Month: August 2018

At the end of the summer break, Joy and I went to Miami because we were going to see Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour on August 18th.

I guess it was something special to start my senior year. Actually I had never been to a concert, and I was excited to see Taylor because I really like her songs.

In the morning of 18th, we went to walk around in the downtown Miami. The streets here were totally different from the streets in other places. There were palm trees on the sidewalk. I really enjoyed the tropical climate with hot weather and crystal blue sky.

There were not many people on the streets since it was in the morning. We walked around aimlessly and we got to Brickell City Centre. It was a big shopping mall, and to my surprise, most of the staff in the stores could speak Spanish. It seemed that Spanish was more popular than English here.

City view in Miami was gorgeous. Every building looks kind of bluish under the sky. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant, hoping to get some authentic Mexican food.

While we were walking, we were attracted by the metro moving on the tracks above the roads. Then we decided to try the metro because it was quite interesting.

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The metro was very short, and it was FREE. It was so fascinating because we were above the city. We took the metro to the Bayfront park, and we began to walk by the sea.

We kept walking, and we got to the Bayside Marketplace.

To be honest, I had already fallen in love with the weather in the city. The beautiful views only made me want to stay in Miami longer.

We kept walking, and we ran into the Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science. Since we had noting to do, we decided to go in the museum. It was a huge museum with so many rooms of different themes.

Then in the afternoon, we were so ready for the concert.

We arrived at the Hard Rock Stadium around 5:30 pm. There were Taylor Swift’s songs everywhere in the parking lot.

Our seats were kind of far away from the stage because the tickets were pretty expensive. The stadium was huge, much bigger than I expected. Everyone was so hyped for the concert.

                           

The guest singers were Charlie XCX and Camila Cabello. They were both amazing artists who were absolute incredible during their performances.

Then around 9:00 pm, Taylor finally came to the stage. The scream was insane in the stadium. I was so excited and happy to see Taylor in person, even the stage was still far away from me.

The tour was amazing, and I did not realize how fast the time had passed.

I would never forget about this experience. The entire stadium was screaming, singing, and dancing.

Both of us were tired on the next day. We planned to go to South Beach and we almost fell asleep on the Uber.

But as soon as we arrived at South Beach, the views immediately caught our attention.

I loved sea. South Beach had met every desire of mine towards the sea. We did not bring any beach wears, but I really wanted to jump into the sea.

Blue and green are two of my favorite colors, and I felt so comfortable just by looking at the sea. It really could cure a person’s soul.

We went to a Cuban restaurant for lunch, though it was already afternoon. It was a small and crowded restaurant by the sea. Sea wind was blowing into the restaurant with the hot summer air. It was so relaxing and comfortable.

We only had a few days in Miami because the school was going to start, but I had fallen in love with the passion of the city. I am the type of the person who loves water and hot weather, and Miami was just like a dream city for me.

 

 

 

The second city of our graduation trip is Xian. We are taking a plane from Xiamen to Xian. It is quite interesting for me because it is actually my first time to take a domestic flight. As for my friends, it is probably like the second or the third time of taking planes. So we all are quite excited about the experience.

 

Again, we are living in an airbnb in Xian. The location of our apartment is quite convenient for us because it is right at downtown with shopping malls all around. And the metro is just five minutes of walk.

The next morning we go the Fireflies Light Art Gallery. It has a lot of different settings of lights, and it is a great place for pictures.

          

                         

It is a really fun place, and we take tons of pictures inside. Then we have a steak buffet for lunch, and we go to a trampoline place called Double One. There are so many kinds of trampolines inside.

Then in the night, we go to Muslim Snack Street for dinner, but we do not expect the street to be so crowded that we can barely move.

We try a lot of local food, such as cruded pancake in mutton soup, Biangbiang noodles, sheep’s haslet soup, and rougamo.

These food taste pretty special, very different from the food in the east of China. I do not really like eating haslets, so I guess it is hard for me to live in this city.

After dinner, we walk to the Drum Tower first. It was built in 1380, and it was used to give the time to the entire city by beating the drum.

Then we walk to the Bell Tower. It was also built to remind the people of time and emergency by ringing the huge bell inside.

It is very close to the Drum Tower. It is quite shocking to see both buildings and how carefully they were built with so many details.

Then on the last day, we go to Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. It contains a collection of terracotta sculptures of the armies of the first emperor of China: Qin Shi Huang of Qin Dynasty. It is such a huge construction that it is so hard to imagine it was built in around B.C. 200.

However, it is very interesting that no sculpture has a weapon on their hands. There are many theories behind this, and one of them is that others stole the weapons and used them to rebel at the end of Qin Dynasty.

Xian is a very interesting city with lots of history. It is an ancient capital of many dynasties. There are a lot more to see and explore, but we only have three days. I would never forget this graduation trip with my best friends, and I am so grateful that we met and have taken care of each other since first grade.

 

I have a group of friends who I have known for most of my life. We met in the lower school and have been contacting with each other ever since. Twelve years of friendship has bonded six of us so closely and intimately that we feel like a big family right now.

We always planned to have a graduation trip. We hanged out a lot in our own city, but we never travel as a group to somewhere else.

In the summer of 2018, we had our first chance to travel together because everyone graduates from high school (except me).

 

The first city we go to is Xiamen. It is a famous coastal city in the southeast of China. It takes us four hours to get there by train, and we all are very excited because it has always been our dream! We bought the same shoes for everyone to wear during our trip!

 

 

After we arrive in Xiamen, we take the metro to get to our Airbnb. The metro in Xiamen is very colorful and bright.

 

 

It is raining heavily when we get to the Airbnb, so we stay in the house for two hours and organize our clothes and other stuff. Then we go to Mingfa Square which is a shopping mall nearby for dinner.

 

We can never miss seafood when we are in a coastal city. We order a huge seafood platter for our first meal. Even though I am not a big fan of seafood, I am impressed by the looking and taste of the food.

After dinner, we walk around the Mingfa Square and look for entertainment. We discover an Escape The Room and decide to try. We pick a horror theme room, and the story is set at a school. The picture is taken before we start to play. It is used as the last key of the game. I can still remember before the staff closes the entrance door, she asks us which level of difficulty we want, easy, medium, or hard. “Easy.” We answer simultaneously. Then the staff begins to laugh in a weird way and closes the door heavily, leaving us screaming inside. I did play escape the room a few times before, but I never tried the room with NPCs inside the room. When we are in the third room, a Japanese style “ghost” lady with white dress and hair hanging in her face crawls into our room. One of us starts screaming, and then all of us are screaming. This is the loudest scream I have ever experienced, and I always laugh whenever I think of the moment. Luckily, after asking for help for several times, we get out of the room, but everyone is still in horror and scared. This is the experience that I would never forget. 

After the game, it is almost nine. Five of us start to plan something because today is also the 18th birthday of the only girl in our group. We try to distract her attention while we are ordering a cake secretly online. We walk around the square for half an hour and then we go back to our home. While the cake is being delivered, we play around in the house like usual and we also have made a plan. When the cake is delivered, we send two people to pick it up and tell her that we just ordered some extra food. They take the cake and open it up outside, and they also light up the candles. Then when they knock on the door, one of us turns off the light, and we start to sing Happy Birthday. Everything goes perfectly, and here is the picture of our birthday girl.

On our second day, we go to the Zhongshan Road, which is the famous shopping street in Xiamen. The weather is very good, but it is already very hot in the morning.

There are so many food choices around. Although it is morning, we start to hunt for food: Barbecue, Stinky Tofu, Icy fruit, dried pork slices, ice cream, etc.

                                                      

 

After lunch, we decide to ride bikes to the cat street. It is a very lovely streets with everything around related with cats. The owners of shops are friendly and welcoming.

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In the late afternoon, we come to the Huandao Road. It is right next to the sea. We walk on the beach with barefoot. Seaside always makes me peaceful, even though there are so many people around.

 

On the third day, which is also our last day in Xiamen, we decide to go to the waterpark of Xiamen Fantawild Dreamland.

All of us had a lot of fun in the park. We tried almost every entertainment. But my friend lost his phone which contained all the photos and videos we took in the park, and everyone got sun burned even though we put on sun screen.

This is my second time in Xiamen, and I always enjoy my time spending in the city. I enjoy the happiness the city brings me. I feel more relaxed and joyful this time with my best friends. And our graduation trip has not ended; We set off for Xi’an the next day.