Nobody's Cuter Than You

See if you can recognize anyone you might know at 2:03 in the video...

This is where we sat for most of the weekend.
However, the majority of the time we were
in pj's, glasses, and no make-up.  I spared you that photo.

A few weekends ago my family and I took a quick trip up to Beijing to visit my friend Megan and her family.  They had recently moved to the capital from Suzhou and it was our first time to see their new apartment and neighborhood.

Megan and I planned to spend most of the 40 hours we had together talking.  We were pretty successful and managed to only waste 12 hours sleeping between the two nights that we were there.  

On Saturday night we were approaching our 2 a.m. bedtime and Megan said that we should watch the video trailer for a new book that is going to be released. One of our favorite authors, bloggers, and podcasters, Melanie Shankle, has a new book coming in April.  Megan's prompting reminded me that several months ago I had submitted a photo of the two of us after the author asked for pictures of friends to help promote her new book.  Well, about half way through the video Megan and I start giggling (and I might have shrieked a bit) because our picture was chosen to be in the promo video!  And, to prove what a great friend Megan is, she did not immediately strangle me after seeing that this is the photo I submitted…

Rest assured, we are the only ones in the video 1) on an E-Bike, 2) in China, and 3) wearing very stylish bicycle helmets!

Here are a few excerpts from the email I sent to the author describing my friend and what she means to me.  

…In the Spring of 2011 my husband was offered the chance to our family to China for his next work assignment.  In fact, he was offered the position on March 2, which was the day after all of our paperwork to adopt a little boy or girl from China arrived in Beijing. 

As any Type A, stressed out mama who was about to move her two little girls across the globe would do, I started looking for blogs about expats in China, specifically in Suzhou where we would move.  I found a cute blog called Apple Pie to Stir Fry and began reading about life in Suzhou, China and pouring over the author's photos to give me a visual of what I was about to experience.

Fast-forward a few months and our family arrived in China, we're living out of suitcases in a local hotel until our sea-shipment of household goods arrive and we take our family to church for the first time.  As we're settling our oldest daughter into Sunday school class in walks a very cute mama with her two daughters.  I break out of my introverted self and walked up to her and asked, "Do you have a blog?"  She looked surprised, and said "yes..."  "Is it called Apple Pie to Stir Fry?", "Yes..."  (I tease her now that she was suspicious, she swears she was just excited that someone was reading her blog).  I had finally met Megan in person!  

From the beginning Megan's hospitality (she's from the South, I'm a Yankee) and smile eased my homesick and over-whelmed heart.  At one point I looked at my husband and said, "I think she's the one", I thought I had found a best friend in China and I did.

Megan & I have now known each other for three years and we are each other's go-to person.  Texting, emailing each other book recommendations, forwarding blog posts, gabbing about new podcasts we've found (she introduced me to your podcast), and our bi-monthly "meetings" (we sneak off to Starbucks or the like on Wednesday afternoons, without children) cement our relationship. 

I feel a bit selfish because I think I am defiantly getting the better end of the friendship deal!  Megan & I know that our time together in China will be coming to an end and we're trying to treasure all the "meetings" we have left.  But, the gift of friendship, honesty, accountability and the example of Megan's relationship with the Lord will be something that I take back to the US with me and share with the three besties I left in Central Illinois.  When the time comes & we're not in the same country, all I have to say is thank goodness for technology! 

As for Megan's blog, it is no longer.  I encouraged her to let it go during one of our "meetings", it was stressing her out and not any fun.  I think the blog had already served it's purpose, it had brought us together.

I am sending a photo of Megan & I from this past spring.  As we were planning our next "meeting" she asked what I wanted to do and I told her I wanted an E-bike (electric bike) ride.  Most Chinese in our town have one and I'd never been on one.  Megan agreed to give me a ride.  Because we are responsible mothers who harp on our girls about wearing helmets, we rode bicycle helmets for our ride.  We're so cool!  I couldn't stop laughing because we were moving at approximately the speed of smell and I felt like we were stepping into the movie Dumb & Dumber.  Such a great memory!

I don’t think that I’ve ever plugged a book or product on my blog, but I am very excited for Melanie’s new book Nobody’s Cuter Than You which releases on April 7, 2015.  

Megan and I have decided that we will pay full price for it, we won’t even wait for it to be on the $1.99 Kindle list.  Maybe you should look into paying full price for it too.

Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden Palace

One of the great adventures of Jamie’s parents’ visit in October was going through the Forbidden City in Beijing to view the Emperor’s Palace and the grounds around it.  

We started at Tiananmen Square and looked towards Mao’s tomb.  Then, we start our long walk through The Forbidden City.  Once we got to the area where tickets are purchased, we were approached by a young woman who wondered if we were interested in hiring her as a guide.  I have learned the value of a guide, especially in China where many things have not been translated into English.  We have done this several times before and have not been disappointed.  It doesn’t cost very much and especially at The Forbidden Palace, we would have missed a majority of the meaning, symbolism, and meaning behind this historic place.

The palace is a series of courtyards and the closer a person was to the Emperor, the more courtyards the person could pass through.  Meaning, a commoner like myself would not have gotten very far!

Standing outside the Forbidden Palace.  Tiananmen Square and Mao's tomb are in the background:

Mao's Tomb

Entrance to the Forbidden City & Palace:

Morning military exercises.

The first courtyard:

This is where we bought tickets.  Just a few other people there.

Second courtyard:

We entered through the second set of gates
(using the doors that had been reserved for only the emperor)
and now inside another courtyard.

According to feng shui, it is best to have water in
front (near the entrance) and a mountain behind.
This water was man-made to give the palace
the best feng shui.

The tile and paint have been restored in this area.

Getting ready to walk through another
gate and into an inner courtyard.

This is one of the lions flanking this part
of the temple. This is the male lion and his paw
is resting on a large pearl. 

Getting closer to the royal family's living quarters.

Looking back at the bridges over the canal.
Our guide told us that there were something like 15 layers
of brick in this area to prevent people from tunneling
in to the palace. The palace grounds are
surrounded by a large moat.

See the figures on the right-hand side lining
the top of the roof? The more the figures, the more important
the building (or the people in it)...so the buildings in the
inner courtyards had more figures than
the ones in outer most buildings, (or something like that!)

People used to think the roofs appeared
to be covered in gold, but
they are actually yellow glazed tiles.

Lots of grounding wires for lightening strikes.
Lightening has caused fires a few times at the palace.

These pots were used for water as a means
of fire prevention in ancient times.

Across the moat (and the street) at the
back of the palace, is the Temple of Heaven.
It is on a man-made mountain which fulfills
the other part of the proper feng shui
for the palace (water in the front,
mountain/earth) in the back.

Going closer to the royal family's living quarters.

A single piece of stone.  Amazing!

Yeah, a picture of the two of us!

Me with my princesses

One of the rooms used by the emperor.

One of the emperors preferred using this bedroom,
located in one of the side wings of the palace as opposed
to the big bedroom in the middle of the Forbidden City.

Looking down one of the side alleys that
would lead to the living quarters for the emperor's
concubines or the family of the previous
emperor (depending on which side of the palace).

The building behind is where the
emperor would study.  It looks out into
a beautiful garden.

Each rectangle shows a scene from a story
and uses small pebbles to make the design.

The tree with interlocking branches.
The next picture explains its significance.

Repairing the roof of the maids' quarters.
Even their buildings were one level below
the emperor's bedroom to show the status
of the emperor and that they were "beneath" him.

A bed covering in the emperor's bedroom
(the big bedroom in the center of the palace).

Royal bedroom.

This stone was taken from the Taihu Lake
area between Suzhou (where we live) and
Wuxi (where Jamie works), which is many
miles from Beijing.

EBean supervising the restoration work.

A view of the Temple of Heaven.

It seems that most excursions include some ice-cream!