Oh, why hello there folks! It's Anna here. I'm all showered up, dressed for the day, and have a cute Chinese scarf on for writing out a long blog today....and I've been ready for the day since about 3:30 am. Can we say jet lagged much?
Today's blog will be all about my trip to China (and a little about our short stop in South Korea as well). Ready? Here we go:
Well, let me just first state that traveling that far across the world on plane makes for a quick mess up of your sleep schedule. Lol! But hey, we're humans and we learn to adjust. We took three planes in order to get there: from Omaha to Chicago, Chicago to South Korea, and then South Korea to Beijing. I've never seen such fatty feet and ankles in my life than I did after our 13 hour flight from Chicago to Korea...it was quite hilarious to be honest! Anyway, we left on early morning April 19th...and we were already starting out on the tired side. After many, many hours of traveling we finally got there on Friday the 20th!
We got there at about midnight and all went to bed, hoping to wake up feeling well rested and rejuvenated. And I would say most of us did that Saturday morning. So we woke up, ate breakfast and were ready to take on our first project: help with teaching basic English conversational skills, and putting on a talent show. Hehe!! The english school was getting ready to start taking applications and new students for their next semester of teaching, so this day (Saturday the 21st) we were basically helping to promote the English school in order to help them maintain the amount of students they needed. It was really fun actually! We each got to have our own little group of younger, college aged, Chinese students. Most of them knew little tid bits of english, so conversing with them was only going to help them in their knowledge of keeping up in a conversation in english. SO! After we had our group time with students, we went and had lunch together and then started talent show. We came up with quite a few "talents", and so did many of the Chinese students. We had a couple of groups put together some stuff to show off, like a group who did a Tai Chi routine, a girl who did belly dancing, and a few others. My talent, you may ask? Well, for the special birthday that was there I did something EXTRA talented...I hand-tooted the Happy Birthday song. I know, I know...I'm quite talented. :) Anyway, after the talent show some of us took a walk around the area where the orphanage was located. We were not quite in Beijing, but I was told they still considered themselves Beijing because city limits were quite spread out. And actually, Beijing took a good hour to even get to or longer with traffic! So...this pretty much wraps up our first day in China. After our walk, we all ate, and then crashed for the night...well, crashed for what hours our body would allow us, lol.
Sunday the 22nd - this was our first sightseeing day: Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace were our two places of sightseeing, and then a little shopping on the side in a market. It was a pretty fun day, lots of walking, but it kept us awake and going...so it all worked out great. Two of the girls on our trip, Regan and Candace, both had very blonde hair...which, as most of you know, is a very rare thing in the Chinese culture. So on our day of sightseeing, many of the Chinese people wanted pictures with them. And some of the people would even just walk up to them and snap pictures, it was pretty funny! Anywho, the two places we went, the Square and Palace, were both really cool to see. I've never gone through so many layers of a palace in my life...rough life for the people that use to live there. ;) After that stuff was done, we headed out to a market to do some bartering and get our souvenirs. When we first stepped foot into the market they were selling scorpions and sea horses and whatever other bug you could think of on a stick...to eat. BLEH! But we have a few in our group brave enough to try. Surprisingly, they said it tasted pretty good. lol! So we did our barter shopping, and then left to go back to where we were staying for fellowship with the staff of the organization of the of the English school and orphanage (also called a foster care). It was cool to have church with the staff and get to know them a little better as they were welcoming us to China. That night was an awesome blessing, and also a great opening for us to be a big encouragement for the staff.
Monday the 23rd - The Great Wall of China day! We were all REALLY looking forward to this day...but what we didn't really know was how much work it was going to be climbing around on that wall. :S But regardless, it was fun! We didn't even climb the whole thing, obviously because it's so huge! But we did climb an entire side of it...which I would like to say is a pretty big accomplishment considering I was 23 weeks (now 24) along in my pregnancy. I need to pick up myself an award somewhere. Just kidding. Anyway, after a few hours of climbing and taking a bazillion pictures, we left to go eat at a traditional Chinese restaurant. *Before I get into the food part of this...let me just put here that this was the day that about ruined my stomach for the entire trip. If you were to ask any Chinese person what their favorite thing was about China, their answer every single time would be: "oh! The food!" Or, "To eat!". Because that was LITERALLY their favorite thing...and yet, they're so tiny and in fantastic shape! I suppose it's probably because their food doesn't have all the junk in it like America does.*
Anyway, we got to this restaurant and there were about 13 of us, and we were definitely hungry...but not for what the rest of the day held for us in food, lol! We sit at this table, and food is just being ordered and ordered and ordered...next thing I know there are about 18 or 19 plates FULL of food. If I heard this correctly, it was explained to us that when Chinese are present at a dinner like this (one was) then they order more than needed, just to cover the bases of knowing everyone got to eat. Lol! Needless to say...I have NEVER in my LIFE been so stuffed full of food. And it was fantastic food as well! We were so spoiled with all this authentic stuff...that I think I'll be too snobby for the stuff that's served here in the states now. ;) Maybe not...? So after this gigantic beast of a meal, we took our stuffed bellies to another market where they sold real pearls for great prices (even lower if you knew how to barter). So we all did our shopping, then headed back to our little village...where we had some young Chinese students waiting to take us out to eat. Lol. So we get back, walk to town and have our try of Donkey. It was very good! And I figured since we had told them that's all we wanted to try since we were so full that they understood...but nope! They started ordering food and ordering MORE food. I thought I was going to cry trying to stay happy and keep eating...but thank you Lord you've made me a strong conversationalist, because none of them noticed how painful it was to try and stuff ourselves again. Haha! It was really a good night to reach out to these students and know them a little better. For most of those students, it was their last week at the english school, and also the last chance the staff had a chance to really speak into their lives and ask Jesus to shed his light on them. So it was truly an honor to be asked to be part of this process of reaching out to them in this way. So despite all the food that was eaten that day, I felt so blessed to be a part of this beautiful piece of the puzzle!
After dinner, we walked back and we all managed to roll ourselves into bed and pray we didn't puke in the middle of the night (for me...I wasn't so fortunate, oh well).
Tuesday 24th - Thursday 26th: These three days were totally and completely filled with serving the staff and their work in any way possible: through service projects, helping with babies/toddlers/preschoolers and helping in the English classes/students. Each day was started out with a half hour prayer meeting with all of the staff at this orphanage/English school. In my opinion, starting out a day with your staff like that is one of the best things you could ever do in your walk with the Lord! I know it helped me in just the few days we were there to listen to everyone pray and feel the blessings they have received already. And God has definitely blessed that place in many, MANY different ways! Anyway, after prayer time, we had one of the staff, Brian (in charge of coordinating visiting groups) would assign us to a particular area for whatever hours of the day they needed us. We all got the chance to be with the foster kids at some point in those three days, some more than others. I loved being with the kids...but I especially LOVED being around the students from the English school part of this organization. We usually did English classes with them, or activities. One of the days we had a Sports Day where we were all broken up into different groups and competed against each other in multiple events. It was fun! And not to toot my horn or anything...or maybe a little bit...my team won, the entire thing. :) First places! But everyone did fantastic and it was cool to help them use English in this way.
So many of the students would tell us how much they enjoyed being around us and the staff, and a couple of girls had told me one day that they felt a blessing from "the one above" (they couldn't remember the name in English.."God") to be here with all of us. And it was so wonderful to hear them say such a beautiful thing, I was so touched! So truly, it was amazing to be around these students and see their eagerness to learn a new language, and learn it well.
This is pretty much what those three last days looked like while being in China. On our last day there, Thursday, half of us had the chance to go on a field trip with the English students into Beijing. That was SO much fun!! Each person from my group split up and went into different groups of the students (they were broken up by class numbers according to their level of English: 1, 2, 3, and 4). I went with class 1 and quickly found out that we'd have a little different experience with where we were going to eat. One of the women in the group was a Muslim, so we all decided to eat where she would like to eat. It was really excited to get to know her a little bit and share stories of life and travel. She's quite the traveler as well!! So I was super pumped to learn of her experiences (in what little way she could tell me, lol). So after our field trip, we got back to the village and had our sad goodbyes. Even for just a short 8 day trip, we grew close to the people and it made it hard to want to leave.
Thursday (late) night we set off and flew into South Korea - Friday, 27th - We arrived in South Korea, got a shuttle to our hotel from the airport, got our room assignments...freshened up, then all of our group (but one) got into taxi's and headed for downtown Seoul! It was about an hour drive to downtown, putting us there at roughly 2am-ish. We walked around and saw the city a bit, went to some vendors, ate some local food, and did some shopping. It was fun...but also tiring! At one point we stopped at a place that was just like Burger King or something, and I about had my head hit the table because I fell asleep just sitting there. Lol! Anyway, after that we headed for the train station, which would get us back to the airport, then from the airport we'd be shuttled back to our hotel. Just in time to shower up (or sleep from some), eat a complimentary breakfast (YES!) and then head back to the airport for our 13 hour flight back home! I got back to the hotel and sat in the huge bathtub for about half an hour...and it was GLORIOUS! I even prayed while chillin. :) So, that's about how South Korea went down. Bam bam bam! We left South Korea on Friday morning....and then arrived in Chicago on Friday morning. Weirdest and longest Friday I have ever lived, lol.
So, here I am now. Back in Omaha and jet lagged worse than I've ever been in my life...but it was totally worth it! Many of you who know me, know how much I love traveling overseas and seeing/experiencing different cultures. You also know that I tend to grow very attached to the particular place/and work I've been/done, and begin praying very seriously about whether or not God wants me/us there. But this trip was different. I did love being in China and doing the work we did, but God made it very clear to me from the start that this is not where He wanted myself and Jared. He did use me, I know that for sure, but I was also given peace in knowing that this could be a great long term experience for someone else. And that is how I've been praying since I've been back: That God would open up the heart for this person(s) who needs to be there to hear Him and His calling. They are in need of some staff help, and please know...that I am praying for you, whoever you are. I know I haven't mentioned the name of this place, mostly due not being able to recall if I could mention their name because of safety issues and them being in China, and having this blog publicly posted to the internet. But if you would like more information about this particular organization, feel free to shoot me an email or message on facebook and I'd gladly tell you more in depth. Hopefully I can have an answer by then about the name! If you feel called in any sort of way to helping this organization in their English school, or foster care/adoption, I hope that you will begin praying about that opportunity!
Again, thank you for taking time to read and allowing me to just debrief my trip. It's nice to see it all in writing and think about it as a whole instead of just day by day. I appreciate you readers, thank you for all your love and prayers you have offered to Jared and myself. May God shower you with blessings and open your eyes to His great works! Grace and peace!
- Anna
