Let me start by saying everyone’s English is AWESOME. Being surrounded by English for two weeks straight works wonders for my advanced students who know a lot but lack practice. They’re even starting to understand me well when I talk fast or use a lot of slang. It’s great! So I’m even more convinced than I even was before that if you want to perfect your English, you MUST remove yourself from your first language as much ad possible and intentionally immerse yourself in English among English speakers.

Now, on to the Grand Canyon 🙂

Monday, we got to the Grand Canyon mid-afternoon. After checking into our lodge and eating a snack in the cafeteria, we hopped on the bus to our first lookout point. I made everyone promise not to look out the window at the other stops until we got to our point, Hopi Point.

And it was really grand! Already at the first look, it was much better than I remembered it.

We took some pictures and got back on the bus to take us to our staring point to hike part of the rim trail.

Along the drive we passed at least 5 female elk!!! Awesome! Ive never seen elk before other than on my grandparents living room wall. I really wanted to see a male with giant antlers though.

So anyway, we got to Pima Point and started our hike along the rim. The trail was really rugged and REALLY close to the edge in some places… Just enough space for your two feet to fit on the trail…

I thought it was an awesome adventure, but two people decided to take walk along the road instead. Yan and I continued our hike.

After hiking, we all went back to Pima Point to watch the sunset. It was BREATH TAKING. And there were hardly any other people around. We found a secluded spot and just sat and took pictures for a while taking in the view.

We made lots of friends on the bus rides… One of my favorite things about the Grand Canyon is the crazy mix of people it brings together.

In the cafe, I heard a group of people speaking some of the clearest Russian I’ve ever heard. I really enjoyed listening to the 3 kids talk about which drinks they should mix together from the drink machine to trick their parents. They eventually decided to serve their dad cherry coke mixed with diet coke. Haha. He wasn’t amused. I really wanted to go talk to them all but I didn’t.

We also met a beautiful woman from Jordan and her son… Giulia bonded with him because he had an Italian soccer shirt on…

I met a guy from A&M class of ’80 on the bus, a ton of Chinese tourists –> which brought up a wonderful discussion in our hotel room of how the world perceives different nationalities as tourists. Yan said that she read an article saying that Americans should be thankful because the Chinese have topped them as the worst international tourists. Haha.

The next day, we slept in and got moving pretty slowly. We had lunch at The Arizona Room barbecue restaurant, and that was by far the best eating decision weve made all trip. Our server, Mark, was WONDERFUL. He went above and beyond for all we asked and even anticipated things before we asked them. If you ask me, that guy deserves a raise! And besides that, the food was magically delicious. The aolis served with some of our orders were perfection. My compliments to the chef. That guy knows what he’s doing!!

We ended our meal with coffee and went to the visitors center to watch the 20 minute Grand Canyon film.

It was perfect to pump us up for our hike into the canyon.

And then our South Kaibab Trail hike began. Awesome. I REALLY want
to go to the bottom someday, but I knew beforehand that wouldn’t be on the agenda for this trip. So then I REALLY wanted to hike down 3 miles to Skeleton Point where you can first see the Colorado River. But other than me, it’s everyone’s first time hiking, so we decided just to go to Cedar Ridge Point 1.5 miles down the trail.

It was still totally worth it.

Even on our drive out to our hotel last night (in Cameron), we had some phenomenal views of the canyon from different perspectives. Desert
View is beautiful and TOTALLY worth driving out to!

We had a relaxing night at Cameron Trading Post and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever with ‘fire-burnt clouds’ as the Chinese and Koreans translate it. I took pictures but couldn’t figure out how to capture the bright orange hue.

Today we’re headed for a Navajo experience on the Navajo Reservation in Monument Valley.