Goodbye Biejing, Hello Xi'an

Our last day in Beijing was very sunny! We joined L and J at the Beijing Baptist Church where J preached and J and Tom sang together a beautiful song, "The Lord Is." After church we said our good bye to L and headed on our own to McDonald's....crowded. We went back to the hotel where the kids swam a little bit. After dinner we met Susan and headed to the train station.

We scheduled an overnight sleeper train from Beijing to Xi'an. Would I recommend it? Yes, if you are travelling light without little children. Do I regret it? No. It was the experience that we wanted, but we will not do it again. The sleeping quarters was nice, but the guy smoking next door was really getting to me so I slept with one of my dirty shirts over my face. Strange, but me dirty smells better than that! The biggest challenge was the squattie potty. We've been fortunate that most places have western toilets so I hadn't had to use one up to this point. There is only one thing more challenging than an overweight woman in her forties using a squattie potty on a fast-moving train....it's a 46 year old overweight woman helping a five year old use a squattie potty on a fast-moving train! I just kept thinking to myself, "Well, at least it is the pee of my daughter on my pantlegs and not that of a stranger." Lol! Everyone slept pretty well, with the exception of me. I got through with the help of the new Passion CD...thanks, Libby...that I had on my ipod.....and the smelly shirt. Oh, imagine my surprise later that night when I realized the toilet across from the one I used early was a western toilet......bummer!

We are in our hotel in Xi'an. All I can say is that I feel dirty all of the time. Any of my travel mates remember that feeling? Xi'an is overcast and seems dirty to me. I just need to get over that. This hotel is nice, but they want to charge me 7 USD to clean a pair of jeans so we are going to find someone to do our laundry for us in the city. Our new guide is Jerry. I'm not sure who are driver is but he sure does look like he is a Jimmy Buffet fan!
We are headed out shortly and will post again in a few hours. I still feel like I am swaying back and forth. I am hoping it is an aftereffect of the train and not the hotel!!! You never know!

Our time in Beijing was wonderful! We so loved our time with Susan and seeing L and J. I have only had one brief moment where I asked myself, "What were you thinking about when agreeing to travel around China for 21 days with four children?!?!?" I can't camp out on that too long. Right now I am really happy. I have showered and washed my hair....even brushed my teeth! Time to hit the roads of Xi'an!

TJ, thinking of you every day and praying for you every time we pray! The Chinese have a saying, "If you sneeze, someone is thinking of you. If you sneeze twice, someone is saying bad things about you. If you sneeze three times, you are getting a cold." When Lily sneezes, she says, "TJ is thinking of me." You might want to call some evening around 7 p.m. We love you!