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We celebrated my birthday at lunch yesterday too. It was really nice, Phil and Karen gave me some chocolate, and they bought watermelon because they new that I’d been noticing it around the city with longing, and they also had little cake snacks for my “birthday cake”. It was great. The best birthday present of all though was finding out that my sister Karis, her husband Matt and their four kids are probably moving to the Goshen area!!!!!!!!!! I’m soo soo thrilled. Yeah!
This will be my last post from Beijing. Tonight we take a train to Xian after spending the day at the Summer Palace of the Emperor. Should be beautiful, but I might spend alot of our time in a nice shaded area getting down on paper some of the many many thoughts and reactions I’ve had since we’ve arrived. I woke up this morning with a sour throat that I’m pretty sure is going to turn into a cold. Suck.
Yesterday we attended the largest Protestant church here in Beijing. It was founded by the Methodist, and has a long history, starting with it being torn down during the Boxer Rebellion, and then later confiscated by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution. It was an interesting mix of lots of Westernized worship, but done in Chinese. We had headphones that had a translator so we could (somewhat) understand. At the “greeting” section of the service, a Chinese man turned around and said “peace be with you”, and it was an amazing feeling to realize that in the simple response of “and with you” I was connected to this man who was so very different than me. The difference seemed less.
After that we went to the Temple of Heaven where the Emperor used to come and pray to the gods for a good harvest. The gods consisted of such things as the sun, the moon, planets and stars, and earthly things like weather. It was beautiful, but crowded, and I found myself wandering to less busy parts. There was something about having so many people in a place that used to be sacred that I really disliked, but that got me thinking about Imperialism, and why certain people should have special privileges…… I stopped myself short from going too far down that bunny trail. The best moment of that part of the day was wandering into a large tree grove. The trees were completely foreign, but I felt the most at home I have since arriving, and that was a wonderful respite from all the newness. All of a sudden as I got a little ways into the grove I was enveloped with the sweet smell of nature, I couldn’t see the smog that perpetually covers this city, and I heard birds and crickets chirping. I sat and journalled for a while, and then went and met the rest of the group. After that we were let off in a down town area to do some exploring/shopping. Abby, Jessica, Meryl and I all went, and it was wonderful to be in a group of just close friends again. I like the whole group, but that had been the first time I had been with close friends when other people weren’t around, and again is was just nice to be comfortable even in a very strange and new setting. We browsed around, and I found a good bag that I’ve been needing. I didn’t have anything that was in-between my small “hidden” money pouch, and my backpack, so that was good to get. We had an interesting experience at supper trying to get our point across that Jess’s egg fried rice had never come, but it was on our bill. Then quickly back to the bus enjoying the beauty of the city all lite up at night. It was a wonderful day of small rejuvinations. I just hope I don’t get too sick the the next few days.
Wow! Magnificent! This is so beautiful. I can’t believe I’m here. How did they do this? I wonder what it was like 700 years ago to be a soldier on this wall.
That and more ran through my head in the first 2 1/2 hours of our 4 1/2- 5 hour hike yesterday. The rest was spent trucking to the end. I enjoyed meandering the first part, especially because it was more uphill during the first half, and more downhill during the second, so it was nice to take the hard part easily. It was amazing to just peer out at the countryside and notice a grove of trees, or that the river in that valley had been damned. And to contemplate life as a solider on this wall, and the effectiveness of the wall its self. The wall is a marvel. It must have taken so many people, so much energy. The places where it’s been restored, it’s a very stark beauty next to the lushness of the mountains. In the center of our hike were the wall was more in ruins, it became more organic looking and blended into the scenery more. I loved the broken down towers. They were my favorite. The architecture or the wall was also something that made me happy. Arched doors and windows. There was a pretty cleaver drainage system. As the group got started, a group of local farmers walked with us, and as we got to the wall, each of us was singled out by one of them. My “guide” was a 32 year old man with two children, a two year old son and a one year old daughter. I found this stuff out in Chinese, and it constituted my first attempt at conversation here in China. The “guides” knew a fair amount of broken english related to the wall. “tower” “soldier” “let’s go”. That didn’t constitute their entire English language skills, but you couldn’t get past basic concepts in english. They also helped us at difficult places, and showed us a shortcut that was really helpful. Their hope was that we’d buy stuff off them at the end. The Wall is definitely now on my top 10 most beautiful places in the world. I love the surrounding hills especially. They’re in the perfect state. Not imposing the way the Rockies can be, but not so worn as the Appalachians. They’re beautiful in color and texture. I loved them. Yesterday is definitely a day in my life I’ll never forget.
Music: Go Steeeeph, it’s your birthday (ok, so only in my head)
We’re here, all save and sound. Tired, but safe. Given the fact that we’re almost exactly on the opposite side of the world, I think I’m adjusting to the time well. I slept well all last night, and until we got our wake up call. Today I was kind of tired, but we also had a long day of lots of walking, so I think that was normal. Granted it’s only 9:15 and I’m about to drop, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing for me to have an earlier schedule. The trip was fairly uneventful, I slept for about an hour on the bus, but then was not able to sleep at all on the 12 1/2 hour plane ride. On the plane I started to read Wicked, wrote in my journal, talked to people, and watched Madagascar, Monster-in-law, and Cheaper by the Dozen. The food was actually really good for plane food. Once we got to Beijing, we gathered our group, went through customs, got our bags, exchanged money, and piled onto the bus. We’re really packed into this bus that we take around, but it’s comfortable. We had just enough time to take quick showers before dinner. Supper was good, but I can tell that the spice might be a bit of a problem for me. Some of the dishes were really mild, but a couple were really spicy for me. Beijing food is alot milder than what we’ll get in Chengdu. After dinner we went to a acrobatics show which I slept through most of unfortunately. I couldn’t help it. What I did see was fantastic. The girl’s tumbling made me jealous, and there was a really cute part with large dog suits with two men in each suit. There was also a point where they were balancing about 10-15 girls on one single bike (or unicycle, I can’t remember clearly) After that I journaled a bit and crashed. I slept soundly all night, just getting up once. We’re 13 hours ahead of Central time in the US, so our night is your day. This morning breakfast was at 7:30. It was good, but a few things were too greasy for my taste. After that Meryl and I did a little wandering and found this little playground, except most of the stuff was exercise equipment. The other stuff didn’t seem to have a whole lot of point except a teeter totter. Then we all piled onto the bus again and headed downtown to Tiananmen Square. It’s huge, and beautiful in an odd way, although the Mao Moliseum is kind of a blight on it. We went into the Mao Moliseum next, and it was really strange. In some ways it was intense seeing people’s admiration/devotion to this past leader, but my strongest impression was one of weirdness and a little disgust. I was struck that people bowed in front of a huge statue of Mao instead of in front of his body. They have Mao’s body embalmed and on display in a glass case. I know this is not very culturally sensitive, but it’s kind of creepy. Of course this comes from someone that wants to be cremated because I never want to decompose. After that we went to the Forbidden City and wandered around for about an hour and a half. It’s very beautiful, but stark. I tried to imagine what it would be like with people living in it. There would be a very different feel. There were lots of people, and lots of bustle, but tourist give a very fleeting presence to a place, there was very little sense of permanence to anything other than the buildings. The only thing that felt sort of like real life in it was the soldiers who where learning to march. I kept trying to see the place bustling with the day to day life of the Emperor, Empress, and all his concubines. We had lunch at a noodle place, and then climbed a large hill (it had stairs to the top) that had several pagodas at the top that overlooked the Forbidden City. I hadn’t realized how big the City was until we looked over it from above. The top Pagoda had a huge statue of Buddha, and a few people were there to worship before it. There had been Buddahs in the other two pagodas too, but they had been stolen by Europeans. I think it’s sad that the Europeans have such a history of destruction of other people’s culture and relics. However, it probably would have been taken down during the Cultural Revolution by the Chinese themselves if they hadn’t been stolen, not that that makes it better or anything. We walked around a lake, and into some small ally ways were people lived after that. It was interesting to get a little sense of day to day life in Beijing. We went to a Beijing Duck restaurant for supper, and the food was great. Then several of us walked to Wu Mart. I had already had several cases of language frustration, but I had my worst on there. I needed the restroom pretty badly, but couldn’t remember how to ask. When I found someone in the group who remembered, the worker didn’t understand us. Finally I found it on my own, but I definitely felt very helpless at points. The smog is really bad here, I don’t breathe nearly as deeply as usual, and when I do, I start coughing. There are alot of intense smells. When we stepped out the the airport, I remember thinking “this smells like Lusaka (the capitol of Zambia). Also the traffic is not nearly as orderly as in the states. I’m so amazed we haven’t seen someone run over/ killed, or a bad accident. We did see a really minor one between a bike-taxi and a small truck. We can’t drink the water unless it’s boiled, but we have lots of bottled water in our rooms. Alot of the toilets are squat toilets and we have to supply our own toilet paper. Crowds can be hard if you’re timid, or tend to be polite in them, because there’s not really a sense of “go ahead you were here slightly before me”. But I’m learning to quell that tendency, or I’d never get anywhere. It’s not that the Chinese are rude, it’s just that they aren’t necessarily friendly on just a passerby type basis. There’s no smile and nod to a stranger here. There’s so much I could gripe about, but so far the trip has been a string of very interesting, beautiful things with lots of history. That’s one the most amazing things about China, the US doesn’t have history like the Chinese do, history that goes back thousands of years. We still can see some stuff from native people, but it’s not connected to the current culture the way ancient history is connected the present day Chinese. Mostly I love the fact that we are milking ever drop out of every day so far. Living life fully is always sweet. But tiring, so good night all.
I can’t believe it’s already here. I hope I’ve not forgotten anything vital. See everybody in December (unless you’re on SST too, in which case, I get to see ALOT of you)
This is my last day of dishes at the Bluegill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(and the Hallelujah chorus begins in my head)
It’s 1:30 in the morning. I should be sleeping. I’m working about 12 hours tomorrow. Sigh.
Ok, so this new face book….. fun way to connect to people you don’t know as well online, but really, do you actually think that anyone at Goshen’s going to meet someone new this way? Everybody already knows everybody. Not that we all know each other well, but you already associate with the people that you’re probably going to associate with. I doubt that in two months time most people will check up on anyone but the people that they already hang out with in real life. I may be wrong though! Hey, maybe this could harold a new advent of readership to this very blog! That would be sweet (though a little scary). It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this new fad. I have to admit I was quite shocked to see that Jesse was already friends with two people, and I didn’t even know he was on it.
Things have been a bit slow lately…..sort of. I’m pretty tired of living day to day with now congruence between days, weeks etc. Every day this week is going to be pretty different than the one before, and even more removed from the ones I had last week. I’m ready for some more routine in my life. I’m also tired of waiting for China. Come already! But then again no….. maybe not yet.
Today I went out to eat twice. Bad Stephanie, bad. I didn’t know it was going to happen that way. I went to El Camino Real with Abby at lunch, and then when Jesse came over after work we went out to Applebees. A big part of the reason that I ask Abby if she wanted to go out for lunch, was a) to kill time before work at admissions, and b) I didn’t want to have to scrounge around my kitchen for food. I mean there’s alot to eat in my house, but I just don’t really feel comfortable in the kitchen, and not much of the food is the grab and go, or throw together fast type. There’s always so much in the fridge that I get overwhelmed when I open it, and then just close it quickly again. Abby and I watched “Guess Who” tonight. It fairly recent about a white guy meeting his black future father-in-law. It was really cute and had some good things to say about making relationships work, and it touched on the hardships of interracial marriage which I’ve gotten to see somewhat through the relationships of both my sisters. Karis, my oldest sister married Matt, who is half African-American, and half Caucasian, but who was raised by a white Presbyterian pastor and his wife. They life in rural Pennsylvania….. not the easiest place to have an interracial marriage. Lenora, my closest sibling (at 30) married Tobias, a man from Tanzania. I need to talk to my sisters more about their experience. I think it would be interesting.
Wednesday is my last day of dishes at the Bluegill, and then either Thursday, or Saturday is my last day of SAing. Starting Thursday, I’m going to be babysitting for Bill Born’s two youngest children, and a friend of theirs. Should be interesting. Well, goodnight folks. Blessings to all.
Music: Simple Gifts by Yo-Yo Ma
Phoebe Brubaker is doing the flowers for my wedding!!! Not only will she work within my budget and still give me exactly what I want, and is amazingly creative, but I wont have to worry about them at all…. she’s going to do all of it (I’ll probably get friends to help her, but yeah) She’s amazing 
So that’s really cool. Went to a print shop today and talked to them about making the invitaions, and got some price quotes. Weddings are so gosh darn expensive. I guess they don’t really have to be, but still, to feed, invite, and entertain 200 guests, it would have to take a fair amount of money no matter how simply you did things. I’m starting to get kind of nervous, scared, excited, worried…… (fill in the blank) about China. I mean, what if I forget something really important, or really screw up with my class. But mostly, I think it’s a product of this waiting period where it’s almost here, but I can’t really get ready for it yet. I can’t pack or anything like that. I only have one week left of washing dishes, yippeeeee! I really hate doing dishes at the Bluegill. I get so hot and sweaty, and covered in grease. But mostly it’s just boring. I can’t wait to have a job that’s engaging, that I enjoy doing, and I feel like I’m not completely despensible.
