Rachel
I had an incredibly busy Spring semester. I took 5 courses over the course of the semester (which is a lot for grad school!) and starting in February I started seeing premarital couples at the Catholic Student Center. I saw 12 premarital couples in addition to my clients at our regular clinic. There were several weeks where I had over 10 client contact hours, in addition to my assistantship and coursework. The last few weeks of the semester were busy with finals and final papers, but I was also preparing for my research trip to China, which was an adventure.
We flew out of Kansas City at 6:00am on Wednesday the 16th, so we drove to KC the night before. The next day we flew from KC to Chicago, where we had an 8-hour layover. We then had a 15 and a half hour flight to Hong Kong and made it to our hotel in the city by 1 in the morning (we lost a day in flight so this was the morning of the 18th). We had to get up early that day because we were visiting the Hong Kong Family Therapy Institute. It was great to visit with them and we were able to watch a session. The next couple days we went sight-seeing in Hong Kong. We saw the world's longest escalator, Victoria Peak, Aberdeen Fish Market, and the Symphony of Lights. Hong Kong was fairly Westernized and I really enjoyed the city.
Our first official Chinese meal was traditional dim-sum for lunch!
The Hong Kong skyline at night
More of Hong Kong city
We left Hong Kong on Sunday and took a ferry up the river to Zhuhai, where we stayed at Beijing Normal University's satellite campus. It was more rural than Beijing was. Here we visited the university and met several students. We visited a class and talked about differences between romantic relationships in young adults in the US and China. In the afternoon we also met with some Family Therapists from the surrounding area.
Our group with some of the Chinese students. This was the view from a courtyard on their campus.
Next we took a bus to Guangzhou, which is the 3rd largest city in China. Here we visited another university and met with some students. We also did some more sight-seeing in Guangzhou. We saw the Sun Yat-Sen Hall, which was built by the first democratic leader of China. We also saw Shamian Island, which is where anyone who adopts a Chinese child must go to get some adoption papers. We took a dinner cruise on the Pearl River where we saw many of the buildings that had been built when Guangzhou hosted the Chinese version of the Olympics. While we were in Guangzhou we also visited a traditional food market with various items like dried seahorses, live geese, and live scorpions. We also visited a Buddhist temple, and the statue of the Five Rams, which were the guardians of Guangzhou.
The Sun Yat-Sen Hall
The scorpions at the market. People would just grab them with chopsticks and put them in a container.
The Buddhist temple
One of the buildings on the dinner cruise. It was built for China's version of the olympics within their own country.
The statue of the Five Rams
We flew from Guangzhou to Beijing. In Beijing we stayed at a bed & breakfast type hotel. It was in an old hutong neighborhood in the city center and was in an old house with courtyards. While we were in Guangzhou I acquired some nasty bug bites (I won't post the pictures because they were pretty gross), so while most everyone else went to do some service work at an orphanage, the professor leading our trip took me to a hospital in Bejing. It turned out I had an allergic reaction to some mosquito bites, and we spent the rest of the day sight seeing. I saw the Bell Tower which used to be the way time was kept when Beijing was a smaller city. We also saw the Lama Temple, and the Olympic Park.
The Bell Tower
Part of the Lama Temple
The Bird's Nest at the Olympic Park
The other days we were in Beijing we saw the Temple of Heaven, which is the temple where only the Emperor was allowed to worship, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Silk Market. The silk market is kind of like a 7 story mall where you barter for cheap things. I bought souvenirs and a suitcase there.
The Temple of Heaven
The memorial at Tianamen square
Mao Ze Dong Memorial
Forbidden City
The Summer Palace
On our last day we went to the Great Wall, which was probably my favorite thing that we saw.
All in all, it was a great experience and I'm very glad I went, but I'm not sure I will go back. The cultural differences and the language barrier were quite extreme, so I think I will stick with more Western cultures for a while!
When I returned from China I was home for 4 days and then I went to Stats Camp for a week where I took an intensive course on Structural Equation Modeling. A week and a half later Jon and I went to New York for his sister, Rachel's, graduation. Now I am home, but I leave again next week to present at an International conference in Chicago. This summer I am taking an online class, which is quite a bit of work. I am also continuing to see premarital couples, as well as my individual clients. I am also studying for the GRE, which I will take in September in preparation to apply to PhD programs this fall and winter.
Jonathan
I have been busy with work. Same old, same old I guess! Lots of map making! I've been enjoying hanging out with some of my coworkers, most of whom are from Lawrence. I was able to be there for the KU vs. Ohio State Final Four game when KU won and it was a great time! After the game, the whole street was a sea of people.
During the summer and while Rachel was in China, I had a chance to check out the Batpod and Tumbler from Christopher Nolan's Batman films. It was really cool to see them up close! I even saw the Tumbler drive around a bit.
Rachel and I were able to attend Nick and Megan Butz's wedding. It was a lot of fun and we got to see our college friends, many of whom we haven't seen in almost a year.
I was also able to go on a 20 mile bikeride around Manhattan with our friends Chelsea and Daniel. I was sore afterwards, but it was definitely worth the ride.
A little bit after our "real" anniversary, Rachel and I were able to finally celebrate it! Rachel had not been feeling her best after getting back from China, so we waited a week or so. Champagne and a meat/cheese platter! Yum!
Now, Rachel and I are just trying to keep cool. With the weather easily hitting 105+ degrees, any chance to go to a mall or visit a museum, or somewhere with AC is always nice, so we don't have to run ours.
