Faith My Eyes

So keep'em coming these lines on the road
And keep me responsible be it a light or heavy load
And keep me guessing with these blessings in disguise
And I'll walk with grace my feet and faith my eyes

....I think this has been my theme song for this trip. Today has been an interesting experience. Well, sit back and let me tell you about it....

Day 6: Dali
This is an awesome old town. I think I could live here. There are beautiful mountains on the west, and an enormous lake on the right (the people call it a sea). It is home to the Bai minority. Bai means white, and they're called that because the traditional dress of the young people is mostly white (not because they have white skin, but because of the clothes they wear). At first the town reminded me of Gatlinburg in a way, because there are so many shops and you can just walk around. The street we walked down had so much western influence, it really reminded me of the U.S. Also, I saw more foreigners than I expected. We're staying in a hostel in the old town. That was an adventure. The first one we looked at was really, um, sub-par, I guess. Not up to western standards. I was all set to stay there, realizing how much it would make me appreciate my own apartment back in my home away from home, but we found one that was MUCH much better. It's cool, it kind of feels like a cabin at camp or something with these bunk beds that have these bamboo screens you can pull closed. It's lots of fun! And we also get to share the room with strangers, but that's okay because we can meet more people doing the same thing we are. The first one we looked at had a NASTY bathroom. Basically it was a big trough with water running through and walls separating stalls. It was also quite a hike from the bedroom. The showers had no doors. So, naturally, just about anything was an upgrade. ;) The old town is about 8 km (I think) from the main city called Xiaguan. The fun thing about Xiaguan was that we found a street called Tai An Lu. Man, just when you think you've gotten far enough away from home..... :) We just walked around the city all afternoon until it got dark. One thing that was *awesome* was that when it was finally dark we could actually see stars. I didn't realize how much I've missed the stars being in Tai'an....and one more thing to add to my list of odd things to eat: fish eyeball. Yep.

Day 7: Dali/Erhai Lake
God really knows how to keep me humble. Today my pride was definitely wounded. The day started out great. We took a boat ride across the enormous lake to these islands. One had a temple/pavilion which was neat to see, and the other had a little Bai fishing village. We had a nice tour guide and got to try this traditional tea. When we got back, the plan was to rent bicycles and ride to this famous place with three pagodas and another village along the lake. So, I should first let you all know that this was like, the second time I've attempted to ride a bike since I was like 6 years old. And I had training wheels then. I was really nervous, but I thought it wouldn't be a problem....I was wrong. I learned that maybe I can't ride a bike after all. So, I'm probably exaggerating that a bit....but not much. I think being nervous already and not having ridden a bike without training wheels was bad enough. What made it infinitely worse was the Chinese traffic, and the fact that we were riding along the highway. So for one stretch there was an 8-foot drop to the right and Chinese highway traffic to the left. I'm surprised I didn't just go into shock and pass out. Well, we made it to the three pagodas, but it cost way too much money to go in. By that time (after stopping so many times and pushing the bike so many times) I realized that I just couldn't make it on the bike the rest of the afternoon. So I swallowed my pride and hitched a ride back to town on a horse-drawn carriage and the rest of the girls went on to the town. It actually turned out alright, because the introvert in me was craving some alone time. But that whole experience made me think a lot about what God might be trying to say to me. First of all, I realized that I can't do everything, and I certainly can't rely on myself for everything. I have to rely on Him. I had to trust Him to keep me safe when I was really, really nervous on the highway with all that traffic. Also it just made me notice that sometimes He uses strange things to get us to pay more attention to Him. I definitely was able to use that extra time to just chill out and spend time with Him, and I needed that.

More about the rest of the day later. :)