China Day 7 Aaron's Perspective

So on this journey in the land of enlightenment, I have come up with a new theory of relativity 

 E = mc² 

So for you laymen, let me explain. That is Energy = Me Centered squared. It’s really pretty simple – the more I focus on me, the greater my energy output seems to be to me, but it is completely relative to my point of view, in other words it’s how I perceive the amount of Energy I have expended. Got it? So let’s use today as an example.

This morning we were up early, little man slept well but not as long as the previous night due to a late nap yesterday. Hey, no problem though he can hold it together because after all we are going to see the Terra Cotta warriors today and every 22 month old who has been recently adopted by strange looking people after spending their life in a crib and who has a serious heart defect wants to head out for the 3^rd straight day in the hot weather to see some statues. Duh!

After a 30 minute ride and around 50+ honks by our driver (the boys and I counted – we are working on a new theory for describing how far a place is within a Chinese city with the new unit Honk – ie “How long to get to Pizza Hut?” – “At this time of day – at least 25 honks”). Anyways, we arrived at a factory that makes Terra Cotta warrior replicas and after a brief but interesting tour of how they mold the clay and how hot and long they cook the statues, it was 3 rooms of really impressive things to buy. Some truly impressive Terra Cotta statues, some gorgeous lacquered furniture and some globes that were simply amazing. We passed on everything - we had bought a few statues the previous day at the historic museum.

From there we headed up to the Terra Cotta warriors. The view was magnificent – the mountains just seemed to go straight up. The tour consisted of 3 sites that had been built around the excavation of the Terra Cotta warriors. The pictures just don’t do the sites justice. It is simply amazing the detail and the number of statues that were created for just part of the 1^st emperor’s mausoleum – but when you put 700,000 people to work on a project, things tend to get done.

All in all the tour took a couple of hours and JT was not as excited about it as he should have been, again every 22 month old who has been recently adopted by strange looking people after spending their life in a crib and who has a serious heart defect wants to head out for the 3^rd straight day in the hot weather to see some statues.

After the statues and lunch at Subway (where my daughter had here Didi buy her a $7 cup of ice cream – Mom is not great at working out the conversion, the locals love her). We headed back to the hotel, thoroughly exhausted because of carrying JT and a bag for JT and JT’s sister You You who might need the carrying more for attention than tiredness.

At the hotel, I had to wait on the laundry man before I could get a cup of coffee. When he showed, I learned that I had just paid $100 to get some laundry done. Boy, I was excited because I knew that for $100 my clothes were really clean (yes, it will be the sink and some Tide the rest of the trip). Finally, we headed out for some coffee while my wife and JT attempted to lay down. After store 1 was closed, we got some coffee at store 2, only to discover it was some sweet coffee like product that was disposed of after 1 sip. So new plan, ask the concierge where in the world is a Starbucks. It took a while but we finally got directions so Mom, Dad and I head to Four Bucks.  After a 20 minute hot and sticky walk nothing sounded better than a tall cup of hot coffee – addictions can be powerful.

It turns out we had walked all the way to the Mall where there was a Wal-Mart so we decided to look for some things we needed. After 30 minutes of milling around we passed on the fresh chicken’s feet, bought nothing and left.

Upon returning to the hotel, our long absence had not gone unnoticed. It turns out that JT thought only a 15 minute power nap was needed so he could recharge his fussiness and my wife didn’t look all the happy. After a brief discussion about dinner where I really didn’t want to go anywhere to get anything but I knew it had to be done, it was decided we would just go and get some Chinese food from a nearby restaurant – Mom and I went.

There was an English menu but not much selection on the 20 pages. It turns out there is no Broccoli and Beef or Sesame Chicken in China but there were live frogs, fishes, and turtles prepared pretty much in every way imaginable. So we picked 2 of the least adventurous looking entrees and lots of rice, waited 20 minutes and headed back with the food.

The entrees were a flop, but we made do with the rice, some apples and some chips. No time to digest, it was bath time for JT, and of course, I locked us out of our room. Got a new key, got the boy a bath, got him some food and some medicine for his cough and for what appears to be a painful looking bug bite on his foot. After all of that, I was finally able to shower and I was glad this long day that had taken so much effort was coming to a comfortable end – then it hit me. I was tired, but I got to choose to see the Terra Cotta warriors, and I enjoyed it. I had to carry lots of stuff and heavy kids, but I had a body that is healthy and able to do so. I must have walked several miles today, but I did get some coffee from four bucks and get to spend time with my parents and my family all day.

Now as I change my focus to JT instead of me – he suffered today. It was hot and he was tired. He got bit by a bug of some sort that caused a painful looking mark. He has been on the go for 3 straight days and he is not healthy. Seems pretty clear now who really gave the most energy/effort today. Tomorrow, some of us will go tour the city wall, but JT and Mom are going to hang back and enjoy the air conditioned room and a much slower paced day. Dad is going to continue to work on lowering the E = mc²