Ｃｈｉｎａ！

Sorry I haven't written in a while. As some of you heard I had some issues getting to China. I lost my tickets somewhere in France and Aeroflot (soviet airline) wouldn't print duplicates until they got authorization from Travelocity (a big online company) who of course had no idea what to do or what Aeroflot is asking for. So I called mom in a panic (4:30 her time) and she spent 8 hours on the phone yelling at people but finally I got on a flight. But since I had missed my regular flight I ended up staying 12 hours in Heathrow (I swear that airport is cursed, I'm always detained there somehow) and 12 hours in a Moscow airport and 10 hours in the air. But moscow wasn't so bad. Since you can't leave the airport because of visa issue people sat against a wall and slept using their bags as pillows. Below is my spot where I stayed for 12 hours (6 of them asleep) Maybe not the safest thing but I don't feel I was in any danger.
Day 1- 8/7/08

But my luck changed when I arrived in China. In the first ten minutes of my being there I met a local(Sunzil) because he was singing an American song in English. His English wasn't great but it worked. He was nice enough to take me to my hostel an d then take me shopping with his girlfirend (Villky) Both are taller than me and very helpful. They helped me get a phone so I can call people in china and Korea. (yay I have a steady social life again!)
And me with one of the mascots of the Olympics. I think his name is Yuenyuen. All five together spell out Bei Jing Huai Yuen Ni or (welcome to Beijing）
So, we shopped the whole day but I took pictures of some of the buildings we saw.

The stores on this street are completely empty. It was built just for Olympics . Xidan shopping district. Huge department stores and floors of little shops. It's also where I meet anyone as it's the only place I know how to get to easily from my hostel. This one is cool becuse it's half-greek, half chinese. The writing on the building was romanized.

random sky line
Day 2- 8/8/08 (beginning of the Olympics)
I met up with my friends from home today, Luke. (in gray) and his brother (Robin) I ended up eating lunch with his family in Xidan and then we went to his mother's parents house for dinner and to watch the opening ceremony. His grandparents live about an hour outside of Beijing so it was a very different atmosphere. Small, local town where neighbors were all friends. Here, we're lost on the road looking for the house.

So, after the Olympics Luke's parents, brother, and aunt and uncle left and he me and his grandparents stayed the night in the house. (very nice house too) And here the stereotypes began. His grandma is a mahjong fiend with her only automatic table that shuffles the tiles for her. And when we sat down to a game (they taught me the rules) his grandfather talked strategy by referencing Sun Tzu's Art of War. All in all I really like his family.

Here is Luke and his grandma in his grandpa's garden. Day 3- 8/9/08 (Judo women's 48kg finals and men's 60kg finals)

My beautiful tickets. 9 in all. 3 judo, 4 taekwondo, 1 water polo and 1 decathalon, all are finals. And yes I'm taking care of them so I can frame them later. They really are pretty.
The even before Judo was delayed so the gates opened late. To entertain us and volunteers sang songs, danced and cheered. I suspect them of having gone through a cheer camp. And by the way there are volunteers everywhere. They watch for suspicious activity and are supposed to be there to help. (Sometimes they're helpful, sometimes not)
Beijing Institute of Science and Technology Gymnasium is where both Judo and Taekwondo are held. It's in the center of a university campus and feels like it. The girl with me in this picture is just some random Chinese girl who wanted a picture of me. I'm a token foreigner in a few other photos too.
The inside of the stadium with flags.

Part of the match. The one in blue is Canadian and he came up and sat in front of me after his match with some friends of his. Women's medal ceremony. A blonde Romanian took the gold over a highly favored, highly supported Japanese girl.
Men's medal ceremony. The gold medalist was a South Korean names Choi Minho. And I have to say I'm a bit in love with him. He finished both his matches early by scoring a thousand point for completely pinning his opponent. ( both shoulders and all of the back touch the ground) In the final match he actually lifted his opponent and threw him out of the ring. He was amazing. ( (and the smallest competitor)
I really like China so far. People are really nice. Some will try to cheat you but you can avoid them if you're careful. I haven't had any problems with the air quality either. All writing is romanized in the bigger areas. The hardest part is distinguishing between bus stop names and buying food because these are usually in Chinese and I can't read them. But I learning. Oddly enough my Korean helps. Korean vocabulary is 70% Chinese and so I can understand an odd word here and there.

Hope this relieves all worries.

The last of Europe

I left France, sadly, and spent two days in London revisiting things and going places I regretted that I had missed last time I was here, two years ago.

The British Museum- home to my mummies and other Egyptian art I studied last year.
St. Paul's
I got up early in the morning and walked down to the Tower of London. One of my favorite places in London. (Bloody and historical) A bit expensive to get in but it's where three queens of England were killed (two married to Henri VIII) and where Sir Walter Raleigh was held for 15 years and many other gruesome stories which are all told my Beefeaters (shown below) one of the queen's bodyguards. There are only 37 of them and they all live in London Tower, they have 22 years military experience, are at least Sgt. Majors and are all funny.


This just amused me. It's King Henri VIII's armour. It was massive and had quite a belly not to mention codpiece. He wore it once but then got too fat to fit into it again. Here is White Tower, part castle and housing for William the Conqueror and following kings and queens part torture chamber. It's in the middle of The London Tower complex. Note the raven in front. Raven used to flock to the tower because it was the highest building and because eating was good (lot's of corpses around) then they were mostly killed off until an old prophecy suraced about bad luck if the ravens ever left the tower so now six are kept and cared for always. They sometimes live to be four times the age they would have been in the wild and are huge.
And of course Tower Bridge.
Across the Thames is the Tate Modern. A free modern art museum that made me stop saying "I could make that." and start asking "Would I have thought of doing that?" It had glass cubes, pictures made of blood but I think the best were the video works and the street art. Here is a mural done on the outside I liked a lot and thought Grayson would like. (He's holding a video camera) (Bert you would love this museum)
Then to end the day I went to see Timon of Athens by Shakespeare at the Globe Theater. I got standing tickets for 5 pounds and here was my view. (We couldn't take pictures when actors were on the stage) It was a good play but there are reasons it's not famous.

Paris!

I have arrived in Paris. This time around I liked it so much more this time.

This is the view from my window. I stayed down the street from the Place de Bastille.
Now before this next picture let me explain the difference between French men and Italian men. On my first day in Paris a middle aged man said something to me in French as we were crossing the road. I didn't understand what he said so I asked him to repeat. He took this as a sign to talk to me about jazz music and then he asked to meet me. This is not uncommon. I said no and then he asked if I had a pen so he could give me his number. Again not uncommon. I lied and said I didn't have one and continued on. He apparently watched where I went and then found a pen and came back and badgered me into meeting him in the McDonald's in an hour. I finally agreed without ever intending to meet and he left. So, I left the area but he came back and I was forced to hide out in a grocery store for half an hour before returning to the hostel.

So, at the hostel I met the Italians. They checked in at the same time as me so I'd seen them before. Nicola, the one in the middle asked me to dinner later that night because as he said "I don't like to see a girl alone" Marco (on the right) spoke very good English and Andrea (on the left) was quieter but very cute. They entertained me for two days, walked me home at night and bought me dinner. No advances, no badgering. So, all in all I prefer Italian men to French. They're still very direct but less pushy about it.
Oh, the dinner they bought me was escargot. Seen here. Served in a pesto sauce and again better than you think it would be.
I said to myself that I wouldn't do the touristy thing but I did anyway. So, here is the Eiffel Tower.
The Louvre
The Mona Lisa- taken from afar to show everyone it's actual size. It's much less impressive in person.
Notre Dame
Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysee.

Biking in the Loire

I spent two days biking around the Loire Valley, land of the chateaux. I underestimated my biking skills however and as a result have probably hurt my knee but before that I saw many chateaux but here are the ones I entered.

Chamboard- This is chateau unlike any of the whimpy American mansions or those old ruined castles of the UK. Luxury like this is the reason France had a revolution.



And here is Cheverny. A smaller chateau but the family still lives in it on the third floor. The bottom two floors that you can view are full of beautiful things and family photos. The wife's wedding dress is on display. It still feels somewhat lives in, not dead like other castles I've visited. They even have a kennel on the grounds, the count still likes to hunt. The dogs are all sweet and will jump up at the gate to let you pet them. At feeding time the keepers lay out raw meat and the dogs all stand in a line and wait until they're given a signal that allows them to eat. Very well trained.


And here is a picture of the Loire as it runs by Amboise. The hostel I stayed in is just on the other side of those trees on an Ile d'Or in the middle of the water.
Oh, and I got some cute shoes.

Mont St. Michel "Let build an abbey in the middle of the ocean!"

Mont St. Michel is a demi- island, meaning at high tide it's an island and at low tide it's part of the mainland. Well, now there is a causeway that connects it all the time but for a long time you had to time your trip just right or get stuck. So, it's very small, with one street and a lot of stairs and of course very touristy but that doesn't stop it from being breath-taking.

Look.

But it comes with perils. A tide you can't outrun, winds that will blow you over strong currents and of course the dreaded quicksand. So, maybe this picture is more of my shadow, but notice I'm almost up to my knees in quicksand and it only took 2 seconds to sink that far. But luckily that's as far as it goes otherwise we wouldn't have this picture.

And then the mud. These are not rocks they're mud pebbles. It thought they were cool. The mud here in the bay has this strange property of sticking to anything. I still have mud on my shoes even though I've washed them twice and worn them for two days now.
That's a buoy at low tide. I'm about mile out from the Mont.
Also, at low-tide people draw things in the sand. There was ever a marriage proposal.
Then there's high tide, that comes up an surrounds the Mont.
But from the causeway you can still get pretty pictures.
Other things to note. Lot's of seafood. mussels and clams are literally strewn about in the water. I even found a small crab in my bed at the hotel.

Beaudacious Bayeux

So, I really like Bayeux. Yes it is a town of old people, most veterans and their families but I still like it.

First, there is the Cathedral. One of the better ones I've seen. Pretty and gothic on the outside but still a managable size and very light and airy on the inside. No dark , cold pulpit （ｔｈｏｕｇｈ　ｉｔ　ｄｉｄ　ｈａｖｅ　ａ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｃｒｙｐｔ）Ａｎｄ　ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｓｔｉｌｌ　ｉｎ　ｕｓｅ．　Ｉlitterally walked into a wedding. Then there is the tapestry. Created soon after the war in 1066 (when William the Bastard of France kicked Harold of England off the throne of England. and so became William the Conqueror- this is where modern English and England comes from when the plebian Saxons were culturized and suppressed by the French Normans) (Can you tell I'm intrested in this time period?) Any way the tapestry is surprisingly amusing and takes 70 meters to tell the story (complete with virgin slapping, naked people and hands of gods) If you go to Bayeux go see it!
Then there is a more somber part of the city. Bayeux is about t10 mins. away from the Normandy beaches. Here is the shell- riddled cliff of Pointe du Hoc (American Rangers climbed a cliff to under German fire to take possession of the machine guns here and secure both Omaha and Utah beaches)
Then of course Omaha beach. Even with people sun- bathing (it's a very nice beach aside from the history) it makes you tear up when you see it.
And finally the American cemetary. It's built like capital hill but even so everyone in my tour group cried walking through it. (tour group was four Aussies and three people from Pine Hurst all over the age of 60 though none were veterans)

So, the weirdest thing, I found this name on the missing persons wall.

If it won't play (Bland George W S Sgt 119 Inf 30 Div North Carolina)
His name, rank and home place. Any one know who this guy and how he's related to us. (Because he has to be)