Let's talk China...

Hey friends! Long time no chat. I was kindly reminded that I never put up my posts from my adventures in China (though I'm surprised that kind reminder didn't come from Ilesa!). The trip was great, and I did blog a bit throughout it and saved them because, shocker, you cannot access blogging websites in China! So here's the first entry I wrote:

August 9, 2012; 7:30 a.m.

                Welcome to China! I’m sitting in the Zhangjiakou Hotel where I sleep in a comfortable bed and have my own bathroom, only to be shared with one other person. I have access to the internet through a wall jack, though I cannot access Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, or anything related to “Tiananmen Square 1989”. We will have a traditional Chinese breakfast this morning, visit the community to do some volunteer work, then have a traditional Chinese dinner at a beautiful restaurant. Needless to say, this trip is much different than your average Me to We trip.

Tienanmen Square

                We arrived in Beijing a week ago and began on some amazing adventures. Our first full day in the city we visited Tiananmen Square. That was certainly a highlight of the trip for me because of the historical aspect that goes along with it. Tiananmen Square was the location of the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China, where the government came in with military tanks and killed hundreds of civilians... at least, that’s what we know as fact in the Western world. In China, that event never happened. It has been erased from the history books and if you speak of the event in the square, you are arrested and who knows what the government will do when you are detained. I walked around the square, seeing that Google image in my mind – the one with the tanks – and tried to imagine what it would be like to live in a place where history was erased. What would happen if twenty years from now, the American government erased the Occupy movement from history? Or if they erased the Kent State Massacre from history, claiming that the Ohio National Guard never killed four unarmed college students? Would people in the US stand up against the government? Would we still educate our kids about these topics? What if our safety was at hand? Well, now that the NDAA 2012 passed, our military could arrest us if they heard us talking about events that the government erased...

Forbidden City

                After Tiananmen Square we visited the Forbidden City. This Forbidden City was hundreds of old, beautiful buildings all walled in, with only two ways out – a North entrance and South entrance. It was the imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. For almost 500 years, it was the home of emperors and their households, along with people that would work for them (i.e. tailors), and was the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government. As Mischa, Xin (our in-country facilitator), and I were walking through (it takes at least 45 minutes to walk from one end to the other), Xin was telling us about the city. She explained that for the emperor’s safety, he was not allowed to leave the city, and only certain people were allowed to come in. Then she explained that when the emperor was out in public in the city, people had to close their windows because no one was allowed to see him. If they opened their windows to sneak a peak, they would be killed. This, of course, led Mischa and I to question if there ever was an emperor. Xin said, “well of course, the government knew him” and Mischa and I started laughing with her. It is an interesting idea to ponder, if only the government was allowed to see this emperor, did he even exist?

Fun fact: The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world!

Great Wall of China

                While we were in Beijing, we also got the amazing chance to climb the Great Wall of China... that's right - I climbed it. I may have taken the "easier" side, but it was still a challenge and one that I'm so happy I did. Yesterday we had our first day visiting the community of Wujiazhuang, which has the first school ever built in China by Free The Children. We spent a couple hours playing with the kids (one mohawked boy kept trying to beat me up!), then we weeded the grassy area so the kids would be able to play. We’ll be spending the next two days at this community, teaching English to the kids and fixing up the grass where they play, then we will head to the next community, Gufupu, where we will be for about a week. After that, we head to the Shaolin Temple where we spend time with monks, learn about Chan Buddhism and martial arts, and play with the kids at the orphanage – this is the part of the trip I am most excited about!

                So far, the trip is going great! We have some amazing kids on the trip, everyone is getting along, and we’ve had no sickness or injuries (knock on wood). I am really looking forward to how the rest of the trip goes... but am nervous to be back in Toronto, because then I need to buckle down and start applying to grad schools, eek! Until next time...

PS – After my trip to India, I signed up for “Notes from the Universe” on tut.com. It sounds cheesy, but it sends you a note every weekday and some days, it seems to be just what you need to hear. I just opened one from a couple days ago that I had received and it reads:

                “Have you ever considered, Bria, that having aced time and space again and again and again, with more "gold medals" than you know who, you're here this time simply for the love of the game? Just to smell the dirt? To lend a hand? Give comfort? And maybe for old times' sake, to manifest a dream job like it was a morning cup of coffee, even though you're way past having to prove anything?

Remember?

I do,
    The Universe”

Every trip I facilitate, I am so concerned about making sure I do a good job, making sure I please Toronto, making sure I don’t mess it up... that I often forget to relax and have fun myself. However, on this trip, Mischa’s really helped me to do that. I’ve started to enjoy moments on my own, instead of always watching everyone else, making sure they are having a good time. I think this is the Universe telling me, “hey! It’s your fourth trip, they trust you... relax!”. So that’s what I’m going to do!