Chinglish... kind of

Hey! I've only gotten a couple of Chinglish pictures since we've been here, and I hoe you enjoy! Hopefully I can remember to take a picture of the next ones I see! I haven't gotten into the mind set of remembering to take pictures of the Chinglish I see. Also, as you can see from the title, there is one that didn't have any writing on it, but I thought it was hilarious! Enjoy!





Stan demonstrating what type of a person might buy this product...?


A baby "dummy" to show how to put a diaper on.


I wouldn't dare enable to become the imagination. Not in a million years.


Oh how I love these. So funny! I hope you enjoyed them! Have a great day!

Thankful

I know, I know, It's been a while since I blogged, but we've been so busy blah blah blah. You've heard it too many times. Anyway, I felt the need to blog about this because it's something I am constantly thinking about. When I'm doing something in China, I think of how I would do that same thing in America, and vice versa. For example: In America when I am driving down the road in my car with the heat blowing in my face and it's 38 F outside, I think about traveling the same distance in China. There are 3 options:

#1. Taxi (the heat isn't always working in the vehicle. And you must wait an eternity to find a taxi at certain times of the day)
#2. Bus... I believe I've talked about the struggles of a bus ride before. Read about it here. Second paragraph.
#3. E-bike (or any 2 wheeled mode of transportation.)

By the way, all 3 China options cause feelings of frustration.

I am thankful when I am driving my car in America. In China when I have time to sit on the couch and enjoy time talking with my husband, I think about how much time we don't have for that in America. Life is just slower in China. It takes longer to do things, so you don't plan as much in one day and everything feels more chill. It's nice.

So, I am thankful. I used to work at the Exchange Club-Carl Perkins Center for the prevention of child abuse. I left that job to come to China to teach English and share some good things with the Chinese people. Things I experienced while working for the Carl Perkins Center (CPC) just stayed with me. Like any experience leaves a foot print on your life, this one walked all over my heart. Certain daily rituals of mine remind me of experiences I had while working for the CPC and the children who were positively effected by it. I almost feel like I'm in a movie having a flashback. Some of these are strange, but true.

When I am washing the dishes, specifically rinsing the soap off of the dishes, I remember a certain sweet grandmother of a sweet little boy I helped. I remember the first time I went to see her she was rinsing the dishes off and crying because times were hard for her. She took in her grandchildren because her daughter was not a good enough mother to take care of her own children. I so vividly remember the little boy coming in the house from the bus after school and showing his grandmother a picture he drew for her. She wiped her tears and thanked him for the picture. As he ran to his room, she sat down at the kitchen table with me and said she didn't mean to get upset, and that she is so grateful for her grandchildren.

When I wash my hair, specifically when I squeeze the shampoo from the bottle into my hand, I think of a 14 year old girl I helped. I think about her telling me of a time when her hair was pulled so tight from her scalp, her head ached the next day. I think about her giving me an angel figurine when I left the CPC because, "You helped me out of my hell."

When I use butter, specifically when I put the butter into the pan to cook something, I think of two little sisters who were 2 and 4 years old. I walked into the house and saw the 4 year old eating butter. Me and a colleague then looked in the refrigerator and found nothing but a stick of butter. The poor mother had nothing and thankfully the CPC was able to help her get on her feet.

It's very strange because these things consistently enter my mind in the same circumstances. Whether I am in China or America, these things come to mind. Yes, I said some of the things are weird, but it is 100% true and very specific. I don’t know why I think of these things when I do, but I feel like He is helping me to be thankful for the things I have. The grass is never greener on the other side. I'm thankful I have a good mother. I'm thankful I have loving parents who didn't abuse me. I'm thankful I have food to eat. I'm thankful I have a Father who loves me more than any person could. Be thankful and tell Him about it! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Change!

I feel like I'm the type of person who can handle change quite well. But then when I find myself not handling it so well, it makes me angry that my coping mechanisms which worked before are proving to not work, and then I have to change THAT. I get irritated that I have to cope when I don't have time to cope because all I want to do is get our apartment fixed up the way I want it. The lesson to learn from this? Being selfish isn't a good thing. Stan helps me to stay calm when I get irritated at these sort of things. We finally were able to move into our apartment. There are just a few things to do: get the gas turned on, get ID cards to get into the building (We are just having them beep us in right now until we get the cards. And I think the office has moved, but they didn't tell anyone. Yay China.) We also have some decorating to do, but we might have to wait until June to do that when we come to the U.S. for my sister's wedding. Also buying a coffee pot is on the list of things (they are a rare find here, but I think we can find one online. We'll see) Anyway, we have some things that need to get done personally, but also we are learning things we need to do for our new jobs! I am needing to brush up on my blogging skills because part of my job is going to be keeping up the company blog! Fun! I'll be videoing what's going on with the company, and having a schedule of who will write the blog of the week each week. The purpose of it is to show customers what type of people we are as a business and young professionals. Just to show how fun we are! Things that I'll be videoing are gonna have to be creative and me and Stan already have a couple ideas, but your ideas would be much appreciated!! Comment below! :) We'll also be heading up some activities with the other employees to keep the type of attitude in the company going that is desirable. So that's fun!

Just an update on what's going on with us! I'll be able to give more details as I learn my niche. Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully be blogging more often! I love you all!

Ahhhhh! China!!

These past 2 weeks have been crazy and life changing! As you all might know, me and my husband have been wanting to go back to China, and have been praying things would work out in the future for that to happen. We have wanted to have the opportunity to return to China and start a coffee shop! At this point it has been a dream because, well, we don't have any money! Well, 2 weeks ago we received an offer from some friends we got to know pretty well last year while we were in China, Jonathan and Danielle Jenkins. They offered us a position in their growing company, Order With Me. They will have people from different cultures working for them. They said they would like for us to come and be a part of their company to help with gelling the two cultures together, and sort of help with developing the company culture. Also, there are some other exciting things that are possibilities, but those are all things that will be discussed as we get to China and start our positions. They would like for us to be on our way to China by the end of January, 2012. So, what are we up to these days? Packing, organizing, rearranging, and getting rid of our things! Meanwhile, we've been decorating for Christmas! We bought our tickets to China yesterday and we leave on January 26th. Ahhhh! It's just so crazy fast, but I'm now getting used to the idea. We are excited and it's so wonderful that our friends and family support us. It makes the process so much easier on us! I just wanted to write it all out so everyone we haven't told yet can know what our plans are! Thanks so much for reading! I love you all!

GMC 2011

I haven't blogged in a while, we've been crazy busy! The last exciting thing we did was GMC. GMC is the Global Missions Conference in Texas. It doesn't happen every year, so we were happy to get the chance to go. It was encouraging to spend time with friends we hadn't gotten to spend time with in a while. It always makes me feel good, and blessed. We were also able to have the chance to build a booth for the conference so people could have the opportunity to talk to us about what we want to do in China with the potential coffee shop. We thought this would be a good opportunity to get the idea out to others. It was such a blessing because we got to meet so many people we would not have had the chance to meet. We served free coffee and invited people in to chat. Also, sometimes people would stop by our booth and ask if we were doing it in China already. It was neat to hear that, because that gave us a boost of confidence. We were also hoping to glean something from others and if anyone would be interested in giving some suggestions, we were so happy to take them! It was great! We were filled with so much information and suggestions! Here's a picture of the booth. It was the first time we had ever done anything like that, so we didn't really know what to do, but we wanted to make it inviting. You be the judge!




Here's a close up of the chalk board...


Stan did a great job! I just handed him things he needed. :) The bench for people to sit on is on the left side and the coffee is on the right side. One man at the conference who is already involved in the work in China told me, "You know, you are accomplishing here exactly what you want to do in China. Serving coffee and providing an inviting place to sit and talk about important things."

We are excited about the future and enjoying our time in America: counting our blessings every day. Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Reverse Culture Shock

We’ve been back in the States for a little less than 3 months. When the first of September came, we felt a little odd not going to China, and had some “what’s next?” feelings. We’ve been doing A LOT of traveling! Things are starting to slow down and I am finally able to clear my head enough to blog! I was thinking about some things that are different now, and if you don’t want to read them, that’s fine… it’s mainly me processing change, which is better than rejecting my American culture, or being frustrated with things. ☺ So here are a couple of ideas that have been bouncing around in my head about reverse culture shock.

Every. Single. Day in China, I would get up and check the weather. (periods added for emphasis.) Now you may say, “Well, that’s no different from life in America.” Ok, I still check the weather everyday in America, but it’s not for the same reason. I am just curious to know what the day will feel like. In China, it was a MUST to check the weather. Your well-being depends on it! I don’t mean to sound dramatic, but if you were caught in the rain or it got cold or hot during the day and you weren’t prepared, you couldn’t just run to the car and grab that jacket you have for times like this, or just go back home. You were either prepared for the weather or you werne't. The other day I said to Stan, "Hey, it's not supposed to rain for 10 days!" We both were so surprised because we are used to having a couple days of rain here and there, or a week of rain here and there. The rain doesn’t bother me so much here because I can just hop in the car and hardly get wet at all!

When the internet used to quit working, we would become irritated beyond belief at first in China. Then we got used to it, and while it was still irritating, we knew the most we could do was tell someone and they may or may not come to fix it when we wanted them to, or when they said they would. Now that we are in America, and if I am in a place where the internet isn’t working, I automatically think, “It’s just because it’s China.” But I’m not in China! It’s funny to have realizations like that, even after being here for almost 3 months.

Speaking of the internet, before getting on the internet, I always go up to my toolbar on my computer and start to click on the VPN. The VPN is what we had in China so we could access websites like, blogger, facebook, twitter, and google. I still find myself moving my mouse toward my toolbar to turn it on, but I don’t have to. We are definitely creatures of habit! Ha!

Since we rode buses a lot, I would make sure I had a movie or TV show, or some good music on my phone so I could listen/watch while on the bus. I just recently downloaded a lot of the new songs that are on the radio, thinking I would be able to listen to them on the bus—but there is no bus to ride. I use to hate the bus rides downtown because they were so long, but I learned to appreciate them and now they are not available to me. Life is different, and learning to adapt is important.

I would say the thing that is the most shocking to me is things that are perceived to me to be different about America. For example, when we were in China and I was being bumped into without an apology, or being cut in front of in line, I would always think, “Americans are more courteous than that!” Then when I got back to America, some of that courtesy seemed to fade in my eyes. I know that Americans did not become more rude over the past 2 years suddenly. It is because I placed my first culture up on such a high pedestal, that when it’s flaws were shown to me I let myself down. My first thought when someone does something rude is, “Are you Chinese? Because that’s rude!?” That’s my first thought… not what I say. ☺ Then I think, “America isn’t what should be placed on such a high pedestal. It’s Christ who should be...being in the Family and having a common bond. That’s what sets us apart from the different cultures of the world. No malice, no scheming, only love. That’s where it’s at. I need to remind myself I am a Christian first, then an American.

Those are just a couple things my mind has wandered toward while being in the states the past couple of months. Logging my thoughts is going to be important for me in the present and in the future. Thanks for being a part of it! Thanks for reading! I love you all!!