Oh! How fast these two days have gone by!! Now, where do I start?? Lets see. .
Friday started out a cold, wet, and rainy day. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and got ready and went to breakfast. The hotel has some pretty interesting food to eat for breakfast...but we were able to find some fruit and eggs and stuff.
After that we went off to see the Temple of Heaven. It was pretty funny because just outside of where you go there was older people outside doing the Polcka! It was weird to watch them. Also outside you will find people playing poker together, some activitys involving something that looked like a tennis racket and a ball, and dancing will ribbons. And one other thing they did was they would get together and sing songs or play instruments. It was pretty interesting.
Inside the Temple of Heaven we went to all the different temples, and walked around. We bought some souvenirs. We also went to a Olympic store which sold stuff for the Olympics in 2008 that are being held in Beijing. We bought a couple things there.
After that we went to lunch. They put on a show for us. There was dancing and someone played the flute. It was a pretty nice restruant. Then, came the bad part. Squatti Potties!! Ok, so Chinese toilets are a little different than ours...
Their toilets are level with the floor. Like, you have to squat down to use them. It's really gross hard to do. The worst part of all is that they normally don't have toilet paper... so we've learned to always take napkins into the bathroom.
Ok, enough of that. Next we went to the Hutong tour. First though, we went up to the big drum tower. Getting up there took a really high and steep steps! Oh my gosh!! I was afraid every step up that I was going to fall! It was really hard. It was funny because after we got up the climb my mom said, "I thought there would be something more that just drums up here!" Oh well. We got to hear some of the people drum and then we looked outside of the city from the tower.
After that we we to a local home. This I couldn't believe. The rooms were so small! This lady owned this place, and she would let tourists come and eat lunch at her house. So in her very small bedroom she had her bed, table for people to eat on, and her TV. I couldn't believe it!! Then, we went into her kitchen. This was the smallest of all!! It was really no larger than the length of a car. (it looked just about square) It was also very dirty and I couldn't even begin to think of how hard it would be to cook in!!!
After that we took our rickshaws to a local kindergarden. Unfortunatly, the kids weren't there. But we got to look around the kindergarden. We got back into our rickshaws and went back to our bus. The bus took us to the acrobat show. It was amazing what some of the people could do!! They were so strong and could do amazing things! You would have to see it to see what I mean. After that we went back to the hotel. We were all sooo tired when we got back. (That's why I didn't post last night. Sorry!)
Today I slept in a little bit longer. We got up and talked on the phone with Matt, and went to eat breakfast.
Today we didn't have to go anywhere till a little bit later in the day. Yesterday was a really cold, and it was supposed to be colder today, and we didn't pack anything to warm to wear, so we went out to some of the stores looking for coats, mittens, and hats. We found a little store, and oh my gosh! The lady that worked there was so motivated to get us to buy something! It's hard to explain how she was...but she was really pushy and stuff.
We had to go back to the hotel and meet our guids and then we went to eat lunch. We had fried duck and some pork, chicken, egg rolls, and a lot of other stuff. It was really good.
After we ate we went to The Great Wall of China. Now, for some reason I don't remember it being so hard to climb up! Last time it was a breaze! This time, I climbed up to like the third tower and I felt sick. I got light headed and thought I was going to throw up! We stopped for a little bit and then went on. We made it almost to the top, but my dad and my legs were both hurting, so we desided to go down. It was really fun! Several people while we were there asked us for our picture with them. I felt like a TV Star! They would just stand around you talking and looking at one another and wondering who should ask us if they can have our picture with them. Finally someone would go up and say, "Can we have picture with you?". One time this girl asked and we said yes, she just started jumping up and down saying, "Sank you! Sank you!" (Thank you). It was pretty funny!
Well after The Great Wall we went back to the hotel. Now we just have to pack up for tomorrow. We're leaving tomorrow for Yunnan, Mei Lin's province. We don't get her tomorrow, but we will get her the following day. I am so excited though! We get to meed Elsie, our cordinator for this trip. She was our cordinator last trip, and we loved her very much! When we heard she was going to be with us for the about a week and a half on the trip I was so happy!
Well, I'm about to go to bed. I'm so tired!! So, I'll post tomorrow, though I don't think there will be anything interesting to post! But, oh well!
(I'll post pictures in just a minute...it's they're taking a while to post)
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Temple of Heaven, Hutong Tour, and Great Wall of China!!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Travel
March 27th was a really busy night. We were all packing last minute things and weighing out bags to make sure they weren’t over weight. On our other website (http://tochinaformeilin.blogspot.com) my mom posted stuff. We had seven, yes SEVEN suite cases!! Half of them are orphanage donations though.
March 28th was an exciting, yet sad a day. We had to say good-bye to our brother/son, Matt. He couldn’t come with us because he had to much school to do and it would take him a really long time to catch up on.
It was really sad. None of us could hold back our tears. We knew we’d miss him so much,(and I already do) and he was so bummed that he couldn’t come with us. Now we have to wait two whole weeks to see him again.
After getting saying good-bye and getting everything in the car we were off!!! We arrived at the airport about forty-five minutes later. We said bye to our grandma (she’s taking care of Matt while we’re gone) and went though security. It didn’t take us to long. We found our gate, waited for about an hour and we got on the plane. I didn’t do much except read like the hugest novel in the world, Eldest. (It’s a really good book by the way!) I also listened to my iPod, but that’s it. We got off, and boarded our plane for us to fly to Tokyo!! This was a really looooong flight. 12 hours of nothing but sitting in your seat either watching a movie, sleeping, listening to babies cry, or reading. It actually wasn’t to bad. The really only bad part about it was that I couldn’t sleep easily, and they have bad food on it. Oh well!
Our flight to Beijing. It was really cool because we had our own TVs in front of our seats and we got to watch our own movies!! The only problem was that they didn’t get them working until about an hour into the flight.
We got off our flight and got to the hotel, and that’s where I am now. I’m so tired! I didn’t sleep on the airplane that much. No more that and hour and a half. I just want to climb into a hard, firm, Chinese bed and go to sleep. The beds aren’t that nice, but after trying to sleep on the airplane, I’ll take just about anything! Oh, I’ve gotta go to sleep now. I’ll post something tomorrow!
(Sorry this post is sooooo boring. . .but there’s nothing to post about for on the plane!)
I’ll post something tomorrow!
Till Later,
China Girl
(P.S. Can anyone tell me who got voted off American Idol Wednesday night?)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Superchic[k] - We Live
This is an amazing song by Superchic[k]. I hope you enjoy the song and the video!
Monday, March 19, 2007
A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. GarrettySunday, March 18, 2007
Comics
Here are a couple comics that I like...they're terrible, but funny! Hope you like them! :)
~ China Girl ~
Piriodic Table of Elements
Sinse I (and my class) have to memorize the 'Periodic Table of Elements' this year for my Chemistry class, I just about freaked when I saw this!! If this happened to me, I would never want to go into my room again!! Man, that would just stink!!! Anyway, I just thought I'd say that, and I thought it was pretty funny! :)
Quote of the Day
Here's the quote of the week:
To China for Mei Lin
Also, we're going to leave on the 28th, instead of 27th. Now it's time to pack!!
Monday, March 12, 2007
~~~~~ TRAVEL APPROVAL ~~~~~
She's requested our consulate appointment and once that's confirmed, we'll be all set!!
Here's our tentative itinerary:
Tuesday, March 27th: Leave the US
Wednesday, March 28th: Arrive in BJ
Thursday, March 29th - Saturday, March 31st: Sightseeing in Beijing
Sunday, April 1st: Travel to Kunming, Yunnan Province
Monday, April 2nd: WE MEET MEI LIN!!!!
Tuesday, April 3rd: Adoption process (notary and registration)
Wednesday, April 4th - Friday, April 6th: Sightseeing and free days in Kunming
Saturday, April 7th: Fly to Guangzhou
Sunday, April 8th: Free day (Easter in China!!)
Monday, April 9th: Medical exam for Mei Lin
Tuesday, April 10th: ACS (consulate) appt. (or April 11th) and Farewell dinner
Wednesday, April 11th: Get visa back and return home after 8:00pm OR return home Thurs.
Thursday, April 12: This will depend on when the date of the consulate appt.
I'm SOO excited!! It's so weird to think that it's really going to happen! Pretty soon we'll be going to see the Great Wall again!!! Now comes the hard part - packing. We've started packing...but still have a lot to do. Now, I have TONS of schoolwork to do. :( Being gone for three weeks leave a little too much schoolwork to do. . .but I think I'll be able to get it done before we leave! So, please keep us in your prayers! Thanks! Oh, and you can check back here starting either March 29th, or the 30th for updates. (I'm not sure when, because of all the time changes and stuff, to complicated!!)