Summer and Back to School Fun

I realize that it has been a very, very, VERY long time since I have posted. To those of you who have lost sleep over it, I am truly sorry. :) I know that I have gotten several reminders from Kara and Chris about it. I even got a list of what is expected to be on my next post. I hope that this meets all of your expectations! :)

Asia was amazing! I did not want to leave. I absolutely LOVED it there! I can't wait to go back. I think about it often. I loved learning about a different culture by living it. It was incredible. Most of you probably do not know but I have never been a fan of anything that had to do with Social Studies. It was always my least favorite subject in school. Well, this trip really sparked an interest in different cultures, history, geography, and all that good stuff. It interests me now, which is probably a good thing since I am going to be a teacher. :)

So what did I do? I talked with the natives to help them with their conversational English. I helped with classes at the university and even got to lead a few small groups. Our main job there, though, was to build relationships. So we had a TON of fun! Karaoke (which is HUGE there) was my personal favorite. This is a picture of my partner Austin and me singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."


They were never amused with the little kid songs. They did approve when we did songs like "Over the Rainbow," "Do Re Mi," and "Edelweiss." Oh! I need to tell you. Karaoke in Asia is amazing because you have your own private room for you and your friends. They have all different sizes and they are all decorated really neat. And behind the words is a video that "goes along" with the song. I say "goes along" because sometimes they are just completely random. During "Love Me Tender" they have video of a volcano gushing with lava! It always made for some great laughs.

We also did a lot of ping pong and badminton. I LOVE badminton! It's so fun! They are SO good at it. And very competitive. With each other. They are such good teachers, so patient and encouraging. We had a lot of fun. I always got made fun of because they would get me to play when I wasn't prepared for it so I would kick off my flip flops and play. They don't think playing barefoot on cement is a good idea. Granted my feet did get torn up one day, but it really wasn't that bad. So I got to play the role of the crazy American. :)


Speaking of crazy Americans... What do crazy Americans do when they see a huge wall displaying what looks like famous clay sculptures?


These are some ladies Austin and I met at the top of a mountain. They are both English teachers. When they saw us, they decided it would be a great opportunity for them to practice their English, so they struck up conversation! It is not uncommon at all for this to happen to native English speakers. It's also quite common to be walking down the street and instantly be in the middle of a photo shoot because all the Asian people around you suddenly want their picture taken with you. They get so excited to be able to take pictures with Americans. :)


These are some pictures of some of my friends that I met at the church. (The two fingers up that you may looks very similar to the "peace" sign is actually a "victory" sign.)


The food. Um, yes. Now there is a story. I love American Asian food. Love it. I got there and discovered that American Asian food is quite different from the real thing. I went thinking that I was not a picky eater, and then I discovered that in fact I can be a picky eater. Let me tell you, though, I became a lot less picky by the end of the two months. I learned to enjoy tofu, cucumbers in scrambled eggs, stuffed rolls (a definite staple of my diet, always stuffed with different things from veggies to meat), and watermelon. Boy, when I saw watermelon, it just made my day. I just couldn't get enough of it. My favorite new thing that I ate was definitely anything that included red bean. Don't ask me what it really is because I really don't know. I assume that it is beans that are red. :) This is a picture of red bean ice cream. AMAZING!!!!!


Now to share some of the crazy food that I ate. Green bean flavored ice cream (not so good), duck brain (right from the skull), duck blood (in the tofu-like form), cow stomach (the second stomach), and cicadas.

Yes, crispy little bugs. The noisy ones you can hear in the trees. I ate them. Four of them. They really aren't that bad either. They taste kind of like crunchy popcorn with no butter or salt.

We also got to do some sightseeing while we were there. As you saw at the top, I got to go to the Great Wall. You can see by from this next picture that the steps are quite uneven and unpredictable. That mixed with the extremely hot day and my low blood sugar at the time made climbing the Wall quite a challenge. I didn't think it was going to be that bad, but it sure was rough! It was so fun, though!


We also got to climb 3 mountains while we were there. It wasn't mountain climbing like you might think. There were steps quite similar to the Wall. Here! Have a look!

Awesome, huh? We actually lived right at the base of a famous mountain. Most days it was hard to see the mountain due to the fog. The day we got there was a beautiful, clear day, though. It was so neat to live on a mountain. (Okay, we were barely on the mountain, but still. We were a whole two blocks up from the official start of the mountain so that has to count for something, right?)

We got to go to the Forbidden City, too! No, not the restaurant. The real thing! I can't wait to go to the restaurant and tell them that I went to the real thing. :)


We got to see the Terracotta Warriors, too! And as if that wasn't good enough, we got to stay in a Terracotta Warrior infested apartment, too! Seriously. There were Terracotta Warrior models everywhere. Life size ones in the walls. Literally IN the walls. You can see the front of the Terracottas in one room and the behinds of them in the other. No joke. And they had weapons. Ones that worked. And came off the wall. I have no idea how I know that information, though. :) Back to the infestation, though. They were on the drapes, in shadow boxes on and in the walls, holding up the bathroom counter, in the tiles in the shower, around the room as a baseboard, and holding up my bed. But wait, there's still more! There is even a headless one being used as a lamp. Strangely enough, we found a random Terracotta head acting as a door stop in the other room. As if the over abundance of Terracottas was not enough, the doors were old fashioned with the wooden beams or metal bars used to lock them. And just when I thought I was smart enough to check it out and get back out of the room with no problem, I locked myself in. I managed to scream bloody murder loud enough for my roommate in the other room to hear me and walk me though the unlock process. Luckily she had been briefed on this process. Otherwise, I might truly be a Terracotta today. Speaking of, here is me being a Terracotta.

That's one of the weapons I mentioned earlier. And I have no idea how it got into my hands. And I really have no idea how the arrow shot out of it and almost hit Austin. I can't tell you how many people have looked at this picture and thought it really was three real Terracottas there. I have awesome Terracotta skills. Who needs numb chuck skills when you have Terracotta skills?

So here I am with the real Terracottas. This is where I got all of my inspiration and training for the above picture. Either that or it just came to me as I slept surrounded by the impostors. Hmm...


So now let's talk about some of the fun we had back here in the states at debrief. Austin and I showed off our traditional garb to all of our friends who went to other countries. We also had a killer ninja fight with our simply amazing swords we made in our traditional garb. We made the swords at orientation before we left and broke them in a little. Our last duel was definitely the best, though. I died several times, but I failed to miss a beat. I won the war by using my secret weapon: chop sticks!

Here we are with our traditional garb. Now imagine those nice smiles as vicious scowls with wooden swords in our hands. *Shudder* Yup. It was brutal.


Speaking of the swords, here they are. These are the ones from orientation before we even left. You can see some of the brutality already coming out. And some very needed nose picking, of course.

We of course had to show off our chop stick skills when we got back, too. This is a picture of Austin and me tossing goldfish crackers to each other, using our chop sticks. We tossed them at the same time and caught each others' goldfish--ON THE FIRST TRY!!! Now I don't know if you have ever tried to toss anything with chop sticks before, but it's not that easy. We are just that amazing. We are so Asian.

Okay, this is slightly random, but what do college students do with hot wax?

Yup. You were expecting that one, weren't you? :)

Moving more toward the serious side, these are some of my wonderful friends that I made at orientation and debrief. We traveled all over the world for two months, came back, and picked up right where we had left off. They are so awesome! I love them all!!


Transitioning even farther to the serious side, I want to thank all of you so much for all of your support and encouragement over all the months prior to the trip, through it, and even now. I feel so blessed to have all of you standing behind me. God is completely amazing!

Speaking of God, He taught me A TON on this trip. I want to share a couple things that He really worked with me on.

1. Contentment. I always thought of contentment as not wishing that you had more, or simply being thankful for what you had. God challenged me a lot with this this summer. I lived for most of the summer in an area where things were not a priority. They lived with very little. What we took in our suitcases was a lot to them. I learned to enjoy living with little. I actually learned to prefer it. I thought that I had done it. I had "learned the secret of being content" as Paul says in Philippians 4:12. But then I traveled to a large city where things were everywhere and buying things was common. People lived with much more here. I became very discontent, wishing that the weekend visit would end quickly so I could just go back "home" to my small city with very little. God challenged me with Philippians 4:12 as I woke up one morning while I was still in the large city. He challenged me with the last part of the verse that reads "I have leaned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." I felt Him saying, "Angie, you learned to be content when there was little, but can you be content when I provide much?" I was so convicted, and my attitude changed right then and there. I learned that contentment is more than just not wishing you had more. It's also not wishing you had less. It's being thankful for what God has provided, not wishing He had provided differently. This is something God is still teaching me now that I am back here in the states.
   
2. I work for God, not men. Austin and I struggled with this together this summer and were able to encourage each other through. Since both of us were sent by loving friends and family, we felt a certain obligation to bring back the "good stories" to win our supporters' approval. We had to constantly refocus and realize that we were there to serve God, and if we did that, nothing else mattered. We live to serve God in all we do. And nothing else matters.
   

As I was on this trip, my focus was on three things:

1. Serve God.
2. Be Used by God.
3. Be Changed by God.
   

As I kept these three my focus, I saw God do amazing things in and through me. I want to challenge you to adopt these three things as the reason you live. Make them the reason you get up in the morning. If you face each day with the desire to serve God, to be used by God, and to be changed by God, I am certain that He will do amazing things in your life as He did in my life.



Now that I am back, I am finishing up my undergraduate degree with two student teachings. I am in a 5th grade classroom right now, and I am loving it. The kids are wonderful! My host teacher and I are a great team, too.

I also started to teach the preschool class at church. Chris is a huge help! We have seven little ones, and they are so good. We have yet to have all of them at the same time, but hopefully we will have them all soon. I love being able to work with all of them! It's one of the highlights of my week. Thanks for letting me work with your kids!!

I hope that this post fills you in on the last four and a half months of my life! I hope it was just as fun to read as it was to write!!