Since the world is getting ancy about me posting these, I am going to skip ahead and write the journals from when Morgan was here. I hope you enjoy!
This morning, I rolled out of bed at 5:00. I had a subway to catch at 5:30, bound for the Beijing airport. I ate a little bit of breakfast, heated up some coffee in the water boiler, pulled on some clothes, and took off. I was on a mission. The streets were deserted, which is a luxury that I seldom get to experience while I am in Beijing. The street vendors were just setting out their stoves, and but a few stragglers walked the streets…
I arrived at the subway before the first train arrived at the station, and I passed an anxious ten minutes before boarding the nearly empty subway at 5:45. I transferred to another line, and then walked over to the airport line at the DongZhiMen station. I took the airport line and began waiting on the train to arrive at the airport.
When I finally got there, it was about 6:20 in the morning, and I feared that I would have kept my middle-aged friend waiting. I walked into the airport and was looking at the monitor for Air China flight 984, when something happened. A blur appeared from my left peripheral vision and launched itself at me. I thought the police or something similarly frightening was attacking me. Then I realized that something, someone was hugging me. I looked down and it was Morgan! I don’t think that I have ever been more surprised in my life! This is the best gift that I have gotten the entire time that I’ve been here! (no offense to those who have sent me other gifts while I have been here.
Morgan and I immediately got caught up on all that had happened over the last few weeks, as she has alternately been in Mobile, the beach, Washington DC, Auburn, and we have had very little time to talk. I won’t bore you with the details of this conversation. Suffice to say that we were smiling the whole day at having the opportunity to spend a week together, and I was very much excited about sharing what my life in China was like with her.
We took the airport line back to the dorm, retracing the path that I had taken the day before. I must say that the entire experience was rather surreal, that first day. Two very important aspects of my life, previously separated, were now bleeding into each other. It was great.
When we got back to the dorm, I had some surprises. I had been complaining to Morgan that my running shoes were wearing thin, peanut butter in China was bad and expensive, and that I had no way to get on my computer anymore, since my power cable had recently blown. She brought me all of those things! It was like Christmas, in China (which wouldn’t really be Christmas, since they don’t celebrate that holiday here…). We cleaned up, determined a plan, and left the dorm.
There was so much to tell her while she was here, so much to show, and so much to eat! I decided that going with the most “typical” Chinese day in Beijing would be the best way to start. We were going to go to the Forbidden City. But first, we had to get something to eat. Before I describe the meal, I should mention that Morgan brought a flip video camera from the States, and we recorded a number of small videos while she was here. I am going to put a lot of these videos together with some of the pictures that we took while here and make a video to share with you back home. Sadly, the video is going to be too big to send over the Internet (I presume), and you may have to wait, dear reader, until I get back to get a copy.
We got noodles at what I think is the best noodle restaurant in the neighborhood. I decided to get a run of the food that they offer, getting a bowl of beef noodles for Morgan, and I plate of stiur-fry noodles for myself. I also got four chuar with the meal. I forgot to warn Morgan that the chuar were quite spicy, and caught Morgan quite unaware when she took a bite. After having Morgan here, I realize just how much I have fallen into Chinese habits – slurping soup, smacking food, being loud, squeezing in the subway, eating ridiculously spicy food, and more.
We took the subway over to Tian’An Men, and Morgan experienced firsthand Chinese people staring at us, taking pictures of us “while we weren’t looking,” and wanting to take pictures with us. Morgan was not used to the phenomena… Tian’An Men was a little eerie, as it always is, and we walked over to the Forbidden City to take a look around.
After having been to the Forbidden City thrice, and having described the sites there twice, I have elected to forego describing the events, sites, and architecture once more. Morgan appeared to have enjoyed the visit, and that was enough for me.
We then exited through the North Gate of the Forbidden City, and got accosted my people wanting to take us on Hutong tours, go hiking with us, and much more. It was, as always, I little overwhelming. We then walked over to some hutongs northwest of the Forbidden City, in the North Lake area. This was Morgan’s first experience seeing a real hutong market, Chinese chess, partially rotten vegetables for sale and consumption, and all of the other eccentricities of the hutongs.
From there, we sauntered over to the South Drum Tower Hutong, and saw some of that area. We stopped by a Buddhist Temple that I visited on my first day in Beijing (see entry), and Morgan saw the hungry Buddhas… We walked around the Rear Lake area, and got to see all of the sites there, the ex-pat bars, the fishermen, the swimmer, the workers, vendors, the scenery, and everything else that makes the Rear Lake area so memorable. We were also accosted, again, my rickshaw drivers, and you should see the video that we recorded of that incident.
I wanted to take Morgan to the Fellowship, but since we were going to get there late – and because I couldn’t practice the songs – I couldn’t play guitar this week. I had been texting Levi the whole day, trying to tell him that he needed to play, but to no avail. We finally texted Jesse, who told us that his phone was off. Imagine that.
On to way to the fellowship, I wanted to stop by a Hutong and purchase a hair blower. The Grand Harbinger’s hair blower wasn’t up to par, to say the least. We needed something better. We walked to my favorite wholesale market, and Morgan got to see the way that proles in Beijing shop. Getting the hair blower was interesting, and I got to practice my haggling skills. Purchase successfully made, we got back on the subway bound for the fellowship, where a most interesting event would occur…
When we got there, I found that Levi didn’t have his guitar. The drummer had a guitar. I thought that was strange, and it turns out that Levi didn’t have time (or simply didn't bother, one never knows in China) to bring his guitar, and the drummer was playing what appeared to be a toy guitar. The service began soon after we took out seats, and the drummer launched into one of the speeches that goes like this: “We are a little late starting, and we have a little technical mishap. The guitarist for today didn’t come. [He’s here! Jesse yells] We don’t have a guitarist for the service, and please bear with me. The Lord is going to be with us in this service, despite our difficulties…” And so on. It was extremely embarrassing for me. What can you do?
Morgan appeared to enjoy herself at the fellowship, but we were both getting tired. Also present at this meeting was a youth group from Oregon, here on some unclear mission in the Far East. Anyways, after group discussion, Morgan and I were both ready to head back to the dorm.
Tensions ran high as the bus ride took almost an hour – between waiting on our bus (which appeared to be having large-scale technical malfunctions) and the trip itself.
I decided to take Morgan to one of my favorite cheap dinners, the Make-Your-Own Soup restaurant. I made us both very delectable soups, and I dug into mine. Morgan didn’t like her soup, however, despite its tastiness.
We came back to the dorm and fell asleep, despite the protestations of the Grand Harbinger at having a girl in the room. I would make an adjustment on the morrow, but the most pressing thing at the moment is keeping the dorm workers from discovering that I had a visitor living in the room… There is nothing like breaking rules to spice up a day.
I’ll update you on the rest of the journals as soon as I can! This will probably be tomorrow. I’ll also have pictures up soon.
Love,
A Very Happy Jamey
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