CHINA

So as some of y'all might remember, last year I went to Colorado for an Operation Smile Student Conference.  This year, it was in China! 

I had an AMAZING time.  Were the flights long? Yes.  Was the food kind of weird? Yes. Did I eat lotus root, squid, duck and kale? Yes. Was it hard not knowing the language? Yes. Did I still love every second of it? YES.

I met even more amazing people this year than last year.  Honduras, India, California, Australia, Texas, New York...there were 800 of us from 23 different countries!

The best day, by far, was climbing the great wall! It was a little hazy, but nothing we couldn't handle.  The views were beautiful and it's pretty cool to say you ran up the Great Wall of China.

Another crazy thing is that a lot of the tourists who come to Beijing have never seen an American person before, so I had my picture taken a lot!  I took pictures with dance groups, families and some of my friends even had pictures taken with people's infants! Definitely a different culture from America!

International Party

The casual commie sign in the middle of Tiananmen Square

Hey, Mao. What's up?

LK, MC and I with our Tour Guide Candy!

The Twin and I Pre-Great Wall Climb

See where that arrow points? That's where the Twin and I walked crawled ran up to.

On the way up!

We made it!

The adorable girls who asked me for a picture at the top!

Twin and I were "those people" who got hats at the Great Wall

Before we 'met' Jackie Chan!

Hey Jackie!

NF, US and I at the Final Party

MC and I!

And the Twin and I were "those people" who wore our hats through the airports...

I had a wonderful time and I can't wait for next year's conference and to hopefully return to China soon!

xoxo,

Royar
{The Young Southern Prep}