I Won't be Home for Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve, and I am thousands of miles away from “home” and my family. This brings ambiguous and conflicting emotions. I don’t really know what to say, but a part of me feels this strong urge to write.

First of all, I am so blessed to have a family who loves me and supports me. I have been able to talk with them several times the past few days. Secondly, I am surrounded by an extended family that has made it their job to make sure that I am not alone on Christmas. From 6 pm Christmas Eve to sometime Christmas night, I have somewhere to be, people to hang out with, games to play, and amazing food to eat. The question then becomes why is it that I still feel a hint of depression and loneliness. 

Is it perhaps that I even after all these years of following Him that I, deep in my heart, still don’t know the true meaning of Christmas? Of course, my head knows the true meaning of Christmas. In my head, I see and hear Charlie Brown asking, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Then I hear Linus reciting the story according to Luke. I know that Christmas isn’t about gifts or Santa Clause or even spending time with family, but would it still feel like Christmas without those things? I’m not a huge gift person, and I didn’t grow up believing in Santa Clause, so the first two aren’t very hard for me, but what about the third one. What if I spent all of Christmas at home alone? Would it still be Christmas?

It becomes so easy for us at Christmas time to do what we always do: spend time with family, eat yummy food, exchange gifts, read the Christmas story, and sing carols. These are not bad things, but I want Christmas to be more than just a tradition that we always do. I want to let the story of Christmas to penetrate my heart. One carol, "Joy to the World," has done just that. Check out the third verse:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

The words to this verse struck me because it explains that Christmas is about bringing all of creation in to right relationship with the Father.  We minimize it by making it merely about the birth of Jesus. It seems to me that we, as modern day believers, do a good job of saying that Christmas is all about the birth of our Savior, but do we really act like it is. Do our hearts truly acknowledge it? How I can better show that Christmas is about the redemption of mankind and nothing else? The following video does a good job of telling a more complete Christmas story. However, I still believe that it is lacking because it ends at the manger. The manger is not the end. Rather it is still part of the rising action. The cross and the resurrection are the climax, the turning point in the story. We are still waiting for the final resolution. For this reason, we still sing "Come thou long expected Jesus."

Highlights of Thailand (ICEC Teacher’s Conference and other such adventures)

I ought to be grading or lesson planning because I am in no way ready for school this week, but I would much rather write a blog post. Anyways, I’m on the bus on the way home from the airport, so I don’t really feel like I am wasting time because I could be sleeping.

Eating:

I “celebrated” Thanksgiving in Thailand by eating spring rolls, red Thai curry, mango sticky rice, and mint gelato. Not quite what the pilgrims ate, but I think they would have appreciated the coming together of cultures. (Is that not at least part of the original intent of their celebration?)

Adventures:

Since my purpose for being in Thailand was for the conference, I did not have a great deal of time for adventures. However, I would say that I got probably the coolest adventure that I could have gotten out of this trip: Riding an elephant! It gets even better; I got hugs and kisses from the elephant as well. I think that I have seen an elephant in a zoo or two, but I do not have vivid memories of it, and I certainly have never been this close to an elephant before. Their trunks are prickly and rough, almost like a leather cucumber. These trunks have a firm grip; I felt slightly claustrophobic when two elephants had their trunks around me. Though it was more like a hug from two affectionate children.

Elephants might have just moved up to one of my favorite animals because they are just so stinkin’ cute (though they shall never surpass the platypus). To top it all off the elephant ride cost about $30, which in my mind is not a bad deal at all. I would say that it was worth every penny.

The Conference:

Here is the part where I give you full permission to stop reading. If you care about my professional development, then you are more than welcome to continue, but I won’t be offended, if you don’t care. To be honest, I am writing this part more for myself then I am for you. 

I would not say that I learned any earth shattering new information that I did not already know before the conference. It was mostly just a good refresher. There were few take-aways though: 1) During job-a-likes, one woman told us about a reading workshop she does that is more intense than normal peer-editing. It also seems to be more effective because it asks the students to edit their own work as well as their peers. 

2) I have thought for a little while now about starting blog where I post stuff that I have created for my classes. I follow a blog of a teacher who does this, and I think that it would make me a more reflective teacher (even though it is in my nature to do this anyways). I also think that it would be good to get feedback and to share my resources. Anyways, I went to a workshop about using social media to develop professionally, and I think that I would actually like to do this. I just have to find the time to set it up. 

3) I really want/need to create a culture of reading for fun. To be honest, for being an English teacher, I do not read nearly enough. There are far too many books that I should have read that I haven’t. Not only that, I also need to model for my students the idea of reading for enjoyment. How can I expect for my students to enjoy reading when I am always making them read for school. Or they feel like they have to read to improve their SAT score. Their SAT score will probably not stick with them for the rest of their lives (even though they think that it will), but a love of reading can. Plus, “A well-read person is less likely to be evil.” The biggest issue is how/when will I put this into practice. I have a few ideas; I just need to flesh them out/ implement them.

Final Thoughts

1) The conference was good, but exhausting. I don’t feel like my body ever recovered from the 1:50 am pick-up time on Wednesday morning. I think that Monday is going to be a bit rough.

2) It was excellent to see the Qingdao-ren, and I really miss them even though I am very happy with my new family.

3) I would go visit Thailand again since I did not really get to experience a ton of the culture. Though I would probably not ever live somewhere so warm.

4) I’m really blessed by my job and by the people whom I work with.

Thanksfulness 2012

Things that I have been thankful for this year:

1. My family in the US who is so supportive of me
2. My family in China who gives me a sense of belonging
3. A smooth transition from one school to another
4. The fact that I am no longer a first year teacher (even though I definitely have days, like today, when I feel like my brain has fallen out of my head)
5. My roommates
6. My school
7. My students 
8. My job
9. My co-workers
10. Really awesome travel opportunities (Did I mention that I'm going to Thailand tomorrow?)
11. Cool bonding moments with my students
12. China, my host country
13. Chinese people who are so patient with me when I attempt to speak Chinese
14. SKYPE! 
15. Facebook
16. Food
17. Having the opportunity to be friends with people from all over the world
18. Clean water
19. Heat and Air Conditioning
20. My God who is so gracious to me

Love Teeth Mouth Cavity

            When translated literally, this is the name of the dentist’s office where I got a wisdom tooth pulled today. My roommate and I combined our Chinese character (hanzi) reading skills, along with the help of another teacher who just happened to be at the dentist office at the same time as we were, and it only took us about 20 minutes to figure out what it said. In our defense, it was written in script.

            Anyways, today I got a wisdom tooth pulled. It was rather painful, and in the future I will avoid it if it can be helped.

            When one has such a procedure done in a country other than one’s home’s country, it becomes necessary to make a few cultural observations.

            First of all, my appointment was at 9:30, and my roommate, who played mom for me today, and I arrived at the dentist’s office at 9:15, and the first thing that the dentist said to me was, “You’re early.” Here I was thinking that I was running late, and we ended waiting for at least a half an hour.  Before I came to China, I remember learning the rule of three; everything takes three times longer in China. This was a truth that was seen throughout the day. 

            I won’t go into the details of the procedure. I am sure that it was much the same as it would be in any other modern dentist’s office. The only difference was I couldn’t understand what they were saying. They would talk to me in English, but they spent most of the time talking to each other in Chinese. I am not sure if it made things easier or worse that I did not know what was going on.

            After the procedure, the dentist asked if I had any antibiotics. I was thinking that she meant Neosporin, antibiotic ointment. I wasn’t sure if I could ingest Neosporin, but that was the only thing that I thought that she could possibly mean. Then I realized that she meant an actual antibiotic, as in the pills. It did not register in my brain that she could mean the pill because a doctor/dentist the US would never ask if you had an antibiotic at home, s/he would simply prescribe them to you.

Well, as a matter of fact, I did indeed have antibiotics. Here in China, you can get antibiotics over-the-counter, most of the time. You see my roommate has been sick for a while now, and one day, the school nurse suggested that she get an antibiotic. She went to the pharmacy to buy it, but they would not sell it to her. Then she called a Chinese friend, Summer, and Summer said that the pharmacist would sell it to her. So Summer went and bought the antibiotics for my roommate, and while she was at it, she bought two extra boxes just in case.

Once I figured out what she meant by antibiotics, all was well. I paid the bill, set up a follow-up appointment, and was on my way.

My roommate and I went down to get a taxi. We waited. And we waited. And we waited. After several minutes of not having any luck finding a taxi, we saw this adorable little boy eating an ice cream cone. I was feeling pretty good, and ice cream sounded soothing, so I suggested that we go to McDonalds, and put our taxi waiting on hold.

Our conversation with the lady at McDonalds went something like this (Please note that this was in Chinese):

          “I want this (pointing to a picture of an ice cream cone), but I want it in a cup.”

          Blank Stare.

          “I want this (pointing to a picture of a sundae), but I don’t want Strawberry on it.

          Blank Stare.

          “I want ice cream, but I don’t want this (pointing to the picture of the cone).”

I think that at this point, she understood, but then she tried to charge us 7 kuai (about a dollar) for ice cream in a cup while ice cream in a cone is only 3 kuai (about $0.40). So we went through the whole charade again, but she didn’t get it.  We decided to suck it up and pay the extra 4 kuai. They don’t really do special orders in China. It’s just not a part of their culture, so it really confuses people when you try to make a special order.                                                                    

 Once we finally got our ice cream, we endeavored to wait for a taxi. And when we finally got one, I would say that the wait was worth it. We had ice cream, and we had a taxi driver that was very conversation, and he spoke a little English.  I genuinely enjoyed listening and somewhat talking with him on the way home even though my roommate did most of the talking.

Once I got home, I rested by watching A Christmas Carol, and actually, as I was watching it, I thinking about another blog post that will come in the future.

All-in-all, it went well, and aside from a sore mouth, I feel pretty good. Now I am relaxing to one of the Thin Man movies, a 1930s movie series with William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Classroom Management Issues that You Won't Find Anywhere Else

This week has been a bit crazy. You see they had to turn off the central air because they had to prepare the school for winter. (We don’t have individual air conditioners on our classrooms). It was in the seventies and eighties all week, and I don't even have a fan in my classroom. Needless to say, this week was a bit miserable at least in terms of being hot. There were a few distractions that made this week frustrating yet memorable.

1)   With all the windows open, it is very easy to hear the man who sings, or maybe I should say he wails, in the park every morning. 

2)   It is too hot to keep the classroom doors closed, so we are able to hear everything that is going on in the other classes. For example, my students are taking a rather difficult quiz and the class across the hall is doing “Walk through the Bible” and all my students want to join in.

3)   Also during this quiz, the teacher across the hall says something and my entire class bursts into laughter, but I missed whatever it was that he said.

4)   We decided to go outside for class because it is cooler outside than inside. Unfortunately two other teachers had the same idea, and the most ideal spots were taken. 

5)   You can hear the fireworks better when your windows are open. You can hear the fireworks even better when you are outside.

6)   When a gym class is on the soccer field and your students are able to see the game, there is no hope for getting anything done in class, especially when the ball keeps on getting kicked in your direction. One highlight of this was that the ball came towards, and I kicked it back into the field and students from three different classes cheered. (I’m not sure if they thought that I was super cool or a major dork, but hopefully the former).

While many of these distractions are rather humorous, here’s to hoping that next week is cooler.

An Ode to Turning Twenty-Four

Since Switchfoot already did a much better job than I could, I am going to post the lyrics and a music video instead. Apparently, Jon Foreman wrote this song at the end of his twenty-fourth year, but I think that it will be a good theme song for this year, particularly the second to last stanza.

Twenty-four oceans
Twenty-four skies
Twenty-four failures
And twenty-four tries
Twenty-four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
With twenty-four drop outs
At the end of the day

Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit,
take me up in arms with You'
And I'm not who I thought I was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit,
take me up in arms with You'

There's twenty-four reasons
To admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses
Still twenty-four strong

See, I'm not copping out
Not copping out
Not copping out
When you're raising the dead in me

Oh, oh
I am the second man
Oh, oh
I am the second man now
Oh, I am the second man now
And you're raising these...

Twenty-four voices
With twenty-four hearts
All of my symphonies
In twenty-four parts
But I want to be one today
Centered and true
I'm singing 'Spirit take me up in arms with You'
You're raising the dead in me

Oh, oh
I am the second man
Oh, oh
I am the second man now
Oh
I am the second man now
And you're raising the dead in me
Yeah

I wanna see miracles
To see the world change
Wrestled the angel for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing 'Spirit, take me up in arms with You'
And you're raising the dead in me

Twenty-four oceans
With twenty-four hearts
All of my symphonies
With twenty-four parts
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit,
take me up in arms with You'
I'm not copping out
Not copping out

(Hopefully, when you try to watch the video, you don't get a push-up bra add).

Man, I feel like an American

When I wrote this title, I was singing it to the tune of “Man, I feel like a Women” by Shania Twain. I know that it doesn’t really work because American has four syllables and woman has two, but I feel like this song is a good song to go with this blog post. I mean what could be more American than a girl-power country song? Except that I just found out that Shania Twain is Canadian. How American of me to assume that she is American!

Anyways, I have been feeling very American lately. I did not realize how American I was until I went to the grocery store with my roommate, and we bought enough groceries to fill one of those giant blue Ikea bags and two other regular size bags. You see other people, even other western people, don't buy things in bulk like we do in the US. Most Chinese people go to the store every day to buy what they need for dinner, but my entire growing-up years, I was taught that this was wasteful. You should go the grocery store once a week or even every other week. You should buy everything that you need to buy at once so that you don’t waste gas and time making multiple trips a week. People in China can’t do this the same way we can in the US.

1) Most people don’t have their own cars, and it is much more difficult to buy in bulk if you have to carry things to a taxi, and it’s even worse if you have to take it on a bus.

2) Chinese refrigerators/freezers are not that big, so you really don’t have enough room for buying bulk products.

3) Chinese people use much more fresh produce than we do, so it would be wasteful to buy this in bulk because it goes bad quickly.

4) There are tons of little markets that are within walking distance, so you don’t have the need to go to the supermarkets like you do in the US.

It is so interesting to me that my view of waste is so different from someone else’s view of waste. Not only that, but they flat out contradict each other.

Another way that I have felt very American is my need for space. For example, today I went to a coffee shop with my two roommates, and we sat at three different tables so that we could work without encroaching on each other’s space. Also, on the bus to and from school, the foreigners will try to get a seat to themselves if they can help it, but the Chinese staff members will always sit with each other if they can help it.

Living overseas, sometimes it can be very easy to be critical of my own culture. However, I am very much an American. I just can’t help it.

Pronoun Troubles

I have been having pronoun troubles lately. Am I a we or a they? When I first wrote this I wrote: “I have been told that they think that westerns smell bad because of how much milk they consume” instead of we. However, I am not Chinese. I am indeed a westerner in both my thoughts and in my actions. (Click here to read about my American-ness). I do not even claim to be an egg, those who fit so well into Chinese/ Asian culture that they are said to be white on the outside and yellow on the inside. (This is not a racist thing). So I have no idea why I wrote we instead of they, but for some reason I did.

This is the first time that I have had trouble with pronouns when referring to Westerners vs. Chinese, but I have had pronoun troubles in referring to my two schools, Tianjin and Qingdao. When I refer to Qingdao, I still say we, but I am not really a part of that we anymore. On the other hand, it would be very weird for me to call Qingdao a they. I don’t know if this just has something that will slowly fade away as I transition into my new school, or will I simply be a we at both schools. I am an English teacher, and I am finding pronouns confusing. What does this say about the English language?

On Milk Products in China (Including a recipe for sour cream that I discovered/ made up)

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Milk products, except for yogurt, are not a common thing in China. I don’t know why Chinese people love yogurt so much, but they don’t go for the other milk products. I have been told that they think that westerns smell bad because of how much milk we consume. (Click here to read my blog post about pronoun troubles). But they LOVE yogurt! Picture this, you go the supermarket and there are three cold sections of dairy products, but 7/8^th of it is yogurt. The last eighth consists butter/margarine, cheese, milk, and a smattering of other milk products. At times this eighth is non-existent and at times it has all of these milk products, it just depends on the day. Now if you want forever milk, milk that does not need to be refrigerated, you can get that too, but that would not be in these cold dairy sections.

All this being said, it is nigh impossible to get certain milk products, such as sour cream, here, so you make your own sour cream. In the US, I would never have considered making my own sour cream, but it is actually not that hard. Mix whipping cream and vinegar together until it tastes like sour cream then whip it together and add cream of tarter to help thicken it. Easy, right?

Well this past week I made baked potatoes for dinner, and I wanted to make sour cream to go with them. However, I didn't have whipping cream, and I didn’t have the time or the energy to go get whipping cream. I did have plain yogurt that I was never planning on eating.

You see my favorite brand of yogurt comes in packages with 4 or 5 packages of yogurts that are one flavor and one of a different flavor. I don’t know why, but it does. Well, one package came with plain yogurt. I have only had one experience with plain yogurt and that was when I accidentally bought plain yogurt thinking that it was vanilla yogurt. I was sorely disappointed because plain yogurt in the US is rather gross in my opinion.

Anyways, I decided to make sour cream using my plain yogurt. What I did not realize was that plain yogurt in China is not a disgusting bland flavor like it is in the US. It is actually sweet, so I simply added extra vinegar to compensate for the sweetness of the yogurt (I think that I, perhaps, overcompensated). Another thing that my friends in the US need to realize is that yogurt in China has a completely different consistency than yogurt in the US. It is more like a smoothie. When you think of Chinese yogurt think of go-gurt; basically Chinese yogurt is drinkable.

Anyways, I mixed my sweet plain yogurt and vinegar together to create a sour cream tasting liquid, but it would not thicken even though I added cream of tarter. So I did some research online about how to thicken sour cream. The problem with doing this is that most recipe websites in English are written for people living in the west, so they assume that I have access to products that I don’t. Finally, I found one website that said I could thicken sour cream with flour, so I tried that, and it worked. The flour gave it a little bit of a grainy flavor, but depending on what you are using the sour cream for, the grainy flavor would not necessarily matter. I would like to experiment with this recipe a bit, but this is a much cheaper and much more convenient solution than using whipping cream. A package of this yogurt costs 2 kuai, about $0.30, while a container of whipping cream costs 30-40 kuai, about $4-6. Also, you can buy yogurt at every Chinese store, but only some Chinese stores have whipping cream and those that do have it do not have it on a consistent basis. Therefore, yogurt is a very nice alternative.

Thus goes my sour cream creating adventure. Please feel free to experiment with this recipe, and if you have any other ideas for thickening sour cream please let me know.

Meiyou

In Chinese, meiyou(pronounced mayo) means don’t have. First meiyou of the day: Meiyou Internet. That’s right we didn’t have internet. We didn’t know what was wrong, but we knew that we didn’t owe any money and some friends in our building also didn’t have internet. So we went to Starbucks.

I wanted to get a Coconut Mocha Frappuccino, which is one of the special drinks right now, but meiyou coconut (the second meiyou of the day), so I just got a Mocha Frappuccino. After getting our drinks, we sat down to get some work done. When you connect to the internet in Starbucks in China, you get a page that asks you for your phone number, and then you get a text message with the wifi passcode. Well, I tried the process several time because sometimes it takes several times for the code to work. However, I kept getting this pop-up box that said something in Chinese. After trying this at least half a dozen time, I realized that I could view the page in English. This is when I learnt that the internet was not working at Starbucks. This was the third meiyou of the day.

So we decided to leave Starbucks a little early, and go to the Thai Restaurant for dinner. I lead everyone astray by taking them out of the wrong exit, but we explored a little bit, and we got to see Eric Liddell’s house. Finally after retracing out steps, we found the Thai Restaurant, but it did not open until 5:30, and it was only 5 o’clock.  (This isn’t really a meiyou, but I’ll call it meiyou 3.5).

Because we had a half an hour to kill, we decided to walk around the area, which is very beautiful. After some exploring, we went back to the Thai restaurant and enjoyed delicious Thai food.

However, our whole purpose for this trip was to get internet, and we still have not succeeded in this endeavor. So we took a taxi back to our apartment complex and decided to go to a coffee shop in our complex. Our intention was just to sit in the coffee shop, and use their free internet, but (fourth meiyou of the day) meiyou free wifi. We had to buy something. So we thought about getting scones, which are only 7kuai (a little over a $1), but they told us that we each had to get a drink, which are 25-30 kuai ($4-5).  We decided to bite the bullet and buy drinks.

After blissfully enjoying the loveliness that the internet has to offer, we decided to head home. However, when we got back to our building, the doors to our building we locked. They are never locked, and we don’t have a keycode to the building (fifth and final meiyou of the day). Thankfully, a Korean family, who seemed just as surprised as we were to see that the door was locked, was coming out as we were hoping to go in, so they opened the door for us. 

Thus ended my meiyou day. However, yesterday was a wonderful day of bonding and adventure, which makes all the meiyous worth it.

Today Marks My One Year Anniversary in China

Boy has a lot happened in a year. I have lived in two different cities in China, been in 5 different countries, lived in 3 different apartments, made lots of friends, had many adventures, and cried more times than I would like to admit. Even though I have had a roller coaster year, it has been wonderful, and I don’t for one second regret coming.

When I look back at where I was a year ago, I can’t believe how much has changed. If I were to go back and tell myself where I would be in a year, I would probably be pretty shocked. It would probably have made the school easier, but I don’t think that I would have grown as much from the experience.

While so much has changed, some things are the same. I began last year feeling so overwhelmed and insecure about who I was as a teacher. This year some of those feelings are beginning to creep up. Being at a new school with new students, new co-workers, and a new curriculum for the second year in a row is rather overwhelming. On the other hand, this year I have a year of teaching experience, and I have had the whole summer to settle into my new home. (Last year, I only had a day before the school year started). I am also settling into someplace familiar rather than moving to a completely different place.

When one comes to such junctures, it seems appropriate to not only reflect, but also set goals for the future. At New Years, I set the following goals for myself:

1. I will write more.
2. I want to improve my Chinese.
3. I want to stay more on top of my schoolwork.

In some ways, I have reached these goals, so I think that I will slightly edit/ add to them:

1. I will write in my prayer journal more. I have been really bad about keeping up my quiet times, and I know that it will only be harder when school starts. I don’t want this to go to the wayside just because I get busy.
2. I will finish Book 1 of Chinese Made Easier by the end of the semester. I really felt like my Chinese improved over the four weeks of intensive study, and I basically learned all the vocabulary for rest of book one. However, I did not learn all the grammar. I want to keep up the momentum that I had this summer.
3. I want to be involved in something besides teaching. Last year, I hesitated to get involved in too much because I was so overwhelmed with schoolwork, but now I feel much more confident in my ability to stay on top of my schoolwork. So I want to branch out. I’m not sure what I want to do, but I want to do something.

Happy Anniversary China! In our first year, we have gone through several trials and tribulations, but they say that the first year is the hardest. I look forward to many wonderful years together.

Reflections on Summer 2012

 Today marks my last official day of summer, and I am trying to spend it just relaxing rather than doing schoolwork. So far, I have watched three episodes of Smallville (Did I mention that I bought all 10 seasons for 55 kuai, less than $10!?) Then I went to a local coffee shop and finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the sixth time. While this was schoolwork, I simply love this book. I think that few book are as convicting and as real as it is. Upon finishing it, I decided that when I do my Masters Thesis, I will write about TKAM. I already have title: Trash, Sin, and Squalor: A Study of Prejudice and Religion in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Anyways after finishing the book, I returned home to write my blog posts.

 This summer I spent four weeks studying Chinese, had one week of vacation, and then taught for three weeks at an English Language Intensive Class that we offered at the school. Certain aspects of this summer were rather hard. A lot of people went to various places around the world while I spent the entire summer here. I moved to a new place and was trying to settle in and find my place, but with so many people gone, it was a bit difficult. Now as people are coming back, those feelings seem rather distant, and this place truly is beginning to feel like home.  One thing that really helped was teaching the English class. I learned so much about teaching ESL, and it gave me a new perspective of those students who really struggled in my English class last year. On top of that, we had a great group of kids, and the teachers worked really well together.

As you can see, I had a very busy summer, and it was not really much of a vacation. However, after having the past two days off, I am looking forward to this school year. When I look at how busy I was, it doesn’t feel like I had much of a vacation, but when I look at all the other things that I was able to do this summer, I see that I really did have a good summer. The highlights include: 

•  Reading approx. 3,246 pages for fun
• Watching one season of Once Upon a Time, Gilmore Girls, and Smallville and two seasons of Sherlock
• Spending two days in Beijing
• Getting to know numerous people and going many different places with them
• Watching every episode to date of the Lizzie Bennett Diaries (If you are a Pride and Prejudice fan and you have not watched this youtube series, then stop reading and go to this link right now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs - Please note this series is wonderful, but in effort to modernize certain aspects of the book, this series can be a bit on the PG-13 side.)

So here’s to a good school year.

A Review Of The Books That I Have Read Thus Far This Summer – Part II

A Review of the Books that I have read thus far this summer – Part II

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

 

Let me begin by saying that I did like the book. I liked the book for what it was intending to do. 1) I love that is a picture of how God loves us. 2) I like that it does not steer clear of difficult material (I think that far too many Christians are simply way too sheltered from the harsh realities of this world). The Church needs to be talking about human trafficking and abuse.  3) It was a fast read, and it was interesting.

I do have a few issues with the book though. 1) I hate that Angel is so beautiful. I don’t think that this is true to the allegory. God is not attracted to us because we are beautiful, but he loves us in spite of our ugliness. 2) I also think that this book portrays the lie that God will swoop down from heaven and say here is the person that you are going to marry. I know that is the case with Hosea, but in general that is not the case. 3) I don’t understand why they consummated the marriage when they did. 4) I think that Francine Rivers tried to make Michael human, but at the same time, I have a hard time believing that any man would be that forgiving and willing to fight for a woman that he loves. Like other Christian romances, I think that this book gives women unrealistic expectations about men. 5) I read many reviews that said this book was pornographic. I would not go that far, and I was not in the least bit offended that a Christian book would include the prostitution scenes (see what I said above). However, some of the scenes between Michael and Angel were edgy (for a Christian novel). And the final scene was just rather awkward. 6) The epilogue was far too sugar-coated and happily ever after.

 [Spoiler Alert] 7) I don’t get the relationship between Paul and Mariam. He’s such a jerk, and yet she’s in-love with him. What is worse, this relationship is promoted.  8) I don’t think that the author wants us to sympathize with Angel and her desire to be on her own, but I do. She spends her entire life enslaved to one man or another. I think that her three years in San Francisco were exactly what she needed to do. In fact, I would say that she should have done that before she married Michael. I got the feeling like we were supposed to want her to stay with Michael and never have that dream of fulfilled.

I feel like I am being critical, but overall, I did like the book. I think that it did a good job of showing God’s forgiveness. However, I think that it, like all novels, needs to be read with a critical eye.

The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers

When I told someone that I was reading Redeeming Love, she suggested The Atonement Child. Let’s just say that I did not have high expectations for a book with the first line “It was a cold January night when the unthinkable, unpardonable happened.” I read the first thirty or so pages, and put it down without the intention of picking it back up. However, I did because I wanted to read something that was a quick and easy read.

What I liked about the book: 1) I like that the events in the book weren’t sugar coated. After Dynah is raped, her life is completely torn apart, which I think is realistic. 2) I like the character of Joe.

What I did not like: 1) I got tired of reading the same abortion arguments over and over again. 2) It seemed like everyone and her mother (literally) had, had an abortion. 3) Dynah never really deals with her rape because the focus of the story becomes an anti-abortion tirade. 4) I did not feel like the character of Ethan was very realistic or sympathetic. I think that his reactions were realistic to an extent, but they were just taken one step too far. 5) The last page and a half of the book (before the Epilogue) made me angry. 6) Even though I really liked the last line, I am not sure what the point of the Epilogue was.

I didn’t really care for this book. The writing was rather weak, and as I said before, I felt like it turned into an anti-abortion tirade. Even though I am pro-life, I feel like this book had two issues that it needed to deal with, rape and abortion, and it really only dealt with the later.

After reading these two Christian fiction books, I am reminded why I quit reading Christian fiction. I enjoy reading Christian non-fiction, but Christian fiction feels very contrived. Both of these books focused solely on plot development, and they ended in nicely wrapped up, sugar coated little worlds.

I have realized why I have been so critical of the books that I have read this summer. I haven’t read a lot of modern fiction for fun since high school. I’ve been reading mostly classics, which is like eating a steak dinner. Now I am going back and trying to eat a McDonalds cheeseburger after only eating steak for the past 5 or so years. I think that I should probably stick to the steak.

Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood

This was the steak that I needed. The images were beautiful, the plot was intricately woven together, and the characters were complex and real.

I found the plot very similar to The Blind Assassin in that as a woman is looking back on her life and dealing with the difficulties of her childhood, her outlet for these issues is her art. Even though the plot was similar at the very basic level, I felt like the novel itself was still very different. Looking at the cover, I expected this novel the have the sci-fi elements that The Blind Assassin does, but they were not present.

I did feel like the end dragged a bit, and there were certain moral decisions that I did not agree with (This book is definitely PG-13). However overall, I really enjoyed the book. I hurt for the main character, Elaine, and the book made me think and question how I have treated people. I found it rather convicting. This is what good books should do convict you and make you think.

A List Of Three Random Items That Will Make You Stop And Want To Read This Blog Post

I thought about naming this blog post Electricity, Pizza, and Bicycles or Power, Frustration, and Thievery. However, I didn’t think that these were clever enough to actually catch your attention, so I came up with this brilliant title, and I sure you are waiting with bated breath to read about my adventures.  Never fear; I shall not keep you waiting any longer.

Most expats in China have what we like to call a Bad China Day. This is a day when things are frustrating or overwhelming because life is so different from our home cultures, we don’t speak the language well, and there are people EVERYWHERE. Yesterday evening was one of those nights. The day itself was good, but the evening was another story.

It all began on Sunday night when our power went out. To people living outside of China you are probably thinking was there a storm or some other problem. The answer is no. In China, you buy electricity on a card. Then you put this card into box in your apartment building that controls the electricity. When you run out of money, your power goes out. There are other warnings such as blinking lights on the box. Anyways, our power went out, but if you put the card back into your box, you get 10 RMBs worth of electricity. So we had power the rest of the night.

Since it was somewhat late on Sunday night, we didn’t go to get our card refilled that night. My roommate went the next day to get the card refilled. Now for Qingdaoren, you need to know that we don’t have those ATM things that we used to fill our cards. We take our cards to a shop and they fill it. So my roommate took it to be refilled, and I was supposed to go pick it up that night at 7:30. Our 10 RMBs worth of electricity ran out around 4:30ish, but we had dinner plans, so it wasn’t a big deal.

After dinner, I had a pizza box with leftover pizza in it, which I carried with me to the shop (Hence, pizza in the list of proposed titles). Using my limited Chinese and some charades I asked the man for my card.  He looked through the cards that he had and went to the back. Then returned and looked through the cards again.  He told me that I would have to come back tomorrow. He said a whole bunch of other words, but that was the basic idea. It seemed like he didn’t know where my card was, which really worried me. I called my roommate thinking that maybe she had picked it up already or something like that, but I couldn’t get ahold of her. So I walked back to my apartment wondering what to do next.

Soon after I entered the darkened abyss of my apartment, my roommate called me, and told me that she had taken the card to a different shop. (I have only been here a month and a half and I only knew of the one). Very excited that I was not going to have to sleep in an un-air conditioned apartment all night, I merrily skipped to elevator. When I got downstairs, some of my enthusiasm had worn off, and I really did not want to have to walk to the front of the apartment complex again (about a 7-10 min walk), so I decided to ride my bike.

I went over to my bike and unlocked it and was about ready to climb on it when I realized that my bicycle seat had been stolen. Needless to say, I made the long trek to the store on foot.

This particular store is a rather overwhelming store because so many people are crammed into such a small space. So I waited in the “line” for my turn, and people cut in front of me because this setting makes me even more timid about using my terribly impressive Chinese skills (emphasis on the terribly). Finally, I was able to squeak out that I needed my electricity card, and low and behold they had it.  Thus ending adventures.

(Please note that while the events in this blog post are entirely factual some of the emotions may have been exaggerated for effect.)

Chipotle and Other Wonderful Finds in Beijing

Ok, so it wasn’t a real Chipotle, but I had to get your attention somehow. It is called The Avocado Tree, and it is Chipotle’s Chinese cousin. Excellent food with Chipotle style burritos and many of the same choices as Chipotle. Also it was very reasonably priced.

In this area, near the US Embassy, there is also a mall with a Starbucks, several restaurants, a spa, a pool, and a GIANT import store in the basement.

At first this area is a bit difficult to navigate, but I will give you directions. First of all this map has south at the top rather than North; don’t let that confuse you.

1)   To get to this area take Subway line 10 to the Sanyuanqiao stop.

2)   You will exit by way of Exit B, the North East Exit.

3)   When you get the chance, you will need to cross the street. Because this is a busy highway, there are only a few places where you can cross the street.

4)   Walk Past the Hilton. The Hilton should be on your left and the Weston should be on your right, and you should be on the same side of the street as the Hilton. Turn left onto the road in front of the Hilton.

5)   You will now walk past the front entrance of the Hilton. Keep going until this road deadends into Dong Fang East Road.

To Get to the Mall

1)   Turn left and walk until almost the end of the road.

2)   It will be on your right.

To get to the Avocado Tree

1)   Turn left.       

2)   Walk to the intersection of Dong Fang East Road and Xiao Yun Road. Dong Fang East Road dead-ends into Xiao Yun Road.

3)   Cross Xiao Yun Road and go through a Chinese looking gate. You will probably think that you are going the wrong way, but just keep going. You will have to veer slightly to the right.

4)   Once you have walked through this area, you will reach a green gate. Go through it.

5)   Turn left. (Sorry, I don’t know the name if the road.)

6)   There will be several restaurants. The Avocado Tree is probably 5 or so restaurants down.

Another good find of the trip was the 365 Inn, a Hostel very near Tiananmen Square and many other tourist sights in Beijing. It was 130 RMB per person per night for a private room, and the rooms were almost China Hotel quality. Also, you cannot beat the location. While I did not take advantage of everything they had to offer, they had tours and trips to The Great Wall and such.

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/365-Inn/Beijing/16667

Lastly, I would like to recommend Mark as a driver to and from The Great Wall. I am not sure how it works with other people, but he picked us up at the Lishuiqiao stop of line 10. Then he drove us to the part of The Great Wall that we wanted to go to. We went to the Huang Ha part. Let me take this time to say that this part of The Great Wall is not for the faint of heart or the out of shape, like me. (I did not think that I would be able to finish the climb to get to the wall). However, it is remote and beautiful, and if you want to go to a part of the wall that is not over-run with tourists, this is the place for you. Back to Mark, he speaks excellent English, and he is very friendly and personable. His phone number is 138-1016-3719 or you can email him at markzhang2009@gmail.com