I am in NORWAY!!!

Hey everyone!  I safely made it to my new home for the next 2 years on Friday after 4 flights, 1 bus, and 1 ferry.  While it was a little bit of a long journey it really was not bad at all.

My flights went well and I was able to check my bags all the way to Bodo, so I did not have to deal with them until customs in Oslo when I needed to re-check them.  Once I arrived in Bodo I made my way to the bus/ferry station where I spent 2 hours until the 9pm bus arrived to take me to my destination (my options for getting to my destination were either a 3pm bus, 4pm ferry, or 9pm bus, but since I did not land until 6pm, I only had one option this time).  The only tricky part about the 9pm bus is that it is due into the Ornes ferry dock at 11:15pm, the same time that the ferry is scheduled to leave for the nearby towns and islands.  If I missed this ferry I could go to the last bus stop, but it would be 30 minutes away from the base compared to the ferry dock which is only 10 minutes away and I was being met at the ferry dock.  Luckily since the bus driver knew I needed to take the ferry and that I had no clue what I was doing (it was pretty obvious since I showed him a printed piece of paper with the information of where I needed to go on it that Kristina, an American staff member here sent me), he called ahead to the ferry and asked them to hold it for 5 minutes until we arrived.  Once on board the ferry I showed my trusted piece of paper again saying that I needed to go to Vassdalsvik and was told to get off at the first stop.  Everyone here speaks great English and are helpful, which is great considering my pronunciation of these places is not even close to being correct.

I spent the weekend resting and getting to know a few of the staff members that are currently here, as well as the families of the staff members that are visiting for the summer.  I have also been eating well.  Here at the base the tradition is to have granola, yogurt, bread and cereal for breakfast, make a sandwich during breakfast time to have later for lunch, and then to have a big meal for dinner.  The first night for dinner we had leftovers which consisted of pigs in a blanket, nachos, salad, and blueberry cobbler.  The second night was chili with biscuits, salad, and jello with fruit.  And last night was a Dutch meal of meatballs, potatoes, and vegetables.

Yesterday I borrowed one of the bicycles from the base and rode the mile and a half into town to visit the supermarket.  The supermarket is not very big (maybe the size of a bigger 7-11 or QT), but does have toiletries, laundry detergent, notepads and food and is very nice.  I also spent a little time yesterday walking around and taking pictures, so be sure to check those out - click the picture of me with a camera in the upper right hand corner to access my photo album.  I have also included a few pictures of my room.  Below is the view from my bedroom.

Tomorrow I leave for Bodo again in the morning, so that I can register at the police station (we have a police station in our town, but for residence permit stuff we are sent to Bodo) and leave on a train tomorrow night headed to the south to Otta, where I will meet up with my other fellow DTS staff members for a weekend of bonding before our training begins.

Many blessings to all of you.  If you are reading this and you do not get my newsletter, but would like to, please leave me a message letting me know, so that I can add you to the list.

Trip to Beijing

Even though I have lived in China a little over 2 years, I have never had the opportunity to go to Beijing and to be a tourist. I was in Beijing for a week in 2010 for the Red Cross Society of China Life Education course training, but we only had one day off, and since it was the worst pollution day ever (meaning you literally could only see about five feet in front of you), my friends and I decided to go to the waterpark inside the Water Cube that day. The only other times I have been in Beijing have been for a few hours overnight when flying back and forth from the States. 

So, on October 26th my roommate and I left on an overnight train headed to Beijing. We arrived the next morning, got checked into our hotel and headed out to explore as well as to find an import store called Jenny Lou's where we were going to pick up a few items for some friends back in Xi'an. There are a few Jenny Lou's, so we asked the concierge at the hotel which one was the easiest to get to by using the subway system. We followed the directions that the concierge gave us and ended up in the Russian-Chinese mob part of town. My roommate and I saw a few "sketchy" things occur as we quickly figured out how to get out of that area of town. We decided to try for another Jenny Lou's in a safer part of town, and after walking an hour and asking several people directions (in Chinese), we finally found it. (Side note regarding something I have learned about people in Beijing:  when asking directions of a Chinese person, if they do not know the answer to your question then they make something up in order to save face instead of just telling you they do not know - totally opposite of our culture).

For the next two days I had arranged for a driver (whom my friends had used before and were impressed with his services) to drive us to the tourist places. Ironically hiring a driver saved both time and money compared to taking buses. So, on the first day our driver, Harry, took us to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, to the Summer Palace, and to the Olympic Center. The second day he took us to the Temple of Heaven, the Pearl market, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. The two days were busy with seeing several sights in a day, but the best possible way to see everything too in such a short amount of time. I know I definitely had a good time. My roommate and I headed back the next night on another overnight train.

Be sure to click on the link to see pictures from my trip to Beijing.

Seeing Chinese Serve their Own

So, there is something that I did not mention in my last post, but that I felt deserved its own post and wanted to share with you.

My Chinese friend and teacher, Rebekah, had a chance to go on her first short term trip a few weeks ago to Yushu, which is in the Qinghai province - near Tibet.  There was a group of ten members (all Chinese) that went to help the people who suffered from an earthquake there several months ago.  Each team member was responsible for asking friends and family to help them purchase certain items to take for the people whether it was school supplies, clothing, etc.  The team members were also responsible for raising funds that would help purchase blankets and cow dung (to be used as fuel for fires for cooking, etc.) for the people.  My friends and I were so excited to be able to help her out with both of her responsibilities as well as to encourage her and talk to our Friend on her behalf for this trip.  For me, it was also exciting to see the passion and joy she had to go out and to serve her own people in any way that she could.

After her trip Rebekah was happy to report back to my friends and I about her time.  She reported that the team faced many challenges during their time in Yushu, but all of them said that it was worth the effort to see people's lives touched and changed.  The group was able to help provide for the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of the people during the ten days and all walked away with an even deeper sense of who the One is in their lives too. 

Long Overdue Update

This post may become a little long as there is a lot of news to catch you up on, so here we go.

About ten days after arriving back into Xi'an and getting settled in a routine, my friends and I were happy to host a group from the States.  Two of the girls stayed at my house and I had fun spending time with them outside of their work time.  One of the girls that stayed at my house is from a Chinese background, but was born in Indonesia and grew up in Australia.  She speaks a little Cantonese (a Hong Kong dialect), but not Mandarin, so it was a funny sight around town to have Chinese people talk to her and for me to have to say that she did not understand and to translate instead.

On September 20 I began teaching the Life Education course for the semester and it has been going really well.  In this culture it is typical for the students to listen to the teacher and to not ask questions, but every week these students have asked some really great questions, and are eager to know more.  Several of the students have even stayed after class to talk to me as well.

Chinese National Holiday was October 1-9, so it was a week full of fireworks and people everywhere.  Chinese people are given seven days off of work, so it can be very difficult to go anywhere because taxis are hard to find, food is sold out in grocery stores, etc., but it is nice to see the people spending time with their families like we do at Thanksgiving.

A few weeks ago I also began helping a friend study for the American College of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM cPT) exam.  I took the exam a few years ago and missed passing the exam by 5 points, and have always wanted to take the exam again.  Becoming a cPT has been a dream of mine, and know it is helpful tool to my teaching of health and wellness in any culture, so I once again am pursuing the tasks necessary to take the exam.  My friend and I meet once a week to study and to see how we are progressing with our weekly practice tests.  My friend plans on taking the exam here in December (it is a computer exam offered in English here at a university), and I will take it again stateside most likely in January.

Relationships with Chinese friends has kept me busy as well, and I am so glad for the opportunities that I have had to spend with each one of them.  My time with Jo (the lady from my newsletter) has been really good and she is always excited to see me.  I am continuing to ask that I can see her come into the family of believers before I leave here, so please be thinking about that for me too.

In other random news one Line of the new Xi'an Subway system opened up the end of September, along with Xi'an's first Burger King, so my roommate, Chinese teacher and I all went and rode the subway one night and ate at Burger King for dinner.  The subway is really nice and makes getting to certain places quicker and more convenient. 

Well, I will conclude there for now.  I will be traveling to Beijing for 4 days the end of next week with my roommate to do the tourist things, as the only other times I have been to Beijing have been for the Life Education training and for a few hour layovers on my way stateside.  I am looking forward to this trip and sharing with you when I get back.

And It Begins...

I have been back in Xi'an now for a week, and have gotten back in the routine after a few days of getting over jet lag.  I have begun meeting with Chinese friends again as well as spending time preparing the Life Education course, which I will begin teaching on September 20 for the semester.  I am also preparing to host another group from our company, who arrive this Thursday.

My friend Natasha, who did two schools with me and we went to Colombia, South America together during our company training, is joining our group here and is my roommate for the next three months.  She arrived a week before I got back from the States and it has been great re-connecting with her.  One of her younger sisters just arrived yesterday as well for a two week visit.  So, it will be a little busy the next few weeks, but I am excited about all the opportunities that await me.