My Four Blog Posts

Blog Post #1:

My name is Moonbeam II, but my nickname is Moonie and I have a feeling that we will be getting to know each other pretty well after this journey, so you can just call me Moonie. I am traveling along the Yangtze river. I am 23 years old. I will be traveling a total of 194 hours. I am starting my expedition in Chongqing. I will be finishing my trip in Kunming. It will be a long and hard journey but it will be worth it. I will meet people of all different types. It will be an amazing experience. I have just began to walk in Chongqing and I came upon a village. There were lots of people roaming around with their families. They were all surprised to see someone like me wandering around their town. Once they got over the fact that I was there, they all looked so kind hearted. I continued walking until I got to my first destination. For the first night, I was staying with a large family that lived on the banks of the river. They agreed to feed me all of my meals and give me a bed to sleep in. Chen and Bai were married with two kids named Bo and Lei. I got there in the late afternoon. They welcomed me and introduced themselves. For the next few hours, I contributed to helping prepare dinner. What they prepared was a traditional Chongqing dish called “a hotspot”. It’s a broth that includes beef and vegetables. It was kind of gross, but it’s not like I was going to say that. They served a drink called Baijiu. It is a white liquor that is similar to white wine. The family I was staying with was so nice. We talked for hours on end about our dreams and our lives and we just got to know each other so well. After that night, I felt like I had known them forever. Once we were done at the dinner table, I helped clean up and I wondered off to bed, excited for my journeys the next day.

Blog Post #2:

The next day, I awoke to Chen making a breakfast of yongchuang bean sauce. It’s a sauce made from beans, sticky rice, and purified strong liquor. I had a long day of adventure ahead of me, so after I ate, I had to leave the house. The next city I am going to is called Guiyang. It is a beautiful city, not too far from Chongqing. Once I leave, I begin to walk to my next destination. I come across lots of friendly people while I was walking. I was already starting to get sore. The streets are very busy and people are flowing in and out everywhere I go. After so many hours later, I finally decide to stop somewhere, and I thought that maybe the Guizhou Museum would be a good place to do it. I walk in and see such a beautiful museum. There are SOO many different types of art in front of my eyes, I can barely take it all in. The art is so beautiful and breath-taking. There are sculptures, paintings, maps, artifacts, and so many more! I weave in and out of all the rooms and hallways in the museum until I feel like I’ve memorized the whole place. I go back outside to continue my journey. I keep walking for so so so so long and my whole body is aching in pain. It’s starting to be around lunchtime, so I think of where I could stop to eat. As I’m thinking, I pass a shed right along the road with a sign that says “中国菜”, and I have absolutely no idea what it means. I walk inside the tiny room and see that there is one  worker there who is a man at the counter, waiting for customers. His eyes seem to brighten when he sees me enter. He seats me at one of the three tables in the room. He starts talking in Chinese to me and I can’t understand him whatsoever, so I just nod my head. When I nod my head, he runs behind the counter, into what I assume is the kitchen, and begins to cook something. After about 10 minutes of waiting, he comes out of the kitchen with a large plate filled with food that smells and looks so delicious. His smile is so warming that it makes me so happy inside and I think it shows on the outside because he starts nodding his head and talking in Chinese some more. He watches over me as I take my first bite. As my teeth bite into the food, my taste buds are bursting with flavor. It might have been one of the best bites of food I have ever tasted. I try to show him with hand movements how amazing the food he made for me tastes. Once he understands, he starts jumping up and down in excitement. We exchange excitement and then he goes back behind the counter. Before I continue,  I finish my meal and pay the kind man for everything he did for me.

Blog Post #3:

I have been walking for sooo long and I’m about to fall apart. My head hurts from the heat and my body aches from walking. Ugh, this is hard work. It may be hard but I know that I have to keep going or I will never achieve anything. I am now heading towards Kunming, my final destination. I have always heard that Kunming is very beautiful and I’m so excited that I get to finally see it in real life! There is still so so so so so much more walking to do but I am so excited to be able to say that I’ve walked this far.

After a very very very long time of walking, and I’m not even sure how long it’s been, I arrive in Kunming. I am planning to go to the Yunnan Ethnic Village. It is a theme park that offers productions and shows, wax museums, ancient architecture, and so much more. I walked around and watched lots of performances. As I am watching a traditional Guiyang dance performance, suddenly people from the audience start joining in, and I wonder what they’re doing. Unexpectedly, I get pulled into the crowd of people going on stage, and I’m not even sure who pulled me, but I know that I am on stage and I am dancing along with everyone. It is so much fun to be with all of these people. I think it’s so amazing that I got the opportunity to laugh and dance with these people, and all of a sudden I’m thinking about how much I’m going to miss this when I leave.