Catch Up

Dear Friends
I first must apologize. I have now been in China for two weeks and I have been extremely tardy in writing. In my defense, we have been kept uber busy acclimating ourselves to the culture and food and attending classes to get our certificates to teach.

I am loving China so far. I LOVE the food here and have very little desire for Western food.
I have so far had many first experiences. I have ridden in my first taxi, bus and subway....

Then we visited the Great Wall! Part one of my Mulan dream was coming true.lol

Last night, my friends Laura, Josh, Andrew and I all watched the Disney movie Mulan. We were able to pick up a lot of the subtle culture themes in the movie that we had not before.

Then today we visited the Forbidden City, which basically was the scene for the last battle in the Mulan movie. It was HUGE! There were courtyards leading into more courtyards and into even more courtyards. My group only made it through about 4 courtyards and then we went into the Clock Museum. I got clocked in the head by this ancient window shutter and took lots of pictures.
Afterwards, we took the subway back and got dinner. We had dumpling soup. YUM!
Then I went to the local Wu-Mart and got some stuff for the week.
It has been a LONG day, but much fun was had. I will write more soon and post more pictures soon.

Peace~
Hil