I’m not planning to blog for the summer- just taking a break to soak it all in.

If you’re an “in real life” friend and know me, I’ll have photos on facebook.  If not, I’ll see you in late July when we head back!

Blue skies, sunshine, friends, family, life is good!

I’ve been trying to prepare the girls (and myself) for re-entry into the US.

That might sound silly.  After all, we’re Americans, and re-entering life in America should be pretty natural.  Especially for Keith and I, given that we have lived the vast majority of our lives in the States.

But I’ve been forewarned that the first trip home can release all kinds of feelings and emotions, and if you’re ill prepared for that, it can be a hard trip.  I’ve been told to look at America as a foreign country and to give it grace in the same way that we say “Oh, this is China, some things aren’t going to be the way we’d prefer them.”  We might feel alien.  We might feel a bit like outsiders. We might feel like sometimes we don’t know (or have forgotten) the social rules.

I talked to the girls about the way things happen in America.  When you do things you have to line up.  You can’t push and shove.   Here, if I don’t push and shove, I’m left without whatever it is I was lining up for.   It feels awkward, it feels rude, but it also feels like the only way to get stuff done here.   I’m not sure I can whip out my elbows in the Kroger line and throw my stuff on the conveyor belt in front of people.  I think I might get more than a few stares for doing that.  The girls nodded their heads for that one “Oh!  It’s like school!  We have to line up at school!”

I told them that in America, people won’t want to take their picture all the time and they probably won’t have strangers squeal and say how cute they are.  I assured them that the only people that will take their pictures are family members.  They have a love/hate relationship with the attention they get.  Sometimes (rarely!) they ham it up and smile for the camera and play along with the locals who are fawning over them.  But more and more lately, they seem tired of the attention.    Eliza’s response of “Why won’t they say we’re cute?  Don’t people in America think we’re cute too?” made me giggle.  I explained to her that yes, they think she’s cute, but there’s a lot more little blonde haired, blue eyed princesses running around Texas, Indiana, and Missouri, so they’re not quite the novelty there.

As for me, I’m reminding myself that I will (hopefully!) get a 7 week reprieve from people poking my fat, telling me how unhealthy ___ is (drinking ice water, taking a taxi, drinking coffee, etc..), asking my salary, staring at me open-mouthed, and smoking everywhere.   However, on the same token, I’ve got to remember that some of the social liberties I’ve adopted here aren’t going to cut it in America.   I can’t say things out loud in English and assume no one understands!  I also need to cut all of my “Chinglish” words from my vocab.  I naturally use words like “mei you” (don’t have), “dui” (correct), “li hai” (severe or harsh- it describes women usually), “ma fan” (troublesome).   They obviously don’t make sense to people who don’t have a background in Chinese!

We can’t WAIT to see family.  My sister has a kid I’ve never even met!  He’s almost 2 years old now!  Of course, she has 5 kids, so it is pretty easy to imagine he’s a lot like the others, right?  Hehe, sorry, Tamara!  But we are definitely excited to meet Gabe!

Keith’s brother has a “new” girlfriend.  I say “new” because they’ve been dating a long time, but we’ve just never met her.  Same for my little brother Logan.   My baby sister Bethany’s gone from high school student to college superstar.   Emily’s husband Matthew is about to deploy to Iraq.  And I think we have some grandmas and grandpas who want to see their sweet grandbabies??

I’m looking forward to drinking unnaturally large 44 oz Sonic strawberry limeades chock full of ice.  No more 3 oz cups of water for me!  I’m ready to use a big girl cup!

Yoplait yogurt, Buffalo wild wings (boneless please!  I’ve had enough skin and bones in my diet the past 2 years!), guacamole, eggplant parmesan, real CHEESE, fresh salads topped with sweet vidalia onion dressing, baked potato soup in a bread bowl (Atlanta Bread Company!), bagels topped with jalapeno cream cheese, pumpernickle bread with dill dip, DIPS of any and every kind, quesadillas, fajitas, real authentic tamales, Edy’s ice cream, steak (hot off the grill, please!), corn on the cob, blueberries, frozen raspberries, green seedless grapes.

Target.  With its wide aisles, bright lights (dude, they turn the lights on there- what a NOVEL idea!!), cereal, fresh produce, cute clothes, shoes, toys, candles, dishes, and aisles upon aisles beckoning us to spend more money than we have.

It is currently 100 hours till our plane leaves Beijing.  I could NOT be more ready.

I just need to keep mentally telling myself that America might feel like a foreign country.  We might feel like outsiders.  But DUDE, at least we’ll be eating GOOD food while we feel like outsiders.  A big ole tub of guacamole can heal a world of hurts!!  And at least we’ll have our friends and family all around us!!

But poor Katie- she’s just so sad she can’t pee outside all summer long!

Today, Eliza graduates from kindergarten.   I am going to sound like a completely gushy-mushy mom for a few minutes here.   Fair warning given.

She has grown up so much this year.  I looked at her tonight and she took my breath away.  She has become so responsible and so mature this year.  I’m so proud of her.

She asked me to curl her hair for the graduation ceremony. It is the first time I’ve used a curling iron on her hair!  She looks SO old now.

I am one proud mama today!

Both of my girls have a “thing” for Korean boys.   Katie’s had a “thing” for Louie, a sweet little guy in her class this year.  Meanwhile, Eliza is super stoked that next year she’ll be back at “the big school” instead of the Early Childhood Center because her beloved Min Sung (who skipped kindergarten and is in 1st grade this year) will be at that school.  The love triangle opens up due to a certain 2nd grade girl who is also “crushing on” Min Sung.   Who will Min Sung pick?  The “drama” of childhood romance is pretty humorous to watch as an adult! Who needs tv?

Sadly for Katie, I don’t think Louie is *quite* as into it as she is…

The sports day at their school today was a blast.  All of the kids were divided into color-coordinated-shirt-wearing teams and spent the morning running and squealing.  It was such a fun event to watch!

On the bus this morning on the way to school.  (Our bus is the “teachers’ kids’ bus, fyi, hence all the white faces)

I checked out of life for a few hours today.  I curled up at a Starbucks with a caramel frappucino, a notebook, a pen, my trusty cell phone MP3 player, and headphones.   That’s my way of exiting the world and getting personal space in the land of 1 billion people.

I had the chance to sit down and process and write about one of the nights on spring trip.

On Thursday night, the sophomore girls gathered together in my hotel room to watch Crossing (크로싱), a South Korean movie based on the true stories of families who defected from North Korea in the 1990’s, a time in which North Korea was facing a severe famine.  Crossing the border into South Korea was not safe due to military presence and landmines.   Families would cross into China and attempt to make their way to South Korea once over the border.  This was risky at best given that if they were caught they’d be sent back to North Korea to face steep punishment.

If you plan to watch this movie at some point, stop here. Warning given.  This is the basic storyline of the film- apologies in advance for my poor translation of anything involved here.

It isn’t an easy movie to watch.   It is the story of a young family in North Korea.  The wife is pregnant with the family’s second child.  She is sick with tuberculosis.  The father makes the difficult choice to leave his sick wife in the care of their 11 year old son while he crosses the border into China to get medicine for her.

The father crosses over and ends up trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare.  He defects to South Korea only after giving a public testimony against North Korea.

Meanwhile, the wife dies, leaving the young son to be sent to a labor camp.  At the camp, he finds his childhood best friend whose family had disappeared some months before that.   She and her family had been sent to the labor camp.  He sees the reality of his future in her malnourished, parasite-ridden body.  He tries to save her but it is too late and she dies in his arms.

The father is in South Korea now and has arranged for his wife to be brought to him, smuggled across the border.  He learns of his wife’s death and is wracked with guilt.  He continues to work toward being reunited with his son.  The son journeys with couriers through China and across the Mongolian border.  At the border, he is given a paper to show to the next person he sees- the paper asks for him to be taken to the South Korean embassy.

The son wanders the Gobi desert, finally dying there- alone.  The father’s sobs over his son’s lifeless body end the film.

Something about this film has haunted me a bit since then.  And not just the depressing topic and lack of happy ending.

At one point, the father, having just learned of his wife’s death, throws a Bible to the ground.  He screams at God.  “Why have you forgotten North Korea?  Is your love only for South Korea, where lives prosper?  What about North Korea?  Why have you forgotten us, Lord?”

The girls and I sat in silence after the film.  Sniffles echoed throughout the room.  How do you respond to this kind of film?

My faith in Him tells me that the God I know, the God I serve, is faithful and loving.  He hasn’t forgotten North Korea.  He hasn’t forgotten any suffering people group.  He doesn’t turn His eye, His heart, from their suffering.   But how do we reconcile their grief, pain, horror with a loving God?

Why is He seemingly silent?  Why doesn’t He intervene?  Why do people suffer alone, forgotten?

I trust that even though our human eyes can’t always see the evidence, He is there.  He is faithful.  He is the light in their darkness.

poverty. pain. confusion.

loneliness. grief. sorrow.

this world- an empty shell.

temporary. false. hollow.

struggle. fight. survive.

alone in a hostile world.

hope. grace. life.

in a Father’s embrace.

in a promise of future peace.

never alone. never forgotten.

It is so good to be home.

I didn’t have a chance to breathe, let alone post, the last few days.  I have several photos of those days to share.  I’ll mostly let them speak for themselves as I’m still mentally/physically recovering from the week!

We went to a local village school on Friday morning.  I loved the kids there.  A sampling:

The restrooms (no roof)

In the afternoon, we helped out local farmers with digging, plowing, weeding, cutting grass, and picking peaches.

I got to plow with a water buffalo.  Um.  It was special. I actually ended up getting dragged by the water buffalo not once but twice!  As you can see, the locals  (as well as my students) enjoyed the crazy foreigner spectacle!  I ended up cutting my foot open.  I could not  feel it at the time, probably due to all of the mud/manure.  Anyway, hours later, I ended up feeling some pain and looked down and saw a 1/2 in deep cut about 3 inches long.  OUCH.  I cleaned it out good and hopefully it will heal up quickly!

I’m so so so so thankful to be home.  It was beautiful and amazing in so many ways.  But honestly, I’m exhausted and I missed my kids something fierce.  It is so good to be home with them!

Today was really awesome.  We started off with a yummy breakfast at a local cafe.  After filling up on eggs, hashbrowns, toast, and coffee, we headed out to a nearby “mud” cave.

*thank you to Brandon Hoffman for the photos today- my camera ended up with MUD in the sensor and I need to get it cleaned out!

I think it is important that you understand some things about mud caves, so I’ll share this informative sign.

Thankfully, we needn’t have worried, because our water cave company was none other than the one advertised so beautifully in this informative sign!

We spent about an hour and a half walking up into the inner cave “guts” of the karst mountain in this photo.  It was really interesting to see all the different things inside the cave.  We had to go through really SHORT passageways at some points.  I don’t know how many times we all bumped our heads on things- we were really thankful for those helmets!!  I got a stalactite in the shoulder- OUCH!  I mean, how often can you say “dude, that stalactite just gouged my shoulder?”

We’d been forewarned to wear our ugliest clothes that we would not grieve the loss of.  That’s because at the end of the cave, there was a giant pit full of mud.   There was even an awesome SLIDE into the mud.  SO fun to hurtle down it and splash into a heap of muddy yuck.  The kids (and teachers!) had a great time.  I’m second from the left in the front row, fyi.

After this, we cleaned off in a clear-water stream.  It was really refreshing and fun to swim around in the water and “clean up”.  The clothes we wore are now a beigey-tan puke color.  They will obviously never be worn in public again!

We had gone completely through the mountain and came out the back side and hiked up and around to the front.  It was a really pretty hike- gorgeous area!

We came back and ate lunch.  This is the area we’re staying in- “West Street”- which is the foreigner/backpacker street of Yangshuo.  It is full of cafes and shops.

I was walking down this street today and stopped DEAD in my tracks.   MY handwriting on a store’s sign.  The word “Afternoon…” is my handwriting in the font Joyful Juliana.   Let me just say it was SO WILD to see that in a little backpacking town in China!!!   Later in the evening, I went in with April (the other female teacher on our trip- a Chinese language teacher) and we chatted with the shop’s owner.  Talk about a small world!

Later in the day, we headed out to a small village to take a cooking class there.  The kids all got to make 5 individual dishes.  They got to learn cool ways to use knives properly and learned different cooking techniques.  The food was pretty yummy!

Tomorrow, I’ll be staying in Yangshuo with a student who isn’t able to complete the physical challenges of tomorrow’s planned activities.  I am actually looking forward to a relaxing day with her, shopping and seeing the sights of central Yangshuo.  The rest of the group is heading out for a 3-4 hour mountain bike ride followed by Tyrolean traversing/absailing (??) between two mountains.  I guess you climb up one mountain and then go by rope to the next and then go down the second mountain by rope.  I don’t know exactly!

I am seriously missing the kids now- I got a few things for them tonight and I’m just really eager to have little ones to tuck in at night again.  It is weird to go to bed and not have any little blonde heads to kiss on the way to my room!

I had the chance this morning to upload more of my photos from the trip so far.  This has been a seriously cool, amazing (overused word, sorry!) trip.  We have packed our days SO full with things.   Today involves a mud cave where you coat your body with mu

d and then jump into a river to clean off.

Tonight, we were planning to kayak but the river levels are too high so instead we are doing a cooking class in a small village outside Yangshuo.

Photos…

Our hostel the second night…

My group- we have two groups of 15 kids for our activities.  We divide out into the smaller groups so it is more eco-friendly when we hike through places.

This cute kid was the son of one of the hostel’s employees.

Just a random house along the path.

do you see the one lone person there?

The other group.

Off to get some coffee and start the day…

Hello!  I’m writing from Yangshuo, a backpacker-friendly town tucked into the karst mountains of Guangxi province, in southwestern China.  The view below is the view from my room.  The karst mountains are unusual with their skinny blocky shapes.

My hotel room is actually on top of the hotel’s karaoke bar.  Unusual!  I’m hearing some fun things right now (almost midnight)

The following is my journal from the last few days.

May 15

1 p.m.  We gather at TIS.  Luggage, 33 teenagers, and 5 teachers mingle in a mass of energy and nerves and unknowns.  We depart for Beijing by bus.  Our bus seats fall off of the seat bases randomly throughout the ride.  This helps break the ice as we spend the majority of the ride laughing at the next person who has been displaced onto the floor.

6:30 p.m.  We are in the train in Beijing, saying goodbye to “creature comforts” for the next 24 hours.  For this trip, we are in “hard” sleeper cabins.  Previously, I’ve traveled by “soft” sleeper.   The differences between the two classes include a 40% price reduction between hard-soft… along with 4-to-a-cabin bunkbeds in soft sleeper compared with the 6-to-a-cabin triple-bunks in hard sleeper.  In soft sleeper we have doors that close and wider beds.   Hard sleeper cabins have no doors and narrower beds.  On the top two bunks you can’t even sit up.

May 16

6:30 p.m.

24 hours later.

We arrive in Guilin.  We hop in a bus and arrive at a restaurant.  It is a 500m hike straight down a rocky path in the pitch-dark, pouring rain to get to our restaurant.  Dinner is served on an outdoor deck overlooking a river and waterfall.   It is delicious and we’re all grateful for some real food (not instant noodles- the food of China’s trains).

10:45 p.m.

Our bus arrives in Ping’An, a Zhuang (minority group) village where we hike up a rice paddy to our hostel.   The bus ride is a bit scary in the dark, whipping around the curves and swerves of the mountain.  When we arrive, it is pouring rain and extremely dark outside.  The bus can only take us so far, so the rest is on foot.  It is a steep, rocky hike but the kids are good sports about it.

11:15 p.m.

Tired, wet, relieved, we arrive at our all-wood mountainside hostel.  The area we are in is called Longshen and it consists of a series of rice-paddies- mountains that have been carved to support growing rice.

May 17

5:45 a.m.

A rooster crows outside my window.  Time to wake up.  I peer outside.  It is still pouring.  We seem to be wedged onto the face of a green, rocky mass.  My hair is still wet from the shower I took the night before.  Nothing seems to dry here but the moisture is a “clean” moisture if that makes sense.  The temperature is perfect- 70 and moist from the rain.

9:30 a.m.

We leave for our 18km hike.  We carry our backpacks the entire hike- up and down the rice paddies.  We see villagers in their daily lives.

We travel to the highest outlooks and then down to lower spots where we can cross to a new rice paddy.

We break for lunch at a village.  In this village, we are visited by a group of Yao minority women.  These women cut their hair only a few times in their lives and they collect the LONG strands of previously cut hair and hair that falls out in life and they wrap them up turban style on their heads.   These ladies DO NOT wash their hair with shampoo, they use only a special type of water for cleansing it.

After lunch, we continue on to a second village where we stop for the night.  18km is a long distance.  I loved the views, but OUCH.  We arrived at around 4:30 p.m.  More sights from that walk…

Note: The village where we were eating lunch is not accessible by vehicle.  You have to hike in from one of the two villages we stayed at overnight.  These women walk up and down the mountains every day.

Along the way, we stop several times for cows, water buffalo, chickens, and other animals that need to cross the path.  The paths are all narrow and allow for only one person at a time to walk.

Side Note: These paths are also covered in globs of various animal poop from the animals crossing them.  I stepped in no less than 7 piles of poop throughout the day (slipping on the wet rocks).  About 50 meters from the end of our journey, I slid and landed with my whole rear-end in a pile of water buffalo dung.  Gross!

May 18

I wake up early, eager to soak up some of the area before we set out for our next city.  I watched the “morning rush hour” begin… these men and women all had the baskets on their backs and were starting their ascent up to the next rice paddy.

Working the fields.  Everything is done manually or with some animal labor, but very few machines.

We head out down the path out from the third village (DaZhai), stopping at one last outlook and then descending to the village bus stop where we meet our tour buses who carry us 4 hours to Yangshuo, where we’ll spend the next 4 days.  It is a beautiful ride alongside waterfalls and a river and mountains.  It is pouring rain (this is a continuing trend and a welcome relief from DRY Tianjin!).

And that’s where I’m at for now.  : )  I had more photos to insert but it is taking a lot longer than normal for them to upload and I’m tired!

Friday night, Keith and I commented to each other, almost in unison, “I don’t feel so good.” Monday morning, we finally got a doctor’s input on our miserableness- strep throat. I had no idea strep “throat” could cause you to be so miserable in so many other ways? Cough, headache, stomach problems? How is that strep “throat”?

Anyway, we’re finally coming out of our sickness haze and returning to the real world. Actually, today I’m substitute teaching for Keith’s class because he’s still got a high fever. But he’s starting to look a bit more human.

Because I was sick, on Monday, my friend Jenny graciously delivered the “adoption-news/birthday package” to the orphanage.  I always feel a bit odd sharing these stories, because it isn’t my story to share.  At the same time, it is a really cool blessing to get to watch these adoption stories unfold!  Her awesome family can be seen >here< (seriously, amazing family!!).

Can you imagine how dramatically that moment would change your life?  One minute she’s sitting in rehearsals for the orphanage children’s day performance.  It is her birthday, but at the orphanage, there generally aren’t birthday celebrations of  any kind.  The next minute, a foreigner peeks around the doorway, holding a box.  Cards and gifts and a photo album are thrust into her hands.  “Congratulations!  You have a family!”  Jenny made a video of the announcement and after she’s told her little jaw dropped wide open in disbelief.

A year ago, I was >meeting this little girl< for the first time at the annual Children’s Day performance.   I’m excited to see what the next year in her life will look like!

Friday morning, I’m heading out to >Guilin<.  That link shows you what Guilin is famous for- beautiful scenery.  I’ll be there for 8 days (including a 24 hour train ride there- thankfully we are flying on the return trip) with 33 high school sophomores and 4 other teachers.  I’m looking forward to a fun adventure with my awesome students.  Keith is looking forward to me returning home at the end of this trip!

Guilin is in Guangxi province in southwestern China.  We will also head to Yangshuo and Longsheng for various sightseeing.  Rock mountains, terraced rice paddies, and blue skies.  I seriously can’t wait!

I’m sure I’ll have loads of photos and stories to share!  Can’t wait!  Have a great week!