National Holiday

What a crazy trip that was... As I expected, I definitely experienced things that I never have before in my life. For example, our trip consisted of a 32hr. train ride there, and a 38hr train ride back (longer than what we expected). The national pride was insane. Every person had some sort of China flag hanging from their bags, pants, anything! When we arrived in Lanzhou, it hit me how much our group was going to stick out this far into China. They rarely see Westerners, and would frequently walk up to us and touch our faces, ask us questions about where we were from, and just crowd around us giggling. The farther West we went, the more Tibetans we saw and the more looks we received. We climbed mountains, explored Taoist temples, and even at one point herded sheep with Tibetans across a river. Our hostels were always very poor, and we only got the chance to shower twice the entire trip. Our beds usually consisted of a wood plank with a sheet over it. I am so happy I got to experience such a trip, but it feels good to be back in Shanghai where bathrooms are more than holes in the ground outside. It is hard to truly describe what we did because it was all so out of the ordinary, so I'll let the pictures do the talking for me... More to come!