I See You Like to Chew. Then Perhaps You Should Chew... On My Fist

One of the promises of going to teach through the ILP program is that you will be offered Chinese Nights... which can be anything from karaoke to calligraphy. One of my favorite "Chinese Nights" was Dumpling Night!
After coming back from Beijing several people started to get "trunky" it almost felt like it was time to go home even though we still had another month left! Dumpling Night came at a perfect time- we were able to get together with everyone and have our foreign coordinators Vivi and Gloria teach us their mad cooking skills :)


I love all my friends I spent 5 months with in China!! :) They all knew how to make every situation fun, we spent the rest of the night of course eating our creations and enjoying each others friendship! I love the quote "Every person is a new door to a different world" it definitely has a double meaning here! Each person in my group made my China experience, together we all had something to offer and we made a great team!



After we finished cooking and we were hanging around we had a bug attack!! The bugs in China were pretty big and scary! they also were good at attacking you, i had several dive bomb me! :) we were able to get on a camera a nice freak out by all of us over 1 nasty bug!!

I love looking back on all my experiences and remembering the fun times we had. There is something about being away from the world we know that really teaches you about yourself and draws you close to those around you.
"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."

Beijing Day 7 and 8

This was our last day we spent in Beijing, I really enjoyed Beijing- it is so big and exciting! We stayed in the cutest hostel and it was much nicer than our apartments so it was hard to leave!! I enjoyed hostels because you met some of the most random people at-it is amazing how many people come to China just to escape life!
This is our hallway :)

One of my favorite parts of this hostel was the laundry service. You took your dirty clothes to the front desk with some money at the beginning of the day and when you came back that night it was all clean and folded in your room! It was a happy feeling
We had a few more days to head back to the school, so before heading home we took a train ride over to Xian! We all went a little crazy and Beijing with our money... so to help save some we decided to buy hard seats for our over night train ride!! Definitely an experience... maybe not the best one we've had! Our train seats were basically like the seats in the chapel, except it they were perfect 45 degree angles- a little difficult to get comfortable on! We made the best of our 11 hour ride! We had a laptop to watch a movie- we put the Chinese subtitles on and let those around us watch with :) We also played some fun games with our i-pods! about 3 in the morning we attempted sleep, none of us got too much. Our neighbors figured out how to get comfortable :) When I saw them sleeping, I laughed so hard.

Hey, I guess whatever works right?
Xi'an was an amazing city and i wish we could have spent more time there! Xi'an is where the Terracotta Warriors are... which are incredible!!
On no sleep we went that day to see all the warriors!
There are three pits full of warriors, which got more impressive one after the other!

the first pit was full of warriors, but it also had a lot of excavating! It was neat to see them still digging and finding more warriors!
The second pit had a lot more warriors, several were still in pieces and digging was being done, you also were up above looking down into the pit so it was difficult to see much detail. However, they had several of the warriors in-cased around the pit!

the 3rd pit was my FAVORITE it was so incredible! There were so many warriors and you could get close enough to see all the detail put into each of them. Its true how each warrior is different!
Andrea took most of these pictures, she is an amazing photographer!



Of course we had to have some fun while we were there... so we decided to become the Terracotta Warriors!!

In the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics they had two giant marionettes come out and perform "warrior and little girl" They acted out a story of caring, friendship and peace fully illustrating the concept of the Peoples Olympics.

that night we had fun exploring the city! We tried new foods, did some more shopping and had fun out on the town ;)

We spent the rest of the night hanging out in our hostel with our new friend Tom and his dog Teddy!!
The next morning I walked into my room to find all the girls giggling and laughing!! Andrea had broken her glasses and this is the result of it :)




I LOVED BEIJING- this vacation was the most amazing thing I have ever done!! Everyday was full of new adventures and excitement!! I would go back in a heartbeat!

Beijing Day 6

Beijing Day 6
Today is the day we saw MAOS DEAD BODY!! At Tiananmen Square there is a memorial center for Mao and it cases his body which has been preserved for about 50 years!! There is always a line to see him and most people bring flowers to present to him.

It was really interesting to see how much the people respected and honored him, it was such an honor for them to have this opportunity to see Mao. It was definitely an experience for us to go in, but not the same as for them.
Afterwards, a few of us went to one of the cutest places in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven!! It is the most layback and relaxed historical parks we visited!

The park is full of elderly couples enjoying their days together. One part of the park music is playing and everyone is dancing!! Joey actually went out and danced with a few of the women who I am pretty sure were fighting over him! Here is a video of some of the cute women and couples having fun!!

There were men playing with the coolest hacky sacs and they were Amazing! I have never seen such skill!

I really am in love with this place! If I lived in Beijing I would spend all my time in the Temple of Heaven- there was such a happy and relaxed feeling- everyone was just enjoying life and appeared to have no worries!
The Temple of Heaven has some really interesting history, there is a lot of symbolism connecting the heaven and earth. We had some fun taking pictures- I really liked the whole setting of the temple.

They also had an echo wall and if you stood in the very middle everything you said echoed! Most people didn’t care about the echo, they just wanted the picture!! I made sure to jump up and down and yell so I could hear it echo!!

Can I retire to here someday?

This was our last full day in Beijing… which meant it was our last chance to see the Olympic Stadium up close! Andrea, Joey and I were very determined! We took the subway again, which was scary because we knew it was closing soon! Luckily we made it on the last subway. We were so happy getting off the subway- everything was decorated for the Olympics, we walk out and all the lights are on, the birds nest and the torch were lit up it was such an exciting moment! About 2 minutes later the lights shut off completely… everything was shut down…. We were so close and missed it by only minutes!!! So again we had to see everything from a distance!!
We decided to keep the determination of an Olympian in mind We were going to keep on going no matter what!!

We were a little sad and so to fill our sorrows we bought a sweet potato off the street… and surprisingly it was delicious!! I may have been because it was the only thing we had eaten the entire day

As we were walking down the street some girls came running past us- all three of us look at each other and we start running along with them, they just looked at us and laughed!! It was pretty silly!
Even though we never got to get up close and be in the Olympic Square we still had some amazing adventures trying to get there!!

Beijing Day 5

While in Beijing Andrea and I pulled off quite the fashion statement  Everywhere we went, especially on the subways we carried our backpacks in front of us!! We were slightly paranoid of getting things stolen and it was also very convenient for getting snacks and pulling your camera out!!

We felt like we had a glimpse of how being pregnant would feel 
Day five of Beijing was the day we visited the Forbidden City- it was beautiful and amazing to visit, especially because Mulan has been there ;) The forbidden city is where the emperor lived and had complete control and structure there.

The Summer Palace is said to be more beautiful because they had more freedom in design, but I found the Forbidden City to be beautiful because of the structure! Only a few people in my group went there, I am very glad I decided to go!
Like many of the places we went it was mostly wandering around taking pictures! We have two must needed pictures when we go anywhere-one is a jumping picture and the other is a kung fu pose! This picture of the entrance is probably my favorite jumping picture of all!

The building structure and design of everything here was BEAUTIFUL- It was amazing to me to see all the detail and hard work put into each piece of the buildings. I loved that the whole forbidden city is the look of China that I pictured.

Each building had an importance, many were the housings of the emperors concubines- we were able to look inside and see their bedding and furniture, it is all so pretty!

This is probably one of my favorite pictures I took while in China  By chance I had a scarf in my backpack and there we were in the Forbidden City by the pillars Mulans friends climbed to get inside! (Yes I know Mulan is not real and none of the characters actually were in this Forbidden City! ;) ) At the end of the forbidden city is the emperors gardens, definitely where he went for sanctuary and beauty.

The style and structures were different than anything we had seen. I think I would have spent all my time there!
Just across from the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square, which has so much history! The building on the back of a 100 yuan is there, a memorial to Mao(which has his dead body in side) and many other monuments. As we were walking across the street we were sold flags of China, so we had fun taking pictures with them!

It is a fun place for people to visit- many people have kites there, others are playing games and many people just visit to see the guards march through.
This is one of the monuments to the peoples hero’s, the largest monument in China

One of the foods we were told we had to eat while in China was the famous Pecking Duck! So that afternoon we all met back together to have duck  Some of us had eaten duck before, so we were all really excited but it was not something that was too crazy. When we got to the restaurant they informed us that we could have TURTLE!! Now this was definitely something none of us have had! They brought a live turtle out to us to see if it was good enough!!! That poor turtle knew his life was almost over, Joey, Erin and Anna all held it as it went wild snapping at everyone’s fingers!

I had a difficult time eating it… especially when they brought it back all cooked and still looking like a turtle

It actually wasn’t too bad… Once you got past how sad it was that you were eating a turtle!! The duck was AMAZING! They sure made all their food look fancy and delicious tasting!

They sat us at a table with a Lazy Susan on it… which is a bad thing when you have a bunch of people who still act 12 together!! We decided to spin it around and around while trying to grab the food off the dishes with our chopsticks… lets just say it ended badly!! Once things started to crash off the table we decided it was a good idea to leave  We at least know how to have fun in any situation!!

Beijing Day 4

I finally have reached one of the greatest days EVER!! Day four in Beijing we went to the Great Wall of China!!! In preparation for Beijing and mainly going to see the Great Wall we watched Mulan :) It was fun to watch and know that in a few days we would be climbing around on it and walking around the imperial palace!!
We took a tour which included a jade factory, the ming tombs, a silk factory the great wall and a tea ceremony! It was a very full and fulfilling day :D
The Great Wall was obviously the Highlight of the day ;) Everything else was really fun to see and interesting but it was also very touristy and a way for them to try and sale to us.
At the Jade Factory we learned about the history of Jade and how it is symbolic to families. Families will pass down jade bangles to their daughters and many have been around for several generations. It is believed that while wearing the jade it absorbs your minerals so it holds a piece of you in it, so its very special to have your grandmother or mothers jade bangle. Another thing I thought was interesting was the Jade Eternity Balls. They are really pretty and represent the importance of families and always keeping them close to you.
After the Jade factory we made our way to the Ming Tombs!! At the beginning of the ming tombs was a dragon turtle and its believed that if you touch his mouth you will be blessed with wealth. Everyone there was crowding around trying to touch the mouth,we figured it was worth a try-so here is a picture of Tanner and I making sure we got our turn at being wealthy!

There was an entrance to the grounds of the tombs but you were not allowed to go through it, we had to go around it. If we went through the entrance on the way in it is symbolic of entering down into the underworld... and none of us really wanted that!!
Here is a group of tourist coming out of the tombs, so this time they had to go through the entrance. You had to walk through and shake off all the evil spirits and then promise to not look back.

Going down into the tombs was pretty interesting, the actual casket and the emperor were not in there anymore, just boxes representing where it was. I'm not sure why, but I figured they would still be in there along with all his prized possessions he was burried with. They did atleast have his throne and his empresses throne down there and if you threw money onto them you were given good luck.
This is a picture of the emperors gravestone... I thought it was pretty impressive!
Finally after all of this we headed to the GREAT WALL!!! :) :) :) Even now thinking about it, I feel like it was a dream. The car ride to the wall was a couple hours long... we were all very anxious and got a little silly!! One point Andrea had her head out the vans window barking like a dog- she was the most impressive dark bark I have every heard!!
At the Great Wall we only had a couple hours to spend there, so instead of using 45 minutes to climbed to the Wall we got to ride a little cable car up to the top! We had not really seen the wall yet until half way up we came over the mountain ridge and there was the Great Wall right in front of us!!!!
We are all in complete happiness from that moment on!! We were really luckily to have picked a spot on the wall that was not overcrowded, this was it was mostly just us and the wall :)

The wall was a lot steeper than imagined... here I am climbing a piece of the wall that pretty much went straight up!! I can't imagine trying to run up and down the stairs in an attempt to defend China!

We got in our typical pictures... Everywhere we go we try to get in a good jumping and kung fu picture!!


The whole time I was on the wall I was in aww, It was unbelievable to be at such a historical landmark! Beijing in general was so much fun to be at and to know it all has so much history, now that I have been to these places I need to go home and study the history of it better!

It was hard to leave, I just wanted to soak as much of it in as possible... but at least when we had to go we got to go down in a pretty excited way, we took a Toboggan down! Here is Erin and I getting ready to go down... I look a little scared but really I was excited!!

I don't know how the day could have gotten any better! Not only did we get to see the Great Wall but we got to ride a Toboggan down from it!
Everything after that was exciting, but just couldn't compare. We went to a silk market and were able to see the process of how silk is made and we also went to a tea ceremony. It was interesting to participate in. You had to drink different types of teas certain ways, one type we had to slurp others, another after you drank it you had to smack your lips and some of them you had to have your pinky out to drink it :)

I'm pretty sure this day is up there with my best days ever! :D