Day 4 Beijing sightseeing #2 and heading to Guiyang

After a video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Gronberg, Riley, and Addison (it was 7am in the States and Chase buddy was still asleep), we went to bed around 9:30pm. I fell asleep fast, but then woke up at 3:00am and was wide awake. And then the thoughts came. So many thoughts starting with, “tomorrow is Gotcha Day. TOMORROW. THE DAY.” And then I started freaking out. Like my heart was doing a little pound and my tummy had butterlies. Honestly, it’s been so nice just Nathan and I, unplugged mostly, and enjoying exploring China together. But, we’re here because there’s a little girl waiting for us. Well, not really waiting for us- she doesn’t know that she’s waiting, but you know what I mean.

At 3:30am, Nathan was also wide awake. We knew we had a full day of exploring to do and that the night before Gotcha Day would also be restless, so we tried to go back to sleep… at 5am, we finally got up and turned on the Olympics. We worked on packing our suitcases and rearranging to get each checked bag to be 44 pounds.

At 6am, we headed to another delicious breakfast. Seriously, we are loving the food here. The hotel really tries to cater to Westerners. They do it good.

At 7am, we headed to Starbucks. Because Starbucks in Beijing. That’s where I got this mug (thanks for reminding me, Marie Riley). It was a rainy morning, and we sat outside enjoying our 2^nd coffee for the day (Nathan reading a book, and me writing in my journal). I was in yoga pants and a jacket. It was glorious. It was like this rain came in and just wiped away all of the crap in the air.

At 8:30 we met our guide, Gia in the lobby (the other ladies had flown out earlier in the morning to Judah’s province- their Gotcha day was today). Gia took us to Tien’nman square. It was still sprinkling and she was like in shock that we didn’t have an umbrella (I’d heard that we didn’t need to pack one because the hotels had them- maybe they did, we didn’t ask- sprinkles aren’t going to hurt). It was neat to see a different part of Beijing, and the rain had literally washed out the smog so we could see the buildings. As we got closer to the square, we could see masses of people visiting. Gia tells us that Beijing locals don’t really come to these places, so all of the people are foreigners- from different Provinces of China. It became really obvious when they were all staring at us. I mean blatantly staring- so rude. We are wonders to behold, I guess. Haha. The people of China also don’t know about personal space- there isn’t shoving or pushing or anything, but everyone is just okay to be really close or touching when in a crowd.

Oh I can’t skip over my 2^nd experience with the squatty potty. You guys. THIS. I know I have to, but it’s my LEAST favorite thing right now. The Great Wall was a nice clean squatty. But let’s be honest. If one isn’t used to the squatty, one doesn’t do it right. Pee splattering everywhere. Sorry to be gross, but others coming behind me need to know. The squatty potties are stupid, and I’m sure you’ll hate them too. There needs to be handles at least to hold onto and get the proper stance, but alas there is not, so you’re holding onto the wall. If you’re wearing shorts or pants, you have to slip your foot that has walked in other’s pee through the hole in one leg, and then your underwear. The best scenario would be to wear a dress and no underwear really, but who does that?! This is why they are stupid in my opinion. So, you have to hold your underwear and pants in one hand because you don’t want those slipping down and landing on the floor in other’s splatter… Then when you’re done, you have to put your foot back through underwear and shorts. I was wearing sandals today, so I literally took my shoe off. Am I doint this wrong? If someone has instructions please let me know ASAP before my next experience! So the squatty potty at Tien’nman square smelled like Emporia, KS. Like cow poo. But after all of the coffee and water I’d drank that morning, there was no getting around it. I had to go in. Oh and most places don’t have TP, so you have to bring it or shake it off. I’m not going to tell you about it. I don’t want to relive it. Just know that my second experience was NASTY. Tonight I’ll be up with nightmares. And I’ll bet this isn’t the grossest squatty I’ll experience either. Hmmm maybe by the time we leave, I’ll be an expert. Changing Scarlett’s diapers ought to be something, too.

 

So, Tien’nman square. It was neat to see the Chinese buildings and memorials that are so important to them. We took lots of pictures to show the kids and Scarlett someday. The Summer Palace Museum is across the street from the square, so we went there next. There were gobs of people there. Like take walking into the Royal’s stadium during a world series game and times that by 3, maybe even more. And the fact that we were there on a weekend made it worse. AND Gia said that it actually wasn’t that busy because of the rain! And almost everyone had umbrellas or ponchos- even though it was just sprinkling. We guessed that it was to keep the polluted rain off. The Chinese are super health conscious. We’ve maybe seen 2 overweight people, and I’m telling you, we’ve seen a lot of people. Now that I write about it and look back, man those were huge crowds! And everyone was staring at us- I never felt unsafe, but maybe uncomfortable a few times when they held their stare for so long.

At least it wasn’t too hot or humid (thank you, God for that rain). We shuffled through each gate and were more and more and more and more and more amazed as the palace museum just kept going and going. Those emperors lived quite the life of luxury! This place was gorgeous. Built in the 1400’s. I can’t do it any justice by trying to describe it here. And it wasn’t really a museum like you’d think of a museum. The imperial garden at the end was just breathtaking. This was my favorite place that we visited with The Great Wall coming in for a close 2^nd.

Our check out time was at 2:00, so we headed back to the hotel to get our things. Then we headed to eat a late lunch. Gia took us to a hot pot restaurant. THIS. Oh my. We died and went to heaven. This was the most amazing food. Gia told us that she can go to that sort of place with a small group, so there’s a pro to being the only ones in the group! We paid a little extra (lunch was included in our travel package for Beijing) to experience this place. So there’s a big pot of boiling broth water in the middle of the table. You can pick mild or spicy or both (we got both- the white looking one is mild). And then you order veggies and meats to put in the broth. And you pick your sauce. I put some kid of sesame mix sauce as the base for mine and added garlic, cucumber bits, crushed peanuts, and a few other things. So, you dump the stuff in the water and once it’s cooked, you use your chopsticks and just start grabbing it out- and you dip it in your sauce. Someone needs to open one of these in KC!! They would make a fortune. We could’ve sat there all day picking stuff out of that broth. And it was so healthy- we ate like 3 different types of mushrooms, green veggies I’ve never heard of before, beef, lamb, and shrimp. If you go to China, try a hot pot restaurant. You’ll be glad you did!

After lunch, we headed to the Bird’s Nest- where the 2008 Olympics was held. By this time, the sun was out and we saw blue sky. I’m so glad we got to see Beijing in this light- yesterday was kind of depressing with all of the pollution in the air. We saw some really cool places and buildings in Beijing today- we’re amazed at how many residential buildings there are. Some super old and some super fancy. There seems to be either poor or rich here, not as much in between, as far as I can see. The bird’s nest was neat. There was some sort of festival going on so there was a live band and lots of action. We also saw the tower and the water cube.

We are now at the airport, waiting on our flight to Guiyang where Scarlett is. We’ll get to explore her province and get to know her before flying to Guangzhou on Friday afternoon. We won’t get to the hotel until probably 11pm at the earliest. I’m excited to unpack our suitcases and get her stuff ready. We’ll bring her backpack and some things we got for her when we go to meet her tomorrow. I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M SAYING THAT. TOMORROW. The next time you see a blog post from me, it will be about Gotcha Day. I know you can’t wait. I sure can’t!!