Exploring a part of history, juniors Katie Witter and Morgan Garnett, Traveling Assistant and On– Site Physician Dr. Leslie Teague, junior Patrick Owens, and sophomore Ashley Horne walk along the Great Wall of China on Aug. 23."When you're walking along the wall and looking at the view surrounding you, it was just breathtaking; it was just hard to believe that we were actually walking on something that great built by human hands so long ago," sophomore Julie Adams said. -Courtesy ofJulie Adams ERIENCE Australia program offers new culture to students Every year, students in the H arding University Australia program traveled Down Under for a semester abroad. Traditionally. the group stopped in South Korea for a little more than a week to see the sights and learn about the culture there. The group stayed in hotels and gained educational experiences by visiting ancient temples and ruins. They go t a first-hand view of the culture of South Korea. This year, however, the HUA group decided to visit China instead of South Korea, staying at Capital Normal University for international students while traveling around Beijing fo r nine days. T he group visited the Summer Palace Temples, the Forbidden City and even T iananmen Square. For the students, though, the most popular part of the trip to China was the visit ro the Great Wall. Junior Katie Wi tter said the Great Wall was one of the most fasci nating things she had ever seen. "This was the best pare of our stay in Chi na," Witter said. "Because we we re not on a guided tour, we cou ld look around at whatever we wanted and take our time. I could not believe how long the wall was and how cool it was to be standing next to somethi ng I had only seen in schoolbooks before," Students said another interesting aspect of the trip was the opporeunity _ ...:...2 student life w stay in a place where religion could not be openly discussed. "They can't openly talk about religion so they have private meetings at people's apanments," W iner said. "If they get caught. they are in trouble; it was interesti ng to see that. It's such a different culture." Sophomore Ashley Horne said the trip was fun, but there were some things that required gening used to; one of those was Chinese cuisine. Some regional dishes the group dined on included whole fish, includ– ing the scales and eyeballs. chicken feet, pig intestines, duck neck and octopus. Horne said the students tried to eat the food regardless of how unappetizing it seemed Out of respect to the Chinese people. Horne said another aspect of the trip thar took some difficulty adjust– ing to were street vendors who would constantly offer the students such items as scarves and souvenirs. Winer said the trip was a good experience and said she thought H UA should take its groups to China every year. "It was life changing fo r me because I did not realize how much I take life fo r granted at home," Witter said. "It made me miss the luxuries that I am used to getting everyday. It was a very, very interesti ng experience, and I hope that they will do the same thing next year." -Erin Smith
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