Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Downtown Beijing

Summer Palace
The long corridor that is hand painted

The roof of the corridor

private temple for empress

The lake is man-made, its over 500 years old! Its at Summer Palace

Made out of marble- its not a boat, but a dock used by the empress (Dragon-lady)

This boat was used by the emperor to carry her all over the lake while she drank her tea..

Oh, this place never looked so good...

Inside the Bird's Nest

Bird's Nest, Beijing Olympics 2008

Water Cube

Each day is getting better and better!! Today, I woke up at 5:30am!!! I am going to bed about the same time each night….around 10:00pm. So, anything more than 6 hours is just icing on the cake!!! We met Helen this morning at 10:00am in the lobby. First, we went to Summer Palace. This is the place where the emperor stayed in the summer. It is so beautiful. The lake is ginormous and it is man-made! They dug this lake by hand (or tool). It was made in the 1400’s. Amazing huh? They took all the dirt and made a mountain out of it. It also has the longest corridor in the world. The ceilings are hand-painted. It really is almost too much to take in. The Chinese people are an incredibly smart group of people. It’s no wonder their civilization has survived for so many years. Each day, I am more and more amazed.

Have I told you we feel like movie stars here? Everyone (especially children) loves to take pictures with us and practice using their English. People here are so friendly. Sooooo friendly!!! For some reason, I thought I was going to be scared over here. Wrong!! I feel safer in Beijing than I do walking in the parking lot at the Oxford mall. The crime rate is extremely low. People (in general) do not break the law in this country. The only thing that makes me nervous is the language barrier. Sometimes, it can be hard to communicate if Helen is not with us (which is not often). Chinese is not like Spanish where you can “figure out” some words. Uh… nope, not going to “figure out” any Chinese words even if your life depended on it. I just wanted to tell everyone how safe it is here. I think Americans have a wrong view of this country.

So..after Summer Palace, we stopped at McDonald's. I know, I know, “When in China, do as the Chinese!” Well, if you could see how many people in China eat at McDonald's you would understand that I AM doing like the Chinese. Seriously…oh, alright, I’ll be honest. I woke up thinking about an extra large double cheeseburger with and extra large order of salty fries with an extra large Coke! I am not being dramatic when I tell you that tears came into my eyes when I bit into that cheeseburger. My taste buds went wild!! They kept saying, “more, more, feed me, feed me!” Helen even told me to slow down. I was stuffing those fries in my mouth about 6 at a time. I don’t think I really chewed up my food. After about 5 minutes, Carlton asked me where my cheeseburger was, I said, “it’s gone.”. He couldn't’t believe it. He has only eaten half of his sandwich! The funny thing is…I don’t really even eat McDonald's back at home. Ya’ll know I went looney after I watched that show about that man who ate McDonald's and almost died. But, when you go 5 days eating healthy tofu, your body goes a little nuts. I am happy to report that I feel like a new woman after my extra-large combo meal.

After our yummy meal, we went to the Olympic Center. Once again, I started saying to myself, “Are we really here?” I just watched this on TV not too long ago and now here I am half-way across the world standing inside the building which held the opening ceremonies??? We walked all around the center and took lots of pictures. We also saw the water cube where Michael Phelps rocked the house! We planned on going to the Nationality Park, but Mama layla…(Chinese for “Mommy is tired!”). We thought it would be best to come back to the hotel and rest for about an hour and half before we went to the Chinese acrobat show.

The show was really great. Helen got us tickets for a great price. We were in the VIP section. Those were the most flexible people I have ever seen! After the show, we walked around down town. It reminded me sooooo much of New York City. There were lots of flashing lights and people walking in all different directions.

We got back to our room around 8:00pm. We are going to take it easy and get some sleep. Tomorrow, we are going to church in Beijing! We will be attending a Christian church that is just for foreigners. We had intended on going to a Chinese Christian Church, but it is too far to go. We will not have our sweet Helen tomorrow! She wrote down a note to give to the taxi driver and also put her cell phone number on the paper. She wants us to call her when we get out of church to make sure we are OK. Isn’t she the best??? We don’t know what we are going to do tomorrow afternoon. You might think I am strange, but I really want to go to Wal-mart in China. I know…you’d think I would not want to see that place, but I do! Maybe we will go there…who knows where we will end up….Carlton and I love a good adventure.

We will let you know how church goes tomorrow.

Thank you for the comments that you are leaving. Carlton and I love waking up and reading them. It’s such a joy!

Love you all,

Aimee and Carlton