Reunited and it Feels so Good

Angus and I are back together!

Personal Hot pot.. Angus and Nick

Some KTV action (karaoke)

Old Street/Neighborhood

Amazing food.. lots of peppers

Well, this weekend was one of the most amazing I've experienced in China. I got to go to central China to ChongQing (ChongChing) and visit Angus. It has been a year and a half since I last saw him. I missed him terribly, but I had no idea just how much till I saw him. Now.. this is a one of a kind friendship. This is a deep rooted friendship, especially for being different cultures and everything.

Angus was always one that I didn't need to use words with. We can have complete conversations without even speaking.. and this weekend.. we found we can still do that. He still answered my questions before I asked and we still understood each other. Maybe even a little more. He is now studying in England so he is experiencing being a foreigner in a foreign land. He is learning so many amazing things and yet.. he's still my same old Angus.

Basically we talked, ate, visited, shopped, ate, laughed, ate, talked, and ate the entire weekend. Sichuan province is known for it's spicy food.. and I was in complete bliss the entire weekend. We had some of the best Chinese food I have ever put in my mouth. I didn't think it was too spicy either.. which is amazing. A habanero does nothing but taste sweet after the peppers I eat here. I love it.

We also had hot pot, which is one of my favorite things. Basically there is boiling broth and you order meats and veggies and tofus and cook them yourself in the broth. We went to this really cool buffet place, where you had your own personal pot instead of a family pot. It was really cool. I had the spicy of course and it was delicious. I'm sure I have a hole in my stomach after the things I've eaten this weekend.

The time together was like we never missed a beat. We just picked right back up. I love how this can work. I love that I have that with a Chinese person. It's an incredible thing to lay witness to. The best moment of the entire weekend was Sunday night. He took me to his grandparents, where I met his entire family. Then to his house where I got to visit with his parents and look at baby pictures and everything. It was a wonderful view inside his life. I figured out why our friendship is so strong. His dad is an amazing man, and a thinker. I really appreciated our conversation and the things he taught me. I can see exactly why Angus is who he is. He gets his sillyness from his grandma though. She was awesome and this tiny little Chinese woman.

I loved this weekend. Monday morning was really hard, but he gave me a big hug and smile and made his silly face and sent me on my way. He will return to England for another term, home for summer holiday, and then back to get his masters in England. We will hopefully see each other this summer and then again in January of 2010. That is the plan as of now. It's amazing to get to have such a great friendship. It's hard though because I know that I'm planting a seed.. it's just so hard to wait for it to grow. I don't like this uneasy time of just trying to grow it. I want it to be grown and I want to be certain of that. It's hard to imagine having such a strong earthly friendship and that being the end of it. It's too hard. Nothing is impossible for DAD. Please be talking to him about Angus though.. it's weighing heavily on my heart.

I am back in Ningbo now.. and working on finishing grades up. We are leaving on our journey in about 12 days. I'm getting ready. It's exciting.

WeWeeChu a Merrie Christmas

Merrie Christmas from China. This week I have finished final exams, I have had various meals with students, and I have received various presents from students and friends and family. It has definitely been a celebration week. Everyone is so interested in Christmas and what the festival is about. They all think the importance is on Christmas Eve though. It was impossible to find a table last night at a restuarant.

Last night we cooked.. and baked and watched a movie.. and spent time together. I went to bed pretty early. I just haven't felt very Christmasy, but this morning it hit me. Daphne and her mom called me this morning and wished me Merrie Christmas. It was so good to be woken up by someone from home.. and to know that i was remembered. I just cried a little. Then I showered and got dressed before my mom called.

I opened my presents while my mom was on skype with me, so she could see. Since my birthday is while I'm gone I opened my birthday presents too. I was excited to get some baking things and chocolate chips and things. I got a hoodie and a shirt. It was a wonderful Christmas morning. I have been spending the rest of the day cooking and cleaning. We are watching A Christmas Story now. It's not the 24 hour marathon, but watching it once will do.

Tonight we were going to have dinner with 3 of our Best Chinese friends/family. We were so excited and it really was making the day so wonderful. We were going to share American food with them and gift exchange. Well.. not anymore. It is frustrating sometimes, but I understand it's a test. I know it's just part of being proven worthy, but it's hard on my heart. It hurts so much that we can't even share a meal with our friends. We can't even see them. It's been so long, and I miss them.

My heart is in a lot of pain these days just thinking about working here. I Love the work here so much and the people. I just want it to not hurt so badly. I want to have more trust in our DAD and his plan. I just want it to be easier sometimes. It scares me that our work isn't going to work completely and I might just not get to see my friends from China in the far future. It really put a damper on the day.

We are still going to have dinner with just the Americans and are going to enjoy it as best we can. It is evident that there is a cloud on the day. Other than that. I leave for Central China tomorrow morning. I keep forgetting about the trip. I hope I remember to catch my plane in the morning. I am so excited to be reunited with Angus. There is nothing better than knowing that I do get to see him again. I miss him terribly. I will be back on Monday and then I'm headed to Hangzhou for a couple days to see my family there on the 1st and 2nd. It's been a while and I miss them.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and enjoy your time with your families. Thank you for the encouragement and sweet notes. DAD bless.

Busy Week

Sorry it's been so long. It's been so crazy around here.

This last week I did most of my finals. Instead of doing them during class, I had students sign up for a time and come to the office. It worked out well, but I spent about 5-8 hours in the office a day with students. I was so completely exhausted by Friday night. Thursday night I went to sleep at 8. One night I was asleep by 6:30. I didn't know talking to students was that exhausting..

They had to answer one question for me and tell me how they are using it in their lives. The question was a pretty intense question, but it was wonderful to hear some of their answers. I learned so much about them and it was nice to see how seriously some of them took the final. Some did not even answer the question really, but just took the opportunity to pour their heart out to me. The question was "What is the most important lesson you have ever learned?" Students told me about losing a parent, or struggling with depression, about arguments with roomates, or helping friends. I had a vast array of answers and these are things that will make this World a better place if they remember these lessons and use them. It was a wonderful preparation for them for this next term with me. We get a lot more intense in the English language and in life lessons.

Anyways.. it's almost over. I have a few finals Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then Christmas Day. Then I leave for ChongQing to visit my best Chinese friend, Angus. He is home for holiday from studying in England. Then I get back on the 29th and go to Hangzhou on the 30th for New Years. Then back here for 9 days, and then off to Southeast Asia and North China. It's going to be a long 2 months.. at least I hope it doesn't fly by too quickly. This week of finals is a little shorter and less exhausting. I mostly have about 3 a day. I have to finish my Christmas shopping. I bought myself a pair of socks and wrapped them up. I also found some Cheeze Its at an import store when I was in Wuhan for Thanksgiving. I wrapped those and put them under the tree. It's going to be a good Christmas morning. It does take the mystery out of Christmas when you buy and wrap your own gifts... haha. I do have my normal Mrs. Clause gift (thanks Mom). I am excited about opening that one.

This weekend was pretty exciting. We had Christmas movie night on Friday and watched Elf after eating some Mexican food.. Awesome! Then Saturday we went to this family's apartment, where the Mom cooked us a fabulous lunch with lots of exotic sea foods and taught us how to make our favorite soup. This family is very very kind and have a beautiful 2 story apartment and a PIANO! I got to play a little.. They have a 15 year old boy who is going to America next year for boarding school. Bekah is his English tutor. They are the nicest family. It was nice just to be with a family again and visit. The mom can say a few words of English, but she is so sweet and the dad was so cute.
Then Saturday night we did some Christmas shopping and ate some Indian food. Indian is my very favorite food I think. I love the flavor of the curries and the spiciness. It's just so delicious. I do have a good spread of cultural foods here that I don't really have access to in East Texas. It's nice to be able to pick a country and go eat some of their food. Then Sunday we went and had meeting.

We've been meeting in the mornings, and that's been nice. The only thing is it's so early. We have to leave at 8:15, and on a Sunday.. that's early. We do get to catch the end of the NBA game when we get to Tricia's though. That's always fun. Magic beat The Lakers yesterday.. so that was nice. Then we have meeting and it's so encouraging. Yesterday was great because 3 of the downtown folks we only see once a week went to lunch with us and then shopping all day with us for some Christmas gifts and others we had to get. It was good because we got to spend time with them, but they also distracted Bekah while I bought hers and Jessica's presents. They showed us this new shopping area which was fun. Lots of Chinese shopping. I can't wait to go back. Then we went to hot pot for dinner.

Hot pot is my favorite meal in China. You have a pot of broth basically and you pick your meats and veggies and tofus and dumplings. You put them in and cook them and eat as you go. It's really fun and quite delicious. This place was a little different than most I've been to though. This was buffett style. You had your own personal pot of broth instead of a big one for the table. Then you went up and got a tray and piled it with whatever you wanted.. instead of ordering and getting a plate of that item. It was really awesome! I like this buffett style.

Last night I passed out early. I was so exhausted. Today I'm finishing my Christmas shopping and getting ready for baking for Christmas. I'm making an apple pie, green bean cassarole, and the stuffing. I am excited about Christmas dinner. I am more excited about ChongQing though. It's been so long since I've seen Angus face to face. Plus.. ChongQing is where hotpot started.. so basically I get to eat hotpot for a whole weekend. It should be fun. Let the travels begin.

life is normal here.. and then BAM!

This week has just been a normal week. Classes and teaching and time with friends. There are days where I know I doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. This week was one of them. Thiss week I gave my classes pictures and they had to tell a story to connect the pictures. They really enjoyed this creativity lesson. I had a lot of love stories and every boy was named Jack and every girl was Rose, or Heidi if it was a picture of me. (Titanic characters if you didn't catch that). There was also a picture of my mom and me on the Great Wall.. They all wanted to know who my "young friend" was.. or my "younger sister". I even had a student say.. "Your mom is so beautiful.. why aren't you?" haha. I just laughed. I have taught my class sarcasm..

Other than things like that it was just normal. I didn't do much other than clean and hang out. I have been trying to catch up on sleep before our big trip.

Then came today.. Sundays are special days here. They are days that I really get to experience the culture a little more. I am riding a lot of busses and seeing a lot of people. This morning we left a little early so we could get breakfast before we saw the family. I was sitting on the bus to this older woman.. and she just talked away to me. She was just talking about any and everything. I actually understood most of her words and she understood my "chinese" answers. She tried to teach me the correct tones.. haha. That's a joke for me.. I usually just speak really quickly so no one notices my tones. She was 78 years old. Amazing woman. She was beautiful. It made me feel so good that I could carry on a long conversation. It also made me happy that someone actually wanted to sit next to me and talk to me. They weren't scared of me.. It was an amazing feeling.

I miss home Sundays so much. I really get home sick for the fellowship with my family. I love my family here and the time with them. This sunday was even better because some of our family was back with us. It was still hard because the thoughts are not as challenging. I do love getting to hear lessons from home on my podcasts I listen to each week.

I was watching a movie and a boy said.. "The World has so much beauty that sometimes I don't know if my heart can take it. I think it might just explode." I listened to this and my automatic response was to disagree. I see so much hatred and violence. I feel the pain of people around me and those far away. People I don't even know. Sometimes it hurts my heart so badly, I think it might explode.. I wish I more like the boy and saw beauty in even those bad things. So from now on.. I am changing my point of view. I am going to look the beauty in this World on a daily basis.

Simplistic Views

This weekend has been a time of returning to simplicity. I have been without electricity for a over 24 hours. I just got it back. It has been a wonderful time actually. Without electricity there are no distractions. I can't turn on the TV, Music, Computer. It's just me and my thoughts.

Yesterday I laid in bed for the better part of the day reading and sleeping. I try not to take too many naps, but this weekend has been catch up on sleep weekend. It's my frist weekend i've been in town for a while. I read and studied and talked to DAD and just enjoyed the simplicity of the life I have been given. I used the computer a couple times, but then the battery ran out. I didn't open the fridge.. or have heat. I just curled up under my blankets and enjoyed my thoughts.

When it got dark.. it was time to sleep. When it got light.. i got up and started my day. It's hard to imagine there was a time that life was always like this. There was a day when people lived their lives according to the Sun and had no other means of "electricity". Families were closer then.. time was slower then too. It's been fun to be reminded of the lives led before I even was thought into existence. I've been reminded of that a lot lately. I am living a life similar to that of the 1st FAMILY. Our most important DAYS are not as safe anymore. (read into that sentence.)

The only hard part is that it has been the coldest weekend we have had so far. So I've been layering my clothes a lot. I'm not cold anymore.. the heat is turned on now.. and DAD provided beautiful sun today. I am thankful. I learned a lot about myself this weekend and enjoyed the more simple life.

Last night.. we went to a battle of the bands downtown. 2 foreign bands and the rest chinese. It was pretty cool. It was smokey and stuff so we didn't stay too long, but we saw the 1st foreign band. Lead singer was named Ramsey from the UK. I think I might love him.. or just his voice and he was cute. haha. It's just so rare to find cute foreign boys.. that can sing and be in a decent band. We live in China. It was fun. Then we went and listened to some Jazz.. so that was good too. All in all.. it's been a musical weekend and I like it. Tonight I am judging an English singing contest on campus. That will be fun too.

Christmas Spirit

This year the Christmas Spirit hit me exactly on Thanksgiving day. I turned on my Christmas CD by Point of Grace. I love it!! And boom.. it was Christmas Spirit. I had the complete desire to watch ELF and A Christmas Story. I wanted to decorate my apartment and make it all Christmasfied.



Well, tonight was decorating night. We went down to Tesco and got a few ornaments and lights for the tree.. and come back and I decorated. Turned on the Christmas music and jammed out while placing the ornaments around the tree that was left in my apartment from last year. It's really cute. It's silver and red. I have my ornament my Bibi sent with me.. it's hanging and i even put 10 yuan in it for Christmas day. I have a framed picture of my sister and myself under the tree for now. I am going to buy some socks and a pair of new glasses and wrap them up for myself probably. I will also put my last Dr Pepper under the tree too. I don't mind not having gifts under it, but at least Christmas morning will be nice like that. I'll probably actually cook myself some breakfast too.. and listen to Christmas music. Then read or something the rest of the day.



Tonight on the bus I saw funny things. I was quite aware of my surroundings and saw this.. a kid get really excited about using his mom's bus card. A mom carrying her 10 year old daughter.. ??? a car stopped on the road with his bumper sticking out the trunk.. a ghetto Chinese boy.. 3 men cracking up about Bekah???.. just pointing and laughing.. Beautiful Christmas lights at the Marriot.. a woman ride her bike almost into the side of the bus.. only to know the person in the seat behind me and start waving at him... a chinese boyfriend have to tell his girlfriend which handle she should hang on to.. really??? just grab the handle in front of you. I think that was about it for now anyways.


It's really cold here today and I"m regretting not bringing my pea coat. I do love my Columbia jacket with zip in fleece.. and my hoody. Staples this winter I'm sure. I'm really looking forward to Thailand and Cambodia and Vietnam.. at least the first 2.



This week's class was amazing! Everyone was really interested in talking about Education Systems all over the World. We talked about why Chinese are so intelligent.. and why Americans are so open minded. It was wonderful. I also told my pick pocket story. I quite enjoy telling stories... hmm. They told me it was OK to punch a man if he stole from me again.



Last night I cooked Spaghetti for one of my friends/students Catherine. It was her birthday. I also made Chocolate cake. She was really excited to have a small dinner with us. She and her friends have been fighting and her family. It was good for her to just be around us and hang out. She seemed to be grateful for the escape and the american food. Noodles are a tradition on your birthday here.. so you will have a long life or something. So that was culturally correct. I had forgotten about that tradition till she mentioned she had them for lunch too.. Chinese noodles of course. Anyways.. it's nice to start making friends a little more. It's just so hard this year..