Back in the Saddle Again!! I'm BAAAAACCCCK!!!

Please excuse the classic rock reference, but by popular demand I will try and start blogging again as to keep everyone updated as to my whereabouts and mischeif. I am at work now and don't have too much time to write a long post now, but tomorrow is my day off and I hope to write a lengthy post then. This website is currently (and for the past few years) blocked by the Great Firewall of China, but I, much like the hordes of Mongolian invaders before me have found a way around the walls that China incessently puts up to keep unwanted barbarians as well as unwanted information out of its country. Things to write about tommorrow...

1. My Dog - an epic story of adventure, coming of age, and trajedy

2. Life in Yangzhou, where I live, what I have been doing, who I have been doing stuff with etc...

3. Things I am planning on doing

4. Probably a lot more things that come to mind while i am writing...

I will email, and post on facebook to get the word out that I will start my blog, maybe this time it will last.

New stuff

I now have internet, so a cheap/free and easy way to get a hold of me is skype. My skype account is danforce04 . I talked to Ben for over an hour today on it and it was great fun. Also I have started to upload photos on picasa, but it is really slow so I only have a few pictures up of Guilin so far. Check it out at http://picasaweb.google.com/Danforce.

I recently got a job here teaching English to kindergarteners for a couple hours a week. I start on Friday, so wish me luck. I'm excited to be teaching kindergarten because I only really can speak in Chinese since they obviously know no English, so it will be great practice for me. However, I know it will be a ton of work organizing a bunch of Chinese kids. Luckily I also have a Chinese aide to help me, which I think will help a lot with keeping the kids in control and to help me when I'm not sure how to say something in Chinese.

It's late here, so I have to go to bed. I'm up late waiting for the pictures to upload. I promise I will try to sit down one of these days and write a nice long blog or at least do it more frequently, but I have very little time it seems. And when I do have time, I'm usually so beat that I don't feel like writing. Also I feel overwhelmed trying to catch you guys up on the multitude of experiences I haven't yet shared.

Soooooooorrrrrrry for lack of posts!!!!!

I am very sorry for not posting anything in such a long time. I know you guys are interested about what I have been up to. Needless to say I have been having the most amazing time ever. I still have no internet in my room but hopefully will be getting it shortly...... Since I have not been keeping up with posts I have way too much to say in just one post so I will be dividing them into different topics and posting them at individually to try and catch up. The internet has been such a hassle to try and use, but a my friend Alex has gotten it in his room so now at least I can make posts from there like I'm doing right now. Here is a list of some topics I will be posting soon.

Misconceptions and First Impressions of China- China is nothing like I imagined..... or what we are told
Food for Thought - The staple foods and crazy foods I eat here
Friends in Far Places- The unique characters I have met here
Living Conditions - More talk about toilets.....
Visit to Yangshou - My visit to the amazingly beautiful but touristy area near Guilin (lots of pictures)
My sweet moped - Yea.... me and 3 other friends bought some mopeds. They are relatively cheap and so very convenient here. I will save money in the long run with it and it will open up opportunities for me to tutor upper class kids english for over $15/hr american
School Daze - I find myself constantly distracted here from my studies, but even when I'm playing around here I'm always practicing Chinese
This is my Town - My thoughts, favorites spots and of course pictures of this pretty city.

Those are just a few, once i get caught up I will just be putting up normal random posts.

Arrived in Guilin

I have arrived in Guilin in safely so quit worrying about me MOM!!!!!

Yesterday was an awesome day I have so much too explain but I will do more of that later when I get internet in my room and these start to slow down a bit. Im just too busy exploring around here to spend much time here at this internet spot on campus.

There are four other students(3 boys 1 girl) here from Wisconsin-Milwaukee as well as my classmate(girl) from Lax, they are all very cool and we are having a great time together. So far though we are the only Americans. I live in a apartment thing with the two of the guys from Milwaukee, Andrew and Corey. They are both really cool guys and we get along great. Crazy thing is Andrew was in Rhinelander this summer working because his Mom moved there, its a small world. Alex the other guy is a loud, super happy and funny NERD, which is awesome. We both talk geeky to eachother about our small computers. The girl Bao is also very nice and fun. I didn't think I was going to have a group of Americans I would be able to hang out with here, but Im glad that they are here, its very comforting for us. Don't worry though we are getting plenty of time practicing our Chinese too everywhere we go. We are all taking this experience as an adventure and we all are willing to try and do every new thing we can in China.

I also have been making some Chinese friends, who are very nice and helpful. We went downtown with them(i need to take some pictures of the area, its more amazing than I ever imagined), they helped us buy some cellphones and they we went out to dinner. Every bit of food I have eaten here has been delicous. I never want to eat bland, boring american food again. Some foods that we ate that sound gross but are actually super good are duck tongue (sorry Tera just plain duck is boring for here) and pig lungs.

We even are making friends with the gaurds/all around helpers of our apartment complex. We gave them some beers and some ciggarrettes last night and thanked them for helping us move our stuff and help us when we had questions. They really enjoyed the gifts.

Well I am done for right now, I will try to take some pictures and blog again when I get some time. But we are going to hit the streets right now to buy some food and some furnishings for out apartment. Ohhhhh and wait till I put up the pictures of my current bathroom.

First Day and Night

Sorry this is only picture I have of me, with no sleeep

It is currently 5:30 Am in Guangzhuo where I am writing this from a local hotel. That means it is 4:30 PM back in Wisconsin. I left Chicago O'hare around 12:15 yesterday and have been experiencing one of the longest, most annoying, scary and exciting days, all at the same time.

My first flight was 12 hours straight, from Chicago to Tokyo. I would of liked to have gotten some sleep on this flight but It just never worked out that way. I normally have a hard time falling asleep in places like planes and cars anyways but I was unfortunate enough to have gotten a seat situated between three separate groups of children and their parents. One Japanese boy, cutely dressed in a little blue suit (I should of gotten a picture), was quite the stinkin terror. This rambunctious little devil would go around bugging all nearby passengers, but especially enjoyed leaning on me and releasing my tray from its upright position and then coming by later and putting it back up - I played along. Needless to say I watched plenty onboard movies on my flight, including, Iron Man, 21, parts of Kung Fu Panda and some other one with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.

Arriving in Tokyo I was delighted at how easy it was to find my gate and get situated for my flight to Guangzhuo. The bathrooms were cool because they had an awesome variety of poop shoots(toilets). These ranged from the standard western toilet we know outfitted with toilet paper, to western toilets with bidets, and eastern toilets that amount to a hole with foot placements with a water hose thing. I wish I could of tried them all out, but nature did not call enough so I only tried the one with the bidet. I have to admit the feeling of water up your butt feels weird, but I kinda liked it (in a totally not gay way). Also the there were a lot of little smoking rooms located throughout full of Japanese businessmen smoking away and looking badass, and it made me want to go in there and smoke of few puffs with the gents. But I resisted the nic fit.

Next up CHINA.............. (I am now writing this at the Guangzhou airport)

After a four hour flight I arrive in Guangzhou, China. Guangzhou, a city of 9 million, is the capital of the Guangdong province. This province is the richest and the fasted growing in all of China. Its home to other bustling metropoli like Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzen.

Unlike Tokyo, the Guangzhou airport was a mess to deal with at first but I finally figured it out during my 22 hour layover. When I arrived it was late at night and there was not really anything open and there were very few people in this huge airport to help me. I was extremely tired and did not want to sleep at the airport, so I decided I would try to find a hotel. This was the scariest time I was there. There were tons of local Chinese around trying to get me to stay at their local hotel, but nothing looked very official. From conversations with one Chinese women who worked to help arrange people to hotels, I ended up talking to a man named Li who worked for the airport but was currently off duty, still this was very shady to me, even though he was very nice I was still very wary. We were outside the airport, late at night, while he was making calls to get a van from the hotel to pick me up. I was scared because I didn't know whether this was legit or not. He was either a nice man who got money from the hotel for helping bring people to their hotel, or was a very clever con man going through an extravagant plot to drive me out into the middle of nowhere and mug me. I thought it was most likely the former so I went a long. Still the 10 minutes spent waiting outside, in the muggy darkness (did I mention it's humid and hot as hell there), seemed like forever as my mind was moving all over the place analyzing the situation and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I felt very alive. The van arrived with two men in the front seats, I entered with the man and women who arranged this with people they knew at the hotel - see how shady this seems!!! We then picked up 2 more people, another customer to the hotel like me and another person they knew who helped arrange hotels. Again, the 10 minute drive to the hotel seemed like forever, and as we drove farther from the airport the hotels and general area worsened, but still seemed generally safe.

We finally arrived at the hotel, which Li explained was brand new and paid 400 yuan and an extra 100 yuan deposit(which I got back). 500 yuan = roughly $75. I know I probably didn't get the best deal, but It still seemed fair for the quality of the hotel and the region of China. So everything worked out great, the people at the hotel were very helpful, even walking me up to my room and showing me how everything works.

The hotel was actually pretty sweet and you could tell it was brand new. I have some pictures of the room I will load on later. I think I was the first person to sleep in my room. The locks were unlike any Ive used in a hotel before. They were just like the cards we normally use, but instead of inserting the card you just waved it in front of a scanner. And to turn on the lights and power the room you had to place your card in a special holder when you enter the room. I found that a great idea because it ensures that no energy is wasted by people keeping things on when they leave their room. The outlets still work without the card in, so your electronics will continue to charge or stay on, which is smart.


What I liked best about the room though was the bathroom area. Right next to the bed was an enclosed area that looked like a very large shower room that also had the toilet and sink in there as well. I need to get the pictures up so you can see what I mean. For instance I could be shitting on the toilet and also be showering myself if I really wanted to, this idea intrigued me very much.

The bed was extremely firm, which was something I wasn't quite familiar with, but it was still quite comfortable. I thought I would of fall asleep right away given that I hadn't slept for so long- but the excitement of getting to the hotel had my heart pounding so it took a while to go to sleep.



That's all I have so far. I'm sick of airports and I just want to arrive in Guilin now.

Dan