Nǐ Hǎo

So here I (Nate) find myself in China. I'm going to come right out and say it is chaotic. There is so many people everywhere here going every which way. Every time you get into a taxi you know that your life is about to end. They are crazy drivers and every 100 yards they are swerving so they don't hit people riding their "dump truck bikes" that is the only way to name what these bikes are like. There will be a little 16 year old girl riding a bike with 1 ton of stuff all packed around her. It looks like a little ant carrying a one inch piece of food. And then your driver is swerving all over the road as to not hit her. I guarantee I will come home from this trip with arthritis for clinching the door so hard during these taxi rides. It has a weird smell that we just can't seem to get away from as well? I don't know if the whole country is like this or just Guangzhou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou if you care to read about where I am).

There are skyscrapers every way you look for as long as you can drive. You can drive and see all the skyscrapers in Utah in about 4 minutes. I have driven for about an hour in every direction and I'm yet to see the end of them. There are so many old and nasty buildings. The pollution is unreal. More people smoke here then you can imagine. They just like to light up the ole Marlboros and puff it up. I was going to post these pictures on our blog but I am being censored. China won't allow people to post on blogs or read blogs here. If they think they can put a muzzle on me they are crazy. I will be emailing Linley pictures and my posts and have her put them up. Here are a couple pictures of our hotel room and pictures from outside of our room.

Things are going well. The fair is like nothing you have ever seen. The complex is 3.3 million sq. ft. and has different manufacturers about every ten sq. ft. You name a product and it is here. We are finding products for our construction company and we have already found some great deals on a couple different products. We went and looked at the consumer electronics and thought about brining in the new LED TV's (they are twice as bright as LCD's and use half the energy and are less than one inch think). We would bring them over until we heard that the minimum purchase order was 1,000. I don't think dropping $1.6 million on 55" TVs would be the best route at this point. I will try to take some pictures of the fair and send them along tomorrow. We have some other ideas up our sleeves to start a TV business. If you would like to put in your thoughts on a name/logo that would be welcomed.

China is a great place but I wouldn't suggest the 25 hour flight to come and check it out. The smog here is unbearable and I have never missed American food like I do right now. Even when I was in Chile they at least would eat things that I had heard of (most of the time) but you go to any place here and you have no chance of eating anything from home. Last night we drove for about an hour after I Googled mexican food to try and find a place to eat. When we got there Paul ordered some Nachos and a Burrito. They served Italian food in the same place and there was no way I was going to order Mexican food after seeing the menu so I went the safe route and ordered a cheese pizza. It didn't taste good by any means but at least it didn't taste like everything else I have seen here. Paul's nachos and burrito didn't look too bad but they basically just took the lasagna sauce and put it on his nachos and stuffed his burrito with lasagna sauce. He wasn't in love with his meal either but at least it wasn't seaweed porridge with fish on top (a breakfast menu item). Good thing I went to Costco and bought 96 Oat and Honey bars and 8 pounds of peanuts before I left. This is our lifeblood and the only guaranteed meal that we get per day.

We are working hard and living it up. China isn't anything that I expected. I thought I was coming home with all sorts of neat gadgets, clothes, and shoes. I have kept my eyes pealed but I'll admit that outside of the fair I haven't seen one item that I wanted. Not even for 10 yen (which is about $1.45). I also would like to let all of you that are stressed that the end of the world is near to sit back and take a deep breath. Keep repenting and preparing yourself but just also be aware that there is a lot of missionary work that still has to be done. I'm calm as a summer's morning now knowing that we have at least a few years left before the end comes.
Our typical day starts at about 5:30 a.m. because we can't sleep past that and it goes until about 8:00 p.m. because we are both so dang tired when we get home and the only channel that we have on TV is CNN global which is the lamest channel I've ever watched so there is nothing else to do once we get home but to read our Book of Mormons and call it a day at about 8:15 p.m. We keep turning on the TV and hoping that things will get better and they will have added another channel. We go through all 35 channels and still only get one that doesn't sound like this, jing dong wo so ni chanza neorsha jing hong long kong. Our Chinese for Dummies books was the biggest waste of $25. It hasn't helped us one time and you should see us trying to communicate here. It is so dang funny.

The moral of the story is we are working hard, laughing hysterically because this place is so bizarre, not eating good at all, our feet hurt because we are standing all day long at the fair, we both get headaches by about 10 a.m. because it takes so much concentration to communicate with EVERYONE, the fair is awesome and the future of America is buying all products from China, we have a plenty of time and a lot of work to do before the Second Coming, China needs to be put in one big washer to clean everything off, then China needs to be put in a huge dryer with a couple Bounce sheets so that the smell can freshen up a little bit, the taxi rides are like living in a real life action film, the people here are so nice and kind, we can't speak a lick of their language and we have no ESPN during the middle of the College Football season. We miss American soil. If you don't think I have an American Flag hanging above my bed right now you are crazy. Most of all we miss and love our families. I'll try to get a few more pictures of the fair and the country. Here are a couple of pictures from our hotel room. Love you all. Peace.

Pictures are down below!