It is 6:42PM Nashville time on Tuesday and it is now 7:42 AM on Wednesday here so I just woke up. We took a short rest yesterday morning when we got in and we wanted to get adjusted to the time so we thought we should do a little sightseeing to keep busy and awake. We sure did. Lily, our guide, is super awesome and accommodated our request - she took us to lunch at this most awesome yummy old Beijing noodle restaurant. And she ordered for us a bunch of stuff to try. It was all so yummy. Hoping the pictures I'm trying to post with this will show up. Of course, I took a picture of the food:) My favorite was like a sweet and sour pork. The funny part was - she ordered for us and the left to run home and get her pass to this park we were going to afterwards. Not the best idea to have your translator leave during your first meal in China. Needless to say - our driver who didn't speak English - did show us how to dress the noodles with this soy based sauce stuff. But we were all super thirsty and we looked around - and not many people at the restaurant had beverages. I was using gestures of holding an imaginary cup and drinking to our driver with hopes that he would order us a drink. I even thought, well, maybe they know the word Coke and could get us some Coke. What we ended up with was little cups of hot water. Not tea, water. It was pretty funny. Our guide got back towards the end of the meal and we told her about our attempt to get a drink and that we'd really just love a coke. She tells the driver "coca-cola" and he laughs and totally understands that word. Apparently, our shortened Coke version of it doesn't translate so next time, we'll know to say Coca-Cola! Nevertheless, we didn't drink the hot water and we were super happy when we got our coke:) The moral of the story is - without Lily we get hot water to drink instead of coke! We much prefer having Lily:) And she's super sweet too.
After lunch, we got dropped off at the south entrance of a park called Temple of Heaven. I took some pictures - beautiful architecture but behind it all - a very sad story of this being a place where many gods were worshipped. The people would come there to pray for harvest, rain, wind, etc. There were certain places that would echo because of the design and apparently they believed their gods could hear you when you stood there. I just kept thinking, I'm so glad my God is accessible anytime, anywhere thanks to Jesus! Needless to say, the park was not my favorite place but it had some really awesome like 300+ year old trees that had really neat designs. And a young guy stopped us and told Lily to have us come see his art - so we followed him to a little building and inside was some beautiful art by him and a bunch of other people. Smart guy to stop the Americans - of course, we each bought something. I bought a painting on this scroll thingy that was called "Autumn". There were a series of 4 of this water scene with a tree and two birds and the Autumn one was appropriately yellows and oranges. And since it was name so perfectly - I just had to get it. It was only 150 yen - which I think is like $15 dollars or so in US. Not bad for a neat piece of local art. And it rolled up into a box so I can take it on the airplane pretty easily.
After we left the park - this is where our adventure really begins in Beijing - our driver was delayed so Lily suggested we take a bus to the subway and the subway to the free market where you can negotiate and bargain prices to buy stuff. I didn't take pictures but one of the other girls did - which I will post later - of all us crammed into the bus. Turns out, the bus we got on was the only one that went to the subway and pretty much everyone in town was on it. If you aren't closterphobic, you still felt like you were. It seemed crowded when we got on but to my surprise - we stopped and picked up more people at at least 4 more stops. It was insane. And these people were getting on so you had better make room or they'd be climbing over you. Case and point - an older lady literally did climb over Frank and Bella to get to a seat by the window. It was crazy. Thankfully, we were not here on a 100 degree day cause it already smelled bad enough in there. So we finally get off the bus and we are all laughing hysterically at how crazy that was. We then get on the subway - almost as crowded but we only had to ride for 2 stops. We got off and wala - we are at the market.
Note to self: next time I come, wait a few days to shop here when I'm not totally exhausted from a day of travel. The market is madness. It's 6 or more floors of vendors lined in row after row of stuff. One floor has luggage, purses, wallets, bags, etc. Another floor is electronics. There is jewelry, clothing, shoes, nick-knacks, and so much more. I saw some laptop bags and since I had been shopping for one before I left - I knew the price back home for these. And I pretty much knew what kind I wanted as far as size and stuff. I found one that was a Samsonite and started bargaining with the lady. I honestly didn't bring much money on this trip for spending money so I had limited funds. I had in my mind that I didn't need it unless I could get it for 130 yen or less which in US is pretty darn cheap for a nice laptop bag on wheels. I told her that 130 was all I wanted to spend. She had started at 400+ yen and finally after chasing me down the hall when I walked off and said no, I only had 130 - she went down to 190 but I just wasn't going there. She kept saying I could borrow from my friends - yeah right! Dave Ramsey would so not approve. Ha ha There were other vendors so I kept walking. She was crazy - she literally chased me down the whole row saying "wait lady, wait lady." I finally turned the corner and kept going. I really don't like this kind of shopping. You feel so rushed and pressured and they start doing the price war with you before you really even decide if you want something and it stresses me out. I like to take my time and evaluate whether I need something and how much I have to spend, etc. We were about to go to another floor and I asked if the team I was with (we split into 2 groups) minded if I tried one more vendor cause I really did want a laptop bag. I used my backpack on wheels to get here but the laptop doesn't fit in there very well and I had to take it out and hold it separately on the plane cause the backpack won't fit under my seat. I had not been able to find a bag like these for less than $75 to $100 back home which I just didn't want to spend. But if I could find one for between $15-$20 here in US - that would be a bargain. Next vendor I went to - I asked her about the same bag I had been eyeing at the other vendors booth. She said over 400 yen. I said "I only have 130". She thought for a moment and showed me a smaller Samsonite one that she would give me for 200. I said, "oh ok - thanks anyway - I only have 130" and started to walk away. She said "I'll go 150 lowest". I said "I don't think I have 150 but let me check". I had 145 so I showed her and said "145 is all I have" and wala - I now own a Samsonite rolling laptop bag. I actually kind of like that it's smaller. I'm pretty excited about getting it that cheap. Once I got that - I was pretty much done on shopping and these people chasing you around trying to get you to buy something. The 3 people I was with were not mad shoppers but the other group apparently was - they came back to meet up with us with lots of bags and about 10 minutes late which was not a huge deal but I think they could have shopped longer. Whereas, I was done about 30 minutes into it. Not to mention ready to crash. It was 5:30 PM here which is 4:30 am at home so it's no wonder we were tired. We were so happy when our driver picked us up and we didn't have to take any more public transit. Lily took us to a place to eat near our hotel and it was yummy too. She said their specialty is Peking Duck but you have to order that in advance. Sounds like we may go back on our last day and do that. For this meal, she ordered a huge bucket of rice and a bunch of meats to try - chicken, beef, pork(my fav), and tofu (which was not a hit). There was also this meat thing with a breading around it that I guess was made out of eggplant. The outside was decent but the meat inside grossed me out so I didn't finish mine. But they had these little tortillas and you put the pork in it and rolled it up and ate it and that was super yummy. Both meals - my favorite has been the pork - it's been a sweet sauce both times. I hope we order 2 orders of that next time. We topped off our meal with Coca-Cola (it had a pretty Chinese label) - attaching a picture of Bella holding it.
After dinner, we walked about 5 blocks to our hotel and immediately headed up to go to bed. We were all totally beat and feeling like we had been here for a week when it had only been one day. A few of the girls wanted to use my laptop so I told them they should come straight to my room - otherwise I had a feeling I'd be out like a light in about 2 minutes. They sent some emails and stayed about 15 minutes. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and when they left put on my pjs and I laid down and my roommate Marsha got on the laptop. I didn't hear anything else - I was out in probably no joke, like 30 seconds. I think I was already dreaming when I heard Marsha ask me how to turn the computer off. I'm sure she had only been on for a few minutes yet my sleep was already so deep, I felt like it had been an hour. I hopped up and turned it off and laid back down and never woke up again until about 2 am to go to the bathroom. Around 4 am, I started waking up a lot and thinking I had been sleeping a long time and wondering why it wasn't light out yet. But we did go to bed at 8pm so that would explain it. I did manage to get back to sleep. Marsha's alarm went off at 7 and I was definitely ready to get up. The sun is out and the horns outside have started honking. It is time to begin Day 2 in China. We are eating breakfast at 9 am and then packing back up and heading to the airport to fly to Chifeng. Tomorrow, we will have our first day at the orphanage there - and we will be face to face with our reason for coming. I can't wait to meet the kids. The team brought tons of arts and crafts to do with them. And I brought face paint!
Since it's night back home - y'all have a good rest. While you sleep, I will be taking in China! Stay tuned for more. And thanks for all your prayers.
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