Asia 3

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10 Oct 2001, Continued 
 
I have also started teaching kickboxing!  I am so excited, it’s great. Also on the 
subject of exercise, I went running with the professors yesterday, at 5 in the morning!
We watched the sunrise at the Chaing-ki-shek memorial. This monument is incredible.
I have pictures, don't worry! They raise the flag at sunrise and we watched the very
formal rising of the flag with the guards and their fancy gun throwing routines and funky
march (it is unnatural!).
 
Oh, I almost forgot, Carrie, Lindsay and I have spent half of our time here with a few
Taiwanese men, Michael, Micheal, Bob and Alfred. They are great! The first night they 
took us out to a very nice dinner where we weren’t told the items on our plates till after we
tried them!  It was quite an experience, and then we went to a tea bar to try bobble tea, the 
famous tea in Taiwan, it was quite interesting. It’s very thick and has little black squishy balls
at the bottom of the glass that you suck up with the fat straw. I could only handle one glass. 
They also came with us to an amazing club where we danced till the wee hours of the morning.  

Then the other night we went out to a karokee joint, KTV.  We belted out songs and 

danced on the table till we were ready to crash. These guys are hysterical, we always 

come home hurting from laughing so much.  Tomorrow we are going out for ice cream 

to say goodbye.

 Well, I better get going I have to go paint some Chinese characters for art and I’m 

teaching kickboxing and then we are going back to the club we went to last week. 

I hope everything is going well for all of you. Let me know how you are doing and 

what’s going on.  Augie, I want to hear about homecoming and all you girls have fun 

this weekend in the townhouse, sorry I’m not there. I miss you all.  Love, Amy

 Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 08:29

Subject: Hello from Hong Kong!

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't written in a while, things here are crazy! We are in Hong Kong now and I love it. We had midterms on friday, so thank goodness those are over.

After being in Hong Kong and visiting an international school, I have been thinking about coming here after I graduate to teach in an internship position, but that is just tentative, we'll see. That just expresses how much I love it here! I say that a lot, sorry. Anyways, we went on a boat trip the other night. Seven hours spent cruising the south china sea and a 9 course seafood dinner, it was amazing. The lights of the skyline were gorgeous! Don't worry, of course I have roll after roll of film!

Right now I am at the peak on Hong Kong Island, the view is incredible! This afternoon we went to an island with no vehicles, just bikes and pedestrians. We went down to the beach and bought straw mats and slept on the beach for a couple hours, what more could you ask for. Last night we went to a dance production of all ethnic backgrounds. The music and costumes and dance steps and formations were amazing, I have never seen a production like this before. More details later.

Sorry this is so short, I just wanted to say hi and warn you that the emails might be sporadic from now on because we leave for the mainland tomorrow morning and we move around about every 3-6 days and I don't know how accessible email is. But I will try. I love getting everyone's emails and letting all of you know how exciting the other side of the globe is. I miss you all! Love, Amy

Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 00:32:01
Subject: greetings from china
 Hello everyone!
Greetings from Wuhan china.  We have been in the mainland now for  about a week and a half. I am amazed at the different culture here.  The country is 70 percent agricultural and that is where we have spent  our entire week and a half.
 
We took a bike ride out into the countryside.  30 Americans on tiny Chinese bikes rented out by the staff of the incredible hotel we stayed at.  We were laughed at, pointed at, and even smacked on the  bum by little children with water bottles.  Our Prof lead us out of  the "downtown" through intersections with no stop lights, its a free  for all. If you want to go, just pedal really fast and watch where you  are going cause you are fighting with the buses, cars and motorized bikes pulling metal cage like buggys.  All we heard crossing the streets were us laughing and screaming and horns being honked in every direction.    When we reached the country we watched the water buffalo bathe in the muddy water holes, goats roamed up and down the streets. People were  drying rice in the fields and others passed us on the motorized bikes.  we also went on a another boat ride down the Li river, it was nice and relaxing as we stared at teh karst formations in the background. 
 
 The night markets here are the funniest thing I have seen.  Vendors scream and entice you in by saying “hello, pearls, hello, hello, silk  hello, hello cheaper for you hello”, and “hello just looking hello"  (with the accent it sounds much better, I have perfected it, you'll all  hear it when I get home.  These little girls selling roses (they were about 6 years old) chased the boys down the street, pleading with them  to buy.  Ones who wouldn’t give in got punched by the little girls and those who did buy, were stalked by them anyways to encourage them to buy more.  All of us girls ended up with quite a few roses from the guys who gave in by the end of the night.  
 
I hope everything is going well with everyone at home, I miss you all very much. I am having a fantastic time, tiring, but wonderful.  I will be home in 3 weeks, I can’t wait to see everyone.  Email might be a little scarce for the rest of the trip, we travel every other day almost, starting Tues, till we hit Bejing in the middle of Nov.  We will be on a bus for 12 hours on my birthday, how exciting. oh well.  Who else spends their 21st birthday in china?  Continue to email, I love reading about what is going on at home, and I will try to check when I can.  Love, Amy

From Amy Mirus   Date: Sat., 10 Nov 2001

Hi everyone,

Sorry it has been so long. Things in China have been go go go. We moved 8 times in the last 14 days, lots of time on the plane, bus, train, you name it we rode it for at least a couple hours! I have been having a blast, I can't believe I only have 4 days left in China and then a few in Hawaii!

Speaking of Hawaii, I am going parasailing as a gift from all my friends on asian term for my birthday. They had a surprise party for me in Yanan. The pictures of my face are great! Yup, we got all of our rolls of film developed! Yikes, but the quality is wonderful! So the 21st birthday went well. More about that when I get home.

So in the past few days we have been in about 5 different cities. I have seen the terra cotta soldiers, amazing! We climbed the great wall. What a great afternoon that was! Walking along the wall under the perfectly blue sky without a single cloud and it was warm enough for just jeans and a sweatshirt! Perfect! That was one of my favorite days in China.

Another great experience was in Yanan, we were there for 2 days, and a group of us befriended our tour guide who is our age. We hung out the entire time we were there and she showed us the sights and took us to her house! It was interesting to see the difference between the Chinese home and the Japanese and of course, our own.

Today we went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. Lots of vendors hassling tourists to buy things. I am still no good at bargaining even after an entire month. It gets really frustrating, these people are very persuasive.

We have finals this week and all our art projects are due, it's a little stressful, but I'm handling it well. Sorry this is going to be so short, but I couldn't figure out how to work the computer and my time is out, sorry, so much for my technical skills.

But I will see you all very soon and I have hundreds of pictures and stories to share with all of you. I can't wait to see you! I miss you! Love, Amy

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Date: Thu, 29 Nov. 2001 [edited for privacy] Hello everyone!  Well I think that all of you know that I have returned from the east, but if you didn't, I'm back!  Almost a week of classes has gone by and my poor body has no clue what time it is or what it should be doing.  I hope everyone is having a great ending of Fall/beginning of Winter.  Let me know how you all are doing, I have more time for emails (and I know where to go) so continue to email! Love, Amy

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