I wrote this blog post on my fourth day in Nanjing, only to

immediately discover that blogspot is blocked by the great firewall of China. It has been about two weeks since then and I am now having a friend in the US upload my blog posts.

There is a lot about Nanjing that I really like, and I think that if I

were here with someone else, or if I were staying here long term I would truly love Nanjing.

First of all, I absolutely love the way that traffic works here. In

North Carolina there are rarely any pedestrians, and traffic is very calm and controlled. Here, there are crowds of pedestrians at every corner; people on bikes fill the streets; cars honk frequently; people cut others off and switch lanes constantly. Essentially, chaos is ever-present. While I would be terrified to drive here, riding in cars and walking through the streets is incredibly enjoyable.

I am also really enjoying the food here. There are a number of street vendors throughout Nanjing. For breakfast every day I have eaten a strange breakfast burrito-esque meal. I have no idea what is in it other than egg, but it is very delicious.

On Friday I spent the day with Robert, who works at the Amity

Foundation. He took me to a few of the organizations run by the Amity Foundation in the area. First, we went to a school for autistic children. China has only recently started recognizing autism, so this school is one of few for autistic children. It helps about 20 children at a time who are at most 7 years old. The children were unbearably adorable. Afterwards, Robert took me to the Amity Bakery. This bakery employs 16 mentally challenged adults. It is really wonderful because

it gives them the opportunity to lead more independent lives. The last place that we visited was Amity Printing, which is the primary printer of Chinese and Braille Bibles in the world. It also initiated the first translation of the Bible to Chinese.

Afterwards, Robert dropped me of at the Youth Hostel where I am staying. For the rest of the weekend I have essentially been on my own. In case of emergencies I have Roberts number, but I basically alone as I navigate a city that is an entirely different language. At first I found this incredibly daunting, but it has actually been a pretty good experience.

On Saturday morning I planned to go to the Nanjing Museum. So, I grabbed my street food breakfast and took a subway to the Museum, which is apparently closed. While walking around the museum I met to men who are also new to China. They are both in Nanjing to study traditional Chinese medicine at a hospital in the city. Of the two men Sako was far more talkative. He was from Canada, while Muhammad was

from Australia. I ended up spending the day with them. We went to Purple Mountain, which is a massive area with several mausoleums, temples and other monuments. My camera died, but Sako took some pictures for me. I will post them as soon as he emails them to me. I really enjoyed my day with them, although, in the past few two days I have walked at least 15 miles and my feet are beginning to hurt very badly.