BJ: The first three days

Here I begin the chronicles of xiu in Beijing… wahaha.. anyhow, hello everyone at home!! would try to be coherent as I share these three days with you… bear with this long long entry k…

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First 40 min of waiting at the airport for transport~ Hot weather, Honking cars, Hazy skies, Hot-blooded women, Hospitable men… Happenings at every corner!! That basically sums up my first impression of this capital city.. waiting for the adventure that lies ahead! :p

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The accommodation’s amazing. It’s very much like a hotel room, plus a flat screen TV (with 66 channels to surf!!), DVD player, fully furnished kitchen, washing machine, large refrigerator and all. And to top it all up, there’s house-keeping everyday- so means there’s someone to do the dishes in the sink, make your bed and tidy your room EVERYDAY!!! The indoor pool, gym and supermarket, shopping centers and restaurants that’s just a stone’s throw away… Man.. It’s just too comfortable and am feeling too pampered already.. Check out this website to catch a glimpse of where i'm staying.. http://www.yzyl.net/customize/yuanzhong/cn/index.html And till I get a China mobile number and figure out how to use Skype soon… here’s my residential tel.. 010 58730088 (Room 1385)

The most amazing of things is just incomplete without someone to share it- a sentiment that birthed from my back-packing trip Down Under some 3 years back, doubly confirmed with the first moments when I stepped into my apartment. Seeing the kitchen cutlery for two, toiletries for two, two cupboards and the huge huge bed, I just wish I had a loved one with me to share all these things.. Grace & Moo-moo please come soon soon ya and if you are still wondering whether or not to come to Beijing, it’s a resounding yes!! Accommodation FOC!!

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Food Heaven~ This is bad bad news… Food is so cheap here and the portions huge… A tat oily and salty but still palatable… But all these means… I’ll grow FAT!!! Had dumplings, la mian, hot pot, shaobing and so many small bites in these three days already… Other than the Peking duck, I don know what else is there I’d like to try here man… Gotta work out and swim more!! And the fruits are really cheap too.. It’s the season for peaches and mangoes now, I absolutely went crazy on them! Yummy!! Food for the stomach, must enjoy God’s provision.. Dieting starts tomorrow… Wahaha…

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Went to Wang Fujing (the Beijing Orchard Road), Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square with my Korean colleague on Sunday. It’s a déjà vu feeling, that’s strangely romantic to your senses. You’ve seen the picture a million times everywhere. But to be there in the midst of it all, standing in the square, feeling exactly how you’d thought you’d feel, beholding the familiar sight that you’re seeing for the first time… It’s just indescribable.

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First day of work today and I was late!! All my colleagues were waiting for me at the lobby- it’s the faulty clock’s fault. Argh.. And the crazy connection at this temporary office is just driving me nuts.

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eeks…A hotel staff came knocking on my room last night and asked if I needed “Night service”. Are they allowed to do such stuff? And it is just so so sad to once again be confronted with how the sacred “two flesh become one”, has degraded to sexual promiscuity.

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In the stillness~ it’s been only three days and there’s just so much that arrested my senses and thoughts… even though pangs of loneliness unsettles me at times… but in a strange way a stillness is settling in. It’s very much a retreat for me thus far- good time of reading, listening to sermons, journaling, listening out for His voice, speaking aloud to Him in the quietness of my room, reflecting in midst of all the traveling and activity.

Truly thankful of this retreat He’s given me- the space that would almost have been impossible if I was back home. Pray that this little sheep will come to the realization she’s been found in the Shepherd’s loving arms… Remembering His hand in all history and my days thus far, having tested and approved His good pleasing and perfect will, I know that there is no road traveled in vain, no mistakes made in random, no good enjoyed for naught. By His grace, may we all embrace His handiwork in our lives and hearts- till He makes us as we ought to be- fully His. :)

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end… I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11-14