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.