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.