We Hang Out at Bakeries

I spend my days with 8 babies, babies without moms and dads to love them. Babies who were abandoned, close to death when the were miraculously saved. My heart is constantly breaking for these babies. I feel so much love for them! I would adopt all of them in an instant, especially Mutong who is my best friend.

Mutong. Isn't he the cutest!?

There are so many stories about children in orphanages with less than kind people taking care of them. I'm so glad that is not a reality here. The nannies that care for these kids love them as their own and the babies love them back.

Kendra and I have done a few night shifts. We sleep in a bed in a room with two babies each. I stay with Xiao Wu and Mutong. Xiao Wu sleeps through the whole night, but when she is trying to sleep, you need to stay where she can see you or she starts to cry. She is very insecure about sleeping alone. The first night, she had a hard time sleeping because it was the last night of the new year and fireworks were going off like crazy. She would start to cry, and all I had to do was touch her gently and she would stop. Mutong is a chatty baby at night. He wakes up about 3 times a night and needs a bottle. Sometimes, after he finishes his bottle, he just talks for a half hour. It's really cute and funny, but when it's two in the morning, I sorta wish he would just go back to sleep. When they wake up in the morning, they are always really happy. Especially Mutong who is all smiles. It melts my heart.
In the day time, we help feed the babies, play with them, and take them to the park or the "lake" in our neighborhood. The routine is pretty basic, but the kids have a hard time when it changes or the ayi's (nannies) change shifts. Kendra and I think we are pretty cool because when we hear someone cry, we have started to be able to tell which baby it is.

We love the neighborhood we live in. It snowed the other day and we walked around to see what there is. This is our limo. Apparently it never moves, but just sits near the gate. It's probably just for show, and it's incredibly dirty as is appropriate for Beijing.

Last night, we went to McDonald's near our apartment. Somehow, McDonald's becomes this hot commodity to us when we are in China. It's like a stabilizer for homesickness since nothing is more American than McDonald's, hot dogs, and apple pie. Afterward, we walked to the Wu Mart. When you say Wu, you need to sound really excited. WU! mart. Inside, they have some sort of french bakery. We were really excited about it. We gaped at all the cakes and chose which ones we would buy for our half birthday celebrations until we saw them making cakes in a room with windows. We probably watched them decorate cakes for an hour. It's our new hangout. We want to be friends with one of the decorators so he will teach us how to do it, and give us cake. ;)

We stayed up until midnight last night and both of us were really proud of ourselves. It's a big deal since we've been sleeping at 9 o'clock every night. I can honestly say I've gotten rid of jet lag! YES!!!

Sunday, we went to the branch for the first time. Who knew it would take almost 2 hours for us to get there!? We were late and missed most of sacrament, but we made it. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. We won't really be a big part of the YSA group because it takes so long for us to get to church and other places which is too bad, but we have each other and we get along great. We just need to make some friends who live in the same district as us so we can actually do things in the evenings since the kids go to bed at 7-8 o'clock.

China is great and I love being here! I want time to pass as slowly as possible. I LOVE CHINA!

Home

The first thing I learned when arriving in Beijing: Whatever your expectations are, just throw them out the window. Despite that, things are going so well!

I have to be honest though, when we first got here, it was quite confusing. We rode a train for 10 1/2 hours from Shenzhen to Beijing. When we arrived in Beijing, we met Adam, the guy who arranged for us to be here. He then took us on a 2 hour metro ride to meet Bill, one of the owners of Morning Star, the orphanage where we live. It's crazy to be handed off from one stranger to another and you can bet
that Kendra and I were a little stressed out.

Bill drove us to the orphanage since it's not close enough to a metro station to walk. He took us into our room and I think my jaw dropped to the floor.It's not an awful room or anything. It was just not what I expected.There is an office with a curtain on the far side. Behind the curtain is The Corner. In The Corner is our bunk bed.We sleep in an office behind a curtain. Haha! It's such an awesome concept! They are bringing us a wardrobe to put our clothes in and a refrigerator as well. There is a kitchen here that already has a fridge, but I guess they want us to have our own.

We went to bed really early because we didn't know what to do and no one was really telling us anything. We were both trying to be positive because honestly, it wasn't easy to be at first, being totally in the dark about what was going on.

In the morning, we woke up early and got ready. We waited around for a bit, then Lynsay came and filled us in as well as arranged for us to register our location with the local police as is the law here. We are here to help with all the transitions that are going on at the orphanage in the next few months. There are 8 kids here right now. Each of them has or had heart problem(s). The oldest is 5 and the youngest is around 9 months.We were able to spend the afternoon playing with the kids and helping around the orphanage, and it was the best afternoon I've ever had! I already love these children. They are so darling! They just want to be held, played with, and given attention.I know it's going to be so hard to say goodbye in only 3 months. I'm already dreading it.

Kendra and I also went out and rode a bus and then the metro for a bit to wander around in the area near our home. It was fun and we were really proud of ourselves for being able to go out and not get lost. We went to the grocery store and just wandered the streets a bit.

The nannies that are here right now call me by my Chinese name, 宋佳媛 (Song Jiayuan). It's so great to me! I mean, maybe that's loserish, but I really love answering to them when they say it. It's a part of me, and now, I'm making it a bigger part of me. I hope to really improve my Chinese since I'm living with 8 other Chinese women.

These women are so amazing to me already. People are still celebrating the Chinese New Year until Monday so several of the nannies went home. That leaves those that stayed to do all the work 24/7. They all seem really positive and happy. They love these babies and they take such good care of them. This is really a great place for these miracle babies.

I am so glad I get to be here. This experience is really going to change me, I can already tell. I know I'm going to come away a better person. I don't know why things didn't work to go to Xi'an, but I do know that this is where God wants me now, and I have faith that it is entirely for the best.

I like living in the suburbs of Beijing. The street food is delicious and I haven't seen any other white people. It's not the Beijing I visited last June, it's a whole new place entirely. Today was really warm and after going to the store to buy food, I walked around without my coat on. The sky was blue and clear. Clearer than the Utah skies when I left. They may not be true, but I don't have anything to compare the sky with really. The only sky I've seen lately has been in Utah and China, and let's be honest, neither place has great air quality.

Tomorrow, we'll go to church with the branch. I'm excited to meet them all. Branches are really fun because everyone is so friendly and welcoming and everyone relies on each other so much since we are in a foreign country away from family.I know I will love it, and tomorrow night, we are taking a night shift with some of the babies to give the nannies a break.

It's firework season right now. During the new year, it's tradition to light off as many fireworks as possible. They are so loud and mostly they seem to be firecrackers. The new year ends with the Lantern Festival on Monday, but I guess Beijing doesn't really have a place they do that at according to my sources, which is too bad, really. I would love to see that.

Even though I've been here for more than a week, I'm still working on staying up later than 9 o'clock. It's pretty hard for me! It's 9:20 now and I'm fighting not to go get ready for bed right now.I just hope the things I have written make sense. I'm not completely with it and I'm real tired! I've probably forgotten some things and if I remember them in the morning, I'll add them in.

Hong Kong -----> Shenzhen

The last day in Hong Kong was great. We went to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery to start the day. The monastery isn't in operation there, so there are just caretakers, but it has a really cool history. The Buddhas have different faces and some of them are really funny. I understand that there is a lot of symbolism, but I don't actually understand it so I'm a little ignorant. I would like to learn more about Buddhism someday and really start to understand it better since a lot of my Chinese friends are Buddhist.

The Hong Kong Museum was next, and it was good, but I don't really love museums and I've been before so it was a little boring. There are people who really love it though so I think it's good that we go there while on the tour.

We rode the Star Ferry across the harbor and back and then watched the laser light show put on by the buildings in the Harbor. We also had McDonald's for dinner which usually isn't very good, but in China, it's good.

Yesterday, we traveled across the boarder into Mainland China. I got another 2 stamps in my passport and found a restaurant to eat my favorite dish, eggplant!

Our hotel is in a really fun area with lots of places to walk around and a giant street market. There are two KTV places near-by and we are hoping to go one time. Our hotel room is decorated in pink and maroon which is funny. I just love walking the streets here. It really feels like I'm back and I'm already starting to feel like I'm home. Kendra and I get along really well and we have fun together. It is going to be a great 3 months in China!

I have to do my parts of the teacher training today for everyone and I'm pretty nervous. about the whole thing. I just hope I do a good job and help everyone as best I can. I just want to be able to make a difference for these people like others did for me.

After the training Kendra and I take a G train (the fastest train in China) to Beijing. We are taking the line they just completed from Shenzhen to Beijing. It will take 10 hours which is actually really fast for a train. From there someone will pick us up at the train station and the rest of what we are doing is still a bit of a mystery. Here's to living in China!

Biiiiiiiiiiig Buddha!

It is a fact that the sky has been so much clearer this time in Hong Kong than last time.  It is absolutely beautiful!

Yesterday, we went to Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is famous for it's view of Hong Kong Harbor. You take a tram from the ground to the top of the peak and then go up several floors of a giant tourist-trap shopping center to the look-out deck. It boosts a 360 view and it's pretty incredible. Since Hong Kong is made up of several islands, you can see the ocean from almost every side. I hate seeing the ocean and not swimming in it, but I don't really think I want to swim in the ocean so close to China. I'm not sure how safe/clean it is.

This next picture is of the last time I was here.

HUGE difference right?

While on top of the mountain, we ran into Hermione, the girl who set up the service project we did in Zhangye last June. How bizarre is that? China has over a billion people and we just happen to be in Hong Kong on the same day, on top of the same mountain, at the same time. I just can't express how crazy I think that is! People say, "It's a small world," but it seriously became so much smaller to me when we saw her. I literally saw the world shrink in my head.

Today, we went to the Cantonese ward sacrament meeting. It is really a unique experience that is just incredible to me. Someone translated into a microphone that goes to the little radio head sets that all of us had. It was a little hard to understand or hear, but the spirit compensated for that. The spirit really was so strong in that room. We sang the hymns in English while the rest sang in Cantonese. It sounded a little weird, and it was no MoTab but it was definitely awesome in its own way. The people were all so welcoming, as well.

 After church, we went to the Po Lin Monastery and Big Buddha. Once again, the sky was SO much clearer. To get to the Buddha, we took a cable car ride. Last time I was here, it was broken so we had to take a bus along a really windy road that made you a little car sick, so this was a much better way to get there.

Of course, Tony flirts it up with all the girls here and they all just love him. All the girls tell me how cute he is, etc, etc. Tony is quite the charmer, that's for sure. He won't admit it, but he is also really good at teaching people Chinese. He accents his tones really well so it's easy to hear and repeats it for you when you say it wrong. He is a big reason I learned so much in China when I was here before. In the cable car we took, Tony was the only guy and the girls teased him the whole time. It got weird really fast and I think Tony was a little embarrassed, but he joked along and teased everyone anyway.

The most exciting thing happened when we got off the cable car. There were DRAGON DANCERS! I can't tell you how excited I was! I never saw the Chinese Dragons here last time and I wanted to so bad. There were 3 dragons and then some creepy person wearing a creepy head dancing. They were dancing to Gangnam Style and some other party rock song and it was seriously the coolest thing! Tony was also really excited so it's not a just a foreigner thing.

This picture is awesome because they are jumping

from that platform to another one and I got them

in mid air! Woot woot!

Sorry for the poor quality of this video, but I just

really wanted to show you how awesome this was!

We climbed the 8 million stairs to the Big Buddha and then walked the "Wisdom Path." Once you walk all of the Wisdom Path, you are supposed to have gained wisdom. I didn't feel any different afterwards so I assume it's because I was already very wise.

The Wisdom Path ends with several trees chopped in half

with carved blessings from Buddha on them.

Now look at a picture from the last time I visited the Big Buddha.

This was a long blog post, but I put up a lot pictures as some of you requested, so I hope you are happy! Until next time, 再见！

Hong Kong Round 2

You can all laugh at me, but I literally cried when the plane touched down in Hong Kong. Words do not express how happy I am to be back in China!

When we arrived at the Temple Patron Housing where we are staying, there was someone waiting at the gate. I freaked out and screamed because it was Tony, my friend from Nanjing! Brad invited him to come to Hong Kong and tour with us. I was SO excited! I can't wait to see everyone else in Nanjing, but it is so great to see Tony and travel with him again. I just love this!

I am weirdly nostalgic. I got in the shower and thought, "Wow, it smells like a Chinese shower." I'm just weird.

Hong Kong is beautiful. There are trees with blossoms and Chinese New Years decorations everywhere. The weather is nice, but humid. It's raining a bit and we are about to go out and tour, so I hope it's not too bad.

I slept really well last night, but woke up really early. I'm so ready to be completely adjusted. A few more days and it will all be over. I love China!

The Hong Kong Temple is really beautiful. It's small, but the spirit is the same. I have done baptisms 3 times on the trip already and it is so nice to feel the spirit and enjoy the temple.

ONE HOUR!

I'm completely packed.

My luggage weighs 50 pounds (hopefully)

My room is clean (and my closet is a little empty).

I'm bracing myself for 23 hours of travel followed by AWFUL jet lag.

I still can't believe I get to go back to China so soon since I haven't even been home a whole year!

China Horizons is seriously the best program to ever exist and if you want to go to China, forget ILP, choose CH.

I'm so excited it's almost impossible for me to write anything coherent.

I am using every bit of my self-control not to use 8 million exclamation marks.

I leave my house in less than an hour!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHINA!

Changes

If you are confused, so am I, so don't worry. I'm going to help a medical home called Morning Star now. It could change again, who knows. Stay tuned... :)

Goodbyes

I really dislike saying goodbye to people. Perhaps it's the word. It just sounds so final. That's why the Chinese word for goodbye is so much better because it actually means “again see." 再见.

This weekend, I said goodbye to a lot of people. It leaves me exhausted and I crash in my bed and fall asleep like I'm suffering from jet lag.

Yesterday, I spent the day with my Chinese friend 艺泉 (Yi4 quan2), and two awesome guys from my Chinese class, Chance and Thomas. We went "shopping" at the mall (kind of like teenagers) and bought 艺泉 her first pretzel in America. Following that, we went to the dominating local Walmart and bought Valentine's Day treats since I will be travelling and miss Valentine's Day completely. When we went back to 艺泉's apartment we didn't do much of anything but eat and talk. Sometimes, I think that's the best time spent even though when people ask you what you did, it sounds totally lame. I'll be seeing 艺泉 in Shanghai before I fly home in June and I can't wait to see her in her own element.

Then I went to a bar.

Matt and Jayson came home from school this weekend. Jayson called me and told me to bring a coat and my wallet, but refused to tell me where we were going. We drove on the treacherous freeway to Salt Lake City and I saw 3 cars flipped over and at least ten other cars off the road because of the slick ice. We got to City Creek Mall and Jayson and I showed Matt our favorite store. It's our favorite store because when we were looking at clothes, Jayson found an article of clothing and asked me, "Why does this skirt have butt pads." I died laughing because it was a tube-top with a built-in bra. When Matt finished eating his Chick-fil-a chicken, we walked the snow covered streets of SLC to a bar. Jayson has been talking about this bar for a long time. It's called Keys on Main and apparently sometimes it's a karaoke bar. It wasn't karaoke night. It was Mardi Gras. It was really fun to watch the musicians play request after request of popular and not so popular music. They were so talented and probably make a lot of money off tips. I can't say I was completely comfortable being there surrounded by alcohol, but it was the best people watching I've ever had.

That is how we say goodbye. In just 4 days, I will be off to CHINA! The next blog post will for sure be all about China. Until then, 再见.