HTAD (Head Teacher Appreciation Day)

Let me tell you about a holiday that I had no idea existed. It's called Head Teacher Appreciation Day! Let me tell you something. I feel appreciated. Story time!

Susan and I were invited to spend the night with Kelly (our coordinator). We didn't know what we were going to do, but we knew that we were supposed to dress nice. So, Susan and I dressed up and got all fancy and we met Kelly at the school gate at 5:00. She then drove us to this restaurant about 5 minutes away. We didn't really think this was unusual because we go out to eat with her sometimes. But, we went inside the restaurant and guess what happened? Lots of our teachers all jumped out and yelled "surprise"! Understand that I had NO IDEA that this was going to happen. I was absolutely speechless. Then, Susan and I were bombarded with hugs and lots of "I love you!"s.

To make the night even cooler, we ate delicious Korean food and at the end of the meal, all of our teachers went around and said something nice about Susan and I. Of course I cried. Okay, I bawled. What really did it in was when Kelly spoke and said that we were her favorite and most hard working head teachers in the 8 semesters that she's worked with ILP. She then said "I will love you two forever". Okay, I'm getting weepy just remembering it, it was that touching. She's incredible. Apparently she and our teachers planned this whole surprise party for Susan and I just to tell us that they loved us and appreciated us. All of the teachers said the nicest things to us as well. It was just an incredible night.

To make things even better, we all went to a mystery location and I didn't figure out that it was a massage place until I saw the chairs! I never would have gone to get a massage if I was left to my own devices, but Kelly was insistent that Susan and I have some time to relax.

The massage was the furthest thing from relaxing. It. Hurt. So. Bad.

But it felt so good.

Curious.

I also got what is called "cupping" on my back just to say that I did it. This morning I have 14 circular bruises on my back that are pretty rocking.

To make the whole night really over the top was my teachers later showed me a photo collage that they put together for us. How sweet can they be???

In conclusion, I am so incredibly blessed. I had such a hard week this last week and I remember praying for things to be better. I had been so stressed and I felt like no one really noticed how hard Susan and I were working. However, they did notice and they were so sweet in planning that whole night for the two of us. I am so thankful for them. I'll brag and say that they're the best ILP teachers ever. Ever.

These Are a Few Of My Favorite Things....

It seems that I've been in China for about 2 months now. I'm halfway through! It seems weird that it has gone so fast, but at the same time I can't believe how much we've been able to cram in such a short amount of time. We've seen a lot of things, worked a lot, played around a lot, and definitely learned a lot. I know that I've personally learned a lot about myself-- especially that I'm stronger than I think that I am. Also, I've found that I have such an amazing supportive sister here with me, my co-head teacher is fantastic, and I have many good friends who are very talented teachers. I am very blessed by those the Lord has put me with through this experience.

Now the kids. Wow. They're simply amazing. I love those sweet children so much, I can hardly stand it. Their cute faces and loving qualities make me want to be a better person.

So, story time. At the beginning of the semester, Susan and I had lots of questions about this one student named Danny. He wouldn't participate in class and spent a large portion of the time during class hitting his head on the wall, staring blankly, or hurting himself. Remember that this boy is about 7 years old. I had talked to this boy towards the beginning of the semester, and couldn't figure out what was wrong and why he was so sad and angry. It made me sad to see him struggle so much, but there not be much that I could do to help. Weeks went by and nothing changed. But, my amazing teachers decided that they would show an increase of love toward Danny and guess what? He started opening up! One day, he left class because he was having a hard time and I found him and played games with him and gave him lots of love and hugs. Now, he is one of my best friends and always is the first to come and give me a huge hug and tell me that he loves me. This boy is simply amazing. I'm not sure what his whole story is, but I know that he stays at the school all of the time. He doesn't go home or see his parents on weekends. It breaks my heart to know that such a sweet child who is full of love could feel rejected by his family. Again, I don't know his parent's story and what's going on in their lives, but it's still hard to think about.

I have made a special effort this week to go and spend more time with the kids. Because I'm a head teacher, I don't have students of my own (the teachers are sort of like my students), so I don't get all of that one-on-one time that the teachers get. So, I was finding that I was growing tired and forgetting the reason that I was there. I forgot that I was really here to serve them, I was just doing it another way. So, I have taken a lot of time this week to go and be with the kids during meal-times, recess, and to tuck them in to bed at night. I am happy to say that because of this, I have been much happier and I am so blessed to interact with them. They really are incredible.

So, in other news, I got my hair cut at a salon. I wasn't planning on doing it, but my coordinator was going to get it cut before we headed back to the school one day, and I decided that my hair was looking sort of drab so I decided to get mine cut too! My hour long cut/shampoo/style only ended up costing 30 yuan (less than $5!) It also looks fantastically Asian! Say hello to long bangs and sassy style!

Lastly, Andrea, Sarah, and I went downtown tonight to hang out and we stumbled upon a large marketplace called "Big World". After looking around for a bit, we decided that we'd get out nails done, so we started, then all of the sudden stores started closing and the lights all went out. We were some of the last people in the entire building!!! Still, they stayed and painted out nails, and I'm very glad that we did it. It was super fun.

Life has been good. I have been stretched to some of my stress limits, but it's still been good. I have incredibly supportive family and friends back at home as well was here, and I am so appreciative of every encouraging comment that I receive. I am seeing pretty crazy things happening back in the USA, and I hope that everyone is safe.

A student named Chocolate. What a cutie.

 One of my favorite students named Danny

 Andrea, Sarah, and I getting our nails done (see video below).

 Me and my new Asian haircut.

Watch this awesome video!

Qingdao and Update

Hello world!

I've finally found a minute where I can update my status and let all of the lovely people in my life know how I'm doing in a little place called China.

First: Let's talk about Qingdao (Ching- Dow)

Susan (my beautiful, talented, and fantastic co-head teacher) and her sister went with me down to Qingdao which is about 4 hours south of Weihai for our 4 day weekend trip last week. We originally didn't plan on going on vacation because we hadn't planned anything, however, we decided that it would be good for us to get out and get some sunshine and enjoy the fact that we're in a completely different culture with lots of beautiful things around us.

So, Thursday morning we boarded a bus to Qingdao, which wasn't really exciting. We got lost for a bit because our bus station was on the other side of town. However, with the help of a lady with a little boy, we found the right bus and headed into town- and this is what we saw:

Beautiful huh? Ocean meets metropolis meets ancient architecture. For those of you who don't know much about Qingdao (I know that I didn't before I went), it was a port that was taken over for about 40 years (1890-1930) by the Germans. During that time, they built lots of mansions and other European architectural buildings that we were lucky enough to see.

Beautiful building on the Qingdao pier. Apparently, it's the same building that's on Tingsao beer which is one of the most well known beers in China. However, I just think that it looks awesome :)

Did I mention beautiful European architecture? Here's the Protestant Church. We couldn't really get up very close to it because it costs more money. It was just as amazing at a distance.

This is another well known Catholic Cathedral- and it is actually still holding mass meetings! How cool is that? I'm in China in front of one of the only cathedrals in China.

We were taking pictures when we were walking to the bus stop so we could remember where our hotel was, and these were some buildings right next to the bus stop. I thought the fog made them look majestic.

A very cool statue in downtown Qingdao.

So, the next day we took a million buses to get to Mt. Laoshan which is originally an hour away from downtown Qingdao, however by bus (and a million wrong directions) it took us almost 3 hours. However, we were in good spirits when we saw this beautiful scene:

Beautiful huh? We saw that. We hiked that mountain as well.

This is me in the parking lot :) Pretty glamorous huh?  I'm pretty sure this jacket is every single picture of me in China- I hope it will warm up soon.

At the top :) It had rained as we were walking up, so if I look like death please send forgiving thoughts my way. We also met this family who was from Mexico on the hike up. They warmed my heart and it was good to hear a familiar language.

The next day, we went to Zhongshan Park and the Zhongshan Temple. What better way to get to the temple from the park but by cable car?

I was alone in the cable car, but Susan and Cindy were having a good ol' social time haha :)

One part of the Zhongshan Temple. What was so unusual was that it's still a fully functioning temple so there were lots of people burning incenses and monks walking all around. It felt slightly awkward taking this picture...

More cable car pictures of Qingdao

Another portion of Zhongshan temple grounds. Very cool! 

So, that was my vacation. It was great getting to see all of those amazing things, and I had so many fun experiences I'd go back in a heartbeat. 

Since we've been back, it's been one of the most stressful weeks of my life. I've been pushed to my limits and though it's been incredibly difficult, I am very blessed to see the Lord's hand in my life and the hands of His servants. I've gotten the chance to watch a couple of conference talks which have been incredibly helpful. I've also made prayer a large part of my life. Lastly, I have some pretty amazing people in my life right now that I'm so grateful for. They are positive and loving and help me whenever I am struggling. I am definitely in no shortage of friends here. I could not be any more thankful for them in my life. 

I hope that everything is going well back at home- I'll update again when I can :)