Forbidden City and such

Hello again, and sorry its been a few days.  Classes are absolutely taking up most of my time and its hard to find a few moments to breathe let alone post.  BUT here I am again and i will for sure do my best to post more than every three days!

So last Saturday a while bunch of us CSAers went to the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and Jingshan park.  After we went out for free pizza in Wudaokou, which is the area I live and go to school in.

Ive been to the Forbidden City before with Hayley, and it was amazing then too, but when we went this time it was just after it had rained so the sky was blue and absolutely beautiful!  Here are some pictures from that day!

where Mao himself can be viewed.  wait three hours to see him for three seconds.  I guess me with guns stand guard yelling at you to hurry up.  

 

these guys in the front here represent Chairman Maos three classes: peasents, workers, and soldiers.

Chinese history museum.

I dont know what this thing is.  but i look cute at least ;) ps Hayley that red thing on the left is one of two giant tv screens.  they definitely werent there last time! They really only showed the red army and such, not really all that exciting.

Dont try this at home.  I heard a whole bunch of students did this once.  I dont think it ended well.

Guard training.

me

Hayley, note my right hand =D

The more of these guys you have over the doorway, the more important you have to be to walk through it.

Mulan anyone!?

chinese version of "come again please"

Forbidden City in the back....its HUGE!

Jingshan Park

When in China.....(dont worry Pops im American through and through!)

After the trip we went out for pizza as I said earlier. Unfortunately I dont have an pictures from that, but just know that the pizza was amazing and they actually had legit salads! Praise God because my nutrition is severely lacking at the moment.  After pizza a few of us went for massages, where the masseurs...is that even right?....talked pretty much the whole time.  Since my chinese is awful i didnt understand too too much.  But isnt that weird?  Having someone talk to you through your whole massage, and in a language you dont fully understand no less.  Its a different world over here, and the guy even asked what was wrong and why wasnt I talking.  Definitely not in kansas anymore!

Love and miss you all

Ni Hao!

Hello all and welcome to the first of hopefully many posts about my adventures here in Beijing.  I've never done a blog before so hang with me it might be rough for a while.  

So far Beijing has been, well as the title says, quite the adventure.  Today marks the the end of my first week here, and it was both way too fast, and absurdly slow.  (my RR girls will understand)  Surprisingly i dont miss home quite as much as i thought i would.  Maybe thats just because in this moment things seem pretty good.  The first day I will admit I was pretty homesick. Getting off the plane and meeting the CSA staff and such was all good, but it was when i got back to my apartment at the end of the day and realized it was just me all alone in there that i felt that first twinge of panic.  Thats sort of what homesickness feels like to me.....like the beginning of a panic attack.  BUT of course I remembered that I have sort of built in friends here and i was fine once i got settled in.  

It is strange though, to feel lonely even for the briefest if moments, in the most populated country in the world.  (or is it India now? either way theres a whole lot of people here!) But when your handle of the language is as terrible as mine is, talking becomes a bit of a challenge.  And of course when you cant really talk with people....well its not all that fun.  Its funny because Ive noticed english speaking people tend to gravitate towards each other.  Something familiar in an otherwise completely foreign world i guess.

But anyways after the moments of homesickness and loneliness, things began to settle down a bit.  Of course today was only the second day of classes (which are a beast in their own right!) so im still not set into a routine, but Im getting there and it feels good to feel a bit more at home.....or as home as a laowai (foreigner) can feel in china!  

More than anything, I miss New Hope and my amazing family there.  Im only a week in, but it is SO apparent how ignored Christ is in this country.  Just the over all emptiness is strange and disheartening.  I know Simi is a bubble and that most of the world is really like this, its just makes it harder and more in your face when I dont have a built in support at my fingertips.  This week I will get plugged into the christian community though.  I have an amazing feeling about it and seriously cant wait to meet and fellowship here in Beijing!  Theres a college group on thursday nights and various other weekend services, OH and their VBS starts the day after my final for my first class so im hoping to help out with that!  

There is SO much more to tell, but its 9:30 pm and i still have to finish my homework for tomorrow.  Basically I miss you all at home, but am making great friends here and am over all having a blast.  Please continue to pray for God to open up doors, not just for me, but mainly to the hearts of the chinese people!  

Love you all!  

Ephesians 3:20-21