So I've been meaning to update this blog thing for sometime now but keep putting it off. Arriving in the Shanghai airport, we had more near-miss car accidents than I'd like to count before we arrived in Nantong. The driving here is wild and has no structure or rules. The streets are full of cars, bikes, and people, all aggressively trying to get to their destination with no regard to who gets in their way. I have been living with my Uncle Jack and his wife, they have a very nice house and I am staying in their son's room. China is very cramped and the amount of people and things everywhere is very overwhelming, there is constant noise. Even when I'm alone in the house I can still hear everything happening outside. When I'm at work there's the constant drone of honking horns slowly driving me crazy. The first weekend in Nantong I played soccer with some guys that work at a shipyard. I'm being generous by saying they were bad. Although it seems that all the people in China love soccer, none of them seem to be able to play the sport. Later I went to clime Wolf Mountain which has a temple on top of the mountain. The mountain was beautiful, with unique rock formations and waterfalls. The temple was really cool with Buddha statues everywhere and ancient architecture of the temple. There would have been a much more natural feel to it if there weren't small shops everywhere with people pestering you to buy things. Apparently the temple is one of eight Buddhist temples recognized by china or something like that. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I'll have to go back so I can take pictures of the mountain. I have been studying Chinese and it's difficult. Although the language is much easier structurally all the words sound the same and have multiple meanings for each word.
After a week in China I fell victim to dysentery. Probably from brushing my teeth with the water (my fault) and eating seafood in Rugao (trying to be polite). Anyways, what followed were days of a high fever and very loose bowels. I even had the pleasure of going to a Chinese hospital where I was hooked up to 4 IV's. Hospitals in developing countries are not too fun or too clean, I think I may have even picked up a few diseases when I was there. I was actually treated very well and the process was relatively painless. I am doing better now and have gone back to work.