Hi Everyone,
A lot has been happening these past couple of weeks. I just went through midterms week and now I am right about ready to set off for my next adventure at Guilin, China! :) For the past two weeks, I’ve been studying so much, but it was worth it at the end. There is a lot of material to cover in general (mainly because writing Chinese characters is nearly like drawing and remembering the characters takes lots of practice ): ) I did not feel prepared for some tests, but when I actually took the test, it was actually not too bad! :)
Other than preparing for midterms, I did take a day break. My friend, Nora, and I went to Beijing’s Fragrant Hills Park and a Botanical Garden. Although I had midterms to study for, I went because it’s said that during autumn the leaves of the trees are beautiful colors (yellow, red, orange). I am very happy I went because the hike up to the mountain was a nice escape from the busy city life. Later on, we went to a coffee shop and conversed with the barista. It’s funny, but she actually told us that the leaves in the photos were actually photoshopped to look very red to attract tourists. That explained why when we were there, we saw very few red leaves! The best part about my day trip was actually the garden. The botanical garden is truly a hidden gem. There were very few people at the garden (because everyone was busy flocking towards Fragrant Hills Park). It’s amazing how Beijing really has everything from nightlife to beautiful gardens/hikes. I hope to discover more places like that in Beijing or other parts of China!
Something else that happened was that I saw snow falling for the first time of my life! (I’m from California and I’ve only seen snow on the ground…) It was really exciting for me to finally experience it for the first time! It’s pretty early in the year to have snow right now, so it is a bit unusual.
So, in a couple of hours, I will be heading towards Guilin Nora! I am very excited about exploring Guilin, but it will be raining most of the time there. I hope we can still enjoy everything while it rains!
-Jen