MEMORIES FROM XUZHOU

I can’t believe that I’ve been in Beijing for 10 days already. Going through all my photos really makes me miss the city of Xuzhou, but I miss the wonderful people there even more!

Shushu, Ayi, and I decided to do some sightseeing in the morning around the old part of Xuzhou.  It was interesting to see all of the old buildings that are still in use. Shushu and I walked through a very old area and it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

After walking around the old town, we walked around another Buddhist temple. I love learning about this ancient religion through visiting historical sites, seeing ceremonies, and seeing how these people praise their God through beautiful art. I hope to go to many more temples in Beijing.

After eating a nutritious lunch of rice, tofu, seaweed, and other vegetables, the three of us started to climb Dragon Mountain. The Dragon Mountain is one of Xuzhou’s most famous landmarks.

The Dragon Mountain is more of a small mountain range, rather than just one mountain. It is made up of nine mountains total, and we climbed the first three. The third mountain is the tallest of all the mountains. All the hard work climbing paid off, the view was spectacular! It was nice to see the entire city and reminisce about spots we’ve visited together.

After taking the ‘natural path’ down the mountain – we took a scenic route with lots of roots, steep hills, and no path (I only wiped out once) – we strolled around The Dragon Lake to relax. This lake is another very famous spot in Xuzhou.

Before I knew it, I was spending my last day in Xuzhou.  I wasn’t ready to leave, but we made the most of the day we had with each other. In the morning we visited Xuzhou’s largest garden. It was absolutely beautiful and very well maintained. At one point, we were taking the path in a wooded area and in front of us we saw a family of four monkeys! It was crazy to see such an exotic wild animal, it really was a sight!

Throughout my time in Xuzhou Shushu and Ayi cooked me amazing Chinese foods. I am beyond grateful for how understanding and supportive they were when it came to eating vegetarian dishes.  In the picture you can see what we had for lunch that day: pumpkin rice soup, green beans, lotus roots, nuts, vegetables, a tomato and egg dish, Chinese style bread, and my favorite– melon, carrots, and apples covered in yogurt! That food reminded of what I typically eat in America, so it was comforting to have something familiar.

I had the opportunity to meet Ayi’s best friend and her family twice while I was in Xuzhou. They are also wonderful people! Their daughter is about five years older than me and speaks great English. My last night in Xuzhou we went to their house for a party. I loved playing the piano for the first time in weeks, it was great to be able to play for Shushu and Ayi. They also had Western food for the party – pizza, sandwiches, fruit, and chocolate cake. At one point Xiaodan turned on some music and all of us were dancing together! Some of my best memories of Xuzhou happened at the party. It was great to see Shushu, Ayi, and Xiaodan’s parents dancing to “Uptown Funk”!

The following day the three of us went to the train station and I took the high-speed train to Beijing. It was very hard to say goodbye, I truly hope to return to Xuzhou again someday. Shushu and Ayi were so gracious and thoughtful my entire time in Xuzhou. I am blessed to have them in my life! A few days ago I was able to talk to them on the phone, we had a solid conversation for 10 minutes. With technology, staying in touch won’t be hard, and after the next four months here at BLCU hopefully we can talk for hours and hours! 🙂