Running the Rainbow

BWYA U9 soccer girls won the championship. 1st place. They played 6 matches in 1 day. The coach told me that Carly scored most of the goals. I wasn't there because I was working. They invited her to another championship. Carly is now going to compete in U11 Championships on October 27.

When we took the subway to The Summer Palace place, I had a Chinese person take a picture of me. That was the first time it had every happened to me, but I believe that this person had never seen a white person before. When I entered the palace, the first thing that caught my eye was the big gold Buddha. They do not allow you to take pictures of Buddha and Chinese people were bowing around him. Suzhou Market Street was really spectacular and was Carly's favorite part of the Palace. There are over 60 stores that extend along the Back lake. We met a paddle boat on the street and it took us all around Kunming Lake. Carly told me that this was her first time on a boat, which I didn't realize. Outside of The Great Wall, the Summer Palace is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in China so far. I consists of lakes, gardens, and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing Dynasty. The construction of Summer palace took place in 1750 as a garde...

This has to be one of the coolest things I have ever done. This was a trip with about 10 people who had done a lot of traveling in their lifetime. Most of the hikers were teachers at Beijing World Youth Academy, but many of them worked at other campuses, so I didn't know them. If The Great Wall wasn't interesting enough, it was so interesting to talk to so many people from all over the world. There was a couple who had backpacked all over Europe, a man who had been a deep sea fisherman, a college student from Germany, a divorced Dad from Ireland, a girl from Cuba, a girl from Panama, a gay guy from NY who has now lived in Beijing for 8 years, and a girl from California who has also lived in China for a long time. We had 2 guides. One was from the Philippines and one was from China. Carly became the life of the party telling people about all of the 14ers that she had climbed and all of the crazy places we had camped. I also had quite a few stories to tell about Guatemala an...