Playing Catch-Up

I know, I know, this blog entry is way overdue, and I apologize for my negligence toward my blog. There's so much I want to talk about but I really don't know where to begin. Furthermore, I don't want to bore you with another longwinded entry, so for the sake of brevity, I will try to be as clear and concise as possible. Let's start with the Golden Week National Holiday (September 30th-October 7th) where my fellow foreign teacher Jake and I planned a trip to explore the mid to northeast region of the Shandong Province. We were able to hit four major cities: Huangdao, Qingdao, Yantai, and Weihai over the course of 4 days. Looking at the forecast for the following week of our expedition, the weather was less than generous; most of the days were cloudy and overcast. Initially, I couldn't help feel that the poor weather forecast was foreshadowing certain events that would unfold during the trip. But luckily, this initial premonition didn't manifest itself during our travels, and instead, the trip was a success. The trip was quite an eye-opening experience for me because it was the first time traveling around China, and the importance of knowing the language, or knowing enough of the language to get by, is one of the most important tools to have when traveling here. Jake, who has been studying Chinese on and off for 6 years, exuded that he is competent and confident in the language. Thus, I thought that my first experience traveling in China would be best suited if traveled with someone who is familiar with the language. That's the thing, seeing someone with such competency with the Chinese language, really pushes me to study harder and practice the language more and more so that I will be able to travel solo over the winter break.

To lay out some of the groundwork of the trip, I thought it would be necessary to list the general iternary that we followed:

Sunday
-Took a bus from the CUP at Dongying to the CUP at Huangdao
-Stayed in a double room on campus.
-Briefly explored Huangdao.

Monday
-Took a ferry from Huangdao to Qingdao
-Went to Zhongshan Park tower and had a buffet lunch at the top (too bad
it was too cloudy to absorb any of the grandeosie views the tower has to offer)
-Walked around Qingdao and visited the coast.
-Returned back to Huangdao by way of ferry.

Tuesday
-Took a bus from Huangdao to Yantai
-Found accomodations at a Super 8 Hotel
-Walked around and explored Yantai

Wednesday
-Took a bus to Weihai
-Bought a roundtrip ferry ticket to Liugong Island
-Explored the Island (our first day of nice weather. See pictures below)
-Took a bus back to Yantai

Thursday
-Took a bus from Yantai back to Dongying


As promised, I didn't want to clutter this blog with my thoughts, rather I thought the pictures were be just as telling, if not more, than a narrative of the trip. So with out further adieu...

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