Y A N G S H U O

Where do I even begin?! I left my heart in this place. It was our last vacation and too perfect for words! I loved every minute... it was the best way to end this incredible experience that I call China. We took a 24 hour sleeper train to and from Guilin and then a bus to Yangshuo that took a couple of hours. The nature there is breathtaking... it's like real China, real villages, real rainforest... I'm telling you this setting beats every place I've been in China! Right in the valley between the mountains is this super cute, super fun little city! There were tons of outdoor activities to do there... here's the run down: We ate a lot of good food, saw some amazing views, rode mopeds, rode bamboo rafts, went swimming, watched the sunset from a waterfall, rode bikes, went to mud caves, hot springs, got fish foot baths, went repelling off of Moon Hill (this was a pretty big deal, especially since it was my first time repelling), hiking, jumped off a bridge and had the most amazing time ever! I have been so blessed to be here in China with such awesome people. I love all my friends here so much and I have learned so much from each of them. Being in Yangshuo made me reflect a lot on my life and how much I've changed in China. I am so happy! This is hands down the best thing I've done in life so far and I wouldn't change one thing about it. I am ready to go home in 20 days and take life by storm. There are so many things I want to accomplish and I'm ready to make things happen! Not to mention... I need to swim, camp, dirtbike, rock climb and be outdoors more. This vacation reminded me how much I love to be active!

Joce, Car, Court and Me in our harnesses after the repel

Friends in Yangshuo at sunset

Is this real life?!

Just posing on a bamboo raft!

Riding mopeds

MUD CAVES! Never been so dirty before..

And yes that's me in the back! Haha

I will miss them

Swimming in China!

This is the most gorgeous thing in person.. and we jumped off this bridge later

That's Moon Hill..

we repelled from the very top of the arch in the middle all the way down to the ground

Looking out over Yangshuo

From the top of Moon Hill

Life doesn't get much better than this...

Shanghai Round 2

Shanghai is such an amazing city! I had so much fun there this past weekend. Carlee, Jocelyn and I got there Thursday night and spent all day Friday shopping. Then we walked the bund at night and danced on a rooftop in the rain! Saturday all day we went climbed on our backs! That was probably the highlight for me :) Haha we also got to ride elephants and they picked us up in their trunk! We all got to hold a baby white tiger, baby siberian tiger and a monkey! Not to mention the Kangaroos we saw and the Pandas sharing bamboo...

The Bund

Rooftop view

After 3 long months with no DP and no cheese,

I finally got my fix :)

Thank you Shanghai for having imported foods!

Our Dance

This was just a rehearsal... I haven't been able to get my hands on the final performance video. So there are a lot of parts in this where we aren't together but just ignore that ;) I start out just to the left of center in light purple. Notice how the kids scream my name when I come out for single ladies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL_CGDPjiu0&feature=youtu.be

Wuxi Weekend

This past weekend my friends Jocelyn and Carlee went on a quick trip with me! We went to Wuxi on Saturday morning (it took about 30 mins on the train). It was pouring rain when we got there but that didn't stop us from having an awesome day. 

We knew of a park in this city so we started showing people pictures and asking them how to get there. Eventually we found the right buses. As we cruised through the rolling green hills, I looked out the window and saw this incredible, huge, gold statue poking through. It was gorgeous! This "grand buddha" figure is the center of the park and everything else just leads up to it. I saw tons of cool architecture and worshiping. It was really fun exploring, even though everything we had was soaked. We got to see this really amazing show in a huge grand theater and it was really moving. The whole place was filled with crazy lights and seats in the shape of a globe. The show was about life and people around the world and I loved it. 

You can't really tell but I am literally SOAKED here

The theater

Later on we took a train to SuZhou and spent the night there. In SuZhou we saw the "Central Park" and "Times Square" and some other cool malls and stuff. After that I took my friends to see Shantang Jie, a famous area known as the "Venice of China" or "Venice of the East." 

I've been there before and it's beautiful! 

Me being a weirdo as always

They're obsessed with us

Gotta love them bus rides... and my fake Michael Kors wallet ;)

Today all 19 of us performed in a big show that the kids put on for the Wujin school district officials that came. It was super fun! I will have to post our dance video on here soon. 

Love you all! Only one more month and 11 days.