The Great Wall and Flying Chinese Acrobats

Sorry we didn't blog yesterday, we had a longer day than usual and we were all pretty exhausted. It started with an early morning trek out to the Great Wall. It was absolutely gorgeous but I'm not sure that anyone was quite ready for the challenge. The temperature was in the 90s and some parts of the wall were almost 90 degrees - perpendicular to the ground. It was tough but oh so worth the effort. After that we went back to the hotel where we cleaned up and rested for a while. Us girls including Kelley Leidenthal decided to dress up because we felt like feeling pretty. For dinner we went to a Korean restaurant which was crazy delicious. You get a plate of thinly sliced raw meet and you grill it yourself at your table. When it's done you dip it in some sort of seasoned soy sauce type thing. After dinner, we went to a Flying Acrobat show which was very entertaining. It was a bunch of Chinese people in crazy costumes doing all sorts of tricks. There was a guy who balanced on a plank which was on a cylindrical object and put bowls on the end of the plank and flipped them onto his head. There were also a few girls who bent their bodies in ways it should never be bent and guys jumping through hoops and girls on bikes and all sorts of craziness. As exhausting as the day was it was a ton of fun and an experience that will last a life time. We have been fortunate that we have gone this long and not had any incidents and appreciate you keeping us in your thoughts.

~Megan

The Mini Marathon...

So here is the deal... I am going to run over some facts about to today's outings to get you to the epic ending. We went to a coffee shop to visit today, and we learned much about our brothers and sisters here and much about what they have been doing. We got to talk a lot and share a meal with them. We will be able to go with them to the Great Wall tomorrow. Awesome. Once the chats were done, we went to eat at a hong kong restaurant after a siesta. Which is a nap. So we went to eat at this place where we proceeded to spill more than our fair share of noodles and sauce. We then decided it a good idea to find Jared some walking shoes for tomorrow... which is where the epicness begins. We started this idea with trying to get onto a subway... which was fine. We walked to the station, got on, and things where going fairly smoothly except no one could pronounce the street we were heading. We got to where we were going and Jared told us to walk one way because he "knew" where we were going. So we began walking. And walking. And walking. Sweat began to drip. Gimps began to show. Tempers were about to flair. Just at the time, after we had walked almost to Mongolia, was when Jared finally said "we're lost." It is this time when Gabe decided to ask a women who had married father time when he was in his twenties. She and her buddy were old. We only had the name in chinese of the place we wanted to go on a sheet of paper. So we pointed to it and they mumbled Mandarin and pointed in directions as they were leading towards the market. However, we then were again mumbled at and told to walk down a dark alley way. This brought the team together. Imminent death often does. This alley way was dark, scary and different. It appeared to have no end when all of a sudden the women pointed and mumbled yet again in a different direction and we followed her. It looked as if the market was in sight, when she suddenly wanted us to cross an interstate of traffic. It was incredibly intense. When we had crossed the street after almost six accounts of near death at the hands of these women, they proceed to stop at a bus stop. No joke. They led us through a scary corridor and insane traffic to a bus stop. It was here where Jared said "I quit." We gave up the search and headed back home at a speedy pace because all we wanted was this to be over. We finally got back to our original subway and street and finally to our hotel. But that was a most grand ending to a splendid day. So ends Monday, May the 18th, 2009, for our intrepid explorers in Beijing China.

-Jared Parsons

Adventures in Bejing

Not too long ago, we just got back from taking a rather long walk after taking the subway to find the Pearl Market that we went to on saturday. We walked and walked but ended up not finding it, even after trying to ask around, which is hard with the language barrier. At least we got a little exercise and burned off some calories, so it really wasn't all that bad, only that we didn't know we would be walking that far and flip-flops definitely aren't the way to go. Moving on to the earlier events of today...

Today we met with more university students at yet another coffee shop, which is kind of a nice setting actually. We sat around and discussed our likes and our cultures while even getting into deeper conversation if we saw fit. And because music is a big part of their culture as well, Jared and Gabe play and sing some songs, one of which they taught today was "Home On The Range". Kelley also had a fun activity for us and it ended up being the Hokey Pokey, good times. We noticed this time around that a lot of the students didn't know english as well as the first group we met with, so it made talking with them more difficult. Afterwards, we came back to the hotel and just relaxed for a while before going out to dinner, which was good to have since we're always just going until after dinner most days. Tomorrow we're heading off to the infamous Great Wall and invited the students in more organized fashion than when we went to the Temple of Heaven, so it should be a great time!

-Kira

Freedom. Liberation. Openness. . . . . these are words that describe what I found in China. . . .it is funny tho to think of freedom in seclusion. . . . and liberation in the fact that you have run out of options. . . . my friends. . . . my family. . .I am talking about none other than the infamous four syllable phrase. . . Squatty . . . . Potty. . . . one of the beast thing in China is this contraption. . . it is much like an American toilet with out any of the restraints . . . . all the purpose + no restraints = awesome

thoughts from fast phil...

Well, I'm in Beijing (and have no clue where to start). I have got to say, for literally being halfway around the world and in a country who's language is about as different from English as it gets, I'm oddly at home. Upon first arriving, a few things really stuck out: on the highways they have a ton of flowers in almost all of the medians and tall trees along most of the road; there are huge, 30-story apartment buildings in clusters scattered all throughout Beijing, in just about every part of town; the city doesn't have very much litter at all and people are out in the streets cleaning in the wee hours of the night (I heard from a student they started making efforts to pick up trash a couple years ago).

Overall, the Chinese I have encountered have been very friendly (if they can speak English). It seems like they are used just going from point A to point B without any interaction with each other. For the most part, people are just walking (lots and lots of people) with this solemn, emotionless look on their face. Whenever we say hi or interact with somebody, their face lights up, especially if they can speak English. It is really, really easy to talk to people here, too. Obviously, because we're from America is part of it, but people seem really happy to engage and talk, just randomly on the street. I think that the people like to be out and about, compared to Omaha where my friends generally hang out with each other at homes, in private places. It has been very interesting trying to interact with the Chinese, especially those that don't speak English.

Gabe is a people magnet with his fro. At least once an hour, we'll see some Chinese women either staring at his hair or just cracking up. They all wonder if it's real. I wonder if they've seen an afro before.

Yesterday we had our first cultural exchange at Peking University. There were about 20 students there, and they all had a million questions, as did we. There's probably about 10 coming with us today to the Temple of Heaven. Yesterday we had some awesome dialogue, a lot of conversations going into more than just the shallow, surface level stuff. They seemed pretty curious, and I'm very curious to see where the conversations go today. It's really awesome to get to know Chinese college students--they speak English really well and are really, really friendly. I'm very excited to see where our new friendships lead today. We having stuff planned for every day, but then at night we can build relationships and hang out with the people we met. Tonight we may go with some to a coffee shop or maybe a gym and play some sort of sport.

Overall, Beijing is a very dark place. There is good news though--there is some light and some very curious people. I'm very optimistic about Beijing's and China's future.
-Phil

p.s. this blog entry doesn't flow at all, I sat down 4 different times to write it

A Day With the Students

First I'd like to thank you all for your prayers and support. They are definitely felt by all. Yesterday we spent the day with some college students. I wasn't able to write last night because we weren't able to get on but it's all good now. Basically the day did not go how we expected but it went well anyway. We met the students at Central park Cafe and we just hung out for the most part. These people are good at english and were very curious. We also got to play a few mixer games, Phil shared his testimony, Jared and Gabe played a few songs, and a couple Chinese guys performed for us as well. After lunch we went and walked through Perking University which is HUGE! compared to UNO at least, but absolutely gorgeous. They even had a lake on their campus. There were a lot of good conversations and we have invited some to come to visit the Temple of Heaven with us today. We're praying for a good turn out. We also got to drive past the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. For dinner we went to a place called Chinese Restaurant which was good and had food more like we are used to. Afterwords we wandered around the shopping strip which is close to our hotel. This is where Jordan ate scorpion on a stick and Jared K. and Jordan found a vendor selling spinning tops and they had fun with those. We also went to a street filled with vendors selling trinkets. That was a crazy experience. You can't linger too long because they will latch onto you and will not let go. Yesterday was a great experience and we are excited to see what else will unfold and again thank you so much for your continuing support.

~Megan