Wednesday (Halloween!) October 31, 2007
Over the weekend we had a trip to Nanjing, which used to be known as Nanking and some people might have heard that before. It used to be the capital of China before WWII. We left on Friday and had a long bus ride there that I slept though so I don't know exactly how long it took haha. We had a stop for crappy food and snacks and when we got to Nanjing we had a presentation at the Amity Foundation or 爱德 (love - virtue) is the Chinese name. They have lots of programs for people to teach English in small, undeveloped cites in western China and also they train doctors and set them up in these small places too. After we got to the hotel about 5 or so and I had a nap then we went out to eat at a nice restaurant and a walked down the pedestrian street and had glazed fruit on a stick and bubble teas. The next day we got up early and visited Zhongshan where there is a tomb for Sun Yat Sun who was the founder of the Republic of China before the Communists took over. I am surprised though that the communists didn't rip the place down after they took it over though especially since it talks a lot about democracy and a free China with the old flags everywhere. After that we visited some more temples including a Confucian temple and some gardens. After that we walked down really busy shopping streets and had some street food and stayed out till pretty late shopping and walking around the city then headed back to the hotel. The next day we got up early to visit a temple and a pagoda where they have a bone of the man who went to India and translated a lot of Buddhist classics into Chinese. Then we walked along the old city wall to another temple where there were hundreds of people worshiping and praying and went to another pagoda there. After that we went back to the first temple where they made us monk lunch which is completely vegetarian. This lunch consisted of meat balls, beef slices, chicken wings, shrimp, fish, and sausage all made from tofu haha. Along with logs of veggies. It was actually really good and I would rather eat that sometimes than some of the stuff I am currently eating lol. After that we got back on the bus and headed back to Shanghai, but not before stopping off at a famous teapot museum that was kinda dumb and where they sold teapots for hundreds of dollars. So now I'm back in school and counting down the days till I go to Taiwan.
Me and James and Phil and Aliyah and Emily have also finalized our Christmas and New Years plan. Me and Phil will be flying into Madrid, Spain on December 22 and James, Emily, and Aliyah will already be there. Some people (not me) will be going to the Spice Girls concert on the 23rd haha. On Decmeber 25 we will fly from Madrid to Marrakesh, Morocco and stay there for 5 nights. Hopefully we will have a Sahara trek and ride on camels haha. On Decmeber 30 we will fly from Marrakesh to Barcelona where we will stay until January 1 or 2 and then go back to Madrid. Then Me and Phil will fly to Marseille on January 4th and I will stay with him for a while there and we may go visit somewhere else in that time and Oslo, Norway is on the table for this trip... after that I'm not quite sure whats going on yet because I haven't yet heard from my Arabic program if I've been accepted.
soooo thats all for now LEAVE A COMMENT!!!
here are some pictures also from the last leg of my SICHUAN trip that I haven't put up yet... its mostly panda bears haha.
PICTURES! click here
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