You're not hard core... unless you're Wangfujing hard core!

I won't bore you with all the gory details of this exciting excursion still on our first full day in Beijing, let's just let the pictures tell the story of this bustling food market...

Octopus Soup

Seahorses

Silkworm cocoons

Gigantor Squid-on-a-stick

Squid-on-a-stick

Scorpion

Dave eats a scorpion

Z's turn... uh oh, gonna get caught in those braces.

before...

chewing... chewing... and... it tastes like French Fries! Really!

A had the right idea of dessert... she and D were the only sane one's of the bunch. B was the first brave kid to eat a bug after Dad, and I had no intention of eating, but somehow ended up eating one... I don't really know how that happened. We entertained a sizable group of other passing tourists who were thoroughly grossed out that we partook. S Little and M ate sea urchin, which was described as very fishy and slimy.

The Summer Palace

I know it's been several days, since the last update, but we've been running on empty, burning the candle at both ends, working the night shift, etc. Our itinerary is awesome... but exhausting. So, to pick up where we left off, after the Great Wall, we headed to the Summer Palace on the northwest side of Beijing. And while not outside of the city, it was near a lake and dotted with trees to provide the necessary cooling effect to counter the sweltering summers at the Forbidden City Palace (which we saw the next day). We could have spent more time here, as the photo opportunities were amazing, but we're grateful to have seen this at all.

Dragon at Summer Palace

Awesome Roof lines

My handsome guy - rarely can I get him to smile like this anymore

Gorgeous GazebosSummer Palace steps - see B waving?

Suzhou Street - really cute riverside walkway towards the North Gate

This complex was really enjoyable, and this was even after spending the morning at the Great Wall. We were getting really tired by this time, but we still had a fabulous dinner to look forward to... and a trip to Bug Street! Stay tuned...

Great Wall of China

It's been a crazy three days. Tuesday was our travel day, which I won't get into here. Wednesday was the greatest day we've had in a really long time. We went to the Great Wall of China, the Summer Palace, and Bug Street (not to mention got to eat beef hamburgers). It's late here, and we're so totally and completely exhausted from two full days of crazy site-seeing that I'll just briefly showcase our fantastic experience at the Wall. For me, it was a life moment- one of those moments that help define life, that you will remember forever. There were several times during that day where I found myself close to tears, moved by the magnificence and magnitude of this experience for me, personally. We hiked/climbed the Wall for more than 6 km... my best guess is closer to 8 km, but what do I know?

The Great Wall

The boys enjoying the Wall

The Littles and the McIlleces

Did I mention that it was spectacular? I wish I could spend hours just trying to describe how awesome the day was, but I'm so extremely exhausted and am going to enjoy sleeping in a little tomorrow. I promise to try to blog a little bit about each site or experience we have, but we have a very full schedule, so please be patient. I am keeping notes of each day so I'll have all the info to post in detail when we get back. Just in case I forget to say anything... this was one of the most amazing days of my life!

Taking Tokyo by Storm

I will keep this one brief, if only because I need to get some sleep tonight. I promise more pictures and details for those who can stomach it when we get back to Delhi. But here's a run down of our trip to Tokyo and the excitement of today.

First off... here is the gigantic apples photo I promised. I honestly have never seen an apple even close to this size. When we checked out of the Kanto Lodge on base, we hiked about 20 minutes to the Fussa Rail Station where we picked up the first of three trains we needed to take to Tokyo and the New Sanno Hotel. The Japan Railways and the Tokyo Metro system are awesome! It's amazing to me how efficient this system is. You've all seen the reports of people cramming onto the train like sardines? Well, it's for real... it wasn't the entire trip that way, but definitely as we neared Tokyo the trains became more and more crowded. What was amazing to me, however, was that even with the cramming, everyone still stood in line, and no one ever touched you! I was also surprised that one child, maybe 7 years old, boarded the metro by himself, and got off by himself. WOW! Japan is a safe country.When we finally exited the magnificent metro system almost 2 hours later, we hiked with our bags a few blocks to the New Sanno Hotel, which is a fabulous hotel run by the Navy as a benefit to service members. Highly recommended! We ate a wonderful tempura dinner in their Japanese restaurant, and soaked in the hot tub to relax from the journey. It was a very exciting birthday for Dave.
The next morning we ended up sleeping later than we thought, ate an early lunch and headed out for another metro adventure. 2 trains, several stops and about 45 minutes later we ended up at the Imperial Palace East Gardens. Wow! What a lush and beautiful area. This used to be a castle, a long, long time ago, but now is just walls and mote and beautiful grounds. We were hoping for a glimpse of the Imperial Palace itself, but were disappointed. So we headed over to the other section of the park and were able to catch a very minor glimpse of what appears to be a magnificent building--everything else was off limits. However, as we were walking we heard someone blowing a whistle with a purpose and sought out the source. Much to our surprise and delight, a policeman was beeline-ing several 100 yards to the middle of the park where an elderly Japanese man was relieving himself. The man finished his business, and continued on his way long before the policeman got close. The policeman continued blowing his whistle. The offender, finally turned and then waved the policeman off and continued on his merry way. There are not even close to enough policemen to enforce that law in India, in fact, you'd have to ticket the policemen themselves to change that aspect of Indian culture. We had a good chuckle over that episode.We then headed back underground to find our way to Shinjuku--the heart and soul of modern Tokyo. This is often referred to as the Times Square of Toyko. There are massive jumbotrons advertising everything under the sun, and neon lights as far as the eye can see. The massive monuments to consumerism is a whole other subject in itself, but we really enjoyed seeing it, and being able to say we were there.
By this time, we were feeling our new, older ages, and decided to head back to the hotel and get some dinner. We were now confident in our metro skills and were able to find our own way back without trouble. It was off to dinner, and another soak in the hot tub, foregoing the suggested massage, due to the INSANE prices Tokyo demands. Yikes!

Imperial Palace

We just finished watching Memiors of a Geisha in our room to continue with the spirit of Japan we've enjoyed today. Tokyo is a fantastic place, and Dave and I have enjoyed many interesting discussions relating to historical significance of Japanese culture and relations with America... should prove even more interesting as we visit Hiroshima on Saturday.

I LOVE AMERICA!

So, we spent the last two days at Yakota Air Base in Japan while Dave got his flight physical, dental and optometry check-ups. He is taking his 6 hour DLPT (language) test as I type. Yikes! We've been staying in the VOQ here, and so consequently, haven't really felt like we were in Japan. On that note, let me say a few things:

• I LOVE AMERICA! I love seeing men in uniform, and American flags. I love seeing jets flying overhead. I love the freedom all those things stand for!
• I love American standards. I love the military commissary, and the quality and selection there. I love the BX. I love the health clinic, and more specifically flight medicine! I love that I can get a real answer from the optometrist about my post-LASIK vision. I still see almost perfect, but "no one can see 'two lines better than 20/20'...it's physically impossible" as my Delhi eye doc said I could see.
• I love food! I love Whoppers, and fountain Diet Coke. I love, love, love MILK! Of all the things I miss from the US (not including people) I would definitely say MILK is at the top of the list! I'm going to have to eat some veggies soon, after eating so much protein, but I'll enjoy it while I can! I will admit though that I had my cholesterol tested yesterday, and it has improved alot since we've been in India--lots of delicious veg!

We're headed up to Tokyo as soon as Dave finishes his test, and I'll show include a picture of the largest apple I've ever seen in my next post!

I'm not in Kansas (or India) anymore!

Because I am determined to keep my blog on the McIllece Family website, I am unable to blog while we travel, so I've decided to do some mini-blogs using Dave's site.

Saturday in the wee small hours of the morning Dave and I boarded a plane to Hong Kong. We had a 22 hour layover. It was so awesome. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy the hospitality of Chris Johnson (Olmsted '06) who is just finishing up his time in Hong Kong. He picked us up at the train station, set us up at his apartment, and showed us around town. Mimi Waters (Olmsted '07 - Taiwan) was also there, and we met up with the Denaros (Olmsted '06 - Guanzhou, China) for dinner. It was an awesome mini-Olmsted get-together. So, here's the brief run down of our time in Hong Kong.

• Arrived at the fantastically modern, clean, airport/shopping mall, and boarded the Airport Express train to Hong Kong station. This took about 25 minutes. I was amazed at the cleanliness and efficiency of the transport system. I know India is a 3rd World country and all, but I was even comparing it to the US. The infrastructure in both Hong Kong and Japan, makes the US seem closer to India than either of these super efficient places.


• Chris took us for a Dim Sum lunch. Dim Sum isn't so much what you eat for lunch, but how you eat. It is a Hong Kong original, and the answer to British tea time. You drink tea (or in my case, Diet Coke) with a smattering of light dishes that they keep bringing to you on carts. You pick what you want and then eat it. I am proud to say that I ate chicken feet, prawn dumplings, and something with fish eggs on it... and I ate it all with chopsticks!


• We went on a walking tour, that included several really cool buildings, the largest escalator (outdoors even) in the World, and and 75 minute foot massage at "Happy Foot".


• We ditched Chris (had previous plans) and went with Mimi to the "Peak" formerly known as Victoria's Peak. The tram ride up was really steep and totally cool. There was a gigantic shopping center at the top (which was the theme of Hong Kong, I believe) and took some pictures out in the rain from the observation deck. We ate some gelato, grabbed a taxi to the metro, went under the harbor, and met the Denaros in Kowloon for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. It probably wasn't, but it seemed like the best steak I've ever eaten.


• We slept at Chris's 23rd floor apartment, and headed back to the Airport Express train station in the morning. I was amazed that we could actually check in to our flight at the train station, including checking our luggage prior to our 25 minute train ride back to the airport.

Our overall impression of Hong Kong was very good. It's a fascinating, beautiful clean place. However, after living in India for 11 months now, we were shocked at the level of consumerism we saw. I have never seen so many shopping centers/malls/stores in my life. And everything seemed totally upscale and "lifestyles of the rich and famous". Hong Kong has definitely earned it's place as a Global City. It is an amazing place to visit, but I think living there for an extended length of time would prove very challenging for me (well, at least for my bank account!) It was so much fun to hang out with other Scholars. Dave and I both believe that meeting and hanging out with such fabulous people is one of the greatest benefits of the program.

The REAL reason China's economy is booming

Yeah, I know its been forever since I've blogged, but I couldn't help but post a note about the latest shocker. We are planning to take the trip of a lifetime to China this summer. We have good friends living in many cities there, and so we realized this was our big chance to go as a family. We researched early and found relatively cheap tickets, and we made plans to stay with our friends and see China with their expert help. We have to manage the costs as we are a family of 6, and since D (youngest) is no longer 2 years old (passed that mark over 4 years ago), my four super-kids magically become "adults" whenever the wallet is opened.

So I went to the travel office to ask some passport and visa questions about our trip:
Q: I assume I need visas to travel to China, correct? A: Yes.
Q: How long do they take to process? A: About 5 days.
Q: How much will they cost? A: 130 US Dollars.
Q: That's not bad for all 6 of us, that's like...22 bucks a head! great! A: Uh, no..
Q: No way - that's 130 USD each? Even for my kids?!? That's almost 800 bucks!!
A: Yes, and it has to be a money order, please, no credit cards.

So I go to the Chinese embassy website and I see The following table under "Visa Fees":

Number of Entry	American	Citizens of other countries
Single Entry	$130	$30
Double Entry	$130	$45
Multiple Entry for 6 Months	$130	$60
Multiple Entry for 12 Months	$130	$90
Multiple Entry for 24 Months	$130	$90

Do you see a pattern here? It turns out this is actually the effect of something called "Reciprocity." If you go to the US Embassy Beijing website you find that if anyone wants to come to America as a tourist it costs them...$131 USD. So the benevolent Chinese are giving me a one dollar discount! So long as you can see that your $780 gets you 6 glasses of water that are half-FULL, you will realize there is a bright side to everything!

All kidding aside, we are very blessed to be in India, to go to China, and to have these mind-broadening, life-changing opportunities in the first place. We always try to plan ahead, do our research, and otherwise make the most of every penny of our Olmsted experience. The real effect of this will be lost opportunities to experience other peoples and places. But stuff like this...just hurts!