July 15, 2017
8:00 pm
Beijing, China
Okay, so I owe you guys a HUGE apology. I seriously don’t know what happened to me. I really have no excuse. I mean, things have been crazy and busy, but not near enough to keep from writing at least a short little post to share with you guys. I am so sorry. I’m going to try to get back to writing more often. But, because it has been so long since I’ve written, you guys have missed quite a bit. (Pssst. If you want to skip the updates and just get on to the really important stuff, go to number four)
First:
The last time I wrote was when my parents were here and we were still in Harbin. That’s so long ago! Anyway, so the third day of that trip was even more amazing than the first two days. We only went to two ch—ches, but at the first one, we were invited to stay and watch a wedding. Because we had to wait after the service for the preparations to be made, we had a lot of time to visit with the ch—ch members. There was one little boy, I didn’t really catch his name, who was super excited to see us. He hung around Dad like a little shadow. We took so many pictures and were able to talk to so many people. It was also a good chance for me to practice my Chinese and, since most of them were children, they were very forgiving of my mistakes. Dad also said it was cool to watch me use English with them, because it showed how much I had learned about working with kids. He noticed that, while he or Mom might ask the exact same question, the kids seemed to always understand me better because I knew how to word it and how to extract the answer. For example, if we asked, “How old are you?” (that one tends to be difficult for a lot of young ESL learners over here) I’d often have to prompt them by following the question with, “Are you 5? Are you 6?” all the while using Chinese one-handed counting to help them understand. Dad said it was really interesting to watch. The wedding itself was gorgeous, although a bit different than what I’m used to seeing. It was kind of an odd mixture of Western and Chinese culture. It was beautiful and, though I can remember most of it, I can’t really think of how to put in down in writing. I will say this, the bride and groom seemed very happy and they swore their love on the B—le.
The other ch—ch we went to that day was equally as cool, but in a different way. Although we’d had a lot of people show up at our other visits, the number of people at this ch—ch was insane. The ch—ch itself had an extra room added on, where people were watching the main alter on a television screen, and both rooms were completely filled. There were so many people that you could barely move through the room, and there were more outside! When we went to pass out the B—les, we actually ran out! Luckily, the ch—ch had more (older printings) in the back, but we were not allowed to hand those out. I don’t really know why. After the service, we went outside to say hello and take pictures, but we were immediately ushered into the van. We were not allowed to spend any time with the members. Apparently, they had been waiting there for us all day and the ch—ch had to send them all home as soon as possible. They were afraid if we stayed, they would not be able to get people to leave. So we left and went back to Harbin. There, we did a little bit of sightseeing before heading to bed.
After we returned to Beijing, I acted as tour guide and took my parents around to a few places. The first night, I took them to Pearl Market and Wangfujing (two touristy shopping areas, but they’re actually pretty cool). Dad ordered a suit at Pearl Market, which turned out to be a bit of a hassle, but whatever. The next day, I took them to EF to show them where I work, then we went and met the Fagg family for a day at Houhai (a cool Hutong area that Cathy recommended we visit). Their first “last day” in Beijing, we invited Taylor and Brian to go with us to the Summer Palace. It was so much fun! We did a TON of walking and saw a lot of the park. It was also really nice to introduce Mom and Dad to two of my best friends. That night, we went to a nice hot pot restaurant for dinner. The next morning, Mom and Dad hopped a train for a city on the Yangze River, where they caught their anniversary cruise. While they were gone, I headed back to work. Before they went back to the US, though, they stopped in Beijing one more time. We went back to Pearl Market and Wangfujing to get some gifts to take home, and grab one last nice dinner. They headed back to the US on Wednesday afternoon. It was really really hard to say goodbye, but I’m so happy I got to see them.
Second:
The second big thing you missed is that I took a trip to Xi’an, with Brian. We had a day off for Dragon Boat Festival around the end of May, so we decided to take a quick trip to Xi’an. We were only there for a couple of days, but we managed to do quite a bit. Early on May 30th, we took a train from Beijing to Xi’an. Our first day there, we went to see the famous Bell and Drum towers in the center of town. They were really beautiful and it was even better once it got dark and the towers were lit up. Afterwards, we headed over to the Muslim Quarter, which is a big shopping street. You can buy trinkets and such, but you can buy delicious street food, which is why we were there. The food was amazing, especially the lamb and the rolled ice cream.
Our second and only full day, we went to see the Terra-cotta Warriors. Now the last time I was there in 2010, I recall most of the area being indoors, so we were not prepared for the amount of walking we had to do in the sun. Although I had already seen the Warriors once, they were still just as amazing to see again. Also, the park apparently opened up a new area about 2 miles away from the main pits. They had found the burial tomb with more, smaller pits around it. Brian and I went over to see it, but once we got there, we realized that was a bad idea. We walked around for a good half hour or so and could find nothing. There was very little signage and there were no park workers around. When we finally did find a pit, it was completely empty. Apparently everything was taken somewhere else to be restored and would be put back in the pit at a later date. We gave up after that because we were hot, exhausted, and sunburn. So we went back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to go to the City Wall, which I feel bad about. I’ve already been on it, but Brian has not. He didn’t seem super upset about it, though, so I didn’t press trying to go. The next morning, we caught a fairly early train back to Beijing.
Third:
I took yet another trip with Brian. On June 18th, Brian and I headed to Chengdu (where all the pandas live!) While there, we got to visit two famous alleys (like Wangfujing), the People’s Park (which I think I remember going to with my family), and Jinli Street (which I definitely remember going to with my family). Our two big attractions were the pandas and the Giant Buddha. We ended up going to the same panda breeding center that I went to with my family, so apparently I’m just retracing my footsteps from 7 years ago, but it still felt like a fairly new experience. We got there pretty early, so we got to see most of the center before the crowds came. We also went to an area of the park that I hadn’t been to before. It was a secondary birthing center and there we got to see two brand new baby pandas! They were teeny tiny and were just laying in a room on two tiny blankets.
Fun fact time:
1. Panda cubs are completely useless and ugly as babies. They don’t get their black markings until they’re about 2 weeks old and they can’t really move much until they’re 3 weeks old. Even then, they can’t really walk much until they’re about 3 months old. Also, they can’t poop by themselves. I don’t know when they become independent in that aspect.
2. Because of the constant attention and help that a new cub requires, if a mother has twins in the wild, she will only care for the stronger one and leave the weaker one to die. In captivity, this is still a problem, but the care centers have figured out how to care for both cubs and how to rotate their time with their mother. While there are still some cases of one twin not surviving, most babies are able to be cared for.Okay, fun fact time over.
Aside from the baby-babies, my other favorite part (and I believe Brian’s as well) was when we got to pet a red panda! A red panda, called 小熊猫 (literally “small panda”), got out of its enclosure and was walking along the path. There was a security guard nearby and he didn’t seem to care, so I think this probably happens fairly regularly. But, luckily, Brian and I were right there. We were able to get up close and personal with the little guy, although he was much more interested in another girl who had food. Anyway, we were both able to give him a little pet and he was SOOOOO SOFT! It was so cute and something I will definitely remember forever.
After our trip to see the pandas, we went out for Sichuan hot pot. OMGosh! It was so spicy! I don’t know if you all know this, but Sichuan Province (fun fact: this is where Jai is from) is known for its spicy food. Personally, I don’t do spicy and, while it was delicious, my body was very unhappy with me for eating the hot pot. Both Brian and I had some problems the next morning, so our plans for the next two days had to be rearranged.
Our final day in Chengdu, we went to visit the Giant Buddha. It was absolutely beautiful! The climb up wasn’t actually that bad. We got up to the top and were able to take pictures of the Buddha’s head and visit the temple. Afterwards, we explored the rest of the mountain and that’s when it got tough. There were so many steps and I thought I was going to die from the heat and pure exhaustion. But I didn’t, so that’s a plus. Finally, we ended our visit by climbing down the Buddha and taking pictures from the bottom of the mountain.
Our flight was supposed to leave that night at 9:30, but that didn’t happen. Apparently there was a monsoon (or as we call it in Ohio, “an average thunderstorm”) hitting Beijing. So our flight got delayed. It got delayed by 6 hours! We were taken to a hotel to wait until our flight could actually leave. When we finally got on the plane, they had us sit there for another half hour before we could take off. But we finally got back to Beijing and made it to our apartments with no further problems.
Fourth:
I quit my job!
Yep, you read that correctly. I quit my job at EF.
At the beginning of June, I decided that I wanted to stay in China for another year, but that I did not want to continue working for EF after my contract ended in October. As a result, I started looking for new jobs to start after I finished at EF. I received an interview at a private school here in Beijing and was offered a job teaching in the Chinese/English kindergarten. The only problem, the job starts in August. After a lot of thought (although probably too little p—yer), I decided that, even though it meant breaking my contract early, this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Therefore, I put in my one month notice. As of last Monday, I’m no longer allowed to teach at EF.
I’m no longer allowed to teach at EF, but, as I mentioned earlier, I do not start work at this new school until August. Why such a large gap, Kristen? Well, because I’m here on a working visa, my visa is tied to the company I came to China with. Since I quit, I no longer have a working visa. As such, I have to get a new visa, which basically means starting from almost scratch. But while that’s going on, I can’t work in China. So what are you going to do for an entire month? Well, I’m not exactly sure. I have to leave the country for a bit for the whole new visa thing, so I’m leaving later this week to satisfy that requirement. Between the time I quit until my flight, I’ve basically been spending my days just trying to not get bored. I’ve done a lot of Netflix binging and knitting. I deep cleaned my entire apartment (China is so dusty, the freshly scrubbed floors didn’t last a day). I went to the zoo and aquarium. Brian and I went shopping yesterday and I spent far more money than I should have. And today I went to a bookstore/cafe that I love. I don’t know exactly what I’m doing over the next few days, but I’ll find something. As for after the trip, I’m not sure yet. I may be able to start doing some stuff at the new school by the time I get back, so we’ll see.
As you can see, my life in China over the past few months has had its highlights. The rest of the time, it’s basically been work and work and Chinese lessons, and work. But I now have some time to rest and recharge before a new adventure begins. Hopefully this new job will be a little less stressful. I p—y that Abba can use this new job to further His kingdom and draw me closer to Him.
Blessings,
Kristen
P.S. I will add pictures later, but right now my internet does not like me and will not upload the pictures. Sorry!
