Well 2012 has arrived and we have found ourselves blessed beyond belief, the busiest we have ever been, and way overdue for a blog update. There are so many topics to write about since we last posted an update: Lyssa and Kirsten visiting Shanghai, the bitter transition from fall to bone-chilling winter (I never thought I would have to wear long underwear under my jeans!), our week of 4 Thanksgiving dinners, Kindergarten Christmas performances, introducing Lord of the Rings to 4th graders, finding our "stride" in living and teaching in China, coaching JV Girls Basketball, Steve having pneumonia on my birthday (dont' worry, he's all better now :), Christmas in Suzhou with Robert, our first time working through the holidays, seeing Scott and Suzie for New Years weekend, and last night, doing our part in trying to abolish human trafficking (blog coming soon). All that to say, we've been a little more occupied with living our lives recently, and a little less occupied with writing about them.
Because I can't possibly condense all that in to a reasonably readable blog post, here is a short slideshow to give you a little glimpse of it all.
Because I can't possibly condense all that in to a reasonably readable blog post, here is a short slideshow to give you a little glimpse of it all.
Happy New Year!!…sort of. It’s not “sort of” because it’s not actually happy, because we are VERY happy. It’s “sort of” because it’s not actually New Year…not Chinese New Year anyway. Next week is our final week of the first semester, which means that while we have been celebrating the holidays to our hearts content on the weekends, we have actually been teaching during the weekdays. I thought working through the most magical time of year would be a lot worse, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad. We really enjoy our jobs and our lives here in Shanghai, and with being able to go to Suzhou to see Steve’s family for the weekends, we felt like we were truly able to experience the holidays to their full extent…It also helped to know we were getting three weeks off soon for Chinese New Years :)
During our time in Suzhou we were able to have a lot of fun with the Limkeclan: Mark, Karen, Rob, Scott, and Suzie, the soon-to-be-Limkeman. We played lots of new games (Bang! (thanks madre!), Citadels, a bean-planting game), played some ping-pong, explored Suzhou and Shanghai a bit, and had a fun time being reunited.
The highlight of this time (other than being with everyone) was by far the magical lantern experience that we were surprised with on New Years Eve. Rob, Scott, Suzie, Steve and I went out to the lake to see the light show. Apparently, they call it the “Curtain,” because they push up so much water out of the lake that when the lights shine on it, it looks like a giant curtain in the night. It’s really cool, and we were excited to go see it again. As we were waiting for the lights to come on, we noticed a red lantern floating up in the sky. Steve and I immediately thought of the scene from the movie Tangled ( we had just watched it the weekend before..thanks again Madre!) where paper lanterns are being lit and floating up to the stars in the hundreds. We bought a lantern immediately, and Element (the Limkeman's driver) helped us light it and send it off. As the night went on, more and more people started to send up lanterns until we truly felt like we were in the scene from Tangled. It was so magical and at one point I had to run right into the middle of it to appreciate the wonder of it all, even though the light show was still going on. It was the most magical way to begin the new year! I was so excited I forgot to take pictures, but I did put up a short video clip on Facebook if you would like to check it out.
As our first semester ends, we are finding ourselves so truly blessed and thankful for what God has provided for us here. We are still in awe that God put us here in China at the same time he put the Limkeparents here. It was such a huge blessing to be able to spend Christmas with family (even though I still miss my Hughes clan!), and it has been really incredible to have Mark and Karen just a phone call away as we’ve been learning how to live in our first apartment. We are so thankful that we each have jobs! We have learned so much and grown so much in our abilities as teachers. We have come to a place where we really enjoy going to work everyday, and on top of it, we get to go on little dates during lunchtime! We have been given so much, which constantly humbles us and reminds us that none of what we have is truly ours :)
Thank you for your love and prayers!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!