Camping

My life the past month has sort of been like camping. The city is fixing the main water pipe running through the city, so they have had to turn off the water supply to my area. Sometimes it's a short time (8pm-10am), but at times it's been a much longer time (8pm Monday- 2pm Thursday). It sure makes life interesting when you don't have any water in your home. I went to Andy and David's place to shower. I went to the bathroom in the subway (about a 3 minute bike ride away), and I never cooked so I didn't have to do dishes.

Once, the city even brought a fire truck to my complex so we could fill up buckets of water and use it in our homes. It's like I'm camping...

Then, this morning I woke up and had no electricity! Yikes! Good thing I'm adjusted to life in China. If this was my first year, I would have a hard time with this no water, no electricity thing.

Since it's like I'm camping anways, I decided to do it for real (ok, not really, but I did sleep in a tent the other night) A friend from study is a student at Wuhan University. It's technically my school, but I don't often teach there. He invited a group of us to sleep on top of the old old library in celebration of Mid-autumn festival. It's a time where people celebrate something (to be honest, I'm not sure what) and look at the moon and eat mooncakes.

So, we rented some tents and made our way to the roof. Once we were set up, we played some games, at some snacks, and chatted. I was about to go to bed around 2am, but then some people wanted to dance. I joined a little, but soon crawled into my tent. At about 4am, everyone else decided to go to bed. I fell asleep soon after and woke up 2 hours later from old people doing their morning exercises... It was a short night, an odd night, but an interesting night!

Our "campground"

It's actually on the roof of a current dorm

My tent on the left

The other tents. Altogether about 30 people or so camped out

Year 4

One of my former FoCers asked me how year 4 was going... I didn't say much, just "year four is crazy. So comfortable and so much to do." Let me expand on that.

What is year 4 like? I'm still in a foreign country and things are different and hard at times, but year 4 makes them easier. I "lost" a few good American friends this year. It was hard coming back to Wuhan without them. However, losing them has forced me to find support in other places. When I first came to China, I never thought I'd have a close Chinese friend. I didn't know if I ever wanted to. I didn't want to have to deal with the issues that are difficult to talk about, especially with a different cultural background. That has changed. I now have a number of good Chinese friends. We talk about a lot of things and help each other in life. So, year 4... it's growing closer to those friends.

Year 4 is also so comfortable. I've been told many times that I'm like a Wuhan native. I know the city better than some Chinese who have lived here their whole life. I've had many opportunities to explore this city, so I'm thankful that I know it so well. It makes me feel like I belong, like I can go places I need to when I need to. So, year 4 is... comfort in the city.

I think the biggest thing I've noticed the difference though, is comfort with others. I've met so many different people, had so many conversations, been in so many situations, that working this year will be very productive. I'm not fighting nerves, I'm able to do things naturally.

I can't believe I've lived here 3 years already and a fourth one has already started. There will be lots of great opportunities this year. Thanks to HIM for keeping me safe and sane in this crazy would of millions of people!

Menus

Ordering food in China is a little different than America. When you sit down at the table the waitress follows you, hands you one menu, and stands there. She is waiting to take your order. You pick your dishes and tell her immediately. The whole table eats the same thing, which can be nice because you get a variety, but also not, if you don't like the same foods.

Sometimes the menu is hanging on the wall. You just walk up and tell the lady standing nearby what you want to eat. Those are harder for me because it's almost guaranteed not to have English. However, most menus don't have English so us Americans just start yelling out foods that we know and see if they have them there. :) I love eating out in China, it's relatively cheap, mostly good, and a great time to chat with others. Sometimes you accidentally order some strange foods and it makes it an unforgettable meal!

on the left: wood ear with mountain medicine (the white stuff- not sure of the English name, but this is the direct translation) it's a delicious dish! on the right: Duck... very hard to eat since it was mostly bone and skin, but still good tasting.

Here is the menu on the wall.

Walk to School

I moved from one of the busiest places in Wuhan to another one of the busiest places in Wuhan. This means lots of people and LOTS of buses! Here are some pictures of my typical walk to and from school. I no longer have quite as many options for transportation, but I still have the subway which is by far the most convenient. It's been raining, so I haven't been able to bike, but once it's nice, I'll do that again too!

The buses are lined solidly on my road every morning.

Traffic is at a constant stand-still. I therefore, take my bike or subway!

These cars are also at a stand-still and since the sidewalk is under construction, this is where we must walk.

Sadly, I didn't get any people walking with me. There were others!

Once off the subway, everyone tries to exit. You get used to gliding around to avoid all the people.

First days of traveling

Here is a blog I wrote the first days of traveling...

The last two days have been full of exercise. Once I finally got to my hostel (I took two flights and an overnight train) my students and I explored Lijiang. The hostel guy suggested a bike ride so off we went! We were planning to see an old town and some beautiful scenery by a lake. What he didn't tell us was that we would have to bike up a mountain! We ended up walking quite a ways with our bikes. We saw the town, but then missed our turn for the lake. By that time we were enjoying the downhill, and didn't want to turn back to find the lake.

Day two started off with an early bus ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Wow!! We hiked down 2000 meters walked around on the bottom for a while, then slowly, very slowly, made our way back up to the top. Along the way we had ladders to climb, rocks to maneuver over, bridges to cross, horse poop to avoids, and A LOT of stairs!  Even though I felt like death by the end, it was so worth it. The sights were amazing!!! We were down inside of a gorge and I was blown away by the beauty. 

After a short nap back at the hostel, I ventured out for a short walk alone. I loved walking around in china with amazing views alone.  I sang hymns out loud and marveled at the vastness of His creation.  I'm thankful I got this time to relax before heading into a busy year of teaching and studying.

Even as I think back on this area, I'm in love. It was such a great peaceful place to be. It's crazy that in this country of a billion people there are places where no one is to be found. I was alone and it was great!

Horses along the way. They want you to ride them up when your half dead. Great marketing strategy!

You couldn't take a bad picture!

A bridge along the path

They had these great rests spots along the way. Very helpful!

View from my hostel

LOVED this area. This bridge is called G-d River Bridge :)

Hard to see, but there is a milk cow in here

The menu at the hostel

This one's for my dad! It's another cow. This is their "barn"

Beautiful!!!

Willllburr!!!!

Remember the story of Charlotte's Web? One of my students has the name of Wilbur. I love yelling "Willlburrr!" in the remembrance of Charlotte's Web. (I think that happened in the story...)

Wilbur is one of the students I traveled with the past week. He made me laugh numerous times a day. Sometimes he tried, sometimes he didn't even know it. Here are some of the comments he made that make me roll my eyes and giggle inside (sometimes a little outside too)

Wilbur:I need a snap
Jess: nap
Wilbur: but there is no place for a snap
Jess: It's nap
Wilbur: I don't hear the difference
Jess: snap has an s in the front!
Wilbur: oh, it sounds the same

I took some pictures of the three of us…
Me: I'll put them on a usb and give them to you.
Wilbur : usb?
Zero: [translates]
Wilbur : ooh!! Usb, I don't know that. I only know USA

Quote of the day as we biked past some fields
Wilbur: what's this?
Jess: it's corn
Wilbur: Oh! I didn't know that.
I laughed inside on this one. I live in the middle of a corn field and here is this city boy who has never seen corn...

Wilbur: Do you want to play deck?
Jess: Deck?
Wilbur: Yeah, deck. Do you want to play?
Jess: What is deck?
Wilbur: You taught me that word yesterday!!
Jess: Oh, you mean cards?
Wilbur: I thought you said they are called deck.
Jess: Yes, they are a deck of cards.
Wilbur: Oh... I know (meaning, I got it)

I had to take a picture of him next to a corn field. :)

I loved his little sweater vest t-shirt he wore.

 

A gift from above!

As I have retold this story it doesn't seam as amazing as it did when I was there, but I truly believe this is an obvious time that HE answered me in an amazing way...

This is the story of my short trip back home to Wuhan. I just finished traveling with two of my students. They were great travel buddies and translators. However, their flight left a few hours before mine. Not a big deal, I've flown many many times, I can take it from here! Ha! This was the most confusing trip of my life!

My flight was delayed even before I checked in. Not a big deal, only 20 minutes later. Since I had to sleep in the airport the night before, I was extremely tired so I rested a bit at my gate. When I heard an announcement and people getting up to stand in line I got out my ticket and lined up! Here we go!!!

We didn't go though... we went through the door like we were boarding the plane, then we turned left and walked and walked and I noticed we were following the signs for arrivals. Hmm.. I thought... how could I have arrived, I hadn't flown yet. I asked some of the fellow followers if I was going the right way and they said yes. So, I continued to follow as if I knew exactly what I was doing. Inside I was COMPLETELY confused.

Upon leaving the airport I saw two buses parked. Oh no! They aren't busing us back to Wuhan! (It was a two hour flight, a bus would take forever). We boarded and listened to the man make an announcement. I'm still super confused. I asked the guy next to me what was going on. He tried to explain in simple Chinese. All I got was "airplane broken, going to a hotel, fly later"

We arrived at a hotel and started to "line up" once again. The people handed in their boarding passes and received a key for a room. How long is our delay!? I was thinking. I heard 1:30 being bounced around. Is that am or pm? (It was currently about 11:30am). I was concerned about missing the flight because I didn't understand an announcement, but I continued to do what everyone else was doing as if I knew exactly what was going on.

I handed the lady my boarding pass and said, "one person".

"Any other single girls out there?" She yelled.

"I am" said a young girl.

So, I was handed a key and a "roommate". As we walked upstairs I asked if she could speak English. My heart almost skipped a beat when she responded, yes! I talked more and found out she was going to Wuhan for school. She's a sophomore at CCNU... This is the school that is about a 15 minute walk from my place. AND she's an English major! HE answered my call. He gave me this young Chinese girl, fluent in English to help settle my concerns.

I was sooo thankful for this girl to be there to help me out. I was stressed and so tired, which isn't the best pair when traveling.  I shared a taxi with her on the way home from the airport and plan to meet up with her soon to chat, play games, and eventually, Gdd willing, come to studies. She did tell me that next term she will study the BOOK in her English class. She's never studied it before... well, I thought, I can change that.

So, here is a time I KNOW He answered me in a way beyond what I could have asked for. I'm ready to go and spread that news! Keep me in your Thoughts as we start a new year!