Author: CCRoses

Of all the amazing countries and diverse cultures I’ve experienced, I haven’t seen much of my home country. This week, my dad and I are taking a road trip to. Yesterday and this morning, we visited the stunning mansions and rocky beaches of Newport.

The Elm House

Yesterday afternoon, we toured the Elm House, a beautiful mansion built in the early 1900s. While there are currently no elm trees in the area due to disease, there are plenty of tall, drooping beach willows surrounding the property. Along with the main house, there are two tea houses, three guest houses, and a stable that later became a garage when automobiles were invented. We wandered around the first floor before our servant life tour, which described what it was like for servants to live and work in Elm House, including some specific staff members.

Ocean Drive

After the Elm House, we checked into our Airbnb and took a drive along the ocean side. As the water churned and sprayed up over the rocks, we stopped at a few places to take pictures and watch the dark gray clouds.

Cliff Walk

Right before sunset, we took a short walk by he water. Somehow, we managed to miss the rain, although the ground was wet when we got back to our Airbnb.

Sunset

After the cliff walk, we quickly drove to a small park on the water to watch the sunset. All around the park we’re boats and a few statues memorialized something (although idk what🤔).

Forty Steps

This morning, we left for the Forty Steps around 9:45. We didn’t stay for long, since there were quite a few people and it’s hot outside. The steps are part of the cliff walk and lead down toward the water. A few people were swimming beside the rocks.

The Breakers

Finally, we took an audio tour around the Breakers Mansion, which is slightly older than the Elm House and has a view of the water. Of all the mansions, the Vanderbilt family’s Breakers is the most famous. Based on Italian architecture and grandeur, the mansion is enormous and full of marble, gold, and even platinum. There’s a fountain behind the main staircase and 20 bathrooms! The audio tour also described life in the mansion with a few of the family members’ stories and descriptions. One of the Vanderbilt grandchildren explained that when she was young, she once locked her older sister and her guests in their breakfast room during a party.

The music room

As I write this, I’m in the car on my way to Portland, Maine to continue the trip! After Portland, we’ll stop in Salem, Massachusetts for a day. Finally, we’ll stay in Pennsylvania for a couple days to visit friends before continuing back to Martinsburg. I’ll try to post about Portland right after we’re done there instead of waiting until next Sunday, so stay tuned. Have a fabulous day!🎈

In my time overseas, I’ve eaten some strange food. Most of the time, it’s fairly straight forward. Dograma, for example, is a Turkmen meat and bread stew. While it may sound odd, the ingredients are obvious and it’s actually really good. However, Chinese food is a very different story. And I don’t mean sweet and sour chicken or pork stuffed spring rolls, either. I mean the real stuff.

WAIT WHAT?! PANDA EXPRESS ISN’T REAL CHINESE FOOD?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!

No, it’s not. Not at all. I’ve never even seen sweet and sour chicken in China and fried spring rolls are only available at the Vietnamese restaurant down the street from my apartment. Instead, Chinese food often has a lot of cloves, star anis, fennel, cardamom, and chili powder. Some of the food I’ve had has been really good, especially Yunan food, which is a lot simpler and seems to have more Western ingredients. Some of the food I’ve had, though, has been… interesting.

During the school year, we had an Experiential Learning Week and I signed up for making documentaries. Over the five days, we travelled around our area of China filming and taking photos. One day, in the mountains of Hong Kong, we were visiting a Buddhist temple and a huge Buddha statue. For lunch, we ate at a vegetarian restaurant (cuz Buddhists don’t eat meat). I would love to tell you what we ate, but I don’t even know.

As you can see below, there’s a yellow tofu something that was the best dish in my opinion (although I still would not eat it again). There were also oddly slimy mushrooms😳 and crispy rolls with vegetables and tofu inside. And two more tofu dishes with unidentifiable extra ingredients. The other dish, slightly above the yellow one, was some sort of tofu salad I’m guessing. Then, there was the Purple Thing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good pictures of this one, however if you look at the second photo on the very right side, there’s a brown fried something. That something is purple inside and I don’t know why or how. Someone else in the group thinks that it was taro, so that’s what I’m going with. It had a jello-like consistency (I tried it) and I felt like I was eating something from another planet. It was a flavor I have never experienced before.

Besides the different tofu dishes, there was a vegetable soup that was pretty good and white rice. That’s pretty much all I ate. And the tea was pretty good. A few of the other kids enjoyed the food, although they didn’t know what it was. Most of them bought cup noodles at Seven Eleven right after lunch.

While I didn’t much care for the food, many people really enjoy it. If you’re one of those people, no judgement, that’s awesome! It’s not my thing, but that’s okay! I really do recommend that you always try things, because even if you don’t like it, you still gave it a shot. And if you do like it, you just found a great new food! I’m always willing to at least take a bite, and some of my favorite foods have come from trying something I thought I’d hate!

Have an awesome awesome awesome day and happy late 4th of July!🇺🇸

So, for a couple weeks now, I’ve been in the US catching up with friends and family that I haven’t seen for months. While I love visiting home for the summer, I’m excited to start high school and possibly experience some new countries and cultures this year. With that in mind, here are a few of the plans I have for the coming year!

Arcade, New York & Niagara Falls

Arcade is obviously not a common travel destination, however my mother grew up there. It’s a small town near Buffalo, which is very cold and snowy in the winter time. However, we’ll be there in the summer, so it should be warmer. My mom and I will be staying with a friend and our family will drive around and take a little tour of the town where they grew up.

In addition, we’ll be visiting the US side of Niagara Falls. I’ve never been there and I can’t wait! Hopefully, we’ll ride the Maid of the Mist and get some awesome photos!

Manila, Philippines

Last year, my school participated in the World Scholar’s Cup, a competition centered around learning and fun. My team (2 of my friends and I) did well enough in the regional round to qualify for a global round. Our school is sending those of us who are interested with chaperones to Manila in the fall, and I’m super excited!

Manila is the Capital of the Philippines and boasts a unique mixture of tall skyscrapers and Spanish Colonial architecture. Some famous sites include San Agustin Church and Fort Santiago. I’m not sure what we’re going to see during our trip, but I’m sure we’ll have a good time no matter where we go! As we’re traveling in the fall, it hopefully won’t be too hot, although it is monsoon season, so I’m expecting high humidity (?).

New York, New York

I’ve travelled all around the world, but I’ve never been to NYC. I was there earlier in the summer around midnight for a few hours on my way home from China. My mom and I plan to see the Statue of Liberty, a broadway show, and the Brooklyn Bridge. We’ll also take a slavery tour and spend some time in the Dumbo neighborhood (a small district with cute cafes, restaurants, boutiques, and more).

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Well, that’s all the plans I have for now. I’ll make sure to post pics and stories about each place, of course. Have an awesome day, you awesome people and sorry for the late post!

Every year, my school offers a day at the end of the year, called Discovery Day, where students can choose from a variety of activities. This year, my friends and I chose sailing.

Sailing

Before Discovery Day, I’d only ever been sailing once before, and the guide did most of the work. One of my friends goes sailing in Hong Kong regularly and really enjoys it, so I decided to sign up.

Unfortunately, on the day, there was no wind, and we couldn’t really sail very well. Someone attached our sailboat to a motorboat for a little while, but other than that, we didn’t move at all. Instead, my friends and I jumped out of the boat and attempted to push it through the water. We were unsuccessful, so we climbed back into the boat and intentionally capsized. Then, we swam around for a while before going back to shore. The water was nice, not too warm and not too cold. There was some kind of little animal that kept stinging us, but we couldn’t see it. When we got back on the boat, we all had lots of tiny cuts on our arms and legs.

Paddle-boarding

Next, we did another activity that I’ve done only once before: paddle-boarding. We used big boards that could fit two people at a time. Another girl and I took our board into the water and the whole group played basketball in the water while sitting or standing on paddle-boards. We weren’t very good at it.

Then, we all stood up and tried to make the other person fall off. I wasn’t very good at that, either.

Finally, we lined the boards up in the water and took turns running across. I was okay at that.

Kayaking

The last activity of the day was kayaking. Again, these were two to a kayak. After some practice, we played tag in the water. The instructors chased us in their kayaks. My friend and I were pretty fast.

Lunch

Before we boarded the buses home, we ate lunch at the sailing club. I had chicken legs stuffed with rice (not great), watermelon (yum!), green beans with beef (yum!), clams with cheese (really good), and rice. After lunch, we went to a small McDonald’s truck outside for ice cream and looked out at the mountains of HK and the beautiful blue water. A perfect end to a perfect day!

With most of my schoolwork out of the way for the year, I’ve had a lot more free time. In that free time, I’ve watched a lot of Netflix, since we don’t get any English TV channels here. So, I decided to share some TV shows and movies that have saved me from dying of boredom lately.

Once Upon A Time

Currently my favorite TV show, Once Upon a Time is a complicated drama with a bit of humor and lots of twists and turns. Put simply, it’s a show about all of the classic storybook characters. The Evil Queen casts a curse over the Enchanted Forest, sending all of the characters into our world, specifically a hidden town in Maine called Storybrooke. None of the characters remember who they are, and Snow White and Prince Charming’s daughter, Emma, is destined to save them all. HIGHLY recommend.

Kim’s Convenience

If you like comedy, this one’s for you! Kim’s Convenience follows a hilarious Korean family that owns a convenience store. Every episode is different and exciting, and the Kim family is full of personality. My friend Vanessa and I watch this show together whenever she comes over and we laugh the whole time!

The Perfect Date

Mom and I watch a lot of romantic comedies, and this is one of my favorites. The Perfect Date begins when Brooks, a teenager who dreams of driving fancy cars and going to Yale, creates an app offering to go on fake dates. I love all the Netflix movies I’ve seen with Noah Centineo in them so far, and this one’s no different. Plus, Laura Murano plays a girl with my name!😂

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I watched this movie a while ago and really enjoyed it. Based on the best-selling novel, a young London journalist travels to the island of Guernsey in search of a good story about a book club that kept a group of friends together during World War II. She ends up finding more than what she planned to…

One Day at a Time

I’ll have to warn you, this one ended very suddenly, so there is no proper conclusion, however it’s definitely worth it. This one is based on the series of the same name that aired in the 70s and 80s. It follows a hispanic family’s struggles and successes. While it is a comedy, the show also focuses on the mother’s struggles with PTSD and depression after being in the military and the daughter’s issues with her father after coming out as gay. All of the characters are full of emotion and humor, especially the charismatic and stubborn grandmother, Lydia.

Unbreakable Kimmy Shmidt

Kimmy Shmidt is a young “mole woman” who was found after years of being in an underground bunker, which she was sent to by her doomsday cult with a group of other women. After her rescue, Kimmy decides to stay in New York while the rest of the mole women return to their hometown. Kimmy gets a job working for a rich housewife and must readjust to life above ground, with the help of her roommate.

Hope you enjoy and have a great Sunday! And…

Happy Father’s Day!

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On the fifth month of the fifth day of the Chinese calendar, an energetic celebration takes place. This year, I had last Friday off from school in honor of the Dragon Boat festival. While the holiday is most well-know for its namesake, the dragon boat, most people outside of China do not know the legend behind the celebration.

Zongzi

Also known as Jung in Cantonese, zongzi is a dish of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and often filled with pork, mung beans, egg yolk, and more. Here in Shekou, zongzi can be found everywhere, even at Walmart.

Legend says that Qu Yuan, an advisor to the emperor Chu, suggested that China form an alliance with the Qi so that they could defeat the Qin. The royal court believed Qu Yuan was being disloyal and they exiled him. When the Qin took over, Qu Yuan drowned himself in a river. The citizens began throwing rice into the river as an offering, but the dragon of the river ate it all. Qu Yuan told them to wrap the rice in bamboo leaves so that the dragon couldn’t steal his meal.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-legends-behind-the-dragon-boat-festival-135634582/

Dragon Boats and Racing

“One of the most important mythical creatures in Chinese mythology, the dragon is the controller of the rain, the river, the sea, and all other kinds of water; symbol of divine power and energy…. In the imperial era it was identified as the symbol of imperial power,”

Deming An, Ph.D and professor of folklore

Dragon boat racing began as a celebration of Qu Yuan in the 5th or 6th century A.D. May (the fifth month) was a crucial period for growing rice and double fives were considered highly unlucky. Therefore, people asked for help from the dragons by sending out beautifully decorated dragon boats. As for the racing aspect of it, Andrew Chittick believes that racing the boats may have been a military exercise that later became a sport.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-legends-behind-the-dragon-boat-festival-135634582/

My Experience

While I have not had any zongzi, I have seen a friend eating them and they were available at most stores during the festival. Mom and I went to watch the racers in the morning and we saw the boats row down the river, beating their traditional drums to keep up their pace.

P.S. – Sorry it’s been so long, I plan to upload every Sunday now!

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