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Published: February 7th 2009
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China
great wall We bid Zhejiang University goodbye with a farewell dinner overlooking West Lake. Best dessert I've ever had. and it was just a nice way to end our stay in Hangzhou.
Our last day in Hangzhou is the same as it is whenever I leave a place. It rained. Which matched my emotions perfectly to be honest. I loved Hangzhou and can't wait to go back in 2018 for our 10 year reunion. It'll happen. Chicken-on-a-stixx all around.
So anyway, me being a moron, I wore my Jesus flippy-floppiez thinking that they wouldn't rot in my suitcase later on, but these devilries slid off into the road whenever I picked my foot up. My group 'bout left your girl Rae behind! Couple a times they were out of my sight. But we made it okay on to the train. Train travel is awesome by the way... well for a few hours, anyway. I will never recommend an overnight train unless there is no other choice. UGH I can't sleep on those things. And I go from hot to cold in like 2 seconds. At least I didn't get the short straw and have to sleep with Chinese strangers.
And now
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tiananmen square, folks this end of the trip feels completely separate to me than the first part, for some reason? Oh and keep in mind all of this happened within one week.
We arrived that morning in Beijing to millions of baby trees dripping with white paint. It was the forest that was put in for the Olympics! YAY! The smog in Beijing was right away really awful. But our tour guide Cathy was fantastic. She led us through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Later that night Dr. Milner took us all out on the Beijing subway so we could go to this marketplace/snack street. Rae ate some scorpions y'all. And they're tasty-wasty.
The next day we went and climbed the Great Wall. Isn't that on like eveyone's bucketlist? Well check mine off yall, been there done that. My first impression of the Wall was... really? I mean it was pretty darn impressive, but I had heard that you could see this sucker from space. Um no. It's no wider than a one-way street. Still amazing though. It went practically vertical in some spots. Whipped Rae'z azz y'all. But I was determined to go as far as my feet would take
me, and the first direction I went to sometimes I was the only person around that I could see. And then I hit construction and hidden, illegal tee-shirt family so... turned around and walked up the other way, which was too crowded. But yea. I climbed the Great Wall!
Then drove past the Olympic stadiums. The Bird Nest is HUGE. We didn't stop and get out, but at least I got a glimpse of where Michael Phelps was soon to win all those medalz. So that night we went and had some delicious Peking/Beijing Duck. You put them in a tortilla thing with duck sauce and cucumbers. It was scrumptuous. But it cramped me up real bad, actually.
Oh, and we saw a Kung Fu show. Which was unintentionally hilarious because some kids were lipsyncing. But oh my gawd these toddlers were doing flips ON THEIR HEAD. A dude balanced on some knives. People were flying. It was fantaztic!
And yea like I said I got some cramps that to' me up from the flo' up. I couldn't even really enjoy this exercise/dance park we went to the next morning. Or the Temple of Heaven. Ugh. Baddd
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Aaron and his traveling bear Prince Vince feelings. Then in the airport in went away, but still. We flew an hour into Xi'an - my least favorite place we visited. We climbed the old city wall the first day, then ate some foodz, went to bed, I don't remember. Our second day in Xi'an was the big visit to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Holy shiz. That place was huge. Impressive statues, too. But the most vivid memory I have of that place was when this guy was trying to secretly sell me some poopoo stautes... the guy BREATHED INTO MY MOUTH. Worst. smell. ever. It made me dizzy. And these guys with the fake stuff were such jerks. They took money out of Chelsea's hand threw a statue in hers, and ran off. They circled around me when we were leaving, ignoring my shouts of "Bu Yao!" Not fun. And I was still feeling pretty crappy at this point too. At least we had fun playing with our food at lunch. We ate at the museum place. and we had toy soldiers so we made a battleground. lolz.
Then the next morning we went to some more museums or pagodas or something. (Wow, I sound like
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cheesin' in Shanghai such an ass writing this. I had insightful moments, I swear. My memory is just awful.) Then we flew to Shanghai, our final stop in China. Shanghai had worse smog than Beijing, from what I could see. Or maybe it was just the weather. We did the Shanghai museum, walked that boardwalk across from that famous skyline, and that night took a boat out that got us a better view of all the skyscrapers. and those things are freaking MASSIVE. Specially the TV tower one with all the balls.. you know which one. Drive up right underneath it and you will get tha heebyjeebiez.
Next day we went to a shopping/touristy area. Nothing special. (Again, I sound like an ass, I know.)
Final day, I went out walking around that morning, and we were off to the airport and headed back to the states.
All in all this particular trip was incredibly special to me. I mean I studied in Asia with some brilliant and lovely people! Every now and then something will remind me of a memory back then... just small things like maybe the night we all went out especially for ice cream, or when
China
it is pretty much impossible to get a picture of everyone in a train cabin. we ran through Shanghai looking for a bookstore. *sigh* I've been itching to go back ever since I got home. I have to study abroad for a semester for my major here at Belmont, and I'm prety much set on being Hong Kong bound. :D
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