My Traveler. . .an Update

Today's post is for those of you wondering about my traveling girl!

Goodbye America!

She is a college sophomore and her adventures began in Beijing, China just over a month ago. I don't have many pics--just a few from her iPhone or those someone has posted on facebook occasionally. China has pretty tough restrictions on the internet, so the group was limited to scattered internet cafes.

But from what I've heard so far, she had a wonderful time there--two weeks at Capital Normal University and then two more weeks of travel in the country, and now she is in Japan.

The group at Capital Normal University

At the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum in Xi'an Province

And how did she eat, since she can't eat gluten or dairy, and she's allergic to a few other things as well (strawberries, apples, peanuts, and shrimp)? I know she'll have tons of stories to tell when she gets back, but it sounds like in China she ate a lot of. . .rice. There were places where her dining cards worked well, and places where they didn't. She took packets of tuna and lots of gf snack bars with her, so I know she supplemented with those. She told me her group has been so kind to find places where she can eat, too-- they feel like family.

Hot Pot lunch--She said this was one of her favorites!

I'm so proud of her for going on this adventure, even knowing eating and getting gf food would be hard. I'm glad she didn't let the difficulty of eating in China stop her--that she just took it in stride. I'm proud of her for having a good attitude about it--and for being brave! She fell down some stairs at a farmer's house in Xi'an and sprained her ankle--but as far as I know, she didn't get sick from anything she ate.

She's in Japan now and says eating is much easier. They traveled for a week and now she's settled in with a family where she'll be for a month. More about that in another post.

Thanks again to Jen at Gluten Free Kids Travel for some of the best advice we found about gluten free eating in China. Thanks to her we knew Hannah COULD drink the Coke, should look for sushi for something safe to eat, needed to be careful about the salt shakers (they add msg there, which usually contains gluten in China), and in general should be aware of everything else! Keep blogging, Jen!

And tomorrow--look for my post about World Arthritis Day!

More posts in this series: China, at Last!   More from Travelin' Girl! Japan  The End of My Girl's Trip! New Zealand and Australia