This past weekend from the 21st-23rd
we had District Conference in Shanghai! All previous trips I have just been a
follower, but this trip I was basically put in charge of planning. Holy cow,
that’s stressful. I had to know where to go, how to get there, and what we were
doing, how long everything would take, and how to say/write it in Chinese so
that 8 of us girls could get around in the middle of Shanghai all on our own. I
spent days planning and communicating with other planners in the ward. We got
sleeping arrangements all figured out in members’ homes around Shanghai and I had
cute little itineraries written up for all the girls of how to get places from
their member’s home and where to meet and such when last minute the ILP
director from Utah emailed me and said, surprise, it has been a long standing
policy that ILP volunteers can’t stay in member’s homes. What?! I had even
checked for that rule in our handbooks! So then I had to undo all that I had
done and email all of the coordinators and the members to cancel our plans.
Another bummer about that was that the previous weekend us girls had gone
shopping in Shanghai and thus were hoping to spend as little money as possible
the weekend of District Conference in Shanghai. But now we had to do some last
minute booking of hostels and extra expenses of travel to the hostels and food.
We took the cheapest train we could
so it took us 4 hours to get to Shanghai. My seat was separate from everyone
else’s and it was right next to the bathroom and smoking place on the train.
Great. It wasn’t any better that the old guy, who’s seat faced mine, stared at
me the whole time until I finally put my head down and slept. Oh, so I had to
go the bathroom but I knew it wasn’t going to be very sanitary so I just put on
my big girl panies and went into the bathroom. The second I looked in I just
chucked to myself, “Oh boy, here we go… peeing into a hole in the nasty tiny
room on a movie train. Yay for adventures!” Basically now I just laught when
going into somewhere or doing something gross. After returning to my seat and
giving myself a bath with sanitizer and we wipes, I attempted to go back to
sleep to avoid the man’s stare. Luckily, a seat opened up next to the rest of
the group where I could sit and be with them. They had made friends with 4 Chinese
girls that were around our age. Those girls were so much fun! We had a ball
talking with them, taking pictures with them, exchanging stories, exchanging
contact info, etc. One of the girls loved us so much that she asked to get
pictures of kissing us on the cheeks. It was so fun, I love making friends with
the Asians!
One of the train stops took and
extra long time and none of us knew really what was going on. It wasn’t a big
deal though until we got to the Shanghai Railway Station and found out that the
delay and delivered us just late enough that the Metro Station had closed.
What? So it was 11:30 and we needed to get to our Hostel. By the time we
realized what to do and started looking for a taxi it was 11:45pm, which
wouldn’t give us enough time to even get to our hostel before it closed at
midnight. Great. So now 8 tired girls didn’t have a place to stay, at midnight,
in the middle of a huge city in China. I had days worth of planning but I was
not prepared for this! We wandered the streets for a bit while frustrated and a
little panicked until I remembered why we were even on this trip! We huddle
together and said a group prayer for comfort, protection, and guidance. After
that we felt a lot more confident and knew things would work out. We looked
around for something familiar and found the big H for Holiday Inn. Ok, long
story short (of wandering some more, getting split up, and debating calling the
members at 1am) Holiday Inn was WAY above our budget so we had to take a taxi
(my very first taxi ride!) to the Holiday Express where they referred to get a
MUCH cheaper price. That night we squeezed 5 girls on 2 pushed together twin
beds, 3 girls in another room, and got 5 hours of sleep until we woke up at
6:30 the next morning for the YSA tour. That in itself was an adventure but
again, long story short, we met up with lots of other YSA at the Qibao, Ancient
Water Town and had a fantastic time. There were museums, gondola rides down the
canal, tons of street food, so much shopping, fun, and new friends. Then we all
headed to the adult session of the District Conference, which was fantastic as
well. It was REALLY nice to see so many people I recognized from the branch,
other programs, and other people from our program from other China cities. I
knew so many names and we all had so much to talk about! That night there was a
YSA in the same building with dancing, games, and snacks.
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| 5 girls on two twin beds pushed together. Best slumber party ever! |
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| The gondola ride at Qibao. |
When we checked into our hostel we
found that our reservation for the second night had been canceled because we
hadn’t shown up for the first night. So 6 of us shared 3 beds in a 6 person
room because the other 3 beds were taken up by strangers and 2 girls shared 1
bed in the 8 person room…. Except that 3 of our girls actually got in late and
none of us heard them knocking so they slept outside on the porch. Yea. But now
they have a good story! The main session of the conference was absolutely
wonderful the next morning. Then they fed the YSA homemade lunch that many of
the ladies had put together which was like Thanksgiving/Heaven. After that the
YSA had a Devotional put on by a guy from Germany about how to stay positive
and continue to be an example of the Savior through trial and tribulation.
All in all it was such and incredible weekend
and every little bump along the way was worth it! I love this gospel!
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| The "chapel/meeting room/dance party room" for the District Conference. There was a stage in front of tons of chairs and hidden rooms all around the main room. |
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