Day Seven

Today was another long day. I was up before five to get ready for two weeks away from “home.” I took about an hour and a half bus and subway ride to the train station. Here I got on a bullet train, which was one of the new ones started in the last month. It traveled at an amazing speed of 310km/h, which is about 192 mph. It was one of the smoothest quietest rides I have ever been on. I traveled from Beijing to Shanghai. The trip took about 5 hours with two stops along the way. I was able to see a lot of the countryside which is extremely flat south of Beijing. It was also really interesting to see the farm fields which had most of the work done by people with the rare help of a machine. The tractors are about the size of a very small Kubota/ large lawn mower. As we neared Shanghai, more water was seen which allowed for rice fields. These fields were very small squares maybe an acre or two a piece. They utilized almost every inch of land available, most of the time almost completely surrounding houses and other buildings. Also during this trip, I talked to the woman next to me about China and America. She said the cities I am going to be in are all very famous and popular cities. For example, Beijing is the capital of China, Shanghai is the economic city of China, and Xian is the ancient city. I am hoping to have some time to site see in Xian next week. I am spending this week with GSI and AP Ventilation Company in Shanghai. When I arrived today I was checked into a hotel, which is the one of the nicest I have ever been in, although I found out the internet is the pits. After that, I went to GSI and AP’s office where I spent the afternoon talking to four Chinese individuals and one American. One of the Chinese individuals, Tomalso, has been to America 3 times in the last 2 years being trained. The other three Chinese are headed there in 3 weeks. They will spend time in Illinois and Sioux City being trained. The American has been here for 3 months and is on a one-year work stent. He plans to stay for more if possible. I gave a presentation on agriculture in America and general life. They were full of questions and had a huge hunger for knowledge about our agriculture. I really enjoyed talking with them, as they wanted to know everything. After this, we went out for supper. Here I had some new eats. I tried frog legs, lamb leg, and a type of fungus. They were all very good. I really enjoy the spicy taste of almost all of the dishes here! I even enjoy the vegetables, for those that know me would not believe the greens I am eating!  After supper I was driven back to my  hotel. The city is really beautiful at night. There ae so many cool lights on buildings and near the streets. They use a lot of colors that stand out against the black sky. I am really enjoying my time here although I miss English conversations on a daily basis where I don’t have to try decipher miss pronounced words.