The last time I was here was for my 5th grade field trip. Oh how I miss the days when field trips were part of our curriculum! As we were there for school, naturally, we were assigned a project, which was to make a scrapbook that included various components detailed in our rubric (scavenger hunt style).
So today we have a very special guest contributor to the blog, 10-year-old-Audrey...
颐和园 (yí hé yuán)--Summer Palace--was the last part of my 2015 summer adventure as a tourist in my own country. It's been nine years since I've last visited, so I was curious to see what changed and what stayed the same. As expected, the overall experience was very different, because that's what time does. What was difficult to identify was whether the difference felt was due to a change of 颐和园 or due to a change in me. What strikes a child is very different from what strikes a young adult. Nine years ago I was here on a scavenger hunt, snapping shots of 1 mode of transportation, 1 archway, 1 non-living animal, 1 Chinese architecture, 2 my choice, 1 person working, 2 water scenes, and 1 mountain scene. Now I am here roaming aimlessly, taking in the beautiful architecture I used to take for granted.
I want to be an elementary school English teacher because non sequiturs are fun and kids are good at them. Do you like my 5th grade aesthetic? All those artistic tilts and all that mounting paper, yum.
The most famous part of Summer Palace is the 17-Arch Bridge. Each arch is wide enough to fit at least one ship. The ninth arch is the largest arch and the other eight on its sides shrink smaller and smaller. There are 544 lions, all in different postures, on the bridge.
You will see the Bronze Ox on the way to the 17-Arch Bridge. The Bronze Ox was made under the instructions of the emperor. It was believed that it could control floods. On the Bronze Ox are 80 Chinese characters which tell a story. The Bronze Ox is sitting with his head up, gazing out to the lake.
The Marble Boat was made under the instructions of the empress. It was made of marble so that the waves of the waters wouldn't flip it over. Unfortunately, the Marble Boat was too heavy and would sink. Now, the Marble Boat just lies on land for fascinated tourists to admire.
This is a floral scene on the way to the restaurant where we ate dinner on our first day. (Oh, and at the restaurant I had a laugh attack and told a true story of how a dog saved a boy who fainted from not eating his daily sugar.) In front of all the flowers are musical notes made of black and white stones. Next to this part of the floral scene was a wooden wagon filled with flowers. It was also really pretty.
My group leader was Mrs. Williams and the people who were in my group were Helen, Joo Won, Stephanie (my room mate), Malekai, Marcus, Jae Young, and Sang Hoon. My group is called the 8 Amigos. This is the place where my group practiced our chant (and some rude onlookers got undeserved sneak-peeks). Our chant was the Macarena.
Steph and I didn't like our group team name so we called ourselves the Ugly Ducklings from the 8 Amigos. We spent a lot of our time watching TV in our room. The most fun we had together was brushing our teeth. Anything can happen when Steph and I are together.
I'm sure the story I told about the dog and the boy was riveting. I just wish I could remember what it was. And I have no doubt that Steph and I really had a ton of fun brushing our teeth together :P Although I don't understand why we called ourselves the Ugly Ducklings of the 8 Amigos. I guess that self-depreciating sense of humor starts young -_-" #tumblr4lyfe
PS: 古北水镇, JapanLabels: travel
