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I safely made it back to Kunming :) I'll write all about Beijing later, so come back to read all about it!!

So where to begin? The begining I guess… *warning* very long and probably not very exciting to read.

Our journey began Friday, September 28, 2008, Kunming:

We took a school bus to the airport. It seriously took us two hours to get there. It was kinda lame. But it was very interesting to talk with everyone on the bus. We talked about how WAMU had fallen, and of course, Dan's favorite subject: politics, and then music. It was a very good begining to the trip. In the airport we all chilled in this little café thing while waiting for our plane. Most of us ate some ramen. While we were at the airport Chelsea used her first squatter. This girl had previously held it for 30 hours while we were on our train to Kunming. Also we met this guy from France. It was really cool. I kinda thought he was cute but I also know that I just thought he was cute because he was from France; like Paris. what's not hot about that? Our plane ended up being an hour late, but no big. I've come to expect stuff like that from China. By the time we got to our hostel it was 3 am. We got to bed at about 3:30 am and woke up at 6:30 am.

Saturday September 27, 2008 Changdu

We woke up at 6:30 so we could go see pandas. Yeah, that's right, I've seen pandas. They are pretty big-not grizzly big- but definitely average bear big. I don't remember ever seeing bears before. I know I have at the zoo, but I don't remember what their tails were like. Pandas tails are pretty long. I was surprised. It was kinda ugly. So pretty much after seeing two pandas they where all the same, and I got bored. We also saw some red pandas, which just look like a cross between fox and and a raccoon. Still pretty cool. We also got to see baby pandas. They where so cute!!! I guess that baby pandas are born really early in development, so not all of their organs are fully developed, including their eyes. The flash of a camera can injure their under developed eyes and can eventually cause them to go blind. So we where not allowed to take pictures of the baby pandas. But I was able to sneak a couple pictures with my flash off. But some people were still taking pictures with their flash which kind of makes me mad. The people where Chinese none the less. Stupid people! At the end of the panda reserve there was this museum thing. We kinda just skimmed through it, but there where these exhibits with stuffed animals in them. They were supposed to look real I think but it was just funny how fake they looked, and they were really dirty. I don't think anyone has cleaned them since the place opened. There was another exhibit that had dead animals that had been stuffed, and they looked really gross too, but life like at least.

Monday September 29, 2008 Changdu:

Half our group went to the "biggest" Buddha the rest of us thought that it was to expensive so we just stayed in Changdu. It was Makayla, Cheslea, Brittnay, Nattalia, Lexxy, and I that satyed back. We slept in till about 11. Talk about being lazy *smiles awkwardly*. We all went to lunch together and then decided to separate to go shopping. I go this cute little Abercrombie sweater. And a light blue Puma fanny pack.

At 5 we met up with the 3 girls to go to dinner. We were looking for a place called Pete's Tex Mex. After asking half a billion people and two hours we finally found it. But man was it worth it! The Oreo shake was pretty much to die for. It tasted like cake batter and was really, really good! I also got some tacos that were good too.While we were waiting for a table a black guy walked past and Lexxy made a comment about it, and realized he probably spoke English. They then came to Petes and we talked to them for a little. We found out that they are Brazilain and stuff. Then while we were eating the waiter brings us a cell phone. The black dude calls us and asks what we are doing and all this jazz. It was a little creepy, but really funny. We were seriously there 'till 10 pm; and it took us an hour to walk back. But we didn't get lost which is good!

Ok sorry I know I shouldn't have felt this way but much to my dismay we arrived back at the hostel to find Emily. She and Dan got separated from Bonnie and the others and had decided to come back to the hostel instead of going to the mountain. She was all stressing about Bonnie and all this jazz. It was really lame!

Wednesday October 1, 2008 Changdu:

This was our last day in Changdu. We spent the morning packing and junk, left our stuff in storage, and yeah, headed to Petes for the third time. I wore my friends high heels the whole way. It was fun. I like high heels! On the way back we stopped in this underwear store. Asians are flat! We got back to the hostel and finally we met back up with Bonnie, though I was never worried. We then began our 33 hour train ride.

Friday October 3, 2008 Beijing:

We arrived in Beijing at 6 am and no busses were running yet, so we caught taxis to our hostel. But only Bonnie had a paper with the address to our hostel, so of course the first thing we did in Beijing was get lost. Pretty cool huh? We just told the driver to take us back to the train station and on the way we saw Bonnie and Sarah. We were blessed! Though Dan and his taxi had gotten lost too and Emily was freaking out and being kinda immature. So Kayla, Cheslea, Abbie, Sarah, and I went to Tiananmen Square while Bonnie and Emily went looking for the others. The square and the Forbidden City where both really crowded and pretty cool.

That night an Australin girl took us to this shopping place that had so many clothes and purses and junk. But I did finnaly get my framed backpack I've been wanting. I think I probably spent to much on it, but I couldn't get her to go any lower. I also ventured up to the art floor with the three. Ok, so at this place everyone is trying to get you into their shop so that you will buy from them. It's really annoying! I was walking around just looking when I walked pass this guy, just sitting there. And he said "hi how are you?" This really caught me off guard! But I just kept walking. But because he had been nice and seemed sincere I went back to his stand to see if there was anything from his stand that I could buy. I ended up talking to him for an hour. I told him that I was from Utah and all that jazz, you know, and he was like "so do you go to BYU?" This really took me back. I told him that I went to Dixie. And he knew that Dixie was down by Arizona. He told me that some of his friends wanted him to come over to BYU. He noticed that I didn't have a CTR ring on. It was just really weird. Not weird, but interesting, because honestly how many Chinese people know that much about us? He knew stuff about Romney and all this stuff. I cant help but wonder if he is LDS or if he has a friend that is or if he just somehow googled the church.

Saturday October 4, 2008 Beijing:

We went to the summer palace. I didn't want to spend the money, so I didn't go in. So us three (my roommates and I) went exploring around there. After meeting back up with the group, me and Makayla decided that we didn't want to go shopping with them. So we just hopped on the bus back to the hostel. But of course we got lost. We some how missed our stop and had to catch it again. Going back it was pretty funny. We took a nap when we got back to the hostel then everyone else went shopping. I then wandered out by myself. I found this guy that sold me rings for 1 Yuan which is like 25 cents. It made me happy.

Sunday October 5, 2008 Beijing:

We attended the Beijing International Branch. Outsiders are not able to talk to citizens about anything church related so they have a branch just for other people. It was really cool! After church we went to the mission presidents house for dinner, and it was the best food I have had since I got here! I seriously ate two huge plates of food and I had desert and it was just so good! I love that you can go anywhere in the world and find friendly faces that will always do what they can for you!

Monday October 6, 2008 Beijing

I went to the Great Wall!! Yeah that's right. It was so cool and so much fun! We went to a less touristy part of the wall so it was all decrepit and broken but it was still cool! We hiked along 2 miles of it. So pretty much I have been to the two places that you can see from outer space how many people can say that? After we got back to the hostel we headed out for more shopping! I was able to get some underwear, some earings, a bracelet, and make-up. It was so much to do.

Tuesday October 7, 2008 Beijing

We woke up bright and early and headed to the market. We got there at 9 in the morning. I was able to buy a really cute purse, some pants, shoes, scroll, and some shirts and a jacket. I never realized how much fun shopping could be!! I really like shopping. Especially when I'm able to get good deals. We didn't leave the shopping place 'til 2. That is seriously the longest I have ever spent shopping, but it was fun!