I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

'CAUSE I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN
WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW I'M FREE!
AND I WON'T FORGET THE MEN WHO DIED
AND GAVE THAT RIGHT TO ME
AND I'LL PROUDLY STAND UP
NEXT TO YOU
AND DEFEND HER STILL TODAY
'CAUSE THEIR AIN'T NO DOUBT I LOVE THIS LAND!
GOD BLESS THE USA!

I know, the thought of this song makes you shed a tear. Me too.

Okay, the best way to describe China is to liken it to a phase I went through in 6th grade. I used to only do the front of my hair, hoping that no one would pay attention to the back of my hair. China's the same.

Here's a photo of one of the hotels we stayed in. Gorgeous right?

Then inside it's a different story. Our room in this hotel smelled of old smoke and mildew so bad. The carpets were filthy, the walls were filthy and it looked like someone had barfed on our ottoman. Here's a toilet in one of our rooms:



You could also purchase men's triangle underwear with matching woof socks in one of my rooms. The socks are of the "human fashion". It's a good thing.



Here is the "shower" in my friend's room. There wasn't one! It just had a shower head sticking out of the wall and you shut the wooden bathroom door and the water just pounded against the door and flowed out of the bathroom onto the carpet. The carpet was all black and moldy outside the bathroom. The smell was so bad in this hotel I woke up a few times I'm sure because of it. Shudder.



I walked for 2 weeks straight and didn't want to eat a thing. If I could have one wish it would be that the feeling of not wanting to eat would stay with me forever.
However, unfortunately it hasn't. Dang it.

A few of the delicacies:




Now you can see why I didn't have an appetite. I saw some of the grossest things I have EVER seen! We basically went to a pet store and we were told to pick something from the grimy fish tanks to eat. The man kept pointing to a turtle and saying "good". I said "No way! That's a pet!" They eat shrimp with their heads on and their eyes sticking out. It was so gross...

The pollution was so terrible. I went to all of the big cities in China, with the exception of Hong Kong. Shanghai, Beijing, GuongZhou, Shenzen and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. All of the cities had terrible pollution, Shanghai being the least. We all thought that a major storm was coming through which is why it was so gray and dark. But no, that is how it is. It's terrible and I can see why there's so much hullabaloo about the Olympics. There's no way I would want to run (I don't want to run in clean air either) over there!




The English translation was hilarous. Here is a sign in the "bathroom" (it's a hole in the floor and they don't flush their tissue. The smell was awful! Boyd said they are called squat pots. Needless to say, not all ladies have a good aim so it was frequently hard to squat while my feet were slipping in pee. I can't believe I didn't take a pic! I'm a Hansen, right?):



And here's lunch. I guess you could describe much of the food as "dump" aka poop!




It was really a great trip. We did so much. Now it's time to be serious. Something that I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is how we are all children of our Heavenly Father, and he loves us all the same. But why are some given so much more than others? It makes me feel guilty and grateful. It makes me never want to ask for another thing.

I'm so glad to be home to my family! Boyd was so sweet and we often got teary eyed the few times we got to talk. Boy, does absence make the heart grow fonder!