Guatemala: Week 2

Well I'll start off with some pictures since I didn't have any last time... I have to give credit to Alex Pechette, Christie Donahue, and Jossie Frankiewicz for these pictures since I obviously don't have any.

This is Antigua, which was kind of our "home base" for the trip. We stayed here when we first arrived in Guatemala. It's a beautiful city surrounded by three volcanoes, the Volcan de Fuego, the Volcan de Agua, and Acatenango. The streets are all cobblestone and there are plazas located throughout the city with a beautiful church at the front of each.

This is our group on our way to Los Siete Altares (The Seven Altars), a series of waterfalls. We rode here in a 'taxi'--a.k.a. we stood in the back of an old jeep.

This is the largest waterfall of Los Siete Altares and the one we jumped off of.

Rio Dulce, where we met up with our driver Vinnicio on our way to Tikal.

Tikal! This is the most famous ruin that everyone thinks of when they think of Tikal. This ruin faced a square where there were many other ruins, like a city.

The hot springs... can you tell we were in the jungle?

This is our worksite! A majority of the work we did included moving a LOT of dirt from the left side of the photo to the right side. We also finished the reinforcement bars around the perimeter of the building and poured concrete on top of them.

This is one of the first days of volunteering, the first job Jossie and I had was to tie wires around the corner of each square of the rebar. I probably tied about 300 of these--let's just say my hands are very strong now. Later we filled in this section of the building in with dirt.

These guys were common visitors to the worksite...

We saw this on our way home from work one day. Now you know why you should wash your fruits and vegetables!

This is the view from the community where we worked one afternoon.

We had a break Saturday and Tino took us to a sacred lake high up in the mountains. It was a pretty tough climb, I think we figured out that we climbed around 3000 vertical feet that day.

Tino and his daughter Estefanie. She was too cute!

On Saturday local community radio station leaders stopped by the worksite. It was really nice to talk to the people we were helping out.

Our last day in Guatemala we went to the volcano Pacaya. This is us running down the side of one of the hills, the volcano is in the distance.

Me and the lava! You could walk right up to it. Although you didn't really want to cause it was real hot (taking this picture was difficult).

So the second week started our volunteering. We volunteered from Wednesday to Monday and took a break on Saturday to visit the lake. The first day we met Tino, the coordinator of the training center project. Tino is a former guerrilla of the civil war in Guatemala. Amanda, the coordinator from CasaSito, is writing his autobiography so she worked with him while we were working on the training center. The book is going to be very similar in style to I, Rigoberta Menchu, which I read before leaving for Guatemala. If anyone wants to know more about Guatemala I would highly recommend this book. It's a little hard to follow in that it's all in first person dialogue, but the descriptions of the war are very realistic. I found it hard to believe some of the things the government did to the people during the civil war, but Tino's stories confirmed those things. The brutal things they did were really very sad.

The first day we also met the construction managers, Walter and Silve (everyone referred to Silve as "sub-5," though, because the guy couldn't have been more than 4'8" tall). I later learned that these guys were actually volunteers as well or were paid very little for their work. When we weren't there would only work on the weekends, their days off, and still had other construction jobs during the week. When the supplies from our donation run out, they have to wait for more donations in order to continue the construction.

I spent the first couple days tying metal reinforcement bars with wire at each corner. Later we poured cement on top of the rebar. Our second project was moving a LOT of dirt from one side of the worksite to the other, in order to level it out. This was done with pickaxes, wheelbarrows, and shovels. The only power tool I saw the entire time I was there was a circular saw, which I think they used twice. Even to drill holes they have a hand-crank screwdriver-type thing.

The volunteer site was a couple houses down from Tino's, and we would go to his house for a morning snack and lunch. They would make us Guatemalan food, which mostly consisted of chicken, rice, beans, and hundreds of tortillas. There must've been at least 50 tortillas per person. It was really interesting to see his house, which was relatively nice compared to the ones surrounding it. Next to the worksite the houses were literally shacks with tin roofs. One day Tino's wife Betty showed us her huipiles, which are traditional hand-woven blouses worn by women. They were beautiful. Walter also told us about his upcoming wedding and it was interesting to hear the differences between weddings in the U.S. and in Guatemala. He is marrying a Mayan woman and he said she was weaving her own huipil in preparation for the wedding. He also said that they do not exchange rings and that the wedding is not a big deal; he joked that he could wear his work clothes to the wedding and he would look all right.

Saturday was our day off and we took a hike to a sacred lake high in the mountains. The Mayans believed that this lake was the center of the universe. It took a while to get to the lake because we had to hike up a long ways. When we got to the lake it was really beautiful, the mist would coming up over the trees and settle down on the lake. It was pretty obvious why the Mayans held the lake as sacred. Tino, Betty, and Silve cooked us lunch over a fire in the style of the guerrillas during the war. After the hike to the lake Tino told us stories of his time in the war. He spoke in Spanish and Christie translated for us, but I was able to understand about half of what he said. The government killed his father when he was very young and that is when he decided to fight in the war. He also believed for many years that his mother and siblings had been killed while he was away but was able to find them again after over 10 years. It was really eye-opening and at the same time sad to hear what had been happening in Guatemala in recent years (the war ended in 1996) since I doubt many people even know that this was occurring. If I hadn't read I, Rigoberta Menchu before I left I would've had no idea.

Monday was our last day of work and it was sad to say goodbye to Tino. I wished we could've stayed to work longer. Everyone was so appreciative of the work we had done it really made me realize what an impact we had on the people of the community.

Tuesday we went to visit the volcano Pacaya. This hike was not as bad as the hike to the sacred lake but was still difficult. Our guide started working at the volcano when he was 8 and had worked there for 30 years. He said he does the walk up the volcano twice a day and he loves his job because he loves the nature. When we got to the top we were able to see an actual lava flow, which was really cool (and hot). That night we went to a rooftop bar in Antigua which was very beautiful at night because you were able to see the three volcanoes surrounding the city.

Wednesday we flew home, and it was nice to return home finally. Returning home was again bittersweet like China because I wanted to stay and learn more about Guatemala and at the same time I wanted to come home and see my friends. I also had to start about 4 days after I got home. I had similar reactions to how I felt upon returning from China. Seeing the peoples' houses and the way they live really made me thankful for what I have in the United States. Believe me, we are very lucky. It's pretty hard to describe to people how a third-world country lives without seeing it for themselves.

This trip again made me want to visit and learn more about other cultures and countries. After visiting Guatemala I definitely want to continue learning Spanish and hopefully one day maybe be fluent. College is really the best time to explore the world so hopefully I will be able to have other travels. Perhaps if I do I will pick this up again. Until then, I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog. I've enjoyed sharing it with everyone and recording my memories for the future.I can truly say that this summer has been the best one yet and has definitely changed who I am as a person.

Until next time,

Katie

Guatemala: Week 1

So I finally have a chance to post... I've been really busy with the start of school and whatnot. I only had access to a computer for about 15 minutes at a time in Guatemala so I didn't have a chance to update. Also, I'm going to have to find pictures are from other people since my camera was stolen... details to come.

Wednesday the 19th:

We flew into Guatemala City with a connection in Houston. We ended up having to wait in the airport a couple hours because Alex's flight from Miami was delayed, then we met our driver Vinnicio and he drove us to Antigua (about an hour away). Antigua used to be the capital of Guatemala, and is one of the bigger cities we stayed in. The streets are all cobblestone and lined with multicolored houses. It reminded me of something you'd see on Househunters International, one of my parent's favorite TV shows on HGTV. Antigua is one of the wealthier cities as well, there are lots of boutiques and restaurants owned by Europeans. The first night we met up with Christie and she took us to a restaurant that had live music. Christie works for CasaSito and also worked with us on the radio station project (and deserves credit for some of the pictures).

Thursday the 20th:

We woke up super early in order to drive to Porte Barrios, where we took a boat to Livingston. Arriving in Livingston was one of the scarier experiences I had on the trip. When we got off the boat, we were swarmed by Guatemalans trying to persuade us to come to various hotels. And when I say swarmed, I mean swarmed. Meanwhile, the driver of the boat is walking away with my luggage (he had helped me get it off the boat). So I'm clutching my backpack to make sure no there's no stray hands in it, following this random guy whose carrying my luggage away, and being followed by these yelling guys. After a few minutes they started to ask if we wanted various drugs. We told them no and at that point they became irate, shouting any combination of profanity and 'American' they could think of. We asked our boat driver to take us directly to our hostel, telling him we had a reservation. "Oh, you have a reservation!" he replied cheerfully. So we got back on the boat and he took us to another harbor where our hostel was located.

Needless to say, we were a little shook up by that. We decided to just walk around close to our hostel to find something to eat. We stopped at a little restaurant on the water with beer posters all over the walls. There were two items on the menu: fish and shrimp. Oh, and Gallo beer. You can't walk 10 feet in Guatemala without seeing a sign for Gallo. Anyways, the cook invited us back into the kitchen to see the seafood, proclaiming that he "caught it fresh this morning!" I got shrimp, and although it was swimming in grease that later solidified it actually turned out to be really good (at the time). It did give me a bit of a stomachache later.

We had been reading in Sean's guidebook about Los Siete Altares (The Seven Altars), a series of freshwater pools and waterfalls that was supposed to be close to Livingston. We asked our hostel owner about it and he said it was about a 20 minute car ride and a 20 minute walk and offered to call a 'taxi' for us. The taxi turned out to be an old pickup truck that the 10 of us stood in the back of for the ride. (This is actually a very common mode of transportation in Guatemala.) They dropped us off and we walked down a very dirty beach to Los Siete Altares. The pools were really pretty and it felt nice to swim since it was so hot. The waterfall furthest upstream had about a 10 or 12 foot ledge you could jump off which we took advantage of.

That night, we had dinner and just hung out at the hostel. We learned Alex's favorite card game Scopa (spelling?) which turned out to be a big hit for the rest of the trip.

Friday the 21st:

We took a boat in the morning from Livingston to Rio Dulce. It was about an hour boat ride and it was at that point I realized that we were literally in the jungle. There were dense trees on either side of the river rising up hundreds of feet. We also passed people in canoes checking their traps for fish. Vinnicio met us in Rio Dulce and we drove 5 hours to El Remate where we stayed at La Casa de Don David. The hotel had beautifully maintained grounds and was on the lake Peten Itza. We went to bed relatively early because the next day we were visiting Tikal National Park.

Saturday the 22nd:

We got up early to go to Tikal. Tikal National Park is where many of the Mayan ruins are located in Guatemala. This was one of the things I was most excited about going into this trip, and it was awesome. At the first temple, if you stood in a certain location and clapped your hands you could hear a squawk noise which was supposed to be the sound of the quetzal. (The quetzal is Guatemala's national bird and is also the unit of currency.) We climbed up the tallest temple, and from the top you could see the tops of the other temples poking out of the trees. We also went to the town center, where all the buildings have been unearthed and restored. They restore the temples in the original ways of the Mayans. There were courts for playing a game which our guide explained was like a combination of basketball and soccer--you had to get the ball in a hoop without using your hands. The winners of the game were sacrificed; this was a great honor. Our guide also explained that only 15% of the temples have been unearthed, and pointed to lots of random hills where buildings where still buried.

After a long hot day at Tikal we wanted to go swimming so we walked to an area on the lake that had a dock. The water was super clear and like bath water--probably around 80 to 85 degrees. There were a couple kids there swimming when we got there, and this unfortunately begins the story of how my camera was stolen. I was taking a picture of the sunset when Kunal realized that his glasses had fallen off the dock so I walked up to shore, put my camera in the case and set the case on top of my bag (next to everyone elses' bags). Then I walked back out onto the dock to help look for the glasses. About 20 minutes later we found them and when I walked back up to shore my camera was gone. We looked everywhere for it but couldn't find it. The only thing we could think of is that one of the little kids took it while we were distracted looking for the glasses. So that was a bummer. I lost all of my pictures from the ruins and the rest of the trip. Fortunately have more than enough pictures from everyone else, but it was also a bummer because I had just got the camera in China. Oh well. I'm currently bidding on another one on Ebay so we'll see how it goes...

Anyways, we went back to the hostel and had dinner and then hung out for a while. We spoke with Don David for a while and he told us that there were big spiders that came out at night near the rock walls in the garden. We went searching for some and they were not big spiders--they were TARANTULAS. The biggest, hairiest spiders I've ever seen in my life. Most of them hid in the rocks when we approached but we were able to snap a picture of a few. (Pictures to come soon.)

Sunday the 23rd:

Vinnicio picked us up and we drove back to Rio Dulce. This time we took a boat to la Casa Perrico. The hostel was only accessible by boat and was definitely the coolest we stayed in. It was literally in the middle of the jungle for only $7/night. There were boardwalks to get from room to room and really big gross spiders (again).

We went downtown Rio Dulce and did some shopping. I bought 2 hammocks, which I have no idea how I am supposed to go about hanging. Hammocks are everywhere in Guatemala. That night we went back and had dinner at the hostel, which was all-you-can-eat buffet style and was awesome. We hung out at the bar for a while with the hostel guard. This guy looked like Samuel L. Jackson, was dressed in all camo, and carried a shotgun. (Guns were actually pretty common in Guatemala. For example, the Pepsi trucks are open flatbed trucks and the racks are stacked on top. In Guatemala City, I saw guards with shotguns riding on top of the bottles. Also, when they are doing money exchanges at ATMs guards will stand outside with shotguns. I was near one when they were fixing it one time--it was definitely the closest I've been to a loaded gun in my life. It made me nervous. I don't know who would be stupid enough to try something with those guys, but I guess it's happened.)

Monday the 24th:

We spent most of this day driving from Rio Dulce to Antigua, about a 6 hour drive. When we got to Antigua we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and had a couple drinks. We went to bed relatively early.

Tuesday the 25th:

We drove from Antigua to Xela, where we were staying during our volunteering. We met up with Amanda (the CasaSito coordinator) and she took us to some hot spring pools up in the mountains. They were HOT. Definitely hotter than any hot springs I have ever been in before. But the view from the top was awesome, since we were almost at the peak of one of the mountains.

That night Amanda took us to get Guatemalan food, it was a tiny restaurant where we literally took up every table. The food was super cheap and pretty good too. I got chicken with this sort of orange bean sauce with cinnamon and rice. It was only 30 quetzales ($3.75) for the meal and drink. Can't really go wrong with that. That night we went to bed early because we had to get up at 6 AM the next day for volunteering.

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Phew, that was a lot of writing. This is where I will end it for now. Week two starts our volunteering. I'll also work on finding pictures to go with everything I just wrote above! Check back soon. Buenas Noches.

Katie

13 Hours to Guatemala!

So I leave for the airport in about 6 hours, at 3:30 AM. My flight leaves at 6 AM. Today has been a crazy day. I had to move out of my old house and put my stuff in the new house. I'm planning on sleeping on the couch for a few hours because there is no furniture left in my room anymore!

I found out a little more information about what we will be doing in Guatemala. CasaSito has organized for us to volunteer for the Asociacion Mujb'ab'l yol, which is an organization that uses radio stations to raise awareness of human rights and other social issues. (http://www.casasito.org/english/mujb.html) We will be helping build a training center for young people interested in learning more about radio broadcasting. There is also going to be a museum associated with the training center which we may be helping to construct.

I'm excited to try and practice my Spanish! From what I've heard some of the smaller villages speak indigenous languages but I will be able to (hopefully) talk to people in the larger cities that we visit. I really have no clue what to expect once I get off the plane though. I hope there are computers at the hostels so I can update this. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures!

Wish me luck!

Katie

Back to Being a Beach Bum

I've been back in the states for a couple weeks now. I work at Warren Dunes State Park in the campground office and go to the beach on my days off or whenever I get the chance.

Hard at work at Warren Dunes.

I've been keeping a mental list of things that I'm thankful for here at home. Food tops the list, among other things:

1. Food that I am used to, especially dairy products. I am thankful for cheese mostly, but also for skim milk that I trust. Milk in bags always kinda freaked me out in China.

2. Driving wherever I want, whenever I want, with the AC and my music blasting. No more crowded metro rides with sweaty, smelly people!

3. The weather. With heat indexes over 100 degrees in Shanghai right now, I am thankful for the 'mild' Michigan weather. The nights are nice and cool and I missed sleeping with the windows open.

4. Being able to read! You don't realize how much you take for granted being able to read road signs, billboards, food labels, etc. until you can't anymore.

5. Old friends. I missed them.

I apologize to anyone still in China reading this, but if I had a choice I'd still be there. I've been keeping a list of things I miss about China as well:

1. New experiences. You know how they say you learn something new every day? Definitely true in China.

2. The food. I know food is on both lists but I miss trying new foods in China. The canteen food started to get pretty gross by the end but going to restaurants was always exciting (mostly because I didn't know what I was ordering).

3. New friends. I miss everyone in China. I made some great friends and I can't wait to see them in the fall.

4. Traveling and sightseeing. I can't see myself going back to China anytime soon and I wish I could have traveled to more places. I keep getting emails from friends still there about traveling to different places and I wish I could go with.

5. The big-city nightlife. Nightlife in St. Joe consists of walking around at Best Buy and/or Wal-Mart, or driving around aimlessly. Enough said.

I've been trying to prepare for Guatemala by bringing my Spanish book to work and reviewing my Spanish. My mom has also been giving me daily Gutemalan crime updates and travelers' recommendations to insure that I'm fully terrified of Guatemala City before I leave. (We're not spending any time in Guatemala City). I'm also reading a book called I, Rigoberta Menchu. She tells the story of her life during the Guatemalan Civil War.

21 days to Guatemala and counting!

¡Adios!

Katie

From Shanghai to St. Joe

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to update before I left. The last few days just flew by. I've been home from China for two days now, and I can't believe it's really over. This has been one of the most fun, interesting experiences I've ever had and has only made me want to travel more. I even more excited for Guatemala now.

I chose China because I knew basically nothing about the culture and language--I wanted to experience something different and new in a culture that was very unlike the U.S. I toured Europe in high school with the orchestra for 2 weeks but this trip has been completely different. I didn't know anyone else on the trip ahead of time, and while it was initially rather scary flying to a foreign country alone, it really forced me to open up and make friends. Too often I feel I rely on other people for new friendships so this trip has been a real growing experience for me. I'm leaving with a great group of friends that I hope I can keep in touch with back in Ann Arbor.

This trip has also really opened my eyes to globalization... perhaps maybe globalization isn't the right word. More like I realized that I know very little about the world. On this trip I was surrounded by people from around the world who speak and read two (or more) languages. I felt a little inadequate with only my English (and very limited Spanish, which obviously wasn't of much use). It's a little strange when Chinese people, assuming you don't know Chinese, address you using English... sometimes it made me feel like I gave off the ignorant American stereotype. In bars and clubs we met people from Finland, Mexico, and Italy, among many others, and they would always speak to me using English, their second language. But I was here to learn, and by the end of this trip I feel I was able to communicate a little more. I can at least understand numbers and a few key phrases in Chinese, and I am even more interested in learning Spanish now.

Knowing so little before departure meant that I came in with very few expectations and that definitely helped with the initial culture shock and helped me be able to 'go with the flow,' so to speak. Being back in the U.S. is pretty weird now, perhaps I am experiencing the 'reverse culture shock' they described at China orientation. The first thing I noticed is how green everything is here! You never really notice how little grass there is in Shanghai, and how much you miss it. I couldn't stop telling Sophie how green everything looked today. I keep wondering, "where are all the people?" And I feel pretty non-environmentally friendly driving my car around everywhere after riding the metro for two months. St. Joe is pretty sleepy compared to Shanghai.

Anyways, before I left I made a day trip with three friends to Hangzhou, which is a really pretty town about an hour away from Shanghai. The town is centered around a big lake called West Lake. There were a lot of trees there, which I realized I really missed. We rented bikes and rode around the lake, in the end we calculated that we rode almost 13 miles. I have officially experienced the most important component of Chinese culture now, bike riding! Here are a few pictures:

So green!

We took a boat to an island called "three lakes mirroring the moon." Inside the island were another three lakes.

Jonas found bike riding to be quite easy.

See that pagoda in the distance? There were escalators to get up to it. We didn't get a chance to go in because we ran out of time.

A touristy shopping street.

One of many lakes.

Old people doing Tai Chi in the morning.

I miss China and friends a lot already. But I am thankful for a few things here back in the U.S. I'll update in a little bit with some reflections. Check back soon. :)

Katie

Almost Over :(

I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last blog post. Time here has been going so fast. I can't believe I leave China in less than two weeks. I feel like it was just last week that I got on an airplane to come here.

I've had a bit of bad luck in the past couple weeks so I've been a little distracted--in the past two weeks I've lost my camera and my room keys. I left my camera in a cab and another day my keys fell out of my purse and I didn't notice. And to top it off, someone stole my bike...

Luckily I was able to buy a new camera (which is now malfunctioning) and get new room keys, but it's just been one thing after another. I've tried to keep my head up though. Tomorrow I am going to try and bring back my camera and exchange it.

This is the last week of classes and exams start next week. Today was our last day of Chinese culture class and we turned in our final reports and my group gave a presentation on Chinese vs. American culture. I wrote my final report on Chinese education, I've found the differences between Chinese and American education to be very interesting. I've posted our powerpoint below and if you're interested you can access my final report here.

I realized I haven't really talked much about my classes here, only our trips. Classes here are pretty different from UM. The Chinese students begin to arrive about 20-30 minutes before class starts in order to get front row seats. I should take a picture of our circuits class, it's a sea of heads of black hair and then our group from UM. The class is actually pretty noisy while the professor is speaking; I've been told that it is because the students do not understand English all that well so they verify what he is saying with their neighbors. Also, they hardly ever ask questions in class and wait until after class or during the break. The professor always has a crowd around him during those times.

The lab component of the class is taught in Chinese; we have translators that help us complete the labs. I've found the labs to be not very useful and I can't say I've learned a whole lot. The schedule of the labs does not line up well with what we are learning in class so I don't always understand what we are doing. I've been told though that the lab component is significantly easier here than at UM, which I am greatful for. I've had two exams for circuits already and I've done fairly well... my final for circuits is next Tuesday and Chinese language is Monday so this Sunday is going to be dedicated to studying!

Chinese language is pretty laid-back, like culture. Language usually consists of practicing a few key phrases, and weekly vocab quizzes.

I want to include a few pictures from our trips the past couple weeks, all of them are up on my picassa though. Two weekends ago we went to Zhujijiao, which is considered the 'Venice' of China. There was a stream that ran down the main road of the town, with lots of pretty gardens. We had a tour guide who referred to our group almost 50 times as his "dear friends." Someone needed to tell him how to properly get a group's attention.

This is the bridge you first come to upon entering the city. The trees are growing out of the rocks of the bridge, no one really understands how they stay alive without any soil.

We went on a boat ride through one of the canals.

This is a sign at KFC, I'm not sure if you can really read it but it says "Food Safety Inspection Notification"... they recieved a fair (not excellent or fail). Haha.

We had our farewell party this afternoon. I never really realized how much I missed American food--they had fries with ketchup, burgers, coleslaw... it was the best thing I've eaten in a long time and we all pigged out. They had a slide show with a bunch of pictures from the trip and watching it really made me realize how much fun I've had these past couple weeks despite my recent loses. I almost teared up during it thinking about leaving in a week and a half. I'm torn in how I feel about going home. On one hand I'm excited to see my friends and family from home and go to the beach. Living in St. Joe really makes me take the beach for granted; it doesn't seem like summer yet because I haven't been to the beach. On the other hand I will miss my friends here, the cheap prices, going out on the weekends, and all the new experiences.

I'll write again before I leave next Tuesday. Check back.

Katie

P.S. I apologize if the formatting of this is a little messed up... apparently blogging is a threat to the Chinese government. I have to use a proxy to access this site so sometimes the formatting of the blog isn't right.

Back from Beijing

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated quicker since Beijing, this week has been crazy. I've had two mid-terms, homework, and lab this week.

Beijing was so fun! It was a packed 4 days of sightseeing and walking, with very little sleeping. I'm pretty sure I slept 21 hours over 4 nights. I put up the best pictures on here but I made a picassa where I am uploading all my pictures. You can see them all here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/katiebevier

We left on Wednesday night, using every form of transportation possible. We took a taxi to the metro to a train (maglev) to a plane to a bus. Haha. We took the maglev from the Shanghai subway to the airport. The ride was only about 8 minutes long. It went 300 km/hr (about 180 mph!) and we weren't even on the fastest train. The fastest one goes 450 km/hr.

Once we got to the airport we took a bus to a location that was supposed to be close to our hostel (or so it seemed on the map...) but I'm pretty sure the bus dropped off in a different location so we walked for about an hour and a half at 2:00 AM to find our hostel. We were walking down sketchy alleys trying to find it and finally we did on one of the alleys. Luckily in the morning the alley was nearly not as sketchy.

Our first day in Beijing we went to The Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. The forbidden city had lots of temples and alleys. We learned in culture class that the forbidden city in chinese directly translates to 'the purple forbidden city.' There wasn't any purple though, everything was mostly just yellow and red. The Temple of Heaven had lots of temples too but was less crowded. Below is a picture of us in front of Tienanmen Square.

Inside The Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven.

Friday we went to the Great Wall at Simatai. The Great Wall is literally the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. The views from the top were amazing and you could see it streching forever into the distance. We climbed one side until they wouldn't let us go any farther and then we went the other way, where the wall was not as restored. Then we took a zipline to the bottom.

Everyone at the top.

After the Great Wall we stopped in a tea shop next door to our hotel and the owners made us some tea. They let us try like 10 different kinds and kept making pot after pot for us. They even kept the store open an hour late while they were serving us the tea. It was really nice, and of course I had to buy some tea afterwards. I got lychee black tea. The guy in the white shirt in this picture was the one making us the tea.

The next day we went to the Summer Palace, which was where the emperors would go for vacation. It was really pretty with a big lake in the middle but required lots of walking (which we were not too pleased about because we were sore from the Great Wall). There were also lots of temples and shrines there too.

In the afternoon we stopped at the Olympic village and saw the bird's nest and the water cube.

Saturday we went to the Lama Temple. I liked the lama temple a lot. There was insense burning everywhere as offerings so it smelled really good. There was also a huge buddha carving 18 m (60 feet) tall that was so cool. It was carved from a single piece of wood, which was unreal. The thing had to be about 20 feet in diameter at the bottom. This is a picture of a woman making an offering to one of the buddhas.When we got home we were exhausted, but the trip was definitely worth it. Seeing the Great Wall was definitely my favorite part and a once in a lifetime experience I will never forget.

Be sure to check out my picassa for all the pictures.

Check back soon!

Katie

Before Beijing

So we leave for Beijing tomorrow evening, and right now it's sort of a last-minute-throw everything together planning stage. I'm pretty sure we have about 15 things planned to do over three and a half days. We'll see how many things we actually get to... haha. Basically my only request is that we see the great wall.

Last Wednesday my Chinese culture professor Weiqi took us to get haircuts. They give you a neck, shoulder, and back massage for about 20 minutes before your haircut, it was great. The massage costs 6 RMB... about 90 cents. Five of us went, and Weiqi was running around translating for everyone. I pretty much just picked a picture of a magazine and told Weiqi to tell him that I trusted him. It was a pretty spur of the moment decision, I figured I might as well just let him do what he wanted. How many times do you get your hair cut in China?

BTW, I have to credit most of these photos to Colleen and Katherine, I stole most of them from their picassa albums.















Getting my hair washed and head massage. They have this shampoo they just kinda squirt on and then it foams up.


























Hairdresser: "This haircut requires a lot of maintenance"
Adam: "It's okay, I brought gel."















The finished product. They curl your hair to show you what it would be like if you got a perm, trying to sell it to you.

Afterwards we went to a grocery store. They had live snakes, turtles, bullfrogs, and crayfish. Supposably if you buy one they just put in in a bag (alive) and give it to you!

Friday we had a cooking party. We learned to make zong zi. It's made of rice with beef and beans wrapped in bamboo leaves. Mine didn't turn out too well. The lady teaching us to make it swiftly took it away from me and remade it.





















Saturday we went skiing at an indoor ski hill. They give you everything you need--coat, gloves, snowpants, skis... and I was fortunate enough to get the trash-collector-style outfit. The snow was pretty bad, because it was all man made it was mostly just ice. And you had to take off your skis to go up the conveyor belt to the top of the bunny hill. Overall, not a great place to ski, but watching Chinese people ski made up for it. They pretty much go straight down the hill, realize they are going too fast, and intentionally fall. We sat for about 20 minutes and just watched people crash and burn. It was too funny. I tried to upload a few videos below, hopefully they work.

My general feelings about the t-bar. It was excruciatingly slow.

How to Stop Skiing: Chinese Style I

How to Stop Skiing: Chinese Style II

Crash!

Hopefully those work. Well, we leave for Beijing tomorrow at 9:40 PM and come back on Sunday, so look for an update around then! It will definitely have lots of pictures.

Katie