Beautiful Cultural Traditions
During our cultural exchange one of the classes we took involved going to a tea house and participating in a traditional Chinese Tea ceremony. It was so much fun to learn about tea and about enjoy the great flavors. I liked tea before, but never realized how amazingly good tea can be.
Interesting Food Options
One of the interesting things about China is what kind of food you can buy. One restaurant that we went to served snake, dog, rabbit, and rat. I didn’t order any but still laughed at the menu. I took this picture at one of the many street markets in the town where we did the cultural exchange.
Real Women Eat Meat
This is one of the most common scenes from this year, huge slabs of bloody meat hanging in the street. In the US we like to imagine that our meat doesn’t really come from animals, but that’s not true for the rest of the world. My teammates and I have had chickens, cows, goats, and gazelles all sacrificed for us by people hosting us. Then every part of
Beautiful Cities
The second city that we went to in China was beautiful. During the mornings when we didn’t have much to do I really enjoyed just walking on the river front and people watching!
Tai Chi
In the mornings Chinese people gather on the streets and practice Tai Chi. During my time at University I got to attend a Tai Chi class with Lacy. It’s harder then it looks to move that slow!
In the mornings Chinese people gather on the streets and practice Tai Chi. During my time at University I got to attend a Tai Chi class with Lacy. It’s harder then it looks to move that slow!
Open Arms
In the mornings a lot of the Chinese people go outside and do exercises. Some of these exercises looked a little different to me, like one lady who stood by a tree and slapped it multiple times. My favorite exercises to watch were huge groups of people who would gather together to ball room dance.
Morning Ritual
During our last week in China my teammates and I had free time in the morning. It was wonderful because I was able to get something I really craved, alone time! Every morning I would go to the same restaurant over looking the river, order a bowl of oatmeal (cheapest thing on the menu) and spend some quiet time with God. In all the chaos of this year I’ve enjoyed the short times of routine.
River Cruse
One of the highlights of our last week was a river cruse for Clinton’s (our squad leader) birthday. It was awesome, cold, and breathtakingly beautiful. This picture is of Andrew, Spano and Clinton where we stopped for lunch that day.
Great Wall
What would China be with out a trip to the Great Wall! We went to a remote part of the wall and actually hiked a few miles on the wall. Definitely a highlight of the entire trip for me!
Steep Climb
For some reason I expected the great wall to be flat, well it wasn’t! It was a really, really steep climb, but it ended up being a lot of fun.
Olympics
Every single Chinese person I met was super excited about the 2008 Olympics! While in Beijing we visited the stadium (the picture in the background of this picture.) There were Olympic count down signs all over China.
Summer Palace
One of the most beautiful days in Beijing was the day Emilie, Candice, Annie and I went to the summer palace. It was actually sunny which is a rare treat because of all the smog. I am so thankful that even after I year together almost every day, I still really enjoy time with my teammates!
