Second Training Day

Blog 7

Chinese word of the Day: Qi  Means Energy (or the number 7 if you accent it different)

Having a British roommate is fun. I’ve always wanted a British accent. I noticed the words they say make them sound more British than the accent, so I decided to do the British word of the day.

British word of the day: Dodgy Means Crappy

I woke up to my roommate yelling, “Put it down! Put it Bloody Down!” It startled me for a moment. Everything was dark so I couldn’t tell if he was on the phone, talking to someone, or just dreaming. Once he stopped talking I realized he was dreaming. He did that twice last night. In the morning I asked him if he was ok. I told him I heard him yelling last night. He told me he had the weirdest dream and when he started to yell it woke himself up.

I was sooooooooooo SORE! My legs felt so tight. My back hurt. My arms were dead….Day 1. So I got out of bed and did my stretches for class. Helped a lot. When it was time for breakfast I brought my oatmeal down. I wasn’t too sure how it would taste, but anything can beat yesterday’s breakfast. I went down to the dining hall and they had out the regular. Soup, eggs, and bread. I got myself about 6 eggs, two pieces of bread, and soymilk powder. I got a bowl of my oatmeal, added water, and put the soymilk powder in. I loved my oatmeal. It tasted amazing. I had a crazy idea. What if I put my egg inside my oatmeal? The other day my roommate told me not to eat the yoke of the egg, because its high in cholesterol.  I don’t like the yoke much anyway. So I peeled open an egg, put the egg white in, and mixed it around in the oatmeal. It tasted even better! Breakfast was really good today. I also met a guy from Texas who absolutely hates the breakfast here. He complains how the academy doesn’t have any bacon, sausage, pancakes, or other Texas breakfast food. The guys told me down the road is a guy who has a bee farm and sells honey and they use honey to make breakfast a lot better. Maybe this weekend ill stop by and buy myself a jar. I began to notice a couple guys here have pocket knives to cut bread and other things. I asked them where they got it and they looked so proud and told me they got it at the “Everything” store. If only they saw the pocket knives I have at home.

After breakfast I had an hour till the morning run. I saw my roommate in the room and I told my roommate, “If you put egg in your oatmeal it tastes really good.” He just laughed and told me, “You’re learning fast.”

                This morning my roommate asked me, “What are you doing?” I told him, “I am blogging each day for family, friends, and even temple members to read.” “What temple?” I laughed and I said, “I’m Jewish and I go to a Jewish temple.” He said, “No way. I’m Jewish too!”

The run in the morning was dreadful. I was so sore and tired. Kung fu class was fun except the stretching part. My friend Rodney from Australia said the first week he was very flexible and now he is on his second week and he lost a lot of flexibility from his legs being so sore and tight. He told me by the third week progress on flexibility will show. I learned 1/8th of the first form yesterday. Today I got taught 1/8^th more. I practiced that for about half of the class. Shifu (Master) saw me and told me I am learning extremely fast and taught me a move where I block and kick out the remaining leg. I felt really proud to be taught a private move by the Shifu. I spent the rest of the class practicing 2/8^th of the form and the blocking form.  

When class was over I went back to my room. I got to rest for about 10 min and I just laid down.

Before I knew it, it was time to go to second class. It was acrobatics and take downs. Did lot of flips, rolls, and jump rolls. Then learned a few take downs.

Afterward I went to lunch. I met a French guy who left France to come here, because he had to get away from home. When he gets back he will be charged. I asked him charged for what. He said it has to do with drugs and cars and “BS” and he came here to start a new page in his life. He is here for a year.

After lunch I have a two and a half hour break. I went online and chatted with family and friends. And took the normal resting time to my advantage. 

When rest time was up I headed downstairs for “stance training”. We had to do five minutes each stance. My legs were burning, shaking, and on top of that still sore! Then we broke into private groups to practice our Baiji forms. I didn’t get a form yet, because I was only taught the warm ups. There are about 20 different warm up moves. When I was practicing the warm ups the Shifu went to me and taught me one on one each step. Then taught me 3 more moves. Really helpful. Also showed how the moves are used and he practically threw me across the floor.  Getting one on one time with the Shifu is very rare and since I’m the new kid I’m lucky to get that time with Shifu. I guess I’m pretty lucky today.

Had another break till dinner. Wrote half of my blog during break then went down to eat. Dinner was great. I was starving. Nothing new on the menu. Still the same chicken, veggies, and rice. But it tasted great.

After dinner I went up to my room to shower and get ready for Mandarin class.

Mandarin class was fun. Learned how to say good morning and goodnight. Even how to say I love you. Will use them for  “word of the day” in the future.

I’m really sore and tomorrow is Power training day…my classmates warned me. Time to get some sleep. Goodnight!

Thank you all for your comments on my blogs. I will answer each comment but it is hard to. I can’t log into my blog website from China. It is restricted, along with Facebook, YouTube, and many other website. Thanks to my dad, he uploads them and sends me the comments via email. Jess also helps me answer them online as well. If any of you have any questions you might want to e-mail me at MrSlickSRC@aol.com . I can reply faster. Thank you!
- Scott

Monday, First Training day

Blog 6

Word of the day- TengTong. Means pain.

Took my first shower last night. Before I took it, my roommate told me to be careful. PEE sometimes comes out  the shower head. Luckily I didn’t experience taking a PEE shower. I got in the shower and out as fast as I could.

I woke up two hours before breakfast. I guess I was excited for training, because I couldn’t go back to sleep. Watched a couple of tosh.0 episodes on my laptop and then got ready for breakfast. Breakfast was horrible! All they had were some kind of soup, bread, and hard boil eggs. I tried mixing bread with the soup to make it taste better….didn’t work. All I ate were boiled eggs. Only ate about 4 eggs till I started feeling nauseous.  My roommate came down with oatmeal he bought from the “Everything” store. I started realizing most of the students brought their own food for breakfast! I can’t blame them. Later today I will go down to the store and buy some.

After breakfast I went back up to my room to get ready for the morning run. My Sam told me every Monday Morning there’s a room inspection. So we cleaned up our room and finished just in time when Master Gou knocked on our door. He gave a quick inspection and left. After he left Sam and I went downstairs to wait for the morning bell to ring. The bell goes off every time it’s meal time, class time, and when it’s time for everyone to go to bed. When the bell rang we all lined up. There are about 50 other foreign students from all different places. The masters don’t speak English so they have a translator who speaks English follow them around. One of the translators called all the new people forward to introduce ourselves. I introduced myself to whole school along with four other new comers. Two other new comers are from California too. The other two are from England. Once we finished we were assigned to our groups and met the master of our group. I got Master Gou. He is the head master of the academy.  He looks about 40, shorter than me, and looks like a humble teacher. The other teachers are a bit scary looking. Just by the looks they give out are scary. My master teaches the Wing Chun class. So when I got assigned to him I knew I got in the class. Everyone told me I wouldn’t get in his class, because there are about 20 students in it already and it’s full but I got in. After we were all introduced we went for the morning run.

The run was about 2 miles. Not too far, but we had to run to bottom of mountain. Coming back was the hard part. Ran the whole thing, but I was pretty tired. I am really out of shape! When we made it back we split into groups. The beginning of class we just stretched. After we stretched for about 15 min on our own, we all lined up in the training room.  When we got in line, we stretching again! This time Master Gou would walk around and pull our legs further apart or even push us down harder. Well it seemed like he pulled my legs really far apart and pushed me down way harder because it HURT! After stretching we got in two lines and did kicks, punches, and other moves across the floor. Since I’m new the master pared me up with the two leaders of the class one is from Jackson, Cali, the other is from Canada. I basically followed everything they did across the room. Master called Andrew, the guy from Jackson, and I over. He told his translator to tell Andrew to teach me the first part of the beginning form. So we went outside and he taught me step by step. The stances in Wing Chun are a lot different from the Kung Fu I did back home so I felt a little awkward. But I did learn the first half of form. After teach saw me do it he went inside got a 6 foot long bamboo stick told me to hold my stance and hold the end of the stick horizontally for 50 seconds then switch hands three times while I held a boxing glove in between my knees. I thought I was being punished! After I that, class was over. I then went to Andrew and asked him why Master made me do that. Andrew has been here for 11 months, he should know. “Was Master punishing me?  Did he see me mess up a step or something? Andrew laughed and said, “We all had to do that on our first day. It’s his way to strengthen us new kids.”

Had fifteen min break till our second class. I went to my room and devoured two protein bars. I was starving. Then I went to my second class. It was conditioning day. We stood in meditating position, legs bent and hands out  for like 20 min. we had our eyes closed, and focused on our Qi (Qi will be tomorrows word of the day. Stay tuned). After that we had to hit a tree with the edge of each hand 300 times. Once we finished that we had to hit our palms 3oo times then elbows only a 100 times. 

When we finished  with the tree, we pared up with a partner hit each forearms downward, step to the side, hit forearms up and down,  spun around, hit the other forearm up and down, then hit forearms in front downward again. Repeated that about 100 times. Then in groups of three one would get on their knees and put hands up in front of their face while one partner kicks the front of the forearms  and the other hits the back of the arms.  We each did that about 50 times. I was still pared with the two leaders of the class….lucky me! We cycled through each one of us then stood legs spread in horse stance. The other two kicked the inside of the thigh on the third guy. Cycled through and then each person hit the back of thigh.

Went back in room waited for lunch after conditioning, so I kicked off my shoes and my feet were burning….along with every other inch of my body.

I have a couple bumps on my arms. My roommate said I might have fractured my bones a bit. Well they will be harder soon.

While we waited I ate two hardboiled eggs my roommate snagged from breakfast. Eggs never tasted so good to me before in my life!

Went to Lunch then had a two hour break till the last martial art class. I went to lay down for a bit, chatted with friends, and just enjoyed rest time.

Two hours went by fast. It was time again for training. I went downstairs to wait for the bell and one of my friends asked me if I was ready for the run. I said. “What run?” He told me we run twice a day….great! I ran it the whole way again but I went a little slower. Everyone went a little slower. While we ran it began to rain.

When we got back from the run, we all went into the big training hall together instead of splitting into smaller classes.  My master teaches us Wing Chun in the mornings and Bahji in the evenings. We did the same stretching routine as the morning class, but when we got in lines to do kicks, punches, and other moves, they were different. Master told Andrew to pull me aside and teach me one on one the moves. He taught me 7 moves. And I had to practice them for an hour and a half. Each time I practiced it got easier and easier to move and it began to flow. While we practiced the other masters would make the students yell and run around and do a lot more intense workouts.  I figured that  since my master is the head master I am going to be worked twice as hard in the afternoon classes.

When class was over Master talked to us about the meaning of practice. He told us that the way you get good is not by remembering the moves, but by understanding each move you make, will make you better.  At the end of each class master talks to us and from doing what he says like practicing it will make us stronger than yelling and running around. Well that’s my prediction at least, time will tell.

Went to dinner and the food was amazing! It was vegetables, chicken, and rice again. I was too hungry to care! I went back in my room to wait for class to start. I have Mandarin class at 18:00. Some guys said it’s not that good of a class. They told me it was pretty basic. I don’t mind. I have 6 months to learn so might as well try it out. I went downstairs to buy a notepad and pen. I also bought oatmeal for the morning, a pair of slippers for the shower and when I go to the restroom at night, big bottled water, and some chips.

Class was fun. One of the translators taught the class. The translator who works for my master teaches the class. He is really tall and skinny. Funny guy though. Learned how to count, say the months, and learned how to converse when wanting to buy an item or to negotiate if it’s too expensive.

I’m exhausted and its only 19:00 over here. I’m going to bed now.

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

-Scott

a couple pictures more blogs on the way

The pictures on the wall were there before me or my roommate were ever there

Here is the bathroom

Day 4

"Life is not how it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."-Anonymous

From now on I will have the word of the day. In the last blog I learned thank you which is XieXie.

Today’s word of the day is Hello. Ni Hao. (knee-How)

Today is the last ‘rest’ day. Training starts tomorrow. Talked to a few people last night about the different kung fu styles. A couple from France are here after staying at a two other Chinese academies. They said this place is the best they have seen. They do Wing Chun here and I think that’s the style I want to do. My roommate Sam wants to do MMA so he does a lot of the Shaolin kick boxing.

I asked a few other guys why are they here and most said to get away from work or come here before college. I asked my roommate why he is here he said he wants to open up his own martial art studio. I wonder what the other students’ reasons.

This morning my roommate and I walked down to the store. The students at the academy call it the “Everything Store”. They say it has EVERYTHING. I asked my roommate, “Is it like Walmart? That place has EVERYTHING?” He said he’s not sure they don’t have any Walmarts in England. Well I was hoping this store had everything, because I didn’t have an international plug for my laptop and it died last night. Luckily I found a international plug! It’s fun trying to communicate with the store owners. I had to tell them I wanted the plug by pointing and gesturing what I wanted. A lot of items were crowded on the shelves behind the counter. It’s hard to find things in there, so when I was looking for the plug I felt like I was playing a game of ISPY. When I ask for the price they would type the number on a calculator. I bought a couple more snacks for my room. I bought a yogurt type of drink and some crackers. They had boxes piled on boxes in the middle of the store. Made it kind of hard to maneuver around. They even had milk crates full of EGGS! Some were even cracked!!! It’s like a whole different world!

While we were walking back to the academy my roommate was telling me about how the farmers here wrap bags around each fruit to keep bugs and birds out. That must take hours to do. I even saw a farm with the bags on the apples. Also on the way I saw a lot of spiders! Well my roommate said they are spiders…I would personally call them ALIENS! They are huge and have so many different colors!

We walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch and they were closed so we went to the room I tried out my plug and it worked…obviously since I am writing this! After a little rest time we went back out to see if they are open. The ordering here is bizarre. They have a menu on the wall and we just point to what we want. I ordered fried rice, chicken wings, dumplings, and bread. After lunch we went back to the room and relaxed. I guess a lot of the people relax on weekends. Downloaded Tosh.0 (American comedy TV show) and have been resting and watching a couple episodes of that. I just went to dinner with Sam, my roommate. Met a new student that came today. One was from England and only here for four weeks. Dinner was ok. Vegetables, chicken, and rice again. Didn’t eat much today. Went back to the room and now getting ready for bed. Start training tomorrow. Kind of scared and excited. Can’t wait!

If you are reading my blogs please press the “follow” button. I would love to know who reads my blogs. :-)



-Scott 

Day 3

Thank you everyone who is reading my blogs. Sorry if I’m a bit slow at writing them. I am a day behind!

Day 3

Today is the day I go to my school. Woke up to a hotel room filled with Sunlight. Looked at the clock and it was only 5am. The sun rises incredibly early here. Went onto the computer, chatted with family and friends, and then headed downstairs for breakfast. It was a buffet style breakfast. I asked the waiter where to sit and he just stared at me. So I pointed to the buffet and he went and got me a plate. So I got the plate, smiled, and went to look around the buffet. I’ve never seen so many noodles for breakfast before. I got myself some eggs, bacon, rice, and the best sweet bun I ever had. I wanted to bring the food back up to my room, but I didn’t know how to ask the waiter. I found a table and sat down. I went to grab a fork but there were only chopsticks. This was my first meal with chopsticks in China.  Ever tried eating eggs and rice with chopsticks? It’s quite difficult and I’ve used chopsticks before. After a while of failing to putting food in my mouth, I decided to look for a fork. Couldn’t find any. So I walked up to the waiter and asked him, “Fork?” He starred at me. I made a three in my right hand to look like a fork and hit my palm and said, “Foooork?” He smiled and left. Came back with a fork! I got the fork said Shee-Shia  (thank you in mandarin, but I don’t know how to spell it.) I went back to my table and began eating with my fork. Everyone in the room starred at me. I didn’t care because I was too hungry to feel embarrassed. After breakfast I went to head back upstairs. While I walked into the elevator four Chinese people joined me…all with cigarettes. We were at level 1 and my floor was level 8. I thought I was going to suffocate. Luckily they got off at the fifth floor. When I made it back to my room I packed up and headed downstairs to check out and wait for my contact from the martial art school to pick me up.

After a while of waiting, a lady walked towards me and asked me if I was Scott Campbell. I said ya and we brought my bags to the car. On the car ride back the lady and the driver were talking. Then it seemed like they were mad at each other. The driver started talking louder and louder and the lady was crying and started yelling back at him. I felt suuuuper awkward. After they were done she turned to me and asked me if my flight and hotel was nice. We talked a little and then I asked her if there’s any tips I should know about the school. She just said be respectful and helpful and I’ll be fine. That’s not to hard I thought. When we stopped talking, they started arguing again. Then when it was quiet she asked me what style I wanted to study. I had no idea so I asked her to explain each one. There’s there groups:

Group one-San Da. That’s Shaolin form of fighting. Lot of lower body fighting and acrobatics.

Group two-Win Chun. More of upper body fighting. Speed. And internal engery.

Group three-Mantis Boxing. Lot of quick moves and grappling. Take downs.

They all sound amazing so she told me I have a week to choose. When we finally made it to the school I had to carry all my bags up three flights of stairs to my room. When I got in I found out I have a roommate but he wasn’t there yet. So the lady told me to unpack and in 15 min its lunch. So I unpacked and headed down for lunch. It was buffet style and each container had vegetables and chicken. So I got a bit of food and rice and went to sit at a table. Met a couple guys from Sweden and Australia. Met more from France and Canada. Everyone is really nice. After lunch I went back to my room and my roommate was there. He is really nice. He’s 16 and from England. I asked him about the school, training, and different things to do. He was very helpful. He shared some of his milk he got from the market because he said the school doesn’t offer much calcium. So I gave him some chocolate from America! He offered to take me down to the market down the street to buy some supplies and show me around the school tomorrow. It was only 4pm or in their time 16:00. For some reason I was so tired. It’s an hour till dinner so I will take a nap.

                After my nap I got ready for dinner. My roommate didn’t have an appetite so I went down alone. Met more people and ate more vegetables, chicken, and rice. Some of the guys complain but I don’t mind. I bet it’ll taste amazing after long hours of training. After dinner I went back to my room to relax. Chatted on the computer a bit more. It really helps to be in contact with family and friends. It keeps me from being homesick. Well that’s all for now it’s only 19:00 here but I’m exhausted so I will get some sleep. Hope everyone is enjoying my blogs. Will write more in the morning!

-Scott 

Day 2

1:25am

Yantai

                While I was on the plane I fell asleep. When I woke up I has 8 more hours left of the flight and I got home sick real bad. It hit me all at once. I couldn’t give up. I have to finish this adventure. I listened to some music and calmed myself down. On the plane we had two meals. My first meal was duck. Best plane food I ever had. Second was beef and rice. That hurt my stomach.  I kept dosing off and waking up. Got a decent amount of sleep though. When I landed in Beijing all my homesickness went away and I went into mission mode. To get my bag I had to take a train from my plane to the baggage claim. After that I had to check my bag in at a new Airline.  I had a five hour layover so my boarding pass didn’t even have a gate number. They told me to check the info desk an hour before my flight. Once I got all that out of the way I went to go find the business center so I can get the Wifi code for the airport. And then that’s when I checked my emails, made blog number 2, and chatted with a couple people. After a while I started feeling sick. Not home sick but nausoues sick. I went to go find some sprite. It was covered in Chinese characters but by the bottle color and the sign I knew it was sprite.  The price for a spirte bottle is 2.50 Yuan. The sprite helped my stomach a bit. When it got close to boarding time I felt sick again. When we were on the plane I felt dizzy. I never get sick on planes, I wont start now. I controlled my breathing and tried to sleep. It worked. I woke up with only 20 min left of the hour flight left and I felt better. Maybe I was sick because I was exhausted. I still don’t know.

                When the plane landed in Yantai I was expecting a huge Airport like Beijing. I was wrong. It opened the door and we had to walk down the airplane stairs, out on the run way, and in to the airport to get the bags. Getting my bags was the easiest part. Noone in the airport spoke English. I found out the hard way. It was 12:30am and everyone was leaving getting in cars, taxis, buses. I went to the info desk and asked if there were shuttles to hotels. She just nodded her head like she didnt understand. So I pulled out my hotel paperand showed her. She nodded her head…Crap. So I asked her if there were taxies. She pointed to the outside the window. And that was the only tip I got. So I walked outside with my two bags and my backpack. It was foggy and barely any light. Not just regular fog but san Fransico thick fog. Kinda scary. So I walked towards what looked like a bunch of taxies in a circle in the street. There were policemen standing by there and I was going to ask them how do I get to my hotel. Then some guy came towards me speaking in Manderin. I told him I speak English. He still followed me. He pointed to the taxies. By that time I made it to the policemen. I showed the policemen and the man who was following me the hotel papers. They just looked at it, looked at me, and said a whole bunch of things in Mandarin. Right when they were reading it more people went over to look at my paper. Now there were about 6 guys trying to read the paper. All of a sudden the airport lights get turned off. I looked back and no one was there. No buses, no taxis, no people except for the 6 guys, the taxi cab and me….”Crap,” I thought. It looked like no one knew where to go. Finally one guy said Laishan District and pointed to the guy who was following me. He motioned me to a taxi. At the moment getting into the last taxi seemed like the best thing to do rather than stay at a dark, stranded, foggy airport.  My bags were so big he had to take the bags that were already in his trunk of the taxi and put it in the back seat. I didn’t think it was that bad because taxis only drive around one person at a time. Well that’s what I thought. He motioned me to the back seat and in the car was a guy up front a girl behind him and four bags in between us including my small luggage in between my legs and my backpack.  The taxi driver began talking to the other two in the cab. It sounded like he was apologizing. I didn’t quiet pay attention I was looking out the window trying to look for my hotel. He started going down weird roads and the fog was so dense it was hard to see the street signs. When I did see the street signs it has Chinese characters all over them and some had little English writings at the bottom. Slowly yet surely my idea of getting in this taxi started to seem like the worst decision I ever made. The driver wasn’t wearing any seat belt, neither were the other two passengers. There were no street lights except for flashing yellow ones and people would just drive right though them.  Well that’s what my taxi driver did. If someone was going he would honk to make them stop when they were almost through the intersection or drive around a huge garbage truck at the last minute. I did not feel safe at all. On top of that the buildings outside were dark. No lights, no cars, no one. Most of the buildings weren’t even finished. Cranes were hanging off the side of buildings and it looked like an abandoned city. Still no sign of my Ramada hotel. I began tying my shoes tight and taking my sunglasses and watch off and putting it in my bag. If I had to fight or to run I was ready. I wouldn’t go down without a fight. Then he stopped by this building and the guy in the front got out along with the taxi driver. The taxi driver opened my door and pointed to the front seat. So I got out and went to the front watching them both. The passenger got his bags paid the driver and left. Now it was just the girl and I. the driver got in and said some things to the girl. Drove a couple blocks and stopped. She got out….”Crap,” I thought. I was the only one left. It was 1:20am. He drove a few blocks, turned left and right, and was going about 100 k/m. I know because I looked. I don’t know how fast it is but it felt pretty fast.  Then the driver pointed at a building with red Chinese characters. I had no idea what that was. Then we turned a corner and I saw Ramada Plaza writing in English. THANK GOD! We got to the front and the cost was 80 yuan. I gave him a 100. Not just because I didn’t have anything smaller, but I was so happy to make it I didn’t care if I tipped him to much. I checked in with the ladies in the front luckily one spoke English. Got my key. Went to my floor. And now I am writing about that little intense situation! Its 2:05am now. I meet my martial art school driver and translator at 10:30am in the front of the hotel. The adventure never ends.

-scott

Day 1

Oct 7^th

Thursday 3:38pm.

“…with life comes struggle, but with struggle comes hope, love, and happiness.”- Amihan &Alejandra.

And so the adventure begins today. I am on the plane flying to Beijing while I write blog number 2. Today was hard saying good bye to my friends, girlfriend, and family. But the adventure only began. I have 21 more weeks to go. I could not grasp the thought that I am acutally leaving America and going to a foreign country for six months. Even when I had my boarding pass in my hand, handing it to the Air China attendants, I still couldn’t believe im doing this. I know I will not regret this adventure. Yes there will be many struggles, from the Kung Fu trainging to Manderin classes to being home sick. But I know I have the will to conquer this trip and to make the most out of it.

My Goal is to keep everyone reading my blogs updated everyday. No promises though. My hands might be too exhausted from morning training to even type. Or ill be taking naps every chance I get. I really have no idea what will happen in the next 48 hours. Im just diving head first and hoping for the best. All I know is when I land in Beijing after this 12 hour flight, I will have to take a train to my luggage, get my luggage, check it in, and then wait 5 hours till my next flight which is only an hour. Once I land it will be midnight in Yantai and I will be staying the night in a hotel. In the morning I will be picked up by my martial art school. People ask me if I am scared and nervous. I am a little scared and nervous but by being a little scared and nervous itll help me stay focused and attentive while traveling.

Today at the airport, my luggage was double the accepted weight. So my Dad, Mom, Auntie Cecil, Kc, and I ran around looking for a luggage I can buy. I needed another luggage so i can put the stuff from my big luggage in it so it would be me more light and pass the weigh in. After that we went to exchange American money into Chinese currency. The ratio is One American dollar equals Six Chinese yuan. It made me happy that my cousins, aunties, and devin and tara made it to the airport to see me off. It was hard to say bye, but we will all keep in touch through email and on here! Chad escorted me to my gate and while we were going through the security check point I took everything out of my pockets except for my magic thumbtip. I walked through the metal detector with ease, but then I saw security patting down two people in front. If they found my thumbtip, I think I would have been in trouble. I was running out of time. I reached into my pocket and pulled it out. Luckily when they patted me down I was able to do a simple magic trick by making the thumbtip disapear in my hand so they didn’t see it. I thought that was an intense situtation. For those who know what my thumbtip looks like I bet you could imagin what the Airport security would tihnk if they found that. When I got on the plane I was in the center seat in between a couple, but I told them they can sit together and they let me have the window seat. I liked how that worked out. And now I am here writing. I will blog again either tonight at the hotel or in the morning. Thank you to all my family and friends for supporting me in my decision to go to China. Without you being strong for me I don’t think I would have been able to go along with this adventure. I love you all.

-Scott