During my last week in china I couldn’t help but miss my family and be excited to see them.  This was my first time out of the country alone, and I was very proud of myself.  I felt so successful being able to come together with a group of unknown students, and maneuver my way around a different country with a totally different language.  I learned so much about myself, and this trip has made me much more open minded and more open to new foods.  A quality I never thought would change about myself.  I’m excited to go home and be with my family, I’m excited to have my privacy again and comfort that being in your own country provides you.  But at the same time I don’t want to leave China.  I’ve barely touched the surface of Chinese medicine.  There’s still so much to learn I wish I could stay longer.  How about my family just fly to china so my home is with me but I can still study in a different country?  Wouldn’t that just be perfect?  I’m sad to leave, but this wont be my last time in China.  I’m definitely coming back, and next time I’m bringing people who have never been before so that I can share my amazing experience with them.  Until next time China.

So I’m back home in America and I am having culture shocks in my own country!  Restrooms aren’t holes in the ground with no toilet paper, no ones smoking in the restaurants, everyone’s in their lanes while driving down the freeway.  What is this madness?? Why are we so organized?  Why are our waitresses taking our order instead of ignoring us?  Why am I breathing in clean air instead of second hand smoke?  Why are our bathrooms sanitary?  I’m so happy to be home but I was shocked that my own country shocked me.  But at the same time, I’m proud to say America shocked me.  Because that shows I truly did submerge myself into Chinas culture.  I took a culture totally foreign to me, accepted it, and made it my own normal.  I’m proud of myself that I was able to adapt so well.  I think this gives me a lot of strength and will make me an even better traveler in the future.  I’m excited to go back to China in the future and see how I approach things a second time around in their culture.  I am so happy I had this opportunity to go on this trip.  This trip has shown me traveling is not impossible, and has shown me I am capable of adapting to different environments when needed.  I’ve left my study abroad feeling strong, confident I can make my way through anything and feeling better than before.

My last week in China and this week is packed with traveling and visiting tourist sites.  First stop we traveled to Xian.  Xian was a gorgeous place but we only got to stay for one night which was really a bummer.  This town had so many shops and was so huge it was a place you wanted to stay for a while in just site seeing.  In Xian we rode bikes around the Xian wall.  This was so much fun riding bikes on a place with so much history, but I might add that just a couple days prior to this my group and I were all stuck in a Chinese hospital with food poisoning so we weren’t feeling quite in top shape just yet.  Xian was amazing, while I was there I learned that Xian use to be the capital of China before Beijing was.  I was also shocked to see that Xian’s pollution was much worse than Beijing’s.  It could be the middle of the day and the sky was grey as if a storm just rolled  it was so polluted.  This week we also traveled to Beijing where I enjoyed myself so much.  Unfortunately one site I was really looking forward to seeing was shut down because of a festival rehearsal.  I wanted to see Tinamen square but it was closed till September.  But that didn’t stop the fun, we traveled to so many places along with the great wall of China.  The great wall of China was much harder than I imagined.  The steps were uneven so sometimes it would be a short step or a super steep one.  Another shock I had on the Great wall of China was the steep ramps! I always imagined this place as just a ton of stairs, I never expected ramps.  These weren’t too bad, but were really difficult when walking back.  In addition to this, we had a thunder storm hit us while on the Great Wall of China to add to our struggle!  Beijing’s left its mark on me and will always be an amazing place to remember.  While on the Wall our cable cart back down was shut off because of the weather, so we had to walk our selves back into town in this weather! It was a little stressful at first, cause we weren’t sure if we were walking the correct way.  But a classmate and I found a group of Chinese people around our age who spoke English.  Thank goodness!  They were so much fun to hang around and guided us our way back down.  We had such fun conversations with them about our different cultures and languages.  I was happy we were able to make friends out there a get closer to them  Its gonna be so hard leaving.  But my last week in china was a success and has left amazing memories in my heart.

Week 3 in China and we have officially left Xiangtan.  After almost 2 weeks in the same town it feels nice to have a change.  Our first town we visited is Zhangjiajie which I had been looking forward to for a while.  We got to visit so many mountains I can’t pronounce the name of and saw so many sites in china that were just beyond gorgeous.  We got to hike the mountain where avatar was filmed, as well as go to Tianmen mountain where there’s a cable cart to get to the top of the mountain, a glass bridge on the side of the cliff to walk, a suspension bridge between cliffs, and escalators built INSIDE the mountain.  This mountain was insane and absolutely beautiful I need to come back.  Before leaving Xiangtan we had one last lesson and it was on Chinese diet.  I loved this lesson cause it was very interesting to see where their diet views come from.  I learned they base their diet off seasons and the 5 elements (fire, earth, water, metals, wood).  Each element has its own specific color coordinated with it, and is assigned to a specific season.  The color coordinated with the element represents the type of food you should be eating that season.  So if the color is yellow, you want to be eating yellow foods like a banana.  Each season also focuses on a specific organ or part of your body that is being treated during this time of the year.  I wanted to learn more in depth about this because there is just so much to know, so I’m hoping to get a book on Chinese diet and Chinese history to learn more about it, As well as possibly coordinate their diet into my life.  I was very amazed by their diet, I agree with it so much and I love that when they talk about food its not about what taste good (even though it taste amazing), but is about what IS good for your body and organ system.

Week 2 in China has been amazing.  Adjusting to the culture differences was hard at first, but I really feel like I’m adapting well here.  I’m loving the food here and am adapting to the amount of spice they put in everything! This week we got a few new members added to our group who are from the UK and they are already tons of fun.  This week we had lessons on the Chinese language.  We were taught some basic vocabulary that’s useful when beginning learning Chinese and taught how to pronounce their alphabet.  I give props to anyone who learns Chinese as a second language.  It is very difficult and their whole language is based off 4 basic tones which makes it difficult to learn how to pronounce things properly.  Last week we studied  Chinese massage.  Had massage done on us, then we were taught the techniques and practiced them on our partners.  This week has been more focused on acupuncture.  We studied meridian channels and got the opportunity to practice acupuncture on ourselves.  I loved how hands on our training was.  Lastly to finish off the week we got to visit an herbal garden, and be taught the properties and benefits there are to each plant.