Xia'men at 8:35 PM

So, as my time in Chawaii came to an end I started to wonder what the heck I should do next. I had no where to go and everyone I wanted to travel with during the break had dropped out. Matt and Kristal Carter had been awesome, but they were going to go to Beijing after Hainan (Chawaii) and I sure as heck didn't want to go to frozen over Beijing. So I opened my lonely planet the night before my train left Sanya and found Xia'men. I thought to myself, 'Self, that looks nice. You should go to Xia'men' So I told Matt and Kristal who told me Xia'men was a random place to go, but it just seemed like a good idea. It wasn't too far from Hong Kong, which is where I was ending my winter holiday and I knew I had enough Chinese down by this point to get there and to Hong Kong on my own. It still seemed a little daunting, but I figured things would work out.

The next night we went to the train station destined for Guangzhou where I knew I would split paths with the Carters. When we got there we met two foreigners. One was a Chinese guy with an Australian accent, and the other was this nice little white girl with a French accent. We struck up a conversation. They were really nice. The Chinese guy was born in china and raised here until he was about 12, then he moved to Australia. Then he moved to Canada and met this nice girl from Quebec and they were traveling together. Really cool people, turns out he was teaching her English/Chinese and she was teaching him French. When he first asked her out she couldn't speak English and he couldn't speak French. Kind of cool. Anyways, turns out, you guessed it, they're going from Sanya to Xia'men. They totally helped me get a sleeper bus, which I took the night we got to Guangzhou, and then when we arrived in Xia'men his Aunt dropped me off at my hostel. Talk about awesome. I spent a week in Xia'men visiting with some members of my branch and seeing the sights.


A few days into my time in Xia'men I decided that I should buy my ticket to Hong Kong, I was hoping for another sleeper bus, but all I could find was a day bus. It left at 8:30 in the morning and I had to be at the small office where I got my bus ticket at 7:40am for the bus to pick me up. This isn't easy since I'm kind of a night owl. I only get up early when I have to, but it's not a serious issue. The night before I set my phone to go off at 6:30am so I could take a shower and take my time. I'm still not sure what happened, but I do know that my alarm either didn't go off, or I slept through it. Having gone to sleep at 1:30pm the night before this could be potentially scary, but luckily I woke up at 7. I realized that my alarm hadn't gone off and that by all accounts I still should be asleep with how tired i was the night before. Pretty awesome. I caught my bus, and all was well.


Things I learned on my trip to Xia'men.

1. Traveling alone is bitter sweet. I've never had SO MUCH FREEDOM! It was awesome. I went where I wanted, when I wanted, with who I wanted. It's really satisfying for me to follow where the wind blows. I loved it, but it came at a price. I understand more and more what the Lord means when he says men and women aren't meant to be alone. I think that's something a lot of people with significant other's take for granted. As for me I'm sure a lot of the things I saw would have been significantly better had I had someone to share it with. So it goes. I'm still happy and I'm sure the Lord will remedy that in his tme.


2. The Lord is TOTALLY still looking out for me. I see it all the time, in big and little things, but I see it most clearly here in China because I'm so clearly on my own. It's funny, because the Lord's been there the whole time even though I haven't always recognized it.


3. I can speak good enough chinese to do things on my own. Who'd a thought. Don't get me wrong, my chinese is still bad, but it's improved a lot considering I knew zip when I got here.


Pictures / Things I found in Xia'men


1. A really cool Bhuddist temple. It's called the Nanputou temple. It's huge, there are supposed to be monks everywhere, but it's hard to see them because they're living quarters aren't open to the public, and for good reason, I would go crazy if my apartment was open to the public. Oh wait, It is. I'm so glad I live in a school. (Slight Sarcasm)

2. Some new friends. This is Yelena and her brother _____ from Switzerland. Ya, I couldn't even pronounce his name, let alone remember it, but they were both really nice. They hung out with me for a day or two. The second picture is Morein from Holland. He came with me to see Avatar in 3D. You don't even notice the Chinese subtitles after a few minutes. I'm surprised at how nice strangers are here. Most Chinese people and Foreign travelers I run into are really nice people.





















3. The Road less traveled by. You know that famous poem where someone decides to take the road less traveled by? I took it, and it was awesome.
















4. Nemo. He was here the whole time. Poor guy is trapped in a really low budget public aquarium, but he seems like he's gotten used to it.