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Something I totally forgot to write about was the Panda Breeding Center! We were limited on time.... but it was still amazing to be so close to Pandas with no glass/bars between us. There were Giant Pandas & Red Pandas, and a couple Giant Panda cubs. The Giant Pandas literally looked like stuffed animals & lolled around eating whatever they could reach. Very fun to watch! The Red Pandas were much more active, and fun to see in real life. They wrestled & climbed & were very amusing. How neat.
Another thing I haven't mentioned, I don't think, is the hilarious English translation factor. Signs, shirts, instruction manuals... Wow. I've gotten several funny pictures & finally bought a priceless shirt that makes very little sense. I'll share pictures later. Very amusing.
NOW, back to Tibet.
Yesterday was awesome, we visited the Jokharta Temple and the Potala Palace. Both are difficult to describe in words, but the architecture, colors, people were all completely unique to what I have ever seen. The people are so friendly & smile at all of us, and the children are beautiful.
The Temple is a Buddhist temple that has incredible ancient paintings, statues, and structures. The view from the top of the temple was incredible, and I can't imagine having built that seemingly in the middle of nowhere. One of our professors said some Tibetan peasants save their entire lives to visit once.
The Palace is where the Dalai Lama lives, and where they are buried when they pass away. It was very physically taxing to climb all of the stairs in this altitude, but the experience was worth it. The tombs were incredible and inlaid with countless gems, surrounding by hundreds of ancient texts. Again, difficult to describe but so incredible in intricacy and environment. Apparently it's been destroyed several times by other countries (I'll have to look into this more when I'm home) and rebuilt every time. Wow.
I did eat Yak (it's basically the only meat offered here) and it wasn't as bad as expected. Apparently they drink butter tea which is made from butter, yak fat, and tea... but we haven't been offered any or any yak milk. Today I bypassed the scheduled activity that involved a higher altitude & about 9 hours of driving time in the bus (would definitely not do well with my stomach), and am going to go back to the marketplace in the city. THe things offered here are so interesting, and many artisans produced just stunning work. I wish I had the money to purchase a painting. So, I'm going to spend more time doing that & take it easy. I fly to Chongching (spelled wrong) tomorrow, where we do a lot of academic studying.. BOO! Hopefully I'll be able to understand them & learn a lot.
Everyone should wish Tyler a happy birthday tomorrow, he turns 20 on May 30th! I'm sure he'll appreciate me writing this, ha ha. Uganda seems to be treating him well from what I've heard, and it makes me want to visit Africa even more (any takers??) At any rate, he's going to have an amazing birthday & everyone should send him happy birthday thoughts cross-continent.
Love, Steff
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Andrew
non-member comment
Mistranslations and humor
Try www.engrish.com The Chinese can botch English pretty badly, but no one holds a candle to the Japanese. And just because they don't offer you any butter tea doesn't mean you can't ask for it. Yum!