Trip to Beijing

For Chuseok we had three days off of school, which gave us a five day break including the weekend, and one of the few times we have time to travel to another country. Britt, one of my best friends here has family connections in Beijing, China, and they offered us their apartment as well as a friend to take us around while we were there. It was too good an opportunity to pass up so we bought plane tickets and decided to go to Beijing. Me, Britt and Wennie, a friend from another shcool left on Saturday morning for Beijing. It started out a little rough when we got to the airport and were told they had overbooked our flight and our seats were given away. The airline ended up switching us to another flight with a different airline and we were bumped up to first class. It was my first time in first class and we were definately flying in style! They offered us slippers, wine, and served us food for almost the entire two hour flight. When we got to Beijing we were pretty exhausted. We walked around the city on Saturday with Cathy, the lady that was our "tour guide," and had our first real Chinese food. It was amazing! We ordered several things from the menu and shared everything, which is how meals work in Chiina. We had so much food and everything we tasted was delicious. For our first meal had a spicy chicken dish with peanuts, shrimp with veggies, fried rice, some pancake/egg type things, fried dough dipped in a sweet sauce and a big bowl of soup. China is so cheap, and the entire meal came out to about a total of $10, which served 5 of us with plenty of leftoevers. We walked around a little more and then decided on an early night. We ended the day with a foot and body massage, also a first for me, and it was something to experience! In Asia, massages are of a different breed. They are much more rough and it is normal to add in some slapping and punching. Lucky for me, I got the craziest masseuse there was who must have trained as a kung fu fighter. She beat the heck out of my back and it hurt but I couldn't help but laugh. I could get a good beating for free...but the I'll never forget the experience.

The apartment we stayed in was amazing. It was in a highrise apartment community, and the owner is rarely there. He lets people who are in Beijing setting up for the 2008 olympics stay there so you have to imagine it must be nice! We all had our own rooms with jacuzzi bath tubs, a big screen TV and they stocked the kitchen with foods from America that we can't get here. It was Heaven! The next morning we woke up early for a day of shopping at the markets. The first one we went to was an antique market that was full of antiques and also Chinese cultural things like statues, jewelry and tapestries. It was fun to see but we had our hearts set on going to the Silk Market, which is like a huge shopping mall filled with stands of knock off designer items where you barter and get things for next to nothing. Cathy was with us when we went, so at the beginning she taught us the ways of bartering adn then left us to work it on our own. It was so much fun and we bought so much stuff! We ended up buying a new piece of luggage as well to put everything in on the trip home. This place was definitely my little piece of Heaven on the trip...if you know me, you know I love to shop!

The Silk Market may have been overwhelming to some people. You walk in and it is jampacked with fake designer clothes, shoes, purses and bags, jewelry, makeup...pretty much anything you can think of. The people who work the booths are really push. Everywhere we walked people were grabbing our arms to come into their booth and yelling thing like "Hey lady, you need a new bag!" Not sure we needed as many bas as we bought, but who can have too many purses...right? Some of the ladies were really funny. We heard one yell out to a guy who refused to buy pants from her, "Whatever, your pants are all ripped and tore up, you need new jeans." Blunt but definitely funny! We got in all of the shopping we could, and more delicious meals priced next to nothing, and headed home for movies and relaxation. The next day we had big plans so it was another early night.

Monday was our busiest day. We wanted to fit in all of the sight seeing in one day so we could have another full day of shopping on Tuesday...priorities, right??? We woke up at about 7 AM and headed to the Great Wall of China. It's one of the must sees in the world and we were all so excited. For those that don't know, parts of the Great Wall were built as early as the 5th Century BC, and it was meant to protect the northern borders of a Chinese empire. The wall is huge, over 4,000 miles long, and made from stone. There are different sections to access in Beijing to climb, and we went to one of the most popular ones. It was amazing to see! It seemed like we climbed forever, and it was pretty hard because all of the steps were different hights. Some were a foot high, others 2 feet etc. You had to watch every step and try not to look up to see how much further you had to climb to reach the top. As out of breat as we were, the view from the top was beautiful and worth every step! You could see so much of the wall from the top of the section we climbed, as well as mountains and parts of the city.

When we got enough of the Great Wall, we left for the Summer Palace, another must see in Beijing. The Summer Palace served as a summer resort for certain Chinese royalty because it was cooler than other palaces and places they lived in China. It was beautiful! There were several different buildings and palaces that reflected Chinese architecture, and tons of gardens and plants. It was built around a lake, and we took a really cool boat to an island that had other sights to see from the Summer Palace. We were anxious to finish up and head to the Forbidden City, which we had all heard was amazing to see.

We finally made it there and were exhausted, but kept walking and toured the Forbidden City. It is a palace that was used as the center of the Chinese government, mostly during the Ming Dynasty. The emperor and his family lived there, and it became known as the Forbidden City because no one could come in or go out without his permission. It was really cool to walk through. It is pretty much all made of wood, and there were tons of different wings to walk down. It was kind of divided up the middle. One side housed the emperor and his family and was very luxurious. The other side was made up of small rooms where the emperor had numerous concubines, which are like prostitutes, or girls he could have his way with at will. The girls actually chose to serve as concubines and it was accepted because it was a chance for them to see power and money. It was interesting to hear about the history there, and one of my favorite things we saw in Beijing.

To top of the day, we went to a Chinese tea house where we had another amazing meal, then had tickets for a show that was made up of dfferent acts, from dancing, to kung fu fighting and magic. It is a famous tea house, and people like President Bush and other huge political figures have been to see the shows. We were so exhausted...we dragged our feet home and planned for sleep and then another day of shopping.

Lucky me, I woke up at 7 AM with undescribable pain in my lower abdomen. I was curled into a ball screaming in pain and begging for an ambulance to take me to the hospita. Luckily, Cathy lived close by, and she came over as quickly as she could and got an ambulance there. I was in so much pain, I don't remember much of the morning, but I made it to the hospital where they did tests and I left having just about no idea what was wrong. No one spoke English so I had to depend on Cathy, with no medical knowledge to translate. I heard various things, from blockage in my intestines, to cysts on my ovaries, to infection and inflamation in my ovaries and uterus. Anyways, they gave me meds and I slept most of the day while the other two girls went shopping. Luckily the unbarable pain only lasted about 30 minutes, then turned into a constant ache that felt similar to appendicitis, only over a larger area. I made the girls go shopping...I definitely didn't want to ruin their last day! I was just ready to get back to Korea to go to a doctor there.

I made it through the day and night with no more episodes, only the constant achiness, and we went to the airport early the next morning for our flight home. When we got to the airport we were so pleased to hear that once again they overbooked our flight and we didn't have seats. Only this time, the airlines weren't nearly as helpful or friendly. They made up every excuse possible as to why this whole situation was our fault. All flights that day from Beijing to Seoul were booked full, so our only option was to wait on standby for each flight and pray that a seat opened up. That's exactly what we did. Between arguing with the airlines and sitting right in front of the desk on "standby," we were pretty frustrated. Luckily I got a flight at about 2 PM (as opposed to our 8:50 AM flight we were supposed to have). Only one seat was available and Britt let me take it so I could get back and go to the doctor. The only thing good that happened that day was that once again I was bumped up to first class. Britt ended up getting in way later that night...but we both made it back safely so I guess we have something to be thankful for.

Since returning to Korea, I have been to the doctor twice. As far as I know now, I have a bad infection in my ovaries and uterus...and cysts as well. I am still not 100% sure and have pretty much lost faith in the Asian medical system. Tomorrow I have another appointment so we'll see how it goes! Keep me in your prayers and I will do the same for all of you!

Miss you all and love you!