我们的家 (Women de jia = Our Home)

I dedicate this long overdue apartment tour to my dear roomie Kelsey, who gives awesome nightly hugs, shares her macaroni and cheese, and helps keep our place tidy (well, it's tidy most of the time) :)

Thanks Mom and Dad, for the awesome tinsel! It adds a lot of pizzazz to our holiday decor :)

When you walk into our humble abode, you will be very confused about why we don't have enough slippers or shoe-covers for you to wear, and have a hard time accepting that it's okay if you wear your shoes while in our house. At least that's the experience we've had with most of our Chinese friends here. It really doesn't bother me, but taking off shoes and wearing slippers is definitely the norm here...I once got laughed at a friend's house for walking around in my stocking feet.

As far as Chinese bathrooms go, ours isn't one to complain about. The water stays warm most of the time, we have a reliable washer (no dryer, sadly), and we haven't had any plumbing issues. The one "fun" part of our bathroom is that our shower head is so wonderfully powerful that we need to put two wet rags on top of it during showers, or it'll either fall down off the stand or raise up and spray the bathroom floor and your nice and comfy pajamas that you have set there waiting for you (this happened to me one awful night).

Kelsey's huge and welcoming room features an insanely comfy bed, and as a general rule, is much cleaner than mine :D The Green Bay Packer pillowcase, a gift sent from her fam, keeps our Wisconsin spirit alive from afar!

Like most kitchens in Wuhan, ours is tiny, but all-in-all it's more than sufficient. While we often wish we had a microwave, our mini-oven works well, we get water jugs delivered here, and there's a decent amount of cupboard space. Sometimes Kelsey and I will complain about the teensy sink, which holds about a days' worth of dirty dishes, and at about 2 1/2 feet tall, will give the vigorous dishwasher a nice backache.

We don't cook all that often, but when we do, a hot plate is generally the method for boiling, frying, or re-heating. There's a definite learning curve to their operation-- it can burn stuff quickly if you're not careful, creates a lotta smoke, and of course not being able to thoroughly read the Chinese on the appliance adds some...excitement to your food preparation! Thank goodness for accompanying pictures :)

Here's my "cozy" room, featuring a rock-hard bed that I've adjusted to pretty well, a chair that gets used as a necklace holder, tons of family and friends and American pics to make me feel at home, and yep, a curtain rod that doubles as my own indoor clothes-line!

I think the place is pretty Julie-esque in its abundance of pictures, drawings and cards, as well as the slight smattering of clutter...thanks for the boxes on top of the closet go to my superb family and friends! Thank you for the care packages :D

Wrapping Paper or Dangerous Weapon?

Monday, December 5th—I had a nice long Skype chat with my sister Stefanie during my lengthy "office time" today at school, which helped me recover from naughty students. In my "biggest class," the kids individually are darling, but are so chatty and hard to control. The most annoying part of that is when there are TWO teachers assigned with me, supposed to be helping, but instead are correcting papers, doing something outside of the classroom, or practicing a dance while facing the back wall of the classroom (yep, this has happened). Oy. Frustrations aside, today ended nicely...I went out for dumplings with Andrea, Brian, Kelsey, and Johnny (our Chinese friend who helps lead ch*rch often), and headed to my place for B*ble Study. I sat by our friend Esther, who's shy and nervous about her English level, so she often asks questions to whoever she's sitting next to. We two had some good talks and looks into Scr*pture discussing how Chr*stians can deal with and view hardships in life (2 Cor. 12) and details about he@ven (Rev. 21).

Our jolly friend appears to be scaling some kind of mountain, or maybe just trying to climb a rooftop. I thought his reindeer and sleigh would have eliminated this kind of thing? Either way, the random Chr*stmas decor outside our grocery store made Kelsey and I chuckle.

Tuesday, December 6th—One of the up-sides to understanding a bit of Chinese? You can thank your student when she says "Jin tian ni hao piao liang" (today you're very beautiful)! Aww. For weeks, my boss has been preparing a "drammer" (drama) of Snow White that some of our kiddies will perform...I have the very important role of narrator, and have been reminded for weeks to practice and memorize. But today, I was pleasantly surprised when she asked me to simply record my voice on a computer, to be played before their drama. Sweet, one less thing for the token foreigner to be in the spotlight with. As it turns out, I spoke too soon; I still "must" be there for the big show, but I will essentially be lip-syncing my 4 sentences, that I easily could have recited live, working awkwardly to match my lips with the recording. I'll letcha know how that goes ;) I came home to find our FoC friends Peter and Darin in the kitchen, slaving away to make tacos. They'd gone shopping with Kelsey for the supplies, and I picked up stuff to make a packet of ranch dressing. We dove into our tasty dinner, watched a Chr*stmas movie, and played a silly game I'd brought along from America.

As the name suggests, this friendly gas station chain often will bring a smile to my face.

Wednesday, December 7th—The things that fascinate kids can be quite amusing...I regret writing a "to-do list" on my hand this morning, cuz I never heard the end of it...dozens of my students commented and questioned curiously, and I don't know how to say "I just have a lot on my mind" in Chinese. In my "big class" today, the students were arguing about whether I was Chinese or American--not an unusual convo for them. But I burst out laughing when one gem of a boy busted out: "Julie bu shi Mei Guo Ren, ta shi Wai Guo Ren! (Julie's not American, she's a foreigner). Same thing, little man :) Kelsey (the roomie) and I chilled together in the afternoon, I made a run to Metro--a bulk-sale Sam's Club-esque place that sells foreign products--to get a birthday present for Andrea, and met her, Brian, and Kelsey for dinner at McDonald's. Afterwards, we did a bit of shopping and exploring (found a cool alley near to us with a promising-looking restaurant and waitstaff who were quite enthusiastic to see 3 foreigners).

The "light rail" train approaching the station. My fave mode of transport in China.

Thursday, December 8th—After school today I rushed home, picked up bagels and cream cheese from my apartment, and headed to Andrea's place to decorate it with Nicole, in honor of Andrea's 25th b-day. After i led our small-group devo, we busted out the bagels and watched some T.V., went out shopping, and got Subway for dinner. Andrea and Aaron couldn't make it to their normal study tonight, due to a conflict with their school, so Nicole and I sat in while our Chinese friend Johnny led it. The group was pretty small, maybe 7 people, but I walked away being pleased with two things, one much more important than the other: 1) I was able to follow and understand a somewhat decent amount of the Chinese 2) Johnny did an absolutely sensational job leading. His story is inspiring in itself...he was "washed" a couple years ago, has delved into the Word, quit his full-time job to translate Chr*stian materials for FoC for a living, and will probably end up training to become a p*stor eventually. As he led the study, patiently answered questions and explained s@lvation freely given for us, I felt like I could look into the future, and see one of the goals of our work here becoming fulfilled: to train up Chr*stians here in China who could eventually carry out ev@ngelism and shepherding the flock on their own. 

Lovely holiday display at Wal-Mart.

Friday, December 9th—After school today I came home, cleaned the house, took a nap, and baked brownies for Andrea's birthday. For dinner, we got together with a few Chinese friends, Brian and Aaron for Papa John's. Sylvia, Shirly, Bonnie, Andrea, and I had fun going shopping and talking for a bit afterwards. A couple weeks ago, Bonnie and I had a talk about why going to ch*rch is something Chr*stians want to do...and I don't think I answered it very well. So I wrote out a card to her in the afternoon, with B*ble passages and encouragement to consider attending. When I gave it to her, she told me that she'd already started to visit a c*ngregation here with a friend! He is good :)

Wal-Mart cashiers getting in the holiday spirit.

Saturday, December 10th—Having come down with a bad cold, I cancelled on Sophia and her student's mother, who wanted to treat me to lunch. I rested and relaxed during the day, hoping I'd feel better. When it was time to leave to meet my friend Luan for dinner, I wanted to cancel but resisted, since I hadn't seen her yet my 2nd year in China. I took the light rail train, which was PACKED beyond belief (I guess I hadn't taken it on a Saturday night in awhile, especially during the holiday/shopping season). I had to basically jump on and lean into everyone around me. How "fun." :D Eventually I tracked down Luan in the midst of the hundreds (if not more) of people in the area, shopping at the night market. The market stretches the span of several small streets and alleys, features hundreds of vendors selling clothes, food, souvenirs, knick knacks, anything a shopping-savvy Chinese or keepsake-seeking foreigner could desire. Luan and I had one of my fave types of meals here in Wuhan--Korean BBQ. You get a table for 2 hours, and then it's all-you-can-eat (and grill right at your table) meat, veggies, fruit, drinks, and different sauces. We feasted, caught up, and even discussed G*d and the B*ble a bit. Luan's extended family had recently lost a member as well, so we shared our similar experiences and I told her how ch*rch is important to me. 

Delish meat, veggies, and sauce from Korean BBQ. We went up for seconds...and thirds...and fourths. I don't know how Luan manages to weigh about 100 pounds, but it's just not fair ;)

 After dinner, we walked around and talked, and checked out the night market. Pushing past the throngs of shoppers, I spotted at least a dozen foreigners (quite a feat!) and tried a bit of bartering. Luan bought me some earmuffs, gave me a bag of Chinese snacks, practiced Mandarin with me a bit (for my sake, not hers, haha) and we said goodnight. On my way back, I enjoyed watching a lunar eclipse in progress, having been told about it by Luan and also a text from my friend, Sylvia: "Hello dear, please lift up your head. The moon turns red." :) I came home and joined Brian and Kelsey for the end of their movie and looked out the window at the moon with them. Then, we had a special project. Kelsey had recently bought "wrapping paper." It certainly had the cylindrical shape and glittery red appearance of such, but I had my doubts.

Just a small fraction of eager night-market shoppers, pushing past each other in the blistering cold.

Okay. So I would like you to read these instructions and decide whether it's wrapping paper, or something else, that comes to mind: 

The products is usually used for inside and outside celebration occasions such as wedding, birthday party, business operation anniversary, Christmas evening.


Use Brief.
1. Open the mark with arrow.
2. Hold it with two handsm tightly then turn it clockwise.


Atention.
1. In the wind weather outside, please choose the right direction.
2. Don't against to the bare electric line.
3. Don't attack people.
4. The children under 14 ages is not allowed to use.


The products discharged by pressure of air. No pollution. No fire. No flavor. Assure safety.

A couple days earlier, Kelsey showed me the "wrapping paper," and we laughed heartily over the instructions...but I began to question what REALLY was inside. I tentatively said..."I don't think this is wrapping paper. Maybe it's...fireworks?" Then tonight, with Brian over and lots of speculation, we decided it must either be fireworks or a confetti cannon. We headed to our balcony on the 5th floor, and I watched as Kelsey turned the container and shot confetti into the air and down onto passerby. Several people looked up and shouted (happily) as we laughed, shouted greetings, and vowed that we would buy more to use on New Year's Eve :)

Care package from the most amazing family ever--taco stuff, cheese and crackers, candy, books and magazines, cookie cutters, Chr*stmas decorations, family pictures, Rice-a-Roni, hand sanitizer, and a whole lot of love :)

Sunday, December 11th--I still felt pretty sick today, so after ch*rch I headed home and relaxed, did a bit of planning and organizing for my classes the coming week, and dug into my Chr*stmas care package sent by my absolutely sweet and thoughtful fam! I love you guys and everything inside...the Rice-a-Roni made the perfect American dinner for your daughter/sister who didn't want to leave her apartment that night!

Cold Fish? Psssh...More like Sherlock Holmes!!!

Don't worry Americans-- Mickey Mouse is alive and well here in Wuhan, as this father and son on the city bus would be happy to tell you! Pixar stuff, Disney princesses, and Teletubbies can also be seen somewhat regularly.

Monday, November 28th—I was a bit nervous today, needing to ask my school for permission to leave early on Tuesday...even though I'm finished teaching by 3:30 on these first two days of the week, I'm forced to stay until 5, so I can "wave goodbye" to parents and children at 4:45. Uber-annoying (especially since traffic is awful at that time), and maybe I'll try to negotiate my way out of it in the future, but you kind of have to pick your battles here. Anyway, my school principal allowed me to switch my schedule around, so I could visit my old students Tuesday afternoon. I'd texted one of my old students, asking if he could get me in touch with their new foreign teachers (possibly to sit in on a class of theirs for fun), and he called, saying it would be boring for me to watch a class...he was afraid to ask the teachers for their phone numbers...and invited me to an upcoming role-play competition. He wanted to know specifically when I'd be coming, and whether I'd be bringing "Miss S." (Andrea) along too, so he could include all the correct info in the poster he wanted to make, so all the students would know about us visiting :D We then talked for awhile, and he repeated how the students miss us a lot, wish we could come back and teach them again, and said other foreigners are like "cold fish" compared to us. Not a simile I'm too familiar with, but I appreciated the sentiment...my student likened the reaction to our upcoming arrival to if Sherlock Holmes were to visit (Sherlock Holmes books, and a T.V. series are quite popular with our students, hehe).

The Count of Monte Cristo--this group of performers were among my favorite students last year...and nope, the crutches aren't a prop; poor kid injured himself in basketball.

Tuesday, November 29th—Today was a good day...I taught a short day at school, came home and napped, and then walked over to meet Andrea. We had a frustrating time flagging down a taxi (our area has become even more popular for shopping and hanging out in the city, meaning there's lots of competition and more traffic), but after 20ish minutes of running from car to car, ignoring the motorcycle driver who offered us a ride, and getting nervous that we'd be late, we finally nabbed a driver. Originally my former students had planned to have dinner together with us, and had prepared some kind of surprise, but in true China fashion, things got changed around, and we arrived just in time for the competition. We got squeals of excitement, hugs and greetings as we walked into the auditorium, and had fun catching up with a few students...the role-play competition consisted of 10 groups performing short segments of "The Count of Monte Cristo"...in Chinese. Not too invigorating for us to watch, but it was a blast seeing my young friends act their hearts out (or try to), and it was a cool feeling to understand SOME of the lines. Miss S. and I tried to sneak out nonchalantly between acts, but it was a miserable failure...students kept shouting, coming up to talk, and greeting us (we had been sitting towards the front), and eventually a teacher came and scolded us all, congregating and talking in the back. Oops! Miss S., three of my favorite and most talkative students from last year (Rose, White, and Tliski), and I talked together for awhile outside...I will cherish getting to know those kids forever. They also whispered amongst themselves about some secret scheme they had prepared for us, that got foiled by the performance time change. Not sure if that'll actually happen or not, but an adorable gesture :) Andrea and I stopped at Aloha to pick up a birthday cake for Aaron (and feast on lasagna and quesadillas), and headed back home :)

Richard and Kevin rocking out their lines...the costumes were pretty impressive, but the rest of the play had only minor props, and power point slides projected on the wall, intended to convey different scenes and locations :p

Wednesday, November 30th—I had a long day at school today, to make up for leaving early on Tuesday. Afterwards, I took the bus to Wuhan Plaza, and arrived a little late to Papa John's, where we'd planned on celebrating Aaron's birthday! Even though I showed up 15 minutes late, I was still the first to arrive, which led to some confusion with me and the waiters...eventually our whole group showed up, and we feasted on delicious pizza, breadsticks, garlic butter sauce, coke and rum, and of course a huge chocolate birthday cake :) Afterwards, the gang came over to Kelsey and my apartment to play games.

Me, Andrea, Brian, Nicole, Aaron, Allie, and Kelsey.

Thursday, December 1st—Andrea has a theory that most people in Wuhan (who've had little exposure to foreigners) are a little intimidated by us, wondering if we'll do something impulsive or irrational...we often joke about randomly dancing, throwing something, or causing a scene, just to check out the reaction. Kelsey and I carried out a small version of the concept on Thursday, when we sprinted down the street after our Hankou group d*votion, chasing each other and yelling. If you're gonna get stared at anyways, you might as well have a little fun ;) I took the bus to meet Jessica, got only slightly lost (but found my way pretty quickly), and then we met up with Jess, a nice Chinese guy we'd introduced ourselves to last year on a train ride. His English is good, but not perfect, so it's not always the easiest communicating with him (or with his friend, Shi Kai, who joined us), but it was still great to see him again. Before we ate our scrumptious dinner (of fish, cabbage, and sweet, deep-fried bananas), there were an awkward 5 minutes, that seemed much longer, where the food was all in front of us, but no one was doing anything. Feeling confused and uncomfortable, I asked Jess if we could begin eating or if we should wait. He said "we will wait." A few minutes later, when nothing had changed, Jess told us that he and his friend were waiting for us to pr@y before they began eating. Oh. And whoa...we'd only eaten with him once before...last spring...and he still remembered that :D After dinner, we walked to Jess's place to play a game; I had a good talk with Shi Kai about a variety of things, including a friend of his who is Chr*stian and why it's important to me. Nicole was our teacher for a couple games of Rummikub, and after saying goodbye to the guys and chatting with the girls a bit, I took the long bus ride back home.

This is how we Americans choose to represent ourselves on the other side of the globe!

Friday, December 2nd—Exhausted from a week of teaching virtually nothing besides songs and chants to my students, I napped and relaxed most of Friday afternoon. In the evening, I met my friend Kapil for the last time before he headed back to India :( He had a mission: to get Wuhan-esque gifts to bring back to his family and friends...since I've been in China longer, I helped out with the Mandarin a little, as we found a jacket for his sister and lots of chopsticks to give away to friends (we got 'em at Wal-Mart, this particular store a 3-story beast of a shopping center...we asked one attendant where we could find chopsticks, and we weren't even on right floor)! We walked around and talked for awhile, taking in the sight of tons of frenzied, Friday-night shoppers (we were at "Walking Street," a major shopping and restaurant center), and then he treated me to pizza and pasta at Pizza Hut. We had fun excitedly discussing Chr*stmas coming up (well okay, that was mostly me) and wondering what the future holds for each of us. After watching a movie, we said a sad goodbye, but it's always a blessing to get to know a person G*d introduces you to, whether near or far, for a long or short time!

Saturday, December 3rd—I had a very chill girls' day on this lovely Saturday. Andrea invited me over for tacos (we each contributed some ingredients), we feasted, and Nicole and Angela joined us for a movie...Andrea offered up "comedy" or "romantic" as possible choices, but Angela wanted to watch something "very terrible." So, we popped in Paranomal Activity. Oy! For dinner, someone informed us that you could in fact order McDonald's and have it delivered to your apartment...we knew this, but had no idea that there was a special hotline you could call, for English speakers! Woo-hoo!!! We planned to watch another movie, but the 5 of us girls (Angela's cousin joined us) got caught up in girl talk for a couple hours, and that was that! A minute after Angela left, Nicole called her and uttered a phrase I'd never heard before: "You forgot your bangs!" Angela dear was wearing a headband that had synthetic hair on the front of it...I complimented her on her haircut before she told me the truth! And then she left the headband (and bangs) in Andrea's apartment. Thankfully Nicole saved the day, rushing down the stairs with the hair ;)

Cai Yuan Da Sha (on the left) is my humble apartment building, and Tai He Guang Chang (right) is a major business skyscraper, a great reference point to give our taxi drivers who can't understand us when we try saying our address :)

Sunday, December 4th—Today was fairly uneventful, but by pure happenstance in ch*rch, I found myself receiving c*mmunion alongside all the new confirmands from our little congregation. I held back tears as the six of us received His Body and Blood, and I listened to Jonathan Li speaking "This is my body..." in Chinese. Spoken so long ago, in a language foreign to all of us, yet blessing Americans, Chinese, and all races still to this day. We are blessed :)

The Week of Four Thanksgivings!

Monday, November 21st—I wanted to give myself a "sick day" so badly today when I woke up, but I resisted somehow. The students in my "big class" (about 5 years old) were quite amusing before their lesson...there were a few hectic minutes when half of the kids were ready while the others were still using the bathroom, and no Chinese teacher was around to make them behave, so they swarmed me with hugs and questions and goofiness (this happens from time to time). I could understand some of the basic Mandarin they were using, we talked about my clothes and whether each item was brought in America or China...the funniest thing I could understand was this little morsel: "Julie, you're not Chinese, are you?" That's basically how it translates, and I laughed so hard before telling the confused little chap that no, I definitely am NOT Chinese :D During my long lunch break today, 3 former students of mine called me to say hello. I talked with Share, Kelsee and Beryl (from class 10B) for about ten minutes...it was sweet that they called to say hi :) Before study tonight, we had dinner with Grace and "John Wayne" (yup, that's his English name). Our friend Peter brought along "Mary," one of his friends, for her second time ever, and Grace brought one of her young students along for her first time...a 15-year-old girl. Pretty cool :) We discussed b*ptism tonight, got difficult questions as usual, and as usual, answered them with HIS help!

Here we are: Team Wuhan! From left to right: Baby Dave, Jess, Andrea, Aaron, Brian (back row), Kelsey, Sarah, Jonathan, Sherry and Adam (our shepherd and wife), Peter, Darin, Andy, myself, Nicole, Beth, and Tony (non-FoC, but he's pretty tight with our group)

Tuesday, November 22nd—Today instead of most of my classes, I had to "help" escort the kiddies on their 5-minute walk to the nearby park, where they'd be performing for "Sports Day." I think I was more of a distraction than an assistance...I held one child's hand on the walk, and stood next to the herd I was supervising while they impatiently waited for THEIR turn to perform. And when kids come up to me, wanting to try talking, play a game, or goof around, I usually won't resist, especially when A) I can't really talk to them much and B) I'm a bit resentful about being dragged along to Sports Day practice anyways ;) On our walk back, the kids asked me once again whether or not I was Chinese, and we took turns showing how much English/Chinese we could use. We had lots of "conversations" about trees, the park, houses, and airplanes, whether or not things were beautiful, and whether or not I liked each student :p Wendy, the girl holding my hand, asked "Julie, ni xihuan bu xihuan wo?" (Do you like me or not?) I responded yes, of course, and then she went down the line of students, asking whether I liked them (again, of course they all were "yes"s). As cute and fun as those little convos are, they can't compare to the relationships with students I had last year...my old student Jennifer called tonight to talk about her classes and life, and ask how I was doing. Aww!

Wednesday, November 23rd-- Today at school, most of my classes were cancelled due to silly Sports Day *shudder* In the afternoon I went shopping with Andrea for some Chr*stmas decorations. I came over to help her bake some pies for her students, and we'd originally planned to get dinner with our friend Shirly, but my stomach started acting up, so we cancelled. Andrea made me some toast, and I watched "Dirty Dancing." Some days are just like that, in America or China ;)

Lovely decorations outside a shopping mall near our place.

Thursday, November 24th— In this week of Four Thanksgivings, the first one that took place was on Sunday, with our pie and bucket of KFC. This second one, on actual Thanksgiving, was pretty subdued. I got a few nice texts from friends, including my usually sarcastic friend Mike, who sincerely thanked me for my friendship and help to him. It brightened my day, when I'd been feeling a bit homesick. In the evening, Kelsey, Brian and I had Thanksgiving dinner at...McDonald's! A first (and hopefully a last, though the burgers were good of course) :) I'm thankful for two easygoing and cool friends close by, among many other things!

The merry-go-round/ magenta Christmas tree reminds me a lot of the fake trees on the Charlie Brown special :)

Friday, November 25th—I'll try to keep this as toned-down as possible...the air in Wuhan is not clean. Andrea told me that every day here does the equivalent of 11 cigarettes' worth of damage to your lungs. So, it's not unusual that I wake up in the morning with...things in my throat that need to be...expelled. This was one of those mornings that actually made me physically sick (it doesn't happen every day, but has happened several times since I've been here). Really not wanting to supervise Sports Day when I knew I'd be doing nothing, and thinking that throwing up (sorry) was a valid excuse, I called my boss, who was surprisingly quite understanding! After a morning of relaxing, I got some beef noodle soup, ran an oven-moving errand with Kelsey (Andrea'd borrowed ours...ovens are usually quite tiny here, but still a hassle to carry, hehe), and shopped for pie-baking ingredients and supplies.

Sophia and her students making apple pies for their first time ever! They did well!

My former co-teacher, Sophia arrived to our part of the city around 5:00 tonight. I met her two sweet students (they had great English and were so polite), and we had dinner (a sweet soup, beef and veggies, and some spicy shellfish that Andrea and I looooove) before walking over to my place and experiencing a bit of Americana together :D The girls' foreign teacher had just told them about apple pie, but that was the first time for any of them to have the fun of getting your hands a little dirty and baking one from scratch. I walked everyone through it, and we chatted and turned out some delicious treats!

The finished product--which turned out more like apple crisp than apple pie--was quite tasty!

I was worried that the girls might get bored while the pie was baking, so I'd gotten out some drawing stuff just in case...but they saw Kelsey's collection of Harry Potter DVDs and were immediately occupied until it was time to chow down! All three said they loved it, but one girl left most of it in her plate, so it must not have been her thing-- lots of Chinese people find American food (especially desserts) too sweet! After they left, I met up with Brian, Kelsey, and their friends Shawn & Allie (two fellow Chr*stians from Texas). They had us over at their festively decorated apartment for Chr*stmas music, games, wine, and laughter. And there you have Thanksgiving number three!!!

I don't believe the carousel was available for rides, sadly.

Saturday, November 26th—After sleeping in nice and late today, I got a text from Sharon (the daughter of my friendly black taxi driver, a girl who I've had a couple r*lgious talks with, but have never met) asking about why Chr*stians pr@y, and what she should pr@y about. A cool way to start the morning! After chatting with my sister Maria and doing some cleaning around the apartment, Kelsey and I jammed out to Chr*stmas music and decorated our place with tons of stuff left behind by Brian and Aaron (thanks guys!), as well as decorations we'd gotten from a couple stores. With an artificial tree, tinsel, and lots of snowflakes and such, we made a nice winter wonderland here (stay tuned for pictures)! Andrea and I grabbed dinner together, and then shopped for ingredients to use in preparing our part of Sunday's Thanksgiving feast! Stuff for my stuffing (haha) was easy to come by, but it took awhile to talk with the butcher at the store to get the right cuts of chicken Andrea needed for her dish. We pointed at chicken thighs behind the display, used Chinese and sign language to communicate which ones we wanted, and then confusedly waited as butchers from the back brought up giant, frozen chunks of meat that looked NOTHING like what we wanted, and hacked them into pieces, bones and all. Eventually we figured out that they didn't have enough thighs for what we wanted, and so they got some from the back...and rather than unrolling them and giving us them piece by piece, they thought it would be better to cut them length-wise? It was confusing, and funny, and we had some chuckles with the butchers and each other...but it worked out :) Back at our apartment, we cooked up stuffing and BBQ chicken!

Our FoC potluck--barbecued chicken, hot dogs and bacon, rolls,  scalloped corn, stuffing, tons of fruit and veggies, mashed potatoes, candied yams, and pies (not pictured) :)

Sunday, November 27th—Brian, Kelsey and I DASHED to catch the 703 bus to ch*rch this morning, and were delighted to be the first three on it! I don't think that's ever happened to me in Wuhan before...for one whole trek between stops, it was just we 3 foreigners on the bus. I think it gave mild shocks to those who entered the bus later though :) Jess and I left right after the first ch*rch service to get mashed potatoes ready for our potluck. We headed to a local vegetable market, where the usual stares were compounded by one of our bags (containing 10ish potatoes) breaking, and the large quantity that we purchased! Of course this must mean that those two foreigners also want 40 ears of corn, let's harass them!!! It's interesting at marketplaces like this, because there's a good chance you will hear "Wuhan hua," the local dialect, instead of Mandarin Chinese. It's also frustrating because I cannot understand ANY of it. Jess has been taught a little bit though and could pick up bits and pieces of conversations...most people in Wuhan can speak both the local language and the national, but some older or uneducated people might only know Wuhan hua, and groups of friends all from Wuhan will probably speak only in the local dialect also. After tons of preparations, smells, sneaking tastes, and whatnot, our FoC group sat down to a huge, quite American, Thanksgiving feast! True to form, we started by singing a hymn, pigged out and then napped/watched a movie/played games. And that was Thanksgiving number four!!! Praise be to HIM who has given us more than we could ever comprehend!

Keepin' it classy, as always!

Let's Play "Ping Pang Ball!"

November 14th-20th

Monday—I was a bit annoyed this morning at school, when I found out (as it was happening) that most of my classes were cancelled. However, getting to use the extra office time to Skype with my Grandparents and Aunt Sabrina, and catch up on Facebook wasn't a bad thing ;) Neither is the feeling of getting closer to the cute little kindergarteners...the latest thing that they think is super fun is to shout out "JULIE!" from the second floor, over the balcony, and either peek at me, wave, or pretend to shoot me (don't worry--it's meant in love) while exploding in laughter when I return their greetings with something goofy. Following my afternoon classes (which I actually taught!), I grabbed some street food with Brian and Kelsey. Ten friends came to B*ble Study tonight, including Dr. Luke, a sweet middle-aged guy with a strong f@ith. He came to study very frequently last year, but now he lives too far away...it was a treat to see him! Some guests challenged us in discussion about the H*ly Spirit and prophesy, but it's good to be challenged like that...keeps you diving back into the Word. A few friends stayed very late after study tonight, until nearly 11 p.m. I had a great time laughing and joking around with Shelly and Bonnie, and Bonnie asked later on about how important it is for her to join a ch*rch, so we had a good talk about that. I was kind of stumbling over what to say, but thankfully Brian stepped in, and between the two of us HE gave us what we needed to share :) 

Darling painting by our school entrance--I am almost positive it says "Huanying, xiao pengyou," which would mean "Welcome, little friends." :D

Tuesday—Today was a crazy crazy day of school. In my usually uneventful and easy "Strawberry Class," the kids were in uproar, teachers kept walking in and out of the room, and teaching seemed like a lost cause. Thankfully, my co-teacher agreed with me and filled me in: there was an "emergency" that morning...a new student was scared, and somehow snuck out of the school building after being dropped off! Thanks be to G*d, an adult found him about a block away and returned him to the kindergarten *whew* Scary! And understandably, there were some concerned individuals! In addition to this, my students spent large portions of their morning outside, practicing for their upcoming "Sports Day." It's difficult to put into words how bizarre and cute and amusing it was to watch, all at once! Their performances included drums, home-made batons out of plastic bottles, dancing, chanting, and a giant dragon that some boys carried and ran around with. Oh, and some Ricky Martin blasting from the loudspeaker :D As awesome as that was, it still didn't beat the daily highlight of talking to a young woman I've never met in person about HIM (check out my past blog "Only Can You Save Me?" for the full story). Incredible. After school I met Aaron, talked for a bit, devoured some Subway with Andrea, and then headed off to play ping pong. Except Don and Britney, our wonderful friends who invited us, call it "ping pang ball" in their texts. Never gets old :) We had fun playing a few games, and watching the very talented "ping pang" prodigies playing in the court next to us (little rugrats who could WHIP the ball over the net as well as my Uncle Ron)! Afterwards, Don gave me a short ride around campus on his sweet new e-bike, Aaron and I grabbed nai cha (milk tea) with brandy (mmm!), and after talking with the dear roomie for awhile, I crashed into bed!

Back-view of the "Middle Class" with Sinnina doing the teaching. All the classrooms are nicely and brightly painted, but this one featuring the Sydney Opera House and Leaning Tower of Pisa is definitely my fave!

Wednesday—The source of headaches, frustration, and a couple tearful breakdowns, my "Small One" class, had been driving me crazy. Thankfully, Cici, their head teacher, apologized to me via Joy, the teacher here with the best English, saying she was sorry it was so crazy and she'd try to help out more! And today, it did indeed go well, with her help :) I got lunch with my dear friend Connie at Tongji Hospital (her workplace), and she helped me set up a bank account...so grateful to finally have a place for my moolah...the little of it there is ;) In the afternoon I hung out with Andrea, grabbed a snack with her and Aaron at KFC, and journeyed to Hanyang, where we met our friend Sophia and her boyfriend, Jasper. We had fun eating fish, potatoes, and eggplant, talking with them, and having Sophia thoroughly embarrass me: a teacher from our old school was eating in the same restaurant, and I jokingly told her that he was my "dream man." So of course, later when he came over to say hello, she repeated it to him *facepalm* Ah well, the night was still GREAT, because we got to give Sophia a collection of books about HIM and the Book, written in English, Chinese, and Spanish (she speaks all three fluently). She was really excited, said she would study them with Jasper, and we told her she could ask us questions about it anytime. Jasper also said that she sings a song learned at our B*ble Study "every day...all the time." Please pr@y that HE works in our dear friend!

With the sweet nurse from my school :)

Thursday—Like I'm sure I've often blogged, my Chinese skills are enough to get by, and understand the gist of some things, but nothing in-depth. What's more (Andrea), I've recently lost motivation to study it...but! I know enough to understand the coolest conversation I had this week: The school nurse and I always stand outside greeting students, and wishing we could speak each others' languages, but today she excitedly started asking me if I was a Chr*stian...I eagerly said yes (it's not ill*gal to be a b*liever here, you just have to be careful about flaunting/ev@ngelizing. Turns out, SHE is a Chr*stian too!!!!! We jumped up and down, hugged, and then she started talking talking talking, and I couldn't understand much else other than none of the other teachers here is Chr*stian :( And G*d is awesome :) I bit later we went and had Joy do some translating for us...I guess the two of them had a conversation about it. We invited her to join us for ch*rch sometime...what a nice surprise to know there's another b*liever with me here at school each day!!!

Monument for soldiers in the 1911 Wuchang Rebellion, just outside the massive museum you see in the background.

This afternoon, a group of us went to a park near Yue Ma Chang, to walk around and take pics of the beautiful displays of flowers, arranged in different sculptures. We, as a larger group of foreigners, became the target for many pictures (solicited and unsolicited), enjoyed the WARM weather (70s or hotter), and decided to check out the nearby museum, a new tribute to the 1911 Revolution that was sparked right here in Wuchang, Wuhan.

The museum was free and really interesting...Andrea and I spent a long time reading up at each exhibit about our own Wuhan's role in a huge rebellion that ended dynastic rule in China. Most of it was history I'd never heard before...but I'll let you "wikipedia" it for yourself if you want the rest of the story :) After the museum, I had a nice quiet night at home with Kelsey. We ate spaghetti (from me) and apple pie (her specialty), and waited around for the landlord to come collect our first 3 months' rent. A bit nervous because the guy can't speak English, and because technically the apartment is still in Aaron and Brian's names, we were relieved when everything went smoothly!

Roomies posing in front of a flowery dragon! Sadly, he did not breathe fire...

Friday—This whole week of teaching was pretty trying...with all the students preparing for next week's "Sports Day," I never knew which classes would be cancelled, and my boss was too focused on Sports Day to give me any teaching direction or topics, other than "review the old content" or "sui bian" (I could be butchering the spelling, but it basically means "whatever you like"). Today was the worst though...I sat in the office from 8-11 a.m., finding out class by class that I had come in for nothing...all my classes were cancelled. Peeved that I could've slept in or done anything else, I tried calmly to explain my frustrations to my boss, only wanting an apology or some sort of explanation. All I got from her, however, was repeating "there was no time for class today," which I already knew, and "Don't worry." I wasn't worried...I was just super annoyed that I took the 40-minute bus ride for nothing :p Ah well, not the first time this has happened in China, especially to a foreign teacher left out of the loop ;)

Kristine, myself, Lily and I mid-way through our Pizza Hut feast :)

In the afternoon, I came home, had some down-time, and started to get ready for the evening: 3 new-ish friends of mine were gonna come over and bake cookies with me. Just as I was about to head outside to go shopping, my friend Kristine texted me. She was here already, just off the bus. 2 1/2 hours early!!! Oy! Definitely a communication/culture shock day for Julie :D Nonetheless, I picked her up and we had fun talking and grocery shopping together. Once Lily and Ada also arrived, we walked to Pizza Hut (their choice of restaurant, not mine!) and feasted on pizza, pasta, salad, and of course, octopus-fried rice. The usual! 

Discovering that of course the best place to mix cookie dough is in a rice-cooker bowl :)

We ladies came back to my place, called Brian to see if he wanted to join us, and dove into the cookie making. They all had fun (it was the first time for everyone to try it), and were pretty excited to tell their other friends about baking cookies with foreigners, haha. Tell-tale signs of novices: they were at first arguing whether the cookies were done or not before we baked the dough, and then were shocked that Brian and I found the raw cookie dough delicious :) Girl bonding time happened more with Ada than with Kristine or Lily (who were simply overjoyed at chances to talk with Brian, the tall & dreamy foreign boy, haha...they took LOTS of picture with him). Before the girls left, I handed them pamphlets on the Great Exchange, saying they were welcome to ch*rch or ask me questions anytime. As it turns out, Ada got a job offer, and moved out of Wuhan just a week later...I'm glad G*d's timing allowed me to share my f@ith with her before that happened!

Brian, clearly overwhelmed with female attention!

Saturday—Today was a great day. First of all, I slept until 10:30. Then, I got a surprise phone call from Rita, one of my favorite students from last year...she had tracked down my number from another student. Her voice and mannerisms were just as sweet and energetic as I remembered from class and all our discussions in the last year :) Then I had two fun QQ conversations with Tony and Tliski, two other previous fave students...Tliski told me about a speech competition his friend was in that made him want to fall asleep, and Tony and I discussed all the different ways homework could be destroyed and why this was a good idea :D Later on, Nicole came over for our long-awaited full day of fun and catching up. We tried to watch Harry Potter together, but kept talking so much that we had to pause it repeatedly, only watching about 20 minutes in two hours. We met up with Andrea and Sarah and joined a few more FoC-ers for supper at Aloha...the amazing American-owned restaurant we frequented last year. It was great seeing our old friends there (owner and waitresses), hearing them tell the story of the restaurant to newcomers (the owners are Chr*stian and try to reach out and hire workers from the country and small villages, with few opportunities), and of course chowing down on REAL burgers, Mexican food and milkshakes :)

Darrin, Kelsey, myself, Nicole, Sarah, Andrea, Peter and Andy :)

After dinner, I ran into one of my students outside, and another on the bus--between that, and another student calling me in the afternoon, it was a student-filled day :) Our group boarded the bus, heading to Qin Tai Theatre...and then disembarked about 20 minutes later, when it was clear that traffic was so bad we'd need a taxi to reach it in time. We met up with Jonathan and Tony (a Chinese friend) and found our seats in the pristine, elegant theatre. The performer was a very talented concert pianist from Russia, but while his playing was impressive, the songs were quite mellow...we would have drifted off into slumber (like others in the audience) were it not for his antics. His carriage was constantly moving and swaying, he kept kicking out his left foot while playing, and most noticeably, his glance constantly drifted towards the ceiling...he'd look straight ahead, then gradually lift his whole head heavenward...we couldn't decide whether perhaps his music was projected onto the ceiling, or if he was staring at a fly in the distance...either way, it made us laugh a lot. In the second half of his performance, the pianist was joined by a Chinese lady for duets. The same antics continued, with two major additions. 1) He SWATTED the hand of the page-turned when she started to turn prematurely 2) Someone in the audience's phone rang, very loudly, for about 15 seconds. The pianist stopped playing, held out his hand sternly, waited for the phone to be silenced, and shook his head while scowling openly. Haha, he was a diva. After the concert, Nicole and I grabbed barbeque (you can choose different meats and veggies to be cooked for you on the street) with Jonathan and Tony and headed to her place for the night.

Nicole and I sporting our "opera glasses" at the theatre. One of the many reasons why I love hanging out with that girl  :)

Sunday—Today started off on a great note, as I received a letter from Sandy Otto, a sweet lady from my ch*rch, and another from my very dear friend Kristine!!! After ch*rch I came home, frantically cleaned, and welcomed my friend Kapil over for lunch. He brought along the makings of a delicious Indian lunch (he misses food from his home country a lot while in China), and we feasted on black curry chicken and some spicy, tasty veggies, and watched a movie. Later on, I went to Andrea and Aaron's for a little pre-Thanksgiving shindig: we got a bucket of chicken from KFC, ate an apple pie Andrea made, and I helped Andrea decorate her recently purchased Christmas tree. Another great day in Wuhan :)