So much happened on our second day that I didn’t include so this is filling in the blanks and summing up the trip! We were at a mall doing as the Chinese do, which is shopping when we heard the sounds of the dragon dance! I have grown up listening to this tune and it somewhat is a traumatic sound given that I was scared of them when I was little. This dance was the best one I’ve ever seen and so intricate!

So many people gathered around to watch the dance!

The evening of our second day we went to a beautiful park and I wanted to share all the decorations! So many pigs I don’t even see them anymore.

This is me at peak happiness. Our final morning I went down to breakfast and there was a crowd of children watching little model animals be made. Sandwiched between several four-five year olds I waited my turn and got a panda! It is now on my wall back at my apartment and just the cutest thing ever.

This was by far our coldest day for me in Beijing! We made our way to The Temple of Heaven which is in a huge park. Open spaces like this don’t exist that much in Shanghai and I loved it. Notice the fun lanterns!

Isn’t the temple beautiful! I appreciate blue sky days so much.

I love taking photos of people just being people and I took this one in the square of a girl dancing with ribbons.

This photo is from Wangfujing street with all the snacks. I loved listening to the beautiful music amidst the hustle and bustle!

One thing I didn’t get to in Beijing was the Forbidden City! I plan on going back to Beijing before summer and certainly will add it to my list and get a tour guide to tell me all the history! The Forbidden City only allows 80,000 people in per day so tickets ahead of time is a must do! 80,000 sounds like a lot of people…but this is China!

I am back to teaching and in the middle of an intensive session with science, technology, arts, reading, writing and math classes! It’s fun because I get to see the same kids 9 days in a row and have a morning and afternoon group. I just want to squish all the kids because they are so cute and wonderful. Little super-humans!

Xie Xie!

Kaila