Life in china

It has almost been a year since I arrived in China and I can truly say my life is forever changed by this experience.  Life here is so free and so peaceful. Do not get me wrong there are somethings that still take some getting use to but it is just so awesome here.  It is hard to hear peoples perspectives on China because most of the time they are so wrong about China.  I feel so at home in this country it makes me never want to leave.  This is a country where the people are so curious about life and foreigners, it is a place where businesses end their day as a whole group inside or outside their business with a group huddle or a team building activity.  It is a country where women end their day dancing in the parks or on an open area while the children run around playing.  Adults gather during the day and at night to play cards or Chinese chess outside their shop or home. Many times I hear such negative things about this place (from people that have never been here] and then I look around and see such a sense of community and fun.  They are so much more relaxed not worried about the politics or anything really they are just enjoying their life.  It is such an inspiration to me.  I wish everyone could live here for a little while and experience the freedom that is the life in China. You see the men ever night in big groups laughing after dinner usually at least one guy is drunk...but they are laughing and joking and hugging.  I always love to watch them because they are just so relaxed and having a great time and I feel like it is rare to see that kind of thing in the states.


  I had the opportunity to go to dinner with one of my families from work.  It is always nice when you get to hang out with the Chinese as expats sometimes we get caught up hanging out with other expats, but when you get the  chance to go to dinner with the families it is a different experience.  At home I would be so nervous to drink a beer in front of my children because god knows what people would say about that....here it is just a natural thing to drink beer with dinner and it would be an insult to refuse their beer so you just drink the beer with dinner.  It took some getting use to but it is just life in China.  They are so wonderful and such great host they always order so much food and insist you eat more and more.
I have had the most interesting few days where you really get to see a little bit into the life of China while sometimes it can make you a little uncomfortable it is really a great experience to have.  I had to take the train to Shanghai for the night on Tuesday and I had two funny experiences while on my way.  By now I have gotten use to the staring that happens to you as a foreigner and also the random picture they take of you doing things but sometimes things like this stand out more than other times.  While on my way to the train station I was standing on the metro like everyone else and I look over and there was a lady that was just staring at me.  I could feel her stares I was trying to figure out if there was something on me or what was going on, but there was nothing and so I ignored her and just figured she was curious and would look away but she did not.  We were on the metro for about 15 min together and she stared at me for the entire time.  It was funny.  Then I get on the train and I sit down and a man that was between fifty and sixty sat next to me.  I could tell he was curious from the get go and so I figured he would try to talk to me in Chinese and he did.  And for the first few questions I was able to kind of understand and then I had to tell him I didn't understand...I have learned that this statement in Chinese is a dangerous one because if someone is curious they wont take that as an answer and they will laugh it off and continue to talk to you in Chinese and ask you questions.  This was that kind of man he talked to me for about five min in Chinese before I got out my ipod touch to watch a movie.  Silly me thought that would end it but he decided to watch the movie with me and because it is a download from a Chinese site there was Chinese subtitles so he was able to watch along with me.  He didnt just watch it though he got all comfortable and was leaning curled onto our hand rest...so close to me so he could watch this movie with me...and of course I chose friends with benefits to watch so that was kinda awkward to watch with him but then somewhere in the middle of the movie he decided he wanted this movie on his cell so we had to search for it and i tried to down load it but it didnt work.   Then we continue to watch the movie.  When it was over I thought I would go to sleep for a bit but he had other ideas he then wanted to see the rest of my movies and some of my   pictures it was just the funniest thing i have had happen in awhile.  He was just such a happy curious guy.  
I also had the luck to watch the more interesting side of Chinese culture.  We were told when came over here that no matter what goes on you do not help someone if they get hurt of something happens to them because you could very easily be blamed for someone getting hurt.  This as a westerner is a really hard thing to get use to because we are very quick to help someone back home.  But here we are told not to.  So monday it was raining and a guy slid on his scooter and crashed he just laid on the sidewalk for a while not moving.  We knew better than to go over to him so we just had to sit and watch to make sure he actually got up.  He finally got up and hobbled to his bike but I just felt so bad that we could not do anything.  Then on the metro last night there was a man that fainted standing and fell over and hit his head on the metro.  It was sad because you could tell everyone was worried but to scared to see if he was okay.  No one would move they all just stood up and watched him while he laid on the ground.  The man finally woke up and looked a little distressed but seemed okay just in pain from where he hit his head.  It is just so hard to sit back and watch some get hurt and not be able to do anything.        I guess everyone is just scared to try to help because they dont want to end up getting blamed for anything.  

Chinese New Year

Lantern Day marks the end of the Chinese New Year.  It was on a Sunday and we went down to the Temple night market area to celebrate the New Year.  They were selling all sorts of snacks and fun things so I bought bunny years a balloon hat and a mask :)   We walked around and got to enjoy the festival.

Snow!!!!

Tonight marks a big night for me!  My first snow ball fight....It started snowing tonight and it has actually stuck to the ground and piled an inch onto cars.  Walking out of the restaurant tonight of course we had to attack each other and so we ended up in a snowball fight and I almost got knocked out by an elbow.  Then we saw chinese people in a snowball fight so we of course had to attack him too.

Day 2 at the park

Day 2 was a much nicer day from the start.  Unfortunately we decided to take the elevator up the mountain and ended up in a two hour line...which  I call a China style line...that means all bets are off elbows are out and you get to spend the entire time jammed into a mob of people that push and shove you no matter the age  of the person.  The elevator was an interesting experience however not really worth the wait.  

View at the top of the elevator and from the elevator 

View from the top!

Avatar mountains 

The mountain that was the inspiration of Avatars mountains Hallelujah Mountain 

panaramic of the mountains 

Awesome!

The great natural stone bridge...largest natural bridge in China!

Almost walked right by this beautiful thing because people were blocking the view!!! So amazing!

The bridge!

The view from the bridge area

These locks were all over the railings here.  Some were placed for love some were placed for family , some for wealth, really  cool 

Beautiful view point

Walking on  slightly hidden path and this was the view...I think this was the best view

I kept expecting a dragon to fly out of the mountain.  They were so mystical looking.

We think it was a tomb

Hidden views  

Elevator

The elevator up the mountain

More views

More views

the view from the hidden stair case above...

amazing views

so pretty the view from the hidden staircase

The pictures got a little out of order but the second day had the best views it was really amazing to see all of those mountains.  They were very mystical and I can see how they inspired the scenes from Avatar.