Day 7

This was our shopping day. We did start out the day first with seeing Mao's dead body. He has been preserved all these years and is kept in a building on Tienanmen square.


Tienanmen Square

It is free to go see him, but you can't take anything in with you. Since all of us carry our backpacks around with us we took shifts going in.


Waiting outside hiding from the hot sun.

The whole trip it had been this joke "Dead Mao," but once we went in my perception changed. After the security check they have a booth where you can buy a long stemmed white daisy. There were people running over to grab one and we saw an older man who was so excited it was amazing to see. Once you walk into the building you are asked to take off your hats and speak in hushed tones. Right inside the front doors is a statue of Mao- Abraham Lincoln memorial style, except not as large. This is where people lay their flowers on a fancy display. The respect these people had for Mao was really nice. This wasn't "Dead Mao" to them- this is the man who changed China. Some people had probably waited all their lives to see him. After the statue, in the next room with glass encased around the perimeter and around the casket is Mao. The room's lights are dimmed and they have one bright orange light right on his face. They hurry and whisk you through and that's the end. I'm not sure that's how I'd want to rest-in-peace, but the flower part was a nice tribute to a person. After this event we decided against having a shirt with Mao on the front, and wondered why America doesn't have something like that for some of our founding fathers. I guess we do have Presidents day right?
After Mao we went to the Silk Market. I have left out in my other posts that we ended up there about every night. I also failed to mention I made friends with the jeans lady Sherri.


Sherri my Beijing best friend!

Every night, I would go visit her and we would talk and talk. She says her boss is from her same hometown and her mom called and asked him if Sherri could work for him. Sherri lives with her boss, his wife, and their children. She also works from 9-9 every day, last year she only had ten days off of work the whole year (for the New Year celebration.) TEN DAYS! Could you imagine?!!! She stands all day long and spends 24/7 with her boss. Yuck! Once work is over she goes home eats and goes to bed. Day in day out- I would tell her about our day trips and she has probably only been to ONE of the locations. She lives in Beijing for pete's sake! Sherri thinks she has the life though, she is always so happy and upbeat. One time she was telling me that her mom is glad she is there because she at least knows she is safe- insinuating that back home isn't safe. It isn't hard to believe that they think this is great considering one of the workers told us they used to work in a sweat shop. Sherri's goal in life is to own one of her own shops- big goal in life right? I kept on telling her how much smarter she is than me, the workers all know about 10 different languages. They may not be completely fluent in all of them but they can carry on conversations about shopping. Her English was so good and I just kept wondering if is this what my little kindergartners are going to turn out to do too? Really? Back home little kids dream of being princesses, policemen, and we all have our go round with wanting to be a teacher. I don't even know what these kids here want to be one day. I have been told by one of the teachers at our school that she would never date a policeman because his job isn't good enough, and teaching isn't that great of a job either. Crazy crazy.
I shopped and bargained and was very tired. Some of the people were really mean, but I did get a few things that I am very proud of- I can't mention some of them because I haven't told the recipients yet.


Personalizing a gift for my little sister!

I was able to fit everything into my carry on bag that I bought, but then on the way out of the market there was a pair of shoes.... It was the only thing that didn't fit. I am just glad that other people in our group had extra room. Yay for shopping!


Sherri and her jeans!