learning to live

I have officially survived 4 days living in Beijing. I'm not going to lie, I feel pretty proud of myself! The last few days have consisted of my "rites of passage" to becoming an official Beijing citizen. It all started on Friday when I made a trip to the local police station to register as a foreigner who is not staying at a hotel. After the stop at the station, I received my Beijing cell phone! I can officially call someone (in Beijing) when I get lost. I'm also still in the process of finding a more permanent place to live; I think we're making some definite progress on that, which is encouraging.

On Friday, I had lunch with the two American people around my age who work in the office directly next to mine. They are here working with an organization that provides micro-loans to people in China, as well as all around this side of the world. It was fun to sit and have lunch with them. The girl invited me to a party that she was hosting at her apartment, celebrating leap day (naturally). So, I met the boy and some of his other friends for dinner, and then we walked over to her apartment. It was so fun because there were about 25 other Western people about my age there, so it was a good chance to feel like I was in a familiar place and meet people my own age that I could communicate with!

However, on the way home, disaster struck. This is inevitable living in a city of 15 billion where you can't speak the language. I left the party thinking that I was giving myself plenty of time to catch the bus home, but, of course, the bus had stopped running an hour before. So here I was, stranded at this bus stop in the middle of Beijing, and I had no idea how to get home (or even where I was). I couldn't just grab a taxi because I can't communicate with the taxi drivers, I couldn't walk because it would take me an hour and 20 minutes, and it was a Friday night, and I wasn't too excited about that. Luckily, this Chinese man with pretty good English approached me and asked me if I needed any help. I told him that my bus stopped running, and I needed to get home... so we stood on the street for a half an hour, trying to find a taxi! All the taxis were full because it was Friday night and the buses had stopped running. So anyway, we finally caught a taxi (after fighting with another woman to get it who let us have it because I was a foreigner), and he rode home in the taxi with me to make sure I got where I needed to go. When I was riding in the taxi with the strange Chinese man, all I could think was "he could be telling this guy to take me anywhere, and I would have no idea". Luckily, I was blessed to have everything turn out, and I made it home.

Yesterday, I met a new friend of a friend Alli, and we spent the day yesterday and today together. It was such a blessing having someone in Beijing! She showed me around to some "Beijing hot spots", and helped me to navigate my way through the city a little more. This morning we attended the big fellowship in Beijing, and afterwards went out to lunch and did some shopping with some of her friends from the fellowship. It was just a great afternoon of hanging out and connecting with some more people.

I really have been blessed in being able to meet like-minded people thus far, and have been able to go out and explore the city. I look forward to trying to check of my "Beijing Bucket List" (hopefully with Anna and Lindsay when they visit!)

Ok, I need some sleep.