First Farewells

These guys are the first good friends we met way back in 2007 after only living here a few months. After we changed schools during our second year, we now live aobut 1.5 hours away from each other. So, we don't see them often, but they are some very special people. We will miss them but are so proud of them! They have all either graduated or will graduate next month and are doing well--professionally, personally, and spiritually!


This girl in particular was always good for a laugh! More than anyone I've ever met, she is Pheobe from Friends.

Family Ties

With only 42 days left to go, we are going full-steam ahead. Some days it seems like we can hardly keep up with all that is going on! We are amazed at all the opportunities we keep finding in our path. :-)

Although the week has been mostly great, we have also been floored by some conversations we've had, and they all relate to family. This is a culture which holds family in such high esteem. But in very different ways than we know or have been able to understand. I guess the best way to describe it is that, in this country, love is often based on what you do much more than who you are. Children (and even our college-age students) describe the love they receive from their parents as conditional. Their parents are often proud of them only if they succeed, not if they try their best. And even when they succeed, it often seems not enough. It's a trend that we've seen in many, if not the majority, of students' lives. And unfortunately, we've been reminded of it again this week, as we've helped one of our friends through a tough time.

One thing we know, for sure, is that we are both thankful for parents and a Father whose love was never, even for a moment, conditional on any thing we could or could not do.

Lately...

We are well under the 50-day mark until we get on a plane towards home. For anyone that may still not know, this will be our final year living in China, which means that these final few weeks are going to be insane!

But we're enjoying it and have seen some great things. This weekend, American writer and speaker Josh McDowell has been in our city. Yesterday, he held an all-day conference on family relationships--especially regarding fathers and children. It was really great and especially touching for some of our students that accompanied us. Then, today, he will give the Sunday talk at the big club downtown. We are very excited that many students will accompany us today!

Here are a few pictures from the past week:

We spent Tuesday relaxing at a beautiful (and uncrowded!) park.

Matt eating a live shrimp that has become nearly comatose from swimming in a mixture of vinegar, sugar and alcohol; sometimes the shrimp are still moving when you eat them! (This is a famous dish in our city.)

Eating at our city's famous restaurant called "Grandma's Kitchen"

3 Guys on a Bike

Last night, as we were riding home from the supermarket, we were talking about how funny people at home might find it that we were carrying all our groceries home on two bikes... We had stuff everywhere--hanging off the handlebars, in my basket, in Matt's bag, and strapped to the back of my bike. We thought you may find this humorous... That is, until we were totally upstaged when we rode past three college-age males riding on one bike. Not a scooter, a bike. Even more impressive is that the driver was taking off his jacket while driving. We rode alongside of them for a while, chatting and such. They were some pretty funny guys to say the least. My favorite part was when we had distracted them with our good-byes as we turned on another street and the driver ran through a red light, causing girlish screams from the other two guys. If only we'd had a camera!

The China Net

Many sites are blocked here where we are, including this one. So, we have a special program to access the Net. Lately, though, it's been a bit finicky, so we've not been able to update in a while.

We are down to the last 60 days of our time in China, and it's suddenly passing very quickly. It seems that we have more people to see, things to do and places to go than we have hours in the day!

We've seen a lot of change since coming here three years ago. Our little suburb has exploded with new growth. It is truly expanding in every possible direction, often with more cranes in one block than I have ever seen in America!

Thankfully, we have also seen a lot of movement and growth in our students here--especially in our last year here! It is so amazing and fun to be a part of. On that note, not only the individual people but also our city has changed in lots of ways! One example is that the American writer and speaker Josh McDowell will come here next weekend to speak publicly. We are very excited about this and are expecting to have a lot of students join us, as well!

Modern City, Old Ways

This past weekend, we were in Shanghai to meet up with a friend. While there, it was the opening weekend of the Shanghai World's Fair Expo. It is a big deal for China and Shanghai, as another opportunity to showcase their modernity by hosting an international venue. We didn't make it to the Expo, but we did spend the day wandering around the city. It is a very modern city--much moreso than Beijing, in fact. But on this day, we ran upon a very funny, old custom right in the middle of People's Square Park downtown...

One of the most charming things about China is all the markets. Every city has a bird market, fake market, night market, technology market, wedding markets, flower markets, fish markets and countless fruit and veggie markets. And apparently, every Saturday in Shanghai is the marriage market. The pathways at the park are lined with homemade classified ads looking for marriage--not dates, marriage. (The ads are very specific about this.) And the ads are very bare-bones--often listing only age, height, salary and a cell phone number. The most bizarre thing is that the people being advertised have little to do with the whole thing. This is the market where moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas converge to trade their children in marriage. I know it sounds harsh, but even our Chinese friends have said that to the older generation, children are like possessions. It certainly seemed that way on Saturday, as we watched grandmas negotiate over the details of these matches.

The pictures speak for themselves:
This lady was hard-core. She had a list of phone numbers that she'd written down and was just going down the list making phone calls.

Negotiations.



One of the few ads we saw including a photo.

Labor Day in Shanghai

It's Labor Day Weekend in China, and it happened to coincide with a friend from Cleveland passing through Shanghai. We met up with Jack and had a great time chatting about China and life. He even treated us to Papa John's and brought us some Froot Loops from home!

Train Tickets

I guess we have been living in China too long... Some things no longer seem strange to us. Buying train tickets is always a bit of an adventure (as you must buy in person, no online or phone purchases). Not only that, but you can only purchase tickets 10 days (sometimes 5 days) in advance, which leads to a bit of a rush closer to travel times. Oh... and there are 1.3 billion people in China, which complicates everything.

This morning I was talking to my mom on Skype, while Matt was at the train ticket outlet buying us tickets to meet a friend in Shanghai this weekend. Apart from the typical things above, we knew this weekend would be tougher than usual for two reasons: 1) it is Labor Day weekend, so many people are going home and 2) the Worlds Fair Expo opens in Shanghai on Saturday. When Matt went to buy tickets, the line was out to the street, so he queued up and called me. He had class in about an hour and didn't think he'd make it through in time, so he wanted me to come meet him to take his place in line and buy our tickets to and from Shanghai. The other problem is that, recently, two of the train and bus stations in Hangzhou closed for much-needed renovations, and the English Website we use to check on schedules has not been updated to reflect this. So, my poor mom was listening as I navigated the Chinese-language Websites for train and bus schedules (we have to get to the train station, as well), while talking with Matt on the cell phone about which times and routes were best.

While a hassle, I didn't think too much of it until hanging up with Matt, at which time my mom expressed the craziness of this whole situation!

We All Look Alike

Just as Chinese people all look the same to Westerners that aren't around the Chinese very often, all White people look the same to Chinese. Foreign teachers are often confused for one another by their own students. And since we first came to China three years ago, Matt has been told (by countless students) that he looks like the character Michael Scofield from the TV series Prison Break. We don't see it, but you be the judge:

Thousand Island Lake

This weekend, Matt's school took the foreign teachers on a short, little get-away. We had a great time at Qian Dao Hu (Thousand Island Lake). It's one of those places we've been meaning to go for 3 years but just haven't ever made the time.

It's located just outside our city, about 2 hours from our house. It's a dammed lake, built in 1959. It is supposed to have the clearest water in most of China, and I'm sure at one time that was true. Unfortunately, today, it just looks like average lake water. Some people still buy into it though, as we saw one Chinese man actually drinking the water. Insanity.

The lake is lovely, though, and actually has 1,078 islands. Some have been built up for tourists, some have been left alone. Of course, being part of an organized tour group with the school, we hit up the tourist trap sites, such as one island called Lock Island. Here, you can buy a $10 lock and attach it to a chain on the island. It supposedly brings your true love to you. We most enjoyed the last island we visited where we walked up the mountain and could see a more panoramic view of things.

To see more photos, click on the picture:

Qian Dao Hu