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).

Xi'an

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to visit a friend in her hometown, the ancient capital city of China, Xi'an.

Yes, Xi'an is famous for the Terracotta Warriors, and, in my opinion, this is THE must-see sight of China (more so than the Great Wall). I found it mind-blowing.

Each and every single one of these warriors has a different face, different details. Incredible. And also a slightly haunting reminder of the futility of trying to create for yourself a post-death kingdom.

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Aside from the Terracotta Warriors, I fell in love with Xi'an as a whole. So much history around, and amazzzziing local food! If I didn't love my local city so much, I would be happy to relocate there!

Post-Vacay

Vacation was quite the adventure...I thought I would do a few posts spotlighting different experiences.

One of my favorite parts was crossing off a certain item from my bucket list....staying at the Marina Bay Sands.

A while ago one of my fave Korean stars, Jung Ji Hoon, tweeted some pics of him and his backup dancers in an AMAZING pool..I knew I had to swim in it before I die.

While the skypark with the Infinity pool as it is called used to be open for the public to pay a fee and swim there, it is now open only to hotel guests...so, we had to stay there. It was quite the splurge, but, after staying in crappy hostels for the rest of the trip, it was worth it.

Ok, so it was cold, and my vampiric skin hadn't seen the light of day in a long time, so excuse the glowing whiteness.

Anyways, if you are ever in Singapore, it's worth skimping in other areas to splurge on this pool!

TILT! The pre-vacay edition!

Well, because I have been SUPER stressed out and ready to kill almost everyone, I decided it was time to recount the good things from my week in spite of the stress.

-I was thankful for people that support me, and, as was the case this week, protect me.

-I was thankful for sales on some summery clothing that I can wear on my vacation.

-I am super thankful to be taking a vacation (leaving tomorrow)...warmer temperatures, time away from some stressful situations, overall refreshment!

-I was thankful to get to see Sherlock Holmes 2 this week (with 2 of my hilarious friends)

-I was thankful for the "J" drawn on my latte last night...so cute!

-I was thankful for finding some cheap reads on kindle!

-I was thankful for my family

-I was thankful for my friend always bringing me delicious food...last night J brought me homemade meatballs, and the week before she brought me homemade steamed bread (my fave)!

-I was thankful for unspoken sympathy demonstrated in actions

-I was thankful that my friend trusted my Chinese handwriting enough to let me help her fill out some documents for work

-I am thankful for discount plane tickets that will allow me to visit a friend's hometown, and to travel with another friend and her mother!

-I was very, very thankful for handsome barista this week. I spent a lot of time this week at the coffee shop because our internet at home was broken...I also had my share of stressful situations, several of which happened at the coffee shop. Anyways, I appreciated him fending off a stalker for me, making me custom drinks when I was stressed out, and just being an overall cutie.

Well, tomorrow I start my whirlwind tour of 4 countries (counting layovers, I guess it's 5, haha). See y'all in a couple of weeks!

新年快乐！

Ok, so it's a little late for a New Year's post....but, happy new year all the same! I know I am grateful for a reminder that a fresh start is always possible, ptl!

I had grand plans for New Year's Eve (just like last year), that involved karaoke and glow bracelets...but when midnight struck, I found myself at a friend's house watching "2012" and snacking. We didn't notice when midnight struck...anticlimactic, but a good new year celebration nonetheless....good company!

A big part of celebrating a new year for me is not so much about making resolutions (which usually get broken), as much as reflecting on the past year and visualizing what things I want to grow in for next year.

This year was...confusing, messy, beautiful, exciting, terrifying...all kinds of things. I'm guessing that your year may have been as well.

2012...I can already count blessings that have happened or are to come....I'm looking forward to growing in relationships with friends here....to mending mistakes that I've made and allowing God to heal hurts, both suffered and self-inflicted. I will get to see more of the world...visit new places, meet new people, and have new enlightening conversations.

I'm hoping this year I will cry more, and allow myself to acutely feel emotions again. I hope I will grow closer to God. I hope I will really extend kindness to my friends here, even when I feel irritated or overwhelmed by cultural stresses.

Of course, I have thought of a few practical things I want to grow in too...the usual study goals, language improvement techniques to try, studies to do, etc.

What about you friends? What were the highlights of your past year and what are things you are looking forward to in the next year?

Christmas Cards

So I got this card from a friend on Christmas Eve, and it made me cry (and I haven't cried in a long time).

"谢谢你这么长时间以来对我的帮助！谢谢你在我有困难的时候陪伴我！很开心，因为有你这样的好姐妹。我感觉真的好幸福!"

translation: Thank you for so long being my help! Thank you for when I have a difficult time being with me! I am very happy, because you are such a good sister. I feel really blessed!

I also got this awesome Christmas card from one of my funniest, awesome friends:
“猪力：Merry Christmas! 圣诞节快乐！！你要多吃些哦！因为你太瘦了。”-猪第

Translation: Pig Power (what the sounds of my English name sound like in Chinese...it's a joke between us). Merry Christmas! You should eat more! Because you are too thin."-Pig Brother (what her English name sounds like in Chinese). This card also included little drawings of pigs. So funny!

Recent Life Happenings

Currently sick with a respiratory infection (blech), which, for various reasons, feels harder to deal with in China, if solely for the fact that I ride my bike everywhere, and due to lung issues, I can't currently do that. Hence I have not been eating much and am currently dreaming of juicy jaozi (dumplings) and malatang (soup that you choose your own ingredients for). I am drooling just writing that.

Anyways, Christmastime in China is different...it is celebrated more widely in China nowadays than in years past, but it's still not the same as celebrating in the States, with lights and Christmas music everywhere. Nonetheless, I enjoy this time of year and getting to share Christmas traditions with local friends.

Anyways, so some recent life happenings:

-I started studying Ancient Greek. My friend had a book and we decided to study it. In just an hour a week I am picking it up fairly well. On a personal note, it will be nice to be able to read the New Testament in its original language!

-I have also started being officially tutored in the local minority language (wasn't self-motivated enough to do it alone!). I am actually considering studying it at the university next semester, but as I also obviously want to continue to improve my Chinese, I haven't decided about that).

-I have been teaching a "Spanish Corner" in addition to the English Corner I already lead. Several students approached me about wanting to learn, and while I was surprised as that doesn't seem to be the most useful language, they are picking it up well, and it's good for me to brush up on my rusty Spanish!

-I am enjoying周杰伦's (Jay Chou's) new cd, courtesy of my knight-in-shining-armor who mailed it to me when I couldn't find it in the stores here! You should give it a listen! Tracks 7 and 10 are my faves. And it has its share of usual cheeky numbers too.

What else...for those of you who enjoy the light-hearted updates, here is an update on the saga of the cute barista. Well, he recently saved me from the advances of a drunken coffee shop patron, after which he came up to me and launched into an explanation/apology of some sorts for the inconvenience, but I'll be honest, I only caught about half of what he said, he was talking so fast. (Enter the nod and smile, hoping that he was not saying anything totally crazy.)Aside from that I wasn't really getting anywhere, aside from a conversation one night in which he told me I needed to stop cleaning up after English Corner and let him do his job. :-) “不用那么客气！”(bu yong na me ke qi--need not be so polite!)

I will admit to doing some stalking on renren (the Chinese version of facebook), but his profile was private...and renren has some features that are not stalker-friendly, such as letting a user see who has looked at their profile and when. Well, one night I was staying late at the coffee shop to have a meeting with the owner...we were discussing renren and how she should get an account (even if she is older than the typical student...I gave her the example of how all the parents are on facebook now). Anyways, I wrote down my renren account info to give her...and I guess she passed it on to her employees cause...cute barista added me! In actuality I wasn't all that thrilled because renren still has those features that mean I can't stalk him that often..and sometimes I feel more awkward as a result of social networking, because it's like added pressure. You know what I mean? Like, "well, we weren't really that close before, but now that we're friends online, I guess I should talk to you in person more."

So there you have it, my life happenings and love life here in the middle kingdom.