All of You is more than enough for all of me.
For every thirst and every need.
You satisfy me with your love,
And all I have in You is more than enough...

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens; Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name.
Beacause of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing...
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The L*RD is the everlasting G*d, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the L*RD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Is. 40:26, 28-31

The Middle

I am exactly half-way through my student teaching and my 3 months in China. 6 weeks down and 6 weeks still remain...

Well, it was another kind of rough week...it seemed to stretch on and on. There were just a lot of discouragements along the way that made it not-so-good. But, as I've found out, some weeks are just like that, while others are great like last week. Even the days are pretty up and down. I've been finding myself relying on myself instead of the Father and focusing on school and myself much more than on my Number One Priority and others. But finally, 3:30pm Friday arrived and I was greatly cheered up by Skyping with Luke as I am every Friday at that time. :)

I was also encouraged by going to the English corner at Harvest Coffeeshop tonight. I had a really fun group of people- about 8 girls and one guy. Mostly students, but some were young professionals. We talked about a wide variety of things from grammar to movies to holidays. It was a lot of fun. It's been interesting finding out where Chinese get their English names from. 3 girls tonight had flower names, the guy's name was Jack and he got it from Titanic and one girl had a really great name: Katherine! :) 3 girls were from far west China near Tibet, so it was really interesting to hear their names, hear their dialect (close to Turkish and Arabic), and see how different they looked from eastern Chinese. It was a really fun couple of hours.

Opps...and a blessing

I know, 3 posts in one day! I have to make up for my lack of posting...Most teachers here go in to the school on Saturdays or Sundays to do their lesson plans, so I went in last week on Sunday and decided to go in yesterday. I went in at 1:30pm and well, just kept finding more and more things to get done after the lesson plans were finished, which took most of the time. Then, I skyped with my parents and my brother, Michael and well, suddenly it was 10pm...I was a little afraid that Bobbie may worry about me (even tho I told her I'd be home late) and well....I was right. I was all set to jog home and when I got to the school gate: she had just pulled up in a taxi, so relieved to see me! She had thought that surely I couldn't be at school for that long and thought I had gotten lost or something! So, that was a major opps! and kind of embaressing. I felt so bad that she worried and had come out looking for me (you can't call out or in to the phones in the classrooms)! I definitely should have gone in to school earlier in the first place, so I wouldn't have stayed so late. It's nice to know she'd come looking for me though! Sometimes she is out 'til 9 or 10 and I worry about her, so I guess it was her turn! I learned my lesson though- don't stay out until 10pm or don't stay at school for 8 and a half hours on a weekend.

Anyway, the blessing is that I went to Fellowship all by myself today with no problems- caught the right bus and got off at the right stop...and then I was I was treated to lunch at TGI Friday's by a couple from the school who I have gotten to know! It was sooo wonderful! Such a blessing because Friday's is definitely US prices, which is outrageous here. So, I really appreciated that- I had a big 'ol Friday's burger and relished every bite. If you remember a few weeks ago I posted about missing grilled hamburgers....well, I got one and didn't have to stretch my own funds to do so. It meant a lot to me! Also, today was actually a beautiful day- the sky was clear and you could not only see the sun, you could feel it too! Amazing! It feels like a fresh fall day.

Harvest

On Friday night I went to Harvest Coffee shop to the "English corner" there to meet some Chinese students, give them a chance to practice English, and...make some contacts for the Kingdom. It was an incredible time! I really enjoyed it and I think I will go every Friday now. It was really crowded and the students were so excited to talk to us. I was at a table with 2 other teachers from school and probably 15-20 students. We taught them how to play Jenga and Pictionary and sang some songs together too. It was a really enjoyable few hours. I got to talk about the kingdom with one girl, named Icy who had some background knowledge already, but seemed interested in knowing more. I hope to get to talk to her more next week. It was a good time and a cool opportunity.
Some funny quotes from that night: (this is actually the second time a Chinese person has mentioned/asked this of me!)

"You have a very special eyebrows. " (my eyebrows fascinate Chinese people)

"How many children will you bear? " (um, hard to tell at this point in time...:))

I also got a Chinese name, which is basically the closest Chinese sounds to K and T. The characters are hard to write- I hope to learn them though. The pinyin is: Kai Te' (pronounced like Ka-eye Tuh). So, that's kind of fun to have.

International Day

My first week of full time teaching went really well! I really enjoyed it. It was a crazy week, but also very fun. Friday was International Day which is a day when all the students and teachers dress in costumes from their home country and we just have half a day of class then have a huge lunch and a cultural talent show. It was quite a day! My students were all dressed up in their costumes and could hardly wait for the festivities to begin. The foyer of the school was all decorated and divided into tables for different food from a variety of countries: Korea, China, America, Singapore, and Malaysia. There was a lot of food! I ate mostly the Singaporean and Malaysian since I hadn't tried that before. It was really good- somewhat similar to Filipino food, but a little spicier. I especially enjoyed the pork BBQ and coconut chicken. After eating and milling about checking out people's costumes, everyone went outside for the show. Since most of the school is Korean and most were wearing their traditional Korean outfits- it was so colorful and beautiful! We were first entertained by a believing Korean group of hip-hop dancers that was definitely the crowd favorite! They were impressive. Then we had some traditional Korean dancers, a Chinese dance, a cowboy song, a Kung-Fu demonstration, a Finnish song, a Malaysian folk-tale acted out, a Spanish song, and another Korean song. It was all really great and very entertaining. The school day ended early at 2pm and then the Korean hip-hop group put on a concert afterschool until 3, which included drama and video effects. It was really good. So, it was a wonderful day, celebrating the different cultures at the school.

In other news...

I think I just consumed more garlic in one meal than most Americans eat in a year...

A turnaround

To be quite honest, last week was not a good week. It was the hardest one since I've been here. Each day was a struggle to make it through. I spent the week stressing out about teaching full-time this week and was planning like crazy, staying up late working, not getting good sleep, having some communication difficulties and misunderstandings, and on top of that I was really missing my college friends immensely. So, all of that compounded just made for a bad week. I was so emotional and discouraged on Friday, that I did not go to the English corner (as it's called) at the coffeeshop. I don't think I've been that frustrated, overwhelmed, and just plain exhausted in a really long time. I talked to some loved ones through Skype, got 12 hours of sleep, pr*yed hard, had some alone time with the Father, got a good cry or two in, did something fun that I love but haven't done much since I've been here- watched a movie, and went jogging-- all of this seemed to just release the stress and it was a total turnaround on Sunday! I felt like a completely new person....I think it was the pr*yers mostly. :) So, thanks for pr*ying. I am just in awe by this mini-miracle and how quickly and drastically the Father answers our cries for help. He is so good to us and cares deeply about his children. I was actually excited to get up this morning and face this first day of full-time teaching! And, you know what? It was a really good day too! :)

Opportunity

I just have a few minutes, but wanted to post about a cool opportunity I had last night to go with some other new staff to a nearby university campus and just hangout with some students. I can't remember the name of the school, but it is one of the biggest in China, apparently. We just ate dinner with some students in their cafeteria and just got to know them and let them practice their English. It was a really fun, but draining time. I enjoyed getting to know the 2 girls I ate with, but it was also tiring just constantly trying to get over the language barrier and finding ways to phrase things so that it will be easiest to understand. I felt pretty drained after just 2 hours. It was good though to meet some new friends and they were so excited to talk with us. It was interesting how many things I had in common with the two girls. We are the same age, they are seniors and like to sleep and go shopping and use the internet and stay up late talking with their roommates...:) Hopefully, I will be able to get together with the girls again sometime. One of their names was Irene and the other was a little more difficult...I have it written down at home... A lot of people go to this one coffee shop nearby on Friday nights to just practice English with students there (and make some contacts...), so I may join them tomorrow.


This is definitely not a very good picture, but anyway these are the girls in their cafeteria. And a TA at our school, Lin (with short hair) is also in the picture.

Beijing: Blessing #2

We got back from Beidaihe on Tuesday afternoon and then left for Beijing on Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Saturday. This was just the teachers, so it was a much smaller group. We stayed at the luxurious Sino-Swiss Hotel and had Western food the entire time!! It was such a nice change, especially after starting to miss western food more. I stayed one night with a fellow teacher, but then she left early, so I had the room to myself for 2 nights. The beds and pillows were actually soft, so that was another blessing! There were about 200 other teachers from all of the International Schools of China schools. It was fun to meet the other teachers, hear their stories and hear about their school. It was good to understand more about the organization, some of their new opportunities, and get a feel for the dynamics of the different schools. I got to reunite and meet some CU people too who are also working here. We had seminars and workshops all day long, but they were helpful and interesting. I especially got a lot out of the ones about reaching and understanding Korean students and families. We had most of our meals at the hotel- huge, western buffet meals! They were amazing! Then we ate out some meals and got to enjoy one of the benefits of Beijing- western restaurants! I had Papa John's pizza, a Mexican restaurant, Subway, Baskin Robbins, and Starbucks! It was exciting! There are several other western chain stores in Beijing. I really enjoyed the Mexican restaurant the most! All the food the whole conference was just great! We didn't have much free time to go sight-seeing, but we did manage to squeeze one shopping trip in. We went to Silk Alley, which is an indoor market that sells everything you could want- from shoes to jewelery to nice Chinese souvenirs. It was such a funny place because the sales people are so agressive and they can speak some choice English phrases! They were really funny. I got a few bargains that I was proud of. There were tons of foreigners there, which was also funny to see. It was a fun time. During one seminar, someone slipped me an envelope with 500 kuai, which is about $65! They told me the donor wished to remain annonymous. It was such a blessing because I had to cover my hotel cost for the conference, which was $75. It was so exciting to see the Father provide in this way. I really enjoyed the conference- the people, the seminars, the location, and the food!

Beidaihe: Blessing #1

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated...I even sent an email update before updating this! The horror! :) Oh well. First of all, Beidaihe was incredibly fun and definitely a great opportunity. I was supposed to stay in a room alone, which was fine with me, but when 2 young teachers found out, they insisted I stay with them in their room. So, I went with that and even though it was crowded- it was so much fun! It felt a little like college again! These 2 girls (women?- they are 24 and 26) are awesome and I'm so glad I got to know them. We really connected and hit it off. I basically ended up spending the whole weekend with them. I am so glad for the opportunity to make new friends. Beidaihe itself was very different than I expected, but it was still nice to see the ocean and relax. It was a "city beach" not a rural resort type beach like I expected. We were very much in a city. Since this place attracts so many Russians, many signs and menus were in Russian as well as Chinese! That was a first for me to see. We had evening sessions with a special speaker and some praise time. I relaxed on the beach most of Sunday and then on Monday, I spent the day at the Great Wall!! This was awesome!! I loved it and it was such an incredible opportunity! We went to one location which is fairly unrestored and then also went to Old Dragon's Head which is where the Great Wall meets the sea or the starting point of the Great Wall, as they claim. It was just amazing. The weekend provided some much needed rest and relaxation, but more importantly it allowed me to get to know many of the teachers better and outside of school as well as introducing me to many families in the company that I had not met yet. It was a very good time.