a whirlwind of fun

It is just now the beginning of Day #6 for me here in SY after arriving safely last Wednesday, but it has been a whirlwind of a few days! This journey has been all the fun of moving to a foreign country with the added bonus of already having an extensive network of friendships. So here's the relatively brief version of the first five days, which have already included both a graduation and a wedding!

Wednesday morning I landed, bought a sim card for my Chinese phone so I could figure out how to get to my new home, and hopped in a taxi. Being the experienced traveler I am in this city, I even knew to go upstairs and pick up a taxi that was just dropping people off -- they will use the meter rather than bartering with me (i.e. ripping me off) like the taxis that line up at the arrivals section. So I got myself into town for 67 kuai instead of the typical negotiated rate of 100 or more.

My incredibly generous friend R has allowed me to come live with her and her roommate A, and R was even there to help me lug my heavy suitcases up the five flights of stairs to her apartment. I obviously knew R and A before, and had been to their apartment, so needless to say I was quite surprised to find out they had moved into a larger place in the same complex. Pleasantly surprised, mind you, since the new place is on the 5th floor instead of the 6th, and has three bedrooms instead of the two at the old place. So I am incredibly blessed to have my own room in an apartment with two amazing girls.

Speaking of amazing girls, I have the best of both worlds in this situation. R is an American, so we can totally relate and understand each other with the various adjustments or complications of being an American living in China. A, on the other hand, is Chinese, and when R is not around even talks with me in Chinese! So it looks like I'll be able to improve my Chinese, learn to cook real Chinese food, and just understand this culture in a deeper way through living here. Couldn't ask for a better arrangement!

Okay, skipping over a lot of details... Wednesday evening R and I headed up to LiaoDa, my old university here in SY, for their midweek fellowship. I had called to get the info on the meeting, so two people knew I was coming, but it was so much fun to surprise everyone else! The best reaction? A guy enters the room, sees me, and exclaims "It's a miracle!" Reaction or no reaction, though, it was so good to be back in that place and see some old friends as well as meet some new.

Thursday I spent most of the day with a couple of Chinese (English speaking) friends of mine, a married couple. They treated me to a delicious meal with a big, fancy fish. Yum! It was a bit entertaining to me that they kept trying to get me to try acupuncture... I'm not sure what symptoms I'm supposed to be getting treated, but they kept telling me that it "really works!" and so obviously I should go. Don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon, but that's okay. :)

Friday I had the great joy of attending the graduation ceremony of two good friends from China Medical University. When I booked my tickets to come, I had assumed this graduation would have been in May or early June, so imagine my surprise and excitement to find out I would be here in time to go! On the down side, R and I dutifully arrived for the 10:00 a.m. ceremony, assuming that was the one we should attend. Turns out that one was all the speeches... more than a dozen speeches, all in Chinese (and formal Chinese, so I couldn't even understand it very well), for over an hour and a half. R literally fell asleep for a while. But it was all okay when we got to go down and see our friends after that ceremony, take a bunch of pictures, grab some lunch with several of them, and then be back for the 1:30 p.m. walking ceremony when the graduates actually got to walk across the stage and get their diploma. Good Chinese fashion, though: no names were called, but six people would go up at once and stand intermittently with the three important people on stage, pose for a picture, then walk off and let six more go on. And also in good Chinese fashion, nobody actually sat to watch the entire thing. It was just a picture opp. Once the first few rounds of people had gone through, everyone was up and mingling as the line for walking across the stage just continued to trickle through. Certainly made me glad the foreigners were the first group!

While the graduates and a few of their friends went off for a party that evening, R and I headed off for our regular Friday night meeting with people from the fellowship. It was such a blessing to be back, and again fun to see the surprise on people's faces when they saw me.

Saturday I spent all day with my "brother" from Ghana. After enjoying lunch at our favorite Muslim restaurant, he showed me a couple of the new hangout places near the university. I also got to meet his new girl and spend some time with a whole group of Africans. But I realized that the downside of living on the other side of town and having roommates is that I now have to pay a bit more attention to the time I leave to get home. So I missed out on the late-night African dinner (which was just starting to be cooked at 7:30 p.m.), but he promised to cook for me another day.

Finally, Sunday. Probably my favorite day of the week. I went alone to the Chinese fellowship I used to attend every week, and enjoyed it thoroughly. And to no surprise, the woman there who for whatever reason absolutely loves me was the first to see me and welcome me back. She always has new advice or health tips to give me, so yesterday she had a bottle of something to drink and made me take some. Not quite sure what it was, but it hasn't killed me yet anyway!

Usually after that fellowship I stick around in the same room to attend the English one, but this week the English fellowship was meeting at our Friday location at a hotel on the southern side of the city because we got to celebrate a wedding! A guy from Cameroon married a Chinese girl, so in order to have her family attend, we had to change the venue. But it was wonderful -- and so much fun! The first ever wedding at the international fellowship was a success even if there were a few hitches... such as the groom showing up an hour late and the rings not showing up until after the [first of several] closing[s]. As I told the groom later, it just means they will have plenty of stories to share and laugh about from their wedding day for years to come!

As R and I got home from the wedding last night, there were a bunch of kids from the apartment complex playing in the courtyard. We enjoyed a fun pick-up game of basketball with them. (Or perhaps it was really a game of keep-away, since there are no hoops for scoring.) Although this is my fourth time here in China, it's my first time living literally surrounded by Chinese people. R and I are the only foreigners in the complex (at least as far as I know). The kids, their parents, and everybody who passed by thought it was awesome to see two foreigners playing with them like that. I think I'm really going to enjoy living here and building relationships with my neighbors.

And so it is now Monday. Phew. My plans for today involve writing on my blog, going to the bank, and finding a store to buy some essentials... such as food. But then again, my plans for the past five days only involved trying to see people. Things always come up here. So we'll see what actually happens today!

[A brief aside: I have an impressive number of pictures already, given all these fun events. Once I can actually get on this website, I'll post some. With my current maneuverability online, I can only post script here on my blog. I also can't "accept" your comments to make them show up for everybody, but if you comment I do get them. So comment away!]