mysticotala

Yunnan_Zhongdian

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Yunnan_Kunming

Minority Park001
Start off the trip with a little serenity, relaxation and....

Minority Park002
and exploitation of China's minority cultures at a minority theme park.

Minority Park003
Kat dancing at a little welcome ceremony. They are dressed like Thai women, so I imagine this 'village' is from somewhere in South China

Minority Park004
Maybe Tibetans? Some cute boys banging on drums in any case :)

Minority Park005
Imagine what is going through their head when they are yanked out of their villages and forced to do this for a few years...

Minority Park006
Some inter-minority swinging, lol

Minority Park007
Dancing, it was fun there. I think this is the matriarchal minority over by Lugu lake. I forget the name...

Stone Forest001
Next stop was the stone forest. It was really amazing

Stone Forest002
You really have to see it to believe it...it was a forest....of stone.

Stone Forest003
Lots of winding paths to get lost on. If you could get away from the people it was very relaxing

Stone Forest004
Inside the stone forest

Stone Forest005
Ariel view

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People

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Inside

Stone Forest008
Cherry blossoms on the outskirts of the 'forest'

Stone Forest009
Artistic shot :P

Kunming001
Other than getting my phone stolen, it was a nice city.

Kunming002
A gorgeous park a few blocks away from the hotel

Kunming003
Nice place to spend some time

Kunming004
Pagoda

Kunming005
A woman dancing in a park. People showed up with some instruments and more people joined her for dancing. They have a leader and (I imagine) set moves, so they can all follow the leader and dance together. Very fun to watch

Kunming006
A bridge in the park. Next stop, Shangri-la!

Silk Road_Dunhuang

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Camels in the early, early, early, early morning of the Gobi Desert

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As in....before the sun even thought about coming up

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Riding to the dunes. I named my camel Stanley. But it may have been pregnant. In that case...it's Viviane.

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Zebb on the dunes

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Kat and I

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Jessica

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Char, Bryan, and Nina

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Dawn over the Gobi Desert. And last picture before my camera got sand in it and stopped working.

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Wall in Dunhuang

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Brandeise at the exercise park

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kids

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More kids

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Kat. While I was trying to fix my camera. The light meter is obviously still wonky

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Yay, thanks to some business cards and a few hours of laying in a park and picking at my camera, the sand is gone!

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Brandeis

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Across the street

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Flowers

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Uh....tree.

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Brandeis. We had all day free since we had to get up at 3. We decided to chill in the park

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More kids

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Kat and Brandeis

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Still trying to get the light meter working :P

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Um...sky

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yet again

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Flowers

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Artistic shot of the kids playing on the exercise thing

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Door handle. Even the doorhandles are awesome in China

Silk Road_Uigers

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Don't ask me why we stopped at a windmill place....it was so boring.

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Canal/irrigation stop. Sounds boring as well, but the place was fantastic!

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Entry way

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Still Uiger country, very middle eastern looking, I love it.

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Us :)

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Some of the gorgeous traditional Uiger outfits

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Vineyard. We ran through the whole thing so we could do wine tasting at the very end. They are famous for the wine. Only decent stuff you can get in all of china.

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Mosque we stopped at

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Built for tourists *shrug*

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Nice brick work though!

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Some views from the front

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Some views from the front

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Some views from the front

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Inside

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Us

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Inside

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View from the Courtyard

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Close up of some designs

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View from window

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Us in a room ?

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Again

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Tour guide, he was singing :)

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Dinner at the village. BREAD! Beijing doesn't have any. The stuff on the bottom tasted just like sourdough *drool*

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Big room where we ate and slept

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Cute little Uiger girl

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They were excited by the digital camera :)

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Family shot!

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Hand slapping game with Alex and Shine, how cute

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Uiger wedding!

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How lucky was that?

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Everyone dancing

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Bride and groom

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Live music!

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Dawn over the village

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Morning

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Man cooking breakfast

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Picking up our bed mats

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Ancient tombs at the town we had to walk through to get to the buddhist grottos

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Muslim I believe...

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View of the town from above

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Again

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picture break

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Still above the oasis town

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Everything was the same colour....it was kind of neat actually

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Inside the town

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Little oasis river

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Mosque

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Alleyway we walked by...

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Some people that lived there

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COW!

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Grottos in the Flaming Mountains

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Grottos in the Flaming Mountains

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Walking there

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Grottos in the Flaming Mountains. Not allowed to take pictures inside

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Same field with previous cow :)

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Oasis

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Ugh, at the plateau of HELL. So hot, so not enjoyable. Even the tour guide is resting in the shade

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Hot is the only word to describe it

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Hot hot hot

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Singing hot hot hot

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Edge of the plateau. Still hot. I wanted to jump into the river

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Same. Still hot. Miserable. Unbearable.

Silk Road_Tian Chi

Tian Chi002
Christian rock climbing

Tian Chi001
Christian rock climbing

Tian Chi003
Lake and Mountains....get ready for all the pictures to be that beautiful

Tian Chi004
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Tian Chi006
Leaf...thought Sam would enjoy it, it looked like a Lorien leaf. I'm such a nerd

Tian Chi007
Posed picture with Lauren. This place was like Disney land at the beginning. Fake treet everywhere.

Tian Chi008
Walking to the camp site

Tian Chi009
Walking to the camp site

Tian Chi0010
Scary bridge

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Terrifying even

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Forest

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View

Tian Chi0014
They lost

Tian Chi0015
Khazak kids barring our way

Tian Chi0016
Horse :)

Tian Chi0017
Front of campsite,

Tian Chi0018
Behind the camp

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Standing around waiting

Tian Chi0020
Brandeis in front of our yurt

Tian Chi0021
Our yurt family picture

Tian Chi0022
Inside the yurt

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Looking out

Tian Chi0024
Looking up

Tian Chi0025
Pretty carpets!

Tian Chi0026
Horse :) Same one!

Tian Chi0027
view

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Khazak nomads

Tian Chi0029
view

Tian Chi0030
Liz and Connor, hiking for a different view

Tian Chi0031
Hiking

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View from the far end of the lake

Tian Chi0033
View from the far end of the lake

Tian Chi0034
Rocky Beach

Tian Chi0035
Us at the lake

Tian Chi0036
Same rocky beach

Tian Chi0037
Kat :)
Sheep

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Sheep :) Can you see them?

Tian Chi0038
view

Tian Chi0039
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Tian Chi0041
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Tian Chi0042
Drift wood

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Drift wood and Kat looking pensive

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Imagine living here and waking up everyday to those views

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Still at the end of the lake

Tian Chi0048
Stream from mountain and a scary looking bridge

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Horse drive through the camp

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Horse drive

Tian Chi0051
Sky....prepare yourselves...there are a lot of sky pictures...

Tian Chi0052
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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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Woke up at the same times as the falcons

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I've never seen so many in my life, they were pouring out of the forest

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In the tree

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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

Tian Chi0062
The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

Tian Chi0065
The Heavenly Mountains in the morning

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Brandeis and Kat

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Kat and I

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Pagoda

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Tian Chi0070
More sky :)

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Tian Chi snowcap
Snow cap mountain. Nice place, yeah?

Silk Road_Urumqi

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View from plane. A lot more gorgeous than you can really tell. The mountains are beautiful...but you'll realise that from my Tian Chi pics.

Urumqi003
View on the street

Urumqi004
Fun looking market, yeah? I didn't go in...

Urumqi005
Ordered a bit too much food with our tour guide...

Urumqi006
Fountain in front of the restaurant

Urumqi008
Carving some wood work....damn impressive

Urumqi009
Mosque and International Market Square

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Tourist attraction at the market

Urumqi0011
Mosque at the Market Square

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Group pic

Urumqi0013
The KFC near the mosque in 3 different languages. Ah, wonderful globalization.

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Locals

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Zebb in a hat

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David and I in amazing hats

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Awesome string instruments that I wish I had money to buy

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Not all the locals were too thrilled about westerners...

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But blonde haired, blue eyed Stuart was pretty popular

Urumqi0020
Group pic with host students

Urumqi007
I love their designs...

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Fruit market

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Fruit market

Urumqi001
Night view from the hotel. I wish I could have taken pictures from the night market!

Orientation Week_CA

Los Angeles001
Loyola Marymount in LA

Los Angeles002
Loyola Marymount in LA

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The dorms in LA...Beautiful!!

Los Angeles004
The dorms in LA...Beautiful!!

Los Angeles005
The dorms in LA...Beautiful!!

Los Angeles006
View off Santa Monica pier

Los Angeles007
View off Santa Monica pier

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View off Santa Monica pier

Los Angeles009
TBC(Beijing Center)-ers looking off Santa Monica Pier

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View off Santa Monica Pier

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Night time in Santa Monica

Los Angeles0012
Loading up the bus! On our way to the airport and the LONG plane ride to Beijing!

Los Angeles0013
Loading up the bus! On our way to the airport and the LONG plane ride to Beijing!

First Meal001
Trying to read the damn menu

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First time Patrick used chopsticks!

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It's like eating one long, slippery noodle

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First meal, 24hr noodle place. Ugh.

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It'll take a while to get used to eating those noodles...

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Across the street from the campus

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Trimming the trees

TBC Dinner001
Light at the fancy dinner TBC took us to.

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90 of us dumb western kids....bet they loved that.

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TBC Dinner006
"Artistic shot" of kids playing on the stage

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TBC Dinner008
Chrysanthemum Fish. Looked like it exploded and was then fried. Very good though. They fought over the eye...

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Singer from Beijing Opera. The music was....very chinese

TBC Dinner0010
Mask changer/dancer. Fantastic act! Changed masks in split second, you couldn't even see him!

TBC Dinner0011
Another singer
BlueSky

BlueSky
Blue sky and nice weather! First time since we got here that it wasn't hot, humid, polluted, and like the 7th circle of hell... thought I would document it