From Brooklyn to Beijing

So I went to visit another ELF, Rebekah, in Chongqing (middle of China) because we signed up for the half marathon a few months ago. I was a bit apprehensive because I haven’t been training a lot. With vacation and my parents visit, then too much pollution, it’s been hard to get in long runs. But I signed up and I had plane tickets and so I was going- ready or not! I arrived in Chongqing and Rebekah was at the airport to pick me up! So lovely, it’s been incredible working with the other fellows in China. They are such friendly, motivated, intelligent fun people to work with. Rebekah is no exception. We went to her university in Beibei, where she lives with her awesome husband Mark. Beibei is much more rural than Beijing and so many Chinese look at us foreigners and snap photos quite often. It’s something I’m not used to in Beijing and had to adjust accordingly. All around Beibei are gorges, because the area has both the   Yangzee and the Jialing Rivers. So, on Friday, we figu...

My experiences in Laos were incredible, unexpectedly so: a mix of old and new, traditional but creeping slowly into modernity, extremely poor and developing yet content and satisfied. I know people have told me how charming and warm the people are and how calm the energy is but I couldn’t really understand it until I was there in person. Let me try to walk you through it in my eyes.  Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site so the majority of the buildings are intact and old European looking. Absolutely gorgeous! The old town sits between two rivers; the Mekong and the Nam Khan. These rivers are a huge part of life here. And get this fun fact: there are only TWO car accessible bridges that cross the rivers. TWO. As in, everything is done by long boats and ferry boats. How crazy is that! But also adds to the magic of the city because you don’t see lots of traffic. You do get to see monks cross a very narrow some scary bamboo bridges. So cool. Our guide f...