Safe Landing in Shanghai

Hi All, I know many of you have been waiting patiently (or anxiously, due to the earthquakes!) for my first blog posting so, finally, here it is! Sorry, there won't be any pictures yet because I haven't taken them off my camera and onto Michael's computer (they are transferring now--verrrryyy slowly)! But I will post photos as soon as possible, maybe even within just a few hours.

Meanwhile, a little news on what I've been doing so far on my trip. I arrived in Shanghai around 7:30 p.m. (China time) on a flight delayed first by the late arrival of the plane from its previous destination and then a problem with the pressurization system that needed to be repaired before we could take off. Once we arrived in in Shanghai (4 in-flight movies, 3 episodes of Desperate Housewives, 3 episodes of Grey's Anatomy, two meals, a snack, and dozens of beverages later) I zipped through customs (nothing to declare), waited an interminable time for my luggage, and finally found my way to the exit where Michael was waiting for me with three of his friends, Mike, Uri, and Salena (who is now Michael's girlfriend), all of whom I have met before. A great reunion!

We spent the next few days in and around Shanghai. Mike and his girlfriend, Maya, have an apartment there and they put all four of us up that first night. The next two nights we spent in hotels, the first one in Shanghai, and the second one in the old city of Zhouzhuang. The fourth night we spent on a sleeper train that we took from Shanhai to Luoyang. My first sleeper train; what an experience! It was a 17 hour trip. Speaking of trains, we also rode the famous Maglev train when we left the Shanghai airport. This is the high-speed train that goes up to 300 km/hour! It's awesome! I'll try to do some internet research on it and post more info. I do know that, somehow using magnetic power, the train actually rises up off the tracks so that there is no friction - this is how it goes so fast. Fascinating.

In Shanghai we visited the People's Square, a famous shopping center where we saw lots of other foreigners. We also went to the Oriental Pearl Tower where we ascended in an elevator 267 meters high and had a 360 degree view of Shanghai. This tower reminded me of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.

There's LOTS more to tell but I need my photos to help jog my failing memory! We have packed a lot into the last few days. Now we are at Michael's apartment on campus at the University of Technology in Luoyang City.

Regarding the earthquake (and the hundreds of aftershocks), there has really not been any affect on Shanghai or here in Luoyang except, of course, the usual watching the news, reading the papers, sympathy for the affected people, and the horror of watching the death toll rise every day. We're too far away here for it to be much more "personal." The only English-speaking channel on t.v. has been running continuous earthquake coverage and we've watched a fair amount of that. Horrible stories of entire schools collapsing and burying the students, factories that went down on an entire workforce of people and, more recently, relief workers being buried by mudslides caused by aftershocks. Yesterday we had just climbed into the back seat of a taxi when our driver started blowing his horn. Turned out it was a three-minute period of "silence" all across the country where all emergency sirens were activated and everyone on the road blew their car horns in recognition of the dead.

I'm going to see what I can do now to get my photos uploaded. Hopefully, today I will be able to post some! Feel free to leave comments, especially if you have any questions!! More soon!!

China-Bound Today!

It's Departure Day!!! I'm all packed and ready to go. Packing was a 2-day event; it was so hard to keep my stuff pared down to a manageable level AND take Michael a few things AND 200 or so handmade cards for Michael's students AND about 40 bead bracelets that a local girl scout troop made as a service project.

Can you spot the baking soda? A request from Michael who loves to bake cookies for his friends and has trouble finding some things in China. The Chinese really don't "bake," so baking soda, chocolate chips, that kind of thing is hard to find. I've also got cheese hidden away in there!
Paperwork (including the all-important Chinese Visa which took 4 trips to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco to get!) and my carry-on duffel bag.
Some of the pretty bracelets the girl scouts made. It's going to be fun to give these away! Scout supervised the packing. She might (wrongly) think that by getting into a box she will be able to go along. She hates it when I pack my suitcase!
Jack decided to check out just where in the world China is. I don't think he knows his geography very well!

So it's time for a quick bowl of cereal, a last-minute check that I haven't forgotten anything, and we'll be off for the airport in San Francisco.

Take care, everyone, and I'll post updates to my blog as often as possible!!!

Leaving for China

August of 2007: My two sons, Michael and Rodrigo, and I at the Longmen Grottoes in the south of Luoyang City. It is regarded as one of the three most famous treasure houses of stone inscriptions in China. Literally thousands of Buddhas!

So Departure Day for my second trip to China has nearly arrived. In spite of the earthquake, I'm still going!

I leave from San Francisco tomorrow, May 14, at 1:30 p.m., and arrive on May 15 at 5:25 p.m. It is a 14-hour flight. I have an aisle seat, thank goodness, because I'm the sort that can't stay in my seat for very long! My itinerary lists "Lunch, Lunch." So I guess we'll be served lunch twice as we chase the sun across half the globe. These are photos from last year's trip, in August. Just random stuff. I didn't have a blog then so I couldn't take my family and friends along like I hope to this year! My cousin, Laurel, says she's never seen the photo I have of a chinese toilet, so here it is. This takes a little getting used to! Thank goodness (and thank Jazzercise) for strong thighs! And this is in a very nice, upscale restaurant. You don't even want to THINK about what I saw in the outhouses!This is Tiannenmen Square. Michael, me, and two of Michael's friends, Arnold and Uri. Rodrigo, Arnold, and Michael. This is in Beijing where we had a great dinner at a restaurant famous for Beijing Duck (formerly Peking Duck). You can see the server in the background carving the bird. That was an awesome meal.
A little different type of meal, lunch at a roadside stand. A lot of different foods all deep-fried in the same oil. De-lish!And yet another meal; this time at an outdoor "barbecue." There is a huge pan of boiling water in the middle of the table. We were given a variety of meats (some of the meats the guys ate was unbelievable) and vegetables that we put in the water, let cook, then fished back out to eat. Very interesting!! That's Selena, me, and Rodrigo in the photo.Another picture of Selena, Michael's girlfriend (although she wasn't at the time this picture was taken). We're in a taxi. She is very sweet and a lot of fun. Needless to say, I'll be seeing her again very soon!
The Great Wall. They are hard to see in this pic but if you look very closely at the square tower area, on the left-hand side Rodrigo and Michael are standing on top of the wall. I'm telling you, those two never change, you can't take them anywhere! Here we are in a shopping area in Luoyang City having lunch at a very short table. There were yummy veggie/meat-filled dumplings and a doughnut-like fried sweet bread.
Last, but certainly not least, we call this picture "Chinese Daycare." These babies are in a cart near their mothers who are cooking food in an outdoor booth. So cute!

As I've been telling people, I will try to update my blog while I'm in China. Michael doesn't live anywhere near the epicenter of the earthquake and he says everything is back to normal in Luoyang City. I'm traveling alone this time instead of with Rodrigo, so that's just a tiny bit scary. I expect I may run into travel delays, but don't expect any problems once I arrive in Shanghai where Michael will meet me. I believe his plan is to spend a few days first in Shanghai and nearby Suzhou (I think that's how its spelled), where Selena lives, so it may be 4 or 5 days before my first post.

I hope you'll check back!