I would have to say I was happy to be back. The one thing that I didn’t know that I was going to feel was the fact that some of the people I felt were rude. It was interesting. The people in China were never rude, they may have been physically pushy, but never rude. It took me a little while to get used to this attitude. At times I felt overwhelmed, I even stayed in my house for a few days. But life is starting to get back to normal now. Sometimes I even miss being in China, especially at the school. Now I can’t wait to start my next journey in life.

My journey is about to come to an end. It has been an experience that I will never forget. I have seen some amazing sites in Chinese culture. I have overcome some things in my life that I really needed to work on. Most of all, I have made some new friends that I will never forget. These friends come from all over the world. I now have friends in China, England, and America. They are all the most wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. As the time gets closer to going home, I am starting to get really excited about seeing my family. I will never forget all the things I experienced in China and I hope that one day I can bring my family over with me.

For our last week in China, we went to the Traditional Chinese Medical School. This school was also a working hospital. Patients came from all over the world. I just loved learning all about this type of medicine. The first day we did rounds with the doctors. I was in heaven. We learned how to diagnose patients and decide on a treatment plan. The next day we went to the countryside to give medical care to people who could not afford medicine. It felt so great to help these people. When I become a doctor I would like to be able to offer my services to people like that. It is a feeling that is just so hard to describe, to help people that could not otherwise be seen. The head doctor of the hospital took us all to lunch for helping out. Every meal that we had was like having a thanksgiving dinner, it was huge. The next few days we learned other aspects of Chinese medicine. We learned about moxibustion, acupuncture, and cupping. We also learned about herbal medicines that are used. Unfortunately I did not take pictures this week, I was so focused on learning I forgot.

Zhangjiajie Forest Park is the site where Avatar the movie was made. It was so amazing. The first day we went to the caves. This was the first time I had ever been in a cave before. It was amazing. The statoliths were beautiful. The next day we went for a hike up the mountain. The views were awesome, but again I had to overcome my fear of heights. These mountains are like no other mountains I have seen in America. You could hardly see the bottom, not that I looked at least not yet. During our journey on top of this mountain, we had to cross this grated walking bridge that was 1000’s of feet in the air. The things that I had to do really pushed me to become a stronger person. And if I had not done them I would have missed out on some amazing things. The next day we went to Tianmengshan mountain. By the time I got to this point I thought I had seen the highest point in my life. I was wrong. At the top of this mountain was a glass walk way. But with the help of some amazing people, I did it. I was now starting to get over my fears.

We had to take a long train ride to our next destination in China, Shaolin. The train ride took many hours we had to even stop for a couple of hours to wait out an electrical storm, the train could not run during that kind of storm. The next day we went to the tai chi village and practiced tai chi. It was great. I really loved it there. We also had lunch at the village, the best thing was the orange eggplant. It was wonderful. The next day we went to the Shaolin temple. It was a 6 hour hike up the side of a mountain. I had to overcome some serious fears and anxiety, but I did it. It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do so far. We then traveled to Wudang Mountain. There we took cable cars to the top of that mountain. It was amazing.

The first site we went to see was the Great Wall of China. It was so beautiful and amazing. It took 2 hours to climb to the top of the short side. Oh my goodness, my legs were shaking by the time I got down. I found it very interesting how the locals wanted to take so many pictures with us. It was pretty fun. After we were done we went to dinner. I tried blood for the first time and quail eggs, it was good. Of course there was plenty of other food also; beef, pork, lamb, noodles, mushrooms, tofu, duck tongue.
The next day we went to the summer palace and the forbidden city. Both amazing places, what architecture there is here. Both of these places were built for the emperor and his wives. The summer palace had its own lake.

Upon arrival we got off the plane to catch our ride to the hotel. It was nothing like I thought it would be. I was definitely expecting more people than there was. It was very hot and humid. It took about 45 minutes to get from the airport to our hotel. We went to dinner with Pluto and his parents. It was wonderful. There was so much food and many different kinds. I even tried jelly fish for the first time, and it wasn’t bad.