Tuckered out.

This picture is an unstiched 360-degree shot from the roof of United International College.

We made it to the monastery yesterday, after a 3 and 1/2 hour hike. Our group consisted of 3 T.A.'s and 5 Chinese students. The students volunteered to hike with us our Friday afternoon frisbee practice (we are forming a pretty sizable and skilled team here at UIC).

This is the first monastery I have been to while here in China, so forgive me if this gets a bit lengthy. There were about 9 buildings filled with statues (Buddha and his friends), pads for kneeling before the statues, and carts for placing your lit incense sticks. In the courtyard a few merchants were hunched over a wooden cart selling various sized sticks of incense with Chinese characters scrawled across them.
A Chinese student, Austin, told me that the kneeling pads in front of the statues were for 'making wishes' to the Buddha.
"Those big incense over there, " Austin continued, pointing at an incense stick the thickness of a broomstick handle and length of my right arm, "Those cost about 800 rmb."
...That's over 100 usd.

Continuing past these buildings we came to... the gift shop. The monastery wasn't really a tourist spot, and we may have been the only people who entered the gift shop that Saturday afternoon. It's presence made me flash back to my experience of visiting a Catholic church in Italy - now museum. Like a sea shell found on a beach, these beautiful monuments of faith were discarded and reclaimed by another type of creature, one who enjoys it because of the 'sound in makes when you put it up to your ear' not necessarily the function for which it was created. This is the impression I had visiting some of the churches in Italy, and this monastery. However, I am convinced that this is is an unfair judgment. After all, I never attended a mass/worship service in an Italian church, and this temple housed monks who were still practicing Buddhism. It is my intention to rectify this error in judgment - -

Behind the gift shop was a giant building which housed the monk's 'dormitory', and the dining hall. We showed up at 2:14 and missed having lunch with the monks which usually runs from 12 - 1. I plan on attending lunch the following weekend with an interested student (if I can find one). Lunch is prepared in the monastic tradition - completely vegetarian and it is extremely cheap for visitors to participate.

Zhen Zhu Nie Cha - Bubble Milk Tea, a great drink...