The Joys of Traveling: China Edition

Sorry for the long lull in posts....traveling was.....well an adventure. There are lots of stories, so we'll take them a city/country at a time.  From January 13- February 6, I traveled with Jonathan and Beth to a couple different cities in China, then Katmandu, Nepal, Delhi, Agra, and Mumbai, India, and then finishing off in Hong Kong for the FoC retreat.   O
ur first stop was to Xiaogan, a city about an hour from Wuhan.  Jonathan's good friend Lior lives there and he invited us all to his home for a few days before we had to fly Kunming, China.  Lior's cousin has a car so he came to pick us up around 7:00 Friday night (Jan 13). When we got to his home, we "talked" with his parents for a little bit (neither of them speak English) and then his mom told us we should go play majiang on their new automatic majiang table. She didn't have to tell us twice. We all LOVE playing majiang and having an automatic table makes playing even more enjoyable because we just push a button in the middle of the table, push the tiles in, it mixes them and brings up new tiles already shuffled and stacked. It is quite awesome! Over the next 2 1/2 days we probably played 7-8 hours of majiang.

the table of awesomeness

The next day, Lior's parents took us out for brunch then took us to hot springs.  Hot springs consist of multiple hot tubs/pools of various temperatures and smells for various different health purposes.  We spent a few hours running from pool to pool testing out the different temperatures.  We had to run because it was freezing outside! One of the pools we went to was a little fish pool that you sit in and the fish come and nibble your feet/legs.  Quite ticklish. Lior's parents took us out to dinner on the way back from the hot springs. Back at Lior's home, he decided to wash his dog so while he did that Beth and I helped make dumplings with his dad and did our best to voice our own translations for a Chinese soap opera. We don't like to brag, but we're pretty awesome at it.  We finished the night off playing majiang. Lior's dog. Willie joined Beth and I for a girl's slumber party.
The next morning, Beth, Willie, and I got up before the boys so we just hung out in the room. I was playing with Willie and got her a little too excited and she got in trouble by Lior.  Apparently she never barks for him.....oops :)   Once we were all ready for the day, we went out for noodles for brunch then went to the mall to watch the new Sherlock Holmes movie.  We were quite excited about it, until it started playing and was all dubbed over in Chinese with no English subtitles! Oh no!  Luckily, Beth and I had just practiced our translating the night before with the soap opera, so we recovered from our sadness pretty quickly and sat back and enjoyed the movie.  We got the general gist of the movie, but we're looking forward to finding it on DVD so we can watch it again in English. When we got back home, we played more majiang while Lior's mom made us supper, including the dumplings Beth and I helped make.  After supper, Lior's cousin took us to the Wuhan airport so we could fly to Kunming.
      We spent two nights and one day in Kunming.  We didn't really have anything planned for our one day in Kunming, so we took our time getting up and ready in the morning and headed out for lunch.  Beth had been to Kunming before and she remembered she had gone to a nice lake somewhere near the hostel.  We decided to spend the afternoon sitting by the lake reading our books.  Brian, Peter, Darin, and Andy also happened to be in Kunming at the same time and were staying at the same hostel so we met up with them for supper and then hung out for the rest of the evening.  The next day we all parted ways. Our flight to Nepal was supposed to leave at 9:55 the next day, so we had to get up relatively early to head to the airport.

So, that was the China portion of the trip. Stay tuned for the next portion of the trip.....trust me, it gets even more exciting....plus, there are more pictures :)

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

the bathroom sign at our hostel. no worries, they were in separate rooms

such a nice airline

Fish anyone??

Last Saturday was a busy day of hanging out with friends.  Jess and I met our friend Elsie for lunch. Then in the afternoon I met my friend Sylvia to watch our friend Chen Jing dance in a "talent show" the bank she works at puts on every year.  Each department puts on at least one performance (dance, song, skit), important leaders give short speeches, and they do a raffle.  This year they gave away 4 Sony digital cameras, 4 iPads, and 2 iPhone 4s. Sadly, neither Sylvia nor Chen Jing won.

ChenJing pre-performance

Slyvia also works for China Construction Bank, but she told me she was too short to do the performance her department was doing, so she was just watching. Sad for her, but nice for me because then I had someone to sit with. They gave us all plastic hand clappers, anticipating a lot of applause and being considerate of our delicate hands.

 

Sylvia, the hand clapper, and her workmates.

I wasn't sure what to expect before going to the show, but I knew it would be awesome when the opening song was the theme song from Star Wars! Some highlights from the show: some cool traditional dances; a not very good dance to one of the songs from High School Musical 2 (the girls were good, but the boys were very awkward and off beat.  It was quite entertaining); a large group doing tai chi led by the big boss; a really cool dance done by one person with a screen behind and the movements on the screen went along with the dance/music....kinda hard to explain; and the Chen Jing's two different dances: the first one a pop song, the second a traditional Chinese dance.

traditional umbrella/fan dance

this is the screen dance. you can't see her, but the girl is standing on the platform in the middle

the real person is in the middle. Much cooler in person :)

Chen Jing's traditional dance

After the concert, I headed back to the apartments to have supper with Jess, Edward, and a "new" friend Berlin. Edward and Jess cooked for us. Edward cooked fish for us, which he and Jess bought at the market right before cooking.  They were alive before they bought them, but dead shortly after.  The seller lady kindly cut the fish open in the underbelly, but unkindly didn't remove the insides.  Edward and Jess couldn't do it....a little bit surprising about Edward, he wouldn't even come close to them with all the gunk inside of them....so they called the one person in who was brave enough to handle the insides of the fish. Yes, that's right. I stepped up and gutted two fish. Key to making it easy: use plastic gloves, get smallish fish, and say "ew! ew! ew!" a lot.  It worked for me.

Having lots of fun!

almost all clean!

found this inside the fish.....wasn't real sure what it was

found out later that it's the fish's swim bladder...the thing that makes it sink/float

all clean and ready for some kisses!

Berlin volunteered

Sunday, I led the Kid's Study. It was just Bill and Bruce, and Linda was also there helping/observing so she could lead the next week when everyone is gone. The boys were being boys, but we did get somethings accomplished. And I'm pretty sure they understood the story based on the picture Bill drew......

sorry this is sideways...can't get it the right way....can you guess the story?

                                         

 Snoopy has recently made appearances in the retelling of the stories

 my little bud, Bruce

This is probably the last post I'll make before leaving for my 3 1/2 weeks of traveling for winter holiday.   On Friday, the travel begins to a "small" city called Xiaogan. Then it's off to Kunming, China; Kathmandu, Nepal; Agra, New Delhi, and Mumbai, India; and finishing in Hong Kong for the FoC retreat. I'll be back in Wuhan February 6th and then starting up school again February 13th. See you all in a month!

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

Soooo.....What's new with you??

Since, I haven’t done a very good job keeping this blog updated, I thought I’d fill you in on some of the recent events/happenings  in my life :)

PIANO LESSONS….For about two months I’ve been giving piano lessons to two of my Chinese friends, Johnny and Linda.  Johnny is a leader on Sundays and wants to be able play  along with the Songs.  He has a good ear for the melodies and  can play by remembering the melody.  I’m helping him to be able to read the music and count….which is hard to teach since I don’t like counting either :)  Linda has had a piano in her home for a long time and I think took a few lessons when she was younger, but wants to be able to  play it. Our lessons are not by any means normal, and they usually  involve them taking turns playing, usually starting with Linda followed by her hitting Johnny when it’s his turn and him saying no, no, no. It’s a good time :)

Usually they both come at the same time so they have to share the keyboard

Linda and Johnny, my best piano students :)

KNITTING PROGRESS…..If you recall from a few posts ago, I have taken up knitting. Unfortunately, not much progress has been made. Bella had to start me over 3 or 4 different times, and the latest one is done mostly by Bella.  Linda, has also recently learned to knit so we decided to have a knitting date after one of our piano lessons. She's quite a bit further than me, but I am proud to say I added a few rows without any major mistakes.  After our “date” a bunch of us went to see “The Flowers of War”, a new movie based on the Japanese invasion in Nanjing.  The movie was very well produced and the acting was very well done, but the story is extremely sad.

 

MMM…MMM... JELLY FISH…. Usually after our piano lessons, Jess will join us and we’ll all go out to lunch.  After our latest lessons, Linda took us to a hot pot restaurant, that is supposedly the best hot pot restaurant in Wuhan.  (Hot pot is when they bring you a pot of broth, either a big one or small individual ones, and raw meat/veggies and you boil it yourself). One of the foods Johnny and Linda ordered was jellyfish! The waitress went ahead and put one into each of our pots so Jess and I decided to be brave and try it.  They were a little spongy, but overall not too bad.

HELPING HAND….. My apartment is near the maternity hospital that Sherry goes to for her check-ups/baby care, so when she has an appointment, Adam and Sherry drop David off at my place.  Usually we just have a fun time playing, reading, and coloring, but this last time, I decided to put him to work.

no lie...he did this all on his own....he's cleaning under the couch

how can you not love someone with a face like this?

CARS, CARS, CARS……I know diddly squat about cars, but I do know that these cars are pretty awesome.  Adam and Sherry live in a community with some VERY rich people, who buy cars like this and then keep them in the parking garage.

BALLET CLASS.....On Tuesday it was my friend Grace's birthday, Jonathan and I went to meet her for lunch. She taught until 12:30, so we met her at the studio a little after. The class was running late so we got to see a couple minutes of her class. Her kids were very cute.

they didn't want to pay attention when they saw two foreigners in the lobby

For to Us a Child is Born.....

Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year!!

These last three weekends have been celebration weekends. The first weekend was our Christmas party for all our Study friends and their friends and families. For three hours we snacked on goodies, talked with old and new friends, and listened to a variety of different performances including "Feliz Navidad", the Luke 2 story, the Kid's Study singing Silent Night, a large choir singing, and then the whole group singing. It was quite the awesome evening, with some people hearing for the first time the true meaning of Christmas. 

Bella (right) and her friend, Bruce, and David :)

Bruce decided my hair needed some help before the party :)

"Baby" Luther dancing to Feliz Navidad

Kid's Studies singing Silent Night

Everyone singing a Christmas Song

total there was almost 150 people at the party. Praise HIM!

CHRISTMAS EVE.....
 Christmas Eve, we all met together in the morning for a Song/Reading Service. Being so far away from our  family, it was a wonderful blessing to get together with our Wuhan family to celebrate His birth through Word and Song. 
After that, we did a Secret Santa exchange (a shout out to Julie for the homemade chocolate covered raisins :) ), then we went to a German-themed restaurant where they go around to all the tables bring you a variety of meats, including chicken wings, bacon, a variety or pork, some beef, cow tongue, and chicken heart. The chicken wings were my favorite! After that a bunch of us went back to Beth and Sarah's for homemade tacos, ribs, and salsa, and mahjong and movies. 

Wuhan Family 2011-12-24

as always....the more beautiful pic

Chicken heart...it was overloaded with seasoning so it was actually pretty tasty

Beth and I made the boys was dishes

they were offended that I took a picture :)

Christmas Eve in China is similar to the day after Thanksgiving in America. Their sales usually start in the late afternoon/late night.  We went to Grand Ocean at about 10 pm to see the masses shopping. Not as bad as I was expecting.  The theme, apparently was mardi gras, so there were quite a few masks and other halloween "head gear" being sold

Just some of the masses.

FAMILY PHOTO

Family Photo 2011-12-25

"Kid's Photo"

NEW YEARS EVE....  This New Years we spent it Hankou at Julie and Kelsey's apartment.  The party started about 9 and involved a lot of eating and mahjong playing. Close to midnight, we all grabbed big confetti launchers, headed to their big porch and shot off the launchers and toasted with some cheap champagne.  (Sorry no pics of these events...they're on some other camera). Shortly after we all headed to wherever we would be spending the night since we had an early morning of Sunday morning activities. 
Today our friend Linda got confirmed! She will be going to the University of Platteville in about a month, and has been working really hard to get through the classes before she leaves. A wonderful way to start the New Year.

HE has blessed my life in so many ways this past year and has given me such a wonderful support system through friends and family near and far.  You are all in my thoughts as we begin this new year!

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