The last leg of our Spring Trip brought us to Wei Hai.  Wei Hai is a coastal city in China.  Every year they bring the 7th graders here and they swim and play on the beach.  Our hotel was just a walk across the street then your feet hit soft sand.  The day we got to our hotel we had 2 hours and 30 minutes of free time.  So one of the teachers offered to bring some of us down to the beach to kill time.  Though the skies were partly over cast and it was windy I had a wonderful time searching for shells, sitting on the shore, and screaming every time the icy water touched my feet!  It was really nice.  I was also enthusiastic about the next day when the whole class would come and play in the water!!! When I woke up the next morning I was met by the pit-pat of rain knocking on my window 🙁 .  I was very sad and disappointed. We met down stairs for breakfast then, instead of doing it on the sand under a beaming sun, we sat in one of the hotel rooms and did our devotion.  Any way afterward some teachers offered to take those daring souls that are willing to brave the icy cold water to the beach to play!  I went of course!  It was A LOT of fun!!!  One of my friends pushed me right into the ocean!  It was freezing!!  We were all really cold, but still had a ball!

The Wei Hai beach.

Classmates on the beach.

My friends soaked to the bone 🙂 .

Happy to be at the beach, even though it's over cast.

Today I got back from our school’s annual Spring Trip for 7th grade.  This time of year every grade higher than 4th grade goes on a Spring trip to somewhere in China from 3 to 9 days!  So 7th grade wen to the NanJing/ShanDong province.  I left on Saturday and came back on Friday, today.  Well, the 2nd day of our trip we were supposed to scale half of the 6,000 steps leading to the top of TaiShan!  TaiShan is the famous mountain in that province for the so called holy water that flows down the mountain.  I can tell you one thing, next time I go there you won’t see me climbing those stairs, you’ll find me in the tram!!!  It was the hardest hikes I have EVER done (and I’m not exaggerating!)  Though all thew stairs where even and a reasonable size the sun beat down on me and though there was a slight breeze it couldn’t fight the heat!!!  I mean, 3,000 steps! Come on, you can’t say that’s not hard!!!  The truly sad thing was that there were men that carried heavy loads on their shoulders up ALL 6,000 steps so that the shops at the top of TaiShan can have merchandise; they do it twice a day for only 3.50$ a round trip!!!!!  It’s ridiculous!!!  Any way we also saw MANY very old men and women that walked up all 6,000 steps because Chinese people believe that if you climb all 6,000 steps and watch the sun set that you’ll live to be 100 years old.  Well I was huffing an puffin the whole way up!  (I really respect the older teachers that came and climbed it with us). I was the first girl to reach the top of that mountain!  I made it in 1 hour and 2 minutes!  I am VERY proud of myself for that!  I believe that I have quite a bit of endurance, but the problem is that I don’t know when to stop!  Because when I reached the top (and if you asked the teacher who was at the top when I got there he would verify it) that my face was as red as a cherry and was blotchy white as you can see in the picture below!  Well you can read this and say it’s all very well, but as my teacher said,  NONE of you will ever know what I mean until you do it yourself!The man who is bringing loads up the mountain.

The entrance to TaiShan.

After the hike.

A man walking up the road to the stairs so that he can get so ‘holy’ water from a river that flows down the mountain.

Yesterday was a holiday for us called May Day.  It was nice to have Friday off.  Anyway our school was having a fundraising fair for the summer trips that the school hosts.  It started at 9 and ended at 11:45am, but after lugging ourselfs out of bed and eating breakfast we arrived at the fair around 10.  At the fair they had balloon darts, face painting, food, throw a water balloon at a teacher, ect.   If you don’t know, I love drawing, painting, basically any art sort of thing.  So when I got to the fair I went over to the face painting booth where a girl in my grade was painting kids faces; I asked if i could help and she immediately said yes.  She really wanted to do some of the activitys and sinceI was there to help I could tell she was grateful that I could cover for her!  It was SO much fun for me!  I did Korean flags, dolfins, dragons and other desighns.    It ended up that the whole time the fair was going I painted faces!  There was no end to the lines of kids, of that I was happy!  At the end of the fair mom was tired of hearing “just one more kid!” from me.  I turned out to be a expert on painting dolfins and dragons and kid’s cheeks!  I was glad that I could contributemy help toward the summer trips by helping with painting faces!

Well actually, Gui Lin’s bike trails + 1 hour bike ride + rain = muddy Jessie, but I think my title is a good summery.  Wednesday we all woke up and were given a choice to bike ride to an ancient bridge or take the bus.  Though it was drizzling out side the bike ride through the mountains was too much to turn down.  So our whole family pulled on our raincoats and set off.  When we got to the bridge we took some pics and a jump in the river to wash off the mud on my legs was too much to resist 🙂 .  After lunch and all, it was time to head home, but because of an unfortunate turn of events the bike riders (which was our whole family, excepting Mom, Maddie, Rachel, and Megan who fit their bike in the bus, and some friends) had to wait.  By the time it was time to go we new it would be dark before we reached our hotel again.  Because of the bike ride here my raincoat got mud inside so I decided not to wear one on the way back. The way back… ughhhhh!!!  Well, the group that I was biking with kind of got lost a little so that added more time for mud to splating on my (well Rachel’s) sweat shirt.    It had been raining all day so there were HUGE potholes and puddles every where… you can imagine what the bike seat did to me after that! Also I was COVERED in mud when I got home because the bikes we used had no tire guards.  Well as tiring and a bit frustrating that the bike ride back was, it was a GREAT adventure and a memory that I will remember forever!This is the front of me after the bike ride… maybe it’s not as muddy as I made it out to be…

This is my back.

Yesterday we really shopped around mostly for Maddie’s B-day, but at 7pm Dad had booked us for an acrobatic kind of show. Yesterday we had walked (it seemed like) EVERYWHERE! So when we finally got back to lay Megan down for her nap we were all ready for one! So we were thinking that maybe we should just cancel the show and walk around the city more because of all the beautiful lights at night, but we just resorted to go to the show any way, though some of us were reluctant. When we got there we found our seats; there were quite a few people there! So the show started! Before we left for the theater mom gave us 2 York Peppermint Patties to eat at the show, I was so consumed that I forgot to eat them! The show was the most amazing live performance I’ve EVER been to!!! There was awesome acrobatics, graceful but difficult ballet, and perfectly maneuvered dances! There was one acrobat couple that caught my interest. I will try to describe their performance, but it will be hard, it’s only truly amazing in person. They had one rope that they climbed up and then the man would hold onto the rope. Then the lady would intertwine her legs with the man’s and let go! Only hanging from his legs they would spin around and around!!! They did a lot of tricks like this. All the ballerinas had toe shoes and would do beautiful plies! Then there were also these men that did triple back flips, cartwheels and jumped from one pole to another! The show was spectacular and I’d be so disappointed if I had missed it!!!

These are the acrobats and ballerinas! We were not permitted to take pics in the theater 🙁 .

For our long awaited spring break Dad and Mom decided that we’d go to Guilin a city in the Southwestern part of China, in the province that borders Vietnam. Our school put together a tour trip lead by some of our Chinese language teachers. If we signed up to go with them then they’d prepare everything, the hotels, schedules, meals, etc. But my Dad thought it might be nice to go early so that we could spend a few days together as a family. A lot of people told us it was the most beautiful place in China; now that I’m here I totally agree! There are tree-lined streets and azalea bushes in bloom everywhere then there are the big foliage covered mountains in the background! Oh it’s gorgeous!!! Yesterday we were casually shopping around and we saw a coconut stand! The stand was selling whole coconuts with straws in them to drink the milk. Now when I was little I always wanted to buy a coconut at a grocery store and drink the milk, but mom always said I wouldn’t like it because it’s not sweet. Well when we bought some and I tried it, it was VERY different then I expected. And though it was a little sour I have to say I liked it! Then I really wanted to crack it open so I could eat the meat inside, but everyone was telling me I couldn’t because they were to hard. Well I did get it open! The meat was SO delicious!!! Coconut must be a one of their specialties because we saw quite a few people with them. I will always remember Guilin for the first time I had a taste of fresh coconut milk!

Yum!!!

Coconuts up close.

The Vendor’s coconut stand.

I have just finished abook entitled, “Gladys Aylward”  that I borrowed from the library.    Since I live here in China it was a very encourageing book to read!   This book was about a young lady who gave EVERYTHING she had to be a missionary.  After a horrifing train ride through Russia, Gladys found that the lady she was going to meet wasn’t even expecting her!  She went through war, told bible stories, settled a prison riot, and even hiked over mountains for the people of China!  This book encouraged me to be a light in the darkness just like Gladys was.

Today was the annual Middle School Service Day!!!  The middle school was split into 5 groups.  Each group went to a different place to give service.  There was the Tianjin Orphanage, a preschool, the Elderly Home, a different orphanage, and a adult facility.  I went to the Tianjin Orphanage.  At the orphanage our group was divided into 5 classes; the 3-4 year olds,the 5-7 year olds, the 6-8 year olds, the 9-10 year olds, and the disabled group.  I was part of the disabled class.  I had a lot of fun!!!  All of them were constantly repeating “Jie Jie!”  Which in Chinese means older sister.  Here if you call a slightly older girl or boy, “Older sister” or “Older brother”  it is respectful.  If you call  a woman, whether you know her or not, “Aunt” it is also respectful. All the kids wanted to play with me!  They they loved to color, and every time they made a mark they would show me and smile.  There was a little boy that I think was partially deaf.  I liked to play with him,  we played with the toy cars and drew pictures.   There was also a little girl who, when I was coloring, would take my colored pencil out of my hand then give me a different one.   While I was there I was thinking, we are going to go home and back to our normal lives; like going to school, e-mail, sleep overs, etc.  But these children stay in the same building 24-7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week)!!!!  From this day on I want to remember to be thankful of just how much God has blessed me.This is the colored pencil stealer!

This is the whole group that went to the orphanage.

This is another boy in the class, he was 14.

Recently I read a book called “A Little Princess”.   I will give you a quick summary.   A rich little girl, Sarah, moved from India to attend a boarding school while her father had the return.  When Sarah was suddenly thrown into poverty and forced to work as a servant at the school, it was her creative imagination that kept her going.   “A Little Princess” was one of the sweetest books I’ve ever read!  I learned a lot from the book;  like the power of hope.  Daily Sarah would pretend she was a princess while finishing her duties.  She was respectful and held her tongue just as a princess would.  The book was very cute and I would recommend it highly!

Hey!  I’m 12 (well almost 13).  I recently moved to China, and I’m slowly  learning Chines.  3 Things to know about me:  I LOVE Tea and Coffee!  I LOVE to read! I’m not a nerd (HeHeHe)!!!