Where Do I Begin?

It has been about 10 days since my last blog and a TON has happened since then. I took a couple days off from blogging to enjoy my graduation from the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and party it up a bit in China. It is sad to leave the Hospital. It went by very quick but on the other hand my real vacation has begun. On Thursday night my Dad arrived in Chengdu. Brianna and I picked him up from the airport and we made it back to the room without much struggle. Sometimes the communication barrier is difficult but it just makes everything an Adventure. Brianna speaks the best Mandarin in the group so I bribed her to accompany me.
The next morning I finished my last day of clinic and we were ready to Rock!! We had a small ceremony at the school and then the Craziness of what I call a Mystery Tour began. Tantan took us to dinner at an amazing restaurant and hooked it up so that Brianna could dance. (She is a Belly Dancer) It was so funny, they put up a stage and all the people were taking pictures with their cell phones and calling people to tell them what was happening. They had never seen anything like it.
After dinner we proceeded directly to the Karaoke Bar and Partied like it was 1999!!!
The evening has many crazy details and pictures but you will have to wait for the book to get them all.
The next morning we got on a tour bus at 6:30am for what was the mystery tour. We had no idea where exactly we were going or what to expect. All we knew was that it was beautiful............







14 hours later we arrived. The tour was definitely not what we were expecting. We did not have an english translator, nor did we expect to be on the bus ride from Hell.
I am skipping a lot of the details because i don't want to give the excitement of the book away but this is one chapter you do not want to miss. Believe Me!
We spent 4 days in JiuZhaoGao and Huang Long. Two beautiful places that I am so happy to have seen.








The pictures don't even come close to expressing the beauty of this place. The mountains were huge, the lakes were a beautiful blue green and the altitude put one member from our group in the hospital. (But that was a different adventure you will hear about later. This Blog post is just an update to let you know that I'm alive and you will hear more later. I will be posting a description of the events at a later date with excerpts from my Dad's Journal. He is an amazing writer and I could not even begin to express the events like he does so Stay Tuned.........

Time for a Break!!!

This post is happening because it is time for me to take a break. I have been go, go, go since I got here and I would not trade it in for the world. I can't even express how much fun I am having in Chengdu. I'm even more excited because my dad will be joining me next week and I can't wait to share the Adventure with him. Although, I do have to say that I miss my wife. It's hard to have so much fun without her, but from what I hear she is enjoying having the house to herself in silence with out any bad jokes for a couple weeks. I guess I understand. In my opinion the jokes are not bad. I would say that they are not quite perfected yet and she is my test subject.


Now, back to the reason you all are here. This is generally how the evenings begin after lecture. We meet at the bamboo bar, which we named for obvious reasons, and have a beer. The water is not exactly clean so it's either bottled water or beer.




Snow Beer is cheaper and tastes delicious. After a while we meet with Tantan and head out for dinner. We don't always go to dinner together but is sure is a treat when Tantan picks the restaurants. Each restaurant is generally a short bus ride, bike ride or short walk away.




Like I said before, there are a crazy number of restaurants around.


This week I was in the Pediatric department for a couple of days. The kids here are so cute and they always know to stick out their tongue and let the doctor take their pulse. They are so well behaved.





On Thursday we took a field trip to one of the 3 largest Herb Markets in the world. This place was huge. It was like a swap meet on steroids.



Look how Fresh and Red the Hong Hua is!!!



Ginseng Anyone!!!




After we left the market we stopped at a museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We were all really tired but it was very cool.





These are some Old Books. I can't wait until my Chinese is good enough to read something like this.





This is my favorite place to eat. It's a little outdoor market and you just pick the food you want, put it in your basket, tell them no MSG (even though that doesn't guarantee anything) and then Chow Down!!





And then we talk about music until the beer is gone. Luckily we have the old stand by for those days when there was too much beer.





I would have to say that I am letting loose a little bit on this adventure and it feels good. I spent the last 4 years of my life studying 6 days a week with the 7th being only a half day of study. Thank goodness that it's over, a bittersweet ending but right now it's a little heavier on the sweet side.




I just thought I would throw that one in. I really like it because I think I'm the best looking of all these guys.



And now for your Moment of ZEN!!!!






我得走了
wǒ děi zǒu le
I Have to Leave,

A Giant Trip

Another day, another adventure. Some of the pictures you are about to see are not in chronological order but I just picked out a few of my favorites from my latest download. I would love to put up more but I do not want to spoil the book. For those of you who have yet to purchase one and would like to reserve your copy, you can send me an email and let me know.

This weekend we took a trip to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha. What an amazing spectacle. It was a two hour bus ride out but well worth it. We stopped at some local restaurant for lunch which was pretty good. Not as good as the street food in Chengdu but it will do. We used our Id's to get the student rate. I forgot to bring my school id so I used my drivers license. It was no problem because they had no idea what it said.

We made our way in up the steps and there were chinese characters carved into the side of the mountain everywhere. I have no Idea how they did it. It was beautiful. Finally we reached the top to find an amazing temple and a view of the head.






The Giant Buddha is larger than the statue of Liberty and completely carved into the side of the mountain. all the work was done by hand and I have no idea how they did it. It was such an awesome display of skill and engineering. The steps to get down were quite narrow. I think I was the biggest person there and I know that the steps were not made for people my size. The crowd was intense. It felt like we were at an amusement park.





It was even more amazing from the bottom. The toe is bigger than me!!!!





I have so many amazing pictures from here that I could not show them but I can't wait to share. It is truly a spiritual place.
Afterwards, on our walk out we spotted some delicious bird on a stick. Joe decided he was going to try it. I have no idea why but he did. Unfortunately he was sick for two days after.





It was time for a bathroom break so I thought I would share the experience. WARNING!!The following picture is gross.





I know that is disgusting but i want you all to enjoy this journey and really feel like you are here. Notice that there is no toilet seat. The Chengdu way is to squat!! You can relax though because I have a regular toilet in my hotel room.



Finally, I thought I would finish this blog off with a moment of Zen. Just relax and enjoy this nice bicycle ride with me.








Until Next Time......

Have a Safe Journey
yílù píngān
一路平安

It Just Keeps Getting Better!!

I am now 5 full days into the trip and wow, this place is awesome. I have experienced so many crazy things. Yesterday I saw a kid just pull her pants down, squat and pee right on the sidewalk. I was not quick enough with my camera though. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next one. Although I have had a desire for something american here and there so I took these pictures to keep me feeling like I was at home. We walked a couple miles to dinner and we passed some quality american joints on the way.









Oddly enough, I have been sticking to the local fare. it's much more exciting. My personal favorite is the fresh pineapple on a stick. We watch them cutting them as we walk to school and they are amazing. So juicy and fresh.




I guess it's only right that I gave myself a break and had my ears cleaned. Boy did they need it. they dig in there for a while then use this tuning fork thing to vibrate the inside of my ear. It makes my whole body feel weird but I can hear so much better afterwards.




Clinic has been great. I am learning an amazing amount of stuff. The doctors here use a good range of western and eastern diagnostic skills but always treat with herbs first. They say that there are very few instances that the herbs did not work but they will use western meds if they have to. the people here have a choice of going to the Chinese Medicine Hospital or the Western Hospital. They prefer the Chinese Medicine hospital because it is cheaper and they think it's more effective.




They use herbs directly in the IV Drip. It's amazing.





Earlier in the week I had Hot Pot. A true Chengdu experience. I tried duck intestines for the first (and Last) time. I just thought I would share the love.




I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as I am. I am not able to actually see this blog so please send me some emails and let me know what you think.

Until next time,

bǎozhòng (take care)

保重

nǐhǎo

Day one of school and things have been Awesome! Here are a few photos from my first couple days.

This is the view from my room. Notice all the construction. they are pounding holes for posts to make an overpass on the road. The banging goes on all night and is very loud in my room although it is kind of soothing and now I don't even notice it. Until I wake up at 4 in the morning and I can't get back to sleep. The picture is kind of foggy but there is nothing on the lens. That's just SMOG.




Like my mother always told me, breakfast is the most important meal. It's a little different over here. Every meal is the most important meal. Tantan, my teacher from PCOM who put this trip together is from Chengdu and he says that there are over 58,000 restaurants in the city. Chengdu is known for the food and I would have to agree. It's delicious.



Today was our first day of school. The campus is beautiful and there is a full hospital that the students learn at that treats everything with TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). They use some western but the treatments are centered around the TCM diagnosis and treatment.






First Day of School



The only logical thing to do after an exciting and exhausting day of clinic was to go buy some bikes and ride down to the park for a massage. The bikes only cost $22 and the massage was only $5. What a deal. Plus the massage was better than any one that I have paid for in the US. They cracked every joint in my body from my neck to my fingertips and I left feeling like a million dollars.







What a day. Now it's time to sleep. I'll see you soon.

晚安
wǎn ān
good night

The Adventure Has Begun!!!!!

It is with great pleasure and excitement that i am sitting here on the 9th floor of the Haoge Hotel in Chengdu, China. Thank you to all my sponsors for making this amazing adventure possible. Currently it is Monday April 7th at 4:00pm and I had a second to relax so I thought i would catch you all up on my trip. So far it has been amazing and this was only my first day of clinic but I will catch everybody up on that later. First and foremost I would like to describe how I got to this point but due to lack of time I will be brief and try to blog little bits at a time. Plus, I don't want to spoil the book so I will just be posting small highlights and pictures.

At 7am on Friday April 4th, my good buddy Mike Shaw picked me up and drove me to the airport. I boarded the plane with both fear and excitement of the unknown. The flights were awesome and the service on Asiania was great. We were fed 3 times and the food was not bad.
In order to occupy my time I watched The Golden Compass, Juno, The Water Horse and little bits of Juno again. I love that movie. Anyway, I also did Holosync Meditation for an hour and wrote in my journal. Despite all that I still had some time to walk around the plane and listen to my ipod. We finally arrived in Chengdu at 11 pm on Saturday night and we were greeted by two students from the Chengdu University of TCM. The adventure has only begun.......