Haituo Mountain

I just spent the last two days at Haituo Mountain. The point of the trip was to collect medicinal herbs, but to me, it was more of a hiking/ exploration/ vacation/ adventure trip. It is one of the Chinese National Parks and is as beautiful as Yosemite, CA or Interlaken, SZ, with its own unique style and Chinese twist.

On Tuesday, we went hiking in the valley shortly after arriving to observe medicinal herbs and then after the hike my professor, Dr. Burgess, and I went running. I didn't feel like running because I had just spent the morning and early afternoon traveling and hiking but the run was WELL worth it. The mountains we saw while running were breathtakingly beautiful!!! There was something about seeing them on my own two feet (instead of in a bus) that made me feel small and I was able to appreciate their size, beauty, and magnificence even more. We were also able to run places that the bus didn't/ couldn't drive by, we managed to not run off any cliffs though!

The next day we to 龙青霞 (long qing xia) to explore some more and I had a real adventure! We took a boat ride through a winding canyon and lake-- again, the mountains/ rocks were breathtaking. I took tons of pictures and I was thinking that Lord of the Rings could have been filmed there. We visited the Diamond temple, which was a small temple embedded in the mountains, complete with Buddhas and incense. There was a bell, which I rang a few times for my grandparents. Then I had my adventure and was able to cross something off my life-long bucket list.

There was a zip line and bungee jumping operation over the canyon and lake. Our professor asked if I wanted to go bungee jumping and I thought she was joking but I said yes anyway because it has been something the daredevil in me has wanted to try since I first saw people bungee jumping at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe when I was about 11 or 12. First, one of my classmates went bungee jumping and after I saw her go, I COMPLETELY changed my mind after I saw the first drop. Instead, I went on the zip line with my professor, which was really fun, not scary, and enjoyable. After gaining trust in the infrastructure and people I decided to give bungee jumping a try. It was terrifying and exhilarating!!! I'm never doing it again, but I'm really glad I went because it was a thrill! Dad, Mom- I promise I won't take anymore risks for the rest of the trip!

The rest of the trip was really fun, probably partly due to the adrenaline rush I got from bungee jumping! The food in the mountains was good too, for dinner on Tuesday I had some greens from the trees and plants where we went hiking, donkey(!), and really delicious lamb right off the biggest bone I've ever seen at a table. I had warm soy milk, steamed bread, porridge, and pickled cabbage-- my personal favorite for breakfast. Lunch on Wednesday was good too, I tried what looked to my like a Chinese style lamb kabob, it was the SPICIEST food I have ever tasted! If it was tofu or vegetables instead of lamb, Gregg would have been very excited. I had to rinse it off in my tea to finish it!

On the Plane

你好！ (Hello in Chinese)

I'm about 9 hours into the flight to Beijing. This is really a long flight but I've been keeping busy with movies & a nap. Everyone from UConn in my study abroad group is really nice, so I'm looking forward to having a good time once we get settled in Beijing. I'm sitting next to a guy who goes to school in the US but is from the Beijing area and he gave me some tips about getting around, where to go, & how to type the Chinese characters on my iPad. I feel really lucky to have received so much advice from friends & family (thank you Joy, Elizabeth, & my Dad's friend from Sanofi especially!) So far everything has been uneventful. I'm looking forward to the rest of my trip & I'll be in touch. 再见。(Good bye in Chinese.)

Week 1

你好! My first week in Beijing has gone well. I really like the city and culture, it has been really eye-opening. My goal was to blog everyday, but I need wifi which has been surprisingly hard to find. I did so much in the first week and I already have many stories! I started classes in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which is actually just referred to as Chinese Medicine in China since it is still practiced and many modern techniques have been adopted, thus it is not considered traditional or primitive. My Mandarin class has also started and I enjoy it more than TCM. I have a really good teacher and I generally love languages. Mandarin Chinese is a beautiful language to speak because of the different tones, I find it very musical. The characters are beautiful to write as well. I have a Chinese name now, 天, or Tian. I picked it because like Celeste, it is the Chinese word for heaven or sky.

Last week my group and also had trips to the Summer Palace and just yesterday I visited the Forbidden City. Both were spectacular! The architecture, color, beauty, history, and size was amazing. They reminded me of Versailles in France, only they had their own personality, and of course the style was Chinese, not European.

Today I climbed the Fragrant Mountain, which was beautiful as well. It was nice to escape the city on a beautiful and sunny Sunday. It actually turned out to be a strenuous hike and my new hiking boots definitely proved their value. Interestingly though, the mountain hiking trails were not trails at all, they were stone stairs! There were multiple, man-made paths of stairs to climb the mountain. (Dad- all those races up the stairs came in handy for me today!) I climbed the mountain with my professor, Dr. Burgess, who is also a runner, and I had a really good time with her. I also witnessed some women who were actually climbing the stairs in high heels!

Next week my group will be heading to Haitatu Mountain to collect medical herbs in the field! I miss my friends and family and I look forward to sharing more stories soon!

天

Packing

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I'm going to Beijing, China for 5 weeks to study Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's a study abroad opportunity through the UConn SoP. I'm in the midst of packing now and I'm desperately trying to pack light, always a challenge. I'm excited for the trip, not for the 14 hour flight though! I'm really going to miss all the 09' Wheaties at the 2 year reunion, but I will be there for the 5 year reunion! Of course I hope we can meet up before then though. Congratulations to the class of 2011!

So I've never really blogged before but since facebook is banned in china, I'm going to try blogging to keep in touch.

再见 (Good bye in Chinese!) for now! -Celeste