The Moon Festival

One year, long ago, ten suns rose in the sky causing great heat and destruction on the Earth. Hou Yi, a human of immense strength shot down nine of the suns and left one up for light. An immortal admiring Hou Yi gifted him an elixir with the power to give Hou Yi the strength to live forever. However, he did not drink it because he was deeply in love with Chang'e, and did not wish to live without her.

For the Mid-Autumn Festival, or the Moon Festival, our group decided to go out onto a lake on the outskirts of town late at night to admire the moonlight. After dinner we rented a bus for the group and drove twenty minutes to the locations. It was a park with a man made lake, hundreds of people were there lighting off small fire crackers and sparklers, eating food, drinking beer, and chatting while they watched their friends on the boats out in the lake. The Americans made their presence known by bringing some major fireworks that set off all the car alarms.

Hou Yi strength greatly inspired many people, he quickly accumulated apprentices, one of which was (super evil) Feng Meng who knew his secret of the elixir. One day, when Hou Yi was hunting, Feng Meng broke into his house to steal the elixir. Chang'e was home and knew that he could easily overpower her for the elixir so she drank the elixir.

The lake was far more pleasant at night. On the murky water I could see dead fish and trash floating on the surface, and transmission towers ran through the middle of the lake. But the buildings were beautifully lit and after about twenty minutes the smell of the water did not really bother you. The boats were a step up from paddle boats both in size and power. They had small electric engines that when running smelt like a burning toaster. Nine of us crammed into one boat, then me and two others into another boat. Our boats collided several times almost tipping but the large amount of alcohol consumed numbed the terror of falling into such disgusting water.

High above the full moon shone brightly, with wisdom and clarity, undisturbed by our rowdiness.

Great power flowed through Chang'e as she became immortal. She flew into the sky away from her husband. Still deeply in love with her husband so she went to the closest place immortals can reside to humans -the moon. When Hou Yi came back hunting he learned what happened and became deeply saddened. He began offering cakes to the moon where his wife lives every year on the day that she became immortal. The villagers learned of Hou Yi tragic story and became sympathetic, over the years they too began to participate and make offerings on the same day.

On our way back I looked out the window of the bus. First there was a police car. Then a scooter on it's side and a crowd of on lookers. Then there was a shoe. Another fifty feat down was a body of a middle age woman lying on her back in the highway. Her body seemed undisturbed, but her shirt was open from the use of a defibrillator, she was clearly dead.

Off to China (yet again.)

Sorry for the delay, I had troubles with my VPN, which inhibited my ability to blog.

So let's start!

I managed to pack the night before without sleeping at all and leaving my room a bit of a mess. Dad dropped me off at PMW and my adventure begun.

After a the second leg of fourteen hours the plane began to tilt down as it descended into the metropolis of Shanghai. The panels, seats, and people shuddered and shook with the plane as it barreled against the wind outside. The ocean went from blue, to chocolate-milk-brown, and then gave way to the partial land of shrimp and fish farming ponds. The runway passed underneath and we were suddenly back on earth.

The smell of the air in China slowly found it’s way to my nose. It is the smell of stale cigarette smoke, oil, food, and rot –similar to an old bowling alley. The unpleasant yet comforting smell welcomed me back for my third venture on the other side of the globe.

I quickly found Shoji, our group leader/professor, waiting for me on the other side of customs. We waited and collected about 80% of our group -the last few were on a much later flight. Our group consist of 11 students and four professors, some of which switch out during the semester.

We boarded the maglev, which would bring us quickly into town. We sat down as a group in a completely empty train car and waited for the ride to begin. You could feel the train jump up an inch or so when the magnets were activated and the train began to float off the ground. The train sped up to about 250mph, which seemed excessively fast and definitely a flash of Shanghai wealth. I looked out the window as things simply blew by and was surprised when the train slowed down just a few minutes from reaching top speed.

We found our hotel which is located near People’s Square, checked in, rested for 15 minutes, then went to a Beijing style hotpot restaurant (basically coal fired hot pots with volcano cones in the center which hold the coals inside a large bowl full of broth. It was an excellent first dinner and as I got to know my group more my confidence in having a good trip began to grow. It seems most people in our group –if not all- have really common sense/courtesy and no interest in dominating the group.

My roommate, Kaleb, who is from Alberta Canada, is an excellent match. There are 5 boys, and 6 girls (one boy dropped out last minute,) Kaleb and I drink similar amounts, and sleep similar hours of the night.

Shoji has been a fantastic tour guide. In addition to the normal Shanghai touristy stuff he took us to the black market where I got Light Room 5 for $8USD. There was also a movie store where you could get any movie (even just released,) for around $2USD.

We visited The Pottery Workshop location in Shanghai (which is the group we are partnering with,) who have a small studio in one of the art districts. It was enjoyable to walk around and look at what the locals were up to: