Bieber-fied

A few of the most popular songs in China right now are 'Gangnam Style', the infamous Titanic song, and 'Baby Baby' by Justin Bieber.  This is the type of music that dominates Chinese radio stations and loud speakers on school campuses.  This culture thrives on pop music.  Last night, we went to the MixC Mall in Hangzhou with Heather and Ryan.  We ate inside the mall at a Thai restaurant.  At this restaurant, there is a live band, very similar to a mariachi band.  They go to tables in the restaurant and play music for people, and if it's your birthday, they play 'Happy Birthday' for you.  Although, Heather says they even play that when it's not your birthday.  Needless to say, they love to come play at foreigners' tables.  We stick out like a sore thumb.  So, what did they do?  They came to our table.  Heather said, "Don't look!  Don't look at them!  They won't come to our table if you don't look at them!"  You may be asking why she said this.  Well, when this live band comes to your table, they grab you by the hand and pull you out of your seat to dance with them.  Yep.  It happened.  We got Bieber-fied.  They started playing 'Baby Baby', and Heather and I got pulled out on the dance floor.  Not only this, but they decided to play another song for us, 'Gangnam Style', and all 4 of us were pulled onto the dance floor.  My decision to let loose and dance came from my reasoning that we are only going to be in China for a short while, so why not make the best of such situations?

Today was a beautiful day outside.  The sun was shining, the wind was slightly blowing, and the temperature was in the mid 70s.  It was especially great because it's the weekend.  On weekends in Binjiang, the amount of traffic and people on the streets decreases drastically.  On this fine sunny Saturday, Davis and I met Heather at a spa to get foot massages.  We met her at a pet shop, first and foremost.  We were able to hold and pet puppies and dogs.  Then, we walked next door to the spa.  Davis opted out of a foot massage, so he sat in the same room with Heather and I while we each received heavenly massages.  The order of events during a foot massage are as follows: 

1. Bring tea and fruit to foreigners in massage room.

2. Bring wooden bucket of hot water, and put foreigners' feet in it.

3. Put warm damp towel on top of feet in bucket.  (Caution: very hot!)

4. Massage foreigners' thighs.

5. Bring another bucket of hot water and pour in the wooden bucket.

6. Foreigner stands up in the bucket and turns around to sit on ottoman.

7. Back massage follows.

8. Stretch arms and make the joints pop.

9. Stand up, turn around, and sit back down on the chair.

10. Take bucket of water out of the room, and return with packet of massage cream for legs.

11. Wrap hot steaming towels around each leg.

12. Put packet of massage cream on each leg and massage them.

13. Wipe of cream with hot steaming towel.

14. Proceed to massage foreigners' legs with rubber mallets.  

15. Stretch out foreigners' legs and test their flexibility.

Is that enough steps?  Would you believe that process takes an hour and a half?  Oh,  it is wonderful!  

The last wonderful thing about today is getting to play basketball!  Heather and Ryan took Davis and I to an outside basketball court near her apartment complex.  We played 4 on 4 a few times, then left to work on lesson plans in our office.  Here are some pictures:

Tomorrow we will meet with the other believers at Heather's apartment.  Davis is going to talk about the sermon on the mount in the book of Matthew.  Please continue to pray for fruitful efforts over here.  That goes both ways, however.  If you need us to pray about anything for you, let us know! 

You Heard it from Davis

This past week was Mid-Autumn Festival. That means that we got an entire week off from teaching. Chinese usually go on vacation somewhere or go visit family. For many Chinese, that means coming to Hangzhou to visit West Lake. For us, that means avoiding West Lake and touristy areas as much as possible.

Courtney and I had originally intended to go somewhere for the break, but by the time we decided where, train tickets were already really expensive. This ended up being a good thing, because we were able to relax and enjoy a quieter city. We live in Binjiang district, which is south of the river; West Lake and the tourist places are north of the river, so where we live was pretty quiet and empty (for China).

This has helped us not only have a peaceful break where we can enjoy exploring the district at a leisurely pace, but we can do so while learning how to ride our new bikes. Not that riding bikes is particularly difficult, but doing so in crowded sidewalks with other cyclists, pedestrians, mopeds, and even the occasional car can be daunting. Thankfully there are not as many people as normal, so Courtney and I can learn to navigate tight streets. We’ll see how next week goes.

In addition to the population increase next week holds, Courtney and I will also be starting our full schedule of classes. Freshman in China are required to receive military training; so for the past 3 weeks we have not held our Freshmen classes, because they’ve been marching around campus in blue and green camouflage. Next week though, our full 16 hours of teaching will be in full swing. We’re a little nervous, because those are a lot of classes to keep track of. I still don’t know many students names in the 8 hours of class I’ve had so far; it’d be easier if I saw them more than once a week, but next week will be twice as difficult.

This week, unrelated to school or festivals, we got to see the Tidal Bore. What is a Tidal Bore, you may ask? A tidal bore occurs when the tides come in, but instead of simply raising the water level little by little, they raise it all in one giant wave. This occurs in only a few rivers on earth, and Hangzhou is the biggest of them all. This natural phenomenon has something to do with the bottleneck shape of the bay; it allows the tide water to come in easily, but it can’t leave, so it builds up into a giant wave that rushes upriver up to 25 miles per hour for at least 60 miles. Here’s some pictures.

I think that’s a pretty neat natural phenomenon, and to get to watch the biggest one that exists makes it more special. Also, hearing the Chinese ooh and aah over every little wave was pretty hilarious too.

The waves usually reach over the railing, but this year, either it wasn’t the big tidal bore yet (and this was just a preliminary build up), or this year’s bore was simply not very big compared to others. Either way I’m glad, because I would not want to get splashed by that water. It looks disgusting because it is disgusting. I don’t want to think about what’s in there.