Jinan

Jacinda and I went to Jinan last weekend to visit the business people she helped tutor in the states a few years ago. I was just along for the ride. We had an incredible trip, although it started off a bit rough. We couldn't find the train station only to find out it was the HUGE building behind us that took up the whole block and all the people were walking towards. We managed to get on the right train, but it was a 7 hour train ride, and the train was so crowded people were standing everywhere. They were especially crowded around us b/c we were white. I have never been frustrated with people staring at me and I use to the Chinese taking my picture all the time, but this put me over the edge. They were staring at us for 7 hours and everytime we stood up they would take our picture over and over. We met these ladies on the train who were entertaining at first, but then were slightly hard to be around after so many hours. So we pretended to sleep for a few hours (although, I don't really have to pretend in moving vehicles). The train was hot, long, and my feet were jammed under my seat. So it was a rough beginning. jacinda and I were slightly concerned about what we were getting into.
We arrived and Robin, Jacinda's friend, picked us up in his own car and took us to our sweet four star hotel. Then we went to the the top floor to a rotating restaurant where we had a lavish meal with the rest of the group. All weekend they wined and dined us, literally. They made us drink this wine and white spirit stuff that was so strong it burned my throat on the way down.
The next day Robin planned the whole day out for us. In the morning we met some kids our age who took us on a tour of Jinan and to see the natural springs (Jinan is famous for the springs). Then Robin and Bert met up with us and showed us the most famous spring and took us to the yellow river. That evening we were wined and dined again. We ate so much food but by the end of Monday night we wanted some familiar food soo bad b/c everything we had eaten was completely new to us and we tried everything that was on the table. So at 11:00 at night Jacinda and with the help of a hotel receptionist helped us get a cab and have them take us to McDonalds for a hot fudge Sunday and french fries! It was the best hot fudge Sunday ever!! We enjoyed trying new food but it was soo good to taste something familiar.
We had such a great time, but it was exhausting b/c we had to use a lot of Chinese (and I don't really know Chinese) and really speak slow clear English. But we really had great opportunities to encourage these people and we learned a lot about Chinese Culture. In Jinan it is not a Western even though it is a big city (the capital of the Shandong province) and so things we get in Beijing are not as accessible and we only saw one other white person.
On the way home Robin bought us train tickets for the fast train, which looked like an airplane with lots of leg room and tray tables. There was no one standing in the aisles and no one staring at us b/c most of the passengers were business people who did not care about us. IT WAS GREAT. It also only took 3 hours to get back instead of 7, and my seat reclined to a comfortable sleeping position. We had such a fun time and the people treated us like royalty, I am pretty sure I will not experience another vacation like that one.

Foods we ate:
pigs feet, donkey, sea cucumber, swordfish, duck, duck egg, duck feet, pig kidney, many types of fish (my favorite was the yellow flower fish), many soups (my favorite was fish bone soup: meaning the bones of the soup soaked in water basically), shrimp still with the eye balls, other sea creatures in a weird soup, and a few other things I cannot remember.