People

This trip has been different from other ones I have been on because of the level of culture we get to experience while we are here. Whenever a group of Chinese people realize we are from America most of the time they run up and ask if they can take a picture with us. The friendliness of the majority of the people of this country has been one of the most suprising things so far. Wherever you are you find yourself talking with the locals and quickly becoming friends. We have already exchanged emails with a few people and I plan on keeping up correspondence with them.

Our guides have been great as well and we are all becoming friends with Amanda, Shaun, and our main guide who has the same name as me, Riley. They are all very friendly and they are teaching me some very useful Mandarin phrases. Riley says I am good at it and thinks I should come to China for college and learn the language completely.

This has been an amazing experience so far and I can't wait for more experiences. I don't feel like I am just visiting this country, but rather that I am becoming immersed with the people and it has been a truly eye-opening experience so far.

If you want more constant updates please visit my twitter page twitter.com/rnewmandsa

---
Powered by NetMobile.

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________

Chinese chefs in training!

The california group in our fancy new chef outfits!

---
Powered by NetMobile.

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________

Ping Pong and Temples

China has been awesome so far! After a really long flight and a quick rest on our first day we started off on a day of adventure. This mornng we went to the temple of heaven and did tai chi there. Then we went to see the beautiful and awe inspiring Forbidden City. We ended off the day by practicing ping pong with chinese students. At first I was pretty hopeless, but after some correction on my form, I was ready to play. While I still lost miserably I had a lot of fun!

---
Powered by NetMobile.

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________

Two days to go!

With only two days two days to go I am more excited than ever! We got together tonight to go over last minute details and learn fancy new tech stuff. I am writng this from a fancy Blackberry that I will be using the whole trip. I can't wait!

---
Powered by NetMobile.

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________

To Pack Or Not To Pack?

With the trip a little more than a week away I have begun the difficult task of deciding what to bring with me. With limited space in my bag it's come down to some tough decisions. For example do I pack clean socks or my little sister? The socks won that round because my sister was just a little bit too big to fit in my bag. Like any man I turned to the Godfather for help, but its advice on packing "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." left me uninspired. Then I realized what my bag was missing: an obscure item from a foreign country with an odd but useful purpose.

Luckily I have a Japanese head massager I bought in Germany! For those of you who don't know what these are they look like some kind of tool the CIA would use to get information out of you, but if you have a headache or are stressed out this little spider-looking gadget sends you into a world of bliss. While I may not have room for "necessities" like clean clothes I can assure you my head massager is coming with me!

Forbidden City

I think its gonna totally awesome to go see the Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing. It was once a palace for China's emperors so it makes sense that I want to go there. Hahaha jk. But seriously I think it will be astounding to visit and explore structures built hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Thats the kind of stuff that isn't readily available in California and I can't wait! :D