Final Destination

THURSDAY - JULY 7, 2011

It was so worth staying up all night. I had only talked on the phone with my friends in different rooms for a couple of hours, packed my suitcase, and taken a shower when it was basically time to see Adam off.

Katie, Adam, and I had become the three most different best friends that could ever be, and we wanted time together before we all left. Katie and I met Adam in the lobby at 3am when no one else was there. As soon as we got downstairs, I started crying so hard - I couldn't help it. It sounds impossible, but even though I have only known these people for ten days, they have inspired and influenced me greatly.

The three of us sat together for about an hour on a couch in the lobby with our arms wrapped around each other. More and more people started coming down, ready to leave too. Basically, all of my friends had early morning shuttles to the airport, whereas mine left at noon.

(Looking a little rough at 3am:)

I was the only one leaving at noon who came down so early, and I looked out of place in the lobby in my nightdress. I've never cried so much in my life - I'm not a crier - in fact I never cry. But there's just something about these people that set me off. I love them all so much after knowing them for only ten days. I never even thought that was possible, but clearly it is. I stood there and cried and hugged and kissed people, promising to call, Facebook, email, text, Skype, and Oovoo all of them as they left one by one: Adam, Mariana, Jay, Avery, Ayesha, Victoria, Muriel, Zach, all of them.

Thankfully, Katie, Juan, and Miguel were leaving at 6, so we had breakfast together for the last time. They were going on the Xian add-on, while the others were going to Hong Kong. The rest of us that were leftover were all going home. Saying goodbye to these three made me cry all over again. I feel all dried up now.

I went back to my room at 6am to finally get some sleep. I woke up again at 10:45 just in time to get ready for checkout. It was lonely in my room without Victoria. I rode to the airport with a bunch of other homeward bound Americans and Canadians. At the airport, I ate lunch with and hung out with Red Sky, who was on my bus but in the Vietnam LGM group. He's really cool. We both agreed that this was the best summer of our lives already just because of GYLC, and we weren't ready at all to go back home.

(With Red Sky:)

Something amazing happened too. I was so bummed out that I didn't get to see Azahn before we left the hotel, but when Red Sky and I were wandering around the airport, someone came behind us - it was Azahn! I was so excited! He was just boarding his plane, so we walked past him at the perfect time. That's definitely fate!

I'm on the plane right now. I still have 7 hours and 11 minutes left before I get to the Newark airport. I miss my friends and I have so many emotions running through me right now. Most of all though, I feel grateful. Grateful to my parents for agreeing to let me go all the way to China by myself and paying for all my trip expenses, grateful to GYLC for giving me the best ten days of my life, and grateful for the truly amazing people I have met. Wish me luck on the last leg of my journey - we're almost over Alaska! Peace...Zmmz <3

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Day 8 - The End?

WEDNESDAY - JULY 6, 2011

We started today with a speaker briefing LGM about our keynote speaker for the day, Mr. Richard Brubaker. He founded volunteer program called Hands on Shanghai, which has since expanded to being Hands on China. He works to improve the lives of less fortunate Chinese people. He does things like paint schools for children and create educational programs for kids.



(Adam, Steph, Aaron, Jordan, Alexis, Katie, and Ayesha waiting for the keynote speaker)



(Nick and Mack)


(With Adam)

Rich, as he called himself, was so down-to-earth and a really great speaker. He emphasized the importance of sustainability, which was very relevant to our water scarcity simulation. He also stressed that social, economic, and environmental sustainability cannot be separated - they are all intertwined.

Like many of our other speakers, Rich also talked about how relationships are so important to success and happiness in life. Throughout this past week, I've really taken this idea to heart.

Some other important things I learned from Rich are:
1. Commitment leads to change
2. A good leader needs a high tolerance for pain
3. Classroom education is important, but so is hands-on experience
4. To get people involved and focused on a cause, start with a relevant, local issue to get their attention

We had a speaker debriefing LGM after Rich's speech and then we boarded the buses to go have lunch in Old Shanghai. I ended up in Papa John's with Azahn, Ayesha, and Alexis. Azahn really wanted to check out the sketchy vendors in Old Shanghai, so he left before the food came and told me to grab a box for him. We wanted to leave the restaurant quickly, but it took me about 20 minutes to get the waitresses and waiters to understand that I needed a box for Azahn's half of the pizza. We only had about half an hour to wander around Old Shanghai, but we managed to get some shopping in, so that was really nice.



(Me and Azahn on the bus:)

We had our final LGM meeting after lunch. No one wanted it to ever end. We made a poster for Zach, telling him what a great FA he was and how we were going to miss him. :'(




(Zach with the poster)

Everyone was really sad for the conference to be over...


(Lucretzia and Katie)

We wrote some GYLC reflections in our handbook and I realized how much I have actually learned over the course of this trip. Next, was the certificate presentation. Earlier in the week, Zach asked us to sit with someone on the bus or get to know someone that we don't always hang out with, so we could present them with their GYLC certificate of completion at the end of the conference. My partner was Gafur, who made the sweetest speech about me - it really brightened my day! In my speech about him, I talked about how kind, funny, and generous he is. He even saved my hair from being closed in the elevator doors this morning! He also can make the most believable frog noise, which is awesome.

Anyway, after getting our certificates, Zach had a gift for all of us. He made us a poster with some words of wisdom to help us with life in general. It was a brilliant gift. I've actually never been given anything so thoughtful before - I was speechless. He gave us advice about everything - from leadership to personal relationships. I copied down the poster and typed them up here too:

*ZACH'S WORDS OF WISDOM*
1. Human BEING vs. Human Doing
2. Center your life where you derive/find meaning
3. Be insatiably curious and voraciously persistent
4. Leadership doesn't just roar, sometimes it's the voice that says, "I'll try again tomorrow."
5. When confronted with pain, relationship, or conflict...push into it (I'm sorry vs. Forgiveness)
6. Surround yourself with people old and young, rich and poor - especially people you find a challenge to care for
7. Find people you admire in life and adopt them
8. Be present too!
9. Be content with plans that don't work out
10. You can only date/be in a relationship with the current version of a person. Not a potential future version.
11. People want to join in on an adventure, not be one.
12. You will get hurt. Don't close yourself off to life as a result.

We all told Zach he was very philosophical and that he should write a book. At least he knows he can count on 22 customers if he ever writes one...but really, we were all blown away by our last LGM meeting. It was so...perfect. Below is a picture of our whole group with Zach.



(Top: Aaron, Crystal, Claire, Alexa, Me, Allie, Lucretzia, Adam, Ayesha, Steph, Nick, Katie P., Katie B., Brianna, Marianna, Zach, Jordan - Middle: Gafur - Bottom: Vivian, Sarah, Ashleigh, Mack, Alexis)

We had our first slot of real free time today because we didn't have to go out to buy lunch or anything like that. I just chilled in the hotel with Katie, Adam, and Victoria. Afterwards, we got ready for our Farewell Dinner, which the FA's transformed into a dinner/dance for us. We wanted a dance so badly, so it was so nice of them to arrange it for us. It also meant that we got to get dressed up!



(Me and Adam)



(My Farewell Dinner Table :'( )

After dinner there was a slideshow, which was so sad. My friends and I were in a lot of pictures because I gave my camera card to the program coordinators one day, so they could use pictures for the slideshow. Score!

We applauded all of the program coordinators and FAs for all of their hard work, and then it was time for student speeches. Each LGM group was supposed to have one speaker to talk about their GYLC experience. Zach came up to me and Katie during dinner and asked if one of us wanted to make the speech. I volunteered to go up for our LGM (the Japan group - obviously the best one:). The first speaker, who made her speech right before me had prepared and written out a whole speech - she must have known about it ahead of time. I'm glad I didn't know about it beforehand though - I wanted to speak from the heart.

I was so nervous and excited to speak in front of the 300 GYLCers. I made my speech all about relationships, and how over the course of the program how important relationships have become to me - especially ones with my new friends who live all over the world. I thanked Zach and Jenny, our bus FAs and Terry, our travel manager.

The best part was that while I was up there, I looked into the crowd and saw all of my new friends. They were cheering and smiling, and I knew that they had my back no matter what. I even got a high five on the way up from some random guy that I'd never met before. Here I was was with 300 people that I had known for less than two weeks, and they all somehow supported me. It was the most amazing feeling in the world - even thinking about it right now is making me tear up.

After speeches, it was time for the much-anticipated dance. I'm not going to lie and say it was amazing, but it was decent seeing that the FAs pulled it together on such short notice. Different people from each LGM donated their iPods with a five-song on-the-go playlist to play. The music was actually disappointing, which surprised me, but all that really matters is that I got this last night with my friends.



(Dance floor)

We only had half an hour together after the dance because we had to be in our rooms by room check. I had already decided that I would pull an all-nighter though, so I could say goodbye to my friends. Adam was going to be the first of my friends to leave at 4:30 in the morning, so I knew sleeping was out of the question...

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Day 7 - Out and About Shanghai

TUESDAY - JULY 5, 2011

Today was Victoria's 17th birthday! We sang happy birthday to her at breakfast, which was fun. Then we had LGM, where we played a trivia game. My team won! I was so proud that I knew who Chiang Kaishek and Hu Jintao were. The more time my LGM group spends together, the better our meetings become because we are more willing to share our feelings and participate in discussions. LGMs are really, really great now!

After our LGM, we boarded the buses to see The Bund, which is a busy avenue parallel to a river walk overlooking the beautiful Shanghai skyline. Like Beijing, Shanghai is smoggy, but definitely cleaner and newer.


(The Bund)



(A different street view)




(Top: Janine, Red Sky, Chava, Claire, Jay, Me, Lucretzia, Mariana, Katty, Azhan, Victoria, Miguel, Ayesha - Bottom: Aaron, Allie, Alexis, AJ)



(Shanghai Skyline)



(Artsy photo of Mariana:)



(Mariana and Ayesha)



(Chava, Katty, Mariana, Me, Jay, Ayesha, Azahn, and Lucretzia)



(Me and Miguel looking pretty cool...)



(Miguel and Victoria)

Next we had free time at Nanjing Lu to buy lunch. I ended up in a Chinese mall with Katie, Adam, and Victoria. We went to a steakhouse and then Häagen-Dazs, and had a lot of fun together. A funny thing about the mall was that the only music they played was Taylor Swift. It's amazing how far-reaching American music is!



(Mall in China)



(Nanjing Lu)



(Adam, Me, Victoria, and Katie in Häagen-Dazs)

Our next stop was the Shanghai Coca-Cola factory. We all got a glass bottle of a Coca-Cola product to enjoy during a presentation and Q&A session, which was nice.



(Outside the factory)






(Chinese Sprite from the factory!)

The coolest thing about the presentation (besides actually learning about Coca-Cola as a business) was that we had to use an interpreter. The speaker talked in Chinese and then our really awesome travel manager Terry translated what she said into English. What's really neat is that some things that take a really long time to explain in English can be explained in one word in Chinese and vice-versa. The factory tour right afterwards was short, but interesting - we got the chance to see Sprite being bottled and labeled. Here are some more pictures!



(Ayesha, Mariana, Me, and Avery)



(With Katie:)



(Avery, Katie, and the Coca-Cola Bear)



(My two roomies Victoria and Muriel from Germany)



(Me and Kirk)

After the factory, we went to dinner at Dai Jai Cun restaurant. It was the traditional Chinese restaurant that we've grown used to (with turn tables and dozens of food options), but with a special twist. This restaurant had live entertainment - singers, dancers, the works.



(This man was such a good singer!)

The boys were particularly interested in this one belly dancer who had rock solid abs (which is kind of weird for a belly dancer). The boys were all whistling and hooting until they later found out that the belly dancer was a man! The looks on their faces were priceless.

Before we left, we had a chance to go up on stage to dance with some of the women in the show. Here's a picture of Jay with one of the dancers.



At GYLC, the way we make sure we have everyone on the bus before we head to the next destination is by doing bus count. Everyone on the bus gets a number (eg. I'm #14) and we count off until we get to number 45. It's a really efficient system to make sure we never leave anyone behind. The GYLC coordinators decided to make a little game out of bus count by seeing which of the 4 buses could finish bus count first. The one who finished first would get a prize, but more importantly pride and bragging rights. And guess what? My bus, Bus #1 (aka the best/party bus), dominated!



(FAs Jenny and Zach, my fellow LGM member Mack, and Terry with our dragon poster prize)

We were so excited about winning that we decided to celebrate with a bus party. We plugged someone's iPod into the stereo, turned off the lights, and sang and cheered until our voices were hoarse. Unfortunately, the fun was short-lived because our driver accidentally took off someone's side mirror. I feel bad for the person and the bus driver...

Everything was okay though and no one was hurt. We went to our next destination, a Chinese acrobatics show, unscathed. The show was wild, dangerous, and SO exciting. People flew, contorted themselves, and raced around the theatre (and a spherical cage) on motor cycles. It was such an impressive way to end a crazy fun day!

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Day 6 - From Ancient to Innovative

MONDAY - JULY 4, 2011

Before we checked out of the hotel this morning, all of the GYLC scholars were invited to a Tai Chi Lesson on one of the hotel lawns. It was a unique experience, but most of us realized that Tai Chi isn't our thing. It's very, very repetitive - in fact we did the same sequence over and over again for our entire 45-minute lesson. After Tai Chi, we rushed to our rooms to take showers and pack up the rest of our belongings.

After we boarded the buses, we drove to the Lin Ying Temple to see the famous Laughing Buddha.



(Ghafur being my model:)



(Big Buddha)



(Lucretzia:)



(With Terry - the best travel manager ever!!!)



(Temple Grounds)



(In one of the temples with Miguel and Victoria)



(Toad?)



(Giant Buddha)




(It must have been annoying to pray amid all of the tourists)



(Another Giant Buddha)

Our next stop was the scenic Guo's Villa, which was absolutely beautiful!






(Nick, Me, Ayesha, and Katie)







(Nick:)



(Reminiscent of Monet's garden in Giverny)



(Adam and AJ practicing their intense Tai Chi moves:)

After lunch, we went to the Hangzhou train station so we could catch the high-speed train to Shanghai. We waited in the station for a really long time. Adam and I managed to find two seats next to each other, so waiting around wasn't dull at all. The train was so smooth and fast. I wish we had the same system in America. It's amazing!



(Alexis in front of the high-speed train)





(View of Shanghai on the bus ride to the hotel)


(Another street view)


(Best welcome poster ever!)

After dinner in Shanghai we had an evening LGM session. It was for the much-anticipated cultural exchange. Each scholar is supposed to bring show and tell and/or gifts from home for everyone else in the LGM, and we all talk about our different cultures. I showed everyone my driver's license and explained that in Pennsylvania, we are eligible to get our permits when we are 16 and our licenses when we are 16 and a half. I also had a Pittsburgh keychain to show everyone, and a bag full of Hershey kisses because Pennsylvania is famous for Hershey's. The kisses were well-received :).

Even better than sharing was learning about different cultures. In our LGM alone we had representation from Suriname, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, and of course, the United States. Many people gave really intense presentations, which was cool.

Mariana, who's from Puerto Rico, gave a lovely presentation complete with pictures and maps. She loves her country so much, which shone through during her presentation. In fact, in our GYLC handbook there is a map of the world that excludes Puerto Rico. She was so upset and told our FA Zach exactly how she felt. I asked her to draw Puerto Rico into my map by hand.

Some other cool things from the evening...Katie and Ayesha from South Africa sang us their national anthem. Ashleigh from Trinidad and Tobago shared really good music with us and told us about Carnival, which is a big cultural festival/party in T&T each year. It sounds like a blast...at some point I'll have to spend a spring break down there.

Overall, It was such an amazing cultural night and now I will be bringing home: Canada pins, a California keychain, South African pins and keychains, a Suriname brochure, and tons of new information about all of these countries.

I had quite a cultural day - and it's so exciting that I was in both a former ancient capital and the most up-and-coming city in China in one day! Ironically, I spent my 4th of July in a communist country. I have no regrets whatsoever..:)

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