7/13/12 – 10:01 p.m. - Wow. So much has happened. I can’t even describe it any other way than humble. Oh, but humble now means using a shower that is also your toilet and is on a balcony and has no hook to hang anything on and has to be operated by a card – and when you get out of it you will instantly sweat again, plus you will immediately have to cover yourself in bug spray. BUT, I LOVE IT HERE. It is so amazing! Here’s a list of everything I have done since I got here:
- Made it through customs
- Let strange men take my luggage away from me & promise to take it to my hotel (they did J )
- Went to Wild Goose Pagaoda and touched a super old Buddha statue with Emma
- Left the rest of my luggage on a bus where another man promised to take care of it – he did!
- Stayed in a hotel!
- Went to a night market!
- Ate dumplings on the 5th floor of a restaurant after they shoved us in an elevator without telling us what was happening!
- Bargained with street vendors!
- Saw the terra-cotta warriors!
- Ate lunch at a local restaurant!
- Ate a small bite of some unidentifiable meat that Jacob bought from a street vendor! It was really good! But definitely not “beef” like they said it was.
- Stayed in a dorm at a university!
- Ate duck
- Used a squatty potty
- Took a shower with water that came from about a ¾” pipe with no shower head
First day here recap: we got off the plane at 10:40 and were relieved to find that all of our luggage had made it to China! Praise the Lord! We exchanged our money (it’s really nice to give the lady $60 and get 311 in return!) and then met our tour guide! Best guy ever! I knew I would like him the minute I saw he was even smaller than me and that he had little khaki Capri’s on with plaid cuffs J.
He told us to leave our bags on one bus so they could take them to our hotel and then get on another bus so we could go on our tour. Everything in me and all of my culture/travel training was like “don’t do it”, but what else were we gonna do? So we said some prayers and parted ways with our bags. We went on our first day of touring where he took us to a museum and told us a lot of history about all of the dynasties! He also told Emma she looked like a movie star and gave Jacob his new name: Jake-a-bob. None of the people we met could say his name right, and they all said it this way! We got to see a lot of relics and artifacts. Next we went to a subway (like the restaurant) so that the group could get some lunch. I didn’t eat there, but just had a protein bar, I wasn’t very hungry.
After lunch we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda & got to see the temple there. It is 7 stories tall! It was so nice to learn about their history and culture, but sad to see the children worshipping the statues and then looking to their parents and grandparents for approval. Our tour guide got us a free painting demonstration at the gift shop area so we got to see how they painted with the calligraphy brushes. That was really fun! After that we went to our hotel (our bags were waiting for us J ) where we showered, slept for about 30 minutes, and then went out to the night market! SO FUN! We ate at a restaurant there. When we got there they shoved us into an elevator, pressed a button and then the door closed. We thought for sure we would all be dead soon, but it opened on the 5th floor - which was really nice and much quieter. We ate some dumplings (really good) and chicken, which Jacob made me eat, since I had been passing up that opportunity – didn’t want to deal with the bones, but it was really tasty. After dinner we did some shopping and then met went back to our hotel for some much needed rest! We went to sleep about 11:30 and then woke up the next morning about 7:30 and checked out of our hotel then met up with our tour guide and got ready for our next day of touring!
We went to the terra-cotta warriors! It was so pretty in that area and exciting to see the warriors! Never did I think I would be seeing those in real life! Once again our tour guide got us some good deals and we got a free tea demonstration at the tea house on the property! It was so good! And we all got to sample different types of tea. Next we walked to a nearby restaurant where we got chicken, beef, rice, noodles, and cucumber. All delicious! We also ordered a shrimp dish that came with fried tea leaves! SO GOOD! I don’t eat shrimp, and these ones were whole so I couldn’t bring myself to eat them, but the fried tea lives were absolutely delicious. They were kind of like less greasy potato chips, but tasted much better!
After that, we traveled for about 2 hours to the university. On the way there we spent a lot of time talking with our tour guide. He was so nice to everyone and we all showed him pictures of our family! I was showing him things I had sewn and he told me that if I found a man to marry me it would be like he won the lottery because I have good wife skills haha. He said so many great things to everyone and a lot of funny things, that were really only funny because of the translation difference. For example “people say I have a young baby heart” instead of saying he was youthful, and “couples go over there and talk love” haha.
We got a little lost as we got closer to it because it is farther from the city and there are a lot of country roads. Eventually we made it there! Once we arrived everyone was so nice and extremely helpful! But it was so humbling. It is a very nice university! But it’s about the same temperature as Texas and they don’t have air conditioning, elevators, or separate shower/toilet/sink areas. It just makes you realize how much easier things are – also, you can’t throw toilet paper in the toilet. So you just put it in the trashcan. Everyone is so nice and curious about Americans. It’s such a great culture!
First 36 hours here!
7/13/12-10:48 p.m. - Prayed asking for a word of encouragement, opened directly to the first page of Matthew. Reminded that if He can be humble and born to a strange family situation in a barn, then surely I can be humble for 2 weeks.
Also, seeing the city wall earlier today reminded me of Nehemiah. It also brought to mind the ancient work here, and that we are not the first people in the body to come and do work here. He is with us.
My prayer for these people, that they would destroy the old ways in which their ancestors worshipped and confess their sins and come to know the on, true God:
Nehemiah 9: " 1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lordtheir God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. 4 Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. 5 And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”
“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you."
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