Blessings and Joy

Tomorrow Brenda and I are going to Guangzhou (pronounced GwongJo), for a little shopping excursion. He he he.
It's so nice that we get to go. For a while there I didn't think we'd be able to, because this week they changed one of my classes to Friday afternoon, and we had planned to leave Friday at noon. And another problem was that I gave my passport to our liaison, Grace, so she could renew my visa which expires the end of the month. No one was really helping us out, so I talked to the Chinese teacher of class 22, and she was more than willing to switch times with me. I found Grace at a nice time when she found it hard to turn me down and she gave me my passport back (but I must return it Monday at 7:30am). It was a good feeling to know that I got out of that pickle on my own, where as the past few months I've had to depend on the Chinese liaisons to help me get anything done. I am feeling more independent here, which is way cool cuz it makes it more comfortable and relaxing.

Still life here is not without its challenges. Like earlier tonight Brenda and I wanted to see if we could buy our bus tickets so we don't have to worry about it tomorrow. So we planned out how we'd get to the bus station, and how we'd buy the ticket on our own. Arthur helped us tell the taxi driver where to go. He's not very confident that we could figure things out on our own. The bus station is such a zoo. Even before you hop out of the taxi, scalpers attack you. Ewe, that sounds really bad! What I mean is, scores of men and women surround you trying to sell you tickets. These kinds of places are notorious for thieviery so we watch our pockets and belongings like hawks. Even as we are in line at the ticket booth people crowd around hoping to change your mind. And we have the added bonus of being foreigners and every one wants to know our business so even after we reject them they are glued to us. If we had no sense of humor we'd surely go insane in this place. We just laugh and joke around and try to get to the ticket holder in one piece! No one there speaks English so we use the broken Chinese that we know to get the time, date, and price of the bus. After going back and forth in this humorous display we learned that we underestimated what the cost would be, so we didn't bring enough money. So we will have to buy our ticket tomorrow right before we leave.

Guangzhou is the capitol of Guangdong province where we reside. It's a 6hr bus ride away. It's a huge, overpopulated, high polluted city. But the shopping is good, so I hear. I have only been to the airport there for layovers. Please keep me in your thoughts as Guangzhou is full of thieves who prey on unsuspecting foreigners. I will tell you all about this weekend trip when I return.

The Father has given me so much joy and contentment this past week. I am really enjoying myself even in times when I sit at home with nothing exciting or adventurous going on. He's blessed me so much.

Blessings and Joy to you!!!