Being a Tourist in The City I Live In

Often it is easy to distinguish when someone is a tourist in town because you see them with a camera taking pictures everywhere they go. Well, here in China, I feel like the Chinese are more tourists than even the foreigners. So, on days that I do actually take my camera out to take pictures in town, I feel like I fit right in.

Natasha has been here for a week now, and we have been busy doing a lot of things. We went to the police station to register her (which is required of any non-Chinese that stay with you in your home) and found it to be a much simpler process than when I registered the Manns - guess I got all the kinks out of the way the first time around. In the past week we have been to the Dayanta (also known as the Big Goose Pagoda), Castle Play Place, had a water fight with friends for the 4th of July, been to the Terracotta Warriors, Zhong Lou (aka the Bell Tower), Gu Lou (aka the Drum Tower), Hui Ming Jie (aka Muslim market), and biked 8.5 miles around the city wall. Biking on the city wall was an amazing thing - I just would not recommend doing it during a hot day in the summer.

So, next week I will be heading to Kunming to volunteer at a camp for High School and College students (Chinese and Other Nationalities) for 10 days. Here is a brief description of the camp from their website: "Sunshine International Camps provide students from the English speaking world and China an opportunity to engage in a highly interactive, cross-cultural character and leadership development experience. This camp will give students confidence and the skills to succeed as leaders of integrity in today’s globalized world. The world needs leaders of integrity! Sunshine International Camps provide an exciting, high impact learning experience that will train students in excellence and integrity in every area of life." I am pretty excited about this opportunity and look forward to sharing with you in two weeks my experience at camp.

Also, for those of you who maybe have not heard yet, I will be stateside for a few weeks in August as well. I will be sending an email soon with more details, as well as including them in my next blog. I am looking forward to getting to see so many of you so soon.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!