where we live

Since I couldn't even upload a few pics, I won't even try to load a lot. So, go here to look at pics of our home. The pics are at the end of the album.

China Goes BIG

This year is our university's 70th anniversary. They have done lots of celebrating in the past few weeks, but last weekend was THE event. We went to the main campus (about an hour away) for the festivities.

The other mom on my team and I came a little late because we were putting the kiddos to bed. When we got to the gate, the guards wouldn't let us in. They kept telling us (in Chinese--good thing she understood!) that we needed tickets. We called our teammates and they didn't need tickets when they came earlier. So one teammate came out and tried to let us in. We tried to play the foreigner card..acting like we didn't know any better. That ended us surrounded with several angry guards, no yelling at us. So we stood like helpless little lambs until our Chinese administrator came to the rescue. She flashed her badge and we were on our way.

I had no idea what to expect. I knew the Chinese love to perform (whether they're good or bad..more on that later). This was a new level. I walked into the stadium and immediately thought I was going to lose my hearing. It was insanely loud. Like, 10 times worse than a concert. Perhaps it was the pitch and tone of their voices that I'm just not used to. So, we sat there for 3 hours watching performances. Some were good, others were...not. But we sat there like good little foreign teachers anyway. Here are some pics...

Or not. Something may be wrong with the pic loader. I waited for 15 mins. to load 4 pics and none of them loaded. I may try again later..

haircuts & innovations

This is going to be a bit random because I have nothing great to post about...yet, wanted to give you something entertaining to look at...

Josiah needed a hair cut. We didn't necessarily trust a society of straight hair to cut his curly q's. Michael has some clippers, but not a guard long enough to satisfy me. I didn't want J to have a shaved head!! So we went with the scissors. (They were at least scissors made for cutting hair from the states.) I didn't realize how long the boy's hair was until we picked it out. It doesn't look terrible now, but I keep seeing longer hairs and want to cut them, but I resist.

Cooking and baking have definitely been my biggest struggles here. I was semi-comfortable in the kitchen; now I'm mostly lost. Everything must be made from scratch. Most of the "convenient" items I took for granted are not available...such as tomato sauce, cream of ____ soup, anything canned, etc. Some other common ingredients are available at the foreign store (an hour+ away), but for a hefty price...sometimes even double or triple what it costs the US. ouch. Cheese is definitely the most missed. I had no idea how much I used cheese!!!

But, I'm getting the hang of it..slowly. I've made a few meals and baked a few goodies. Everything will need tweaking, but it's a process. I finally found ground beef (and it's even lean!!) at the market; thank heavens we won't have to live on ground pork. Still, some innovation will be necessary from time to time. Here's an example. I was making cookies. As my 6 were baking (small oven!), I realized I didn't have a cooling rack! I pulled the baking rack out of the oven and thought of this. It worked. :)

Some more innovation, this time from Michael. When we moved in, this "broken" washer was in our sunroom (or whatever this room is..we don't really use it). Michael and I had thrown around the idea about buying a dryer, but they're kind of expensive, so we were going to wait. When he saw this washer, the wheels started churnin'. He came up with this idea to turn it into a dryer. Obviously, the hoses aren't hooked up to any water. It spins. He removed the glass window and cut a hole in a piece of plastic we found lying around. Then attached an extra hair dryer I had. (actually I have 3, but that's another story..)...and voila! We have ourselves a dryer. I had no idea how much of a problem solver he really was until we came here. He did this stuff in the states, but I guess I didn't pay attention until now..when we are dwindled down to so much less and something like this seems like winning the lottery. :) We do actually still hang-dry our clothes for a while, then just put them in to de-crunchify them since it's sort of a process to set it up.

And, finally, a good pic of Josiah and mommy on our bike. He loves it. So far, no crashes. :)

Hopefully the next post will include some pics of our apartment. :)

comments are back!

*If you saw this post yesterday and didn't see comments available, sorry. It's fixed now!

I turned off the comments section before we left, mostly because I didn't want to deal with any comments that were inappropriate for this time in our lives. But, I got tired of writing to the internet abyss without knowing who was reading and keeping up with us.

Please just remember to keep your comments..uhh..discreet. :)

Ready, comment!

mooncakes everywhere!!

Mooncakes. You can't go anywhere in town without seeing a stand or ad (if I could read them, I'm sure they'd be advertising mooncakes...) for as many mooncakes your heart desires.

The mid-autumn festival is next Wednesday. This is the 2nd most celebrated holiday (behind New Year's) in China. They are celebrating the autumn solstice, which is apparently when the moon is at its fullest.

Traditionally, people give each other mooncakes as gifts to friends and family. You have your cheapies and your very expensive cakes. I'm sure the Chinese know the difference. Then, on the day of the festival, families gather together and stay up to look at the full moon and eat their mooncakes.

We have already received 2 boxes of them from our university. The packaging can be pretty impressive!

Here is a link to see what they look like inside (blogger is taking way long to upload pics..too impatient): mooncakes

They have different fillings: bean paste, date, jujube, lotus, taro, etc. They definitely have a distinct flavor. Good thing Josiah likes them. :)

Michael starts teaching next Monday. I have an inkling we'll be receiving some more from the students....

humbled

Today I got to hear stories from some local brothers and sisters. One of them knew some English so I was able to understand. I was broken and humbled.

These two families had done a lot of work in a place full of warfare in China. They told about the fellowship they worked with there that had gone through several teachers. One teacher arrived to replace another one, and died the next day. It's heavy there. These families left because they were too physically ill to stay. My heart broke for them. I hid my emotions, not sure how they would react. As they were telling the stories, even though I couldn't understand, I could see in their eyes that they were full of hope. Sure, they had a hard time where they were. But they are excited to get plugged into another fellowship here.

It's these things that excite me and remind me why we're here.

Thank you, Father, for these dedicated followers. Bless them...they deserve it.

finally in our home!!

It's been a long month +!!! But, last week, we finally moved into our home. It's spacious--more spacious than I expected--and has some pretty fun lighting. Sorry, no pics yet. We just made a trip to IKEA today to get some more furnishings. After everything is looking organized, I promise to post the results. :) I like organizing and making it feel like home. I probably won't go too crazy with decor and such because we're "supposed" (remember the last post...?!) to move into another apartment in December. Right now, our team lives off campus. The campus where we're teaching is only 2 years old and is currently building teacher housing. Once that's finished, I believe we'll move in. We'll see when that happens...


This past week, we've had lots of team meetings as well as lots of time to explore our new town. It's a town of about 300,00--which is a drastic change from the 18 million of Beijing we were just in. It's definitely more slow-paced, which I like. It's also a lot more dusty. I feel like I'm in a constant dust bowl. Nothing stays clean here..not even for a day.

Yesterday we all bought bikes. Josiah even has his own seat! He loves riding in it. Let's hope mommy doesn't crash like I've done a few times before....

Not the best pic..but you get the idea. This guy helped put it all together!

I still don't have cooking down yet. I made pancakes and eggs last week. Tonight, we made green beans & ham, and cornbread. And that's the extent of our meal-making. Everything just takes a LOT more effort here. Nearly everything is made from scratch. Some common items are not available. Figuring out the metric system is not easy. All of this energy...and just for one meal. I'll get a rhythm sooner or later.

Bonus video!

I was dreading this day....the day he found his nose. Ew.