National Day Holiday: Beach Trip! 🌊🏖🐠

This week we didn’t have school because of “National Day Golden Week”. This holiday is known for allowing people in China to make long distance family visits.  My host family took a trip to a province called Heibei- it is in North China and named after the Yellow River. We stayed at a beach called Aranya. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Here I am with my adorable host sister and cousin. 😁 And my host mom!

Pictured above was a church that was right on the beach. The architecture was really cool, and this great picture (taken by my host aunt) was captured during the sunrise!

Here is a picture of a library that was also right on the beach. This was one of the COOLEST places I’ve been!! It felt so magical. It had many books and tables and cool photography from places around the world, with a view of the ocean. I would love to come back here one day. 

I also got to spend time with some family friends. It was really fun getting to hangout with a group of girls, and go places with them! They took me to HotPot- a China classic. We also went to a restaurant that was right on the beach. 

I went to a concert, which had a funk band from Italy, then a blues band from Chicago! It was really fun to hear live music, and it reminded me of home and going to WYEP music festivals with cool bands. Here is a selfie from the concert!!

All in all this trip was super cool! It was so nice getting a chance to get to know my host family better and practice my Chinese. At times, it was difficult because I wouldn’t be able to understand or communicate what I wanted to say. It was great practice for finding other ways to figure out how to explain things. I’m looking forward to the future and improving my skills even more! Below are some more pictures from our trip!!