Floating into the Stars

Greetings, and Happy New Year to everyone!

This New Year's Eve celebration was the most eventful New Year's Eve of my life. In the morning, Adam (an FOC friend from Hangzhou) arrived to visit everyone here. In the early morning I called a Chinese friend-John Wayne- to help me go to the hospital to get some eye medication. I had pink eye! Two days before I wore my contacts for the first time in over a month, and somehow I infected my eye which spread to the other eye overnight. (It's now healed though, praise the L-rd!) We spent a couple hours traveling around by bus (the hospital was closed for lunch) and eventually we made it back to my apartment gate empty handed. But right next to our gate, was a pharmacy. So we grabbed some anti-inflammatory eye drops. Should have thought of that to begin with! We then grabbed Adam, and we headed off for breakfast street-a massive well-known series of streets with delicious food. But......we missed the bus stop and started to go over the Yangtze River, and then continued a mile after the river. So we had to walk a few miles, over the massive river to breakfast street. We had a fun time maneuvering across the roads like Frogger though! By the time we arrived we were pretty exhausted from all the walking. I got a deep fat fried banana and balls of yummy rice dough covered in a sticky caramel deep fat fried on a stick. Mmmmmmmm! We then headed to Hankou, across the Yangtze again but this time on a ferry (more scenic). It was a perfect day. Very odd considering how bad and cold it has been for the last 2 months. Well, we ended up on the wrong ferry! The boat took us onto another river that intersects with the Yangtze, the Han River. So we hopped off, and spent an hour or two walking the jam packed streets looking for a taxi. Ended up giving up and taking motorcycle taxis! (AKA riding on the back of a scooter with a random person). I love riding the scooters! It is extreme. Swerving in and out of people, buses, and driving on the wrong side of the road, we made our way to Kelsey/Lisa/Steph/Hannah's apartment.

The plan was to watch the fireworks on the bank of the Yangtze River at 9:30pm. Let's just say this plan failed miserably, but led to a more adventurous evening! We all (around 15 of us) headed out on the railway, then transferred to the subway to the river stop. Hundreds upon hundreds of people were walking into the subway as we exited. Once we headed up the escalator to the surface, I saw something that belonged in an apocalyptic Hollywood film. A mass of people were being blocked off from going down into the subway by the military. As we neared the top, a few people started to climb over a ledge, then the police/military quickly yelled them down. They were controlling the amount of people going into the subway in order to prevent a stampede/overcrowding. I had a bad feeling, that we had missed the fireworks! Why was everyone heading the opposite direction? We turned the corner onto the main walking street leading to the river. Thousands upon thousands of people were streaming down the street, unstoppable like a river flooded by snow melt. So many people! We missed the fireworks! It had just ended. But we decided to head to the river anyways! Bad decision. In a train of 15 people (we had a people train race with some other random younger Chinese, which was quite hilarious) we pushed onward, and eventually saw the big park entrance to the riverside.

Most people I've seen in my life! A mass of people. So we decided to go straight into them to the riverside! Above was quite the sight. Hundreds of red lanterns, floating silently up into the night's sky, disappearing into the stars. We pushed forward, until we realized the dangerous situation we were in. It was like the end of the world. Cars and buses were frozen in the street as what must have been 30,000 people pushed away from the river, squeezing through the tiny spaces in between the vehicles. If someone cracked and started panicking/running, it would have been a deadly night. We left as fast as possible. But there was no where to go, just people as far as the eye could see. I have to be honest, I was a bit scared. In Africa 71 people died this year in a stampede after a fireworks show on New Year's Eve. Eventually we made it away from the mass. Thank G-d! We stopped, took a breather, and lit our lanterns that we bought, watching them float away into the sky. A crowd of Chinese gathered as we did so, taking pictures of us, the foreigners. Then we headed to Helen's, a bar, for the midnight count down and a few drinks! First time in my life that I've counted down in a different language. Never thought I'd be doing that in Chinese! Afterwards we went dancing, and eventually made it back home.

New Years Day was really fun. We went ice skating, indoors, in China. Never thought I'd be doing that here! We had a blast, playing with some kids, and skating around.

January 2nd 18 of us took a day trip to some hot springs in a city that is 2 hours away by train. But we took the G train, part of the largest and fastest train network in the world! It travels at 200 miles/hour. We made it there in 20 minutes! So smooth, so fast, so advanced! It was a great day soaking in the natural springs, and I also got a massage. Relaxing. While waiting for the train back home, next to the tracks, I saw the G train heading straight for us. It looked like a silver bullet. Within seconds, even though it seemed really far away, it raced by us like a rocket ship  Literally, it sounded like a rocket ship taking off! Fastest thing I've seen on land, probably won't ever see anything move that fast on ground ever! It's hard to describe the site. It was incredible. We all cheered and screamed like our team just won the Super Bowl as it whizzed by at 200+ mph. Headed back home after a full day and had a Study here on the book of Philippians. Always a refreshing time leading Studies.

All in all, I had a great last day of 2012, and a great start to the New Year. May He blss us this New Year as we remember what He's done for us!