this one time, in beijing...

For the past week or so since I’ve posted my little Beijing stories, my flat mates have been reviewing plenty of funny stories and experiences and sharing them with their friends and family. In my excitedness (yes, I just made up a word) I’m afraid I forgot to tell you a few things. So I think I should start a series of posts. I will just write a few stories here and there as I remember them.
This one time in Beijing, we were lost. We had just escaped from the Lama Temple and found refuge from the cold and crowds in a drug store, where we stayed for a good half hour whilst thawing our poor little fingers and noses. When we got back outside and had resolved to go back to the hostel for the rest of the day, we realized that we had lost our bearings. We tried to walk back but eventually stopped and gave a card with the address of our hostel to an older man, expecting that he would point out a figurative and very ambiguous map of our route home. Instead, he started walking back down a hutong and motioned for us to follow. So we did! And he walked us all the way home! He was such a sweet old man. When we got back to the hostel, I realized that the card we gave him (which we had gotten from the front desk) literally said “Please take me to Hai Inn!” in Chinese characters. So in all reality, he probably just thought we were very demanding Americans. That’s not even the good part though. For the rest of the day as we were sitting in the front lounge and socializing with our awesome new friends (I really hope I mentioned James the Jamaican before? Or Will from Wales? I could just go back and read, but that seems so tedious. This is one of the places I should have used an asterisk; sorry.) we saw the man walk in front of the window looking for us, then give us a thumbs-up when once he had located us, and then walk away. Several times. And this continued for the rest of the week! He was so cool. And then later in the week, our friend Mark was in the public water closet by the hostel when he came in and a conversation took place:
Cool Chinese Guy: “ARE THEY STILL HERE?!”
Mark (who speaks Chinese): “Who?”
This next part is a bit fuzzy in my memory from what Mark told me, but basically he said those American girls, so Mark reassured him that indeed, we were still in Beijing and safe at the hostel. Then the man said, “Good!” and left.
I don’t know what we did to cause him so much concern.
For a bit of good news, it is no longer raining in our kitchen! And I threw away my pillow case which had mold on it. And the new Zhongshan teachers arrived yesterday so we can have Sacrament meetings now! I really couldn’t be more thrilled about that. Sunday is going to be awesome.
Also, I was reading two of my best friends’ blogs yesterday and was just blown away a bit by their sheer amazingness. I am on a roll with fake words tonight! Anyway, I just think it is so cool that I have people like that to look up to and motivate me in my life. I couldn’t be more blessed. And yes, Jenna and Jin, I am speaking of you. You’re better than pistachio pudding. And you have no idea how prized that is in my life right now. I love you both. And I love lots of other people too, so don’t feel left out if you are not Jenna or Jillian per se.
I’ll be back with more stories soon!

And for your entertainment:
We were enjoying a very nice pomelo in the kitchen this evening when I suggested this scenario:
“Ok. So I’m in Provo and I have a date with a very attractive man this evening but someone shows up at my door with a beautiful, ripe pomelo and offers it to me if I don’t go on the date. I would ditch him.”
They really are that good. Then again, I also haven’t been on a date in some time, so maybe I only have eyes for pomelos right now because they’re really my only option. We’ll end there.