China

I am in no state to write a productive blog.
China was the most physically, mentally, and emotionally draining port thus far. I did way too much in an extremely short amount of time and am just overwhelmed with information about the places I visited.
After Japan I will have 18 days at sea to seriously reflect on everything but right now I am just going to give a quick overview so everyone has a small idea of all the things I was involved with. The ship arrived in Hong Kong on November 6th where I spent the day touring the city. I went to Victoria ’s Peak and looked over the whole city of Hong Kong . From there a friend and I found our way to the Spencer market across town and wondered around observing all the European families shopping. We figured the father’s had important business jobs in Hong Kong and they moved the family there. That night I spent my time on the stoop of McDonald’s. We got beer from 7/11 and just hung out on the steps. The bars were a bit expensive so we opted for the cheaper route. The next day I boarded a plane to Beijing . For the next 4 days I spent my time at the Great Wall, the Beijing Zoo where I saw giant panda’s, Tsinghua University which is where we stayed in a guest house, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, a silk market where I bought many many good, cheap knock offs. We also saw The Summer Palace , the 2008 Summer Olympics Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube. On November 10th we arrived in Shanghai late at night and then the next day I went to a few markets and the famous Television tower.

On top of doing all of this, the morning of November 8th right before climbing the Great Wall of China , we had to hear some very unfortunate news. Everyone was on the bus, sleepily awaiting the Great Wall to appear outside our window when our trip leader stood up and said he had to read something to us that he received from the Head Dean. My initial thought was that Obama had been assassinated because the leader had the most somber expression on his face. He instead told us that one of our fellow world travelers had died in Hong Kong . He had been hit by a drunk driver and died instantly. This was a huge blow to every single person on the bus. We could not believe what we just heard. I do not want to go into details right now but just know that this casualty has upset the whole shipboard community and we are all having a difficult time dealing with it. Kurt Leswing lived only a few doors down from me. I walk past his room everyday, I can not put into words what I and everyone else is feeling right now. This is the main reason I am in no mood to describe my time in China right now. We arrive in Japan tomorrow and then once Japan is over I only have 3 weeks left of my journey. I will write more in a week or so. If you would like to read more about the incident pertaining to Kurt Leswing you can go to semesteratsea.org and go to the headlines portion of the website.