Spotlight on my BFF

So one of my best friends here is "Vicky". She is sweet, outgoing, and pretty much the total opposite of me.

Anyways, some things I have learned from her:

-God gives us dreams for a reason, and we should always boldly follow those dreams, and work hard for them!

-It's always worth it to ask people for help/things that we want, the worst that can happen is they will say no.

-We should always count our blessings and let the little things go.

-Best friend earrings are cool. Yep, we bought two sets of earrings, and then each had one earring from each set.

A funny story: she came to stay at my hostel with me when I visited her in her hometown, because she wanted the experience. She made friends with everyone there almost immediately, she is so friendly (opposite of me, I am a people-watcher, not interacter right away typically).

Anyways, she is very much a go-getter. Anything I mention to her she makes happen. I mentioned I wanted to visit Jay Chou's new KTV. We were told it would be hard to find because they didn't want just anyone going there. I was like ok, no big deal. Not Vicky. She found it, then followed a group who had paid to be there and asked if we could go with them just to look around. Then she approached all the staff there and got them to take some awesome photos of us (I will have to share those later).

I mentioned to her that I thought the bartender at our hostel was cute. "You should talk to him." "No, I don't do that." (my version of flirting is just to stare someone down from afar, haha). So she marches up to him (he's in the middle of doing some accounting work) and starts talking. Soon she has found out the guy's life story, and talked me up as well in the process. "Have you met her? She is such an exceptional person." This conspiracy came to a head by her somehow discovering the guy was studying to go abroad to the U.S. and me helping him to study. "I'm an introvert." I said in way of explanation for why I hadn't introduced myself (I had already been acquainted with the other staff members). "Me too" He said grinning shyly. "But I could tell from watching you that you are really cool. Thanks for helping me." Vicky was practically beaming.

Anyways, I really enjoyed getting to visit her and meet her family... it's easy to understand why she is such a confident person, she has great parents! (That's Vicky, her mom, and I playing around in the photo below).

A Good Memory

It's been a rough few weeks...I've had my victories, but spent a lot of time being defeated as well.

I think in times like that, memory is essential. Remembering things we've seen, good things God has done, and even happy/funny things.

I went to the English corner I co-lead last week, and was delighted to see a friend that I hadn't seen in 2 years (I didn't know he still lived in the city). We caught up, talked about all of our old friends, and talked about why I came to China. He said, "I think you have a lot of happy memories here." "I do, I love it here." I said. As I said it, I believed it (and believe me, I hadn't been feeling the love that week). And he said, "China loves you!"

I actually really treasured that comment because it made me remember the sweet times God has allowed me to experience here, and the wonderful people I've met. I really needed to feel/remember some love.

It made me think about my 21st birthday. At the time, it wasn't my favorite, but after the fact, I actually really loved that day. I celebrated my 21st birthday here, and it happened to fall on the day that myself and the other American exchange students were scheduled to perform in an English festival. It was a pretty momentous undertaking, and it rained that night. We performed in the pouring rain, and unbeknownst to me, the organizers found out it was my birthday. Amid shouts of "Julie, I LOVE YOU!!!" (think crazy fans at a rock concert), the whole group of gathered students (hundreds) sang Happy Birthday to me.

(Performing...this doesn't really show the scope of the amazzzing performance. haha)

At the time, I was mortified. Looking back, it was awesome. People were so welcoming to me.

Sometimes it feels different now, being a resident rather than a guest. I am treated more as a resident, which is satisfying in some ways, and in other ways, lonely. Because I may live here, but I don't fit in yet. I am so grateful for the opportunity to love people I meet well, but I am also grateful for those sweet people God brings into my life that love me well.