Harbin Part 1

Well, I'm just back from a youth leadership retreat, and wanted to get the first installment of Harbin pictures up for you to see! I have over 600 with the three of us who went... i'll spare you the hundreds and try to just give you a taste! :)

It was a wonderful trip - definetly on the cold side, but so fun, and we just loved all the adventure and cool things that you got to do there. Harbin definetly makes the most of their being a cold place to live! Went with two other teachers from school - Beth and Janai. They are a blast, and we had fun taking awesome pictures and enjoying being kids. We did every ice slide in harbin about 3 times... with video to accompany! :) Those are coming later...

Having lunch in a russian cafe(delicious food! we ate their twice!), we got interviewed to be on the Harbin news. They asked me what I thought of Harbin, and I said, "Very Cold..." that was the extent of my eloquence... :)

My favorite of the ice sculptures along the walking street. It actually played music too!

Everyone loved taking pictures with us, so we obliged! :)It's the trend to get a foreigner in your pictures.

Peace!

Stalin Park - the frozen river, where they had ice skating, inner tubing, horse carriage ride, and an ice slide. It was cold, and an adventure!

You could get some cotton candy! We even saw a guy feeding his poor sled dog some...

Disney Ice/Snow Sculptures... We're sitting on Daffy's hand.

Inside an ice sculture tunnel - aren't the colors incredible?

A simple trip to the post office...

So everything here is a big deal to accomplish... take my trip to the post office today. After waiting in the drizzle for a taxi, I got to the post office, but had to call a friend (who speaks mandarin) to ask my driver to stay so that I could catch a ride back to my apartment and not have to walk to the subway station to catch a bus/taxi.

Once inside the post office, I tried to pick up a package, but they told me, through sign langague that i had to go outside and upstairs to find my package... OK... so I tried to buy stamps. After figuring out how much would take for one letter to America, I used my sign language and my counting skills to tell him that I wanted to mail yi, er, san, si, wu, liu letter... only to find out that i would have to use the rest of my cash to buy the stamps(of course they didn't take cards...) and I wouldn't have enough money to pay for my cab... One problem solved though as I got stamps and escaped the crowd that was around me waiting as I used my limited sign language to try to get stamps...

Now to find my package... I had to go around back to where they unload the trucks, and after finding my slip again and dropping my wallet in a puddle, I finally showed my package slip to someone that took me through halls and upstairs past all of these offices to a backroom where a at least 15 postmen were smoking - one of them said "Hi" in a not very comfortable way, and i was just praying that i wasn't left there while my package was searched for! the postman with my package got it from his office, and then I got back in the taxi to go home, thankful that the cab driver hadn't left me during this 15+minute excursion. once back to the LQ I had to ge tmoney from the ATM to pay the driver... all the time hoping that he wasn't totally fed up with this crazy American that can't speak chinese or get her life put together!!! So that was my adventure to simply get a package and buy stamps... keeps me on my toes, and always relying on the one who placed me here. You just have to keep up a positive attitude - there isn't any other way to survive.

I'll post pictures and tell you all about my trip to Harbin over Christmas hopefully in a day or two! It was a wonderful adventure in an ice wonderland - they certainly know how to make the most of their frigid weather!!! Off to sleep and get up to run ... gotta get back in the routine as the Great Wall Marathon is only 5 months away... :)

A Picture is worth a thousand words...

So I'm short on words, but have plenty of pictures to share with you! So enjoy the pictures and descriptions of the latest adventures in my life! :)

I had a wonderful sleepover with 6 of my small group gals on Fridya night - we had a great time of discipleship and growing together. WE did bible trivia, memorized the books of the NT, had a devotion on Christmas, made/decorated sugar cookies, revealed secret santas, had 45 minutes of study time reading different books, and finished it off in the morning with devotions and more bible trivia with breakfast. Oh, and we did get 4.5 hrs of sleep in the middle of it all! :) It was a blessed time of growth and excitement. And the girls are off on their assignment - memorizing the 1st chapter of 1st john before we cna have our next sleepover!

Friday was our Christmas Performance and party - and I stole one of my students props from the play- and forced the students to call me Miss Angel. I got a few looks from other teachers in the hall - forgot what was on my head! The students shared the birth of Christ in the performance - it was a great message, and then we did our gift exchange afterwards with snacks. Only one student got made about the stealing presents game - the rest thought it was awesome! :) Couldn't really blame him though - the knit gloves he got had pink and a bear on them... not very manly! :)

Holiday plans - I leave Wednesday the 24th for Harbin where it's between 20 and 40 below C! We're going to see Ice and snow sculptures, watch Siberian Tigers eat chickens we purchase to have fed to them, and possibly get some snow skiing in too! :) i purchased a whole new outfit for the occasion - almost as much as my plane ticket was! :) But it's something you do once... and don't normally return, so I'm glad to get to have this experience over the holidays, esp as we only have 2 days off.

We get New Years Day off(thursday) but have to return to work on Friday. It was a nice jesture - but a 3 day or 4 day would be more worth it in my mind. But at least we only work 3 days next week and 4 the following. that is a blessing! And then for Chinese new year (3wk break) Emily's coming to visit me - she arrives the 20th of January!!! Yeah1!! and we'll go to Bejing, Xian, and then have some time in shanghai at the end of the trip. I can't wait to see her! Then I'll head to Taiwain for the remainder of the break. It should be a nice long vacation! :)

Newest adventure - I tried gao sha tonight - back scraping! It's like a massage except they do it with a piece of bone and have oil on your bakc. supposed to help you with illness and to make the effects of a cold better. So we'll see if it helps! :) Right now I just feel sore... though it didn't hurt as bad as I expected. I'm not sure if you get bruises from it like from cupping...

Merry Christmas, and happy new year! I look forward to posting about my adventures this week so you can see all that I experienced over the holiday! :)

Gluten free pizza --- yum yummy!!!!

Just a quick note - off to bed for a week of school. But I ate tonight, for the first time in four months, PIZZA!!! It was so amazing, and Gd totally provided for me! The Worship coordinator at church also has similar allergies, but his reactions are more severe, and so they invited me over for pizza tonight ! It was so delicious, and so wonderful to get to share in enjoying and talking about what we've been able to cook and find in Shanghai. Just the encouragment that I needed that I can be good and healthy - and that's it worth it not to cheat! I got to try soybean butter - like peanut butter - which was quite good. And I'm going to look into getting a toaster oven and possibly a bread maker. I'm quite encouraged that a wheat/sugar/milk free diet can be done, and that I can have the diligence to not cheat. You can support me in keeping me accountable! :) I'm so pumped - and my stomach is full of yummy, good food! I wish I took a picture... next time I will! :) It was the highlight of possibly my week! Right above getting my white down ski jacket for Harbin !

Happy Holidays! Christmas is just around the corner!!

Ahh... I get it!

Do you ever have a moment when all is right in the world? You sit back and say, ahh, God is good, he is at work, and I can see him in everything. Tonight was one of those times for me. I met with 5 of my small group girls early for dinner and extra study(requiring memorization, bible reading, prayer) and then we went to KG for another two hours and more small group time.

We had 10 girls at small group - the most so far! It was such an incredible blessing to connect with them on so many levels. Every time we're together God just provides more ways for me to get out of my comfort zone, to encourage them, to inspire them. And in turn, they are an inspiration and challenge to me to answer their questions and support them. They are all going to invite one non-christian friend to come to KG next week and to our Christmas sleepover - so we may have a houseful in my wee little one bedroom apartment, but God will provide the space we need!We're going to do a christmas devotional, an hour of study on different topics, bible trivia, and prayer as well as a christmas movie and revealing secret santas - so its should be a great time to grow spiritually and closer to each other. Two, possibly three of them, want to study to get baptized, which is so amazing!

I'm so fulfilled and content that though life is sometimes uncertain and we don't always see all the pieces that are getting put into place, we can trust in the one who does. And every once in a while he lets us take a peak to see the other side of the tapestry that he's weaving, and we sit back and say, ahh... I get it! Thanks, Abba. I needed that.