Hello Family and Friends,
Here is a run-down of our last few days in China and our journey into the Philippines. =) Enjoy!
Christmas:
Most of the teams that make up I-squad traveled back to our original hotel in China on Christmas day to celebrate the birth of Jesus together. We went to dinner and stayed up late catching up with one another on all that happened while we were apart. It was a special night with sweet gifts.
Travel:
On the 26th of December we loaded up and readied ourselves to travel to Beijing for month 4 debrief. This meant that I had to put my now passionately hated backpack back on and walk with it again to the train station. Thankfully, this was not far. My teams’ sweet friend Kathy traveled to where we were so that she could say goodbye to us at the train station, which was such a blessing. We boarded our train and got ready for the next 16 to 17 hours to be filled with truly horrible squatty potty train bathrooms, (really, I do not exaggerate!) chocolate at all hours of the night, seat swapping, and Chinese people taking pictures of the 40ish Americans riding with them to Beijing. This train ride was nothing compared to the 40 hour ride we took coming into China. Thank you, Jesus.
Once we arrived I did almost have another moment of “I hate this race!” Really, for any future racer who might be reading this blog, prepare yourself to question everything about your decision to do the race on travel days. Especially if your bag weighs around half of your body weight. My sweet friend Amie and I were comrades in being convinced that our bones were being crushed under the weight of 60 pounds. Add to that 5 layers of clothing, a scarf that feels like it is choking you to death, a person that believes firmly in personal space… and squeeze it all into an already too full subway. Nightmare. I had to tell myself not to panic because I could feel it boiling up just underneath the surface of my skin. Don’t worry though: everything gets better as soon as you take your backpack off and sit down, especially if it is in a KFC with a McDonald’s right next door. In case you can’t tell, this is what I did. =) We got off of the subway, caught a bus and then walked to the above KFC and unloaded all of our stuff and one of my very favorite people went next door to get me a cheeseburger, fries and sprite. I was happy again. I brushed my teeth for the first time since leaving our hotel and there were western toilets. These things are important.
Beijing:
After eating and taking a short break, we loaded everything up again and walked to our hostel. This wasn’t so fun because we got lost-ish. This is where you aren’t exactly lost, but you also don’t really know where you are going. I find that almost every time we travel, we get lost-ish. We did find our hostel though and I was so blessed to find that I would be sharing a room with one of my very best friends on the race, Vanessa, and lots of other sweet girlfriends.
As for the rest of our time in Beijing, we slept, we had debrief with our teams, we drank Starbucks and ate pizza and Tex-Mex, and stayed up late talking on New Year’s Eve. All in all, we had a wonderful time!
Travel:
On January 1st we repacked everything and waited most of the day for our bus that never showed up. Thankfully another bus was available and so we began our travel out of China and to the Philippines. We arrived at the airport and had a minor panic when we all realized that our bags did what most bodies do at Christmas: they had gained weight. There was a massive shuffle to a new line with a nicer airport checker-iner guy who let most of us slip through a little too fat. Some people had to beg because their bags were apparently still carrying around extra weight from Thanksgiving.
China’s security after checking your bags is no joke. Almost all of us were frisked. Some more than once. My backpack was emptied and sent through the x-ray machine 3 or 4 different times. When we finally all made it through most of us got Starbucks and I napped while waiting for our plane to arrive. It was delayed due to snow in Korea, so they gave us snacks and then we waited.
When our plane finally arrived we boarded and got settled in for a 1.5 hour flight to Seoul, Korea. …..And then, HALALUJUAH, we had internet again! We pretty much all dropped our stuff and started calling home! =) It was a happy moment, even though it was also frustrating because the internet connection was terrible. Most of us stayed up the entire night calling friends and family that we hadn’t been able to talk to for nearly two months. I ate Subway around 6 in the morning. It was fabulous.
At 7ish AM we got in line to board our next flight – a 3.5 hour trip into Manila. Once on board, most of us crashed only to wake up to warm weather and sunny skies right outside our windows. We were in the Philippines.
Stay tuned. Traveling to our site was truly one of the most hilarious moments thus far on the trip for me + we are getting to serve this month with an incredible ministry!
Until next time,
Carrie
