Nate's Travels

Alright, I decided to go the way of the net.. pictures are at http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v475/natebrunk/ Only some are up, more to come... xnatex

Keep your fingers crossed everyone. My iPod (which has about 400 photos from this trip) has failed me. I'm having deja vu of my powerbook and now it's going kerplunk. Hopefully I can recover the data the same way I was able from the computer... we'll see... but keep prayers flowin and fingers crossed! (If not, all you get to see is shanghai and tibet :P) xnatex

Hey Everyone! Hope this blog finds you as well as it does me! Tibet is/was out of this world! Thank you Uncle Jake and Aunt Karen! I can't believe how beautiful this place is... It's so unaffected by the outside world while at the same time slowly becoming modernized. It's been a nice break to not constantly be breathing in hardcore pollution though... the mountain air has been great. I've noticed a few things because of the altitude, but nothing too significant. Yesterday we went to the Potala palace... the place where the Dali Lama would live, walked around that, the Tibetan museum, and one of the big bazarrs around the big temple in the center of Lhasa. We also visited the Summer Palace for the Dali Lama and got to see the part constructed by the 14th (most current). Very serene indeed. Today we visited a monestary--it was very interesting (though Bhuddism is extremely difficult to understand...) and the temple I mentioned earlier. Both are full of extravagant statue...

Hey Ya'll, Sitting here in the hotel business center in Shanghai! This is one kickin' city. Of the three we've been to so far, this is by far the most developed in the western sense. We've been able to see the work of different governments to build "concessions" or quarters here. There is a British quarter, French Quarter, Russian Quarter, etc. The Americans were offered a part of Shanghai to build in, but they never did it in time. Eventually it became part of the British Quarter... as ze French say, "Stupid Americans" (or as the chinese say, Stupid Maiguo) :). The city has an incredible number of skyscrapers though: some of the coolest I've seen to date in the world. I took tons of pictures, so you'll get to see them all. Today we went to a think tank here in the city, and later we'll be meeting with people from the American Consulate. The meeting this morning was informative, and we were again offered a lot of differing perspectives on...

ALRIGHT! Finally a chance to update! We have been a busy little delegation on diplomacy here in China. The flight over was miserable to say the least. 13.5 hours on the plane to Shanghai and then another 2 to get to Beijing... I was pooped! We got into the hotel, which was extremely nice, at around 12am on Sunday (our time). We had a light Western dinner (they made us crustless sandwiches) and went to bed. I'll put more in the DVD about the hotel, but it was definitely a 3-4 star. Extremely nice. The next day we had our first group meeting, got to know some other people and had an introductory cultural briefing by one of the people in the tour company that scheduled everything for us over here. After that, we ate lunch at the Yueshanfang restaurant (pretty good, but not the best... the fish and chicken with their heads still on freaked us all out a bit), and went to the Imperial Summer Palace. The palace was extremely crowded, but served as a great starting point for learning about...

Shoooooot. I hurt all over. LA was a great time hangin' with Karen and Uncle Ed. We basically did a food tour of southern Cali, or so it seemed. Needless to say it ended crappily. I got food poisoning last night, yacked in Karen's car, yacked all night long (and didnt sleep) at the hotel. I still feel miserable today, but at least I can keep some food/water down. China is almost here! I'm actually sitting at the gate right now. Most of the kids I've met so far from the program are pretty cool, a few idiots, but I suppose you'll find those everywhere. Now I have to get in gear and try to make it on an airplane for 18 hours without dying. Fun! Anyway, I'll post again in Beijing! Say me a prayer for my crappy stomach/body.

Well, I've got about 4 days left beore I head to LA, 6 before I'm on a plane headed for China, halfway around the world from Columbus, Ohio. It'd be less than honest for me to say I'm not a little worried (you know, communism will do that to a person), but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the government through the eyes of their people. I'm going to do my best, like I tried to in my Latin American Studies class this year to see how their particular system works for them, not how it works for me. Hopefully this trip will be eye-opening, if nothing else, I'm getting an insider's look at the (Second) biggest superpower in the world. Ve shall see. Check back for more later (though I'm not positive I'll be able to update while I'm in China, I'll post pictures here for sure). xnatex