China -- The Final Chapter

Two months ago today, (really two months already???) we landed once again in the blessed U. S. of A.! 

It was so awesome to get home after a hectic hectic HECTIC flight, that included missing our flight in Korea (s-t-r-e-s-s-f-u-l), ridiculous taxi time sitting in the plane on the runway for at least an hour each flight, and lost baggage in San Francisco. But when we landed and got to see the Grimes family for the first time, all of the stresses were gone and I was so happy to be back with family! 

We drove straight to the car lot to visit my brothers, another awesome moment. I missed them sooo much! Then home to my momma who I also missed sooo much and she missed us soooo much :) Unfortunately we had to wait until the next day to see my dad due to his own travels. 

I will talk about life after China in my next post. Now I want to finish the final chapter of China in honor of it coming to a close 2 whole months ago!

 Joey's crazy hair... straightened!

 Globe trotters in China. Soo random.

 The super tall guy gave my student, Mike, his head sweatband. Mike was thrilled!

The performance of a lifetime :) We worked for months on this!! These kids were singing Old Time Rock n' Roll.

 Surfin U.S.A.

The "Never Say Never" group. They rocked it.  

One of many Chinese teachers -- Julia 

Our 2nd graders! 

Field day with the 4th graders. These activities were deemed "not safe" for the 2nd graders later that day which we had all planned out. oh geez... 

 Joe's giant water balloon. He dropped it from the 3rd floor of the building and the kids loved it!

The Chapel in Suzhou 

Church in Suzhou. So pretty. 

Final dinner with the group at Pizza Hut.  

Our dorm building. We were on the 5th floor.  

Classrooms 

The DinNing Hall :) 

The teachers eating area 

BEFORE 

AFTER -- Not much different eh? I'm so happy to be home now :) 

Just waiting for the kids to come in and feast. 

 View from our dorm hall. There are people that live in that shack on the far right. And that is their garden. 

 Saying goodbye to mine and Joe's 4th graders. Sad day. 

4th grade 

We made dirt cups for all of our students -- complete with a gummy worm in each one. They were so excited!

Jenny & Jess

Minnie & Zena 

Hannah & her dragon she won in our drawing 

Mike and I, sad to say bye to that kid. 

The first week of class he was nuts and I made him stand for like 20 minutes straight instead of sitting. From then on he was a changed boy in my class and I loved him!

Kevin 

Joey & Mary 

 Our dorm! Those were wood beds. 

Wood beds + plus sleeping on your side = bruised hip bones! 

Our bathroom. Yeah. Gross. You NEVER go in there without shoes on... or really anywhere in China without shoes.

 Squatter with a shower right next to it. Worst part, we weren't allowed to flush t.p. Even MORE gross.  

Goodbye second grade! 

Loved Susan. She was so sweet. 

Getting ATTACKED by the 2nd graders for my bag of candy. It was madness. 

And they ended up breaking the bag. 

 Chinese otter pops

Claire and her teddy bear she won 

Joey getting SMOTHERED by kids for treats!  

 He was ready to pass out by this point. He had to run away and hide! 

See ya later kiddos!! 

Saying goodbye to the group. Sad. Joe and I left 5 days before the rest of the group. Amy and Emily went back to Shanghai with us as well to begin a whole new adventure.  

Love these girls! 

 McKenna and I 

Ryleigh & Micheala 

 

That is our craaazy bus driver.  

Shanghai, here we come! Then HOME!!!!

Final thoughts:

China will ALWAYS have a special place in our hearts. We loved the experience. It was absolutely crazy at times and I desperately wanted to get the heck out of there and GO HOME but I am so so so happy we went. Nearly 5 months of just being together, exploring a whole different country, was priceless. 

And now as I sit here in our apartment in Nebraska (remember this post !), and Joey has begun his 10+ hour days at school, I long to be back in China. 

But this time maybe just a quick visit :) 

One day we will be back. Even if for no other reason than to visit Yangshuo . 

If you EVER have the opportunity to go to China, Do IT! 

Just bring your own food :)

Marathon numero yi (1) & almost numero wu (5)...

So remember last time when I said I would finish up our May adventures "tomorrow", yeah well... oops. I already had this post all typed out but I haven't gotten around to posting it until now, so pretend like we are still in China. mm k? Thanks :)

Our final weekend of May, we headed back up to Beijing for a marthon in a near-by city, Tianjin. Joey ran his FIRST MARATHON IN CHINA! He is so awesome!!! We took an overnight train on Thursday night and arrived early Friday morning. After a metro ride and one more train, we arrived in WuQing district for packet pick-up. We had no idea what to expect in the race itself and were nervous about the conditions. It was going to be very hot and we didn’t know what the water set-up would be like. After travelling back to Tianjin by train, we found an Italian restaurant, Trattoria Italiana! We enjoyed pasta and garlic bread and it was all excellent! We spent the rest of the day just laying around, listening to a heavy thunderstorm. It was completely enjoyable! The next morning we were up early to eat and catch a train back to WuQing for the marathon!! There were 6 of us running and nerves were high. We all had just signed up for the race 4 weeks prior. It was only $8 registration so why not right?! Never again in our lives will we find an $8 marathon! I had done a handful of 10-milers and regular running before signing up but the others had only ran up to 8 miles. Which meant the next 4 weeks would be a quick buildup to the marathon! 

Packet Pick-Up

The Italian district in Tianjin.
Down this alley was the most excellent chocolate gelato popsicle!! A perfect post race treat. 

It was the first go for the Tianjin International Marathon and everyone was out for all the excitement! We only saw 2 other “Westerners” there so the Chinese were wanting to snap pictures with us left and right! We stood in line for the port-a-potties fearing what it would be like. Sure enough, it was a port-a-squattie! No toilet seat, just a very shallow hole that was extremely frightening. A couple times while standing in line we saw 3 men coming out of ONE stall at a time. Welcome to China, we like to say! 


A few minutes later, we were off! Everyone was shouting for us and it was very exciting! There were probably 500 people in the marathon, nearly all of them Chinese. The race organizers had invited about 15 Africans to come race as well. Joey and I didn’t have a plan, we were just going to run and see what happened. 

Amy, Kenzie, Tressa, Megan, and Us!

With an 8:30 start time, it quickly reached 95 degrees with 30% humidity and the sun beating down on us. We weren't used to it. There was hardly any shade and the course consisted of endless straights on the asphalt. It... was... BRUTAL! By about half-way my stomach started cramping up (surprise, surprise) and within a few kilometers more my back started cramping as well. I kept thinking it was kidney pain and was very concerned about it. I wasn’t sweating anymore and was covered in salt. I had seen Joey twice on the course at various “out and back” points so I knew he wasn’t far behind. He seemed in good spirits and I was so excited that he was actually running a marathon!!! By about 19 miles, both my stomach and back were in serious pain. I was keeled over on the side of the road hoping a quick rest would help it resolve itself. Joey caught up to me and he too was very hot, dizzy, and not feeling good. We walked together for a bit trying to motivate one another. I kept coming up with plans, like “Ok, I’m going to run to the next kilometer marker and then walk for a minute, and keep doing that.” Within two minutes later, I was walking again unable to run all the way to the next kilometer and Joey had caught up with me again. Eventually he ended up just going on without me because I needed to just walk. He was quickly out of sight and I didn’t see him again until the finish.

I kept walking, throwing water over my head, and taking sips of honey water that I was sure was making me sick. By 37 km (23 miles), I was spent. I couldn’t keep going. My stomach and back were in too much pain and mentally I just couldn’t hack it. I know I was seriously depleted because I never even asked myself if I would regret having my first DNF. I never thought about all the stories I have read throughout my life of people who have triumphed in adversity. I didn’t even consider going on. I was done and that’s all there was to it. It took me 4 hours 35 minutes to reach 23 miles (in my other marathons, I have been completely finished for at least an hour by that time!) and I boarded the bus that took me back to the start. As soon as I got on, they took my number off my back and handed me a blue card. The bus was completely FULL of people who had either been taken off the course due to time cut-offs or who had quit like myself. One of the guys turned to me and said, “Don’t worry, you will still get a medal.” 

Little did I know, Joey was still out on the course. At 40 km (25 miles) he was so dizzy that he had to sit down for 15 minutes before continuing. He willed himself to get up and shuffle to the finishline while feeling like each kilometer was actually a mile. He finished right around 5 hours 5 minutes. The race had a 5 hour cut off time so by the time he crossed the finish, they were already dissassembling everything and no one was around. Our friend Amy, who had finished 25 minutes earlier (her first marathon too!) brought Joey over to me where I was out of it under the baggage retrieval tent. He kindly informed me he was there by pouring cold water on me :) He was so happy to have the race over with and was shocked by how ridiculously hot it was -- we all were. Out of the 6 of us that started the marathon, only 3 finished (Amy, Joey, and Tressa). 

I immediately started beating myself up about not finishing. Unfortunate but true. I felt so much better after Joey and I split a Snickers and I got some fluid in me. After being upset with myself for the next 24 hours, I vowed to just accept what I did and grow from it. I am still SO glad I did the race even if it didn’t have the outcome I wanted for myself but it DID have the outcome I wanted for Joey! He was so strong and finished what he started! The furthest he ran before the race was 15 miles and he was mentally determined to get to that finishline which he did! I was so proud of him!!!!! And of course, I am now begging him to run one more marathon with me!! :) During the race I was thinking I needed to take a break from marathons for a few years and try to figure out what is wrong with my stomach. By that evening I was determined to find another marathon to conquer soon. 

We LOVE food! One thing we always did before traveling to different parts of China was research our food options!! Joey found this Latin restaurant online called Aulare. The second he mentioned guacamole I knew we'd go! And post race that's exactly what we did. 

 

Nachos, guacamole and chips (WE LOVE GUAC!), salad, pesto penne pasta, and a vegetarian pizza)! We feasted! Dee-lish!!!! And topped it off with a gelato popsicle from a little stand in the Italian District. Yum!

Our friends went to this place 3 nights in a row!! Thats how good it was... At least by China standards. 

Joey after hobbling down the stairs. His legs were just a tad bit sore. :)
He is so dang handsome!!

A magical carriage from my fairy godmother. 

Tianjin was quite the city! Really pretty architecture and details. 

Day after marathon = a very tired boy! Unfortunately his sleep and my reading was interrupted by a Chinese train lady telling us we weren't allowed to lay on the top bench like that. She managed to say "Luggage" and "Dangerous". After about the 7th time telling us, she finally gave up. We played the "oblivious American" card way too many times... and it always worked! :)

ONE MORE China post coming soon. Then I can print our grand adventure out into book form!


But for now, I'm going to watch City of Angels with my momma while Joey plays basketball with the guys.