2013 in Review

When I think back on this year, it has been a time of growth. There wasn't huge, life-changing things this year (unlike the two years prior), but there have been all these little areas where I have been challenged and grown. When I think ahead to the future, I hope that these little challenges continue to grow me.

Here are my resolutions from last year.

1.     I want to continue to improve my Chinese. I would like to finish book two of Chinese Made Easier by the end of the year. I have been told that this book is difficult, so I might be over-reaching. Nevertheless, I will make it my goal.

Well, I did finish book two, and I am set to start book three when school resumes. I still feel like my Chinese isn’t great though.

2.     I will actually work on editing my honors project this year.

I have been working on my honors project this break, and I am actually pretty happy with how it is turning out. I think that I could finish it to my satisfaction this break. I have resolved that this book will not be a classic. I just don’t think that I have it in me to write a literary masterpiece, but I have also resolved that it can be a good book, a well-written book, even if it never wins a Pulitzer.

3.     I will actually write in my prayer journal and spend more time in the Word.

     

I have gotten better at being more consistent at this though I am still not where I would like to be.

4.     I want to read more for fun. I would like to read at least one young adult book, one classic (or adult book), and one Christian non-fiction book every quarter. That would mean I would like to read 15 new books this next year. My rule for myself will be that a book for school will only count if it is my first time reading it.

Book I’ve Read

Young Adult Books

1.     The Book Thief – Excellent. Best book of the year. (Though this is in the Young Adult book category, I think that it could easily be put into the Literary Fiction category.)

2.     An Abundance of Katherines – Pretty good, but has some PG-13 elements.

3.     Winter Girls – Good. The end seemed a bit extreme, but still a good book.

4.     Catalyst – Same as Winter Girls. Good. The end seemed a bit extreme, but still a good book.

5.     Not My Home – An interesting look at 1800s Tianjin, China and international living.

6.     A Breath of Eyre – Good, but a bit over the top and also has some PG-13 elements.

7.     Sold – Very interesting. Quick read. Handled a difficult topic well.  Would highly recommend.

Non-Fiction

1.     Soul Suffer – Interesting. Not particularly well written. The movie tells the story well.

2.     Crazy Love – Good and thought provoking.

3.     The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness – Very good. Short, but makes you think.

Adult Book/ Classics

1.     Of Mice and Men – Good. Lots of language. Good points for discussion though.

2.     The Handmaid’s Tale – Good.  Adult Elements. Not sure how to react to it.

3.     Pearl of China – A very interesting look at Pearl S. Buck. Not particularly well written, but a gripping story.

I did not reach my goal, but I am happy with the books I have read this year. I think there might be one more in there somewhere that I have forgotten about, but that’s ok. If I could count the books that I began reading this past year, this list would probably double.

Resolutions for 2014

1.     I want to continue to improve my Chinese. I would like to finish book three of Chinese Made Easier by the end of the year.

2.     I would like to finish editing my honors project.

3.     I write in my prayer journal and spend more time in the Word.

4.     I want to read more for fun. I would like to read at least one young adult book, one classic (or adult book), and one Christian non-fiction book every quarter. That would mean I would like to read 15 new books this next year. My rule for myself will be that a book for school will only count if it is my first time reading it.

5.     I will blog more. At least one blog a month.

On Being A Foreigner (Part II): Shopping and [Mis]Communicating

One time last spring, I came home from school on the early bus because I had some shopping that I needed to do. Since I was going out already, my roommate asked me to pick up some spring roll wrappers because we were planning on having spring rolls for dinner, and she wasn’t sure if we had enough wrappers.

Before picking up the wrappers, I went to the buy some other items that I needed at Fomax (a grocery store in my apartment complex). One of the things I needed to pick up was 36 chocolate bars as prizes for spring trip. They didn’t have enough, so I asked the lady if they had more in the back, and she went to get me more. While I was waiting, a man standing in line looked at all the chocolate bars that I had in my basket, and he told that if I ate all of those chocolate bars that I would get fat. I explained to him that they were not for me; they were for my students, but he still seemed concerned that I would get fat.

After purchasing my chocolate bars, I went to the small Korean store that was supposed to have the wrappers that I wanted. My roommate had told me where to find them, but they were not where they were supposed to be. I did not know what they were called, so I looked them up on my ipod and asked the clerk where they were. He told me that they did not have them and that I needed to go to a Chinese grocery store for them. So I went back to Fomax and asked one of the workers where the spring roll wrappers were. However, she showed me spring rolls. When I explained to her that I wanted make spring rolls, she said that they did not have the wrappers, but she told me their name. Then I went back to the Korean store and I told them what I was looking for, but they still seemed confused. They searched and searched and finally they pulled out wrappers, but they were the dough kind. I wanted the kind that was made out of rice paper. I explained to the man that they were in a green package and they should be right here (and I pointed to where they should be). After saying this over and over again, we had a eureka moment, and he knew what I was talking about; he explained to me that those were Vietnamese spring roll wrappers. He looked for them, but he said they didn’t have any, but he went to another Korean store next door to see if they had them.

I don’t remember how long this whole ordeal took, but it seemed to take a long time. While I was waiting for the man to pick up the spring rolls from another store, I picked up some crackers; I wanted to buy something else because I felt bad that he had gone to all this trouble for me. When the man finally came back, he said that the other store did not have them. At this point, I was just ready to go home, so I left. However, as I was walking down the street, I realized that in my flustered and frustrated state, I had not paid for my crackers, so I went back to the Korean store and paid for them.

I went to two more stores looking for the wrappers, but they did not have them/I was too worn out to try to communicate with them what I wanted. Giving up, I went home.

It turns out that we had more than enough spring roll wrappers, so my hunt had been in vain. As irony of ironies would have it, later that week my roommates and I went to the store, and we found spring roll wrappers at the one store that I did not go to that day.

Though the day was frustrating, it did turn into a rather amusing story, and I learned the art of [mis]communication.

Christmas Repost

Last Christmas, I posted a blog post for Christmas. Today, I am in the same situation as last year. Thousands of miles away from my family, and this year my roommates are gone. Once again from 6 pm Christmas Eve (oops, I'm running a bit late) to sometime Christmas night, I have somewhere to be, people to hang out with, games to play, and amazing food to eat. However, this year my thoughts about Christmas being away from family are much different. I am much more content. Last year when I made this blog post, I felt like everyone got caught up on the fact that I was admitting that I felt depressed and lonely, but they missed the main point of the post. Therefore, I am posting it again.

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? In fact the entire bible is about the redemption of mankind. 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." 

 While I love the skit guys video, this one tells the end of the story.

On Being a Foreigner (Part One): Donating to the Community

Over the next week or so, I am planning on writing a series of blog posts with various funny things that have happened to me as I have been living in China.  I have entitled this series “On Being a Foreigner.”

Part One: Donating to the Community

I have had three bikes since moving to China. I did not get my first one until almost a year after I had come to China. My first bike was, well, special to say least. It was in pretty bad shape. Someone who had left had given it to me for free, so I could not complain though the brakes made nails on a chalkboard sound like the New York Symphony. Needless to say, the brakes did not work well, and I often had to use my feet to stop it. Because it was in such bad shape, I did not take it outside my apartment complex very often. Well one day, one of the brakes fell off. I had every intention of getting it repaired, but then the seat of the bike was stolen. You can read about the details of that ordeal here. That was the last straw. I unlocked the bike and donated it to the community. Usually if a bike is left unlocked, it only takes a few hours before it is taken. However, my seat-less bike with the break dangling off lasted about a week before anyone deemed it worthy of being stolen; I mean before anyone accepted my donation.

Not too long after that incident, my roommate decided that she wanted to buy a new bike, so she gave me her bike. This bike was in better shape than the previous one though it still had some quirks. This bike I christened my rocket ship bike because it made the sound of a rocket taking off. However, it did not ever reach that warp speed that rocket ships are supposed to. So there I was the obvious foreigner with a bike that made sure that the whole world would stop and stare at me as I rode past. I think that something was wrong with one of the tires, but I never really figured it out. One day, my roommate and I had plans to go to the White Market (this is a market with a white gate, hence the name), and we planned to bike. Nevertheless, about 5 minutes into our ride, I could tell that my bike was not going to make it. So we decided to leave our bikes and take the bus instead. That was the second bike that I donated a bike to the community, though I was relieved to part with it.

I bought my final bike last spring from a family who was leaving. This time I waited for a bike that was good quality, and I have not had any misadventures with this bike, except for the time when I ran into another lady on the bike as I was trying to weave through traffic. However, there was no damage to either of us or to our bikes. Therefore, this bike is here to stay.

SIDENOTE: Whenever I talk about riding my bike, I always feel the need to mention that I do wear a helmet, making it even more obvious that I am a foreigner. One simply cannot look cool or blend in when wearing a helmet. Mom, that red helmet is for you. I may be thousands of miles away, but I still feel guilty if I ride my bike without it. You raised me well.

Modifying Metaphors

In teaching we use countless metaphors and illustrations to help teach difficult concepts. However, when you are teaching at an International School whose population is predominately Asian, you have to modify your metaphors to make them relevant to your audience. The majority of your students do not know  the movies/commercials /television shows/music that you are referencing to make a point. This can be hard especially when you are also unfamiliar with the movies/commercials/television shows/music that they are referencing. This conundrum has helped me develop as an educator because when I am lesson planning, I purposefully look for sources that are not American. American sources are my default, but I don’t want them to be because simply looking at one source, gives a person a limited view of the world. For example, today, I showed a British biography about Ben Franklin. It was interesting because while it did mention his contributions to the American Revolution; it made it seem like he was passively involved in the revolution rather than actively helping to bring about the revolution. It was interesting to notice this nuance in how the information was portrayed.

Though I am able to find sources that are not American, it can still be hard to make the illustrations that I use in class relevant to my student’s lives. But there is one things that we can all relate to and that of course is FOOD.

One food metaphor that I have used in the past is how a paragraph is like a hamburger. Now, all of my students have probably had a hamburger or a chickenburger (yes, that is what we call chicken sandwiches over here), but I have found an even more perfect metaphor: Kimpbap! (This is a Korean Sushi-like food, but it does not have raw fish).

For those of you who do not care about my magnificent metaphor, I give you full permission to stop reading this blog post while I explain my brilliance.

A Topic Sentence is seaweed in kimbap; it’s the first thing your bite into, the main idea. Rice is the Concrete Details because without it your paragraph will have no substance. But if you only have concrete details your paragraph will lack flavor, so of course you at the filling, the meat, carrots, radish, eggs, the brown thin sweet stuff that apparently is called wang —this makes it delicious! Now you have all the necessary ingredients, but you can’t really eat your kimbap yet – you have to roll (wrap) it up – this is your concluding sentence. Then all that is left to do is eat!

(I am well aware that writing a paragraph is like kimbap does in fact make it a simile and not a metaphor, but modifying metaphors proves the necessary alliteration that is needed for a catchy title).

Update

It has been far too long since I have written a blog post. My new year’s resolution was to write a blog post each month, but I have not written since February. Wow, I have failed on that one, so here is a month-by-month update on my life.

March

I was busy teaching novels to all of my classes; The Great Gatsby for my eleventh graders, Of Mice and Men for my advanced ninth graders, and Lord of the Flies for my regular ninth graders. It was an incredibly busy time teaching and working on the spring play.

Some teaching highlights happened on the day when:

1) A student had the most profound insight about Lord of the Flies. In the book there are two tribes, a civilized tribe and a savage tribe. My student said that at the beginning of the book. It was like Eden, and everything was perfect. But when sin (the beast) entered the island things started to get chaotic. Then the boys started to eat meat, just like in the Bible. Now one group is focused on being rescued (trying to escape from sin) while the other group is focused on hunting (sin).
2) One of the students had to leave early for his science fair project, and all the boys stood on their chairs, and said "Oh Captain, My Captain."

The month of March also included the end of the Lizzie Bennett Diaries. This series was beautifully done, and if you have not yet had the opportunity to watch this remake of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, go to youtube and watch it now, but be aware that in modernizing it, the story definitely became PG-13.  Here’s the link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs

April

April began with spring break and a trip back to Qingdao. This was my first trip back to Qingdao since moving away. It was an excellent visit seeing old friends. One highlight was hiking Laoshan Mountain. It had been one of my goals before leaving Qingdao was to hike one of the mountains, but I never got around to it. This hike was one of the most beautiful parts of China that I have ever seen. One funny part of this hike was when my friend Edith and I found a sign for a nunnery, wondering what on earth a nunnery in China meant, so we followed the sign trying to find it. However, we never found it. Later we found another sign in Chinese that clarified that the nunnery was actually a nursery.

My trip to Qingdao went down without a hitch, but my trip home was another story. First of all, it took me forever to find a taxi, so by the time I found one, I was running a little late. Then we hit traffic. When we finally got to train station, I had 12 minutes to get to my train. By God’s grace, I made my train. My train ride was a bit rough though because the guy in front of me had a box of fish which leaked all over the train. Yuck! Upon arrival at home, I promptly got a bad cold; I think this train ride was the main contributor.

April was also the month of the spring play, so much of my time was spent working on it. Though the play was stressful at times, it a very rewarding experience.

May

May was filled with the busyness that comes from the end of the school year. A few of the highlights include meeting Stephanie in Beijing and going on the eleventh grade spring trip to Gansu province. This was interesting trip in which we studied Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism.

June

Once again, June was another month spent in craziness. When we returned from spring trips, we had finals to prepare for, grades to finalize, spring banquet, end-of-the-year staff banquet, and graduation. During all of this, I had to prepare for my summer in the US.

On June 10^th, my friend Jennifer and I left for the US. Travels from China were an adventure. We got to San Francisco to find that our connecting flight had been canceled and the next flight was not until the next day. So Jennifer and I took a Greyhound bus instead. You see I spent my first days in the US with my grandparents in Sacramento. These days included visiting the railroad museum, going to Lake Tahoe, seeing San Francisco, and spending time with my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousin.

Then Jennifer and I flew to Ohio to spend some time with my family. Our time with my family was not very long before Jennifer went to spend time with friends in another part of Ohio, and I went to the college of Wooster for AP training because we will be adding the Language and Composition course in the 2014-2015 school year. At first this training was a bit overwhelming, but by the end, I felt as though I could do it.

After AP training, I spent the weekend with my college roommate, Bethany. We went to Easton and met up with another friend from college Sarah. It was crazy to think that it had been two years since we had seen each other, but it felt like we picked up right where we had left off.

July

Everyone keeps asking me how I’m spending my summer, and I don’t know how to answer. I feel like I have been incredibly busy, but I couldn’t tell you how I have spent it. My siblings and I went to Cedar Point. Other then that, I have been spending my time doing “normal” things, spending time with friends and family, teaching my sister how to drive, cleaning and organizing my life, and shopping for treasures to take back to China.

My time here in the US is winding down, but I have a few more things to look forward to: our family yard sale, a Christmas in July party, and my brother’s birthday.

Sorry blog world for not faithfully writing, but I have two more blog posts that I plan to write in the near future about some specific humorous incidents (at least they are in retrospect) that happened this school year.

Tai (Fill in the Adjective) Le!

In Chinese, you can make an exclamatory statement by adding le after the adjective. You can further emphasize the word by adding tai, which can be translated as too, to the beginning. For example, if something is too expensive, I can say “Tai gui le!

My trip to Korea was tai hao le! (Too good or awesome). I had many adventures with Laura, Mollie, Grace, and mini-Grace.

Tai Educational Le!

On this trip, I learned a great deal about Korean history, specifically about the Korean War. In school, it seems like they usually jump from WWII to Vietnam and completely gloss over the Korean War.

On the first day, we went to the Seoul Library and we walked around the area near the American Embassy. Both places had tributes to the Korean war.

The second day we went to the Korean War museum. I thought that this was a museum that was about the Korean War that was fought in the 1950s, but it was really a museum about all the wars in Korean history. It was interesting to see the different weapons and military garb from the various time periods.

Another interesting aspect was how culture plays into how history is presented. On one of the plaques, it said something along the lines of Korea was shamed when it was invaded. If this had been in an American museum, I think that it would have something along the lines of “The dirty rotten malicious dictator invaded us, but we endured because we are America.”

Tai Yummy Le! (Actually in Chinese, you would probably say hen hao chi, but that does not fit with my theme of tai…le).

One of the best things about traveling is eating food from all over the word. While in Korea, I ate Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican, Italian, and Indian. Not to mention that Korea loves coffee and donuts, so I had a Starbucks coffee almost every day I was there and I ate several Dunkin’ donuts.

Not everything was quite to my liking. The calzone I got at the Italian place had a sweet mayonnaise on it, and I bought a breakfast sandwich at Dunkin’ Donuts with relish on it. Aside from that the food was fabulous.

Tai Surreal Le!

Laura and I went to the DMZ. It is hardly believable that I was able to get that close to North Korea. As we were driving along, it looked like we were going up any other hill. We could have been in eastern Ohio or Pennsylvania. The highways looked like any other highway except that the highway had barbed wire and military posted. I cannot even imagine what the lives of those who live across that boundary line must be like.

Tai interesting Le!

That night at the hostel we decided to do the hostel thing and hang out in the common room and meet people. We hung out with two guys who both happened to be Australian, but they had only just met each other. During this time, I had a fascinating revelation. I had been told that when men travel overseas, they travel to find themselves. Whereas, when women travel overseas, they travel because they have a purpose and they know who they are. After this trip, I think that this is true. I met and talked with three different men on this trip and all three of them were aimless wanders who do not really have jobs. Then it later hit me that this is why there are no single men in our company. We don’t want aimless wanderers who are merely want adventure. We want men who know who they are and who have a purpose.

Tai Shopping Le! (This is in no way grammatically correct, but you get the picture).

First of all, Korea has better socks than anywhere else in the world. I bought a pair of socks with a hippo head on the front and on the back it had a wide-open hippo mouth. I also found angora socks for a dollar, which seemed liked a pretty good deal to me. Their socks are just so cute and fun.

I actually didn’t buy that much, but I did a great deal of looking. I went to two different bookstores with English books and simply absorbed the literary beauty of the English language (or perhaps I just simply appreciated the fact that I could actually read and comprehend the books).

Tai Confusing Le!

We decided to be adventurous and take the ferry back from Korea to China. It was quite an interesting trip. The ferry was in no way catering to foreigners. Very little was in English. Some things were in Korea, but mostly it was in Chinese.

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect, but the boat ride was generally long and tiring. Meals were one of the most draining parts of the trip. The dinning room was only open for about 40 minutes at a time, and all 500 or so people on the boat came into the room at once when there was only enough seating for maybe 200 people. We tried to take our food out of the dining room, but there was a guard at the door who would not allow us to leave with our food.

There were four non-Asians on the boat, so we stuck out like an sore thumb. One was a French guy whom we befriended. We tried to play Dutch Blitz with him, but the waitress (we were at the bar/restaurant) told us no. She did not kick us out nor did she explain why we could not play. She simply told us no.

Tai Loud Le!

The first day on the boat was a very long day, so I immediately went to sleep. However, we were in the room right next to the tv room, so the tv woke me up at about 3 am, and I could not go back to sleep. Eventually, I was able to find sleep again, but it was interrupted at 7am when the made the announcement for breakfast. At least I believe it was the announcement for breakfast. I was in too groggy a state to understand Chinese, and they did not make an English announcement. Let me take this moment to say that I do not think that Chinese value sleeping-in like Americans do.

I was able to fall back asleep, but once our neighbors returned from breakfast, they decided that shouting and playing cards would be an excellent activity for 8 o’clock in the morning. At this time, I wanted to go over and shout at them tai loud le! (This is where I got the inspiration for this blog’s title). However, even if they spoke English, I would never have had the gumption to yell at strangers like that. Maybe if they had been teenagers, but certainly not middle-aged women. 

After listening to the many loud passengers on the boat, I reflected that this must be what it is like when other people are around my family.

Tai Glad to be Home Le!

After the boat, we took a taxi, a train, and another taxi to get food. Then one final taxi to get home. The trip was good, but there’s nothing like a hot shower and warm bed after a several days of traveling.

The Little Adventures of Daily Life

This week has been a long yet good week. It was mostly the culmination of several small things with cultural blunders interspersed throughout.

First of all, we announced the spring play as The Princess Bride, and we held auditions. I’m so excited for the show, and we have a great cast to fill the roles. As with the fall play, I will be producing it (making posters, advertising, designing t-shirts, etc.). However, this time I know what I am doing, so it won’t be as stressful.

Second, I feel like I had some of the best-prepared lessons that I have ever had. In all my classes, we prepared for the WrAP, which is a standardized writing test that all the students will be taking next week. With the 9^th grade, I introduced a research paper, and the 11^th graders studied “To Build a Fire.” I have a ton of grading to do this weekend, so I doubt that this coming week’s lessons will go as smoothly as last week’s, but I don’t have to plan for Monday or Tuesday because of the WrAP.

It seems like every year (and by every year I mean this year and last year) I begin the year a little unsure and unconfident mixed with maybe a pinch scatterbrained-ness.  However, once I come back from Christmas break, I finally feel like I know what I’m doing. I also finally feel like I’m breaking down the barriers between the students and me. I scolded a student and gave him a present in the same week. (There was no correlation between the scolding and the present; this is just to illustrate that I am building good relationships with students).

In other exciting news, a group from Qingdao came to TIS for a reading competition, so I got to catch up with former students and with one of my friends.

This week was also rather draining. I had to stay at school until 7 PM two nights in a row. I also had a couple of nights that I didn’t sleep so well. This morning I awoke at 8 o’clock to the sound of construction going on above my head. However, I was able to get about 10 hours of sleep last night, so that makes this past week seem a little less exhausting.

During the busy-ness of this week, I realized something about Chinese culture. I had been told this, but I have seen it played out in my life this week. First of all, I ask too many questions. Maybe, I’m too curious. Maybe I just want to make sure that I get everything absolutely right. Maybe, it’s an American thing. I don’t know, but Americans are direct. We ask a direct question; we expect a direct answer. However, when you ask a Chinese person a direct question, they do not give a direct answer; they would rather you draw you own conclusion from the information that they give you. I, in my American-ness, took this to mean that my question was not understood, so I reworded the question. By the third question and answer routine, I realized that I committed a cultural blunder. They had indeed answered my question; I just needed to read between the lines. However, this frustrated me because I had asked a direct question and I wanted a direct answer. Now I am realizing that I need to be satisfied with the ambiguities in conversations because that is what cross-cultural communication is all about.

Playing like a Panda

Here follows my adventures in the Sichuan city of Chengdu.

Day 1

I left my apartment at 5 am. Yuck! However with the help of my roommate, I had arranged for a taxi driver to come to pick me up. I arrived in Chengdu around 10. Rebekah picked me up, and we caught up the whole way home. This was the first time that we have seen each other since we graduated from college. 

After we dropped my stuff off at her apartment, we went out for Muslim Noodles, and Rebekah showed me around their neighborhood. The area where they live is so quant and peaceful and clean. I was thoroughly impressed especially by their apartment. It seemed to be set up in a much more western way than many of the apartments that I have been in here. Also, it felt very homey. The one down side was that it does not have central heat or insolated walls. The individual rooms have heaters, but they do not keep a room warm in the same way. While we in TJ have to open up windows in the middle of winter in order to keep from roasting, they have to wear a thousand layers.

After exploring, we went back and watched a movie/took a nap. Feeling rejuvenated from our nap, we went and got Chinese food for dinner. Even though my Chinese is terrible, it was fun to be the one with the better Chinese for a change, so I ordered our dinner.

After a filling and delicious meal, we watched Psych. This became our show over the trip, and we spent almost every evening watching it.

Day 2

We left Rebekah’s apartment at 7 am to go to the Panda reserve. A bus, the subway, a taxi, and almost 2 hours later, we arrived. Even though this sounds complicated, it was actually very easy.

The Panda reserve itself was a little hard to navigate. We had a map, and we followed the signs that told us what direction to go, but we kept getting sidetracked which caused us to go in circles. Eventually, we did see panda’s of all ages. The adult giant pandas were far away and hard to see, but I got good pictures of the other pandas. My favorite pandas were the “teenage” pandas. I believe that they were 1-4 years old, and they were very active. It was fun to watch them wrestle and play “King of the Hill.” The other pandas were pretty inactive; all they did was sit and eat.

Not only did the Panda reserve have Giant Pandas, they also had Red Pandas, which look like a cross between a raccoon and a fox. They were cool because we were able to get close to them though we were advised not to touch them.

Day 3

A friend from Qingdao also happened to be visiting Chengdu at the same time, so we spent the day catching up over coffee. 

In the evening, we got lost in a Tibetan area while looking for a restaurant. After eating a delicious western meal complete with Cheesecake for dessert, we went to a near by market. The shopping within the market was not particularly exciting (I really don’t really need any more Chinese souvenirs). However, ancient looking and Chinese lanterns lit the streets. We got some great pictures. I did buy a set of miniature Tibetan dolls for only 10 RMB ($1.50)! In my mind, this was the find of the night.

Day 4

It was Sunday, so we went downtown to a fellowship. After fellowship, we went to Peter’s for lunch. For those of you who live in China, I need not say more. For everyone else, I will say that it a large western food chain (specializing in Tex-Mex) in China, but they only have it in Chengdu, Beijing, and Shanghai.

After lunch, we did some shopping at the mall. I bought a new shirt which was one sale for 50 RMB (about $8). This was a good buy because I need something dressy to wear out to dinner for New Years Eve.

Then we went to the busiest IKEA in the world and boy was it overwhelming. I did, however, buy a few items including a new book bag. The one that I have been using, I have had since high school, and it is starting to fall apart and look very ratty.

Day 5

New Year’s Eve. We went to the Shangri-la for dinner where I ate one of the most expensive meals that I have ever eaten, but it was delicious. It was a buffet, so I ate Indian food, Chinese food, Middle Eastern food, and Western food. To top it off, we had our own room, so we played the bowl game after we finished. We left to ring in the New Year by singing songs to the Father.

After we got home, you would think that we would have gone to bed, but no, we watch Psych instead. It was three by the time we went to bed.

Day 6

I spent most of the morning in bed though I was awake at 9. Once we were awake and ready, we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. It was incredibly crowded, so by the time we got a table and ordered it was late. Sleeping in had eaten up the day. After gorging ourselves on pizza, we decided that we needed some exercise, so we decided to walk back.

As we walked, we tried to name as many countries as we could. We started with the As, then the Bs then the Cs and so on. The funny thing is that two of the countries we missed the first time around were China and The United States (The two countries in which all of us had lived). This made the two-hour walk back go by pretty quickly. We thought that we had done a pretty good job with naming the countries, but we sure missed a bunch. Did you know that there is a country named Isle of Man? If you are interested in a list of all the countries in the world, here’s a link.

That evening, we went to a small gathering at another teacher’s apartment. When we got home, it seemed only right to end the time with watching Psych.

Day 7

We left Rebekah’s apartment around 7am, and I got to my apartment around 1 pm. Overall, the trip was really fun. I ate a ton of very delicious western food, so now I need to get Malatong (my favorite Chinese soup with vegetables, sesame sauce, and spices) to make up for it. It was a good balance of relaxing and adventuring. I guess I could say that I played like a Panda. I did some active things, but I also ate a lot of good food.

2012

Two Thousand and Twelve has been quite the year for me.  I have grown and struggled, and been incredibly blessed by this year. Below is list of a few things that have epitomized this year for me.

Places I have been: Qingdao, China; Davao, Philippines; Manila, Philippines; Hong Kong; Ohio, USA; Yang Shua, China; Tianjin, China; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Chengdu, China

Book I’ve Read:

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling (5/5)

The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose (5/5)

 The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne (5/5)

 Lord of the Flies by William Golding (4/5)

Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie (2/5)

A Crack in the Line by Michael Lawrence (3.5/5)

Redeeming Love (2.5/5) and The Atonement Child (2/5) by Francine Rivers

Cat’s Eyes by Margaret Atwood (4/5)

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (4/5)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (5/5)

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (4.5/5)

 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (5/5)

My Song of the Year: “Galaxies” by Owl City

Here are some (not all) of the lyrics:

Dear God I was terribly lost

When the galaxies crossed

And the sun went dark

But dear God you’re the only north-star

I would follow this far.

Oh telescope, keep an eye on my only hope

Least I blink and get swept off the narrow road

Hercules you’ve got nothing to say to me

Because you’re not the blinding light that I need

For He is the Saving Grace of the galaxies

This song has been an encouragement to me during the many times of uncertainty that I faced this year.  When my “sun went dark,” God was my north star.  It also reminds me of how God created the universe. As the song says, “He is the Saving Grace of the galaxies.” So if He created the whole universe, then he is able to take care of me through the difficult times.

Verse of the Year: Ephesians 2:1-10 (Emphasis Added)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins n which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

I just love the comparison between what we were (and sometimes still are) and what God has done for us. God has been teaching me about grace. I need to offer grace to others, and I need to allow myself to receive grace from God.

These are just a few brief highlights from my year. If you are interested in more about my past year, read my other blog posts. Last year, I made resolutions that will follow. Now I find it necessary to reflect on them and create new ones for the year to come.

1.    I will write more. I want to write at least one blog post a month. I want to write in my prayer journal at least a couple times a week. I want to go to writer’s corner at least 3 times a month. I want to edit my honors project and take some steps towards getting published (even though I am not entirely sure that it is worthy of being published).

I did well with the blogs. I wrote 24 blogs this past year. However, I did miss the months of January, February, May, and October. With the other writing goals, I did not do so hot. (In other words, I barely did them at all).

2.    I want to improve my Chinese. I want to be able to have an actual conversation with someone in Chinese. Something more than I want to go to the store and something less complicated than religious/philosophical/political conversation. Even if it is just a minute long, I would be happy.

I did very well in this area. This is not to say that I am a fluent Chinese speaker or even a competent Chinese speaker, but I know how very simple conversations go, and I know how to respond to most of the basic questions that a stranger might ask me.

3.    I want to stay more on top of my schoolwork. I am not sure that I have a concrete task to tie with this goal, but I do not want to spend my second semester feeling like I will drown.

I ended last school year and began this school year much more confident in who I am as a teacher. Though there were times when I lagged behind in my schoolwork, I ended this semester much better than I have any other semester so far.

Now for my resolutions for 2013:

1.     I want to continue to improve my Chinese. I would like to finish book two of Chinese Made Easier by the end of the year. I have been told that this book is difficult, so I might be over-reaching. Nevertheless, I will make it my goal.

2.     I will actually work on editing my honors project this year.

3.     I will actually write in my prayer journal and spend more time in the Word.

4.     I want to read more for fun. I would like to read at least one young adult book, one classic (or adult book), and one Christian non-fiction book every quarter. That would mean I would like to read 15 new books this next year. My rule for myself will be that a book for school will only count if it is my first time reading it.

Looking back at the books that I read this past year, I was pretty close to this goal. I read 10 YA books, 3 C-non-fiction, and 3 classics/adult books (these numbers exclude the books that I have read before).