Great times, Great friends.

China is a place so far away from home that you don't expect to get to see anyone that you know here...so I was excited when I recently got to see some friends from Nashville that were going up to the same orphanage I went to in Hohhot Mongolia last year! I took a taxi into Beijing to meet up with them, and it took me a while to find them because I thought by taxi driver and Lily, their tour guide (who is the same one I had last year) had communicated on where to drop me off so I could easily find them, which was apparently not the case. After what I think was about an hour, I finally found them! We went on a tour of the Hutong alleys in Beijing. This is one of the oldest areas in Beijing that used to be very poor, and now very wealthy people live here. It has been fixed up a lot in the past few years. We rode rickshaws through the alleys, and got to go inside a local's home and learn how to make dumplings. This was an interesting tour that I have never been on, and got to experience twice because the Washington team that was here went on it the next day. The tours were not the same though. The second day we went to the top of the drum tower, inside another local's home where we met a bird that kept saying "Nihao", to a tea tasting, and through the "happiness tunnel." It was great to see them and I know they had a lot of fun in Hohhot!


Eve, Me, and Shannon at the BICF


The Bell Tower and Hutong Alley of Beijing


The happiness tunnel in the Hutong. Look at how happy it made me!


More Hutong.



I was also excited when I got to see my friend Andrew from the states last weekend. He lives in Texas, but is working in Shanghai for a bit, so we got to hang out. I went into Beijing on Friday night, and my taxi broke down once I got into the city, so I had to get another one. In China you just never know what’s going to happen. We did the tourist thing and went to Tiannamen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, CCTV tower, Olympic City, the Great Wall, and an Acrobat show. I got to ride my first subway ever! We learned how to tell taxi drivers that they are good drivers, when, in fact, usually they are not. They just like you better if you say that. We learned a few more random phrases, and I realized that I would learn the language so much faster if I lived in the city. At the end of the weekend, I somehow successfully managed to buy a train ticket back to Lang Fang, get on the right train despite EVERYTHING in the train station being in Chinese, get off at the right stop, and tell a taxi to take me to Shepard's Field.


Olympic City.

Temple of Heaven.

Some men singing at the Temple of Heaven.


Andrew and I on a cable car at the Great Wall.


It was really foggy that day, but the Great Wall is always awesome.



So who else wants to come visit and have a China adventure?