This is just a quick update since some have inquired if everything was ok, since my normal Blog Activity for this trip was very little. Yes, Matt and I returned home safely.
It was an incredible adventure and our group of 26 travelers truly turned into a little family. Dan and Susu (the Bride and Groom) looked incredible on their day and they were so happy. Chinese Weddings are a bit different than Western Weddings, so there were surprises around every corner, including 15 foot indoor fireworks...I'm still growing my eyebrows back from that surprise. We also got to see ourselves on China TV. Dan and Susu were celebs with multiple tv camera crews following them around on the wedding day. Right as we were getting ready to leave, "Goodmorning Quanzou" showed the Tea Ceremony and Matt and I were running in and out the tv frame. The additional camera men did present some difficulties for us, but we got some beautiful shots despite the need to jostle for our positions. It was also really cool to be there when the Olympics aired live for the opening ceremonies which played on large screens during the wedding reception.
Shanghai was a great city with a fun vibe. On day 2 Matt and I got up at 5am for sunrise over Shanghai which was beautiful. The Yellow Mountain region was stunning. The overnight train was alot of fun. We had incredible photo ops around every corner. I think Matt is still a bit traumatized from watching two 6-foot sea snakes being butchered in the kitchen for dinner and then watching 2 members of our group eat the liver and drink the blood. BTW, fried snake is good, but snake skin salad is not a tasty treat in my opinion. Also, in case your interested, Snake Blood does stain as my new white shirt can attest to. We learned so much about the country and culture and had 2 wonderful guides with us. Dan and Susu did an amazing job planning everything.
The only time I had trouble focusing on the job at hand was when we went to a silk factory and I was overcome by the need to shop. Matt and I each treated ourselves to silk duvet covers that were gorgeous. Then I pushed it and got an actual king size silk duvet thinking it would squish down for easy travel. Poor Matt had to defy physics and spacial relationships in order to get it to fit in his suitcase for me. I had only brought my backpack.
When it was time to head home, we were both sad to leave the group which was continuing on to Beijing. Now we are both busily working through the thousands of photos in order to tell a perfect story for Dan and Susu. I will eventually get the stories and photos up on the blog, but when we were traveling, it was all we could do to get the photos off-loaded and backed up each night before getting a few hours of sleep.
So that's a quick update.
