paddle your own canoe...

Sunday's weather - partially smoggy. There was still a blue sky so we were happy.

We loaded on to the bus for day 3 of the 3 day tour. I actually don't remember much of the bus ride yesterday. It was quick and painless, probably because I slept through most of it. We arrived at the Summer Palace, which was much nicer than a lake house in Wisconsin. Henry gives us a brief history. This is what we learned...

The first building of the Summer Palace, the Gold Mountain Palace, was built by the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty. Succeeding emperors and dynasties have built on and it eventually became what I deemed a vacation resort for the emperors. In 1860, the British and French troops burnt down most of the Summer Palace. It was rebuilt 18 years later, so much of what I saw yesterday was a reconstruction.

Regardless it was still beautiful. When we were set free 12 of us decided to go out on the lake. We jumped in our paddle boats and quickly discovered that there were motor boats. After realizing that no one in their right mind would trade a motor boat for a paddle boat we pressed onward. My boat went along the entire perimeter of the lake, taking pictures of whatever we could see. In the distance we saw the Hall of Virtuous Light and Lama Temple (you can see the pictures on my link.) We tried to go under a bridge but when we were able to see the ground we thought this might not be the best idea and quickly retreated. We did however go under the Mirror Bridge to a lagoon area. People were picnicking and simply walking throughout the area. According to Henry, when he was young there weren't many places you could go on the water or just hang out in a park so this was the most popular place to go. It really was beautiful. I could have spent the entire day on the boat. It felt so nice. We docked up with the other boat for a while, but not moving in the middle of the lake was much hotter than the coastal view from before. Shortly after our rendezvous we left, but not before winning the pirate game. Awkward story, but it was suggestion by one of my fellow travelers that the lake would be a perfect place to play pirate. A strategic game that involved pillaging items from other boats, similar to risk but with a boat and in real life. We floated away with the ping pong ball thus claiming victory. Like I said, we have a tendency to revert to childlike activities.

While we were waiting I had another opportunity to view children. It is actually a favorite activity of mine. I would be very interested in traveling the world to see how similar/different children act. I am sure there are plenty of people already doing that, but if all else fails, that will be my back up plan. Anyway, this kid, we called him "Spidy." Most of you should get the reference but for those who don't he was a miniature Spider Man. I couldn't help but think of my brother. I sat there for ten minutes or so and just watched. He loved to cause trouble. (side note: Mike I am not saying you cause trouble, but if you could have seen this kid it was you, but Chinese.) These kids were clearly here on a class trip, and I am not sure if it was down time or they were supposed to be listening but he definitely was not listening. He would run over by us, jump over the hand rail and then go flying into one of the other kids. Then he would get the girls going; they chased him all around the courtyard until he decided he needed a break. Thirty seconds later it started all over again. He even pulled the whole pushing people off the ledge thing. It was entertaining. We eventually saw a teacher or parent tell him to stop and he got the whole "You are going to stand by me the rest of the day." Always a fun one. Children are so interesting and can tell you so much about a culture. Creepy I know, but I love watching them.

After the Summer Palace we went to the Old Summer Palace. This is completely in ruins because it was burnt down by the Anglo-French army in 1860 and then in the 1900s Westerners stole artifacts and treasures from the Palace grounds, many of which are still auctioned off today. As we walked around we could see the fallen stone and marble that once graced the beautiful grounds. There is much controversy about rebuilding it so it currently remains in ruins. We only stayed there for about 30 or 40 min, just enough time to allow us to think about it's previous beauty.

While two Purdue students were interviewed for the China news I dazed off and watched what I suspect was a grandfather and granddaughter eating ice cream together. She was a spunky little thing who was given ice cream to sit still. Grandpa sat next to her in quiet admiration. He never spoke to her, never touched her, but just looked on proudly. It was really cute to watch. I know, I am creepy.

We had our final free dinner and again it was a gorgeous place. Same type of food but I have to say BO-COG (as we like to say it) brought us to some really nice restaurants. After dinner we attended the Chinese Opera. I have never been to an Opera in English so this was a huge first for me. The Opera House was small, other than our entourage, there weren't many people there; we took up most of the seats. We were excited to see that they had captions explaining the story, sadly given my short height and seat location I couldn't see more than the first line. All I know is, there was a marriage, four different emperors, a war, and some pretty cool acrobatics. Seeing as I have never been to an Opera at home, I have no basis for comparison but it was really exciting and different.

Completely exhausted after my three day tour, I came home last night and fell asleep reading. I actually slept until 9:00 am this morning, which was a first. Another exciting experience awaits tonight. We have been invited to attend a Chinese talk show. Absolutely no clue what to expect. Tomorrow starts training and we are anxiously awaiting the uniforms. As I have promised many, there will be pictures!

Speaking of pictures, I know I sent you the photo link, but I have added a link on this site so that it will be easier to access. The link is PICTURES, I know obvious, but if I didn't say it some one would ask. Have a great Monday!