Its Me, I'm alive, and doing great!

Hey Guys!

So I just got back from a trip to LouYang, Xi'an and Beijing with my BYU group! It was pretty fun.. Beijing has changed soo much since we were there! I was able to o into the Olympic Area and see the Water Cube! I also went to a different section of the Great Wall and the leaves were all changing colors, it was very beautiful. But it was fun telling my friends about how my awesome and adventurous grandma had taken me around China last year! They all think you must be one tough Grandma! I would like to learn more about your previous adventures in China, there is still so much I don't know! I met a girl from Harbin last week, she was very sweet. You lived there before right? I remember you sending me those beautiful pictures of the ice sculptures they do in Harbin. China is so amazing and beautiful, I'm so grateful I've been able to incorporate it into my life.

I watched a movie last night, The Last Emperor, that movie about Pu Yi. We visited the Forbidden City when we were in Beijing, and I've started to learn about Pu Yi in the culture class Professor Lefgren teaches.(she came from BYU with my group). The movie was pretty intense, well, Pu Yi's life was pretty intense! He was chosen to be emperor at the age of three and was abdicated when he was six. But eventhough he was technically the emperor anymore, the government allowed him to still live in the Forbidden City as an emperor until he was placed under house arrest at the age of 21. And actually, he wasn't allowed out of the Forbidden City until that time as well. So all this life he has been allowed to do whatever he wanted, and never had to do anything for himself (including things like brushing his teeth and dressing himself). Anyway, it just continues in so many crazy ways until he ends up dying in an alley way at the age of 60ish, having become a poor gardener for the Communists. It is pretty insane! Good movie, Pu Yi is an interesting guy to learn about.

Well, I have to start working on my final project for my culture class, which is some type of study on the China. I'm going to do mine using the question, "What are girls my age doing in China?". So I will be interviewing 19- 25 year old girls, seeing where they live (at home, dorms, own apartments etc.), what their occupation is, their level of education, etc. And then when I find certian patterns (like poorly educated girls live in their factory's dorms, working six days a week and making five USD a week, etc) I'll use China's history to explain why they are like they are as best as I am able to...or something like that.

Well, gotta go,

later,
Brooke