Empress for a Day

Saturday Anna and I were going to go to GuGong, the Imperial Palace.  This palace was the Emperor's palace until the capitol of China was moved to Beijing, where the Forbidden City is now.  But Saturday, I woke up and it was raining... so I worked on some stuff... and it was still raining... so I took a nap... and it was still raining.  And we're not even getting a hurricane.  Needless to say, we didn't go to GuGong on Saturday.  We made chili.  It was a warm, delicious, taste of home on Christmas Eve.

So we decided to go Sunday.... when there was sun... all day.

We hopped in a taxi (AHHHH!!!). Off to GuGong... or rather Starbucks.

What's great about Starbucks is that there are a bunch of them... 5 minutes apart.  Where we were going has two of them.  But they're on the walking street.  Which is great... because we don't have to worry about getting run over by a bus or cement truck.  But it's also bad... because taxi drivers don't know where they are.  Thankfully, we had the nicest guy as our cab driver.  He didn't give up... he laid on his horn every time we came along side another taxi.  After some yelling back and forth above the honking, they'd smile and laugh and we'd drive on to find someone else who might know where we wanted to go.

Part of the walking street

Somehow, he finally figured out where to take us... kind of. But he dropped us off at the wrong of the walking street. So we walked the other way. As we neared the end, Anna realized we had gone the wrong way to get to Starbucks... so we turned around... and passed it on the way to where we started. We had missed it gawking at the bakery next door. But the warm late was extra special at that point, as we were a little chilly.

We kept walking... passed where we got off the taxi clear to the other end of the walking street... where we passed the Starbucks we originally thought of.  A little ways beyond that we passed the new Gap with a 2 story Transformer outside.  Got to the end of the street... and we were at the wrong side.

About face.
Stop and ask a couple people... The cop was probably the nicest one.  Straight, then left, then right.
Through the streets behind all the nice apartment stores... which was a taste of Old China, the road less traveled in this area, though not quite an alley way... then back onto the walking street...

Past where we got off the taxi in the first place... past Starbucks and the bakery... and straight on till morning... after a long walk through Happy Family (a mall that seems like it's the size of the Mall of America).

Finally!!

And there it was.  The beautiful red walls with tile roofs and dragons on the corners... our Imperial Palace.  After our long and treacherous journey, it was wonderful to walk through the 500 year old archways and see where the emperor and his wives lived.  The library, the throne rooms, the concubines' rooms, the gardens, the dining area, the theater, the rooms entertaining, courtyards... and it went on and on.




I, being the tourist that I am, decided to pay the few bucks to dress up.  I became the Empress.  In a dress that is too short for me (big surprise there!)

The Chinese woman and me in our native clothing

Pictures on the cannon, in the chair, next to the sweet Chinese woman who was also dressed up (by the way... Chinese people love taking pictures with or of the foreigners... whether obviously or rather sneakily... so she was honored to take a picture with me.

One of the "lesser" throne rooms

The architecture was amazing. The colors, the paintings, the statues, the gardens, the roofs, the tiered buildings... just gorgeous. Like it was straight out of Mulan or the Chinese section of Epcot. Yes, I am a little of an ignorant American. But my horizons were broadened. I experienced the life of an empress. Walked where she walked, sat where she sat, looked where she looked. Empress for a Day.

Off with his head!

How it all started

A flashback to getting to where I am now...

Two summers ago, I was traveling on a team from Indiana Wesleyan to different summer camps.  It was at a family camp in New York that He started working on my heart.  There were some Ms from China talking about their work here.  For some reason, I couldn't get China off my mind.  I knew that someday, I had to go to China... He didn't care when or for how long.  When I got to school that fall (2011), I got in touch with a contact that IWU has in China at the International Schools of China.  I had talked to him my freshman year about the opportunities available for teachers.  I shared my new calling with him, and asked about the possibility of doing my student teaching at one of the ISC schools.  He asked me some more questions about it, and told me he would work at finding a placement for me if my application through IWU went through fine. 

In November I applied to the student teaching program as well as the cross-cultural student teaching program.  A few months later, I got emails from both IWU as well as people in China accepting me into the cross-cultural program.  I found out that I would be student teaching in fifth grade here in Shenyang.  My excitement at this point was crazy.  But I was allowed to go to China!! The call from the summer was working out!  

While I was still so excited, there was so much that could prevent me from going.  It was always a fear that was in the back of my mind.  Summer 2012 I traveled on a team again.  It was from these camps that I worked out a lot of the details for the trip (with a ton of help from my mom... Well, let's be honest, Mom did most of it).  I remember emailing Dave Evans (my co-op) from a camp in Iowa, so excited to finally start talking about details.  Mom continued checking flight prices for me.  After getting my itinerary approved, I got to purchase the ticket!  I sat on a park bench in 114 degrees heat in Kansas to talk to Mom and pick out the seats I wanted on the plane!  My teammates just smiled as they watched my giddiness the rest of the day. 

In August I started student teaching in Marion in a fifth grade class. I absolutely loved it, even though there were some really rough days.  People would as if I was ready for China and how excited I was... but it didn't seem real.  My mind was still in Indiana, at Justice Intermediate School. I still had so much to do before I could go.  

I pulled together all the information for my visa.  I left school during my lunch break one day to go to FedEx and send away my application and passport.  That was one scary moment.  A week and a half later, I had my visa!  I had a ticket and a visa... so if for whatever reason student teaching didn't work out, I could still go to China!  It all started to become more real.

The picture I posted on Facebook the day my visa came!

I'm sure all that honking really helps...

I want to apologize to my dear friends and family who have been thinking upward about me these last few weeks.  I have not been faithful about letting you know what's been going on... so I'm going to change that, hopefully.  I want to share stories, pictures, and requests with you about my time here in Shenyang.  Thank you so much for supporting me as I follow this call to China.

One of the biggest surprises for me here in China is the driving.  I thought that there were crazy drivers in the parking lots at IWU.  But nothing compared to here.  Lames are only a suggestion.  Sidewalks are not just for walking or riding bikes.  Parking is at one's greatest convenience, even in the middle of the road.  And a car is worthless without it's horn. 

First taxi ride!  So scared

Last Saturday, my roommate, Anna, and I took taxi ride into the middle of the city.  This was my first taxi ride.  Boy was I in for a treat.  I thought that the drivers for the school were crazy... I was not prepared for this.  You wouldn't have been able to tell that we weren't in a hurry, because he drove like we were.  You don't want to drive in the slow lane?  And the fast lane's not fast enough for you?  Ok, just drive on the other side of a road.  Not a problem.  The bus is slowing you down?  Ok, just lay on that horn, like the other six cars that are waiting as well.  I'm sure your horn is really helping.  

It's amazing how aware the drivers are of the cars around them.  Well, they have to be or they would get squished by a cement truck.  It's an interesting experience every time I get into a car.

 Last Saturday when we finally got into the center of the city, about a twenty-five minute drive, Anna and I went to what they call the underground market.  This is a mall of sorts that runs under the road.  It's full of little shops for clothes, jewelry, scarves, shoes, and neon orange leggings. It's barter style shopping, which is always fun. It helped me learn my numbers in Mandarin! We were getting headbands from one stand, and he wanted way more than we were willing to pay. So once he refused our price, we walked away.  And he called us back and gave them to us.  Score!  I felt accomplished in the art of Chinese bartering.  We made our way through the crowds, pushing and shoving to the next stand.

Anna rescued a kitten from the evil pet-seller int he underground market.  Carrying it around was an adventure... the poor thing wouldn't stop meowing.  People would stare.  One woman said, "Aww!  I want one!"  In Chinese of course.

Oh Walmant... it's not too much different from a Walmart in the States.  It even has Great Value brand peanuts.  One big difference, the meat sat in the open on large tables and you walked over and picked up whatever you wanted.

Street food!  This is squid. It was actually really good!

More street food... though I'm not sure what any of it is.  I picked out the little white balls  because they looked like Mozzarella cheese.  They weren't. My favorite thing in here: the stringy ones that look like an animal.  Weird.  It was pretty good though.  Very spicy.