XIAMEN and reality setting in...

***disclaimer*** apparently blogspot.com is somewhat limited in China and therefore I am able to post but unable to see any comments that are left. I would love to hear the comments if you would drop me an email and mikesudyk@gmail.com Also blog might be missing details due to editing for China standards.

Well it seems like we have been here for a week already, and maybe we have because my whole time frame is thrown off. Xiamen has been a bit of a surprise because it is a lot more modern than I had expected. I never would have thought it could be so similar to a big city in the states. One thing that is strikingly different is the amount of people, it is crazy everywhere you look you you are seeing tons of people! Well moving on. Saturday, being our first full day in China consisted of us sleeping in a bit then Kevin, my Dad and I headed into the office for a several hour meeting. I spent most of the time attempting to absorb all that was being said and to learn a thing or two about what Bill's (the guy I am living with this summer) company does, their current position, and consulting in general. It was very informative, a bit intimidating, and very cool to see my dad and cousin Kevin in their element doing the consulting thing. After about a couple hours of meeting (all the while I was trying to keep up and not really saying much at all) we headed out to a beach event that some folks from Texas that were hear chillin' with the Chinese and meeting people from Xiamen university. It was a good time, playing beach volleyball and some soccer, somewhat surreal that I was playing volleyball on the beach in China, and minus all the aisan people the beach front was similar to that of one in the states. Most of the Chinese we were playing with were from the university so they could speak some English. After the beach we got some food at a little hole in the wall place for dirt cheap, 6 people with drinks for $20, and we ate a ton of food. Today (sunday) we went to a international christian fellowship that is registered with the government but you needed to show a foreign passport to get in (part of the government regulation). Later in the day we all got massages. The massages were done by blind massage therapists, were 2 hours long, and only cost $13, it was amazing! Tomorrow is an early morning so I must end this post. So much has been going on its hard to try and sum it all up. I will try and post some more pictures and get a link to an online photo album, but I have been not taking my camera around the past two days, I figure I got all summer to take tons of pictures.

three days later...

Well I/we finally made it to China. I really do wish that I could put down every thought, detail and memory into writing but I simply can only try my best. We (me, my cousin Kevin who is working for my father, my sister Laura, and my brother in-law Andy) left Chicago O'Hare at 10:50AM Wednesday morning on a flight headed to Tokyo Japan, more specifically Narita (just outside Tokyo). We ran into some traffic going through Chicago, which made for a little bit of a stressful time making our flight. 14 hours later we arrived in Narita at 1:45PM local time Thursday. We had a 20hr layover there before our flight to Xiamen so we had booked a room at a Hostel in town. After dropping our stuff off at the Hostel we headed into town in to grab a bit to eat at the grocery store and see a few sights, namely a massive temple with a stop at the thrift store by our hostel (yes thrift shopping even in Japan). Narita was surprisingly clean, modern and very quiet, something that would change in the early hours enroute to our flight the next day. It was very surreal, it almost seemed fake, a very indescribable feeling. While at the grocery store we found it hilarious that the shelves in the isle came up to my cousin's shoulders (he is 6'6''), as well as all the people in Japan. The grocery store was actually very similar to any other grocery store you would find in the states, apart from the weird cuisine and short shelves. The temple was amazing, very much what you would envision an Asian temple to be like. It was closed so none of the buildings were open but it was still great to walk around and see the outsides of them. The main street around the temple was definitely a tourist spot because everything was expensive, and there were a handful of white people. On our way back to the hostel my Kevin spotted a young white girl who looked lost and it turned out she was headed to the same hostel. She is from England and was on a several week trip including Japan, New Zeeland, Australia, Singapore, and San Francisco. We stopped at the store and got some more snacks for dinner and ate back at the Hostel, while it was a good time to mingle I was extremely tired from the trip and went to bed around 8PM, and proceeded to wake up at midnight thinking that it was time to go, jet lag can be so inconvenient. I must take a little time and express how much I love ANA (all nippon airlines), they are the best airline, so hospitable, we got 2 generous portion meals on the flight and snacks and drinks. The stewardesses would come around almost every 10min asking if we wanted more drinks, and the food was amazing! I am so spoiled now, all American carrier's seem so crappy now.
Our flight to Xiamen was at 10AM the next morning and we arrive at the Airport around 8AM.
On our way through the airport walking by the shops we spotted women women holding what appeared to be cologne samples. When we got closer we realized that they were drinks in little cups, and not knowing what they were and wanting to be adventurous I drank it and it was definitely whiskey, nothing like a shot of whiskey at 8AM, only in Japan! That is all for tonight, I do not have the stamina to write about the arrival in Xiamen just now, until next time...

I have started a posting of my pictures on picasa, link to follow when I can get all of them uploaded, internet is kinda slow here, more to come...