DanceDanceRevolution and a New Car.. say what?

I have been hanging out a lot with friends for possibly the last time lately. I will be returning to the States on March 2 (with my mom! more on the in a minute). But that means that for those students and other foreigners who are going home for the Chinese holidays, I will not see them again before I leave. This break is actually longer for some people than summer break. The students get out at the beginning of January and go home for Chinese New Year/Spring Festival (Feb 14 this year).. and the dorms don't re-open until the beginning of March. So I've had a few interesting hang-out times..

Including one with a foreigner friend named Julie. She just left to go Stateside for the holidays. We went looking for a suitcase for her before she left and there was a lot of riggamaroe involved. Apparently, some shops require you to get a cash card to buy things there which is like a gift card (you just give them the money and they put it on the card) for personal use. *shrug* So we had to go hunt that down. And when she did, she received an orange and got entered into a drawing for a new car. Unfortunately, she didn't win the car.




On the way to the 5 different booths/shops it took to find everything, we passed an employee playing the Chinese version of dance dance revolution. :D Haha. So I gave it a shot. It's been a few years since I played, but I did okay til it drew a crowd. Then I lost focus. :( Anyway, after all that, we went and had coffee and talked for a while. It was a good day. I'm going to miss all these friends.. I'm excited that I can keep in touch with most of them though. Internet is amazing!! Dad has blessed me so richly in my relationships with people here!

My mom is coming to China!! She's arrives February 18th and will fly back home with me in March. It's her first time on a plane and her first time out of the country. :) Please keep her in your pr's! Also, as things are winding down in China, I still encounter new things and people daily. Please remember me that I will see every opportunity to bless Dad for what it is. Thanks ya'll! Love ya!

HoLiDaYs

Hey guys! Happy 2010! It's a bit chilly here.. reaching -20C and colder some days (which is neg in Fahrenheit as well). I hope wherever you are you're snuggled in a nice cozy room. =) I have gotten to go to nursing homes, a foster home, and an orphanage over the past few weeks. It's so amazing to see so many smiles. People joined the family right and left. And some were even washed. Very fun.


I'm getting ready to come back in February. I feel like Dad is telling me it is time to go home. It's stressful as well as a release of stress in more ways than one. I'm feeling a bit like I'm being pulled in a billion different directions. But Dad is good. And I just have to trust Him. I hope everyone's Christmas and New Years' was wonderful! Love you guys!

Where is home?

Hm. It's 1:15 AM, so if this sounds a bit like an awkward post, then that's probably because my body is screaming at me that I should be asleep, and yet for some reason I can't seem to get there. Lately I've read about a Christmas parade in Ranburne (the town where I grew up) and seen pictures of my family who lives there. I've seen pictures and heard comments about Auburn and the campus fellowship there that I was a part of for 2 years. And I've been here, in China. And I've seen people's faces light up when I say "Sheng deng kuai le" (Merry Christmas in Chinese). One of my teammates, who is much more like my brother now, asked me on the bus today something about studying "when you are at home." I couldn't answer. Because it took me a full 2 minutes to understand the question. I didn't know where home was. I'm still working on what exactly that means.


I've gotten to spend the past few days with people and children that I would gladly adopt.. as grandmothers and grandfathers or even as my own children. I've seen smiles and a few tears. I have seen snow and ice, frozen bus windows, and frozen lakes. Muffins, Christmas songs, bananas and oranges, sharing His word. I love it. I love the people. What now? One of my favorite songs. By Steven Curtis Chapman. What can I do with it? What will I do with it in my future, and where will I put it in my life? This trip, more than a trip really, had been a lifestyle, it has been a complete rearranging of thoughts of feelings, of who I am. I look forward with anticipation to the continued change.

A Friend

So today we went to a new nursing home. It's about 3 stories tall and we saw only a few of the many residents there. We were, however, able to pass out a muffin to each person there thanks to a couple of sisters here in our community who were willing to make and wrap about 150. =)

So anyway, on the way home we each shared something we learned. One of my teammates has just arrived back from Beijing. She was sharing that she is not a believer, but recently has been introduced to a reason to believe in Dad's existence. She had just bought some new earrings in Beijing, and not ten minutes later, a piece fell off of one and she couldn't find it anywhere. She was all prepared to give up when she said "*Father help me." It was barely out of her mouth when she stepped on the piece that had fallen off. =) So now she's "waffling" back and forth. Please pr for this sweet girl and all of those family members surrounding her. She has such an amazing heart.

The Ultimate Game of Chicken

Haha. Ok, so have you ever played chicken.. I mean the real thing, in cars, where you drive as fast as you can toward one another and turn at the last possible second? Well, I played that at least 3 times yesterday. Only, I wasn't driving. I was in a taxi.

I love the traffic in China. It's terrifying and nerve-wrecking and amazing. There are traffic laws, but they do not really get enforced. Red lights only mean stop when there are people on the other street, and then only sometimes still. Yellow lights most definitely mean speed up. And the lines for lanes.. those don't really exist. You swerve and slam on brakes and almost get run over by buses everywhere you go. I love it. It isn't uncommon for taxi drivers to go up on the bicycle part of the sidewalk when there is a red light to get ahead of everyone. However, one day, even my public bus went up on the sidewalk.. that was a bit interesting. It is also not uncommon for the taxi drivers to see a small break in traffic on the other side of the road, in oncoming traffic and take off. You get up to 65 mi/hr (which doesn't seem all that fast, but we're in the city) and try to make it around as many people as possible, all while looking for a place to jump back in and dodge oncoming vehicles. If you get motion-sick, you probably shouldn't come to China. There is one rule: if it's bigger than you, you let it go where it wants.

Icicle anyone?

I have a very fun, very simple story for you guys. This morning at around 7:30 AM, I left the apartment, not knowing that it was raining to go along with the freezing temperatures. Of course, I cannot judge temperature at all.. I have been freezing for the past week and it has only been in the 50s. So I walked outside, fighting the wind and rain. With my hood on, my longjohns on under my skirt, and my boots, I'm scared to even think about what I looked like. I was walking to the bus stop to go to school and had the random thought that maybe I should send a text to one of my friends and tell them "I'm an icicle." Well, almost as soon as I thought it, the rain changed to sleet just long enough to cover my jacket in droplets of ice, and then it promptly changed back into rain. :) I laughed the whole way to school (forgetting to ever even send the text). If anyone doubts that our Father has a sense of humor, think again. Haha.. it still makes me smile...

New Faces, New Heart

I started back to class today. I dropped down to the class below the one I was taking, and it's taken so much stress off of me. :) Buh-bye headaches. It's pretty much the same things.. even the same books.. just a lot slower-paced. So I'm hoping I'll catch more as well. I was invited to sit beside a girl named Ann (short for Anna). I find that interesting on two accounts: first, the fact that Ann is my middle name and second, that she is the second girl I've become friends with recently here that is named Anna. Hmm.. maybe I'm supposed to name a future child Anna. :)

So on a more serious and a little less day-dreamy note, part of my team just left for a trip to Cambodia and a rather large clinic there. It's a really exciting experience for them. They were all so excited to go. It's fun to see the Father putting that same desire to "Go." into their hearts that led me to this country. Also, this weekend, I'm sharing with a group of teenage foreign girls. I have an idea of what I want to say, but allowing Him to lead my tongue will be more beneficial than preparing a lifetime.

Temperatures are dropping and coats and layers are being put into use. I can't wait for the first snow!!