Goodbye 再见 ...

I spent my last day in the shopping mall that we frequently visited, called Auchan. We were stuck inside with the heavy summer rains pouring down (by the way, we went to class in s typhoon even though the university had shut down). Someone joked, "You haven't seen rain until you've seen rain in China!" On the typhoon day, it rained before I woke up at 7am and didn't stop until well past 11pm. The rain was THICK and never ever stopped the entire duration of the day. I said my final goodbyes to my teachers and newly made friends. Our Chinese professors held a large banquet at the place we ate on our first day in China to celebrate the end of classes. My trip wasn't over until I walked through my front door in Phoenix. China Eastern airlines left so late that I missed my connecting flight in LA! It was odd, even after a month, to see everyone roaming around the LA airport with unique styles, different hair colors, and speaking English! I would never change anything about my study abroad experience, because I made the most of my trip. I usually have a couple regrets, oh I wish I tried this or I wish I went here, but this time I can say I got out of that dorm room and explored China! I hope to return to China some day to visit, absorb, and learn even more! I am very, very happy NAU has so many study abroad programs to choose from, because I found one that suited me best. Please let me know if you have any questions about my trip or if you are interested in traveling abroad!

Excursion #4 Buddhist Temple

On our fourth and last class excursion, we went to a Buddhist temple. It was interesting to witness the people worshiping. I could smell the burning incense and even got to ring the huge bell in the tower. I got to climb one of the temples and watch the people bowing before the statues.

Wuxi 无锡

On our last weekend, we visited the Chinese friends we made on campus in their hometown Wuxi （无锡）. They had left Suzhou University a couple weeks before, because their summer program had finished. We left about an hour and fifteen minutes before our train was going to leave. TIP: Allow PLENTY OF TIME!! However, we took the bus going in the wrong direction. We figured the bus would just make an extremely long loop around the city, but there was actually a dead end. We had to transfer buses in order to keep going on the same route, route 10. By the time we had arrived at the train station, we had definitely missed our departure time. We stood in line for what seemed like forever to exchange our ticket only to find out we needed to get into another lengthy line. This instance caused me to be able to apply what I had learned in class about tickets! In Chinese I told the ticket officer I wanted to exchange our tickets, what time was available, and did she have a 10:30am ticket for the four of us? She understood me and acknowledged that indeed she did. I felt like my language attempts were becoming successful near the end of our stay in China. From that moment on, I felt more confident about listening to clerks selling clothing, food, and other products. Here is the Suzhou train station, always crowded:

By the time we got to Wuxi, the girls had been waiting for us for nearly 2 and a half hours. They told us to meet them at a hospital (an easy general location for everyone to find). The only strange thing about arriving at the hospital was we didn't know why the taxi driver had taken us there. I had been asking the taxi driver to take us to .... the entire time but didn't know I had been saying the word hospital. It was an odd location to arrive at until we knew why we were there. The girls took the four of us American girls to eat lunch in a buffet style restaurant where you pay for what you grab. Afterwards, they surprised us by taking us to a very nice "place of interest" as they call it. It was an old style park for tourists. We enjoyed walking around the park despite the heat. Then they took us to two different shopping districts which were both fairly modern, located in the center of Wuxi. I was expecting Wuxi to be a much smaller town, because Sarah's hometown Zhang Jia Gang was nearby and very small but it spanned over three hours of land by car. That day we took 5 busses, 4 taxis, and 2 trains!

Downtown 苏州城市

I had the opportunity to travel to the center of Suzhou with my friend from Nigeria and Val to view the tall buildings and newly built bridges. There was a display representing the olympics and also gigantic television screens with the olympic games, China against Great Britain at that moment in time. As we looked straight up, the picture became up-right and almost gave a sense of a panoramic or I-MAX screen. It would have been easier to just lie down in the middle of the sidewalk than crane our necks into such awkward positions! After strolling the plaza, we made my way over to the fountain show once again by subway. Luckily it drizzled a little causing the thick humidity to lighten a bit. It was nice to stroll the downtown district area and enjoy the people surrounding me.

How Many Tries Does It Take?! 加油

The second half of the trip I made some new friends, one friend from Nigeria, one from Ghana, and a few from China. My friend from Shanghai, who also goes to NAU, visited me in Suzhou. It was so awesome to be able to visit with people I knew from the states in their home country. He welcomed me to his culture. My friends from Ghana and Nigeria did not speak proficiently, so I was able to help them learn useful phrases and order food for them! Although everyone speaks at a different level in multiple languages and dialects, it is interesting to see their facial expressions and hand gestures in order to communicate a meaning. My American classmates and foreign friends often went to a shopping street called Guang Jie Qian. It reminded me of the lantern lit street in Hangzhou. On one occasion, Liu Laoshi recommended a great place for dumplings (饺子）. It took my friend Val and I six tries to find the restaurant! We asked people and showed them the Chinese characters of the restaurant's name. Ultimately, we just kept trying to use our language skills and listening comprehension along with the directional pointing of fingers in order to find the restaurant. Those were the best dumplings I had ever had in China. It was definitely worth the 30 minutes wait and 6 people's directions to find the small restaurant near the main shopping street. Here are two pictures of the street at different times of day.

Sarah's Hometown Zhang Jia Gang 张家港

On Saturday our TA Sarah from NAU invited us to her hometown! She picked us up at about 9am in a big van to head to Zhang Jia Gang, about an hour and a half ride from the university. We had a general idea of the activities she planned for us, but we were surprised along the way. First, we went to a peach farm, a farm consisting of about 10,000 acres of orchards. It was owned by her father's friend. These peaches were distributed throughout China to major cities such as Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. We had the chance to eat freshly picked peaches, walk among the rows of orchards, and even pick some fruit if we wanted to. After eating fresh peaches, Sarah took us to her father's farm where he grows organic food. There was a courtyard in the center of a plaza in the shape of a square. The square was completely surrounded by but connected with individual rooms. We entered a room to eat our meal, a large room decorated with very fancy curtains and furniture . Sarah's cousin and dad joined us. Whenever the class ate out, there was always a "lazy susan" or a turn table in the middle of the table. A waitress served us our meal. At first, it appeared as if there was not enough food, but after two hours of eating, there were between 25-30 plates of food on the table!! There were only 12 of us.

Following our gigantic lunch, Sarah took us to a foot massage facility to relax. We were served flower tea and fruit while watching the olympics. Some students decided to take a nap upstairs. Once we felt rested, we took the van to a hotel of approximately 72 stories. It is the 8th tallest building in China and the 15th tallest building in the world. We toured around the hotel by first zooming up to the top to have a look at the city. Then we went down 12 levels at a time (by elevator, of course) to view a themed level. The Chinese believe the five elements gold, wood, water, fire, and earth balance each other out. Five levels out of the 72 were completely dedicated to one of the five elements. Finally after a fun-filled day, Sarah spoiled us once again by taking us to a five-star hotel's all-you-can-eat buffet. We were amazed with the quantity and quality of food we ate that day. Once arriving back on campus 14 hours later, we decided to go sing karaoke at KTV. Our 17 hour day was quite an experience. 1. Foot massage room

2. The 72 story hotel

3. The 5 Chinese elements balance chart

4. The water level

5. The entire gold level was plated in gold including the floor!

6. Plated in gold in the lobby

Excursion #3 Tiger Hill and Hot Pot 火锅

On our third excursion, we went to Tiger Hill. In order to get there, we took another canal cruise, but this canal was extremely narrow compared to the one surrounding the city. It was enclosed by small, ancient houses (looking exactly like the photos people imagine when one thinks of China) where people still live today. Once we got to Tiger Hill, we took a tram up the hill to the pagoda. We had the chance to walk down winding steps from the top of the hill to the base. The pagoda was so steep that it appeared much further away than it actually was. Our Chinese student id's saved enough money on admission that the class was treated to a large meal called Hot Pot (火锅）following the excursion. There were at least ten types of meat and several vegetable dishes dumped into a large pot, which sits in the center of the table. It remains steaming throughout the duration of the meal and cooks the meat as guests sit around the table. We were wondering why our food was taking so long to be served. It turned out we had ordered chicken and the servers were in the process of catching and killing it!