Travel Day or Trouble Day?

~One of this awesome week's highlights? An orange-picking field trip with my precious and crazy little kindergarteners...enjoy the pics~

Monday, October 31st—This morning, I gathered the nerve to ask a potentially touchy, but definitely important question: when, oh when, will my school PAY me? With the typical language barrier and confusion, I eventually found out that I will get paid...in two weeks :( Lame, since I've already been here for a month, brought along some money, gotten one loan from a friend, and would now have to get another. Ah well, I certainly didn't come here to earn money ;) I left school early today to go apply for my longer-term visa. Kevin, my recruiter, was as vague with details as ever, but eventually he got me in touch with Liz, his assistant, or something...she texted me the address of the police station, I showed it to a taxi driver, and met her there. Typical waiting in lines...making small talk with my guide...filling out paperwork...feeling slightly nervous as I answered questions. But! The most exciting part of the day was when I police officer (who was quite intimidating, initially) saw my paperwork and asked "Did you work at Wuhan Foreign Language School last year." Yes, I taught grade 7. "Do you remember class 8?" Yes... "My daughter was in that class...her English name is Sophia!" Whoa!!! After talking excitedly, I told her I did indeed remember her sweet daughter (once we distinguished between "Sophia Han" and "Sophia Pan" in that class, hehe), and I told her to say hello to her. What a cool surprise :) After taking the city bus home, and nearly getting squished by the closing doors as I rushed through the sardine-packed crowd on my way out of the bus, I met Andrea at a sit-down restaurant near our place. Eventually Peter and Darrin joined, but by then I was off to our study. We watched the "Luther movie" tonight...unfortunately the already-low turnout got even smaller...by the end of the movie, all had left besides Americans :/ You'll have that sometimes. Especially when the subject might be new and unfamiliar. My hilarious friend in Beijing, Mike, called to say hey, and then it was bedtime. Mondays are always an exhausting day!!!

Sadly, this school never really told me the English names of my students...but I've learned that the cutie on the left is "Alice." And I don't know the cutie on the right...but she plays "Snow White" in a school skit, so that's what I call her :)

Tuesday, November 1st—Today was nice and warm...about 75 degrees. In November...thank you, China :) This afternoon in lieu of my classes, a pair of representatives from Papa John's visited, and gave a presentation to the little nippers. What was their presentation? Perhaps some kind of pizza giveaway or games or, you know...any kind of discussion about PIZZA? Nope. Dancing. The kids already do big group dances like ten times a day, but whatever ;) I was forced to walk out with the other teachers and demonstrate dance moves I didn't know, but it was fun hearing screams of excitement when I appeared. Yesterday on the phone, Kevin told me that Wednesday would be a special day at my school...a "trouble day." Huh? Then it sounded like he said "travel day" when I asked him to clarify. Of course he gave no insight whatsoever about what the day would actually involve, so I was left to wonder...until the afternoon, when Sinnina informed me it would be an orange-picking field trip. Sounds like some "travel" and some "trouble," potentially. Haha.The Papa John's presentation DID lead to my texting Andrea and Shirly and us deciding to go there with Aaron for dinner, so I guess it was effective. After a scrumptious Western meal, we naturally got dessert from McDonald's, and then headed to Aaron's apartment, where the five "Hankou" people (Aaron, Andrea, Brian, Kelsey and myself) played a game and had some bonding time.

Sweet little boy from my "Cherry" class. He's grown tons in just a month, from crying every morning on his walk into school, to smiling and waving every time he sees me :) His mom also speaks English pretty well.

Wednesday, November 2nd—I showed up at school at the normal time today, as instructed, and then waited around for over an hour before we embarked on our field trip. I DID get the great honor of helping Sinnina tape numbers onto each of the five buses that we took to the orange orchard, so that was something special ;) The trip, in a nutshell was fun, a bit awkward, occasionally boring, and cute! Fun: taking lots of pictures, playing with students, having them give me oranges, trying to convince a cute girl who kept trying to talk to me that I can't speak Chinese, and bonding with teachers. Also, discovering that a few parents who came along could speak English well! An interesting fact: apparently for kindergarten field trips, at least this one, each student must have his/her own chaperone! A bit awkward: a sweet teacher clinging to me for most of the time, requesting tons of pictures, and always assuming I can understand more Chinese than I actually can :p Occasionally boring: standing around towards the end of the day; children were having picnics with their families, teachers were milling about and socializing...I was standing around...waiting to get back on the bus. Cute: watching students take naps on the bus, playing hide and seek with them, and just enjoying the innocence of the day. I got off our field trip bus before we got back to school, cutting some time off of my commute back, and took Andrea up on her offer of HAMBURGER HELPER for dinner. Yum!!!! Aaron, Andrea and I had a serious talk over makeshift margaritas they'd purchased ^_^

There were lots of tasty oranges! Had I known there'd be such a bounty (and that lots of kiddies would come delivering them to me), I would've brought along an additional bag to my purse).

Thursday, November 3rd—Today after school I RAN to catch the bus as I saw it off in the distance. Nothing out of the ordinary (along with the driver's laughing and my embarrassed yet proud panting), but I think I had a little extra spring in my step, because I knew...I was FINALLY going to visit my old students today. After weeks of planning and having to re-schedule, my amazing students asking when I'd visit, etc., it finally worked out...I was quite ecstatic. I met up with Andrea, and she and I had a nice music/ dance party on the bus ride...just like the good old days (last year, haha). As we got off the bus and walked towards our old school, I couldn't decide if I was more excited or nervous to see all the kids from my first year here...would they still wanna hang out and talk, and be as stoked as I was? The first student I saw was "Tony," a smart and cute kid who always set himself apart by the awesome crocodile pencil bag he used in class. His "Miss Cox?" was filled with confusion and happiness, and we talked for a minute. He, along with all the boys from last year, has matured sooo much. Much more like a young man than the little punk I taught last year ;) We found out our students had a BIG test (on the day we came to visit...of course), but I was still able to get excited "hellos" from a few students as we made our way to watch our friend Sophia teach a class.

After that, and running into a couple old teacher friends from last year, Sophia escorted us to visit Class 2, one of my favorite groups I taught back then. With butterflies in my stomach, I felt instantly relieved as Lucky, Tliski, and Mike, three awesome students from last year all ran up to me excitedly. We talked, we laughed, and before I knew it, Lucky had run into their big classroom and told all 50 of the students "Miss Cox lai le" (Miss Cox has come). I got lots of hugs from the girls and lots of "cool guy" greetings from the boys. Miss S. and I joined the class in their room and talked to a bunch of them for around 15 minutes...it was just, great. My favorite quote of the day is from Tliski: "Miss Cox, when we were taking our exam, one student saw you outside and we all felt very excited. So we all told our teacher that we had to go to the bathroom, so we could come and see you. But the teacher said we had to wait until the exam was finished!" They shared other pieces of interest like, "you're better than this year's teachers" :D and "we are too busy this year to play basketball" :( and we had to let them go back to class. Andrea wanted to say hey to her students too, so we walked by and waved into their classrooms, and then did the same on my floor. I got to wave into five different rooms full of 50 past students, and was humbled as I was greeted by applause, squeals, smiles, waving, and cheering. What a blessing...they mean sooo much to me, and somehow, I mean something to them too :) I gave a couple awkward yet excited impromptu speeches to some of the classes, ending with Class 3, another absolute favorite class of mine. As I looked out at their beaming, sweet, enthusiastic faces, I had to say a quick goodbye and duck out...I couldn't help but cry, thinking of how much I miss them, yet how much of an unexpected blessing from HIM it was to be part of their lives. And hopefully I'll have other chances to visit them this year :) And you know, hopefully I can convince a few to come live in America with me :D

After all the excitement, I went grocery shopping with Sophia, and then we headed to her new apartment. She, her boyfriend Jasper, and another friend (with the English name "Sheldon Cooper" of theirs made a delicious supper of eggplant & green beans, egg and tomato, tofu meatballs (sounds strange, but they are sooo good), soybeans, pepper and pork. Pretty common dishes here, and all scrumptious. We talked about the B*ble for a little bit, Sophia mentioned her desire to be b*ptized, and also that she's shared some info with Jasper. Amazing!!! I was definitely disheartened though, when she showed me a Chinese "summary of the B*ble" she'd gotten somewhere...it was full of underlinings and markings from her (great!), but it was from a cult. Yikes. Luckily, Andrea has a plan to get her some better materials, since she tells us the B*ble is pretty complicated to understand sometimes.The group walked me to the bus stop, I had a typical teasing and somewhat nonsensical conversation with my friend B. Rock on the phone, and admired some beautiful new clothes that Sophia had given me. What a day...one I'll never forget :) 

Friday, November 4th—Even though my silly school requires me to be at school from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays...I did win a small victory today...it's now 8:00 a.m. Whoo-hoo! After enjoying my extra 2 minutes of sleep, I taught an uneventful morning of classes, and came home to find that we FINALLY have internet in our apartment, thanks to Kelsey. Hopefully I'll have money soon, so I can pay her back! After an afternoon of hanging out and savoring the weekend, I hung out a little with Kelsey and Sarah (her good friend, who lives across the city), and walked to meet Andrea and Aaron. We grabbed Subway and met our friend Laetitia, who had scored some cheap movie tickets. Watching Planet of the Apes, while eating Subway, in a brand-new theatre two minutes from my friend's house, for the equivalent of $2? A good Friday night activity :D Back at my apartment, Andrea and I watched part of Mrs. Doubtfire together. The viewing was accompanied by profuse quoting and laughter...she and I both showed the film to our classes in the past, so we've seen it MANY times. Kelsey and Sarah came over a bit later, and we enjoyed some snacks, wine, and another movie! Gotta love the weekend :) 

Taking one of many MANY posed shots with this sweet teacher's assistant.  I love her oodles, but the language gap keeps us from communicating to any great extent. She keeps trying though, so I keep trying to listen and willing myself to understand more Chinese. Perhaps I should actually study ;)

Saturday, November 5th—Today was basically how any good Saturday should be. I slept in until around 9, then had a nice long Skype chat with my dearly loved and missed Aunt Sabrina, and another one with my wonderful parents. Andrea sent me some awesome new American music, and did a bit of shopping together in the afternoon, before settling down with a lunch of cheese and crackers! For supper, I got together with my friend Kapil, a nice guy from India who I met towards the end of last year. We took a LONG walk to Jiang Han Lu, a major shopping and restaurant area, and had some yummy Thai food...curry chicken and spicy fried rice. It's really fun hanging out and discussing the differences between India and the U.S....and yet, how bizarre Chinese culture still manages to be to both of us ;) We waited awhile for a taxi, but it was worth the wait...he was a friendly driver, who spoke a tiny bit of English and was amused at my dancing to the funky music on the radio. After saying goodbye for the night, I headed back to Aaron and Andrea's, watched "Poltergeist" at Andrea's insistence (tis the season, I guess...), and slept over there :)

Sunday, November 6th—Absolutely exhausted, we dragged ourselves out of bed for ch*rch. We typically have English service, English B*ble study and any FoC discussions that need to happen, and then Chinese service. It's pretty cool to stay for Chinese w*rship, to meet new and old friends, strong Chr*stians and those who are just interested, and to even understand a bit of the B*ble readings and s*rmon in English! For lunch, Andrea, Jonathan, Tony (a Chinese friend with nearly flawless English, who's a strong Chr*stian), and I had yummy fried noodles. Andrea and I then headed back to do some baby-sitting/kids' B*ble study, for Bruce and Emily, two kids who lived in the U.S. for a year and can understand English perfectly. It ended up being a STRESSFUL afternoon though...a sweet new boy joined in this week, and he was smart, but understandably doesn't know English...it led to frustration all around, and a bit of naughtiness from the kiddies. Afterwards Andrea and I did a bit of shopping, and got cheap coffee from Starbucks (yay)! Kelsey and I made American-style breakfast for dinner, and planned the following day's B*ble study together.

"Only Can You Save Me?"

~There are bound to be times where you regret, or at least re-think, a decision that you've made. At times these past few weeks, I've caught myself wondering whether it was a mistake to return here. I miss my family and friends...I miss being able to understand the conversations and street signs surrounding me...teaching is okay, but it's certainly not ideal. What am I doing here? Am I making a difference?

Then, out of nowhere...HE reminds me to have trust in HIM. Sometimes it's through a favorite B*ble passage or encouragement from a friend. And sometimes, he gives me something so great that it moves me to tears, that I feel humbled in gratitude and repentant for my doubt. Sometimes he gives me opportunities like this...

There's a backstory...maybe I'll do the long version in a future blog, but for now, I'll keep it short (for me, at least) :) I took a "black taxi" last week...an unregister chauffeur. The driver and I communicated in as much Chinese as I should muster, and he told me his daughter was great at English. Before I knew it, he handed me his cell phone, and I talked to his daughter, "Sharron," for 20 minutes. We exchanged phone and QQ instant messaging numbers. A few days went by, and then we had our first QQ conversation. I noticed her "status" said "Only Can You Save Me?" which made me a little curious. We were discussing our jobs (we're both teachers), when out of nowhere she rapidly changed the topic...

Me: Which age is your favorite to teach?

Sharron: Are you a pious chr*stian?

Me: Yes, I am! Chr*stianity is very important to me. Why do you ask?

Sharron: What a coincidence ! I was hesitating two hours ago that whether shoud I accept the g*d to be my saver!

Me: Really? That is amazing! Maybe G*d wanted us to meet. Do you mind if I ask, how did you find out about G*d?

Sharron: Actually, I have been hesitating such a long time!! There are piles of chr*stians around me! 

Me: That's amazing! I am happy that you know so many Chr*stians...and I'm sure they're happy to know you too. Can I share a thought with you?

Sharron: My pleasure.

Me: I believe that if a person starts to wonder whether they should accept G*d as their S*vior, maybe they are already Chr*stians.

Me: Maybe they are not ready to declare it to the world, but if a person believes that J-sus is their S*vior, then they will go to heaven.

Me: So, I think you do not need to feel rushed about accepting J-sus...because he has already accepted you! There is a part in the B*ble, where J-sus says to his friends, "You did not choose me, but I chose you."

Me: Maybe G*d already is part of your heart.

Sharron: Whoa!!

Me: Sorry, I hope I'm not being too forward or making you feel uncomfortable...

Me: But, I believe that's what the B*ble teaches...

Sharron: Amazing!

Me: There is a verse in Eph*sians, which says "F@ith comes from hearing the message (of the B*ble)." (Oopsies, I got that reference wrong...)

Me: This means that G*d gives us faith. It's a gift that we do not earn on our own...it's his blessing he's given to us!

Me: Maybe through your Chr*stian friends, through praying, and through reading the B*ble, G*d has already given you faith 

Sharron: Why did he choose me ?

Me: That (earlier) verse is Rom@ns 10:17, in case you are interested! G*d chose you because he loves you. John 3:16-- "For G*d so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever b*lieves in him will not perish, but have et-rnal life."

Me: G*d chose you, not because of anything special you did, but because of his mercy...

Me: Ephesians 2:8-9, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. This is not from yourself. It is the gift of G*d, not by our own work, so that no one should boast." G*d chose you because G*d is love.

Me: Sorry...I hope this is not too strange or uncomfortable that I am saying all these things... But I want you to know, G*d loves you, and J-sus saved you.

Sharron: Oh My gosh!!  Ok, I will think about every word you told me ! I have to go to our other office now! So, let's chat on Friday or through the SMS ~~~I do appreciate what you said  to me !

Me: Oh, I'm very glad to hear that! I'm just repeating the words our awesome G*d gave to us 

Sharron: Thank you my friend!! See you then~~

~HE is using me...not always in the way I would expect or specifically ask for, but still...giving me chances to share HIS Word with people, to share the ASSURANCE that his gifts come through His mercy, not anything we can do on our own. Thank you, L*RD, for these opportunities!

~One more note, Sharron and I had the uncensored version of this talk...she brought it up, and I wasn't going to use the *,-,@, and other annoying schtuff I have to use here most of the time. I was using my VPN (American Internet), so hopefully it'll be okay. But still...I'd appreciate your pr@yers that I'll be able to stay here the remaining 7 months to serve HIM ;)

万圣节在武汉 = Halloween in Wuhan :)

     While it obviously doesn't have the same deep meaning and joy of Chr*stmas or E@ster, I've always loved Halloween. The costumes, the treats, the childlike excitment of savoring the wind in your hair on a chilly night as you get an unexplicably "spooky" feeling. Like most American holidays, Halloween here in Wuhan, China is recognized a tad, but mostly in passing. We tried to change that this year :) Our Halloween party didn't happen until Saturday, but there's so many fun pics, I hope you can enjoy them throughout my tales of this week:

Yup, I was a witch. Hanging out here with face paint that continued to wear off throughout the night, and my dear pal Nicole, who pulled off the pirate look quite convincingly, I think!

Monday, October 24, 2011—I woke up this morning with a start, realizing I had NO idea where I stashed my notebook for teaching...which contains all the info I have about classes, and so early on, I NEED it!!! Freaking out, I eventually found it...under a pile of stuff in my room. I really need to finish moving in :p Most of my teaching today was just observing while Sinnina gave the lessons, but I taught the "Small 1" class, which was loud and annoying...cuz no Chinese teacher stayed to help me control the masses. Ugh. I spent the afternoon in the school office Skyping with the fam, working on the blog, chatting on QQ, and watching a bit of T.V. Back at home, we had a small group (about 5 people) for B*ble study, but it went well. Most of our discussion revolved around the will of G*d, and it definitely got complicated, especially when people raised tough questions about destiny, G*d's hidden purpose for our lives, etc. Thankfully, though, we answered questions to the best of our ability, with HIS help, and closed the night remembering that even while we can't always understand everything G*d says and does, we can always trust him. A great reminder :) 

With Jane, Sophia, and Andrea. Yup, she's a pumpkin!

Tuesday—“Chinese is very easy to learn.” I'm usually a pretty mild-mannered person (I think?), but sometimes when my boss says things like that to me, looking at my life completely through her point of view, it's hard for me to just let it roll off my back. But I'll keep on trying :) This morning, while greeting students, I told our principal that I liked her scarf and that it was beautiful. In Chinese, you know...because Chinese is very easy to learn *eye roll* Anyway, it was sweet...she gave it to me! I wore it outside, and then set it in her office on her desk. She came into my office a few minutes later and said, no, I wasn't supposed to return it, it was her gift to me. Aww! I enjoyed an awesome Skype chat with my sister Stefanie in the afternoon, even though for some reason my webcam only works upside-down, currently :p Joy, a teacher here with excellent English, had fun talking to her a little bit. In the afternoon, I realized that my students are getting much more comfortable giving me hugs, dancing, and laughing together, which is a nice feeling! After school I visited Andrea's apartment (where I lived last year for awhile), picked up some street food from Mom and Pop's, our go-to place nearby, and got a nice greeting from the guy who works there...hadn't seen him in months. Unfortunately, our conversations still don't advance beyond me ordering my food :D Exhausted, and a bit crabby after dealing with the awful traffic that hits simultaneously with my bus ride home, I thanked Andrea for the glass of wine she gave me, and we had a laidback night together. I was further cheered up when I got home and discovered a package Kelsey had retrieved from my family...filled with stuff that was too heavy to fit into my suitcase, and a couple extra goodies. Thanks Mom and Dad...love you guys!!!

Witch and Lumberjack (Brian), with matching crazy eyes :D

Wendesday—After an uneventful day of teaching, I met Andrea to go buy train tickets for our upcoming trip to Hangzhou. Unfortunately, after checking out ticket prices online, we decided it was too pricey, with me not having gotten paid yet, and her saving up for an Ipad ;) We had a fun afternoon...I came along to her Chinese classes provided by her school, and the teacher even complimented my Chinese, saying it's good enough that I can use it in my kindergarten classes. It was definitely a sweet thing to hear...though when I do use it in my classes, it usually just leads to laughter from the students, haha. We had Subway for lunch (they opened a Subway about two minutes from her apartment...nice!) and embarked on a search for Halloween costumes!!! China doesn't do much in the way of Halloween, but there's enough interest in Western holidays, that there were a couple costume shops between our houses...the stand that we ended up patronizing sold mainly hats, masks, simple accessories. But, they DID have a precious pumpkin costume for Andrea, and a witch hat, enough for me to determine I'd make that costume my special project :) We hung out at my place watching a movie, and discussing how excited we were for the partay on Saturday!!! 

Our lovely group of Japanese anime characters, doctors, witches, a servant, basketball player, and goblins! 

Thursday—It's annoying and amusing...lots of the time when I leave school, there's a 5-minute walk straight to my bus stop...and I can see the bus pulling up in the distance...I can feel the impending disappointment if I were to miss it...and I RUN. Sprinting down the street past curious spectators. By the time I get there, I'm usually panting, but proud! Sometimes the driver just grunts stiffly, other times he'll laugh at me :D Today I questioned whether I should have run or not, when the bus I made it onto kept stalling, and the driver nearly hit about ten different things...well, okay, that part of being here isn't too uncommon, but his driving was definitely worse than the average in Wuhan. But eventually I had to laugh to myself as we stopped, and another guy switched places with the driver. At first I was a bit alarmed, until it clicked: the two guys sitting in the nearest seats were training the new (and unseasoned) driver. It was pretty funny watching them give tips throughout the rest of the ride, to the new and nervous man. But, if I had the choice, I'd prefer not to have a bus ride like that again ;) Andrea and I had a nice sit-down lunch at a minority-style restaurant close to her place...really neat and clean, and nicely decorated, different than most Chinese restaurants here. A good discovery! The five of us Hankou people had a short group devo together, and then Kelsey and I joined Andrea and Aaron for their school's free tai chi class. It wasn't too vigorous...mostly a lot of hand movements and changes in position, but still, a good cultural thing to at least try once. Afterwards, I took the light rail to METRO, a wonderful bulk store that sells a lot of Western stuff, and picked up face paint and a wig to add to my costume :D Oh, and I also brought a small broom...it turned out to be a definite waste of money, and really annoying to have sticking out of my backpack on the trip home, but oh well! The night ended with Kelsey and I bonding over some cookie-baking and a movie.

Laetitia (old school pirate), Sylvia (cute girl wearing a mask), and I.

Friday—Today, as my alarm rang at 6:28 a.m., I realized that I wake up every morning with a Chinese-style "aye-ah!" How cultured I've become :D Almost as cultured as my boss, who declared to me, “Oh, my spoken English is... very good.” This after she proudly delivered two complete sentences to me in English. Now, don't get me wrong...her English is certainly superior to my Chinese, by a long shot. And I don't look down on anyone for speaking or not speaking a certain language. But again, I just don't know how to respond to people who go around praising themselves *sigh* Another frustration this week had been preparing for an upcoming "Parent's Day," where moms, dads, aunts, uncles, and grandparents come watch a lesson. The idea of it is great, but practicing the "lesson" six times a week (once back-to-back), making it "perfect," boring the kids and driving me up the wall...not a fan :p It was cool spending more time with that class though...they're the oldest group of students (6 years old, I think), and it's been fun seeing them go more out of their way to say hey and smile at me, getting to know their individual cute personalities, etc. I had to bite my tongue a LOT as Sinnina bossed me around with preparations today, but the lesson/performance ended up going well. Parents complimented my teaching afterwards, which was nice...I was actually a bit nervous, since there were close to 100 people watching! I had a nice chat with Yulia, a Russian lady afterwards. She married a Chinese man, and their child, Nick, is one of my students. Yulia has good English, wonderful Chinese, and is a sweet lady...I always enjoy our talks, since we understand each other more than anyone else I know here at this school :) We exchanged phone numbers and promised to get together for dinner in the future.

After rushing yet again to catch the bus, I made what was intended to be a "quick" stop at Carrefour, a supermarket close to my place, for earphones. Here is the saga:


1. I search around aimlessly for awhile, finally pulling out my old and broken pair of earphones, and pointing to them, asking store workers where I could find some.


2. I locate the earphones, pick out the ones I desire, and rip them off the rack (it's locked so that no one can shoplift, but I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of finding someone to help...little did I know...)


3. I knew that I'd need to purchase the earphones on the 2nd floor, where I currently was, and not on the first store, where you buy food. So I searched, eventually found a cashier, and waited in line.


4. Ten minutes after waiting in line, I got to the front. My other items were just fine, but an "error" light and sound went off when the cashier tried to scan the earphones. I feel like in America, if this would happen, someone would be paged to help with the problem. But nope, with my limited Chinese, I told her just to give me the receipt for all the other items...I wouldn't buy the headphones.


5. I went back to the headphones area, selected a different pair, and returned to the cashier.


6. After waiting in line again, the same thing happened. Once again, the cashier couldn't check them out and made no attempt to get anyone to help the obviously confused foreigner.


7. I know it's a small thing, but I fought back tears of frustration as I returned yet again, to the earphone section, and approached a worker there. Thanks to HIM, the guy spoke some English, and came with me to the cashier. She was characteristically unhelpful, and he directed me to a register at a different part of the store. The worker there was much more friendly, but she was unable to open the protective packaging around the earphones, and apologetically sent me on my way.


8. Frustrated beyond belief (it had been a good half hour of miscommunication by this point), I returned to the helpful English speaker, tried to explain the situation, and thanked G*d as he came along with me, helped the cashier open the package, and walked away.


9. I stopped him, asking him to wait a minute, expecting the same error with the cash register as previously. Sure enough...I think he finally understood the problem at that point. 


10. I waited as my savior ran across the store, retrieved something for the cashier to scan, and helped me FINALLY buy that stinking pair of earphones. 


Oh my goodness...sometimes it's the little things that can lead to culture shock. After barely keeping myself from crying with embarrassment and confusion, I headed home, picked up some food, and intended to lock myself in the apartment for the night! That's basically what I did, but first I had a nice reunion with "Jack," a handsome worker at a fruit stand nearby my apartment. His English is minimal, but he's very friendly...between his English and my Chinese, we had an a highly intelligent conversation about America and China, food, beer, and singing ;) Still, a nice change of pace compared to my previous frustrating activity, and I got his QQ number! Yay! The rest of the night was spent vegging, cleaning, and preparing for our Halloween party!

Kelsey (the roomie) as a sailor :)

Saturday-- I slept in luxuriously late today, cleaned the place, and texted friends reminding them of the party, figuring out where and when to meet everyone. It definitely led to a confusing hour before the get-together, having friends arrive way early, or late, directing them to my house or to the KTV location. I'd purchased some long green fingernails to add to my costume, but they made it impossible to send multiple texts, so sadly they had to go :p  I'm embarrassed to admit that in the confusion of everyone calling and texting before our party, that when one friend called me, I could not for the life of me remember who he was...or connect a face with the name my phone gave me. Haha. However, once I saw him there, it clicked. And much more embarrassing that than confession, was my 15-minute walk to KTV. If you're a non-Asian here in Wuhan, people will stare, sometimes point, sometimes shout "Hello," and sometimes continue to stare even after you've made eye contact. But that is absolutely NOTHING compared to the stares you will get if you're a foreigner wearing green face paint, tons of eye makeup, a wig and witch hat. People stopped in their tracks, whispering about me, standing inches away from my face in confusion :) It was definitely a bit humiliating, but also a funny memory. The party itself was an absolute blast...we had a group of about 40 people together in a huge room, Chinese friends and Americans, old friends and new. Lots of the group rocked costumes, but some people found the concept too overwhelming and just had fun laughing at everyone else's. There were screams and laughter when I walked into our room of friends :D The next three hours consisted of dancing, singing, working my way around the room to try talking to everyone, eating, and lots of picture-taking! A couple of my friends who came were pretty new to anything Western-style, but they texted the next day saying they had a great time, but wanted to improve their dance skills before future parties :) In the midst of all the craziness and fun, I also had a more serious talk with one of my friends, who recently broke up with his fiance. You never know when HE will give you the chance to comfort a friend, and for what purpose HE brings different individuals into your life. After sweating off most of my face paint, singing my heart out, and socializing, a smaller group of us loitered outside, kicking around a poor abused stuffed animal, and saying no to offers of going out to the club. Ch*rch in the morning, after all! Andrea, Shirly, and I did have an awesome "after-party," consisting of sitting on the steps outside the KTV entrance in our costumes, drinking one can of beer each, and delighting passerby when we agreed to take our pictures with them :) 

Gavin sent me a hilarious text earlier in the week about wanting to wear "pumpkins" to  the party. Sadly, however, he showed up in normal clothes. Good thing I didn't mind sharing my hat!

Sunday—Andrea and I woke up, exhausted, and headed to ch*rch. I was very touched, as she requested a pr*yer for my Uncle Ron and cousins, a month after Aunt Julie went to he@ven. I think about you guys all the time...and there are lots of people pr*ying for you in China <3 Afterwards, Andrea, Peter, Darin, Andy and myself took a couple taxis to the Hubei Provincial Museum. On our taxi ride, Peter, Darin, and I discovered that we all have younger siblings at WLC. Woot woot!!! We met Laetitia, and her friend Liz there, to see a Baroque art exhibit. It was quite good, and I actually saw some Italian paintings that I recognized from art history class (don't ask me to remember their names though :D). The coolest part of the day was getting to talk with Liz about the B*ble. Laetitia's old schoolmate, she traveled to the U.S. for college, married another Chinese guy there, and is just here in Wuhan visiting. Her English is nearly flawless, and as we viewed several paintings based on B*ble stories, she asked questions. She only knows a little about the B*ble and has attended ch*rch just a couple times. But she eagerly listened to my descriptions of paintings and stories, saying "Tell me more," and asking good questions. My favorite discussion revolved around a painting of the Prodigal Son...HE wants all people to turn to HIM and be saved. HE welcomes everyone! Getting to share that message is such a joy ><>

Laetitia, Darin, Andrea, myself, Peter, Lizzy, and Andy outside the Hubei Provincial Museum.

After the museum, the seven of us headed to 汉 街 (Han Street), a newly-opened walking street, complete with lots of nice stores, European-style buildings, and CLEANLINESS :) We ate lunch at "Show Coffee," a restaurant serving Western-ish steaks (my lunch) and french fries, and also frog and octopus! Exhausted from the previous night, Andrea and I headed back to her place for a movie and nap. We got dinner at a sit-down place...beef and lotus and delicious spicy clams...sooo good! 

"Enjoying," to various degrees, some sugary fruit kabobs we bought on the street. The strawberry ones were unavailable, but they are far superior to this variety...which contained glazed cherry tomatoes.

Thus ends my week. In closing, I'd like to leave you with two texts involving the Halloween party, that I've left on my phone for weeks, because they make me chuckle each time I see them.


From Britney: "I will be a gohst! And catch you! (I wrote back that I was going to be something with magical powers...then she wrote...) Wow! Are you Harry? You can chang me to a pumpkin car, so I will take you to my house, and you will be my little pet! hoho"


From Gavin: "Haha, I am just wondering what to wear to your party since I don't have pumpkins."(Gavin's English is really wonderful, and I just did NOT know what to make of this text. I read it, fell over laughing, read it again, fell over laughing, and to this day, I have no idea what he meant by it).


:D

Beware, Beware...the COLD WATER!!!!!!!!!

I just had a "nice" conversation with my boss.

{Background info: When I first came to China, last August, it took me some time to adjust to the water served at restaurants...it's really warm, it's hot. People here believe that drinking cold water and eating cold food is generally unhealthy. We've had many discussions, occasionally bordering on argument, with our friends here about that concept, just because it's so vastly different from what Americans think. A couple of our girl friends even told us that if you drink cold water (or eat chocolate or drink alcohol) while on your menstrual period (sorry guys...), it will STOP and you will get sick. Yup. All my friends here are convinced of it, and I need to do more research. People are shocked to hear we believe differently than them. Our most recent consensus: Since it clearly affects Asians, but not Westerners, maybe it comes down to some type of genetic difference, or our bodies are respectively already so used to each way of doing things? I've yet to look up the "science" behind this...}

Sinnina: Why do you drink cold water (with an incredulous, almost angry, look on her face)?
Me: It's not cold. It's warm. I like.
 Her: You should drink hot water. Cold water is a little bad for your health.
Me: It's okay. In America, I always drink cold or warm water. We think to drink hot water is a little strange (I felt mean saying that, but it's quite hard to communicate with her sometimes :D)
Her: But, cold water...
Me:I don't like hot water. Maybe America and China are different.
Her: Yes, they are very different.
*Pause*
Her: Go get hot water now. (I hesitate for a minute)
Me: ...I already have water...
Her: Go. Hot water is good.


*I go walk to fill up my water bottle with steaming hot water to appease her, just enough to make my "cold" water warm.* (If I drink ONLY that steaming hot water, it's a good 10 minutes before it cools enough for me to sip it.)


SIGH. Oh, culture shock, you continue to get the best of me from time to time. It's even trickier when the language barrier prevents you from fully expressing yourself (often the case with my boss and I). And this water isn't even the most important. Please pr*y that we, with HIS help, will be able to find ways around culture and language barrier, to tell people about the living water, the ONE who can truly satisfy ><>

"Orange." Otherwise Known as "Orangeeee."

~October 17th-23rd

Monday—Today I had a looooong day at school. On Mondays & Tuesdays, I have to arrive by 7:30 a.m., eat an awkward breakfast with teachers I can't communicate with, stand outside greeting kids, teach and/or observe lessons, and stay until 5:00, after I've waved "bye bye" to students leaving with their parents/ grandparents. Whew! Classes are going pretty well though...think short class periods, with LOTS of songs (B-I-N-G-O and 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe), simple games, and repeating basic words off of flash cards. It's been overwhelming, but "Sinnina" (my interestingly-named boss) comes along to most classes and gives her input. I appreciate it, since she's been pretty encouraging, but it is tricky to communicate with her most of the time. It's also tricky knowing when to be quiet when she teaches slightly innacurate English to the kids. The most cringe-worthy one: apple, banana, orangeee. Yes. She pronounces the "ee" sound at the end of "orange." Being a newcomer, I don't want to offend her...I just sit there groaning to myself, and work extra hard to correct the kiddies when it's my turn to teach 'em :p In the afternoon, my silly computer decided to stop working again, leading to me being crabby. But, a nap, a short phone call from the parents, and a reading through the Th*ology of the Cross chapter helped. Once afternoon classes were finished, "Sinnina" asked me what I was doing that night, and I mentioned "dinner with friends," not wanting to reveal our B*ble Study, at least not so early. Before I knew what was happening, a Seinfeld-esque couple hours unfolded in front of me:

1. Sinnina invited herself to join our "dinner."
2. I said yes, caught off-guard, and telling her we'd also have a B*ble study (she did know I was Chr*stian, and I figured we could just pick up some food on our way to study at 7.
3. She said 7 is too late for her, can we move the "dinner" up to 5:30?
4. I call Kelsey, explaining the predicament in big words, so as not to be understood, and she graciously says she and Brian will join us for dinner.
5. I frantically text several Chinese friends, asking them to join us last-minute.
6. We leave school early, so as to arrive to dinner on time (wish I could do that every Monday)!
7. We decide to take a taxi to the restaurant. We can't find a taxi. We take a bus to a part of the city with more taxis readily available.
8. We get a taxi, and my phone runs out of money. I borrow Sinnina's phone to call Kelsey, and eventually she answers, saying they're already at the restaurant.
9. Sinnina and I show up, 15 minutes late, and join Brian, Kelsey, and Johnny for a somewhat awkward dinner. I think Sinnina's on the husband hunt, so she tried talking to Brian & Johnny a bit.
10. I pay for Sinnina's dinner. She says "Julie, tomorrow...do not be late." I wasn't late today :p

Whew! And that...was it. Please remind me to work harder to prevent situations like this in the future! Unfortunately, attendance was pretty low for tonight's study...only Johnny & Shelly, two strong Chr*stian friends, showed up. We decided to just watch a movie, and work harder and pr*y that more people would come next week. Afterwards, Brian made my day (or week, or month), by figuring out the problem with my computer, which has worked wonderfully since then!!! To say thanks, I bought him a beer when Kelsey and I went out to buy ice cream. I said a pr*yer of thanksgiving, and it was off to bed!

Oh Chinglish...what is there to say, besides "thank you?"

Tuesday—Breakfast was fun today...there's a sweet middle-aged teacher at my school that I've bonded with, even though we can't talk too much anymore (we've used up all of my Chinese and her English already with small talk). But when I walked into our eating area (we don't have a cafeteria, just a small room), she stood up, greeted me, scooped me up a big portion of noodles, and gave me her seat. Sinnina noticed and commented, "She is very kind to you," to which my friend replied, "I love you!" Aww! Teaching went well, though the culture shock of Chinese-style communication always surprises me--when I showed up to teach 3 of my classes today, Sinnina was already teaching them. Okay...? Happy to have the internet AND a working computer to get me through my long breaks at school, I excitedly chatted away with seven friends on facebook...oh technology, while we have a love-hate relationship, I sure appreciate your help dealing with homesickness!!! I had a LONG bus ride home (about an hour), grabbed some delicious barrel bread (the dough's cooked, well, in a huge barrel, right there in the street), and met Kelsey to do some shopping. We had fun at a 10 yuan store (lots of cheap and girly stuff), laughing at "Chinglish" shirts, got some street food for dinner, and watched a little T.V. The night was topped off marvelously, playing a fun board game with Brian & Kelsey, and getting a WONDERFUL surprise-- a phone call from my Grandma! Love you lots Grandma...thanks for making my day, and for always making me smile :)  

A (relatively small) throng of folks waiting for the bus.

Wednesday—As usually is the case, an encounter with a foreigner on the bus led to a nice conversation...he was a middle-aged man from Bangladesh, also just starting to teach kindergarten, at a school just one bus-stop away from mine. Also wondering what he got himself into ;) Encounters with Chinese people are nice too, of course. Just more tricky lots of the time, haha. A grandpa on the bus introduced his grandson to me and then, as is customary, tried to get the two of us talking for the remainder of our ride together. Oh, and just to clarify, his grandson was about 3 years old :) I also don't know how to respond to understanding the ladies talking about me while we eat breakfast together...saying my Chinese is decent (thanks for the compliment, but not true) and that I am "xin gang" (sexy...again, I guess it's a compliment, but...). So I just sat there, smiled, and kept eating. Most classes were good today, but my "biggest" class was loud and unruly. A co-teacher helped out a little, but could tell I was frustrated, asking me "bu gaoxing ma?" (you are not happy?) as I left. Home for lunch, I grabbed some xiao baozi (little buns stuffed with meat) and food from a nearly "buffet," studied a little Chinese, and waited for Kevin to come take me to the police station. After the usual last-minute notifications, changes in meeting time, etc. Kevin drove me to the station, only to discover that for some reason we couldn't accomplish anything there that day. Oh well. Perfect cure for frustration: Papa John's with Andrea :D After that, I ended the night getting to know the roomie Kelsey a little more with some lovely girl talk!

You just never know what you might see on your walk home from dinner!

Thursday—Today was good, but pretty free of any good stories. After teaching, Kevin took me to the police station, and we had success! Yay! Almost done with all this annoying running around town, registering, etc. While at the station, I talked with French man who married a Chinese lady, has lived in Wuhan for 10 years, but still speaks zero Mandarin and hates Chinese food. Interesting :p After grabbing street food with Brian and Kelsey, I walked over to Andrea & Aaron's place to visit their B*ble study. A nice crowd showed up, I got to see my friend Bonnie again for the first time since being back, and we 3 foreigners had fun making fools of ourselves singing a "Noah" song for those in attendance. You remember "The L*rd told Noah...there's gonna be a floody, floody?" Yup, we rocked that one :D Study was great, especially during a discussion when we all got to share what we think should be most valued in a marriage. We wound down with some funny American T.V. afterwards.

"Sorry little guy!" I hated to do it, but the end justified the means :)

Friday—Sorry for the picture spoiler, but yep, Friday night involved some good old-fashioned pumpkin carving. After teaching, I got off the bus a stop early and headed to K11, a "gourmet tower" of restaurants. Naturally, I toured around a little bit, discovered the restaurant on the top floor that a foreigner to me was ridiculously expensive, and settled on McDonald's :D I spent the afternoon taking advantage of K11's free internet, walking over to Starbucks (once the internet time limit ran out at K11), and moseying on over to Andrea's place. We ate a yummy supper at the "hole-in-the-wall" Tim introduced us to last year (thanks Tim! We love it and are carrying on the tradition), and met our friend Angela. She agreed to help us move a bunch of my stuff from last year that was taking up space in Andrea's apartment. Aaron assisted us in hauling the bulky and awkward bags down the five flights of stairs, and Andrea and I took a taxi to my new apartment, quickly got it upstairs using the elevator (thank goodness), and waited for Angela and Aaron to come. Well, or so we thought :) I guess something got lost in translation, and we ended up waiting for our friends at my place for almost an hour, before eventually taking a taxi back to Andrea's, where they were still waiting for us on the street. Oops! Frustrating at the time, but funny looking back :) The three of us ladies walked to the grocery store to select some lovely little nangua (pumpkins), which were quite tiny, and tricky to carve with either butcher or butter knives. Knives were broken, and the shells of the little things were somehow really thick, so it was a trying to process, but rewarding!!!

The work in progress.

Saturday—I slept in until a glorious 10 a.m., in Andrea's comfy bed, then we went to get some KFC for lunch, and snacked on scrumptious pumpkin seeds she'd cooked, while watching a movie. Great morning :) Our recruiter, Kevin, invited Brian, Kelsey & I out for tea. The shop where we drank was a pretty typical traditional-style tea tasting spot, with a cozy table and lots of different kinds to sample, alone with snacks. Kevin had brought a couple Chinese friends, so it kind of ended up being mostly we three foreigners talking and then those three, but it was still nice. One not-so-nice moment: Kevin graciously presented us with some "cookies," for which we were initially excited. However, upon biting in, I recognized a familiar taste: beef. Yep. The outside of these treats was glazed and cookie-esque, but the filling was room-temperature, somehow sweetned, beef. Oh boy...Brian finished his, I ate about half of mine, and dear Kelsey managed to take a bite, but...thinking about them still makes me feel a little sick :p The highlight of my day happened a bit later, while going shoe shopping with Kelsey...I saw a girl getting onto a motorcycle taxi, and at the same second our eyes locked--it was Ciel, one of my favorite students from last year's middle school. We just kind of walked towards each other, staring with our mouths hanging open at first, then hugging and sharing our surprise and delight over seeing each other again :D Ciel mentioned that she'd tried calling me, and that she didn't know I'd be back already...I assured her I'd been around for a couple weeks. Only later did I realize that she probably had my old phone number...sadness. Hopefully she and I can get into contact. Just the sheer surprise in seeing her, and knowing she was equally happy to see me, was a wonderful feeling! For dinner, a few friends from Wuchang (Nicole, Peter, Darrin) joined Andrea, Shirly and I for Papa John's :) Stuffed and happy, I came home to tackle the massive amount of stuff we'd retrieved from Andrea's place!

Sunday—Brian, Kelsey, and I took the bus together to ch*rch this morning. After the service and B*ble study, Jess and I headed out together to finally spend some time catching up and hanging out. We got massages at her favorite place, which was definitely a better experience than I'd had there last year...it was painful and awkward...this time, it was relaxing...and only a little awkward ;) We had a good talk and then took the bus to her apartment. We had delicious pita wraps from a huge street food alleyway for lunch, along with delectable CARAMEL milk tea. Nai cha (milk tea) is a staple drink here, close to how coffee is in the U.S., and I love its chocolate and coffee flavors, but this was the firs time caramel was available! Exciting!!! After lunch, Jess had to do some lesson planning, so I took a luxurious nap in her comfy bed :) After that, we had some more catching up time, hung out with Nicole (and ate some yummy Velveeta popcorn she made), and watched a movie. It was a nice afternoon & evening with the girls. Once I got back home, I made a quick phone call to my friend Sophia, and did some laundry. For some reason, Kelsey's able to do her laundry with no problem, but whenever I try to wash clothes, the machine stops mid-cycle. Then, I have to re-start it, and it starts playing "Jingle Bells" all over again. Yup, our washer plays Jingle Bells. It's a handy feature for letting you know when the wash is done though...more fun than a boring old American buzzer :D

Two Creepy Pumpkins: A little too happy, and ominously staring.

Donald Trump...Eat Your Heart Out!

Originally I had entitled this blog, "My Grace is Sufficient for You," but settled on this more lighthearted one in the end :) That being said, this week (October 10th-16th) was pretty rough at times. I found myself questioning, more than once, my decision to return to Wuhan. Yet through it all, He continued to strengthen me and give me comfort and encouragement. When the earthly platforms we're used to standing on are shaky or topple, it reminds us how He is our true joy...He is all we need. I ask for your pr*yers that He will give me many opportunities to share this happiness with others!

View of Wuhan outside my bedroom window...not bad :)

Monday—I woke up and met Kevin today, to journey to the hospital for a health check. On our drive there, he told me that the school yesterday didn't like my lesson. They said I spent too much time talking about the same things, and that I didn't have enough control over the children. Understandably upset, especially given that the school had given me no guidelines or ideas as to what I should expect for teaching, I felt pretty low throughout the rest of the day. While the teaching is something I ended up enjoying last year, that's certainly not why I came back. I came back because making friends and sharing the G*spel with people brought me such great joy, and because I felt I wanted to spend another year serving HIM. School here is secondary for me, at best, and I felt insanely frustrated to have to deal with a difficult school and complicated situation. These feelings were probably also compounded by the fact that last year's school complimented me and my teaching, and several teachers commented on students' positive evaluations of my class. A huge blessing, but one that made this year a tough transition. After delivering that deafening blow, Kevin left me at the hospital by myself to navigate around for my health check...thanks buddy ;) Actually it's easy to do all that stuff (the forms we had to follow have English on them), and there are helpful staff, like the lady taking my chest X-ray who yelled at people peeking around the curtain (American hospitals are sooooo nice and private)! 

Banner commemorating 100th Anniversary of the 1911 Revolution. Lots of the events happened right here in Wuhan, so it was a proud historical moment for our fair city :)

After my health check (and, as is common, meeting some people from America and France, exchanging stories and "What are you doing here?" moments), I had to find a bus that would take me back to my apartment, on the other end of town. I had to transfer a couple times, but it still is a nice feeling to be able to navigate from a less-familiar part of town, being able to read a bit of Chinese on street signs and bus routes, and not being as confused as I was last year :p I was distracted from my crabbiness by looking out the window at all the guards and commotion surrounding the special festival in the city, and calling Sherry (our p*stor Adam's wife) to see if she could recommend any other good schools to me. I grabbed some lunch, came home and made a couple calls to potential schools, and then (after a bit of a pity party) started to plan my lessons for the next day of teaching. Not too long afterwards, Kevin called me and said my school would not hire me, and wanted to look for another teacher. So I guess it wasn't really getting fired, and that the first day was more of a test run, but I didn't know that going in, and to me it felt like...being FIRED! Oy. I had been pr*ying just about all day that HE would grant me relief to the confusion of teaching at that school...and I guess HE did...just not in the way I expected :p Anyway, Kevin comforted me and said the school wasn't prepared for a foreign teacher and that it wasn't my fault, which made me feel better, as did a text from Sherry reminding me that "HE will work everything out." I was also cheered up a bit later by having dinner with my good friend Connie, an amazing Chr*stian girl with great English, who attended study regularly last year and was always good to joke around with and listen to my mini-dramas. Hehe. It sure is a blessing to already have some wonderful friends here this year! After our girl talk and fried noodles, we headed to my apartment, where 23 people came to attend study!!! What an amazing night! We had a guest speaker, Jim Witt, who leads a group called China Partners, and he did a nice job presenting the topic "The Will of G*d." In addition to study, I was so thrilled to be reunited with awesome study friends from last year: Don, Britney, Sylvia, Shelly, Johnny, Rock, and more! Lots of hugs and excitement, and encouragement from Him after a rough day! HE is great :)

Dr. Witt presenting at our study, with Johnny and Jonathan Li helping to translate :)

Tuesday—I woke up bright and early today to visit a new school Kevin had found for me. Even though Kevin's English is good, there's still so many gaps in the info he gives me...I knew I needed to take bus 71 somewhere, but he didn't know the name of the stop I should get off at. I called him to ask for his help, and he still didn't know where I needed to go, so I ended up taking a taxi and asking Kevin to tell the driver where to go. After 20ish minutes of confusing driving, and the cab driver continually pulling over to ask directions, I got dropped off a few blocks from my school. Informed about my whereabouts, my contact person came to pick me up. Calling her "Selena" for a few days, I eventually asked her to spell it for me...turns out her name is "Sinnina." Okay. She greeted me warmly, but has a pretty basic English level, so our communication was a bit awkward. I met several other teachers (most with minimal English, but most friendly, and one with good English), stood outside greeting students, and sat in on classes for the day. It was good for me to observe how the school operates, how English classes are run, and just the feel of the school in general. Honestly though, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by swarms of kiddies, and watching teachers discipline kids by hitting them in the face or dragging them out of the room by their shirts, lifting them in the air and nearly choking them :( Sometimes the kids get hit here just for not knowing the right answer...and these are 4-year-olds. Oh man. Throughout the day I got to practice my Chinese my introducing myself and my life to the Chinese teachers here (I'm the only foreign teacher at my school). Too bad I'd basically exhausted my knowledge of the Chinese language after the first day ;) All in all, I felt like the school had potential, and my meeting with the principal went well, but I still wasn't sure how I felt about the school. Deciding to sleep on it, and show up the following day again, I took the bus back home and met Andrea and our good friend Shirly for pizza! Papa John's is a close walk from our houses, and we feasted on American goodness...with garlic butter (the key ingredient to our love of Papa John's over Pizza Hut) :D We had a much-needed relaxing and laughter-filled evening, and afterwards I headed off to buy a notebook. Sinnina was insistent that the notebook I used on my first day wasn't big enough, so I ended up walking 15 minutes to the supermarket to pick one up, only to realize on my walk home that they sell them at the corner store RIGHT by my apartment. Ah well. Good to know for next time!

What a nice welcome to the grocery store! Also noteworthy: this photo was taken on a "people-mover" like in airports that serves as an escalator between levels of the massive shopping center.

Wednesday—Sinnina met me at the bus stop today to "help me take the bus to school." I probably could've made it just fine on my own, but she was unable to explain which bus I needed to take, so she just showed me instead :p I had another day of observing Sinnina teach at school, which I was very grateful for-- nice to have more time to prepare than the previous school had given me. I think I pleased the principal by electing to stay for the whole day and observe class, even though usually I'll be able to leave by 11:10 on Wednesdays. When I first arrive at school, I eat breakfast, and then stand outside greeting students for half an hour. The kids are pretty shy and confused by me so far :) An annoying part of the day would be during my "free time" when Sinnina would summon me to help the tiniest class eat their breakfast, get changed, etc. I feel very strongly that that isn't part of my job description, but I didn't want to argue with her either. Honestly speaking, this day was pretty rough for me, still unsure about the school, adjusting to classes and trying to communicate with my boss (who comes off pretty bossy and confusing, possibly just because of the language gap). I was pr*ying for strength to make it through and trust in Him, when my computer stopped working. I have to confess that I was having a hard time looking to Him to keep me strong, and was questioning why so many things seemed to be going wrong. But, I had packed along the book we were reading for FoC B*ble Study (Th*ology of the Cross), which contained a lot of comfort. I'm also grateful again, that He blessed me with so many nice friends this year. Not understanding why my computer randomly stopped working, I texted several friends asking for their help. Three or more people responded saying they'd be more than willing to look at my computer, take me to a shop, or have a friend look at it. So many people offered to help that I told some of them not to worry about it, because I already had enough offers :) Once I got home, my lovely friend Sylvia came by my apartment to look at my computer (she studied computer-related subjects in college). She didn't have any immediate solutions, but had some good ideas of things to try. Spending the evening with her cheered me up so much. We went out to grab dinner and had some good girl talk and serious conversation, walked around arm-in-arm (something I really like about the culture in China), and did a little shopping. We spent over 30 minutes in a nearby shop filled with random items (makeup, jewelry, games, household supplies...kinda like a Chinese "Dollar Tree") and laughed a lot at some funny dice games we found. We also cracked up at the shop owner, who asked where I was from. Sylvia and I both told her I was American, but she insisted that I look VERY British and MUST be British. She just kept repeating "Ying Guo Ren! Ying Guo Ren!" (literally British country person) over and over. Eventually we just laughed it off and continued shopping, but again as we left she shouted her insistence that I am in fact British, not American :D It was such a comfort to spend that time with Sylvia...another frustrating day with a nice conclusion!

Turkish meat-kabob ("chuan" in Chinese) vendor. They're all over the city...quite tasty and spicy!

Thursday—I woke up at 6:30 today, got ready in 20 minutes, and boarded the bus for my first day of teaching! I was pretty nervous, and didn't completely know what to expect, but Sinnina was there to help me through it, and it went pretty well. Each morning I teach 5 classes: the Strawberry Class (2-3 year olds, for 10 minutes), the Biggest Class (5-6 year olds, for 20 minutes), the Big Class (5-6 year olds, for 20 minutes), the Middle Class (4-5 year olds, for 20 minutes), and Small Class 1 (3-4 year olds, for 20 minutes). Teaching, while repetitive, is pretty easy in theory-- singing lots of songs, doing some chants, and working on simple vocabulary. They tell me almost exactly what to teach, so that's quite nice, and means almost zero lesson planning...a huge plus :D Whether I'll be able to control these kiddies is another story! Sinnina said she liked my teaching, was very happy with it, and that I am "clever" (standard compliment here...I don't know if I've ever been called smart or intelligent...it's always "clever"), and sent me off for the day. Still feeling down about my computer, unsure about my school, and frustrated with the month so far in general, I was ecstatic when my parents and sister Maria called me on my bus ride home. We caught up, and they also let me vent to them for awhile. Thanks guys, for being the best family I could ever want! I love you :)

The "lovely" view of the rubbish pile from my apartment balcony ^_^

I met Connie at Tong Ji Hospital, her workplace, for lunch, and then to have her friend take a look at my computer. Two exciting things happened: 1) our friend Britney, a student there, just happened to spot us in the cafeteria out of the thousands of people, and we ate lunch together and 2) when Connie's friend took a look at my computer, it started up as normal, without a problem. He looked at it for awhile, but couldn't come up with any explanation as to why it just started working again. I was also confused, but pretty happy :D In the evening we had some FoC bonding time when Kelsey, Brian, and I went out to eat at an awesome nearby restaurant. It's a nicer, sit-down place, but it has a picture menu!!! Combining that with our small but growing knowledge of Chinese food, we ordered a scrumptious meal of sweet and sour pork, spicy potatoes, and more. It was nice catching up with Brian and getting to know Kelsey more. Our apartment doesn't have internet yet (Kelsey and I don't have enough money to pay the yearly up-front cost), so thankfully Brian lets us use his :) After hanging out at his place for a bit, Kelsey and I went to bed VERY early...Andrea and my friend Taylor called me just after 10, but I was already sleeping, and ignored their calls. They did have exciting news to tell me though...

I didn't capture this too well (I was on the bus), but there were hundreds of  guards standing by in Wuchang (the part of Wuhan with lots of universities) for the opening of its new museum, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, which ended dynastic rule in China. Oh, and the Chinese president was in town!

Friday—My friend Taylor wants to be b*ptized!!! Today turned out to be possibly the best day I'd had in China this time around...teaching went pretty well and I'm starting to get the hang of how classes work here, and then I texted Andrea and Taylor in regards to their calls the night before. Taylor, a good and funny friend of ours, with excellent English, called Andrea and then tried calling me to tell us he wants to be "washed," to become a part of G*d's family! Wow. The news certainly made my day...he is an awesome guy and a cool friend, but I never knew at studies how much he was actually into the B*ble, and how much of it was just liking to practice English with foreigners. HE works in awesome ways though-- Taylor moved away from Wuhan, but his boss in his new city (a Chinese guy), is a Chr*stian and has been taking Taylor to ch*rch. Just amazing. Thanks to that great news and to it being FRIDAY, teaching blew by! I headed over to Brian's apartment after school to use the internet, hung out with Kelsey in the afternoon (we did some redecorating and jamming out to her ipod), and got together with all the Hankou gang (Kelsey, Brian, Andrea, Aaron, and I) for absolutely scrumptious ranch burgers. It was a group effort as we all contributed something to the feast...it's not often that you get a large quantity of meat in Chinese dishes, so the burgers, while expensive, were well worth it! I spent the night at Andrea's...since we were roomies last year, we had lots of catching up to do. We got some wine, watched a movie, and had to pause it over and over because we kept talking. We didn't finish the movie until the next weekend ;)

Okay, so here's the story: Kelsey is proudly displaying our new (and improved, hehe) wall decor. Last year Brian and Aaron had what they claimed were a giant "A" and "B" on the wall, to stand for their names. But to us, they just looked like blobs ;) Sorry guys, if you're reading this... 

So we spent over and hour trying to tear the pictures down without ripping them (a difficult task, since the tape would NOT come off the wall, and their pics were just on printer paper), then we hung them back up to actually look like "A" and "B." And, well, I think you can figure out why we chose to display a big "J" and "K." :)

Saturday—Today was an exciting day: after Taylor's request to be b*ptized, he also announced that he'd be in Wuhan for the weekend. So Andrea and I headed to his house, and met his lovely mother. Taylor's a bit of a trouble-maker and claims he was even worse as a child, so it was fun asking him mom for stories about his childhood and looking at their family photo albums. Ivy and Jess also came to share in the reunion and delicious lunch! Taylor's mom made a feast of soup, noodles, fish, tofu, baozi (a Wuhan staple-- buns stuffed with meat), crabs (whole crabs that we had to crack and dig into on our own), and homemade wine. The wine was delicious...she used grapes, a bit of sugar, and water, and left it to ferment for a month. The result was amazingly sweet, some of the tastiest wine I've ever had! Along with lots of joking around and catching up, Taylor also asked us to tell him more about being "Washed" and what that involves. Jess, Andrea, and I took turns fielding his questions and explaining things to him, excited to have him so interested. Afterwards I headed to Hanyang to meet my friend Kristine, who I'd become friends with on the bus last year. Earlier in the week, having a great QQ convo with her, and making plans to get together, was a big pick-me-up. There was some confusion as to where we'd meet, but eventually I ended up taking a motorcycle taxi to meet them. Here's how motorcycle taxis work in China: they're not official city vehicles or anything like that, just random dudes driving around offering rides. Oops, as I'm writing this I feel compelled to add--sorry Mom! It wasn't my first choice, but there weren't any readily available taxis. And lots of Chinese people take 'em :) ANYWAY, people are usually around offering rides, you tell them where you want to go and maybe haggle over the price, and you're on your way! I told the driver I thought it was too far of a journey, but he said it was fine, and offered a cheap price. 

At the roller rink with Kristine and Lily (I gave them both their "English names" because it's fun...and I'm awful at remembering Chinese names) :p

After a bit of struggle communicating with the friendly driver, he shook my hand and dropped me off at 万达 (Wanda), a popular shopping mall in Wuhan. The newest one in the city, this place was gigantic (it contained an IMAX), clean, and modern. I waited around for Kristine, who surprised me by showing up with FOUR friends. Oh boy. I felt overwhelmed, and also OLD (they're all 20-year-olds), but we had a lot of fun walking around, talking and joking. Kristine's pretty bubbly and sweet, even when she says things like "You look slim now. Last year when I met you, I think you were a little bit fat." She later on referred to herself as "VERY fat" many times though, so I wasn't very offended :) The two boys can speak English, but were pretty shy, so it was mostly us girls walking around and talking, doing a bit of shopping, spotting other foreigners (always a welcome sight), checking out a skating rink, and heading out to dinner. We had fish, cabbage, and other stuff that I can't remember. My fave part of the evening was getting the chance to share my fa*th. Kristine mentioned something about my being a happy person, and I shared with her the REASON why. Later on at dinner, I pr*yed to myself and she commented on that, asking me what my r*ligious beliefs are. Between the four of them (their English is good, but talking is still tricky when it's with deeper topics) I was able to explain how important HE is to me, and told them I'd like to invite them to ch*rch sometime. Please keep these young people in your pr*yers!!! They wanted me to sleep over at the girls' dormitory after dinner, but I was too beat from the week, and headed home, watched some T.V. and was out for the night.

With the newly-named "Jon" and Jim (the only one of the 4 who had an English name before meeting me) :)

Sunday—Today was another uplifting day. I journeyed across town to ch*rch with Brian and Kelsey, ran into Aaron and Andrea on the bus, and delivered c*mmunion wafers and children's B*ble materials I'd brought from America. Our Chinese friend Goliath (yup, that's his English name) was confirmed today...what a blessing! Afterwards we headed out to get street food, and I ate with Kelsey, Darrin, and Goliath. Kelsey and I enjoyed naps at home in the afternoon, and then met up with our Chinese friends Esther and Angela, and Andrea and Nicole for dinner and some girly pampering. Our dinner was two parts: delicious and insanely spicy oysters, and McDonald's double-cheeseburgers (to combat the spiciness and also because the oysters weren't too filling), haha. With Angela's help, the four of us foreigners got some pretty nails for pretty cheap (about $5-$7). The week ended with taking a taxi back home to plan for B*ble Study with Brian and Kelsey.

Clockwise from lower left: Kelsey, Andrea, Nicole, and my decked-out fingernails!