What a day! We left the hotel at 8 am this morning and didn't get back until 9 pm. It has been a full day and it has been wonderful. I have a mixture of feelings---excitement to finally be home and see my family and a bit of melancholy to be leaving this place and finishing this experience. It really has been an incredible one that I have been looking forward to and preparing for for a long time. But I must admit that my excitement to see Kristine and the bo...

Wow! Today was an incredible experience. We spent most of the day traveling to and walking along the Great Wall. Amazing! Almost as great as the wall was the ability to finally skype with my family again. It has been almost a week and I had missed seeing them terribly. It was great to hear their voices, see their faces, and catch up a bit. We spent nearly two hours in the van driving to the Great Wall. The traffic was horrible and we moved along at a snai...

Today was a fascinating day. The morning started early with Mr. Feng picking me up and loading my suitcases into the car. We went to the school cafeteria for breakfast and the wonderful ladies there hooked me up and offered me basically everything that they have. They even put some buns and fried bread into some bags for me to have for lunch on the train. They are incredibly sweet and I was able to go back into the kitchen and see how they work. They have fe...

Today was a bit uneventful. I started the morning by being able to sleep in a bit because Mr. Feng had a morning meeting. I was able to have a bit more time to work out in my hotel room and then to wash a few of my clothes to make it through the rest of the trip. It was amazing to see how much dust had collected on my clothes from just wearing them here amongst this awful pollution. It is disgusting, but my boogers look like I have been sitting around a campf...

Today was one busy day. The morning started early with a flag raising ceremony for all 4000 students…and the guest speaker was me. It was pretty amazing to see all of the students and teachers standing out there on the basketball courts and track---all in their uniforms. They were great and my speech (that is what Mr. Feng kept calling it) was short and sweet and of course he provided the translation. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about all of th...