Good Bye, Jinan! We are off to Beijing...

[below: at the South Gate on our last full day at Shandong University]


We tried to make the most for our final days in Jinan by saying our goodbyes to all of the friends we have made on the campus. Many people from the group went on short day excursions to some of the sights that were around Jinan. Popular places we visited included Red Leaves Valley and Thousand Buddha Mountain. Red Leaves Valley was to the south of Jinan and had several activities; trails through the mountains so people could enjoy the scenery, a lake where people could rent boats, a bird zoo, and some Buddhist shrines.


Thousand Buddha Mountain had many beautiful and massive statues. From the top of the mountain was a view of the whole city of Jinan, and then rather than walking down to the bottom of the mountain we were able to take a very fast wheeled sled down a slide.


We all spent as much time as possible with our students - we will surely miss them a lot. For our closing ceremony we were able to invite all of our students so they could take part in our farewell. On the last day most of the people went out to dinner with them to exchange presents and get some pictures to remember each other by. Once dinner was finished some of the students shed some tears and expressed their gratitude and thanks for the whole experience. They opened their homes to us if we ever return to China and are excited to see us again. Some also plan on coming to America for school and are already planning on meeting up with us so we can show them our home. All of the activities and things that needed to be done in the city were finished so it was time to pack our bags and clean out our dorms. It was sad to clean up our dorms since we have been there for so long they have become like a second home but it is exciting to think of what future adventures are ahead of us and we are only slightly over half way done with our journey.

[below: Closing Ceremony for SBCC students and their Chinese English Internship volunteers]


[below: Closing Ceremony; enjoying a slideshow of our time at SDU put together by our friends in the International Office]


[below: Closing Ceremony: Professor Tong Guangwu, Director of Shandong University’s International Office, distributes certificates]


[below: Closing Ceremony; SBCC students and their internship volunteers]


By the way…contrary to what you may have heard, in and amongst all the fun our students had here in Jinan they also took classes!
[Below: the proof…]




Hangzhou

With only a few remaining weekends in Jinan, some students decided to take a trip to Thousand Island Lake in Hangzhou. After a twelve-hour over night train ride south of Jinan, south east of Shanghai, they found themselves in a “small” town surrounding the West Lake. What was funny was that our students told us that it was a small city, so when we arrived we didn’t expect to see a city of about six million people.

The hostel where we stayed, snuggled against the bottom of a green mountain, was a five-minute walk to the lake. One word to describe the hostel would be tranquil, from the staff being extremely helpful to birds chirping around us. Looking up from our room windows we could see a temple perched on top a mountain. Within hours of arriving in Hangzhou and checking into our hostel we climbed the nearby mountain and visited the City God Temple. From the top floor of the temple we could take in the sites of the beautiful West Lake, the forested area around it, and the sprawl of the city.

On Saturday some of the group went to Thousand Island Lake, about 100 miles from Hangzhou. It is a huge lake formed after the completion of the Xinanjiang Dam in 1959, with 1,078 islands. The language barrier caused us a little confusion getting on the bus to the lake. We got on the bus thinking we would go to the main part of the lake but instead ended up in the city next to the lake and with only 3 hours until the last bus could take us back to Hangzhou. We made the best of our time though and walked around some of the lake near the city and checking out the town. After exploring the town and the lakeside we all decided to take a dip and cool off. We were hesitant at first to jump in until we saw a local swimming across the lake and the best thing to do when you aren’t sure what’s going on is to follow the locals. The water was surprisingly refreshing and it was well worth the 2 hours bus ride.



Once we got back to our hostel we all went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant on the West Lake. For most of the group that was our last night in the city. Our train was leaving the next day in the late afternoon so we still had some time in the beginning part of the day to finish up exploring the hills around the hostel and the lake before we had to catch our train. Unfortunately for us though they were sold out of the "sleepers" so we had to deal with the 12 hours overnight on the benches packed in the train to make it back in time just 2 hours before class on Monday. For those of us who stayed, we became the BIKE CREW, we rented bikes from our hostel and were able to ride our bikes all over the city and around West Lake.


It was a beautiful sunny day and during the bike ride we also got the chance to take a break and went on a boat ride around the islands in West Lake. On our bikes we were weaving between the cars in the middle of China’s crazy traffic as the wind was blowing in our hair. Such an experience, we had the best day ever - it was amazing! Also during our excursion we passed by a few luxury car dealerships, visiting the Ferrarri and Aston Martin showrooms. Although that’s nothing too surprising back in the United States, it struck us as an odd sight in a country that still considers itself communist. It’s strange that when everyone is supposed to be economically equal that some people can afford to spend half a million dollars on a car.


- Britton W., Andrew K., Jordan P., Karlyn, Larissa, Jenna W., Jeff A., Stephanie

We made the front pages(s)!

The newpaper stories below come from the Jinan Times and Jinan City Lady [!]. They describe our group’s visit to a local orphanage last weekend…

[below: Larrisa on the cover of the Jinan Times]


[below: Elaine, Parkie, and Tarah in the Jinan Times story]


[below: Kyra on the cover of the Jinan City Lady]

Jinan wrap-up

All good things must come to an end…

With the China portion of our trip coming to a close, we are starting to look ahead to what we have in store but at the same time, we all look back on our China adventures with the fondest of memories. China is a nation rich with ancient culture, a communist yet capitalist nation that is moving impressively forward in almost every category. Construction is everywhere, the smell and sounds of progress and development are never far away. We’ve all been fortunate enough to come here to live, to meet people, to party, to travel and most importantly: to learn. The experiences we’ve had, the insight into our own lives and western culture has been priceless. It’s hard to see the forest for the trees, and taking ourselves out of our country, even out of our hemisphere helps to gain some perspective. I think everyone here has been surprised and impressed with respect for this nation of 1.4 Billion people that boasts over 5000 years of written history. I don’t think anyone will be quite the same when we get back.

We were told in our predeparture classes to look around, that many of the people sitting there with us would become lifelong friends. Some people have confessed to looking around and being doubtful, but now, I don’t think there is anyone on the trip who hasn’t made great friends. Some of us brought people we already knew on the trip, and some of us didn’t know anyone else in the group when we first started, but we all call each other friends now. And even more significantly, we all call this place home (at least for another week!)


How long does it take living somewhere new before you call it home?

Our group has been in country for less than 2 months, and I think we speak for almost everyone when we say that it seems like at least three times that. It’s not surprising to hear how many people now refer to Shandong University as ‘our home’. Whenever we leave Jinan for a weekend excursion, whether to go to the beach in Weihai, drink Chinese beer at the Qingdao festival or even just adventuring around town, it’s always comforting to come back to the University campus. The streets are busy with pedestrians and bicycles everywhere, the trains are crowded, traffic is on the verge of insanity (yet I think we have yet to see a car accident…shocking, considering how bad everyone seems to drive!). When out in this hustle and bustle, we forget how different it is from our own life and experiences back home. Personal space is much different, as is the concept of waiting in line. I don’t think there IS a Chinese word for ‘line’, and we mean this from the bottom of our heart, but WOW, the proverbial New Yorkers have nothing on the locals here. In any sort of public place, if you snooze, you lose, and if you don’t assert yourself, you’ll lose your spot and before you know it, 20 more people will be pushing past in front of you. I guess with 1.4 Billion people, it’s rather hard to keep traffic and queues neat and orderly. But even despite our initial surprise at what appears like chaos, the Chinese people are phenomenally welcoming and polite. After talking to most of the people here on the trip, we can’t think of many negative things that have happened. In fact, most of us feel safer walking around town here after midnight than we would in Santa Barbara!


Socialism with "Chinese Charactistics?"
In our adventures, we’ve seen just about everything for sale. Everything from goldfish you can feed from a baby’s bottle, to street vendors selling rabbits, kittens, hamsters and turtles, to “Niki shoes”, designer Italian handbags that were “Made Initialy” or anything else you can possibly imagine. Some of the things people on this trip picked up are razor-sharp swords, powerful green lasers, a blow up doll, pirated dvd’s, foot massages, pets, ipods, snake blood, etc. It’s not a joke when you hear how most things are “Made In China.” If you can’t find it here, you either aren’t looking hard enough, don’t know the right person, or it just simply doesn’t exist. Whether you’re shopping or just going out around town, it all becomes an adventure, near-death experiences in traffic (just kidding mom!) getting food, going to a restaurant, looking for entertainment or just seeing the sights can be a wearying experience and its always calming and refreshing to come back on campus, through the large gates, past the security guards, where the traffic is lighter, everyone else is our age, and no one is trying to sell you anything! This campus is a welcome and wonderful refuge from the occasionally maddening chaos of the streets of Jinan, and we are eternally grateful to our hosts and friends we’ve met here,


About Shandong University in Jinan:
Jinan, “the city of the springs” is a large sprawling industrial metropolis, but is also the Province Capital and is a hodgepodge mix of old and new. Shandong University, where we are living and studying is a 107 year old foundation of higher learning. There are 6 (LARGE) campuses in Jinan alone, and satellite campuses in other cities like Weihai. With a total land area of 157,000 sq. Km., Shandong province makes up only 1.6% of the territory of China yet has 93+ Million people, making it the second largest populated province in the Country. The province has a warm temperate monsoon climate with most of the rainfall concentrated in the hot summer. It has a short spring and autumn, but long winter and summer. The mean temperatures in a year are 11-14 C°. The annual average rainfall is between 550-990mm. Jinan neighbors Mount Tai to the south and the Yellow River to the North (Hint: Google Earth is a great way to see these sights and get some aerial perspective! Just go to http://maps.google.com ) Jinan is known as the City of Springs because it boasts over 700 natural springs throughout the city. The water from all of these springs gathers in the Daming Lake in the city center. The city center has a large and beautiful square with pavilions and fountains that light up at night. We’ve visited many of the other Shandong Campuses in town and we even saw a 100 year old Catholic Church that has been restored and is still in use. Trust us, its weird to see gleaming European Judeo-Christian spires in the middle of China.


Food:
Many of us have sampled various street foods that would make our parents faint. (Some people even got sick, but that’s what they get for eating river frogs, scorpion, penguin, liger and even dog! Ok, that’s a bit of a fabrication. I’m not sure WHAT they ate, but it apparently tasted like chicken.) There are also several vegetarians on the trip, (including 2 people who wrote this blog entry) and even they have had a fairly easy time finding food. To people reading this that haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the “Middle Kingdom”, trust us when we tell you that ‘Chinese food’ that you may have had back in the states bears little resemblance to the delicious and varied cuisine we’ve had here. In fact, people who don’t even like “Chinese food” back home have had a wonderful time here exploring the food. I think we speak for most students when we say we’ve all found some favorite eateries around campus. Hot Pot places are popular, as is the Little Bamboo House out of the South Gate. We even found a 24 hour western style restaurant and an “Italian” Restaurant that serves a decent impersonation of Italian food. The cafeteria on campus is fun and lively but usually leaves something to be desired.

Tutoring Internship:
The Internship has been both stressful and a blast. Everyone on the trip (who chose to take part) was assigned 3-6 Chinese students who we meet with regularly, for a couple hours, to help them with their English, which is on the whole, incredible. Most of our students have been learning English for 10 years or more, however, most of that is writing, grammar and book learning. Some of us have students with vocabulary comparable to ours, but with a basic to mid-level speaking ability. “Th” sounds (like in three or those) are often hard for some of our students, as is the “v” in vegetable or the “ths” in months. But to appreciate how advanced their knowledge is, and how different Chinese is from English, we only have to ask them how to say something in Chinese and then watch the riotous laughter that ensues as we attempt to repeat what they said. Chinese is no easy language to learn, especially for westerners. Tones have been the hard part for us in trying to speak Chinese. It’s rather difficult when you can repeat the word “ma” 4 times with slightly varying inflections and say “mother”, “horse”, or “hemp”.
But where we might be lacking at communication, our students have more than made up for our lack of Chinese. Almost all of us have been out to eat with our Chinese students, and not only are they fun to be around, they’re polite, friendly and in many cases, have paid for the bill (and then refused to take money!) In fact, even local students who weren’t in our language internships have taken us out to eat and paid for everyone, and enjoy playing video games with us, taking us around town or just hanging out in the dorm.


This is our final week in Jinan, Shandong, and we have one more week left in China in Beijing, but after that, we will be heading south to Vietnam and we will have a whole new collection of stories and pictures to share. We also speak for most people on the trip when we say we wish we spoke more Chinese. Tian Mi Mi is a lovely song, but we can’t sing it to the train conductor when we want to know what time the train comes, nor can we sing to a waiter to tell him we want our check. We are all grateful to our friends and schoolmates here in Jinan who have helped us get train tickets, order food, find directions, and have just been great friends.

We invite anyone reading this to take a look at our picture site on photobucket. Just go to:

http://s374.photobucket.com/albums/oo183/SBCC-Asia-2008/

There, you can click on any of the favorites on the left to view our photos of Mt. Tai, Jinan, the Zoo, the Aquarium, Predeparture, Qingdao, Qufu, Shanghai and Weihai, and to any students reading this, feel free to submit your own pictures of the trip so far. All of the albums there are group albums and anyone can upload photos, you just have to have a photobucket account (don’t worry, they’re free!) Thanks for reading and zai-jian!


- Sage, Mary, Andrew, Matt N., Brian, Shannon

Weihai

Journey to Weihai

The time goes by so quickly that it’s really hard to believe final exams for our first set of classes are just around the corner. This campus of around 60 thousand people is the quietest place in all of Jinan. After the trips we have taken and the classes we’ve attended for weeks now, SDU has become like a second home. The food (the lack of Mexican food is the only down side), the sounds of the city, and the nature of the people is truly a unique experience. Traveling away to Weihai this past weekend felt a bit like going to LA from Santa Barbara; “leaving home again” were the words that came to mind.
[below: Jinan train station]


The overnight train ride to Weihai on October 9 was a piece of cake - even in the “hard sleeper” compartments. Which, I must say, are quite comfortable despite the name. At least, “hard sleeper” cars are comfortable compared to the ride we had coming back from Weihai at the end of the weekend. All I could think about then was how much I wanted to lay down during the 8-hour, all-day ride.
[below: settling for an overnight in a “hard sleeper” ]



Weihai was immediately exciting when we arrived early on the morning of October 10th. Groups of 3-4 of us grabbed cabs and rode - or perhaps a better word is “raced” - through the city. The cab drivers are crazy! When we arrived at Weihai’s Shandong University hotel (located directly on the beach!) we knew that the weekend was going to be amazing. We got a room on the fourth floor and it had an incredible view of the oceanfront.


The first afternoon was a lot of fun. We took a brief swim in the cold sea and had dinner at a local restaurant where we picked things off the menu at random. In many ways, this is the best part about traveling to a new place.


Walking around the city is an adventure in itself. A few of us were able to explore some of spots that are overlooked by many tourists, such as a boat graveyard where some of the locals actually docked themselves on the boats. That’s where they live!


After a few confusing cab rides we ended up at a building called the Happiness Arch.


There was a restaurant on the top floor of the Arch where we had lunch. It had an amazing 360 degree view of the city.
[below: Risa enjoying the view from the top of the “Happiness Arch”]


[below: Weihai Bay from the top of the “Happiness Arch," Liugong Island in the background]


In the evening we all made our way to Club Seven, where we were able to “get our groove on” with some of the locals and tourists.
[below: escaping, lives intact, from yet another insane taxi ride]


The next morning, we set out on an adventure to Liugong Island, the birthplace of the first modern naval force in China and site of The Battle of Weihaiwei, where the Empire of Japan inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Chinese in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.
[below: Japanese print from 1895, “After the Battle of Weihaiwei, the Commander of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet, Admiral Ding Juchang, Surrenders to the Japanese commander’ by Mizuno Toshikata”]


After breakfast, we grabbed a taxi out in front of the hotel. We showed the driver our horrible effort at Chinese writing (we’d copied down the characters for “Liugong Island”) and he seemed to get the drift, so off we went. This cab ride was even more insane than the one we’d experienced day before. We wove in and out of traffic, drifted around corners, dodged pedestrians on sidewalks, barreled into oncoming traffic, ran red lights. Somehow, we arrived in one piece down at the docks. We were surprised to discover that getting the tickets for the ferry that would take us to Liugong Island was much easier than we thought - basic caveman grunts and hand signals did the trick.
[below: ferry ride to Liugong Island; Weihai city in the background]


We got to the island after about 15 minutes on the ferry and quickly set out to see the Sino-Japanese War Museum, which was great. It covered the material that we discussed in Dr. Mooney’s class on Modern China. After the museum we went and wandered around an abandoned part of the island. There was no one around but we did see big artillery pieces, a beached submarine, old jet aircraft, and a tank.



We also discovered a bunch of underground bunkers. We probably shouldn’t have explored them – they looked kind of dark and creepy - but, of course, we did anyway. After that we wandered down to the beach and then remembered that the ferries back to Weihai stop running at 5:00 pm so we had to head back. All in all, it was a great experience and we hope to do more adventuring soon.
[below: return to Weihai from Liugong Island; dusk]


[below: end of a rough weekend; 8-hour train ride home from Weihai to Jinan]


[below: if Weihai tired the students out, imagine what it did to their professor!]


-Shaun, Sam, Cyle

Jinan-Qindao [Tsingtao]-Shidao

Midterms are finished and we are half way through with the epic adventure that is our time in the Celestial Empire. With no group activities scheduled over the weekend we had the opportunity to venture deep into the great unknown. Some students chose to go to Tsingtao and sample the local brew while others stayed in Jinan to experience what the city had to offer. Whether it was checking out the nightlife and sampling the local street food, or venturing outside the city, both were great experiences. To top off the week most of us visited with local families home to see how Chinese live a quiet evening at home.


Lang Kwai Fan is a local nightclub/bar where many of the international students gather to party. The club is a great place to meet interesting people from all over the globe and unwind after a hard week of rockin.' It's fully equipped with a DJ, dance floor, foosball table and incredible scenery.

Outside of Shandong's North Gate students can experience great local street food after 9pm. One can sample egg bread, deep fried chicken, local fruits, and wash it all down with an apple joint (apple soda). The best part of the outside street food is the price and all the local people walking by going about their business. Where else can a Foreign Devil stand on a corner enjoying every luxury he or she desires for under 2 bucks?

With the chance to go exploring the city on our own Jeff and I (Russell) went with several of my students to the Yellow River. We took the local bus to get there and it took roughly an hour. The air quality this past week has been extremely poor - making the visibility hazy with a grayish tint to the horizon. Once we arrived at the Yellow River we found that it was a favorite spot for both locals and foreigners. There are many booths and games set up for people’s enjoyment. There is entertainment ranging from shooting a gun, bow and arrow, table tennis, pottery, mechanical bull and even riding horses. After experiencing the carnival-like entertainment we turned our attention to the physical beauty the river had to offer. Nicknamed the Mother River, there is a giant clay female figure constructed on the bank of the river. My students, Jeff and myself spent all day at the river enjoying all that it had to offer and to end the wonderful day we went on a long walk on the riverbank.

This past week we visited Baotu Springs, accompanied by several of our students. We started the day off by going to the main strip on the city and walking down the sidewalk to check out the local sights and shops. We did a bit of shopping and then made our way over to the Spring Square to see the giant blue monument and then see the springs. As we walked across the bridge and down the stairs to the side of the canal, the sounds of the busy street drifted away and were replaced by the sounds of raindrops on the water. Local men cast their lines into the canal’s waters in hopes of reeling in a fish. Other’s enjoyed a game of Chinese Chess, knelt down next to palm readers or just enjoyed the tranquility of the moment. We came upon the first spring without even realizing it. When we had heard of the springs we assumed they would be a large oasis overflowing with fresh water. While some of them are quite large, most of them were small ponds with fresh water bubbling up to the surface from an underground cache. Some of the local people washed their clothes, gathered the fresh spring water into plastic containers or simply knelt down to take a sip and replenish their spirits. We at last made it to the Black Tiger Spring, called this because of the two gigantic stone tiger statues standing over the spring itself. Three tiger heads come out of the wall around the spring, gushing with fresh water. The number of people collecting water to bring back to their homes increased. People of all ages threw tea pots with ropes attached, or large plastic water jugs into the clear waters. The scene was like that out of a movie, the quiet waters of the canal with rain drops dotting its surface, people selling their trinkets and taking photographs. One cannot come to Jinan and not see the springs, which are a glorious display of the city’s heritage.

This past weekend a group of 25 of us traveled to Qingdao, a coastal city located on the southern tip of the Shandong peninsula. It was a special weekend to be in Qingdao because the city was celebrating their 18th annual International Beer Festival. The city has a heavy European influence due to the German colonization in the late 1800s. This influence is prominent in the Victorian style architecture throughout the city. The clean ocean air made some of us a bit homesick, but after putting our feet in the soft sand and warm water, feelings of peace and serenity surrounded us. Sleeping arrangements were hectic at first since this is the most popular International Festival in Eastern China; but after the first night (in which we made a few friends at the festival) we were put up in the most amazing youth hostel where we enjoyed cheap drinks and Western style food. Down the road from the hostel was a 4 foot tall woman who had to be at least 70 years old. She was very generous with her beer and we ended up giving her the name "beer fairy." Overall the weekend was a success and a memorable experience.

Perhaps the most enlightening experience of the past week was the home-stay visit. Most of the group, aside from those still in Tsingtao, had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with a local Chinese family. We were split into small groups, though some members of the group went solo, and were assigned randomly to a family. We had no idea what to expect, and that only made the visit all the more amazing. We were taught intricate details of Chinese culture within a family setting and were finally able to see how locals live their lives in the confines of their home. Almost every family served dumplings as they are the traditional food to serve when an honored guest is present. Not only did we fill up on dumplings, but we took part in the fine craft that is dumpling rolling. Actually making some of the food that we ended up eating made them all the tastier. The graciousness of each family was astounding and we all finished the night with a new sense of what it means to be Chinese as well as the values that they hold dear.

- Russell, Price, Steph, Briana, Dillon, Parkie, Elaine


Our New Family in Shidao

On one free weekend while the bulk of the class made their way to Qingdao for its wonderful historical significance, (and perhaps the beer-drinking festivities that took place in respect of the Chinese National Holiday Week) a smaller excursion, being we (Forrest and Brek), Brian, and our new and close friend, Leo, took off to the countryside, namely Shidao, a village within the area of Weihai. Our friend Leo is a senior at Shandong Univeristy; his family resides in Shidao.


We left late Thursday Night: The sleep cars had sold out the previous week so we had tickets for four seats. We boarded and the four of us claimed a section consisting of two school bus-fashioned booth seats facing eachother with a small table between us the size of a nightstand. For the next eight hours, we clutched our belongings and exchanged card games (the little differences were funny: the Chinese begin their games by individually selecting cards from the stacked deck, taking turns counter-clockwise). Soon enough, deep into the night and straining to remain seated we nodded off and lay across the table and over one another in deep slumbers.

We arrived in Weihai in the early morning and spent the following day sleep-deprived on the beach, followed by a bus to Shidao. As night fell, we caught a taxi and sent him and ourselves out into the country to the village and home of Leo’s family. We took a long dirt road full of deep potholes in the pitch-black night and the cab driver bottomed out several times, and understandably swearing in Chinese. When we arrived, he requested additional money for the damage and we agreed to pay him.

We stumbled over the unlit village road, surrounded by livestock and sea grass-roofed rural homes. Believing ourselves to be moments away from a long nap, we were greeted by Leo’s little cousin, who was very shy and intrigued by us. We entered a lighted opening on the roadside and came into a homely warmness: Leo’s Aunts, his uncle, his father, his little cousins and younger brother. Brian was overwhelmed, and so were we. And then Leo’s Grandfather, a man of great genuineness and accomplishment, with a smile that may have welcomed any foreigner, appeared and gathered stools and clasped our hands, issuing warm welcoming phrases, which were translated by Leo. We took photos, spoke graciously to the family and eventually sat down to a table that was put up in the entryway (the home was very small).

There was a feast prepared hours before and it came out in large plates: rice noodles, bean and celery dishes, stinky tofu (not as in “bad odor,” it is really called that), a chicken dish (Brek struggled with the head), octopus and mushrooms, or as the Chinese call it, ‘edible fungus.’ We immediately were served bijou (a strong liquor) and given a welcoming and seemingly “confucianesque” toast, followed by a ganbei (or “‘downing’ of the hatch”)of the bijou. A few more “ganbei”s required the substitution of Tsingtao, for every toast required a sip at least and a ‘ganbei’ means all.

Leo translated our toasts of gratefulness and warmth, and served to connect the two parties: the village family and the distant foreigners, a position that provided us with insight and understanding of his valuable family. After hours of conversation we exchanged fairwells and staggered to Leo’s Aunt’s home, a beautifully decorated and homey abode. We threw on a James Bond flick and were aslumber before the credits could begin.

Two mornings later, after a day of walking, talking, eating, and sight-seeing, and a second family meal at Leo’s Uncle’s seafood restaurant, we arose at 5:00 am. Leo’s Uncle came and loaded five of us into his truck bed. He drove us to the farthest eastern shore in the province. We “viddied” the sunrise over the ocean, an occasion you cannot witness in California. We cruised in the bed of the truck, awestruck and tired as we bumped through fields, along the shores, and amongst more seaweed-roofed structures. Actually, Brek was not tired. He romped around the truck bed, occasionally finding his balance enough to hold the surfer position. There aren’t many things worth waking up for at the un-godly hour of sunrise, but it was mutually felt by us four that our experience was more than worth it.


-Forrest and Brek