August 4-6: After Camp Trip to Inner Mongolia
The day after camp 90 students and teachers boarded 3 buses headed to Inner Mongolia (a province in China). After an 8 hour bus ride, we were able to attend a traditional Mongolian bonfire. It was pretty exciting even though I couldn't understand what they were saying or singing. The two nights we were there we stayed in a traditional Mongolian Yurt. It was....interesting to sleep in one of these. Not only were there 20 other girls in the same yurt, but there were probably twice as many bugs that joined us for our two nights of rest. Thankfully I was very tired so the infestation of bugs didn't really bother me :) The days were filled with hiking, grass sliding (similar to sledding, but it was on a type of astroturf), shopping, and building better relationships with the students.
August 21-26: 4 Cities in 5 Days
On August 21st three of my friends and I boarded the fast train to Beijing. We stayed with some friends that night and got up early the next morning to visit the city of Tianjin which is about 30 minutes away from Beijing. We visited a few sites then took the train back to Beijing and boarded another fast train to Qingdao. We stayed with some friends in Huangdao (right across the bay). During our time there we were able to see the ocean, visit the Olympic sailing center, visit the Zhangshan Temple, hike to the top of a few mountains and see the city below and one of the highlights of the trip for me...we were able to visit Starbucks every day! The trip ended with a 23-hour train ride back to our city. We dubbed this the adventurous part of our trip. We made many new friends, lost a few hours of sleep, and ate a lot peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Overall the trip was great, and I'm very happy I was able to spend time with friends and visit these cities in China.