Moments in Time

As I sat leaning against the fence protecting me from falling into the sea below along the road in Sanya, China (the most Southern city in China) I could not help but realize how blessed I was to be in that moment. The sun tingled on my skin and reflected off the water Ryan, Cameron, Tim, and Jon wadded in to get to an island off the coast. This moment was not a stand alone in my travels; in fact I am still overwhelmed at thinking of all the blessing I received along the way. Since it is impossible to share with you everything of my travels, and I know you don’t want to read all of that, I have narrowed down the list to my top ten favorite things or moments of my three weeks in the South of China. In no particular order….

1. My travels began by going down to the sunny city of ShenZhen. The purpose of going to this city was for a conference with IECS. It was such a good time to be with the whole team and to finally be away from Baoding for awhile. Don’t get wrong, I love Baoding, but I just needed some time away to get a little perspective. One of the best things about the conference was it meant the return of Newt and Claire, the IECS directors, as well as Lee and Paula Corder coming to be guest speakers. It was wonderful to hear them speak and be able to soak in the wisdom they had to offer. One particular stand out time was a big dinner we all had one night, where the whole team was able to sit around one table. Newt, Claire, Lee, and Paula told us thrilling and funny stories about things that happened in their lives in the past. One couldn't help but feel joyful leaving this meal and this time.

2. We had free time in the afternoons during the conference and Newt and Claire left it up to the Baoding team to fill one of these times with a group activity. We came up with the idea of doing a picture scavenger hunt. We broke everyone up into three teams: blue, green, and red. The majority of the events took place on the beach and consisted of things like leap frog with three Chinese people, find someone wearing a cowboy hat, swim in the ocean while eating an ice cream cone, propose to a Chinese girl on the beach, and so many more. By the end of it we all had great stories and lots of great pictures. Although, we never could decide on one winning team.

3. During the middle of the conference we switched hotels and moved from the beach

to downtown Shenzhen. While it was sad to leave the beach, it was fantastic to be in the

city. Benefits included a Starbucks right around the corner, pizza, getting to go to a cultural theme park, and seeing the beginning fireworks for the Spring Festival from the roof of our hotel.

4. At the end of our conference, the Baodingers headed even further South to the sunny island city of Sanya. This place is often coined the "Hawaii of China" and in many ways lives up to the name. On the first day we were there it was a little overcast and we decided instead of hitting the beach we'd hit the hot tubes. As a group we went to a spa for the day. Oh the wonder of soaking in some hot water! They had a coffee pool, coconut milk pool, tea pool, wine pool, and my favorite was the pool with live fish! In this pool you sit as still as possible and then let hundreds of tiny little fish come and eat the dead skin off of you. It felt so strange, almost like a soft pinch. At first, I had a little trouble not laughing because it tickled and, honestly, freaked me out a little, but if I didn't look down at my legs covered in fish and just relaxed it was quite enjoyable.

5. In Sanya, we found the gold at the end of the rainbow, at least foodwise! Only a block away from our hostel was a resturant called Rainbow Bar & Grill that served Western food. Almost anything we could think to want was located on their huge menu. Not only that, but they also had resonable prices! It was tempting to eat every meal there.

6. Sanya has many different beaches and one of the best is Yalong Bay. For just a 5 yuan bus ride, we could get to a beach with crystal blue water, and peraly white sand yet minimal amounts of people. When we went out there we stayed out for a few hours and soaked in the sun while reading. We also enjoyed watching the Chinese men dig holes and bury themselves in the sand to keep from getting burned. Which we should have followed their example, because we all got burned and are still peeling from the experience.

7. Since we did get so burned that first day, we decided to stay off the beach the next and instead rent bikes to ride around the town. It seemed easy enough, but we had to rent the bikes from two different places and had an assortment of big, small, old, new, two-person bikes. Emily and I ended up with a two-person bike and had to ride tandem together. Before leaving the bike place we practiced riding around the parking lot, trying to figure out how to stay balanced and work together. It was a little harder than it looks at first. We discovered later, while riding down many hills, a lot of the bikes didn't have adequte breaks and one of the petals on the bikes even came off! It was a great ride non-the-less.

8. The whole time we were in Sanya the Spring Festival was going on. The Chinese set off fireworks ALL the time during the Spring Festival. I love fireworks! Each night, people in Sanya went down to the beach and set off fireworks and sent lanterns up into the sky. Every night was a new show. My favorite were the lanterns. I loved looking up into the night sky and seeing twenty or so red lanterns just floating off into the distance. We even sent a few lanterns off too!

9. After a great week in Sanya, we ventured to Hong Kong in order to get our Visas renewed. Hong Kong is truely a unquie city. It is such a blending of cultures and places. While there I felt like I was at home, in England, and in China all at the same time. It was like someone just put all these places in a blender and the result is Hong Kong. While there the team went up Victoria Peak. It offers a sky view of the city. We decided to go up at night to see all the buildings lit up. Evey night at 8 the city puts on a light show, so this place takes lighting up their building seriously! From the peak, you can see all the skyscrapers lit in various colors and even changing regularing. It is a captivating glow.

10. Of our whole trip,

I think the thing I am most thankful for is how well we all got along with each other. We never had an huge arguments. We did disagree sometimes, but

it always worked out fine and peaceablely. What a blessing to be able to travel and share experinces with friends.