Mind Blowing

This is an absolutely incredible article.

There are amazing people in this world...

http://www.indianexpress.com/picture-gallery/for-countrys-poor-a-school-under-a-railway-bridge-/2654-1.html

Do the crazy thing...

Hong Kong

Right before I made the surreal move from Australia to China, I found myself on the verge of hyperventilating while making a 2AM Skype call to my Dad. Now, although there have only been a few instances when I've been in tears on the phone with my parents while traveling, I always have a freak out moment either right before, or within, the first week of making a big life change. College? Cried the whole 12 hour ride there. Australia? 5 days in (on my birthday) I couldn't get the internet to work and cried on the floor of our gross house. China? The 2AM Skype call. What a baby.

The ins and outs of the conversation basically consisted of, "I'm allergic to everything! I will die!", "I don't know the language. I will die!", "I've never, EVER even heard of Xi'an. I will die!", and "WhatshouldIdowhatshouldIdowhatshouldIdo?". As much as I wanted to rock up to Xi'an with a little backpack swagger (Pshhh, this city? - I've wanted to go here for years!), I needed a little reassurance that I was making a good choice (and that I was not going to die) from someone who knew the country. Insert David Meyers. What happened after that can put me into one of two categories... A) The Big Spoiled Whiny Girl Category or B) The Scared 23 Year Old Daughter Who Needed Some Comforting Category. But yeah, my Dad flew out and met in me in Hong Kong for the week. Who does that?

Map on the plane there!

Testing out my peace signs to get in with the locals!

Hong Kong was ridiculously cool. I know I sound like a dork, but it was... it was just COOL. Even the train from the airport to the city is awesome. It goes 80 mph and was very clean. But to be honest, I had just come from living in a hostel room with six people, van with two people, and on couches for the last couple of months... so really my standards of clean were pretty low. The city was hot, bright, and busy. All things you would assume Melbourne would be, but isn't. The first thing I noticed was all of the clothing hanging out to dry from windows 30+ stories high! The signs, in Chinese of course, where all over the place. Let's just say you could not miss them. There was color everywhere.

Walking down the streets in daytime.

Walking down the streets at nighttime

So many buildings look liked this! Or with even more clothes hanging out the windows!

Stepping into the hotel was like stepping into a completely different world. I had been worried about spending more money on the BBQ baked beans than the regular ones for the last four months, and here I was! I had clean towels, a huge bathtub, air conditioning, and an amazingly comfortable bed. I had died and gone to backpacker heaven! After a quick scrub, we went exploring. My Dad had been to Hong Kong more than 50 times during his years working, so the city was not new to him. Although, being a tourist instead of a businessman was. We tried to see as much as we could between getting my visa sorted out and doing my health check. We hit up the Flower Market, Goldfish Market, and Bird Market in boiling temperatures. As attractive as this is to say, we were literally soaking through our clothing. 

Bird Market

Enjoying the view of Hong Kong Island

Flower Market

Goldfish Market

I immediately loved Hong Kong. Ah, the smells of Asia! Dried fish and meat hanging in shops, barrels of spices on street corners, sizzling food everywhere. It was my first glimpse into the world that I was headed into. Surprisingly, it was not as overwhelming as I thought it would be. I was more curious than anything. And the amount of people! However upon arriving in Xi'an I was put into place, and realized that Hong Kong (along with Shanghai and Beijing) was nothing like the rest of China.

The Visa getting into mainland China (you can stay in Hong Kong up to 30 days without a Visa) was the reason I was in Hong Kong in the first place. I marched straight up to the visa office with all my papers, invitation letter, pictures, and whatnot excited to be granted official entry into the country! What I did not count on, was being straight out rejected. Apparently the rules had become a lot stricter and I needed a complete health check. Easy? No. On the form there were things like, "Psychosis", "The Bubonic Plague", "Cholera", and "Small Pox". Really, THE PLAGUE? By now, my list of Asian firsts was getting bigger but I was not prepared to have my first visit to a Chinese hospital that soon after arriving. It was more like a funhouse of rooms where nobody could tell me in English what was being done to me and I had to guess. At the end, the Doctor gave me an eye exam and then after completing it asked me if I wore contacts. Hmm.

Not fun whatsoever

Passed with a souvenir

Long story short, we sat around the hospital for hours waiting for my name to be butchered and me to be hooked up to all sorts of machines. It was hilarious, because we had to wear face masks the whole time and that is always fun, but it was a stresser because we didn't know if we'd get the results back and get my visa processed in time for my flight. If anybody is going to Hong Kong to do this, do not leave it for a 3 day period!

After we sweated it out (pun intended) in the hospital, my Dad surprised me with afternoon tea at one of the most beautiful hotels in the city! The Peninsula Hotel is on the Kowloon side and I had to make a mental note not to leave my mouth hanging open. It is the kind of place that makes whispering feel like shouting. I felt very fancy sporting a dress and heels instead of flip flops and shorts, but did not compare to some of the outfits we saw! There was a soft music being played, delicious food, and hot tea! The British definitely rubbed off on this city during their rule. It was wonderful!

Being proper

Since most of the time, things have a way of working out... I was able to pick up my visa on the day that I was scheduled to fly to Xi'an! I loved (and still do) seeing the visa in my passport. For Australia, you don't get a physical visa... which I always thought was disappointing. Now that I knew for sure that I did NOT have the Plague I was a happy girl. Phew, dodged a bullet there! Jumping up and down and saying good-bye to my introductory city, we made our way once again on the cool, zippy train to the airport!

Finally have my visa!

Saying goodbye in the airport was hard stuff because this time I was completely on my own. Moving to Australia with your best friend is not really in the same league as moving to mainland China by yourself, and I hadn't completely understood until that moment. Waiting at the gate was where I first started playing "Spot the Foreigner"... and I realized that besides me, everyone else was Chinese. It was definitely going to be an interesting year.

What I couldn't have predicted at that moment was that I would find a career path that I would fall in love with. I would feel a sense of purpose, interest, and solidity in teaching that I hadn't experienced before. I would meet friends that I would visit in England a year and a half later. I would meet a certain boy who was as unexpected as he is wonderful. And I would bring two amazing friends from Canada and Australia to come teach with me. I couldn't have imagined on that plane ride in August 2011 that I was going to be sitting at home in March 2013 planning my life around experiences that I was yet to have. Oh China, you were a life changer!

So cheers to Hong Kong, the city that welcomed me into Asia! Fast forward a year and I was walking around the Peninsula Hotel with not only my Dad, but my brother, sister, and mom as well. Does everything come full circle, or is it just me?

Here are some highlights from the trip!

Thanks for reading, XO

Em

Out to dinner at an Australian restaurant celebrating being together! 

View from Victoria Point! Definitely a must.

On the Star Ferry going between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island!

Motorcycle Diaries

"What we had in common was our restlessness, our dreaming spirit."

"What is it that's lost when you cross a boarder? Each moment seems to be split in two. Melancholy for what what left behind and on the other hand all the enthusiasm at entering new lands."

"How is it possible that I feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?"

Shout out to Mr. Ken Davies for recommending this movie to me. If you haven't seen it already, I would put this at the top of your list.

Happiness is...

Hello Again!

Due to a couple factors (laziness and happy chaos) I have been completely neglecting my blogging for... eh, the last ten months / two years? So now with a complete facelift (the blog, not me), I'm going to force myself back into the habit of writing. Today marks DAY 1. Let's see how long this lasts!

I don't think I've ever written a post from the good old USA, but I currently find myself admitting that my stint back home might not be as fleeting as I thought it was going to be. So let's take it wayyy back and see how I've come to be blogging in the middle of a Monday in my sweats, while the rest of the world is working. I could take the easy way out and blame the economy.. but fortunately the story is a bit more interesting than that.

August 2010 was the month that veered my life in a drastically different direction from where it was heading. I went from working a normal 9 - 5 in Columbus, Ohio to playing in the sand & surf of Melbourne, Australia. The birthplace of this blog! I tried to keep up with the constant adventures, blunders, miscalculations / miscommunications, and LIFE in Oz... but more often than not, I wound up grabbing a pint (or three) with the amazing people I came to know instead of jotting down what was happening around me. But, believe me. I have thousands of photos from that year to remind me when this blog falls short.

Fast forward a year, and I'm stepping off the plane in Xi'an, China about to embark on the most challenging journey of my life. My world was quite literally flipped upside down as I stumbled into teaching, a completely new group of wonderful friends, and a life that made the word foreign laughable. If traveling Australia made me understand the joy of this world, traveling throughout China made me realize how little I know about everything. That is a great, and scary feeling.

Fifteen months later, I boarded a flight out of China and into Southeast Asia. Without a set plan, I spent a month exploring Thailand and Cambodia. Bangkok, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sen Monorom, Hat Yai, and Koh Lipe were my jumping off points into cultures that I had very little knowledge of. The highlights were ::: bathing elephants, exploring Angkor Wat, snorkeling the reefs of the Thai Islands, drinking Singhas on Khao San Road, seeing the Killing Fields and S-21. The negatives were getting hustled in a Thai ping pong show by a madame and a slight motorcycle crash in Eastern Cambodia. But those are stories for another time. When the month was up, I dragged myself to the airport to catch my first flight (out of 5) to get home. Home. It was the first time in 2 1/2 years that I did not have a scheduled flight back to where I was coming from. How can I describe feeling comforted, excited, panicked, overwhelmed, sad, happy, claustrophobic, and unbelievably tired at once? It was a good thing there was complimentary wine on the flight and Starbucks at each airport.

I have been back for three months now, and have pretty much refused to sit still. I spent the month of January roadtripping around the Midwest visiting my favorite places, best friends, and family. In February I went down to Disney World finally was able to experience Harry Potter World in person! (Don't judge, that was high on my bucket list!) And most of March has been spent in the UK... So I can't claim that I have been sitting around with nothing to do! The traveling continues in a week to Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, and Sedona! I realize I am a lucky, lucky girl.

So, that is the shortened version of why I am lounging about, blogging, and trying to figure out where my life is going on this typical Monday afternoon. Now what? Is probably the most frightening question on earth... but it is a bit exciting as well. Graduate School and teaching abroad once again is where I am leaning. But I am welcome literally any suggestions on what I should do, where I should go, how I can carve out a place in this hectic world!

This was just a starter post, one who's training wheels are obviously still firmly attached. We'll get into the nitty, gritty stories when I can write without using an obscene amount of adjectives and can form proper sentences!

In the meantime, my buddy JFOS (Jeremy Scott Foster) was nice enough to publish an article of mine on his website (Travelfreak.org). Check it out!
My Article!

XO
Em

4 Month Sabbatical - Nanjing

Okay, so after being away from writing and doing anything with this blog for 4 months I am officially back in action! I have less than 2 months left of teaching and living in Xi'an so it's time to get back on the horse and write about it. I've been lazy, busy, and my trusty computer has still not been fixed. The keyboard is okay minus the 6, Y, H, N, and Space Key. Let's see how fast and far I get blogging with that!

Anyway, my first Chinese summer has treated me very well. As always, it seemed to be go go go with different adventures and opportunities. After visiting Zack Ober (shout out Ohio!) in Nanjing, we finished off May with Adele's 22nd birthday and preparations for Jessica Stretchica (aka MacDonald) getting to Xi'an! The weeks literally flew by between train journeys, picnics, BBQs, birthday celebrations, welcoming celebrations, and unfortunately... saying good-bye to our very own Alexander Ambrose Akin. More 'Ups than Downs' in May and June but extremely sad to see one of us go nonetheless.

Since I have about a million things to say and stories to write I'm going to focus this particular blog on....

NANJING.

In one of my previous blog posts I had written about the Nanking (Nanjing) Massacre and how much I was learning by reading the book by Iris Chang. Well, I finished the book just as the train was pulling into the Nanjing station and it was nothing short of an amazing and eye-opening read. I'd suggest it to any history buffs or anybody that wants to learn something new.

Tom and I started off our May holiday trip to Nanjing by having some delicious food at a Muslim restaurant near the Xi'an train station and then sat around for a while waiting for our train... having purchased a bottle of whiskey for the train ride, we were a bit disappointed when it suspiciously tasted like... water. Making a mental note to never buy from the 'Alcohol Store' near our school, we ended up trading what was left for some horrendous North Western Chinese Bijou. Sitting with our new best friends on the train before getting some shut eye proved to be a little more than I bargained for, but Tom was in his element. Speaking Chinese with a couple of Chinese couples (say that 10 times fast) who had been on the train for almost 24 hours already, and being fed cup after cup of this noxious liquid I was left to my own defenses trying to communicate in broken English and body language with a Chinese doctor. After a hilarious couple of hours, and being yelled at by other passengers to keep it down, we climbed up onto our bunks and fell asleep.

Whiskey Flavored Water.

Ne Hao Nanjing!!!

We arrived into a rainy Nanjing the next morning sleepy-eyed and excited. We found our way through the subways and eventually straight into Mr. Zackary Ober. Zack worked at Kid Castle before I did and actually left Xi'an on the day that I arrived. Having never met this fellow American (and Ohio native) I was pumped to talk about Miami University - Ohio University rivalries and Columbus - Cleveland superiorities. Obviously, my vote was (and will always be) for Miami and Columbus. Shout out Redhawks!

MU!!!!

We went to lunch and had amazing food, but also something that resembled purple hair dye... it was chewy but not so bad. Then we dropped our stuff off at Zack's place and headed off to the Nanking Massacre Museum. It was one of the most intense experiences I've had.

Purple Hair Dye Veggies.

While I was studying in Europe I had the opportunity to go to many Holocaust museums and they were all unbelievably upsetting. It's something that you never get used to, and I hope nobody ever does. It's incredible the capacity of human evil... and this museum was no exception. The day was bleak and it was starting to rain hard. The line to get into the museum was long, and we were all waiting under a roof of umbrellas to see the monstrosities that had happened. While we were shuffling our feet trying to avoid the puddles, we were able to study the statues that lined the entrance. They were haunting and you almost had to look away. Each held a caption that made your heart hurt.

1st Statue.

The Helpless Struggle of a Dying Intellectual

The long line of people & statues.

A man carrying his baby.

Fighting.

The three of us spent hours in the museum studying the captions, facts, pictures, faces, and stories. I was actually ushered out as the staff made it clear that it was time for everyone to go home. The abrupt turning off the lights and shouting in Chinese made me come back to reality and start treading out. It's a weird period of time, the direct aftermath of baring witness to something so horrible. What do you do afterwards? Do you proceed on like you never saw what you just did? Is it okay to smile and laugh? How do you properly grieve for people that you never knew and who died years ago?

300,000 Victims.

Unbelievable painting.

Artwork.

Results of gas bombs.

Just outside of the museum there is a memorial park where people can sit and reflect on what they just saw... the most beautiful and startling view there is a large sign that says PEACE. I think that is the most important message you can take away from everything you just took in. Despite all the mistakes that humanity has made, and continues to make, we need to keep striving for peace... for coexistence... for more than what we have given each other in the past.

Stunning.

Peace.

After an intense couple of hours Tom, Zack, and I went out seeking refuge in Western restaurants. We came across a Paulander beer place, an Italian restaurant, and finally ended up on one of the top floors of the 8th highest building in the world. Yeah, yeah it's not the tallest building in the world but it's still pretty awesome. We crashed a wedding reception, bought the most expensive bottle of wine I've ever had, and pretended that we were high rollers for the night. Definitely a break from the usual day-to-day routine back in Xi'an. A big thanks to Zack for showing us around and being an excellent tour guide!

Good red wine.

Looking content and pompous.

Tom and I said good-bye to Zack the next day and made our way to the Nanjing wall, a Confucian temple, and a beautiful lake. We tried our hand in archery (I got a bull's eye!) and got ready for our 13 hour train ride back in seats. Although we were only in Nanjing for a day and a half we packed in tons of things and I was able to cross the Nanjing Museum off my bucket list. I'd recommend Nanjing to anyone traveling China. It's beautiful, a bit more Western than Xi'an, historical, and there's even guys dressed in all yellow that want to pull you around in a cart like a King or a Queen.

Trying to get a bull's eye.

Hanging out with my new buddies.

Taking a break on the wall.

Gorgeous!

Confucious.

What an absolutely amazing couple of days... A trip worth-while.

XO

Em

Ps - I'm famous :)

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Friday Afternoon with Katie, Wendy, and Cherry!