5 Days in Chengdu: Day 4/ Day 5; March 8 & 9, 2005 Previously on our Chengdu trip: Isaac was confronted by Susan about his dark past in underground crocheting rings while the two of them tried to escape from a runaway train headed toward the nuclear missile silos in Fiji. Phil and Rebecca discovered a link between the mysterious deaths of hundreds of army ants in Bali and the recent increase trade deficit between Switzerland and Freedonia, which they discovered was once settled by Susan’s great-great grandfather. And Isaac and Phil grappled with what to do about the baby. If [View Full Entry]

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5 Days in Chengdu: Day 4; March 8, 2005 It’s 7:00am, and as usual, I wake up earlier than I want to. Phil has already gotten up an hour earlier to go jogging. Now, I suppose I could write a paragraph or two complaining about how I hate waking up in the morning, but I suppose this isn’t the website for that sort of thing. It’s not xanga, after all. After showering and changing, I quickly revise my presentation. I taught English when I was living in Beijing, so this really shouldn’t be any different, it just focuses on English writing, [View Full Entry]

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5 Days in Chengdu: Day 3; March 7, 2005 - Dinner At SWUFE When last we left our heroes: Phil: You want the truth?? You can’t handle the truth!! Isaac: 25 meters?! That’s inside the room!!! We must have missed something!! Kirk: KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!!!!!!!!! The car ride down to the hotel seems faster than the bus ride up the mountain. And you know what, it probably is. We arrive at the hotel at 3:30pm. Our contact will pick us up to take us to SWUFE at 4:30pm, so we have another hour to do nothing. Phil goes off to check his email [View Full Entry]

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5 Days in Chengdu: Day 3; March 7, 2005 One thing I really can’t stand is waking up early. Funny then that I’ve been doing it every day for the past few days. It’s 7:30am, and Phil tells me to wake up and get ready…again. I mumble ok, and then stand up. Phil says he will go rent some big parkas for us for when we go outside. I tell him ok, you do that while I take a shower. I wait for him to leave, then promptly go back to sleep. What seems like five seconds later Phil comes back. [View Full Entry]

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5 Days in Chengdu: Day 2; March 6, 2005 It’s around midnight by the time we turn in. “It shouldn’t take long to explore the mountain,” Phil says, “so we can have a good sleep tonight and wake up later tomorrow.” And eight hours later Phil tells me to wake up and get ready to go. After what passes for breakfast (and what breakfast passes through me) we begin our trek up Mt. Emei. Today’s itinerary has us criss-crossing the sizeable base of the mountain, visiting various temples and natural wonders, then heading to the middle, to a place called [View Full Entry]

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5 Days in Chengdu: Day 1; March 5, 2005 There’s a big difference between 5:30am and 6:00am, the difference being that with one, you get to the airport on time and can check in your luggage. With the other, the check-in counter closes about a minute after you arrive, thus you are not allowed to actually check in your luggage, and you have to leave your Swiss Army knife at the security desk (will you ever see it again? Who knows?). On top of that, you then have to push your way onto the plane with a big swath of blue [View Full Entry]

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5 Days in Chengdu Prologue: Day 0; March 4, 2005 It’s been ten months since I arrived in China. Five months in Beijing, one month in Shanghai, two weeks in Guangzhou, two weeks, in Hong Kong, one more week in Beijing, another month in Shanghai, another week in Beijing, one more week in Shanghai, and a week in Zhuhai. Got all that? Good. This week however, I am in none of those places. Right now I’m in our Guangzhou office, helping my coworker Phil with some work. He’s mentioned that next week he will be going to Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, [View Full Entry]

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