Last Friday Five Course Meal!

Last Friday one of my school's had a five course dinner at a French restaurant. I am so lucky that I have had such nice food lately (however, my bank account is feeling it!).

Last Wednesday Five Course Meal!

My old supervisor, Miyuki, invited me to a dinner last Wednesday night. It was at this really cute small Italian place right here in Bando! Yummy, it was so good!

Thoughts about China

China was great. I didn't really know what to expect when I went there. Actually, I kind of expected it to be a lot like Japan, only ten or twenty years behind. Maybe it is? But honestly China was way different than I imagined. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend going. It was the best vacation I have ever been on. I am not sure if it was because of China, the food, or just the people I met, but it was great!

The Great Wall!

Our final journey in China was to see The Great Wall. Our hostel told us about an eight kilometer hike, with transportation. We signed up! We went with Dan, Eva and James, some people we met at the hostel. The hike was hard! Going up and down, I barely kept up. But I can now say I did and I am proud of myself. We took a cable car to get up and a zip line over a lake to get to the bottom. It was so fun!

Beijing-the Forbidden City!

The next day Rob and I went to the Forbidden City. It was so hot that day, and we were tired from the night before. So it was hard to get through it. Still, I am so glad we went. It was an amazing place!

Beijing-the best part!

The last part of our trip we were in Beijing. We stayed at a hostel there and met the coolest people! Since Rob and I had separated for a few days (I went to Shanghai, he stayed in Qingdao) we met up at the hostel. Rob had already met some people and thirty minutes after I showed up we were out on the town! First we went to this market area that has strange food. We tried fried scorpion, grasshopper, starfish and baby chickens. Then we moved on to this nice local out door restaurant. One of our new friends, Young, spoke Mandarin. We were so thankful for him because without him we wouldn't have gone to these local places! Next we moved on to this bar area. It seemed touristy, but actually had many locals and Chinese tourists as well. Good times!

Shanghai

I didn't spend too much time in Shanghai. I only went there to meet up with a friend. It was smoggy when I tried getting a picture of the skyline. I did get to go to a museum in People's Square. That was nice.

Qingdao-famous for the beer!

Next we moved onto Qingdao, famous for their beer! Qingdao used to be a German colony, so some areas of town look very German! I didn't get a picture of the more modern skyline, but I did get some of the beach. So many brides were taking pictures at the beach for their weddings. We stopped counting! On the way back from the beach we got caught in a storm. It was so beautiful. The last picture is Corey's building.

Qingdao

Xian-Terra Cotta Warriors

So the story goes, in 1974 farmers digging a well (I believe) unearthed on of these soldiers. Historians had no clue what is was, but they started digging and have now found 4000 pieces. A whole army! They were never recorded in history, so one can only guess why they were made. But it is assumed they were made to protect the emperor after he died (I guess he was a bit of a jerk). The army is made out of clay and each one is different. It is thought that they were modeled after the real army at the time!

We had to wait a while to get in. Come to find out it was because the President of Turkey was there! He never waits for me.....

Xian-Terra Cotta Warriors

Old Mosque in Xian (who knew?!?)

Despite of China having no religion, Xian has a Muslim population. We explored an old Mosque. It was nice! We also went to a temple that had writings from Confucius! Wow!