My Family is Here!

Wow it has been really long since I last wrote. Things have been pretty busy. We got home from The Trek, our two week travel, last Friday, the 9th. It was so good to be back in Xiamen and it was so wonderful to be back in the warm weather, oh how I had missed that! The weekend was spent just hanging out and relaxing which was great after two weeks of non stop moving and sightseeing. On Monday we started our Chinese Painging, and Tai Ji classes. They are amazing! Chinese painting is so fun. I didnt realize how much i had missed using the creative part of my brain and tai ji reminds me a little of yoga. Its very slow and relaxing. It really stretches your muscles and just feels good!

My famiy arrived here in Xiamen yesterday afternoon. It is so amazing to have them here with me. I have missed them so much! It's also really great that I can show them where I have been living and what I have been doing for the past 3 months. Its funny to see China through their eyes, the same eyes that I had only 3 months ago. I didnt realize how much I had become accustomed to the culture and my surrondings.

Once they arrived yesterday they mostly just recovered from jet lag. Today they came to the orphange with me. They got to play with and interact with the kids. They also got to meet my special little girl. She gets better and better every week! Before when you looked at her it was like staring into a blank wall and now she laughs and smiles and interacts. It has been fun to see her develop over these past months. Sadly I only have one more saturday with her. Next week we have Thanksgiving break and then 2 weeks after that I will be on a plane on my way home. How crazy it is that I only have 20 days left in this amazing place.

The Things you eat in China..

Yesterday I ate Dog!!! Yea its pretty much disgusting. It took me a while to try it because all I could think of was my sweet little Essy dog. It was really tough meat and not very appetizing but donkey on the other hand was pretty tasty!

Yes that pretty plate in the middle

with the pink flower is DOG!

Today we did some English teaching at a rural junior high school. It was so much fun to be with the kids and see their school. I think they enjoyed it too. We played Head and Shoulders Knees Toes and Simon Says. They like it a lot

This afternoon we had the opportunity to go to a univeristy here and talk with some students It was fun to meet new people but tiring at the same time.

Tomorrow we travel to Shanghai and then back to Xiamen, home sweet home, on Friday!

Pictures

The Terra Cotta Soldiers

Me and Tiff with a Soldier

Katie, me and Kindra on the train to Beijing

On the Great Wall!!! It was incredible

The view from the hightest point we climbed.

It was gorgeous.

Home is where the heart is

So as I wrote in my last update we are currently in Beijing. Its amazing here. I absolutely love it. Yesterday I was riding in the back of our bus as we were on our way to visit The Summer Palace and as I looked out the window all I could see was China. There were chinese kids playing at the park, chinese food in the streets, chinese characters everywhere I looked, chinese cars. chinese everything and crazy enough all I could think was "this is it its everything I ever dreamed it would be and I am finally here" Right after thinking this i thought to myself "how can all of these things being so foreign and so differnt and so far away from anything that i have ever known before feel so right and so familiar and in a way so at home?" I dont really know the answer to this question it is still puzzling me. I layed in bed last night trying to figure it out as I was falling asleep and when I woke up this morning I still didnt have an answer but for now all I can come up with is just the fact that when God places something on your heart it is real and it is from Him and he enables you to do whatever He has called you to do. He has placed China on my heart and He has made me fall in love with this place and these people, He has made it part of who I am. The saying comes to my mind "home is where the heart is" as far as this goes I guess I have two homes, one with my family and friends and the other here in China, this place of my heart. I think i will always be torn between these two worlds because they both make up so much of who I am and who I want to be.

The Great Wall

Yesterday I visited the Great Wall!!! It was incredible, even greated than I imagined it would be. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. You could see for miles. It was hard work though. It was pretty steep and there were a lot of stairs to climb but it was so worth it. It was pretty much amazing!

On Sunday we visited the Terra Cotta Soldiers. That was really cool too. It's just so incredible to be in the midst of all of this history, to think of all of the influential people who walked in/on these places that I am visiting. Its great! So in two days I saw 2 of the 8 wonders of the world- The Terra Cotta Soldiers and The Great Wall.

Today we visted The Summer Palace the place where the emperors would live in the summer time. It was huge! 4x the size of the Forbidden City which is the size of 437 White Houses!

Xi'an

Well we arrived here in Xi'an yesterday afternoon. The weather was a huge shock! I went from 85 degres to 40 degress. CRAZY!!! Yesterday we just walked around town and did a little shopping. Today we did a lot of sight seeing. We visited the place where Laozi wrote the Dao Da Jing, the book for Daoism and then rode horses up to the Nestorian Pagoda. The Nestorians were the first people to bring Christianity to China. After that we rode the bus to visit a caligraphy museum. It was a bummer though because the museum was outside and it was raining so it was a little hard to enjoy it. Right now im sitting in starbucks catching up with family and friends. Tomorrow we are visiting the Terra Cotta soldiers so I will write more after that!

I made it through finals!!!

I took my last final today. I am so relived to have it all behind me. I have decided that this is the hardest semester academically that I have ever had. I thought I was going to fail my Chinese 1 class but somehow I ended up with a B- I have never been so happy with a B in my life!

Tomorrow we leave for the TREK our two week travel around China. First we visit Xi'an then Beijing, Shandong province, and lastly Shanghai. I cant wait its going to be amazing! I will try to update and post pictures throughout my trip.

One of my Economics teachers. His name means

Thunder from Heaven!

My other Economics teacher, Professor Liao. The cutest old man ever!

Xiamen Hospital

So last night I had a little scare and had to make a trip over to the ER. Yesterday afternoon my heart started beating irregularly every so often. Then my left arm started to feel heavy and numb. As the night went on it got more intense and more frequent. So I went to the ER just to make sure that everything was ok. It was chaotic! There were a lot of people there and China doesnt believe in lines so you have to be aggressive and push your way to the front of the line in order to be seen. First we went in and had a doctor look at me. He listened to my heart and filled out an order for me to have an echocardiogram. We then went the cashier and paid for the test it was 25 kuai which is the equivalent of $3.50. I couldnt believe how cheap it was! Then we went to get the test done but it took us almost 30 minutest to find where we were supposed to go. Eventually we found it, They hooked me up to some chords, did the cardiogram, told me I was fine and we were on our way. It seems a little odd to me that they only did one test but my heart stopped acting up so I guess its ok. Anyways Im glad I had the experience but I hope I never have to go back there again. The hospital was crowded and dirty and unorganized. I have never been so thankful for Bromenn Hospital in my life!

My Heart...

Well, it happened I knew it would. I knew there was a part of me here in China I knew I would come here and I would find a piece of my heart. I found it on Saturday. We went back to the orphange. I cant explain the feeling. I cant explain what its like when you walk into a room full of children. Beautiful, innocent faces starting back at you. I walked in knowing that I would have to leave, I walked in knowing that I only had about 2 hours to give these children. I told myself to not get attached, not to let them steal my heart. But the fact of the matter is no matter how hard I tried i still got attached and instead of them stealing my heart it was among them that I found that piece of my heart. 15 little faces staring at me, 30 little hands reaching up at me to hold them, 30 almond shaped eyes that are empty are lost. I wanted to hold all of them and give each of a time and tell each of them that they were beautiful and precious and that Jesus loves them more than they will ever know but my time was limited so I asked God give me one little girl that I could love on. I wrote about this little girl the last time I posted about the orphange. Her name is Xin Yue, which means happiness, she is two years old and has been at the orphange for 1 month. Today she was especially sad and scared. She was over in the corner all by herself and in her tears and crying I picked her up and held her, rocked her and sang to her. I also prayed over her. I prayed that God would protect her and that he would send someone to adopt her. I pray that one day she has a mommy. That cry that she was crying only comes from an orphan. Its the saddest cry you will ever hear. I pray that one day God will send someone to adopt her someone to call her their own because on that day she wont cry the orphans cry anymore. At one point I wondered if I really wanted to get myself into this if I really wanted to expose myself to all of this and then I realized that this is where Jesus is at. When He was on earth He was with the widows and the orphans he was among the poorest of the poor. It will not be easy, it will be challenging and heart breaking and sad but I know this is what Jesus wants from me. This is where His heart is, this is where my heart is.

Time for another update...

Its been a while sorry about that. Things have been so busy here. We have been deep in to finals last week and this week and next week. Its crazy. But Im almost done with classes here so that is a great fealing.

Today we went and got pedicures. That was a lot of fun. It was only about 10 American dollars which was awesome. I have a feeling I'm going to come back to the states and freak out at the prices. Everything is just so cheap here its amazing.

Last week we took some Chinese friends out to Pizza Hut. It was a first for a lot of them. They loved it though.

Also, i ate at a Japanese restaurant. I never knew that raw fish tasted so good :)

My Mom sent me a package this week. Of all the people in my program I get the most mail. Its fun! Whenever people see my name in the mail log they are always like "alyssa you got another package. Good grief you are popular!"

One of my Chinese friends didnt have an english name so she asked me to give her one. After thinking about if for a long time I decided to name her Clare after my sweet little niece. She loved the name.

Ok well its getting late so I gotta go but I will try to write again soon!