Twice the Mathews!

Hey everyone!  I hope you're all doing well!  I've had a great last few weeks.  My sister Becca came to visit me for a week and a half!  Mandi's good friend Ginnie also came to visit her at the same time.  We had a lot of fun showing them around Beijing and Wuhan while they were here.  It would take too long to write everything we did, so here's a few pictures of what we were up to.

 We visited Monkey Park in Wuhan!  A place with a ton of monkeys running around (some in cages, some not).  We brought some snacks to feed them.

 Because of a holiday, I am teaching my students about Easter this week.

 Becca and I at Tiananmen Square in Beijing

 Becca, Rebecca, and Melodie getting into it at KTV!

Me, Becca, Ginnie, and Mandi right before they headed back to the states.

 

We celebrated Jolie's 28th and Mandi's 25th birthdays.  We even found a Cajun food restaurant for Mandi in Beijing!

Ginnie, Patrick, and I ate scorpion at Beijing's Snack Street.  It didn't taste as bad as I thought it would!

Philippians 4:8

Golden

My new roommate. Zhu pai in chinese. Porkchop in English.

Mandi and I at my birthday party. She made mint chocolate chip ice cream. It was awesome!

Hey everyone. Here's a quick update. This week, some high school students from Taylor's chrch are visiting our school for their spring break trip. They prepared a lesson and have been teaching it to some of our classes. It's been fun to see them teaching as well as my students reacting to American students who are their age. They're pretty excited!

Last Wednesday, March 28th was my golden birthday. I'm 28 years old! I still can't believe it. Our school schedule has been pretty crazy the last few weeks. We're working this weekend to make up for the holiday we'll have on Wednesday. Because of that, I didn't really expect any kind of a party on my actual birthday. Rebecca and Mandi usually have a girls' group on Wednesday nights, so the guys just said we would go get pizza together that night. However, Mandi had left her book at the apartment, and Nathan said he had left a book of his at the Carpenter's (where they have girls' group), so we needed to stop by on the way to pizza. I was piecing together that this might actually be a trick, but they had a few other good small lies so I was never too positive. When we got to the Carpenter's there was a group of Chinese and foreign friends waiting to surprise me! We had a great time playing games, eating pizza, and watching some American TV shows. They gave me a bike (since my last one was stolen) and a hamster!

However, I was the one who pulled the biggest surprise of the night. I didn't know that they were going to throw me a party, but I decided the timing would be perfect. So towards the end of the party when things were dying down, I told Mandi I needed to see her in the kitchen. There, I got down on a knee and asked her to marry me! She was initially shocked (as was everyone else), but once she calmed down she said yes! Needless to say, it was a great birthday! Once we figure stuff with the wedding, we'll be letting everyone know. We're both extremely happy and excited!

On Tuesday, the two of us are headed to Beijing. My sister (Becca) and her best friend (Ginny) are coming to visit us. It'll be a lot of fun to have Becca here to let her see what my life in China has been like the past few years.

That's all for now! Happy April Fool's Day!