BeiHai

Wednesday morning we left bright and early for the bus station. The bus ride was actually very pleasant. Brenda and Nigel who've lived in China for over a year have had experience traveling, and were shocked that our bus wasn't even half way full. It helps that we traveled in the middle of the week and not during festivals. Brenda says usually if you travel during festival or even on the weekend, you could get trampled because there are so many people.

BeiHai is almost half way to Vietnam. A three hour bus ride. We didn't really know much about it before we left, but it was somewhere new, and we were in the mood for an adventure. We hopped in a taxi once we got there and told her to take us to the beach. She didn't speak a lick of English, but I got to use the Chinese I've learned so far. The road was so beautiful. It was lined with these huge trees with branches making a cool green canopy over us. And just when we thought we were in heaven, we saw a dead woman. There had been an accident, and there was a woman lying in the road, obviously thrown from her smashed motorbike. JC have mercy!

The taxi ride to the ocean seemed really short. She brought us to a fancy restaurant with tables right by the sea. We ordered our food by no easy means. It is quite a site. I wish I could record it for you in detail. They bring us over to tanks and tanks of live sea creatures of all kinds. Martin wants tuna, yeah right! I ended up being the translator. Xia- shrimp, ching tsai- green vegi, chao fan- fried rice, etc. I made sure they wrote down every thing and repeat it, cuz we are very familiar with the fact that they often get it wrong. So Martin chooses a random fish and the lady taking our order takes a net, gets the fish out of the water and then throws it on the ground for its execution. Brenda was so disturbed she high tailed it out of there. I was getting frustrated cuz Nigel kept ordering things in English expecting them to understand. He just doesn't realize that they won't understand him no matter how slow and loud he speaks in English! It was a trip I tell ya! But I was surprised at how much Chinese I remembered and could use, and they understood me! I took our map and asked the waitresses where we were. Holy cow! We were no where near the beach we were telling the driver to go. We knew right then that she was taking us on a goose chase, knowing that she'd get mucho bucks. She even convinced us to pay her to wait for us. Dude, there's cabbies everywhere. I don't know why we did that. Our meal ended up being SO expensive. Martin's fish alone was 200RMB! That's about $25USD. They totally ripped us off. That's what we get for not demanding menus. Then they can make up any ole' price. This place obviously gets a lot more tourism than in Zhanjiang. They are very good at squeezing every last penny out of you. At least they let us wear their Chinese hats. SO touristy. Nigel was making fun of the group of Chinese at the table next to us. The whole lot of them were wearing Hawaiian shirts AND matching shorts, in case you weren't sure they were tourists. Nigel (from the UK) made a stereotypical comment about how all American tourists wear those stupid Hawaiian shirts.

The taxi driver brought her English speaking friends over to the restaurant while we were eating to help us out. Plus they owned a pearl shop and wanted our business. So we got it clear where we wanted to go, and agreed on a price before leaving. She took us down some random road, stops and then tells us that this shop was her friend's pearl shop. We say, keep on driving we don't want any. So finally she takes us to this hotel. It was nice! Four star! It was off season, so we got a pretty good deal. Plus we got the top floor so we got a great view of the sea. Paying the driver was like the cherry on the top of a big rip off day. She charged us one and a half of our agreed on price because she made more then one stop (the pearl shop--a place we didn't even want to go!) Talk about frustrating! Right away after checking into our hotel we took a walk on the beach. It was low tide, so the beach seemed huge, and there were some jelly fish washed up on shore. They are the weirdest things. Women in those Chinese hats are everywhere trying to sell you their pearls. I'm glad I learned to say "I don't want, He don't want!" But even still, they literally hound you and put things in your hands and expect you to pay them. They don't take no for an answer. Brenda and I went off in search of a watermelon. We never found one, but we did stumble upon this little shop that sold many things including those Hawaiian shirt outfits. We couldn't resist! We both got an outfit, anticipating the look on Nigel's face! After a nice nap, we strolled over to the guys' room in our new crazy outfits. As soon as Nigel opened the door, he slammed it in our face! The look on his face was classic. Exactly what we hoped for. Martin was equally disgusted! It was great.

We were very excited to see the sunset. From Zhanjiang we face the east, so we never get to see the sunset there. And in BeiHai it overlooks the sea!! It was stupendously awesome. PTL! What a great vacation. That's me posing in the pic with my touristy Hawaiian outfit.

We trotted back to see what the hotel had to offer. It had its own bowling alley, so we played a couple games! Good times. We were so living it up. Next was an attempt to have dinner at the hotel. Luckily we met Sophie who spoke great English (so we thought). We had her help us order, but it was just as crazy as lunch! It takes a lot of patience! We spent so much, and the food wasn't even all that great. And the menu was really flawed in translation. What we thought we were ordering according to the menu, was not what we had in mind. Chicken feet for example, was something that ended up on our table, that we most definitely did not order. ANYWAY!!!!

They guys went to play snooker (British game similar to pool) and flirt with Sophie, and Brenda and I went for another walk on the beach in the dark. There were some people shooting off fireworks around. Very cool. It was so peaceful and quiet! Such a change from living in our busy city. Ours is a port city, so we don't have this nice beach at easy access. BeiHai is close enough that we could go for a weekend trip if we wanted!

After the nice walk, I sat on our room balcony overlooking the sea just thinking about a million things. Dwelling too much on how my students are becoming difficult. About how last week I wanted to go home and didn't want to be here. Very discouraged. Later I took a nice hot bath in the bathtub! A rare thing! I was trippin about my students, so it was good to just relax and get it out of my head.

What a great sleep I had! It was the first time since I've been in China that I haven't been woken up early by the school bell, or 10 thousand kids outside my window. It was quiet! I almost forgot quiet existed! Never before that have I woken up in China feeling refreshed. I looked out our window and it was amazing! I'm an inland girl, you know. So I've never seen such a thing as the tide in and out. It was like completely different scenery. How in the world did the water get so high so fast! Incredible!

Brenda and I went to the beach (which was considerably smaller then yesterday) right away and found the guys already there swimming. Then we went to attempt eating lunch. It was a little more successful then yesterday, except Brenda lost it! It was kinda funny and kinda scary! She was done trying to order anything at all. After lunch we went for a swim in the hotel pool. It was so cold! Then we went home, bought a bus ticket, and went home. We fit a lot into our short little trip to BeiHai! And it was a good time.

Sadly I am not looking forward to teaching again. Thinking about it gives me a headache. Mainly because I know I have to start disciplining the students before it gets more out of control then it already is. I have been way to easy on them, now they talk during class as if I wasn't even there. I don't want to be disrespected like this. So just the thought of confrontation brings so much anxiety!

Please Pr for me. I'm discouraged, lonely, and struggling. But when I'm not thinking about poor me, then I'm fine. Just want to die to me. It's tough. Are my expectations that the Father wants to do something big in my life while I'm alone here too much? Am I just screwing myself up? See... These are the kinds of things that go through my head. But in my heart, I am confident that I'm not alone, and that He is doing something in me even now. But there's a huge chasm between the two, and they are constantly in battle. Just lately it seems my mind is the loudest.