Beijing Huan Ying Us!!! ("wo men" actually)

Hello Everyone!

Yes, we are finally writing to you!!! I am so sorry for the long delay between blogs!

Since our last blog we have finally made it away from Dalian! We have all been aching to begin our travels, so fortunately last week many of our students were going on a trip to Beijing to gain experience flying on an airplane..and we were able to go with them!
Besides flying on the airplane, which was an adventure in itself since some of our students had never flown in an airplane before, we also made it to see the 2008 Olympic sites, Tienanmen Square, and the Forbidden City. We also were able to eat Peking Duck, which China is famous for!!













Olympic Sites: (Bird's Nest and Water Cube)
We were able to go inside both of the sites, but only had time to go into the Bird's Nest, which was pretty impressive, but there was nothing to do inside of it besides look around and pretend to be Olympic Athletes! (We couldn't go on the track though! :(

















Tienanmen Square:

Tienanmen Square was so massive that we couldn't even realize how big it was just standing in one spot! I think we would have appreciated it more if it wasn't so dang cold!!! Our tour went to watch the flag raising ceremony that occurs at every sunrise...but it was soooo freezing...we couldn't even focus on enjoying ourselves! (In the picture you can see the entrance to the Forbidden City behind the flag pole.)

















The Forbidden City:
















The Forbidden City, also known as the Imperial Palace, was the highlight of the trip! It was so huge that it took us the whole day to walk around and view it in its entirety! It was mind-boggling when realizing that we were walking on the same floors as the powerful emperors of China's historical dynasties. (Picture above: a few of my students-Adriana, Miranda, Summer, and Autumn-and I in front of the City, Picture Below Right: Picture of the Large Stone Carving that weighs 200 tons! and was thought to be moved from its carving sight to the Forbidden City
by sliding down roads that they had iced over! Can you see Josh at the top??)






















Well, we had a great trip to Beijing with our students and we can't wait to return to see more of its famous sites once Josh's younger sister Cherith comes to visit at the end of December. I will write soon to tell you all about our Chinese Christmas...to be continued..I promise you won't have to wait two months!! :)
We love you all and miss you all so much!!

Love, Ashley and Josh