Ireland Part 2: Northern Ireland Adventures

The first part of my Ireland adventures can be read about here. 

Tuesday we left Dublin and drove up to Belfast. We stopped along the way at a monastery where we got to look at some very large, and very old, Celtic crosses. 

Our tour guide told us that they have the scenes carved into them to be used as religious education to people; priests could tell people of important stories in Christianity by using the carvings. 

We got to Belfast and had time for a quick bite to eat before heading on our "Black Taxi" tour. Walter, our black taxi tour driver actually came with us on our bus, instead of all of us piling into a number of taxis. Walter was the perfect guide for this tour, he was entertaining and provided insight into "The Troubles". He also had a great voice and accent that the students loved! The Black Taxi tour took us through some very Catholic (nationalist) and Protestant (unionist) neighborhoods where we had the opportunity to stop and look at the murals that have been painted. 

These murals are on the sides of houses and buildings throughout Belfast (and in Derry, a town we visited on Thursday). They are created to remember 'heroes' from both sides of the The Troubles and to remember key events or tragedies. It was really interesting to see these as we drove through the city. Here are some of them:

With all of the tension happening so recently, it seems interesting to me to have constant visual (and visceral) reminders all over the place. Additionally, the different neighborhoods are separated by giant "peace walls" with wire at the top and gates with guard booths.  While the gates were open with free passage while we were there, I couldn't help but feel the presence of conflict. Not all over the place, by any means, but definitely in some areas. 

We also took a trip down to the dockyards where we saw where the Titanic was built (it is 100 years since it's tragic voyage this month). They have a built a new Titanic museum there, which unfortunately wasn't open when we were there. Also along the way we passed this store:

That night I went out to dinner with my uncle Paul, his wife Andrena and my cousins Hannah and Daniel!!!  It was so great to see them, and we had a lovely dinner at this really cool, funky restaurant and then went back to the house for coffee. The last time I had seen them was when they came to Clearwater, Florida for a summer holiday four years ago. Hannah is now 18 and that's pretty crazy to me! I really liked getting to see them and catch up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me to dinner. 

Wednesday was a day spent around Belfast. Uncle Paul had arranged for us to have a tour of Stormont, which is the parliament building of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Oh my goodness, it is a beautiful and impressive building! 

We all had to pass through security first and received these cool badges that we had to hand over upon entering the building:

Our time at Stormont included a presentation of background history about Northern Ireland politics and the political system followed by a Q&A session with five representatives from five of the major political parties. We ended with a tour of the building and we actually got to go into the legislative assembly room, sit in the chairs that the MLA's sit in, and have a mock debate and vote. It was awesome!!

I really didn't know anything about the political system in Northern Ireland and we learned a lot. It was really cool to get to meet people from the different parties, some were MLA (Members of the Legislative Assembly) and the others were staffers. It was especially interesting to hear about how they all manage (or attempt) to work together despite their differences. And to hear their perspectives on a united Ireland. One of our students asked someone from the Alliance Party if Ireland would even want Northern Ireland back, to which he replied that in the current economic situation, Ireland absolutely could not afford to. I thought that was interesting, and wonder what the nationalists think of this, as they all seemed to be of the opinion that every Irish person cannot wait to have a united Ireland. I really enjoyed this part of the trip.

That afternoon we went to a teacher's college in Belfast where we learned about the education system. Again, it was a really interesting insight into how other countries run, and it shows that it's not just the U.S. with a messed up education system that places ridiculously high value on test scores. 

That evening Shelley, Linda and I did some shopping before meeting up with Paul, Hannah, and Hannah's boyfriend for dinner and then drinks. We had drinks in this really cool bar that used to be a bank called Cafe Vaudeville and it was really awesome. Not too many people there on a Wednesday night, but it was really fun, and I just couldn't get over the architecture of the place.  This time I did bring my camera, and so here's a picture with Hannah and Paul:

Thursday was our last full day in Ireland and we made the most of it! After breakfast in the hotel we piled into our bus and headed off for the day. Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It is exactly what it sounds like, a rope bridge that connects the land to a tiny little rock island that fisherman used to cross daily to collect their haul. It has since been fortified, but it was still scarier crossing it than I had anticipated.

That's the little island

The rope bridge!

It was such a gorgeous day, we were so lucky with the weather!!

After the rope bridge we went on to the Giant's Causeway. For those of you who haven't been here, it's an absolute must-see!  A volcano erupted but the lava interacted with the cold water and it quickly solidified into extremely regularly-shaped pieces OR if you'd prefer, a giant built a bridge over to Scotland to fight with another giant, but one giant got so scared that he tore up the bridge, scattering the pieces to where they are now (still not sure which one's the true story . . . )

So very uniform in shape!

Katie gives the place a thumbs up

"Giant or Volcano?" I wonder.

It was so cool and beautiful, and so, so nice to be outside in nature. We had a wonderful climb around the rocks, then a nice, albeit hurried, lunch in a pub before climbing back onto the bus and heading for London-Derry. Here we had a walking tour that went along the city wall. The focus again was on the conflict between nationalists and unionists and we saw some more murals. We also learned a lot more about Bloody Sunday. 

Another mural

The sign upon entering the nationalist part of the city.

All in all, it was really interesting to visit a place that has so recently experienced serious conflict. Everyone has opinions on it and everywhere we went we were reminded of it. It's impressive to see that the political system is up and running, and that the two major parties are working together (for the most part) even across such a wide divide of opinion. After hearing about The Troubles it was really a great experience to come and actually see Northern Ireland. 

That night was super exciting as we got to go see The Hunger Games in theaters. It can out on the Friday, but a couple of movie theaters did advance screenings, and so many of us went that night. It was really fun to be in a real cinema with popcorn, and without subtitles! We had been hoping it would work out to see the movie, because for some reason it doesn't come out in Italy until May. It was a fun way to cap off the trip. 

Friday was spent traveling, and it was a very full day. We left for the airport at 5:10am and I walked into my apartment 14 hours later. During our travels we took a taxi, plane to Heathrow, train to Paddington, subway to Victoria, train to Gatwick, plane to Pisa, bus to Florence train station, and then a taxi home!! It was a long day, and I really appreciated having Saturday and Sunday to recuperate and unpack. 

I loved going to Ireland and to Northern Ireland, and am so glad I got to go on this trip. We had a great group of students and it was a good sized group. I learnt a lot more than I had expected, saw so many beautiful sights, and got a fix of English language and amenities! Best of all, I got to see some family :)

Spring Break: Ireland Edition!

On March 15th I left Florence for a 9 day trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland.  It was FANTASTIC!  It was gorgeous, fun, interesting, and altogether great trip.

I went with 33 students from GIF and with two of my co-workers, Shelley and Linda. I had never been to Dublin before, and my only previous trip to Northern Ireland had been about twenty years ago for a wedding. We had a pretty packed schedule, but I even managed to squeeze in a visit with a friend from junior high school and meet her gorgeous new baby and her husband in Dublin. And in Belfast I got to catch up with my uncle, aunt, and cousins!

Traveling there and back was a bit of a hassle, as we needed to be there early Friday morning to meet the students (they fly out on their own for trips like these - so that they can find a flight that matches their schedule and budget). So, Thursday morning we took a train to Pisa and then a flight to London. We spent the night at a Heathrow hotel in order to catch an (very) early morning flight to Dublin. Thursday night all we did was have dinner in the hotel and then go to bed, but dinner was surprisingly good. On our Friday morning flight from London to Dublin the average age of the passengers couldn't have been more than 21 or 22 - lots and lots of young people heading over for St. Patrick's Day. In fact, at passport control in Dublin Shelley got stuck behind a high school marching band from Georgia who were going to be in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade the next day.

We were in Dublin from Friday to Tuesday, and we stayed at All Hallows College in North Dublin. This is a catholic college that has a conference center on campus, in which we stayed. It was a gorgeous campus and we had really nice rooms. We were actually only there for sleeping as we had packed days, but it was a great place to stay.

All Hallows College

After getting the students settled in (and dealing with a minor first aid situation) Shelley, Linda and I went into the city center. We all went into Eason's (bookstore) and spent too many hours (and too much money) in there. It was great :)  I left Shelley and Linda then and met up with my friend Tara who lives in Dublin. It was so nice to catch up with her and to meet her new husband and daughter!  I was in bed that night early though, as it had been two long days and we had early starts the next few days. Saturday was our first activity day of the trip, and in the morning we did a bus tour that was supposed to be of Dublin, but we ended up changing that because of road closures for the parade. We did a tour instead to Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary), which is a charming seaside down just outside of Dublin. 

We got dropped off downtown after the tour with the rest of the afternoon free. Shelley, Linda and I went into Easons again so that we could watch the parade from their windows. We had a nice little lunch while waiting and then got to watch little bits of the parade through the windows (better than being on the street, where it was super crowded and where it rained for the only day of our trip). Unfortunately, I had to leave a little early to go back to All Hallows because my pump had run out of insulin that morning and I forgot to bring more with me on the tour. But, then, since I was already back outside of the center, I just hung out on the high street near the college and I got my hair cut. Not super exciting, except that I hadn't had that done since before moving to Italy, and it was nice to do it somewhere where the hairdresser spoke English and I could explain what I wanted!  That night we had dinner in a little Thai restaurant with some of the students (including one student who was in Florence with us in the Fall and is now studying at Trinity College, Dublin). I didn't go wild and crazy for the holiday, but that was ok with me (and our students more than made up for me!)

Not our specific bus, but what it looked like :)

We had booked our tours through a tour company called PaddyWagon Tours and we had the same bus and guide for all six days there. This was great because we had a terrific, knowledgeable guide, and we were able to build rapport with him over the week. They're a really good tour company, offering public and private tours. Their buses are giant and very ostentatious, which the students found fun!

On Sunday we went to the Cliffs of Moher with a couple of little stops along the way. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and the cliffs were absolutely gorgeous!  Our guide said that he had been there the week before and it was so foggy people couldn't even see the cliffs - actually, in the visitor's center they have an exhibit with photos and videos of the cliffs for this specific reason. It was absolutely stunning, and we had a nice time walking around and taking lots of photos. Even the drive there and back through the countryside was gorgeous! Everything was so green! We didn't make it back until around 8pm, and we walked to a pub and a group of us had a lovely little dinner. 

Monday was our trip to Cork and to the Blarney Castle. I didn't know a whole lot about Blarney Castle other than knowing that there was a stone there to kiss. In actuality the place is a whole lot more than that, and I would say that, for me, the real highlight were the grounds. 

There were so many little gardens and everything was just starting to bloom and there were flowers, colors and trees everywhere. The line to kiss the stone was so long that if we had waited in it the only thing we would have seen would have been the backs of the people in front of us (it was about a 90-100 minute wait) so instead we didn't kiss the stone but wandered the gardens (no gift of eloquence for me . . . maybe next time). It was so nice seeing so much green after the winter in Italy, so it was a great afternoon for me.   

We then stopped in Cork for a late lunch and a wander through the city. I really liked Cork; it had a great city feel without being too big. There was a street fair going on, and we all got delicious food from a variety of vendors. I also managed to squeeze in a visit to Boots (walgreen equivalent) to pick up some essentials I can't get in Italy - very happy about that :)

This is already too long of a post, so I'll write about the second part (our time in Belfast) in a separate post to come soon.

Oh The Places You Will Go!

I'm going to start a running list of countries and major cities I've visited:

Visited:
Mexico - Rosarito, Punta Mita
St. Lucia, West Indies
Antigua, West Indies
Germany - Berlin, Bad Kohlgrub, Nuremberg, & Dresden
Czech Republic - Prague
Austria - Salzburg
France - Paris
Egypt - Sharm El Sheikh and Cairo
Scotland - Edinburgh
Spain - Marbella
China - Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou
Switzerland - Geneva
Hungary - Budapest
Ireland & Northern Ireland
Slovenia - Ljubljana & Bled

Lived:
England - born there, been back lots, going back soon!
Canada - lived in Toronto for six years
San Francisco - lived in the city for some months, then in Walnut Creek for a year and a half
Nevis, Caribbean - lived there for three years
Santa Barbara, CA - lived there for 10 years (including 4 years at UCLA)
Boca Raton, FL - lived there for 4 years
Florence, Italy - moved here in August 2011

Planned Trips:
Budapest - February 2013
Paris - February 2013
Ireland and Northern Ireland - March 2013
Southern France - April 2013

Places I would like to go:
Antartica!
all over Asia
Sweden
Denmark
Barcelona
Brussels
Somewhere in South America
Alaska

Gallivanting Across Europe!

In the past month I have been to Switzerland and to Hungary and absolutely loved both trips!

The tiny plane that took me to Geneva. There were only 17 of us on it!

 I flew out to Geneva on January 20th to meet my parents there for the weekend. It was such an incredible weekend - we had a really lovely time exploring the city, walking around, and eating great food. The airline I was traveling with actually canceled my return flight, so I ended up not flying back until Wednesday instead of Monday morning. Which made it really nice and relaxing for me. I had only had one weekend off in the eight weeks before going to Geneva, with work, China, and the Spring Opening Tour (not that China was terribly hard, but it was structured and still technically work).

Geneva with the lake and the fountain in the background - gorgeous!

We stayed at the Four Seasons, which was so luxurious. It is a really beautiful hotel with terrific service, right on the lake. I really liked Geneva, especially the old town area - but, it was SUPER expensive. Oh wow, I was not prepared for that (Thanks Mum and Dad for being there!!!) 

In front of a massive fireplace at the castle.

We did a couple of walking tours on our own around Geneva, and on Monday we went to Chateau Chillon and toured around there. That was really fun. It's a much bigger castle than it looks like from the outside, and it has had multiple uses and histories, which made it quite the intriguing tour (it was a fortress, house, jail, and place for witch trials).

In old town!

Sunday night was my birthday and we went to a really fancy restaurant for dinner, which was so delicious! We ate really well all weekend, which does seem to be a running theme for this blog - I do love some good food!! 

My birthday dessert!

On our last night we went for fondue in Geneva, to this tiny place on a pier that was absolutely packed. It was really, really low-key - you order your food at a window and they bring it to you - the only thing on the menu is fondue and you have limited choices of things to dip into it. Before eating none of us were that excited about a whole meal of cheese fondue, and actually before the food arrived, we wished that we'd ordered two portions instead of three - were we wrong! It was really delicious and we were practically scraping the bottom of the fondue pot by the end. Great recommendation from the hotel concierge. 

Saying goodbye to Mum and Dad as we got onto different trains

It was really nice spending the time with my mum and dad - it's been three years since I've actually been with them on my birthday, and it had been just over six months since I had last seen them. It's such a cool thing to be able to meet up with someone for the weekend in a new country - love that about living here :)


After Geneva I had two weekends in Florence before jetting off to Budapest with the school for the weekend (I lead a glamourous life!) It was nice to relax around Florence - although, it is COLD here right now. It actually snowed (not so that it stuck to the ground, but still, I am very used to Florida weather). I did though get insanely giddy the first time it snowed and it when it snowed while walking to school it made the cold not so bad - I am of the opinion that if it's going to be super cold, it should snow to make it worth it. Students were hoping for a snow day - but no such luck. 

Snow falling outside my window :)

So, onto Budapest. Wow - it was so incredibly beautiful - I was not prepared for how awesome it is, I loved, loved the city. We arrived on Thursday and were there until this past Sunday. Budapest was even colder than Florence, but I knew that in advance and brought every warm piece of clothing I owned (thanks Annie for the socks, Claire for the scarf, Mum for the other scarf, and Sarah for the Uggs!!) The ground was covered with snow, but it didn't snow while we were there. I think it really added to the beauty of the place seeing all of the snow on the ground. It helped that the sidewalks and streets were cleared, I'm sure. 

20,000 Forint bill - I felt rich!!

We stayed at the Hotel Corinthia, which was super fancy and lovely. They had an amazing breakfast buffet that was included with our trip and made it so that nobody really needed lunch! 

One of the statues in Heroes' Square

Thursday night Shelley, Linda and I had dinner in a Thai restaurant and it was great (don't worry - we also ate Hungarian food over the weekend!!) Friday morning we did a driving/walking tour of the city - stopping at Heroes' Square, St. Stephen's Church and Fisherman's Bastion for incredible views of the city. 

View from Fisherman's Bastion!

That afternoon we did a tour of the House of Terror that afternoon. This is a museum about the terrors perpetrated during the Nazi rule and the Communism rule - in the building that was the headquarters for the secret police of the Communists. It was really very terrible and awful to walk through - especially the basement where the cells from when people were held and tortured were still there. It is crazy for me to think that this all happened within the last one hundred years. 

Soviet Soldier extending a hand to a Hungarian farmer in Momento Park

Saturday morning we did "The Hammer and Sickle" tour and learned even more about Hungary under communism, including a stop at Momento Park where the city collected all of the communist statues erected over the years and moved them to one spot. After the tour we went to the central market for Lángos, which is a fried dough Hungarian speciality that I had with sour cream, cheese, salami, onions and green peppers - yum!  We walked around the downtown area of Pest and then that night we did a cooking class with all of the students. It was fantastic - they were split into teams and each prepared a different item. They had a lot of fun, and Shelley, Linda and I had a lot of fun watching and documenting them!  A great night. 

The world's biggest wine barrel that is still in use - in an underground cellar. 

I did get a pretty bad cold last weekend, but I'm pretty much over it right now. I just got my Uffizi pass (which lets me into many Florentine museums for free) so my plan for this weekend is to sleep in and pop into a museum! I'm trying to up my culture while I'm here and have the opportunity. 

Things I like about living in Italy:

I've been having mixed feelings recently about Italy, and to combat that, I thought I'd make a post about things I enjoy about this place :)

The food!

Being able to walk everywhere

The markets

Being in Europe and having easy access to awesome places

Learning a new language and being able to use it

The italian way of enjoying meals and making them last a long time

No chain restaurants

Not paying for insulin (saves $90 copay per month!!)

Feeling like I'm part of a neighborhood

Buildings that are from 1905 are considered new!

Working in Student Affairs Abroad

With the start of my second semester here, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the job as I’ve experienced it thus far. Working in a study abroad program is more different than working at a four year college than I had thought.

In this field of student affairs, the clock resets itself frequently. Every August/September a new batch of students arrive, and we go through a pattern that has some routines - we have the same programs or events around the same time (Parents’ Weekend, Monologues, homecoming, study breaks, etc.) and the same issues around the same time (homesickness, exam stress, career stress, etc.) And then May or June arrives and we have a couple months to breathe, plan, and reset for the next year. 

Here, the reset happens in half the time: a vast majority of the students here only stay for the one semester. So in September, 195 of them arrived, we did Opening Tour, some programs and events (cooking classes, calcetto tournament, etc), weekend travel and the end of semester banquet. Then, in December 168 of them got onto airplanes and went home. Instead of two months to breathe, plan, and reset, we had eleven days in China and then 127 new students arrived and we did an abbreviated Opening Tour and we have our first cooking class tomorrow. We’re already scheduling the calcetto tournament, we have completed one out of six weekend trips and we’re starting to think about the end of year banquet. It all is moving at an incredible rate.  

When at Lynn, even though students were there for four years, I usually got to know them only for one or two years (with the RA staff and my VM cast as the major exceptions). Sure, there were some who I would get to see grow up over the years, which was absolutely lovely, but most of them I only knew while they lived on campus, for the year or two.  It was always nice though, to have students return in the fall and stop by to say hello; or to see students at graduation that you knew their first or second year. You got to see growth and development as they matured over the years (well, that was the hope, anyway). 

Here, the students are gone too quickly. It is such a short glimpse into their lives, and they go back to their home campuses and their maturation continues there. I won’t really know who they have become when they graduate - what career path they have decided to pursue, how their study skills have progressed, or whether their partying has become more controlled. Being in Student Affairs means wanting to help students develop into the people they want to become. Most of the time I have had the opportunity to actually witness that happening, or so I hope. 

Now, that I will not be seeing that move towards transformation, what does that mean? I know that studying abroad can really be a developing experience for a student - they are far from their safety net, exposed to new cultures, and learning to be more independent. But when they’re only here for a semester, how much of that do I actually get to see? Not that it should matter, right? Because if they learn from this semester; if they gain a greater sense of self or help to fine tune their goals or purpose, then it doesn’t matter if I get to see it. And it’s true. It doesn’t matter, the development still happens, and I can hope that I have contributed to it in some way. But, I can’t lie, it’s nice to see the changes. 

And who knows, I’ve only seen one group come and go, and hopefully I’ll get to follow the paths of some of them. They may come back here to visit after graduation, or ask for a letter of reference, or advice. And there’s always Facebook, where I can follow what they do or who they become. . . . Things to keep in my mind. 

China!

On December 21, 2011 I traveled with thirteen students and two other staff to China for the 2011 Christmas Tour. It was an incredible experience; interesting, fun, long, strange, frustrating, educational and fascinating are all words that I would use to describe the trip. Without taking the next hour of your life in reading, I will try to recap some of the events, sentiments, and reflections of my trip.

Traveling:

Traveling definitely deserves it’s own section. We took a mini charter bus from Florence to the Rome airport (approximately 4 hours), leaving at 11am. We arrived at the airport to find out that our flight was an hour delayed, so everyone split up and met back up to board. We then spent another 40 minutes sitting on the plan before it actually left, which meant that when we arrived at our layover in Istanbul, the departures board posted the flight was closing. I was the first staff member off of the plane, so I sent one of the students sprinting ahead, told one student to wait for everyone else in our group, and took the 8 that were with me and we ran through the airport. It was fairly frantic, and we all had to go through security again at the gate. It all worked out fine, we think they were waiting for us (probably easier for the airline to be a little delayed than to have to rebook 16 people and put them up for the night). 

We flew Turkish Airlines, from Rome to Istanbul and then from Istanbul to Beijing.  If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend Turkish Airlines. We had a full dinner on the flight to Istanbul, then another dinner and breakfast on the flight to Beijing. They even provided a menu with meal options. The food was surprisingly good, the staff were all really nice, and the entertainment was excellent. I managed to get a couple hours of sleep and the flight seemed to pass quite quickly. Actually getting out of the airport took a while, with collecting luggage and going through passport control (we were all on a single group visa, which slowed things down). We arrived in the new terminal built to accommodate the influx of visitors for the 2008 Olympics. It was really big and open and quite cool. At one point we had to walk slowly through an area that checked temperatures of people, looking out for illnesses - Bizarre! Our guides were waiting for us and led us out to our bus, and it took about an hour and a half to get to the hotel. We walked into the hotel at 6pm the day after leaving, which, with the 7 hour time difference, meant that we had spent exactly 24 hours traveling from leaving campus to arriving in the hotel!!

Beijing:

We had a guide, Lin, with us the entire time, and then we also had an additional guide for Beijing, and then one for Shanghai. Lin had worked with our group before, when Christmas Tour came to China five years ago. 

The Forbidden City

Annie, our Beijing guide, was fantastic! She was young, very informative, and had great energy.  In Beijing we went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, and a Ming Tomb. We visited a pearl factory, had a tea tasting lesson in a tea house, and we spent a day at the Beijing Language and Cultural University, with a calligraphy lecture and a paper cutting lesson (which was so cool). 

Double Happiness!

We also saw a Kung Fu show one night, which was not, as we had anticipated, a demonstration of Kung Fu, but rather a really beautiful and creative dramatization of a legend. 

I really enjoyed all of the sites that we visited in Beijing, they were so incredibly beautiful and well preserved. The city itself is massive - absolutely sprawling - which is no wonder as there are approximately 17 million people living there!  Wow.

Shanghai:

We transferred by plane to Shanghai on Tuesday, December 27th. We said goodbye to Annie and said hello to Mao (who wanted to be called either Mao Money or Jerry - ?!?). Jerry was not as good as Annie, but definitely interesting. Quite the character!  

On the bund, with the PuDong area behind me

In Shanghai we did more modern and western touring, which was an interesting contrast from Beijing. Shanghai is much newer and we walked through more of the downtown areas. It was really our own opportunity to wander around on our own, and it was nice. We also did tour things like going to the Temple of the Jade Buddha, and an overnight trip to Suzhou (which is called the Venice of the Orient, but shouldn’t be). We also saw an acrobatics show in Shanghai which was spectacular. Our hotel in Shanghai was not as nice as the one in Beijing, or even the one we stayed in at Suzhou, so that was sort of a shame as we had a lovely hotel in Beijing. 

Anecdotes

Annie kept using the word “later” when she meant “now”. So she would say “later I will give you break to take pictures” and we would just stand there waiting for her to keep talking, when really we were supposed to go take pictures right then. After a day or two we figured it out, but then it got really confusing when on the last day she said “later” and meant “later”!! 

We were basically celebrities in China - everywhere we went people stared, and many wanted to take pictures of us or having their pictures taken with us. Anytime we would assemble for a group picture, all of these other people would gather round and take a picture too (I wonder what they ended up doing with the picture of the random group? Maybe they have a collection?!?) One of the female students was about 6’ and she was a big attraction (pun intended) - so many people came up and asked to take their pictures with her. So strange. 

 All of these people are taking pictures of our group!

Jerry brought us all a New Year’s Eve toast of snake wine, which is not at all wine, and is probably stranger than what you’re imaging. Snake wine is some sort of hard alcohol that has been infused with snakes, seahorses and antlers. Yep, you read that correctly. I drank one shot of that at dinner and that was more than enough for me.

With the exception of snake wine, most of the food we ate was pretty standard chinese. Our guide reassured us at the beginning that you have to pay extra for delicacies like dog and such in China, so none of that appeared on our table. The way that meals worked was that we would sit at big banquet tables of eight with a lazy susan in the middle and we would be brought plates of food to share. I really enjoyed the food in the beginning, but unfortunately by the time we left Beijing for Shanghai we had all grown really bored of eating the same dishes with the same flavor at every lunch and dinner. Thankfully we were able to arrange for two dinners that offered more choice - one was a buffet and at one we even had menus!  One thing I really do miss is chopsticks - we all improved with our chopstick skills, and I spent the week returning feeling like a part of my hand was missing. Oh, and on New Year’s Eve, we all tried pickled jellyfish - which didn’t have a strong flavor but had a really, really weird sort of crunchy texture - don’t try it!

Reflections

The very first thing we did in China was to visit Tiananman Square and it was such a strange feeling being there. It is massive - our guide told us it can hold one million Chinese people in it! 

Also, it is surrounded by all of these famous buildings, which I have read about or seen on television. Add to that the history of the place - as a gate area to the Forbidden City, its use for public events, and then the demonstrations and protests - it was surreal to actually stand there. There is a giant banner of Chairman Mao hanging over one of the buildings, staring down at the square - his presence is everywhere. 

Christmas in China was a bit strange - there were decorations around, more so than I had expected, but still, it did not feel like Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to midnight mass at [one of?] the only Catholic church in Beijing. That was actually really nice, although it was completely packed and in fact we almost didn’t even get in, but then our guide told a nun that we had come all the way from America by way of Italy to come to mass, so we all stood in the side. 

It was both similar and completely different. There were some aspects of the mass that are exactly the same, as one would expect. But the chinese also sang a lot more than I’ve ever seen, with a lot of sung responses. It was cool to hear Christmas hymns in chinese, we all sang along with the English words. 

I was actually surprised by how strange it didn’t feel to be in China. I have been thinking about that quite a bit, and I have a couple of theories. One, we were there in a big group, with tour guides who shuttled us from place to place, and for the most part we didn’t actually interact with too many people anywhere. Two, we stayed in Beijing and Shanghai, two major cities which means it is bound to have some similarities to other cities in other parts of the world. Three, the world is becoming smaller and smaller and therefore is becoming more homogenous? And four, I have been doing so much traveling recently, everything is seeming less strange.  I’m not sure whether any or all of these are at play here, but it definitely gave me some pause. 

Highlights:

Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve night were my highlights of the trip. 

Lin bought us all light up bow headbands for our nighttime boat tour and that totally set the mood for an awesome NYE. It was really fun to see all the headbands throughout the crowd, we took some awesome pictures (and many were taken of us too). 

It was a really fun night, and a good way to end the trip.

Christmas because of the trip to the Great Wall, which really is incredible. We had some free time to explore the wall and it was nice to be with some of the group, taking pictures, singing Mulan songs, and exclaiming over the sights, but it was also nice to walk off on my own, try to take in the immensity of the Wall, and reflect on the year that has brought me all over the world.