Go Fly A Kite

Thursday was Children's day. I had dinner with a woman (Susan) and nine 10 year olds. I met Susan a while back. She runs a weekend English school. The 9 kids were her best students and her daughter. They were selected as excellent students and given an invitation to have dinner with a "foreigner"--me. And for them, this is a huge deal. I felt really odd, though, because they as their guest of honor they ordered me a ton of the most expensive food, which there was no way I'd ever eat it all. And every one else just got normal stuff. I hate being singled out like that and treated differently. But what can ya do? So I just gotta suck it up and be grateful for a nice meal that I don't have to pay for. It was at the "Western" resteraunt called "California Sunshine." But the Western food is not at all like we eat. I think it's cuz they serve steaks and fries there and offer forks instead of chopsticks. It's the same idea as Chinese food in America is nothing like the food is really like here. The kids didn't really talk to me the whole time, I'm sure it's cuz they have no idea what to say. But I tried to talk a little to them. I guess it was just cool to be seen with me, they didn't seem to be interested in talking to me. So I kinda just ate my meal and watched them play. But kids are cool. It was fine.

Friday I was to be in charge of English corner. We were supposed to have English corners throughout the year, but no one scheduled any until the very last minute. They probably thought, oh... we should probably do that now that there are only 4 weeks left. So now we're supposed to have one every Friday til the end. It's all good. It's basically a free talk time. I did prepare some conversation starters incase they had trouble thinking of what to say. I told them to chat with eachother and I would walk around, and if anyone spoke chinese I would take their picture. It was kinda fun. But they expect too much from me, cuz they're not used to free talk like that. I didn't want it to be like another class where I am up front and everyone pays attention to me. But it's so hard for them to get out of that rut and think that life can be another way. So I just chatted with them, and tried to make it non-class like. It was harder then I expected. But whatever. Thankfully there were only like 25 kids there, so it was a super small group, which was so nice. Isn't it amazing that I think 25 people is a small group. I'm used to 60.

Saturday I decided to fly the kite that Brenda gave me for my birthday. It was a super nice day. First her and I had a bite to eat. The best thing to drink these days has been iced lemon tea. It's so wonderful after walking in this scorching heat. The park we wanted to fly the kite in was pretty far away. Along the way, we stopped at the big ship. I have told about it before. It's an old Japanese cruise liner that somehow the Chinese took posession of and now it's like half in the water, half sunk into the beach. They use it for tourism and there's a restaraunt there. It was on this ship that I got the call about Nigel's death. I hadn't been there since. It was Brenda's first time. We found a spot on the front deck with swinging benches. So we sat swinging and talking for like an hour. It was so nice. It was such a beautiful relaxing day. From there we went to the kite park. There were like 100 other people there flying their kites. We are usually pestered a lot by people staring, watching us, or making us out to be a freak show for their entertainment... so I was kinda expecting it to be like that. But it was so wonderful, we just flew our kite like normal people, and most people minded their own business. It was a miracle! It's really hard to express how truly great that feels to be treated normal. Our kite was kinda weird, though. It didn't want to go as high as everyone elses. But it was fun, nonetheless. We saw some really cool kites. One kite was the coolest I have ever seen in my life. It makes my heart giddy just thinking about how totally cool it was! I tried to take a picture, but it's really blah. So wait til I get home and I'll show you the video clip. Hey, that won't be such a long way away!
On our way home we took a side street we'd never been on before. We found the cutest basket shop ever! That makes me excited to! The baskets were sooo adorable. I wish I could have them all. Then we had dinner at another "Western" restaraunt, and this time drank lemongrass tea, which is so wonderful! And there we met an older guy from Iowa! It was fun talking to another mid-westerner... there's just something about mid-westerners, where we all just kinda "get" eachother. He's was probably a widower who met this Chinese lady he was with over the internet. It's a very common story. The woman's son goes to our school and might be one of my students!

Sunday, Brenda and I went out again. It was even hotter outside. We went back to the basket shop and had some fun. We drank more iced tea. We did some grocery shopping. And ... yeah, this is really kind of gross, but we happened to pass by two different grown men going number 2. What are the chances. Yeah, they weren't tryin to hide themselves at all, so it's not like we were looking for these kinds of things. Gross. Sometimes it feels like I'm in civilization and sometimes it feels like I'm no where near.

Every night at 10:30, the gaurds lock up all the steel gates around the school. You know that creaky door sound in scarry movies? It's like that, only it echos throughout the entire campus and goes on for about 15 minutes. creeeeeeeeeeeak...creeeeeeeeeeak. Eerie. Every night.

My Great Great Aunt Edna passed away one week ago today. She lived to the grand old age of 110. I praise the Lord he has brought her peacefully into his presence. He is truly good, isn't he? I am reading about the life of David now. I am so encouraged by his confidence in the love of God for himself. May our loving Lord come soon, so that we can join Aunt Edna in His sweet presence.