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.