Inner Mongolia

 Though the bathroom situation was less than ideal, the beautiful scenery was in a 360 degree panorama of our dreams.  After a run in with the bathrooms, which resulted in several pinched noses and one mysteriously and suddenly painful foot, we rode horses over the great plains of inner Mongolia, which is oddly enough, located in China, not Mongolia [Charlie Hawkings]. A truly exhilarating experience that our groaning coccyx’s will never forget . We also experienced traditional inner Mongolian foods, which mostly consisted of lamb, but also varied to rice, dumplings, cabbage, sheep’s milk, and sheep’s cheese – which was chalky and sweet simultaneously. We also ate stomach. During the meal, we introduced ourselves to the Mongolian arts students, who were singers and dancers.  One of them – who was our age – could produce two tones with his voice at once. We spent the rest of the night singing around a bonfire, with performers from both schools giving fantastic performances. The starry night sky became a canvas for our voices and hearts. The waning moon peered down at our performances as a silent judge. Finally, we slept in the yurt, which is not, as Dowey Tran would like to point out, short for yogurt. It was very cozy, and we all slept very soundly.

              The next day, several of us woke at four-thirty to watch the sun rise above the Mongolian plain (Pictures included with the return of your children.) We then ate breakfast (fried bread, lamb, and soymilk) – and returned to the bus.