Fireworks are the name of the game, 新年快乐, Happy New Year! Part 2

Hello again,

It is time for the second half of my Chinese New Year story, and it will end with a bang! On New Year's Eve, we had the privilege of being invited to the house of a family at our church. They have a beautiful home and served some wonderful food for us. They even gave us a gift for the new year, which was candy in an envelope, that is a traditional gift.

 After dinner, we went back to our apartment and just waited for the chaos to ensue. Starting at dark, fireworks were going off here and there, but midnight was a whole other story.

We decided to walk out to the road behind our complex to get the best view. I took some shots of the fireworks, but all of the smoke from them, made them rather unclear. I also took some video to attempt to capture the incredible noise made by the fireworks, but it does not do it justice.

To try to explain the scene, beginning at about 11:45pm, you start seeing fireworks here and there in all directions. As time continues, the fireworks increase in frequency. They also, increase in loudness. Fireworks here are not only about how pretty they are but how loudly they explode. They also REALLY enjoy firecrackers, but ones louder than I have EVER heard.

By the time midnight rolls around, the sound from the fireworks is absolutely deafening, and in all directions you see nothing but the sky lighting up. This happens non-stop for nearly a half hour. Then it begins to slow down. Nevertheless, the whole night fireworks are going off into the wee hours of the morning.

Needless to say, fireworks here are like nothing I have ever experienced. Disney World has nothing on the common people of China when it comes to fireworks!

The following morning, we had church service and got to hear great sermon about "Going Home" in relationship to the Chinese New Year. The main focus of Chinese New Year is to celebrate the coming of Spring and spend time with family. Therefore, everyone packs up and heads to their hometown. Our current home nearly became a ghost town, besides those that call Minhang, Shanghai home. People will do anything to get home and wait in never-ending lines for the chance to be at home.

Following the service we had some time to relax and then had dinner with another family from our church. This family is from Singapore originally and the allow us to hold youth gatherings at their home. They hosted a delicious dinner including lots of seafood, which we found out was typical Southeast Asian food. The father of the family had spent hours preparing it for us and it was definitely a gourmet meal.

After dinner, we were treated to yet another fireworks show of our own. Justin had a great time helping pick them out and light them.

 The rest of the Chinese New Year, we really got to enjoy just hanging out. Megan and I did a bit of "Spring Cleaning" to get rid of the extra dust and grime in our apartment. Then, Justin and I caught up on all of "Downton Abbey." We even got to help out a family in our church by house-sitting for them. They have a beautiful home, two cute dogs, and left us some delicious food. It was wonderful :)

Downton Abbey and slippers!

Our beautiful, clean floors

A "Beautiful Girls" poster in the home we stayed at

Chicken Parmesan... mmmm!

And what you have been waiting for....

Enjoy!!

Xin Nian Kuai Le, 新年快乐, Happy New Year! Part 1

Hello Friends and Family,

I promised I would write again and it has proven to be more difficult than I thought. I have found that my life and my schedule are not my own. When I plan to do something at a particular time, I will almost always fail. So here goes nothing....

Chinese New Year is unlike anything I have ever experienced. So much so, that it WILL take two blog posts to really give you the full experience. In the Chinese schools in our area, they get about 3 weeks off for Chinese New Year. Most international schools get off one week. With this being said, it was very hard to pinpoint when exactly everyone was celebrating. As soon as the children get off from school, the mass purchase of fireworks and gifts commences. The stores are incredibly packed, like "Black Friday" but everyday!
 

People purchasing pounds of candy

Waiting in line to get down the aisle of the store

Along with the purchase of fireworks comes another of my "I never expected..." I never expected  that I would wake up having dreams that I was under attack. The first time I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to the sound of fireworks, I really thought the world was ending. Then, I realized someone was just outside our front window shooting off fireworks.

The last day of work before everyone took off for the New Year. I had an interview for a preschool teacher position. That morning, when I woke up, I was greeted by the start of a snow storm. I was so excited to be enjoying snow in the place that I live for the first time. After the interview, I had a tutoring session and got to enjoy seeing the snow start to cover the ground.

As part of the New Year's celebration, we got to visit with our friends here and have many delicious dinners. The night before "New Year's Eve" we went over to Rob and Joy's house for a little celebration. Got to spend some time with these cool people. 

Kenneth being cute!

Rob wrestling with Jonathan

Beili and I

Jonathan being a rock star!

Beili doing her own rock star pose!

And, yes, Justin, John, Megan, and Joy were there too. Some people just really like to pose for pictures ;) Stay tuned for part two of our New Year adventure...

Exploration in its Simplest Form

Hello peeps!

I know, I know, it has been a while again... The last two weeks have been insane. So, I promise at least two blog posts to make up with it. The one that I am writing now, I actually tried to start a while ago, but got interrupted. Here I go again!

Being in China has been more than a cultural experience for me. I have been able to explore some things, new and old to me, because of the free time. I have had free time for two reasons. One, I have been looking for a job, and two, it has been Chinese New Year. During this time of the year, everything closes down in China and everyone goes to their hometown to spend time with family.

I have gotten the opportunity to go back to doing some things that I love and that I have not been able to do in a while. For one, I have been able to speak French. I know, speaking french in China seems bizarre, but I am tutoring students in English that speak French. It is so exciting that I have been in a household that I get to hear French and really understand it. I also think it is exciting to practice my French here and there with the kids when they do not understand a concept in English. I get so spoiled, too, by this incredible family. I get to work with their great kids and I get to enjoy their hospitality.

Coffee and Chocolate :)

Working on a practice worksheet.

I have also been able to have fun with photography and art. There are so many exciting places to go and take photos. With my spare time, I also have been able to draw and just enjoy it. I found a little branch of a tree with blossoms that smells beautiful and is a traditional gift for Chinese new year. I put it in a jar we had and decided to draw a picture.

 

 

With limited art supplies, just a pen :)

 The final exploration I have made is with Tennis. I have NEVER played Tennis in my life. My husband was a Tennis player in high school. I have asked him to show me how to play many times, but I know he just does not have the patience it would take to teach me! A lot of people from our church like to play for fun and we were asked to play. Thankfully, a very patient and loving woman from our church decided she would teach me. She is such a good coach and I learned so much in one day. We had a lot of fun.

Justin and Joy playing Tennis

Kenneth playing the role of "Ball Boy"

And to close, I will share another "I never expected...":

I never expected that I would need to dry my clothes on a space heater. In our apartment, we have a washing machine (that leaks all over the floor) and an outdoor drying rack. So, to dry our clothes, we have to hang them up outside. Needless to say, when the weather is in the 30's this takes quite a few days. So, to dry our clothes, we utilize the heater.....

Goodbye for now,
Blythe

Our addiction...

Hello Friends and Family,

I am still trying to play a little catch-up with this to show you how our life here is going. To tell you of some of the differences we experience here, I thought I might share with you the "10 Things I Never Expected."

Before I share with you the first thing, I want to explain something to you. We live in the suburbs of Shanghai. It is a unique area. The apartments we live in are filled with mostly Middle-Class Chinese. However, when you walk down the road in one direction you will pass a VERY fancy compound (housing complex) for Ex-Pats and then a few steps later another compound which is in disrepair that houses Chinese. In the other direction, we are close to Zhu Di Zhen, which looks a lot more like traditional Chinese living. There are older apartments that have drying racks with clothing an meat hanging from them and markets with tons of people and street food. So, in our little area, we have access to so many different experiences.

So here we go with #1:
I never expected to miss espresso so much.

This sounds pretty ridiculous when I think about it, but I have grown rather accustomed to it. At home we had an espresso maker, and I would make lattes for Justin and I every morning. When we got here, we began to drink coffee that we brought from home and some that a lady from the church graciously purchased for us. It is just not quite the same, though.

After a few days, Justin and I decided to check out the local Starbucks (in the Ex-Pat neighborhood). We were rather disappointed, because although it was delicious, it was more pricey than the U.S.! Later, we heard about a place called Cafe Crema and we decided to try it, after John and Megan took a visit. We went for Justin's birthday because we can not afford a super nice dinner, and we were excited to try it. It was wonderful!

Enjoying the time with Justin, coffee, and atmosphere.

My beautiful and delicious coffee with a sip from it.

My handsome hubby on his birthday! :)

It was a very pleasant lunch and we had some awesome roast beef sandwiches, too. This will be our go to when we are suffering from espresso withdrawals and want to have a nice lunch together. (P.S. My pictures in order say Blythe <3 Justin)

The Cafe also has a Jazz night which John was asked to play at. Below are some pictures from that evening. You can enjoy them as the close of this post.

As a Chrysalis

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

Today I was reading a book titled Questions of Life by Nicky Gumbel.  As you may or may not know, this book is part of a series that is tied with Alpha. The youth group here will be starting Alpha in March and I am reading the book in preparation for leading a small group. I am in the last chapter of the book and which is titled "How Can I Make the Most of the Rest of My Life?" It this chapter the life of a Christian is compared to the life of a butterfly.

As a Christian who grew up in church, I have heard Romans 12:1-2 many times. I even have it memorized, which is rare for me. In the book the author talks about how the transformation mentioned in this verse is like the life of a caterpillar/butterfly. As I thought about it, I realized that it makes a lot of sense. We start off as caterpillars, which are often not very beautiful. When we come to know Christ, he forgives us of our sins and enables us to look more like him, beautiful. However, we have to go through a transformation process that does not happen overnight. 

We spend our lives in a chrysalis. As we grow in our walk with Christ, we are transformed. We begin to see parts of our lives that we have not submitted to God, and give them up to him. Then, we become more and more like him. Just as we are being transformed, a caterpillar is transformed into something more beautiful as it is in a chrysalis.

As I thought more about the idea of us spending our lives in a chrysalis, I realized one very important fact. When an caterpillar finds a little branch and decides to perch itself upon it, it becomes very vulnerable. When it wraps itself up in its cocoon and is hanging for all of that time, it cannot defend itself and it is vulnerable to what is happening around it.

Thankfully, we always have God to turn to, so we are not completely susceptible to our enemies, whether physical or spiritual. However, there is something to be said about the factor of vulnerability in this metaphor. When we submit to God and allow ourselves to be vulnerable like the chrysalis, some incredible things can happen.

This vulnerability comes in two ways. First of all, the more we submit to God and turn towards him, the more Satan will desire to hinder our progress. For Satan does not want to see any one of us draw nearer to God and accomplish things in his name. Nonetheless, if we turn to God when we feel these attacks, it will only help us to draw nearer to him and become stronger.

This vulnerability as a chrysalis is also expressed to those around us. As we begin to realize our weaknesses and submit to God, we become vulnerable to our friends, both Christians and Non-Christians. We become vulnerable to Christians, because God helps us to act in humility and confess our sins to those who can help keep us accountable. In doing this we only strengthen our relationship with others who are in this walk with us. When we become vulnerable to our friends who are not Christians, they are able to see that we are human, and we know that we do not have it all together. We can counter hypocrisy with honesty about who we are and what God is doing in our lives. 

So, with all of this said, I am willing to be a chrysalis from now until eternity, if it means that I will turn out to be more beautiful in the end. I also hope that we can all see the beauty in the vulnerability, though, as well and make strides towards a closer relationship to God and humility when interacting with others.

That is all I have to say for now. I was just so struck by this metaphor and in light of some conversations I have had lately, I wanted to share it with you all. Hopefully it offers some inspiration.

Sincerely,

Blythe

All of the Sights to See

Hello my dear friends,

I sit here on a Monday afternoon, and my brain is spinning with everything I have to get done and all of the thoughts in my mind. I am trying to get my life in order in a way and I am not sure which direction to head in next. So, I decided to write a new blog as the first item on my "To-Do List."

I usually would be heading to a tutoring session right now, but the children I am tutoring are sick with the flu today, so I have the day free. I would like to share some pictures with you of "the city." When we told some friends at SWIF about how we went to "the city," they asked us what we meant by "the city" because it is so big.

So, in response to such a question, we went downtown somewhere one night and got to see some of the more popular areas. I am still waiting to go to The Bund, so I can take an awesome night picture of the city over the water. That will come in time :)

So here I begin to tell of our night in pictures...

Right after we stepped off of the Metro. We are taking in the sights.

We ate at a Dim Sum restaurant, one of the most popular in Shanghai.

Before...

and After

Before I continue with the photos, I must share something with you about the word "Dim Sum."After eating this meal, we began to hear so many foods being called "Dim Sum." This group of words represent foods that cannot by themselves be eaten as a meal, but can be combine with other items to create a meal. The most simple correlation that I can make is to what we call appetizers.
 

Beautifully colorful lights display. 

Some tall, tall buildings while we walked.

Bringing in the 春节 or
Chūnjié (New Year)

This architecture struck me, because it is very "European"

I especially liked the red and blue windows, though it might be unpleasant for those inside.

Part of our adventure took us up over the road. the city in the trees.

So many lights in the trees. Always looking up.

We were in search of a shoe store found here.

Inside the store. "Proudly Made in China"

After the shoe store, we headed back onto the main street and out of the city after a bit. I would love to see more. I am sure we will. I just wanted to share this with you. Sorry if this is a bit scattered, but it is an expression of the state of my mind today.

I will have something great for you soon. New Year is coming!!

That will be it for now,

Blythe