Jam Panders

August 6, 2010: This morning we left the hotel at 8:30 a.m. to go and see the Giant Panda facility about an hour away from our current location of Xinjing City.  Spirits for this trip were extremely high since the time that we found out that we would be visiting this facility.  We had a tour guide on the bus that was narrating the history of Chengdu during our trek to see the pandas.  At some point during the ride, the guide referred to the "Jam Panders."  Naturally, nobody on the bus had any idea what she was talking about.  Carl Thunman '11 deciphered the code to mean "Giant Pandas."  Needless to say, the guys found this to be the funniest thing that they have heard on the entire trip.  We finally arrived at the Panda facility, but the experience there was rather underwhelming.  The plot of land is roughly the same size as the Philadelphia Zoo, but in this panda facility there are only about 5 pandas.  Although the panda exhibit was somewhat of a let down, we also witnessed the most amazing event of the entire trip.  Just as we were leaving, a small tarantula was crawling around on the ground.  Out of nowhere, the biggest wasp I have ever seen flies down, drives its stinger into the head of the tarantula multiple times and paralyzes it.  It was like something that should have been on the Planet Earth DVD collection.  After the panda exhibit, we went to a hotel for a quick lunch and then headed to the museum.  This ancient site was also very underwhelming.  On the bus ride back to the hotel from the museum, the Chinese tour guides declared their admiration for Carl and named him "number one most handsome man on coach," or the best looking guy on the bus.  That would explain why every Chinese woman has been taking pictures with Carl the entire trip.  In addition to Carl being named the most beautiful person, the tour guides made us sing karaoke or tell stories on the way back to the hotel, which was very entertaining.  Tomorrow morning we race in the hopes of becoming the champions.  Our heat goes off at 10:10 a.m. and the final is at 11:15 a.m.  GO TIGERS!