Beijing Aquarium = Awesome!

Today we were looking at a website that had the top 20 things to do in Beijing. One of them was the Beijing Aquarium and, since we've figured out the subway, we could actually get there on our own. So we packed up our baby and away we went down into network of tunnels underneath the city.

They had all kinds of cool stuff. I think my favorite were the Beluga Whales! There were two of them and they were so loud, you could hear them through the entire building. There was a diver cleaning the tank and the whales wanted to play but he wasn't having it. He was in the zone.

I was hoping for a shark but no such luck. They did have dolphins and sting rays and huge Sea Turtles though. It was a fun little excursion, too bad Will won't remember any of it!

Huge Sturgeon!

Church in China

 So, Will and I had our first day of church in Beijing today. (Joel had to give a presentation at school, so he couldn't come.) After our 25 minute subway ride it was so comforting to walk into our "chapel" and hear other saints singing Redeemer of Israel. I almost cried because it was so comforting to be there!

Our branch had a big group of kids from BYU Idaho who came here to teach English. They were leaving from Beijing to go to more remote villages throughout China. They wanted everyone from that group to meet in a separate room (which I didn't know because we were a little late!) and I just followed a big crowd of people to what I thought was Sunday school. So I sat down with Will and all of our stuff and slowly started to realize everyone else in the room was under 21 and single. I had ended up in the YSA class.... oops. I was too embarrassed to haul all of my stuff out of there so I just tried to get Will to lay quietly on my  lap and hoped no one would notice! Will, of course, hated that and so my plan completely failed and my face was bright red through the entire class. I did learn some cool stuff though. They have a virtual branch of the church for those members who are too far to attend one of the international branches. You call a toll free number and enter a pass code and, voila! You can listen to church on the phone. So cool!

I am continually amazed at the people here in China. Overall, we have found the Chinese to be very helpful and nice. And very understanding of us when we are completely unable to communicate with them! It's a common sight here to see teenagers walking arm in arm with their parents and grandparents, I love that. And I still cannot get over everyone's fascination with Will. Today on the subway, a nice lady gave me her seat since I had a baby. Will was totally conked out in his baby carrier that straps to my chest and his face was partially hidden behind the strap. This lady stood next to me and wanted to see his face so badly that she unhooked the carrier so she could see him! There really isn't a personal space boundary here.

On another note, this city is really amazing. There is ancient architecture right next to modern skyscrapers. And this city becomes even more lively at night. Street vendors come out of nowhere and occupy every inch of free space on the sidewalk selling anything you could imagine. The other night when we went outside, there was a group of people flying kites that had lights in them. China's version of fireflies, I guess.

The tall building in this picture is our apartment building. So far, we really like living here.

I saw these strange things at the supermarket the other day and couldn't resist putting up a picture. Weird cucumber maybe?

Seeing the sights

Oh wow, did we have quite the day today! The school booked a tour for us and we went all over Beijing seeing the sights.

First on the itinerary was the Forbidden City where the Imperial Families lived. The architecture was so impressive and the entire city is surrounded by a wall and a moat. What surprised me most was how many people wanted to take pictures of little Will! We were in the middle of this gorgeous city and people wanted pictures of our baby. I even had a few kids want to have their pictures taken with me, like I was a character in Disneyland or something.  

Next, our tour took us to the Temple of Heaven. This was especially impressive because the entire thing is put together without a single nail or fastener. It's made out of lego-like blocks that just interlock.

Our last stop was the Summer Palace where the Imperial family would go on Holiday. The palace is near a lake which is entirely man made. The Empress wanted her palace to resemble southern China so she had the lake made. Oh to be royal!

Will just took the whole day in stride. SO many people came up to us and took pictures of him, we were joking that we should charge per picture and get rich! He didn't seem to mind, he just smiled and charmed them all. We learned to keep moving though, the longer we stayed in one place, the bigger the crowd around his stroller would get!

Food in China

I did not think it would be that hard to find American food in China! To be fair, I guess we haven't really ventured out that much yet, but the grocery store was an experience I am not eager to repeat! I'm sure there's a "western- style" market out there, I just have to find it.

We did go to Pizza Hut last night for dinner, which is actually considered a classy restaurant here. This is where you take a date if you're trying to impress them. They have all kinds of weird & gourmet toppings here. You can get shrimp, steak, Atlantic salmon, abalone, corn, peas, and pretty much anything else you can think of on a pizza here. We managed to find a Hawaiian Pizza and ordered that because we were so excited to see something familiar! Maybe next time we'll be more adventurous. 

 Our pizza did come with an interesting dipping sauce: ketchup. Joel says it's the same way in Peru, everyone thinks that Americans put ketchup on everything!

China - The first days...

After a very long flight, we finally made it to Beijing. Will did so awesome, he charmed all of the Chinese ladies on the flight who kept coming over to look at him. 

Once we made it through customs and immigration (Which was surprisingly easy), we were out in the main lobby of the airport where there were a bunch of people holding signs. I was so sure there would be one with our name on it, but no! We walked the line of people three times but could not see a sign with our name on it. Here we were, the only three Americans in the lobby, dragging more than a few suitcases and we had a baby strapped to Joel's chest. We definitely did not blend in. 

After 45 minutes, we finally were able to find the lady that had a sign with our name on it and we got in a taxi van and made it to apartment at about 2:00 am Beijing time, which was only noon according to our body clocks. But, we were so exhausted from the flight that we were all able to sleep. 

In China, you have register as a foreign alien with the local police department in the first 24 hours you are there. Our apartment building did that for us, but they needed our passports to do it. In order to exchange dollars for RMB, you need your passport and it's actually a pretty long ordeal. So, because our front desk had our passports, we were unable to exchange any money and the one supermarket we were able to locate did not take a visa card (which was probably ok because it was a yucky looking place and I had no idea what anything was!). So all we had eaten in our first 24 hours were Clif bars and gummy dinosaurs. 

We're on day 2 here in Beijing and haven't really dared to venture out much yet. There are tall skyscrapers as far as the eye can see and it smells weird. But, I can't wait until we are better able to find our way around and can find some fun things to go see and do.

For now, we are just glad we made it safely and have something other than a granola bar to eat.