I hate xanga...but its the only thing I can find that will work right now...sorry...

Well, lets see here. What have I learned/observed so far on this wonderful trip?

1. It takes eleven Chinese to sell furniture at a factory.
2. Internet is not easy to come by everywhere I find myself
3. Its freekin expensive to contact people back home
4. I miss people I can speak good English with (Edmund isn't bad, he is actually really good at English)
5. I love to travel, but it would be much better if my loved ones were with me.
6. I'm freekin tall compared to everyone else here in china land
7. The Chinese have a wall between the border of Hong Kong and the mainland. And when I told Edmund that there was no wall covering the whole US/Mexico border he was surprised. Go America. We are just now putting up a wall…and it still wont cover the whole border.
8. My face feels dirty most of the time because the humidity is amazingly high.
9. For every 1 US dollar you can get about 8 Hong Kong or China dollars.
10. People stare at me. And I think its because they think I'm weird looking.

Enough with the facts for now. I'll give some more in my next letter. I arrived here in Hong Kong and felt pretty refreshed. I got about seven hours of sleep on the flight over and it was about 6AM when I got through customs and found Edmund waiting for me at the HK airport. I rolled up with my stuff and we exchanged smiles and greetings. He then helped me to his brothers taxi and we rode 30 min to Edmunds apartment.

I got my stuff up to the 18th floor of Hollywood Plaza tower C. The place is pretty nice for Hong Kong. There are five different apartment towers with a three story mall underneath. Then, underneath the mall is the MTR (a.k.a. the subway). Then, there is the clubhouse which has a pool, gym, and a few other things. It’s a nice place. The apartment isn't very big at all. There are three rooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and living room. But…the thing is. Every room is about the square footage of my car…or at least something like that.

FYI. I'm typing this because I'm really having a hard time staying awake right now. I'm so dead tired. And so worn out.

So, I got everything settled there into my little room. Haha, and it’s a "cute" little room. The bed has a window right next to it so I can see out…and it’s a pretty cool little view. I'll take some pics and try to post them later. I got stuff settled, met Edmunds family (wife, two kids, and a made), and went to breakfast at McDonalds down in the mall. After breakfast Edmund and I rode the subway to the office. Once there I was introduced to everyone at the office. And there is no way I'm going to remember ANY of their names. I'm horrible at names! But I'll sure give it a shot. The office is really nice. I'll make sure to post some pictures before long.

At the office I went over some paperwork to get prepared for the trip that would be coming in the next day. Edmund had a few meetings and that gave me the time I needed to get ready. We left the office at about 630PM (530AM at home) and headed "home" on the MTR (the subway). Once there I met the maids father who had stopped by to see his daughter. He was a nice guy, but couldn’t speak any English. We chilled there in the apartment for a bit before heading down for dinner. Edmund, his wife, and little girl treated me to dinner at Pizza Hut in the mall below. It was very good…There were some weird things on the menu though…gosh dang they were weird.

Hmm…what happened next. After dinner I tried to find a way to get on the internet. The mall has a service but its pretty trashy. I used it for a bit and sent a few emails before heading up to the apartment with a pass that Edmund got for me. You have to have a sort of card key to get into the building. So I went up and went to bed pretty fast. I was really tired.

That…was only day one.

Yesterday I woke up at 530AM (430PM at home) and got ready for the day. Which, is quite interesting in a different country. Well, I guess its not that bad…its just different…which different is something I'm having to get used to. So, day two.

Edmund and I left the apartment at 6AM and went down to board the MRT. The MTR then took us to the train station that would then take us to the Hong Kong/China Mainland boarder. It was a 45 min ride on the subway, and then another 45 min or so on the train. Once we reached the boarder I had to break out the passport and my China visa. I went through customs and wala…I was through. Once through I met back up with Edmund, who was able to go through a lot faster than I, and we met up with Colin (A HK Connections worker who would be traveling with us). Once we had all met up Edmund and I got some McDonalds for breakfast and we all got in our drivers van.

It was an hours drive to the Shinzen airport. Oh, but before we got in the van Edmund was telling me to be aware of pick pockets. So we were walking and I was a little behind Edmund and to his left. As we were walking there was a man up against the wall to the right. Edmund didn't see him but when Edmund passed him the guy started walking and caught up to us. The guy started getting closer to Edmund, eyeing his backside and his suitcase. As all this happened I was watching him. At first he didn't see me watching him…but as he got real close to Edmund he saw me and turned around to go the other way. It could have been some random guy…but…my opinion is that he was going to get a little cash from Edmund.

Ok, back to the plan of the day. So we got in the van, the three of us, and our driver started us on our journey to the airport. Once at the airport we made our way and had an hour and a half flight to Fuzhou. Once in Fuzhou we got another driver and he headed us out to our first factory. We were supposed to go to a factory that would take us an entire day and a half to get through, but it’s the rainy season right now and the road that would take us was flooded. So we went to option B. The factory that we could go to was about an hour drive. We got there and the goal of this stop was to assess the goods that the buyers had picked out and offer a new price. We got there at about 12/1230PM.

Edmund got 15% off right away from the owner. But we were going to go for more. At the last fair the buyers had picked out 69 pieces of furniture from this factory and we were going to look at every one and offer a price for that piece. We were there till about 630PM (530AM at home) working out numbers and getting things set. The offers weren't given to the factory, but were just written down so that we could email them later. The whole process was very interesting. We left the factory and had another hour drive to our hotel in downtown Fuzhou. Once at our hotel we had dinner at a nice restaurant, I really didn't care for it…the salad was great though. After dinner I went up to my room, and pretty much went to bed. It was 10PM (9AM at home).

So, right now. I'm in the middle of day three. Has enough happened? I hit the ground running and its good. Although all the traveling has left me time to think and ponder…which gets kind of depressing realizing that there are no Americans around me.

I'll type out another novel detailing some more stuff. But I'm doing good. I miss home though. How sad is that? I thought I'd be fine, but I think what got me is the lack of communication and the lack of my people. Edmund is a great host though. He and his family are amazing and have been very nice to me. So so nice.