The Great Wall (China Part 2)

Monday, January 6th

We woke up at 6:30am.. Ate breakfast at 7:00 and then at 7:30 we got on our tour bus and started our journey to the Great Wall. Nathan and India were on the tour also. We decided to stick together so we could take pictures of each other.

Two hours later we arrived. When we got off the bus we noticed that snow was falling. I was both excited and disappointed at the same time. Because of the snow you couldn't really see anything (all of the fog and what not). I was hoping for a beautiful clear day to see the Wall, but I can deal with snow.  The fog and snow made taking pictures difficult but it made being there much more romantic.  Everything we saw and experienced was beautiful even if we weren't able to catch it on film.

We took the lift up and planned to toboggan down (like a sled ride) but the snow prevented it they said the brakes wouldn't work.

When we reached the top we decided to walk the shorter path to the right so we would for sure see the old wall. If you walked to the left you had a ways to go up and down stairs to see the old wall.

The Wall was beautiful with the snow even though you couldn't see very far the trees were covered in frost and snow. It had a romantic feel.

 When we reached the end we kept going on the old wall for a little while, it was dangerously fun!

 Practicing Taekwondo on the wall!

Playing cards with India, on the Wall!

In one of the guard towers Nathan really wanted to climb and see what was in the upstairs room. Turns out it was a bunch of nothing!

We then turned around and went back the way we came and then some. We took the lift down again and ate at a Chinese restaurant with our tour group. I (Lauren) REALLY loved the food.

Before and after pictures!

When we got back to our Hostel we sat down for a little bit before we went out to exploring the Wangfujing eating and shopping area again. We were hungry so we decided to try some of the food. I ate lamb on a stick and Nick had some Chow mein noodles that made his tummy upset.

Nick also bought a silk top and later we found the glove to the lady that sold it to us. We ended up taking it back to her and we were blessed because we finally found a good store to buy Chinese goodies.

From left to right (top to bottom) Fish ice cream, Panda cookies with filling, Doritos, Happy Birthday cake flavored Oreo's, C100 drink, Nutella crackers, chocolate.

The Fish ice cream was like what we have in korea except they had chocolate ice cream inside along with chocolate chunks of goodness. YUM!! Everything else was also delicious and lasted us the rest of our trip!

We were suppose to go and watch a Kung Fu show but we had the directions wrong and we couldn't find any wifi and so we decided to go back to our hostel. We sat at the bar/restaurant and ate burgers and played cards.

The end of day two, which in my opinion was the best day of our trip!

Next up, The Zoo and Terracotta Warrior Museum.

Happy Dragon (China Trip Part 1)

Saturday, January 4th  
Our trip started with an unexpected twist. We got to the airport two hours early to find that our first flight had been delayed indefinitely.  They booked us on the next flight to Beijing (no stops) and we got there faster than the original flight plans. We made it to our Happy Dragon Hostel, met our roommates, explored a little and passed out.

 

Sunday, January 5th
We were woken up early on our first full day in China by our roommates getting ready for their Great Wall adventure. I decided to stay awake and check our agenda for the day and make sure everything was in order.

I booked tickets to see an acrobatic show, Our Trip to the Great Wall, and found out some great places to visit and eat!

I got Nick up (only by mentioning OJ) and we ate a terrific breakfast at the Dragon (what we call our hostel)


We met some really cool people a young couple from England, Nathan and India. They sold everything they had and saved money for a long time just to travel for 6 months. She is 19 and he is 23, WOW!! Nick and I were really shocked by their daringness to live life and to seek adventures. We met them during breakfast and friendship struck from there. You can read their travel blog here.

We got dressed in extra warm clothes and went exploring. We walked about two miles to reach our destination Tiananmen Square. I wasn't really sure what to expect and it wasn't until moments ago when I looked it up on Wiki, that I understood what the heck I had seen. We did not walk the square  much today because we went straight into the Forbidden City. It was a lot of walking, but it was beautiful.

Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty. It was the imperial palace the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 7,800,000 sq ft. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. (Wiki)

We got off the beaten path, for some of the roads less traveled and glad we did or we would have never of found the costume booth. We paid almost nothing to dress up and take pictures. The Chinese people thought it was hilarious that foreigners would dress up. We had our picture taken many times.

When we finished exploring the Forbidden city we stopped at the museum shop. We found some items that we have been looking for and purchased them.


If you have ever been to China you know one thing.. The people there will pretty much do anything for you to look at them and buy their stuff. This was really hard for Nick because he just wanted to look, but looking came at a price here. They basically harassed you until you walked away, and even then sometimes they would walk after you. It really drove me crazy, if you even looked lost you would be attacked by taxi drivers, scooter people, street vendor and more. It didn't take long before Nick and I to started mapping out a dodging plan. If we noticed a ton of people ahead we talked about our plan to get around them and 9 times out of 10 we made it.


Right before we left the Forbidden City we were approached by a lady with who introduced herself, holding her badge, as an employee then asked us if we wanted to look at her art collection. AKA she saw that we had already purchased something and wanted us to buy her stuff. (LET me backtrack a few hours) Right after breakfast Nick and I had read a warning for foreigners about a scam that was being ran at the Square and Forbidden City. Someone would walk up to you and be friendly wanting to chat, then they invite you to tea. They would take you to a tea place in the palace area and then leave you to pay the crazy expensive bill. (Back to my story) When this lady approached my red flags went up but Nick said sure, so we followed her and they she unlocked a red door. Behind it was some people just sitting until we came in they all jumped to their feet. We went into a little room as she showed us some of her 'original' art (That looked exactly like the paintings we just bought from the museum shop) When she started talking prices Nick cut her off and said we were not interested and we walked back through the door we came in.

Next we were bombarded by a ton of men and women trying to sell everything and anything to us. We looked down, pretended we did NOT speak English and kept walking.

What an experience.


On the walk back to the Dragon we stopped at a little mom and pop noodle restaurant and just randomly pointed at food, and we weren't disappointed.

 I (Lauren) Had big fat noodles ( I swear it was just one extremely long noodle) Mine tasted the best!!

Nick's choice had more of a vinegar taste to it, still it wasn't bad,  and he ate it tofu and all.

We got to the Dragon and passed out for a couple of hours. 

When we woke up we quickly got ready for our acrobatic show. Sorry we don't have picture for this, but it was really good and hilarious. 

After it was over we took the subway to Wangfujing (night shopping street) and explored it a little before it closed (15 minutes later) We had heard all kinds of things about this crazy street and it lived up to the craziness. They had scorpions, lizards, snakes, cocoons, centipedes, seahorses, starfish, and more on sticks ready to be consumed by someone daring enough to do so. I passed on these.

We walked the long mile back to our place stopping by a Mcdonalds because we were both starving.
We had such a busy first full day in Beijing, China but we were so ready for the adventures upcoming!
Next update The Great Wall!!

Christmas 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

When we got home from America we brought back a couple of gifts for Richard and Suzi! Richard got an ALABAMA hat and Suzi got a gift pack of American Jams. I think they enjoyed both!

At some point Nick and I dressed very similar and we had to take a photo in front of the Christmas tree..

One day I got brave enough to take the scooter into town.. Yes I'm wearing kitchen gloves.. and yes they kept the cold wind off longer than my other gloves. (FYI: now we have proper gloves for the scooter)

A week before Christmas we got some snow!!! We woke up to such a beautiful surprise!!

 
We had a wonderful church party!! The cute Primary children stood there while the missionaries sang the Nativity song from the Children's song book. It was very touching! This really helped me focus on what the Christmas season was all about!

We had a huge CEV dinner!! everyone brought a dish or two and we had a great feast! I was extremely grateful for Grandma Bunny's package. She sent a beautiful table cloth with matching plates and napkins. It was perfect!!

For Christmas Eve we were invited up to spend the night with the Wood family from church. They are so AWESOME!!! We stayed up late and woke up early! 

From left to right you have Tim, Grant, Lauren, and Connie!!!

They were dog sitting!! Isn't she cute!

Nick got me these really cool earrings. I love them so much!!

Nick got his Nintendo 3DS XL with a few games (Thanks Arielle... I Love you.. oh and I bought Lauren and I Borderlands 2 this week.. can't wait to play it with her)

My mom sent me this really cool bumblebee board eraser!!!

Nick got me the Samsung Galaxy note 8.0 (I am in LOVE!!!)

Sorry this post is so choppy.  I'm just trying to catch up and get us ready for the next big adventure, CHINA!  We are really looking forward to going to the most populous country in the world, so much so that it is hard to concentrate on anything else, but I feel it is important to let all our family and friends know that we are thankful for them and their support both in packages and messages.
We really enjoyed Christmas this year thanks for all of the packages! You really made it seem like Christmas!!! We love you all so very much and hope your Christmas was just as amazing as ours has been!  Until next time, L-and-N!

Sumo!

If you read my blog you know that I took Nick on a secret vacation. He had no idea where we were going until the day we left. Everyday for one week prior to that particular day  I gave him a clue to throw him off the trail. Yes, I am capable of lying! 

We stayed at the Paragon Hotel in Busan because it was near the bus station and the airport. Our view was really pretty!

I gave Nick the final gift while we were eating Tang Tang chicken in our hotel bed. He freaked out when he saw the sumo wrestling tickets!

We flew to Japan Saturday and went straight to our Hostel. After checking in we did some research to find a food that was a hot item in Fukuoka. Turns out that delicious food was Udon noodles! We found this restaurant because of the awesome map our hostel provided us with!

The cook cut and cooked our noodles right in front of us!! The soup and noodles were so delicious!

After dinner we found a little grocery store and we purchased some of our favorite snacks...

I didn't take a picture of my favorite Japanese ice cream because as soon as I bought it..... it was gone!

We went back to our hostel and read everything we could find about Sumo wrestling so we would be in the "know" for the competition. 

Sunday we had some amazing breakfast (curry pastry) and some other awesome things we picked up at the local bakery! 

We loaded up on snacks and sandwiches and then we went to the main event of our little get-a-way, SUMO WRESTLING!

We took a bus straight to the stadium! When we checked in a sweet lady helped us find our awesome seats! I have to do a shout out to http://www.buysumotickets.com because they helped me out so much! I pre-ordered my tickets through them and they did a fantastic job! Nothing was what I or Nick expected it to be. We had a little area just for us. You had to take your shoes off before you sat down. We had plenty of room to stretch our legs out. Our place had two big purple cushions and a nice cubby for our shoes and snacks we brought with us. The men sitting behind us helped us understand the schedule we had gotten to keep up with who was fighting. 

 Nick with a cardboard Sumo man.....

 Lauren with a real sumo man!!!

Here is a video I made. If it doesn't work on my blog you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3LGjQRmuWw

After Sumo we walked a lot, attempting to find a good place for dinner. Most everything cheap was closed we ended up at the grocery store with cheap roman noodles!

Monday we checked out and walked around for a while. We went to a beautiful, small, traditional Japanese garden. 

 Spot the bird?

While we were there, a couple soon to be married, were taking some beautiful photos in Japanese traditional dress. We had a great time watching them! As soon as they saw the bird they freaked out and took a ton of picture with it.  Maybe its a sign of good fortune. It was funny!

After the garden we walked to a huge shopping center and walked around for a while. We ate some more ramen noodles (they didn't taste very good) Then we headed back to the Subway station on our way to the airport.  The weekend went by super fast, but it was so amazing! So glad we were able to do this... One more thing checked off our bucket list!