Owl City

This week, Davis did the Sunday lesson on Numbers 11: the Israelites complain about being in the desert, and God provides manna and meat for them.  In my adult years, I have found the old testament to be more interesting than I used to find it as a child.  There are so many interesting things about this passage in Numbers.  Another passage I will tie into this post is Exodus 16; same story, different accounts.
1. I could never fathom living in a desert for 40 years, waiting on the promised land.  It's easy to brush off the Israelites as ungrateful and weak - but think about it.  Forty years?!  I can't imagine how hard it was for them.  Now, that makes me feel silly for complaining about trivial things that I already know my God is going to take care of.  Sheesh.  AND if Moses started complaining to God (Numbers 11:10-15), you know it had to be bad. 
2. I never knew that God told the Israelites to save some of the manna so that generations to come will know that God provided manna for them in the desert (Exodus 16:32).
3. Manna was said to look like white coriander seeds and resin (Exodus 16:31, Numbers 11:7).  I was curious what exactly these looked like, so I found some pictures:

Coriander seeds

Resin

 

 

 

4. The foods that were listed in Numbers 11:5 (cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic) are commonly eaten and used to cook with in China.  That is awesome.  I don't think leeks are commonly used to cook with where I am from in America. 
5. I think it is a message of faith.  The people got manna for 40 days because they complained.  They asked themselves why they ever left Egypt (Numbers 11:20), essentially meaning they wished God had never rescued them out of Egypt.  In this, they lost sight of the promised land and didn't fully trust that God was going to deliver His promise.  It teaches me to have faith that God is going to lead me to a greater promise when I am going through something hard.

In other news, Davis and I found this awesome store right down the street from our apartment that have birds.  Originally, there were 2 mangy birds in 2 separate cages sitting outside the front door of the store.  I didn't even think why they were there.  A couple days ago, Davis discovered there was a live (and hooded) falcon on a perch inside the store.  He also saw a professional photo setup - the white screen and 2 large photo lights in front of the screen.  Our initial thought was that people could pay to have their photo taken with the birds, professionally.  Last night, we were walking by and saw a man in the store holding a little owl on a perching glove.  So naturally, we stood there and ooh'd and aww'd until the men came outside to let us have a closer look.  We then found out that it is a place that takes professional photos of the birds only, not people with the birds.  Dang.  They were nice enough though, to let us take a photo with the bird with our own camera.  Made. My. Night!

Settling In

Ni hao!  Wo jiao Courtney Keck.  Wo yao gali chao fan.  (Hello!  My name is Courtney Keck.  I like curry fried rice.) 

Davis and I have finished week 1 of teaching.  I had 2 classes, and he had 4.  Our first day of teaching was pretty rough, as our students wouldn't stop talking and would not listen to us.  The next class we each had was on Thursday, and they were surprisingly much better than the first classes we had.  Our spirits were drained, and then lifted again, thankfully. 

The first time I taught English in China, I was determined to give all of my students real English names.  If there was a 'Seven', 'Mountain Fist', 'Yellow Dirt', and so on, I made them change it to something more appropriate.  This time around, I'm just going to let them keep the English name they already have.  Besides helping me remember them better, their peculiar names give them character and a story.  I have one girl whose English name is Bruce.  She explained in her journal that she was named Bruce by her friends because she liked to fight with classmates, and that reminded her friends of Bruce Lee, the famous Chinese kungfu artist.  So, for this reason, she said she does not ever want to change her English name. 

Now, let's move on to the city of Hangzhou itself.  I have done a lot of comparing in my mind between Hangzhou and Wuhan, probably because they are so different.  Hangzhou is more laid back, at least the Binjiang district we are in.  I was also surprised that I haven't been able to find any meat markets or animal markets on any streets.  Wuhan would have outside animal markets where you choose the live animal you want, and they kill it right there for you.  I remember my friend Drew telling me one time a man's dead fish jumped out of his grocery bag he was carrying it in, when he was waiting for the bus.  The man simply stepped on the flopping fish and put it back in his grocery bag.  One thing I love about Hangzhou is that it rains almost every day (while we've been here), which somewhat cleans the pollution out of the air and brings cooler temperatures.  Wuhan was a hot mess, and it didn't rain as often.  Another major difference between the cities is that food is not spicy here!  I always had to say, "Bu yao la jiao" (I don't want/like spicy pepper) in Wuhan, but not in Hangzhou!  It's great.  The scenery is much better here.  There are so many mountains around Hangzhou.  It's probably 30 minutes bus ride to West Lake, where we can hike in the mountains. 

I'm starting to like it more and more here, but that's my character I suppose.  I become attached to places once I've stayed awhile and built a routine.  Who would have thought this shy, quiet girl from Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas would become a world traveler?  I'm sure my mom did not suspect that.  How the Father does surprise us with the plans he lays out for us! 

Davis and I have also started making friends with the other American brothers and sisters here, and have a pretty decent size group of house fellowship members.  This is comforting to Davis and me.  Heather is one American that has been so helpful to us and makes us feel welcome.  She has lived in China for a decade now, so she is fluent in Chinese, and works for a business now, instead of teaching like us.  Her place is in walking distance from our apartment/school.  It only takes 30 minutes from school to walk there, which is great.  Speaking of walking, Davis and I also plan to buy bicycles very soon.  This should cut down on our walking time dramatically.  The traffic is not too bad in this district, and there are bike lanes on most of the roads.  The bike lane is shared with mopeds and tut tut's as well.  I'm nervous, but it will be a good skill to learn here.  My last memory of riding a bicycle on a busy-ish road was in Dublin, Ireland, where I crashed in a walkway on a bridge.  Graceful, I am not.

To all our friends and family back home:  Davis and I sure appreciate your prayers, love, and support of our time here.  Things are going well now, we're starting to settle in, and we're making some permanent friends already. 

P.S. If I forgot anything, please email us with questions.  We'd love to hear from friends and family other than on facebook!  ;)

Four Days in China

                Uganda prepared me for China. If I had to sum up China, in my own experience, using only my own experience as a guideline, I would describe it as in between Uganda and America. Now this analogy is easy to generalize when I have only really been to the USA, Mexico, Uganda, and now China. But in many ways, China is in between Uganda and America.

                China is cleaner than Uganda, but dirtier than America. It is crowded like Uganda, and people stay very close to each other, but it is about the same as Uganda. In China we have electricity and running water, much the same as in America. The traffic is similar to Uganda, with motorcycles weaving in and out, buses and vans driving quite close to pedestrians and other cars, but much less so than in Africa. In fact, they obey traffic laws more than I thought they would. The food is like Africa, but generally more industrialized. Instead of eating off of roadside markets and locally grown fruits, vegetables, and animals, we eat at restaurants and in cooled buildings.

                China is unlike either my experience in Uganda or America in that it is a sprawling city. There are taxis and buses, lots and lots of buildings, concrete in most places. But nothing I wouldn’t expect in New York or Los Angeles in the US. China is also different in that they obviously speak Mandarin, and things are written in Mandarin. But surprisingly, many things are in Pinyin or English, and even in totally Chinese things they use roman numerals for food prices or room numbers. There is smog, but on a good day it just looks like its cloudy outside, which it honestly is most of the time. It has rained all but one day since we’ve been here.

                There are more people here than in America, but there is never a massive blob of humanity swarming across the streets. At its busiest, there are as many people as there were in between classes on OSU’s campus. Not unbearable.

                Things are much similar to America as well. They drive on the right side. They read left to write. They have electricity, running water, hot food, paved streets, grocery stores. They understand a smile, a pointing finger, a shake of the head. The Chinese are really not that different.

                And really, America has had a lot of Chinese influence over the centuries. Maybe it was because I did a lot of research before, but everything here I had seen in some way. Pagodas, dragons, Chinese characters, watercolor art, noodles, and lotus flowers are all familiar to me. I’ve seen martial arts movies, the Chinese at the Olympics, eaten at Chinese buffets. While still different and filtered, they were at least familiar to what I experienced here.

                China was not that different. Maybe because I didn’t want it to be. Maybe because I’m very open to new things and have experienced other cultures from teaching English in the states. Or maybe it’s because the Chinese are just people like us. Both nations share the most basic and essential human state, and that is the state of humanity. We are drawn together by the fellowship of humanity, and because of this anywhere in the world can feel like home.