the man of the house.

meet my little man, romulus.

he comes from a dingy, dirty alley market about ten minutes from my home.
the pet allies here are really quite sad. so many animals (fish, turtles, birds, chipmunks, squirrels, mice, hamsters, bunnies, kittens, puppies) are locked up in the tiniest of cages. people just poke and prod these little creatures; the allies are full of their cries and yelps. i knew that walking down this alley would make me depressed, but i was set on coming out with a pet.

but, anyways, that's where i found my little rom. i had looked at twenty-some cages full of little bunnies, but none stood out to me. finally, i saw the only one of a different color. when i asked the seller about the gender, he grabbed the bunny by the head and viciously flipped over his flailing body. i knew that i had found my bunny.

(bunny + cage + food + toys = $10)

once i got him home and settled in, he was terrified of me. when i would reach out to touch him or when i would even walk into the room, he would fall over on his side. i began to tell friends and students about my new pet. almost all of them responded with, 'i had a bunny once, but it died after [insert a short amount of time].' only a couple days in and i was already beginning to doubt my purchase.

but, as time went on, he got better. now, he's friendly, he's curious, he's bursting with energy, and he's potty-trained.

so, that is the story of my rommy.

english name: romulus
chinese name: 小狮子 ('xiǎo shīzi = 'little lion.')
current age: about 3 months
nicknames: rom, rommy, scrom, scromatron, romen noodle, romadan ... and so, so many more.

soli deo gloria.

a month gone by.

wow, i'm a terrible blogger.
depending on the day or the week, i have a large amount of free time. (it helps that i live at my job.) it seems like i would be better at keeping the world up to date on my little life events, but, no, somehow that always seems to get pushed to the end of the to-do list. well, i'll just give you some october/early november highlights in no particular order.

- i traveled. (see previous posts.)
- i ate a rather large amount of pizza this month. no complaints.
- i've met a lot of new study friends.
- i was asked to 'wash' my friend sometime in the future.
- i carved a small pumpkin. (i only gave it eyes.)
- i got a wonderful little bunny, romulus.
- i introduced 450 chinese students to 'hocus pocus.'
- i celebrated halloween at ktv with 40 friends and costumes.
- i went to an amazing university talent show.
- i had a few days of no school. days to relax = needed.
- i bought an ipad2.

... and that about sums it up. soli deo gloria.

... the big b.

with national holiday still continuing and qingdao crossed off the list, it was time for destination #2. beijing. my wuhan travel buddies and i headed to beijing for one key purpose: the wedding of our foc friends, brock and heather. we took a fancy, overpriced train with comfortable, spacious seats and arrived to beijing late in the night. after a taxi ride, we were 'home' at our host's apartment. next day was wedding day at the old summer palace. post-wedding, it was drinks, dinner, an ktv.
the next day was quite relaxing. it included a street food breakfast, a visit to the beijing hutongs (old, government-regulated apartments), a pizza lunch, a micro-brewery visit, a christian bookstore trip, and a failed trip to the movie theater. busy day. and, the day after that ... it was home to wuhan.
soli deo gloria.

to beer country and back.

china's 'fourth of july'/independence day (actually called 'national day') is in the first week of october. in order to celebrate such an event, the entire first week of the month of october is a holiday. a week off of school ... what to do?!

last year, i traveled out west to have a relaxing week with pandas. this year, i traveled north to have a relaxing weekend with beer, mountains, and the sea. destination: qingdao, china.

for your information, qingdao is the brewing city for tsingtao beer. (american people says 'tsingdao; chinese people say 'qingdao' ... totally different.) i'm not sure about the popularity of this beer in america, but i can certainly say that is more than just well-known in this oriental land.

my vacation to qingdao only lasted about three days. traveling with three other wuhan friends, we got there on a Sunday afternoon. after checking into our hostel, we (mostly i) booked it to a bbq restaurant where i had every intention of binging eating seafood. after bbq, we picked up a few grocery bags of beer. (yes, you can buy beer-in-a-bag in qingdao.) i was quite excited for the brewery tour early the next morning. we left for the tour around 9am. the tour was fine; it was interesting ... and surprisingly short. but, what came after the tour was just ... madness. beer street is directly across from the brewery. beer street is a long street packed full of different vendors for beer and seafood. i specifically ordered four bottles of beer. and, if i would have done my research, i would have known that they don't serve glasses or bottles. no, instead they served pitchers. so, here we were ... 11am ... with four full pictures of beer. the rest of the day was a bit of a blur ... not only the result of the pitchers of beer, but also a blur of flocks of people taking our picture by a 'red-swirly-thing' that we didn't get the chance to appreciate. that evening ended with a walk on the beach, a nap, and basically being dragged to a completely empty roof-top bar. we had train tickets to leave on that following day. i was open to the idea of just having a relaxing day on the town, but my travel partners were quite set on seeing a specific mountain. after a rather frustrating morning, we finally were on our way. two hours later, we got there and paid to go in. less than an hour later, we were on our way home.

next destination: beijing.

soli deo gloria.

'what's in a name?'

there are some student names that will never fail to make me laugh. last year, quality names like 'walmart' or 'alien' always brought a smile to face. nearly all of my students this year are precious little gems. i'm teaching high-schoolers this year compared to last year's eighth grades. the maturity in these students is far more prominent. yet, one thing remains ... the crazy, hilarious, ridiculous (in a good way) names. allow me to share some with you. these are the names that i have deemed worthy of blogging of. enjoy.

girls.

linko

oran

dark

jussi

sushi

sharmy

nerry

ken

ixia

flood

derossi

ueli

wood

phantom

eddie

fresh

aeon

prometheus

amethyst

somnus

boom

pluty

bunny

seulki

boys.

pugna

kov

vegeta

piko

yaphets

egg

saphronie

noctis

jascha

churchill

glorious 1; glorious 2; glorious 3; glorious 4 
(the only four boys in this class)

i hope reading these names brought a little sunshine to your day. i'm so blessed to have met each and every one of my students, this year and in the past. i hope to keep you posted with fun stories from this year.

soli deo gloria.

big buddha, big buddha, big buddha.

before i begin boasting of my incredible weekend getaway, i must apologize for keeping you in the dark with everything else. i haven't necessarily been too busy to blog; it's just that i haven't taken the time to do it. my sincere apologies. i intend to change that, but we'll see how that goes.

anyways, let me tell you about my trip. i went to hong kong. and, as always, it's amazing, it's beautiful, and i love it. it's clean, the people are friendly, and it oozes of westernization. seven-eleven's with cream sodas, starbursts, and twix bars are enough to soothe away the longing for american snacks. english-speakers and the plethora of foreigners also add a certain warmth to the city.

i had to go there to adjust my visa. so, technically, it was a business trip. lucky for me, the business portion of the trip lasted less than three hours.

i took an overnight train with my school liaison, sophie, to shenzhen. from there, we walked through customs and crossed the boarder into hong kong. we arrived in hong kong in the morning. the customs lines, the subway rides, and the visa process filled up the entire morning. we finally got back to the hotel mid-afternoon. since i hardly slept on the train, i crashed for a looong nap. the night ended with chicken wings and an enrique iglesias concert on mtv. the next day, sophie and i got on the hotel shuttle bus before 8am. when we were about to board the subway, sophie pointed to the map and said, 'i go here. where do you go?' i was not prepared for that question. i looked down at some advertisements on the map and said, 'i'll go here.' i pointed to a picture of a huge buddha, with blue sky in the background, and a lot of happy foreigners in the corner. done, i'd go see buddha. i rode the subway for a long time. thank goodness for the book and the ipod that i had decided to throw into my bag last minute. i took a cable-car through the mountains with a group of five friends from thailand. i was so happy to learn that they could speak english; they shared with me a fan from their bountiful collection of chinese fans (since the cable-car was so hot) and they also shared with me their beliefs in buddha. i was interested in their 'faith,' but had to literally fight back tears of deepest sadness for the thousands and thousands of people that were coming to pray to buddha on that very day. i paid my entrance fee of $23(hk) to climb buddha's stairs. the buddha was huge, the sky was blue, and the mountains were mystically covered with fog. a perfect day to see the world's largest bronze buddha. on the way down, i stopped for a coffee with a lovely irish man. i reflected on my morning's experiences as i glided through the mountains on my cable-car journey downwards. my next destination was a life-size replica of noah's ark. (yes, budda in the morning; noah in the afternoon i felt weird explaining this to sophie afterwards; she must think i'm searching for religion in my life. little does she know ... ^^) anyways, in order to get to noah's ark, i had to take a ferry. it was a beautiful day for a boat ride. the 'ark park' was quite a waste of money, but the actual size of the ark was interesting to see. i ended my first full day in hong kong with an overpriced pizza, an overpriced heineken, and an early bedtime.

my second day was not nearly as interesting. i was craving something western-ish. so, i decided that if i found a movie theater, i would stop for a 'foreign' film. and, that's exactly what happened. i was headed towards a traditional chinese-style park. but, when i got off the subway, the neon lights of a cinema caught my eye. movie of choice? 'contagion.' i was early for the movie, so i walked around the mall. i soon quit after an impulsive purchase. i quite enjoyed the film. i recommend that you go see it. that way, you can put yourself in my shoes ... in kowloon, the only girl, the only foreigner, the only one coughing and sniffling with a cold. (go see it.) after the movie, i took just a quick stroll through the park. then, it was back to the subway. next destination: church at the asian seminary. i went out to dinner with the majority of the als crew which was awesome. the night ended with a good pint of beer, a delicious meal, and wonderful time with friends.

the next day was monday; i had to pick up my visa in the morning. luckily, i bypassed the huge line. i was in and out of the visa office in less than ten minutes. since i had nothing to do and time was limited, i stopped at starbucks to enjoy a double-chocolate muffin, latte, and book. i was back to meet sophie at 1:30pm to begin our journey back to mainland china.

soli deo gloria.

... i'm gonna be sick.

not too many things freak me out. i used to be able to watch just about any gory thrasher movie and barely flinch. i could handle any amount of blood that i saw. never have i ever felt nauseous from the sight of something, or the smell of something, or the sound of something. apparently, something has changed.

allow me to share with you two recent scarring events that occurred within my first three weeks back to china.

1.) acupuncture. it sounded like a good experience: chinese medicine in china. 'when in rome, do as the romans do,' right?! wrong. i went with a friend, a friend who gets acupuncture every other day. i figured that if she could do, i could do it. again, wrong. the first part was fine ... putting in the needles, no problem. that part was actually quite entertaining. if you're wondering if it hurt, the answer is 'yes, just a little.' then, came the wait. waiting about half an hour in small hallway ... with about 50 other people with needles in their faces ... with the horrid smell of burning mugwort ... looking down at the needles stuck deep in my face ... feeling the pressure from the several needles pressing millimeters from my skull ... i started to feel dizzy. that 30 minute wait felt like hours. all of my insides were leaping for joy when the doctor called me in to take out the needles. he started with the needles in my face; those came out fine. i hardly flinched. then, came the few in my skull. in order to get them out, he pushed them in harder to free them. i felt the prick of each those needles as a pain that surged through my entire body. the combination of the pain and the thought of needles near my skull made me feel queasy. he dabbed the back of my head with gauze ... and that's when i saw all the blood. instantly, i sank back into my chair completely numb. my eyes were open, but my body was completely shut down. it was too much for me. since the doctor had a line of people in that room, he had to physically pull me out of the chair. when the people saw that i was struggling, each and every one of them rushed to me to hold onto me. i was wobbly on my feet, but didn't necessarily need help. everyone had pulled out candy from their bags and was shoving it towards my face. little did they know, i was fighting back from throwing up. (luckily, i didn't do that.) i told them that i needed the bathroom so they let me through. one lady followed me out and gently offered me a crunchy, sugary meat wrap. i accepted it, even though it would not have been my first choice of things to eat after nearly fainting. i sat down for about a minute in the smelly, crowded hallway. when i couldn't handle it anymore, i slowly walked myself to another american friend's apartment ... while carrying the needles that were sent home with me (in case i ever want acupuncture again). when i finally reached that apartment, i plopped on the couch ... my head was throbbing, i was feeling nauseous at the thought of the needles, and my body was tingly. since my friends did not have the same morning experience as i did, they were bouncy and bubbly and ready for lunch. i went with them ... almost fainting again in the elevator. i figured it would be best if i just ate a small lunch ... so, an asian pear sufficed. with that, it took only a matter of minutes before i was feeling better.

... and that's the story of my acupuncture. now, for story #2, which is not nearly as long ...

2.) frogs. just yesterday, i was walking with a friend, aaron. we walked to a back alley market to buy fruit. and that's where we saw ... a lady skinning live frogs with her bare hands. i kid you not, she was probably doing this at a rate of 50 frogs/minute. just a quick dig fingernails in, rip, snap, and put living frog in bowl. we saw this, cringed, and continued to the fruit shop to recover. just when i was starting to forget it ... we walked out of the fruit shop to go home ... we had to pass her again. but, this time, she was holding up a living frog (with skin still on it) ... only the frog's head was between the blades of a scissors. i quickly turned around to shield my eyes, but the sound of the slice ... again, instant nauseousness. i froze, my body locked up in cringe-position. that's when aaron looked down at me and said, 'let's get outta here.' ... yes, please.

... so, now you're up to date on those two stories ... i promise to put others up soon ... better ones.

may he continue to be with and bless you. soli deo gloria.