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!!

One more Chinglish Blog from last year!

I was looking back at my Chinglish blog entries and I realized the last one I did was actually a Vietnamese one. That means I hadn't done a "Chinglish blog" entry since last semester! haha! I guess I had forgotten to take pictures or else I had already seen the one's I didn't take pictures of. I don't know... anyway, I have some for you today! Some of these aren't exactly Chinglish, but I still think they are funny pictures, so just work with me on those ones. Enjoy!

This first one is just to show you that they use the British way to spell some things instead of the American way.


Ping Pang





Sometimes the "v" and "u" get confused.


You can't see it very well, but it says "Pause". I had to get this one fast because the girl was looking at me like I was crazy. I jut ran away real fast after I took this. That's probably why it's a bit blurry too. haha!


Try to pronounce this one!


Team one, Team tow, Team three...


Like I said, some of these aren't exactly Chingling, but this one is just funny to me :) "Fire Fighting Facility"


By "O'clock" room, they mean this room is charged at an hourly rate.










I found this in a Chinese magazine. Pretty much everything about it is strange.










Well, that's all I've got! I've been meaning to put these on a "Chinglish" or "Engrish" website, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I'll try to get that done, so more people can enjoy these pictures! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Hello

Hello. Yes, it's been forever since I've blogged. Yes, I should be doing better. And I will, now that I have an idea of which way I'm going now. Some of you may already know this stuff, but here's a little re-cap of the last two months:

We are living in Stan's grandmother's (Nanee's) house in Gallatin, TN since she isn't living in it now. All thanks to Layna and Danny who so graciously have let us stay here! We are very grateful for them and this house! We have a place to lay our head and our stuff without having to get in the way of family. I'm in the process of weeding out some of our things we don't use anymore and I need lots of space to spread out and look through our stuff! God has blessed us with much but since we aren't using it, it's about time to let someone else! :) We have been traveling like crazy! Whether it's working tree jobs or just visiting friends or family, we've been on the road! Some of you we are planning to come see, but we haven't gotten to it yet! I am in the process of trying to find a job right now and have a prospect or two... we'll see!

Everyone has been asking us, "How long are you going to be here?" We are telling people we will be here about a year. We aren't too sure about it, there are some unknowns that will become known, and then we will know! Ha! As soon as we know, we'll let you know! I haven't been able to sit down and blog yet really because we haven't been home long enough without something else more pressing or important taking up my time. And we didn't have internet in Nanee's house until just recently. The most thing that makes me frustrated is I have missed out on reading all my friends blogs! I am really going to try to catch up! Until then, I may or may not comment on your blogs and I'm sorry I haven't been. I still love you all!

I have hopefully one more Chinglish blog, but I'm not sure when I'll get that up. But you can be looking forward to that! :)

Thanks for reading and I love you all!

So much to write!

1. I am sorry I have not blogged or read any fellow blogger's blogs recently. I've been a bad blogger friend.

2. The reason I have been such a bad blogger recently is because there is so much to write about and I am overwhelmed and finding the brain power to organize it all! This is a good thing, but I need you to know I haven't quit! Hopefully this Friday, I'll be able to find some time to go out to Starbucks and do some blogging (Along with some other things on the to do list for school).

3. I love you all, thanks for reading!