A crazy fun month!

A week after Kirk visited me in Wuhan, my parents and I were visiting him in Beijing! We're at Tiananmen Square.

Mandi and I with Elise, our "daughter."

Well, it’s time for another update. Which also means it’s time for my apology for not updating enough! As usual, the weeks when I have the most stuff to write about are the times I have no time to post on here! This has been one of those times, so I’ll try to condense it as much as possible.

My birthday was at the end of March. I’m now 27! It’s still weird to think that. Last year, I had a huge double birthday party with another American teacher. We invited quite a few Chinese and foreign friends. It was a great time, however, I wanted to just relax this year. I ended up going to Papa John’s with the other foreign teachers, which is typically how we celebrate almost every occasion! Rebecca also went to the local bakery and ordered a chocolate birthday cake. Somehow we ended up with a cake that tasted like orange creamsicle instead. So I guess we had a normal Chinese experience. Not what we planned, but it still turned out pretty good!

Mandi’s birthday is about a week after mine. We ended up going to Huangshi to visit our teammates the weekend between our birthdays to have a double birthday party with our whole group. We had a fun time watching movies, talking, and hanging out. My favorite moment was at KFC. Huangshi is a pretty small town, so we went to the only western restaurant they have to get ice cream. Becca Carpenter had brought some birthday decorations. As she was setting them up, a Chinese KFC worker came over and started talking to us. We thought she was asking us whose birthday it was. We pointed to myself and Mandi. She then continued to ask Mandi and I what gift we would like to give our daughter (Adam and Becca’s daughter, Elise). I loved it, and had fun playing it up for awhile!

I’ve also had quite a few visitors in Wuhan the past few weeks. The same weekend we went to Huangshi, my high school friend Kirk Lacy came and visited from Beijing. He has lived there for two years, and is returning back to the states for a few months. It was good to show him around Wuhan and Huangshi before he headed back to Michigan.

The very next week my parents came to visit me in China for a week and a half! I met them in Shanghai for a day. We then took a train to Beijing to see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and Forbidden City. After that, we took another train to Wuhan so they could see my everyday life here.

They sat in on a lot of my classes. My students had a great time meeting them and asking them questions. I told them as long as they were asking questions, we wouldn’t have to do the listening exercise (they hate that part of class). So of course, most classes asked questions the whole time! They had all kinds of great questions for them: What is the best way to attend an American university? Why did you live in so many different places? Was Ryan a good kid when he was little? Why is Ryan so skinny? And lots of others.

I was glad my parents could come and see my life over here. They enjoyed getting to know my students, and I enjoyed hearing them make comments on so many strange things that I’m used to now!

Lastly, one of my students is now a sister! I had given her a Book and talked with her a little over the past two years I’ve taught her. I was so humbled and excited to be a part of it. I’m currently meeting with her and another interested student occasionally to talk with and encourage them. I’ve had quite a few other chances to talk with people about Him, and I’m thankful for these opportunities.

With so many great experiences and friendships here, it’s been REALLY hard to decide on what I am going to do next year. All I’ll say is, my next blog update will have that decision! Be lifting me up!

I hope you’re all doing well. Happy Easter!