http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Colleen Katherine/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Colleen Katherine en-us Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:44:45 BST Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:44:45 BST ldquoTruly great friends are hard to find difficult to leave and impossible to forget.rdquoWhen I signed up to study abroad in China it was on a whim. I love to travel and have been going on international adventures since I was in middle school and spent a week with a family in Japan learning about their culture and visiting local schools and sites. I got the travel itch that feeling of c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-285762.html I wrote this essay for my Chinese Culture and Society ClassMy May break was spent out of Mainland China. I met up with my dad in Macau while he was there on business. We spent a couple days in The Venetian exploring the wondrousness that it is. The place is huge with four gaming floors an entire mall food court fancy restaurants spa poolworkout facilities bars and lounges and of cours http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-276255.html Written April 25Everybody studies abroad for an experience incomparable to anything they have ever had before. They want to see a new part of the world make a new set of friends have new adventures that they can tell their friends and family back home and they want to take a step away from whatever it is they know as normal. For some it might be a smaller step and others a giant lunge but it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-272659.html Before I left for China everybody asked the question ldquowhy Chinardquo What should have been an easy question to answer was difficult for me. China was a culture and society I knew very little about. My best answer to the question was that I was curious. I wanted to learn more about this huge rising global power see what it was like to live in such a highly populated country experien http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Inner-Mongolia/Baotou/blog-264235.html February in reviewItrsquos always been my belief that February is the fastest month of the year. Yes there is the shortage of a couple days but even with this year having one extra day February seemed to fly by. I kept writing ldquoupdate blogrdquo on my todo list but clearly never got around to it. So to keep this thing going I will write a very delayed but brief summary of what http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-259889.html In Shanghai I was sick. With a group of about 80 people traveling together germs were bound to be in the air. Then to add insult to injury we were traveling through China during the worst storms it has seen in over 50 years. As if cold and snow is not bad enough the people are not used to it and the cities have no snow plows or effective ways to respond to the snow. Therein lies miserable http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-242826.html Written January 29 I am writing from the train to Shanghai. We left Beijing last night around 7pm and will arrive soon in Shanghai a mere 13 hours later. The week we spent in Beijing was really informative for me. The city is known for itrsquos working blend of old and new. What was once the capital of several dynasties is now a booming city with some of the most architecturally amazing b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-240881.html Xian Continued. Enjoy the pics http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-238742.html Just as we started to get settled into our rooms at Tsinghua we had to pack up again and leave for our two week travel seminar. Led by Caroline the seminar is a 3credit class focused on the past present and future of Chinese culture. We will travel to three different cities in China representing the three segments of study. For the past we flew to Xian located in the central area of North http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-238501.html Itrsquos fitting that a Chinese philosopher said ldquoA journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.rdquo In my Chinese journey I feel like the past few days have been the tiniest baby step into what is ahead for me. The anticipation and nerves that I felt so greatly before leaving has grown into this feeling of excitement for whatever will come my way.I left from Chicago on W http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-237316.html