The end of my journey...

Today is my last full day in Beijing and tomorrow afternoon I get on a plane and head home. This summer has been unbelievable. Full of so many incredible memories and people. I am so glad I made the decision to come to China this summer and Nepal was an experience I will never forget. Traveling is really tough though and I am ready to get back to Portland and begin this new school year. I am going to miss China and all of the beautiful monks at my teacher's monastery in Nepal.

It was an adventure leaving Nepal on Monday. My flight was originally supposed to leave at 11pm Monday night. After waiting at the Kathmandu airport for about 5 hours the flight was canceled around 12:30pm. They shuttled us to a really nice hotel but we didn't get there or checked in until after 2am. They put us up two to a room so I was put with this Chinese guy. When we got to the room we discovered that it only had one bed. At this point I was so tired it was kind of like watching a comedy unfold. The guy was cursing in Chinese and they ended up bringing in a roll away bed for him. In the morning we has a great breakfast at the hotel and they shuttled us back tot the airport.

Because the flight was canceled I missed my connecting flight to Beijing and they scheduled me for another flight at 7pm Tuesday evening. Our flight to Guangzhou ended up being delayed and I did not get into Guangzhou until 6:25pm. I tried to see if I could rush to the flight but there was no way. So they changed my ticket to a flight that was leaving at 10pm. I had to wait in the airport for another three hours. We didn't end up getting into Beijing until 1am and I did not get to my hostel until after 2am. I was really lucky though to sit next to a very kind woman on the plan who helped me get to my hostel and we had a really nice conversation that made the flight go by very quickly.

Yesterday I went to the Temple of Heaven which was pretty neat. I was really tired though so I spent the rest of the day at my hostel and getting a massage! Today I am thinking about going to the Summer Palace and maybe an acrobatic show tonight. I want to soak my last official day here in China in. It is going to be so strange to be back in America. I am looking forward to seeing my sister and friends but I will be sad to leave China.