You might have noticed the slight lack in new posts and updates. I apologize for those of you who might possibly care. My life is still more amazing than ever! Things have just gotten more busy, and in the prioritizing process, my blog, sadly, did not come in first place. But do not fear…if you are a die-hard fan of my awesome blog you will find the finished stories of my final adventures here in China once I return home. Only 12 more days 🙂
Models at the Super Brand Mall
Bailey and I can be crazy sometimes, and last night was one of those moments. We decided to go to the Super Brand Mall, one of the largest malls in Asia, and try on the most expensive, attractive clothes we could find. Wearing sweats and a
My Favorite Dress!
purple t-shirt every single day can make a girl feel very lame. Thus we were in
Bailey can have a...different....sense of style sometimes 🙂 But she's always beautiful!
need of some serious girl glamor. The Super Brand Mall has almost every major brand you can think of and lots I’ve never even heard of. For hours we just wandered around, tried on outfits, and took pictures. We could only stay in each store for so long since taking photos of the outfits is generally frowned upon. But it’s amazing what you can get away with if you pretend not to understand a word they are saying. At many stores the workers flocked around us and followed us everywhere we went. I think they assumed that since we are white we have money to buy their $500 shirts on a whim. They always seemed super disappointed when we walked out without making a purchase. It was so great to spend a night in clothes other than sweat pants and purple shirts!
Yes, I'm wearing high heels!
Museum of the Unknown
With my time here slowly dwindling away, I’ve decided to make an effort to fit in as many more adventures as possible. On Monday I went on a lonely journey to People’s Square. Bailey had to work but I had the whole day off. I will admit it was VERY strange being without Bailey. When we’re not at work we are ALWAYS together…no matter what. So wandering around this city of 23 million people without Bailey was surely a new adventure.
At people’s square there is a modern art museum which I decided to visit. I’d never been to a modern art museum so I had no idea what to expect.
Introduction sign for art museum
The introduction sign made me quite curious, and what I found inside was most interesting. There were heads stuffed with barbie heads, paper buses, strange science experiments, and mind blowing videos.
Head of Barbies
There was one particular video which I shall NEVER forget. There I was, alone, wandering around this museum which had creepy music playing in the background. Upon turning the corner I found a black curtain. “What could this curtain be hiding?” I wondered. Cautiously I proceeded inside where a large, dark, empty room awaited me. There was a movie being projected on the wall….the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen…even worse than The Ring 2. This movie displayed figures of several Chinese men doing different things. Some were holding instruments, some just shaking, some tapping their hands together, and some burning in wheelchairs in old warehouses. Sounds bizarre and silly, I know. But I thought I was going to die. Lucky for those of you who would love to see this, I caught a section of it on video. Unlucky for you, I can’t decide if I should share it or not due to the pg-13 rating. Look for more info in the future. The modern art museum boggled my mind and confused me, but I loved the new experience.
Adventure and Nausea
This week has been one filled with adventure and throw up. On Monday we went with Sister Greenland to the top of the World Financial Tower.
View from the top
It’s the 2nd tallest building in the world, and it was very amazing to see the city from 104 floors up! At the top I started to feel quite nauseous. I thought it was the fact that we were so high up, but the feeling persisted all day. For lunch, Brother and Sister Greenland took us out to a VERY fancy restaurant. It was at the top of the Radisson Hotel skyscraper. It was circular and spun around so that you could see the entire city as you ate.
Financial Tower (on the left)
After lunch me and Bailey went to the Shanghai Art Museum. It was here that my life turned nasty. That nauseous feeling that I had at the top of the tower was back, and it was back in full force. 
Half of my time at the museum was spent in the bathroom. But lucky for me they had western toilets and not squatters. After several miserable hours later, we met up with the Greenlands again for dinner. They are ALWAYS doing something nice for us and they never cease to bless our lives. Although I didn’t eat anything at dinner, I did find a puppy next door. It was the cutest puppy ever
because it was identical to my own dog back home! I admit I miss my Katie girl a whole lot! For family night we went with the Greenlands to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. The people seemed frightfully real, but half of them were famous Chinese stars so I didn’t really know who they were. The Greenlands are some of our best friends here in Shanghai and it was so great to spend the day with them!
Greenland Family
Tuesday was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time. We had asked for the day off and bought tickets to an amusement park called “Happy Valley”. The only problem was that I woke up with that same nauseous feeling. I just couldn’t get rid of it. But there was no way I was going to give up this day off. I braved the 26 subway stops and went to the park with Bailey and Nico. There were huge roller coasters, spinny rides galore, and giant swings. I can’t remember a day where I’ve felt so sick in my life, but this was a once in a life-time opportunity and I wasn’t about to let it pass me by. It was blazing hot outside, and I thought I was going to die each time, but I made it through 3 or 4 major rides. When my body couldn’t take it any more I simply passed the time by sleeping on a park bench. I tried so hard to have fun, but getting home and crawling into bed was by far the best part of the day.
Happy Valley
Wednesday was a fantastic day. I forced myself to work, then was commanded by Kelly to go back home and rest. For the first time in 3 days, I just did nothing. That night I was able to eat for the first time in 2 days. I’ve decided that Bailey must be invincible. Through all of my ailments she has somehow avoided all contamination and stayed quite healthy. On Thursday I had more energy than ever. Being healthy is the best feeling! Work this week has been good, my coworkers are the best and never cease to make me laugh, and my family miraculously hasn’t forgotten about me yet! Life is good. God has blessed me with so much and I see His love in every corner of my life.
China Video Part II
http://www.shwup.com/openalbum/2011_may_3_china/98EcImhdf1c
To see my epic video you will have to click on the above link. Then you will have to enter your email. But it’s worth it, I promise 🙂
A Better Believer
If any of you are wondering, we did indeed successfully get back into our apartment. But besides that escapade of fun, this last week has been a good one. At work I’ve been teaching a lot of classes. My favorite class is still music time. I LOVE the kids that come every single week. Yi Yi and Peter are just a couple of my favorites.
Yi Yi and Peter
One of my classes on Saturdays is an art class. It’s one of the only classes that the kids attend without a parent. Why I was chosen to teach this class is beyond me. Try putting 12 4 year olds in a room with a white girl who doesn’t exactly speak their language, and what you will get is disaster….every time. I’m usually pretty good at keeping the kids in control and coming up with creative ways to keep their attention, but there must have been some conspiracy against me on Saturday. During story time a fist fight broke out between 4 of the kids. Then one of the dear, sweet children threw the garbage can at another girl. After painting time, the water bucket was thrown across the room. The kids thought it would then be fun to play in the water. Let’s just say it wasn’t my best class. But I think my boss is finally feeling a bit of sympathy for me and is redoing the schedule to avoid this weekly catastrophe.
I will now return to the legend of my bicycle for just a moment. We left it with a short seat, but in good condition. On my way to work Saturday morning everything was going great. I had managed to raise the seat to a more appropriate size for my large-boned self. The wind was blowing gently through my curly lioness hair. I had my ipod in to drown out the noises of old men who have the common need to hawk their loogies. Life was good. Too good. It’s at these moments when life is too good that you know to expect the worst. Lucky for me, the worst didn’t happen….only the slightly bad did. As I was pleasantly riding my bike, the pedal fell right off. I attempted to put it back on, but alas, it was hopeless. I was missing the needed piece. So I faced the nasty subway and did what was necessary to get to work. My bike is now fixed, and hopefully it will stay that way.
Cheeseburger of all Cheeseburgers
Now, my last thoughts of the day revolve around food. Last night me and Bailey decided to treat ourselves to a gourmet meal at an American restaurant in the foreigner part of town. The foreigner part of town is a great place to go when we are a bit worn out from the China part of life. Everything in the foreigner part of town is clean, quiet, and relaxed. The restaurant we went to is called the “Blue Frog”. The best part is that it was buy one burger get one free! I think the picture explains it all 🙂
It’s hard to believe I only have 6 weeks left here. But at the same time I miss my family horribly. I feel like I should be more thankful for the experiences I’ve had here. God has given me so much. He has granted my every wish and given me peace when I needed it. One of my new favorite songs (country of course), really explains how I feel.
“A Better Believer” by Dierks Bentley
Life is seen more clearly through our tears
Cause we all find some faith
When we face our fears
When my life’s goin like I want
God becomes an after thought
And I start trying to build my Heaven here
A better believer would look to the skies
And shout “hallelujah” with tears in his eyes
Open his heart and start givin it all away
When I take a hard look at myself
And count my blessings I can’t but help
But wonder if there’s been some kind of mistake
This life of mine should belong to a better believer
All we really need in life is love
And in my time I’ve had more than enough
But some days I’m not satisfied
It happens to me all the time
I look around instead of looking up
With all I’ve got to be thankful for
I should be doing so much more
I know
Homeless With a Wrench
Yesterday seemed to be a normal day, just like any other. We had no idea when we woke up that we would end the day homeless with nothing but a wrench. It all started on my bike ride home from work. First I lost my phone on a bumpy part of the ride. Then I realized how low the seat really was on my bike. “This would be a lot less awkward if I had a wrench to raise the seat” I thought, as my knees hit the handlebars on every peddle. Thus, using my logical thinking, Bailey and I set out to find a wrench after dinner. I grabbed just enough money for a wrench and nothing more. I was thrilled when we found the perfect wrench at the first shop we went to. But it cost us every penny we had (12 RMB). We decided we should reward ourselves with ice cream, so we headed back to the apartment to get some more money. That was when we realized that we had locked ourselves out of the apartment. In our excited rush to buy a wrench, neither of us had thought to grab the keys. Our roommate, Rochie (yes, we have a new roommate), had the third copy of the keys, but as luck would have it she had left the day before to go visit her family and wouldn’t be back for at least a day. But still thinking logically, we approached our hard working (sarcasm) security guards to ask for help. We successfully communicated to them our problem, and they successfully communicated to us a solution. They would call the locksmith for us and he would break into our home.
Two men arrived within minutes and were ready to break in. But me and Bailey have learned from experience to always ask what the price is before a service is given. It is very common for the people to charge us an insane amount of money and try to get away with it. We asked, and to our horror, the price given was 100 RMB per door….we have 2 doors. Since we are poor students, we discussed the price, pleaded our case, and got the price down to 50 RMB per door. So off to work they went, picking our locks and laughing at us as they did so. The first door wasn’t a problem. The second door, however, must possess secret powers because even the locksmiths couldn’t unlock it. They tried for 30 minutes, then looked at us and said they couldn’t do it. We said that’s fine, and asked them to leave. But they weren’t about to leave without their money. We explained to them that all the money we had was inside our house and not with us. Frustrated with this discovery, they then proceeded with a pointless attempt to unlock the door again. After another failure, they asked us if they could just drill a whole in our door. Afraid of how much that would cost and what the landlord would say, we said no. It took a while to convince them to leave without being paid, but a few silent prayers and minutes later, they finally left with the most disappointed faces.
So there we stood. Two white girls in the middle of a Chinese complex. No cell phones, no money, no keys. All we had was the pajamas on our backs and the glorious silver wrench. Slightly afraid, but not to the breaking point, we made a game plan. We would trudge 1.5 miles to a branch members home. There are 2 branch members who’s houses we had been to, who live close enough to us that we could walk. Sadly, we couldn’t ride my bike because even it was locked up with the keys locked inside. So off we went, down the dark streets of JinQiao. We arrived at the Parkinson’s complex. We had only been there once, but we were sure we could remember which house was their’s. We got to the gate, and only to add to our luck, it was locked. Bailey suggested we climb over the fence. I argued against it, seeing how two white girls dressed in sweats, holding nothing but a wrench, climbing the fence to a rather nice complex, could seem a bit suspicious. So we found the security guard in his watch-out, asleep. We knocked on the door, startled him, and got him to come out. He looked at us strangely, but opened the gate for us anyways. Once inside we found the one we were sure the Parkinson’s lived in. But it wasn’t that simple. We couldn’t get in unless we had an exact house number, which we didn’t posses. But being the wise girls we are, we just dialed every house number we could think of. Finally a Chinese lady came out and opened the door for us. We then proceeded to knock on every door. The Parkinson home was no where to be found.
Quite discouraged, we left and decided to ask the security guard where the Parkinson’s lived. But I made the mistake of letting him see the wrench, and he told us to go to the main security guard station. Before approaching the main security guards, I slyly dropped the wrench in the grass. The two guards didn’t understand what we wanted. But they let us in the complex again to search some more. After a few more minutes of searching, we left the complex in horror. We were now truly quite homeless. There was one more hope for us, and if that failed, we would have to spend the night on the park bench. We schemed it all out. If the Dyer’s weren’t home, then we would take turns sleeping on a bench while the other one stood guard with the wrench. While walking towards President Dyer’s home (yep, the District President), we could think of nothing more than how pitiful we were at that moment. I don’t know if you’ve ever been locked out of your house in a foreign country with no where to sleep, but let me tell you that it is quite a frightful thing. We got to the Dyer’s home and made a guess as to which building was their’s. We got a Chinese man to let us in, then we went to the door we thought was their’s and rang the doorbell. All hope flooded back when President Dyer appeared. Quite humiliated, we explained to them why we were standing at their door at 10:30 PM wearing sweats and holding a wrench. They were very kind and let us stay the night. Sister Dyer made everything seem so much better for us as she gave us a bed to sleep in, a gourmet breakfast, and provided transportation to work this morning. My coworkers found it funny that I arrived at work wearing the same thing I wore yesterday, holding nothing but a wrench.
I am so grateful that the Dyer’s provided us with a place to stay. Even when we do make silly mistakes, like forgetting our keys, God is always watching out for us and will help us through others. On the sad side, I now have to face a whopping 18 subway stops tonight just to retrieve the 3rd set of keys from Rochie. But I know God will protect me, even on the subway.
I Want to Ride My Bicycle!
As you know, I HATE riding the subway. Let me just explain one last time how awful it is. Imagine being squished as tight as you can into a tiny space. Then imagine the objects which are squeezing you into that tiny space consist of 6 male figures. I know what you’re thinking, what girl wouldn’t like that? But let me tell you, these male figures are usually in the 30-50 age range. No offense to the Chinese, but these male figures usually lack any personal grooming and don’t believe in cologne. Now to continue, imagine that this tiny space is so small that you can lift up your legs and quite literally remain suspended in the air. Don’t forget that it is the male figures who you are rubbing up against that are keeping you suspended. Now imagine being stuck in this tiny space for 6 subway stops, or 30-40 minutes, twice a day. Each stop the tiny space only gets tinier and tinier and tinier until you’re sure you can’t squish anymore. If you did, you would be so squished that even breathing would take effort. Every time, you think you’re going to die. People around you are arguing and shouting. Eventually you arrive at your destination. But you’re still not safe. The doors open, and you must survive the stampede that could honestly turn deadly. Your first step outside and your first breath of fresh air is like your favorite birthday present. At that moment, the fresh air is the only thing you could possibly long for. And finally, you are free….at least for 8 hours, when you’ll have to do it all again.
The subway is not my friend. So after much contemplation, I set out on a journey to buy myself a bicycle. Since I am a poor starving student living in a foreign country, it had to be cheap. After searching high and low for the perfect one, I finally found it. A baby blue, basket included, Chinese sized bicycle! And the best part is, it actually saves me time. I can get to work faster on my bike than I can by subway. My coworkers reactions have been priceless:
“35 minutes on a bike!? I would die!”
“You’ll get sunburned and get a tan! How awful!”
“What about when it’s raining?”
Thus far my bike has treated me quite well. I don’t have access to a wrench so the seat is still quite low, but I choose riding a bike that’s too small for me over riding the subway that scares me. When I ride that little blue bike, I feel like I have been liberated from an awful torturous ritual. I love my bicycle 🙂
Happy Easter!
Easter in China was good, but just like any major holiday, it would be best spent with family. But with or without family around, the purpose is still the same. Easter was a good reminder for me to focus on what’s most important and to be more grateful for Christ and His Atonement. It’s so easy to get lost in the day-to-day things on my to-do list and forget about the things that matter most. I’m learning that the Atonement is not something that we use every once in a while when we need it to repent, but rather, something that we need to keep close to our hearts through every minute of every day. If we know how to appreciate the Atonement, our thoughts, actions, and words will center around Christ. He gave His life for us. God gave his only Son for us. We should wake up each day asking God what He wants us to do with our lives. He gave His life to us, we owe our lives to Him. My mom taught this truth to me, and it amazes me how much faith she has. Often times, I feel so imperfect and ungrateful. But when I think of my mom and her example of faith, it truly inspires me. Her life has been one of service to the Lord. I love her so much and I am so blessed to have the world’s best mom. 
Besides the spiritual side, Bailey and I had a small celebration together and dyed eggs. I must admit my desire to dye the eggs was much less than that of Bailey’s. Bailey’s family has a huge celebration each Easter and they have major egg dying competitions. I’m sure I seemed like a big stick deep in the mud when I didn’t express any desire to dye more than 3 simply decorated eggs. But I must thank Bailey for putting up with me. By midnight (late for me) I had successfully dyed 6 whole eggs(actually kinda cute), watched her in amazement as she dyed 12 amazing eggs(seriously the most amazing eggs I’ve ever seen), and actually enjoyed it. Bailey is the best roommate ever and I am so thankful that she is willing to put up with me. 
anniesadventures 