A true Traveler's Watch

Recently I was on Instagram looking at the account of an artist named cintascotch (who if you don't already follow you totally should. Anyway, he was doing a giveaway with the ModifyWatch company (which are super cool!) the giveaway caught my attention because one of the watches had Doritos on it, and love Doritos. I submitted my email on a whim, and yay! I won! After I won, I realized the Oreo Earth watch is the one for me! Now I have an awesome travel watch that hopefully won't get stollen. Maybe I'll bring my $10 watch for walking around Beijing…

The post that stared this all. Haha.

An Oreo Earth watch! Who knew!

Walking around Beijing

Beijing is really neat city, and it's crazy busy!  It has a really neat mix of random western things like KFC and American clothing stores, mixed with ancient palaces and temples, mixed with super fancy hotels and shopping malls. It really is an amazing (smoggy) city. I prefer slightly smaller cities like Weihai, or much smaller places like Vista so I don't think I'd want to live in Beijing for long but I can totally see why other people would!!

We stayed in a really cool hostel in Beijing and it was really nice! Hostels are great to stay in because they are so much cheaper than hotels. The one we stayed in was around 12 American dollars a night, with very comfy beds, clean rooms, nice bathrooms, air conditioning, and free steady wifi. I don't think you could ever get a hotel for such a great deal! If you ever go to Beijing, it was called the Red Lantern so totally stay there. 

We spent most of our time walking around the cool alley way streets that are filled with shops, going to the night markets, and doing the super touristy stuff. It was a good combo because we got to experience both the sights and the culture of Beijing. 

One of the days we were there we did a thing where you put your feet in a tank of little fish and they nibble the dry skin of your feet. No one was really able to tell if their feet were actually softer, but it was definitely an experience! It tickled super badly but towards the end it got a little more relaxing. We paid to do it for 30 minutes and at first we were really worried because we didn't think we would be able to stand it for that long but we got used to it eventually. 

We stayed near a big lake and it had a lot of really cool stuff around it. Lots of nice restaurants in the mix with little noodle places and street food. There's so many smoothie places in Beijing, I wonder if it's for the tourists or if the Chinese love smoothies, too. So many good things to choose from! 

The big night market in Beijing was a lot of fun. It was definitely for tourists but it was fun to haggle and see all the cool stuff they sell. I  was trying to buy a cool thing (I'm still going to track one down somewhere so I can't say what) and my friend in my group got a good deal on one. I was trying to get an even better deal but the man got annoyed so he took it out of my hand and said "bye bye!" really loudly. Too bad he did that because I was about to buy it, but that's ok I'll find another one. :P

Beijing is huge with an awesome metro system that we tried to master. We got pretty good at it and never got too lost, but we did a few times.

We were only there for four days, I hope someday I can go back for even longer! 

The GREAT Wall of China

Our groups trip to the Great Wall of China has by far been my favorite thing I've done in China so far. The wall was absolutely amazing and just enormous! 

We took 3 hour bus ride from Beijing to the wall, and I was so tired I fell asleep on Maddy my roommates shoulder for about 90% of the time. One of the girls in my group asked me if I'm the kind of person that can fall asleep anywhere at any given time. My answer was yes, other than at night when I actually want to sleep. Once we got the spot at the Great Wall, I was pretty impressed because the wall is not just a wall on the ground, it's way up high on the mountains. Here was the first view of the wall. It was very high up and very impressive. 

Because we wanted to have more time on top of the wall, we took the ski lift up. It was a little scary but soooo beautiful. 

Once we got to the top I was a little confused if we were on an original part of the wall or not. I'm pretty sure the part the ski life landed on was added on later, so after we walked up a little and around a corner, we were REALLY on the Great Wall of China! It was sooooooo cool!!!! The section we went to was almost completely stairs, because it was built on some crazy mountains!

We walked around the wall for over three hours and I got separated from my group but that was ok because the wall is..... Well it's a wall so you can only go forward or backwards so I was never worried I'd get left behind. I had fun taking my time and taking as many pictures as I wanted to. It was either a very cloudy or a very smoggy day but it was still beautiful. 

Oh, and the way cool way to end the day. You can tabogan, as in talks one of those little slides, down the mountain! I can literally say I tobagoned off the Great Wall of China and it was super cool!!!

The Great Wall of China is amazing!! If you ever have am opportunity to go there, do it!! It's totally worry it in my opinion, it's just so awesome! It's not a wonder of the world for nothing! ;)

Crazy Decision

I've made a bit of a crazy decision.  How crazy?  Well, I'm not flying to the moon, but it might seem like it.  I will be flying to the land of no Facebook, no Google, no Instagram, and no religion.

I'm moving to China! 

I will be living there for four months, and I am thrilled!  Thrilled, and really, really scared.  I have had mixed reactions from everyone I have told.  Everyone I have spoken to has said it sounds great, but many have also thought it was a little crazy.  I wonder why. . . I have received some fun reactions of shock, and disbelieving from a few.  I guess its surprising when someone casually walks up to you and announces "I'm moving to China!" 

Before you think my parents are crazy for sending me to China, don't worry. I am going with a reputable program, that I would consider a "Service Abroad".  The program is call the International Language Program (ilp).  This is a program that sends volunteers to countries across the world to teach English to children of all ages. A great aspect of the program is that when you're not teaching, you can go on trips throughout the country you are in!  That means weekends and holidays, I will be traveling China.  China is huge, but I am excited to explore.

This program was founded by BYU students who had done study abroad programs, but wanted to be more involved in the country they were visiting, immerse themselves in the culture, and to give back to the country they were visiting.  In other words, to go as a traveler, a teacher, and not just a tourist.