tiananmen square

here we are in the famous tiananmen square in beijing. y'all this picture of chairman mao is huge. like ridiculously big. the photos dont really do it justice. one thing i find fascinating about chinese culture is their resiliency as a people. they've been through a heck of a lot in the last 100 years (not to mentions the thousands of years before that...)
they continue to progress and change and despite the chains on them, move forward.

these two ladies were my teammates the year we lived there. both of them moved back there with spouses and stayed for years and years. one just came home. the other is still there. i couldnt find many good ones of all three of us because i guess we were always taking the pictures.
we ate together, studied together, helped each other, and even had to sleep in the same bed together! but let me tell you, we have NEVER laughed so much! if you ever have to live in a place that has rats chewing your shoes, slugs coming up your drain, or mildew down your walls-these are the gals to brave it with. those things never even bothered me because we had so much fun exploring this new world together.