Things That Make Me Smile

On Tuesday I was walking out of the “Xeroxing room” on campus and there were my Grade 2, Class 4 kiddos. The ENTIRE class. I honestly don’t know I saw them or if I heard “MS HERRIDGE!!!!” screamed from 36 tiny people first. Either way, I was immediately mobbed and they start prattling in Chinese about… something that is apparently so very exciting that I should be able to supernaturally be able to understand Chinese because of the magnitude of their excitement. Then, Stan looks at me and says “SCIENCE!” and hand motions test tubes being poured and blowing up. Then, a bunch of my kids start hopping around like rabbits and making bunny ears. Then they say “we look!” and point at the construction work being done over the school wall. So, I can honestly say I have no idea what they were doing out there. Either way, their homeroom teacher was in a great mood (yay for everyone!) and took my picture with ALL of my kids! She was so great! It’s almost impossible to do this in the classroom, so it’s exciting that I have at least one full class picture – and its outside! Of course, it’s nasty and gray – but it’s Taiyuan, so that’s expected.

Update!

Whoops. It’s not that I forgot that I had a blog… or forgot about the 3 of you that read this. I really have no excuse. =)

So, let me sum up the past month and a half or so!

Went to Beijing a few days early with Susie before our parents came to rest, drink a ridiculous amount of Starbucks, and explore! We are now pros at the Beijing Subway system… well, at least advanced novices. We really had a good time and got to hang-out with those amazing Beijing CTF’ers. Then… Mom and Dad made their arrival! And don’t worry, within 10 minutes of arriving at the airport, some girls approached Dad to get their picture with the large American man in overalls. It was classic. We stayed at a Days Inn near Qian’men, which was a great location and a pretty good hotel! The staff spoke amazing English, so between them and our really good map, we were able to get around to quite a few places. We joined the Van Deusen family, Kristina, MaryBeth and April (MaryBeth’s friend who was on holiday from teaching in S Korea) for a day to the Great Wall and Summer Palace – in frigid temperatures. If you’re looking to visit Beijing, there are significantly less people during winter holiday… but it’s SO COLD. Pros and cons, pros and cons.

Mom and Dad got to stay 10 days, which was just wonderful to show them around, teach them a little bit of Chinese language, culture, and about some of the best food ever!

After they left, I had about 24 hours to do my laundry, repack and whatnot to get ready for Thailand. I could spend pages and pages and pages talking about how wonderful Thailand was, the amazing conference that my organization had prepared for us, the generosity and hospitality of the Thai people, and the great refreshment provided by some of the amazing people that I am overwhelmingly blessed to be partnering with in Asia. However… this post is already getting a little long, so here’s a bulleted list!

·       China Air: Beijing -> Bangkok. Sat behind a family with 4 kids under the age of 7 – and the baby yakked the entire flight. That was awesome.

·       Bangkok: We were here less than 18 hours – but it was great. Nice hotel, great taxi drivers, etc.

·       Thai Air: Bangkok -> Chiang Mai. WOW. I have never been on a nicer plane – tragic that it was only a 50 minute flight.

·       Chiang Mai: We stayed at a cute hostel with some friends, ate amazing Western food, laughed too much, were close walking distance from a 3-story Starbucks, fresh juice everywhere (as in, straight from the fruit, nothing added! I can’t convey how amazing this is.), Dutch Blitz, good times.

·       Conference: Super great hotel, fantastic pool, they opened the terrace/roof to hang-out in the mornings and at night, phenomenal speakers. Again, can’t stress enough how great it was to connect with friends and spend time in fellowship, laughing, sharing our hearts, fears, plans, dreams… I really like these people. Plus, I seriously love my team, they bless my life in so many ways, but it was great to get time with my brothers as we are live in an estrogen-world in Taiyuan!

·       Tigers. I went and petted tigers one day. Still a little in shock over that.

·       Zip-line. I zip-lined through the jungle. Considering the last time I zip-lined was disastrous… this was a monumental achievement for me!

·       Thai Massage: It’ll change your life. We went to a super nice place with zero sketchiness – I don’t know if I’ve ever been more relaxed in my life.

·       Post- conference: Back to the cute hostel, more time with fantastic friends.

·       Chiang Mai -> Bangkok -> Beijing. Nothing noteworthy.

·       Beijing -> Taiyuan… we were supposed to be in Beijing for about 12 hours, which turned into about 36 because of some mafan. (Chinese for “trouble”, but really, it’s so much more than that.) We didn’t mind the extra time - or Starbucks!

Now we’re back into the swing of teaching and hanging out with our co-teachers, who we missed SO much over the break, and vice-versa. The kids smothered us with hugs upon our arrival into the classroom – makes the transition so much easier!

Promise to update again soon!!!