Crazy. I keep looking at that title and it’s still not sinking in. How did we get here already? Figures now the weather is perfect and it’s simply beautiful here in Harbin…so now I really don’t wanna go. It’s going to be super hot and sticky in Beijing. The above picture is from when Rebecca, Rudi, Yoko, and I all went to Central Street (a big shopping area in Harbin) and went to watch the sunset over the river. It was beautiful. 

This is Central Street. It has really cool Russian architecture everywhere. 

Fun times were had by all ;) Harbin is famous for it’s “Ha-pi” beer. I’m pretty pathetic, but I still haven’t really developed a like for beer. 

Pretty girl! Taking in the beautiful sunset.

Love :)

So yeah! It was a great weekend of relaxation before we enter the insanity that is finals. I have to hand-write a 3000+ character essay comparing the Chinese and American administrative government systems. Fun? Even though I know it’s our last week of classes, I seriously am struggling to make myself want to go to class. Also, when we’re in class, it’s insanity. Seriously, my poor Conversation class Zou Laoshi has to deal with so much of our crazy. Last class, we opened all the windows to the classroom, which is at ground level, and then proceeded to sit in them…we couldn’t have class outside, so we brought outside to us! After a while we all drifted back to our seats (it was hard to write notes), but yeah. Crazy Friday afternoons. 

Zou Laoshi :)

heeee happy people!

heavy focus :)

Rachel and her hiccups. They sound like mice squeaks. 

So yeah, basically when I’m not in class, I’m outside studying at Heidian or at Cafe Bubu, enjoying the awesome weather. 

Heidian :)

Inside Cafe Bubu

My favorite seat out on the porch :)

As things slow down before finals (quiet before the storm), I’ve being trying to catch up with everyone. The one girl that I’ve been keeping up with all semester is my girl Lindsey. 

Skype is seriously a miracle. 

So this has basically turned into a photo blog because I’ve discovered the awesomeness of Instagram with my new iTouch. I lerrrrve it :) I promised I would stop at 9am my time, as I should probably go memorize my words for class today. Meh. This afternoon is going to be full of fun essay writing, but I’m determined to get ONE HOUR of sun. Signing off with more pics from this weekend…

I realized that I don’t really ever talk about what my day-to-day life is like here in Harbin: living at Ha Gong Da, talking with my awesome teachers and friends, hanging out with my worship team at my church, studying at the nearby coffee shops, etc. As our semester here is quickly coming to an end, I wanted to have one post that reflects/remembers the little details. I’m already getting all sappy and sentimental.

I’ve really found my rhythm here…it feels like home! My new week starts on Monday, which is the only day where I don’t have class until 10am. Every day after that, I have class starting at 8am. I don’t know why I decided this, but I still get up every morning at 4:30-5:00am. I’ll use my boss French Press to make real coffee, and I’ll start the day with memorizing all the new words/grammar. We have a kitchen on our floor, so I still get to have eggs for breakfast every morning :) My favorite class is now a tie between my 1-1 class and conversation class…I love my topic in one and my teacher/classmates in the other. My final paper for my 1-1 is comparing the Chinese and American systems of administration (federal government). It’s going to be a whopper of an essay. I absolutely love my teacher, Zou Laoshi, as she always has an awesome and fun attitude no matter how tired or how long the day is. My newspaper class has probably been the most useful, as most of the time when I watch any news now, the words I see are almost all from that class. Guess they taught us the right subjects! It’s really interesting how all the news networks over here are going nuts over the situation with the Philippines, but you hardly see a word of it in the American news. My final class, 1-2, has helped me with my pronunciation/reading SO much, it’s awesome…but sometimes it’s just irritating to prepare for lol.

It was show-and-tell day in our newspaper class recently…

After class, I usually go to Cafe Bubu, where there is free WiFi (something I didn’t know existed in big cities in China…I never found a good, nearby cafe in Beijing!). It is also one of the few places you can order a salad! I usually work on homework all afternoon, grab a quick dinner, and then work out on the track at night if the weather is good. The weather is finally SPRINGLIKE here…of course, in most other parts of China, it’s already summer weather.

GREEEEEN.

Sigh. Every Friday night, I have worship practice with Michelle, Jones, Woody, Seven, Joseph, and Elaine (those are their English names of course). It is such a great way to start my weekend by hanging out with them, worshiping God, and relaxing. Saturday mornings, I head back to the church for discipleship/Bible study and more worship practice, after which we will all go find something fun to do at Zhongyang Dajie (Central Street, a major shopping area) or go to a park or something. This last weekend, the weather was awesome, so we went to Children’s Park, which is a mini-amusement park in the middle if the city. I rode a small rollercoaster, climbed a rock wall, and took lots of pictures of green, living, growing things.

Ima spider monkey!

This guy was the park TICKET TAKER. I seriously can’t get over his uniform…

Oh, I should probably mention that I found a legit Apple distributor here and bought a new iPod touch. Heheheh new toys :) granted, I can’t use a lot of the apps properly until I get back to the States, but it is SO nice to have an electronic dictionary. So yeah, I end my week on Sunday with church and singing and more coffee at Cafe Bubu!

Pretty simple, but I’m starting to like having such a simple life. I have school and worship team…and that’s it. I’m really starting to wonder if I’ll be able to go back to the insane life I have at Trinity. But I know I don’t have much choice…it’s already starting again. I got up at 3am this morning to have a Skype call with all the wing staff for next semester, and it was just a small reminder of what is waiting for me when I get back. Even this summer is going to be a completely different pace. I’m going to be a cadet commander for Project GO this time around, and it’s going to take a loooot of work. 没有办法.

I think this is enough rambling for now. I want to do a post on what I’ve discovered about politics, human rights, and Chinese society over the past few weeks, but that’ll have to wait for the next time I don’t want to do homework, which will most likely be tomorrow. Til then…

That got your attention, didn’t it? Haha. 

So as a program perk, we got the chance to travel with our roommates as one huge group to the border town of Dandong that sits on the beautiful Yalu River. It happens to share that river with North Korea, so tourism is one of Dandong’s largest sources of income. Last summer when I was studying in Beijing, I had the chance to go to Dandong for a short weekend…so at first, I didn’t really want to go back to one of the few cities I had already been to in China. I changed my mind mostly because it was free and I’d get to spend a whole weekend traipsing around the North Korean border with my friends :) Turns out, I’m glad I went!

We ended up riding in an overnight train in “hard bed” seats, and it was fun to just wander between train cars and chat and hang out with everyone. I spent a solid 4 hours writing in my journal about my spring break Yunnan experience (I had been putting it off for so long because I knew it would take forever), and we arrived in Dandong at 9:30am. We got on the bus and immediately drove to the riverside to ride the boat tour that crosses into North Korean waters, but it was too windy and none of the boats were going out…so instead, we went to Hushan Great Wall and went mountain climbing! I was glad that I remembered to bring Sgt Baierclaw along for the trip, as I had yet to capture a good picture of her on the Great Wall.

The Sgt is like a ninja in this picture.

Hushan’s main attraction is that it’s closer to some of the smaller northeast cities, so it’s easier to visit, and also it is the east-most section of the wall…because it butts right into North Korea. After hiking to the top of the wall and seeing North Korean farms and fields stretching out for miles, we climbing back down on the other side of the mountain closest to NK…and it was STEEP. There we found Sgt Baierclaw a real bear cave (whoo!) and crossed this really sketch bouncy bridge (my poor roommate almost didn’t make it across she was so scared).

The Baiercave.

The cool bridge…and my poor, terrified roommate :(

There’s a section called the “One Step Across” 一步跨 that is a super-close, super-narrow part of the river that separates China and DPRK. It’s probably 5ish meters wide. We got to the Yi Bu Kua and took some pictures. It was so weird to be back at the same place that I went to last summer. I now have two pictures of the same place in China. Weird. I feel like such an “experienced” Chinawoman lol. 

Before: Summer of 2011.

After: Spring of 2012.

We got back on the bus and drove for about 3.5 hours to the home of the Manchu minority (if you know anything about Chinese history, the Manchu’s were the rulers of China in the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of China before the revolution). We stayed at this very interesting inn that was mainly a showcase for Manchu culture. It had its own auditorium for a performance we would see that night, as well as a huge cafeteria place. It was laid out sorta like a “camp,” with various small shops and other little buildings scattered all over. When we got there, there was no electricity or water, so we kinda wandered around outside for a while until dinner.

After dinner, we watched a 2-hour performance of dancing, colorful costumes, and Manchu folk stories. Though it was super cool (the costumes were AMAZING and I saw my first shadow puppet show!), we were all freezing cold afterwards…and the showers still weren’t working haha. Good times in rural China :) BUT the cool thing was we ended up still having on bonfire and eating an entire lamb, as well as SMORES. Holy snapple, I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten smores. We got to teach all the roommates and Chinese teachers how to make them…I think my roommate had 10 of them. She is so excited to get to teach all her friends how to make this American treat :)

A traditional dragon dance.

SMORES!

The next morning, we headed off to the nearby Qingshan Lake for a long boat ride. The boat made 3 stops at various places around the lake, one of them at this “lucky” tree place. Supposedly just by touching the tree, you get good luck. Oh, and you also had to pay one kuai if you wanted to touch it. My friend Saike grabbed Sgt Baierclaw and somehow managed to perch her on the bark of the tree. She now has the most luck out of all of us. Hopefully that means I won’t *almost* lose her again. Another stop was also a mini-mountain-climbing stop, where we hiked up to a little pagoda and took in the view of the lake. It was beautiful.

Sgt Baierclaw on the tree.

The Sgt and I after a little mountain-climbing.

The pretty lake :)

After the boat-ride, we went back to the Manchu Inn, ate lunch, and headed back to Dandong. We had the night to ourselves to wander along the riverfront and eat dinner and whatnot, so I took everyone (in a very roundabout way, on purpose of course) to Pete’s Cafe, the same cafe I had eaten at the last time I was in Dandong. I remembered it was some of the best Western food I had eaten in China, and it did not disappoint. It may not really be that good, but since I felt so deprived of grilled chicken salads, it was the best thing next to heaven.

After dinner, the sun had set and all the lights of Dandong were lit up along the riverfront (China: HAHA! We have electricity and money!). I remembered before how striking the difference between the China and DPRK sides were, but it hit me all over again. The beautiful, colorful Friendship and Broken bridges, as well as the towering buildings and statues were met with the pitch black of North Korea on the other side. All the pictures I have of the riverside provide the best view of the contrast. We bought some of those floating lanterns, only this time, I did the right and proper thing and wrote something ON the lantern before I sent it off. You’re supposed to write wishes, but instead Rudi and I wrote some “key” phrases that we are oh so fond of using in the CET program. We also got those 2-foot long sparklers :)

My lantern is FLYING :D

Probably one of the coolest pictures I’ve taken. All of the pitch blackness in the background is the river and North Korea. 

Sparklers!

The next day, we finally got the chance to ride the boat tour on the river. My last boat tour went east towards the Great Wall, but this boat tour went west towards the China Sea, which provided a much better view of Dandong’s pretty buildings and North Korea’s “developed” riverside buildings. I was surprised, once again, by the improvement of my Chinese, as I could understand the tour guide talking about North Korean history, the Korean War, and the present DPRK situation. I had to keep myself from laughing out-loud at some of the statements (“As you can see, the DPRK does not have the problem of a large poor-rich gap, their lifestyle is equal, enriched, and developed”). We had an hour of time after the tour, so we also got to walk along the Broken Bridge that the US Air Force blew up during the Korean War and took some cool pictures. They’ve turned the bridge into a “national patriotic site,” and it is STUFFED full of propeganda. I got the BEST picture of Sgt Baierclaw on the bridge atop a sign that marked the China/North Korean border.

Just doing our best trying to fit in with the scenery.

SO. MUCH. AWESOMENESS. IN. ONE. PICTURE. An US Air Force bear standing on the border between China and North Korea on a bridge that the Air Force blew up! You can’t get anything better than that. 

After that, we ate at a very fancy North Korean restaurant with North Korean waitresses (all from the elite class in DPRK, also extremely beautiful with decent Chinese…they live in China for free and attend college for free). We then had about two hours to just wander and do any last-minute gift shopping. We hopped on a 3:30pm train and arrived in Harbin at 3:00am this morning. My roommate also had to immediate prepare to leave for her friend’s wedding, and she didn’t leave until 6:30am. Needless to say, I didn’t get out of bed until 11:30am today. So, so, sooo thankful we didn’t have class today. 

So you know what’s CRAZY? We literally only have one more month left of this program. One. month. I can’t believe it. I feel like right now I’m split into three parts…one part is still a “travel bug” that wants to go to somewhere new in Harbin/the nearby cities and just see stuff, who also is trying to plan out 2.5 weeks of crazy travel to 3 Chinese cities and another country or two (Thailand/Cambodia have been thrown into the mix). The other part is in America, looking at signing up for a GRE prep class, looking at East Asian master’s programs, taking 20 hours next semester, coming back and starting ROTC again, and being Large Group co-coordinator for InterVarsity. The third part is still here in Harbin, trying to figure out how to use my time wisely and learn as much as I can while I’m here…as well as hang out with all my awesome friends.

I must be going crazy :( 

Well, I’m off to go start my homework. Til the next adventure…I leave you with this amusing sign I found at Yi Bu Kua. Remember: NO DABBLING NEXT TO NORTH KOREA!

I’m so intimidated to update this again because there’s SO much to write about. Better get started. 

So we spent our last dinner in Lijiang at our hostel, and we met a few other American travelers. It was really interesting listening to their stories, as they had been to a lot more places in China than I had, but their Chinese was, well, lacking. I really admired how they managed to travel without knowing more than a few words. We finished a lovely supper, Mama Naxi (the lady who owned our hostel) gave us all a goodbye kiss on the cheek, and we were off to the train station for an overnight train to Kunming. 

As soon as we arrived in Kunming, we got on a bus to Shilin aka. the Stone Forest. It reminded me a little of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado, but it was still very different. These rocks were all different sizes and shapes, but none of them were giant like the Garden of the Gods’ rocks. The local minority group, the Sani, acted as tour guides, cart drivers, and whatnot (some of them just kinda sat there like they were part of the scenery and played instruments/danced/etc.). There were all these paths cleared between these towering rocks, and there were some peculiar rocks that were shaped like animals (for example, the elephant rock.)

IMA SO SMMALLLL!

We spent a good four hours just wandering around the rocks before we came to the main entrance…where we found the most lovely, plush green grass we had seen in long time. We all plopped down in the green carpet and soaked up the fresh smell and the warm sun. It was lovely :)

Ian was really enjoying it. 

As we headed back to Kunming, we all mentally prepared ourselves for yet another overnight bus trip, this time to the Yuanyang Rice Terraces, a good 9-hour drive south of Kunming. This time, the bus was completely stuffed, but we all managed to get placed together. We all slept in the back of the bus on the top, very keenly feeling every bump and turn and stop the bus made. Needless to say, I think we slept maybe an hour each, and when we arrived in Yuanyang and the mini-bus cab drivers came to wake us up to see the sunrise, we all grumpily told them, “No, we don’t want to see the beautiful scenery, we just want to get to our hostel.” However, it didn’t take long for us to really wake up and warm up to the incredible beauty of the rays of sun that gleamed on the waters and ghosted in the foggy clouds over the valley. It was still early enough in the season that most of the fields were just filled with water, so each level reflected back every vibrant color. 

A cute old Chinese man who road in our bus…and tried to “stick the bill” with the foreigners….

After getting to our hostel and checking in, as well as SHOWERING (which was glorious), we set out much refreshed and walked to a nearby village to pass the day before sunset (the next best picture-taking period). The weather was, once again, impeccably perfect, although being white of skin did put me in a bit of a “sore” spot haha. I can’t remember the last time I got so red, but it was so worth it. In the village, we saw more of the two minority groups in the area, the Hani and Yizu, including a Yizu ceremony to honor the dead.

We rode in a fun and bumpy rickshaw to the middle of nowhere on the other side of the valley, and then rode back to the hostel in another mini-bus with the driver’s little girl in the back seat with us. She kept practicing her awesome Manderin skills with us (“Shi bu Shi?? …BU SHI!”), and she was pretty much adorable. We got back to the hostel and quickly passed out from lack of sleep and being warmed by a morning and afternoon of sun. 

Thankfully, Ian woke up in time to get all of us up and catch a ride to a good viewing spot for the sunset…we thought we wouldn’t make it, but we got there at the perfect time and got to see the bright colors reflected all over the valley. 

I snapped this picture OUT THE WINDOW as we drove to the viewing spot. You can see the reflections of the clouds in the water!

We all resolved to get up at 5am the next morning to see the sunrise properly. We headed back for a late dinner, during which our kind owner of the hostel handed me a cell phone and said, “Talk to this foreigner.” It was already dark out, and these two Israeli travelers (with a cab driver who didn’t speak any English) couldn’t find the hostel. Me and Yangzi wandered back through the maze of houses (and cow poop) to the top of the hill to lead them back to the hostel. Turns out they couldn’t even stay at our hostel, which made me feel awful for them. We also met an American named Josh, who just retired from the Air Force! It was a fun moment to geek out a little bit with him for a while. We ended the night by going up to the top roof of the hostel and taking in the incredible view of the stars, playing the guitar and singing. 

Little did we know we’d bump into all our new friends (the two Israelies and Josh) the next morning! We all went to another nearby “viewing station” for the sunrise, and that’s when I got to know them a little better. Tomer and Nuphar both just recently got out of the Israeli army, Tomer being enlisted and in their special forces and Nuphar being an intel officer. We talked and waited patiently as the first cracks of light appeared over the hilly horizon, and when the sun finally made its appearance, Rudi and I busted out in that Lion King song, “NAAAAAAA SAABENYAAA…oh my gosh, a penguin on my bottom…” Yeah. Captured on video for all time. 

We went back to the hostel, stuffed ourselves on a good breakfast, and passed out for another solid nap. It was amazing how much the end of our week differed from the beginning…all this sleeping and eating and lolling about! It was the perfect balance. Tomer and Nuphar moved their stuff over to our hostel, and we started up another great conversation with them and Josh. Best part of the day was when Tomer busted out his own coffee maker and real ISRAELI COFFEE and made some for each of us. I had never drank that kind of coffee before, and it was LIFE-CHANGING. Best I’ve ever tasted…so full of spices and flavor! It was rich stuff. It was shortly after that we all decided we’d just have to go to Israel next spring break and get some more. Oh, and visit Tomer and Nuphar too :)

We talked about everything under the sun, from the Iran/Israel situation to how to break and enter buildings. I made Tomer show me how the Israeli guys are trained to enter a building, and the other people (Chinese/French) in the hostel were simply fascinated/flabbergasted at us running around with “air guns.” We were the afternoon’s entertainment. 

After some sad goodbyes, we resignedly set off to the overnight bus station for our last bus ride to Kunming. Between Sgt Baierclaw touching pig butts, playing Uno (I dared to play against the bossman, Yaoming!), getting a boss back massage from Yangzi, and late night talks with Rudi, it was a good way to end the week. We got to the airport, mozied around until we could board, and then in what seemed like no time at all, we left for Harbin.

Rudi said in her blog that this break was a huge mile-marker for all of us, and I completely agree. Not only were we able to plan out the whole thing and buy tickets and find hostels all on our own, but we were able to quickly and easily solve any problems we encountered. Our Chinese has reached the level where we can successfully communicate in basically any situation, and we even found it was better than that of some minority Chinese that we ran into. It was fun acting as translator for other foreigners and being able to help them out. The most important feelings I got from this life-changing week were a sense of accomplishment and of being refreshed. I was reminded WHY I love studying Chinese, and I came back to start this week ready to go. That’s what breaks are for, right?

My problem is now I have a major travel bug! In a short 7 weeks, this program will end, and I’ll have almost TWO weeks of free time to travel. Spinning thoughts of Xi’an, Shanghai, Hong Kong, even Taiwan keep going through my head. We’ll just have to see what the next adventure shall be :)

So if I tried to write just one blog entry over what has/will happen this week in Yunnan, it will be RIDICULOUSLY long. We’re staying at a really nice hostel in Lijiang right now that has internet, so I figured, hey, why not update part one of the adventure.

We finished all our crazy midterm exams and started packing Friday night. At 6am the next morning, we headed off to the Harbin Airport. It was in the 20’s degrees F when we flew out of Harbin that morning, and 3.5 hours landed for a short stop in Xi’an. When we landed in Kunming, it was about 2:30pm, it was slightly overcast with the sun peaking through, and it was in the 70’s! We all walked out of the airport, and at the same time had the same thought…we looked at each other and said “WHY DIDN’T WE STUDY ABROAD IN KUNMING.” We went a little nuts, peeling of layers of clothes and taking pictures of every green living thing in sight.

The Baiers in their more natural habitat.

We went straight to the long-distance bus station and bought our overnight bus tickets to Lijiang. We had heard that those buses could be really hairy, sleeping next to strangers and all that. We lucked out and basically got an entire bus all to ourselves. We arrived in Lijiang at 5am the next morning, and then got on an 8am bus to Qiao Tou, which is where the infamous Tiger Leaping Gorge begins. We were planning to spend two days hiking the entire length of the gorge.

I honestly think none of us were really prepared for what we were about to face. When I thought “climbing” the gorge, I thought it was just hilly with a pretty little river at the bottom. Instead, imagine the majestic mountains of the Rockies, steap, ridiculously tall, and treacherous…and that’s more like it. Before we started the climb, we met up with two other hikers, one from England and one from France, who decided to join us. Just to start the climb, you have to get up the foothills, which are quite steep as themselves…not to mention, we were still carrying our backpacks, which had everything we needed for an entire week traveling (and 3 liters of water in my handy Camelback). When we finally got to the real starting point of the trail, we thought (at the time) that the view was absolutely breathtaking. Little did we know that it was just the beginning!

After an exhausting 2 hours of climbing (and being followed by old Naxi minority ladies that lived in the mountains who were trying to convince us to ride their horses), we hit the most challenging and steep part of the path called 28 bends. The “28 bends” are short-leg, VERY steep narrow paths cut up in a zig-zag pattern all the way to the peak of the first main mountain. We were so exhausted after traveling for almost 24 hours straight before starting the hike, most of us were almost convinced to take horses…but we remained strong! We started the 28 bends with a solid strategy of when to take breaks and whatnot. We tackled the bends head on, and we finished them almost an hour faster than the old ladies told us we would. After almost 5 hours of climbing straight uphill, we made it to the top!

The incredible views kept us going.

Exhausted and satisfied, we started the “fun” steep downhill climb and pressed on to get to our hostel by sundown. Sour, blistered, and smelly after 7 hours of climbing, we made it! It was probably one of the greatest feelings in the world…knowing how far and high we had climbed.

The hostel was AMAZING. Every room had an awesome view of the mountain range…even the bathroom stalls, though seperated, were WIDE open to the nature and mountains. You’re sitting there doing your business with the mountain breeze blowing in and an incredible view to gawk at. Best bathroom I’ve ever used. We all stuffed ourselves with an awesome dinner, took much needed showers, and went to bed at like, 9pm haha.

The next morning was a little more relaxed, as the day before we had already crossed almost 2/3rds of the gorge, and the remaining part was mostly a flat, narrow path cut out of the mountain. We saw beautiful waterfalls, streams, rock formations, etc.

We got to Tina’s Guesthouse in a mere two hours, which was the end of our treck (or so we thought). We had 5 hours to kill until the bus to Lijiang left, so we decided to go find the huge “rock” where the tiger had “lept” from to escape a hunter (the gorge’s namesake).

WE HAD NO IDEA WHAT WE WERE GETTING INTO…again. We climbing a ‘staircase’ of rocks all the way down the flat, straight curve of the mountain side all the way down to the river. It took us almost 1.5 hours just getting DOWN…and I mean straight down. Every huge step I went down, my thought was, “Oh my gosh, I have to climb back up this thing later.” We made it down to the rock, crossed some very shifty/shady bridges, and took some boss pictures.

At that point, my friend Yangzi and I started the trek back to the top a little earlier than the others, as Yangzi felt she might not make it back in time for the bus. Using ropes, rocks, trees, and whatever we could get our hands on, we pulled ourselves back up the mountain side. At one point, there was a 90 foot-long vertical (and not so stable) ladder you could climb. Oh, and there was no cage to catch you if you started to fall. IT WAS AWESOME and quite the view haha. When we got over the ladder and over the last leg of the climb, it was almost a greater feeling of accomplishment than the day before.

Quick side note: I almost lost Sergeant Baierclaw :( It was a close call! I forgot her at our hostel, but luckily another Chinese couple was taking the same bus back to Lijiang, so they hauled my bear across the mountain with them and met up with us when we got back from the Rock.

So, we are finally leaving the Gorge headed back to Lijiang…and the road back to Lijiang is just that, one road; so when a huge accident happened 2km ahead of our bus, we got stuck waiting for almost 4 hours. We originally planned to leave straight for Kunming on an overnight train that night, but we got there too late. Turns out it was a good thing! Lijiang is actually a World UNESCO (?) site, and it’s Old Town is a HUGE attraction for tourists. We got a hostel that night in Old Town and passed out.

Today we spent the whole day in LEISURE! It is magnificent, sunny weather in Lijiang, and after an amazing breakfast, we spent 5 hours just wandering around Old Town. The Naxi minority is home to Lijiang, and most of the shops had something to do with the Naxi people and their history. It was just so amazing to stroll around (no backpack!), enjoy the weather, and talk with people.

The Naxi script…they have their own characters!

View of Old Town in Lijiang…beautiful day!

We got back about an hour ago, and now we are preparing to leave for Kunming on a train tonight! We’ll have one last dinner with our friend Sam, and then it is off to Kunming and on to the Shilin Stone Forest.

I will put up pictures ASAP because honestly, words do not justice to the beauty of the Gorge and of Lijiang…but there you have it! And this is only the first part of spring break…

:)

I love China.

Yeah, that’s right, we’ve already hit the middle of our semester. Just a few massively crazy tests/papers/reports stand between me and the beauty and awesomeness that is Yunnan Province. I’m gonna put some pictures up here to motivate me…this is where I’m gonna be in a WEEK!

Lijiang - Tiger Leaping Gorge 虎跳峡

In Northwest Yunnan province, there’s the massive natural gorge that is one heck of a place to hike around. 

Freakin awesome. 

The day we arrive in Kunming, we’ll be taking an overnight bus to get up there. That should be interesting. 

Next stop: Shilin, the Stone Forest 石林

It’s like China’s version of Garden of the Gods. We’ll spend a day just walking around and checking it out!

Next stop: the beautiful rice terraces in Yuanyang 元阳

Since it’s still early spring, I think it won’t be as green as this shows, but it’ll be awesome just to get the chance to hike up and down and hang out with the minority villages that are perched on top of these hills, eat minority food, etc. 

Final stop: hanging out in Kunming itself, which I hear is a pretty cool city :)

Yeah, my spring break is kinda cool :) 

Well, this is all the update I can afford right now. Study time :(

This is dedicated to the amazing Alpha flight, the boss Squadron 1, and all those other people who I teamed up with/picked on me from Summer 2011 Field Training Max 1. You were the best, and I learned so much from each of you. The Air Force is not ready for the storm that will hit them after 2013/whenever it is we actually go active haha :)

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So, I can’t believe I’m doing this, but a little bird once told me that I should make an FTP/FT blog while I’m here in China. I’m definitely NOT going to make a whole blog just for FT, but I figured, since everyone is just now finding out whether or not they’ve received their slots, I might as well dedicate one blog entry to FT “tips.” These “tips” aren’t going to “speed” cadets. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard them before at least once, but I just wanted to put everything in once place and talk about how to think going into Field Training. 

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO REACT?

This is probably the single most important question all of the cadre and CTA’s are asking when they evaluate you at Field Training. Everything they make you do is to figure out how you process situations and handle them in and out of an “official” leadership position. 

For the cadets who were in my flight last semester, I used the phrase, “Stop, think, then act,” quite a few times, but I don’t think I’ve ever fully explained it. I want to dig into it a little further. 

STOP

Okay, so from the second you wake up in the morning, your mind is going NUTS. Seriously. It goes something like this: (get out of bed-shoes on-hair up-shirt tucked in-laces tucked in-flashlight-water-orders-towel) and that’s just the first 30 seconds of your day. You’re going to be required to keep track of and notice every detail of what is going on, so if all of that chaos and clutter is going through your brain, it just wears you out. Sometimes it’s easier to just react to things rather than exert effort to really pause, be aware, and assess what’s going on. 

Here are two really, REALLY good reasons to use the ‘stop’ mechanism in your brain and not just simply react to situations: First, you’ll be spending every hour of 28 days straight with the same (diverse) group of people. There may be a time when a flight mate comes to try and help you, and you don’t want their help…or maybe you even have a flight mate lash out at you, and it is SO easy to just lash right back. Secondly, the cadre and CTAs will be looking for any and every opportunity to see your military bearing drop, whether it’s by laughing or showing frustration or showing anger. That ‘stop’ mechanism is the key to your military bearing and professionalism, and those three things working together will help you get through any of the situations successfully. 

So, next is…

THINK

How do you think? How do you make good decisions? What makes you make bad decisions? What kind of patterns do you follow? 

One of my favorite books, one that I bought and read right before FT actually, is by Jerry White called “52 Rules to Live By.” He talks about how there are 4 main types of ‘thinkers’:

• Analytical - Want to gather/sort facts and information. They can fill in holes and can make order out of scattered/diverse facts. 
• Logical - Don’t like any blanks. Need everything in 1,2,3,4, etc. order. Structure gives them security. 
• Intuitive - Drive the top two crazy, cause they can feel their way into a course of action. Good judge of people, excel when facts are sparse. 
• Creative - See possibilities and opportunities. Some of the ideas they come up with may not work, but some do. Follow-through might also be lacking. 

Obviously, this isn’t all of them, but you get the idea. If you know what ‘type’ you are, you can be aware of where your pitfalls are. Force yourself to actually think and keep a purposeful, controlled thought process moving forward in whatever circumstance you’re facing. That way, no matter what the outcome, you can honestly say that there was “thinking” and “reason” involved in your decision. Also, surround yourself with people who think differently than you…it’s the best way to prevent issues like groupthink.

And finally…

ACT

Once you’ve made your decision, make everyone else believe it…move forward! Sometimes I think people use things like, “I don’t wanna step on everyone’s toes” or “I was just getting feedback” as excuses not to make a decision. Don’t get me wrong! If you have a chance to get feedback, ABSOLUTELY get it. Also, you’re not much of a leader if you have to trample on everyone. But when it comes down to the time when every eye on the room is on you, you need to just be willing to decide and accept the consequences.

So how should you ‘act’ when you’re at Field Training?

• I just mentioned how you’re not much of a leader if you have to trample on everyone, and this is actually the biggest thing that I took away from FT. From Day 1, I saw all these really smart, knowledgeable members of my flight answering questions that I couldn’t remember the answer to or that I didn’t know, and I got pretty worried pretty fast that my Flight Commander wouldn’t ‘notice’ me. I mean, seriously, I knew everything! They just didn’t know that yet! Ha. Lies. When I got my first leadership position as a D&C officer, I was like, “Yes! I’ve got my chance!” Anyone who knows me knows I have a massive ego when it comes to D&C. Anyways, when I got the feedback from my Flight Commander, the main thing he said was that I had no clue how to follow anyone in my flight. This didn’t really surprise me…I have been told that almost every year in CAP and every semester in ROTC. I spent almost two weeks after that with no leadership position, and during that time, I actually got to know the quality of the people in my flight. I learned that going off on my own and showing everyone how much I knew all the time and making sure they all knew that I knew everything was NOTHING and not nearly as awesome as leaving my room and bed unmade, going around the squadron and helping make everyone else’s beds, then coming back to see my room prepped and ready to go. For the first time, after all those years in CAP and ROTC, I finally knew what it meant to follow someone: It meant when I had an idea, I went to my leader FIRST, not tell the whole flight and draw attention to myself and my great idea. It meant that I helped my leader achieve their goals, not just the ones I thought were a good idea. It meant that I would do things to make them look good, even when they might not even know I helped them. 
• There is a way to compete and compete well without being driven by the spirit of competitiveness. Remember: A good leader purposely looks for those people who are more skilled and talented than he/she is. A good leader isn’t threatened by the idea of someone who is more skilled…you are ALWAYS going to find someone who is better than you at something! Don’t envy them, learn from them. A leader sees a person’s talents and gifts as assets to the team. At the same time, work hard to develop your own natural gifts and talents. Make yourself ‘competitive,’ but don’t be the one who pushed everyone to the bottom of the pile. The only thing you’ll do is unite everyone in hatred of you haha. 
• Meet as many people as you can. Seriously, even if you just saw a person once, if you ever meet again in the future, it’s like you’re best friends. It’s crazy. 
• Think only about what you are doing at Field Training right…now. Every day you have a new chance to LEARN something, not just do stuff. You will have 28 very long, very challenging days, but if you look for ways to engage and learn each day, the time will fly. You can’t quit, and it’s not gonna end early. The only thing you can do is accept where you are right then, do what you need to do, and make the most of that situation you are in. 

Final thought: You can go track down every person who’s ever gone to FT, and they might tell you, “Oh, you’ll DEFINITELY do this,” or “you NEED to do this.” Every year, every Max, every Flight Commander and CTA is different. You are going to have a unique experience that you can’t experience until you go and experience it. And trust me, it’s worth it. At the very least, you get some good stories out of it in the end. 

:)

GOOD LUCK.