Month: November 2016

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delay, I am now finally connected to a VPN after traveling to nearly every corner of Yunnan province. After a week in the rural home stay, I traveled to Shangri-la. Shangri-la is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. It is believed that this place describes northwestern Yunnan and as such in 2001, Zhongdian County in northwestern Yunnan officially renamed itself Shangri-La County. While we were visiting the area, we went to the largest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Yunnan. It has over 1,000 monks and we got to speak with the head monk who is considered a Dali Lama or living Buddha, it was really quite fascinating. I also went with a couple of friends to the famous Snow Mountain and took a cable car up to 15,000 ft. It was super hard to breath and extremely windy, but the view was incredible!

After Shangri-la, I went with a few friends to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge. It is a canyon on the Jinsha River, a primary tributary of the upper Yangtze River. It is one of the deepest and most spectacular river canyons in the world and its inhabitants are primarily the indigenous Nakhi people. After hiking the gorge, we took a overnight train back to Kunming. It was a little squishy but definitely an experience to remember!

I am now back in Kunming and starting my last month here in China. I have signed a language pledge so I can only read, write, and speak Chinese with the exception of school commitments and talking to family. It has only been a few days, but I can already tell my speaking skills will increase immensely.

I hope everyone is well and stays safe with all the election commotion!

<3 Elizabeth

Monks at the largest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery

On top of Snow Mountain, at 15,000 ft

Making friends with goats at Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge

On the top bunk in the overnight train

The 5th of November

Hiya everyone, happy Guy Fawke’s Day, or bonfire night as its also known.

For those who don’t know (because I didn’t before today either!) tonight there will be fireworks lit off all across the UK to commemorate the arrest of Guy Fawkes who was associated with the gunpowder plot to blow up the Parliament back in the 1600s. Since then the holiday has been celebrated with bonfires and fireworks ever since.

Earlier tonight my friends and I went up to Calton Hill in New town. We were hoping to see the big annual fireworks display, but it was cancelled tonight due to wind. We still got to see some other, smaller displays from that view, but nothing as big and spectacular as we were expecting.

The rest of my week hasn’t been too exciting, aside from my parents coming to visit me. Unfortunately I had to work through the whole week, so I only really got to see them at meal times.

This week in Parliament, I got to learn a lot about biodiversity in Scotland (long story short: it needs to get better) as I had to help write two speeches for my MSP. One was about a spider, for which he is species champion, and the other welcoming a report on biodiversity by the Scottish Parliament.

Yesterday I went out to the constituency office in Grangemouth. I had the opportunity to go with my MSP to his surgery (Which, as I found out, does not mean ‘surgery’ as in the medical term like we use here in the US– here surgery can mean an overall appointment) in Bo’ness. He had meetings with some local people to listen to their concerns in person and to assure them he will do all he can to help them. After that we went to a local chippy and got some lunch. We rounded out the trip with a visit to the Kelpies, a relatively new, but no less spectacular, landmark in Falkirk. They’re basically giant (like, almost the size of the statue of liberty) steel statues of horse heads to commemorate the Clydesdale horses that used to pull barges up and down the canals. The name ‘kelpies’ comes from the Scottish myth of beautiful young women who used to lure young men down to the river, transform into horse-headed monsters, and drown them. Warm and fuzzy, I know.

Anyway, my head is really hurting right now and I really am quite tired; that’s all from me this week folks!

Cheers,

Kim

This week is fall break for my program, so I have been traveling around Europe with Bix and my roommate from Florence! My travel plans included Amsterdam, Cologne, Prague, Lisbon, and Barcelona.

Amsterdam was definitely my favorite city so far. Biking is the easiest way to get around. It was a little scary at first because  I didn’t know where I was going, but once you get the hang of it it’s super fun! Bix and I went on a river cruise tour, took pics at the I Amsterdam sign, and rode our bikes through Vondel Park. Of course when we got to Cologne (Köln) Bix made sure we went to a hockey game. The fans were really loud on both sides with each having drums and chants. (Köln won btw). 

Prague was next. I met my roommate in the city of a hundred spires. We had two full days to explore the old city, Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, the Lennon Wall, the Astronomical Clock, and other attractions. The architecture was pretty incredible because there are so many different styles all in the same city. It also felt a lot colder than I had expected so we ended up getting some hats to keep us warm. 

Today I woke up at 3am to get to the airport for my 6am flight from Prague to Lisbon. Even though we only had 24 hours in Lisbon, my roommate and I made the most of it and were able to take the tram to some scenic overlooks and have lunch in a tropical park that had the biggest ducks I have ever seen in my life. Tomorrow morning we are headed to Barcelona where we will meet up with some friends! I’m super excited to visit a 5th country/city this week to finish off fall break!

Stephanie