Does it get any better?!

Sunday, August 17th

Tomorrow is my last day here, and I will spend it at two events...Women's Triathlon & Gymnastics. I'm pretty excited for the events, but disappointed at the same time. Our time here in Beijing is coming to a close and gone so quickly. I don't know where all the time has gone!

Today was spent at the Summer Palace. It had breath-taking views, beautiful architecture, and was truly relaxing to wander through. The palace is more than 70,000 acres and sits on a beautiful lake. There are temples, palaces, bridges, and gorgeous views of the mountains. Truly made for a king...

During our time there we walked through main entrances and explored around the grounds. DJ & I took a paddleboat ride around the river to see the many buildings. It was a good time...even though we got the faulty boat :)

We continued to wander around the grounds through the long coordior and then took a boat ride from one side of the lake to another. We finished by crossing the bridge back to the main gate.

After touring the Palace, DJ took me down to the Hutongs to enjoy a great dumpling lunch. It was SO good...I would have to say that next to the peking duck, the dumplings are my favorite :)


I am back at the apartment doing laundry and packing since I will be spending the entire day tomorrow at Olympic Events (tough life, I know ). Will post some pictures of the events before we leave of the events....

Another fabulous day in Beijing...

Today was another fun filled day...and got to spend it with Raquel which was a great time :)

After our great evening of karoke with great friends, we woke this morning to get ready to head to the Forbidden City. It was another beautiful, blue sky day in Beijing which made for lots of sun...and LOTS of water :)

The Forbidden City has many buildings and would take days to get through them all. We were able to see the main halls and and the Hall of Clocks (which was very cool). It is truly amazing how the buildings were constructed and have been so beautifully maintained through the years. To think of what it took to do the detail on the buildings is truly amazing!

After we finished the tour, we headed to Wanfujing to do some shopping and grab some lunch. Raquel and I enjoyed a great lunch of chicken & walnuts, sweet & sour pork, and steamed dumplings. Yummy :) I experienced shopping in the Olympic store which was crowded and mass chaos...not for the faint of heart. We then headed back into the street market to find some bargains, which we did.

After a quick power nap, a bunch of us from our apartment headed to the Peking Duck Dinner. We ate amazing food, had great conversation, and stuffed ourselves silly...will never forget it!

Only two days left on this unforgetable journey...the time has gone by too quickly. Tomorrow I head to the Summer Palace and more exploring around Beijing. Monday I get to see the women's triathlon near the Ming Tombs and gymnastics!!!

Blue Skies & Buddha...

Friday, August 15th

Today was phenomenal to say the least. I visited the Lama Temple in the morning, Temple of Heaven in the afternoon, Pearl Market for some quick shopping, and met with former NSU students that live in Beijing and came to study as international students. I'm exhausted, but in the best way possible! :)

Started the morning with heading to the Lama Temple with Iris (a Beijing student) and DJ. The temple grounds had beautiful buildings and you could smell incense burning from the entrance. The streets before the entrance were lined with shops to buy incense. The temples were breathtaking and we were able to view the monks worshiping and studying as we passed through. That was truly an amazing experience! We were able to also see the 18 meters high Buddha carved out of a single piece of wood. BEAUTIFUL!!!

After the temple we walked through an old town street to see traditional architecture and then stopped to have some lunch before heading to our afternoon activities. I went to meet with a group to head to the Temple of Heaven.

The Temple of Heaven is nestled in a gorgeous park within the city. It has many buildings and is a place of worship and sacrifice for good harvest and a happy life. It was amazing to view because there were actually blue skies today for the first time since we've been here!!!

The group then headed outside the park and across the street to do some quick shopping at the Pearl Market, where we picked up some gifts for family & friends. I then headed to meet Raquel, DJ & our former international students to hit up a karoke place that included a free buffet! We had such a great time...

Tomorrow I head to the Forbidden City!!!

Beach Volleyball, Eating & The Great Wall :)

Hello :) Lots to share...

Wednesday morning I ventured with other participants to the Beach Volleyball venue to watch three matches. It was a ton of fun...the venue plays lots of music, has dancers, and play games with the crowd constantly. It was like a big party!

After the matches, we went shopping at the Silk Market. I got lots of gifts for people and the things I wanted...and for dirt cheap. I love bargaining with the shop keepers here...wish we could do more of it in the states :)

That evening, Whitney & I joined three other participants and went out for a traditional chinese dinner. We had spicy chicken, an egg bake, green beans & peppers, turnip & bone marrow soup, and lots of other yummy dishes. There was a lazy susan in the middle of the table so we could taste everything and eat to our heart's desire!

(Thursday the 14th)

Today we went to the Great Wall!!! It was amazing and truly breathtaking. We climbed to the 5th tower and took a cable car ride back down. It was so much fun..even if were soaking wet from the rain! :)

After the Wall, I came back to take a nice warm shower & headed to a Dumpling Dinner. It was great, as always. Looking forward to tomorrow, when I will be visiting the Lama Temple, Temple of Heaven and seeing several former NSU students to go out for dinner & karoke :)

Blessings...

(Tuesday August 12th...I know I'm a day late)

So Tuesday was a day of many blessings for several reasons. Here's why...


This was the first day that I had volunteer assignment. When we met in the morning, a group of eight of us were assigned to be the "test group" and first to head out to the orphanage. CCI has a partnership with the Philip Hayden Foundation's China Orphan Outreach that they send volunteers and the orphange brings kids in to watch the Olympics. The orphange currently has 92 children from infant-18 years old. As the test group, we were to see how the transportation route that had been set up would work. The government has restricted vehicles from drive only on certain days to lessen traffic, so they could not come pick us up. We had our own version of planes, trains, and automoblies that involved a subway ride, a taxi to the bus station, a bus for an hour and a half, and another taxi. We were taken to a town called Langfang about 50 minutes outside of Beijing.

Once we arrived at the orphange (three hours later), we were greeted by Leah, the office manager/assistant director/jack-of-all-trades. She has an amazing spirit and passion for children that shows through in every word she speaks. She talked with us over a small lunch and gave us a tour of the grounds. The orphanage only takes children with special needs, which is commonly why children are abandoned. After we talked with Leah for a while, we painted a few walls for them in the guest house until the children woke up from their naps.

Finally the children woke up from their naps and we were taken to the House of Blessings where the 2-3 year olds live. There are 21 children in this particular house and there are three children to one nanny. The children were amazing. They are learning to speak english as well as chinese. They were so eager to play with us and were like many two year olds and not willing to share with each other. There were two little boys that decided to start playing with me right away when I sat on the floor, Zhardian & Cole (left to right in the picture below). The experience was truly touching...

We were able to stay and play for about an hour and then we had to head back to Beijing. We took a better means of transportation and took a taxi bus back in which only took 55 minutes directly to our apartments. Along the way we went through two police check points on the highway which were like crossing the border. They checked ID's, trunks, and everything. Good thing we had our passports...

Later that evening I joined DJ and several other program participants to head to Wanfujing to try different cuisine. I can officially say that I have tried ostrich, snake, and starfish...and did not get sick (another blessing). :)

Check back later about Beach Volleyball & the Silk Market...

Game, Set, Match...

Today was amazing! I attended one of the four olympic events I will see while I'm here...tennis! A group of us met around 7:00am to head down to the Olympic venue. We took the subway for about 45 minutes and then took a bus for another 20 to get us right up to the venue.

We then had to go through security, and ticket check, and then another ticket verification line. Once we got through all of that, we were officially able to attend any tennis match we wanted. We were greeted by the Fuwa's (mascots) and lots of volunteers. We checked the current standings and who was playing in the Center Court. There are nine other courts that matches are played on throughout the day.

I was beside myself today...here are the matches I got to see (Winners in Bold):

Rafael Nadal (Spain) vs. Potito Starce (Italy)

Serena Williams (USA) vs. Olga Govortsva (BLR)

Roger Federer (Switzerland) vs. Dmitry Tursnov (Russia)

And to top it all off...I saw LeBron James!!

After all that excitement, we were taken out for a traditional Hot Pot Dinner. It's where all the ingredients come raw and you place them in a bolding broth to cook right on top of your table. The food was amazing!!!

Tomorrow I am off to my first volunteer assignment...more to report later! :)

Saturday in Beijing...

Yesterday we had a meeting to get our schedules planned out for our time here and to learn more logistics. I'm getting very excited to see my olympic events...tomorrow morning I'm seeing tennis!

After the meeting, Raquel & I delivered some supplies to other apartments and then went out to have lunch. It was wonderful yet again. We shared green beans, garlic noodles & greens, fried bread, and spicy pork. Yummy :)

We had a "house meeting" early in the evening and then headed to Wanfujing Street to see the markets and shops. There were high-end stores and then down a back alley there was the night market. Absolutely amazing...you could bargain for anything...and I did!

Today I will head to the Silk Market with Casey & Kelly, two girls that are in my apartment. Looking forward to finding some more bargains!

Will have lots to report after I attend the Tennis Match tomorrow & go out for dinner...

This & That

We've got some time before we head over to our meeting this morning to learn about our volunteer activities, so I thought I would give everyone some info on the day-to-day stuff you may be wondering about.

We live in an apartment complex in the Chengyang District (Middle Class). There is an A & B block and we are in the B block building 18. There are 27 floors to the building with four apartments on each floor. We are staying on the 11th floor...no worries, there are elevators! We have a three-bedroom apartment with two bathrooms and twelve people. We are sleeping on bunk beds with VERY firm pads for mattresses. The ladies in my apartment are awesome...I'll post pictures later.

The bathrooms are different. You can't flush toilet paper, so it has to be thrown away in the trash and taken out each day. The showers consist of a drain in the floor, a curtain, and the shower head. The whole bathroom floor gets wet when you shower...back to using shower shoes!

We are less than a five minute walk from two subway stations and can hail a taxi pretty much anywhere. Found a 7-11 convienence store last night...pretty cool. There's also a Pizza Hut, Subway, and KFC around here too. I also saw a McDonalds near the zoo yesterday...all of which I will not be eating on this trip.

I'm really excited to head to the markets. Lots of bargaining to be done! We will have time during our stay to go to a few of them. There is also a fresh fruit market outside a few blocks from us...will probably have to hit that one up here very soon.

Not really experiencing any jet lag, which has been nice to get adjusted here. I just hear that it's going to be worse when I get home...

I'm working on getting a slideshow set up on here so that I can upload everyday...check back later for that. Thank you all for visiting my blog, it's great to hear from you! Love when you leave comments, so keep them coming! Feel free to ask questions too...

Zai jian (later)...

Internet finally working :)

Finally got the Internet to work! :) Happy day...

So Raquel, DJ & I just returned after attending the opening ceremonies at the park by the Lama Palace where they were broadcasting for citizens to see. There were two big screens and tons of people in the park watching. It was phenomenal to say the least :) Lots of people, cheering, heard the fireworks...truly made being in Beijing real :)

Afterwards the three of us along with three other group members went to have dinner at a 24 hour resturaunt right outside the park. The food is wonderful...I could eat my way through this trip I swear.

The subway system is very easy to navigate and is very clean. It's been our main source of transportation and is very cheap...like 75 cents a ride. We have training tomorrow morning where we will learn about our volunteer assignments, get our olympic tickets, and figure out our touring schedule for the sights. I'm getting really excited...can't wait to get out there.

I've met some wonderful people here from all over the United States and Beijing. Can't wait to work with them and learn more from them as we go. I also got to see Jing Gu & Lin Lin tonight...was so nice to see them!!!

p.s. It's extremely hot here...we sweat all day everyday. Humidity in SD is nothing compared to this. Don't worry mom & dad...I'm drinking lots of water :)

Let the Games Begin!!!

Ni hao! (Hello)

Just wanted to let you know that Raquel & I have made it safely to Beijing and are having a great time. It's hot...to say the least. I went to visit the zoo with a group of ladies this morning and had a great lunch of beef & noodles while practing my chopstick skills.

We are heading to view the Opening Ceremonies here in an hour or so to a park by the Lama Temple where there is a huge outdoor screen to view it. We're very excited :) There are 96 volunteers in the CCI program and we all met this evening and will learn more information about our volunteer assignments tomorrow.

They are still working on our internet in the apartment, so I will update as much as I can!

Pictures and more stories later....lots to tell!!!

Here we go :)

Raquel & I are getting ready to head out...we will arrive in Beijing tomorrow morning our time. Looking forward to sharing our traveling adventures with you once we arrive! Wish us luck...

Two Days to go...

Hello all!!!

Well time sure is flying, and my friend Raquel & I leave on Wednesday morning! We will be flying from Aberdeen-Minneapolis-Tokyo-Beijing and will arrive there on Thursday the 7th. I could not be more excited :)

While we are there we will be working with Community Collaborations International volunteering on projects such as information support, first aid/cpr, environmental work, and research. We will also be touring several markets, Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, temples, and the Great Wall. I will also be getting to attend gymnastics, tennis, soccer, and triathlon events!!

Stay tuned for more....can't wait to share stories & photos! :)