Package and Birthday Shout Out: Round 2!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROUND 2.... Last Thursday was Andrea's birthday. She was a little bit busy, but we did get to celebrate with cake pops, Subway restaurant, and cream cheese and bagels (Julie and my present to her, which she so graciously shared).

Julie and I decorated Aaron's apartment for Andrea. Brian posed for the picture.

PACKAGE:ROUND 2.....Today I received another wonderful package from my aunt and family in Nebraska.  It was a wonderful surprise filled with many goodies. Much love and thanks :)

My thoughts are with all my friends and family as we get closer to Christmas. I love and miss you all!!
Until next time....His will be done.

Package and Birthday Shout Out!

 I just wanted to give a quick thank you shout out to my dear friend Jo-Jo and my lovely parents for the awesome packages that arrived yesterday.  Your thoughtfulness is very much appreciated!!

Cake pops, chocolate chips, and books from Jo-Jo. Don't worry, the cake pops are being shared between 6 people.

top layer of the package from home

middle/bottom layer....i got so excited i forgot to take a middle picture

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Happy Birthday to Andrew, who turns 22 today!! Hope you have a fantabulous day!

Repelling, "Rebelling", and other Shenanigans

Since it's been awhile since I've given a proper update between my old blog and this one, I've decided this blog would be the random events that have been going on, plus pics of my decorated apartment :)

REPELLING..... Back at the beginning of November, Jessica, Brian, and I went to Hangzhou for a long weekend.  Some of our other FoC friends were running in a marathon/half marathon/6k, so we went to support them and join in FoC fellowship. The Hangzhou people are always doing up to some kind of adventure and while we were there, Nate took us repelling of the roof of Hannah and Rachel's apartment building. I was terrified. It took a long time to get up the nerve to let go of the wall, but eventually I made it down!

Our awesome signs. (I made the one on the left)

Micah Ricke finishing the marathon

All the FoC runners

getting dinked by the boys to the sweater store

They actually had a coffee shop designed like Central Perk. Upstairs, the rooms looked like Monica and Rachel's and Joey and Chandler's apartments

Pre-repelling

7 stories up

This pretty much sums up how I was feeling at the moment.

I honestly could NOT let go of the wall, or of Nate.

A little foot slip off the ledge got me going.

 "REBELLING"....Every year, a park near our old school has a flower display.  Jess and I met Brian, Kelsey, Julie, and Andrea there to explore/take pictures.  There was a huge patch of green luscious grass, which Brian and I were very excited about it. We weren't allowed to walk on it, so Brian and I decided we would just run our hands through it.

Brian, Kelsey, Julie, Andrea

OTHER SHENANIGANS....
Acupuncture.... Not knowing how long I will be in China, a friend and I have started a Wuhan Bucket List.  One thing on our list was the traditional Chinese medicine of acupuncture. Jonathan and I went with our friend Grace, who gets acupuncture twice a week for medical purposes. Neither of us are fans of needles, so Jonathan, being a gentlemen, volunteered to go first.  He got four in the top of his head, two in his eyebrows, two in his ears, and then two in the neck.  He was fine until the second neck needle, then we lost him for a moment.  He went ghostly white and looked like he was going to pass out.  The doctor made him lie down and eat some Chinese medicine. He was better in a couple minutes, but Grace was not happy with him for scaring her.  His little episode did not deter me from going, and I got needles stuck in my head. Thankfully the doctor learned his lesson, and did not try to put any in my neck. It felt like little fire ants biting. After they were in we had to sit around for an hour before they were removed. Couldn't even feel them come out.  Afterwards, we treated ourselves to tang bao, which is stuffed bread with soup inside. It was quite delish!

The happy acupuncture-ers

mine are a little hard to see, but they're there! 4 in my head, 2 in my ears, 2 above my eyes, and two in my cheeks.

tang bao

Halloween Party.... The weekend after Halloween, Andrea hosted a KTV Halloween party. There were more than 30 Chinese and Americans there. Many of the Chinese even dressed up!

Peter, Snowy, Darin, and Tony

Rachel and Tony

Andrea's friend, Andrea, and Ivy

Snowy and I were fighting :)

 Driving Range...Aaron, Brian, Jess, and I went to a Tea Party to introduce a new computer program for learning Chinese, and part of the party was an hour free on the driving range.

OTHER FUN STUFF AND CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS....

My friend Bella taught me how to knit! It's been a little rough going with missed stitches and added rows, but I think I've got it down now. Hopefully in a couple weeks, I'll have a new scarf!

Frozen Pizza and Bagettes from our Wholesale Bulk Store

The pictures of the snowflakes, wreath, and stocking are compliments of Seth and Alissa.

Advent angels; Christmas tree compliments of Alissa

Time to Celebrate!

These past couple weeks have been full of celebrations. Here's an quick fill-in on how they went....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING…..This year Jess, Darin, Peter and I decided to treat our mid-town Study friends to dinner. Jess and I went with our friend Julian Thursday early afternoon to scout out a restaurant on our street and then our friends started coming to my apartment around 6:30 and then we headed out to the restaurant at 7.  We had enough people to fill two tables and we had an enjoyable night of Chinese dishes and Chinese fellowship.

Sherry, Jacquiline, Julian, Darin, Jonathan Li, Lisa

Delicious to the max

Vivian, Joanna, Peter, John Wayne, Tracy, Bruce, Edward

On Sunday, we celebrated an FoC Thanksgiving at Beth and Sarah’s home.  We each made a different dish.  Jonathan and I spent most of Saturday morning and afternoon making 2 apple pies and 4 small pumpkin pies.  Neither of us had ever made pumpkin pie before, so it was quite the experience.  Just ask my family, who was skyping with me during the whole pumpkin pie ordeal.  Despite a minor ingredient mishap that did get fixed, and a few issues with the apple pie crusts, the pies turned out quite well. After pie, Darin came to make cornbread casserole, which needed creamed-corn and sour cream, which China doesn't have so we improvised.  That also turned out quite delish.

 

American Thanksgiving China-style :)

 Sunday early afternoon we headed to Beth and Sarah's. Some people still needed to cook/heat things up so Aaron, Kelsey, Tony, and I went outside to toss a football around.  We just went in the driveway of the complex and we soon had a small gathering of children and adults watching with awe and wonder.  Some of the boys even joined for a couple tosses.  Around 4 we finally started the festive eating and we all were pleasantly stuffed by 4:30. 

Our beautiful FoC family

One of our finer moments

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.....It was Aaron's birthday on Wednesday so after teaching I headed to Hankou to help celebrate. I met them at Papa John's and enjoyed some delicious pizza with garlic butter, followed by American chocolate cake from Aloha (an American restaurant). Afterwards we headed back to Kelsey and Julie's to play some games, and enjoyed some good FoC bonding time.

Julie, Andrea, Brian, Aaron, Kelsey, and Allie (a friend of Hankou pple)

 

Best cake I've had in awhile

That was my week of celebration. Soon I hope to fill you in on a few other fun little adventures that have happened, including the start of my Wuhan Bucket list.

Until next time......His will be done.

Long Time No See!

Hello dear family and friends!
If you haven't noticed, I haven't updated my other blog in quite some time. This is due to the fact that wordpress no longer works in China. So, new blog! Bear with me as I figure out how to work this new site.  Here's a quick update on my life.


SCHOOL....School's been going pretty well.  My schedule has changed yet again.  Now my Tuesday morning classes are Friday morning, so my Fridays are jam packed with class from 8-noon and 2-6.  I actually like this better than before because I can get it all done in one day.  I only have 5 weeks left of my business class so I'll be done with that before Christmas and I'll be done with my English speaking class the first week in January. Then its a month off for traveling, woot-woot!

BRUCE.... On Sundays while the adults have their Study, some of us will lead a small kid's Study, usually consisting of two kids, Bruce and Emily who are both about 6.  They both lived in America for either half a year or a whole year and went to school there (Bruce, preschool and Emily, kindergarten) so their English speaking, listening, and comprehension is phenomenal.   We will read the story to them, ask them questions about it, then write some words and have them retell the story with the words we just learned. It is awesome to hear them retell the stories without much prompting from the leaders.  Emily is a little shy but Bruce is most definitely not so he usually takes the lead.  We've also been teaching them Away in a Manger so we can sing for the Christmas party, and Bruce knows the first two stanzas!  This last week it was just him and me and he wanted to sing the first two stanzas all by himself unless he forgot a word, then I could help.  It made my heart warm to hear him sing in his innocent voice. 
Since it was just Bruce and I, we had a lot of quality bonding time, since the adult study went for almost 3 hours! We had our Study, ate some worms (candy worms, via Bruce's request), sang some songs, and played a bunch of different games like Go Fish, the dot game, Tic-tac-toe. 
He is such a cute kid who instantly warms up to everyone he meets.  Even though the Sundays can get long, he (and Emily when she comes) makes it worth it.

PIANO CONCERT.... This past Saturday a bunch of us went to a piano concert.  The main pianist was Alexander Paley, who was very good! He was quite quirky though, and seemed very snooty and rude.  He really got into his music.  He played two Sonatas solo, then joined with another woman for three 4-handed Sonatas.  During one of the duets, someone's cell phone went off and he stopped playing, put his hand in the air, and when the person finally turned off his/her cell phone he gave a disapproving head shake before continuing.  Quite entertaining for the rest of us. 
Before we went to the concert we went to Aloha, a western restaurant with American-sized portions.  I got a western BBQ burger and a volcano shake, which had a small lava cake in it.  The burger was delicious! It was not quite as good as the BBQ burger at Hunters in NE, but it's been so long, that it definitely hit the spot. 

So...that's some of the recent highlights.... hopefully I'll be more diligent in making posts now that I've finally started up again. Hope all is well with you!

Until next time.....HIS will be done.