Flying Home
Ross, Participant
Early this morning, 11 students and instructor Ben boarded the flight back home....Read More
China: Mandarin Language Intensive (6-week)
The Great Wall
Jackson DaPuzzo, Participant
Hello Yakkers, Get comfortable, because you’re in for a story. We have been in Beijing for two days, and have just recently finished our 5/5 rugged travel trek to the Great Wall. You may be wondering, “Why is the 6-week language......Read More
International Return Group Flight Information
Carin, Dragons Admin
Dear Families & Friends, It is hard to believe that almost six weeks have passed since your student embarked on this incredible adventure! It won’t be long until students will be boarding their planes back home. We are sure you are anxiously......Read More
Wo men dao le Beijing!
Ross, Participant
After saying goodbye to our homestay families and language teachers in Kunming, we rose at the crack of dawn to board an early morning flight to Beijing. We arrived around noon and will begin the final phase of our journey: transference....Read More
The Cliff’s Edge
Arman Abrishamchian, Participant
Picture of the Week
I’ve been blatantly ignoring writing a yak post. Truthfully, at some points I felt that writing one would be more of an assignment than something I would want to do. At others, I believed that writing a post would both limit any experience I had or diminish it in some way. See, I would never be able to describe these experiences in a way that could provide all the details, all my feelings, and all my perceptions of what happened. I felt that only my own memory would be able to contain those important pillars of any one experience. … Read More
Onto Kunming
Caleb Gabriel-Deveau, Participant
Onto Kunming! X-Phase is over. Now it’s time to move onto the city! Kunming is the capital of the Yunnan Province of The People Republic of China. This is where we will be spending the next 11 days learning, living and getting to know are way......Read More
Update from Charlotte
Charlotte Feagin, Dragons Admin
Hi everybody! It’s Charlotte here. A lot has happened in Kunming so far. After arriving via bullet train (officially ending the x-phase), we met our host families one by one at the school apartment. Benjy was also there to send us off, which I......Read More
Learning about Erhai (a large lake by Dali,...
Instructor Team, Instructor
Yak of the Week
The presentation on the Erhai Cleaning Movement wrapped up our X- phase in Dali. The group interviewed a few stakeholders who have been greatly affected by this movement. The group also managed to talk to 100 people (impressive number) to ask them......Read More
Hiking 鸡足山
Morgan Foster, Participant
Greetings from Dali! In this post I will wrote about our experience hiking Dali’s famous “Ji Zu Shan” which translates in English to “Chicken Foot Mountain”. *one American dollar is about 6.5 Chinese yuan or......Read More
The Rest of X-Phase!
Ulysses Atkeson, Participant
Hey All! X-Phase has been very eventful and we still have 3 days left! On the 18th we had the opportunity to visit local artisans in Dali. Kyle set up 2 activities for us to choose between. Most of us went to a local cloth dying location. They use......Read More
Photos from Xizhou
Emilie Faracci, Participant
Hi all, these are some of the photos from our day in Xizhou ! The cover photo was taken in the market, the second is of Joey making the local cheese, the third was of the baba we made at the Linden center, the fourth is of the rice dough factory,......Read More
Starting our X-Phase!
Ines Im, Participant
Hi All! To start our first full day of X-phase in Dali, (the part of this trip that is being completely planned and orchestrated by the students), we visited the old town of Xizhou. This trip/tour was planned specifically by Jackson and Arman, who......Read More
Leaving Jixiang : first day of X-phase
Emilie Faracci, Participant
As we wrap our minds around the fact that we have left the small village of Jixiang, the bittersweet memory of adjusting to the slow paced local life mixes with the many wonderful memories we leave behind. Reflecting on our time with our host......Read More
The Busy and the Beautiful
Kyle Trefny, Participant
Starting this Yak, I’m not quite sure how to begin; there’s so much to say. We’ve now been with our Jixiang host families a full week, and that puts us a third of the way through this trip. I’m thrilled to be able to start with the answer......Read More