Trip to China
Itinerary  |  October 3  |  October 4  |  October 5  |  October 6  |  October 7  |  Zoe Day!
|  October 9  |  October 10  |  October 11  |  October 12  |  October 13

Thursday, October 5, 2006 THE ADVENTURES OF TOM AND CHENOA . . . Well my morning started at 4 am again so we were able to get an early start! Tom and I are going solo today with no guide so I tried to convince him to be adventurous and take the subway, but he wouldn’t go for that so we caught a cab outside of our hotel and took it down to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Tons and tons of people everywhere and the line to see Mao Memorial was the longest line I have ever seen in my life. As we walked into the square I was in awe of how beautiful it was! Right now in China it is their holiday called the Moon Festival and we were told that they have cleaned and brought in lots of flowers to make the square look beautiful! I loved watching the guards so I thought I would stand by one for a picture, well as I got close to him he boldly said “NO!” I was so scared he was going to come down and arrest me! The first adventure was to figure out how to get across the street, sounds pretty simple right? It is a very busy street with lots of busses, taxis and bikes so walkers have to go underground. As we headed down the steps we were stopped and told EXIT ONLY. . we could not figure out where the entrance was. Tom had a plan—he saw a little boy in an orange shirt go down some steps and I was suppose to watch and see if he came out across the street. I never found the little boy so I suggested we just play frogger and hop across the road! After about 30 min. we made it to the other side of the street our goal was to find our way to the Pearl Market which was about a 2 mile walk so I suggested taking the buss but instead we took advantage of a Rickshaw ride. We showed the old man where we wanted to go and he said OK, and we were off for the most eye opening adventure yet!! Our bike driver didn’t go on the main streets; he headed straight for the alley. As we turned the corner of the alley I about died, it was like we were in a totally different city, garbage everywhere, people sleeping in the dirt, and the smell of body waste was terrible. When we finally got back on a road I thought the cars were going to run over us, in the middle of a super busy road our rider would pedal out into the middle of the traffic and stop. I just kept saying “Holy Cow” and Tom kept saying “this is so cool”. Our little man kept turning around checking his tires on his bike and probably thinking to himself, what did I get myself into taking two fat Americans this far? Inside the Market we visited the Fish section but couldn’t stay too long because of the smell! We spent all day shopping in the rest of the market but left with a huge headache from everyone trying to grab me. I guess the hard part is I am such a slow decision maker and they want me to decide instantly so I get stressed and try to walk away and the girls chase me. At one purse shop the worker told me “you never come back to my booth.” I guess I gave her too low of a price, but I was only following Wang’s directions from yesterday. It is at this time I had to go potty so I headed for the bathroom and guess what I found? A squatty potty, but I just couldn’t make myself do it!! As I was walking out of the bathroom Tom met me walking out of his bathroom with a huge smile on his face and he said I got the best pictures in there. After about 2 hours we were hungry and we were going to be smart this time! We went to a shop were they spoke good English and were friends with Wang and asked them where we could get Fried Noodles. They so very kindly wrote it out on paper for us and sent us on our way. When we got to the restaurant we showed the waiter the paper and he assured me they had Fried Noodles. I was so excited until he came back to our table with 2 bowls of cold noodles and cabbage and a little bowl of some kind of dark sauce. I tried it but ended up eating rice and water. I wanted to cry I was so hungry and I know it couldn’t have been that good because Tom didn’t even eat it!

TIANANMEN SQUARE IN FRONT OF FORBIDDEN CITY CHINA IS VERY EXITED ABOUT HOSTING THE 2008 OLYMPICS RICKSHAW ADVENTURE ROUTE BEHIND THE SCENES IN BEIJING RICKSHAW RIDE NOT OUR STANDARD CAMODE

Both of us were so exhausted so we got a cab back to the hotel and indulged in some hot tea. It was so nice to sit and relax. To play it safe we decided on Subway for dinner. Tomorrow morning we fly to Hangzhou I can’t believe we are so close to meeting our sweet girl. We were reminded today many times how very blessed we are and how many things we take for granted. Riding through the alley made us thankful God has given us the chance to adopt our sweet Zoe and give her a life so different than she would have ever known. But as I sit here and type I must say I have seen in these people, 2 of the qualities that God wants us all to have, and they are service to others and contentment. We love and miss you so much Zach and Bay!!

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