Winding Down

My class went on our last field trip a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to get out and walk around in the trees. My friends decided to use a straight iron to straighten my hair and I liked it so much that I went to a salon and put permanent straightener in my hair. What do you think?

Just us walking around the place.

This stone pagoda and the sculpture on it are over 1,400 years old. It's crazy how detailed it still is.

Here is some more scenery and me with my straight hair.

Weekend in Shanghai

I know it seems like all I do is go on vacation, and well, it is. :) To take a break from vacationing, I go to class. This weekend's adventure with my class was to Suzhou and Shanghai. On Friday, we went to gardens and a silk factory in Suzhou for part of the day and continued on till Shanghai for the rest of the weekend. It wasn't really a strictly planned vacation so we were free to do what we wanted the whole time. The best part was when we all took a little cruise boat tour in the harbor and you can see all the new and jazzy buildings in Shanghai. This is the last trip we had a class so we'll have to see what else my friends and I can plan before we go back to the US.

This is Suzhou gardens with a Pagoda and me with my Chinese "MOM", Professor Zhou.

This is still Suzhou and the silk worm cocoons which actually what silk comes from. 7,000 cocoons make 1 silk blanket.

This is Shanghai with all the lights. My friends Ray, Bethany, and Hannah (middle).

This is one of the coolest buildings in Shanghai.

Ten Days Trip

Part of the Study Abroad to China includes a ten-day trip touring China in the middle of the two blocks. We left on October 21 and we got back on October 31. It was sooooo much fun. We saw tons but it was not overwhelming. There was a excellent balance of culture and recreation; you can only see so many different Buddhist temples before they start to look the same. We first went to a city called Luo Yang and saw a famous temple where they study martial arts. We saw people throw nails through glass and amazing acrobatics. We also went to Xi'an and saw the Terra-cotta warriors. They are 2,200 years old. Our country's history has nothing to compare. We also went to Beijing where we saw Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, the Great Wall, and some amazing shopping. Here are the pictures of our adventure: (The first couple are before the trip. Our turtle, Enrique, and a visit to a culture village.)

The left picture was when I went into a big bubble and rolled around on top of a lake. It was super fun but really tiring.

The right is an embarrassing picture of me when I dressed up for Salsa dancing. Trip: The other two pictures are of the Long Men Caves. They are Buddhist caves that are over 1500 years old.

More ancient Buudhas, my first attempt at a French braid, and my tandem bicycle experience on the top of the Xi'an city wall (100's of years old).

These are the Terra-cotta warriors. They are over 2200 years old. They were originally painted and each held a different weapon. Their purpose was to guard the emperor's reign after his death. They have found over 6,000 warriors to date.

This is a room of stone tablets that have Confucius' writings on them some 600 years old. The dinner-dance show had some crazy looking dumplings and some interesting dances.

Tiananmen Square and the scenes from the Forbidden City.

Our retreat at Hard Rock Cafe Beijing, our friends with similar hats at the summer palace and my adventure on a dragon boat.

This is the inside of the Temple of Heaven where the Emperor would go twice a year and communicate with God. The others are pictures of the Great Wall with the autumn colors.

More pictures of the Great Wall.

You can kind of see how steep it is and this is my friend Bethany.

Excursion to Sichuan

This past week was the Chinese National Holiday, so pretty much everyone in China had the week off. We decided before that a group of 9 of us were going to take a train to the Sichuan province, the province next to Tibet, so across China. It was a 36 hour train ride but, basically, it was awesome. On the train ride there we had a dance party with the 50+ year old older women in the aisle of the train. We had them jumping around and waving their hands in the air to Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, and Queen. It got kind of awkward when the ringleader of the old women started spooning me while we were dancing with them (it was a tight space). Once we actually got to Sichuan we went to a place called E Mei Shan. We went hiking there for three days, which hiking in China means stairs. We climbed an altitude of 8,800 ft while hiking the stairs and then went back down. The two nights on the mountain we stayed in Buddhist Monasteries. When we woke up at the first one there was a clan of monkeys taking over the place. Two monkeys climbed on one of the girls in our group and pantsed her. It was pretty cool. After the hiking and many sores muscles, we went back to the city, got stinking cheap massages (not quality but price ($1.50 for 50 minutes)), and had some famous spicy food (Sichuan is famous for having some of the spiciest food in the world). It numbed your mouth as soon it was in there; a weird sensation to say the least. The last day we went to the Panda Reserve; Pandas are only native to the Sichuan Province in China. That night we got on the train and came home. Sorry this was a long post but a lot happened. These are the pictures of my excursion:

There was a shortage of beds on the train so Ray and I had to share...It was tight! This is the calm part of the trail and me with my pancho.

Most of the hike we were in the clouds so we saw the "cloud seas" the entire time. These are those monkeys.

These are our humble accommodations in the Buddhist Monasteries. The sun finally broke through the clouds and the trees near the top.

The giant golden Buddha at the top of the mountain. The view from the top.

The waterfall, stream area we found on the way down. The splash I made after jumping off the rock into the pool and a random picture.

The pandas going to town on the bamboo and me advertising for AH Plumbing. Ray and I sporting our new panda hats.