Note: this post was written by my mother.

I’m not sure if there is a conspiracy going on in the family to do away with me. When I forgot my passport upon leaving Germany, Ross drove at an extra-ordinary fast speed, faster than anyone on the Autobahn. I asked him if he was getting back at me for all the “mother-in-law” annoyances through the years. That trip was BAD, but it pales to my experience today!

Lance took me to the Great Wall of China, dropped me off and said, “You can do it!” THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! You must be kidding! He wasn’t, so I started my climb up the Wall. Was this his great plan to get me back for all the annoying “Mothering” of his youth? You might be interested to know that I did just fine. I even rode a toboggan back to the starting point with the skill of an olympic athlete, with Lance recording this remarkable event on his expensive camera.

If this seems like a Disney Movie or perhaps a Twilight Zone episode, it isn’t. When I go to bed tonight I’d like to be a fly on the wall (NOT THAT WALL!) to watch my dreams unfold. They should be something else!

If Lance’s itinerary doesn’t settle down, I may not make it out of China in one piece. So goes my remarkable life.

LOVE, MOM

Many online stores will only ship to the United States and Canada. But this website claims to have a way to trick most automatic shipping systems into shipping your purchases to other countries too:

1. Enter the complete address, including the country and zip code, in the address field (using the extra lines that are provided).
2. Enter “Canada” as the country along with a valid Canadian city and zip code.
3. When you package arrives in that city, the postal workers see it’s a mistake and forward it to you.

I’m not necessarly advocating this practice … but I’m curious if it would really work. I’m tempted to go onto Amazon and make a $5 order!

On mom and dad’s first full day in China, we decided to start out slow. After a full night’s sleep, we met at 10am for breakfast in the hostel. For some reason, I felt as tired as they did, and I hadn’t been up nearly as long as they had (over 29 hours). After we filled our tummies, we headed to the bank to change money then jumped on a bus for Tiananmen Square.

T-square, as I like to call it, is the biggest public square in the world. It features a couple of large gates, the Mao Zedung mausoleum, and a monument to the “people’s heroes”. We skipped out on the National Museum and the Great Hall of the People, and Mao’s resting place was unfortunately closed for renovation. But we did go through the classic Gate of Heavenly Peace (under the huge watchful eye of Mao himself), spending some time in the grounds of the Worker’s Cultural Palace (which, like most of the city, was also undergoing some major renovation).

Lunch was a monumental event … mom and dad’s first Chinese meal, chopsticks and all. We had some sweet and sour pork (tung cu li ji), a Beijing favorite, and some cooked cabbage (bai cai). They were mostly successful with the chopsticks … but they’re already starting to see that if they don’t learn quickly, they’re gonna be hungry!

After lunch we went to a famous Pearl Market … the first two floors were full of fake goods, artwork, fake historical memorabilia, and low-quality pearls and jewels. I bought some jeans (¥120) and we bought three scrolls with typical artowork on them (¥50 for all three) … mostly so dad and mom could see the bargaining process. The third through fifth floors were full of higher quality jewelry stores … and after looking around a bit, we walked into the nicest store of all and had a delightful conversation with three of the salesgirls. After about an hour, dad ended up buying a beautiful diamond ring for mom!

After a long bus ride home, we had a late (9:30pm) dinner and looked briefly for some shoes for dad (his sandals really hurt his feet today). And now we’re back at home, getting a good night’s sleep before our trip on the Great Wall tomorrow. We’re not going to one of the remote or challenging sections of the wall, but we’re not going to the overly-tourist-y place either. I’m really looking forward to it!

Dad and mom are here, safe and sound!

We’re going to take it easy tonight … we’ll go for a nice dinner at a western restaurant to talk over our plans for the next four or five days. Then we’ll buy some shoes for mom and head back to our hostel to maybe take in a movie or something relaxed before an early bedtime.

After yesterday’s fiasco, I thought that my remaining travel to Beijing would go smoothly. Yeah …I guess that’s what I get for thinking!

I hung out at my apartment until about 2am, then packed up and took a cab back to the train station. When I went to buy my ticket for the 3am train, the worker told me that it didn’t exist. Despite my repeated pleas, she insisted that there was no 3am train … but there was a 4am train! I looked very closely at her screen, double-checking the departure time, arrival time, train number, and price. Sure enough, it would arrive in Changsha at 7:18am, giving me a good two hours of padding before my airplane left from the airport. So I went for it.

By the time I boarded the train, I was exhausted … I caught a few zzz’s in the waiting room, but I didn’t want to sleep too deeply and miss the train. So once I hit the smoke-filled and crowded car, I nudged my butt onto a seat and fell fast asleep. A few times during my nap, the train worker came up and either told me the train had arrived or asked me where I was going. Each time, I told him I was going to Changsha. He always seemed confused by what I was saying … I figured that he just couldn’t speak Mandarin.

Then, at about 7:30am, the train stopped at a small town that clearly wasn’t Changsha. I didn’t think much of it, because it seemed that the train was running a little late. But then I noticed that everybody started to get off the train. Every single person. Something wasn’t right, so I started asking questions.

I asked what time we would arrive … “Shen-me-shi-hou-dao-le-changsha?”

“Shi-er-dian,” I was told. Noon.

Bewildered, I took out my ticket and the train schedule which I had smartly packed, and showed the crowd of workers that had gathered. They smiled and told me that the train schedule had changed … instead of going towards Changsha, the train apparantly now takes a huge detour in the opposite direction. We were in Shaoyang, a 4 hour train ride from Changsha. Even if I found a bus or a car, the quickest it could get there would be two and a half hours … and then I’d need another 40 minutes to get to the Changsha Airport.

Using my highly advanced addition skills, I quickly deduced that my plane, which left in three hours, was going to have an empty seat on it. Mine.

Nevertheless, I thanked the workers and bolted outside, calling my good friend Dan, who happens to live in Shaoyang. Although he wasn’t in town, he was able to connect me with Sally, another Shaoyang resident who helped to teach us Chinese during our WorldTeach orientation in August. Sally went to work, calling cabs and cars and drivers, frantically trying to find someone who could at least try to get this crazy foreigner to the airport on time.

When she arrived at the train station ten or fifteen minutes later, she had no leads. Nobody could help. I was stranded, and my parents were going to be even more stranded in Beijing without me. Helpless, I took a step back and smiled. “Well, I’ve always wanted to visit you guys in Shaoyang!”

Suddenly, one of the moto cab drivers who had been listening to the whole fiasco drove up with a man on the back of his bike. The man offered to drive … and for ¥400, I accepted. We ran to his car, filled up with gas, and he literally sped the entire way to the Changsha airport. It was a crazy trip … weaving in and out of traffic, passing cars on the right, and generally pushing his little VW to its limits. I kinda felt bad, because it was obvious that we weren’t going to make it anyways and I was going to have to try to reschedule my flight. But I let the guy go … he seemed to be a little excited to have an excuse to play real-life Grand Theft Auto.

Then it happened. We pulled off the highway and into the airport. I looked at the clock … and it was 10:15. Speed Racer had somehow shaved an entire hour off of a 3 hour and 15 minute trip! I shook his hand, thanked him enthusiastically, and ran inside to check in at the VIP counter (it was the shortest line, so I just acted Important). And a few minutes later, I walked onto the plane!

And here I am in Beijing, hungry and tired. And here.

Thank you, Jesus!

After cleaning the house and packing my bags today, I headed out the door at 6pm to catch the last bus to Changsha. My moto taxi, however, took a terrible route through some back streets, causing me to miss the bus. So I moved on to the train station, where I discovered that the two trains that usually leave between seven and eight were mysteriously not listed. Unfazed, I walked outside to try and find a mini-bus … if you bargain hard, you can usually get a fairly fast (and bumpy) ride on one of those.

That’s when I realized that I had left my airplane ticket in my apartment. Yeah.

So I went back home, had a good dinner of Mac and Cheese, re-packed my bags, and relaxed for a few hours. And here I sit. My plane leaves from Changsha at 10:40 in the morning, so I’m going to catch the 3am train to Changsha (it’s a slow one), arriving bright and early with plenty of time to get to the airport. Looks like I’ll be hitting Beijing with some weary eyes!

FYI, I really can’t afford a babysitter, so I’m leaving webeldotnet in charge of itself while I’m gone. It’ll be making automatic daily posts … I hope it behaves itself!

Now this is getting interesting … China and Taiwan are fighting over the route that the olympic torch will take on its way to Beijing. It’ll also be going through Japan and Tibet, both of which are causing some stir both here and abroad.

If you didn’t know, China and its people claim that both Taiwan and Tibet are part of China. Many people around the world disagree emphatically. And many Chinese people simply hate Japan and its people.

Let’s get rrrready to rrrrumble!

I haven’t posted much on here in the last week, and I probably won’t for the next couple either. But let me take a few moments to catch you up on what’s going on over here in Chinars.

My marathon training has come to almost a complete stop. For a while, I was experiencing some foot problems because I didn’t have proper shoes. This last weekend, however, I traveled to Changsha, the provincial captial, and found the only pair of size 45 (U.S. 11) running shoes in Hunan Province. I’m not exagerrating. They don’t fit exactly right (Chinese feet are smaller, as are their shoe designs), but they’re much better than anything else I’ve had … so I think I’m finally good-to-go in that department.

On Sunday morning, however, another major problem arose. I bought some tasty fried street food (not sure what exactly it was) … and about an hour or two later, my world started turning upside down. I started vomiting uncontrollably, getting really weak and dehydrated, and even tingling and losing feeling in parts of my body. Not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

Luckily, I was at Daisy’s house (she’s a friend from Loudi), so after letting me (unsuccessfully) try to sleep it off, she and her family helped me to get in a cab and go to the hospital. At that point, I was utterly weak, shaking and starting to lose my ability to think clearly. Daisy’s mom was convinced that it was caused by my shorts and t-shirt (Chinese people are obsessed with wearing warm clothes and literally think it causes illness not to) … but I knew otherwise.

My program director, Daniel, showed up at the hospital in the nick of time, helping me to secure a bed and (with the help of a retired doctor he happened to be with) scooting me back into a hospital room. And by “hospital room”, I mean a 20′ by 30′ waiting room with two dozen people sitting in hard seats with IV’s plugged into their bodies. I stayed in that room for the next 10 or 11 hours, letting nurses repeatedly shoot me in the buttcheek, run 17 tests on me, and hook me up to a steady stream of IV medication (10 bags in all). It was an absolutely surreal experience!

Believe me, that was a really long story short … I’ll have to type more about the Chinese medical system later.

The good thing, however, was that when my principal found out about my illness, he decreed that I should have the entire week off! So I’ve been home in Loudi for the past couple of days, doing some much-needed catch-up on emails, cleaning my apartment in preparation for my parents’ visit, and making some travel plans for Beijing next week. I still have a nasty chest cough, but that should be gone in a day or two.

So tomorrow I’m off to Beijing! It should be a grand adventure … I’m excited to welcome Mom and Dad Webel to The Middle Country, introducing them to the world I’ve been living in for the past 8 months. We’ll spend 5-6 days in Beijing (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, T-square, etc.) then take a train down to Yueyang to visit my cousins for a couple of days. After a potential visit to Changsha, we’ll head back to Loudi for a week in the life of Lance.

How exciting is that?

In February 2007, I visited the Cambodian captial, Phnom Penh. You can see all forty-one of my photos in the set or in the slideshow.

Even though my first two days were spent without a passport or money (I had left them in my hotel in Siem Reap … long story), I still enjoyed riding a rented motorbike around the city, visiting some of the historical sites, and wandering the streets with the people. It felt like even a slight glance into their eyes revealed the hope in their hearts … and in the shadow of Cambodia’s violent and shameful recent history, it was quite a lesson learned for me.

In this photo, a fisherman on the Mekong River in central Laos beats the water with a large stick to scare the fish to the surface.

The marathon is in less than a month … and I honestly feel like this is going to be impossible. 26 miles? 3,700 steps? In the hot midday sun of Beijing?

My longest run so far, on Monday, was only 10 miles … and I hurt so badly during and after it that I haven’t been able to run since. My left knee was collapsing, I got some nasty blisters between my toes, my skin started to do weird things, and my old Nike’s officially fell apart.

But I’m not giving up. Too many of you have already responded to my pleas for help with incredible generosity for the orphans of Loudi. So tomorrow I’m going to Changsha (the capital of Hunan) to visit the hospital and look for running shoes that actually fit. And Monday I’m going to run 13 miles … even if I need to run barefoot!

Bring it.