My Paradise: Not what you would expect ;)

           So everything changed SUPER fast. As soon as Anna, Caralyn, and I got home after school yesterday (Thursday)  we had a phone call from Jacob asking if we still wanted to go on the Arrival Tour that we had previously not been able to go on because of our specific school. We wouldn’t be able to go on the whole thing because we have to meet the parents of our students on Monday, but we still would be able to go for the weekend. So about an hour and half later, Bella came upstairs and gave us our Chinese phones which was very helpful . Jacob sent me a text saying he was waiting for a confirmation, and then all of a sudden Bella came back upstairs and said the taxi would be there in 5 minutes.

            So we fumbled around trying to throw things into a backpack and ran downstairs. We took a 20 minute ride the airport and boarded a plane at 8:55 for Beijing. Our flight got delayed for at least an hour, if not more, and we didn’t get in until 1:15am. Spencer was there to pick us up and took us to our hostel (the hostel with the other 65 kids on the arrival tour was already full), and we got in at about 2:20am. At night it all looked really sketchy, but I was kind of thrilled at how old it all looked. He told us to get a good night’s sleep as we were going to be leaving at 7am for the Great Wall :)….So we slept for 3 hours. Hahaha.

Pretty much I’m in Paradise, hahaha. Not exactly what you would think of when I say that word, but I could not be happier. I'm living in a ghetto, falling-apart hostel, in an old alley filled with people, smells (most of them bad), food, dirt, and life :D