Thursday, September 04, 2008
36 hours!
It is crazy to think that in 36 hours I will be standing in an airport Beijing, China. I am mainly writing this blog to make sure I know how to before I head across the world. This week has been one of the busiest of my entire life, it has been busier than then first week of school or rush week, even finals week. This week of orientation is one of the scariest and most exciting things I have experienced, and that’s just the week of orientation. Getting everything in order has been one of the most stressful things. I mean how do you pack and make sure you have everything you need for the next 3 and 1/2 Months! Everyone I have talked too is sooo ready just to get on that plane. It is weird to think I am coming down to my last couple of hours left with my friends, at my school and America. I am sorry I don’t have any pictures posted yet but as soon as I touch down in Beijing I am sure I will flood my blog with pictures. I am writing in between classes so now I am headed to learn how to speak the language of Chinese in the next 45 minutes but I will try and post one more time before I leave and I am sure that one will be a little more frantic than this one. Until then…sayonara!
-Sam Wardell
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Our Journey begins…
I am posting these next couple of Blogs late because I have had some problem connecting to the internet but i will try and keep these updated as much as possible…..
Our journey started with the hardest part of our trip so far and that was saying goodbye. But as soon as the doors closed on the bus there was no turning back now. As I was sitting on the bus on our way to the airport I was just staring out the front window trying to comprehend what were about to happen. We arrived at the airport and jumped on our first plane and flew out of Oklahoma City and headed to Denver. From Denver we caught our Flight to Los Angeles. Now, I have already had two milestones in my life 1.) This is the most airplanes I have been on in my entire life 2.) this is my first time to ever to visit California. After sitting in the L.A. airport for a few hours we boarded our monster flight, a 15 hour flight all the way to Hong Kong. After all this traveling we had done in the last day, I was asleep before the plane even took off. It was hard for me to sleep on the plane because it wasn’t very comfortable and my mind was racing. After watching several in-flight movies and eating who knows what of airplane goop, we arrived in Hong Kong. With a short walk through the airport we were on the flight to Beijing. From the moment we landed in Beijing a smile has not left my face. On our drive to our school we are staying at, Capital Normal University, we drove by the Birds Nest and the Water Cube we all were glued to the window as we stared at this amazing city. I am so excited to see what Beijing holds for us.
Capital Normal University
This place is amazing!! I will try and include everything that we have experienced in the last few hours but there is sooo much to tell. It seems that there has not been a second of the trip that someone wasn’t saying, “Ahh look at that!” We were received by a lady named Katherine who is our guide and liaison to Capital Normal University and gave us a tour of the school and our Dormitory. Our Dorm is gigantic! It holds students from all over the world and I met several people from Russia, Italy, Germany, England and India, including places all over China. Next, she showed us our classroom, a small room with about 18 desks with two computers at each. Every day we have a new professor from the university come and teach us over a topic about Chinese History. Then, Katherine showed us the most important part of the campus, the Japanese restaurant located in our dorm. Our group ate dinner here and everything I tasted was amazing. My mom would be very proud of me for all the things I have eaten and things I have actually enjoyed. Our dinner consist of fried rice, pork, curry, squid, fried chicken, onions and cows tongue (Cou’s Tongue). I still have so much to tell but I will try and break it all up so I don’t end up writing an entire novel just about our very first day. More to come and hopefully I will be able to post pictures soon but the internet is very slow on campus so those might have to wait. I will also post the link to my Youtube site so you can see the videos so far. Until then… zia jian (goodbye in Chinese)
-Sam Wardell
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Greetings from Beijing
It was an amazing feeling waking up in Beijing and everyone had this energy about them since we had a huge day ahead of us. My roommates, Jacob Weaver, Jason Oser and Joel Hunt traveled down the street and found a vendor who makes this “thing” on the back of his bicycle. It’s a combination of a pancake and egg with chives and other vegetables with a spicy sauced added. We all waited for our breakfast and while he was making mine a police car turned the corner and he jumped on his bike and booked it down the street. After the cop car passed he stopped and waved us down to him and we found out later its illegal to sell food with a license, which is exactly what he was doing. After I realized he wasn’t stealing my breakfast we headed to class. We attended class and our lecture was over Chinese history, that’s 5000 years of history crammed into 3 hours. After words we broke for lunch, of course I headed back to my favorite restaurant while other explored the city for lunch. The group traveled to our first “field trip”. Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City was our first stop. Tiananmen Square was huge with a ton of people from all over the world taking pictures and posing with the statues and even asking us to pose with them. We walked all the way through the square and headed to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was amazing! I have never seen a place as massive as this city. I did my research project over the Forbidden City and it was cool then, and now that I have been there is was a 100 times better. The structures and buildings were so big and so detailed it was almost overwhelming to see it all. There are 980 buildings in the city and it covers over 720,000 square meters. We traveled all the way through the Forbidden City which took about 3 hours which after words everyone was exhausted. We headed back to the school and most people crashed but I couldn’t sleep knowing China was outside my window. I headed out but I wasn’t sure where to go so I sat on the front steps of our dorm and just watched the city. While I was sitting on the corner a Chinese girl came and sat next to me and we began to talk and ask questions about each other, I mainly asked about Beijing and she mainly asked about me being from Texas. After a while we parted ways but she asked if she could take the group out to her favorite restaurant and of course I accepted because I was going to need a guide in this massive city. I headed to bed with a smile knowing that I had seen so much today and I already made a friend from Beijing. Tomorrow is a big day as well so I am sure I will be blogging about it as well. Everyone loves Beijing, and everyone is safe for those parents that might be worried. Pictures are coming soon don’t worry!
Sam Wardell
Tuesday thru Thursday: “This is an Adventure”
Tuesday thru Thursday: “This is an Adventure”
This week has been the most amazing week of my life! I love Beijing! We have experienced so much this week and we are beginning to realize how truly blessed we are to be on this trip. Tuesday, the group traveled to my favorite place we have visited so far, the Summers Palace. This is where the emperor would come to spend his summer vacation and I can see why. This place was massive as well as we started along a lake and walked for a while and we saw traditional style boats out on the water and the scenery was amazing. It was raining as well which added to the experience. We traveled up Longevity Hill and it seemed that every corner or door we passed my mouth would drop and I was just in awe of this place. I took 250 pictures, that how amazing this place was. We traveled back to the school and I met my Beijing friend, Clarisse, who took the group out and ordered for us and was just an amazing host. We walked back in the rain and that’s the first time I realized I love Beijing. Wednesday we traveled to The Temple of Heaven and got to experience this amazing temple built so they Chinese people could come and worship their God. At the center of the Temple of Heaven was a huge temple that sat on three platforms that raised up and at the top you could see the skyline of Beijing. We walked all the way through the temple and we saw several groups of people playing cards and dancing and singing and playing music and it was very cool to see all these people interact and just have fun. We stopped by a market where I was practically ripped to shreds but a crazy Chinese woman who wanted me to buy a suit from her. I got out of there as fast as I could. Thursday was one of the craziest days of my life! We traveled to the Confucian Temple after we had a class over Confucianism and it was amazing to see this temple built for the followers of this establishment of ideas, I can’t call it a religion because it is technically not one because it’s a collection of ideas and values of a man. We got to see many people worship inside the temple and we received so much information about Confucianism. It was very cool to see it all, but the group was more excited about the Silk Market, mainly the girls. The silk Market is a massive shopping center with everything under the sun but why it is so much fun is because you can bargain the price and its almost like a competition between you and the vendor. After the Silk Market the group was suppose to get back to the University on our own so I traveled with a group that was going to take the subway back. We bought our tickets and you had to swipe them to enter the gate. Everyone got through the gate with no problems except mine. So I was scrambling to get through and finally the gate opens and I run down the stairs just in time to see my friends and my train leaving. So it was official, I was lost in Beijing all alone. I was rushed with tons of different emotions, I was terrified, panicked, worried, excited but in all of this, a quote was stuck in my head. “This is an adventure” from the Steve Zissou in the movie the Life Aquatic just kept playing in my head because that’s exactly what it was. I had no idea how to get back so I just tried to stay calm and I jumped on the train and got off at a station that I thought was right, which it wasn’t. After walking aimlessly for an hour I finally found a person who spoke English and he called a taxi and got me going in the right direction. 45 minutes later I was back at the school safe and sound. After being so stressed and panicked I went to bed right away just being so grateful I wasn’t lost in a city of 14 million people that don’t speak English. So that’s the most of our journeys so far but I will try and keep everyone posted more often but the internet connection here is very poor so it will be awhile till I post pictures. So long for now!
Sam Wardell
Beijing is “Great”
The group has had a big weekend! The group has had a Great weekend if you don’t mind the pun. On Friday we went to the Beijing Zoo and got to see their collection of animals. What I thought was funny that they had raccoons and skunks, animals that we see every day, even on campus, in their zoo. Later that night we met with a man named Gary who is a missionary in China and he is the preacher of a house church in Beijing. We met with him and he puts on an event called English Corner which is a chance for the people of China to speak and practice their English while talking with Christians. We met in a outdoor shopping center and began to sing praise songs, which is very illegal in China and later spoke with a lot of Chinese people. I met a man named Austin, I can’t pronounce his Chinese name talked with him for a long time and it was so cool to interact and hear his opinions on China. I invited him to church on Sunday and he seemed interested in coming so I hope to see him there. We headed back to school because we had a big day ahead of us.
The next day was an amazing day. We traveled to the Great Wall of China! In all of our events and all the places that we have seen this is the first time we have left the city, that’s how big Beijing is! We drove about 2 hours and for it being the Great Wall of China it snuck up on me and almost appeared out of nowhere. I was so excited and so nervous seeing how absolutely amazing and huge the wall was. We all took a picture before hand and it was off to the races after that. About 15 minutes in I was already struggling. Step after step after step…. It was one of the most physically demanding this I have ever done! My cafes were burning and my heart was racing but after 30 minutes of climbing I was seeing some of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. The part of the wall that we climbed was in the mountains south of Beijing and we were surrounded by lush trees and mountains for as far as you could see with Beijing in the background. I take pride because I traveled the farthest out of the group and I spent most of my time alone while I climbed and in my solitude I found a peace that I have never felt before. Everyone loved, and hated, climbing the wall because it was such an incredible feeling to see and touch such a big symbol of China and hated it because we would be feeling the wall in our legs for many days to come. 2 hours wasn’t enough on the wall but I don’t know if anybody could ever get enough of exploring the Great Wall. We traveled back to school without a single person being awake after being worn out at the wall. The experiences we have been apart just this week has already made the trip worth it. More to come later….
Sam Wardell
The group before the trek.
The Great Wall
Christ at work in China…
Today was a big day for the group because we got to experience something that is fairly new China and is a huge stepping stone for not only the people of China but also for the followers of Christ. We woke up very early and attended the Three Self Church which is the first organized Christian church established in China. We attended the service and immediately left and headed to Gary’s house church which was held upstairs in a restaurant owned by one of the members. It was a group of about 15 that was overwhelmed by our group when we arrived. I was so excited to see that Austin had come to the house church and he sat with Jason Oser and myself because we had befriended him on Friday night. Gary gave a sermon in English while a woman translated in Chinese. We sang songs in Chinese or tried to sing song in Chinese and after the sermon was over we just scooted the chairs around and pulled out tables and ate lunch altogether. After a huge lunch, all 26 of us traveled to Gary’s apartment and crammed into his little living room and most of us passed out on his wood floors because we have not had a chance to rest since we have arrived. After a 2 hour nap, a very uncomfortable nap, we went to a acrobat show and it was amazing. To see the strength and talent displayed was so cool. After the show all the guys joked that we needed to start working out so by the end of the trip we could look like the performers. Our group is really starting to mesh well and we all enjoy each other’s company and we are getting pretty good at making fun of each other as well. I have said it before and I will say it again, I love Beijing. I am going to have some other members of the group write a blog about the churches we went today because it was such an amazing experience and I didn’t get anywhere close to explaining how important that was to be a part of. Plus I am sure everyone is getting sick of only hearing from me so I will ask the group to take some time and write an entry if they would like. Again, I apologize for not have any pictures uploaded but I promise I will flood my blog as soon as I get a chance. Keep checking back for new blogs from some of the other members. If you have any questions or messages that you would like have delivered to your kids or friends post a comment and I will do my best to answer the questions and deliver the messages. Thanks everyone who has been reading. More to come soon….
Sam Wardell
My apologies…
I would like to apologize to everyone who has been counting on these blogs for updates on the trip. I have been working my hardest to upload as many as I can along with pictures but the internet in China is not the most reliable. I will do my best to work with what I have. In the mean time, click here for a link to everyone’s photos. I enjoy reading everyone’s comments so far and again if you have any messages for the group i would be happy to deliver them. Thanks everyone!
Sam Wardell
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Xi’an Limited
We are sitting in the Xi’an train station waiting for a our 20 hour train to head out to Shanghai so I thought I would catch everybody up on what we have been up to the past few days in Xi’an and the end of Beijing. The last few days of Beijing we got to experience the Hutong Village and Climb Fragrant Hill, which was an excellent way to end our time in Beijing. We took an overnight train from Beijing to Xi’an and we were put in some small quarters as 4 people shared a room that was about 6ft x 6ft, so it was a little crammed. We arrived in Xi’an on Friday morning and from the moment we stepped off the train, we didn’t stop until we laid in our bed that night. We hussled off the train and met with our guide who took us to a good ole American breakfast at Mcdonalds. We headed out to the Shanxi Museum and saw artifacts from all of the dynasties of China, including the Qin Dynasty, the very first dynasty of China. We left and headed to lunch at our first Hot Pot. This is where they set a big bowl of boiling broth in front of you and cook whatever they place on your plate, which most of the time we had no idea what it was. We ate, tofu, kelp (seaweed), some sort of beef and vegetables. We left there and went to the Wild Goose Pagoda, which is the first Buddhist Temple in China. This temple towered 7 stories and could be seen for miles. We then went a water curtain show. At the water curtain show they had several fountains that would spray water into the air and they would shine lasers and lights into it. It was a very impressive show. The next day we headed to the 8th wonder of the world, the Terra-Cotta soldiers. The Terra-cotta soldiers was a collection of statues from the emperor Qin Shangxia and this massive collection of statues were buried under ground because the emperor thought that when we died he would control his legion underneath the Earth. It was so cool to see these statues preserved and how important they are to the people in Xi’an. We even got a group picture with the man who discovered the soldiers! On Sunday, we traveled to the Bell and Drum towers that are in the center of the City and after words we did a little shopping. I think the most fun we have had, and most people would agree, was when we traveled out to the country to visit a village outside of Xi’an. We arrived and were greeted by our “moms” that lead us for to our home for the night. Josh Murrilo, Skylar Thomas, Joel Hunt and myself shared a mom and she was a great host and we were so impressed by her home and how beautiful it was. It was the first peace and quiet we got since we have arrived in China. She fed us and show us our rooms and she tried to communicate with us but it was more like a game charades, which was actually fun! The group toured the city and got to see the rural side of the country that wasn’t covered in smog. As we walked down an ally we heard a huge roar and a mass of children came tearing around the corner to greet us at the front of the school. We were just as excited to play with the children as they were to see us. Each child grabbed one of us and took us to their classroom where they showed us their paintings and they also sang for us. The kids were amazing and so much fun to play with. We left the school a little broken hearted because the group wanted to stay and play. We traveled to an orchid and got to pick some apples and pairs to eat but after that, the real fun started. We ate dinner with our families and then headed out to the “dance party” they had set up for us. All the women in the village came out and performed some traditional dances for the group, and even dragged a few of us in to dance with them. Then it was our turn and we wowed the crowd with dances like the electric slide, Macarena, and of course, the hokie pokie. It was so much fun to get out and “dance” with the families of the village. We were sad to leave this morning as we had grown attached to our new “moms” but we had to leave so we can catch our train to Shanghai. Everyone is really enjoying the trip and we are getting really excited for Japan as we got a taste of what our host families will be like. More to come from Shanghai…!!!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
So Long China….Hello Japan!!!
Well I just arrived in Japan!!! It was such an amazing trip and I am so excited to be in Japan, though I am sad to leave China. Our last days in China were spent in Shanghai, the biggest city in the world with about 28 million people! The city was massive and this was our first chance to have some free time that the group spent differently. I spent my time in Shanghai relaxing, after the non-stop touring we did in Xi’an I needed a break and some time to catch my breath. We traveled around a district in the Time Square of Shanghai and we saw some of the most expensive stores in the world like Ashton Martin Dealership (that’s James Bond’s car) Gucci, anything that was fancy Italian named, and everything you could imagine. A few members of the group took a trip to a small town got to experience what is called “The Venice of China” while other took a trip to Old Shanghai. It was a great feeling to be able to travel on our own for the first time. We woke up this morning super excited to jump on a plane to Japan though. This was the first time I have sat by the window in a plane and my eyes were glued to the sights below for about 2 hours. It was so cool look down into the ocean to see these tiny islands pop up and just seem to be splashes of green in a mat of the darkest color of blue I have ever seen. We arrived and stood inline at customs FOREVER but once we got through it was smooth sailing to our hostel, which is amazing. The hostel is so nice and it is housing people from all over the world, I was mainly excited for the free wireless Internet so I could blog more often without the Chinese government censoring everything! Japan is going to be great and I should post another blog tomorrow because we are going to be experiencing Hiroshima! Check back later for another blog and some pictures. Thanks!
Sam Wardell
Monday, September 29, 2008
Tales from Japan
Hello everyone! Well, we have had a crazy couple of days since we have arrived in Kyoto! I told you in my last blog that the group was headed to Hiroshima on Sunday but we had some bad luck strike our group. One of our members has developed a problem with his pancreas and was hospitalized the same day and has been there ever since. He is getting treated now and will be ok but he must be hospitalized for a few days. We have also had some minor colds being passed around the group so your prayers for our health and our friend in the hospital would be much appreciated. Today, we made it to Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bomb. It was an emotional day as we walked through the memorial and museum as we were informed of what happened that day. To see the destruction that the bomb caused was a gruesome and powerful sight. We saw the before an after pictures of the town and even spoke with a survivor of the bomb. It was a very emotional experience to see the devastation of war and it amazing thing that we get to see Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor as well. The things we get to experience on this trip truly are life changing! We are headed out of Kyoto tomorrow so I will be writing from Tokyo next. Until then, God bless!
Sam Wardell
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Hello Tokyo!
Hello everyone! We are sitting in hostel in TOKYO, JAPAN! Tokyo is such a cool city and we have seen so much since we have been here. We arrived yesterday afternoon and after dropping off our stuff at our hostel we headed to the Akiharbara district, which is a very cool district with a ton of restaurants and electronic stores. After grabbing some curry and rice, one of my favorite Japanese dishes because it combines both flavors of Japan and some good ole fashion southern cooking, we headed back to the hostel because it had been a really long day of traveling. This morning we woke up and went to the Imperial Garden for our first tour in Tokyo. It was a very interesting place and reminded me a lot of our trip to the Summers Palace in China because it had the same style of architecture of the palace plus it was raining here just like it was the day we visited the Summers Palace. It has been raining quite a bit in Japan I really have enjoyed the rain because it sets this mood for our travels and really enwraps you in the culture and history of the places we are visiting, I feel that the rain is one of our themes to our trip. We have a huge day ahead of us as some of the group is headed out in the morning to Climb Mt. Fuji and from what we have heard this is no easy task. We will take a train for few hours and when we arrive at Fuji we will climb over night to reach the summit to watch the sun rise, it should be an amazing experience, that’s if I am tough enough to reach the top. Well, I should have some stories to tell tomorrow, that’s if I survive, but until then, keep check back. So long everyone! Pictures coming soon!
Sam Wardell
Friday, October 03, 2008
PacRim 08 conquers Mt. Fuji
Hello everyone! I am now sitting in my hostel after a 29 hour day full of traveling and mountain climbing. Thursday morning, a group of 14 set out to conquer the 14,000 ft Mt. Fuji! We assembled about noon on Thursday and took several trains and subways to reach the base of Fuji. We arrived about 5 o’clock in the afternoon and after a mix up we found out we had to take a taxi up to the base instead of a bus so we gathered our money and after a quick trip to a local clothes store (that’s right, I didn’t bring warm clothes and I just hoped that they would have some pants and gloves there) and we were off. We rode our taxi in the black of night and we weren’t even sure where the mountain was because it was so dark but we winded back and forth up to the 5th station on Fuji. We stopped and gathered our group together and bought a few last supplies like food and flashlights and said a prayer and we were on our way up the mountain. It was pitch black on the way up the mountain and we could only see the dots of light coming from the few flashlights that we had. We climbed and climbed and the higher we got the colder it got, and it got pretty darn cold. It obvious that we were they only ones on the mountain at time for several reasons 1. It was out of season to climb the mountain 2. It was 8 o’clock at night when we started 3. It was pitch black and there were no lights on the mountain. We climbed up to the 7th stations were the group gathered back together and we found a thermometer that said it was 0 degree’s Celsius and we were only a fourth of the way up. Here is where the group started to drop off and our group of 14 dropped down to 9 and we were a very determined group. The higher we climbed the colder we got and the crazier we got. I am pretty sure we were suffering from altitude sickness because we were laughing at the stupidest things and ever time we took a break we would huddle up and dance to get our blood moving through us again. I wish I could describe the scenery but it was pitch black and about half way up the mountain my head lamp burned out so I was now climbing Mt. Fuji blind. As I literally crawled up the mountain I began to see specks of white appear realized that we were about to trudging through snow to reach the summit. The higher we got the mountain had more specks of brown rocks than white snow, it looked like a Oreo landslide. We ascended the last 200 meters and we were climbing over boulders and ice patches but there was no way our group was going to give up. We reached the summit at 3 o’clock in the morning, that’s 7 hours of solid climbing in temperatures that reached about 10 degrees with the wind chill. We were going to wait there until the sun rose at 4:30 so we huddled together as close as we could in hopes to stay warm. After an hour we couldn’t stay an longer on the summit for fear of our health so we headed to a lower station and watched as the sun slowly peaked its head over the clouds. It was truly one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen in my entire life. We stood and watched for another 30 minutes and after that we had had enough of the mountain and we were just eager for a bed and some hot food! We started out decent and it seemed to last forever as we climbed down. We arrived at the base about 9:30 in the morning on Friday and called for a taxi and it was a struggle just to keep our eyes open as we headed back to the train stations. This was one of the, if not, the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life and I would do it again in a second, well maybe not a second, but I would come back next year and conquer Fuji again. This experience to climb this amazing mountain and see the beauty of our God is amazing and I honored to say that I was part of the summit team. I encourage anyone who interested in the PacRim program to sign up immediately because the things you will experience will truly shape your life! We have an amazing God and his creation is beautiful! May God bless your life as he has blessed our. We get our Japanese host families tomorrow so I am sure I will have plenty to share so check back soon. Right now I am going to get some sleep after not being to sleep for about 30 hours now, 
so long everyone!
Sam Wardell
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Welcome to the family!
I am now a proud member of the Sano family! On Saturday we left Tokyo and traveled to Ibaraki Christian College where we would be attending school for the next month AND joining our host families that we have been so eager/nervous to meet. We took a two-hour bus ride to Ibaraki and had a short orientation of our classes and the campus and then we played the waiting game for our families to come. One by one the families filed in and I just sat and waited for a while until someone told me that my family might not be able to make it in time to pick me up. I was actually really sad that they were not coming but I still had hope that they would come. I sat and waited for a little while longer and then I heard my name being called from the back of the room and I turned to see my host family with big smiles across their face and I knew right there and then that I would love my family! My “mom” name is Remiko and she has three boys named Takane who is 11, Ryo who is 9, and my little buddy, Kei who is 6. We gathered my things and on the way out Kei held my hand all the way to the car. We drove to my home for the next couple of weeks and it is a beautiful home that reminds me of San Francisco with the narrow streets and the big hills and the houses crunched together, oh and it has an amazing view of the ocean as well. I met my host dad at the home and their dog sherry. They took me to Mcdonalds for lunch and then my dad, Kei, Sherry and myself went for a walk of the beach. It was so amazing to walk along these beautiful beaches and feel the wind coming off the ocean. The water is beautiful here with some really big waves; I just wish it wasn’t to cold to swim! I returned home and ate my very first sushi meal and it was so good, I found out I really love sushi! I was still recovering from Mt. Fuji so I went to bed very early but I felt so comfortable here and it feels so good to have a home again, at least for a little while! I will have plenty of stories to tell so check back often. Sayonara!
Sam Wardell