4 years, what whAT!!

During our time in Thailand we will be celebrating Christmas, our anniversary, New Years, the zeroth birthday of our baby and Valentines day. Seriously, we gots things to do. Last night (one day early) Mike and I went out on the town to celebrate 4 years of marriage. Mike celebrated his undying love for me by eating ribs AND steak. I celebrated my love for Mike with shopping. Then we both celebrated with foot massages. Heck's yes!

This awesome specimen of a picture is taken in a "song taw." Basically you jump in the back of a pick up truck and off you go. It's the most common way for us to travel here, and there is a very good chance that at some point I will be in labor while riding in the back of one of these bad boys.

The grass is always greener...

The grass is always greener on the other side. I'm no geographer, but I'm pretty sure the other side of Iowa is Thailand and in case you were wondering the grass is definitely greener here. We flew into Thailand on the 23rd and spent Christmas in balmy Chiang Mai. On Christmas morning we threw on some shorts and t-shirts and headed out. Mike wore his Mt. Dew T-shirt because it was red and green and he wanted to be festive. My family always eats cinnamon rolls and frozen fruit cups for breakfast on Christmas morning so we started the day with a cinnamon roll and improvised with a smoothie. Mike loves smoothies and decided to make it a goal to drink on every day we're here.


Then off to the mall to see the Narnia movie. Not a bad movie, but a little hard to follow in Thai. Thankfully the staff let us switch tickets to the English version. It was a great day, but a strange Christmas.

Easton Family Christmas Card

This past week Emily and I said goodbye to some dear friends who we considered our children for the semester. Don’t you like the family photo? These 6 have spent the past 6 or so months spreading broadly the good news, engaging seekers, and grouping students into small HCs. They have done an unbelievable job and it seems like God, through them, made Ep. 3:20-21 tangible in doing immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine. I want to thank them all publicly for what they’ve done:

Jon – For being the team leader and taking on all that entails. Your pace in sharing with everything that moves will always be a challenge to me.

Mark – Your work ethic really was second to none. You set a diligent pace that produced fruit that will last beyond the grave.

Gabe – For being a great teammate. Your joy and hilarity were more valuable than any of us will ever know.

Michael – For using time your could be earning the big bucks in an engineering job serving the Father and more deeply exploring his call on your life this past semester and this coming semester.

Audrey – For setting a pace in truly loving lost Chinese people. Very glad you'll be around next semester!

Martha – For not allowing anyone to look down on you because you are young. You were only young by age, not maturity, and God has used you in ways I’ve rarely seen overseas as a sophomore in college.

There are a ton of things you could pr. for this group as four of them head back to American and two stay. But I think there’s one thing I would most like you to pr. for and that is that they would find their righteousness in the Son alone. I have two reasons that this is my main pr. for them (Martha, I know you’re laughing now). Finding our righteousness in the Son alone keeps us from 1) pride in what we did; 2) guilt in what we didn’t do.

These guys saw amazing things happen this semester and it would be easy to feel righteousness before the Father because of the things they did. More likely though I imagine Satan reminding them often of the things they didn’t do well and making them feel unrighteous, guilty, insufficient, and unloved by Father because of that. These are two terrible ditches to fall in on the back end of a time like this and they will need truth to follow them as they leave.

Righteousness found in the Son alone will remind us in times of pride that we wouldn't have been able to do anything we've done without him and that our good deeds don't make us better than anyone else. Righteousness found in the Son alone will remind us in times of feeling guilty or insufficient that we are just that, guilty and insufficient. Our only hope is not to be stuck in guilt, or try to do a bunch of things to make ourselves feel better, but to run to the Son and find our right standing with the Father the only way possible, through him alone: the way, the truth, and the life.

So pr. with me that the Father will help them to find their righteousness, not in their obedience, but in the blood of the Son who alone made them clean and ready to be used by him.

HO6, I truly believe God is exceedingly pleased with what you have done this past semester. Be grateful for his love for you.

Christmas in China

Christmas in China has finally came. This year 10 students from VA came to volunteer for the season.


The plan? Throw nine Christmas parties on nine different campuses, followed up by 18ish studies for anyone who wanted to learn more about the Christmas story. Here are pictures from the first night of parties.


Together with our local partners, we were able to share the Christmas story with about 300 students. Christmas has been steadily gaining popularity in this country, especially in the last 20ish years, and we don't want to miss this opportunity to share.

This week and next week, please pr@y...
- That the News would be proclaimed boldly and clearly
- That we would be lead to the hearts in which the Father is working
- That our young brothers and sisters would also share unashamedly and take on the responsibility of following up with others.
- Health and energy for the short term volunteers, and our long term teammates.

TAXI

Hailing a taxi can sometimes be a challenge at rush hour but my chances greatly increase when I stick out the belly. Hey if I have to carry this thing around all the time I'm going to put it to good use!

Baby Shower Pics

Turkey Time

Mike and I hosted our first Thanksgiving this year, and I have to say it went pretty well. With a little help from friends in the states and a little creativity we were able to have a traditional meal with all the fixings. We had to utilize all our space (ie all the desserts were kept in the bedroom), but we fit twenty one people in our tiny apartment for an all day party.


Our tiny kitchen got a workout that day.


Apartments in China generally don't come with ovens - and our toaster ovens just wasn't going to cut it when it came to the turkey, so we had to outsource. Our friend bought and prepared the turkey and then paid a Mexican restaurant $15 bucks to cook it for us. He hailed a cab and brought it over in a big rubber maid container - it was delicious.


The weigh in. We had a contest to see who could gain the most weight during dinner. Mike came in a disappointing third place. The competition was pretty steep - the skinny guy gained like 4 pounds.


This is about half of our guests and about half of our table. The table was a little bit ghetto - and a little a bit awesome. It was composed of our table, a friend's table, our desk and the crib with a big piece of wood all covered with a table cloth - ok it was a curtain, but it totally worked. Who cares that some of our guests had to sit on the coffee table cause we ran out of chairs.


A little bit of wii - she makes it look really fun huh?

Dinosaur Turd?

Dino turd? Nope, just mixing cement in the hallway staircase. No big deal.

Mushy words

There are three kiddos that live in our building ages approximately 6, 4, and 3 that always play outside. When we first moved in they were shy. Whenever they saw us coming they would start whispering, then one of them would yell "hello" and then they'd all giggle and run away. Since then they've gotten a little more courageous, and we've gotten a little better at Chinese, so we've been shootin' the breeze with our "xiao peng yous" (little friends).

Tonight I was sitting in a restaurant on our street waiting for an order and they came in to say hi. The middle boy showed me his Toy Story stickers and then the sweetest thing happened. Mushy words like sweet and precious, kinda make me wanna throw up, but this really was all of those things. He got really close to my face and then very carefully reached out and touched my nose and my face and then my eye. He was so innocent and curious, that I couldn't even get annoyed when he told me I had a big nose.


This is the littlest dude - it was hard to get a good pic, he was really concentrated on that bike.

So there I was...

Every month we go our prenatal check-ups at Nine Dragon Hospital, and for the most part we have been pretty pleased. There are two English speaking OB doctors and both of them seem to know what they are talking about. But here are a few fun stories.

So there I was... laying on the table. Dr. was doing his thing, taking measurements poking around and he says to me "so I guess this is your fat." I didn't take it too hard cause in China it's not considered rude to comment on someone's weight, but still not really something you wanna hear when your 6 months preggo and your skinny jeans are but a distant memory.

So there I was... sitting in my Dr.'s office discussing the results of my most recent blood test. The doctor tells my my iron levels are little low. His suggestion? Eat more organs and blood. In China they like things like heart liver kidney etc, and they also sometimes serve a soup made with congealed blood. I'm sure these dishes are in fact high in iron, but really? "Eat more organs and blood" sounds like something zombies and vampires would say, not doctors.

Even though someone might have a western language and a western education, they will always have a Chinese culture. This doesn't mean we have a bad doctor. We would never expect our Chinese Dr. to act like and American, just like Mike and I will never be Chinese. Culture isn't a bad thing it's just different and interesting.


PS Aren't the nurses cute in their little hats?

Shower

There are times when I feel like China cheats me out of certain experiences, holidays, family birthdays, Mt. Dew etc. I know that I don't really need to feel this way because the Father never says I'm entitled to any of those things, but he does promise that we will find the most joy when we are living for him and doing what he wants. Sometimes it's a battle to live in this way. I thought that having a baby in China would bring out a lot of those feelings of being cheated, but it hasn't been too bad.

Ok, ok there have definitely been those times when I thought "this would be a lot easier if I was in America." For example in the 1st trimester when anything slightly pungent made me toss my cookies, I would often have thoughts about how lovely America smells as I was passing by a pile of garbage, the fish section of the supermarket, or a friend with particularly stanky breath. But the point of this is not to complain about struggles, but to share about some blessing.

My co-workers made me feel super blessed and right at home this weekend when they threw me a baby shower! (hopefully pics to come) Ladies from cities all over the area sacrificed a Saturday to travel to our city to come to a shower for me and a friend. And trust me, travel isn’t always easy – we’re talking about waiting in line to buy tickets, taking a bus from their house to the train station, pushing through the weekend crowds and navigating a new city just to fellowship and bless.

We ate awesome food (many of them filled with coveted import items and dairy products), played some sweet games, and got to open a mound of presents for our little one. It doesn’t stop there. Tomorrow a group from Mississippi is throwing a virtual shower over skype. We’ve never even met these people but they are all taking a night out of their week to bless us also.

So a big thanks A, LA, D, and K and all the ladies that traveled to our city thanks so much for a great day. To Faith and the folks in Mississippi thank you so much for being willing to bless a stranger and take an interest in our work, and to Kim and family thanks for being willing to haul a bunch of stuff all the way over here when you come to visit (and to mom and dad for filling up the suitcase they are bringing). So I wanted to give a shout out to these people that have made these past few days feel homey and fun, but also to say thanks to the Father who provides encouragement and comfort when we need it.

Baby Stats

OK, just a little update on baby Easton. We had another utrasound and with great UNcertainty our little one was once again declared a girl. Although, we don't have tons of certainty we are going with that. I am currently weeks along, and everything is going just fine. The Dr. said our baby was a little bit large, but I can't decide if that means that it's actually large, or just large in comparison to the 95 lb Chinese women that he's used to seeing. But I was a chunk so it could be actually large. I guess we'll just wait and see. (Sorry, no baby bump pics - I took some but they all seem so awkward). I recently heard a statistic that 80% of babies born in China are C-section, and that women often prefer it.

For this reason and others we will be having our kiddo in Thailand. The airline won't let us fly after week 36 so on Dec. 23rd we'll be leaving cold rainy China, and headed to sunny Thailand. Too bad I'll be way too preggo to enjoy it. Our due date is Jan. 17th, but like everyone we're hoping for sooner. My parents are going to be coming and I'm hoping for a little recovery time before they get there.

The only tricky thing is that we will be hosting a team of 10 volunteers around Christmas. The Father has blessed us with really capable team of students that have been here this past semester, so they will be running most of the show. Please pr@y for the Christmas season and all the volunteers that will be coming. Sorry this post is kinda boring, just wanted to give friends and fam. the low down on what's going on.

We are three

If you received our latest update you read a story about my friend Jessica. Here's a quick recap in case you missed it (PS - if you want to be added to our update list just let me know). A year and a half ago a student volunteer came to Jessica's campus and shared the Good News with her for the first time. A year later I ran into her, she started attending a Good Book study and heard the good news about six more times. Then her classmate invited her to come to his group where she accepted the Father. Woot. PS - Isn't it so great that the guy that really made it click for her was a young local brother?

Anyway... After a "delicious" meal at the school cafeteria Jessica suggested that the two of us go for a walk around the campus. We walked for a while and then she suggested we "have a sit." I said, sure and pointed to a cement bench and said how bout here? Then she looked at me and very seriously said. "That place is made for two and we are three." (Referring to the baby) Then she suggested an identical bench about 20 yards away from the first bench.

I started laughing and since she has a great sense of humor I accused her of calling me fat. She denied it and said I couldn't tell Mike that she called me fat "He is so tall, he will pick me up and yell at me." Oh what a funny girl.

Food Button

Yesterday were were talking with our supervisor about culture shock and he said something that explained it pretty well. We are all conditioned to expect certain outcomes based on our actions. He explained it this way...

So when you push the "food button", you expect to get your biscuit. When you go to another culture you push the food button but instead you get a kick in the pants.

mmm... so true.

Here's a quick list of Chinese Tips on Pregnancy

Nail polish is bad for health
Pigeon soup is good for pregnant
Make-up is bad for health
Computers and cell phones are bad for health - therefore one must always wear a protective reinforced smock when using electronics
The mother should not shower for 30 days after the birth of the baby
The mother and baby must stay at home for 30 days after the birth
Rubbing your abdomen too much will cause the child to be spoiled
Cold water is bad for health

Fun Fact this week someone offered me their seat on a crowded bus. It was a monumental day. I think it was almost as exciting as when we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time.

It's a Possibly!!!

On Thursday we had an ultrasound and the gender verdict is... drum roll... so much anticipation... can't wait to go shopping.... "possibly a girl." Huh. Possibly a girl. So I guess it's also possibly a boy then? The ultrasound technician was really friendly this time. I actually got to see the screen this time, and she answered my questions and explained things in simple Chinese, which we really appreciated. If we get a more definitive answer we'll be sure to pass it along. This is week 24 and the baby is healthy, so we certainly can't complain.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Woo Hoo! Mid-Autumn Festival = Holiday = No school, right? Well Sort of. The school gave us two days off for the Festival and then scheduled make up classes on Saturday and Sunday. Umm - yeah right, like the Easton's are gonna get up early on a Sunday morning and go to class. So far here, Chinese holidays have felt much like any other day, but this year I really enjoyed the festival. What is Mid-Autumn Festival? Well, it's based in lots of old stories, but when I asked my friends about it they basically said you eat a lot of food and watch the moon. It was raining so we didn't watch the moon, but we did invite a bunch a friends over and we did eat lots of food.


Once again, Mike mastered the art of indoor grilling. This time in the hallway of our building. All were wowed and amazed at his ham bao bao (hamburger) skills.


I make a killer jello cake from scratch for one of the guy's birthday, which Johnny proceeded to eat with chopsticks.





Another important aspect of Mid-Autumn Festival is moon cakes. Not to be confused with Moon Pies, which are delicious, moon cakes are sort of like a crumbly crust filled with miscellaneous thick jelly. Mike I decided that they are kind of like the Christmas fruit cake of America. Some of them are tolerable, most of are terrible, you eat them to be polite and you always have too many of them. Some of this years' moon cake flavors included, fruit (these are alright), egg, green bean, and kidney bean.

Oh Baby - 23 Weeks

Folks back home keep asking for belly pictures - which would be really strange if I weren't pregnant - Anyway it's time to give the people what they want. Here's the belly at 23 weeks



Also a picture of our little nursery - hopefully we'll be able to find out the gender at next weeks' appointment, and start decorating. At our 20 week appointment they did an ultrasound, but they weren't sure. Hopefully we'll know for sure next week when we go in again, but I'm not going to hold my breath. We'll pass it along as soon as we know. The nice thing is that an ultrasound in China only costs about 30 dollars so we can get them often.

Come back tomorrow

Today I had an "Emily Moment" and left my wallet at Auchan (our version of Wal-Mart). When we went back to see if it had ended up in the lost and found the conversation went something like this, only in broken Chinese.

Eastons: I came this morning and forgot my wallet.
Auchan Employee: What color is it?
Easton's: Brown
Employee: What's inside it?
Easton's: Garden card, bank card, American card, 100 kuai
Employee: What time did you come?
Easton's: About 12:30.

I show them my passport Another employee comes and asks the same questions and we give the same answers - then he says wait here. When he returns he says...

Employee: We have one foreigner's wallet, but I don't know if it's yours, come back tomorrow.
Easton's: Here is my passport you can see the name and the picture, is it the same?
Employee: I don't know if it is yours come back tomorrow.
Easton's: I don't want to come tomorrow, I am here now. You can look at the name inside and my passport.
Employee: Come back tomorrow.
Easton's: It's too much trouble.
Employee: ok wait 20 minutes.

Ten minutes later a different employee shows up with my wallet. I took out the THREE photo ID's that were inside and held them up to my face and asked him if it was the same. With a big smile he excitedly confirmed that it was indeed my face. I signed for it and I was able to take the wallet home with me. It was a total blessing to get it back, sometimes I just can't understand the logic behind the process.

Another Auchan Note: During one of my recent grocery excursions the custodian moped over my feet. I was wearing flip flops. Who knows where that thing has been? Squatty potty? Fish section? Gross.

Just stairs

For any Mitch Hedberg fans out there

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. There should never be an 'Escalator Out of Order' sign. Only an 'Escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'"

Back to School

The school year has started. There are nine on our team, and thousands of students to reach. The task is huge, but not impossible.

Middle school exam scores determine which high school a student will attend, and typically only students who attend a good high school will go to the University. An average day in the life of a high schooler might look something like this:

6am - wake up and read a book - in English
7am - prepare for their day
8am - after a bus or a bike ride, arrive at school
8-5ish - school is very structured, and high pressure, students generally interact with just their teachers and a small group of classmates.
5-6:30 travel home and spend time with parents
6:30-10/11 - homework then bed
(Students often have classes 6, sometimes 7 days a week)

For many of my friends going to college was the only goal they ever have had, and have spent their whole lives up to this point working towards that goal - so they can get a job and make money. Many of our friends say that college is much easier than high school. Almost every college student is in some sense trying to "find themselves" but in China, I feel like this is even more true. For many, college might be the first time they've ever had to ask themselves questions like "How should I spend my free time?" or "Who should I be friends with?"

"Finding Yourself" It seems impossible to actually find yourself until you find your Father and understand how he sees you. Only then can you really know your purpose and really find satisfaction in your heart. It's always sweet when this happens, but when a Chinese brother or sister finds their identity in the Father at this crucial time int their lives, it seems like really amazing things can happen really quickly.

The next few weeks are a really important time of year for us. We want to meet tons of students and show them that there are more purposeful ways to spend their free time than shopping and surfing the internet. We want be the ones to ask them the hard questions that they have never thought about before. We want them to know that they can live for more than a good job that pays. We throw parties and have studies with those who are seeking and we really need your pr@yer. Our hope for this semester is that every major campus would have a group started. We are on our way to seeing that happen.

Hong kong-erific

A few pictures from the Easton Family Summer Vacation Extravaganza Extraordinaire. Because England had control over it for a long time Hong Kong is a really interesting place and it has a really different feel from the mainland. For starters everyone had amazing English (which is good, cause we don't speak Cantonese) and they drive on the wrong side of the road. We spent most of our time hanging out at the pool in our swanky hotel, but here's a few pics.



Here we are at Victoria's Peak looking down over the skyscrapers of Hong Kong. To get there we took a rickety tram up a 45 degree angle (No exaggeration). I was fine when we were gaining speed going uphill - but I got a little more nervous when we were gaining speed on the way back down, knowing there was only a small cement wall and a 90 pound Chinese girl at the bottom of the hill to cushion our fall.



Mike's nickname amongst our team here is "rou" which means meat, and he lived up to that name this week. We found a public BBQ pit on the beach - and we made the most of it. We bought a metal grate for a buck, found perfect coals that had been abandoned, scavenged for skewers and made some awesome meat. And for his birthday dinner - Outback Steakhouse.


The awesome beach right next to our hotel.


Our first night we spent inside the city at the cheapest hotel we could find. Hong Kong is known for it's millions of people and it's small spaces and this was no exception. The bed was waaay to short for Mike so we had to pull it out of it's little nook so his feet could hang off the end, which meant we had to move the chair to the other side of the room. The bathroom was also pretty epic. No TP, one towel, the shower head came out of the wall right above the toilet, and the space between the wall and the toilet was so small that there was barely enough leg room for me. I didn't ask him, but I imagine Mike had to do some creative pooping.

Honor System Security

Mike and I are headed to Hong Kong for a week of vacation. Mmmmm... Vacation.... So picture this... There we are at the final leg of airport security and it happens. We run our carry-ons through the machine and security spots a Swiss Army pocket knife in Mike's bag. Awesome. We've all been there. You're way too far into the process to do anything about it and at that moment you know you have lost your trusty pocket knife forever. It will be added to their endless pile of of miscellaneous knives, liquids, lighters, gels, explosives, etc. never to be seen again.

Security hands Mike his bag. He starts digging for the knife and then the security lady says "No, no, it's ok, just don't use it on the plane." As I fight to keep a straight face, Mike responds very solemnly "Don't worry, I won't. I promise." Apparently airplane security in China is bassed on the honor system. We were happy to keep the knife, but it makes you wonder about the Chinese security policy.

Active

Yesterday I went to the doctor and she listened for the baby's heartbeat. First she heard it on the left side of my belly, then on the right. She would find it really strongly for a while and then it would disappear. AKA our child is already a little spaz and wouldn't hold still long enough to get a reading. The doctor said "your baby is very active."

Active is an interesting word. This word used to describe an adult may imply they are involved in many activities in the community or they are sporty, but when used to describe children, "active" has different connotations. Don't get me wrong I'm super thankful that our kiddo is healthy and strong enough to be swimming around in there... but I can't help but wonder what we are getting ourselves into. Could this be our first glimpse of our child's personality?

Our little Avocado

I'm 17 weeks along and this week our little sea monkey is the size of an avocado. At our last ultrasound we got to hear the heartbeat and we got our first ultrasound done. Still no word on weather or not it's a boy or a girl. According to the poll on this blog about 72 percent are pretty sure it's a boy. We'll see! In China the average couple doesn't get to know the gender - but apparently being white makes us above the law. You may notice that my ultrasound says VIP which means very important person in case you didn't know. So far, so good.

Country-side Adventure

Tomorrow Mike will be leaving for two weeks to go on a country side adventure. He will be traveling to a small southern city to share with people that have not had the opportunity to hear the Father's name and many probably have not seen a foreign face before. He and some of the volunteers that are here will get a brief orientation and then they will be given a map and a bus ticket and be sent on their way. When I think of "the ends of the earth" these are the kinds of places I think of. Here are a few of the obstacles that the team might be facing may include but are not limited to...

- new and "special" Cuisine
- Rustic accommodations
- Minimal direction
- Few to no English speakers (go go gadget Chinese Language)
- Many who may not understand standard Chinese
- HOT weather
- 30 hour train rides

The cool things though is that the place if full of beautiful mountains and caves and the chance to shed some light in a place that has been wandering aimlessly in the dark for decades. Please keep Mike in your minds as he embarks on his journey and me and i hold down the fort alone for the next couple of weeks. Thanks so much for all you who are reading this and supporting us.

Why Don't They Speak Spanish In China?

Em and I often wish that Chinese people spoke Spanish. We both took some in high school, and even though we don't remember a lot whenever our Mexican/Spanish classmates begin to rattle off some Spanish we totally understand so much more than Chinese, even after living in China for a year.

I recently got a facebook message from an exchange student who came to our place back in my junior year of high school. It goes like this:

Hola! Estas buscando un sobresueldo? Estoy trabajando ya durante 2 meses en las horas libres del trabajo principal a favor de una compania grande. En el mes pasado he cobrado 2.470 euros. Ellos siguen buscando colaboradores. Si necesitas un trabajo adicional, envia su breve resumen (nombre, apellidos, pais de residencia, ciudad, edad, telefono de contacto) a la direccion: buenos suerte!!!!

Even if you don't speak Spanish you can probably get what is going on. Linguists say 60% of English and Spanish have some crossover to them, but Chinese and English, 2%. Check out the translation in Chinese:

你好! 寻找额外付款的这些？ 我在主要工作的自由小时内已经工作在2个月期间倾向于一家大公司。 在上个月我接受了2,470欧元。 他们持续寻找合作。 如果您需要另外的工作，它寄发它的简单的概要(命名，姓，住所，城市，年龄国家，我打电话联络)到方向：[在电子邮件方向请消灭空间]
好运!

Ok, so the characters might not be a fair representation, so I'll translate it into the alphabetical form of Chinese called "pinyin."

nǐhǎo xúnzhǎo éwài fùkuǎn dì / de / dí zhèxiē wǒ zài zhǔyào gōngzuò dì / de / dí zìyóu xiǎoshí nèi yǐjīng gōngzuò zài gè yuè qījiān qīngxiàng yú yī jiā dài / dà gōngsī zài shàng gè yuè wǒ jiēshòu liǎo / le ōuyuán tāmen chíxù xúnzhǎo hézuò rúguǒ nín xūyào lìngwài dì / de / dí gōngzuò tā jì fā / fà tāde jiǎndān dì / de / dí gàiyào mìngmíng xìng zhù suǒ chéngshì niánlíng guójiā wǒ dǎdiànhuà liánluò dào fāngxiàng dào dào huòzhě huò / hé huò huò huò zài diànzǐyóujiàn fāngxiàng qǐng xiāomiè kōngjiān.

There's not a word that even starts with the same letter! If only they spoke Spanish in China...

Was Honest Abe Really Honest?

This has nothing to do with our marriage...but is stinkin hilarious.

PB&J Expectations

Lately I've been really thankful that I moved here "sight unseen." Sure it was a little unnerving committing to live in an unknown place for two years, and it made packing difficult, but overall I'd say ignorance was bliss.

It seems like it would be really hard to come to the same country twice. Once you've been someplace you establish certain ideas about how your next trip will be and when things are different it would be hard to adjust. (I also think it's easier to be teachable when you clearly know nothing about what you are doing.)

It's like a boy and his mom. Everyday for lunch his mom makes him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut diagonally, just the way the boy likes it. Well one day he has a babysitter and instead of his pb&j sliced diagonally it's folded in half. The ingredients haven't changed, peanut butter, jelly, bread... but it's just not the same peanut butter and jelly that he has come to know and love. And the only thing he can think is "my mom doesn't do it that way." There's nothing wrong with the way the babysitter makes the sandwich, it's just not what he expected.

Why Do Guys Do Stupid Stuff?

I was having a conversation recently with Emily's Uncle Dave about how guys are always doing stupid stuff just to see how manly they are. Like carrying too many or too heavy things at once just to see how much I can do. Trying to fix things at heights that could lead to paralysis while on the top rung of a ladder. Or fixing important parts of appliances with duct tape, because it works and it's cheap. I have always done things like that and most of the time it's not in competition with anyone else, just myself competing with myself saying, "I bet I could do that faster." I don't know exactly why we do things like that...but we do, and like Uncle Dave said, "Mike, you will always do stupid stuff."

He's right. Like this past weekend. I needed to buy another bike for our friends who came to town. As I'm walking back the new bike in one hand and my own bike in another from the 6 football field sized supermarket by our house, I thought myself, "This is way too slow...I bet I could ride my bike while holding on to the new bike...yeah, that's a good idea."

Now, I always get stared at when I'm on my bike. It is understandable. For one I'm white, two I'm 6'2", and three my bike is probably a good 6 inches taller than anyone else's. Staring might be the wrong word...feels a little more like getting checked out. Often when I stop I look around to see who is doing it just because I can never get over how obviously they do it. They start by looking at my face, then slowly move their eyes downward, fixating on my bike (I think) and then back up to my face...the whole time I'm still looking at them thinking, "My face is up here buddy." And as if I didn't get stared at enough, what I'm about to do made me totally deserve it.

I proceded to hop on my bike grabbing my handle bar with my right hand and the other bike's handle bars with my left. I slowly made my way through the first intersection (which is like the size of an American city block). Feeling pretty confident and allowing my man-ness to come out I decided I could go a little faster. As I was almost home I had to make a slight turn to the left to avoid the three wheeled flaming potato cart. This would have been fine had the handle bars not been touching each other. As I turned left, the new bike turned right and cut out my tires from underneath me. I was going slow enough that I put my foot down, only to have the gears on the new bike scrape down my leg in a perfectly spaced curvey path.

That will be an amazing scar.

As the scarring takes place I go flying over my bike with my left foot still on ground and plenty of time to think about how stupid I look and how I better jump up quickly after I hit the ground so I can save what little pride I have left and not get run over by the 20 mopeds tailing me. Of which I manage to do (except for maybe saving the pride). In this process I also broke the brake on the brand new bike and bent the handle bars. Thankfully labor in China is cheap and I got both fixed for about $5.

Lesson learned? Probably not. Good story? Most definitely! Awesome scar? Time will tell.

This is China

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/06/29/china.rent.white.people/index.html?hpt=C2&fbid=KoVOcHGsSQH

Mike found this and we thought it describes China really well. Actually a couple of weeks ago I was asked to help advertise my friend's travel agency. You only like me because of my face... I feel so used.

Happy Birthday to me

June 22nd was my 27th birthday. We'll start with a fun fact. In China everyone's age changes on the new year no matter when you were born. So in China I was supposed to start telling everyone I was 27 when the new year hit. I couldn't do it. I know, I know, you're supposed to "become all things to all people" and I'm sure someone could give me twenty reasons why it's important to "engulf yourself in the culture" and be one with the people or something, but frankly, I just don't really like this custom. I liked being 26 until June. Another birthday fact, when it's your birthday in China you pay for dinner. Weird.

Customs aside, my birthday was awesome. My husband took me on a birthday date to Shanghai. In the morning we went to the fake market, where we pretty much did all our Christmas shopping in an hour and a half. I'm getting pretty good at bargaining. Turns out you get a better price when you speak Chinese. Then DeMarco's Italian Restaurant for lunch - I'm drooling just thinking about it. Smoothie's for dessert, and then to one of my favorite places in China - IKEA. We bought a crib, crib mattress, and a chair, along with our Christmas presents, which made for an interesting ride home on the train. Turns out it's a little precarious carrying a 4ft. by 3ft. box into the taxi, through security, up a flight of stairs, in the waiting room, through a huge crowd of people all pushing to get through a tiny gate, down a broken escalator and into your train seats.

On Thursday the volunteer teams and our co-workers threw me an awesome party at TGIFridays, where I got to blow out the two tea lights on my birthday dessert and one candle that came separately. Then onto some epic Egyptian themed KTV (kereoke). It was a blast - thanks guys.

Slumber Party!!

The other day Mike had five guys over for a slumber party. Mike grilled burgers but when we told them to help themselves, they asked us to teach them how, so we had to have a tutorial on how to put together your hamburger. One dude still managed to put the bbq sauce on the outside of the bun. We also had potatoes so I put forks and chopsticks out, they all went with the chopstick option (makes sense) and many of them also ate the burger with the chopsticks.

They were amazed when I brought them home made cookies, so went into the kitchen to look at the oven, and investigate the ingredients. We played some Wii Rockband (which was pretty special) and then at 10pm they watched a world cup game, then they took a two hour nap, then they all woke back up to watch a second world cup game. I woke up at 4:30am, the lights were out, but they were still giggling like middle school girls all camped out on our living room floor. When Mike and I got out of bed they were all wide awake contently watching Saturday morning cartoons. So funny.

Man vs. Fashion

Guys you might find this conversation totally normal, but the girls will laugh. Some conversations are better had among the same gender.

Em: I want to buy some gauchos and a cropped jean jacket online, what do you think?

Mike: What are gauchos?

Em: They're like capris.

Mike: Oh, what's a cropped jean jacket?

Em: It's a jacket only shorter.

Mike: Hm. I don't really get it, why would you want a short jacket?

Em: Cause I like it and I think I would wear it a lot when I'm pregnant.

Mike: So, do you wear something under it?

Em: Yes.

Mike: Like what?

Em: Like a shirt.

Mike: But won't your belly get cold?

Made in China

I assume that most of you already know our big news that we are going to have a baby, but if not, hey guess what we're going to have a baby!!! The due date is January 17th and I am just starting week 11 of pregnancy. According to the all-knowing internet our little kiddo is about two inches long this week. We are having all our doctor visits in our city but then we will travel to Thailand a few weeks before the birth and have the baby there. We got to see an ultrasound already but it was just a black dot, so not super exciting yet.

Website I've been looking at measures the baby's size in accordance to fruit. So usually we just refer to the baby by whatever fruit it is that week. My favorite week so far was the blueberry. I just liked calling it the blube. This week it's the size of a prune, which is less cute. We do plan on finding out the gender beforehand, but right now I don't know whether to call it he or she and it just seems a little impersonal. Luckily Chinese has solved this problem with their gender neutral pronoun "ta." Mike's mom and dad decided to name it MIC - which stands for Made In China. The real name will be a secret till ta's birthday.

Right now my mom and Mike's sister are sure it's a boy and my dad is convinced it's a girl. Any other guesses? Maybe I'll put a poll on the blog. Welp now your all caught up.

Man vs. Meat

Learned BBQ. If you have ever been to our city, you know this place. It's a bit of a legacy among our team and the voluteers before us. This place is kinda like the Iowa State Fair because everything comes on a stick. Meat, fish, garlic, cauliflower, mushrooms, etc put on a skewer and cooked over the smokey charcoal. Add a some of their "special sauce" and a little gourmet powder (aka MSG) and what do you get??? Delicious that's what you get.

Since oh, I don't know, the second day we got here Mike has been dreaming of eating 100 sticks of meat at Learned BBQ. I mean, if you're going to dream, dream big right? But the 100 stick challenge had to be attempted in the correct setting. I mean you have to have competition and witnesses for an accomplishment such as this. So when 9 college guys showed up on our doorstep, it was perfect.

The waiters were a little shocked when you order 600 sticks of beef and mutton, but they came through. On that chilly evening, Mike and his men met the challenge and devoured 100 sticks each. Mike topped it off with some ice cream and a bike ride home. I can't decide if I should be proud or a little bit disgusted.

Dancin on the train

20 on a couch

Thursday night felt like summer Salt had come to our living room. Currently we are hosting 3 TSC teams, which means there's a grand total of 16 students working hard all throughout the city. Sweet. On Thursday we all crammed into our small apartment for Papa Johns and fellowship. One of our local friends came and shared his story about how four years ago he "happened" upon a group of students, just like this and how his life was changed forever. He shared some of the challenges and victories that life has brought since that time and let the students ask him a bunch of questions. Our house always feels more homey when it's full of Americans.

Scavenger Hunt Competition Extravaganza

Last night at midnight we welcomed in two more student volunteer teams, ok actually Mike welcomed them last night while I slept. Lame I know, but in my defense I have been sick for about a week. So this morning all ten of them came over for breakfast and orientation. By the way I'll be making dinner for about 17 people every week this summer so if anyone has any recipes that are good to make in large quantities, send them my way.

After orientation we sent them on an epic trek through the city. Busses, taxis, campuses, pictures, food, changing money... the idea is to teach them everything they need to know about the city in one day so they can function for the next two months. All the teams pictorally document each task and the team that returns with the best pics wins. So far we don't have a prize, but they don't need to know that.

Here are a few of the bonus point tasks...
-Split pants (10pts)
-A sqatty potty (5 pts)
-A guy making noodles (20pts)
-A tiny vehicle carrying a ton of stuff (10pts)
-An awesome Chinese guy haircut (10pts) (10 extra points if your picture is the (fiercest)
-3 people on an e-bike (30 pts)
-Ride a bus (20pts) what was your bus number?
-Ride a taxi (10pts) where did you go?
-Ride a rickshaw, SanLunChe, or Moped (30pts)
-A team member eating stinky tofu (40pts)

Good Good Day

Last Monday was a great day. We woke up and headed to class, ok, that part was pretty mundane, nothing too special about that, then we were off to campus to meet students. I was able to talk with a girl for two hours in Chinese. This was really encouraging to me because lately I've been feeling like my language has been stuck at the same level. She was very gracious and willing to explain things different ways if I didn't understand. Her boyfriend told me that China is sad because they are poor, and if they were a richer country they could be a happier people. I was able to share with them that I have much more than money to put my hope in. They told me they were Taoist and that it was the same as what I believe. I shared with them the story of the Good News and then asked them if they still thought it was the same, and they realized it wasn't.
After that I met with a younger sister, who I hadn't seen in a while. She informed me that when she isn't connected with other sisters she is more susceptible to temptation, so we'd better start reading the Good Book together. I always think it's awesome when new believers come to very true conclusions without the intervention of other people.

Next stop - English corner with our American friends, where I found out that we have a new brother!!! Our first volunteer team arrived about two weeks ago and they have been diligently making friends since the moment they got here. That night, two more girls became sisters, plus two more on Friday!! Awesome!!

Anyway I just wanted you to be able to rejoice with us and get a feel for the what the harvest is like in this area. There are lots of people ready to hear we just have to find them. Thanks for your continued pr@yers. Big things are going to happen this summer.

Two-Headed Pancho of Unity

This was our wedding gift to Al and Jen. The bike Pancho is the only way to get around the city when it's raining (which is like every day). When we first moved here we kinda thought they were dumb and really nerdy. After a few days of coming home drenched our pride and our fashion sense gave in. Turns out they work amazingly. The sweet visors keep the rain out of your face and the fronts are extra long so they can clip onto your bike basket and keep your stuff and your legs from getting wet. Amazing. This particular item being modeled below is a two person electric-bike Pancho. Great for those rainy nights when you want to take your lady-friend out on the town.

Smoke Monster vs. Aqua Man

When we were home we went on a double date with Alex and Jen before the wedding. At Macaroni Grill you get to draw on the table, so we decided to play a game that some of my kiddo's at work made up when they were bored one day. Made-up games resulting from boredom are always the best games.

Rules:
Draw a line across the middle of the paper. Each team has a given amount of time to draw as many offensive and defensive things as they can on their side of the paper. For example, we drew the death star, and sharks with lazer beams on their heads, and our opponents drew the smoke monster from LOST and swine flu. When time is up you battle. You can use any of your things to take out any of their things, but each thing can only be used once. The last one standing wins. The exchange has to be realistic though. It would be impossible for Aqua-man to take out the death star, but Aqua-man could be bribed by Bill Gates to not attack. Caution: Heated discussion may arise about whether or not the transaction is fair. Do not play this game if you are pregnant, may become pregnant or have a history of heart disease.

America

A few of you may know that we recently took a quick trip home to America for my little brother's wedding. (Apologies to all our friends who we didn't get to see or didn't even know we were within the 48 contiguous states) We were only there for a week, travel and wedding events included.

When we got on the plane, none of our siblings had any "romantic prospects" and we were prepared to be in-country for a full two years at the very least. When we found out we had been cleared to come home for a visit I had mixed emotions. Of course I was happy. It would be a total bum if we'd have missed Al's wedding, but I also kinda felt gypped. It felt like all that crying I did about being gone for two years was kinda wasted, you know? For a girl, I'm not much of a crier, but before we left I put in some serious time - all for what?? 6 months??!!! That's only a quarter of our time here which means I could have saved my self 3/4 of my total cry time. I could have been so much more productive! Ok, you're right. We all know I'm not really that productive in general, but just think of how I could have improved my Solitaire game with that time. Sigh.

We have been here 6ish months now and we are finally feelin pretty settled here. When I found out that we were going home I was a little worried that I'd have a relapse of homesickness, but Father took care of me. It seemed like there was potential for everything to go emotionally awry*, but it just...didn't. Don't you love it when that happens? The wedding went great - one of Mike's best I'd say, we got to do some shopping, and hang out with the fam. And we jumped back into the flow of China life smoothly. We even felt really prepared for the summer team to come. Woot.

Ok, one funny story from the wedding. Picture this. Wedding reception. Hickory Hall complete with neon palm tree. Mike and I are in a dance circle with his parents, my mom, and my aunt and uncle, a pretty happening group. Mike's dad, while busting a serious move says "Man, this is great we need to get this song" in reference to "Ice Ice Baby." I don't know, it made us laugh.

*awry is very difficult to spell, I was even beyond the reach of spell check.

Birds, Flowers, and Fire

Last week on a beautiful sunny morning I headed out on my bike to explore the city. I ride through this intersection on a daily basis, but on this particular day I found this. That's right, a man and his scooter parked next to a pile of black goo...that was on fire. In China I am often confronted with situations in which I don't know how to respond, so I did what I usually do and try to react like everyone else. The guy next to me didn't even seem to notice the intersection fire so I just kept on pedaling.

Here's a few pics from the rest of my ride.

chair salesman parked outside our gate

The bird and flower market

Retreat!

Thanks so much for your pra@yer for the students these past couple weekends. Aside from eating snails at every meal and getting very little sleep, everything went really well. The students reported that they learned a lot about making the most of every opportunity, and always doing things to the best of their ability because they know they are not working for man but for the Father. I think they really enjoyed getting away from the city and school and other distractions and to be able to focus on the father for a whole weekend. Here's some pics from the weekend...