Kristin Alder

travelingninja92

Kristin Alder

I am traveling around China for a month.



Asia » China » Beijing May 28th 2012

Last full day in China I climbed the Great Wall (awesome pictures posted laster). I rode a ski lift up and rode a taboggan slide down (totally awesome, video of the ride down later). Climbing on the Wall was worth the trip. I really think that besides teaching the children in Kunming, this was my favorite thing. I was pretty excited before but today I was busting with joy. I climbed all over the wall, on the stairs, on the outside edge, on top of towers. I have scratches all down my shins and on my hands from brick, but it's what ever I CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL!!!!! I have a horrible addiction to bargaining with vendors. I would go up to one, ask for something that I knew was expensive, bargain for a ridiculously low ... read more

Asia » China » Beijing May 28th 2012

Well a lot has happened. Here are the happy highlights: Thursday: Saw the only lama temple in Beijing. Had Peking Duck for dinner before going to the Beijing Opera. The duck was absolutely amazing! The Beijing Opera was much better than I had expected it to be. The second scene was nothing but a bunch of awesome kung fu moves (not as cool as tang soo do, but still martial arts as a whole is pretty awesome). Friday: We went to the Beijing Film Academy (BFA). We had to pretend to be so interested in film that we were thinking of attending.. that was awkward. Bringing a bunch of business and English majors that are not so interested. The cool thing was that we saw them play a first person shooter that the students had created. ... read more

Asia » China » Beijing May 26th 2012

So I apologize for not updating for a little bit. I've been super busy with professors filling up the scheduled study time with excursions that take 4 hours (more on that in this post). This is the first time that I've had real downtime to even breathe since Monday afternoon. Tuesday for the whole day we went to Qi Jiu Ba (798) Art District. Think of MOCA in Jacksonville and that's what it's like, except it has Chinese artists. hahaha.I've never been to MOCA, but one of the girls in the group has and tht's how she discribed it to me. I had to write a paper on my experience so I was taking loads of notes and pictures (when I could). There were some really interesting pieces of work (pictures in later post). There were ... read more

Asia » China » Yunnan May 22nd 2012

Here are some pictures of Lijiang and the trip back. Pictures of Shangri-La and today in Beijing will be up later :)... read more
Train
Horses
Tea

Asia » China » Yunnan May 21st 2012

Sunday morning came too early. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was cranky until getting to the monastery. Our tour guides are obnoxious in the sense that we (the group) feel rushed through everything. They (our tour guides) are always yelling at us to “Hurry up!” “Come on!” “Let’s go! Let’s go!” I sometimes don’t even get a chance to take a breath before getting yelled at to continue on and I can’t even go to the restroom without being rushed! But so Sunday morning I got yelled at to hurry up, even though half of the group wasn’t even ready yet. :/ Don’t be yelling at me, I’m up, I’m ready. So breakfast was less than appetizing. Besides that it had rice noodles, I’m not sure of what was in ... read more

Asia » China » Yunnan » Shangri-La May 19th 2012

So after one day in Lijiang, we took a van ride that took all day. I was originally told it was going to be 2 hours, then 5, then because we stopped for lunch and stuff it took 7 hours. So my whole day was pretty much in a van on dirt roads because there are no highways to Shangri-La, but they are being built as we speak. The lunch wasn't too bad though. We met up with our tour guide and then went to his house for lunch. It was pretty much all Yak. There was Yak cheese, yogurt, meat, and butter tea. Liking 50% isnt too bad. I liked the meat and cheese. We also ate steamed buns, potatoes that were like scalloped potatoes minus the cheese, and tried this powder stuff that just ... read more

Asia » China » Yunnan » Lijiang May 19th 2012

So I have discovered that I do not like overnight train rides. I rode a train from Kunming to Lijiang on the top bunk in the cart. There were 3 beds on each side. I liked that I was on the most top because Kelly gets motion sickeness and she was below me so I knew that she wouldn't throw up on me. But the train left the station at 10:30, lights were out at 11:30 and the first time I woke up was at 1:10am with motin sickness. I had rolled over onto my stomach that caused me to feel sick. So I flipped over, drank some water, and fell back to sleep. I didn't have any problems after that but I kept waking up because the train kept stopping at various stations because the ... read more

Asia » China » Yunnan » Kunming May 16th 2012

Last full day in Kunming.... read more
School
School
School

Asia » China » Yunnan » Kunming May 16th 2012

Today was my last day at the school. ): Amy was super sad, I almost cried. We chilled at break and then played games with her friends (that I gave the names Katie, Sarah, and Jamie too). We played their version of Ninja Ninja Turtle (Duck Duck Goose) and this other game where everyone except one person made a train and the one person left out has to tag everyone behind the first person. The group donated fans for each classroom (which was greatly needed. I probably lost at least 10 pounds simply by sweating so much while teaching). Amy gave me a bracelet on Monday. She gave me a note today saying how I was her favorite teacher and how much she loved me (a scan of the note will be posted on facebook when ... read more

Asia » China » Yunnan » Kunming May 15th 2012

These last few days have been pretty fun. Monday I went back to the school that I have been volunteerting at. I also did a language exchange, which was awkward. They basically singled out the few that could speak some Chinese and put us into groups with Chinese students, some speaking English, others that couldn't that well. My group wanted to meet up with one of the other groups that had left the building to go to a coffee shop. It ended up being a lot of fun and tonight there is another language exchange, so I'm kind of excited. Yesterday we went to Yunnan Arts University where we saw a mini drama by two students, ate lunch, and then watched a few films that the students had made themselves. We got to ask them questions ... read more




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