Although I was super excited to spend three weeks volunteering in Beijing, I was also
nervous and scared for a great many reasons. I'd never flown anywhere by myself before,
much less internationally for three weeks without anyone I knew. I was concerned that I'd
miss my flight or lose my travel documents somehow and either miss the opportunity to
study abroad or get stranded in China. I'm vegetarian and a picky eater to boot, so I was
worried I wouldn't end up eating as much as I should since there was no one there to force
me to finish my food. I knew next to zero Chinese, aside from a few phrases a friend of mine
taught me in the months leading up to my trip (thanks, Philia). However, I arrived in China
safe and sound, and the food was delicious. It turned out all my worries were for nothing...at
least, most of them were. Many people in China don't know any English, so communication
with people outside my group was limited.

My trip to China began at 3:30 AM on July 7, 2017. I flew from Houston to San
Francisco, then in the evening I began the 20 hour journey across the Pacific and arrived,
exhausted, in Beijing on the 9th. After meeting the rest of the group at the airport, we took
a bus to our hotel where we ate dinner (and I took a shower), then headed out to a
supermarket to shop for essentials like water and bug spray. After we got back to the hotel,
my roommate and I chatted with a few of our new friends before turning in, ready to begin
our adventure the next day.

On the first full day of our trip we went to Minzu University for the program
orientation, then split up for our Chinese lessons. Thankfully, I wasn't the only person on the
trip who didn't know an ounce of Chinese, so I had a few friends in class with me. We met
our Chinese teachers, then went out to a dumpling shop for lunch. After reuniting with the
rest of the group, we took a bus to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, where the
heat and humidity made me feel right at home.

On the second day of the trip, I discovered my absolute favorite thing about China.
The Beijing subway system is a wonderful invention of mankind. It's clean, fast, efficient, and,
most importantly, air-conditioned. Starting on Day 2, we took the subway to travel
anywhere that was further than walking distance away from our hotel, such as the mosque
we visited that day or the mall we went to for dinner.

Day 3 of the trip was full of excitement and surprises. After the day's Chinese lesson,
we went to a mall for lunch, after which we received instructions for the Hidden City game,
a scavenger hunt that takes you through the city of Beijing, beginning at the mall and
ending at an art museum across town. We split up into groups and began the adventure,
answering questions, identifying key locations, and painting our own fans along the way.
After we got to the art museum, we found out that our group won the game, despite the
fact that we didn't finish the route and had to take a shortcut. Tired but cheerful, we took
the subway back to the hotel.

The next day, we packed our suitcases and checked out of our hotel, then headed to
Minzu university for our Chinese classes, where I bought a wash basin, laundry soap, and
hangers after learning that we would have to do our laundry by hand and leave it to dry
during the day. After that, we went to the Summer Palace, where we were given the option
of hiking up Longevity Hill or renting a boat for an hour. A group of friends and I decided
to beat the heat and rent a paddle boat, which we paddled around Kunming Lake before
heading back to shore to reunite with the rest of our group. The remainder of the day was
spent on a bus ride to a hotel near the farm, where we would be residing for the next week.
On day 5, we woke up bright and early for our first day on Gaya Organic farm. The
first part of the day was spent learning about the farm and all of its eco-friendly features,
like the composting toilets and water-conserving sinks. We also learned about the ecosystem
in and around the farm and gave ourselves nature names (mine was Sapling). After lunch
and a break, we harvested amyris plants, the leaves of which we washed and chopped up
to make dumpling filling. Once that was done, we made our own dumplings for dinner and
headed back to the hotel for the night.

The first half of our second day on the farm was spent weeding the plot we cleared
the day before to prepare it for a new crop. We split up into three groups and began at the
far end of the plot. Three hours, many wheelbarrows full of weeds, and a few potatoes later,
the plot was clear, and we had lunch and a well-deserved break. After the break, we split
up into groups once more to survey the farm and take note of any signs we found. Our
eventual task would be to create a guide system for the farm to help visitors learn about its
setup and systems. After surveying the farm, we created a rough plan of the signs we
wanted to create. We then had a quick dinner and went back to the hotel.

In the middle of our time at the farm, we had a day to rest and relax. Our meeting
time was a lot later than usual, so we got to sleep in, and some friends and I got to watch
part of a movie in our hotel rooms. After that, we went to a mall, where I discovered my
other favorite thing about China at lunch: Pizza Hut. After days of nothing but Chinese
food, we were all craving a taste of America, which turned out to be an amazing decision. I
don't know what it is about Chinese Pizza Hut, but that was the best pizza I'd ever tasted in
my life. After that amazing pizza, I wandered around the mall for a bit, did some karaoke,
and went to an arcade with some of my friends. We went and got dinner, then went back to
the hotel, ready for another day at the farm.

On our fourth day on the farm (Day 8 of the whole trip), we planted maize in the
plot of land we weeded the previous day, and then completed our design for the guide
system. The plan was to paint our signs onto rocks from a pile at the foot of a hill, so we
picked out our ideal rocks and cleaned them up to get them ready to paint the next day.
The day ended with dinner and a bus ride back to the hotel.

Our last day at the farm began by filling hollow benches with rocks. The benches
were made of hollow metal frames with wooden tops, so there was a possibility of them
shifting in the wind or collapsing. Filling the frames with rocks was grueling but
stress-relieving work. After lunch and the day's break, we began to paint our rock signs in
both English and Chinese. Since I can't speak or write in Chinese, I copied down a
translation one of the Chinese students had written, painting slowly and meticulously to
avoid making any mistakes with the characters. Once the paint was dry, we set the signs in
their proper places and admired our handiwork. For dinner that day, we made our own
pizza, using ketchup as a sauce, which, surprisingly, wasn't half bad.

Day 10 began with a trip to a Confucian temple, where we learned about
Confucianism and watched a traditional dance. After that, we went to the Beijing Railway
Station to take a sleeper train to Xi'an, where we would spend our next two days.

The next day, we woke up and got ready to dismount the train. At the railway
station, we were joined by our tour guide for our time in Xi'an, a man by the name of David.
We took a bus to our hotel, where we ate breakfast and I took a long-awaited shower.
After that, we took a bus to go see the terracotta warriors, then came to a street market
near our hotel to eat dinner and do some shopping, after which we walked to the hotel and
went to bed.

Our second (and last) day in Xi'an was a lot of fun. We went to the city wall, where
we were given the option of walking or biking along the top. I was eager to bike and beat
the heat, but my bike-riding skills were a bit rusty, so I rode tandem with one of our
program leaders. After a quick lunch, we went to an art museum, where we learned how to
do Chinese calligraphy. We then headed to the railway station to take a high speed train
back to Beijing. We arrived at night and took a bus back to our first hotel, where we
checked into our rooms and went straight to bed, exhausted.

On day 13 of our trip, we began our work with the NGO Friends of Nature, or FON
for short. We took the subway to their office and the volunteers there explained to us what
our work during the next four days would consist of. We were going to be creating a
GreenMap, a hand-drawn map that depicts all the aspects of an area, such as human
activities, the ecosystem in the area, and pollution. After our visit to the FON office, we
went to the university for the day's Chinese lessons, where we learned that there was a
Laundromat on campus, so I wouldn't have to do any more laundry by hand during the trip.

The next day, we walked along the Qinghe river to gather data to include in our
maps. I was in charge of human activity, though we were all instructed to note down any
flora and fauna in the area. There were some people walking along the river bank, others
at a recycling plant, and a few fishing on a bridge in front of a "no fishing" sign. We took
our data back to the office, then went to a fancy market street where some people did
some shopping. After an hour long Chinese class at Minzu University, we took the subway to
a street with several large shopping malls for dinner, then headed back to our hotel and
turned in for the night.

On our third day with FON, we took the subway to the Friends of Nature office and
began our work there. Using the data we collected and the pictures we took the day before
on our walk along the riverbank, we each made a postcard depicting something we saw out
on the river and began our work on our section of the GreenMap. I decided to draw some
pretty flowers that I saw alongside the path we took. We took the subway to lunch, and
after some delicious food, we walked back to Minzu University for another survival Chinese
lesson and a lecture on plate tectonics. After class, we had free time for the rest of the
evening. A couple of friends and I went out and had dinner at a small restaurant near the
University. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit before meeting up
with some of our Chinese buddies and going out to play some pool. We got back to the
hotel in time for room check, then my roommate and I headed off to bed.

On our last day with FON, we put together the final version of our GreenMap and
presented it to the group. We took a group picture with the FON volunteers and took a bus
to Minzu University for the day's Chinese lesson. After that, we took the subway to the 2008
Olympic Stadium, where I rediscovered how to ride a bike on my own. The bird's nest
stadium was lit up with beautiful reds and oranges, and the aquatics cube with different
shades of blue and turquoise. After walking around and admiring the two structures for a
bit, we headed back to the hotel to pack an overnight bag for our trip to the Great Wall
the next day.

The next day, we grabbed our overnight bags and got on a bus to the Great Wall of
China. The bus took us close to the wall, and we walked the rest of the way. The view was
breathtaking. We had the option to go farther down the wall to a higher vantage point, but
I decided to stay behind with two other people and take some pictures of the scenery. After
the rest of the group got back, we took a different path down, which took us to a wooden
playground that seemed to have been built for kids like us. We spent an hour swinging on
rope swings, rolling around on giant nets, and seesawing to our heart's content. After that,
we travelled to a villager's home, where we would be staying the night.

After a few hours of sleep, we woke up at 3:45 AM to go hike up a mountain and
watch the sun rise. The journey was difficult and dangerous, but that sunrise was worth the
2 hour climb. We stayed up at the top for a bit to take pictures and admire the view, then
began the hike back down. When we got back to the villager's home, we ate breakfast, then
went back to our bus in groups of 6 since the bus couldn't drive up the mountain roads.
Those of us that went on the hike slept the entire way back to the hotel, and we were told
we had free time for the rest of the day, which I spent finishing up my final presentation for
the next day.

On our last day in Beijing, we went to Peking University to give our presentations to
the rest of the group. We were told to think of a problem in our home community and come
up with a solution based on something we had seen in Beijing. The problem I chose was
public transportation (or the lack thereof) in the Greater Houston area, which is something
prevalent throughout Beijing. After our presentations, we took a tour of the University, then
went to a restaurant for a goodbye lunch, during which we were all kind of emotional since
we were going our separate ways the next day. After lunch, I went out with some friends to
play pool, then came back to the hotel to finish packing my bags for the trip home.

On June 29, 2017, we left Beijing in two groups. I was in the first, which left the hotel
bright and early, at 6 AM. I was on a flight with 4 other members of my group, and we flew
from Beijing to Hong Kong to San Francisco, where we parted ways. This trip to China was
an incredible, exciting, and eye-opening experience, and I will never forget it nor the
amazing people I met there.