China:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031141&l=b450b&id=168300063
Japan:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031143&l=86ab5&id=168300063
New Zealand:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031144&l=564a4&id=168300063
Australia:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031160&l=d28b4&id=168300063
Hawaii:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031071&l=9fc4f&id=168300063
I'll post more when I get them up!
Sunday, December 21
Saturday, December 20
Groundhog Day and Beautiful Beaches
(I'm writing this from home, but I didn't want to leave out Hawaii from this blog, leaving it unfinished.)
Tuesday, December 2nd was the longest day of my life. And I mean that literally. We took off from Sydney at 9pm on December 2nd, flew for 10 hours and landed at 7am...December 2nd. Fortunately, the weather was foggy and rainy so we had no problem going straight to our rooms to nap when we landed. A few hours later we got up and relived Tuesday by walking around the streets surrounding our hotel to orient ourselves. We found the International Marketplace and got a bunch of great souvenirs then went down to the beach a block from where we were staying to enjoy the 75 degree water at night.
Being back in America was a strange adjustment for all of us. The entire time we were in Hawaii we would find ourselves asking, "What's the exchange rate? Oh, wait, that's REAL dollars!", "You have mustard and American cheese?!", or "You mean, we get free refills?" I think it was a good time for us to slowly move back into American life before we got all the way home. We were mistaken for foreigners here and there because of our excitement or confusion around everyday American places and things, but it was fun and we took it as a compliment because we had seen the world and we were coming back with new eyes.
We spent most of our time in Hawaii in Waikiki where our hotel was, but we also took a trip out to Pearl City to see the USS Arizona Memorial and thank the veterans that were there for their service to our country. It was such a unique experience for us because only 2 months ago we were at Hiroshima seeing the other side of this war. The USS Arizona Memorial was established to honor those men that served and died, while the Hiroshima Memorial seems more informative about the events and discouraging of future nuclear research and warfare. Interestingly, both memorials highlighted the hesitancy of the opposing country to go through with their actions.
Another evening we went to a luau and had a really fun time. They had several booths set up to make your own bracelets or headbands, get temporary Polynesian tattoos, or try your luck at spear throwing. Throughout the night they also held demonstrations for fishing, hula dancing, and coconut tree climbing to show the techniques and meanings behind these Hawaiian traditions. As the sun set, we went to watch them pull the pig out of the ground where it had been cooking for several hours and sat down for a delicious buffet dinner of luau pork, fish, and several kinds of salad. While we ate they did a show of several different Polynesian styles of dance and pulled people from the audience to come up and dance with them. On the way back to the hotel our guide kept us all entertained telling stories and coming up with ridiculous games for us. I'm sure the other group in the bus with us (a wedding party also from Oklahoma!) had their doubts when they first got on the bus with 24 college students, but they had fun laughing with (or more likely AT) us singing along to the radio and practicing our best Maori haka faces.
The next day a smaller group of us went up to the North Shore area to visit the Polynesian Culture Center for the day. It was great to see some of the other small islands' traditions in one place since we couldn't visit all of them on our trip. We watched the Fiji warrior dances, the Samoan fire dances, the Tongan drums, the Tahiti quick knee-shaking dances, and the Hawaiian hula, and the New Zealand poi dance. All of the cultures are known for their unique skills in certain areas, yet they have so much in common based on their environments and backgrounds. We had fun making our way around the center all day seeing as much as we could, getting fake tattoos, and eating Macadamia ice cream with fresh fruit.
The rest of our days in Hawaii we spent on the sand: soaking up sun, holding devotionals, and for some testing their balance with surfing lessons. It was a wonderful conclusion to our long adventure, and a great time for all of us to recap all we had done these past three months. Going home was hard for all of us because we knew we would have to be apart, and as much as we all have gotten on each others' nerves during the course of our time together we have become a family. We have learned to rely on each other so much in such a short span of time, and leaving feels much like we felt three months ago when we left our families back home. We had a tear-filled last church service together Sunday morning as we finished packing our bags to begin our day of flights back to Oklahoma.
Getting home was such a wonderful experience. We got more anxious as our flights took us closer and closer to home: Waikiki to Las Vegas to Denver to Oklahoma City. Monday evening we landed in Oklahoma City and still had to go through baggage claim and a bus ride back to campus, but there was so much energy in our group. As we boarded the OC bus we started singing anything and everything that came to mind as a way to let some of the excitment out. We started up a loud round of our Alma Mater followed by whatever Christmas songs came to mind while watching the Christmas lights on familiar buildings as we drove closer to our friends and families waiting to welcome us home. I feel like I might have tasted what it feels like to be a celebrity as we drove up to find a huge group of friends waiting outside for us, cheering as we drove up, holding up posters and gifts for us. Mom and Nana came up to OC to see me when I got off the bus, and it was so good to see them right as I got home. A ton of my friends also came to tell me how much they missed me, and I was so glad to get to see so many faces that I've been missing from so far away.
And like that... we were home. We slowly picked up our individual bags and headed our different ways. Three months together and now one month completely apart. We've already reached out to each other exchanging phone numbers, funny stories by email of reverse culture shock, and uploading hundreds of pictures to share with our friends and families but mostly with each other. Trying to hang onto every memory for as long as possible while also readjusting to life at home is a struggle, but we have each other to encourage and laugh with. This experience has changed every single one of us in many different ways, and it is a time in our lives we will never forget.
Tuesday, December 2nd was the longest day of my life. And I mean that literally. We took off from Sydney at 9pm on December 2nd, flew for 10 hours and landed at 7am...December 2nd. Fortunately, the weather was foggy and rainy so we had no problem going straight to our rooms to nap when we landed. A few hours later we got up and relived Tuesday by walking around the streets surrounding our hotel to orient ourselves. We found the International Marketplace and got a bunch of great souvenirs then went down to the beach a block from where we were staying to enjoy the 75 degree water at night.
Being back in America was a strange adjustment for all of us. The entire time we were in Hawaii we would find ourselves asking, "What's the exchange rate? Oh, wait, that's REAL dollars!", "You have mustard and American cheese?!", or "You mean, we get free refills?" I think it was a good time for us to slowly move back into American life before we got all the way home. We were mistaken for foreigners here and there because of our excitement or confusion around everyday American places and things, but it was fun and we took it as a compliment because we had seen the world and we were coming back with new eyes.
We spent most of our time in Hawaii in Waikiki where our hotel was, but we also took a trip out to Pearl City to see the USS Arizona Memorial and thank the veterans that were there for their service to our country. It was such a unique experience for us because only 2 months ago we were at Hiroshima seeing the other side of this war. The USS Arizona Memorial was established to honor those men that served and died, while the Hiroshima Memorial seems more informative about the events and discouraging of future nuclear research and warfare. Interestingly, both memorials highlighted the hesitancy of the opposing country to go through with their actions.
Another evening we went to a luau and had a really fun time. They had several booths set up to make your own bracelets or headbands, get temporary Polynesian tattoos, or try your luck at spear throwing. Throughout the night they also held demonstrations for fishing, hula dancing, and coconut tree climbing to show the techniques and meanings behind these Hawaiian traditions. As the sun set, we went to watch them pull the pig out of the ground where it had been cooking for several hours and sat down for a delicious buffet dinner of luau pork, fish, and several kinds of salad. While we ate they did a show of several different Polynesian styles of dance and pulled people from the audience to come up and dance with them. On the way back to the hotel our guide kept us all entertained telling stories and coming up with ridiculous games for us. I'm sure the other group in the bus with us (a wedding party also from Oklahoma!) had their doubts when they first got on the bus with 24 college students, but they had fun laughing with (or more likely AT) us singing along to the radio and practicing our best Maori haka faces.
The next day a smaller group of us went up to the North Shore area to visit the Polynesian Culture Center for the day. It was great to see some of the other small islands' traditions in one place since we couldn't visit all of them on our trip. We watched the Fiji warrior dances, the Samoan fire dances, the Tongan drums, the Tahiti quick knee-shaking dances, and the Hawaiian hula, and the New Zealand poi dance. All of the cultures are known for their unique skills in certain areas, yet they have so much in common based on their environments and backgrounds. We had fun making our way around the center all day seeing as much as we could, getting fake tattoos, and eating Macadamia ice cream with fresh fruit.
The rest of our days in Hawaii we spent on the sand: soaking up sun, holding devotionals, and for some testing their balance with surfing lessons. It was a wonderful conclusion to our long adventure, and a great time for all of us to recap all we had done these past three months. Going home was hard for all of us because we knew we would have to be apart, and as much as we all have gotten on each others' nerves during the course of our time together we have become a family. We have learned to rely on each other so much in such a short span of time, and leaving feels much like we felt three months ago when we left our families back home. We had a tear-filled last church service together Sunday morning as we finished packing our bags to begin our day of flights back to Oklahoma.
Getting home was such a wonderful experience. We got more anxious as our flights took us closer and closer to home: Waikiki to Las Vegas to Denver to Oklahoma City. Monday evening we landed in Oklahoma City and still had to go through baggage claim and a bus ride back to campus, but there was so much energy in our group. As we boarded the OC bus we started singing anything and everything that came to mind as a way to let some of the excitment out. We started up a loud round of our Alma Mater followed by whatever Christmas songs came to mind while watching the Christmas lights on familiar buildings as we drove closer to our friends and families waiting to welcome us home. I feel like I might have tasted what it feels like to be a celebrity as we drove up to find a huge group of friends waiting outside for us, cheering as we drove up, holding up posters and gifts for us. Mom and Nana came up to OC to see me when I got off the bus, and it was so good to see them right as I got home. A ton of my friends also came to tell me how much they missed me, and I was so glad to get to see so many faces that I've been missing from so far away.
And like that... we were home. We slowly picked up our individual bags and headed our different ways. Three months together and now one month completely apart. We've already reached out to each other exchanging phone numbers, funny stories by email of reverse culture shock, and uploading hundreds of pictures to share with our friends and families but mostly with each other. Trying to hang onto every memory for as long as possible while also readjusting to life at home is a struggle, but we have each other to encourage and laugh with. This experience has changed every single one of us in many different ways, and it is a time in our lives we will never forget.
Monday, December 1
So Much To Be Thankful For!
This week we spent most of our time in Gosford, a town out in the countryside outside of Sydney. We took a train on Thursday about an hour to meet with the Browns, a family that has been organizing the Pac Rim stay in Gosford for the past 10 years. They took half of us to their house and half of our group to the grocery store to search for Thanksgiving appropriate food. The group did great and came back to cook our delicious dinner. The only major difference from home was the turkey. Since turkey isn't in great supply in the 20+ pound variety in Australia right now (or ever as far as I know) we had to use turkey roasts in a box. It took about 5 of them at 6lbs each to feed our group, but once it's all cooked and cut up, it's all the same to us. We had fun watching TV and napping while the food all cooked, and I helped with all my usual tasks -- filling cups with ice, chopping walnuts, and taking finished dished out to the serving table. Haha!
Thursday night we went home to meet out host families for the weekend. Hailey and I stayed with Dave and Joy Mowday and their daughter Laura. Laura spent 3 months last year touring around the US, and she spent about a week in Edmond with a friend that goes to OC. It was fun sharing traveling stories and common experiences with her while we sat around watching American TV.
Friday, some of our group went out deep sea fishing and caught 27 fish altogether. The rest of us went to the Reptile Park, which in my opinion is not quite accurately named. It's like a small zoo that has all kinds of exhibits -- wallabies, wombats, platypus, dingoes, and tons of local birds. My favorite part though was the kangaroo area where we could walk around petting them all and taking pictures with them. One of them was really interested in my sandwich when we sat down to eat, but I managed to eat most of it myself while I fed him some of it to him by hand! Friday night we hung out with some of the Gosford Church of Christ youth group and young adults eating a big spaghetti dinner and playing games with them.
Saturday we went out to Pearl Beach with the youth group and young adults and had a blast! One kid, Tim, and I dug some holes in the sand and connected them trying to make an underground tunnel. After a while the top started crumbling in so I climbed in my hole to show how far we had gotten. A bunch of people pushed all the sand back on top of me and very quickly buried me. Since my body was under the sand they had fun building a little midget body for me and making fun of me stuck under so much weight. For those of you that watch Grey's Anatomy, I think I know how that kid felt that was stuck in the cement. They left me there, watching to see if I could get myself out and after a couple minutes I was finally able to push through and climb out. Since I was covered in sand I didn't have much choice but to go wash off in the cold ocean water. It had been overcast in the morning, but as the day went on the water warmed up some. Unfortunately, I also got a pretty good sunburn that day, but it's gone down pretty well so far. Hopefully by the time we get to the beach in Hawaii it'll be mostly gone.
Sunday we went to service at the Gosford Community Center where the church meets then stayed for a potluck lunch. We had all our stuff packed up, so from there we left to catch our train back to Sydney. For dinner I went with a group to find Hard Rock Cafe, but it wasn't until we got there that we realized it's been closed for over a year now. We decided to try a place up in the Rocks that we'd passed a few times before, so we went to Rockin Burger. Some people tried the Kanga, which is made of kangaroo meat, but I just couldn't do it after petting some just a few days ago.
Today has been a slow day again. Our last day in Sydney and our last day truly abroad. Tomorrow we will get into our time machine back to America as we arrive in Hawaii earlier than we leave Sydney. I'm looking forward to the longest day of my life, but I also know that jet lag is going to hit pretty hard so I'll have to make myself sleep some instead of running straight out to the beach. We'll see how well that works out.
Hard to believe it's just one week left, but I'm ready to get home! I just found out that the packages I sent home from Beijing and Xi'an just made it home yesterday, so I'm really excited to get home to pass out all my presents!
I love you all! See you SOON!!
Amy
Thursday night we went home to meet out host families for the weekend. Hailey and I stayed with Dave and Joy Mowday and their daughter Laura. Laura spent 3 months last year touring around the US, and she spent about a week in Edmond with a friend that goes to OC. It was fun sharing traveling stories and common experiences with her while we sat around watching American TV.
Friday, some of our group went out deep sea fishing and caught 27 fish altogether. The rest of us went to the Reptile Park, which in my opinion is not quite accurately named. It's like a small zoo that has all kinds of exhibits -- wallabies, wombats, platypus, dingoes, and tons of local birds. My favorite part though was the kangaroo area where we could walk around petting them all and taking pictures with them. One of them was really interested in my sandwich when we sat down to eat, but I managed to eat most of it myself while I fed him some of it to him by hand! Friday night we hung out with some of the Gosford Church of Christ youth group and young adults eating a big spaghetti dinner and playing games with them.
Saturday we went out to Pearl Beach with the youth group and young adults and had a blast! One kid, Tim, and I dug some holes in the sand and connected them trying to make an underground tunnel. After a while the top started crumbling in so I climbed in my hole to show how far we had gotten. A bunch of people pushed all the sand back on top of me and very quickly buried me. Since my body was under the sand they had fun building a little midget body for me and making fun of me stuck under so much weight. For those of you that watch Grey's Anatomy, I think I know how that kid felt that was stuck in the cement. They left me there, watching to see if I could get myself out and after a couple minutes I was finally able to push through and climb out. Since I was covered in sand I didn't have much choice but to go wash off in the cold ocean water. It had been overcast in the morning, but as the day went on the water warmed up some. Unfortunately, I also got a pretty good sunburn that day, but it's gone down pretty well so far. Hopefully by the time we get to the beach in Hawaii it'll be mostly gone.
Sunday we went to service at the Gosford Community Center where the church meets then stayed for a potluck lunch. We had all our stuff packed up, so from there we left to catch our train back to Sydney. For dinner I went with a group to find Hard Rock Cafe, but it wasn't until we got there that we realized it's been closed for over a year now. We decided to try a place up in the Rocks that we'd passed a few times before, so we went to Rockin Burger. Some people tried the Kanga, which is made of kangaroo meat, but I just couldn't do it after petting some just a few days ago.
Today has been a slow day again. Our last day in Sydney and our last day truly abroad. Tomorrow we will get into our time machine back to America as we arrive in Hawaii earlier than we leave Sydney. I'm looking forward to the longest day of my life, but I also know that jet lag is going to hit pretty hard so I'll have to make myself sleep some instead of running straight out to the beach. We'll see how well that works out.
Hard to believe it's just one week left, but I'm ready to get home! I just found out that the packages I sent home from Beijing and Xi'an just made it home yesterday, so I'm really excited to get home to pass out all my presents!
I love you all! See you SOON!!
Amy
Monday, November 24
I Come From A Land Down Under!
Since we got to Sydney things have calmed down quite a bit. It's been colder and more rainy here, so we haven't been out on the beach like in Cairns. But there is still so much to see that we keep busy easily.
Last week we went to classes at Macquarie University for 3 days to have lectures covering Australian history and modern civilization. Those classes were really interesting as the professors built off of what we know about American history to fit Australia's history into it. Not only did we gain an understanding of Australia's history, but I feel like I understand American history better now too. We learned all about their English origins and how they have treated and dealt with the aborigine people over time. In many ways their history is a lot like ours, and in many ways it's very, very different. Their priorities and goals have been very different than ours while they established their own government and society, which has created two very different countries stemming from the same source. At the same time, they now have many of the same ideals as Americans do, so they are working now to find a way to move forward in their culture.
Yesterday I went to Paddy's Market, which was similar to the Silk Market in China but less chaotic. I found some good souvenirs there and stopped to watch the Bottle Man outside. You can go to www.myspace.com/bottleman to see his videos. In the evening we met with the group studying in Australia from Harding University. It was good to hang out with them and exchange stories of our different adventures, and we have plans to see them again tomorrow and hang out around Sydney. They will also be in Hawaii the same time as us, so maybe we'll get to see them even more before we get home!
Tonight for dinner we are going out to Pancakes on the Rocks for a little birthday celebration. Afterwards we're hoping to pick up some tickets to see a ballet tomorrow at the Sydney Opera House. Later this week we are headed to host families again for our last few days in Australia! I think everyone is starting to feel a bit homesick as these last weeks wrap up especially around Thanksgiving time. We are planning our own Thanksgiving meal, so we'll still get to celebrate our Americans holiday from Australia. It'll just come 17 hours early for us!
I miss you all and can't wait to see everyone when I get home. If you're in Oklahoma, come to the Student Center on December 8th at 7pm to greet us all when we get there!
Amy
Last week we went to classes at Macquarie University for 3 days to have lectures covering Australian history and modern civilization. Those classes were really interesting as the professors built off of what we know about American history to fit Australia's history into it. Not only did we gain an understanding of Australia's history, but I feel like I understand American history better now too. We learned all about their English origins and how they have treated and dealt with the aborigine people over time. In many ways their history is a lot like ours, and in many ways it's very, very different. Their priorities and goals have been very different than ours while they established their own government and society, which has created two very different countries stemming from the same source. At the same time, they now have many of the same ideals as Americans do, so they are working now to find a way to move forward in their culture.
Yesterday I went to Paddy's Market, which was similar to the Silk Market in China but less chaotic. I found some good souvenirs there and stopped to watch the Bottle Man outside. You can go to www.myspace.com/bottleman to see his videos. In the evening we met with the group studying in Australia from Harding University. It was good to hang out with them and exchange stories of our different adventures, and we have plans to see them again tomorrow and hang out around Sydney. They will also be in Hawaii the same time as us, so maybe we'll get to see them even more before we get home!
Tonight for dinner we are going out to Pancakes on the Rocks for a little birthday celebration. Afterwards we're hoping to pick up some tickets to see a ballet tomorrow at the Sydney Opera House. Later this week we are headed to host families again for our last few days in Australia! I think everyone is starting to feel a bit homesick as these last weeks wrap up especially around Thanksgiving time. We are planning our own Thanksgiving meal, so we'll still get to celebrate our Americans holiday from Australia. It'll just come 17 hours early for us!
I miss you all and can't wait to see everyone when I get home. If you're in Oklahoma, come to the Student Center on December 8th at 7pm to greet us all when we get there!
Amy
Tuesday, November 18
P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, SYDNEY!
Last week, while white water rafting I conquered a 7 meter waterfall, which is the highest you can legally go over in a raft in the world! Our guide, Chunk, was hilarious and made the trip really fun. The last time I went white water rafting was with my Aunt Sarah, and the rules she drilled into us then were helpful to remember this time around - things like "Do As I Say!" and "Don't Let Go Of The End Of The Paddle!". It was interesting that about 3 times during our trip down the river and once before we started, the guides said prayers to the spirit of the river. The New Zealanders are very spiritual people, but do not see the need in going to church. All of the prayers were offered in the name of "the Man upstairs...whoever that may be for you." The similarities and differences between each culture we have encountered so far is so interesting! Every culture finds a spiritual being or someone greater than themselves to pray to, but they haven't been very strict or firm in their thinking about who that is. So many cultures are open to the idea of God, but just need to be informed like when Paul explained to the people of Athens that he knew the God they honored as THE UNKNOWN GOD. (Acts 17:16-33)
Now, we are in Australia and have been keeping busy here as well. Our first destination was Cairns, and we spent time at a small lagoon then took a catamaran cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef. We didn't go to the beach to swim because the waters are full of jellyfish right now, so the lagoon was a great alternative. Tons of people were there, but it didn't feel crowded. So, we had fun swimming around like in a pool and laying out in the sun to dry off. Don't worry, we all kept each other in check reapplying SPF 30+ sunscreen very often, especially since all the locals kept telling us that the UV was in the danger zone and we could easily burn within 15 minutes of being exposed to the sun.
On our cruise, we spent about 2 hours driving out to our destination on the Reef relaxing out on the deck or inside in the shade. Snorkeling was included in our day trip, but we were also given the opportunity to scuba dive if we wanted to. I've been snorkeling before in Hawaii, but when we started snorkeling it was also starting to rain just a little bit, so the water was really choppy. I decided to give scuba diving a try, and it was so incredible! I was nervous that I would panic under the water after trying to snorkel in the waves for a while, but the guides were very patient and gave us plenty of time to practice and went over our hand signals and testing us just under the surface. I had bought an underwater camera since it's not everyday that you go see the Great Barrier Reef, and I hope when I get them developed they look as awesome as the real thing! There were so many bright and beautiful fish that swam right around us, and we had the chance to touch lots of clams and other weird creatures at the bottom of the sea. I even saw a sea turtle swim just over us! It reminded me of Finding Nemo, and I wondered what the fish thought of us. They didn't seem bothered at all that we were swimming around, and in fact they seemed just as interested in us.
Now, we are in Sydney, and we will be taking classes at Macquarie University the next 3 days along with our own free time to tour around. It's so fun being here because it feels so much like home, but it's still just so exciting to be in Australia! Today I felt sick, so I stayed close to the hostel, but several people went out exploring and came back with stories of petting koalas or accidentally running into a movie premiere where they saw Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman! It's strange to think that this is the tail end of our adventures, but we still have so much to do and see. Hopefully I get to feeling better very soon so I can enjoy Sydney.
I love you all, and I enjoy hearing from you about home!
Amy
Tuesday, November 11
New Zealand is Extreme!
The past two days have been incredible! We are taking a few days to tour around and do some extreme activities here in New Zealand, since that is their big industry here. We started off yesterday with black water rafting and today went for skydiving! I have never felt more personally challenged than the past two days as far as taking the plunge...literally.
For those of you that are wondering what black water rafting is, it's similar to white water rafting...but in a cave. We got all suited up in our wet suits, helmets and headlamps and headed off to the caves to climb underground with our intertubes. From there we moved slowly through the caves climbing along rocks, jumping off waterfalls, and drifting down the water in our tubes with our lights off watching the glowworms above us. Some of the parts were so low that we had to lie back in our intertubes and push ourselves along the roof just inches from our faces. At one point we got to look up from the bottom of a waterhole 65 feet under the surface. The water was freezing, but our wet suits kept us from feeling how cold the air was. (We could see our breath in the headlamps) The whole trip lasted about 3 hours with 1 hour underground, and we were all completely worn out by the time we were through.
Today we weren't under the ground, but way, way above it. 20 of our 26 travellers decided to take part in an optional day of skydiving (including our sponsors!). I went for the 15,000 foot jump and a camera man followed for the freefall portion of my jump taking video footage and still pictures, which I will post as soon as I get. The feeling was totally unreal and I can't even put into words the rush of emotion it was to climb into that plane, watch out the window as we flew higher and higher, then slide my legs over the edge and let myself be thrown from the side of the plane. My tandem jumper (the man attached to my back and did all the work) was so awesome explaining how it was all going to work and showing me the different heights as we went up like where he would be pulling the parachute open. In my head I was telling myself I was crazy and I should be completely panicking, but my body just couldn't keep up and I stayed calm the entire time. The view was incredible, and I can't wait to get my pictures back to show you all the scenery.
I'm not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow, but I believe Thursday we are going white water rafting. I've gone white water rafting twice before, but this is going to be a level 5 river, and I am so excited to face the next challenge! Don't worry, I promised Mom I wouldn't push the limit too much. Haha!
I'm posting pictures from the past few weeks - Hong Kong as well as a ton of pictures from skydiving, so please check them out! I love hearing from everyone at home, and I miss you all so much. I'm having the time of my life, and I can't wait to get back to tell you all about it!
Amy
For those of you that are wondering what black water rafting is, it's similar to white water rafting...but in a cave. We got all suited up in our wet suits, helmets and headlamps and headed off to the caves to climb underground with our intertubes. From there we moved slowly through the caves climbing along rocks, jumping off waterfalls, and drifting down the water in our tubes with our lights off watching the glowworms above us. Some of the parts were so low that we had to lie back in our intertubes and push ourselves along the roof just inches from our faces. At one point we got to look up from the bottom of a waterhole 65 feet under the surface. The water was freezing, but our wet suits kept us from feeling how cold the air was. (We could see our breath in the headlamps) The whole trip lasted about 3 hours with 1 hour underground, and we were all completely worn out by the time we were through.
Today we weren't under the ground, but way, way above it. 20 of our 26 travellers decided to take part in an optional day of skydiving (including our sponsors!). I went for the 15,000 foot jump and a camera man followed for the freefall portion of my jump taking video footage and still pictures, which I will post as soon as I get. The feeling was totally unreal and I can't even put into words the rush of emotion it was to climb into that plane, watch out the window as we flew higher and higher, then slide my legs over the edge and let myself be thrown from the side of the plane. My tandem jumper (the man attached to my back and did all the work) was so awesome explaining how it was all going to work and showing me the different heights as we went up like where he would be pulling the parachute open. In my head I was telling myself I was crazy and I should be completely panicking, but my body just couldn't keep up and I stayed calm the entire time. The view was incredible, and I can't wait to get my pictures back to show you all the scenery.
I'm not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow, but I believe Thursday we are going white water rafting. I've gone white water rafting twice before, but this is going to be a level 5 river, and I am so excited to face the next challenge! Don't worry, I promised Mom I wouldn't push the limit too much. Haha!
I'm posting pictures from the past few weeks - Hong Kong as well as a ton of pictures from skydiving, so please check them out! I love hearing from everyone at home, and I miss you all so much. I'm having the time of my life, and I can't wait to get back to tell you all about it!
Amy
Friday, November 7
The Land of the Kiwis
Now we've already made it to New Zealand - after a delayed flight due to technical difficulties and a change of airplanes. We ended up sitting on the plane about 2 hours before taking off, then riding a bus and sitting at a new gate then settling into our second plane for the next hour to take-off for our 11 hour flight. We were a little restless and ready to go, but also glad to get dinner and get some rest. I know we all were suffering with jet lag yesterday, but we didn't have time to sleep or shower before we got started here. The North Shore Church of Christ is providing us all with host families in sets of 2's or 4's, but we went to a mall for several hours upon first arriving while they waited for the families to get home that evening. I know many people went to the movies or sat on the couches and benches drinking coffee and doing minor shopping for shampoo and such. (They had a K Mart in their mall) I took the chance to get a haircut after about 2 months of letting it grow out, and I nearly fell asleep while the lady was washing my hair.
Today we spent the day in downtown Auckland with a general idea of where some good shopping and the piers were. I spent most of the day with different people shopping around and having fun joking around with Casey, the 15 year old son of one of the families hosting us who was acting as our tourguide for the day. We were really sad that we hadn't gotten the chance to go watch the All Blacks play rugby while we were in Hong Kong, but their game was the same day we arrived. Many of us had hoped we'd be able to go. One day I'll get out and see a rugby game; those players are stout and intimidating!
Tomorrow we are going out to a beach, but it is still fairly chilly here - it's Springtime, going into Summer. I think I'll still brave it and test the water, but only enough to say I've done that on a black sand beach. Australia should be better beach weather.
I miss you all so much and love you more!!
Amy
Today we spent the day in downtown Auckland with a general idea of where some good shopping and the piers were. I spent most of the day with different people shopping around and having fun joking around with Casey, the 15 year old son of one of the families hosting us who was acting as our tourguide for the day. We were really sad that we hadn't gotten the chance to go watch the All Blacks play rugby while we were in Hong Kong, but their game was the same day we arrived. Many of us had hoped we'd be able to go. One day I'll get out and see a rugby game; those players are stout and intimidating!
Tomorrow we are going out to a beach, but it is still fairly chilly here - it's Springtime, going into Summer. I think I'll still brave it and test the water, but only enough to say I've done that on a black sand beach. Australia should be better beach weather.
I miss you all so much and love you more!!
Amy
Wednesday, November 5
Not Long in Hong Kong
Our time in Hong Kong involved a lot of walking and exploring. The most interesting aspect of Hong Kong is the obvious blend of Eastern and Western cultures from their time under England's control. Hong Kongers (yes, that is correct...I checked) speak Cantonese, instead of Mandarin like in the other Chinese cities we have visited so far. Most of them also speak English, and I thought it was very amusing that for the most part, they spoke Cantonese with a strong British accent instead of English with a Chinese accent.
They also have a long walkway above the city connecting several malls, bus stations and ferry ports, which made it easy for us to navigate our way around. Our hostel was up on top of a mountain on Hong Kong Island, and the shuttle only ran a few times in the mornings and evenings, so we had to be aware of the clock to get off the mountain or back on to avoid the long climb up or down. On Sunday morning, we decided to all climb down as a group to experience it at least once, and it was quite a trip. The entire way is either pathway or stairs, but mostly stairs. Of course we started out dressed and ready for church, but about halfway down it started raining. Hong Kong is very humid, so on one hand it cooled us off some, but with our raincoats on we sweated more and were all soaked by the time we made it down to the bus stop. At this point, we all just adapted by adjusting our clothes and pulling our hair up and emphasizing with each other.When church clothes means a cotton skirt, a t-shirt, and some shoes/sandals that are hiking-worthy, it's not as hard to dry out and realize there wasn't much to mess up to start with. Haha!
When we got to the church for the English service, they were excited to have us and said that they had easily set a record for attendance with our help that Sunday. We also got to witness the baptism of a lady that had been attending there for a while now and helped to welcome her to her new Christian family. The man that preached was also visiting, and was an ACU alumni. The service was fun, laidback and uplifting with a lot of singing and people calling out songs they wanted to sing from their seats then being asked to lead them.
We had several spots that were required sites to visit, so over a few days we went out to many places including Kowloon and Lantau Island. One day I went with a few people out to Stanley Market, which was fun mostly because of the long bus ride out there passing by Repulse Bay and sitting next to a nice couple from Houston. Our sponsors told us that the market had been a lot more exciting the last time they came...14 years ago. Haha, I think we all just enjoyed a few days to run around in a city that we could easily find our way around using only English.
Love you all!
Amy
They also have a long walkway above the city connecting several malls, bus stations and ferry ports, which made it easy for us to navigate our way around. Our hostel was up on top of a mountain on Hong Kong Island, and the shuttle only ran a few times in the mornings and evenings, so we had to be aware of the clock to get off the mountain or back on to avoid the long climb up or down. On Sunday morning, we decided to all climb down as a group to experience it at least once, and it was quite a trip. The entire way is either pathway or stairs, but mostly stairs. Of course we started out dressed and ready for church, but about halfway down it started raining. Hong Kong is very humid, so on one hand it cooled us off some, but with our raincoats on we sweated more and were all soaked by the time we made it down to the bus stop. At this point, we all just adapted by adjusting our clothes and pulling our hair up and emphasizing with each other.When church clothes means a cotton skirt, a t-shirt, and some shoes/sandals that are hiking-worthy, it's not as hard to dry out and realize there wasn't much to mess up to start with. Haha!
When we got to the church for the English service, they were excited to have us and said that they had easily set a record for attendance with our help that Sunday. We also got to witness the baptism of a lady that had been attending there for a while now and helped to welcome her to her new Christian family. The man that preached was also visiting, and was an ACU alumni. The service was fun, laidback and uplifting with a lot of singing and people calling out songs they wanted to sing from their seats then being asked to lead them.
We had several spots that were required sites to visit, so over a few days we went out to many places including Kowloon and Lantau Island. One day I went with a few people out to Stanley Market, which was fun mostly because of the long bus ride out there passing by Repulse Bay and sitting next to a nice couple from Houston. Our sponsors told us that the market had been a lot more exciting the last time they came...14 years ago. Haha, I think we all just enjoyed a few days to run around in a city that we could easily find our way around using only English.
Love you all!
Amy
Monday, November 3
Make Me a Servant
Our time spent in Ibaraki opened my eyes to the many opportunities we have to serve daily if only we watch for them. We came with a plan to teach English using the book of Luke, but that is only the surface of what we were able to accomplish in our time at IC. At the beginning of the month our devotionals on Wednesday nights were made up of our 24 OC students and about 8-10 IC students. By the end of our stay, our devotional was basically split evenly with OC and IC students. Many of the students that were coming at the end spoke better English, so my last LST session I spent singing more songs one-on-one with an IC guy explaining what the meanings were behind the words. It meant a lot to me that this guy wanted to take the time to learn what the songs and words mean because it gave me a chance to reflect myself while teaching many small lessons along the way. It reminded me of the first time I heard the story behind the song "Pierce My Ear". Here are the lyrics:
Pierce my ear, O Lord, my God
Take me to Your door this day.
I will serve no other gods,
Lord, I'm here to stay.
For You have paid the price for me
With Your blood You ransomed me.
I will serve You eternally,
A free man I'll never be.
I don't know how many times I sang that song before I found out the meaning behind the words. The song is based on Exodus 21:1-6, which states:
"These are the laws you are to set before them: "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
"But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,'then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life."
Without understanding the meaning behind the words, I don’t know why I thought those words made any sense, but after knowing the message, it became a personal request and promise to God each time I sang that song. I hope that my time explaining some of the songs or even the difference in writing “God” versus “god” – that while some may believe in other gods or even multiple gods, these false gods do not compare to our one and only God. That I hope is a concept that he took away because I know many Japanese especially have a hard time separating from Buddhism or their Shinto ways to serve the one true God.
One experience I had that I especially appreciated was the chance to put into action what I learned only one month previous from Gary Jackson. In his talking about my uncle I realized that I should use my talents to help God’s mission in whatever ways possible. The two long-term LST workers at IC, Gary and Linda Gearhart, were having computer problems, so Ryan suggested that I help them. My last Sunday in Ibaraki I went after church to their home and spent several hours repairing issues on their computer and teaching them how to maintain the things I had done to keep from happening again after I was gone. I realized then and there that what I had done not only made it possible for them to keep in touch with their own families, but who knows how many other people they can reach and contact via email and online resources. What may be a few hours of simple computer work to me means being able to focus their time and money on God’s mission for them in Japan. I was so glad that I was given the opportunity to quickly to put into practice and recognize it for what it was so soon after my lesson in Beijing.
I think the most important work we did was not even in our organized and planned missions time, but in the way we acted and presented ourselves to the IC Buddies and other people we encountered daily. My host family were not Christian, so my evenings with them consisted of discussing – among many other things - Christianity and my beliefs. Many times throughout out stay I heard the buddies asking people in our group about issues such as creation and baptism. We tried to explain in simple terms what we believe and why, and when available we used the Bible to show parables or stories that might explain better than we could ourselves.
I feel confident that my time in Ibaraki was well spent, but I know I could have done more too. How many times did I miss an opportunity to evangelize or just share my faith or talents with people? Good thing we still have a month to go! I can continue to keep my eyes open for those types of situations to be a servant for Christ and an example to the world.
Thanks for all of your support! I love you all SO much!
Amy
Pierce my ear, O Lord, my God
Take me to Your door this day.
I will serve no other gods,
Lord, I'm here to stay.
For You have paid the price for me
With Your blood You ransomed me.
I will serve You eternally,
A free man I'll never be.
I don't know how many times I sang that song before I found out the meaning behind the words. The song is based on Exodus 21:1-6, which states:
"These are the laws you are to set before them: "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
"But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,'then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life."
Without understanding the meaning behind the words, I don’t know why I thought those words made any sense, but after knowing the message, it became a personal request and promise to God each time I sang that song. I hope that my time explaining some of the songs or even the difference in writing “God” versus “god” – that while some may believe in other gods or even multiple gods, these false gods do not compare to our one and only God. That I hope is a concept that he took away because I know many Japanese especially have a hard time separating from Buddhism or their Shinto ways to serve the one true God.
One experience I had that I especially appreciated was the chance to put into action what I learned only one month previous from Gary Jackson. In his talking about my uncle I realized that I should use my talents to help God’s mission in whatever ways possible. The two long-term LST workers at IC, Gary and Linda Gearhart, were having computer problems, so Ryan suggested that I help them. My last Sunday in Ibaraki I went after church to their home and spent several hours repairing issues on their computer and teaching them how to maintain the things I had done to keep from happening again after I was gone. I realized then and there that what I had done not only made it possible for them to keep in touch with their own families, but who knows how many other people they can reach and contact via email and online resources. What may be a few hours of simple computer work to me means being able to focus their time and money on God’s mission for them in Japan. I was so glad that I was given the opportunity to quickly to put into practice and recognize it for what it was so soon after my lesson in Beijing.
I think the most important work we did was not even in our organized and planned missions time, but in the way we acted and presented ourselves to the IC Buddies and other people we encountered daily. My host family were not Christian, so my evenings with them consisted of discussing – among many other things - Christianity and my beliefs. Many times throughout out stay I heard the buddies asking people in our group about issues such as creation and baptism. We tried to explain in simple terms what we believe and why, and when available we used the Bible to show parables or stories that might explain better than we could ourselves.
I feel confident that my time in Ibaraki was well spent, but I know I could have done more too. How many times did I miss an opportunity to evangelize or just share my faith or talents with people? Good thing we still have a month to go! I can continue to keep my eyes open for those types of situations to be a servant for Christ and an example to the world.
Thanks for all of your support! I love you all SO much!
Amy
Thursday, October 30
We're Leaving Already?!
Wow! I'm so sorry I haven't kept this updated while I've been here in Japan. We settled into a daily routine (for the most part) and I didn't have the time or urgent things to write about. Let me go back and explain what I've been up to this month! For the most part, we had classes every day - Japanese language and Japanese culture classes. Our culture classes covered Japanese lifestyle, literature, music, haikus, games, and much more. We also met with some of the Senior Seminars for English students at IC to talk with them and learn about each others' cultures together. They were all very fun and I know I learned so much about eastern culture and especially Japanese culture. At the end of the day I would always come home and talk to my host family about what I learned today and we'd discuss it more, and they would ask about American culture. I feel like I probably taught just as much or MORE than I learned this month by teaching proper English phrases and talking to my family about every topic under the Sun! About once or twice a week we would take a trip out to some other site around Ibaraki, so now I'll try to recap those visits:
Nikko... It's a really big mountain with a waterfall and some shrines and temples. We saw the tallest waterfall in Japan there then went to Tosho-gu temple where the tour guide explained to us how the Buddhist and Shinto religions work in Japan. Basically they are not exclusive from each other as we in America would imagine something like Christianity and Judaism. Shintoism originates from Japanese culture and involves worshipping spirits, and Buddhism follows Buddha or many Buddhas. In Japan, they are practiced simultaneously going to Shinto temples for some occassions - births or weddings - and to Buddhist temples for others - deaths.
Omika Elementary School... We went to sing and play games with the kids, and that wore us out so fast! I was with 4th graders most of the time, and we played one game where 6 people (me and 5 of the 4th graders) had to stand on a single sheet of newspaper. Then the teacher played rock, paper, scissors and one person from each group played along. If your group lost rock, paper, scissors with the teacher everyone had to get off the paper, fold it in half and get back on. Basically it ended up being a game of every kid climb and hang onto the American. It was hilarious and so much fun. Then we went outside and played Japanese style dodgeball, and let me just say those kids have no mercy! I was most impressed at lunch time when I ate with some 2nd graders. They eat in their classrooms and were very orderly and polite, speaking to me in such clear English. Of course they were also 2nd graders, so we were talking about Minnie Mouse and Pokemon... At the end of lunch the children all gathered their things and each took a different task - recycling the milk cartons, washing the rice bowls, rinsing all the chopstick, or getting water for everyone to brush their teeth with. I sat there watching with the other Americans with me shocked that these little kids were so disciplined and happy to take care of my tray along with theirs.
Dr. and Mrs. Ives' Party... One of my professors hosted a party for us at his house, and his daughter is a friend of mine back in Oklahoma. She had put together a scavenger hunt of sorts for me and one other friend to do, so while we ate and had fun we went around meeting people we didn't know (including her neighbor) to ask them random questions to solve the clues to find our prize - some cute Japanese socks. The other girl with me doing the hunt lives far away from the university so the professor invited her to stay the night there and me also so she wouldn't feel out of place. So we stayed around talking and helping clean up as everyone else headed home then stayed up later than we should have talking until we finally fell asleep on our pallets on the floor.
Halloween Party... Hosted by the IC English department, so lots of the people we've met in classes and meetings were there to hang out with. We had a costume contest and took tons of pictures and had fun just dancing around like crazy people in our silly costumes. I was glad I was able to borrow a costume from my host sister instead of having to buy anything. I did help put together two other costumes, so if you'd like to check out pictures I made the New York Yankees jersey and helped piece together the Where's Waldo costume. Unfortunately, my camera was dead so I couldn't take any pictures, but I know there are plenty in other people's albums as well.
Weekend with my Host Family... We got up on a Saturday morning and went to see another waterfall, and this one was more impressive than the first one in my opinion. It's shorter but wider and we got really close to it instead of far off. I wish I could remember the name of it, but it is one of the three most famous in Japan, and this one is in Ibaraki. Then we stopped at a little shop to eat some strange Japanese foods before we went to a restaurant for noodles and fish on a stick. It has taken some adjusting to be able to bite into a fish while it's head and tail are still on, but it was all delicious. On our way home, we stopped at a little apple tree place on the side of the road to pick our own apples. Haha, it was fun just laughing with Megumi while we humored her parents. When we got home everyone took a nice long nap just to wake up to to out to eat again for dinner. My host parents ordered so much food - dish after dish saying "try this...try this..." They are sooo sweet to me and my only complaint is that they feed me too much!!
Nikko... It's a really big mountain with a waterfall and some shrines and temples. We saw the tallest waterfall in Japan there then went to Tosho-gu temple where the tour guide explained to us how the Buddhist and Shinto religions work in Japan. Basically they are not exclusive from each other as we in America would imagine something like Christianity and Judaism. Shintoism originates from Japanese culture and involves worshipping spirits, and Buddhism follows Buddha or many Buddhas. In Japan, they are practiced simultaneously going to Shinto temples for some occassions - births or weddings - and to Buddhist temples for others - deaths.
Omika Elementary School... We went to sing and play games with the kids, and that wore us out so fast! I was with 4th graders most of the time, and we played one game where 6 people (me and 5 of the 4th graders) had to stand on a single sheet of newspaper. Then the teacher played rock, paper, scissors and one person from each group played along. If your group lost rock, paper, scissors with the teacher everyone had to get off the paper, fold it in half and get back on. Basically it ended up being a game of every kid climb and hang onto the American. It was hilarious and so much fun. Then we went outside and played Japanese style dodgeball, and let me just say those kids have no mercy! I was most impressed at lunch time when I ate with some 2nd graders. They eat in their classrooms and were very orderly and polite, speaking to me in such clear English. Of course they were also 2nd graders, so we were talking about Minnie Mouse and Pokemon... At the end of lunch the children all gathered their things and each took a different task - recycling the milk cartons, washing the rice bowls, rinsing all the chopstick, or getting water for everyone to brush their teeth with. I sat there watching with the other Americans with me shocked that these little kids were so disciplined and happy to take care of my tray along with theirs.
Dr. and Mrs. Ives' Party... One of my professors hosted a party for us at his house, and his daughter is a friend of mine back in Oklahoma. She had put together a scavenger hunt of sorts for me and one other friend to do, so while we ate and had fun we went around meeting people we didn't know (including her neighbor) to ask them random questions to solve the clues to find our prize - some cute Japanese socks. The other girl with me doing the hunt lives far away from the university so the professor invited her to stay the night there and me also so she wouldn't feel out of place. So we stayed around talking and helping clean up as everyone else headed home then stayed up later than we should have talking until we finally fell asleep on our pallets on the floor.
Halloween Party... Hosted by the IC English department, so lots of the people we've met in classes and meetings were there to hang out with. We had a costume contest and took tons of pictures and had fun just dancing around like crazy people in our silly costumes. I was glad I was able to borrow a costume from my host sister instead of having to buy anything. I did help put together two other costumes, so if you'd like to check out pictures I made the New York Yankees jersey and helped piece together the Where's Waldo costume. Unfortunately, my camera was dead so I couldn't take any pictures, but I know there are plenty in other people's albums as well.
Weekend with my Host Family... We got up on a Saturday morning and went to see another waterfall, and this one was more impressive than the first one in my opinion. It's shorter but wider and we got really close to it instead of far off. I wish I could remember the name of it, but it is one of the three most famous in Japan, and this one is in Ibaraki. Then we stopped at a little shop to eat some strange Japanese foods before we went to a restaurant for noodles and fish on a stick. It has taken some adjusting to be able to bite into a fish while it's head and tail are still on, but it was all delicious. On our way home, we stopped at a little apple tree place on the side of the road to pick our own apples. Haha, it was fun just laughing with Megumi while we humored her parents. When we got home everyone took a nice long nap just to wake up to to out to eat again for dinner. My host parents ordered so much food - dish after dish saying "try this...try this..." They are sooo sweet to me and my only complaint is that they feed me too much!!
Oarai Aquarium... Basically like Sea World Japan! It was really fun to see all the aquariums full of fish and have a day to act like kids. We went to the dolphin show also, which is always impressive. Those dolphins were so smart too...they know Japanese! We all enjoyed a day of corndogs, touching baby sharks and getting told to get off the statues outside. (Erin is apparently our trouble child on the trip) Haha!
Well, I know I didn't do our trip justice with those brief recaps, so I will do my very best to keep up with it better as we get back on the road tomorrow. Or to the air I should say. Saturday we are flying out from Tokyo to Hong Kong for about a 5 day stay. Before I leave Japan behind me in my blog I will also write another update tomorrow morning about the mission work we have done during our time. I hope from this update you can see how busy we were every day!
I love you all, and I love hearing from you as well!
Amy
Friday, October 17
Watashi wa totemo isogashii desu!!
Translation: "I am very busy!!"
It's been a while since I updated this blog, so I'll try to recap some of what's been going on this past week. It seems like we've settled into a routine, which is nice for a while. They keep us very busy with classes and activities with some of the IC English major students.
Last Friday we had a Karate demonstration during our lunch time, which was really cool. They did some things as a group and a couple individual shows breaking Japanese clay shingles or cinder blocks. That night we stayed the night on campus for an English seminar put together by Jim Batten, a professor at IC. We ate traditional Japanese barbeque and played games that emphasized the importance of understanding different cultures. I think the hardest part for our group was when we went to bed, sleeping on thin mats on the floor with rice pillows.
Sunday I went to the Mito Church of Christ where many of the graduated OC students attend if they come over as Assistant English Teachers. The Japanese government will pay native English speakers to come over to teach in elementary schools, so it was really fun to see them again and for them to see familiar American faces. The rest of the day I spent walking around Mito, shopping and enjoying a day to relax. That evening OC had a reunion in Mito that doubles as a recruiting meeting for IC students. I also received my iPod Touch from OC that night, so I was really excited about having my music to listen to again! (For those of you not familiar with OC, we are a wireless campus, and every incoming freshman receives an Apple Macbook. Apple also gives every student an iPod Touch with their laptop, but I wasn't able to get mine before I left)
Monday was a holiday for us! No...not for Columbus Day, Haha! It was National Health-Sports Day. It was also my host sister, Megumi's birthday! I put a whole bunch of Reese's in a gift bag for her and told her I hoped she liked American candy. She LOVED it! For lunch we went to my host mom's...mom's house. So, I got to meet my host grandma! Haha! She made some great food for us and invited me to come back again before I leave. Megumi's brother, Hiroki, was also in town for the weekend. He is 21 and goes to university in Tokyo. He also spent 2 months in Australia earlier this year, so he was very handy to have around with the grandma talking to me only in Japanese. She would ramble off in Japanese to me while I smiled at her hoping someone was planning to translate then look at Hiroki who would condense 2 minutes of Japanese into, "Do you want some of that?" So I'd look at the dish and recognize it as something I had tried before and really, really didn't like. So I'd ask him, "Do you like that?" and he'd laugh and yell, "I HATE IT!" So, I'd kindly (I hope) decline through him. Her food was delicious, but if you've ever eaten nato or...some kind of mashed up flower dish...you'll understand.
Tuesday we had class like normal, and was an overall uneventful day -- comparatively speaking.
Wednesday we did not have classes, but we left from IC at 8:45 to go to Ushiku to see the World's largest Buddha. Let me just say...it was big. I got dizzy staring up at the top from the base. There was a miniature head nearby that was about the same height as I am, and the sign next to it said it was 1/1000th the size of the head of the statue in front of us. Inside was an elevator so we went up to about the chest level and all the way down saw hundreds of smaller Buddha's. It was quite an experience seeing all of those idols and people worshiping them and offering money to these statues. I think seeing those things plants the urgency of telling the world about God. It was quite fitting that we finished off our night with another devotional at IC with more Let's Start Talking lessons. It's so foreign to all of us to tell people about the life of Jesus who have no idea about it. Stories that have become so second nature to us take on a whole new light again when you explain the miracles to someone for the first time.
Yesterday, Thursday, we had class like normal and afterwards I went with my host mom to a Japanese concert! I really had no idea what to expect, but she explained in the car on the way there that these artists were popular about 30 years ago. My host mom laughed when we got there and told me, "Everyone here is...um...old." :) It reminded me of my own Mom who went to see The Police last summer. "Sting was so old!" Haha!
Today, is business as usual again. Japanese language class this morning, and after a long break for lunch and computer time we'll have a Japanese culture class in a few minutes. I'm not sure what the plan is for this weekend, but I'm sure my host mom has something planned. I should get going so I'm not late to class. I'll try to upload some more pictures soon, and I miss you all!
Amy
It's been a while since I updated this blog, so I'll try to recap some of what's been going on this past week. It seems like we've settled into a routine, which is nice for a while. They keep us very busy with classes and activities with some of the IC English major students.
Last Friday we had a Karate demonstration during our lunch time, which was really cool. They did some things as a group and a couple individual shows breaking Japanese clay shingles or cinder blocks. That night we stayed the night on campus for an English seminar put together by Jim Batten, a professor at IC. We ate traditional Japanese barbeque and played games that emphasized the importance of understanding different cultures. I think the hardest part for our group was when we went to bed, sleeping on thin mats on the floor with rice pillows.
Sunday I went to the Mito Church of Christ where many of the graduated OC students attend if they come over as Assistant English Teachers. The Japanese government will pay native English speakers to come over to teach in elementary schools, so it was really fun to see them again and for them to see familiar American faces. The rest of the day I spent walking around Mito, shopping and enjoying a day to relax. That evening OC had a reunion in Mito that doubles as a recruiting meeting for IC students. I also received my iPod Touch from OC that night, so I was really excited about having my music to listen to again! (For those of you not familiar with OC, we are a wireless campus, and every incoming freshman receives an Apple Macbook. Apple also gives every student an iPod Touch with their laptop, but I wasn't able to get mine before I left)
Monday was a holiday for us! No...not for Columbus Day, Haha! It was National Health-Sports Day. It was also my host sister, Megumi's birthday! I put a whole bunch of Reese's in a gift bag for her and told her I hoped she liked American candy. She LOVED it! For lunch we went to my host mom's...mom's house. So, I got to meet my host grandma! Haha! She made some great food for us and invited me to come back again before I leave. Megumi's brother, Hiroki, was also in town for the weekend. He is 21 and goes to university in Tokyo. He also spent 2 months in Australia earlier this year, so he was very handy to have around with the grandma talking to me only in Japanese. She would ramble off in Japanese to me while I smiled at her hoping someone was planning to translate then look at Hiroki who would condense 2 minutes of Japanese into, "Do you want some of that?" So I'd look at the dish and recognize it as something I had tried before and really, really didn't like. So I'd ask him, "Do you like that?" and he'd laugh and yell, "I HATE IT!" So, I'd kindly (I hope) decline through him. Her food was delicious, but if you've ever eaten nato or...some kind of mashed up flower dish...you'll understand.
Tuesday we had class like normal, and was an overall uneventful day -- comparatively speaking.
Wednesday we did not have classes, but we left from IC at 8:45 to go to Ushiku to see the World's largest Buddha. Let me just say...it was big. I got dizzy staring up at the top from the base. There was a miniature head nearby that was about the same height as I am, and the sign next to it said it was 1/1000th the size of the head of the statue in front of us. Inside was an elevator so we went up to about the chest level and all the way down saw hundreds of smaller Buddha's. It was quite an experience seeing all of those idols and people worshiping them and offering money to these statues. I think seeing those things plants the urgency of telling the world about God. It was quite fitting that we finished off our night with another devotional at IC with more Let's Start Talking lessons. It's so foreign to all of us to tell people about the life of Jesus who have no idea about it. Stories that have become so second nature to us take on a whole new light again when you explain the miracles to someone for the first time.
Yesterday, Thursday, we had class like normal and afterwards I went with my host mom to a Japanese concert! I really had no idea what to expect, but she explained in the car on the way there that these artists were popular about 30 years ago. My host mom laughed when we got there and told me, "Everyone here is...um...old." :) It reminded me of my own Mom who went to see The Police last summer. "Sting was so old!" Haha!
Today, is business as usual again. Japanese language class this morning, and after a long break for lunch and computer time we'll have a Japanese culture class in a few minutes. I'm not sure what the plan is for this weekend, but I'm sure my host mom has something planned. I should get going so I'm not late to class. I'll try to upload some more pictures soon, and I miss you all!
Amy
Thursday, October 9
Texas Treats / Let's Start Talking!
Thanks Nana for the package! I just got it today, and I was SO happy to see the contents listed before I even opened it. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!
I had forgotten to give my host family some of the jerky that Mom and Dad sent in their package until tonight at dinner. My host mom asked me how we cook salmon in America. (That's what I had for dinner tonight) I told her I wasn't sure because we do not eat fish very often at my house. I explained that my Dad used to go fishing more often, but now he doesn't. He goes hunting every year though for deer (Shika). They were very excited about that and we talked about it for a long time. My mom asked if it was for hobby, and I said yes. I showed them on the calendar that my Dad goes away for one week and gets one deer, then a month later he goes for another week and gets one deer. (I simplify things a lot when explaining) My host dad was so impressed and started typing away at his electronic Japanese-English dictionary. He pointed at it and I laughed and agreed when it said "envious"! I told them to wait one moment so I could run up to my room. I think I confused them, but when I came back down with "Homemade Jerky from Texas" they were SO excited!! My host dad said that jerky is rare, but his father used to make it also. My host mom was very impressed that my Dad had hunted the deer and my Mom had made the jerky. I had to convince that that you aren't a professional jerky maker, Mom. Haha!
After that I ran back upstairs and grabbed a box of cookies and brownies and brought them back down to share. Nana...my host family LOVES you. They think you are a WONDERFUL cook, and my host mom wants to know how to make brownies! If you could send a recipe to make them from scratch that would be very helpful, and I think one night before I leave I will work on making dinner for them. Complete with American brownies (if possible).
When I got the box, of course all 24 of the people on Pac Rim with me wanted to know what it was and wanted me to open it right away. I told them it was too hard to carry around a box that was open, and I would open it later. I ride the same bus as 2-3 other people, so when we got on the bus to go home I opened it to share with them. It was a great bus ride, and all involved thank you, Nana! You are a very famous person in Hitachiota, Ibaraki, Japan!! We had to remind ourselves that we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so while we were hungry and the food was so good, we would have to stop before we ate all of it on one bus ride! Thank you so much, Nana! It's like a little box of home.
Today we didn't have class. Instead we toured a Hitachi factory in Omika -- the same city as Ibaraki Christian University. Then we had lunch with the Hitachiota-Ro (or something like that) Rotary Club. It was very formal and nice. Some of our OC people gave speeches, one of which was a Junior Rotarian when he was in High School. They enjoyed that a lot, and then we sang for them. It seems that everywhere we go we are asked to sing. I'm glad at those times that our numbers of guys and girls is split evenly. They thanked us for coming with gifts of a Japanese silk cloth and a little Japanese toy. I have collected a few things here in Japan like that and some souvenirs/gifts that I will probably ship home from Hong Kong where postage is cheaper again.
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Wednesday night we held our first Let's Start Talking (LST) session. We are meeting in the chapel on the IC campus, and any and all students interested in practicing speaking English are welcome to come! We sing some songs in English, and then we work out of FriendSpeak workbooks reading very short sections from the book of Luke together with the Japanese students. It goes very slowly, but the workbooks are designed to help the reader understand. After we would read over one section I would ask Mio, the girl I was working with, if she understood. Sometimes she said yes, and would only have a few words that she didn't understand, so I would try to explain in other words and reread the section again pausing on those words to make sure the message was clear.
The workbook follows each passage with questions about the reading or about words that were probably new, just to make sure the meaning is getting across clearly. We would spend as much time as she wanted on each section, and I would try to make it clear to her what was going on in the stories. We were able to get through the first 4 lessons in the workbook that night, which got us through the introduction to the book of Luke, Gabriel appearing to Mary telling her she would have Jesus, Joseph and Mary going to Nazareth for the census and having the baby, and Jesus staying behind at the Temple in Jerusalem after the Passover festival. It was fun to watch her slowly understand the words and concepts we were trying to get across, and she was very quick to pick up on it. I told her I hoped she could come back next Wednesday, but she was noncommital. We are hoping that as more people find out that we are doing the lessons more people will come. We had about 8 Japanese students to our 24 American students, so we have a lot of room to grow. There are also long-term LST teachers that are on campus nearly 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. So while our short-term efforts may not be much, we are hoping to plant the seeds for someone else to water so God can grow them after we are long gone.
I love you all SO much, and I can't wait to tell more stories! Every single day is an adventure! Tomorrow we are going to the IC Junior High School to hang out with some 8th graders. We went on Wednesday morning also to a younger class, and the 4 girls at my table gave me a bag FULL of oragami flowers.
More stories later. Test tomorrow!!
Much love!
Amy
I had forgotten to give my host family some of the jerky that Mom and Dad sent in their package until tonight at dinner. My host mom asked me how we cook salmon in America. (That's what I had for dinner tonight) I told her I wasn't sure because we do not eat fish very often at my house. I explained that my Dad used to go fishing more often, but now he doesn't. He goes hunting every year though for deer (Shika). They were very excited about that and we talked about it for a long time. My mom asked if it was for hobby, and I said yes. I showed them on the calendar that my Dad goes away for one week and gets one deer, then a month later he goes for another week and gets one deer. (I simplify things a lot when explaining) My host dad was so impressed and started typing away at his electronic Japanese-English dictionary. He pointed at it and I laughed and agreed when it said "envious"! I told them to wait one moment so I could run up to my room. I think I confused them, but when I came back down with "Homemade Jerky from Texas" they were SO excited!! My host dad said that jerky is rare, but his father used to make it also. My host mom was very impressed that my Dad had hunted the deer and my Mom had made the jerky. I had to convince that that you aren't a professional jerky maker, Mom. Haha!
After that I ran back upstairs and grabbed a box of cookies and brownies and brought them back down to share. Nana...my host family LOVES you. They think you are a WONDERFUL cook, and my host mom wants to know how to make brownies! If you could send a recipe to make them from scratch that would be very helpful, and I think one night before I leave I will work on making dinner for them. Complete with American brownies (if possible).
When I got the box, of course all 24 of the people on Pac Rim with me wanted to know what it was and wanted me to open it right away. I told them it was too hard to carry around a box that was open, and I would open it later. I ride the same bus as 2-3 other people, so when we got on the bus to go home I opened it to share with them. It was a great bus ride, and all involved thank you, Nana! You are a very famous person in Hitachiota, Ibaraki, Japan!! We had to remind ourselves that we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so while we were hungry and the food was so good, we would have to stop before we ate all of it on one bus ride! Thank you so much, Nana! It's like a little box of home.
Today we didn't have class. Instead we toured a Hitachi factory in Omika -- the same city as Ibaraki Christian University. Then we had lunch with the Hitachiota-Ro (or something like that) Rotary Club. It was very formal and nice. Some of our OC people gave speeches, one of which was a Junior Rotarian when he was in High School. They enjoyed that a lot, and then we sang for them. It seems that everywhere we go we are asked to sing. I'm glad at those times that our numbers of guys and girls is split evenly. They thanked us for coming with gifts of a Japanese silk cloth and a little Japanese toy. I have collected a few things here in Japan like that and some souvenirs/gifts that I will probably ship home from Hong Kong where postage is cheaper again.
------
Wednesday night we held our first Let's Start Talking (LST) session. We are meeting in the chapel on the IC campus, and any and all students interested in practicing speaking English are welcome to come! We sing some songs in English, and then we work out of FriendSpeak workbooks reading very short sections from the book of Luke together with the Japanese students. It goes very slowly, but the workbooks are designed to help the reader understand. After we would read over one section I would ask Mio, the girl I was working with, if she understood. Sometimes she said yes, and would only have a few words that she didn't understand, so I would try to explain in other words and reread the section again pausing on those words to make sure the message was clear.
The workbook follows each passage with questions about the reading or about words that were probably new, just to make sure the meaning is getting across clearly. We would spend as much time as she wanted on each section, and I would try to make it clear to her what was going on in the stories. We were able to get through the first 4 lessons in the workbook that night, which got us through the introduction to the book of Luke, Gabriel appearing to Mary telling her she would have Jesus, Joseph and Mary going to Nazareth for the census and having the baby, and Jesus staying behind at the Temple in Jerusalem after the Passover festival. It was fun to watch her slowly understand the words and concepts we were trying to get across, and she was very quick to pick up on it. I told her I hoped she could come back next Wednesday, but she was noncommital. We are hoping that as more people find out that we are doing the lessons more people will come. We had about 8 Japanese students to our 24 American students, so we have a lot of room to grow. There are also long-term LST teachers that are on campus nearly 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. So while our short-term efforts may not be much, we are hoping to plant the seeds for someone else to water so God can grow them after we are long gone.
I love you all SO much, and I can't wait to tell more stories! Every single day is an adventure! Tomorrow we are going to the IC Junior High School to hang out with some 8th graders. We went on Wednesday morning also to a younger class, and the 4 girls at my table gave me a bag FULL of oragami flowers.
More stories later. Test tomorrow!!
Much love!
Amy
Wednesday, October 8
Things I've Learned:
My "Mamasan" is treating me well. Haha, I don't call her that, but that's what they call her on I Survived a Japanese Gameshow. Speaking of which, my Mamasan doesn't know what a gameshow IS! I have a hard time explaining things sometimes. "Gameshow...um...a show...TV...with games?" "Hmm....sports show?" Or "Hurricane...big storm?...rain?...rain...lots of rain...rain, rain, rain...flood?...water...lots of water..." "Swimming?"Haha...no, no swimming...water...um...in the house!" "OOOooooh!"
I had my first Japanese class today, and she was planning on giving us a test over hiragana tomorrow!! That's one of the alphabets we learned over the summer, but we've all forgotten it all now. She quizzed us quickly on the board when we told her we didn't think a test tomorrow was a good idea, and I guess she agreed. Now we have until Friday. I checked out two children's books in the library today and read them with my Mamasan. She's a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher, so she's pretty good at that sort of thing. I sat there with my books and the alphabet and sounded out every single word while she helped by pointing them out sometimes. Then she'd explain what it meant. Surprisingly, Japanese children's books do NOT end happily most of the time. They either end sad or just...kind of leaving you wondering. The first book I picked looked harmless. It was about a Teddy Bear. But each page the bear gets more and more torn apart until the last page it's just a mangled mess missing a head and its eye is sitting next to the body with the words "I wish I could love". All the pages were like one person talking and what was happending to the bear so, something along the lines of "Get revenge", "Hateful" and "Be strong", "Forced attack". My Mamasan and I didn't like that one so much... I did like Kore Kore Kore, or "Roll Roll Roll" about a bunch of colored balls rolling around...up stairs, on a red road, down a hill...hahaha! Half the pages were just "kore, kore, kore", "kore, kore". A kindergardener could have read it faster than me. Either way, I just want to do well on that test, and the teacher said she hopes we can read by Friday.
Other than that, it's just the normal adventures of trying to get to and from school everyday by the city bus and trying to figure out how I am expected to take a shower. We really confused the bus driver by jumping the gun pushing the button to let him know we wanted to get off at the next stop. I live near two other OC people so we ride the same bus, and Makenna hit it one stop too early our first day riding home alone, which made the bus driver look around wondering why no one was getting off when he stopped. He just laughed and apologized over and over and he smiled and kept going. As far as showers are concerned, apparently you take your shower and when you are all cleaned off you relax in the bathtub full of hot water. Luckily my family lets me go first, so I don't have to sit in the water they just sat in...since they don't drain it between people. My family actually has two houses - one was my dad's parents' house before they died 2-3 years ago. Now the dad spends the nights in that house, which is strange to me, but I guess that's not completely strange here for couples to not sleep in the same rooms at least. Houses may be pushing it. Haha!
I had my first Japanese class today, and she was planning on giving us a test over hiragana tomorrow!! That's one of the alphabets we learned over the summer, but we've all forgotten it all now. She quizzed us quickly on the board when we told her we didn't think a test tomorrow was a good idea, and I guess she agreed. Now we have until Friday. I checked out two children's books in the library today and read them with my Mamasan. She's a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher, so she's pretty good at that sort of thing. I sat there with my books and the alphabet and sounded out every single word while she helped by pointing them out sometimes. Then she'd explain what it meant. Surprisingly, Japanese children's books do NOT end happily most of the time. They either end sad or just...kind of leaving you wondering. The first book I picked looked harmless. It was about a Teddy Bear. But each page the bear gets more and more torn apart until the last page it's just a mangled mess missing a head and its eye is sitting next to the body with the words "I wish I could love". All the pages were like one person talking and what was happending to the bear so, something along the lines of "Get revenge", "Hateful" and "Be strong", "Forced attack". My Mamasan and I didn't like that one so much... I did like Kore Kore Kore, or "Roll Roll Roll" about a bunch of colored balls rolling around...up stairs, on a red road, down a hill...hahaha! Half the pages were just "kore, kore, kore", "kore, kore". A kindergardener could have read it faster than me. Either way, I just want to do well on that test, and the teacher said she hopes we can read by Friday.
Other than that, it's just the normal adventures of trying to get to and from school everyday by the city bus and trying to figure out how I am expected to take a shower. We really confused the bus driver by jumping the gun pushing the button to let him know we wanted to get off at the next stop. I live near two other OC people so we ride the same bus, and Makenna hit it one stop too early our first day riding home alone, which made the bus driver look around wondering why no one was getting off when he stopped. He just laughed and apologized over and over and he smiled and kept going. As far as showers are concerned, apparently you take your shower and when you are all cleaned off you relax in the bathtub full of hot water. Luckily my family lets me go first, so I don't have to sit in the water they just sat in...since they don't drain it between people. My family actually has two houses - one was my dad's parents' house before they died 2-3 years ago. Now the dad spends the nights in that house, which is strange to me, but I guess that's not completely strange here for couples to not sleep in the same rooms at least. Houses may be pushing it. Haha!
Sunday, October 5
Home Sweet Homestay...
We've finally slowed down from all of our moving around for a little bit, and while it feels a little more like home it definitely isn't! I met my family yesterday and found out that none of them speak much English at all. So, I formally challenge anyone reading this to a game of charades when I get back.
I've also got the opportunity to upload some more pictures, so be sure to keep up with those since they'll fill in the gaps of details I leave out of my stories. Hmm...where to begin?
Since being here in Ibaraki, I've already learned SO much about their culture - and class doesn't start until tomorrow! My family here loves to ask about America, and I enjoy telling them about the crazy things we do.
Today our whole group went to Omika Church of Christ, but the following Sundays I will go to a church closer to where I live I believe. I was impressed by the preacher who taught the entire lesson in English and Japanese without a translator. After church they fed us a hot dog lunch and I went back home on the bus with a few people that live close to where I am staying. Tomorrow we will meet at the bus stop in the morning, and after school Hunter is coming over to my house. Haha, apparently his mom can't pick him up on time on Mondays, so at least I'll have a friend to hang out with and speak English with for a little while each week. I have been trying very hard not to ask for anything special or mention things that I really like, but I think my family is trying to trick me into it sometimes! :) Last night at dinner my mom asked what I wanted to drink: Wine, Beer, Tea, Coffee, Cola? I said cola could be cool, and she said "Okay, I don't buy cola, tomorrow I will, what do you want tonight?" HA!! I thought picking one of the options she gave was sure-fire. Guess not. She's so sweet, and tonight we went grocery shopping together. She pointed at everything asking what I wanted. I smiled and told her, "I want to eat food you cook. I like anything!" She laughed and asked what kind of fish I like...what kind of cheese do I like...what kind of everything! I smiled and picked a few things, but mostly told her I was happy with anything. For dinner tonight we went out to eat, and Megumi (my 18 year old host sister) invited a friend along too. I was SO hoping she was an English major, but she wasn't. That's okay, it's fun to be the center of attention sometimes especially when everything is new and they all think it's so much fun.
So for now, things are going good, and I'm sure they will only get better. They let me use their computer and phone, but only at night, so I might have to figure out a way to call at other times from school or in the mornings.
I love you all, and I'll keep taking lots of pictures!
Amy
I've also got the opportunity to upload some more pictures, so be sure to keep up with those since they'll fill in the gaps of details I leave out of my stories. Hmm...where to begin?
Since being here in Ibaraki, I've already learned SO much about their culture - and class doesn't start until tomorrow! My family here loves to ask about America, and I enjoy telling them about the crazy things we do.
Today our whole group went to Omika Church of Christ, but the following Sundays I will go to a church closer to where I live I believe. I was impressed by the preacher who taught the entire lesson in English and Japanese without a translator. After church they fed us a hot dog lunch and I went back home on the bus with a few people that live close to where I am staying. Tomorrow we will meet at the bus stop in the morning, and after school Hunter is coming over to my house. Haha, apparently his mom can't pick him up on time on Mondays, so at least I'll have a friend to hang out with and speak English with for a little while each week. I have been trying very hard not to ask for anything special or mention things that I really like, but I think my family is trying to trick me into it sometimes! :) Last night at dinner my mom asked what I wanted to drink: Wine, Beer, Tea, Coffee, Cola? I said cola could be cool, and she said "Okay, I don't buy cola, tomorrow I will, what do you want tonight?" HA!! I thought picking one of the options she gave was sure-fire. Guess not. She's so sweet, and tonight we went grocery shopping together. She pointed at everything asking what I wanted. I smiled and told her, "I want to eat food you cook. I like anything!" She laughed and asked what kind of fish I like...what kind of cheese do I like...what kind of everything! I smiled and picked a few things, but mostly told her I was happy with anything. For dinner tonight we went out to eat, and Megumi (my 18 year old host sister) invited a friend along too. I was SO hoping she was an English major, but she wasn't. That's okay, it's fun to be the center of attention sometimes especially when everything is new and they all think it's so much fun.
So for now, things are going good, and I'm sure they will only get better. They let me use their computer and phone, but only at night, so I might have to figure out a way to call at other times from school or in the mornings.
I love you all, and I'll keep taking lots of pictures!
Amy
Thursday, October 2
Konichiwa!
We made it to Tokyo, Japan now, so I will have to recap some. Also, bear with me as I am typing on a Japanese keyboard, and I only just figured out how to get it to type in English. Also the spacebar is slowing me down since I can only use my left thumb. If I use my right thumb, it starts changing everything to Japanese again. When I figure out how to type an apostrophe I will work some conjunctions into my writing too. :) Here goes...
We exchanged our money over from yuan to yen before we got on the plane in Shanghai, and the exchange rate in Japan is making it a lot easier to figure out how much we are spending than using the 6.8 figure in China. Here it is about $1US = $104yen. They do not deal in cents, so basically 1 yen is 1 penny. It was fun thinking about having $1000yen bills in my pocket, but really...that is about $10US.
Our first impression of Japan walking out of the train station (after our plane and standing in the Customs line for 2 hours) was of how CLEAN it is here! We passed an auto mechanic shop that looked more like a display or big toy station than a working car shop. The roads were clean and most importantly the air is clean! Even the water was good enough in our hostel in Kyoto to drink after running it through a simple water filter. That was such a great relief, and we have agreed along the way that we are so glad things are improving as we go instead of declining so we can appreciate things so much more. K's House Hostel was so nice, and everyone was so friendly. This was our first hostel to stay in, and I didn't know what to expect, but the community feel to it was really nice. There were nice kitchens stocked with dishes to use as long as you cleaned up after yourself, and the computers and laundry facilities were cheap and easy to use. I finally got to do laundry in a washer and dryer! Haha, of course, I also forgot and threw in a brand new red shirt which dyed all my white stuff a nice shade of pink, but at least it's clean!
Sunday we started to head to Hiroshima, but several people in our group were feeling sick including me, so we decided to try again the next day instead. That ended up being for the best since Skyler, one of our guys, ended up going to the hospital later in the day with Pancreatitis. He has had it before, so his family is not too scared because they know what is going on. Currently, they are expecting him to be released tomorrow (Friday) and he will probably meet up with us in Ibaraki. The rest of our group either went exploring in small groups or caught up on some rest to avoid getting any more sick.
Monday, Ryan still wasn't feeling up to leading us, so he gave Joel and Josh the directions for the day and let them lead us to Hiroshima. We got there with no problems and were excited to be met as we got off our bus by a free tour guide! She said she was leading for free as she practiced, and if we would like her to guide us, it would take about 10-15 minutes of our time. She led us around the Dome that is still standing as a reminder and memorial of the attack at Hiroshima, and there her boss met up with us. He was a survivor and told us about his family and how they were affected. He was actually not even born yet; he was in the womb, but because his mother was exposed to the radiation, he is considered a survivor and has had plenty of medical problems in his youth that were caused by his weak immune system. His grandfather died very shortly after the attacks from internal rupturing from the exposure. Next we went to the museum and saw all the pictures and articles damaged in the explosion.
Tuesday we left our hostel and made our way to TOKYO! Our group got a little split up at the train station, but we all made it there fine. Tammy stayed behind in Kyoto with Skyler in the hospital as they try to sort things out.
Wednesday...yesterday, we got up early and ran all over Tokyo taking the subway all over the place trying to get downtown. Their subway system here has many, many more lines than the DC metro does, but the 24 of us made it through just fine. We got to the Imperial Palace in time for our tour, which is only offered in Japanese. They did give us English translation headsets, so we were able to understand what we were looking at during our 2.2 km tour. It was interesting comparing it in my head to the Summer Palace and Buckingham Palace. The different cultures definitely put an emphasis on different things. Here, the size of the gardens and the huge moat around the entire grounds is what makes it stand out as quite amazing in the middle of Tokyo. After that, I went with a group to Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo and then on to Tokyo Tower. They are very proud of Tokyo Tower here because it is 333 meters tall. (The Eiffel Tower is only 320 meters) For those of you that may be worried that we've been eating too much American food, you'll be happy to know that for dinner a group of us found a GREAT sushi place close to our hostel. The prices seemed reasonable when we went in, and indeed it was well worth it. It was a sushi bar that rotates the plates of freshly made sushi around, and you are free to grab whatever dish you like. The plates tell you the price, and each plate was about $130yen for 2-4 pieces of sushi. I splurged on one plate for some really good tuna, and the rest was just as good. The chef was fun too telling us that one dish was "Anaconda...SNAKE!" We must have looked shocked because he laughed and told us, "I'm JOKING!" He started showing off making all kinds of dishes for us to try including octopus and baby squid, and he even made one dish that he made a big show out of. He put the rice and wasabi down then put a nice piece of tuna on top. He put some kind of sauce on it and used a torch to actually cook the top some. He repeated it then put it on plates for us to try. We all did even though we were SO full, and it was delicious! He told us it was American style, not Japanese style, and that it was his own creation -- not on the menu, and usually $399yen but for us he discounted it to the $130yen plate. We tipped him well, even though that is also an American thing and we are told not to. He was so nice to us we felt he deserved it though. Plus, our totals were so cheap! I ended up paying $1040 for my six plates of sushi, and I was so full.
Today one group went off to climb Mt. Fuji and another went to Disneyland Tokyo, but Macy and I stayed behind to catch up on our journals and do some laundry. It was a good day of rest so we can keep up on our big days of adventure.
Sorry this post is so long, I just don't want to skip anything (even though I am definitely leaving pieces out to tell later). We're moving on to Ibaraki on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to meeting my host family and having the experience of living on my own with a Japanese family! I'll update again later and let you know how things are going!
I miss you all!
Amy
We exchanged our money over from yuan to yen before we got on the plane in Shanghai, and the exchange rate in Japan is making it a lot easier to figure out how much we are spending than using the 6.8 figure in China. Here it is about $1US = $104yen. They do not deal in cents, so basically 1 yen is 1 penny. It was fun thinking about having $1000yen bills in my pocket, but really...that is about $10US.
Our first impression of Japan walking out of the train station (after our plane and standing in the Customs line for 2 hours) was of how CLEAN it is here! We passed an auto mechanic shop that looked more like a display or big toy station than a working car shop. The roads were clean and most importantly the air is clean! Even the water was good enough in our hostel in Kyoto to drink after running it through a simple water filter. That was such a great relief, and we have agreed along the way that we are so glad things are improving as we go instead of declining so we can appreciate things so much more. K's House Hostel was so nice, and everyone was so friendly. This was our first hostel to stay in, and I didn't know what to expect, but the community feel to it was really nice. There were nice kitchens stocked with dishes to use as long as you cleaned up after yourself, and the computers and laundry facilities were cheap and easy to use. I finally got to do laundry in a washer and dryer! Haha, of course, I also forgot and threw in a brand new red shirt which dyed all my white stuff a nice shade of pink, but at least it's clean!
Sunday we started to head to Hiroshima, but several people in our group were feeling sick including me, so we decided to try again the next day instead. That ended up being for the best since Skyler, one of our guys, ended up going to the hospital later in the day with Pancreatitis. He has had it before, so his family is not too scared because they know what is going on. Currently, they are expecting him to be released tomorrow (Friday) and he will probably meet up with us in Ibaraki. The rest of our group either went exploring in small groups or caught up on some rest to avoid getting any more sick.
Monday, Ryan still wasn't feeling up to leading us, so he gave Joel and Josh the directions for the day and let them lead us to Hiroshima. We got there with no problems and were excited to be met as we got off our bus by a free tour guide! She said she was leading for free as she practiced, and if we would like her to guide us, it would take about 10-15 minutes of our time. She led us around the Dome that is still standing as a reminder and memorial of the attack at Hiroshima, and there her boss met up with us. He was a survivor and told us about his family and how they were affected. He was actually not even born yet; he was in the womb, but because his mother was exposed to the radiation, he is considered a survivor and has had plenty of medical problems in his youth that were caused by his weak immune system. His grandfather died very shortly after the attacks from internal rupturing from the exposure. Next we went to the museum and saw all the pictures and articles damaged in the explosion.
Tuesday we left our hostel and made our way to TOKYO! Our group got a little split up at the train station, but we all made it there fine. Tammy stayed behind in Kyoto with Skyler in the hospital as they try to sort things out.
Wednesday...yesterday, we got up early and ran all over Tokyo taking the subway all over the place trying to get downtown. Their subway system here has many, many more lines than the DC metro does, but the 24 of us made it through just fine. We got to the Imperial Palace in time for our tour, which is only offered in Japanese. They did give us English translation headsets, so we were able to understand what we were looking at during our 2.2 km tour. It was interesting comparing it in my head to the Summer Palace and Buckingham Palace. The different cultures definitely put an emphasis on different things. Here, the size of the gardens and the huge moat around the entire grounds is what makes it stand out as quite amazing in the middle of Tokyo. After that, I went with a group to Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo and then on to Tokyo Tower. They are very proud of Tokyo Tower here because it is 333 meters tall. (The Eiffel Tower is only 320 meters) For those of you that may be worried that we've been eating too much American food, you'll be happy to know that for dinner a group of us found a GREAT sushi place close to our hostel. The prices seemed reasonable when we went in, and indeed it was well worth it. It was a sushi bar that rotates the plates of freshly made sushi around, and you are free to grab whatever dish you like. The plates tell you the price, and each plate was about $130yen for 2-4 pieces of sushi. I splurged on one plate for some really good tuna, and the rest was just as good. The chef was fun too telling us that one dish was "Anaconda...SNAKE!" We must have looked shocked because he laughed and told us, "I'm JOKING!" He started showing off making all kinds of dishes for us to try including octopus and baby squid, and he even made one dish that he made a big show out of. He put the rice and wasabi down then put a nice piece of tuna on top. He put some kind of sauce on it and used a torch to actually cook the top some. He repeated it then put it on plates for us to try. We all did even though we were SO full, and it was delicious! He told us it was American style, not Japanese style, and that it was his own creation -- not on the menu, and usually $399yen but for us he discounted it to the $130yen plate. We tipped him well, even though that is also an American thing and we are told not to. He was so nice to us we felt he deserved it though. Plus, our totals were so cheap! I ended up paying $1040 for my six plates of sushi, and I was so full.
Today one group went off to climb Mt. Fuji and another went to Disneyland Tokyo, but Macy and I stayed behind to catch up on our journals and do some laundry. It was a good day of rest so we can keep up on our big days of adventure.
Sorry this post is so long, I just don't want to skip anything (even though I am definitely leaving pieces out to tell later). We're moving on to Ibaraki on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to meeting my host family and having the experience of living on my own with a Japanese family! I'll update again later and let you know how things are going!
I miss you all!
Amy
Friday, September 26
Electronics Expedition
Guess where I went today? Best Buy! Haha!! The biggest Best Buy in the world is also the only store in China. I talked to a few people that work there and they were all very excited to meet me once I told them I work at Best Buy. Their store manager is also from the US, so I talked to him and got a picture with him and a Geek Squad guy in front of the big Geek Squad sign with Chinese under it. I also took a picture in front of the building. Shanghai seems to be much richer than the other parts of China we've been too. It was really fun going today. My friend Steven and I set out from the hotel having only seen the location on Google Maps, but with no way of printing it out... We had a partial map of Shanghai from the hotel room and I grabbed an envelope with our hotel's address on it. So worse case, we could probably find our way back. I knew where a metro stop was, and we knew we had to head in the general direction of Southwest. We set a goal of finding the store within 3 hours, and we went on our way.
We got to the metro stop and had no idea which line or stop we needed to take, but we picked one that looked like it was headed in the southwest direction and got on. We rode until we got to a stop that we guessed felt like about the right area and asked someone to point on the map where we were. Fortunately, we had gotten off just around the bottom corner of the map, which was better than the next stop that was not on the map at all. Like I said...partial map. Even the legend was cut off on the other corner. So we decided as long as we knew where we were we weren't lost, and for right now we were in the bottom left corner of the map. Great! That's southwest relative to where we started, so we considered this our first success of the trip.
As we left the metro station we decided we'd try to find a Starbucks for Steven to get a better idea of where we were on his iPhone. We couldn't see a Starbucks from where we were standing, so we asked ourselves, "If I were a Starbucks where would I be?" and headed off in the direction of KFC and Ikea. For anyone looking to go to a Starbucks in the future near the Shanghai Stadium, the direction of Starbucks is opposite from both KFC and Ikea. But Ikea is a very large store that has found a way to trick anyone that walks in the doors into walking through every single department. We finally stopped to ask someone where to find a Starbucks and they told us which bus to take. Since we were close to the bus stop we decided we'd save our $1yuan and just watch which direction that bus goes and follow it. Luckily we stumbled across one and the guy working knew where Best Buy was! We were so close!! Unfortunately, he did not speak English, so his three line map, gestures and Chinese directions only got us started in the right direction. One Häagen-Dazs and six miles (walking) later, we found the place we had set out only 2.5 hours earlier to find. Given we had 30 minutes to spare from our goal of 3 hours, we considered this our second success of the night.
We stuck around there checking out their 6 floors of electronic awesomeness for about 30 minutes then decided to check out the surrounding area. It was a really nice part of town and we figured that with as long as it took to get there we were going to darn well enjoy where we were. We took some cool pictures and went all through a mall there complete with a Magic school where a guy did a few card tricks for us and tried to get us to enroll in their school. While we were tempted in the moment to drop OC and go to Magic school in Shanghai, we decided against it and headed to McDonald's for dinner after which we made our way back into the metro station. We had taken a picture of the stop we started at so we just showed the service desk the picture and asked for 2 tickets. The guy smiled and we took it one extra stop to see some different scenery on our walk back to the hotel. All in all, today was a very fun adventure and we got to see many sides of Shanghai.
Tomorrow we will head to Japan early, so for now that's all! I hope I can post my pictures soon but until we get to our host family's house I'm not sure when I'll be back online.
Email me! I love hearing from everyone back home!! Love you all!!
Amy
We got to the metro stop and had no idea which line or stop we needed to take, but we picked one that looked like it was headed in the southwest direction and got on. We rode until we got to a stop that we guessed felt like about the right area and asked someone to point on the map where we were. Fortunately, we had gotten off just around the bottom corner of the map, which was better than the next stop that was not on the map at all. Like I said...partial map. Even the legend was cut off on the other corner. So we decided as long as we knew where we were we weren't lost, and for right now we were in the bottom left corner of the map. Great! That's southwest relative to where we started, so we considered this our first success of the trip.
As we left the metro station we decided we'd try to find a Starbucks for Steven to get a better idea of where we were on his iPhone. We couldn't see a Starbucks from where we were standing, so we asked ourselves, "If I were a Starbucks where would I be?" and headed off in the direction of KFC and Ikea. For anyone looking to go to a Starbucks in the future near the Shanghai Stadium, the direction of Starbucks is opposite from both KFC and Ikea. But Ikea is a very large store that has found a way to trick anyone that walks in the doors into walking through every single department. We finally stopped to ask someone where to find a Starbucks and they told us which bus to take. Since we were close to the bus stop we decided we'd save our $1yuan and just watch which direction that bus goes and follow it. Luckily we stumbled across one and the guy working knew where Best Buy was! We were so close!! Unfortunately, he did not speak English, so his three line map, gestures and Chinese directions only got us started in the right direction. One Häagen-Dazs and six miles (walking) later, we found the place we had set out only 2.5 hours earlier to find. Given we had 30 minutes to spare from our goal of 3 hours, we considered this our second success of the night.
We stuck around there checking out their 6 floors of electronic awesomeness for about 30 minutes then decided to check out the surrounding area. It was a really nice part of town and we figured that with as long as it took to get there we were going to darn well enjoy where we were. We took some cool pictures and went all through a mall there complete with a Magic school where a guy did a few card tricks for us and tried to get us to enroll in their school. While we were tempted in the moment to drop OC and go to Magic school in Shanghai, we decided against it and headed to McDonald's for dinner after which we made our way back into the metro station. We had taken a picture of the stop we started at so we just showed the service desk the picture and asked for 2 tickets. The guy smiled and we took it one extra stop to see some different scenery on our walk back to the hotel. All in all, today was a very fun adventure and we got to see many sides of Shanghai.
Tomorrow we will head to Japan early, so for now that's all! I hope I can post my pictures soon but until we get to our host family's house I'm not sure when I'll be back online.
Email me! I love hearing from everyone back home!! Love you all!!
Amy
Life, the Universe, and Everything
I'm in the middle of reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, so excuse the title reference...it just seemed like a fitting heading.
This trip has been opening my eyes to shape and change how I view the world. In some ways it's exciting, in some it's almost frightening. I expected this to some extent, but I guess you never really know what to expect until you're right there in the mix. And now, for a very clear understatement: Asia is a whole different world.
The thing that impresses me most about the culture here is not the cold, everyone-mind-their-own-business way that I had half expected after visiting places like DC and NYC. I have been completely caught off guard by the openness and inviting nature of every person I have met. Ever since the English Corner night I have been so much more aware of how open the Chinese are to new people and new ideas. They are not narrow minded in their ways as I feel I often am. They are ready for new ideas and yearn for learning new languages, religions, and ideas. They are also very hard workers and will study on their own to reach their goals. I wish I had that kind of drive. I live in a country that promises opportunity and the chance to be whatever you want to be, but I feel that many times I don't reach my potential and the only thing in my way is myself. Here, they live under so many limitations by government, resources, and tradition yet they find ways and have the extreme desire to do so much more. To those that look at us, a group of Americans and wish that they could be us, I have to say that there are certain aspects of their lives that I wish I had as well.
Many people have been talking to us about coming to China after graduation to teach English. The Chinese government will actually pay Americans to come and do that, and for some it seems to be a great opportunity to spread the name of God. But I have done a lot of thinking about what it would take, and the sacrifices I would have to make, and I think I am still too selfish of a person to be able to do that.
One thing I have learned though, through talking to Gary Jackson, was when he talked about my uncle's work as an accountant as a ministry, it made me realize what the Bible is talking about when it says that the body is made up of many parts. Each part has it's function and without that part, the rest could not work properly. I have talents that others do not, and it is my mission to find how I can use the talent I have been given to help those that have been given other talents that I do not have.
In America we are taught to think as individuals, whereas in China they are taught to think in terms of the group. This experience living in their culture and seeing how they work together for "the greater good" helps me to understand God's purpose for me.
This trip has been opening my eyes to shape and change how I view the world. In some ways it's exciting, in some it's almost frightening. I expected this to some extent, but I guess you never really know what to expect until you're right there in the mix. And now, for a very clear understatement: Asia is a whole different world.
The thing that impresses me most about the culture here is not the cold, everyone-mind-their-own-business way that I had half expected after visiting places like DC and NYC. I have been completely caught off guard by the openness and inviting nature of every person I have met. Ever since the English Corner night I have been so much more aware of how open the Chinese are to new people and new ideas. They are not narrow minded in their ways as I feel I often am. They are ready for new ideas and yearn for learning new languages, religions, and ideas. They are also very hard workers and will study on their own to reach their goals. I wish I had that kind of drive. I live in a country that promises opportunity and the chance to be whatever you want to be, but I feel that many times I don't reach my potential and the only thing in my way is myself. Here, they live under so many limitations by government, resources, and tradition yet they find ways and have the extreme desire to do so much more. To those that look at us, a group of Americans and wish that they could be us, I have to say that there are certain aspects of their lives that I wish I had as well.
Many people have been talking to us about coming to China after graduation to teach English. The Chinese government will actually pay Americans to come and do that, and for some it seems to be a great opportunity to spread the name of God. But I have done a lot of thinking about what it would take, and the sacrifices I would have to make, and I think I am still too selfish of a person to be able to do that.
One thing I have learned though, through talking to Gary Jackson, was when he talked about my uncle's work as an accountant as a ministry, it made me realize what the Bible is talking about when it says that the body is made up of many parts. Each part has it's function and without that part, the rest could not work properly. I have talents that others do not, and it is my mission to find how I can use the talent I have been given to help those that have been given other talents that I do not have.
In America we are taught to think as individuals, whereas in China they are taught to think in terms of the group. This experience living in their culture and seeing how they work together for "the greater good" helps me to understand God's purpose for me.
My New Friend Simon
After eating dinner with Aleisha at KFC our first night in Shanghai, we were headed out the door when a guy waved at me to come back in. I let Aleisha know what I was doing and decided that as long as I was going back into the restaurant instead of out into the dark, the least I could do was see what he wanted. He slid a note across his table to me that he had obviously been spending the last several minutes writing out. It said:
"Hello. My name is Simon. Are you students in China? I am interested in learning English. Say English. Do you have any ideas?"
The next 30-45 minutes we spent explaining that we were leaving Shanghai in only 4 days, but if he would like to keep in touch by email we were happy to help him practice his English. He was very excited about this and taught us some Chinese! They were all very random words, but in Chinese have similar sounds. He said he used to be a teacher at a university for 4 years, but now he owns his own small computer networking company. I hope I can keep in touch with him as well as Amy in Beijing and slowly build a friendship in which I can share my faith. I also plan to contact Gary to see if he knows of any contacts that are in Shanghai long-term that I could connect Simon with.
"Hello. My name is Simon. Are you students in China? I am interested in learning English. Say English. Do you have any ideas?"
The next 30-45 minutes we spent explaining that we were leaving Shanghai in only 4 days, but if he would like to keep in touch by email we were happy to help him practice his English. He was very excited about this and taught us some Chinese! They were all very random words, but in Chinese have similar sounds. He said he used to be a teacher at a university for 4 years, but now he owns his own small computer networking company. I hope I can keep in touch with him as well as Amy in Beijing and slowly build a friendship in which I can share my faith. I also plan to contact Gary to see if he knows of any contacts that are in Shanghai long-term that I could connect Simon with.
Thursday, September 25
Slowing Down in Shanghai
First of all, I would like to tell the story of the great Xi'an wall adventure. We decided to have our church service on Sunday night, so that morning we got up and went to the wall surrounding the old Xi'an. We climbed the stairs to the top and rented bikes!! It was so much fun because Hunter and I decided to get a tandem bike and try our luck... Our luck apparently is not the greatest, but it is fun. About halfway into our 14km ride, we discovered that our rear tire was flat. Haha! There wasn't a whole lot we could do about it, so we kept on going until we reached a stand selling water and stopped to rest. A man came up to us and pointed at our tire and simply said, "I'm sorry". We stared at each other and just laughed and agreed we were sorry too. He then took our bike and walked away... Since we had a deposit on this flat tired bike, we followed him to his table wondering if he had a bike pump. He didn't, but he DID have a new bike for us! We were so excited, we kept saying "Xie xie, Xie xie!!" (Thank you!) and rode off on our new bike. Only ten minutes later, Hunter said, "Amy, I kid you not...we have another flat tire" and we groaned and laughed and groaned again as people walking passed us and people on other bikes pointed to our flat tire. Every turn Hunter was "really sure it's just around this corner" and every tower was "definitely the one we started at". We figured at least it gave us a really good excuse for being second to last to get back.
Our stay with the family in the countryside was really fun! We arrived Monday afternoon and stayed until Tuesday. On Monday we went to the small school in the area and met some very talented children. The teacher said that their school's specialty is in art, and they have 2 professional art teachers. So the children sang some songs and did cartwheels and so on then gave us each some drawings they had done. We went back to our families' houses for dinner and that night had a special dancing party in the village square. The next morning we had breakfast with our families then went to the village meeting place for an art lesson in Chinese painting and paper cutting. After lunch with our families again we got back on our bus and headed back into Xi'an to do some last minute mailing (By the way, I mailed home a second package), laundry pick-up, and food buying before our 20 hour train ride to Shanghai.
Mail costs an additional $10yuan to box up...Laundry cost $54yuan for a couple shirts, my shorts and one pair of jeans to wash in dirty water with no soap and put into a bag not fully dry...and food consisted of Oreos, Coke, and strange Chinese-style Pringles. Man I wish I had some Febreze right now.
Now I am in Shanghai, and we do not have any formally organized tours set up here, so we are free to do as we like. I think most of our group likes to sleep. :) I did all the rest of my laundry last night in the bathtub and our room is covered with drying clothes. I'm hoping to catch up on some reading and writing in my journal then see what everyone else is planning when they all wake up.
That's all for now. I love you all!
Amy
Our stay with the family in the countryside was really fun! We arrived Monday afternoon and stayed until Tuesday. On Monday we went to the small school in the area and met some very talented children. The teacher said that their school's specialty is in art, and they have 2 professional art teachers. So the children sang some songs and did cartwheels and so on then gave us each some drawings they had done. We went back to our families' houses for dinner and that night had a special dancing party in the village square. The next morning we had breakfast with our families then went to the village meeting place for an art lesson in Chinese painting and paper cutting. After lunch with our families again we got back on our bus and headed back into Xi'an to do some last minute mailing (By the way, I mailed home a second package), laundry pick-up, and food buying before our 20 hour train ride to Shanghai.
Mail costs an additional $10yuan to box up...Laundry cost $54yuan for a couple shirts, my shorts and one pair of jeans to wash in dirty water with no soap and put into a bag not fully dry...and food consisted of Oreos, Coke, and strange Chinese-style Pringles. Man I wish I had some Febreze right now.
Now I am in Shanghai, and we do not have any formally organized tours set up here, so we are free to do as we like. I think most of our group likes to sleep. :) I did all the rest of my laundry last night in the bathtub and our room is covered with drying clothes. I'm hoping to catch up on some reading and writing in my journal then see what everyone else is planning when they all wake up.
That's all for now. I love you all!
Amy
Saturday, September 20
A Shoutout from Xi'an
Wow, we've been busy since last time I was able to get online. I am now in Xi'an, and our tour guide here keeps us running! :)
On Thursday we shipped home a bunch of our souvenirs (by "surface" instead of air, so it may take a while to get there) and met up for our second devotional in Beijing. It was really good and Jacob challenged everyone on our trip to set a goal for their relationship with God that they want to see change or grow during our semester and when we get back we can discuss the amazing different things God did with each of us.
Then we hopped on the train at around 9:30pm, which was a little cramped, but overall very nice. We mixed up roommates and packed in all our bags and pretty quickly went to bed. At 8am Friday, our sponsors woke us up and we got our stuff together and headed off to find our bus. Our tour guide here was very considerate and moved some things around so we could take showers and rest for a little while before we started our tour. We are staying in a very nice hotel this time (as opposed to the dorms we were in) and we all agree that we're glad this wasn't our first stop, so we can appreciate more the nice beds and big rooms. We are also split up 2 per a room now so we have more than enough room to spread out, although we probably won't much since we're rarely in our rooms and only here for about 4 days...
Yesterday we went to a sort of Chinese ballet show about their armies and soldiers and so on. Then we had a really nice dinner in which they just kept bringing dish after dish without explaining what it was. I've kind of decided to try anything on this trip, and I can't say for sure what it was I ate but I think I ate...brains...or...spinal cord. No one else at my table would try it, and it looked and had the texture of about what I would imagine brains to taste like. One bite was enough. After dinner we went to a water show, which was actually really cool. They shoot water up and shine lasers and lights on it to create a show. I have pictures and tried to do video, so I hope I can show you when I get those posted.
Today we went to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers! They are incredible -- the 8th wonder of the world even! We saw all three pits, and she told us all about the significance of the direction they are standing, etc. It's so impressive to think about what these people did so long ago and that these soldiers are still standing today. I just can't imagine being the farmer that stumbled upon them trying to dig a well. What an amazing sight that must have been!!
Tomorrow we are spending most of our day in the city and having our own church service in the evening at the hotel.
I have a little bit of a cold or maybe just allergies acting up, but if you could keep all of my group in your prayers we would all appreciate it. A few people are starting to feel sick now and then, but never anything major. Mostly allergies I think, and the smoking EVERYWHERE probably doesn't help either.
I love you all! Miss you! Wish you were here!!!
Amy
On Thursday we shipped home a bunch of our souvenirs (by "surface" instead of air, so it may take a while to get there) and met up for our second devotional in Beijing. It was really good and Jacob challenged everyone on our trip to set a goal for their relationship with God that they want to see change or grow during our semester and when we get back we can discuss the amazing different things God did with each of us.
Then we hopped on the train at around 9:30pm, which was a little cramped, but overall very nice. We mixed up roommates and packed in all our bags and pretty quickly went to bed. At 8am Friday, our sponsors woke us up and we got our stuff together and headed off to find our bus. Our tour guide here was very considerate and moved some things around so we could take showers and rest for a little while before we started our tour. We are staying in a very nice hotel this time (as opposed to the dorms we were in) and we all agree that we're glad this wasn't our first stop, so we can appreciate more the nice beds and big rooms. We are also split up 2 per a room now so we have more than enough room to spread out, although we probably won't much since we're rarely in our rooms and only here for about 4 days...
Yesterday we went to a sort of Chinese ballet show about their armies and soldiers and so on. Then we had a really nice dinner in which they just kept bringing dish after dish without explaining what it was. I've kind of decided to try anything on this trip, and I can't say for sure what it was I ate but I think I ate...brains...or...spinal cord. No one else at my table would try it, and it looked and had the texture of about what I would imagine brains to taste like. One bite was enough. After dinner we went to a water show, which was actually really cool. They shoot water up and shine lasers and lights on it to create a show. I have pictures and tried to do video, so I hope I can show you when I get those posted.
Today we went to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers! They are incredible -- the 8th wonder of the world even! We saw all three pits, and she told us all about the significance of the direction they are standing, etc. It's so impressive to think about what these people did so long ago and that these soldiers are still standing today. I just can't imagine being the farmer that stumbled upon them trying to dig a well. What an amazing sight that must have been!!
Tomorrow we are spending most of our day in the city and having our own church service in the evening at the hotel.
I have a little bit of a cold or maybe just allergies acting up, but if you could keep all of my group in your prayers we would all appreciate it. A few people are starting to feel sick now and then, but never anything major. Mostly allergies I think, and the smoking EVERYWHERE probably doesn't help either.
I love you all! Miss you! Wish you were here!!!
Amy
Wednesday, September 17
Bye-Bye Beijing!
Hey!
So yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens and Fragrant Hill, and I think we were all glad that the tour guide decided to set us loose rather than drag us around as a group this time. It was our last tour, and all of our feet are tired. At the Botanical Gardens we spent most of our time trying to recreate the Olympic statues, which mostly ended with Tim landing squarely on his back and Kelcy getting clocked right above his eye. If you'd like to see some comedic pictures, I believe it was Kelcy's camera I was using to take these pictures, so you can see them when he uploads his. Tim and I have also been trading back and forth taking pictures together and of each other to make sure we end up with plenty of pictures of ourselves, so you should all check out his gallery also!
Speaking of...I'm in the process right now of uploading my pictures! You can find them at http://photos.oc.edu under International Programs>PacRim Fall 2008>Amy Butler. Hopefully I can get them all up. I'm at an Internet cafe right now with high speed Internet, it's just an issue of uploading ALL my pictures... I have SO many!
Today is our free day with no tour, so after class our sponsors threw a birthday party for everyone with birthdays in June-September. We had some amazing cake, and then were free to do our last things before leaving for Xi'an tomorrow. Some people headed back to the Silk Market, some went to the Post Office, some are here with me.
I have really enjoyed my time here in Beijing, and I'm amazed at how much we've already done! It's funny because a few of us were talking to our sponsor, Ryan, about how it almost feels like we're heading home now. Most vacations or trips out of the country would definitely be wrapping up about this time, and we are all in the process of packing back up after spreading our stuff all over our dorm rooms. But home is not in the cards for us yet. We've only just started, and it's so exciting!
In Xi'an we will be staying for one night with a family (in groups or individually - we'll find out when we get there) and the rest of the time in a hostel. These will both be very new experiences for all of us, and I sure hope my two words in Chinese pay off. Haha!!
I think the one thing that I have been most impressed with is the openness of the Chinese. For example, at English corner, we could walk up to anyone and they were so open to talking to us about anything! In America, I can't imagine anyone doing that without wondering about your underlying motive, and especially they would walk away if you even mentioned religion as your motive. That night will stand out to me the most on this trip. Free English lessons...who would have thought that you could use just your native language as a tool to spread the gospel?
This trip is definitely shaping my view of the world as a whole and of the Chinese culture. I'm wondering how it will affect my goals and plans for the future, but I still have a ways ahead of me on this trip before I'll be figuring that out.
Thanks again to EVERYONE that has supported me financially, with words of encouragement, and through prayer. I'm not sure how much access I'll have to a computer in Xi'an, but I'll post again as soon as I can! I love and miss you all!
Amy
So yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens and Fragrant Hill, and I think we were all glad that the tour guide decided to set us loose rather than drag us around as a group this time. It was our last tour, and all of our feet are tired. At the Botanical Gardens we spent most of our time trying to recreate the Olympic statues, which mostly ended with Tim landing squarely on his back and Kelcy getting clocked right above his eye. If you'd like to see some comedic pictures, I believe it was Kelcy's camera I was using to take these pictures, so you can see them when he uploads his. Tim and I have also been trading back and forth taking pictures together and of each other to make sure we end up with plenty of pictures of ourselves, so you should all check out his gallery also!
Speaking of...I'm in the process right now of uploading my pictures! You can find them at http://photos.oc.edu under International Programs>PacRim Fall 2008>Amy Butler. Hopefully I can get them all up. I'm at an Internet cafe right now with high speed Internet, it's just an issue of uploading ALL my pictures... I have SO many!
Today is our free day with no tour, so after class our sponsors threw a birthday party for everyone with birthdays in June-September. We had some amazing cake, and then were free to do our last things before leaving for Xi'an tomorrow. Some people headed back to the Silk Market, some went to the Post Office, some are here with me.
I have really enjoyed my time here in Beijing, and I'm amazed at how much we've already done! It's funny because a few of us were talking to our sponsor, Ryan, about how it almost feels like we're heading home now. Most vacations or trips out of the country would definitely be wrapping up about this time, and we are all in the process of packing back up after spreading our stuff all over our dorm rooms. But home is not in the cards for us yet. We've only just started, and it's so exciting!
In Xi'an we will be staying for one night with a family (in groups or individually - we'll find out when we get there) and the rest of the time in a hostel. These will both be very new experiences for all of us, and I sure hope my two words in Chinese pay off. Haha!!
I think the one thing that I have been most impressed with is the openness of the Chinese. For example, at English corner, we could walk up to anyone and they were so open to talking to us about anything! In America, I can't imagine anyone doing that without wondering about your underlying motive, and especially they would walk away if you even mentioned religion as your motive. That night will stand out to me the most on this trip. Free English lessons...who would have thought that you could use just your native language as a tool to spread the gospel?
This trip is definitely shaping my view of the world as a whole and of the Chinese culture. I'm wondering how it will affect my goals and plans for the future, but I still have a ways ahead of me on this trip before I'll be figuring that out.
Thanks again to EVERYONE that has supported me financially, with words of encouragement, and through prayer. I'm not sure how much access I'll have to a computer in Xi'an, but I'll post again as soon as I can! I love and miss you all!
Amy
Monday, September 15
My Beijing Birthday
When I woke up this morning, I only wanted one thing for my birthday...some rest. I've had a great time and some awesome experiences, but sometimes you just need some rest so you can live in all the other moments. After this first week of going and going, it's been starting to wear on me.
I started my day by opening the card my parents had given me marked "Do not open until September 15th" and felt a little closer to home. Mom had given me a heads up that I had calling cards coming in my card, so until today I hadn't called home just to make it that much more special. I figured it's only one week that I have to wait, plus with as many emails as I send and the time difference, it's hard to work out when to call. So I read my card and got ready for class. (Let me also say here that we were the only people in CHINA to be meeting for class today as it was the Mid-Autumn Harvest holiday yesterday, and Monday is included in that holiday time off.) So I went to class just wanting to climb back into bed. Class was interesting today though, and the teacher taught us about traditional and modern Chinese wedding ceremonies - in case we find our Mr. or Mrs. Right in China, she said. You have no idea how excited I was when at 10:30a, she told us that if we didn't have any more questions, she would end class for the day. We normally get out at noon, so I was THRILLED! Plus, our tours generally start at 1:30p, but today... we were to meet at 2:30p. DOUBLE THRILLED!! I got to my phone as fast as possible and called home. Perfect, it was only 9:30p at home, so the timing was great too so I could talk for a while without interrupting sleep or getting ready for work, etc. I used up one calling card talking to Mom, Dad, and Kathleen filling in gaps of stories and hearing about home. It was such a great feeling getting to talk to them, and when the time was up on my card I still had plenty of time to rest, do a load of laundry, and get ready for our Hutong tour.
I had really been looking forward to the Hutong tour after seeing pictures someone in my family forwarded. That is a sort of living arrangement in which several families (up to 30 or 50 families) all live around one courtyard sharing many things. Our tour guide told us about families that might share one toilet so in the morning they would have to get up just to stand in line for it. Three families opened their homes to us and explained how these communities work. I believe the tour guide said that 70%+ of these courtyards are government owned and space can be rented out at the rate of $10US per family per month. To own one of these spaces, which are truly the size of small apartments, very cramped and very old, would cost approximately $1,000,000US. The first family we visited actually owned their area, but the man told us his family had lived in that same spot for 150 years, and he was the 4th generation to live in that exact 5 room area sharing a courtyard with several different families over the years. He now has one daughter that was recently married and now lives with her husband. He said if she choses to live there then the place will stay in their family, otherwise, after they are gone, it will go to another family. This family was well off looking at their home; the man is a professional artist and art professor and the wife is recently retired from her common worker position. The other two families that we visited fed us a wonderful dinner, and we were humbled to see that these people living in these very lowly conditions had so much to give and were not poor like might have been our first impression.
The best part of that tour was the rickshaws we rode from one stop to the next. Our sponsor, Ryan, actually traded spots with his driver for a while and did his best to keep from hitting pedestrians and parked cars. Much more relaxing than climbing another thousand steps like every other day.
When we got back to campus tonight, everyone cleaned up to go out for the night. Going back to my need for rest, I gladly went to the coffee shop a few blocks from school with Tim to hang out and talk for a while. Tim and I are both seniors, so we feel like we may have a different perspective at times about this trip than some of the younger people on the trip as far as our view and how our experiences are shaping our opinions and plans for the future. It was fun and relaxing and a great finish for my birthday.
Now, I'm going to get in bed and write all this down in my journal. :)
Love y'all!
Amy
I started my day by opening the card my parents had given me marked "Do not open until September 15th" and felt a little closer to home. Mom had given me a heads up that I had calling cards coming in my card, so until today I hadn't called home just to make it that much more special. I figured it's only one week that I have to wait, plus with as many emails as I send and the time difference, it's hard to work out when to call. So I read my card and got ready for class. (Let me also say here that we were the only people in CHINA to be meeting for class today as it was the Mid-Autumn Harvest holiday yesterday, and Monday is included in that holiday time off.) So I went to class just wanting to climb back into bed. Class was interesting today though, and the teacher taught us about traditional and modern Chinese wedding ceremonies - in case we find our Mr. or Mrs. Right in China, she said. You have no idea how excited I was when at 10:30a, she told us that if we didn't have any more questions, she would end class for the day. We normally get out at noon, so I was THRILLED! Plus, our tours generally start at 1:30p, but today... we were to meet at 2:30p. DOUBLE THRILLED!! I got to my phone as fast as possible and called home. Perfect, it was only 9:30p at home, so the timing was great too so I could talk for a while without interrupting sleep or getting ready for work, etc. I used up one calling card talking to Mom, Dad, and Kathleen filling in gaps of stories and hearing about home. It was such a great feeling getting to talk to them, and when the time was up on my card I still had plenty of time to rest, do a load of laundry, and get ready for our Hutong tour.
I had really been looking forward to the Hutong tour after seeing pictures someone in my family forwarded. That is a sort of living arrangement in which several families (up to 30 or 50 families) all live around one courtyard sharing many things. Our tour guide told us about families that might share one toilet so in the morning they would have to get up just to stand in line for it. Three families opened their homes to us and explained how these communities work. I believe the tour guide said that 70%+ of these courtyards are government owned and space can be rented out at the rate of $10US per family per month. To own one of these spaces, which are truly the size of small apartments, very cramped and very old, would cost approximately $1,000,000US. The first family we visited actually owned their area, but the man told us his family had lived in that same spot for 150 years, and he was the 4th generation to live in that exact 5 room area sharing a courtyard with several different families over the years. He now has one daughter that was recently married and now lives with her husband. He said if she choses to live there then the place will stay in their family, otherwise, after they are gone, it will go to another family. This family was well off looking at their home; the man is a professional artist and art professor and the wife is recently retired from her common worker position. The other two families that we visited fed us a wonderful dinner, and we were humbled to see that these people living in these very lowly conditions had so much to give and were not poor like might have been our first impression.
The best part of that tour was the rickshaws we rode from one stop to the next. Our sponsor, Ryan, actually traded spots with his driver for a while and did his best to keep from hitting pedestrians and parked cars. Much more relaxing than climbing another thousand steps like every other day.
When we got back to campus tonight, everyone cleaned up to go out for the night. Going back to my need for rest, I gladly went to the coffee shop a few blocks from school with Tim to hang out and talk for a while. Tim and I are both seniors, so we feel like we may have a different perspective at times about this trip than some of the younger people on the trip as far as our view and how our experiences are shaping our opinions and plans for the future. It was fun and relaxing and a great finish for my birthday.
Now, I'm going to get in bed and write all this down in my journal. :)
Love y'all!
Amy
Sunday, September 14
Saturday/Sunday
WOW! WOW WOW WOW.
This weekend was AMAZING!!
Saturday, we left early (7:45a) to head to the Great Wall of China. There are times here that it still seems unreal that we're in China. Like maybe we're just in Chinatown or something, but standing at the base of the GREAT WALL was such an awesome moment. Like, here it is. This is IT. I've seen pictures...I've heard about it. But it's sooo awesome in person! There were steep steps up, up, up, up, up to each battlement. They were uneven so it was hard to step when they were about 8 inches deep steps and each one was somewhere between 6"-1' tall. It was just so awesome to stop and look back at how far I'd climbed and think about the soldiers that were stationed here so many years ago. It's a totally modern view all around the Wall now... parking lots, roads, a train, etc. But thinking about what it must have been like, late at night walking up and down those steps...all I can say is wow. When I climbed down I met up with some other people in our group and we played cards at a table between some other Chinese families playing cards. Our game was a lot more noisy (and annoying, I'm sure) so we caused a scene and gathered a crowd as we played. It was just fun to relax and let out muscles calm down while we hung out by the Great Wall.
Our bus ride back to campus was very quiet while everyone slept, exhausted from getting up early and climbing so much. We were all glad to get back and rest before deciding what to do with the rest of our day.
Around 5:30, a group knocked on the door and announced that they were going to the Paralympics if we'd like to go. So ten of us headed off with a map of the Chinese subway system to play our luck again. This is when my subway experience really paid off and the group kind of followed me as I tried to explain how it all worked. Around 6:30 we got off the subway with another mile-ish walk ahead of us to the Bird's Nest, and we were all just so excited. It was all lit up and we could see the Water Cube changing colors from far away. I think all of us were just so excited to be there that we here silly hyper. We tried to find tickets with some scalpers outside, but with a group of ten, we had kind of come to terms that we weren't going in to the games, but we'd get close enough to take cool pictures and say we'd been there. After about an hour or so of walking around and taking pictures we decided to head back. 4 people in our group decided they were tired and would rather pay for a taxi than change subway trains 3 times again. We hailed them a cab and headed toward the subway. Immediately after they got in the taxi a man walked up and asked if we wanted tickets to the games. He had 6 tickets for that night. We bargained with him for a while and ended up agreeing to pay $1100yuan for his 6 tickets. NOW we were excited!!
We ran to the entrance and skipped and jumped all through the security checkpoint and took off for the Bird's Nest. It was about 8:30 at this point and the games end at 9:30, but we didn't care... we were going to be IN the Bird's Nest DURING the Paralympics. THAT is a definite once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Our tickets were general admission, so we went in and sat in row 12 and cheered for the Men's and Women's 800M wheelchair races. For Men we cheered for Mexico because USA wasn't in the race. Then for Women we cheered for USA, but they were qualifying races, so we were glad to see a couple of our girls make it in. We watched several medal ceremonies and just imagined the feeling that would be... Your own national anthem playing for you. What pride that would be. After the games we got stuck taking pictures with Chinese people for about 30 minutes, but it was fun. We took lots of pictures with the torch and the field and all that. SO COOL! Then we headed outside and took a bunch of pictures by the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Staring at the Water Cube, I so wish Kathleen could have been there. We couldn't go inside, but the outside was just so beautiful. I took pictures and video, so I'll show you when I get home.
Wow... I knew we did a lot, but yes, that was only Saturday. We woke up to go to the Great Wall and ended our day going to the Paralympics. :) I'm having the time of my life!!
Okay, Sunday...today... we left earlier (6:30a) to go to the Three-Self Church, which are the registered churches in China and are a cross of Catholic and protestant teachings. It was very interesting and fun to sing along. We were given headphones to listen to the English translation of everything going on. Women led most of the service, and there was a choir to sing a couple songs, but most was done by the entire congregation. Oh! One thing that I thought was cool was that the hour before service starts they have time to practice the songs that they will be singing that day in service. It was interesting to watch and see how many people came that early just to sing. After the Three-Self Church we went to a house church held in a restaurant. That was much smaller and held by the missionaries that we worked with on Friday night. It was really cool to see some of the people that we only just made contact with on Friday at English corner come to church today! For my birthday, Jean gave me a few Bibles, one of which is bilingual - Chinese/English, so I took it with me today with the intention to give it to someone. The lady that I was sitting next to at the house church today was one that we first met Friday, and I offered it to her to use during church. She loved it, and after church I gave it to her. She refused to take it about 3 times, but I explained that I had brought it to give away to someone that I knew could use it, and she didn't know what to say. She offered to pay me for it, but I told her it was a gift to me, and it was a gift to her. That was probably one of my favorite moments of the trip so far. She loved it, and I told her that I hoped it helped her to learn English. I wrote my email address inside it for her also in case she ever wanted to keep in contact later or had any questions ever.
I talked to the missionaries today and realized that they are...Gary and Danita Jackson! I asked them if they knew my aunt and uncle, and Gary said "Yeah...he does my taxes!" :) We had fun chatting about home, and Gary said for me to tell EB, "Hi, and thanks for the great ministry he does." They are really awesome people and let some of us crash at their apartment and took others of us shopping for souvenirs (and to a Western Store that has wonderful things like Dr. Pepper) for the day until tonight when we went to see Chinese Acrobatics.
I'd write more, but really...my roommates are waiting to use the computer and there's not much more to say about the acrobatics without being there. They were awesome like I expected, and I'll show you all pictures later.
I love you all, and miss you like crazy!!
XOXO -- Amy
This weekend was AMAZING!!
Saturday, we left early (7:45a) to head to the Great Wall of China. There are times here that it still seems unreal that we're in China. Like maybe we're just in Chinatown or something, but standing at the base of the GREAT WALL was such an awesome moment. Like, here it is. This is IT. I've seen pictures...I've heard about it. But it's sooo awesome in person! There were steep steps up, up, up, up, up to each battlement. They were uneven so it was hard to step when they were about 8 inches deep steps and each one was somewhere between 6"-1' tall. It was just so awesome to stop and look back at how far I'd climbed and think about the soldiers that were stationed here so many years ago. It's a totally modern view all around the Wall now... parking lots, roads, a train, etc. But thinking about what it must have been like, late at night walking up and down those steps...all I can say is wow. When I climbed down I met up with some other people in our group and we played cards at a table between some other Chinese families playing cards. Our game was a lot more noisy (and annoying, I'm sure) so we caused a scene and gathered a crowd as we played. It was just fun to relax and let out muscles calm down while we hung out by the Great Wall.
Our bus ride back to campus was very quiet while everyone slept, exhausted from getting up early and climbing so much. We were all glad to get back and rest before deciding what to do with the rest of our day.
Around 5:30, a group knocked on the door and announced that they were going to the Paralympics if we'd like to go. So ten of us headed off with a map of the Chinese subway system to play our luck again. This is when my subway experience really paid off and the group kind of followed me as I tried to explain how it all worked. Around 6:30 we got off the subway with another mile-ish walk ahead of us to the Bird's Nest, and we were all just so excited. It was all lit up and we could see the Water Cube changing colors from far away. I think all of us were just so excited to be there that we here silly hyper. We tried to find tickets with some scalpers outside, but with a group of ten, we had kind of come to terms that we weren't going in to the games, but we'd get close enough to take cool pictures and say we'd been there. After about an hour or so of walking around and taking pictures we decided to head back. 4 people in our group decided they were tired and would rather pay for a taxi than change subway trains 3 times again. We hailed them a cab and headed toward the subway. Immediately after they got in the taxi a man walked up and asked if we wanted tickets to the games. He had 6 tickets for that night. We bargained with him for a while and ended up agreeing to pay $1100yuan for his 6 tickets. NOW we were excited!!
We ran to the entrance and skipped and jumped all through the security checkpoint and took off for the Bird's Nest. It was about 8:30 at this point and the games end at 9:30, but we didn't care... we were going to be IN the Bird's Nest DURING the Paralympics. THAT is a definite once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Our tickets were general admission, so we went in and sat in row 12 and cheered for the Men's and Women's 800M wheelchair races. For Men we cheered for Mexico because USA wasn't in the race. Then for Women we cheered for USA, but they were qualifying races, so we were glad to see a couple of our girls make it in. We watched several medal ceremonies and just imagined the feeling that would be... Your own national anthem playing for you. What pride that would be. After the games we got stuck taking pictures with Chinese people for about 30 minutes, but it was fun. We took lots of pictures with the torch and the field and all that. SO COOL! Then we headed outside and took a bunch of pictures by the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Staring at the Water Cube, I so wish Kathleen could have been there. We couldn't go inside, but the outside was just so beautiful. I took pictures and video, so I'll show you when I get home.
Wow... I knew we did a lot, but yes, that was only Saturday. We woke up to go to the Great Wall and ended our day going to the Paralympics. :) I'm having the time of my life!!
Okay, Sunday...today... we left earlier (6:30a) to go to the Three-Self Church, which are the registered churches in China and are a cross of Catholic and protestant teachings. It was very interesting and fun to sing along. We were given headphones to listen to the English translation of everything going on. Women led most of the service, and there was a choir to sing a couple songs, but most was done by the entire congregation. Oh! One thing that I thought was cool was that the hour before service starts they have time to practice the songs that they will be singing that day in service. It was interesting to watch and see how many people came that early just to sing. After the Three-Self Church we went to a house church held in a restaurant. That was much smaller and held by the missionaries that we worked with on Friday night. It was really cool to see some of the people that we only just made contact with on Friday at English corner come to church today! For my birthday, Jean gave me a few Bibles, one of which is bilingual - Chinese/English, so I took it with me today with the intention to give it to someone. The lady that I was sitting next to at the house church today was one that we first met Friday, and I offered it to her to use during church. She loved it, and after church I gave it to her. She refused to take it about 3 times, but I explained that I had brought it to give away to someone that I knew could use it, and she didn't know what to say. She offered to pay me for it, but I told her it was a gift to me, and it was a gift to her. That was probably one of my favorite moments of the trip so far. She loved it, and I told her that I hoped it helped her to learn English. I wrote my email address inside it for her also in case she ever wanted to keep in contact later or had any questions ever.
I talked to the missionaries today and realized that they are...Gary and Danita Jackson! I asked them if they knew my aunt and uncle, and Gary said "Yeah...he does my taxes!" :) We had fun chatting about home, and Gary said for me to tell EB, "Hi, and thanks for the great ministry he does." They are really awesome people and let some of us crash at their apartment and took others of us shopping for souvenirs (and to a Western Store that has wonderful things like Dr. Pepper) for the day until tonight when we went to see Chinese Acrobatics.
I'd write more, but really...my roommates are waiting to use the computer and there's not much more to say about the acrobatics without being there. They were awesome like I expected, and I'll show you all pictures later.
I love you all, and miss you like crazy!!
XOXO -- Amy
Saturday, September 13
English Corner
Tonight we just got back from participating in an English Corner that some missionaries here hold once a year (or maybe a little more often) mostly when the Pac Rim group comes from OC. There, we just offer to speak English with people so they can practice their English, and if they are interested, they are able to sign up for free English lessons with the missionaries. The missionaries use the same workbooks with them that we will use in Japan. They are short Bible passages from the book of Luke that highlight keywords from the passage and short questions to review understanding of the story. We were there for about 3 hours and I spoke with so many people! One girl said her English name was Amy, and she was SO excited when I said that was MY name!! She was sad when I told her I would not be her English teacher for her lessons, but we exchanged email addresses to keep in touch. Her English was really good, but her boyfriend's was not as good. He also did not have an English name, so Tim and I helped him pick one!! :) So, I can proudly say that tonight I named a Chinese man. His name is Ben.
What else have I done since I last wrote? Yesterday, we went to the Temple of Heaven and the Confucian Temple. I think our group is getting a little tired of temples, but it was very interesting to see how the Chinese worship Buddah. That temple had lots of incense and many, many, many statues of Buddah.
Our lectures in the mornings have all been very interesting. We had a lecture about women in China the other day, and I enjoyed that one quite a bit. It was about the change in women's roles and status within the past three generations. We had two lessons about Religion in China and about Confucianism, both of which were very interesting and the teacher for the second one asked at the end of class for all of our email addresses to keep in touch in case she had any "silly questions" about Christianity in the future. From her lesson and in her answers to our questions it was clear that her heart has opened up to Christianity slowly over time, and she is interested more in learning about the meanings more than just the teachings as compared to Confucian. In her mind, the two were very similar because of the teachings towards harmony and peacefulness. When she asked us for our opinions of the differences we pointed out that in Christianity, Jesus is alive and is God's son, whereas, in Confucianism, he was only a man who had sayings and analects that seemed to be his own view from his life lessons and not anyone better than any other person. Without intentionally doing it, we challenged her thinking and I look forward to hearing from her in the future.
We also went back to the Silk Market yesterday as a big group after our lecture and tour of the temples. I picked up a new watch (that shows two times!) and some new shoes. My main focus was to find souvenirs for everyone, and I'm excited to get them home to give out!! I know you'll all love the gifts I picked for each of you. :)
I'm trying to think of what else has happened, but my mind is just so tired right now. I'll write it all in my journal and when I get home, I'll fill in the gaps. Tonight, I need my rest because tomorrow is...THE GREAT WALL!!! I'm so excited that I would have trouble sleeping but I'm so worn out, that I'm going to struggle to stay awake to journal about today before falling asleep.
I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from you!
Nana, I got your email, and I love you and hope you stay safe from Ike. Get well soon, and don't worry about me, I made it out without getting sick. :) XOXO
Amy
PS. This weekend (I think Sunday) is a holiday in China...something to do with the mid-Autumn harvest I think? I'm taking all of the celebration as birthday celebration for me. :) I think Monday we'll have Moon Cakes! Lucky me!!
What else have I done since I last wrote? Yesterday, we went to the Temple of Heaven and the Confucian Temple. I think our group is getting a little tired of temples, but it was very interesting to see how the Chinese worship Buddah. That temple had lots of incense and many, many, many statues of Buddah.
Our lectures in the mornings have all been very interesting. We had a lecture about women in China the other day, and I enjoyed that one quite a bit. It was about the change in women's roles and status within the past three generations. We had two lessons about Religion in China and about Confucianism, both of which were very interesting and the teacher for the second one asked at the end of class for all of our email addresses to keep in touch in case she had any "silly questions" about Christianity in the future. From her lesson and in her answers to our questions it was clear that her heart has opened up to Christianity slowly over time, and she is interested more in learning about the meanings more than just the teachings as compared to Confucian. In her mind, the two were very similar because of the teachings towards harmony and peacefulness. When she asked us for our opinions of the differences we pointed out that in Christianity, Jesus is alive and is God's son, whereas, in Confucianism, he was only a man who had sayings and analects that seemed to be his own view from his life lessons and not anyone better than any other person. Without intentionally doing it, we challenged her thinking and I look forward to hearing from her in the future.
We also went back to the Silk Market yesterday as a big group after our lecture and tour of the temples. I picked up a new watch (that shows two times!) and some new shoes. My main focus was to find souvenirs for everyone, and I'm excited to get them home to give out!! I know you'll all love the gifts I picked for each of you. :)
I'm trying to think of what else has happened, but my mind is just so tired right now. I'll write it all in my journal and when I get home, I'll fill in the gaps. Tonight, I need my rest because tomorrow is...THE GREAT WALL!!! I'm so excited that I would have trouble sleeping but I'm so worn out, that I'm going to struggle to stay awake to journal about today before falling asleep.
I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from you!
Nana, I got your email, and I love you and hope you stay safe from Ike. Get well soon, and don't worry about me, I made it out without getting sick. :) XOXO
Amy
PS. This weekend (I think Sunday) is a holiday in China...something to do with the mid-Autumn harvest I think? I'm taking all of the celebration as birthday celebration for me. :) I think Monday we'll have Moon Cakes! Lucky me!!
Thursday, September 11
Ni hao!
So, this morning I sat down and wrote a long email about my day yesterday, but the connection here is SO incredibly slow that it messed up while sending and lost my entire email. I'll try to recap and include some of today's adventures. I'm resorting to writing it all in Notepad then copying and pasting. Word keeps converting everything I write into Chinese...
Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace, and if someone would like to look up how many steps it takes to get to the top, I'd be very interested to know just how many I climbed yesterday. Besides the palace, we've decided that's the secret to the Chinese being so thin. There are stairs everywhere!! That was really cool and had some awesome views, and it was really fun walking around with my friend, Tim, who had a wildly active imagination. When the tour guide was whispering (in her normal voice) to us about something-something... Tim would create this entire scene with an emperor sitting at his throne when a messenger rushes up with news of advancing troops, to which the emperor yells out orders and storms out up the million stairs to his inner, inner courts. Or something like that. I'm pretty sure it's all completely accurate. Haha...
Last night five of us girls decided we wanted to go to the Silk Market, so we set off from campus with the Subway stops we needed to get on and off and the Chinese symbol for "Silk Market". A few guys had gone before us, but we weren't sure when they left or how they got there, so we went with out own plan. Our plan included asking our waiter at dinner for help, and he pointed us in the general direction of the bus stop. We got that far and realized we had no idea which bus to take. So, when one bus stopped one girl hopped on and said the subway stop we needed -- in hopes he knew it was a question and that he would tell us the truth. He nodded yes, so we all got on. We knew it would be "about a 5 minute bus ride", so we started the clock. Then at every stop for the first 4, one of our girls would jump up and yell at the bus driver again and he'd shake his head no. I finally pointed out that we'd made ourselves very clear where we wanted to get off and he'd probaby let us know. He sure did...at one stop he pointed at the door and yelled what we took to mean "GET OFF MY BUS RIGHT NOW YOU CRAZY AMERICANS!!" So we did. Then we wandered around there for a while before we saw some steps leading underground and decided that if we owned a subway that's precisely where we'd put it. Never overlooking prime market place, we had to walk through a mall practically to find the subway. We got our tickets, tattooed ourselves with sharpie trying to keep notes of how we got there so we could retrace later, and got on the subway quite pleased with ourselves. When we got off 11 stops later we celebrated by darting through 15 lanes of buses and taxis (pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here) and ended up at the doors to the Silk Market.
To keep the story short, because it's already pretty long, I ended up with a "Columbia" rain coat for $220yuan (down from $1380) and the boys were jealous that we spent $5yuan for our round trip adventure. They had taken a taxi and spent $50yuan each way. :) We feel like we could easily take on the world at this point.
Today, we had a very interesting lecture about Religion in China and followed it with a visit to the Temple of Heaven. Our favorite part was a circular wall surrounding one area because you could talk in a normal voice at the wall and it would carry all the way around to someone else. Obviously, it wasn't the most exciting of places, but I'll say our group is resourceful in finding entertainment. Our tour guide then took us to a Tea House, and we had a tasting of several types of tea, which ended up being a sales pitch to buy their very expensive, all-powerful tea. Every day our tour guide has taken us to some shop or another, and we're pretty sure her tour company is paid to bring us there because we're Americans, which obviously means we are crazy rich.
We had our first devotional tonight when we got back to the dorm, and it was really good. We all crowded into our sponsors' room and sang and had a great discussion time. Our sponsor also told us that our professor from this morning asked him after class if she could come with us to church on Sunday and bring some of her colleagues. We were excited to hear it, and we said yes definitely, but we're only worried about it because we are going to a house church and we don't want to put anyone at risk. In class, she, the professor, told us that house churches are "a sensitive subject". She was very informative and answered all our questions as best she could. She said that her degrees were in English and Christianity. China's policy on religion is that "freedom of religion is enjoyed by all"; however, the government runs the churches and spreading religion or converting people is illegal. You are free to meet and worship in your religion (one of the five recognized by the government), and discussing religion is fine, but absolutely no evangelism is allowed here. It's very interesting to learn about the different culture here.
Tomorrow after our lecture and tour, we are trying to go back to the Silk Market. It's fun to bargain there, and I'm hoping to pick up some more souvenirs for everyone. I've already gotten some, but I don't want to spoil the fun by telling you what they are... :-D
Alright, now I have to go write all this down in my journal about today. I really like the journals they gave us and I'm loving keeping up with things in it. I try to write notes throughout the day recapping what's going on so I can remember it all later. This is two nights in a row I've been up "late" (past 8pm Haha!!) so I'm wiped out. I wish I could post my pictures, but the connection here is way too slow for it. Maybe in Japan I'll get to throw all my pictures online. I'm excited to see them all.
--Amy
Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace, and if someone would like to look up how many steps it takes to get to the top, I'd be very interested to know just how many I climbed yesterday. Besides the palace, we've decided that's the secret to the Chinese being so thin. There are stairs everywhere!! That was really cool and had some awesome views, and it was really fun walking around with my friend, Tim, who had a wildly active imagination. When the tour guide was whispering (in her normal voice) to us about something-something... Tim would create this entire scene with an emperor sitting at his throne when a messenger rushes up with news of advancing troops, to which the emperor yells out orders and storms out up the million stairs to his inner, inner courts. Or something like that. I'm pretty sure it's all completely accurate. Haha...
Last night five of us girls decided we wanted to go to the Silk Market, so we set off from campus with the Subway stops we needed to get on and off and the Chinese symbol for "Silk Market". A few guys had gone before us, but we weren't sure when they left or how they got there, so we went with out own plan. Our plan included asking our waiter at dinner for help, and he pointed us in the general direction of the bus stop. We got that far and realized we had no idea which bus to take. So, when one bus stopped one girl hopped on and said the subway stop we needed -- in hopes he knew it was a question and that he would tell us the truth. He nodded yes, so we all got on. We knew it would be "about a 5 minute bus ride", so we started the clock. Then at every stop for the first 4, one of our girls would jump up and yell at the bus driver again and he'd shake his head no. I finally pointed out that we'd made ourselves very clear where we wanted to get off and he'd probaby let us know. He sure did...at one stop he pointed at the door and yelled what we took to mean "GET OFF MY BUS RIGHT NOW YOU CRAZY AMERICANS!!" So we did. Then we wandered around there for a while before we saw some steps leading underground and decided that if we owned a subway that's precisely where we'd put it. Never overlooking prime market place, we had to walk through a mall practically to find the subway. We got our tickets, tattooed ourselves with sharpie trying to keep notes of how we got there so we could retrace later, and got on the subway quite pleased with ourselves. When we got off 11 stops later we celebrated by darting through 15 lanes of buses and taxis (pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here) and ended up at the doors to the Silk Market.
To keep the story short, because it's already pretty long, I ended up with a "Columbia" rain coat for $220yuan (down from $1380) and the boys were jealous that we spent $5yuan for our round trip adventure. They had taken a taxi and spent $50yuan each way. :) We feel like we could easily take on the world at this point.
Today, we had a very interesting lecture about Religion in China and followed it with a visit to the Temple of Heaven. Our favorite part was a circular wall surrounding one area because you could talk in a normal voice at the wall and it would carry all the way around to someone else. Obviously, it wasn't the most exciting of places, but I'll say our group is resourceful in finding entertainment. Our tour guide then took us to a Tea House, and we had a tasting of several types of tea, which ended up being a sales pitch to buy their very expensive, all-powerful tea. Every day our tour guide has taken us to some shop or another, and we're pretty sure her tour company is paid to bring us there because we're Americans, which obviously means we are crazy rich.
We had our first devotional tonight when we got back to the dorm, and it was really good. We all crowded into our sponsors' room and sang and had a great discussion time. Our sponsor also told us that our professor from this morning asked him after class if she could come with us to church on Sunday and bring some of her colleagues. We were excited to hear it, and we said yes definitely, but we're only worried about it because we are going to a house church and we don't want to put anyone at risk. In class, she, the professor, told us that house churches are "a sensitive subject". She was very informative and answered all our questions as best she could. She said that her degrees were in English and Christianity. China's policy on religion is that "freedom of religion is enjoyed by all"; however, the government runs the churches and spreading religion or converting people is illegal. You are free to meet and worship in your religion (one of the five recognized by the government), and discussing religion is fine, but absolutely no evangelism is allowed here. It's very interesting to learn about the different culture here.
Tomorrow after our lecture and tour, we are trying to go back to the Silk Market. It's fun to bargain there, and I'm hoping to pick up some more souvenirs for everyone. I've already gotten some, but I don't want to spoil the fun by telling you what they are... :-D
Alright, now I have to go write all this down in my journal about today. I really like the journals they gave us and I'm loving keeping up with things in it. I try to write notes throughout the day recapping what's going on so I can remember it all later. This is two nights in a row I've been up "late" (past 8pm Haha!!) so I'm wiped out. I wish I could post my pictures, but the connection here is way too slow for it. Maybe in Japan I'll get to throw all my pictures online. I'm excited to see them all.
--Amy
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