A little foreign food shopping.

We do almost all of our shopping at the local markets-fruits, vegetable, meat.  We buy our coffee at a fun little store that is fairly unusual in China.  The owner invites us in and calls us "Madam" and "Sir."  We sit at a little table, drink coffee and talk.  It's super-fun.

However, about once every two months, I take a taxi across the city to go to a store called Metro.  Metro is a German import that is the equivalent  of Sam's or Costco.  It's huge, has wide aisles and doesn't allow pets or children.

"Due to epidemic bureau regulations, pets are not allowed in the store."   Talk about your misplaced modifiers!  Are the bureau regulations epidemic or are there bureau regulations about epidemics?  Either way...no pets in the store.  Whew!

While I am at Metro, I feel like a Western stereotype.  I fill my cart with familiar or semi-familiar foods.  Most are boxed or canned. There is no cultural prohibition about staring into peoples carts.  I want to say to every Chinese person who looks in my cart "I do eat fruit and vegetables!  I just don't buy them here."

Here are some of the things that we can find at Metro.

Yoplait yogurt!  A rare treat!  

Cheese, glorious cheese!

Tortillas!  Refried beans!

Of course there are a few things that I can turn down with no problem.

Seaweed potato chips.  I like seaweed-just not in my chips!  The one next to it is beef flavored.  No thanks!
Below are cucumber or lime flavored chips.  Again, I like cucumber and lime...just not in my chips!

Tiger Skin Chicken Feet.  I think they were frozen.

No, no and really no.

I don't buy this in America either.

I also resisted buying live cat for dinner.  Too expensive.

Just kidding.  Put away your PETA signs!  This is our cat who was rescued from a glass cage right before Christmas.  

As I left Metro (after paying in cash and bagging my groceries with my own bags), I saw this sign.

Fortunately, I didn't need to worry about parking vehiclebr oken, since I came in a taxi.  I hailed one and he took me home.  He only drove on the sidewalk once, honking at pedestrians to get out of the way.

You are welcome!  See you again in a few months.

A weekend in China

Our weekend started off a little unusually.  We normally both have class in the morning.  But this Friday, Paul's class was in the morning and mine was in the afternoon.  So I stayed home in the morning and did housework and homework.  When I took off on my bike around 12:00 PM, it was clear that there was something wrong with the crank on the pedal.  So I hopped off my bike, double locked it and got on a bus for language school.  I was only five minutes late!

When I left language school at 4:00, the temperatures had dropped quite a bit.  The buses took a long time (it takes two buses to get to our home).  So when I finally got home, I was tired and very cold.  Paul told me that we had been invited out to dinner by a couple we had met several weeks before.  We spoke about the true meaning of Christmas at their language school and they seemed enthusiastic to get together.  I was tired and not very enthusiastic about going out!

So they picked us up in their car (we don't get in private cars very often) and we took off for the restaurant.  While there, they told us the story of their journey of faith.  It was amazing to hear this story (in a mix of English and Chinese) of freedom from idolatry, of coming to understand faith, of learning about their Father.  It was a deeply satisfying evening and gave us such insight into Chinese people who share our worldview.

Here we are outside the restaurant with our new friends.

Saturday morning, we woke up to a solid sheet of ice everywhere.  This is the view outside of our bedroom window.  I have no idea what this worker is putting down on the ice.  It's too cold here for salt and no one ever uses it.

Yes- ice and snow in March.

Later, we rode our bike about a half a block to get my bike fixed.  There are carts like this everywhere.  They have inner tubes, air pumps, all kinds of tools to fix bikes.  This man fixed my pedal crank for 1 RMB or about 30 cents.  That is Paul standing by my bike because my Chinese vocabulary doesn't include words like "fix" or "broken" or "crank."

After fellowship on Sunday, we rode our bikes to this restaurant.  We stopped at the same bike man to have Elisabeth's bike seat adjust.  Again, one kauai!

We went to this restaurant by accident!  We meant to go to one in the next block but accidently turned in front of this one.  Notice the "Duan Lian" on the doors.  These are Chinese New Year's decorations that are on almost every doorway.   Some people believe there are some Old Testament parallels to these decorations as they have similar meaning of "passing over."

We ate this incredible meal for about $10.00.  It is "Chun Bing" or Spring Pancake-one of our favorites.

We needed to go to our friend's house for a birthday party.  We rode our bikes as far as we could and finally got off and walked them.  The sidewalks were solid ice and there was no way to ride on them .

We passed these guys in a store.  There were old mannequins on the sidewalk and Elisabeth took a head for a decoration.  If we could have fitted a torso into our bike baskets, we would have taken one.  Or arms and legs.  The workers thought we were nuts.  Sometimes we don't mind being the crazy foreigners!

We also stopped off at market to get our shoes fixed (5 RMB) and a pair of jeans hemmed for Elisabeth (again 5RMB).  Both services were done well and on the spot.  No waiting.

Finally we arrived at our friend's house.  Elisabeth spent some time holding the foster baby of one of her teacher's.  He is almost 9 months and a charmer.

Finally- the birthday party for JB.  JB is an orphan who has been fostered by our friends since last summer.  They have literally saved his life.  This is a picture of  JB when they got him.

This is JB today at one year.  Still with significant challenges ahead of him but alive and thriving.  We gathered to ask for his future, for a forever family for him and just to be thankful.

It was a good weekend.

Six months

We have been in China for six months.  In some ways, it seems shorter and in more ways it seems longer!  It's the last night of Spring Festival and amazing fireworks are going off non-stop.  It seems fitting to look back and reflect over the last six month.

In  the last six months -
None of us have driven a car.
I've been in a private car 4 times.
I haven't gone to the library.
I haven't rented a movie.
I haven't walked our dog.
I haven't taught English.
I haven't had caffeine free diet coke.
I haven't seen my family...except on Skype.
We haven't sung to a worship band on a Sunday morning except when we were in Hong Kong.
We've been to a traditional Sunday morning service twice.

In the last six months,
I made it through a cold and dark winter that affected me in ways that I couldn't have predicted.
I've learned how to get meat at the butcher and vegetables from the vegetable people.
We've begun to drink milk from a box.
We found a good coffee source that sells real beans.
I've learned how to hail a taxi and take a bus.
We have ridden our bikes almost every day.
I've learned to carry toilet paper everywhere I go.

In the last six months,
We haven't been in a backyard.
Paul hasn't mowed the lawn.
We haven't vacuumed because we don't have a carpet.
We have learned the meaning of cold.

In the last six months,
Our Chinese has improved.  Or I should say that for me, I now have some Chinese!
Elisabeth has grown in wonderful and powerful ways.
Our marriage has been strengthened.
Our family has become closer.

In the last six months,
We have learned to depend on the faithfulness of God.
To be thankful for the ones that make it possible for us to be here.
To be thankful every day for this amazing life that we are privileged to live here!

Psalm 116

 12:What shall I render to the LORD
         For all His benefits toward me?
 ¹³ I will take up the cup of salvation,
         And call upon the name of the LORD.
 ¹⁴ I will pay my vows to the LORD
         Now in the presence of all His people.
         

Lanterns

Lanterns are a major decoration for Chun Jie or Chinese New Year.They are every where!  These are in front of a hotel.

These rest were taken  the other night as I was walking in our neighborhood.  Beautiful, aren't they?

A little ice and snow.

Even though we are in the middle of Chun Jie or Spring Festival, it's still winter here in North East China.  We are still in long john's, hats, gloves and flannel night gowns - just not at the same time.  The days are longer and the cold is not quite intense.

Last night we had an ice storm. I actually rode my bike without gloves the day before and  took some pictures of the melting snow the day before.  The last night the rain started which turned into freezing rain and then sleet.  We woke up this morning to beautiful ice on the trees and not so beautiful ice on the streets.  There are no snow or ice days here, so school was open and off we all went.

Lantern outside our apartment building the night before the ice hit.  These are all over China as part of the Lunar New Year Celebration.

The same lantern the next morning dripping with ice.

Flooded park near our language school, full of ice and people taking pictures of ice!

A different lantern.  It was a clear and sunny day but frigid with a cold wind.

Ice on the trees.

Ice on the buses.  When it is really cold, icy or snowy, we ride the bus rather than bike.  The buses are unheated and usually have slush on the floor.  They are pretty fast and get us where we want to go!

Sweeping away the ice with a straw broom.

This man really has nothing to do with ice.  He was waiting for the bus at the same bus stop and was really charming and delightful to us.  I wanted a picture of him in his old army uniform.  It's not unusual to see older men in their old uniforms.  They are warm and practical, I guess!

I've been a little unfaithful...

Just a little.  I've fallen in love with another country.  As I am sure you can tell from this blog, I love China.  But we just spent 10 days in a special administrative region.... former British colony.....another part of China...or as  most English speaking people call it- Hong Kong.  Or Xiang1Gang3.
Why do I love Xiang1Gang3?  Let me count the ways.

The ocean and bays-for this California girl, seeing water is wonderful!

The tall buildings and sky line -magnificent!

The fascinating streets.  Lots of contrasting old and new.

Moveable elevated sidewalks!  How fun was that!

The fresh fruit and fish for sale.

Double-decker buses and trams.

Victoria Peak...although next time we'll choose a day with better weather.

The rules..how I loved the rules.  So polite, so gentle, so strong.

Preach it, Hong Kong!

This says "Mind the Gap" as you get off the subway.

So now we are back in China.  We had a good first day back, meeting with language tutors and a huge dinner with friends.  We are glad to be back.

But Hong Kong...we'll be back to see you again someday!