#5 - Typhoon Holidays

I'm at the airport...delayed... might be loading... now. More on this later.

Sorry for the long delay. I had the joy and delight to travel down to the unique and beautiful city of Hong Kong. Below you can see a nice picture of a Typhoon that hit Hong Kong Thursday morning. This is at about 8 am.

8 am is the time that my flight was supposed to take off for me to fly to Shenzhen (Its also the time I'd normally be starting class). It was about this time that I got up to check things out, but the screen for flights had a different destination on it. I was slightly confused but then found the red letters that were switching back and forth from Chinese to English saying "Delayed." There were tons of people up by the counter. I decided to take it easy and just wait to see what happened.

About 30 minutes later I saw people carrying food. I figured they were just getting snacks during the wait, but then everyone had the same thing. So I looked for the crowd. (Note: If you don't know what is going on in China, search for the mass of people. They will tell you when something important is going on.)

Not only did they give you food, but they gave you water for free too! It wasn't anything huge, just a small thing of fried rice and some water. But still. How awesome is that! I've never heard of an American airline/airport giving people anything during a delay.

My fellow Shezhen bound friends enjoying their free food and drinks.

Finally we loaded about 2 hours late and arrived in Shenzhen. You might be asking why I'm flying to this place Shenzhen when I'm going to Hong Kong. Shenzhen is a Chinese city just north of Hong Kong in mainland China. If you are flying from someplace in China it is much cheaper to fly to Shenzhen and then make the border crossing by bus/train/walking and now... Subway!!!! It's about 2 1/2 hours of subway riding, with a switch to go through immigration in the middle, but then you can get anywhere you want to in Hong Kong by subway straight from the airport in Shenzhen. Pretty slick.

When we arrived in Hong Kong we found out it was a "Typhoon Holiday." Which is like a "snow day" in the United States. People have off of work (and maybe schools), banks and business are closed. Makes things quite inconvenient. Typhoon Holidays occur when the warning rating is at a level 8. This depends on how long sustained winds are and how close the eye of the storm is to Hong Kong. For precautions to take look here at the website for Precautionary Measures when Tropical Cyclone Warning Signals are in force

When we arrived in Hong Kong it was sprinkling and a little windy. You could see a little bit of wind damage. Most noticeable was that there were a lot less people out and about. That is until later when everyone was taking advantage of the nice weather on the Typhoon Holiday. We checked into our hotel and had some issues with the reservations. We told the desk worker to call the person who made the reservations to help fix it. His response, "I'll call tomorrow. It's a Typhoon Holiday."

While I joke about the Typhoon Holiday, the winds were pretty serious for flights. Many flights were delayed (like mine) and others canceled. Landing was a little exciting for all flights coming in. One interesting story was the flight that came from Japan, tried to land twice and then decided to return to Japan and wait to try again 7 hours later.

They didn't miss much though, because it was a Typhoon Holiday.

#4 - Tails

This is shock. This is I don't believe what I'm seeing. This is... get me out of here.

So my friend Tia, doesn't believe I caught the moment of discovery, but I don't believe her. This is shock and awe. I saw Tia's face, the girl in the front of the picture. I saw her expression, and I looked where she was looking.

There... in the kitchen of Therea's (a quaint little dinner down the road from the university) was a tail. A tail that moved... just like a snake. Like a snake under the hypnosis of a snake charmer. And then, I saw it. The furry body leap from the counter.

Yes, it was a large furry rat, sitting on the sink. On the nice "clean" dishes. No one else saw it. Just me and Tia. But we couldn't hold it in. You hear stories. You see rats in movies, but rarely, rarely do you see a large rat just chilling in a kitchen of a restaurant. We didn't stay inside the restaurant. Nor could we really tell our friends what we saw until after we left.

So yes. I love rats in China. It is great because this restaurant harassed me to no end when I went in a few day earlier. They were trying to force me to order a drink or food when it was 10:40 at night. It just helped me say good riddance to a place that was too expensive.

But the moral of the story is... as long as you don't see it.... you don't care. But as soon as you see it then its a no go. Theresa's is crossed off the list. Yes, rats are probably in every kitchen in China, but you don't know it until you actually see it.

#3 - My Morning Coffee

It doesn't come everyday. It isn't needed everyday, but is meet with sleepy eyes and open arms when it is . It comes in different flavors, shapes and sizes. Some are expensive others are very cheap. Like this one.

Here is my 3 kuai (3 Chinese dollar = about 50 cents) iced coffee in a can. Its delicious. Filled with caffeine and sugar to give me a jolt, especially during my first hour and a half class of Chinese. An lovely, very educational class, which is followed by another hour and a half class of Chinese. This can is especially useful for making loud "ting"ing noises while people are up in the front of class speaking dialogues.

Your Chinese lesson for the day: Chinese is a fun language because even though it is complicated and crazy and filled with thousands of pictures, it makes sense. The "measure word" (if I want to say 1, 2, or 3 etc of something - you have to use a measure word. The most common is "ge" like for one person it is "yi ge ren" "yi" being 1 and person being "ren." "ge" is the measure word.)

For a can, like that lovely iced coffee can, or a can of Sprite, the measure word is "ting." Like "wo you yi ting kafei" "I have 1 can of coffee." "Ting," just like the sound it makes when you flick it with your finger or set it down in the middle of class when everyone is quiet.

A teaser for tomorrow: Other people buying coffee during the break, but ohhhh there's soooo much more that this picture has to share. Of course... the #4 thing I love about China.

#2 - Rooftop Campfires

Things I love about China… #1 - Being here.

I’ve never been very good at being consistent in writing in a blog and updating people. Sometimes I can blame it on a busy schedule. Sometimes its procrastination (something I never do). Sometimes it’s just writer’s block. A lot of times you just don’t have anything you feel like writing about or anything exciting to say. To try and help with all of those things I thought of a little theme for my blog today while riding my bike on nice misty Sunday afternoon while listening to The Shins. My little muse and inspiration for my blog will be “Things I love about China.” I’m not promising to write something every day. Some posts may be long, some may be short, some may just be a picture of something. But I think it well help me talk about topics that are interesting and different that people would like to hear about.

One warning if you’re new to reading my blog: I type how I talk (or think , which can be very random and disjointed, sorry). So I don’t always have the best sentence structure, grammar, and sometimes spelling. In case you’re “one of those people,” who loves perfect sentence structure and poetic masterpieces and such, just be prepared to have your head hurt. Oh! And feel free to read up on what life was like 5 years ago when I was in China the first time. Sorry the pictures are missing. I moved everything from an old blog.

Enough of the introduction…. Post #1

Things I love about China… #1 - Being here.

The last year of school (High School, College, or Grad School) is usually pretty exciting. It’s filled with lots of anticipation, a sense of accomplishment, and finally some answers to a few questions. For me and my classmates we found out where we would be working and serving for the unforeseen future.

When I found out where I was asked to serve it wasn’t so much of as surprise as it was for some of my classmates. I had been to China before and was studying the language. Yet it is still a big move and a very different culture and life style. I’m very thankful for all the people who supported me and gave encouraging words. Many people told me, “You’re the right person to go.”

It’s easy to hear those words and know that He has you where he wants you and will be with you wherever you go, yet you don’t exactly know how. It wasn’t until I was on the 14 hour plane ride by myself (that felt like about a 4 hour one since I had a window seat and no one next to me. Soooo much room and much sleeping time. Plus! Kung Fu Panda 2! What better movie to watch on your way to China!) that I started to really understand that I was the right person. Things felt right, it felt comfortable. For months I had been waiting and wondering. Finally things were happening and I was off to work off to go to where I was meant to be.

It wasn’t until I saw my friends Rodrigo and Karina in Shanghai (the last people I saw when I left China 4 years ago and the first people I saw when I returned). It wasn’t until I was back in the beautiful city of Hangzhou. It wasn’t until I sat in a chair and had our first Sunday morning gathering and spoke the Word comfortably and sang songs together. It wasn’t until I sat teaching eager students on a Friday afternoon.

It wasn’t until hopping in a taxi for the first time and driving in what is chaos times 4 didn’t phase me one bit. It wasn’t until I was enjoying Muslim noodles. And baozi and jaozi…. mmmmm jaozi. And egg and tomato and of course, qiezi (I love my eggplant!). The foods, the smells, the craziness.

I’m excited. I know I am where I’m supposed to be. It’s not easy work. It’s a different world. But people are great here. Friends here are always there for you and just the people you want to share life in China with. I thank Him for what opportunities and blessings He’s given me here. I love being here.

P.S. Feel free to post comments and questions. Also I have my address available. Let me know if you’d like it. Its maybe better not to just publish on the interwebs. Look for me on skype and I also have a USA landline set up that will forward to my skype and even my Chinese cellphone. I'll share that with ya too.