Amy and the Great World

Archives for April 2014

Switzerland Travels

Zurich {Switzerland}

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It’s the last day of the A to Z Challenge! Whew! It’s been really, really fun although a little difficult to work with my schedule these past few days. Especially since the end of the alphabet has the weirdest letters of all. I mean really, X? Luckily my Chinese name started with an X or else I would have done something along the lines of “eXcitement!” So clever, I know. I mostly loved this challenge, meeting new bloggers and pushing myself to blog about new topics or places I hadn’t considered blogging about before. I was searching for a May challenge, but after this past week I need a few days off! Especially since I ended up getting behind as it was. I hope you’ll be happy to know that I passed my oral thesis (woo!) and now I’m going to get some sleep before I have to write another paper. I hope you enjoy the final letter, Z! 

My first trip abroad (besides a trip to Canada when I was a few months old) was at 15, with my Girl Scout troop, to Switzerland. Not to be dramatic or anything, but Switzerland changed my life.

(Eh, who are we kidding? I totally mean to be dramatic.)

While I’d been obsessed with travel long before Switzerland, thanks to my love of reading (this is really all my parents’ fault), going to Switzerland kind of blew my mind.

Zurich was the first  city I ever found myself loving, as the only cities I’d visited at that point had been in the United States, such as Tucson or San Diego or Fargo, and I loved the country and towns much more at this point. I was surprisingly charmed by Zürich, with its old churches, the blue Lake Zürich, surrounded by mountains. It was so clean and everything was neat and organized, just as you might expect from the Swiss.

I adored the rest of Switzerland, too, and hence my real travel bug started.

Once I saw Switzerland, I knew I had to see more, and I haven’t stopped since.

I hope to go back to Switzerland someday. I know I’ll be seeing it through much more jaded, experienced eyes, but I hope the same joy and wonder I felt as a 15-year-old on her first international trip still surfaces.

Again, who are we kidding?

That same joy and wonder at traveling has never left me, and I have Zürich to thank for a part of that.

800px-Zurich_Lake  source

zurich 2  source

zurich panorama source

zurich st peter
source

All photos were borrowed from Wikitravel, since it was a decade ago and I didn’t have a camera back then! Especially not a digital one…and since apparently I’m still a few years behind, I don’t have a scanner either. Check below each image for the individual source.

USA

Yellowstone National Park {USA}

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This end-of-the-alphabet thing is no joke! (Today is Y!)

While I’ve struggled with other late letters (obviously X, as it was a few days late…), I immediately thought of Yellowstone National Park for Y. This particular national park is a special one for me, as I grew up about an hour and a half from an entrance to the park. I visited many times while I was growing up, and even went on several “work trips.”

On one trip, I attended a several night writing workshop and saw baby wolves.

For a week during the summer before my senior year of high school, I camped in Yellowstone, worked for the Montana Conservation Corps, stayed up all night watching a meteor shower, and collected some bear fur that I found four years later in my bedroom (which caused quite a freak-out before I figured out what it was).

Another time, I went on a biking trip in the park before the roads opened to cars, and ended up having to carry my bike as a buffer between me and some bison on the road.

Then there was that trip where I got a 2nd degree burn from sticking my hand into a hot springs area that were…too hot. (It is called the Boiling River…boiling, Amy.)

Yellowstone National Park is obviously an experience. As the first national park here in the United States, in 1871, it deserves its title. It’s beautiful, remote, giant, and full of wildlife. Major attractions include the Old Faithful Geyser, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Lake, Lamar Valley (most famous for the wolves!), the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and Tower Falls. While I don’t have pictures from every corner, because most of my sojourns in the park were before I had a camera (much less a camera phone…and now you know I’m old).

Yellowstone National Park practically raised me, and I always feel that elusive (well, for me…I’m sure some of you understand!) sense of “home” when I go back there. It was the place I went several times to push me out of my comfort zone, and I really do think it helped shape my personality. I hope to go back someday soon…but it’s also a place I know I will always go back to in my life.

Just like a home.

mlk! 004^the Boiling River…this time safely from my window. Although it is a great hot springs, just be careful!

mlk! 007^my cousin at Mammoth Hot Springs.

mlk! 008^some of the hot pots at Mammoth Hot Springs.

mammoth^me and the cousins at Yellowstone (I can’t believe I don’t have any pictures of myself and my siblings there??)

mlk! 010^overlooking the Lamar Valley.

mlk! 012 mlk! 013 mlk! 020 ^can you spot the elk?

mlk! 030^hello Mr. Bison!

mlk! 035 mlk! 040^some lady elk.

IMG_1187 IMG_1188^the writing workshop camp in the Lamar Valley.

IMG_1189 IMG_1190 IMG_1193^look at the color of that water. no filter

IMG_1194 IMG_1199 IMG_1208^Cooke City, on the edge of the park.

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Linking up again for Travel Tuesday!

Travel Tuesday

 

 

China

Xiao Mi

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I guess finishing graduate school isn’t great for consistent blogging…but I’m still determined to finish the A to Z Challenge…I bring you X…a few days late!

From the archives…a few impressions from my first few weeks in China last summer! 

Well, I’ve been given a Chinese name–Xiao Mi–so I guess that means I’ve really arrived, right? What do you think of Xiao Mi instead of Amy–should I make a permanent change? It means “small piece of rice.” One of my colleagues, K, is now Xiao Li which means “little beauty.” I can only wish–my names when I travel abroad never mean stuff like that…

Case in point: my cousin’s Thai name meant “falling star.” Mine meant “pomegranate.” Or so they told me. I’m pretty sure it meant something else because whenever I told Thais what my name was in Thai, it was greeted with hilarity. Is pomegranate really that funny? Probably not…

I’m trying not to read too much into the fact that my names are always associated with food. At least it’s small piece of rice and not “eats lots of rice and you can tell?”…right?

Anyway, that firewall I mentioned here in China is really putting a crimp in things. I thought it was a rumor that Facebook didn’t exist, and that China had their own specific version of Google…but those are definitely true. (maybe not if you’re more technically savvy than me…man I miss my engineer boyfriend!!!).

Since I last wrote, I’ve moved cities twice, attended a conference put on by German educators, moved into a dorm with seven other girls, most of them who don’t speak my language, learned that your skills with chopsticks can come and go with surprising abandon, and started my work with children in communities affected by the latest earthquake here in the Sichuan province.

IMG_0959 IMG_0946 IMG_0962 IMG_0968IMG_0987 IMG_0985 IMG_0987 IMG_1031 IMG_1034{^^scenes from our week in Ya’an, China}

I’ll share more about my impressions of the conference at another time…it was kind of a long week, and due to translation issues (i.e. straight from German to Chinese with no English included…) it was at times rather long-winded, but I did get to take to very helpful workshops, art therapy and movement therapy.

Now, I’m in Lushan, which is a county in the Sichuan province. I’m 90% sure we are in Lushan city, but I know the county is correct :).

IMG_1045

IMG_1044 IMG_1043 IMG_1041 IMG_0041 IMG_1040 IMG_1038 IMG_1061 IMG_1131                                                                                              {^^scenes from our first few days in Lushan, China^^}

While the most recent earthquake here in April was not nearly as devastating as the one in 2008, it did damage many homes and cause around 200 deaths and 1500 injuries. I’m not even sure the number of homeless it caused, but there are many, many tent communities in the city. We are currently just working at one, but this may change (that is the mantra for this trip: “this may change”). In addition, our work primarily consists of playing with kids so far, but that WILL change, next week. Then, all of the kids in the area will be on summer break, and we’ll be able to start our English camp.

While the language barrier remains massive (my brain cannot even PROCESS Chinese into anything but fast, gurgly, occasionally lyrical, occasionally guttural noises) it has provided some hilarity. We’re having fun teaching our roommates English (and they’re teaching us Chinese…) and so far, their favorite word is “watermelon.” It’s become a “Marco-Polo” thing, with them chanting “watermelon” and us chanting “she-kwa” (Chinese for watermelon) back. It’s always funny trying to teach our translator a new word, or when she busts out Google translate. The words always pop out really proper–she was attempting to tell my colleague her nose was red and the only option was “it looks inflammatory.”

Due to the earthquake, the Chinese government shut down all travel in the area, so we are the only foreigners for miles. However, I’m not sure this has been a travel hot spot in the past, because we get so many stares and cat calls and horn-honks (and no, I don’t think my beauty and grace is attracting all of this–just my fragile pale skin and my weak blue eyes and my red/brown hair). We’ve been in many pictures–both with our permission and without. The Chinese are not shy–they will blatantly snap a picture of you like I do of cute animals (and sometimes cute kids). My favorite was a woman sitting in front of us pretending to do a selfie, then sneaking us into the photo…at least that’s kind of polite, and better than the guy who just sticks his phone in my face!

Well, I unfortunately got a wee drop of killer Sichuan oil on my shirt, so I’m off to use my handy dandy Tide To-Go stick (thanks, Mom!). That stuff is killer in spice, and in ability to stain! I’m not sure my mouth (or this white shirt) will ever be the same. The oil also tends to deteriorate any chopstick skills I may possess because it’s, well, oily. Mind you, my skills are hardly anything to write home about (although who’s kidding, I totally did) but now I’m dropping things all over the table, in other bowls and on other people’s plates. Can you believe I still don’t know how to say sorry in Chinese, and instead respond with my number one word: thank you??

IMG_1082^^see that Sichuan oil? It’s neon! And, well, kind of delicious…

Now that we have semi-reliable internet, I’ll be able to update you more, so don’t forget about me!

xoxo

I hope you enjoyed this little blast from the past! I can’t believe that was a year ago now.

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