Just Chillin'

Celebrating Aaliyah's birthday. She's in the middle wearing black.

At the zoo with Kirk and Lily

Lara's grandparents' home

Lara's cousin, Mandi, Lara, Cory, me, Lara's mom, grandma, and dad

I'm currently two weeks into my 5-week Spring Festival vacation. Last year, Kirk, Daniel, and I were in the middle of a hectic but fun 4 countries in 2 weeks adventure. This year, Daniel is in America while Kirk and I have spent most of our time at home. It's been a little slow, but very relaxing.

One thing we've been able to do more of is visit with the Aloha Diner staff. I've mentioned it several times, but for those of you who don't remember, Aloha is a restaurant run by a brother and sister on the other side of the city. Besides the three American founders/managers, the entire staff is made up of younger Chinese who come from poorer families. Many of them have become C's over the years. They're a fun group to hang out with. One day, we even attended a birthday party for Aaliyah, the Chinese manager. We ate hot pot (you throw raw vegetables and meat into boiling water right there at the table) and went to KTV (karaoke).

Last week, we also went to the Wuhan zoo with our Chinese friend Lily. It was fun to do something different in the city. They had a show with bears, lions, and even dogs doing tricks such as walking on tight-ropes. However, it was a little depressing It was pretty obvious that this zoo doesn't have the kind of animal rights laws of the American zoos I've been to. Almost all of the animals were in fairly small cages without much of a natural habitat to live in. We even saw two animals (a peacock and ram) that were pretty much dying in front of us as we passed their areas.

This past weekend, me, Rebecca, Mandi, Cory, and Steve (another foreign teacher at our school who is not with Zhong) all visited Lara's parents' home in the small city of Hanchuan. Lara is Cory's Chinese wife. One regret I had last year was that I didn't get to visit very many Chinese homes, so it was great to experience that. Her parents are very traditional. Basically, that means while we were visitors they did EVERYTHING they could to serve us.

It seemed her mother almost never left the kitchen as she was making us huge (and really good) meals. Her father was always checking on us to make sure we were comfortable and offering to go buy us snacks. He also loved drinking alcohol at meals! In China, it's pretty much a must for the men to drink together as a way to show respect. I think all of you know that I grew up not drinking alcohol and I never have acquired that taste. However, I've had to force some (but not too much!) down over here in order to establish some relationships.

We were also able to visit Lara's grandparents' home outside the city. This was my first time to experience the poorer side of China up close and personal. Their home is a small three-room brick house next to some farmland. They have no heat and limited electricity. Their floor is the earth. They just got running water two months ago. It's amazing the transformation that has taken place in China as it has developed, yet there are many who still live in villages like this across the country.

Other than that, I basically spent the time playing Chinese games (mahjong and do-di-ju), basketball, badminton, shooting off fireworks, and practicing my Chinese a lot! I had a great time. Her parents are really good people.

One of my students told me that part of their English final exam was over a section of the Book about JC's resurrection. This came from one of my students who has been reading it quite a bit this year and has been asking some of us questions. Just a cool fact that I wanted to share with you.

On Thursday of this week, Kirk and I will take a train to Shanghai before flying to Tokyo to meet Joe and Daniel. I'm really thankful that Joe was able to help us book some VERY cheap flights through his job with Delta. Otherwise, this trip would have been impossible.

Be thinking of Kirk. He found out that he has to get a root canal. That can be frustrating enough. On top of that, he has to get it in China with no insurance! The cost could run him up to $800 (over one month's salary)!! Because of that, he's now not sure if he'll be able to go on this trip we've been planning on since the beginning of the year. Even if he is, there's still the difficulty of getting to Hong Kong to have it done there. We've heard from Wuhan veterans that it's a much better and safer place to have it done.

I think that's pretty much everything from here. Please be thinking of me and the rest of the Zhong team as we are starting the decision process for next year. Over the past 15 months, Wuhan has really felt like a home to me. It's been great building relationships and trying to make an impact here. However, it's also not fun to be away from so many friends and family in America for so long. Basically, it's going to be a VERY tough decision yet again. Pry that I grow closer to Him and hear His voice as I make this decision within the next few months. I'm willing to do either, but I just want to make the right choice.

Hope you're all doing well!