5/21/2014

A review of the last few days:
Saturday: I went to my first Sabbath meeting. I was pleasantly surprised to find about 30 people together worshiping. The service started at about 10 AM. There was prayer, singing and a sermon. Everyone had their own Bible and there were extras for visitors. Even one in English that the passed to me. The was a pulpit and rows of desks facing toward the front. The even had a nice sounding PA system. The sermon visited several texts including the New and Old Testament. I obviously didn’t understand a single word.
The singing was strong and in tune, accompanied by an upright piano.
Prayer time was carried out with the congregation standing and the prayer leader kneeling in front. The interesting thing was that everyone, including the prayer leader faced the front of the room. I thought it was neat. It gave the sensation that we were really talking to someone else instead of just talking amongst ourselves. Everyone faced outward, so to speak.
After the service everyone grabbed their sack lunches and went into one of the other rooms. I had a chance to meet everyone. They were all very sincere as the greeted me. My lifeline, Lily, did her best to translate so that we could understand each other. During the services they had been very diligent to make sure that I had the song book opened up to the right page at the right time. I, of course, didn’t have even the foggiest clue what was written there. At one point one of the ladies even pointed at the place in the song where they were singing. I smiled appreciatively and started trying to at least match the tune with open vowel sounds. In any case, they had done their best to make me feel welcome and it hadn’t gone unnoticed.

At 2:00 PM the program continued. We broke up into small groups, children, young adults and adults. The young adults met in one of the small rooms. We introduced ourselves; how old we were, where we were from and how long we had known Jesus. Apparently there were a couple of visitors.
We then sang a couple of songs and did an exercise together. The exercise involved creating a graph of our life. It was a brilliant way to get to know each other. The vertical access measured the level of happiness while the horizontal line showed age. When our graphs were complete, we took turns explaining why the line went up or down in different parts of our life. It is a great way to open up about ourselves and talk about things that we would otherwise not talk about.
After the small group, we all met together in the main room again. More singing followed by a day by day study of the quarterly, reading every entry and looking up most of the texts. We ended with prayer at 3:30.
I understand this to be a typical Sabbath day.
Sunday:
Sunday was spent looking for apartments. Two “brothers”, as Lily calls them, spent the whole morning running around looking at different ones. When Lily and l showed up on the scene I pretty sure they were ready to be done with the hunt. We looked at three more apartments and decided on the second one. I liked the first one better but I guess the land lord didn’t like foreigners.They said he was mean and looked at me reluctantly when I insisted that they call him one last time before decided on the second apartment.
Monday:
Monday was a full day. 8:30 Am we were off to sign the contract for the apartment. The land lord seems like a very nice person, which was a relief after hearing about the other guy. I signed the contract for one year. By 9:15 we were on our way to figure out the school situation.
I filled out the required paperwork and started asking what it might look like coming into the classes late. When I found out that I would be entering the classroom six and a half months late my mind was made up immediately. I will be waiting till September to sign up for classes.
Originally I had been told that classes had started in March and I was sweating the prospect of coming in two and a half months late. What I had now found out was that March was the beginning of the second semester.
So, I have about three and a half months that I have to figure out what I am doing. I am considering figuring out a way to teach English. I will of course be working on my mandarin by myself if need be.
The prospect of learning another language is rather daunting and at the same time exciting. What I am very aware of is that I am starting from ground zero. Hello and thank you are the only words that I speak with any sort of certainty. Also, very few people speak English.
It seems like just about every time I try to communicate with a Chinese person I end up speaking some amount of Spanish. Its like my brain doesn’t get that all foreign language isn’t the same. It is funny and at the same time a little exasperating because I don’t really have control over it. It happens automatically.
After looking into the school we (Lily and I) went to a “bother’s” house to get some money that one of the believers gave toward my apartment rent.
Lily had borrowed an E-bike from a friend and I was the driver for the day. I was grateful that riding a motorcycle has become second nature for me since that is my main mode of transportation in the states now. When you max out at about forty kilometers an hour it doesn’t give the sensation of any real danger. The tricky part is weaving through the other E-bikes, but that is more fun than stressful. An E-bike has all of the privileges of a walking pedestrian while adding speed. Sidewalks and crosswalks are fair game for the E-Bikes. It also is quite acceptable to go against the flow of traffic as long as you hug the edge of the curb.
We arrived at the brothers house around 12:00. He invited us to join his family for a delicious Chinese lunch.
The rest of the day was spent shopping for dishes, cooking ware, cleaning supplies, etc. for my new apartment. As well as figuring out which phone/internet service to sign up for. That was probably the most frustrating process yet. Cellphone services are complicated enough without adding a language barrier to the mix. Poor Lily worked tirelessly translating back and forth for literally hours as we visited two different companies. By the time we realized that the second company didn’t even service the apartment building I was staying in it was too late. The other company was closing down for the night. At 8:30 PM I said good bye to Lily as she started her forty minute drive back home.
I don’t know how I am ever going to repay her for her hard work. She has been such a blessing to me and done it all with a smile. I am going miss her if she ends up leaving next month.
I walked the few blocks to my new home carrying a bag of fruit and a bag with some black beans, brown rice and rice noodles I had found at a nearby grocery store. It looks like I will survive after all.
Tuesday:
A sweaty but non-the-less decent nights rest. The AC in my room didn’t work. Not a problem, however, seeings how I still don’t have a blanket yet and I am using my jacket for a pillow. Still have a few things on the list to purchase.
Spent the morning cleaning. My kitchen shines now.
The brothers came over and changed the lock on my front door. I can understand them but I feel very supported by them all.
Got the phone/internet thing figured out. Thankfully they had Lily’s number and called her several times so she could translate for us. A worker came over to the apartment the very same day and set everything up. TV service came free with the package so now I have 80 channels. I found one channel that speaks English. It is different from South America, where almost all of their media/entertainment come from the States. Here, pretty much every channel is produced here in China, Everything really is Made In China!!
I finally cooked my first meal here in China. Rice noodles with rehydrated mushrooms, goji berries, some sort of nuts and some soy sauce. It was all part of a little meal kit that bought. However, I had treaded out the beans and rice for rice noodles that I had bought separately. It was alright, but I was so hungry it qualified as great! I cooked it all in my new wok.
Wednesday:
It is now Wednesday and it is lunchtime. I am going to have my black beans that I cooked up crock pot last night.
My AC in my room was just fixed so I might need to bye a small blanket of some sort and maybe a pillow would be nice.
Other than that. I will be cleaning and making this place feel more and more like home.