Spring Festival

Thanks to everyone for your "thoughts" and words of encouragement for me and my family. I think the toughest times can often remind us how blessed we are when so many people are there to pick us up!

I will be flying to America on Wednesday for my Grandpa's funeral. My friend Joe (the same one in the pictures below) who works for Delta was able to help me book a flight for about half the usual price! The school has helped me out a lot as well. The Chinese teachers will cover my classes while I'm gone, and they have even given me a little money to help cover some of the cost of flying home. I'm so grateful.

Similar to last year, I had a blast and did a ton of things on my month-long Spring Festival vacation. Hung out with a few Chinese families, caught up with old friends, and visited Tokyo, Shanghai, and Beijing. It would take forever to review it all, so below are some pictures that I thought you might enjoy.

Eating Beijing Duck. But in Beijing, it's just called duck.

The Water Cube where Michael Phelps won all his gold medals.

The longest escalator in Asia! 8 floors! You could just feel the history while riding it...

Kirk Ransom, Coral, Me, Daniel, and Kirk Lacy hanging out at Coldstone in Beijing.

Believe it or not, the Tokyo subway system was even 5 times more difficult to figure out than this map makes it look like!

Apparently every country has one of these.

Just a cool-looking pier in Tokyo.

A bunch of dead tuna at the world's largest fish market in Tokyo.

A giant Buddha statue. I'm pretty sure this is the 500th one of these I've seen in Asia.

Behind the fog and clouds is the beautiful Mount Fuji. Just imagine it. That's what I did.

A cool little street in Tokyo.

Unfortunately, sumo wrestling was not in season while we were there. But this is where the big tournaments take place.

Entertaining the Japanese as they walked by.

Just to give you a little idea of how big Tokyo is. This is a picture of the city quite a ways away from the center of town. And the picture is facing away from downtown!

The Tokyo Dome. Home to the most famous baseball team in Japan: The Tokyo Giants.

Our hostel beds were in "capsules." Or as I like to call them, "boxes."

A traditional Japanese building similar to the Chinese style.

Cartoons are HUGE in Japan for people of all ages!

We looked for this Godzilla statue for quite awhile. We thought it was going to be just a little bit bigger...

Joe, Kirk, and Daniel at a sports bar watching the Super Bowl.

Hanging out with our new friend Takaki eating some traditional Japanese food.

I'm assuming this is Mickey and Minnie on drugs.

Joe was able to get our flight to Tokyo in first class! Maybe the first and last time I'm ever there!

A few of us visiting Lara's home in Hanchuan, Hubei, China.

Norman Mathews

My grandparents Norman and Doris (sitting) with their 5 kids. My dad is on the far right.

The Mathews family (minus a few people) in 2008

I returned just a few days ago from my week and a half in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Beijing. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to post some pictures with a few highlights soon. But I'll do that another time. This post will be a little different from my past ones.

About a week and a half ago, I was in Japan with some friends. We were in our hostel, and I was catching up with people on facebook when my Mom wrote me and told me about a couple from my home chrch in Spring Arbor. They had been married 15 years and were about to give birth to their first child who was due in just a few months. While driving on some icy roads, they lost control of their car at the same time as a semi truck. The semi slid into the wife's side of the car. She was killed, but their daughter was delivered barely clinging to life, only to join her mother in death a few days later. As my Mom told me this via facebook chat, I couldn't believe it. It broke my heart to think of this man who had almost instantly lost his family. My main thought was, "Why?"

A few days later, I was in Beijing. I got a call from my high school friend Kirk who lives there. He said that my parents had been trying to contact me, but they apparently couldn't reach my Wuhan cell phone if it was outside the city limits. He passed on the word that my Grandpa had some serious problems during his heart surgery (on Valentine's Day, no less!). This surgery is usually a fairly simple one, but our family knew that there was a small chance something could go wrong because of a past heart attack many years ago.

The next few days in Beijing, and after I returned to Wuhan, were spent constantly checking e-mail and Skype for his health updates. Friday morning, I woke up to check my e-mail and found out that he had passed away. It was, and still is surreal. In the past four months, my Uncle Tom and Grandpa from my father's side have died. My aunt has lost her husband and dad. Our family is very close. Every July 4th weekend for over 10 years we have gotten together to eat, play sports, talk, and have chrch. It is one of the things I look forward to more than just about anything else.

I am so thankful for my Grandpa. His influence on our family is one of the biggest reasons why we are C's as well as so close to each other. I'm extremely sad that he's gone, but even more happy for the time I had with him. I'll never forget when he told us that he would get up very early every morning to walk. While walking, he would pry for every member of our family.

I wish he was still here, but I know that he was ready to move on to see his real Father. I am excited to see him again in a place where death and sadness are no more. I know that all of you have had deaths and terrible experiences of your own. I pry that you have the same comfort that my family and I have at this time. If you don't, I hope you find it. This world is not the end of the story.