite comfortable over the past few years. Unfortunately when you hang your clothes out to dry they don't shrink back to their normal size, so I've missed that snugness over the past few weeks that I've been here in China. The other problem with hanging clothes out to dry is the amount of time it takes, especially when it is rainy and cool. So we wanted to find somewhere that would wash and dry our clothes so that we didn't have to deal with all of the hassle of doing it ourselves (lazy I know, but this is China, where you can pay people to all sorts of things for extremely low prices).

Unfortunately we weren't successful, the only places that would come up on Bing were dry cleaners, and the only places that we could find by walking around or asking people were also dry cleaners. And they were charging almost $1 USD per t-shirt! So when I get back from this trip in a week or so I'll have to look again.

After walking around so much all afternoon (as we walked we also found other random things, like the school pool, which costs 10 RMB per visit - I guess it could be worth it) we also decided we needed a better way to get around. So I bought a bicycle. It cost $20 USD and I really think it is pretty fun. Tomorrow we're going to take our bikes (my roommate didn't get his yet because I bought the last one for the day, but they'll have more tomorrow) to places that we haven't been able to go in the city yet because there aren't buses that can get us their conveniently.

As for tonight, there isn't that much going on. Tomorrow should be a pretty busy day, I'm going to try to make a posting tomorrow before I have to go get on the train at 9:30 PM. We're heading out to the Taklamakan Desert, which in some language, though which language I'm not sure, means 'the desert that people enter and do not come out of'. I'm sure I'll be fine, but it promises to be a new adventure.

It isn't every day that something interesting happens here in China. Since moving in and getting settled most days are about the same, nothing that isn't normal for me now.

Yesterday and today were not exceptions. It rained all day yesterday and all day today. Yesterday I held out on buying an umbrella. I'm not exactly sure why but I figured that getting a little wet was better than spending the $6 USD for an umbrella. Today it was raining quite a bit harder The streets were flooded to mid-calf level so walking to school was especially fun. I caved and bought an umbrella, and I quite like it. I'll probably keep it and take it with me back to America.

Class was the same as it is everyday: long, but I learned a lot. The constant Chinese immersion is started to become exhausting. I remember on my mission, when I would really immerse myself in the language I would get really tired (mentally exhausted) because I was focusing so hard on what was being said and I was trying to remember so much. I'm having the same thing happen now as before. At times in class I've caught myself zoning out. Not zoning out and not paying attention, more of just staring at a random spot and concentrating so hard on what I'm hearing and tearing apart the grammar structures, characters, analyzing the feeling of the words that are being said, etc. that I don't move.

One thing that I learned today, quite interesting if you are interested at all in the linguistics of Chinese at all. Pre-Modern China (as the Chinese call it 'Old China' - Pre-1912) there were of course many dialects of Chinese spoken, as there are today, but interestingly enough none of the dialects of Chinese was written the way it was spoken. Of course they could use Chinese characters to write the words that would make up what you say, but things were only written in a written Chinese language. In written Chinese, there were different grammar rules, and they used a different vocabulary completely. The differences were great enough that if someone were reading out loud something written in Chinese, an uneducated person would not be able to understand what was being said. On May 4th, 1919 a demonstration began which would later become known as the May 4th movement. As part of that movement, the Chinese fought for changing the writing in China away from the Classical Written Chinese language to a Vernacular Chinese that people spoke. They were for the most part successful. There still is an understood vernacular language that people speak on the streets and a written language. Thus, while learning Chinese it is important to distinguish words and grammar patterns as written or vernacular so they can be used in the proper context. However, the written and vernacular between Taiwan and China are completely different. For the most part they use words in Taiwan Vernacular Chinese that are only used in Written Mainland Chinese. It makes learning Chinese in classes here that much more different. Not only do I have to relearn all of the characters I can read (because they use simplified characters here in China, while they used traditional characters in Taiwan), but now I have to reestablish words as vernacular or written.

After class (which was later today, I had class until 5 PM today) there wasn't much to do. We went back to the bistro that I mentioned in my last post and had a gourmet pizza. It was definitely worth the $2 USD that I paid for it. Now I'm getting ready for our trip to Dunhuang which leaves on Saturday night. We have some free time and I want to make sure that I use it in the best way that I can.

It was a rainy day today. The first time it's rained since I've been here in China. But it was also cooling down. When I first arrived I would die at night if I wasn't running the air conditioner. I haven't run the air conditioner in my room at night in over a week, most nights I just open my sliding doors to my balcony (I have a nice room and apartment) and that is enough. Today I wore a sweater to class, though I didn't really need it. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm wearing a coat.

Class was the same as it always is. At least I'm learning a lot.

After class I went out trying to find a new place to eat. What I found exceeded my expectations. I found a restaurant which would be a Chinese version of Panda Express. You choose how many sides you want to your rice and pay accordingly. I got 3 vegetables and a meat, with rice. It was more than I wanted to eat for lunch. I was full (I know, a lot of food). And it only cost 6 RMB ($.85 USD) I'll be eating there more often.

After lunch I headed home, did my homework, read an article in the National Geographic Traveler that I picked up in Shanghai (in Chinese of course) about Mongolian horse competitions. I was pretty tired and took an hour or so nap.

When I woke up my roommates wanted to go to dinner, but I wasn't particularly hungry (still full from lunch I guess). I went out with them anyways and didn't get anything. On the way back home I bought a comforter so that when it does get cold I can still sleep fine, it only cost 40 RMB ($6 USD). You got to love China.

Today was my roommates birthday, so on the way home I decided we were going to stop by someplace and get some cheesecake for him. As we were walking by a small bistro we stopped to look at the menu and the owner came out. He was trying to get us to go inside but it looked a little pricey. I told him that it was my roommates birthday and he said that he would let us eat for free tonight. We went in and got cheesecake and the owner came and started talking to us. This is where the night started to get interesting.

The owner used to be a chef at the Shangri-la Hotel in Nanjing, which is a 5 star hotel. Then he was a chef at the Hyatt and the Marriott. My roommate happened to have studied culinary arts in Marseilles, France for a summer, and got accepted into the CIA (The Culinary Institute of America, very prestigious). As they talked about the cheesecake the owner told us that he'd only been open for a little while, and he wanted to know what he could change about things to attract more customers. We then talked about everything about the small bistro, the look (he had painted everything in very nice blues and whites, but needs to put some pictures on the wall so it doesn't look so empty), the music, the smell, the taste of the food, how he presents it, etc. He brought us out foods to try so that we could give him feedback on how well he was cooking it. The best was the fish and chips. Very good fish, exceptional tartar sauce, the fries were a little soggy (and by little, I mean little - this restaurant really was a high high quality restaurant). He also brought out lasagna and pizza (all of which was 5 star quality), showed us the full menu and asked for advice. He saw my camera and asked about it, and I told him that if he would like I could take pictures for him to put on his walls or in his menu. In the end he gave us his personal number and email, and said that any time we wanted to go back and eat or just hang out we could. Whenever we helped him with things the food would be free. It seems like I'm making a lot of friends here. Most of them are eager to do anything because my Chinese is good enough that I can actually communicate with them, so for the first time they can actually understand the American or Western point of view.

I find it very interesting that I came here to China in an attempt to better understand the way that Chinese people think. I set up my whole interview project around the idea that I would like to better understand the people here and the culture here. As I have been here and I have stopped to talk and get to know people, they are ecstatic because they see getting to know and talk to me as an opportunity for them to understand people that they have never understood before- the Westerners who are living in China.

Unfortunately, not many exciting things happen during the weekdays here.

Today was also a recovery day from Shanghai this weekend.

I slept in, and much like I used to do in Provo, I woke up around 15 minutes before class started, brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes and headed out the door. I still made it in time for class, but it was close.

Class was normal, and for lunch we went out and got dumplings. The original plan was to go get some food at a place that some of the other study abroad students recommended. When we got there with them it actually turned out to be less of a restaurant and more of a shack, and less of a shack and more of a stand on the side of the road, and less of a stand on the side of the road and more of a card table with random food spread out for you to choose from. I passed. Instead of paying 4 RMB for lunch like they did, I paid 8 and got 18 dumplings, which was more than enough for a filling lunch. One thing I didn't get though was food poisoning, like one of the other study abroad students has now, or any other number of stomach problems, like pretty much everyone in the group but me is suffering from right now. I think it's worth the extra $.50 USD per meal.

After lunch I was really tired, and just wanted to go home and take a nap, but fate had other plans for me. I ended up going downtown to help some people get flashcards - which interestingly enough don't exist in China. Everywhere we went looking for flash cards didn't have any. When we asked they told us to make our own out of paper. I also ended up buying Mao ZeDong's autobiography. That should be very interesting. And it should help my Chinese improve a lot, as it is in Chinese. Another thing I found very interesting is that there were plenty of copies of Chairman Mao's autobiography in bookstores, but I never found a biography of him. The workers all told me that they didn't have any biographies on him, and that I should just read his autobiography.

After going out for the afternoon though, it was time to come home. I spent the night touching up the pictures I took while at Zhong Shan Ling and Ming Xiao Ling last Friday. I didn't finish them all, but I uploaded about 30 of them onto my Photobucket site: http://s816.photobucket.com/albums/zz82/carlhollan/ I'll be finishing those up probably tomorrow, and then moving on to working on the pictures I took while in Shanghai last weekend. I'm hoping to finish everything just in time for our trip to Dunhuang and Xi'an. I'm going to have a lot of pictures to sort through after that, so if you want to see any of the things I'm writing about, make sure to check out my Photobucket account.

This city is so big (with about 20 million residents) and there is so much to do. There is no way that I can possibly do everything that I want to do while I'm here, no matter how much I do every day.

Today started out with class, like every other day. The first class was great, I learned a lot. The second class was boring. I was trying to keep from falling asleep the entire time. But I guess that is the way that life goes.

I figured it would be a good day to focus on taking pictures. I really wanted to interview a man who usually sits outside of our apartment building and plays the erhu (a traditional Chinese instrument) and begs for money, but I couldn't seem to find him today, no matter how hard I looked. So that fell through. Instead I spent the afternoon going with a classmate to the Western Union so that he could get a money transfer and I could be there to translate if needed.

I sat and took pictures of everything that I saw out the window and listened to music. It was a very relaxing day.

After we went to the coffee shop to see our friends and so that my classmate and I could get our homework done for the day. After finishing my homework I started to Photoshop my pictures so I could upload them to my Photobucket. I don't know if I'll get to that tonight, it takes a bit of time and it's almost midnight here already and I'm exhausted.

After sitting at the coffee shop for a little while we went out and got dinner and then came back to the apartment to do some more studying.

We walked downtown to a really good crepe shop and got hot fudge sundae crepes. It was a delicious reminder of America. To cap off the night we went to some of the other study abroad students housing to say hi. They live in a little different environment than us. To get to their house you have to walk about 5 minutes down a dark and winding alley into a run down subcomplex. Their downstairs neighbors collect garbage for a living. Our classmates have a two room apartment between the three of them. And two of the guys have to share a bed. I almost felt guilty. But then I didn't instead.

We walked home, and I'm feeling pretty tired. Tomorrow is going to be a long day of class. I think I have class from 8AM-12PM and from 2PM-5PM, plus I have to go find a place to buy train tickets to ShangHai for District Conference this weekend, and I have to find a travel agent to buy train tickets for me to GuiLin. That should be exhausting.

I'm sorry about the short blurb today, I would normally have a lot more to say about life here, like how while we were walking we found out that we live only half a block from the only Mexican restaurant in Nanjing, or how we're hearing cool details about trips we're going to be taking soon, but tonight I just need to get to bed and get some sleep.

I've been in China for one week now. And it's starting to feel a lot like home. I'm starting to get acquainted with the area, the people, my life. It's not so much of a new experience anymore. This is just my life now.

This morning I got to sleep in. I didn't have class until 10 AM. It was quite nice. After classes a few of us went back to the Muslim noodle shop that we went to a few days ago, and then we went to register with the police department. One problem that we seem to constantly run into is businesses close from noon till 2 or 3 PM for an afternoon nap. During those hours it seems like we have nothing at all to do. The library is even closed (I tried to go study there during those hours today). Today those of us who went to lunch walked north of campus and found another shopping district (that makes 3 large ones within a mile of where I live), and found a park nearby. We sat and rested and I took pictures.

There were two exciting things that happened at the park today. The first came as I was looking around for things to photograph, and I looked at a nearby building. There, tied (literally tied) to the end of a rope (like a 3 inch thick one) and hanging from a building (at least 60 stories) was a man washing the windows. I was so excited! I took a few pictures of what looks to be one of the most dangerous jobs I have seen in China thus far （and there are some ridiculously dangerous jobs here).

The second thing that happened at the park was a little funny. You see here, to save money (and because it just isn't a big deal I guess) parents don't buy diapers for their children. Instead they buy pants which are split the entire way down the middle from the front to the back. When a child has to go to the bathroom its easy, the parents take them to a patch of grass, dirt, etc. The child squats down and takes care of business. When there is no grass, dirt, etc.? No problem, the parents hold a piece of paper or magazine underneath their child to catch all the deposits (much like people do with their dogs) and throw it away in the trash can. So as we were sitting in this park we had noticed a large amount of children going to the bathroom. Despite all of this, we had a police officer come over to one of the students and ask him not to lie down on the bench 'because it wasn't becoming'. China. Crazy place.

After registering with the police I came home. Oh, here is a chance to tell another story that hasn't yet been put on my blog.

Many, many days ago. Before the beginning of time and before I had internet access in my apartment, we would go to a small coffee shop across the street, order a 5 RMB drink and use the wireless internet to communicate with people. One fateful night as I was sitting there writing a post for this very blog, I realized that I was singing along to music. But I wasn't playing the music, it was coming from the coffee shop speakers. It was then I realized that they were playing 'Gotta Have You' by The Weepies. Well I got really excited (because how many of you had heard of The Weepies before reading that last sentence? [Thank you Alyssa]), and went to ask them how the heck they had The Weepies playing in their coffee shop. They told me that they had a certain worker who was really into music and had chosen the music for the coffee shop with a few friends. I decided these people had to be cool and that I had to have them as friends.

This afternoon I made a mix CD for them of other music which is also amazing from America. After making the CD I took it over to the coffee shop and gave it to the employee at the front. They were all excited to hear the CD, and I told them that I would probably be stopping by the coffee shop more to talk about music and ask them if I ever had any questions about where to find things, even if I already had internet upstairs. So I made some new friends today.

At night we went exploring up north of campus on streets we hadn't been up before. Nothing too interesting to report on. Came home and studied. Tomorrow will be a full day of classes. Time to get to sleep to get ready for those.

Another day, another lot of new experiences.

Hard work pays off today. After trying to figure things out with the DSL company yesterday for so long, I went home last night and decided to clean the apartment before I went to sleep. While cleaning out the drawers I found a cable modem. A cable modem with the address of the cable company on the bottom. It wasn't hard this morning to find the company this morning and figure out how to set up cable internet in the apartment. After paying a late fee, it cost 180 RMB ($25 USD) to get unlimited cable internet in our apartment. The paperwork should go through sometime tomorrow, so tomorrow night I shouldn't have to worry about going to a coffee shop to use the internet.

I'm a little sad though, the people at this coffee shop are really really nice. I like them a lot. Perhaps I'll come back here every now and then and get a Coke and chat with them.

We found a really good place to eat breakfast that is 100ft from our front door. It also only cost 3.5 RMB ($.50 USD) for breakfast. So far the day is going swimmingly.

After that it was time to go to Walmart to get some cleaning supplies and some hookups for the new cable modem. Much like Burley, Walmart is located at the center of the mall here in Nanjing. Unlike Burley there is a Gucci shop on the floor below the Walmart, and a Prada store across the way from it.

This would be the first of two trips to Walmart today, as I would realize that I remember to pack everything, including five pairs of shoes and a pair of cowboy boots, but I forgot to bring a white shirt. Unfortunately I would learn on the second visit to Walmart that even though it seems like they have everything, they do not. And I will be attending church in a hotel lobby tomorrow in a lavender shirt. How cute.

For lunch today a classmate and I found our way to a noodle shop that we saw a few days ago that is run by a Muslim family. It seemed interesting so we decided to try it out. The shop is a shining example of globalism in China today - it is in China, run by Muslims, who are from western China, watching a Korean soap opera. Add the two Americans who were seemingly their only customers for the day and you have a Brady Bunch type drama waiting to happen. The noodles were delicious though.

After lunch it was hot, which meant it was time to clean. It was nice cleaning the garbage the previous occupants left in the drawers. After taking out the first trash bag, the neighbors across the street (all three of whom live in a house half the size of the bedroom - a sad but true reminder of the atrocious poverty gap here in China) asked if they could have any of the garbage we threw out. We were more than happy to oblige.

Three to four hours later the apartment was clean. The entire bathroom had been scrubbed by Muscle Man (the brand of cleaner, not the person doing the work), every drawer cleaned out, and the floors all mopped. I guess I've always just been the type of person who liked to live in a clean place.

I boiled some water to drink (because you can't drink it out of the tap) and unwound by watching the movie 'The City of Life and Death' or 'Nanjing! Nanjing' about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese (WWII). I skipped dinner because the noodles did pretty good at filling me up.

I now find myself here. On the way to the coffee shop I ran into an old mission companion - Aaron Fanello. He's here with his wife as part of ASU's Flagship program. That's cool, I'll get to see him at least at church.

Monday will be the start of classes for us here. I'm excited to have stuff to do, as it seems like today we did a pretty good job of getting everything set to live here for the next while.

Tomorrow should be a good day off.

Maybe the days here seem more exhausting because it is so hot an humid outside. It literally sucks the energy out of you. Maybe it's because I have to spend all my time concentrating on what I'm listening to and saying so that I can function. Or maybe it's because I wake up at 7 am, which is 2-3 hours earlier than I ever got up in America.

Today has left me exhausted again, but I'm going to try to get as much of this down as I can before I go to bed.

We started out by doing our school orientation. We met together as a group and walked around the city for a little while holding up banners that said, "Please stare, we are different than you." (maybe not, but you'd think that's why people reacted that way). We headed up to campus and met a few professors that will be teaching us.

After we finished orientation it was 11:30 AM, we decided to go out and... I forget what we wanted to do in the afternoon. I know that we stopped by the campus pool and cafeteria to check prices, then we went to Western Union to get the money that one of my future roommates had wired to him so that we could pay for our apartment. I went to the local ICBC and withdrew some money, but the withdrawl limit was too low to get all the money I needed for rent out. I was a little annoyed until I looked at my watch and saw it was 10 minutes to 2 PM, which meant in 10 minutes it would be another day in America and I would be able to withdraw money from my account again, so it wouldn't be a problem. It worked out perfectly.

We ate on the streets, it cost 3 RMB (<0.50 USD) for our whole meal, and then I went out to take pictures.

I got some good ones, unfortunately the Chinese government doesn't want you to see them. I don't have access to the picture uploading feature on my blog, so unless I figure that out anytime soon it will just be text.

We got some really, really good fried noodles for dinner for 5 RMB (<0.80 USD), but they did give me a stomach ache. Not an, "Ewwww, I'm going to be sick" stomach ache, more like a punch in the stomach stomach ache. But it's gone now.

Tonight we went out and found a night market. I bought some speakers for my iPod and computer that are pretty nice and really cheap, then came home to get ready to move into my apartment tomorrow.

It's been a long day. And I'm ready for it to be over.

We woke up early this morning, and ate some of the all you can eat breakfast here at the hotel. I would put the quality somewhere between Panda Express and Beto's - really nice. We decided it wasn't worth eating (even if it is free) and went outside to get something to eat.

After breakfast and getting ready for the day we headed out to find an apartment. We were using the internet machine to find places, and were planning on going to a coffee shop near campus to use the free internets and call some of the numbers we found. Only problem is the coffee shops here don't open till 10 AM. Because people don't want to drink anything with caffeine early in the morning. It doesn't make any sense to me either.

We went to a bunch of realty agencies and looked at a lot of apartments. We spent most of the day convincing people that we knew what we were doing (contrary to popular belief I am not as stupid as I sometimes act), and reiterating to them that just because we are white we aren't rich and that we weren't going to double what Chinese people would pay for an apartment.

The best quotes of the day:

- OK, we found you an apartment that I'm sure you'll love, but I have a question. How think of blankets do you have?
-Why is it going to be cold?
-No, the apartment doesn't have any beds and the landlord recommended that you sleep on thick quilts instead.

also

-I've found a great apartment, but you don't mind that the bathroom is outside, do you?
-Is it a shared bathroom?
-No, it's your private bathroom, it's just outside, and doesn't have plumbing?
-So... like an outhouse?
-Yes.
-Why would you....
-Well China used to be really poor and people used to be a little crazy so they built their bathrooms outside so they could...
-I know why you'd have an outhouse, I wanted to know why you would even offer an apartment with an outhouse.


In the end though, we were successful, and we were proud. 4 months in an apartment which is half a block from campus was a little pricey, but we got it at a cool 1000 RMB ($146.39 US) a month. Oh, I forgot to mention that our apartment is huge - 96 sq. meters (3500 sq. feet!) and comes fully stocked with furniture. We found another apartment that was even nicer but it was another 10 to 15 minute walk to campus. It had TV's in every room.

After finding our apartment we headed back to the hotel, met up with our 'advisor' (a term to be used loosely, we found out today how little he cared about what we do while we are here). And came back to chill at the hotel. I'm hoping we'll be moved in to our apartment by tomorrow.

So, I've made it. I'm in Nanjing now. I don't have a place to live, but I have a hotel that is only costing me $15 US a day (and that includes the all you can eat breakfast). I'll find somewhere later.

Getting here was less fun than expected.

I flew from SLC to SFO (2 1/2 hours) and had an 8 hour layover in SFO (10 1/2 hours) and flew to Hong Kong (23 1/2 hours) and had a 6 hour layover there (29 1/2 hour). Then I flew here, to Nanjing. Total time: 32 1/2 hours. Without sleep. And the only things I ate was airplane food, that and a $10 US roast beef sandwich (which surprisingly, wasn't worth it). Also I didn't sleep.

I was real happy when I got in here. I got a taxi with a real nice man (Yen KeWen) and he took me to the hotel.

Then I played the same game I played on my mission.

These are the rules:
(1)Set some goals for things you need to buy
(2)Go outside and find them
(3)Find home (because I'm lost)

Because it was the first time playing it in Nanjing I decided to keep things simple. My goal was to find food and water.

I found food, some beef noodle soup. I walked inside (it was quite a small establishment, only room for me and two others to sit inside) and ordered dinner. The lady inside told me it was 30 RMB ($4 US). I told her that was bull, that I could read Chinese and that it said it was 6.5 RMB ($0.90 US). She gave me my noodles for 6.5 RMB. I win.

I then found a grocery store and bought 6 liters of water and 4 liters of sports drink for 14 RMB ($2 US).

Dinner and beverages (for the next few days) for under $3 US. I win.

Today was much better. A few of the people from my study abroad group made it in, and a few of them seem pretty cool. We got the internet working, and found ways around the Great Firewall of China so that we could access Facebook. We went to the mall and I got a map. Now when people look at me they will not only know that I don't belong there, but they'll know I'm lost as well.

Tomorrow I'm going to find a place to live. Hope all goes well.