Beijing

So I am trying to catch everyone up on the last few things I did in China before I left. Over thanksgiving weekend I went to Beijing to spend the weekend with Jared and Josh two of my best friends in the whole world (Figures we are all in China at the same time right?). The weekend consisted of a little sight seeing a little shopping an orphanage visit and some great man time.

This weekend really taught me the beauty in deep friendships. Jared and Josh have been a part of my life through all the high and lows. Jared has known me since I was like 2 years old or so and he has been an integral part in my development throughout my life. Josh has been my best friend since my 15th birthday I think where he gave me a certificate for one year of friendship. Though a very creative gift for being poor it started a friendship that I am exceedingly thankful for.

Well I went to Beijing on thanksgiving day and landed there that night only to find out that Josh had missed his train and wasn't going to be there till later on Friday. Not a huge deal. It gave Jared and I a good day together to do a little shopping, sightseeing, and some good conversation. Then Josh got there and he mad everything horrible...kidding. If you know Josh and I we have a good time being friends on other sides of the world, but when we get together something happens and move into a deeper kind of friendship that involves laughing about the absurd for who knows how long. In fact we just sat there and giggled at each other like little school girls who haven't seen each other all summer. The giggling ensued for a good 5-10 min and resurfaced occasionally throughout the night.

While seeing sights I saw some things like Mao's tomb, the temple of heaven, and the forbidden city. Probably the coolest thing was seeing the orphanage that Jared will be at soon. We went there to see the orphanage perform. Here is a video from that performance It is poor quality but I only had my camera phone so deal with it:



Here are a few pictures from my tour around the forbidden city:



In the end it was a great trip. The beautiful truth of this experience is that good friends and deep friendships are the best possible things humans can have.

Ecclesiastes 9: 7-10:
"Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in death, to which you are going."

Applogies

I need to apologize to anyone who may have been offended by my last post. I wrote somethings that apparently were more suggestive than I had originally realized. I have made some changes to the post to the post in an attempt to make it a little more "family friendly". Again I am sorry if I offended anyone.

The next post I am working on is from my trip to Beijing with Jared and Josh this last weekend. I have a lot of pictures and video's and cool stories etc. I probably won't get it posted till I am back in the United States. Hang tight I have a lot of work to get done.

Korean Spa

This last weekend I had a Grand cultural experience. Let me bring you into a different culture of sheer awesomeness. In Korea the Spa is where you go for a weekend of fun and relaxation. These things are awesome. Basically you can go there and for a cheap price get massages full body exfoliation food...everything. Apparently Koreans go there as families or a guy's night out. While you are there you can rent rooms and stay there for a few nights if you wish.

SO I heard about a new Korean spa that opened that apparently was pretty cheap. So Karen, Kayla, Justin and I decided to go last Saturday. We show up and they take our shoes at the door and give you a beaded bracelet with a magnet for accessing you locker. The most noticeable thing for me was that the floors were heated. Very pleasant. After taking our shoes we are split into guys and girls. So Justin and I go into our locker room and change into our swimwear only to find out shortly after that swimwear is entirely unacceptable in a Korean spa. So Justin and I drop trow and head to jacuzzi. After chillin the the cuzz for a little while we are invited to go lay on these tables for what we thought was going to be our massage. Instead we get a Full body exfoliation, and I mean FULL BODY. So after that we get this strange slap massage thing which felt nice then we got hand washed. I'm talking full body soaped by another person. Again every nook and cranny. After washing off and taking another dip in the cuzz. Justin and I headed up stairs to try and find the girls. The naked parts were all segregated by sex. Then the spa gave you some clothes to wear to walk around the unsegregated parts in. So we headed up stairs to find them, but we were unsuccessful. So we decided to get a full body massage. Which costs 138 Kwai (or something close to that) which is about 20 dollars for one hour. This was AWESOME. Only it was the one thing I wish I had been naked for. Because they massaged with my clothes on which made for some very painful rubbing moments. Overall a very pleasing experience. We then left and went home.

Total Cost = 340 Kwai or 50 dollars
Time Spent = 2-3 hours
Time Spent being rubbed down naked by some Korean guy = 45 min.
Worth it? Totally

It's been a while

Well it has been a significant amount of time since my last post and I don't even know where to start. I love it here. I am leaving in 13 days and I dread getting on the plane everyday. I shouldn't say that I love it here as much as I love the people I have met here. Let me tell you about them for a second. I hang out with a regular group of people that generally consists of 4-6 people depending. There names a Justin, Jen, Kayla, Karen, Lisa, and Amy (sometimes Kristen comes too). This awesome group of expats is my family away from home. I have never loved 5-6 people so much in such a short amount of time and I will deeply miss them when I leave.

That being said I hope to come back here next March. I have applied for a position teaching conversational English at a university here in Qingdao. I have a feeling that the L**d has a great plan and opportunity here for me. I won't know for sure if I am coming back till the end of December, but I am willing to where ever He wants me to. If that means staying at home I will stay. If that means coming back to china or going somewhere else I look forward to the L**d showing me where to go.

Teaching here has been great. I expected that I would learn a lot about teaching in the elementary classroom while I was here, but I had no idea just how much I would learn. Kristen is an amazing teacher and she has helped me become a better teacher than I was when I arrived.

I am excited to come home mostly to see my family, friends, niece who apparently can walk now. Crazy.

If there is one thing I have learned here it is that life is about relationships. Not about jobs. Not about money. It's about people and G*d. I would love to travel the world because my heart delights in different cultures and different people, but I would be half the man I am today if it weren't for the friends and family, the deep relationships I have from staying still. If you know me you know I love adventure, and there is nothing more adventurous than truly getting to know someone. It bring pain and joy and love and peace and sorrow. There is nothing greater than a good friend.

For those of you that follow me from home I will see you soon. For those of you that follow this and live here. You have had a great impact on me and I will miss you greatly.

Hang in there

Sorry I haven't updated in a while it has been a busy last few weeks. Honestly parties happen often here and the only time I have to type these things for real is at night the parties usually go late. I should update this next on Friday night your time Saturday morning for me. I hope you are all doing well. I pray for you often.

How to start a bus with 7 guys and a small incline.

This morning I had a very interesting Chinese experience. I woke up had breakfast and got on the bus to go to school (the buses are owned by the school so there are only teachers on it) and the bus wouldn't start. So the bus driver asked all the men to get out and push the bus over the top of the small incline we were on so he could try and jump start the bus like they do with the VW bus in Little miss sunshine.

It worked.

Qingdao, a clear day with clearly awesome people

Today I went looking for a coat. 4 of my friends here took me out to look for a Coat. If you know me I like to pack lite whenever I go anywhere, and in an effort to save room I did not bring a coat with me to China (thinking I would be able to buy one here). So we went to find a coat. Little did I know that I was in for a day of absolute fun and beauty.

First off in china days where the air is clean and the sky is clear come few and far between. When I woke up this morning I found the sky perfectly clear. I my excitement I left the apartment early to go see my favorite ocean view on a clear day. It just so happened to be right next to the place where I was meeting my friends to go coat shopping.

As you can see it was a beautiful day for an adventure (Click it to see a bigger picture)

After meeting with my group of friends we left for the major shopping area in Qingdao (the Chinese name is evading me for the moment). We went there so that one of our group could pick up a shirt that she had tailored. In going there I was informed that I could get a custom made suit for about 200-300 kwai or about 50-60 dollars. In this group of shops there was literally any fabric you could possibly imagine. From the absolutely ornate to the dastardly ugly and everything in between. Lest it go unsaid I will be going back there. Soon after this we left for another shopping place. This one a little less formal and more barterish in search of a cheep knockoff coat (also reffered to as a northfake). Once we got there I tried on about 10 different coats before I found one that was comfortable and didn't look like it was made by a 10 year old. Once the coat was found the negotiations began.

It was a very good thing my friends are good at haggling in Chinese because the bidding started at 450 kwai or about 70 dollars. As one girl haggled with the stern saleswomen my friend Karen would let me know what price they were at. In the end I bought my Northfake for 350 Kwai or 50 dollars.

The rest of the day included walking around the city and enjoying the day. I also witnessed my friend Justin get an awesome tattoo of the lion of zion.

Here are some pictures:
This guy and his friend really wanted a picture with us. I thought it would be a good idea to get a picture of him with us.

This a small part of the Qingdao skyline.
This a a kind of awkward picture of me on the peer where the rest of the pictures were taken.
This is the awesome group of people I spent most of the day with.

Video

For those of you who can't get the video to work here is the Youtube address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xieujAfsUQ

It should work there.

Qingdao

Today I got to go on a tour of Qingdao with the new teachers at QMIS (the school I'm at). The whole thing started with a really fun adventure I wasn't expecting to have. My roommate Jason went into the school today to work on some tests he had to make for his students and in the process locked me IN the apartment. I didn't even know that was possible till today. Anyway once I figured out that I was locked in while on the way to the bus to leave for the tour I said a little prayer that I might be able to get out of this darn apartment and God provided and here's how it happened. Literally right after I prayed the phone rang. I answered it and it was the people living upstairs (they are fellow teachers) and they were wondering if I was going to the party tonight. I politely answered their question and then followed up with my problem. They said they would call this other lady who has keys and lives two stories above me. She soon calls my apt and informed me that she doesn't have my keys but that she will be down and I can through them out of the window to her. This all works out well and I can now get out of my apt.

Problem 1 solved

Problem 2: I missed the bus
Debbie the lady with the keys found out where they were and tells me the phrase in Chinese that I need to say to a taxi driver to get there. Mind you if you don't say it exactly right (with the same inflection and tone) Lord only knows what you are really saying. So I walked till I found a taxi, the whole time muttering to myself the phrase. I get in a taxi and say the phrase...he looks at me and says OK and we are off to the unknown destination. 30 minutes and 20 Kwi later I arrive at a church on the other side of the city and find my group.

Problem 2 solved...praise the Lord

The rest is mildly entertaining at best (save one chicken my my crotch, but that's not a different story for a different day) but I got to see the city and it is beautiful and awesome here are some pictures in video form, Sorry it's so blurry it doesn't look like this on my computer. Enjoy!

Beyond Tired

Well I made it. After 23 hours of traveling I am here in Qingdao and I am all set up and ready to go. The set up here is pretty sweet. I live in an apartment with another teacher named James whose wife is in the states with a broken foot. She is there because having a broken foot here basically means you can’t do anything easily. There are about a hundred stairs involved in getting anywhere so she is in the states living with her parents until she gets better. All of that to say I have a roommate and a place to live for a while till she gets back. After that I believe I will be moving to a host home, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Qingdao seems to be a pretty awesome city from what I can tell. A little bit of history: Qingdao is a very young city. It was founded as a German colony so things still look kind of European-esk (but don’t be fooled it doesn’t look anything like Germany). The Yellow sea is about a 5-7 minute walk from my apartment and is very beautiful. I can’t wait to see a sunrise on it. I’m sure it will be beautiful and I will take lots of pictures for all of you.

I am working at a school called QMIS. It is an International Christian school with about 300 students. I will be working with the elementary K-5. I got to sit in on a class yesterday and they are literally the cutest children on the face of the earth. Honestly if you are an elementary teacher and you think you kids are cute they pale in comparison to the kids here. I will hopefully post a video or at least some audio here shortly that will make you smile.

My first day here was pretty intense. Once I arrived I was picked up at the airport and taken directly to the school for a tour. I ended up staying there all day and observing 2 classes. Needless to say I was beyond tired. I was stupidly tired after spending 23 hours traveling then going to school for another 6 hours and finally ended my school day sitting in on 2 meetings with they guy I was living with so I could go home with him and once I got home I unpacked and then went to dinner with some people that invited us over for another 2 hours. In the end I slept very well and I am hoping I will get over this jet lag soon.

I thank you all for your prayers and I pray for you as often as I think of you.

Gate 29

China. Let's start at the beginning. While on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic I felt the distinct call to go to China. I had no idea why, when or how I would get there. All I knew was that I was going. Little did I know that 6 years later I would be sitting outside gate B29 waiting to begin the long awaited journey to China.

For those of you who don't know I will be finishing my student teaching in Qingdao China at QMIS International school. I will be working with kids grades 1st-5th, and I will be there 8 weeks.

A lot of people ask me if I am excited. I think I am more overwhelmed than anything. I have been waiting to got China for so long I can hardly believe that I am going. God is so good.

I love you all so much and I will be praying for each of you.