There are some pictures below this post....
I will add more to this later when I have time--right now it is once again time to go and eat more food yet again.... :)
Congrats to the Seahawks for finally making it the Super Bowl--too bad its in DETROIT.

Journey to the West Part I
There something sick and wrong with calling this adventure Journey to the West, which is a play on one of the famous Chinese classics that is better known as “The Monkey King”, but the fact is that I am headed west and this is a journey, so it seems fitting.
I am sitting right now in the home of my student, Ring’s uncle. It is in a city located just outside of Chongquing. The journey has begun.
I left Chenzhou two days ago in the middle of yet another cold and gloomy afternoon. The weather was dark and cloudy, reminding me of a Seattle winter morning. I departed the University, pack on my back in such a haste that I managed to leave all of the food items I intended on taking with me on the train so I wouldn’t have to worry about paying the highly inflated prices for food that had been sitting around for hours in steel bins that got a weekly scrubbing at best.
I met two friends of mine at the train station who were worried about me because I didn’t have a seat on the train I had booked myself on and I certainly didn’t have a sleeper, which is what I really desired to have. This was to be expected though—as it is the spring festival season in China-which is where the majority of the 1.3 billion people are on the move to get to families homes as work all but stops for a few days for some workers to weeks for others. It is the equivilant of the Christmas and New Year holiday in the West, but even less exciting for the most part. Most of this lack of excitement stems from the tradition of what most Chinese people do—in this way it matches the tradition of Thanksgiving in America. Most of the Chinese I know will be spending it with their families, watching state-run television programs that showcase the country’s obsession with all things Karoke. Hours upon hours of people endlessly watching other people taking much loved Chinese songs and turning them into a shrill, shrieking overly dramatic impression that makes even the most die hard Karoke fan wince.
The New Year festival for all intents and purposes is family oriented, especially for the kids. Children visit their relatives hoping for a red bag—which contains money, which the children do not actually receive the cash, this goes to the parents, who in turn give it to other children who come and visit them looking for a red bag. All in all, the situation is truly confusing.
People traveling for hours and days, just to gather together to watch television. This is what the spring festival appears to be for me. The crowds and the lines are nothing short of amazing—thirty thousand people stranded for hours at the Beijing Train station .
The train I took, one that originated 4 hours south of Chenzhou in Guangzhou, was packed with people when it arrived, yet I managed to aquire a sleeping ticket, which was lucky because I am not sure I would have been able to bear having to sit on my pack for 24 hours with the peasant population spitting and smoking whenever they pleased. The train was packed with people—packed. Bags and people lined the cabins where the seats were located.
The seating area and the sleeper is split in half by the dining car, which for an additional 30rmb charge, you can sit at as long as you like—provided that there is apace at the time. I had little trouble in aquiring a sleeper on the train. My friend Betty had written a request for a sleeper to Chongquing and the woman who helped me was more than happy to oblige.

--NBA
--BIjo and La Jao
--Running around the street