We went to the ZOO, ZOO, ZOO!!!

On Saturday we went to zoo in Guangzhou. To get there we had to take a motor taxi, get on a bus, take the subway then another bus. The Chimelong Safari Park was right next to the Chimelong Amusement Park that we went to a couple months ago. The zoo had two sections to it, one part was a normal zoo where you walk around the other part you took a train and it was a safari! The animals were on open plain with no cages! It was so awesome! We saw cheetahs running around with giraffes and zebras! This zoo had every kind of animals from flamingos to anteaters (grossest looking animal ever!) white tigers, koalas and PANDA BEARS! This was the coolest zoo I have ever been to. I even got to hold a month and a half old cheetah, it was very soft. We weren't planning on spending all day at the zoo, but we did and it was worth every minute.
A yucky anteater

Me holding a baby cheetah :)

What China is known for - the panda bear!

On the safari train ride

Me very close to a giraffe

Cute koala

Birthday Pictures!

My cake Annie brought me

Blowing out candles!!!

Birthday away from home

Yesterday was my birthday, my roomies made me breakfast which was very unexpected and delicious! The kids were so cute when they found out it was my birthday, they sang Happy Birthday to me about 300 times. That night Lucky's parents wanted to take us out to dinner to hear about how Lucky's English is going. Lucky is a cute 4 year old who loves to bite, pinch, scratch and pull hair. She is a wild child but she is adorable! The kids we teach come from very rich families so when they want to take us out to dinner we know we will go to a nice restaurant. Sure enough we went to an awesome restaurant, probably one of the nicest we have been to! Dinner is like a 3 hour event every time. The Asians like to chat and they eat very slowly, I was ready to go but then the waitresses brought in a cake and sang happy birthday to me, it was fun sharing cake with Lucky, Lucky's parents and some Chinese teachers! We came back to our apartment and watched Bride Wars then Annie brought over another cake!!! Having a birthday away from home is really weird but my roommates made it a lot better:)

More Pictures!

Silk Market=girl's dream

Me and Mandy's olympian jump

Jumping on the Great Wall, showing my sweat and glory.

AMAZING!!!

Cartwheel ON the Great Wall!

Pictures!!!

Chinese Acrobats, they are amazingly gross!

Mandy and I in front of The Forbidden City.

The Temple of Heaven.

Tianemen Square.

On the train to Beijing the people under us shared some jelly things with us, they were interesting...

My adventures of Beijing and Xi'an!!!

We got a 6 day vacation and we decided long ago that we were going to spend the 6 days in Beijing and Xi'an. We left on Thursday afternoon, traffic was bad and we almost missed our train, we made it within seconds, we seem to cut things close a lot-it gives me a heart attack every time. We took a sleeper train to Beijing which was only about 22 hours long! It was so nice! The beds were comfortable and I slept pretty much the whole time. When we got to Beijing it was about 5 PM, we met up with 3 other girls from ILP and we went to Hard Rock Cafe!!! It was so good, I have never seen so many white people here in China! There were so many of them in Beijing! On Saturday we went to Tianemon square and we couldn't see Mao's body because it was closed! Then we went to The Temple of Heaven, The Temple of Heaven is where the emperors made sacrifices-there were a lot of beautiful and very Asian looking buildings. We went to the Forbidden City, I loved the Forbidden City! It was so fun! Mandy slipped on the side of the stairs and fell and cut her elbow, the Asians were concerned and we just laughed, it seems like we are always making a scene. That night we went to an acrobat show-holy cow! These Asians we saw in this show were amazing! They were so flexible and very talented! I couldn't believe all of the stuff they were doing! It was so gross and amazing!
On Sunday we booked a tour with Ben, a very nice Asian, he took us to a part of the Great Wall that is not touristy. We first had to hike a mountain for about 30-45 minutes to get on the Wall, the part of the wall we were on was crumbly and very old, there were trees and bushes growing on the part of the wall we were on! It was only 700-800 years old-not that old Ben said. It was a 4 hour hike on the wall, what a workout, there was a part of the wall where we had to climb it, not walk up the stairs but climb up the stairs, it was so cool! We then checked out the Bird's Nest, where the 2008 Olympics were! We saw that on TV not too long ago! Then we went to the Silk Market-whoa I loved that place, I got Silver Jeans for $15! The Silk Market has about 4 different floors full of random stuff. One floor has silk, another floor has pearls, one floor has jeans and clothes, it is a girls heaven:)
On Monday we went to the China and Beijing museum but everything is closed on Monday because that is their religious day-lame, why can't they do that on Sunday like everyone else!? So we just spent our day spending money at the Silk Market which was very dangerous but very fun! Then we got on a train to Xi'an, we had hard seats for 12 hours-it was torture! I will never ever take a hard seat train again. I didn't sleep at all and everyone was so miserable! Xi'an was a very relaxing trip, we did what we wanted on our time-it was nice and not rushed. We went to the Terracotta Warriors, those were so cool!!!! I couldn't believe it! 2,000 years ago and some were still in tacked! I loved it! That night we went to a light/water show, light and water danced around to music, it was very entertaining! Yesterday we only had time to go to the Drum Tower then got on a plane to go back to our apartment. This trip was amazing and I really want to go back someday to visit all of the places I have missed like the Ming Tombs and the Summer Palace.