Memo to self: never confirm the content of a future blog post - it means you then have to write the post. Actually, I suppose in this case it's a good thing, because I want to record some of my thoughts about district conference before they turn into fleeting, half-forgotten dreams.
District conference was the weekend before last in Shanghai. We took the bullet train out to Shanghai on Saturday morning. You need a passport or a copy of a passport to buy a train ticket in China, but my passport was at the immigration bureau awaiting my student visa, and I didn't have a copy of it on me. Problem. I decided to get up early and go to the bureau to get my passport before going to the train station. I got there at 8:30, only to discover that it didn't open until 9, and my train was leaving from the other side of town at 10 and I hadn't bought a ticket yet. So I nonchalantly got breakfast and reasoned that there would be plenty of time to get to the station after I got my passport back. Right. At 10 to 9, the guard opened the door, but there weren't any attendants at the counters. Just before 9, some attendants started opening their stations, but apparently the worker with the keys to unlock the room where they keep passports hadn't arrived, so I was forced to wait. And wait. Finally, they called him and he came running in at 9:15. At approximately 9:17, I had my passport and ran out to catch a taxi. From there, it took 15-20 minutes to get to the station. Meanwhile, the other guys had bought a ticket for me (they told the agent my passport number). Once at the station, I had plenty of time before the train left, but it was nevertheless an Eye of the Tiger music racing through my head experience, adrenaline pumping.
On the train, four of us played Ticket to Ride on my iPad (appropriate, no?); the bullet train is nearly as comfortable as those in Japan, and we were only in economy class. There are four or six seats around a table, and nice big windows affording views of the countryside (in our case, coal plants and factories with the occasional rice paddies). From there, Jonathan, Chandler, Josef and I went to go check in to the hotel that Jonathan had booked. There were two twin beds in a tiny room, so I decided we should push them together and three of us could sleep on them and one of us on the floor on the two comforters. We started a game of Monopoly, having little time before the leadership meeting, and then Jonathan and I left for the meeting. Four of us were there - Jonathan, Nathan (clerk), Ben (executive secretary), and me. Elder Sam Wong of the Seventy from Hong Kong was presiding. Nathan and Jonathan and I were sitting together, Nathan on my right and Jonathan on my left, and Elder Wong noticed us and that we were from BYU. He asked us a question during the meeting, and then he called on Nathan to bear his testimony at the end. Nathan has a beaming, angelic face, and he's one of the married BYU students here on Flagship, so it made sense.
Following that, we went to dinner and then had the adult session. It was mostly focused on families and keeping our families strong in the gospel while in China/as the world becomes more opposed to family values. My only comment here is that Elder Wong called on Jonathan out of the blue to bear his testimony on finding an eternal companion! He usually cracks jokes and says outrageous things, so all of us were expecting a spectacle, but he gave a very nice testimony.
After the meeting, Joel introduced us to the wife of the Shanghai Consulate General, who his family knew in Beijing. She said she had heard our accommodations weren't the best, and we were welcome to stay with her. So we got her address and phone number. Right after that, we all decided to go to Cold Stone in downtown Shanghai, not having had good ice cream for at least a month. By this point, it was after 9:15 pm, and Cold Stone closed at 10, so we all ran to the subway station. At the stop, no one could quite remember which subway exit to take to get to the mall where Cold Stone was, so we all ran around like mad in our white shirts and ties in the Shanghai subway. I felt like I was in the Adjustment Bureau or the Matrix, all these white guys dressed up running through the metro. We got to Cold Stone just as they closed, sadly, so we ended up getting smoothies across the street.
After that, it was around 11, and our stuff was still at the hotel, which we hadn't checked out of. So we took the subway back, got our stuff, and then took a taxi for 35 minutes to where the Griffiths lived. It ended up being worth the hassle. They have the entire 33rd floor of a downtown Shanghai apartment building to themselves, two apartments combined into one, with incredible views of the city, and it's a full service apartment (basically there are maids to change the sheets and empty the trash and clean every day like in a hotel). We stayed the night in their guest wing, complete with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I about died when I saw the bathroom - it was almost the size of some of our apartments in Nanjing, and so nice I would take it over my apartment. Showering was heaven, as was the bed. All of us agreed the next day it was the best night's sleep we'd had since coming to China. The best part, though, was having fresh baked bread and apple walnut muffins, zucchini bread, and banana bread for breakfast. So good! My breakfast here usually consists of nothing, occasionally with a sesame bun or fritter I buy on my way to school.
Conference on Sunday was also really good. In the general session, Elder Wong asked me to bear my testimony (three for three of the guys he noticed at the leadership session)! I was slightly nervous speaking in front of several hundred people, but it went fine. Afterwards, we had a single adult luncheon and a fireside for the young single adults in the district. I met a couple of Russian girls and enjoyed talking to them during lunch, although the one I was more interested in already has her master's degree and has been working for a few years at least, so she's probably not interested in me. Oh well.
Best part of coming back to Nanjing: stepping off the train and feeling a rush of cool, crisp air! Fall is officially here. :)
District conference was the weekend before last in Shanghai. We took the bullet train out to Shanghai on Saturday morning. You need a passport or a copy of a passport to buy a train ticket in China, but my passport was at the immigration bureau awaiting my student visa, and I didn't have a copy of it on me. Problem. I decided to get up early and go to the bureau to get my passport before going to the train station. I got there at 8:30, only to discover that it didn't open until 9, and my train was leaving from the other side of town at 10 and I hadn't bought a ticket yet. So I nonchalantly got breakfast and reasoned that there would be plenty of time to get to the station after I got my passport back. Right. At 10 to 9, the guard opened the door, but there weren't any attendants at the counters. Just before 9, some attendants started opening their stations, but apparently the worker with the keys to unlock the room where they keep passports hadn't arrived, so I was forced to wait. And wait. Finally, they called him and he came running in at 9:15. At approximately 9:17, I had my passport and ran out to catch a taxi. From there, it took 15-20 minutes to get to the station. Meanwhile, the other guys had bought a ticket for me (they told the agent my passport number). Once at the station, I had plenty of time before the train left, but it was nevertheless an Eye of the Tiger music racing through my head experience, adrenaline pumping.
On the train, four of us played Ticket to Ride on my iPad (appropriate, no?); the bullet train is nearly as comfortable as those in Japan, and we were only in economy class. There are four or six seats around a table, and nice big windows affording views of the countryside (in our case, coal plants and factories with the occasional rice paddies). From there, Jonathan, Chandler, Josef and I went to go check in to the hotel that Jonathan had booked. There were two twin beds in a tiny room, so I decided we should push them together and three of us could sleep on them and one of us on the floor on the two comforters. We started a game of Monopoly, having little time before the leadership meeting, and then Jonathan and I left for the meeting. Four of us were there - Jonathan, Nathan (clerk), Ben (executive secretary), and me. Elder Sam Wong of the Seventy from Hong Kong was presiding. Nathan and Jonathan and I were sitting together, Nathan on my right and Jonathan on my left, and Elder Wong noticed us and that we were from BYU. He asked us a question during the meeting, and then he called on Nathan to bear his testimony at the end. Nathan has a beaming, angelic face, and he's one of the married BYU students here on Flagship, so it made sense.
Following that, we went to dinner and then had the adult session. It was mostly focused on families and keeping our families strong in the gospel while in China/as the world becomes more opposed to family values. My only comment here is that Elder Wong called on Jonathan out of the blue to bear his testimony on finding an eternal companion! He usually cracks jokes and says outrageous things, so all of us were expecting a spectacle, but he gave a very nice testimony.
After the meeting, Joel introduced us to the wife of the Shanghai Consulate General, who his family knew in Beijing. She said she had heard our accommodations weren't the best, and we were welcome to stay with her. So we got her address and phone number. Right after that, we all decided to go to Cold Stone in downtown Shanghai, not having had good ice cream for at least a month. By this point, it was after 9:15 pm, and Cold Stone closed at 10, so we all ran to the subway station. At the stop, no one could quite remember which subway exit to take to get to the mall where Cold Stone was, so we all ran around like mad in our white shirts and ties in the Shanghai subway. I felt like I was in the Adjustment Bureau or the Matrix, all these white guys dressed up running through the metro. We got to Cold Stone just as they closed, sadly, so we ended up getting smoothies across the street.
After that, it was around 11, and our stuff was still at the hotel, which we hadn't checked out of. So we took the subway back, got our stuff, and then took a taxi for 35 minutes to where the Griffiths lived. It ended up being worth the hassle. They have the entire 33rd floor of a downtown Shanghai apartment building to themselves, two apartments combined into one, with incredible views of the city, and it's a full service apartment (basically there are maids to change the sheets and empty the trash and clean every day like in a hotel). We stayed the night in their guest wing, complete with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I about died when I saw the bathroom - it was almost the size of some of our apartments in Nanjing, and so nice I would take it over my apartment. Showering was heaven, as was the bed. All of us agreed the next day it was the best night's sleep we'd had since coming to China. The best part, though, was having fresh baked bread and apple walnut muffins, zucchini bread, and banana bread for breakfast. So good! My breakfast here usually consists of nothing, occasionally with a sesame bun or fritter I buy on my way to school.
Conference on Sunday was also really good. In the general session, Elder Wong asked me to bear my testimony (three for three of the guys he noticed at the leadership session)! I was slightly nervous speaking in front of several hundred people, but it went fine. Afterwards, we had a single adult luncheon and a fireside for the young single adults in the district. I met a couple of Russian girls and enjoyed talking to them during lunch, although the one I was more interested in already has her master's degree and has been working for a few years at least, so she's probably not interested in me. Oh well.
Best part of coming back to Nanjing: stepping off the train and feeling a rush of cool, crisp air! Fall is officially here. :)
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