Beijing Again

It's been really busy since I've come back, and the knowledge that I have to report an entire vacation trip was daunting.

So I'm not going to go in depth. Let's be honest, how many of you are interested in hearing about how beautiful the Great Wall is? Again?

My vacation started with a Christmas Eve dinner/Yankee swap at S and D's. I made crescent rolls, which went over well. Crescent rolls have to be the most magical recipe in history. I've never met someone who didn't like Mom's fresh crescent rolls. They're practically a legend in our family (as some of you family members may attest), and they certainly were popular at the party.

Anyway, the next morning I flew to Shanghai. I met my friend Erika there, and we had a whole lot of fun. Practically everything was closed or under construction, though. Lonely Planet also led us astray with a "History of Sex" museum that we thought sounded interesting. It turns out that museum hasn't existed for a while. So we basically asked a whole bunch of strangers where the "Sex Museum" was for no reason. Oops. Most people just laughed and shook their heads anyway. Crazy foreigners!

I planned on taking an overnight train to Beijing, but as apparently was the theme of my trip, I missed it. There were a few tense hours where I envisioned my parents wandering the airport, worried that some disaster had befallen me. Luckily, my sister was able to text Mom’s cell while they were on a layover in Vancouver. You’ve got to love modern technology (email and text equals disaster averted! Okay, maybe not a disaster, but a whole lot of worry and waffling was averted. Nobody likes wafflers. Though waffles are universally loved.)

Sorry.

We met at the hostel (by the way, Mom and Dad are cool enough to want to stay in a hostel in China) and had Peking duck our first night. We hit all the major sights (Tienenman Square, Forbidden City, Night Market, Lama Temple, GREAT WALL, etc). Mom and Dad were really game. That’s something, considering I was kind of inconsiderate when I was making arrangements. As a good example, I didn’t book the overnight train to Xi-an in advance, partly because I couldn’t figure out the website. So when I had the hostel book the beds, I just jumped on whatever was available. “Whatever was available” turned out to be the top bunks in a hard sleeper. Top bunks of triple bunk beds, that is. Now, that’s not a big deal for me, but Mom and Dad aren’t in their twenties anymore. To top it off, I may have laughed at them when they hoisted themselves up into their bunks. Just a little.

Yeah. They love me (or else I’d be dead long ago).

Naturally top bunks were the only things available on the way back, as well.

Mom and Dad were infinitely good natured about the fact that we went to and from Xi-an in twenty-four hours, not to mention hard sleepers and my crabbiness about being in charge. (We’ve established that I’m not a planner, right?) But the fact is, they got off 15 hour flight, slept one night in good beds, and then took a hard sleeper to and from Xi-an. Dad and my brother figured out that doing Xi-an like that would be about like going to and from the Grand Canyon from Sioux Falls in a day.

So basically insane.

But they were good. If my daughter put me through that (in thirty years or so), I’d probably want to smack her. They may have felt the same way, but they hid such feelings very well.

We proceeded to take in the Great Wall at Mutianyu and an acrobatics show. We also toured a few temples and a bell tower. Our toes got cold, and my parents embarrassed me a little. If you guys know my dad, you can’t imagine it’s a stretch. If you don’t, let me describe him as succinctly as possible (by the way, I love you Dad): He’s a big, booming man with a big booming voice. He stood one or two heads taller than most of the people in the subways, has a beard and mustache, and wore a fedora.

A fedora.

Yes. He may have stood out a little. That didn’t bother him in the least, but I’m kind of used to being the lone Caucasian and most people avoiding eye contact.

Going home was as problematic as getting in to Beijing (I got snowed in and almost didn’t get home.) but that’s a story for another time. No one needs to hear about my heels getting frostbite right now.

Overall, I think it was a successful trip. I wasn’t as patient or nice to my parents as I should have been. I’m sorry about that. But they’re stuck with me, and I doubt they expected perfection from me. Lord knows, I’m probably the least good natured of the family and that was never a secret. But they CLAIMED they liked the trip, and I hope this will just be an indication of more international travel for them in the future!