Shanghai to Xi’an

8/26/07


We just finished up traveling from Shanghai to Xi’an. I had a lot of fun, but I have been anxious to get to Guiyang and find out a little more what my next year will look like. I have been traveling with all my stuff for the year, which makes travel days very interesting. There have been times where I have nearly doubled my weight to help my teammate Jen make it up the stairs with her luggage. A 45 lbs. duffle bag, a 40 lbs. backpack, a 20 lbs. messenger bag, and a 50 lbs. suitcase, it was quite the sight to see. No one really wanted to get in my way.



But the two weeks of traveling have included some very cool things. Shanghai was a huge city that just went on and on with skyscrapers. I actually had an opportunity to meet up with an old friend from high school there (Jonathan Meador). It was great to see him and he is doing very well there. He is studying Chinese and working very hard at it, it definitely shows as he was able to talk with people effortlessly. It was fun to see all the lights and to get my first taste of China. Shanghai is definitely a blend between East and West though, a good city to transition into life in China.



From Shanghai Jen and I went to Nanjing to stay with an old family friend of hers that lives there with her husband, who works for Ford there, and nine month old son. It was a nice break from the big city and it was wonderful to be in a well lit place that was clean, unlike the Shanghai Youth Hostel. Nanjing was nice, but nothing super note worthy. BUT, I did see my first pagoda there--something that I had been anticipating.



My favorite part of traveling was Xi’an. In Xi’an we met up with two more teachers that live in Guiyang and work with our same company, so our teammates. They were a lot of fun and one of them, Kara, even went to Seattle Pacific and lived in Seattle for a few years after that, something that definitely made me feel a little more comfortable and a little more homesick. Suzie, my other teammate is originally from Colorado. They both appreciate the outdoors and camping and backpacking, so that is nice to have some people on board with similar passions. Xi’an is a very neat city though. It has a ton of great history (along with what seems to be a lot of cities in China). The old city wall is still intact and you can walk along it (which we did) and there are other areas of town that are very interesting, specifically the Muslim quarter, an eclectic combination of culture, shopping, food, and tourists. The big hit in Xi’an though is the Terracotta Warriors. This army of over 7,000 clay warriors built to guard and emporer in the afterlife was discovered in 1974 and is quite the sight to see. They date back 3,000 years and their detail could be described as mind boggling. No two are alike and many of the weapons were still sharp when they were unearthed.



While at the Terracotta Warriors I had a pretty crazy experience. I was looking into one of the pits and I turned to my left and I see a guy that looks a lot like Jared Hiebert. I was actually convinced it was him. But I start thinking to myself…I don’t recognize the guy he’s with, he doesn’t see me, and wait…does he have blue eyes? Maybe it isn’t him, but maybe I should take a picture b/c if it isn’t him then he needs to see how much this guy looks like him. Well, truth be told, his eyes are blue, I hadn’t ever met his brother, and yes it was him. He looks up and sees me as is like, Jake? So yeah, 5900 miles from Seattle and I run into one of my classmates. Very weird.