Recap of my last days in China

(a very exciting title I know)
So we did make it down the wall, and luckily not too soon, because we got caught in a rainstorm and got soaking wet, and then once again, had to run to get seats (this one was a little more crazy, smaller platform and slippery ground).

Soaking wet

Lunch on the train! (in our great seats I got :)

Friday consisted of what I call downtown (i don't know if it really is)- Tiananmen square, the forbidden city, an the national museum. And then the Temple of Heaven. They were all pretty cool, it was very bright out, and you could buy a popsicle for only 1 qui! That was great. It was also a lot of walking.

Tienanmen square w/forbidden city in background

Vessels!!!!

Temple of Heaven

Also one of the best parts of that day was going to the grocery store- so much cool food!
Then Saturday we did the Summer Palace, all i can say is i definitely feel bad for the servants who had to carry people around, the whole thing is just steep hikes and stairs! Very pretty buildings though. And we ended up getting to see a short show there, some music and dancing, a little long, but interesting. Though I don't know what the people around us watched more- the show or Peter.

Peter's such a celebrity

Matching is the thing to do. So many couples do.

It has been really nice just to follow and not have to plan or worry about directions, I have definitely been grateful for jonathan and robin for that.
We met up with a friend of Jonathan's later on at a big pizza place. It was kinda crazy- really good pizza, and really, really big. But so much! And i ate way too much. But it was my last meal of meat and cheese together for the next month, so I appreciated that!

Mmm, pizza

 Really cool Baku, Azerbaijan airport

And then the day was over and I headed to the airport, which was not all smooth sailing. They chose the one night to close the exact line I needed apparently so then i had to end up getting a taxi who totally ripped me off, but I had to do it cause i was in a hurry and could only put a quick call in to jonathan to speak to him, cause i understood nothing.
I think that has been one of the hardest things this last week and a half- not being able to communicate, barely even knowing the basic phrases like hi, thank you, and good bye, and i don't want. Last night trying to to get to the airport was just the culmination of that. This whole time I've been almost craving to be back in russia, somewhere i could talk to people and them only be slightly frustrated with me, instead of completely.
I've really come to realize that there are some places you can go and get by, others you just need to know the language or be with someone who does. Because it can get very frustrating.
It was kinda a miracle for me then, when in the last leg of my flight here to Israel, practically the whole plane was full of russians, even the stewardesses. So there was russian all around me and talking to me, so I just talked back in Russian, I don't think anyone even realized I wasn't russian until the end when I actually got into a real conversation with the guy next to me. But that was fun because he was impressed, and we carried on in rusglish. It really was a breath of fresh air. And they had blinchiki for the meal, and president's butter!! I was in heaven, even the gas water made me feel at home, even though it was just as gross as I remember.
And then getting here, I definitely don't speak hebrew so great, but i can understand enough to get the gist of what's going on and get to places i need, so it's been fun trying to use it first before reverting to english (which a majority of the people know here anyways). And me getting lost by an hour and a half and making it all the way to Ashkelon wasn't even a language miscommunication, just a pride factor and not recognizing the area anymore. But don't worry I figured it out and made it back, and am finally here at the Tell!
So that is my exciting life for the past few days, now on to the next, very hot and busy, adventure.    
                                 

They have Kinder here too! America is lame...

The Great Wall

 Still in China. Today was pretty amazing, did one thing I never even considered doing in my life- walked along the Great Wall of China! Pretty Awesome. Now a new goal to add my huge list of life goals: go backpacking along the Wall, how cool would that be.
First, getting there, that was a pretty fun adventure in itself. After walking in circles (literally) we finally made it to the train station to get to the Wall. Turns out there is quite a tricky system with lines and trains with no assigned seats here in China. We notice the line starting to grow by the station doors so I get in it, about 30sec later, there is no line just a crush of people packing closer and closer. I frantically motion over the rest to get in line with me before it gets too packed in and we wait there (still like 20min before the doors open!) The doors finally open and there is a surge of humans pushing through, so we go along with it out the doors, down the steps to the platform. When all of a system people starting racing around us, it was the craziest thing, people are running like crazy to the train a ways down the platform, i look around, then I booked it. It was a mad dash through the crowds to a car farther down the train to find open seats (which I did quite successfully I might add, 4 in a row) which I then had to guard, hoping the others would find me. Thus we found ourselves with seats during the hour ride to the stop (well sort of, most of the time was spent chasing Peter through the aisle.
Which brings me to another point, I really should start keeping tabs of the things Peter collects. Robin was definitely not exaggerating, probably the opposite, when it comes to Chinese people loving the little "golden haired" boy and giving him so many things. Every time he came back from a trip down the aisle he had a new treat- popcorn, sucker, crackers, oreos, chinese flag- and that's just a few of the ones from today! He also made several new friends, one of which was a little girl who guarded over him and always made sure he returned back to his momma if he went too far, she was super cute. He taught her how to get free treats.

First glimpses of the wall on the train

Peter getting treats

Finally we made it! It was pretty spectacular, the wall really does just snake along following the ridge exactly, going up and down, sometimes at almost 45degree angles, slanting at points, uneven steps, and very few sections of flat walkway. And we barely saw a tenth of it. Definitely a good incentive to be fit your whole life, there was one really old grampa climbing around up there too, lots of people were taking pictures with him. Though we were also very glad we took the cable car up (well I think Robin is still undecided on that point), as we starting walking down to the bottom, it was very steep.

Can you hear me now?

Peter's siblings are going to be so jealous of him someday

     To be continued...

Nee How from China

So we made it to China! Jonathan only lost me once on the metro (don't worry, i figured it out in the end). We stayed that night and much of the next day in Shanghai. It was a cool place, someday I'll write some of my thoughts on expectations and realities being here, right now i don't have a lot of time thought, so I'll just give you the basics, and lots of pictures.

In Shanghai we visited the Yuyuan gardens and the old city (the part that looks like what you'd expect of china). The gardens were beautiful and a fun playground for Peter. We bought a few souvenirs, I was very proud of my robe I got down to 60yuan instead of the 380 she started with. We walked around for a while here:  

Yeah, someone doesn't understand personal space

Got to see this guy for more than 4 days! He loves leaves

Chinese food, mmm...

So one time I went to Russia and bought a babyshka dress/nighty. Another day I went to China, I saw the exact same dress...

We took the train to Nanjing Saturday night, it's been pretty nice and relaxing just to be here and stay at Jonathan and robin's apartment. We went to church on Sunday in a hotel, a very nice branch, it reminded me of how much i like small branches like that, a nice feel and very good talks and lessons. We have mostly just been hanging out here and going around a little bit, helping pack up the apartment.

Going for a walk and lowing bubbles. Because apparently you can only pop bubbles sitting down.

Pretty pond near their apartment

Monday was our touring day. Jonathan took us to the Zhonghua Gate, the oldest part of the city wall. It was very cool, you could run up onto the ramparts and go through the little caves built into it.

Really cool old gate to the city, you can read the name at the top

Design of the gate system we explored

Shrine inside one of the gate caves

Beccah slowly walking up the wall

Me starting to run up

Me quickly passing Beccah up the wall

Beccah needs to exercise more

We went to the Confucius Temple area next with lots of very chinese buildings and souk-style alleys. We tried some very good food and had many pictures taken of us.

Chinese happy face :)

Boats we didn't ride. At night the dragon and boats all lit up

Delicious potato stick thing

China street. Notice all 20billion mopeds

Doing Chinese calligraphy

Later that night we met up with friends of Jonathan and Robin, a 13yr old girl, who Robin tutored in english, and her family. They bought us dinner in that area, which was good, but so, so much, Jonathan kept saying we had to choose more food to put on the table! This is where skills I learned on my mission come into play, such as eating one thing very, very slowly so it looks like I'm eating a lot; or pretending to eat the crab steamed bun, when really i just took bites of the bun. But it was very difficult, Robin, Beccah, and I were trying very hard to be polite and desperately waiting until there was an ok amount of food left and we could stop. The grandparents were brilliant, they just took Peter around the restaurant and  ran around shopping him off, they barely ate anything! But it was very sweet of them to buy us dinner and the girl, Kur, was super sweet.

                                      

The restaurant, so many different things!

The food left, there was so much more!

I did get an infection yesterday (aka crazy glue spilled on my hand), that we convinced Beccah was from the water and to just be really carefully washing her hands and brushing her teeth, but that if she got it she would probably be ok, it wasn't too infectious. Pretty sure she still believes us, at least until she reads this post. I wish i had taken a picture of that one.

Last night Jonathan had a party here with some of his work friends, that was pretty crazy. Robin and I were running around in the kitchen trying to cook up anything out of the last of the food (we did pretty good), Beccah was in there randomly singing until we kicked her out or made her do some dishes(then she left of her own accord). But it was fun and loud and they ate a lot, and they cleaned up and did the dishes, I like those kind of guests! Now we are just finishing packing up and getting ready to leave today for Beijing. I don't think I'll have access to to this site anymore while we're still in China, so next time I'll be writing from Israel!

China via the Philippines

So the pictures from the last post are us in the airplane, clearly very early on in the flight or we would not be looking so happy, manila temple, us riding in a pedi-cab (sort of like a side car to a motorcycle).

Anyways, we have made it to China! whew, that was a long trip over here, but i am glad we finally made it and are now with Robin and Jonathan. Recap to Friday morning, we did go on a segway tour through the old city of manila called Intramuros, it was pretty fun. Surprisingly enough it does take some exercise to use those things, so it was a good work out. That was my favorite part of our trip there, i mean who doesn't love cool old stone walls and some good history?

Yeah, I know, we're pretty cool :p

One of the things that stuck out to me the most here was how nice people are and very helpful, especially as how so many people know english (though not everyone, as beccah learned the hard way). We were running a little behind schedule after the tour, but the hotel people were very kind and more anxious for us than i was, so they got a taxi quick with a fun driver who told us all about the city as we drove. And we made it just fine to our flight, perfectly on time for the last boarding call :) Though i was very upset about the fact that we had to pay a $12 terminal fee each, who makes you pay to go through a terminal?!

That flight was uneventful and luckily rather empty so i got to lay down on a whole row :) And all our luggage came through and made it the same time as us, which is always a miracle for me!

Overall, it was a pretty great layover trip, there of course was way more to do than time, but i think we did pretty well, and now i have a list of all the things for next time :)

Walking through Rizal Park

 Riding the pedi-cab

Around the world in 45 days

Seeing as how the title of this blog page is pretty irrelevant, someday i will change it, once i figure out how. So anyways, this is revival of my summer blog every time i go on adventures. And this summer's adventure is around the world in 45 days, imagine what Phileas Fogg would think of that! Well 3 days has taken us through the first leg of our journey to the muggy, hot islands of the Philippines. Our layover here has been for 20 hours so we made an adventure of it. The flight was definitely long enough (see beccah's blog for a very,very long and exaggerated description of that). Suffice it to say, it was not a good time to be sick, and claustrophobia and the middle seat do not mix, and we met an astrologer who "read" us, it was pretty cool, and pretty accurate in some parts, will have to see how his predictions turn out...(note: once again see beccah's blog for those). And did for free because he was bored, otherwise he has very high prices, his clients being hollywood stars and big business people and such. It was very interesting talking with him, especially when we got into religion, though we had some very big differences of opinion on some points, it was nice to come to a common base that we both believed one has to rely on personal revelation to find absolute truth.
We finally got to Manila, made it to our hotel, and headed for the manila LDS temple. I will definitely say the taxi rides are not the highlight of this trip, they were very long and lots of traffic, it was fun watching beccah experience her first non-US driving... haha i think she learned quickly not to watch how he drove. It was very beautiful, i love just sitting in the grounds of any temple and feeling the calming spirit there away from the business night life of the city. ok, here are some pics. gotta go, our segway tour guide just got here.