St. Olaf Global Semester 2017

To say that this was one of the longest days of our lives would not be an understatement, by the time we made it to the Minneapolis airport it was the 29th hour we had been awake (those who went to Seattle had a similar situation). This very long day was filled with a lot of active! Most of us (besides Ellie because she had already left) woke up at 7 to say goodbye to the 4 people fighting to Seattle! Those who were left in china finished some last minute packing and essay writing before we headed off to a group lunch at the “orange chicken restaurant”. All 12 of us packed into one table had a great last lunch. By the time we got back it was time to load the bus and set off to the airport. After checking in we all gathered at the gate waiting to board. When it was almost time to get on we said good by to the Riply Family and filed onto the plan. After a lot of movies, journaling, plane food and listening to a crying baby we touched down in the US. It was time for another round of goo

I am from 114 days of travel I am from circumnavigating the globe I am from Italy, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, India, Thailand, and China I am from 24 people who held me together and carried me through I am from Kate and her contagious laugh I am from Rachael's endurance and love for her family and friends I am from Matthew's tendency to go out of his way to help everyone he knows I am from Will's passion for all he does I am from Erin and her ability to wear her heart on her sleeve I am from Rose and her dedication to adventure I am from Peder and his enormous heart of gold I am from James' dedication to fully experiencing each new location I am from Ellie and all of the hard work she puts into everything, for her sake and ours I am from Alexandra and her keen sense of important going's on I am from Adam's desire to know everyone deeply I am from Anna and her ability to introduce laughter into any situation I am from Maren and

Hi everyone! This is Ellie for my final blog post of Global Semester. For many of us, today was the day that hit home that Global Semester is coming to an end. Traveling with this group has begun to feel so normal that many of us have expressed that “it is just our life now; this is what we do.” However, with our last group meal, our last sharing time, and our last singing of Um Ya Ya , we are forced to face that their is an end to our 114 day journey. Globies spent their day finishing things up in Beijing. For some, that meant finishing the two papers we have; for others, that meant visiting a few lasts sites of Beijing including seeing the pandas at the Zoo, visiting the Olympic Village, shopping at more markets, and eating one last meal of orange chicken. That night, we feasted on delicious Chinese food for our last group meal (and our last meal with the Lazy Susan tables!), and we said goodbye and thank you to our amazing trip organizer here in Beijing, Zoe. Afterwards,

Hi it’s James, The day started out with a nice surprise of hot chocolate and coffee for our final day of class. Built into class was a time to reflect on the trip. The reflection time in class mirrored the reflection we have provided in our final papers, and was a nice way to flush out some thoughts and hear what people had to say. After class we had a few hours to relax and get lunch before our last tour as a group. At 12 we all loaded on the bus and set off for the Temple of Heaven. We spent a few hours exploring, learning about it’s historical context, and of course taking a lots of pictures. At the end of our time exploring we walked all the way through the park where the temple was putting us very close to our next stop for the day, the pearl market. Here we went our separate ways getting some last minute shopping done. Some went back to the dorms after a few hours. Personally me and a few others took the subway to another market for a bit more variety. After about 4 hours and t

Hi everyone! This is Peder, writing about our final events in Datong and the remainder of our day. After a great buffet-style breakfast at our hotel with buns and coffee, we all piled into the bus and traveled to the Hanging Temple. This temple hangs on the side of a mountain and is the only existing temple that has a combination of Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist elements. It was awesome to be there and witness it. This was probably the coldest experience of Global so far as well as an incredibly beautiful one. We spent a couple of hours touring this incredible sight, bundling up to stay warm in the wind, before jumping back into the bus to go back to Beijing. The bus ride was about six hours and people took advantage of this time to work on their final projects, read, and catch up on some rest. We arrived back to Capital Normal University about 7 pm and went separate ways for dinner. A few of us took the subway to a restaurant called Mr. Shi's where we had a delicious dinner

Hello all, it's Rose! Today began dark and early with a 5:30am bus ride (sound familiar..?) to Datong, a 5 hour drive east of Beijing. Luckily, our amazing coordinator Zuo kept up amply supplied with water, apples, and bread! With our usual perfect timing, we checked into our hotel just in time for lunch. Our first tour of the day was of the Yungang Grottoes, a series of caves filled with amazing colorful carvings and more huge Buddhas than we saw even in the Ellora caves of Aurangabad, India! Here, we had plenty of free time to wander among the caves and find the warmest and least windy spots. Although it would have been fascinating to have spent much more time here, we were not sorry to pile back onto the bus and try to thaw a little before our next stop: Huayan Temple, an originally thousand-year-old temple complex. As the sun dropped below the horizon, our body temperatures dropped as well. The perfect thing to warm us up: birthday cake!!! We have officially entered birthday

Good morning! It’s Erin again, here for the final time to tell you all about our wonderful FREE DAY! Jam-packed full of different activities, studying, laundry, writing essays, coffee, and acrobat shows, today gave us some much-needed freedom that we all spent in our own ways. I can’t speak for what every person did given the breadth of activities, but I can provide a little glimpse into a day in the life of one Globie trying to wrap up the semester. After getting the chance to sleep in, a group of us decided to check out the Beijing Zoo in the morning! It was bitterly cold and most of the zoo ended up being outside, but it was still an interesting opportunity to compare the conditions of zoos abroad to those back home. For one, we had heard this zoo had an exhibit of squirrels , but I guess we must have missed the turnoff for that enclosure. In fact, we didn’t end up seeing much wildlife at all because most of the animals were taking refuge from the cold. We did get to visit

Hi guys! Will here with the blog post! Today, the Globies embarked on a day of knowledge. We began, as we routinely do, with our Christology in a Global Perspective course with Professor Ripley. In it, we discussed an article about what we can learn from the Chinese traditions of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.  First, we  discussed the various way in which these traditions influence contemporary Chinese society and then concluded with what we can learn from them in order to enhance our own beliefs. Afterwards, we all got together for a group photo to document our survival of the month here at Normal Capitol University. It has been an incredible experience with the best group. As we all locked arms and yelled "q ǐ sī" (Cheese in Chinese), it was another moment of reminder that our trip is sadly coming to a close. I think most of us can attest that we so desperately crave the warm embrace of our families, but still want to squeeze the remaining drops of adventure out o

Hello again friends, family and well wishers of Global! Today I got the opportunity to reflect a little bit on what the true meaning of the Global semester is for me personally. The activities that a small group of us embarked on during the space between Ripley’s class and our last class with Professor Moser afforded me this chance to encapsulate a few of the greatest lessons I have learned during the semester. A group of us excitedly set out from Capitol Normal University on the mission to find an indoor ice rink that Zoe had pointed out to us earlier. We had the basic instructions of which subway stop to get off at, but beyond that we had very little to work with. This being said, we quickly asked for directions. A local pointed us towards the supermall that was a stones throw from where we were. As we entered, we saw no signs for what we thought would be the main attraction of this mall. This caused us to walk through the entirety of  the mall, with no fruits to bear from our l

Hello everyone, it’s Rachael! Today was another big school day. We had Prof. Ripley’s class in the morning and our political economy class in the evening, so the middle of the day was spent doing homework and studying for our China midterm. Study breaks for various globies included playing basketball, walking in the park, going out to brunch/ lunch/ dinner, watching Teen Wolf, and planning activities for our remaining free days. A highlight of my day was doing some field research for my political economy paper on Beijing’s urban green-spaces by walking to the nearby park and jumping into an impromptu dance rehearsal. One thing that makes the parks here different from the parks back home is that here parks are always packed with people and they are often used as an open space to practice dancing, singing, etc. People will just practice in the middle of the park and if a group is doing tai chi and you feel compelled to hop in and follow along, you are welcome to do so. It’s all

China has given us all the opportunity to have a lot more control over our own schedules, and today was no exception. We started the day with Professor Ripley's class and a discussion about what Christians can learn from Buddhism, a theme that has been addressed while learning about several of the world's religions. After our morning class several of us headed to Laker's, a favorite place to get food and hangout at night, but has also recently been discovered to have a great American Breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and hash browns. This is always a great way to start the rest of the day and breakup the endless amounts of cup of noodles that are being eaten here.  For the time before our China's Political Economy class, today from 3-6 instead of 6-9,  several of us headed to Cafe Benne across the street from campus and worked on our two essays that will be our last assignments of the semester.  These last two weeks have included trying to jump start our l

Hi, it’s Olivia! Today (12/8), we woke up with varying levels of restfulness on an overnight train. Blearily drinking our train coffee, we prepared for a new city, Xi’an. Once we arrived, we met our guide, Chris, and went to the hotel to eat breakfast. Xi’an is an amazing city whose history dates to the beginning of China (generally dated around 400 BC). It is the historic capital city where many of the ancient Dynasties’ ruled until the capital was moved to Beijing.                 I think giving some background of this city is important. The earliest it is known to be the capital is in 200 BC during the Qin Dynasty (Not the Qing Dynasty, important difference!). This dynasty was short, only 11 years, and ruled by Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Shi Huangdi harshly ruled over his people and is accredited with the political philosophy of legalism, or the most effective manner to rule is through strict enforcement of laws. He is most well-known for creating the Terracotta warriors. After it

Hola! Brodie here. Today was one of our remaining free days, so people went off and did whatever they felt like doing! Many Globies chose to study and write papers today, but others chose to explore the Beijing some more. A few people checked out the art district in Beijing as well as the Olympic village, while others went to some of the markets to do a little bit of shopping. Later at night a fairly large group of us went out and enjoyed singing karaoke and thankfully they had songs in English! Otherwise that would not have been as much fun.. For the karaoke, you rent out a private room with tv screens, tons of party lights, and, of course, microphones! After about 3 hours of Globies enthusiastically dancing and singing to their favorite songs, we finished up with “Lean on me” and headed back to the university. All in all, it was a great way to finish out the weekend. Tomorrow, we get down to business in the classroom again.

Hello friends and family, Macy here! Today I will be giving you a rundown on our second and final day in Xi’an.  We started the day with a morning bike ride around the Xi’an city wall. As the capital of many dynasties and one of the most important of China’s cities (it is the beginning of the Silk Road), Xi’an has a massive city wall surrounding the historical center. Although many cities have similar fortifications, Xi’an’s wall is the largest, oldest and best preserved, standing at 40 feet tall. It was on this wall that the Globies spent their morning. We biked around all nine miles of the wall’s perimeter in a little over an hour and a half, soaking in the sights and only a little pollution.  Exhausted and hungry after the morning exercise, we headed to lunch. After filling up on Xi’an noodles, cabbage and sweet and sour chicken at the China Folk’s Restaurant, we headed to our next destination, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This pagoda once held the first sutras of Buddhism

Hello there! This is Sophie, here to take you though an academically packed day! We started off with Professor Ripley's class where three of our fellow Globies gave research presentations. I love presentation days because I get to see all of the creative ways our peers present information, and sometimes it is nice to have an complex theological article explained to you instead of reading through it yourself! After class we assisted a professor at Capital Normal University with her research project on native English speakers which involved a fun word matching game. We went our separate ways for lunch and reconvened at 1 pm for our lecture which actually turned out to be at 6! Luckily, we are very experienced with shifting schedules and flexibility. We rolled with the punches and used the extra time to study and relax. Our class with Professor Moser was well worth the wait. The lecture focused on the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre of 1989. Professor Moser quietly closed th

Hello Global blog post followers! I'm excited to share a day that wasn't just a typical day here in Beijing! The day began, as many have, with Professor Ripley's class. We officially finished reading McLaren's book, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-faith World . This book has tied together our journey so far, and finishing it drew mixed reactions from the group. It has definitely been thought-provoking as proven by the many discussions it sparked both in and outside of class. After class, a large group played ultimate frisbee for a while. Several people followed this up with a run - so much athleticism! Another group visited the Nest and Olympic Village from the 2008 Olympics. Apparently, a student discount can be easily obtained through two easy steps. First, be a student. Then present an ID - it can be anyone's in any form. Those who went enjoyed it, and some who didn't are hoping to soon! The res

Hi Everybody! It’s Hannah. This morning we had our last class of the week, as tonight we leave for our first excursion in Beijing. We are going to Xi’an to see the Terra-cotta Warriors! After class, we got free time until just after dinner when we left for the train station. A significant amount of the group took the subway to go to this Cat Cafe that Macy found. To our delight, there were 15 cats walking around. So one cat for each person that went (plus two extra cats!!). About 20 or 30 minutes into this stop, we had all the cats in our corner. One cat kept walking on Mikkel’s back, while the rest were pretty infatuated with Brodie and his pencil (#catwhisperer). It felt so good to pet an animal again. I think we’ve all been slightly deprived of that this semester. Later that day we left for our excursion. We are taking an overnight train to get to Xi’an. It felt very much like we were in Harry Potter, when he takes the train to Hogwarts. Between the 24 of us, we had 4 cu

Good morning, everyone! Or night! Time zones are still messing me up! It’s Anna here, and today we broke up the classes and homework with some sightseeing. Although not fully, because we didn’t start touring until noon, so we still spent the morning studying at a coffee shop (photographic evidence below). Here’s a fun fact: every 12 hours, a new Caffe Bene opens somewhere in the world. Keep your eyes peeled, I guess.  Some of us watched The Last Emperor on Saturday night, so we were fully pumped and ready to explore the forbidden city. After passing through the famous Tiananmen Square, we began our tour. Hot tip in case you’re ever passing through Beijing in winter after 3 months of insane humidity: gloves and hats are a need, not a want. On a personal level, my Scandinavian roots were really letting me down on the cold tolerance, so I became adept at locating and not so subtly placing myself in front of all the space heaters in all the museums. ANYWAY.  The forbidden

"What a beeauuutifulll day!" It's Maren here! For those of us who sing in choir back at St. Olaf, this is a common vocal warm up that we use to start rehearsals. But it's also how we started the morning today, at 5:00am, to watch the live stream of St. Olaf's annual Christmas Festival. The repertoire, the faces, and the pancakes (courtesy of Jason and Amy) were all warm reminders of the people who are waiting for us back at home. The music was lovely -- and then the sun came up, and we went to class to consider images of Jesus as king, as sufferer, and as clan-defying friend. As we've gone through Global, we have tried to grasp the power of Jesus' life and teachings to heal in this world -- to mend conflicts and divisions, to illuminate social injustices -- which seems especially appropriate now, given that this year's theme of Christmas Fest is "Ris'n With Healing in His Wings." In parallel, we are witnessing Chinese communi

Hey its Adam, and I bet you're wondering what us Globies were up to on December 2nd? Well the answer can be found in this blog post, so READ ON! Today was academic-oriented; our morning consisted of a discussion on our Christology in Global Context course and our early evening was spent attending our first class titled China's Political Economy . Both were filled with rich conversation and informative lectures! I think I speak for a lot of us Globies when I say this next three weeks will be abundant with learning on an incredibly interesting topic. Our China's Political Economy class will touch on how China has been able to maintain such a strong and vibrant economy in the last couple of decades, historical events (such as the Opium Wars) that have significantly shaped China in the modern era, and some of the challenges in governing such a large country. After all of our classes the group split off into various activities for the rest of the night. Maren and I went

Good day to you, families and friends of us Globies! Alexandra here again, struggling to find new ways to open this blogpost! Today we had the chance to sleep in, which is an opportunity none of us squander away. In the afternoon, we went out with our Chinese buddies to the Summer Palace, which at this time of year, is quite cold and the lake was frozen over, but it was gorgeous and we all had a blast making new friends. But the most exciting part of today by far was waiting with Matthew for acceptance emails from dental schools he applied to. Spoiler alert: He got in!!! Pretty early on in the trip, our group as a whole started to realize the potential for us to turn into an extension of our families. I always laugh a little to think back to Rome when one of our only-child Globies looked around the table at lunch and said something like, "You are all going to be my brothers and sisters at the end of this. I am sorry, but you have no choice!" I have to admit, there have

Hi friends and family of Global Semester! This is Ellie to tell you about our 91st day. Today was the last day of November which was a wake up call to many of us that we only have 22 more days together! After breakfast on our own (or in my case, sleeping in and eating an apple as I left my room), we were off to see our last World Wonder of the trip: the Great Wall of China! The two hour bus ride there went by fast for those of us who slept the whole way (a talent many of us globies have perfected throughout Global). When we arrived, we first stopped for lunch to fuel up before our hike up to the Great Wall, which our guide, Zoe, promised us would be 1,000 steps up. I immediately did the math in my head and realized that meant this was almost 3 times the amount of steps as the Dome we climbed in Florence, and after 3 months of gorging myself on rice, I was in much worse shape, so moral of the story: this hike up would be rough. Nevertheless, the majority of us opted for this climb