CHINA!!!

"Ni hao everyone!!!! (that's for you girls)

It's been really hectic the last few days which explains why I haven't given an update in 4 days. When we arrived to Shanghai the infamous quarantine inspectors loaded the plane. It was very scary!!! They were all wearing white suits head to toe with a face mask! Luckily, everyone made it past the inspectors without any problem. Straight from the airport we went to the SWFC. You should look it up online, www.swfc-observatory.com. It is more than 100 m taller than the empire state building and we went to the very top. The very top floor is the 100th floor and it has see-thru tiles on the floor so you can see all the way down to the street. I am def. not a big fan of heights, but looking out doesn't scare me too much. Being able to see all the way down below you is a whole other story! I couldn't even walk over the glass tiles, so I got down on my hands and knees haha! Needless to say, I only lasted a few minutes up there while I got my pictures and then decided I had had enough.

Saturday was a very long day with visits to Best Buy, Subway stores, and Jiao Tong University College of Distance. All the visits have been pretty interesting, but they pack so much in that it is soooo hard to stay awake during the presentations. Saturday night was our welcome dinner at this really yummy restaurant. The restaurant had karaoke and bai jo. Bai jo is something I should have stayed away from (talk to Mom, Dad, Kevin, or Aubz ;) sorry guys! Each table had a bottle and it was way stronger than 151. After dinner we headed to a club which overlooked the Huangpu River and the entire Shanghai skyline. It was on a roof and absolutely beautiful!

The next day was pretty easy since we headed to the Yu Yuan temple to shop. It is really entertaining to bargain with them. All you have to do is keep going down and then walk away, and they drop the price by over 50%. It is hard to get used to bargaining on absolutely everything you buy, including water! To most of your surprise, I actually ate McDonald's that day because I needed some American food, even if it was sooo unhealthy.

Monday was another lonnng company day. We visited a company called sealed air; which is a packaging company. Apparently they are making cement with their leftover waste so I was very interested how the properties were affected. When i asked if it affected the strength or how long the cement lasted the guy said it didn't matter since it was just used for paving. He was OBVIOUSLY not an engineer ;). After 4 more company visits we went and stocked up on goods for the overnight train. That was a one of a kind experience. The train was very cramped, but we all had our cup of noodles and a bed, so most of us were happy.

We arrived this morning to Beijing very early and headed straight to the hotel. We visited the Great Wall of China and it was beyond words. I have plenty of pictures that I can't wait to show you all. I have now seen two wonders of the world!!! Tomorrow we go to see Tienanmen Square and the Silk Market, and then Nacky comes on Friday."

- Love,

Ashley

India!

Ashley Meets India:

"Today has been amazing so far and it isn't even over. To start off, we went and visited Maruti Suzuki and got to see the entire factory. Before we got there, we drove for about 45 minutes and were able to see how different India is from the U.S. First off, there are no formal rules of driving. There are lines on some of the roads but everyone seems to straddle them so they really serve no purpose. Contrary to the U.S, people pretty much use their horns instead of blinkers. People and cars are not the only things on the road...we had to share it with the many cows, stray dogs, and monkeys. It is such a different world here and I love it!

After seeing the entire process of how a suzuki car is made, we went to lunch at this really nice center called City Walk. It was basically a huge mall that also had a food court in it. I had no idea what any of the food was so I trusted Netu (one of the Cal Poly teacher's wife). I ended getting a masala dosa which is pretty much a gigantic crepe with potatoes and lots of spice. Needless to say, my stomach hasn't been the same since I arrived, but the food is soooo worth it! Not to mention my entire lunch only cost me a little over 2 dollars.

After lunch we went and visited Rockland Hospital. It was definitely a little difficult getting there! We ended up taking a wrong turn and having to turn around at the dead end. It probably would have been similar to Austin Powers 90-point turn except after 8 tries, these men whose truck was in the way were kind enough to move it. The truck wouldn't start so they actually had to push it out of the way. haha- I took a video which was pretty entertaining. The hospital was very nice, however, the tour was a little strange. The guide ended up taking us into the emergency room where families were, which I thought was a bit invasive.

On our way home from the hospital, our bus driver was able to bribe the police office to let us drive down a one-way street! I couldn't believe it, especially since he only had to pay the cop 1 dollar to let us pass! If only I could have used those tactics to avoid my 2 speeding tickets! We are now in the hotel and getting ready for dinner. Apparently, our dinner tonight is very special because the chef is lebanese and was flown in to India just for tonight. We are definitely in for some entertainment with the huka and some belly dancers."

Here at Last!!!

NACK ARRIVED SAFELY IN INDIA!

A special letter from Ashley:

"It is 11:30 PM and we just got into the hotel and settled. I am pretty well rested after a really lonnnnnng day- from the time I left LAX to when we got into Delhi it was about 30 hours!!!!! (that isn't even including my flight from san jose) anyways we only haev internet for an hour right now to split between all of us so I will make sure to come online tom. night. prob around 10 am your time or so. I just wanted to let you all know that I am safe and am very excited for the many adventures to come."

NACK's Graduation!!!

Ashley DuPuis Breneman graduated this past Saturday from CAL POLY with her MBA.  It was a fun filled beautiful weekend with friends!  The tradition at Cal Poly is to go to the bars at 6am... Surely enough we were in line to have a Mimosa at 6:30am.  Then after a few hours of drinking we got ready and saw Ashley walk the line and get "hooded."  After her graduation we had a fabulous time wine tasting at Edna Valley.  To make the day even better we ended our evening with a wonderful dinner overlooking the ocean at SPYGLASS.

Tomorrow at 4pm she is off to CHINDIA!  Congratulations ASHLEY!