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December 19, 2004 Hi. Well, we never really stayed long in HK, but I am too lazy to go back and change that page. I am going to try to write about what happened in the past few days from memory, and I'm a little drunk, so forgive any rambling. The Korean Airport was awesome. They had hands free water fountains, and when you try to drink from it, not grounded, wearing a wool coat, you get electrocuted on the lips by the water, thanks to static. How weird!
Anyway, the flight to HK from Korea was pretty fast, about 2-3 hours. Breakfast was yummy, and we arrived about 1 PM. We did have a little bit trouble after we arrived. I was a little sick, and they have a temperature scanner, to prevent SARS. I saw my picture as I walked through, and I was all kinds of red. I just kept going while one of the guys looked at me out of the corner of his eye... haha. Oh well. We planned to take a boat from HK to Shen Zhen, as Sabrina had heard that customs goes alot faster in the boat. When we got into the airport, we had to pass immigration before we could get our luggage. They lost the bag full of gifts, which I figured was sure to happen. Sabrina was quite upset, but what can you do? I think it was a good thing, cause I figured they would mail it to us, and we wouldn't have to pay extra for baggage on our flight from Shen Zhen to Changsha. Ofcourse Sabrina couldn't give the gifts to her friends in Shen Zhen. Anyway, once we filled out the report for the lost bag, and asked how to catch the boat to Shen Zhen, they told us that we could not, as we had already passed immigration and grounded in Hong Kong. So we had to take a bus. By this point, Sabrina was all kinds of mad, but I kept saying, it's not a big deal....luckily and unusually, I was right this time, the bus was cheaper than the boat, and the lines were not bad at all. We bought bus tickets for 100 yuan each, (8.25 yuan = 1 dollar). We got a sticker on our shirt, then the bus took us from the airport to the HK immigration. The bus dropped us off, we went in and checked out of HK, then got on the same bus that seemed to have pulled around the boarder... we then drove over a bridge, through a tunnel, and arrived at the Chinese Immigration. Another medium length line (about 30 minutes) and we were in China. The Customs people in both China and Hong Kong didn't look twice at us. A $6 taxi ride got us to our hotel, the Grand something something in Shen Zhen. This is a 4 star, normally 880 yuan per night, but Sabrina's friend was able to get us 345 yuan. I wanted to go to the hospitable. I was not too bad, but I wanted to kick the cold's ass before it could ruin the trip. The entire visit, including a blood test and all kinds of weird medicine was less than 100 yuan. We were quite tired, but no time for more than a shave and shower before Sabrina's friends showed up. I met 4 of her highschool classmates and one of her former co-workers, who were all living in Shen Zhen. We went to a great sea food restaurant, then to a coffee shop with a girl playing guitar and singing, and we stayed up really late. All of them had excellent English. I was quite sleepy and actually fell asleep in the cafe for a few minutes. How odd. The next day, we met Sabrina's cousin Tian, who also lives in Shen Zhen, and teaches elementary school. We checked out at 11 and left our bags at the hotel. They were having a 25th anniversary party (the hotel is as old as me) and there was all kinds of wild stuff going on. It made for a really colorful experience. We spent the day shopping, eating, and generally having a ball. We flew out at 7, and got to Changsha about 8:30. Sabrina's father, cousin, aunt, and some little rug rat with pretty good English were waiting for us. Sabrina's uncle owns a real estate company, that is very successful, we got to ride in a very luxurious Jeep brand sedan... I had never seen anything like it before. I rode with the rugrat, Sabrina, the Aunt, and a hired driver. I spent the entire ride home on the phone with Sabrina's relatives who wanted to hear me talk... I guess the wedding is going to be 10 times more interesting... but it was great fun. Sabrina's parents have a really big apartment with all kinds of cool toys that I have never seen before, it's most automated. We spent the evening looking at CDs full of photos that we had brought, and eating almonds, peanuts, pistachios, grapefruit, green raisins and dry mango. Today, was freaking cool. Sabrina's mom made a noodle soup with egg that was yummy. We went out to go shopping at 10:30. We didn't get home until 9 pm. Sabrina's cousin drove us and dropped us off downtown. We walked around looking at all the statues, taking a few photos (by we I mean Sabrina, Her Brother, Father and Mother, and I). We went shoe shopping for a long time, Sabrina got 2 pair, one for work one for the wedding. We went to the photo place to make a reservation, we will go get our photos done tomorrow morning. We then got her father a new coat. He paid for everything tonight, it must have been very expensive. Her shoes were like 50US plus each pair, his jacket was over 2000 yuan (like $250). They really wanted to buy me something, so I got a $40 playboy sweater (it's actually pretty nice, I guess playboy can't sell magazines here, so they have a pretty popular line of clothing). What else did we do? We had lunch at a restaurant that specializes in small dishes, we had between 12 and 16 dishes I'd guess, all of them small, but very good. Sabrina got her nails done, that took a long time, but they are very pretty. I'll take a picture. Dinner was a very new experience. The restaurant was huge, like a palace. There was a stage and lots of actors, dancing, singing... all kinds of stuff. I took a few videos. Here I had snake, turtle, and fish heads. We started with a litter of beer to share. Her dad can't speak English and I can't speak Chinese, but he communicated with my by keeping my cup full of beer... I always got filled first and I drank the better part of the 3 liters that the 6 of us consumed that night... I proceeded to be most drunk... as will be evidenced by the photos of me playing with the decorations with Zhangda (Sabrina's brother). We stumbled home, I made them laugh alot because when I started saying silly things, Sabrina would translate for me. I think it was good. I am sorry, I am writing very fast, I have had too much fun to slow down, so I'm leaving out alot of detail. But I'm doing well, I love my inlaws, and I'm eating snakes and turtles and liking it (except they both have so many bones it's impossible to really get a mouthful). Oh, by the way, the airline called and they will deliver the bag to Changsha airport tomorrow.
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December 20, 2004 It was a fun day. We got up really early and went to the photo place. They brought us upstairs and Sabrina disappeared into the makeup room. They sat me down infront of a large screen plasma TV with some poor quality pirated DVDs, and gave me water. I though, wow, they really are going out of their way to take care of us. Turns out it was necessary, as I am sure they knew, because no one came out of the makeup room for more than 2 hours. I watched some DVDs with Sabrina's mom. Fun! Then they called me in and started to put makeup on me. They like very pale skin, so they just washed my face, I went au-natural. Then they gave me a tuxedo to wear. I put it on, they did the cummerbund and bowtie... then I sat again for another 45 minutes before they called us in. The photos were pretty fun. The guys didn't speak English, but I was able to understand their gestures. They told me to smile really big through Sabrina, and they said that I have a great smile. They lied, I felt like lots of the pics were ruined by my enormous smiles. That's ok though. We spent the entire day (8:30-8) taking and choosing pictures. One of Sabrina's highschool classmates showed up with one of her friends, and Zhandga and Sabrina's parents stopped in and out. We changed costume 5 times for the inside photos, before heading for a park for more. It was still fun. The family showed up at the park, and Zhangda (Sabrina's Brother) took pictures with my camera, that in my opinion were often better than the real photographer's. We paid $500 for the pictures, then another 75 for a few extras (they snapped a few of the whole family). For that we get 1 big ass photo, one kinda big photo, two 8x10s, and 2 photo albums, one with 28 pics, one with 21 pics. It was fun, I recommended that we do it again tomorrow. After that, we went back to that same restaurant that we went to yesterday. Again, yummy. They had dog this time, but I didn't have any. I found myself quite tired after all that excitement. Night Night, let's see what tomorrow brings. |
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December 21, 2004 I always want to start each story with "Wow, what a day." This has undoubtedly been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It doesn't seem to stop... Last night we got the Polo suitcase that was lost in Korea, it was full of gifts, chocolate, ginseng, baby formula, Barbie dolls, cosmetics etc. Today, we started distributing these. Sabrina's cousin drove us around again, and we went to all of her mom's family's houses. I got to meet lots of very nice people. At each house, they had a table set up with nuts, fruits (some most exotic) and dehydrated beef. They all talked and asked me to say simple sentences in Chinese. I really liked everyone. While I sat there, I though, wow, what a life, we just go from place to place, drink tea and eat snacks. I want to live in China. We had lunch with one of the families, and they ordered 2 1 leter bottles of beer, but only Sabrina's father, I and Sabrina would drink. Sabrina only had 1 6 ounce cup. The food was quite hot, and I found that the beer combated the hot flavor more than the tea (which seemed to make it worse). So, as you can guess I drank alot. I got somewhat drunk and played with the Chinese language for a while, and everyone got a great laugh. One of the people that we visited was Sabrina's great aunt, who is an English teacher for elementary school students. Her husband teaches traditional Chinese calligraphy. They showed us a VCD of a news show special about one of his students, a 7 year old who is very good at writing the Chinese Characters. He had made a scroll, with a story about diligence for us. We will take a picture and upload that. When he is famous, that scroll should be worth a fortune! I also got to practice a little Chinese calligraphy. Sabrina, her Mom, and I were dropped at a hospitable. Sabrina's mom needed some dental work, so I slept on Sabrina lap for a few minutes, then Sabrina decided she wanted a check up, and she found and filled a cavity. I got to watch, they used the same tools as in the US. The doctor was a good friend of Sabrina's mom, so the work was free. They just showed up, got drilled, introduced me and went home. How cool! After that, we went to the Huatian hotel (Where the wedding is going to be held). Here I met all of Sabrina's fathers family. One uncle is the cities minister of education. He was doing a trip around Europe, and flew from France for the wedding. Another uncle is the one that owns the real estate company. We can't drive more than 5 minutes before someone points at a 50 story development and says... that's my uncle's company's building. The food was just too good, we had way to much, and the hotel is amazing. I am so overwhelmed by sensation that I can't describe it without developing a headache. But it was great. I met a young man (Zhang Han) who had just returned form his masters degree in Whales, and he spoke English. He will be my best man, because his English is much better than Zhangda's. Either way, excellent food, amazing restaurant, and very friendly funny people. I sang the "beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer" song and Sabrina translated it... everyone laughed hard. Oh, they bought a really nice expensive imported beer... called Budwieser.... oh well. It went really well with the snails and jelly fish. :) Anyway, I guess we are going to some mountain tomorrow. I am sure alot of people are wondering if I am dead or in jail, I just have not had time to go to the internet cafe yet. In summary, today I woke up, ate snakes, ate lunch, slept on Sabrina's lap in a hospitable, had a huge dinner, got home at 8, and will likely pass out from exhaustion quite soon. Something tells me we will come back very soon! I just offered to let Sabrina read this journal, but she said, I don't have time to read it. Our senses are just overwhelmed, but it is so great. These people know how to live. With that, I will try to hit an internet cafe tomorrow. If not... hopefully you will read this at least before the wedding. |
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December 23, 2004. Gotta write fast, we are getting ready to go out. Yesterday we went hunting for internet access. We started at Sabrina's father's office, they have DSL, but we couldn't get it to work with her laptop. So we went to Hunan University and looked at the internet cafe's around campus. None of them would let me plug in my laptop, but they were cheap (12.5 cents per hour) so we all did email for a while. We eventually gave up. Today we will go to her uncle's house who have DSL. After hunting for internet, we went to a 2000+ year old academy, it was very interesting. Have a look at the pictures. After that, we were very cold, so we just went to the Hunan University law building and found an empty classroom, where we killed 1.5 hours before meeting one of her friends. We got a little crazy drawing on the board, have a look at the pictures. We then went to a Tea house. It was quite an experience. The tea house uses water from a 2500 year old well. The woman comes in and shows you how to make the tea. It is a very long, multi-step process, and we spent more than 4 hours there. The tea was all special and stuff. We got caffeine buzzes and took lots of goofy pictures. On the way out we got some photos of the well. Gotta Go |
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December 24, 2004 Ok, sorry that yesterdays story was so short. I hadn't really been able to sleep in for a while, so yesterday I slept until 1:30! I was lazy all day, then at 5 we had to go to dinner at another relatives house. Lee Lee was one of Sabrina's cousins, he is 15, and his English is excellent. I didn't eat any meat this time, because my stomach was a little off. I figured it's because I have been eating so much. I wanted to slow down for a day or so. Anyway, after we ate I went upstairs with Lee Lee, his sister Lee Lee and Zhangda. We played Grand Theft Auto III while all the other people talked, then we took some pictures. We brought the laptop, but their internet was down. Today we are going to try to find internet again. If we can't, we will probably have to wait for a long time (say, next time we are in the Korean airport... that place kicks ass). Sorry bout that. The wedding seems like alot of fun. I have to play all these games that I don't exactly understand, but I will do my best. Take care Chris |
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December 26, 2004 Wow, what a story to tell. On Christmas Eve, Sabrina's aunt and uncle had bought tickets to a Christmas party for Sabrina, Myself, and 3 other couples in our generation. The price of the tickets was 468 yuan ($58). It was alot of fun, we got toys to play with, masks and stuff, they had acrobatic performers, singers from Tibet, contests for the rug rats, etc. The food was similar to that which we got at the conference with a Chinese twist, all very good. They had an open bar, but I was starting to experience stomach problems at this point, and I just had orange juice and 3 plates of yummy stuff. That night the direarea started. The next morning, we rushed off to the place where we had the photos done, so Sabrina could get her makeup done. That took forever, but luckily one of her friends brought her dog for us to play with. I was given a costume and cap to borrow, and Sabrina disappeared. 20 minutes latter, I was taken to her uncles house. There were massive crowds, all 200 of the gusts, lots of curious kids, etc. I found it quite fun! We had a few hundred envelopes filled with very small bills (like .2 yuan or 2 and a half cents) in a bag somewhere. I had put in a $1 US and a $10 US bill just for fun. The idea was Sabrina's family is supposed to keep me from getting to her, and I have to bribe and trick them with the envelopes. But, we lost the bag of envelopes...so while her brother searched for them, I talked to the TV reporters. It was a difficult conversation before Sabrina's maid of honor (Tien Roo from Shen Zhen) showed up to translate. They were not sure where I was from, NY, NC, or FL. They didn't understand Ph.D. in MIS, so the interview didn't go well. That's fine! We gave up on the envelopes right as we found the bag, Sabrina came out with a box around her head, no joke, and the box had a cloth draped to cover her face. I guess in old times the groom never saw the bride until right before the wedding, and that is what we are simulating... She was put into a wooden thrown, and 8 guys carried her, they walked in a synchronized drunken fashion, creating a great deal of turbulence for her. She said in old times, they used to carry the bride several miles, in a much more violent way, until she vomited. I got on a horse about 15 feet in front of the throne. There was a huge crowd around me, so I pointed at people and said Ni How and waived alot. One woman held a baby up to me to play with, so I did a little (I though the baby was the daughter of Sabrina's cousin, luckily it was not). Right then, Tien Roo had the bag of envelopes, and just threw them into the air. It was like a pinanita was broken, and everyone rushed around the horse. The horse freaked out a little, the woman and the baby fell down, almost under the horse. The trainer stepped in and told everyone to back off, the woman got up, but the baby was crying pretty bad. On with the show, we trotted about 4 blocks to the hotel. A traditional Chinese marching band accompanied us. This was alot of fun, everyone looked, I waived to everyone I could, pretended to be a cowboy, shook some hands, and even waived at the people in the buses as we crossed the street. It was the most fun I have had in a long time. The camera men led the way. We got to the hotel, and I got off the horse (which I was told latter took a great big dump infront of the hotel, which is good luck, as horse droppings once served as currency in China), and I was given a wooden sword with a bowtie. I pretended to swordfight with the camera man (that shot made the news, and was most amusing) before I figured out I was supposed to use the sword to move the cloth from Sabrina's throne, and she got out. She still had the veiled face, so I used the sword to move the veil out of the way. I then tried lift her dress with it, but figured that was a bad idea... I was feeling most goofy. They then gave us a big bowtie, on a long string on each end, I took one end, she the other, and I and led her into the hotel like a dog on a leash. Hey, it's tradition! When we got there, we got up on stage, there was a MC, and guests filed in and found their seats. I danced to the traditional Chinese marching band that had come into the hotel. There was a big stack of Champaign glasses and a huge bottle of Champaign. Tien Roo (I think it was her) accidentally knocked them over, and about 1/2 broke. I guess that is good luck too, but the reason why escapes me right now. They were replaced, and the MC started making us play games. First I had to unveil her again, then say something about her in my limited Chinese. She said something to me, and Tien Roo translated for me (something very sweet if I remember). I had to give her some flowers (ok...) and pick her up and hold her while the MC made us say stuff... I did ok while I was talking, but I'm out of shape, and began to loose my grip while she was talking. I eventually gave up. No one told me that was bad luck.... We had to do the western crossing the arms and drinking wine routine. Then we poured the Champaign, and her 2 uncles on her fathers side came up and wished us well. Tien Roo translated for me. Again, they were very positive and touching. Sabrina and I blew that joint, while the banquet started. We didn't get to eat, but it looked great. We went upstairs to our suite and changed. We had to take a while, because her different shoes didn't arrive until late. We hung out with about 5 of her friends. Then we had to go downstairs and drink a shot with each of the tables. You can imagine how that went... A few minutes after that I retreated to the men's room with the assistance of one of her classmates, and spent a good 15 minutes worshiping the porcelain god. After that we came out and posed for pictures with all the tables, then on the stage. Good fun! When all was said and done, we retreated to our suite. The food for the banquet was over $5,000 US. That does not include the liquor, wine, MC, horse, throne, band, people we hired to escort Sabrina, carry the throne... or the photographer. So I'm guessing this was expensive as hell. We did get a free VIP suite, with a great bedroom, 2 bathrooms (one with a Jacuzzi tub), a small office, a large living room with ample seating, and a dining room. We bought another room right next door (a normal 2 bed room), and free Kerokie for the afternoon. We all went up to the suite and hung out, ate fruit, took pictures, then half of us went to play Kerokie, I went down a little latter and sang 2 American songs and what I knew of Antisantiguna, even tough I can't read Chinese characters. Sabrina's mom is quite good at Kerokie. We got the video camera plugged into one of the 3 tvs in the suite, and we all went up to watch the video. After hanging out for a while, one of Sabrina's uncles invited us to a dinner at another hotel, with about 15 people from that side of the family. We got a private room with a big table and excellent food, including a neat lobster boat I took a picture of. This room had a TV, and watched the news. They had a nice piece about the wedding, it shoed me dancing like an idiot in my fancy cloths. When they went to interview Sabrina, I danced behind her all goofy (inspired by the mother in "Water Boy" when she was on the sidelines) so they showed some of Sabrina's interview with no sound, so you could see how goofy I was. The did use one sound byte from me (captioned in Chinese), something to the effect of: I'm really having a great time, I had no idea it would be so much fun, I'd like to do it again tomorrow. Everyone got a laugh out of that. They showed my riding the horse and waiving... leading Sabrina into the hotel, sword fighting with the camera man, dancing around for no good reason... cool! I was told that this is the news station for the province, and has over 60 MILLION viewers (60,000,000, not a typo) After that great dinner filled with toasts that I didn't understand, but made anyway... we went back to the suite for more socializing, eating watermelon, playing with the dog, and taking pictures. I hit the men's room around 11 pm, and it was very green, watery and nuclear in smell. I could tell this was a problem, and I spent most of the rest of my time in the bathroom. After they all left, I took some pics of the suite, and Sabrina and I took a bath in the Jacuzzi tub. She was developing a very bad upper repertory problem, and I was loosing gallons of green water. Most nasty. I started vomiting latter, and I couldn't lay down for more than 45 minutes without having to loose a liter or 2 from my rectum. Sabrina was having a hard time breating, so about 3 am we decided to wake Sabrina's mom and go to the emergency room (my second time in China). I went first, and I got a blood test and a stool sample (a cup of green water...) and was told it is a stomach virus, it should go away in a few days, take some Chinese pepto... they then told me to get in a bed, and they plugged in an IV. I told Sabrina to go to a doctor while I did this, but she wouldn't, she said she knew what it was and could handle it. They gave me a second IV when the first one ran out, and I fell asleep. I woke up 5 hours latter, and found out I was on my 4th IV, and there was 1 more coming. They were not all the same shape (they were glass bottles connected to the tubes, not plastic bags), so I guess I got some good stuff. I did feel better, just thirsty. Sabrina was sleeping at the foot of my bed sitting up against the wall, and her mom and brother came back with some rice oatmeal (very simple to eat, no taste, just what the doctor ordered) and a few bottles of water. Sabrina again refused to go to the doctor. We left a little after noon, her dad and brother packed up the room, and we went to visit Tien Roo's family. We watched 2 movies, Garfield and Zhang Yimu's new movie, had lunch, took pictures, then we went to another uncle on the mothers side's home, where we watched Chinese music videos, everyone but me snacked on nuts and stuff. I didn't eat anything interesting, must vegetables, rice and noodles. Same thing at dinner at the other uncles home. I held off on #2 b/c none of these families have American Toilets, and I was less precise than a laser guided missile in Iraq. I was able to hold off on #2 which was a great sign. As we were packing up, Sabrina got a cell phone call from another TV station. They wanted an in-dept interview tomorrow morning at 9:30. So we hung up the photos and cleaned the house (Sabrina's mom did 99.9% of the work, I just typed this journal and shrunk down photos). #2 was still watery, but very small, so it is a step in the right direction. Off to bed, it's 11:00 pm, but it's interesting to note that we found a newspaper article about the wedding too, however it has a boring picture and is quite inaccurate. We are going to try to get a copy of the TV news story from Zhang iee iee, who is a reporter at a different station in the same building. |