Good-Bye Thailand, Hello Hong Kong!

Last night we checked into "Horizon Suites" which is aparment style housing, and I'm rooming with two other guys. One I get along with great, the other dated Hayley for two years -- the drama shall prove to be very exciting I shall say! After arriving last night about 19:00, we went to a shopping mall and bought lots of food and groceries since we have a small kitchen and a few appliances. Then I Hayley and I went out to dinner at this small restaurant. I mention this for two unique reasons - one, the restaurant was open until 2:00 in the morning which we thought was cool and thus closed the place down; and two, the waitress was really nice and picked us out two great traditional and popular chinese dishes. Let me say, chinese food here is NOT american-chinese food, and I don't know what I'll do when we come home and there is no chinese-chinese food to be eaten! haha. Anyways, tomorrow we tour the Chinese University where we will be studying "Arts of China" for the next month.

Now let me regress... On November 11th we flew from Bangalore to New Delhi, and I was able to meet up with Morgan, Alexis, and Robyn! Ahhhh! So much fun was had! Hayley and I spent the evening/night with them at a restaurant and then a roof top for tea. It was good to catch up, swap stories, and share adventures. We left Delhi at 1:00 in the morning on November 14th, and landed in Bangkok, Thailand at about 7:00 in the morning.

The first two days in Bangkok were spent touring and seeing the city - loved it! Thailand has been my favorite country so far I think, and we were only there for one week! ((I'm sure I will love HK just as much.)) The following day Hayley, Lianna, Chris and I left for Koh Chang (an island about a 40 mintues plane ride southeast of Bangkok) for our fall break for a week - the entire group split off and did whatever they wanted... We had bungalows which were right against the water overlooking the beautiful Sea of Thailand (as we liked to call it) which faced west -- providing some of the most gorgeous sunsets I've ever seen. ((All this for about US $20 a person per night -- we've learned things are very cheap in many parts of the world; just not Europe!)) We spent a week there together at an Island resort including elephant trekking! By far one of the COOLEST expierences of my life. We were able to ride on the elephants head! And also get in the water and swim with the elephants. It was so amazing! I've decided I love Pai Tai, a traditional Thai dish served with everything from chicken to pork to seafood. And after a week on the island, we came back to Bangkok for a fun night at an exciting market place. Pictures to follow -- I hope!

Side notes: I got all my classes that I wanted so I was VERY excited about that (props to Papa Schantz for being my proxy and doing my registering). Also, I exciting thing for the past week was inducing Malaria in myself (took too many Malarone, the anti-Malaria medicine which works by giving you a little bit of the disease to act as an anti-body to help fight off an infection...) Anyways, I was bed ridden for two days in Bangkok with a 102 degree fever and all the works that go along with it....but I must say Thai clinics are amazing and give very good - albeit sketchy - medicine. I was ok for a couple days, then decided to go into remission half way through vacation and puked instead of being able to go diving :-( not cool... But, I am alive and well, all better for the wears and tears and feeling 100% so have no worries!

I miss you all very much, I am very excited for the last two months of this big adventure but also excited to return home and see everyone. Lots of love and good thoughts in your directions from the other side of the world!

CM

PS. HK is 14 hours ahead of CST.

Religions in India

So here I am in India taking a class on the "Religions of India", and obviously we are hearing many conflicting view points and facts, etc. when it comes to Hinduism or Jainism or Sikhism. And I was thinking, I should be more understanding because how could I ever hope to explain Christianity to a bunch of foreigners in a two hour lecture!? Not to mentio nall the sects of Christianity that exist today. So I thought I'd compile a list (in no particular order):

- Lutheran (ELCA)
- Lutheran (Missouri Synod)
- Southern Baptist
- American Baptist
- Protestant
- CatholicEvangelical
- Greek Orthodox
- Roman Orthodox
- Unitarian
- Universalist
- Anglican
- Memonite
- Anabaptist
- Non-denominational
- Follower of Jesus (Red-Letter Christian)
- Fundamentalists
- Presbyterian
- Quaker
- Mormom (LDS)
- Methodist
- Episcapalian
- Secularist

Yea...exactly my point...

- CM

Mysore, India

As far as the latest in India goes, we just returned from a two day trip to Mysor which is about five hours north of Bangalore. We saw an amazingly beautiful palace built about two hundred years ago for some dude in the 24th dynasty of something -- couldn't really understand the guides broken English... But the point is, the palace was sweet! We also went to a bird sanctuary, and as we were getting into the boats to go check it out the guides were like, "Don't put your fingers in the water there are crocadiles!" And we were like, ok whatever...I hope we see one?? haha probably not. Well, not only did we see one crocodile, we saw...I don't know to be honest I stopped counting - maybe 15-20?!? Ranging in size from 4 - 12 feet long, we got CLOSE. Scary close. And then I saw one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my entire life. There was a bird in the water minding its own business, and out of nowhere this croc starts cruising towards - going maybe 30 - 40 mph just sneakin up on this bird and then BAM! snatches it and drags it under!! -- I'm talking Planet Earth quality footage here from maybe 30 or 40 feet away -- I mean, this was ridiculous!! I still haven't gotten over it. Soooo cool. Anyways, it made a ten hour bus ride to and from Mysor (which was itself pretty boring) totally worth while.

Exams are on Monday so we will start preparing "intensely" for those as well.

- CM

Looking Back on Cairo.

First, I want to share some thoughts on Cairo and Egyptian culture that I never got around to posting (both positive and negative, and some ironies); and also I want to list a few things that when I arrived in Cairo thought were CRAZY! and by the time I left took them for granted (similar to what my cousin Alexis did in a previous blog post a few months ago)...

- the most obvious is crossing the streets (there are no stop lights/stop signs and very little if any actual driving laws)...to cross, you just step out into traffic and hope the taxis stop on time (no joke); also, it helps to keep walking because then cars will aim to miss you...it's quite ridiculous and took some getting used to
- a culture devoted to prayer, where Islam is not just a religion but a way of life
- Koran in the door of a lingerie store
- walking down the street seeing women from being completly covered and veiled to much more contemporary outfits with bright colors, jeans and head scarves
- cell phones in the desert on camal rides
- having to go through metal detectors at every tourist site which our useless (they always go off and the guards just wave you through)
- guards with AK-47s who are usually sleeping
- people always reading their Koran
- corruption and poor work ethic (the tourist police would often give "tours" in which they would point to a red painting and say this is red, etc, - NOT exageratting - and then demand a tip for their "services")
- people won't help you without asking for a tip (difference between business friendships and genuine friendships are quite different, as I met some very nice and amicable people in Egypt)
- restoratio nwork to monuments (using technology)
- American restaurants (McD's, Pizza Hut, KFC, Chili's)

- CM

President Elect Barack Obama

I never thought I would hear the words. We woke up at about four o'clock this morning to start watching election coverage from our hotel room in Mysor, India. I must say, I am still in complete disbelief. This is truly a moment in history. A day that we will tell our kids about. Sixty years ago black couldn't go to the same school as whites, drink out of the same drinking fountains, sit in the same seats on a bus, or eat in the same restaurants...and today we have elected an African-American to be the leader of the most powerful country in the World. I just want to scream and cry and scream some more. I feel the fruit of my efforts over the past two years culminating in this one great moment. I cannot begin to fathom how much better our country will be in the future, and what this holds for my life as I enter my third decade of existance.

The mood here in India is positive - basically everyone suppots Obama; which is ironic because McCain would most likely be the better President in regards to India because of his positions on out-sourcing and free-market capitalism. Regardless, I am very excited and cannot wait for what the future holds. I think I will now move my American flag pin from the inside of my backpack to the outside. Finally, I can say that I am PROUD to be an AMERICAN.

- CM