Capilano University Students Blogging Abroad

It’s May 21 at 5:30 in the morning Vancouver time, and 8:30 that same evening China time, and we are somewhere over the Pacific.   And we arrive in Vancouver before we left Beijing! I have too many thoughts in my head to sleep, and feel honoured to have “the last word”.   We shared some adjectives, describing the trip, during our final group debrief last night.    We were all closely connected, sitting under the red lanterns in the courtyard of our lovely little hutong (alleyway) hotel, in the depths of ancient Beijing.   Those descriptive adjectives ranged from “awesome to extraordinary, educational, raw, unexpected, and fun”.   I agree with all of those descriptors, and although most of us feel ready to go home, there is a sense that we will miss China, and our amazing China Study Tour 2012 “family”. We have spent the last three weeks on a journey that took us from Vancouver to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Beijing and back.   We have ...

When my grandparents visited china back in the 80s things were very different, I grew up listening to their stories about flocks of bicycles and streets with no cars, people going about their daily lives, some with their entire life teetering atop a rusty old bike zooming through the streets, majority living within their means. The China i arrived to was quite different at first. In Hong Kong i was blown away with how modern it was with fancy cars everywhere and few bikes. Guangzhou was similar, quite modern but a tad more rugged. It wasn't until i reached Beijing when I was totally blown away. It is what I always pictured china to be like from my grandparents stories. Beijing has preserved the culture quite well from what I could see from all the traditional buildings and hutongs (which we stayed in!) that were scattered amongst the new buildings. People going about their daily lives, cooking dumplings on the street, seniors playing roadside mahjong underneath round red lante...

Imagine, if you will, that you are all alone in a jungle.   Your cell phone doesn’t work, you have no food, water or shelter, and you don’t have a map to guide you to safety.   The only thing you can do is wander aimlessly to your own accord. As the sun’s rays find their way through the small slivers of this dense forest, you come across a great black panther on a path.   For what feels like a lifetime, the both of you lock eyes.   That emerald green, unlike anything you have ever seen, triggers your heart to race.   It begins to pound against your chest, racing with a mix of adrenaline, excitement, and fear.   You have never seen a great black panther before. As the two of you ponder what to do about this encounter, you start to notice it, her body language.   It is telling you something.   Her shoulders are hanging low and her head looks heavy.   This beast looks defeated.   Your eyes continue their scan only to find that just ...

I can’t believe that we are more than half way through this trip. I have loved every minute of it so far, even the frustrating parts and my home sick day. Before we arrived in China I told myself not to have any expectations and to be open to events that are out of my five star way of traveling. I do have to say that I have had moments where I have felt super creeped out and most of all just dirty from all the sweating, but every time I remind myself that this is what I wanted to experience and I feel like now I can travel to rural places and have some sort of expectation and most of all know what and how to pack properly. I have had a lot of highlights so far on this trip, such as visiting the Tian Tan Buddha in Hong Kong, I felt such a positive and spiritual power when I was up on that mountain, I wish we had a place like that in Vancouver to visit on days when you need that extra positive boost. In general though so far on the trip I love Hong Kong it is definitely somewhere I...