from Bryn

March 22

Today on March 22nd I climbed Mountain Tai. Two words "nah cuz". On the way to the mountain it was overwhelming. I was filled with excitement and terror. First off that mountain was enormous. That mountain, in the words of Zaria, was so high that we could be touching Jesus' feet. We got on the bus and it took us half way up the mountain. That ride was fast, shaky, and maybe dangerous. However we got beautiful videos and pictures. Once we got to the start we had two options take the cable car or walk the mountain. I chose to walk the mountain, big mistake.

The mountain was made of all stairs, steep stairs, which made it worse. There was about 2000 stairs. Trying to get up those stairs I almost died. That was the moment I realized I was not in shape. I was having trouble getting up the stairs,staying hydrated, and watching my mouth. Marissa, Amy, and I all went at the same pace and kept motivating each other. We finally got to the top. We were screaming "we accomplished something." 

After about 15 minutes our helper, Jenny came and said "you didn't reach the top yet." We all began to moan and yell. But we continued to walk to the top. Even though it was tiring it was all worth it because of the view. We went to several temples were people were praying and showing their appreciation. We began to make wishes and throwing money into these pots, I'm not sure what the pots were for but they made it difficult. We also realized ball is not life for some of us. We learned how the monks would pray, and we also got to see their temples and the monks, themselves. The temple was beyond beautiful, the painting and architecture. The decorations were wonderful. The in scents were a bit too much though, it was hard to breathe. 

When coming back we took a cable car back down, that was the time of our lives. The seniors kept screaming, and we were singing to every song Zaria played. It was a fun 10 minutes, until we had to get off. To get off we needed to run of the cable car. With that we were about to break our ankles and we weren't even playing basketball. But overall the day at Mount Tai was an amazing experience. If you have the chance to go to China, go climb Mount Tai.