Leaving for Camp

Hey everyone! In about 3 1/2 hours I am headed out to Kunming to work at the Sunshine International Camp. As I mentioned in my previous blog, this is a brief description of the camp from their website: "Sunshine International Camps provide students from the English speaking world and China an opportunity to engage in a highly interactive, cross-cultural character and leadership development experience. This camp will give students confidence and the skills to succeed as leaders of integrity in today’s globalized world. The world needs leaders of integrity! Sunshine International Camps provide an exciting, high impact learning experience that will train students in excellence and integrity in every area of life."

While at camp I will be a coach of a small group of between 5-10 ladies (half foreigners and half Chinese), and I will also have a Chinese co-coach. The camp is all done in English, but there are Chinese coaches to do translation for those who have a low level understanding of English and need a little help. I am excited about the next 12 days, but to be honest don't really know what to expect other than I will be tired - I hear it's non-stop from 8am-11pm everyday. I am just being open to whatever lies in store for me, and for the opportunity to build some great relationships with these students.

As a side note, I will not have internet access for the next 12 days, so the next blog will not be until I get back and right before I head to the States.

Speaking of the States, I will be there in just a few weeks. My family has been blessed with some amazing friends who have been generous and given me a plane ticket to come home this summer. I will fly into Atlanta on July 30 and be in town for just 48 hours before driving to Florida with my parents. I will then be in Cape Coral for about 2 1/2 weeks before heading to Hawaii with my parents for 2 weeks (thanks to mom for getting us tickets with our skymiles). And then I will fly back to China from Hawaii on September 2. For those of you in Georgia, I am sorry that I will not see you on this trip, but am working on trying to come home again at Christmas, which will be spent in Georgia. I will also be sending you an email before I come home with some phone numbers that you can reach me at if you are interested in talking to me while I am stateside.

Well, I will close for now, but will be back with an update in 2 weeks. Hope each of you are doing well and enjoying the summer months. Grace to each of you.

Being a Tourist in The City I Live In

Often it is easy to distinguish when someone is a tourist in town because you see them with a camera taking pictures everywhere they go. Well, here in China, I feel like the Chinese are more tourists than even the foreigners. So, on days that I do actually take my camera out to take pictures in town, I feel like I fit right in.

Natasha has been here for a week now, and we have been busy doing a lot of things. We went to the police station to register her (which is required of any non-Chinese that stay with you in your home) and found it to be a much simpler process than when I registered the Manns - guess I got all the kinks out of the way the first time around. In the past week we have been to the Dayanta (also known as the Big Goose Pagoda), Castle Play Place, had a water fight with friends for the 4th of July, been to the Terracotta Warriors, Zhong Lou (aka the Bell Tower), Gu Lou (aka the Drum Tower), Hui Ming Jie (aka Muslim market), and biked 8.5 miles around the city wall. Biking on the city wall was an amazing thing - I just would not recommend doing it during a hot day in the summer.

So, next week I will be heading to Kunming to volunteer at a camp for High School and College students (Chinese and Other Nationalities) for 10 days. Here is a brief description of the camp from their website: "Sunshine International Camps provide students from the English speaking world and China an opportunity to engage in a highly interactive, cross-cultural character and leadership development experience. This camp will give students confidence and the skills to succeed as leaders of integrity in today’s globalized world. The world needs leaders of integrity! Sunshine International Camps provide an exciting, high impact learning experience that will train students in excellence and integrity in every area of life." I am pretty excited about this opportunity and look forward to sharing with you in two weeks my experience at camp.

Also, for those of you who maybe have not heard yet, I will be stateside for a few weeks in August as well. I will be sending an email soon with more details, as well as including them in my next blog. I am looking forward to getting to see so many of you so soon.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!