Tony and I have arrived home safely, but I will describe our trip home a little later.  First, for those you who are interested in a more detailed description of some of aspects of the trip, I will offer them.  As you may recall, we had quite a delay in even getting to Shanghai.  By the time we arrived, many members of the group were wearing the same clothes they had put on 48 hours before.  Nevertheless, our tour guide, David, put us on a bus and began whisking us all over Shanghai.  The drive from the airport into Shanghai was lengthy, but interesting.  The first thing I noticed was the over-abundance of above-ground power lines.  All though power lines were really striking.  After a nice tour of some areas of the city, we stopped for lunch.  We soon experience the first of many Chinese dining treats – the family-style meal.  Many restaurants in China serve food family-style on lazy Susan tables.  We really enjoyed watching how culinarily adventurous the students were – they were generally willing to eat most anything, even foods they did not recognize.  It was fun to watch students eat things and say, “Hmmm, I think this is eggplant.”  Or “I think this could be chicken . . . or not.”  Even so, they ate.  I even ate part of a fish tail!

After lunch, we experience our first tea ceremony.  The Chinese tea ceremony, also called the Chinese Way of Tea, is a Chinese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of tea leaf.  Tea is prepared in Chinese culture for many reasons:  to show respect, to apologize, to celebrate a family gathering, to express thanks to your elders on your wedding day, or to connect large families on wedding days.   I love any excuse to drink tea!!!

We then visited the Shanghai French Concession.  This area was designated for the French from 1849-1946 and was the center of Catholicism in Shanghai.  We enjoyed a stroll in a nearby park, and moved onto yet another meal with some more amazing food.  The evening finished with a performance with a performance by the Shanghai Acrobatics Troupe.  Candidly, many in our group were just too darn exhausted to stay awake for the entire show, but what we saw was fantastic.  Four guys rode their motorcycles inside a large metal ball – we’re still not sure how none of them died.  I think we all wish we could have stayed awake for the entire show.  I suspect the magician who felt her performance was under-appreciated wished we were more awake, too.

Friday morning, we headed to breakfast.  Mark and Ace will both be happy to know that when I served myself breakfast, something on my plate MOVED.  It literally moved on its own!  Needless to say, I chose NOT to eat anything that moved on its own.  While I honestly loved the lunches and dinners in China, the breakfast options left me wanting.  Most everyone else in group seemed satisfied with breakfast, but I tended to drink tea. 

After breakfast, we left for the Jade Buddha Temple, which is a Buddhist temple that was founded in 1882. Actually, in 1882, an old temple was built to keep two jade Buddha statues which had been brought from Burma by a monk named Huigen. That temple was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Fortunately the jade Buddha statues were saved and a new temple was built on the present site in 1928.   We had the chance to experience a second tea ceremony at the temple.  I think I described that tea ceremony in an earlier post when I mentioned that  the lady preparing tea at our table spoke no English, but she get making motions specifically to me expression how much she thought I needed the tea that specifically helps one lose weight.  Josh Justice could tell after the third time she motioned to me I looked like I might punch her.  Her photo is posted in that earlier post.  

 Then we visited the Shanghai Museum which I also described in that earlier post before having another fantastic Chinese feast for lunch.  After lunch, we took some time to take some photos of downtown Shanghai.  What was jarring was realizing just how polluted it is.  Our tour guide went on about what a beautiful and clear day it was, and yet we could not even see the sun because the smog was so so bad.  You can see it in the photos.  Plus, the water below us was just a nasty brown color.  It just made me sad.  One thing we have had fun with on this trip is noticing how the Chinese just stare at Raquel Barlow – our tall beautiful African-American student on the trip with us.  Raquel is a natural performer, so she has had fun posing with some of the Chinese who just cannot seem to take their eyes off of her.  

We also visited the Yu Yuan Gardens next to the City of God Temple.  The gardens, which cover about 5 acres, are also known as the Gardens of Peace, and if you spend any time there you can understand why.  Even with all the people wandering through, all I could think about was how peaceful it could be to sit in a quiet place somewhere on the grounds and drink some tea and read a book.  It was gorgeous. 

That evening, most of the group took a cruise around the Bund (the riverfront area of Shanghai around the Huangpu River), while the rest of us went up the Pearl Television Tower to get a better view of Shanghai at night.

The next morning, we left for Suzhou.  At this point, I must say, this group of students is the BEST group with whom I have travelled in 8 years.  They have always been on time, they are great about helping pack the bus, they are flexible in the face of changes, and they have been reasonably adventurous.  I have been honored to travel with them, and we got to leave for Suzhou 15 minutes early because everyone was ready to early.  Such a great group!!!!

We arrived in Suzhou and visited the Number 1 Silk Mill in Suzhou.  Tony bought some bold silk ties, I bought a blue and gold silk tie for former UTC Chancellor Fred Obear, and some silk souvenirs for friends back home.  This Silk Mill was a delightful place to learn about the process of making silk products from silkworms and buying silk items for great prices.  Fun times!  Our guide took us to a museum where they have artwork made from silk embroidery, and where was one silk artwork room divider made by one of the “masters” that currently sells for more than $300,000.  Holy cow!  Then we had lunch before visiting the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou, which is considered to be the finest garden in all of Southern China.  I have seen many gardens around the world, and this garden is truly something to behold.  I think something that struck me was the many varieties of bonsai trees in this garden. 

Following the garden, we visited the Suzhou Museum.  I don’t the collection in the museum is that noteworthy, but the building was designed by I.M. Pei.  I.M. Pei is an architect who was born in China, received his degree in architecture from MIT, and is known worldwide for his work.  What was interesting before and after these visits was the number of poor Chinese people who followed us to and from the bus trying to sell us water.  These folks were selling water that was clearly put into used bottles.  It alarms that some people must buy this stuff because I cannot imagine these folks would be there every day selling the stuff if some people didn’t buy it.  Considering the fact that the water in China is undrinkable, I couldn’t help but wonder who in the world buys that water?

Anyway, after these visits, we headed to what would be my last meal in China.  We went to another family-style restaurant in Suzhou.  I remember passing a restroom on the way to our tables.  So after setting my things down in my seat, I told Tony I would be running to the restroom and would return shortly.  Ha!  Anyway, the one western-style toilet was taken, and I really had to go, so used one of the 5 available squat toilets.  Remember, you stand on them and squat – you do NOT sit on them! Even with the planning items I brought with me, the squat toilet can be tricky –especially when the users prior have left puddles behind.  So after I took care of business and attempted to leave the stall, I slipped.  My right foot turned inward in a very unnatural position, and I knew my trip was coming to an end.  As I sat there soaked in pee, I thought to myself, “Urine trouble” (See I use puns even in distress!)  I tried to stand, but my right foot was floppy at the end of my leg, and I knew I was in big trouble.  I was all alone in a puddle of pee and feeling frantic.  So I did what any 21^st century woman would do – I took out my Blackberry and started texting anyone I could think of in the dining room who might come to aid.  There’s nothing to shred your dignity like texting your boss to say, “I have fallen in the bathroom and cannot get up.  Please send help.”  

 Alice O’Dea and Tony came to my aid, and soon our guide and the bus driver were helping me hobble back to the dining room.  As my friend Mark told you in his earlier post, the students, especially Spencer Jackson, took outstanding care of me until the ambulance arrived.  I will never be able to adequately thank Spencer for how much effort he exerted to ensure that I had an ice alternative (cold beer bottles) to help reduce swelling.  He was fantastic under pressure!

We were in and out of the hospital in 90 minutes, and as Mark reported, the entire experience only cost us $99.  Since we had to talk them out of performing surgery on my right then, our next “adventure” was figuring out how to get home ASAP. 

We managed to get our flights changed at no charge, so then we had to find a way to get from Suzhou to Shanghai Airport.  Our guide arranged for his company to provide us a car.  We spent an extra night in Suzhou and left early Monday morning for Shanghai.  Once we got to the airport, it was a bit of an ordeal to actually get a wheelchair.  Once we did, however, a very nice lady from Delta wheeled us through Immigration and Security so that we got to our gate in plenty of time.  When they wheeled me down the jet way to get onto the play, there was a step up on to the plan.  The flight attendant grabbed my arm in an attempt to help me, but she pulled wrong and I fell down face first trying to board the plane.  I managed to avoid any further damage to my right leg by breaking the fall with my right knee, so now my right knee is big and swollen.  Damn.

Then I hobbled back to my seat in coach.  The flight attendant took pity on me in my sad condition, and she moved the passenger next to me to another seat so Tony and I an extra seat open in our row.  That gave me a little room to prop up my leg.  I tried.  That said, I still had considerable swelling under my cast when I finally got home.  So when I got home I cut off the cast.  My foot looks awful, but Meg Mahoney (our pet sitter) is also a physical therapy tech, so she has been helping me.  

Saw my doctor this morning, and he has scheduled surgery for tomorrow morning.  He is amazed at what I have endured, but he says he can take care of me.  I will have to be non-weight-bearing for 6 weeks, but I should recover. 

With that sort of time on my hands I hope to keep you all posted about the rest of the trip.  I will post more about what the group is doing.  I am getting messages from them, and I know they are leaving Nanjing today to go to Beijing.  No one is sick, and everyone is still having fun. 

Thanks for all of your kind thoughts, prayers and emails.

Joanie

Bad Aim Brings End to Joanie's Trip

Editor’s Note: I am writing this irreverent account of Joanie’s accident at her request. Instead of bemoaning her misfortune, she wanted to make light of it.

Joanie is a planner. If you looked in her suitcase, you’d find all types of medicines, lotions, and accoutrements that any traveler might need in any situation. Trouble with logistics? Joanie’s probably got a Plan B and Plan C already mapped out, but there’s one unforeseen nemesis that did her in, a nemesis that led to one of the most unusual travel accidents of all time – urine.

Yep, urine caused Joanie to break her leg, forcing her and Tony to cut short their vacation.

On Tuesday, the trip to China started inauspiciously when the group’s flight was delayed 16 hours due to a mechanical problem, meaning the travelers had to stay overnight in Detroit. The next day, the already weary bunch boarded the plane for a 15-hour flight to Shanghai, China.

With a 12-hour time difference between the U.S. and China, the travelers landed in the afternoon and had been being whisked around from activity to activity ever since.

Now we’ve arrived at the point in the story when the urine made its attack.

During dinner, Joanie decided to visit the bathroom. Overseas bathrooms can be an adventure, especially those with squat toilets. If you’re not familiar with one, there’s nothing to sit on. Instead, the user straddles a hole and relieves him or herself.

The squat toilets are common throughout Asia and have several advantages over Western toilets: they’re easier to clean, cheaper to make, and purportedly offer medical benefits because squatting strengthens pelvic muscles, builds strength in the hips, and improves breathing and concentration.

However, there’s one huge drawback – not all users have good aim, resulting in splatters. See ladies. It isn’t just men who have trouble hitting the target.

Somehow, Joanie slipped and landed on the floor. The second it happened, Joanie said she knew her leg was broken. Unable to get up, she began yelling for help, but no one came. The minutes passed.

Then, the ever-resourceful Joanie came up with an idea. She pulled out her smart phone and texted one of her fellow chaperones to rescue her from the vile floor.

Now, the entire UTC group sprang into action to attend to Joanie until the ambulance arrived. Some of the undergraduate students, who hope to one day study medicine, organized the efforts, calling for ice to be applied to her broken leg, but finding ice in China is as difficult as finding a corn dog.

Hmmmm……where might there be some ice?. 

A couple of students thought of cold beer bottles. Due to the language barrier, the waiters weren’t sure why Joanie would want to guzzle lager under such a set of circumstances, but eventually the message got through. The servers applied the bottles to her leg and, in some cases, poured the chilled beer on top of her leg.

Soon, the ambulance arrived and Joanie was on her way to the hospital, where the x-rays confirmed that her tibia was fractured. The break will require surgery. The doctors offered to do it for her, but Joanie decided it would be best to have the procedure done on her home turf. Instead, the doctors reset her leg and put it in a cast for the return trip.

For those of us overwhelmed with the high costs of medical care in the United States, Joanie wanted me to pass along this bit of information about her accident. When all was said and done, an ambulance crew picked her up at the restaurant and drove her to the emergency room, where doctors x-rayed her leg, reset it, and applied a cast. The final bill was the equivalent of $99 dollars (U.S.)

As I write this narrative, Joanie is getting ready to board a plane for another 15+ hour flight back to the United States, a trip that is difficult enough, even without a cast. She has asked for your prayers. It gets confusing with the time change, so she isn’t sure if she’ll return on Monday or Tuesday.

It’s going to be a long-road to recovery, but I’m positive that Joanie will handle it all in stride in the manner that she always faces adversity – with humor and with faith. 

By the way, parents, don't worry. Even though Joanie and Tony are departing China, your children are still in the very capable hands of the remaining UTC faculty members on the trip.

And so ends what will forever be known as The Great Urine Incident of 2012 or maybe, Joanie’s Calamity in the Commode or ?????????

Our First Full Day in China

Sorry it has taken me so long to post anything. The delay in getting here from Detroit, the lack of sleep on the 15-hour flight, the extreme time change, and non-stop movement since we have been here has really knocked me for a loop. When we got here (on Thursday morning in Shanghai) after the wacky delay in Detroit), many in the group were still wearing the same clothes they started with early Tuesday morning. Nevertheless, we were already on the go -- I am sure Tony already told all about it. We finally managed to beg for 30 minutes to check into the hotel for shower time. We rushed back out for hours more activities, by the end of which most of us were snoozing.

We started again bright and early yesterday -- Friday morning here in Shanghai. Breakfast included things like bacon (which did NOT look like bacon), breakfast intestinal (something more like sausage), frittata (boiled eggs), fried rice, french fries, soups, fried eggs, some fruits, red tea, juice and coffee. Watching the students examine some of the more unusual breakfast offerings was a treat. Then, off again to the Jade Buddha Temple (including a Buddha tea ceremony where many of us bought lots of tea). The Chinese lady demonstrating the different teas at our table spoke no English, but she made very clear to all of us that she thought I needed the tea that helps you lose weight. She kept making motions that indicated this. I bought the tea that helps you wake. She did NOT win me over with her selling technique.

Next, we visited the Shanghai Museum. which houses one of the most important collections of Chinese artifacts in the country. Its 11 galleries contain historic artifacts that range from ancient bronzes and sculpture to Ming and Qing-dynasty furniture and includes exceptional examples of painting and calligraphy. Tony enjoyed looking at the old money and coins, but I really liked looking at the old furniture.

We also visited the Yu Yuan Garden. It was so fantastically beautiful and peaceful. There were lots of tour groups there while we were there, but I asked our tour guide if ordinary Chinese go there often just to enjoy it because it is so fabulous, and he said many go there just to meditate. I hope to find more time later to tell about it.

We spend a lot of time racing from place to place and then lots of time eating. So far, all of our lunches and dinners have been served family-style on lazy-susan type tables. China is not a place for picky eaters or people who are afraid to eat things they do not recognize. Fortunately, we do not have many picky eaters in the group, and I think we are largely over-stuffed. Our tour guide is making sure we all have plenty of fresh water to drink (although I would enjoy a TaB or even a Diet Coke right now), but no one is sick, and we are all well, yet exhausted. We are leaving Shanghai today to head to Suzhou. Once we get to Suzhou, I hope to find some time to tell you more about Friday's activities as well as today's. That said, check-out is looming, and I must run.

Just know we are well, and we are seeing a lot and learning a lot, and the students are really learning how to bargain in the markets. They are going to come home with some interesting items and even more interesting stories.

An Unexpected Sleepover in Detroit

Sorry about the sketchy nature of this report, but Joanie and I are both exhausted.  We promise to post more complete entries going forward.

Our group arrived safely in Shanghai at about 10:30 AM local time, which is 12 hours' difference from US Eastern time.  Our flight was delayed 16 hours due to a mechanical problem, which we are certainly grateful that they discovered on the ground instead of at 33,000 feet. They put us up at various motels near the airport and gave us $50 spending vouchers each, so no complaints from me.

I can't speak for Joanie, but our flight over was very interesting for several reasons:

Airlines usually take a "great circle" route on long-distance flights.  If you picked up a piece of string to make a straight line on a globe between two cities on different continents, chances are that line would look very different than a straight line you would draw on a flat map.  But the string line using the globe would be the shorter route, and often (for flights in the Northern hemisphere) the route will take the plane much further north than one would normally think necessary.  Our flight from Detroit to Shanghai took us to within less than one degree of the North Pole (89 degrees, 6 minutes north latitude to be exact, according to the flight tracker).  By my rough calculations this meant we were only about sixty miles from the Pole.  When we reached that point Joanie yelled out the window, "HEY SANTA!  WHY DIDN'T I GET THAT BIKE I WANTED WHEN I WAS NINE YEARS OLD, YOU &%$#&*@#!  No doubt Mrs. Claus' ears turned red from the invective.  So much for the Delicate Southern Flower award.  Unfortunately there was too much cloud cover to see anything, which seemed to be the case for just about the entire flight.  Was all of the Northern Hemisphere cloudy today?

Another source of amusement on the flight was watching the flight tracker map as our plane crossed into Russian airspace, traveling south from the Arctic Ocean and crossing the north Siberian coast.  Watching it on the map (with the little airplane icon) kind of reminded me of the scene in "Dr. Strangelove" when the "big board" in the War Room shows the B-52s in General Ripper's bomb wing approaching their targets in the Soviet Union.  "General Turgidson, how soon did you say the planes would penetrate Russian radar cover?"  "About, uh, eighteen minutes from now, sir..."

I also got a kick out of the fact that we flew directly over Lake Baikal, in eastern Siberia not far from Mongolia, and that I was able to catch a brief glimpse of it.  Lake Baikal holds several records-it is the oldest (25 million years), deepest (over 5,000 feet deep at it deepest point), and largest lake in the world in terms of volume.  One or two of the Great Lakes may cover a larger surface area but no freshwater lake holds more water.  Lake Baikal has 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water.

The North Pole and Lake Baikal in one day-not a bad haul.

Anyway, things have gone pretty smoothly since we arrived.  It was surprisingly easy to go through Chinese immigration/customs, our guide and bus were waiting for us, and we had no trouble getting to downtown Shanghai.  We had a family-style lunch (served with both forks and chopsticks-I think all of us opted for the chopsticks) that was, to me, somewhat similar to what you might get at a Chinese restaurant in the US-rice with egg, egg drop soup, sweet and sour chicken, beef and peppers, bok choy, etc.  The amount of food was quite a lot considering that it was lunch.  The one item at lunch that I don't think most of us have seen before was a fish complete with head and tail (although the head was cut off and placed on the serving plate separately).  I didn't try it (I don't like my food staring back at me), but it looked like a sweet and sour type dish.  Joanie, ever the adventurous eater, tried part of the tail.

We then attended a tea tasting that everyone seemed to enjoy, including me, although I am not much of a tea drinker.  After that we checked into our hotel.  I opted to stay at the hotel and sleep, but Joanie joined the rest of the crowd for a visit to the Botanical Garden, followed by dinner (which Joanie reports was similar to lunch) and a circus-type acrobat show.  Up at 6 AM Friday for some new adventures, for which your humble correspondent will turn over the keyboard to Joanie to report.

The Journey is About to Begin

We leave for China in less than 24 hours, and we have already encountered our first (and we hope only) glitch.

Every trip generally presents us with the chance to use one of our UHON mottos, which is "flexibility." Well, last night near midnight, as Tony and I traveled home from South Carolina, I received a series of emails informing me that because of illness, Dr. Guo will not be accompanying us on our trip. Dr. Guo was the only member of our travel party who speaks Chinese, so now we will be traveling to China as a group with no one in the group who speaks Chinese except for a freshman who took Chinese in high school and a little in her first year of college. This promises to be a true adventure!

Nevertheless, we are confident the folks at Nanjing University will make sure that we have English-speaking tour guides to look out for us and to keep us out of trouble.

We are are learning basic phrases that should help us with basic needs, and I am certain we will have some great stories. Please feel free to share the blog with other friends and family. In the meantime, remember that English-speaking blogs are blocked in China, so a friend of ours in Dalton, Georgia will be making our posts for us after we email him our activities. Ideally, he can also email us any questions you have.