High Roller

Hey everyone! It's funny to me the things that seem normal now. Last week, one of my high school friends (Joe Bentle, whom a lot of you know) who works for Delta Airlines came to visit me for a few days. Because of his job, Joe has been to China a few times to visit me and another friend of ours (Kirk Lacy) who lives in Beijing.. He came here for a long weekend to hang out during his vacation. I'm used to it now, but it's funny that he comes to hang out for the weekend, like I still live in the midwest, not the other side of the world.

We had a great time as usual. Watched some football and basketball through my Hava system. Got caught up on Spring Arbor news. We also went to a fundraiser that is run by the American Chamber of Commerce that gives money to a local Wuhan charity. We got some free tickets because Kirk played the guitar and sang at it. It was a casino night, and everyone started with a few chips for free. I've never gambled other than a few dollars for an NCAA Tournament bracket, so I decided to give blackjack a try since it seemed like the easiest game. I actually started to do pretty good. At the end of the night, they had a "high rollers" blackjack table. I had enough chips to last four hands. I gave it a try and immediately went 0-4. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

You may remember that I am going to run the Shanghai Marathon on December 5th. Joe rode a bike with me while I ran my long training run of 20 miles. For those of you who don't know him, Joe LOVES to talk, which is perfect when I want to be distracted from the pain I'm inflicting on my body! I ran a great pace, and I was really starting to feel like I could run the time I'm hoping for (somewhere around 3 hours and 20 minutes). However, since then my right ankle has really been bugging me. It hurt so bad, that I couldn't finish 4 miles last Friday. I'm starting to get nervous. I haven't been running much, and it's still been hurting me. Rebecca and Kirk are running the half-marathon the same day, and they have been having some leg problems as well. You can be thinking of us as we've all been training for a few months with these problems coming just before the race!

The same weekend Joe was here, I also went to a birthday party for one of my students. Margaret invited all of us foreign teachers to go KTVing (karaoke) with her and a few of my other students. Most of these students are in English Club and they can speak really well. It's fun to do things with them outside of school where everyone can just be themselves. As I've said many times, our students are very busy, so it's great to help them relax, even if it's just for a little while.

I handed out some Books last week to those students I mentioned, and all of them seemed excited to receive one. I'm hoping they will find some time to read it and talk with me about it.

Other than that, no big news. I still can't get over how much another country can feel like home. I'm starting to pick up the language a little better, but mostly it's from getting to know so many great people over here.

This weekend, we will go to Huangshi to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of our Zhong team. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I'm sure you do too. Happy Thanksgiving!

Busy weeks. Busier weekends.

Hanging out with our new friends Jean and Tian Min in Zhangjiajie

Huanglongdong Cave

Daniel and Kirk at Tianzi Mountain

Apparently it's good luck if the Miao people rub this black stuff on your face!

The entire Zhong Relations team together in China for the first time!

The last few weeks have been extremely busy! I usually make notes to myself on things I want to mention in this blog, and the list ix much longer than usual. So, here it goes…

Our Chinese friend Lily turned 21 a few weeks ago, so we celebrated her birthday. She was one of our first friends here last year. Surprisingly, another one of our old Chinese friends showed up. Solomon was in Wuhan last year, but he moved to Australia to study. We all had a blast hanging out with both of them and learning to play ma jiang (mahjong), a traditional Chinese game.

The Aloha Diner is an American restaurant on the other side of the city run by a brother and sister. They do some great work reaching out to their Chinese staff members and the local community. Recently, they have really been struggling financially. So much so, that they are trying to determine whether to continue with it. To help raise funds, they have had two special events the past few weekends. The first was their 4^th anniversary party. Janie (the owner) asked a few of us from Wuhan No. 1 if we would be willing to help lead some games and contests while Kirk played the guitar. We’ve loved eating there as well as getting to know the staff, so we agreed to help out. The event went well, and Kirk’s singing and guitar-playing were a hit.

The next day, Kirk, Daniel, and I set off for a vacation! We teach Senior 2, and our students had a week of hiking in the country side, visiting a prison, and learning about “real life.” That’s about the most information I can get from anyone that I ask about it. While they were living the hard life, the three of us went to Fenghuang (Phoenix City ) and Zhangjiajie in Hunan province. In Fenghuang, we visited the village of a minority group called the Miao. At the village, We went up on a stage to take part in a race with some other visitors where the three of us had our feet in things that looked like skis and we had to walk in unison. Daniel and Kirk’s feet were too big for the straps, so we came in last place! Actually, we didn’t even finish! Because of that, we had to sing and dance on the stage, then they wiped some black stuff on our faces for good luck!

After a few days there, we went to a nearby city called Zhangjiajie. It is known for some famous mountains that inspired the Hallelujah Mountains in Avatar. We took the world’s longest cable car (about ½ hour ride) up and then did some hiking. I think that by and large, the Chinese people are very kind, and Zhangjiajie is probably the kindest city so far in my opinion. As soon as we arrived, we met a younger guy (Qu Qiao) who helped us find our hostel as well as introduced us to two of his friends (Jean and Tian Min). As tourists, people have tried to hustle us out of money before, so I was skeptical. But these three quickly won my trust and we ended up hanging out with them quite a bit over the two days there. In fact, they were the ones paying for most of the meals, saying that we were their guests. We even had our first Chinese “pay-for-the-bill” fight with them. They won. The waitress wouldn’t take our money, only theirs!

The day after we got back, we helped with Aloha’s next weekend event: a Halloween party for children. Kirk and I dressed as butterflies because that was the cheapest and quickest costume we could find in a day! Aloha is in a neighborhood with a lot of foreigners, so there were kids from China, America, Turkey, France, Australia, and possibly a few other countries. Mandi, Cory, and I helped lead some games for the 3-6 year olds. It was crazy, but a lot of fun. I worked with that age a lot during my last job, but not with a group of kids that spoke 4 different languages! The good news is that Aloha raised enough money for the immediate future, but they still have a long ways to go for the next few months.

We followed that with a “back to normal” week of teaching before our school had its huge 60^th Anniversary celebration this past Saturday. Basically, the entire campus was cleaned, renovated, and redecorated for this one Saturday event. There were performances in two separate auditoriums, and of course we were one of those performances! We did a short skit with the English club where I took a student in a time machine to America to show them some differences between our cultures.

The next day was Adam Carpenter’s (Zhong Relations founder who is now teaching in Huangshi, China) birthday. We celebrated at Aloha, of course! For the first time this year, our whole team was together to celebrate his 30^th. Happy birthday, Adam! As you can see in the picture, we have a pretty big group between our two cities this year.

This week, all of the foreign teachers have the week off since our students have midterm exams. That’s right, I’ve only taught one out of the past three weeks! It’s a tough life over here, but someone’s gotta do it. Joe Bentle, a high school friend of mine, is coming to visit in a few days so that should be fun.

Also, I passed a Book around my classes on the first day this year. A few students asked me about it, so I wanted to give them one. I have already given one away, and I plan to give a few more out next week. Be thinking of them as they read it.

My dad led the funeral service for my uncle a few weeks ago. I really wish I could have been there with my family, but I have faith that we will all be together some day.

I always want to go more into depth about everything, but it would just take too long. I’d love to hear from all of you on Skype, Facebook, or e-mail sometime. I hope you’re all doing well!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.