Asianbabies: The South

Let me start with that the South is beautiful.
We traveled to Hangzhou and Shanghai, which are both near the coast in the Southeast of China. The climate in the south is drastically different from the north, obviously. The south is more humid and rains more, so the pollution didn't feel as heavy, and there were a lot of trees and natural beauty.
We went to a monastery where I prayed with my program director and her friend. We lit incense and bowed three times with our eyes closed. We then prayed to different buddhist statues.
The way that we prayed is that we sat down on a cushion in front of the statues and first bowed standing up, then kneeled onto the cushion and lowered our head to the cushion with our palms facing down onto the cushion, then we stood up and bowed, and lowered our head again onto the cushion this time with our palms facing up, then we stood up again and bowed, and lowered our head back onto the cushion with our palms facing down again, and stood up for the last time and bowed.
After the monastery we went to a tea museum. Tea was traditionally grown and originated in the south, so tea is very famous there. After venturing through the museum, we went to a tea tasting at the end of the museum, which was free.
The tea was exceptional. The best tea was the oolong tea with ginseng in it, upon drinking it, it was bitter, and then the aftertaste was sweet. It reminded me of the gum that changes flavors in willy wonka, I called it willy wonka tea.
After the tea museum we went to a little shopping area that reminded me of America, there was a haagen daz there. I learned that people's idea of American food in China is KFC and Mcdonalds. It made me feel really sad that this was their idea of American food. But then I started to think about American food, and what I eat at home, and I couldn't really think of what it is at its core. I would think of a dish and then realize it was italian food or asian food.
Besides, when I am in America I tend to crave foods from other countries. And now that I am in China, I crave American food? What is this. But then I decided that I do know what American food means to me, it means a melting pot of foods from all different kinds of countries because America is such a cultural melting pot with all the people who have immigrated from all over the world. We are very lucky in America to have so many choices of foods to eat, because in China there aren't as many as in America.

Shanghai reminded me of America mixed with Europe. It was a very rich area, and I'm not sure how much I liked it. I am still trying to discover what China is. This weekend I go on a rural home stay so I will get to see the farming/agricultural part of China, and then I think I will have a better idea.
On the way to Shanghai from Hangzhou we took a high speed bullet train. IT WAS AWESOME!!
We must get California to build the high speed train from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It went really fast, and the seats were like airplane seats, and there was even a TV and a little concession stand and area with tables to eat and take a rest.

I tried some "exotic" foods in the south as well which included frog and quail egg. The frog was a bit chewy and the quail egg tasted like a boiled chicken egg.