Trippin' on Over to Shanghai‏

We were not sure what we would be doing. We had to pack up 

everything and be checked out of the hostel in Beijing by noon. I 

realized there was so much stuff I had to carry and was not sure how 

it could be done. I had to purchase a cheap large bag to put 

everything in. I knew it would kill my back but there was no other 

reasonable way. While packing, we decided to go see Mao dong's 

mummified body. It would be closed to view if we did not hurry. 
 
That was a strange sight to behold. His face looked like it was 

glowing but it was just the light shining on his face. The feeling 

in the room was unsettling and I knew we all felt it. It was 

something worth doing though. There was not much left to do in 

Beijing. We conquered it pretty well and we were mostly tired. What 

do you do when you are tired and sore? Pamper yourself of course! 
 
We went to get pedicures. We did not understand what they were 

saying so the guy just scrapped the dead skin off our feet and cut 

our nails. It was interesting. When he first pulled out the tools, 

Bryndi was first up and she was frightened. She said, "what's he 

going to do?! He has a scalpel!" That was a bit of a let down 

because we were expecting more. Some of us decided to do more. Kim 

and I got Chinese medicine massages on our feet plus a full body 

massage. Kim got more of a beating than a massage. The lady that did 

mine was nicer, still hit me but not near like Kim's. 
 
Next we had to get our ice cream fix at KFC. We walked down the 

street and then back down the other side to get to our noodles. Kim 

and I sat in there for about an hour just having a chat over noodles. 
 
To wrap up our night we went through the subway to get to the train 

station with all of our junk. My back hurt from my huge bag but we 

made it. As we were getting on the train we met a new friend, Kevin. 

I sat between Kevin and someone who did not speak any English. 

Kevin's English was very limited too though. Across from me, Lindey 

sat next to a college student that could speak english quite well. 

Kevin had this guy translate most of what he was saying to us. One 

of the first things he had to mention was that he is a part time 

model. Then his full time job is being a hair stylist for models. He 

works for 20 Guy or something, as far as we know. He showed a video 

of him cutting hair and it was cool but not very interesting after a 

while. Lindey watched the whole thing so I did not want to be rude 

and not watch it. He was adamant about saying how much he loves 

America. I totally agree. He wants to move there in a couple of 

years.

Lindey and translating college student

Well it was a pretty full train and we would be riding it all night. 

It was getting late and I was suppose to be getting sleepy. Kevin 

and I were sharing music back and forth and he told me I could lie 

my head on his shoulder if I wanted to sleep. That was really nice 

of him. While I was suppose to be asleep, he took a picture. That is 

normal to be like, 'oh look, foreigner!' I thought it was funny so I 

smiled up while he took a picture and he just laughed. He was  a lot 

taller than me and there was not much room to move legs anywhere 

with four or more sets of feet in the small space. So he put his arm 

around me. That was a little awkward so I did not let that last long 

and tried to find a position to sleep but I was not tired at all. He 

switched seats with me so I could lean against the wall. I still 

could not sleep. I could tell he was more tired than I was. I tried 

to switch back seats for him but I could not explain I was not tired 

to him. After a while, he looked frustrated, like he could not think 

of how to say something. He looked at me and just said, "You are 

really beautiful." My cheeks filled with color as I blushed. I just 

thanked him and turned my head away. It was fairly late into the 

night when he had that frustrated look again. Then he whispered, 

"Phone number?" I must have looked confused because he repeated it 

and did some sign language on his hand to show me. I told him, "No  

phone."

Kevin and I

you can also see the bandaid i gave him on his finger, I'm so prepared.

                                              

He understood that and went back to silence for a long while. At 

about 4am, when basically everyone else was passed out sleeping, he 

started typing something on his phone. He nudged my arm and showed 

me what was on the screen- 'miss kiss you'. I felt really bad at 

this point. I just smiled and kindly shook my head and said no. He 

was disappointed but being the kind guy he was, he did not push it 

at all. Kevin simply said, "oh ok." Then he shifted his position and 

said, "I'm sorry." I told him it was ok. With our lack of 

communicating skills and my feeling bad for him, I could not tell 

him I had the best guy ever already waiting for me. Instead I just 

was friendly and kept it light. For the next few hours we fell 

asleep on and off. Switching seats, positions, and randomly waking 

up for a while happened all through the night and morning. We did 

started our adventures in Shanghai. 

 

 

 

 

<3 <3 <3 The Best Guy Ever, and I, being in Love! <3 <3 <3 

<3 The Perfect Match! <3

                        Forever & Always <3      

Tryin new Things‏

It was easy to see how the day could turn out to be by waking up. 

Waking up to loud talking from roommates, or one roommate, can be 

disconcerting. I was not very happy and said something pretty rude...

I was grumpy and annoyed.

I was the last to  be ready to go but I think I was just being 

bitter and slow. After we stepped outside, Kim and I realized we did 

not prepare very well. Neither of us remembered sunglasses, sunblock, 

or snacks. It would be such a pain to go back by then. We lived on 

the second floor and in the corner of our hostel. We just kept going 

and bought sun hats on our way to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden 

City, or Palace Museum was huge. There were lots of different 

buildings and tons of tourists. It took us less than an hour to 

be done with it. It was another old Chinese place. We met back up 

after an hour and took the long way out, looking at more of what the 

Palace Museum had to offer. I started to get low-blood sugar because 

my breakfast was not big and I did not pack snacks. Luckily, I have 

awesome friends that let me have some of their crackers and peanut 

butter. I was at least more conscience. Still felt grumpy because 

when my blood sugar goes low, I get easily irritable and 

dysfunctional. We decided to go to the 'Snack Street' but we could 

not find it for a while. The walking was getting very tiring. When 

we finally found it, it was quite interesting. There were scorpions 

on sticks that still wiggled around. Then they would fry them for 

people to eat. Nicole ate two and let Bryndi try one. Bryndi got it 

chewed and swallowed. She took a drink and we were walking again but 

suddenly she started gagging and then throwing up. She got down on 

her hands and knees and hurled up some of the other food we had just 

consumed. Quickly after, she stood up nonchalantly and kept walking 

like nothing happened. She had thought about it too much and Bryndi 

has a weak gag reflex. I had expected her to throw it up but after 

she got it down and walked away, I thought she had it made.

: /

I did not try any scorpions but I did take a bite of a gritty 

starfish and chewy cooked snake. The meatless dumplings were good 

though and the fried banana. Then when we had our feel of that 

street, we went to McDonalds. Why McD's? Well they had REAL ice 

cream. We got delicious McFlurrys. Our next feat was to find a 

subway to get close to the clothing market. This was my first time 

on the subway. It was pretty simple when I just followed the other 

girls. It was crowded but not overcrowded. Then we had to walk some 

more to get to the market. We walked around the market and found new 

purchases. One lady that was selling jeans, dragged Kim back to her 

stall. It was so funny looking! We found a little DVD store and when 

we were finally done shopping, we went to get ice cream. Why again? 

Well it was Cold Stone Creamery right across the road!!!! I was so 

excited! The ice cream was perfectly delicious and sitting down, was 

more than a treat. Our legs, ankles, and feet were dying. They hurt 

from all the walking and walking and walking. 

Just for you Henry! : )

We did not want to carry everything back to our hostel, especially 

with how far away we were by then. We grabbed a taxi and when I saw 

how far we were, I was even more glad we had decided to take it. I 

showered when I got back and my feet were still a ting of black. I 

do not know if it was from the street dirt getting between my shoes 

and my feet or the dye from my cheap shoes. It felt good though to 

take a shower and scrub down. Then I got a cold water bottle and 

along with drinking it, I used it to cool my feet.  I settled in for 

the night and skyped the best guy in the whole world, the love of my 

life, Super Amazing Man, the handsomest guy I know (other than my 

dad ;) , and the guy I am going to marry in less than two months. =] 

I fell asleep soon after. 

Climbing the Great Wall!

I did not get cold in the night. The sleeping bag must have worked 

it's magic. The wall was as hard as expected with the little mats. 

It was just like camping. We looked up at the stars and I stuck my 

head way down in so my face would not freeze. The one real 

difference was the normal sized pillow. Something I usually do 

without when going backpacking and camping. 
 
I woke up to Kim and Ashley talking about going to the bathroom in 

the bucket. Yup, a bucket. That was the bathroom on the Great Wall. 

They both ended up using it but Ashley was much more reluctant. I 

was the last up and out of my bag. If you know me, that should not 

surprise you at all. I stayed in that bag while I brushed my hair 

and put my clothes on right. Then I slipped out of the bag and put 

my shoes on. Oh burr! It was chilly! Kim, Ashley, and I forwent 

bringing big jackets or anything because we did not want to carry 

them around on our vacation. So I had a thin jacket and all morning 

I was cold. There was a bit of a breeze on top of that tower as 

well. We watched the sunrise at about 5:40am. The sun felt great on 

my skin. It felt wonderful sinking in through my clothes to warm my 

body. Mr. Wong brought our breakfast at six o'clock. We had a banana 

and muesli. I actually enjoyed it. I do not like raisins but they 

were in there and I just went for it. Delicious. In the muesli, we 

poured a little bit of milk also and Mr. Wong brought coffee, tea, 

and hot water to make them. The three ILP teachers took some hot 

water, mostly to warm their hands. When it cooled down just enough 

for me to not burn myself, I swished it down. It warmed my insides 

and calmed my little shivers. Only, it was still chilly and I had to 

keep staying warm. 
 
We left Mr. Wong to start our excursion. The shadows stayed cool but 

the sun was bright and helped kindled the fire inside of us. Willing 

us to go on. We climbed stair after stair. Some were steep and 

others could barely be recognized as steps because of the wear and 

tear of so many years. A gorgeous sight to behold, the massive walls 

that took those historical Chinese civilians hundreds and hundreds 

of year to build, still there. 
 
We travelled along, trying to enjoy and soak in as much as possible. 

Our cameras grew sore from the use we were getting out of them. At 

the middle, there were two Chinese ladies that began to trek with us. 

They were kind and seemingly endearing. We soon realized their true 

intentions when one of them told us she was a local farmer. She also 

told us her house was small and gave a piteous spiel about how hard 

she had it. Then she pointed to her backpack and said, "Later you 

buy souvenirs? Later. Then I go home and you go back." It did not 

take long to realize what she was doing. This lady was trying to 

wrap us around her finger so that we would buy things from her. We 

just said we did not know and that maybe we would. She told us, 

"Ssank you. Sank you." (Th is one of the hardest things for Chinese 

people to pronounce.) That did not deter us from enjoying our time. 

At the end, they both tried hard to sell us their souvenirs from the 

bags they carried but we refused to give in. It was strange because 

they only worked on the three of us. The others they may have only 

asked once and then let them be. Ashley was getting hit the hardest 

but I think it was because she is always so friendly and she sounded 

like she was bargaining. She was but only slightly. She told one 

lady that she got a shirt for 15 yuan and so if she went down to 15, 

she would buy it but did not budge at all from there. The lady did 

not go down to 15. It was obnoxious to have those sellers even 

follow us to the Great Wall but we enjoyed our adventure just the 

same. 
 
After climbing through 15 towers, we were ushered to go down a small 

pathway with yet another million stairs. By then, my legs were 

shaking uncontrollably. At the bottom it was even worse. Our driver 

was waiting at the bottom with the large white van we had taken the 

day before. I could have gone for a good snack about then. My energy 

was pivoting on that small breakfast and it was not holding up. I 

was glad I had a few cashews and dried bananas to hold me over. 

About an hour later, while driving back to Beijing, I dug into a 

scrumptious Snickers bar. 
 
There was one other important story. Before we got far, a few of us 

needed to go to the restroom. We stopped at a public bathroom in the 

small local town. For the girls, only Jasmine and I needed to go. 

When we turned the corner and peeked in to see the conditions, we 

realized that there were no stalls at all. Just three holes in the 

cement stared at us. I took the appropriate course of action and 

backed out saying, "After you. I'll wait out here." It worked out 

just fine. No one else came while we took our turns. One thing to 

know also is that most bathrooms in China you must provide your own 

toilet paper and if it is an actual toilet (which the squatters are 

considered real ones, any that flush that is), then you must put the 

something I still am not used to and probably will not get used to. 
 
We stopped at the Olympic building place and that was very 

interesting. I never really thought about it before but they are 

massive buildings and have interesting characteristics about them. 

The Ice Cube is made out of a material that actually cleans itself 

with only a little rain and wind. The Bird's Nest is just HuGE and 

shaped like a bird nest. 
 
Finally, we got to eat lunch. It was at a busier restaurant but the 

bathroom was really nice. The food was not bad either. We got 

ourselves some fried rice! For dessert we had something deep fried 

that turned out to be basically fried milk. Do not ask me how that 

works but I thought it was good. I have a sweet love for fried foods 

and sweet foods. It does not have to be too special for me to like 

it. Again, I was filled to the brim with rather good Chinese 

cuisine. After lunch, our tour was over and they took us back to our 

separate hostels. 
 
Our problem now was that the other three ILP teachers had gone out 

and had the only key to our room. So we adventured out to find our 

'I Climbed the Great Wall' t-shirts. We went to several shops and 

found that 20 yuan is the limit because by then they only make about 

6 yuan, or a dollar. Since we were out in the shopping area, we also 

got distracted with other things. Then we went to one of the shops 

that we had been to on previous occasions and we talked to this 

funny guy. He is fairly witty and knows English really well. We 

teased him about selling us stuff and tricking us but that is how we 

found out about the 20 yuan limit on the t's. He liked talking with 

us even though he pretended to be annoyed. The lady that helped run 

between their stores would tell him to stop talking and just give us 

the price. It was fun. 
 
Ashley saw ice cream on our way through so she wanted to go back and 

get some. It was not as good as we had hoped. It was 'Chinese Good' 

which is what we call anything that is relatively good for being in 

China. 
 
Returning to our hostel, we found our door unlocked but no girls. We 

took showers and the girls returned but only to do the same thing, 

shower. They had met some new friends and decided to have dinner 

with them. Kim, Ashley, and I went out to get ice cream again and 

this time was just as bad. We did not know what to do so we kept 

walking. We turned down a random and shady looking road. It went on 

for so long, we thought it was never ending. I was surprised not to 

see one other foreigner on that road. Then again, there may have 

been a reason. Kim was hungry so we tried a bakery but it was closed. 

We just kept walking. It was on a main road but mostly apartments 

lined the street. I was surprised when I saw Lyndi's hat pop up on 

the other side of some shrubs. We whistled and called out to her. 

She was freaked out but soon realized it was just us. The other 

girls were not far ahead but the were busy talking to their new 

friends. So we came up behind and grabbed them. They were pretty 

scared but Nicole said she saw Ashley earlier. Lyndi joined our 

group and we split up again. Hit KFC at 21:50. They had the smallest 

portions of mashed potatoes and veggies I have ever seen. The mashed 

potatoes needed more flavor. It was like eating baby food. The hot 

milk was delicious though. I loved it. We finished our night late 

and planned a decent hour to rise. Bryndi and Nicole were suppose to 

be to our hostel by midnight. Twelve minutes late, she comes in like 

a train apologizing to the completely quiet sleeping room, except 

me. I was writing this blog. Everyone at least turned over in their 

beds and went back to sleep. That concludes this interesting day. 

Well it started out absolutely amazing so that counts. :) 

Camp Out in China

The day began rather quickly. Simply waking up and doing the menial 

tasks of the morning was normal. Then I transferred all of the 

things from the bag I packed the night before to my backpack. It 

would be for the Great Wall and I figured it would be more 

comfortable than a shoulder bag. 
 
We met Judy Du near the front desk. Judy was our tour guide. She was 

cute and her English was great. We always love when we can joke with 

them because then we know we can communicate well enough. Our driver 

was also nice and he taught us some Chinese while Judy went into the 

next hostel to get four other people who would be joining us. They 

took longer than we did since we were excited and practically ready 

the night before. Then we picked up one more guy from a hotel. 

Surprisingly, all five of our new friends are from Australia. I 

appreciate their accents and friendly personalities. The four from 

the hostel are actually two couples: Brett and Zoey, Adrian and 

Jasmine. Aaron is here because his girlfriend's grandparents live in 

China. I assume she is staying with them and he is just doing all 

kinds of sightseeing.

Judy Du our tour guide

Ash, zoey, jasmine, adrian, Aaron

Our first stop was the emperors' burial place for the Ming dynasty. 

There were lots of statues and the animals represent something 

different that a country needs. The lion is power. Transportation 

was the camels' meaning and peace was the elephants'. There were two 

Chinese mythical creatures that stood for protection at night not 

only the day. 
 
We only saw one tomb out of 13 or 16. At first we were going to see 

Ding Ling's but it was too busy so we saw the third emperor's. His 

name sounds like Judy. That is all I can remember. It was 

interesting to learn more about the history of China and the culture. 

By the end of that, we were starving. We did not get lunch until 

14:30. It was a superb meal though. It was at a pretty nice 

restaurant. Green beans, broccoli, eggplant, peanuts, and rice is 

what I ate. I felt completely stuffed. As a little bit of dessert 

there was also a little pastry and a sweet sauce to dip it in. It 

was a little bit like a donut. Then we were off for a 2 hour ride to 

the Great Wall. 
 
The moment we could see the wall, we were astonished. It is long and 

massive. Just like the pictures. Millions of steps are all along the 

wall. We stopped to use the restroom and to get a drink. Then we 

climbed up to a lovely area to watch the sunset. What a gorgeous 

view!! I think I took 30 or more pictures of just that sunset and 

area. The steps are old and have odd differences is sizes. I sat 

back and watched the beauty of the Earth. Our group took pictures of 

each other and had a nice time. I could not help but wish there were 

some other people here that I love so they could experience it with 

me. I felt a little alone as I walked back down for dinner. 
 

Amazing!!!!

At dinner, which was at someone's little home/shop, we gorged 

ourselves on dumplings, cauliflower, cucumbers, egg, and some other 

dishes. The people putting this together gave us each a flashlight. 

They were ones you can pump to recharge. They made loud noises 

though as one recharged them. Mr. Wong is a pretty cool guy. He only 

learned some English from the people who come here. I think his 

favorite word is beer. Which the Australians had a few of those. I 

am surprised at how Aaron could get them down. He had at least four. 

Anyway, he seemed to handle it well. Mr.Wong hiked with us up some 

more steps to the tower we would stay in. We all got a sleeping bag 

and two small pads. Ashley,Kim, and I found a good corner. We could 

see all of the stars. It was gorgeous. I felt like I had not seen 

them in years. Pollution, clouds, and the fact that I am usually 

inside and not paying attention to the sky at the school plays a 

role in that. It really was beautiful. We were camping on the Great 

Wall. 

Shoptastic

I awoke several times in the night. Once I needed to go to the 

bathroom but I decided I would just go in the morning. It was a 

hassle to put on shoes and walk down the steep steps and down the 

hallways to get there. At 5:30am, I heard someone get up, move stuff 

around, and then go out the door. I was wondering why they would 

because it sounded like they were going to the shower not just the 

bathroom. It turns out, Ashley thought it was a lot later when she 

looked at the time. She did get up and shower. 
 
We agreed the night before that we would be out the door by 9:30am at 

least. We were. We were out by nine. The walk to the 'Temple of 

Heaven' was about one or two miles. It was mostly like a huge park 

with random steps and Chinese buildings. That took about an hour and 

a half...but we had agreed to meet at the entrance in two hours. So 

waiting in the wind was a bit obnoxious but I sat on the corner of a 

sign that blocked a good portion of the wind. While here at the 

temple, there were again, many white people but we rarely ran into 

or found Americans. (as far as we knew) Sometimes we could tell by 

their accents or when they spoke another language other than English. 

It was fun to try and guess. 
 
For lunch, we found a random little street and random little 

restaurant that had pictures to point at. The noodles were good. They 

were salty tasting. Then right across the way was the pearl market. 

Kim was so excited that I almost had to hold her back. 
 
It was insane! Chinese people trying to sell anything and everything 

they had, at outrageous prices (because they know we do not really 

understand or know good prices). Not to mention that most of the 

things were knock offs or fakes. Sifting through everything and 

bargaining with these people was so crazy! I hated when they would 

grab our arms and make us stay there or really think we were stupid. 

Some of the sellers would pretty much chase after you. There was 

plenty of walking away, many coming backs, and some coming back after 

a while when we feel like they were not ripping us off and it was a 

good deal. I got some nice things but probably spent too much. 

Especially for being in China. It is a learning process with these 

things. 
 
At one point, Ashley was helping someone buy and bargain for a coat 

and the people were asking way too much. She told them she paid 50 

yuan for a jacket like that and by that point, the seller was really 

getting frustrated and angry because she wanted her price. So she 

told Ashley, "You look like 50 yuan!" we get a good kick out of that 

line. She was also called, "too tough". One of the sellers said, "a 

little tough is good but you are too tough." We had to be tough 

though and that was the lesson we all kept learning...over and over 

again. At the end of the day, I think we were all quite proud and 

happy with our purchases overall. I still think my 10 yuan bag is my 

favorite purchase so far. 
 
To go back to our hostel, we took the long way. No, not on purpose. 

Our sense of direction is a little off. As well as our map reading 

skills. (They sometimes just have bad maps though-not in this case.) 

we went backwards and down a questionable street. We found a 7 Eleven 

on our way back for dinner. The peaches and pistachios I bought were 

delicious! The pistachios were spicy and good. The walk back, was 

painful. I had all of my purchases and other equipment in my new bag. 

I could only have it on one shoulder at a time and it would dig in. 

My feet got swollen and hurt. It seemed like an eternity. When we got 

back, we showed off our buys and enjoyed just crashing in our room. I 

got my bag all ready for my next Big adventure-sleeping on the Great 

Wall of China. Yeah. Excitement was in the air. 

Beijing-aling

Oh was that ride ever long. We did not get much rest. Not enough 

people got off as got on. We could not stretch out or claim two 

seats or more. There was not much to do. Then there was the cold air 

conditioning that was kept on all night. My shorts were not the best 

for these conditions. First we were roasted and then put in the 

refrigerator. Every hour I woke up or did not fall asleep and looked 

at my watch. It lasted for what seemed like forever. The morning was 

no different. We arrived in Beijing at 11 am. Finally. 
 
Our hostel is nice enough. It is in the heart of a tourist area. I 

have not seen so many white people (or black for that matter ) since 

we got here. One Asian looking man asked us to help him at the ATM 

because actually, he was from France and did not know what withdraw 

meant. Speaking of the bank, that was first on our agenda. We had 

maps and even the guy at the front desk showed us on a little card 

how to get to it. Yet, we prevailed only in finding it after at 

least 35 mins of searching. It just made no sense. Next on the 

agenda was noodles. We found a restaurant we had seen on our way to 

the hostel. The sign read something like this: 'Califorlan beef 

noodles USA'. Who would believe that? Not us, but we did want 

noodles. I got 'flavorless' noodles and added a little of the normal 

spice. It was very good. I ate the whole bowl. Which is really a 

feat if you realize how big the bowls always seem to be. I liked it  

though. I eat a lot of what I like to eat.

The Cafe that was is in the hostel.

         The front door! :)

Stairs leading up to to our room.

 





open court area with rooms up on the top level.

The only thing left to do was shop. We considered just some window 

shopping or getting a feel for pricing but we were out the rest of 

the day until 20:15. We all spent a bit of money but felt 

accomplished in our good finds and bargains. My favorite is a bag 

that is half my size. It has two silly people on the front and it 

was only 10 yuan. I love it. There is also many things to share when 

I get home. It is quite exciting though. :) we really have to bargain 

with some of the sales people but it can be entertaining when they 

are so persistent with a price and with you buying their item. Oh 

silly Americans. We may have still been cheated on several occasions 

but it is a skill and a work in progress. It is still cheaper than 

in America.

My 10 Yuan bag

It was a fun filled day with new opportunities and learning 

experiences. China is good. =o I know, you can start breathing again. 

I said it. Hopefully it continues to be well worth while. I am 

grateful for this amazing amazing experience and for the wonderful 

wonderful people that made/make it possible! I cannot believe I am 

actually here. What a treat and blessing! I thank the Lord for 

everything I have.