Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost...: 4 Month Sabbatical

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.