Beijing Christmas

This Christmas was a different kind of Christmas for sure.  I wasn't able to be home for Christmas so my friend Brandon and I decided to spend Christmas in Beijing.    

I just have to add this side note in that it is very weird to be in a place that does not celebrate Christmas.  It is hard to get excited about Christmas because there is no Christmas buzz. No last min. shopping.  No children giddy because of Santa coming.  No elf on the shelf.  There are Christmas decorations everywhere and Christmas trees everywhere but they seemed to have missed the concept of Christmas.  To them it is a fun Foreigner holiday that they can decorate for and that is about it.  

It was a busy two days but it was well worth it.    We went to Forbidden City.  That was an interesting experience. It is fun to be able to say I did it but like many people told me it isn't really anything too special.  

I think that some of the reason it is so famous is because people that are visiting China get to see real Chinese architecture. It is very pretty and very cool to see but it is very much like a temple or any other Chinese architecture.  

Christmas night we went back to the area and took photos it was really neat to see at night too.

Beijing is very very cold right now. It stays well below freezing all the time.  It was neat to see snow and ice everywhere.  We decided for Christmas dinner we would eat Burger King because it was there and because I wanted to eat  something a little more American.  

The next day we went to the Great Wall. This is where the real adventure began.  My friend Brandon is a bit of an adventurer he likes to try to find off the beaten path places to go...so he decided that we just had to go to this one part of the wall that not many tourist go to and then we could walk over to the tourist spot.  I agreed to this not knowing what I had just gotten myself into.  By agreeing to this it meant that I got to walk up a mountain for the better part of three hours that was covered in Ice and snow all the while wearing the wrong shoes and slipping every five seconds spending most of the three hours either on my butt or on my stomach.   Brandon wearing some cheap shoes was completely fine and didn't slip once.  We finally get to the top of the mountain and to the wall...brandon only surviving my annoyance and anger from falling up the mountain because I couldn't catch him.  We finally get to the top and what do we find tourist that had walked over to this spot....less than excited to see tourist at this point seeing as we skipped the cable cars and walked up a mountain to this super secret spot only to find tourist....I asked out of curiousty where they had gotten on the Great Wall at. well low and behold they had used the cable cars and walked over from 8 watch towers over....had I not slipped five seconds after I tried to kill Brandon he would have been dead for making me climb the ice covered mountain.  

Well we started climbing the stairs and the Great Wall to get to the highest point and everything on the Great Wall was covered in Ice.  It was the scariest few hours of my life cause I kept thinking I was gonna slip down really steep stairs.  We made it to the top and the view was beautiful.  We then realized sun was setting and we had to get off the Great Wall before the chair lift closed.  We barely made it slipping and sliding the whole way down on the ice covered wall but we made it last people off the wall and managed not to kill each other the whole trip :) 

Disney Voluntears

Today we volunteered for a local school in Nanjing.  It was an amazing experience and it really brought things back into perspective.  Today we walked into a regular elementary school in a poorer area and the kids went crazy.  They were running through the school following us around like we were famous people.

We went into the classroom and I was in a 3rd grade class.  The kids were so funny.  They were all wanting to know about me.  They wanted to know what kinds of things I liked.  If I could speak Chinese.  If I liked their work.  What kinda fruit I liked.   We just did simple craft projects with them and it just seemed to make their entire day.


I was nervous going into the school because I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do with the kids but       the kids were amazing.  They were just so excited to have foreigners in the building.  They tried to use all the English they knew and were so excited to make the crafts and play games.

I was reminded today of how lucky our kids in the states were when I walked into their school they have just basic desks with one computer.  They had no heat and have to wear jackets all day.  There were 32 kids in the class and one teacher.  That was  a lot of kids to have in one room.

At the end of the day the principal asked to take pictures with the classes and us.  The kids were so funny they were all trying to hold my hands.  And then at the end we took a picture with the staff and the kids were pulling out their phones to take pictures of us.

It was such a great Christmas reminder about how much we have and how little others have.  It was a great day for all of us and I think it just reminded us of how blessed we were.

7 months later

7 months in China...HOLY CRAP!  The time has flown by...This has been such an amazing experience thus far.  I have experienced so much in such a short period of time.  I have truly had to learn to stand on my own feet.  I have an amazing support group of friends over here that I am blessed with but it has still been a challenge at times.

When I left 7 months ago, I was lost and looking for something more.  China has def.  been something more.  I am amazed by it all the time.  I miss home more and more but  I know I am in the right place.  I could not have asked for a better experience.

I think back to my Gainesville days and I am just so happy that I got to experience something more.  I never felt like I ever really got to challenge myself in Gainesville.  I was looking to be independent and wanted a life of my own.
Boy did I get what I asked for.  In the past 7 months I have mimed to people in stores and restaurants more times than my ego would care to count.  I have subway surfed my way through Shanghai.  Learned a little Chinese.  Made new friends and  lived completely on my own for the first time.    I have plunged and scooped buckets of water from a toilet.  Flooded my bathroom more times than I can count.  
I learned to cook a little.  Burned the crap out of food and learned to eat it just because.

I have tasted grasshopper, intestines and lord knows what else.  I have played with chicken feet and had whole birds and fish laid in front of me.

I have been sooo lost in my town many times.  I learned to use the metro and hail taxis.  I have discovered the greatness of the high speed railway system.

The one thing I was thinking about tonight walking home is that in the states walking a mile or two home is just not really something people do but here I am to the point where asking a taxi driver to drive me two miles home just seems crazy.  I just walk home and never think twice about it.  

I have traveled a little and learned a lot.  I have had many massages and def not enough sunlight.  I have bought a winter coat and actually live in a place where it is necessary to use one.  I have boots and tights and leggings to layer.  I now have hats and scarves.  I have seen fall leaves and witness real seasons.

I have started a budget and failed at sending money home.  I am now used to not having a dishwasher or a dryer.  I can say small phrases and communicate with my kids better now.

Crazy things like children peeing everywhere and people spitting so close to you you almost have to dodge the spit.  seem normal to me now.  I have done KTV and seen the sunrise in china more times than ever in the states.

I am now learning the fun that comes with winter and a bad water heater and bad heaters in the house.  

Experiences are what you make of them.  I choose to look at everything I experience here as a blessing and an answer to many prayers that I have sent up.  Though I miss home often I am blessed by every adventure China has to offer me.

I can't wait to see what China has to offer me in the next 7 months!!

Winter Adventures

This winter I am very excited to be in what I would call a real winter.  However this is a learning process for me seeing as I have never really lived in a place that winter starts early and gets really cold.  I have learned that carpet floors make for a much warmer house.  I miss those because my floors are freezing.   

I have learned that slippers are a must in order to keep your feet from freezing every time you walk around your house.   I am learning that there is no such thing as too many sweaters or Jackets.

I am loving the fact that I get to wear scarves and gloves and most of all I love to wear hats.  they are so much fun!  I love them.  I love that I have found a million wonderful pairs of cheap leggings that go under pants to help make me stay warm or on warmer days they make for delightful pants to a longer sweater.  

I love that boots are acceptable here and needed because it is actually cold here.  I love that I have now seen more shorts on girls here than I did in the summer.  They wear the leggings underneath the shorts and then boots.  

I love that the leaves have changed colors and now are falling off the trees so on my walk to the metro I get to stomp on them the whole way.  Nothing better than crunching leaves and stomping through piles of leaves....never gets old hearing the sound of a crunching leaf.  

I love that even though we are in China Christmas trees are going up like crazy everywhere I look there is a giant beautiful Christmas tree.  

I don't love that every morning I have to coax my Gas into working because it apparently doesn't like the cold and so there for has to warm up before lighting and heating the water.  I also don't love that I can't sit in my living room because it is too darn cold cause the heater doesn't well enough in there to heat the room!  

I will be buying another heater for that room when I get paid again :) 

I love winter and I love the change.  I am excited for the potential snow and fun that is to be had with a real winter :) :) :) 

A wonderful night in Nanjing

Just another delightful night in Nanjing.  I went to the Confucius temple and night market it was so pretty and had neat little shops here are a few photos from it.   The tree photos are just photos I saw while I was walking around today.  I thought it was neat that this is just in an apartment complex growing randomly.