I learn what grottoes are and they are definitely not caves

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So, before I start talking about the Saturday trip to the shaolin temple, I need to apologies. I am not a great writer and I am so sorry for everyone reading all my blogs, trust me I am pretty awesome in person but pretty awful at writing.

Ok now that, that’s out of the way…… on Friday everyone met after class to follow our tour guide/guy in charge of our excursion to a museum. Now that was interesting because we took two buses to get there and let me tell you when I mean everyone, I mean everyone it was like 20 people all together. We were stared at the whole time and people wanted to take pictures with us. I still find that really strange, in the US we are all different but here everyone looks the same to one extent so we stick out like a sore thumb. We are also very loud, like I am a loud person to begin with but I get louder in big groups. Now that I think about it, no wonder they stare at us.

The Museum was interesting, like the artwork was great to look at and the

company was also great because I had my tutor and she would interpret for me or give me more information about the art. The only problem was that the museum was small and we were done pretty quickly, which meant we had time to kill. Guess where we went, yep we went shopping again. The 20-person group walked to the nearby mall to go shopping. I did not buy anything because the mall was a westernize mall where everything was some type of brand, that I could barely afford in the US, which meant that I definitely could not afford in China. So, this was Friday on Saturday is when we went to the Shaolin Temple.

We actually went to two places on Friday, we went to the city of Luoyang not only to see the Shaolin Temple but also the Longman Grottos (龙门石窟: lóngmén shíkū). I have to admit, I had never heard of the word grottos before coming to China. When they explained what they were, I was thinking caves but guys grottos are amazing and definitely not caves. They are hollow areas carved into the mountain and they contain Buddhist statues. It was incredible and

I am so grateful I got a chance to see them. This trip was so worth it. After we saw all the grottos, which were a lot, we headed to the Shoaling temple the birth of Kung Fu.

At the temple, we got to see a Kong Fu performance, well actually two performances and I gotta say now I want to learn Kong Fu. The temple is not only a place to worship but it’s also a Kong Fu academy. Kids as young as 3 can start training and living at the temple, there are 3-year-old kids that can kick my butt. The only thing I did not like was that the school only allows boys. That means I couldn’t train there even if I had the time or the money. Which is not fair because I could be a Kong Fu Master in 10 years if I could train there but I respect their decision, I still don’t like it. Oh, I was kidding about being a Kong Fu Master, it would probably take me 30 years….I’m a lost cause.

Oh, another thing that bother me, we saw two Kong Fu shows and both time

we were told that cameras were not allowed. Chinese people do not listen, everyone and their mother had their cameras out and taking pictures. Oh, and with flash of course, there were workers telling everyone that flash was not allowed either but it’s like it goes in one ear and out the other because everyone was using their flash. Now if this was a show in the US, the people not listening would have been kicked out already. I so wanted to tell them to stop using flash but my inability to speak Chinese, and also I did not want to embarrass my group kept me from telling them that they were being rude. Apart from that it was a pretty enjoyable day and very long. We did not get back to the school till midnight. Good thing Sundays are free days and we can sleep in.

Again, sorry about my writing, hopefully my great pictures make up for it. Next time, I’ll talk about karaoke in china.

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Comments

[dancortazio]

Museu
This museum is very beautiful, I want to meet some day !!! Thanks for showing us different places so we can get an idea of the stories from other countries.