The Journey home begins

Well, Sorry I did not post anything yesterday - we spent most of Saturday shopping, which was a lot of fun, but we really did not take a lot of pictures because it just didn't really seem appropriate. After shopping our Hostess and I went out to get a manicure, which was fun. We then went to dinner with another couple from the special study earlier in the week. We had a great time getting to know them!

Sunday we went to a HC meeting for foreigners, and that was really fun. We met so many nice people had had a great meeting. We went out and ate "Hot Pot" after the meeting - which was really yummy! Each person gets a mini pot with a flame underneath it and you make your own soup (well soup like) meal. John got the very spicy - and it was too spicy even for him! I got the no spice and mine was delicious (John ended up sharing with me when he couldn't eat his!)

After lunch we went and did a little more shopping and then our host took us to get a traditional foot massage. Wow - what an experience! They served us "white tea" which is just hot water!! lol First, they don't just work on your feet, they work on your shoulders, neck, feet, and legs. My guy went "easy" on me because our host told him I was pregnant - and I am so glad he did - I can't imagine what it would have been like if he was not going easy! (Next time I will tell them to go even easier!!) It was pretty rough in places, but it felt so good once they were finished - what a treat!

We packed all our stuff last night and headed out early this morning. It was pretty tough to say goodbye - our hosts have been so wonderful - I was teary walking out. I can't believe our time here is over already, John and I are both sad to leave. We are excited to come back to all our friends and family back home, but being here has really reminded us of our purpose and goal.

We had a short flight from Dalian to Seoul which went very well. We now have several hours to look around the airport before our flight to Chicago.

The food and lodgings were very good in China, but a few things we are looking forward to when we come back:

Sara's list:
A soft bed!!!
Drinking water from the tap
toliets you sit on!!!
not having to carry toliet paper with me wherever I go


John's list
A giant soft drink
cheese - especially on a large portion of meat
my big american car that I fit into
american toliets


And of course for both of us our amazing friends and family (we miss our small group and I have to have some "Mandy-time"!!!

Thanks for eveyone's yarpes - we really appreciate it. We really have felt the Father's presence and protection on our trip!

Language School

This morning we got up and went to visit a language school. It was a small class (there were 7 other students in the class) and they had been meeting for about 3 weeks. John and I were able to catch on a little, but most of it was over our head!!

It was really cool to see what language school is like, and made us excited for the day when we are enrolled!!!

Back to Dalian

We got up this morning and took a bus back to Dalian. John and I got up early and walked around DanDong a little more. We took some video and had a good time. Early in the morning there are so many people out doing group exercises and playing a hacky-sack type game. People were exercising with fans, spears and swords (some were just exercising, but it was really interesting to see a large group of people doing kata like exercises with swords!!)

The bus ride was good, it only took us abour 4 hours to get back.

We are spending the evening just relaxing at our host's home, and have had a good time jsut talking. Tomorrow we get to visit a language school - John and I are pretty excited to see that! Then I think we are going to do a little shopping. :)

I will try to write more tomorrow!!

We love and miss everyone! But we are having an AMAZING time! I can't wait until we can come live here!!!

Lunch at Peter's

Wednesday March 25th

After breakfast and after a few minutes of down time in our room we walked around town a little while and then we went to Peter's Coffee house. Peter's is owned by a family from Canada. We met another American couple living in DanDong at Peter's for lunch. It was a really good meeting. We were able to talk to them about how they do their work here and about their living experiences in DanDong. They have been here for 3 years, and have two young children. They are the same age as us as well! We were able to get some practical information concerning cost of living as well. I wish we had gotten a picture of Peter's but I didn't :(

We then went to the War Museum to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea - it was a different perspective on history!

View of the 100 steps up to the museum - we saw three teenage boys race up the steps - it was pretty funny!


John was not able to get a clear picture of this, but it was a model of Chinese soldies taking over an American bunker - The whole view on history was very different


Here is John and I in front of a statue, this hall descibed the Chinese view of the Korean war - it was pretty interesting.

After visiting the muesum we went to the school and met with the principals again, it was a very good meeting. It was awesome to see the kids in the school yard when we came up - they were all doing exercises - they were all so cute! When the bus pulled in there was a small group of girls who watched the bus come in and when they saw us they squeeled and pointed at the bus, it was pretty cute! We made a really positive connection with the school and the principal.

We took a picture together - the one where we are all smiling is really blurry - I need to see if I can photoshop the blurry one when I get home!

By the time we were leaving most of the kids had gone inside, but here are some of the kids playing in the yard


After leaving the school the principal took us sightseeing again, he took us to a park with a couple of really tall pagota's with an awesome views of the city


This was the arch entrance to the park we went to



Here is one of the pagotas we were able to walk up - John took the picture in two parts


This pagota was dedicated to the minority groups in China, there are 56 I think. Each level had pictures of something, places or people groups - this one shows a picture of one of the minority groups, but we could not figure out which one it was.

Here is the view from the top - It was a hazy day - but the view was amazing! This is only one side, it kinda shows you how big the city is - and it is concidered a small city here!



This was another pagota we walked up to - it was closed so we could not walk to the top - I have to be honest and say I was kinda gald - it was beauitful, but by this point we had climed a LOT of steps!!!

Here is another view of the city

Here are a couple random pictures taken from our walking around


How would you like to carry your groceries home this way
Here is a Chinese police car in DanDong

This was in our hotel - it is a touch screen monitor - Would you like touch me??? LOL!!

Breakfast on our own

Wednesday, March 25th

We went to the hotel breakfast on our own this morning, which does not sound like it would be too adventurous, especially since it is still inside the hotel, but it turned out to be a small adventure. To begin with, we tried to pay, but they wanted us to sign it to our room, which was a little confusing since they were speaking Chinese and the ticket was also in Chinese. After sorting that out we walked into the dining room and we were immediately greeted by Frances, an Indian Hotel worker who is there to "help the foreign guests." Once Frances found us, we could never quite shake him Breakfast was an interesting array of Chinese and "American" breakfast items. The American items included hard boiled eggs in come kind of black sauce, and egg bar (you order eggs however you want them cooked), ham like bacon, oranges the size of cherry tomatoes, watermelon, and toast. It was pretty interesting! The Chinese selections included some kind of corn porridge, several rice dishes, some sort of beef stew like dish, "salty fish" which looked like small fish heads, and smelled terrible, and several other things. Frances stopped at our table every two minutes to check on us.

Frances followed us for our entire stay in the Hotel, when we went to check out we found him waiting outside our door (he had seen us at breakfast this morning) to help us carry our bag down. lol!

Using the Phone

So John has decided he is not going to use our hotel phone any more! This morning he tried to call our travel companions in the next room to see if they were ready to go to breakfast. He pushed a "room" button that he thought he needed to push to connect from one room to another. A Chinese voice answered on the other end, and John just said, "Sorry, wrong number." Thirty seconds later (soon enough that I did not even know that he had made a phone call) three people showed up at our door! They did not speak English, and I don't speak Chinese, so much confusion occurred (especially since I did not know that John had even made a phone call!) We finally sorted it all out, but poor John decided that he was not touching the phone again!!

Another small delay in Posts

Sorry I did not post anything yesterday - I forgot to pack my laptop charger so I was limited by how long my battery would last! But, I took notes again, and now that I am reunited with my charger I will update with several posts!

Thank you again for all the comments, John and I love hearing from you!!

We miss everyone, and we are having a wonderful time! I can't believe our trip is almost over!

Meeting the Principal

John and I in DanDong!

Tuesday, March 24th (China time is 13 hours later than Central)

We left early this morning to head to Dan Dong. The trip took about 4 hours, and we got to play a rousing game of 20 questions with Ralph where he stumped us with South Korea! (We forgot to ask place - so we were totally confused).


The Van we took with a statue of Mao in the background!

One thing we noticed right away was how there was no longer English on many of the signs, we are more rural here. We were also the only Western faces in the crowd. To this point, the only other Caucasian I have seen (and keep in mind we are staying at a hotel) was a German restaurant manager.
Just a random goat!

No more English on the signs!



The principal of the school in DanDong wanted to meet us at the airport, less because of us, and more because of Ralph and our host, but it was really neat.
The New School Principal

After meeting them and buying our tickets home for Thrusday (we will take the bus home) we went to check in at our hotel and then went out to eat. The food was really good - it was some kind of barbecued pork cooked right at our table. We had a good time getting to know them a little (They could not speak any English, but our host translated for us all). They laughed at my and John's poor chopstick skills and got us forks. The principle was excited to learn that we want to live in DanDong and said she would help us find out the cost of Language School here in DanDong. It was a really nice meeting!

The view from our hotel room - looking at the walking bridge that used to cross into North Korea, and a train bridge that still does
We have a dart board in our room!

The curent principle left then to go back to the school and the retired principle (who holds quite a position of honor here) stayed with us. He took us on the bridge that used to cross over to North Korea.


Us at the end of the bridgeAwesome sign on Bridge!

We also took a tour boat that goes as close to the border as you can go. You still have to use binoculars to see anything on the other side. The differences between the two sides were striking. DanDong is prospering and they are only a few sparce buildings on the other side, many of which are a faccad. John could see several guards walking the border with the binoculars. Our Tour Boat!



North Korea Side


Dan Dong Side


We then took a drive out to the Great Wall - we were super excited! We did not get to go up to it, but it is cool to know it is here. It is a small section of the wall - but it is definatly the wall! A Local home outside of the city

Us at a spot clost to the Great Wall Another pictuer of the Great Wall

We drove a little farther to "the shortest point." It it literaly the shortest point between China and North Korea. You could walk across the shallow water and land if you wanted (although you would probably be shot) We could see guard towers sprinkled along the border and our host told us by standing there we were in the cross hairs of several snipers. Put us all at ease!

This sign says The Shortest Point

We then went back to the hotel and parted ways with the principle. We will meet them again tomorrow and take a tour of the school!

We had a couple hours of downtime (which I spent catching up on blogs from Dalian and John spent browsing the Chinese TV!)

We then went to dinner - which turned out to be quite an adventure!!! Our host and Ralph had really good roast duck last time they were here, and John and I were up for the adventure, so we set off to find duck. It is pretty cold here and we were freezing as we walked around looking for the restaruant. We went into one place, but the wait for duck was going to be an hour, so we decided to keep looking.

We passed by a KFC (the only Western restarunt here in Dan Dong - not even a McDonalds here) and becasue we were so cold we went into Tesco - a mall/ superstore very much like the Carefour in Dalian. We were really excited to find this here - now I know where I will be shopping when we live here!! There was a small restaurant on the first floor, but it served western style food and no duck. They told us to go to the thrid floor, that there was a restarunt there. When we got to the third floor it was filled with suitcases, cosmetics and clothing - no food whatsoever!! We were laughing pretty hard at this point, everyone must have thought we were crazy!

So we took back to the streets, looking for a Chinese restuarunt of any kind, but all we could find were Korean and Japaneese - Our hotel reccomended a five star restuarunt, so we got a taxi and drove forever - we had no idea where he was taking us! We drove though several completly dark neighborhoods. Our diver did not drive on the right side of the road, even when no other cars were present, and kept honking his horn, even when no one was around. It was pretty funny. We finally ended up at a Crown Plaza, which was a super fancy hotel. We went up to the restaurnt, and sat down to look at the menu - and they did not serve duck either!!! By this point the whole situation was so comical and we were all so tired and hungry that we were pretty slap-happy. We decided to leave and go back ot the hotel and politly let the restarunt mananger know. She was very nice and actually led us to another restarunt in the hotel. This one did serve duck - and the prices were less expensive! (And the restarunt looked fancier - go figure!) We had a good dinner, but agian all joked about our poor chopstick skills as we struggled to eat. THe duck was really good, but very oily. They roast the duck and cut it in small pieces still attached to the skin (I guess that is the good part) and you make small tortillas out of it! It was lots of fun. After we went back to the hotel and John and I went to bed pretty much instantly.

Phew... I think that gets me caught up - I am going to go shower and get ready to go out today! I will try to post again tonight!

We love you all!

Thank you for your comments!

I just wanted to say Thank you for all the comments people are leaving - John and I love reading them!

:)
We are having an awesome time - I am trying so hard to stay up to date with our blogs, but I am still a whole day behind!!!

We love you all!

A Special Meeting

Monday, March 22nd

After dinner at Pizza Hut (they have normal pizza as well as steak and shrimp, etc - it was pretty funny and really nice) we went to a special Study with several members of the HC. It was amazing to hear the Word read in both languages and special songs sung in both languages. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly. After the study we yarped together which was also amazing.

Then we all just talked for a little while. Several of the ladies we very excited that I was pregnant, I got lots of hugs and belly pats. One very sweet lady wanted to help take care of the baby and was very disappointed to find out we were not already in China.

There was a funny moment where I looked over and saw John in deep conversation with one gentleman who was feverishly writing on a dry erase board. Later I found out he was sharing with John how to become a computer programmer with Java script because John had complimented him on his knowledge. It was very sweet and generous, this man's spirit of sharing. He was even going to send John some books!

It was a very uplifting and encouraging night, yet very humble to see the risks these people are willing to put themselves at to go to the Study, while we at home often cancel because of what is on TV. I fear that our freedom has caused us to loose sight of how valuable our gift from our Father really is.

Sightseeing in Dalian

Monday, March 23

After lunch we took a car around the city to see what Dalian was like. It was pretty amazing to see all the buildings, signs, and people (John and I have been fascinated with the signs here - we love the randomness to the asian advertising!)


This is a Carefour - a French Super store (kind of like our Wal-mart) They do have a couple Walmarts in Dalian, but they are not really like our Wal-marts at home. Carefour is pretty neat inside, the lower levels have seperate mall like shops selling goods and the upstairs have open wal-mart like atmosphere.

Here is a McDonalds (They are all over Hong Kong and Dalian)


We got to go to the ocean side which was so beautiful. There we saw "The Book" which is a giant concrete slab slightly curved at each end. There are no other markings to indicate it is a book (words, spine, etc) it is just it's abstract shape that looks book-like.

It is kinda hard to see, but in the distance you can see "The Book"
This is a close up of one side of The Book

This is John and I standing on "The Book" This was in the same "Square" as The Book, we didn't knwo what it was, but thought it was really funny!


The Ocean was amazing with boats of all sizes and the many small islands dotting the water.

Then we went up to a castle which was a shell museum. We did not go in, but the outside was really cool looking. their pictures made (brides here change dresses and locations many times for their pictures). We saw one bride, but I guess in the fall you will see them all over the place. In the Fall time lots of Brides come here to have pictures made.
Far view of the Shell Castle This is us at the Shell Castle with the water view behind us.


It is important to note that Dalian is a fairly new city, there is not the really old structures you will see in other places. Just 100 years ago it was just a fishing village and none of these buildings were here.
You can see how built up the city has become

We also drove around and saw a fairly secluded place where our hosts do "dunking" during the warmer time of year - the rest of the time it is too cold to get in the water! Down arround the side of the water is where they do "Dunking"

We also saw a bridge built by the Japanese as a token of friendship and some type of amusement park with psudo disney characers.
This is as we are crossing the Japaneese Bridge

We stopped at the Shangri la hotel to use the restroom (they had actual toliets there!) and it was very beauitful inside. While waiting on the others, we saw someone serving tea in the dining room. He had a teapot with a long spout, 3 or 4 feet long. She swong the pot around over his head, behind his back, and finally tipped it gracefully into the small cup - it was quite amazing!

Overall, it was pretty neat to see not only how different everything was, but how simmilar as well!

Morning Meeting

Monday, March 23

We were able to meet with a man today who is the leader of a HC here. It was an amazong experience to see his passion and dedication. He was able to describe how the HC worked and what kinds of needs they have. We were able to have lunch with him as well. We had some really good fried dumplings at a mall. Neither John nor I have much experience with chopsticks, especially with dumplings that stick together! At one point, out of desperation, John was trying to seperate two dumplings by stabbing at them. An older Chinese couple came by and laughing patted John on the shoulder. He motioned a better way to use the chopsticks and told John (which we found out after it was translated) that he would need four years to master the chopsticks! We all got a good laugh! (The couple were really sweet, and it was not mean spirited at all!)

Here is John in the mall food court :)

Alarming Bathroom Experience

Monday March 23rd

Ok, So I know that everyone has one whenever they go to another forign country, but that knowledge does nto make experiencing one any better! We were eating luch at the mall (more on that later) and I needed to use the restroom. The mall looked so much like a mall from home (just with different displays and signage, I was not expecting anything unusal! To begin, our Hostess asked me if I needed paper. Yes, unfortunaly I was not aware that I would need to provide my own paper so I was woefully unprepared. Silly Sara, assuming the bathroom had toliet paper! The sinks to wash your hands were all on the outside of the bathroom (so both genders could share one set of sinks) and had no soap. When I walked into the bathroom the only stall open was one at the end with a broken latch on the door. This happened to be one of those moments where your pregnant body really needs to use the restroom quickly, so I reasoned that I could deal with a broken latch. I opened the door the door to the big surprsie - there was no toliet! What was there was what looked like a toliet bowl in the ground. Really - it was a ceramic toliet shapped hole in the ground! I had this moment where I just stood there staring down at this hole and thought Really? Really? What am I supposed to do with this?!? Now I knew what I was supposed to do, but for a moment I was in denial. A brief moment of adventerous bravery and the physical need to relieve myself took over and I was ready to face the hole.

So, If you can imagine squatting, aiming, holding all your clothes out of the way, AND holding the stall door closed - then you can visualise my alarming bathroom experience!

I have since found out that those "squatters" are the norm. So just in case you ever find yourself in China, be ready to squat, and bring your own toliet paper!!!

Driving Madness

The Roads in Hong Kong and Dalian are very crowded with cars, bicycles and people! The "rules of the road" seem very flexible! Cares move from lane to lane moving around obstacles in both lanes of traffic (including oncoming!)
You can see cars all over, and if you look closely in the left side you can see a car going the wrong way as it tries to turn.





You can see that "traditional" transportation drives side by side with modern transportation!

Here you can see our driver hovering in the middle of the lane, he was working to get around the car in from of him. I don't know why they put markings on the road at all!


This was just a cool tiny vehicle we saw


Cars will drive on sidewalks and take detours around cars on a side road to get around other cars, Pedestrians move as a mass and weave around the cars. The roads have been an interesting experience!