Steamed Bum: The One Year Anniversary of Visiting China

Oh the children.

 This time a year ago I was in Beijing with Chamber Singers and was loving my life. I never posted as much as I wanted to about it because there are an overwhelming number of things to say about the whole experience, a lot of which are in my personal journals already. 

I will say this though: I was reading back in my journals from that spring to after I came home from China and noticed a change in myself. Towards the end of that school year I was feeling so small. I made some of the most difficult sacrifices I've ever had to make and it left me wondering if I would ever be deserving of good things. I didn't feel fulfilled and I couldn't get out of myself. 

Everything I experienced in China was what I needed to have a change of heart.

Even my family noticed a change in me. This new heart set the tone for the rest of my summer and it was one of the best I've had. I'm grateful for that opportunity I had to be there. It was a blessing really.

Changing gears now to reminisce about one of the absolute best memories of China times. The food. Now, unlike my siblings, I am not a picky eater. I'll pretty easily try anything at least once. I knew I wasn't going to have a problem with the food in China. Our hotel had buffet style meals for us every day complete with the english translation of what food we were eating. Here are just a few of such delicacies. 

Enjoy.

Acid Article Mutton - Tantalizing 

Onions Blasting Mutton - Divine

Chopped Garlic Rape(?!?!) - Scrumptious

Steamed Bum in Triangular Shape Stuffed with Sugar - Delightful

I'm not sure what pocket dictionary or online translation help they used, but I'm sure happy they did. 

For my other post on my time in China, click here

Once upon a time in China [Part 1]

So this past May I had the incredible opportunity to go to Beijing, China with the choir I'm in at School. It was exactly what I needed and it could not have come at a better time.

So much happened in the 9 days we were there so I'm going to give it to you little by little.

Let me tell you about some friends that I made:

Meet Wendy (in the hat) and Judy (in the pink).
Story time:
   Kacee and I were walking around the area close to our hotel. There were beautiful parks and old people doing Tai Chi and little kids all over the place. LOVED it. We went to this one park and found this lovely pond with a bridge and waterfall. There were tons of people surrounding this pond and taking pictures of it. We couldn't really tell what was going on and so we took a closer look.

They were looking at ducks.

They were going crazy over a family of ducks like they've never seen live ducks before in their life. So of course we got in on the hype. We took some pictures and as we were moving closer to the pond we heard someone behind us say in broken English "go down there, you can take better pictures down there." We turn around an see this smiley little woman. She heard us speaking English and started to talk to us. We found out her english name is Judy and we chatted with her for about 45 minutes. Judy just glowed. She told us about how important being happy and making others happy is and how we should have charity and show that to everyone. This woman was the most positive and pleasant lady I've ever been around. As we were talking with her I kept thinking about how much I wanted to share the gospel with her, but it's illegal in China right now.
  The longer we talked the more people would stand around and listen to us. This one lady came up to us and couldn't speak a word of English, but it was clear that she and Judy were friends so Just translated for her. She was loving us! We got a kick out of her and she asked us to give her an American name. So we named her Wendy.
   Then we noticed this mom and her little son standing nearby watching us as well and they came up to us. The little boy wanted to "communicate" with us so he told us how old he was in English. I'm pretty sure that's all he could say.

Here is my buddy. I named him Ping because I couldn't pronounce his Chinese name. So fun.
The last little friend we made was this darling baby girl whose grandparents brought her up to us and had us hold her. She was a doll. She was also really interested in my nose. Probably because it's huge.

 

Such an awesome day being with these people and it set the tone for the rest of our time there. I loved the Chinese people and was so impressed by so many things.

I love traveling to different countries, and I've been really blessed to have been to some incredible places. 

Bottom line: I have learned that if you want to get the most out of where you are, go be with the people because those interactions are what will stay with you long after you have left.

There's more to tell:

  Forbidden City

  Summer Palace

  Tienanmen Square
  The Great Wall
  Jade Factory
  Sheldon Poon and the LDS branch.

Lots.

Remember three months ago?

Remember how three months ago I had not been to China and climbed the Great Wall, or seen my little sister graduate high school? Remember how 3 months ago today I was feeling like this? Remember how I didn't know that I was going to be an EFY counselor for a second summer in a row? Remember how life never goes the way you expect it and a lot happens in 3 months?

You don't remember?

Well I do.
Allow me to share just a little.

I have adventures to tell. Don't you worry, I will update soon.