"Here It Goes Again"

“I shoulda known, shoulda known again…but here it goes again.”

Posing Chinese-style by the champagne bottle in front of 西园 (xi yuan, a new AWESOME shopping center).

One of my fave bands, “Ok Go,” has a famous song with the aforementioned, highly appropriate title. The lyrics seem fitting…here I am, just beginning my second year in this crazy place, Wuhan. “I shoulda known” that I’d be a bit homesick, culture-shocked, and overwhelmed: this morning in a nutshell. But I also should have known that He would give me comfort and security in spite of my fears. In the music video for this song, band members run and jump around four running trampolines, a hodgepodge of , confusion, with perfect grace. They jump right in and move with ease. That is clearly not me in China. Even though I know what to expect to a degree, I’m still a fish out of water, a “wai guo ren” (foreigner) pointed out and either ridiculed and embraced…often not for being “Julie,” but simply for being different. Today, as I looked out my window onto the street, feeling a bit tentative about doing this all over again, I caught myself wondering “Why on earth did I come back?”

But I know…it’s all for Him.

I’d be lying if I said I was completely ready to return. This summer at home was spectacular—I got to see almost all of my old friends, and spend a great amount of time with the best family ever (that’s you guys)! I also was blessed to see two great friends get married, along with a cousin…3 weddings, full of celebration and reminders of G*d’s plan and purpose. Sometimes it’s easy to see and trust in His plans; other times it’s difficult…this summer also brought sadness, as my beautiful Aunt Julie lost her battle with cancer, but won the crown of Life. Our happiness for her is great, but that doesn’t change the fact the family will miss her until we’re reunited. Leaving the family (and country) was really difficult, only a week after she passed away. Yet it was a strange kind of blessing to be there in her last days, to say (a temporary) goodbye, and to comfort and draw comfort from the family in His Word ( 2 C*rinthians 1:4). At the funeral, her p*stor referenced my Aunt Julie’s worn and tattered B*ble, evidence of a strong relationship with Him, her willingness to put others before herself, and her ability and desire to reach out to people in deed and pr*yer. If I could ever become half the strong Chr*stain woman she was, I’d feel grateful. I know I will think of her countless times this year, trying to emulate her service and love for Him. Aunt Julie had sent me a cross-stitch bookmark she’d made last year in China, and I plan on carrying it around with me often, remembering her and her example. We’ll have a lot to talk about when we see each other again :)

This is how China welcomes me? With a closed-off children's playground, a lone oasis of color and joy in the Shanghai airport? Really?

My first couple days already have been eventful. After saying goodbye to the fam, I had a flight from Minneapolis to Chicago that was routine, until the end. Early on, I’d noticed the guy next to me reading and marking up his B*ble…I thought it was pretty cool, but chose sleep instead of making conversation :p However, as we touched down, he and I began to talk and dove into sp*ritual discussion pretty quickly. He was off to a Chr*stian conference in Hawaii (jealous? Me? Nah…) and we chatted about being a b*liever in the workplace, overseas, and in all stages of life. We wished each other well as we left the plane, but a minute later he rushed up to me, asking if he could say a quick pr*yer together , asking for G*d’s blessing on the m*ssion work in China. Definitely uplifting, especially as I made my way to the gate for my Shanghai flight, and became a minority yet again J Plopped RIGHT in the middle of a row of five *sigh,* I was next to an older Chinese lady who spoke zero English, and a middle-aged Chinese couple who just spoke a little. I had half-Chinese/half-English conversation with the husband and wife, and served as food translator for the elderly lady…it was fun being able to explain different foods/drinks to her and help her order the right thing, though my “hey, look at me speaking Chinese” pride quickly got shattered when she tried to start up a convo later, and I couldn’t understand :/ I watched a movie and slept a few hours on the 14-hour flight…it would’ve been longer, but the Chinese wife kept wanting me to “teach her some English words” for the duration of the flight. Got a bit tedious, but she was really nice, and I learned a little more 中文  (Chinese) from her :D Customs, baggage claim, re-checking in, and all that jazz went well in Shanghai, and a met a nice girl on the plane with decent English—my first new “QQ” (Chinese Instant Messaging) friend this year in China :D

View from an overpass near my apartment.

After landing and waiting at baggage claim, I made friends with an older guy originally from Wuhan, who’s lived in America for 30 years. He offered me a ride along with his friend to my area of the city! I know that might seem a bit sketchy, but we’d been talking for awhile, his friend was a middle-aged lady, and I could understand enough of their convo on the way to know they were indeed taking me to the right place, not abducting me :p They wouldn’t accept pay no matter how much I tried, and the nice man even helped carry my luggage into my first stop: my old apartment building, at the Foreign Language School. What a nice, unexpected gift from HIM. Getting the point across with the security guards was difficult, but I eventually explained my intentions: briefly store my HEAVY suitcases with them while I ran upstairs to break into Aaron’s dorm room and grab my apartment key, rush outside to the ATM and then to put a little money on my phone, then lug the suitcases to the street and take a taxi. The driver dropped me off at the new place (Kelsey, my new roomie, had already moved in) and I thanked G*d that everything went so swimmingly! I was welcomed to the new place with a nice note from Kelsey, and exchanged a few joyful texts and calls to friends that I'd returned. After lots of that, and a bit of unpacking, I hit the sack...for only 4 hours (curse you, jet lag)!!!

Check it out--Angry Birds at the new shopping center near my old school :)

On Thursday morning I woke up around 4:30 a.m., tried and failed to get back to sleep, and resigned myself to a few hours of watching “How I Met Your Mother” before getting up around 8. I spent the morning unpacking, writing out lists, and generally avoiding going outside until necessary. In spite of all my travels last year, I found myself kind of terrified to venture out (shout out to Andrea: THANK YOU for helping me overcome that fear last year), but after a short nap, headed out to meet Sophia, one of my best friends in the city. Adjusting to stares and being the odd one out, I focused on reuniting with Sophia and her boyfriend, Jasper, and thinking of the possibilities this year holds. We exchanged joyful greetings and headed to her “Grandparents’” house (they’re family friends) for snacks. I’d been there once before—they’re super sweet and welcoming, and their daughter “Hannah” likes sharing her basic English phrases with me. After eating eggs, peanuts, seeds, and fruit, we went to the bank to exchange money, and did a big of shopping. We stopped so I could show Jasper and Sophia my new apartment, and I gave them some clothes I’d bought them in the U.S. as a gift (a “Luther High” tennis t-shirt for Jasper and a child’s size dress, from Goodwill, for 24-year-old Sophia) :D Dinner was amazing, simply because it was my first “real” Chinese meal in a few months…fish, eggplant, soup, rice, and “Snow Beer.” Hao chi (delicious)!!! There seem to be lots of restaurants in this area, and I’m making a new goal to learn how to read basic food characters so I can eventually order easily at a place like that without a Chinese friend. We had a nice afternoon together, catching up, and discussing a bit of His Word as well!

Lunch with Jasper, Sophia, her Grandma and Grandpa.

After dinner, I headed to K11, a popular “restaurant tower” nearby, to meet with Kevin, a school recruiter who’s helping me find a job. We talked over options (kinda boring, so I’ll leave it out) which was kinda stressful/disheartening. But, we ran into an old friend of his, who bought me a green tea Blizzard from DQ (surprisingly delicious), so you’ve gotta cherish what you get, I guess :D Plus, his friend told me she’d been reading B*ble stories with her daughter recently and I had the opportunity to tell her I was available anytime she wanted to talk. HE sure gives us lots of opportunities here! After our meeting I called Adam (our “shepherd” here in Wuhan) to discuss my new school, spent an hour using internet at Starbucks (we don’t have any in our apartment yet), and walked back to the apartment. Internet usage included a few "QQ" conversations and one of my students asking "WHEN WILL YOU COME TO VISIT US?" which made me happy :) My friend B. Rock called to catch up and we had a fun conversation for about half an hour (his English is sensational and he’s really sarcastic). A good day!

My apartment building! We only live on the 5th floor, but still, pretty cool.

Friday—This morning I took the qin gui (light rail train), an awesome, clean and efficient means of transportation in this crazy city, to meet Kevin and check out a potential new school Of course he was quite late to meet, and when we arrived at the school, the gate was locked and NO ONE was there. I guess that was the best time for him to call the teachers and ask if anyone would be there that day ;) Anyway, after that (not completely surprising) disappointment, we went to drink some delicious nai cha (milk tea) together and talked for a bit. He's an interesting fellow--sometimes he comes off slightly antisocial and maybe a bit rude, but then at other times he opens up like a book. This was one of those times...he even started talking about the B*ble and r*ligion...he'd "studied" with members of our group a few years back. He shared his thoughts on how his life had improved since he read His Word, and how the main message of the B*ble is "peace." Hmmm. Well, kinda. Unfortunately he talked and talked lots and there wasn't much room for me to interject. But later on when he was talking about his job, helping clueless foreigners in China, I brought the convo briefly back to HIM. I related how helpless foreigners are in Wuhan with how helpless we are apart from Chr*st, and how that makes us incredibly blessed to have HIS sacrifice. I don't know how much got through...but please send pr*yers out on his behalf. I hope to have more chances to talk with him.

We have this nice big balcony with a great view...on my first step outside, I was treated to this sight. Yep, it's a crab carcass. Our guess is that someone from an upper floor decided the crab was bad and threw it downward. Oh China...

Back at my apartment, I decided to spend the afternoon exploring the area. I found an alley with tons of street food and a convenience store--sure to be the most-visited place in the neighborhood for me :) I got some "re gan mian" (hot and dry noodles, Wuhan's most famous dish) for lunch, did a bit of shopping in random shops along the road, and headed to Carrefour. The supermarket's pretty popular in Wuhan--French owned and operated, so it has some Western products, but is still very "Chinese" :) While looking for jiaozi (dumplings), a store worker started talking to me in Chinese, but after we'd exhausted the words/phrases I could say (took about a minute, haha) I asked if she could speak English. She could...very well! New QQ friend for me :D After picking up toilet paper, shampoo, dumplings, and a couple teaching supplies, I stopped by 中百 (Zhong Bai, a convenience store) to put money on my bus card, did some more walking around and exploring, and headed back to my apartment for a bit of brainstorming on how to possibly teach English to kindergarteners :p I stopped by a nearby buffet-style place for supper, and headed to Aaron's a bit later. All the other FoC-ers were still out of town on vacation, but since he was back already, we caught up and chatted for a couple hours. After some laughs about the craziness of our experiences here, I headed to McDonald's for ice cream and lots more laughs with B. Rok. After an evening full of getting reacquainted with friends, I headed home a bit before midnight, finished unpacking, and crashed (a bit literally, given the rock-hard mattress) into bed!

Jie Fang Gong Yuan, a nearby park decorated with millions of gorgeous flowers, to commemorate an upcoming festival!

Saturday—This morning I met Kevin, yet again (we're becoming quite tight), and visited my potential job...the new kindergarten. We watched the students doing their morning exercises to different pop songs (pretty precious), met with some administrators and teachers (with low-level English), and attempted to figure out my teaching schedule. Basically I sat there feeling confused, picking out bits & pieces of their conversation I could understand, getting increasingly overwhelmed. Last year at my school, all the teachers in my office had stellar English--if I just spoke a little slowly and didn't go crazy on college-level vocabulary, they understood. Not this year :/ Ah well. Kevin and I went out for lunch, and had some supposedly "famous in Wuhan" chicken noodle soup (he told me I could pick whatever I wanted, I chose beef noodle soup, then he said "what about chicken?" because it was cheaper) :p After we grabbed some iced red tea at Lucky's Cake Shoppe, Kevin abandoned me...3 hours before I had to be back at school...what to do?

Yu (fish) and qiezi dou jiao (eggplant & green beans)

I decided to take a walk to Jie Fang Gong Yuan (gong yuan means "park"), a huge and gorgeous paradise I'd passed many times on the bus last year. I spent about an hour walking around, checking out mountains of flowers, admiring how clean and nicely put-together the place was, and...getting lost. Those of you who know me well won't be surprised by this. At first I was carefully keeping track of my every step, but somewhere in the midst of plants, pagodas, staring Chinese people, ponds, boats, rides, and vendors, I had no idea where I was. Panic set in. I couldn't be late reporting back to my new school (although, as you'll learn later, it probably wouldn't have mattered...read on). Thanks to HIM, I found my way out (I spent a good half hour walking around aimlessly, racking my brain for insight and searching for familiar landmarks, and pr*ying, haha). I walked the 10-ish minutes back to school, and spent over an hour trying to lesson plan, but really having no idea how to go about it. They gave me some teacher's manuals, but they were 95% in English. I also had no idea which grade levels I would teach and when. I stopped by the administration office, and talked to a couple ladies there in Chinese, English, Chinglish, and with the help of a computer translator, trying to get answers. The only real answer: teachers will watch you teach tomorrow. It's only practice. Okay. I threw together something as best as I could with no info, and left school around 4. The adjoining kindergarten's foreign teacher, Peter, met me as I walked out--we took the bus part of the way and he showed me how to get back to my apartment. He teaches at 4 different schools in Wuhan. Whoa. Good for him, but no thanks :)

Wedding pics in the park!

In the evening I had a joyful reunion with Andrea, the "Dong B" to my "U Dong" and my former roomie/teacher/partner in crime last year in China. After excitedly catching up in her apartment, we headed to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (Tim's favorite place last year) for some delish and much-missed Chinese food and beer. We made some easy small talk with the friendly fuwuyuan (waitress), talked for hours, and headed back to her apartment. I raided a bin in her room of some teaching supplies from last year, made some copies, and headed home. My evening ended with a bit of talking with Kelsey (who I'm still getting to know) and a surprise phone call from Mike, a good Chinese friend of mine from last year. He lives in Beijing now, but hopefully we'll still keep in touch a lot this year. A bit nervous for the following day, I headed to bed. 

Jie Fang Gong Yuan.

Sunday—So, generally we don't associate Sundays with working, especially teaching. But in China it's a different story, especially after a holiday. Lots of Chinese "holidays" are made up the previous and following weekend, so no real work days are lost. Quite lame-tastic in my opinion, but what can you do? I got ready, walked to the light rail train, transferred to a bus, got off a couple stops too early, and had a nice long walk to my school :p After heading up to my office and settling in a bit, I stood by the front gate of the school to greet the approximately 1,000 students (plus their parents) as they walked in. Lots of them were pretty shy and ignored me/hid behind their parents, until they saw my "foreigner" face. Then their reactions ranged from delight to shock to everything inbetween :D I had absolutely no idea what was going on today...I knew I was scheduled to teach two classes in the morning and two in the afternoon, but had no idea about their age group, their previous knowledge, the English ability of my Chinese co-teacher, etc. Made for a stressful day. Turns out that my first class was 3-year-olds, who understandably are still learning how to speak Chinese, haha. Given no guidance or suggestions, and being observed by several teachers and the principal, I taught the kiddies a simple "hello" song and played a game of "Musical Pumpkins." The students were adorable and seemed to enjoy class. Afterwards, my co-teacher told me the lesson went well, "much better than [her] first day of teaching." So that made me feel good. After a couple hours of internet and QQ in my office, and lunch, it was back to teach my afternoon classes. Even though they were a different age group, I still had no idea what was expected of me (are you sensing a theme here?) so I stuck with the same lesson. The English level of my co-teacher was pretty low, but she did fine. It did lead to a couple funny moments though...like when I was trying to describe "monster" to her and the class. She didn't know the English word. She eventually came up with a guess in response to my growling and making claws with my hands: giraffe. No, that's not what I was going for ;) After school I headed to Lucky's Cake Shoppe for a bit of supper, and took a bus to Ding Zi Qiao Lu (where we have ch*rch).  We'd scheduled an evening English service, and even though I took a strange new bus there, and got dropped off in a different place, I was pleased that I could find my way there! Arriving early, I got to meet Sarah, Peter, Darrin, and Andy, the other new members of our team this year! Soon I was greeted by all the other returning FoC teachers, and our "shepherd" Adam and his family, Sherry and baby David :) It was great to reunite with everyone and w*rship HIM together. What a comfort in an uncertain situation He is...no matter what the present and future holds...He holds us in his hand!

Another view of gorgeous Jie Fang Gong Yuan.