Hanging out with friends after the proposal!
Hello again everyone! It's been a long time since my last post, but it's time to give the people what they want: more of me! :)
A TON has happened over the past month since I've been in China. If I had time, I could have written an update every day. However, besides my busy schedule, I've only had consistent internet at home for about a week and a half now. So I'll try to fill you in as much as I can without writing a book.
- The biggest news first. Mandi and I are engaged as of August 21st! I got the ring and planned everything over the summer with the help of a lot of our friends in China. The short story of the proposal is that Mandi was out at a Girls' Night with friends and they "just happened" to end up eating at the restaurant where we went on our first date. I was hiding in another room and then came out and popped the question. She said yes...this time.
- The same night of the proposal, we (and the friends at the dinner with us) decided to plan a fake proposal in front of all of the new teachers for a few days later. So Mandi had to hide her ring for the first few days of our engagement. It's hard to keep that big a secret for so long, especially with facebook around! For the fake proposal, I stood up in front of all 30 of the Zhong Relations' teachers and asked Mandi to marry me. She said no and walked out of the room. Everyone was dead silent. It was one of the most funny and awkward things I've ever experienced. Then Mandi came back in and told them that she had already said yes. Let me know if you want to see the fake (or real proposal videos), and I can try to get them to you. It will take too long to load it onto my blog.
- Zhong Relations had their training in China this year. I was able to help lead some of the "classes" and meet a lot of the new teachers. It's our biggest group ever, and as usual, it's a great group.
- You may or may not remember, but Mandi and I moved to a new city this year. We are now teaching at Jingzhou High School (Jingzhou Zhong Xue) in Jingzhou. It's a city of about 5 million people that is about 2 hours from Wuhan. It took some getting used to the new classes and apartments, but I feel like I'm finally starting to get into somewhat of a rhythm. While we still don't have everything figured out (like our office at the school), it's starting to feel like home. We also had a really fun time tonight playing volleyball and then having dinner with some teachers who are about our age.
- I'll leave you with this poem from one of my students. A few days ago was Teacher's Day in China. Even though we've only had these students for just a few lessons, many of them will still give us cards or gifts. This was written from one of my favorite students named Iverson in Grade 2 Class 4.
Birds fly in the sky.
They look so high.
Lilacs sleep at night.
Fragrance through the side.
A man gives us love - offers us friendship and touches our hearts.
He's brave,
He's caring,
He's great,
He pressed us to study hard.
He taught us a spirit of persistence.
With full of love he says:
"Study is not to earn your bread, but to make every mouthful sweet!"
No one would think he was a Demon.
He was just a angel - without wings.
I hope you are all doing well!
Luke 1:1-4
