Well, I'm up too late and leaving for Tibet in just a few hours!  I won't have internet (and if I do I won't have a VPN to access Blogger anyways), so see you in two weeks!  Please pray for altitude adjustment, good group dynamics, and spiritual protection!  All my love!

The Great Wall and the Great Unknown

Ask anyone the landmarks they think of when they think of China and the Great Wall is guaranteed to be one of them.  This was the IES outing of the weekend.  It might be one of my favorite things I have ever done.  Get ready for a long one!  Trust me, its really worth it.
 

About 30 of us went along with two teachers and two RA's.  We took the bus to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall.  Once we were out of Beijing we started driving through big hills.  My heart was so happy, I could taste the adventure awaiting.  We were blessed with gorgeous weather, sun, blue skies (China?), and not too hot or too cold temperatures.  We started hiking on the wall.  This wasn't exactly a smooth stroll along smooth cobblestones.  This wall is a couple of thousand years old.  Up and and down and around we went.  It was so fun to gaze out at the mountain landscape, to take lots of pictures, to be with my friends.  We were all a little giddy I think.  It was a pretty big moment.  We're at the point in the semester where we're staring to realize the accomplishments that we've made in coming in here, in learning language, in discovering new things.  The group drifted into two, lets call them the mountaineering group and the enthusiastic photography group.

I eventually found myself alone and between the two, a little bit on purpose.  The feeling of something profound was tugging at my heart.  The Great Unknown was feeling closer than it has before.  The thought struck me.  It was a big one.  It made me smile like a fool to myself.  "If He had never called me here, I wouldn't be here.  If I had never followed that call, I wouldn't be here."  I wouldn't have been hiking the Great Wall surrounded by the most beautiful BLUE sky.  The theme song of this time abroad is listed at the top of my blog.  In the way that God placed this song on my heart, I had the feeling that there would be something that He would reveal to me here as I sought the my limits and the Great Unknown, if I kept my eyes open.  I think I might be starting to figure it out.

So here's where my thoughts get a little less defined.  Maybe, The Great Unknown is simply knowing God Himself.  Maybe the Great Unknown is simply following Him on life's adventures.  Maybe the Great Unknown is simply loving these people, at this time, in this place.  I am here for this season and it is a good, beautiful, thing.  Over thinking it or being overly critical of myself doesn't help.

I walked on the Great Wall, and it was beautiful.  It was good.  I got praise God in His creation.  I don't think I will ever be a city girl, not without the opportunity to escape like that.  My soul needs to see God simply for who He is in the way that His creation quietly allows.  I talked and laughed and took four million pictures with some people who, I must say, are a pretty stellar crew.

Here's the next part of the story.  We stayed overnight at a little Chinese village.  The people made us amazing food and sold us overpriced souvenirs and we bought them.  We stayed in rooms that had giant HEATED beds that could sleep 6-8 people.  We watched the sun set over the Great Wall in the distance.  And oh, bless the Lord oh my soul, we got to see STARS.  There's no lights anywhere around here kind of stars.  We got to stand on the edge of a cliff and look at so many stars.  Even though the Beijing light/cloud/smog was distracting us from over a hill.  This semester has been a pretty big season of doubt for me at times.  This weekend, I had no doubts about who God is.  Bumping along the dirt road to the village in an uncomfortable van reminded me of mission trips, all of it reminded me of camp.  I feel like I got a little bit of myself back again.  And that was only the first day.

We (yes this did include me!) got up at 4am the next day for a sunrise hike.  I was told it would be grueling.  This was not a lie.  I have no idea of height or anything but we basically hiked straight up the side of a mountain to get to the highest point on the wall, Wanjing (view of Beijing).  Here was my thought process that ultimately failed me (kinda): "If I start off at the front of the pack, even if I drop back I won't be as far behind."  Our guide was and elderly Chinese man who must do this for fun regularly.  Up we climbed.  There was no xiuxi (rest) to be had.  I pushed myself and eventually stepped aside for a break.  Too late, for whatever reason I was starting to feel sick.  Water helped.  I climbed some more.  The group had spread out much more by this point, and I was with my friend Jackie (who so graciously carried my water in her pack, thus solidifying my nickname for her of Jack Pack), and one of the RA's Will.

My brain said, "you CAN do this, you WANT to do this, you HAVE to do this."  My body was debating between throwing up and passing out.  Not pleasant to say the least.  Not conducive to hiking straight up the side of a mountain.  Will and Jackie were very encouraging- "I don't think its too much farther!  You're doing great!"  Me: "I'm pretty sure you guys are just saying that but thanks for the sentiment, and I would say the same thing in your situation."  It was frustrating because mentally I wanted to do it, but I was doubting if my body would let me.  My motto of "the view from the top is always worth it" seemed suddenly possibly to disprove.  We kept going.  The last part was more climbing up rocks than anything.  I turned around and saw the world below me and I screamed (joy not fear) at the pink glow that was lighting up everything.  It was so close I could taste it.  I stopped thinking so much about what my stomach felt.  Will: "Scream when we actually get to the top!  Keep going!"

Breaking over the mountains!

I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, Your works are wonderful, I know that full well! Ps. 139:14

Check out this golden joy!

"I lift my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot slip, He who watches over you will not slumber." Ps. 121:1-3

Jack Pack!  So thankful for her that morning (and other times too)

Holy is the Lord, God almighty, the earth is filled with His glory!

We made it just in time to see the sun peak over the top of the Great Wall and turn the world GOLD.  Yep, the view from the top is always worth it.  I climbed up, and smack, touched the highest point on the Great Wall.  JOY.  We talked and laughed and marveled.  My heart was full of praise.  Glory, glory glory.  I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, but here's what the morning hike meant to me.  It was hard, but I did it anyways.  I couldn't have done it without the people that I was with and the God of the universe.  I saw Him even more in that morning.  His glory for the whole world.  We came down with knees shaking but hearts full.  It was the most glorious start to a day I've had in awhile.

"If you never leave home, never let go, you'll never make it to the Great Unknown, so keep your eyes open my love."

How I Got Here

I don't know if I've ever shared the story of how I ended up in China on this blog, and it helps the rest of the post make sense:
-When I was ten, I heard about the gender disparity and infanticide issues caused by the OCP.  My heart was struck by the injustice of this, and I swore I would adopt baby girls from China.
-Fast forward to senior year of high school, I'm at a missions conference with my youth group and we go to an activity called Firestarters, where we are supposed to read information about several world issues and choose one that we feel called to pray for.  Abortion was the issue that stood out to me that day, while its not usually the issue that I'm most passionate about.  At the end, we got a sticker and were asked to place it on a part of the world that we felt called to pray for.  The Haiti earthquake had just happened, which I was passionate about, yet I knew that wasn't where I was supposed to go.  I walking around the map rather aimlessly waiting for that nudge of where to be.  We had also just been learning about China in AP Gov and the abortion and OCP clicked in my mind.  I looked at the vast country and went in my mind, "well, the Olympics were in Beijing!" and down went my sticker.
-I had been thinking before this about going into missions in some capacity.  I wish I could remember the intervening months here better to know what I was thinking about.
-I had taken Spanish in high school and traveled to Mexico and Honduras, and I was going to continue at Hope but I didn't get into the class I needed so I put off taking a language class.  I wasn't totally in love with Spanish or anything.
-Sometime in that first semester I connected China and missions in my head, decided that I wanted to study abroad in China, and that I would start Chinese at Hope in the fall.  I even looked through all of the available study abroad programs and decided on the IES Contemporary Issues Beijing program.  The whole China thing was continually confirmed.
-I started Chinese sophomore year and was quickly brought to reality.  It's a really, really, really, hard language for an English speaker to learn.
-The study abroad application time came around, and I had a total crisis of where to go.  I still had the idea of China, yet I fell in love with a program in Scotland as well.  Just do a Google image search of Scotland.  I hated learning Chinese and the thought of going to a country where that was the language of choice was pretty frightening.  It was a battle between what I wanted and what God wanted.  I decided to let it rest because I was going to Kenya that summer anyways.  I prayed and thought a lot while I was there, and at 4am one night, I decided to do Contemporary Issues Beijing.  It was where God was calling me to be.

I couldn't NOT come to China, when I knew SO strongly that it was what God wanted me to do.  So amidst fear and doubt, I was sent off with more earthly love than I have ever known, all pointing to the indescribable love of my Savior above.

Four Day Weekend

Here is the much awaited post about my wonderful weekend last weekend.  Well at least one person has awaited it.  Anyways.

Mykhanh and I left campus to grab lunch on our way to the subway.  I'll add here that this is when bubble tea #1 was consumed.  We went to the train station and took a high speed 30 minute train trip to Beijing's neighbor city Tianjin, where we changed train stations and got a train to Shanghai.  There were no tickets leaving from Beijing so this was a doable albeit more time consuming option.  The high speed trains are awesome.  We were going about 180 miles per hour, so it took us about 5 hours to get to Shanghai.  Inside the train itself is like a plane, with bigger windows, more room, and no altitude issues or seat belt sign.  We got into Shanghai and managed to take the subway partway to our hostel before it closed.  Then we tried to get a cab but Chinese people kept out bidding us or the drivers didn't understand where we were trying to go.

This is one of the times where Myks and I shamelessly use our appearances to our advantage.
Getting a cab: Mykhanh.  She is Vietnamese American and looks Chinese.  People are surprised that she isn't and confused that her Chinese isn't perfect, yet if they know she's American they say its very good.  Less conspicuous than a laowai hailing for a cab.
Going into a fancy hotel and asking the concierge how to get to our hostel because they're a fancy hotel and its Shanghai so someone definitely speaks English: me.  Being white, I'm the more convincing poor lost tourist.  We found the hostel.  Cab drivers are nice in Shanghai.

Our full day in Shanghai:
-Bubble Tea #2 and jingbing #1 to start of the morning.  Jinbing is something that I live off of here and there are many different varieties.  Basically its fried dough with stuff in it, usually meat, egg, maybe lettuce and sauce.  Sort of like a burrito but not quite.  The dough can vary in thickness as well as the fillings.
-Shanghai Museum- lots of really cool and beautiful old Chinese stuff.  Free admission.  Yeah buddy.
-The French Concession- fancy tourist hutong area.  Lots of overpriced stuff, some really cool art, and random souvenirs. There was one place with really amazing photography.  It made me remember how photography really can be a true art form.
-Nanjing Road- Bubble Tea #3.  Big laowai shopping area.  The largest Forever 21 I have ever been to, around the size of the Times Square one according to Google.  Lots of other expensive stores and lots and lots of people.
-Meet up with Emily and Brenna (fellow IES peeps) and go see the Shanghai skyline at night.  It was super smoggy so the tops of some of the buildings were lost in the clouds, but it did not disappoint.  One of those "wow I'm really in China!" moments.
-Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings).  Be careful or the soup spills all over you.
-Boat across the river with Mykhanh to see the pretty buildings up close.  Consider going up into a tall building   Opt for McDonald's ice cream and getting on the subway before it closes instead.

So we packed it in, but I feel like i saw of the biggest things you have to see when you go to Shanghai.  The city feels much more European and modern than Beijing, there are tons of laowai, and I'd say its a little more modern and polished.

Next day:
-Jinbing #2, train ride to Hangzhou.  We bought the cheap tickets and we found out why.  Not a comfy experience.  We got to Hangzhou and it was cloudy and rainy, yet Mykhanh started singing with the taxi driver and there were so many trees everywhere!  One of Karen's big fails of the trip: our hotel for that night.  At least the room smelled better after we turned the air conditioner on right?  Definitely made me in even more support of hostelling.  And the hotel was not near anything at all.  Oh well.
-Headed over to the shopping street area.  Bubble tea #4.  Met up with Emily, Brenna, Ly and Hong.  Got street food.  I had friend crab on a stick and a little bowl of noodles.
-买东西-shopping.  Lots of souvenir type places and tea stores.

Hangzhou is one of my new favorite places in the world.  Myks and I had an interesting morning getting her a replacement train ticket for Suzhou and not finding our hostel.  Bubble tea #5 happened on that journey.  Hostel is infinitely better than crappy hotel, lots of garden space and an adorable little hipster cafe.  And then we went to the lake.  And then I slowly fell in love.  Hangzhou is most well known and earns the reputation as most beautiful place in China for its lake, known as West Lake.  Myks is a fellow Seattle girl.  She loves water like I love mountains.  We spent the first 30 minutes just freaking out at the immense lake before us.  We started walking around and then decided we should walk around the other way.  Glory to God from the depths of my soul.  So beautiful.  Trees, water, hills across the lake.  I have never lived in the city before this semester.  I needed this.  My soul needs this.  We decided to take a boat to an island in the middle of the lake.  We hop aboard this ancient Chinese looking (though very modern boat) and go out the island.  It has some name that I can't remember, basically there are 4 lakes in the middle of this island surrounded by paths, pagodas, little Chinese buildings and lots of trees.  And bridges.  And the biggets koi fish I have ever seen.  Anyways.  No car sounds.  Lots of people, but its China.  There are never not lots of people.  The sun began its descent, first gold than brighter and brighter, and we had to get on the boat because they were closing the boats down and oh.  Glory, glory, glory.  First time I've seen a real sunset in awhile.  Dinner at a Thai place with Emily and Brenna because someone offered Mykhanh an opera ticket.  Bubble tea #5.  A Thai restaurant with no noodles, which is just nonsense if you ask me.  Red curry instead.  Lots of crying and eating fruit and drinking water.  So delicious though.  More shopping.  Tea purchasing.  Snack tasting.

Myks and I got up and headed to Suzhou.  Canal streets.  Hipster postcard store.  Baozi shaped like pigs.  Too good.

I'll put pics in another post or up on FB.  It was an awesome, restful, joy filled weekend!

Things About Today

This past weekend was probably my favorite travel that I've done.  And I'm not going to write about it right now.  HA.

This morning for IR we went to a class at Qinghua University (the best university in China), broke into groups and talked about IR issues between China and America.  I was with my friend Alyssa and three Chinese students.  We made a list of the issues which included trade/currency, human rights, environmental issues, Taiwan, Tibet, N. Korea, relations with SE Asia, media, and more.  It was so interesting to hear the Chinese perspective on these issues.  Most of us agreed that trade and currency are the most pressing issues in China/US relations right now.  Perhaps the most interesting part for me was figuring out how to answer some of the questions that the Chinese students posed to us, including things about gun control and American political awareness (or lack thereof).  I think what it came down to was explaining how Americans in general don't believe one thing universally, because of things like geographical differences and our multi-party system and free speech.  It was an awesome way to spend class!

The other random event of my day was when I stopped in a tiny clothes store by my house to see if they had any fleeces (they didn't).  However, the girls working in the shop struck up a conversation with me and we managed to have a basic conversation in Chinese!  I of course heard their giggles as I walked out of the door, but that's nothing new, and I appreciated that they initiated the conversation with me.  It was pretty fun.

Really, that's it.  Exciting to me and no one else is that a new noodle place opened up right near campus, and I can get a hefty portion of delicious mian for six kuai a five minute walk from campus.

Xi'an

Since I leave for Shanghai tomorrow I thought I should give a brief rundown of my Xi'an adventures before everything blurs together too much in my mind.  And I just put close to 200 pictures of Facebook too!

We (Mykhanh and Marytha and I) took an overnight train to Xi'an.  I seriously love being on the train in China.  There's nothing like it.  If you want to experience humanity just go to a train station in China.  So many people all going somewhere.  Lines are a vague suggestion, its every man for himself in the crush to get on a train.  We got hard sleepers, which are seriously a dream.  For about $50 US one way, you get a narrow bunk with pillow and comforter with 5 other people in your little cabin (which are open to the corridor), and have a chance of being coherently rested by the time you arrive at your destination.  Some other friends were on our same train, so we hung out in their compartment for awhile and played cards.

Without even going to our hostel, we grabbed a bus from the train station and headed to see the terra cotta warriors.  They were as cool in person as in every textbook and photo I've seen.  There are over 8,000 that have been dug up with more still buried.  No two are exactly the same, and there are soldiers with different stances and weaponry as well as horses.  Only one has been found completely intact.  The internet can tell you more history if you want, but as one of my friends pointed out, these guys are older than Jesus (appr. 200 BC).  And they were only found in the 1970s by some peasants digging a well.  Crazy.

That afternoon we found our hostel.  We tried to find the taxi place, which took a really long time, and then since all the taxi drivers wanted to rip the waiguoren  girls off we found a bus that took us there for much less.  We then went to meet Mykhanh's friend and she took us the Muslim Quarter, which might have been one of my favorite places I've been in China.  She showed us a shop where a SISTER sells Chinese calligraphy and painting.  Steven Curtis Chapman was playing.  The rest of the stuff in the shopping area was similar to market shopping in Beijing, but much more relaxed.  Then we went into the main street.  I just love China at night.  It was dusk, and the sky was glowing orange as the neon signs came on, street food sizzled and friend and smelled delicious, and people packed the street.  We sampled random food items and just took everything in.  We found a store that sold 10 kuai scarves ($1.66) when its usually impossible to bargain below 20.  We had spicy food at some random restaurant and it was just awesome.

The next day, we biked the city wall which was probably my favorite thing that we did.  I've spent a lot of time here seeing things, it was nice to actually do something and in the process see the city from a completely different perspective.  The only downside was the ancient cobblestones that made it a very bumpy ride.  We did the 8 mile ride in exactly the time we had rented the bikes for, 100 minutes.  So fun.  

We then went to find the Golden Goose Pagoda which took longer than we intended it too.  Mykhanh and I wanted to get back for church so we just saw it from a distance and called it good and then went back to go to mass (its becoming a tradition in our friendship).  It took awhile to get there and we didn't really know where we going.  Again per tradition, we came late and slipped in the back and left early to make it to the hostel and then to the train.

Since our train left at like 6 we had some time to talk before we fell asleep.  It gave us all a chance to process our China experiences up to that point.  Because of the language pledge that's always on at IES we don't always get to have real conversations like this.  Very thankful for my friends.

That was something that struck me about Xi'an.  Seeing the terra cotta soldiers.  It was another one of those moments where I went "woah... I really am here!"  Crazy stuff.  I have heard about those things my whole life, and I really got to see them in the flesh (terra cotta flesh?).  We are infinitely more comfortable with traveling now, my Chinese is improving even if its not as quickly as I would like sometimes, I really am doing this.