Back at Bethel!!!

I've been back at Bethel for the majority of the last week. It's been wonderful to begin catching up with people (one of my favorite things to do). Since my family lives so close, I've also been able to go back and forth, which has been great. The transition back to the States has gone much smoother than I was anticipating. I recovered from jet lag pretty quickly and have been adjusting back to life in America pretty well for the time being.

There are so many things I feel like I could blog about... but for now, I'll just highlight the past week:
Took care of some job applications... now I'm just waiting. Had LOTS of catching up with friends. Blessing: God provided $ for my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification class this summer. Experienced last Bethel chapel as a student. Listened to President Cramer and his wife sing "He who began a good work in you...". Had an intense 40 minute run with my roomies. Tried slack-lining for the first time. Quality conversations. Breakfast with my Grandma. Visited my mom at work. Had lunch with Emma at school. Dentist appointment. Visited with my Nana & Papu. Friday night: South Bend Chocolate Cafe, photo shoot, and Midnight Breakfast. Goodwill 50% off sale on Saturday morning - we spent 3 hours, $42 and got 15 tops, 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of capris, and a dress! It was lovely! Dunes Saturday afternoon - even though it was FREEZING and we were wrapped up in blankets for most of it. It was still a nice time. :) Cousin Oliver's first birthday party. Surprise outing with Emma and Mom - Emma bought us lovely earrings... then we went out for ice cream at Ritter's. Lunch with my Dad this afternoon at SG.

There's also been lots of talk about future stuff... as people have been asking me about my plans. I'm so excited about the dreams God has placed on my heart! At the same time, I feel like He has been reminding me of the following things:

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
James 4:13-17

"Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will." - Oswald Chambers


God is so good. I'm overwhelmed by His amazingness, once again.

I'm back in Indiana!!!

I got home this past Thursday night around 7:00 p.m. The last flight of our entire trip was delayed by about a half hour... we were all anxious to get home, but were grateful that it wasn't too long of a delay. When we got to the SBN airport, I accidentally left my passport in the ladies' restroom! I couldn't believe it... I made it through my whole trip without losing my passport until I got home! Fortunately, the airport authorities called us and I was able to pick it up yesterday afternoon without any trouble.

My time back home has been good. It's been great to see my friends and family again. I'm enjoying this "catching up" season. I'm mostly adjusted to the time zone change, which is a blessing. I still miss China, but am enjoying my time here.
Highlights:
- seeing my friends and family at the airport
- Mom's homemade pizza
- Having Kate visit for the weekend
- Chapel on Friday = sweetness
- Sufficient Grounds
- Taco Bell
- Catching up with dear friends
- bridal showers
- using a dryer for my newly washed clothes
- rediscovering my old clothes
- hugs from Emma
- seeing my amazing brothers
- being able to share unedited stories about God's work in my favorite country
- running around the neighborhood
- celebrating birthdays
- eating in the BCDC (note: the company was the highlight, not the food)
- driving
- Nana's spaghetti
- sharing souvenirs
and much more...I'm looking forward to these next two weeks. I will be graduating May 4th. Between now and then, I'm hoping to find a summer job and spend some lovely time being relational with people - one of my most favorite things to do! :)

Tomorrow I will be submitting an application to work at a coffee shop for the summer until I leave for South Korea... we'll see how it goes. For some reason, I've always wanted to work at a coffee shop... just sounds like fun to me.

Thanks for reading and sharing this journey with me!

~Holls (my new nickname)

FYI: I plan to keep this blog updated throughout the summer (though the updates might not be as frequent as they were in China) and especially when I go to South Korea in the fall. :)

Change is on Its Way...

So... today is our last day in China. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it... and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I want to do in our last few hours. In some ways, I'm more than ready to return home. In many other ways, I don't feel like I'm ready to leave. There are so many things I will miss:

• Our dear friends Cat & Penguin - meeting at KFC on Sunday nights and playing Dutch Blitz
• Bargaining in the markets
• fresh pineapple from the street
• Euchre games
• running along the canal in the mornings
• buying street food
• The Grand
• cherry blossoms
• public transportation - buses & subways
• BICF
• our apartment (even though it was a mess most of the time)
• my Chinese teacher
• our group leader
• opportunities to practice my Chinese
• eating with chopsticks
• having my food costs reimbursed every week
• carrying toilet paper with me everywhere
• meeting random Chinese people on the bus and having great conversations
• living in a big city
• being stared at (it actually is kind of fun)
• experiencing a completely different world when I step out of our apartment

I'm sure I'll think of many more things I miss when I get back to the States.

There are also several things I'm looking forward to when I get home, though:

• Seeing my amazing familia & friends!!!!!!!!
• Mom's homemade pizza
• Grandma's kona coffee & heavy whipping cream
• Nana's spaghetti
• being back with my group of friends, whom I've missed so dearly!
• rollerblading at ND
• Chapel at Bethel
• driving
• making smoothies
• Taco Bell
• running
• being able to share stories about my Father's work
• Sufficient Grounds (yes, I have actually started to miss it)
• Girls Night
• being able to dry my clothes in a dryer
• non-oily vegetables
• sister time
• graduation
• giving away souvenirs
• having tea with my Mom at Starbucks
• breakfast, lunch, dinner, and coffee catch-up dates
• drinking water out of the faucet
• not sure if I'm looking forward to having my cell phone back or not...
• Italian food

the list could go on...

Anyway, my heart is definitely torn between staying here and going back. It has been an incredibly amazing experience. The Father has taught me many things and has restored many dreams to my heart, which I'm so thankful and excited for. I feel like I might be leaving a piece of my heart here... but I'm also so excited to see everyone again. Hopefully the jet lag doesn't take too long to recover from. :)

Love you all... and so looking forward to seeing you! (My flight arrives at SBN airport at 6:25 p.m. this Thursday.)

Bowling

Last night was great. Cat & Penguin came over to join us for dinner at the "Yellow" restaurant. They presented us with gifts so that we could remember them. Then we invited them over to our apartment to play one last game of Dutch Blitz. It was our best game yet. Our entire group went bowling last night, and Cat & Penguin were excited to join us. It was their first time bowling ever. We had a wonderful time.

The Great Wall

Today we visited the Great Wall. It was great. I never realized how much work it is to visit - so many steps!!! My legs felt like jelly at the end. The Great Wall is on top of the mountains, so we took a ski lift up the mountain and then did a little bit of climbing. We stopped and ate lunch at one of the little rest stops. The mountains were GORGEOUS! We rode toboggans on the way down. Unfortunately the toboggans were very slow (not quite as exciting as luging in NZ), but it was still a fun ride. At the bottom of the mountain there were several vendors and Katie and I took some bargaining video footage

that I will be able to share when I get back. It was fun...

Lots of steps

Roommate pic: Sara, Katie, Josie, Emily, Monica, and me

On our way back from visiting the Great Wall, Rob surprised us with dinner at Friday's. It was delicious. When I got back, I actually had an opportunity to teach English to one student at the school that I was planning on visiting a couple of weeks ago. It was a good experience. Ella was a good student. I'm looking forward to teaching English in South Korea!

Lots to catch up on...

Oh dear, I've been slacking with the blog posts lately. So much has happened. I don't have a whole lot of time right now, but I'll give you a brief synopsis:

• Thursday night we went to see the Chinese acrobats. Very interesting. I'm glad my life calling is not acrobatics. It looks somewhat painful.
• I finished all of my schoolwork on Thursday. I only have a book to read on the airplane back and a World Civ exam when I get back.
• Chinese is officially finished. My written exam was Thursday. Oral exam was Friday. I think things went well... :)
• Friday afternoon, we made one last trip to the Pearl market. Almost all of my roommates went. We had an amazing time together at dinner. I continue to be amazed at the things that happen at McDonalds. We went around answering the wuestion, "How have you changed on this trip?" Many tears followed... and laughter as well. I laughed until I cried.
• Brent came back on Friday night, which we were all excited about. We went to the Grand at 11:30 p.m. so that Brent could have his gongbaojiding.
• Yesterday we had debriefing for most of the day. Lots of reflection time, which was good.
• I also had the opportunity to visit ELIC headquarters yesterday - exploring opportunities to teach English in the future here. Exciting stuff.
• Today was our last time at BICF. I'm sure going to miss that place.
• Tonight Katie and I are going to have dinner with Cat & Penguin again, which I'm so excited about!

I'm not ready to leave. I love China.

Orphanage Visit

At the Orphanage...

This morning we were all up and ready to go by 8:00 a.m. (an unusual event for our group) to go visit an orphanage on the southern outskirts of Beijing (about a 1 1/2 hr. drive). The orphanage/foster home that we visited was incredibly clean - probably the cleanest place I've visited in China thus far. When we arrived, we were greeted by friendly staff. They gave us a tour of the orphanage, which was pretty cool. The woman that showed us around also shared several of the children's stories with us. It was amazing.

The orphanage was nothing like I expected - very cheerful, bright, clean, organized and upbeat. When we stepped inside the living quarters, we were instructed to either put on slippers or plastic bags over our shoes... and smothered hand sanitizer all over our hands. I was glad to know that they go to great lengths to keep the children's environment clean. They had 21 preschool age children and six babies. Watching the workers administer such love and care toward the children was really neat.

I was astonished by the needs of each of the children. Most of them are there because of medical problems. Almost all of them have had one type of surgery or another - ranging from a cleft palate to serious heart surgery to spina bifida along with several other conditions. The children seemed happy. Most of them will probably be adopted by American families eventually.

It was refreshing to be able to hold a couple of babies and play with some of the preschool kids. It was a sweet time. I think almost everyone from our group enjoyed the time we spent there.

Update on Running
After we got back from the orphanage, Josie, Em, Sara, and I all went running since there wasn't time this morning. The weather was gorgeous. Unfortunately, my run didn't go quite as well as I was hoping. I consulted my trainer (a.k.a. Rob) and we made up a new plan, so hopefully things will get better. My calves were on fire... which made for a rather unpleasant experience. When I get home, running shoes will help, I think. :)

Update on Homework

So... things are coming along quite well. Today I finished all of my World Civ maps and my final paper for Issues & Trends - also the last paper I will ever have to write in college! That was pretty exciting. I've been doing a lot of studying for Chinese as well. We have our final written exam tomorrow and our oral exam on Friday. The end of homework is in sight!

It's crazy to think that a week from now I'll be packing my suitcases and getting ready to head back to the States. Wow. That's so weird to think about. I really do love China...

Final Stretch

It's hard to believe how quickly time is flying! Yesterday our leader handed out our schedule for our last week and a half in China. It seems kind of surreal to be leaving already. There are so many things I want to do before I leave... but first, I need to finish the rest of my assignments:

- 6 World Civ maps
- 2 Area Study reflections
- Issues & Trends paper
- 1 ch. to read for Issues class
- Chinese written final exam (Thurs.)
- Chinese oral final exam (Fri.)
- turn in Area Study journal
- email fitness hrs. to PHED prof
- finish reading Leadership book for Area Study

Also, need to take care of the next step in the South Korea application process...

There is still much to do, but I think it will all get done. Yesterday was a productive study day, which was good. I turned in my research paper this morning, which was wonderful. I think it's time for me to get going...

The Grand

For quite some time, I've been meaning to dedicate a post to our favorite restaurant, which we affectionately refer to as "The Grand."

chaofan (fried rice)

gongbaojiding (a major favorite - peanuts and chicken)

xilanhua (my personal favorite!)

helandou

tangculiji (sweet and sour pork)

ganbiandoujiao (fried green beans)

mifan (white rice) and ban huang gua (cucumbers with garlic)

jinnianmontou - sweet rolls that you dip in sweetened condensed milk (very unhealthy!)

So... that's a typical meal at The Grand. Sometimes we go almost every day. I'm going to miss Chinese food when I get back. The food we call Chinese in the States just doesn't compare...

Korea & Karaoke

So... I have good news! This morning, I had my interview with Footprints Recruiting and was accepted to teach English in South Korea next year!!! Sara's interview was yesterday and she was also accepted into the program. We are both very excited. As I talked with my interviewer, I was overwhelmed with how clearly the Father has been preparing me for this over the last year with different experiences I've had - substitute teaching, responsibilities on summer project, working in the Writing Center, tutoring, etc. He is so good! I'm excited to see what is in store... Now I just need to figure out a summer job. I am confident that He will provide what I need - He's always been faithful to me.

Tonight we went to a place called Party Time (or something like that). Basically, it was this really nice buffet (with weird, questionable Chinese food) with rooms that groups can rent out to have their own private karaoke night. We had a fun time together... and definitely laughed a lot.

Summer Palace = BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Today was probably one of the best days I've had in China yet. We went to the Summer Palace and had a marvelous time. It was kind of windy, but the sky was clear and beautiful (which doesn't happen all that often in Beijing). We did a TON of walking, but it was lovely. I think it just might have been as close to a perfect day as possible...

Distant view of the Summer Palace - where the emperor and his family stayed during the summer (believe it or not).

A beautiful, long corridor

We were serenaded during lunch... very fun Chinese music

In the Buddhist Temple part...

With Katie and Josie...

At the biggest mall in Asia - visited after the Summer Palace.

We ate at a Korean restaurant for dinner inside the mall. It was delicious. Katie then treated me to Starbucks and we had a coffee date - without homework for once! It was lovely.

I love China...