I love Shanghai!!

Today was an incredible day! There really wasn't anything too special about it, except for the fact that I was able to REALLY get out and see the city today. I saw completely different aspects of it that I never knew existed. I feel as though I have been somewhat contained to the area just around ECNU, where as there is so much more out there! I'll start from the beginning of my day.

As usual, I had class again bright and early this morning. It was so difficult to get up though because last night I stayed up late with the group because a friend that we had made from Canada left us last night, so we spent time with him until all hours of the night. It was a great time for me to get to know people from the group more, so I couldn’t pass it up, no matter how tired I was.

So I had my Chinese and Eastern Asian Studies class, with a lunch break in between. Then once EAS was done, a group of us headed across town to the Copy Market. It was INSANE! I have never seen anything like it. It was like a large courtyard set up with a million little shacks all in rows. There were thousands of people going through it... pushing, shoving, yelling, ect. People were getting up in your face trying to get you to come into their shack, because they were all selling the same things. Fake purses, scarves, sunglasses, shoes, luggage, shirts, clothes, jackets, you name it, they had it. The bartering was great. I was pretty good at it and I managed to come out of there spending a pretty small amount. Drew wants to go back a little later, I don't know if I will be able to handle it, but I'm thinking about buying a little suitcase to use for my carryon, so I might have to. So after sweating buckets and getting ridiculously Closter phobic, we left and met up with Matt and Beau, two of the guys on the trip.

Matt was on this trip last year and fell in love with Shanghai, so he came back again this year and lives with a Chinese friend that he met last year. So I asked him to show me a few spots in the city that he thought I would like. We took the subway to another section of town that is for tourists. It was SO beautiful! I felt as though I was in Naples, Florida, or California or something. It was this nice little square with expensive outdoor restaurants and shops. Foreigners were all over the place and it was actually clean! From there we walked to a mall where a Hot Pot Restaurant was located. April, I am SO glad you recommended for me to go there. I LOVED IT! Hot Pot is like a fondue place. You order a type of meat that you want, and the type of veggies that you want, and then they bring this big bowl full of one or two different types of sauce like concoctions that they put in this big whole in the middle of your table that has a hot pad under it to make the sauce boil. Once the sauce is at a full boil you dump your meat and veggies all in, then after about a minute you fish them out with your chopsticks. We chose to have beef, lamb and eel for our meats, and then we had asparagus (SO hard to find here! I was so excited! And I really don't even like asparagus that much!), American mushrooms (SO excited for the American kind! Even though I don't mind the Chinese kind too much), cabbage and potatoes. I love it. Matt and Beau told me that there is a place that does Hot Pot over on East Paris and 28th, so I am going to have to check it out when I get back. P.S. The Eel was disgusting. I gave it a shot and it tasted like rubber... sick.

After Hot Pot we had a long walk back to the subway, but it was so enjoyable! The sun was down and it wasn't quite as hot, although it was still SO humid. We walked by the Shanghai Theatre, City Center and Museum. It was a beautiful night and it made me wish that Joe was there... Shanghai can be so romantic at night! I hope to someday come back here with Joe, and then I would get to stay in a nice hotel rather than a dormitory... that would be a nice change!

Once we finally got back from seeing the town (I really feel as though I walked 1/2 across Shanghai! My feet are killing me!) I was able to get onto my now working internet and check my email. I really enjoy this time of night because I get to hear from my friends and family, but I also get to reflect on my day. Within my email tonight I had a nice email from my boss at the Key Department. Thanks for the email John, I wasn't expecting it and it was a fabulous surprise! I never thought that you would sacrifice your identity to email me in "Commie Country", but it enjoyable to read. I do miss the Key Department lots and I will come up and see you once I get back. Oh and um... I think you put a code phrase in the email, and I can't figure it out. Any hints? :o)

And OH MY GOODNESS! I just got an email from Sarah! SO good to hear from you! I miss you tons and I know you are reading my blog right this very minute! I hope life is fabulous and I can't wait to get back and tell you all about it! Are you sure you don't want to do Camp Sunshine with Leah and me? Hehehe J/k. Good luck with your mom. You can do it! Muah!

Joseph, I love you and thanks for the email. I always read them first. Then yours mom, don't worry. I love those ones too. I should have guessed that my mother would send about 2 emails a day to me ;o) I love every one of them and I enjoy hearing about your days. I will be praying for Grandpa and Katey. And I haven't forgotten about you Erin. I love your messages as well. They always make me smile. I wish you were here with me. You would love it. Have you decided if you are doing session 2 with Leah and me? Email Cindy if you want to.

So that was it for my day, but my experiences were so cool that I just wanted to share them all with you. I am loving it here more and more as the days go by. The culture shock is wearing off and now I am used to not being able to understand what people are saying. Waking up in China every morning is an amazing experience that I wouldn't change for anything. I'm so grateful for this experience and I know that I will carry it with me for the rest of my life.

I love and miss you all but LOVING my life right now!

P.S. Can you believe that a year from now I will be preparing for my wedding in less than a month?! AAAHHH!!!! Love you Joe!

Wednesday, June ?

Unfortunately, this morning in my Chinese class our professor asked us in Chinese what the day and date was today, I could have answered in Chinese but I had no idea what day it was and what the date even was! While I am doing much much better in the jet-leg area, I am still confused on the day because I skipped completely over a day! I had no idea that when coming to China I would be flying into the future! My Saturday was completely taken away from me. So, that being said, hello from the future! ;o)

But my Chinese is improving! By the end of class today I felt as though everything was going over my head, but tomorrow is another day! My professor is great though. He tries really hard and he gets so excited when we do well. He genuinely enjoys Kendall and me though. After class I was walking back and he happened to ride his bike by. So he slowed down and we talked for a little while. It's too bad that I can't remember his name... You're right mom; all of this language sounds the same to me! It's starting to be clearer to me as the days go on.

I would like to take this moment and give a shout out to the girls at the Key Department. I know how busy you guys are, so thank you for taking some time out to read my blog. Just know that I miss you and all of the work that we do dearly. I feel as though I just have nothing to do here in China in comparison to the Key Department... there was always so much to do. ;o)

Today was again an uneventful day. But it's been nice relaxing. Amara (my roommate) and I switched rooms today. We were on a floor that had a community bathroom, which wasn't the greatest thing in the world. It smelled terrible and there was no toilet paper. Also, the showers were just gross. So we now have a room with a bathroom in it. It will be a nice change. So for the rest of the day I took a nap and watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". I'm on a Matthew McConaughey kick right now.

Later, Drew and I went out to eat at this great cheap restaurant. My meal was $1.50 in USD. Pretty good huh? My new favorite food, that I told you about yesterday, is egg fried rice. It tastes a lot like scrambled eggs, so it reminds me of home a little. I had this great soup though. It had chicken and noodles in it. It was really spicy, but good. And, I have become a pro at chopsticks! I am so impressed with myself! I can eat rice and noodles with them! I think when I come home I might use them all the time. They are pretty cool.

Unfortunately I did not get to "Copy Market" today. We are going tomorrow. I'm way excited to check out the Coach. Now that I have a pair of Puma's, the only logical thing is to get a Coach purse to go with them. I'll let you know all about the bartering Dad :o) and I will be sure to not bring home too much stuff. I'm sure I will be leaving plenty here when I leave. I already have some clothes in mind that I most likely will not bringing home. But I did have 1/2 of a suitcase to fill. Oh, and if Sarah and Leah read this anytime soon, I made a visit to Starbucks today and I might have gotten a few things, we'll see :o) Mom, Dad and Joe, do not worry. I really haven't spent that much money. So far, not including food, I have spent about $50. And my meals cost about $2 each. I love the cheap stuff in China. I completely know how you felt in India Joe.

Jay, thank you so much for the message, but unfortunately the Communists here in China will not let me look at certain webpages! While I can enter blogs on Blogger.com, I cannot read them. So if you could please email me your message about the kids that would be great. I would love to hear how they are doing.

About whole internet thing. We had a conversation with Professor Ni today about the Government here. I guess he has been under high security for years now because he doesn't agree with some of the beliefs that he has. He used to get phone calls from the secret police just minutes after he would arrive in China and they would question him. Last year his bag got stolen and his friend found him here in China to warn him that it wasn't stolen on accident. So he is under high security, but it's not visible. It's all underlying security. He told us that because we are with him, we are under security as well. He told us that they have probably checked all of us out. So anyways, I guess they check out what we are doing online. One of the students on the trip jokingly went to an anti-communist website and right after that his computer crashed. He thinks it was the government but who knows? So there are numerous things on the web that we cannot look at, like CNN and US Sports scores, and I can't get in my AIM. Oh well, I suppose I can do without. Oh and beware, one of the kids said that his parents have gotten a few of his emails and they have had information missing in them. So let me know if my emails don't make sense. We'll see how the response to this blog is. Hopefully nothing will happen.

Anyways, I'm heading off to watch a movie. I miss and love you all and I look forward to hearing from all of you tomorrow!

Mom, I'm praying for Camp Compass that everything will work out. Satan is definitely at work here. Also, I don't think you need to open any of my mail. I can pay all my bills from here except my Nextel bill... do you think you could pay that one? If so that would be great! Love you tons!

Oh and Joe, I forgot to tell you in my email that I'm sorry you still aren't feeling better. Tell you doctor to get on his toes! You obviously have a parasite!! I love you honey.

Yup, still facing jet-leg

Good morning! Actually, for me it is nighttime, but for you all it is the morning. I hope everyone is doing well. I am exhausted again, so I decided to call it an early night and head up to my room. Besides, I have some reading to do for my classes yet.

I had my first day of classes today. My Chinese class is great so far. I only have the class with Kendall, the only other person from my group who came out here second semester. It is just us and an instructor. We enjoyed it a lot! I love only having one other student in the class with me because we get tons of attention, which is great for a language class. Our professor is great. He is so cute and it seems like he is practicing his English on us. But he really is a great teacher and I feel as though I learned a ton in just my first day of class. The reason why Kendall and I have the class together just the two of us is because we are so far behind the other students. But they are hoping that because we are getting such great one-on-one time that we will be up to speed with the rest of the group in about 2 weeks. We'll see... I'm not that great! I'm trying really hard though and I've been working on using what I have learned, so hopefully it will start to come easier later.

Once class was done Drew and I went out the back gate to eat at a restaurant that many in the group have frequented. I actually enjoyed the food! I was so happy to finally find some food that I like. It's been rough. The food hasn't made me sick, but it scares me. Who knows how well most of it has been cooked, and who knows what the food actually is half the time! While I am trying to be adventuresome, I really just can't enjoy the food. I miss American food a lot, so I'm going to be in heaven when I get back. But for now I am just working on finding a few dishes that I can at least stomach. So far I enjoy this potato and green been dish, the egg-fried rice, a few chicken dishes and there is this great fried beef that you dip in ketchup. As many of you know, I LOVE pork (I would kill for pulled-pork right now!) but unfortunately most of the pork over here is so fatty that I can't even swallow it without grossing out. The fish usually is pretty good, but really boney. I've been working on allowing myself to put a piece of meat in my mouth and working around the bone... sometimes it's just too gross though.

My Eastern Asian Studies class was later this afternoon. That is being taught by Professor Ni. Today was a basic introduction to the history of China. It was only an hour long class, so it was definitely very basic. But towards the end Professor Ni started to talk about the one-child law. It is so interesting to me and I want to know more, so hopefully tomorrow in the beginning of class I can find out more about this. What I am so confused about is how my book and Professor Ni only speak of how the women either get abortions or they get sterilized. There is no mention of orphanages. I know that they want the orphanages out of the public eye, but there seems to be such a huge lack of information. Another thing that was interesting was that Professor Ni brought up abortion and how many people in the US look down on the Chinese for allowing this to be an option for their people. But he was saying that here in China it's not really about the moral issue. They have to get abortions, they are forced to. And on top of that, it's either get an abortion or have no food because many people would not have enough money to raise their child. Now, I am very pro-life, but this whole situation makes me think a lot. And it brings me back to the adoption thing. So many Americans want to adopt from China, and there is a huge waiting list. Why can't they allow the children to be adopted more easily rather than making the mothers get abortions? It's so frustrating to me, but yet I hardly know anything about it. I want to sit down with either Professor Ni or Professor Shang and get some answers.

Okay, well after class Drew and I were exhausted so we went up to her room and watched "Failure to Launch". Oh how I love Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker. Such a great movie. It was even better though because Drew bought it here and paid practically nothing...

Later we went out shopping with a few of the guys. We were going to go to "Copy Market" but it was across town and would have taken too long to get there. So we went to another local shopping mall that foreigners hardly ever visit. None of the shop owners spoke any English. Luckily I had Jason with me, who speaks great Chinese, so he could translate for me... for the most part at least. I know some of the key phrases when shopping... like "Hello" (Ni Hao) and "I don't want" (Buya) but other than that, I can only say "du", which means bigger, so I have to show them with my hands and say "du" in hopes that they have a bigger size. Of course they are all so small over here that most didn't. But I did find a pair of Puma's for me and Leah. (I can't wait to show you Leah, yours are so cute! I didn't have your foot drawing with me, but I tried them on and they were one size too small for me, and when I got back to my room I held them against the food and they should be perfect!) Tomorrow we are hoping to go to "Copy Market" where you can barter and they all haggle at you. This should be fun, I'm great at bartering!

Well, I am heading to bed. Thank you all for your kind messages. I'm doing well in the homesick area. I miss Joe and all of the rest of you like crazy, but at the same time I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Maybe Joe should just come and visit? I'm sure that would make me feel better. But I am not allowing my homesickness to get in the way of my trip. Thanks for the great advice Alex, you are so right and I am trying my hardest just to enjoy everything here. Mom, your emails mean the world to me and I will email you back one of these days, but it just gets so hard to write about 50 emails about the same things. Thank you everyone else for your kind words and prayers. They make me smile, laugh and cry all at the same time. Please be patient with emails back if you have been emailing me or leaving me messages on facebook. I'll get to them slowly. I hope you all have a great day, and I will be updating again tomorrow!

What time is it?

I will make this very short, because I am absolutely exhausted. Today I went to orientation. Basically we watched a PowerPoint on ECNU and got a tour. I found out that the ”Normal" in East China Normal University does not mean whatever we perceive normal to mean in the US. Rather, it is a French word that has something to do with teaching. Much to my surprise, ECNU is a school that specializes in teaching! Everyone who goes to this school ends up with a teaching degree! Right up my alley. The lady that took us on our tour told me that she is going to try to set up something for me to get into the Special Education classes. Although they will be in Chinese, I can later speak with the professors one-on-one or with a translator. How cool!

Drew and I spent time just outside the University today. There is this beautiful park just down the road. We walked around and tried to see the beluga whale in an aquarium (it was too expensive! 110 Yuan for the show... which equals about 15 dollars. There is about 8 Yuan to every dollar). So instead we rented a paddle boat and paddled out onto a lake. It was nice but WAY too hot. We were drenched in sweat by the time we got back to ECNU. So we spent the next 2 hours lying in our air conditioned rooms.

Around 3pm we went with a small group of students and the professors to downtown Shanghai. Although we are in downtown, we are not in the main downtown. We went up the TV tower and looked out over the city. It was cool, but it would have been a lot cooler if the smog wasn't so bad. But we still could see all of the close buildings. There is one building here that is the tallest building in all of Asia. It was impressive. I know it has over 80 floors... I just can't remember exactly how many. All of the buildings are gorgeous downtown though. They do not look like typical Asian buildings at all. In fact, many of them were built by the British many years ago, so parts of the city... like the Bund, look like they would fit right into Europe. I believe the Bund is a section of Shanghai that is a very well-to-do section. It's like a block of the city where Armani, D&G, Channel, ect. are all located. It's pretty amazing. After dinner (no unusual food tonight! Professor Shang picked out normal things for me!) and once it got dark we took a ferry down the river to see the Bund all lit up. It was beautiful, but slow going and I fell asleep. I suppose I have not adapted as quickly as I thought I had. I am so exhausted right now and it's only 10:30. So it is off to bed for me, for I have class at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Wish me luck; I will be in a Chinese language class bright and early. I hope you all are well. Thank you for your messages. They keep me from being too homesick.

I'm Here!

Hello from Shanghai!

I suppose I don't even know where to begin... There is so much to say, and what seems like so little time. Right at this moment it is 7:30am on Monday, which means that it is 7:30pm on Sunday for all of you. Due to the fact that it is a little early, and I am so incredibly jetlagged, please bare with me as I try to explain everything that I am seeing, feeling and smelling ;o)

First, I want to thank you for your prayers thus far. The flight went a lot better than I could have ever hoped for. Yes, the 14 hours was incredibly long, but God blessed me enough to put me next to the best passenger on the flight (in my opinion). This man's name was Leaf Huang and he was probably in his 50's or so. We began talking right away and I soon found out that while he was Chinese, he was in fact a US citizen. His English was incredible and our conversations flowed freely. I found out throughout the flight that he is an incredibly smart man (head of the Pharmaceutical Department at UNC), but on top of that he is a Godly man (part-time pastor in his Christian Chinese Non-denominational church). We spoke of many things throughout the flight such as school, how he travels all over the world to speak (Joe, he is going to India next month!), religion and most importantly, he taught me about China! He "lectured" on Chinese history, taught me a few words of the language, he even taught me how to use chopsticks which came in VERY handy my first night here! Together, we went through my trip itinerary and he commented on the places that we are going and gave me a few other places to take daytrips to.

One of the more interesting things that we spoke about was religion. He was explaining to me that one main reason why the Chinese government does not want Christians speaking so freely here is because the 2nd Coming of Christ scares them and they do not want this fear to cause havoc within their people. He also told me about a Christian church that is near by East China Normal University that is an International church. He explained that they have a service in English and that while Chinese may not attend, foreigners can by showing their passport. He also told me that if I could find a local connection to a house meeting that should try. So I am going to ask Professor Shang and Ni about this soon. I believe next Sunday is a free day and I would really enjoy seeing a church over here. Anyways, I feel very blessed to have sat by Leaf. It really helped the trip go faster and he was the perfect neighbor for it... chosen by God to sit next to me.

I did manage to sleep for about 4 hours of the flight, thanks to my Dramamine. I slept from Edmonton, Canada to somewhere over Russia. Yes, we did go up north, over Alaska, Russia, then down towards China. Leaf explained that this was to avoid air traffic over North Korea.

Touching down in Shanghai was not really an enjoyable thing. Keep in mind that I had hardly slept in the 14 hours and it was the middle of the afternoon on Sunday when I got here... I literally was missing a day! But while we were landing, we went through this giant cloud... which ended up being brown! The pollution here is incredible and it was very apparent from only landing. The day turned out to be rainy, hot and HUMID! The second we stepped outside with Professor Shang I was a giant ball of sweat. Disgusting I know. We then took an hour bus ride across the city. Yes, it was across the city and we were going about 65 mph the whole time AND we were going right through the middle! Does that give you at least a small impression as to how huge Shanghai is? Normally in US cities, there is one skyline and then lower buildings all around. Not in Shanghai. Everything is tall and the skylines vary. While we were in the middle of the city, we could see another skyline in all directions. There are apartment buildings all over the place, and not just 6 or 7 story apartment buildings, but 30 or 40 story apartment buildings! Professor Shang told us that they are often called International Flags buildings because people hang their laundry out the windows. (This didn’t make sense to me at all because he also told us that it rains every single day...)

The traffic was crazy as well. I really think that I would be a pretty good driver around here. All of you people from Detroit, your driving and highways do not even compare to over here. Joe, it reminds me of that video you showed me of India driving. Everyone cuts everyone off; they do not use traffic signals and who cares if it is a red light because they are going through anyway. Also, there is constant honking for who knows what reason because they really don't care about the other drivers around them so it's not going to make a difference anyway. I think I would have been a great driver on the highway, but get me onto a regular street where people go about 45mph (miles because I haven't figured out the meters thing yet) even though everyone walks in the middle of the street anyway, I think I would have died).

The people are so kind as well. They definitely like to stare. We are a very small minority here. In a city of 19million, there is an average of 10,000 foreigners here. That is not very many. So we get stared at all the time and the shop owners chase after us to try and get us to come inside.

Let me move onto the food. If last nights dinner is any indicator of what I will be eating, I will be eating very little, and drinking lots of beer. I think Professor Shang and Ni brought us to an extreme, or at least I am hoping! Our group crammed into a very large round table with a spinning wheel in the middle (Hidalgo's, it reminded me of Glen Arbor :o) Professor Shang said that for everyone else, their first night they were instructed to just point at the menu and order even though they had no idea what they were orders. Tonight though, he didn't make Kendall and I do this, rather he just ordered the most extreme of foods he could (or so I am thinking). The appetizers were brought out and we had a choice of some sort of tofu, or cucumbers, or peanuts, or these pea pod things, and I think a few others things. I ate everything but these bamboo things. The tofu was sick, but I have never likes tofu. The peapods were pretty cool and they took a lot of skill. Thanks to Leaf I was able to pick one up with my chopsticks (No other utensils are available) and while holding it, slide the pea out from the pod by sliding my teeth down the pod. Then you turn your chopsticks around and do it to the pea on the other side. They were pretty good. They tasted kind of like giant pine nuts. So I made it through the appetizers. Then the brought out the main dishes...

They set this bowl in front of me on the turn table, and I see what I thought to be liquid bubbling in front of me. Then I was told that this dish was called "drunken shrimp". Rather than the liquid bubbling, it was the shrimp jumping! They were still alive!! I honestly thought that I was going to throw up. They were just hopping around in there... hitting the top of the bowl. Professor Shang told me to open up the bowl, take a shrimp with my chopsticks and just bite off the head. Apparently this kills them quickly. I told him that I would rather throw up than eat those. Needless to say, I did not have the drunken shrimp last night. Only a few people here thus far have been able to stomach eating a live shrimp. I do not plan on doing it... ever. I'm not really sure what I ate last night... I know that I tried some frog. The consistency was too slimy for me. I had some fish but you have to be careful because they don't take out the bones. I had some pork, and also these 2 potato dishes. They were my favorite. Drew told me that she is going to take me to some good food this week. I can't wait because I'm kind of hungry. Thank goodness for granola bars.

After dinner I took a quick nap to energize, and then I decided to go out. I didn't want to go to bed early because then I would wake up early. So we went to a Canadian bar that is owned by a former GVSU student who went on this trip about 5 years ago. It was a bar full of the foreign people in Shanghai. I had some conversations with a couple of people from The Homeland :o) (The Netherlands). While they were from The Homeland, they had German last names. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. Mom, I also spoke to a German man, and apparently Shyster (I murdered that spelling) is not a very nice word to say :o)

Anyways, I am having a great time so far. I really enjoy the people on my trip and I think I am fitting in quite well. I am really glad that I went out with them last night because I was able to form some bonds that I would have been able to form if I had stayed in and slept.

I am heading to a small orientation via Professor Shang and Ni in a little bit. Then later I guess they picked out a tourist spot to take us. They rest of the group already went when they first got here, but they are going back with us today.

Oh and just a few comments. Everything is SO cheap! Last night our cab ride across the city from the bar was only 4 dollars! Also, Erin, Schulte, Sheila, Sarah, Leah, ect. THEY HAVE GREY'S ANATOMY SEASON 2 OUT OVER HERE! It made my night when Drew showed me. I will be coming home with a copy. While I may not be able to get a real coach purse, I will come out winning in the end!

Again, thank you for all of your prayers. A few more prayer requests
1. I am still feeling sick. My sinus infection has now turned into a cough and a runny nose.
2. I am WAY behind on my Chinese! I have no idea what anybody is saying and I am desperately trying to learn some key phrases. I have a few, but they are rough. Sometimes I say them right and other times I don't.
3. I will be getting homesick, I am sure of it. It seems as though during the week we have a lot of downtime. Drew told me the first weeks are the worst. Plus, it was very hard for me to leave Joe after only spending 2 weeks together. So please pray that I am able to keep myself occupied and that I will not get too homesick.

Thank you again for your prayers. I will be updating often now that I have the internet figured out over here. Keep sending me comments! Love and miss you all.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I am not in China yet, but I thought that I would set this up before I leave in order to save time later. I hope that you all continue to check up on me and my trip! I'm sure it will be very nice to have messages waiting for me (hint hint).



Just incase you are interested, I leave on Saturday morning from GRR at 9:30am. I will fly into Chicago, have a 2 hour layover and then leave from Chicago on a 14 hour flight straight to Shanghai. It will be 2:15pm on Saturday the 24th when I arrive in Shanghai. I believe the time difference is 12 hours!



I will be staying at a local university in Shanghai, in the dorms. I will update you on everything once I get there! I also plan on putting some pictures up on here if it is possible. I am still figuring this all out. Jay, you will have to give me pointers since you are so good at all of this :o)




Just a few prayer requests before I sign off:

• I got very sick this past week with a sinus infection maybe? Please pray for me while I am traveling! I cough and blow my nose a lot! I'm sure I will be quite the nuisance on the plane :o(
  
• I am terrible about sleeping on planes, cars, trains, ect. And if I do not get enough sleep, I get physically sick. Please pray that I am able to get enough rest to stay somewhat healthy.
  
• I am traveling with one other student to China, and we will be joining the rest of the group who have already been there for 6 weeks! I am very nervous about coming into a group that has already bonded.
  
• Obviously, traveling abroad can be dangerous. Please pray for my safety!
  

Well, that is all for now! Next time you hear from me I will be in China! So excited! Until then...