You would love this city—the bright lights, the streets full of people, the air conditioning blasting in our rooms. However, getting here was no easy feat… to get to Chengdu it took planes, trains (automated people mover??), and automobiles. We began our journey in LA, where we struggled to find each other, ate, and got to know one another. From LA, we boarded a plane to Beijing, which was honestly a pretty easy flight. Upon our arrival, we pondered the time of day and took an automated people mover (a train) to our terminal, where we had just enough time to dash for coffee before boarding our final plane of the day—the flight to Chengdu. We arrived on the 25th, completely skipping Sunday. We were greeted by Tenpa and Namlha, two people from Conscious Journey. They gave us scarves and helped us with our bags. As we walked outside, we felt as though we were in a rec center’s indoor pool area—it was so hot and humid. Eventually, we drove to Holly’s Hostel, where we settled in and then headed to lunch. There we tried a variety of awesome Asian cuisine and continued to learn about each other. Following lunch, some of us went exploring while others napped. We finished off the day with a Hotpot dinner where we tried beef stomach, picked cabbage (fish lettuce), and lotus roots. So far, this trip has been incredible. We’re so excited for what the next few days will bring and look forward to sharing our stories with you!” – Selam and Emma