Leilani's Blog Takeover: Culture Shock and a Sustainable Garden

Today we started our day off waking up early to travel to our new hostel. After our hour long drive, we unpacked and waited for lunch. I got to experience my first culture shock there. Throughout our stay in China, we had always been presented with multiple dishes which was common for “family style” dining. There was always quite a lot of food left over, but during lunch, the amount left over was ridiculous. We had about 11 plates of food and ate nearly half of it. The reason why it shocked me so much was because in my culture, leaving out so much food is considered rude while here, it is fairly normal. On top of that, I figured out that they typically just throw out the rest of the remaining food. The whole experience drew a more clear connection with sustainability and culture and I’m grateful for that.

We made our way to the sustainable farm. There we learned about more environmentally friendly solutions to stuff such as cleaning, using the bathroom, and growing food. The farm provided us with organic vegetables that we turned into a delicious meal. The part I contributed to was the sauce, it was made out of garlic, olive oil, thyme, and rosemary. We cleaned our oily dishes with wheat grains and rinsed them off. It was pretty interesting to find out that such a cheap item could easily replace soap. Our reduction in chemical use by switching to a naturally provided item. Not much else exciting happened, so that sums up our day.

By Leilani Sangha