Finally back to normal!

The stadium was packed for the track meet!

Well, I think I will FINALLY be back to a normal schedule (or at least as normal as it can get in China). It's been pretty hectic the last month or so. For National Day "Vacation" we had about 9 days off. I have this in quotes because it's not really much of a vacation. The government wanted a long holiday so a lot of people would travel which would help the economy. However, to make up for it, we had to work two weekends. So we worked for 9 straight days, then had 9 days off, then we were supposed to work 8 straight days. However, we ended up having this past Thursday and Friday off for a school-wide track meet. Basically, it's been crazy trying to keep classes on pace and get any kind of a routine. It's finally over, and it will be good to get back to normal!

The sports meet was a lot of fun. It's similar to an American high school track meet, but it was only for our school. Classrooms were competing against each other. It's cool to see so many students competing and having their classmates cheer them on by yelling "Jai-yo!" Anyone can compete, so there's a huge gap in competition. There's kids ranging from the top athletes in the country (they can fly!) to just average kids who rarely exercise.

Some of our team ran in a co-ed teacher's 4 x 100 relay race. They ran hard, but didn't do too well! Mostly because some of the Chinese female teachers were ridiculously fast. I think our group was 6th out of 7 teams! It was fun to have them be a part of it though.

Recently, I've been tutoring a senior named Xiong Shi-Tong who is trying to get into the University of Cambridge. His English isn't great, so I'm trying to prepare him for an interview which he has in about two weeks. He's trying to get one of five scholarships that Chinese students can get. It's currently narrowed down to 55 people. Needless to say, he's very smart!

Last night, our team hung out with Troy Peterson, a staff member from Spring Arbor University. My home town and Rebecca's (my teammate, not sister!) alma mater. He traveled to Wuhan because SAU has a partnership with a local university here. Neither of us know him extremely well, but we had a good time eating dinner with him. He lived in Taiwan for 18 years, so he was able to order us some new and interesting dishes! Plus, it's always good to talk with someone from home!

A few nights ago was one of our team's most depressing nights so far. While we were walking home, we passed a string of restaurants that is right next to our apartment complex. Out front was a man who had some dogs in a cage. He was taking them out and beating them to death with a stick so his restaurant could serve dog meat the next day. I guess this is a common way to kill them since there are no guns here. I knew dog was a fairly common meat here, but I hadn't realized how brutal their deaths are. It's definitely not quick and painless. We could hear dogs yelping from quite a ways away. It made us all sick to our stomachs.

I'm a huge dog-lover, but I was up for at least trying it when I came here for the experience. I definitely won't be doing that now unless I'm eating with someone who would be extremely offended if I didn't! It was a very sad experience. Honestly, the only way I could console myself that night was knowing that the Father is saddened by these things (as well as much more serious things) much more than I am.

Other than that, I am still having a great time here. My sinus infection lasted for two weeks, but I think I'm over it. Everybody else seems to be feeling better as well. Hope you all are doing great!