Well, it’s Halloween once again. It’s shocking how fast time goes by sometimes.
This year, we had the typical fun- carving watermelons (pumpkins in the right shape are tough to find), making masks, eating candy, telling scary stories, and all that.
I dressed up as someone in the American military. That was the scariest thing I could think of! Ha.

Some of the students really went crazy with the costumes. It was a lot of fun. We stood around and talked about scary story, some from films, some from books, and some that were (supposedly) true. It was one of the best English Corners we’ve had in a long time, if you ask me.

In other news, this past weekend I was in Longzhou. On Saturday Kate came down as well and we attended the famous “Delicious Food Street” at Kyle’s school. It was crazy! The place was packed, but there certainly was good food all over the place.
Mmmm… I always enjoy my visits to Longzhou, but this one was particularly good.

So my mother sent a package full of wedding planning stuff and things to make a Thanksgiving dinner. Obviously, it’s a bit hard to find any kind of wedding magazines or books in English over here. I bought one in Chinese, but it’s not particularly helpful. It’s nice to have a load of stuff, but I really wish there was a bookstore near by to find more. I think that’s something I’m already getting excited about for when I get home- bookstores! I’ve still got something like 9 months left though, so maybe I shouldn’t get too excited.

She also sent a box of Little Debbie’s Oatmeal Cream Pies….for Kyle. If you know me, you know how much it is killing me not to eat them. Seriously. I love those things. They’re not the least bit healthy, I know. Somehow, things like that are so much more exciting when you can’t seem to get them, or even see them, on a regular basis. It’s not like home where I can see them at the store and choose whether or not to buy them. They’re just not here to buy.
Kate and I were discussing these Oatmeal Cream Pies though. One major reason why I shouldn’t eat them (other than the fact that they’re supposed to be for Kyle, not me) is that I should probably, since I’m planning on having a wedding next summer, try to lose some weight. However, Kate pointed out that if I eat the whole box all in one go, my body can’t possibly handle all of that sugar/fat/etc, so it can’t have a lasting affect on my weight. It’ll probably make me sick and just pass through me anyway.
So I was considering that….seems like a good idea.

Speaking of trying to lose weight in China….
It seems rather difficult given the amount of fried food that I eat. Most of our food options here are fried, so that’s what I’m stuck with. If I cook for myself, it would probably end up being fried as well. There’s not a whole lot I can bake. Well, once I get some more ingredients, perhaps, but for now, I’m stuck with fried food.
Well, the other week I was talking with Jane about dieting things in China. I was really looking for something like SlimFast or a similar deal. She took me to the drug store near campus. The woman pulled out two bottles and claimed that these are the best two and you don’t gain the weight back too quickly. One she described as a meal supplement that will help me loose weight over several weeks. She said it’s not bad for your body. I took a look at the bottle and found a label in English: Colon Clean.
So I decided not to go for that. I asked about the second one and she said that it’s not very good for your body. She said that it does some bad things to your health. Yikes.
So much for finding something like SlimFast, I guess!

Well, it’s been a terribly long time between posts.
Sorry about that.
There isn’t much time for this one either, so I’ll try to keep it short.

Summer holiday…

Well, I spent the first week of it in Longzhou, just hanging out while Kyle gave his final exams. That was pleasant and relaxing. (for me, not him)

Then, the next few weeks were spent in Yizhou. It was incredibly hot and humid, as expected, so most days were spent indoors and in the evenings we went out and explored more of the city. I saw bits I’ve never seen before…that was fantastic.
While we were there, a few teachers came from America for a summer course. I had heard from students who had taken a similar summer course, actually, from my understanding, they were from the exact same organization, so I knew what it was about. Kyle and I tried to invite them to do things with us- we were happy to have other Americans and other Christians around and we were hoping that they wouldn’t mind spending time with us. Unfortunately, it turned out that they were willing to take us up on our offers, but they never reciprocated. We heard afterwards from my friends at the school about parties and all of the fun they were having. Honestly, that wasn’t really the most annoying part. The frustrating thing was how open we were with them and how they most certainly lied to us. It seems like an entirely unchristian thing to do. On top of that, they actually took people to the river to do something that’s illegal in China. That maybe makes sense in some places, but in Yizhou there is a great church community and a way to go about all of that without doing anything illegal. I personally don’t see why you would do that kind of thing outside of a community of believers when the option is there. Since they were only there for three weeks, I hope that they remain in contact with the Chinese that they took to the river because there are going to be questions…
They were really nice people, these Americans, so I wish them well, I just wish that as Christians they would have been willing to work with us, rather than so obviously trying to work separately and almost against us.

Anyway, after that, Kyle and I headed to Guilin. Kyle headed on to Hong Kong from there so that he could meet his parents and two youngest siblings. I stayed in Guilin to wait six days for them to come into China. I planned to stay in a nearby village with a friend who is a student at my school, Jane, then I would stay in a hotel in the city and hang out with Lizzy, a friend who is a chemistry student.

Jane’s family was absolutely wonderful to stay with. While I was there, I actually ended up going to the hospital for was basically a type of food poisoning. It was horrific. I’ve never felt so much pain in all my life. I actually wasn’t sure what was going on. I ended up having an ultrasound (to check for stones), a painful blood test (really unsanitary too….there were drips of bloods from others before me scattered across the counter!), a shot in my butt, and an iv for three hours. I don’t know what the shot was for, what was in the iv, or what any of the four medicines I had to take afterwards were.
The whole experience was stressful, and I don’t want to even start on how this hospital would never, ever, ever be up to standards in the States.
I survived though, and I did get better, so I guess that means they knew what they were doing.
After talking to a nurse at home through my mother, I found out that I had probably eaten something with bacteria in it a week or so before going to the hospital, but I had been taking stomach meds, and that was just covering up the symptoms, not curing anything, so it just got worse and worse.
Well, that’s mostly over with, but I’ve had stomachaches off and on since then, but they said it’ll be a couple of weeks until I’m completely back to normal. I’m not going to lie, I tried to be brave, but it’s tough being in pain and not knowing what’s going on.

Other than that, things have been good. Jane and I got a chance to go to Merryland, an amusement park in Guiln. Then I went to Lizzy’s cousin’s wedding, then Kyle’s family arrived.
Since then, we’ve been traveling….spent some time in Guilin, then the rice terraces in longji (my 4th time there), Yizhou, now Longzhou. Tomorrow we leave for Nanning and we’ll fly from there to Shenzhen and then we’ll go to Hong Kong. Kyle’s family flies out on the night of the 13th and on the 14th, Kyle and I will go to Nanchang to visit Lucretia (the awesome woman that we had our training with to come to China), then four days in Beijing, and then we head to the Amity conference in Nanjing.

Then it’s time for a second year of teaching in China!

I haven’t updated photos lately, but hopefully I’ll have a chance at some point. I’ll try to be better at posting on here and responding to emails during the rest of the summer holiday.

This past weekend, I traveled south to Longzhou to visit Kyle. The weather there is unbearably hot compared to Yizhou. We have been getting a significant amount of rain here, but apparently they haven’t gotten the same there.
One thing that Kyle’s city has to relieve the heat that we don’t have here in Yizhou is this strange kind of frozen juice drink. It’s possibly the most delicious thing I’ve ever had. They take fresh fruit, juice it in a blender and add a few things (sugar cane juice and something else I didn’t recognize), then they pour it onto what seems to be a wok that freezes instead of cooks! They move it around on the wok until it’s frozen, then they put it into plastic cups and it costs a meager 2 yuan. Unbelievable.

On Saturday, Kyle and I took a random bus trip to a small village nearby. There really wasn’t a whole lot to see there- I suppose that doesn’t mean much to anyone who hasn’t lived in Guangxi. It was just like every other little village in Guangxi- gorgeous mountains, a rainbow assortment of butterflies, talkative ducks, and curious children.
So, in all honestly, it was absolutely fantastic.

While I was visiting, we also took a bus for half an hour to get to a pool in another village. The water in the pool comes from some local natural spring I guess. The water was nice and cold! Well, that would have been nice, but on our way there it began to pour! There was rain, thunder, and lightening while we were swimming. Perhaps not the safest circumstances to be swimming outside, I suppose. The lightening didn’t seem terribly close though, and I have to admit that one thing that China has done is change my perception of what is dangerous and what is not.
Buses speeding and driving all over the road, riding a motorbike with two other people and no helmet, sitting on the back of a bike and riding in the road, eating in restaurants that are obviously home to cockroaches and mice, eating questionable food: These things are all okay.
It’s crazy to think what I’ve adjusted to in just one year here!

In other news, when I was visiting, Kyle introduced me to this amazing website and I just have to share it with all of you-
www.kiva.org.
It’s a site that allows individual people like you and me to loan money to people who really need it. It’s seems like a great way to help someone if you have limited funds. It’s not really a donation because they will be paying you back, but you’re not earning any interest on it. There are people who want to buy cattle or supplies to start a small shop to support their families. It’s definitely worth a look- I think it’s a great thing to do and a way to have a connection with someone in another part of the world. In this increasingly global world in which we live, it’s getting easier to help people every day, so I don’t see a reason not to.
I didn’t see any people in China listed, but I’m hoping that they can eventually expand to include some folks from the rural areas in southwest China. It sure could help quite a few people.

** Sorry for putting up multiple posts in one day, but my internet was out for a couple of days after I got back, so they piled up.

So, the May holiday has begun!

Kate and I are in Longzhou at Kyle’s apartment.
It has been raining here and probably all across Guangxi Province for the past few days, but it seems to have let up for now. The sky is a light gray and it certainly looks like more rain though.

In about half an hour, we’ll head out and start our journey to Vietnam.
We’ve got our visas, our rain coats, umbrellas, and sunscreen (you never know). This is going to be an adventure.
Hanoi, here I come!