My first movie!

Hello Ya'll!!!!!


Well once again I have had a very exciting and adventure filled week. Tuesday I took a two and half hour bus ride to the other side of the city where I was meeting some Chinese friends for dinner. Of course I got there a little early so I walked around the mall just killing time! They came and we went and enjoyed some chinese food! After which I took them to Mr. Mai's, a Coffee house were many Foreigners also go to share the Good news with people. Its just a fun and easy place to go and gain immediate friends! Tuesday night is live music night, my friend Ryan was playing :- )

After Mr. Mai's a group of us went to our friends house just to chill and talk about life and how our week was and whatnot. While we were there my friend taught me how to play Chinese Chess... I was basically a rock star at this game, especially since I won! (And yes he didn't LET me win he was actually trying, at least at the end). Well as we were in the taxi home Taylor mentioned how one of his chinese friends had asked if a few of us foreigners would be willing to help him out. The Chinese friends simply needed some foreigners to come and make small talk with some big-wig people at his company. There in lies the tale...

Wednesday morning came, we got dressed up and made our way to this guys company. When we got there we saw how we were the ONLY ones dressed uber nice.. haha Then there was a guy walking around asking if we had anything nicer we could war or even telling me and another girl to go and put water on our hair to make it look better, haha. Okay so my friends Taylor, Kirk, and I were waiting around for the big-wigs to come... Well, they never came! haha However the man asking if we had anything else to wear ended up being some PRODUCER... yup they next thing we new they were bringing in huge camera's, lights, pushy things, and people were telling us where to sit and whatnot... We were staring in our first Movie, with real producers and all. IT was some commercial for a big company there were three foreigners and three Chinese people. We just had to sit, point, laugh, write notes, and shake hands! Yeah so there in starts our movie career, haha! Not what we expected at ALL but definitely a good experience! Sorry but there was no time to take any pictures.

After the movie making I went back home to Hanyang and got ready for Fajita Wednesday! Only two Chinese friends ended up coming over, however it was uber fun. Usually when I have Chinese people over and they make Tortillas they are very precise about it and they make perfectly circled tortillas however this time the girls were so funny, we ended up with different shapes and sizes, man it was pretty funny! ha The girls LOVED the Mexican food and yeah it was great to get to know them! One of the girls name is Water (I know waht a great name huh?) and the other is Shirley. I actually met Shirley at Starbucks she is a Barista there and is basically GREAT! I invited her and any of her friends! Speaking of Starbucks, that has become my 3rd home away from homes. I love coffee now and I am always excited to go to the Starbucks which is only a 10 minute walk from my house :- ) I know everyone who works there including all of the mangers and store owner. Today when I was there with Emma the store manager came out and gave us a couple calendars and some new starbucks candy! And then later the shift manager came out and gave me a couple free movie tickets along with a free coffee. haha isn't that awesome? I'm hoping that I can work there this summer as a volunteer. This would be a great way for my Chinese to improve and also help them out with communicating with the foreign costumers.

Okay well I think that is it for now, this new movie star is getting tired! :-)
PS if you have an iPhone, iTouch, or iPad you need to download "INSTAGRAM" its a program that is basically like a picture twitter. I post pictures ALMOST everyday its a way to stay in touch quick and easy. Follow me, my name on Instagram is "kjinchina"

Water, Shirley, and ME after Fajita night!

! weekends!

So we started break on December 23rd and sense then I've had something to do every weekend, its been AWESOME!

Last weekend, also New Years, was my friend Rebeccas Bday.. We spent all day on Saturday just getting pampered, Messages, Hair washing, and then we were blessed to have many of our friends at the Whincops house for a Bday party and New Years party. What could be better? It was awesome!

The first week of the New Year was great, for what I can remember.

• Monday was spent just chillin, drinking coffee, having fun with friends, and being reminded of Gods   Awesomeness. When i was on my way home I saw some people going into my building and in good Miller Tradition I said "Ni Hao" then they proceeded to ask me if I would like to come over to dinner. It ended up being really awesome, I love the unexpected memories which usually turn into big blessings I get to have while I'm here in China!
• Tuesday I went to play badminton in the evening with some new friends. Well I thought we were going to play badminton but first we played ping pong which was slightly embarrassing.There were 4 ping pong tables and 20ish people there playing/watching. I barely got the ball on the table 4 times, haha!
• Wednesday hung out with Rebecca Franks and Anna Reyes, ate some awesome Fat Fish Head drank some amazing starbucks and got to catch up/get to know each other better. After starbucks I went to gymnastics club at school. I was soo happy because I was able to do a back-walker all on my own starting from a complete standing position.. haha! Later that night I went to the Gym for dance and yoga classes. While I was there I was thought it would be a great idea to share my tubling skills with them (wihtout stretching)... Oh to be young(er) again! 
• Thursday -- WEll I got out of bed in extreme PAIN.. I could hardly stand my back was killing me however, I thought "surely the pain will go away" well it didn't. In fact it just got worse and worse. I could hardly walk :-(  I had some things planned for the weekend and I was afraid I was going to miss them. But then I decided to get a message. I went to a couple places who must of been crazy... They wanted to charge me 160RMB for 20 minutes. Finally I buckled up and went to a really good place that was further away.. I got a message for 100RMB for 2 HOURS... During the message the lady asked if my back was sore, I was like "YES" so she asked if I would like to get the Fire Cups to which I responded "YES, anythign to help my back" I went to bed in pain but woke up a LITTLE better!
• Friday-- Went to the Fabric market with Rebecca Franks.. Got some sweet clothes made (Hopefully, we'll find out next week)... While at the fabric market I learned the chinese words for "Cotton, Wool, and half cotton with something else" After which We got some awesome street food, can't go wrong with lunch for 5 RMB! So after the fabric market I headed to Hankou where I would meet my friends later for a birthday party! I got there a little early so I decided to get my hair washed, which is one of my favorite things to do in CHina.. IT cost around 15-25 RMB (2-4 Dollars), they wash your hair, message your head, and style your hair :- ) The best thing EVER! After the hair washing I went and studied at Starbucks (yeah I have this class I'm taking which might end my life.. haha :-) Then my friends called and said they were close so I packed up and started walking to meet them. Lets just say that my 15 min walked turned into 45 minutes... Luckily I made it! So we all went to some awesome steak house for Taylors birthday! Super fun, espeically when he got is "Birthday Hat" haha (Check out facebook for pictures)... For his birthday he wanted to see a movie called 13 flowers (or something like that)... THis movie is about a city in China called NanJing back in the day when Japan was trying to take over... It was a good but very sad movie (some famous American actor was in it but I forgot his name) It was crazy to see how the people of NanJing were treated especially the children. I know it was a long time ago but my heart still went out for them. This movie explained a lot as to why Chinese people don't really like the Japanese. Its hard for me to even think that things like this really did take place in the past and even now. How could someone really have this much hate, I was reminded to pray, pray that Gods love would be shown even today! After the movie we went back to the hotel where we had a birthday cake but no knifes, forks, or chopsticks.. So we resorted to Dental Floss :- ) Pictures to follow :- )
• Saturday we had mcDonalds for Breakfast, walked around and then had Subway for lunch, felt like we were in America, for sure.. haha After which I walked over to Art Street. I wanted to take advantage of just CHILL time and total relaxation..Art street has over a billion pictures/paintings/etc. Its hard to explain but basically its awesome. There were some big stores and then SOME really cool alley looking things that lead into bigger stores :- ) It was just fun! Then I went to starbucks, surprise, and studied some more.. Then was asked to join a coffee tasting.. I love those, free coffee and food, can't go wrong :- ) Plus I know everyone that works at starbucks so I'm just chillin with them getting to know them and hopefully making some sort of impact. Tonight they were helping me with my Chinese and they thought that it was soo funny that I had a book teaching me Chinese, one girl started taking pictures with it. ha : -)
• Well tomorrow is Sunday and I'm looking forward to all that God has in store for me!

Thanks for reading this extremely LONG blog!

Cake Cutting! 

Sweet Great wall Painting on Art street!

Random sausage hanging... Preparation for Chinese New Years!

the Best Christmas Eve EVER!

Let me start by saying this... This Christmas I decided to stay in Wuhan, as I did last year. However, this year is much different sense almost everyone I work with are going home for the Holidays. Last year a few of us were able to make Christmas feel like we were in AMerica by doing our family traditions. SO last year felt totally normal. THis year wasn't feeling that way and I was just a little eww..

But then today came, Christmas eve. . . 3 days ago I was asked if I would be willing to go to a Chinese school and lead some students in Christmas games. I was hesitant to say yes, if you live in China you know that your constantly asked to do things like this. As soon as you say yes to one then they think that you can ALWAYS come or you can go to antoehr place, a one hour thing turns out to be 3-4 hours. Okay so that is why I was hesitant. However, I said "YES".

I didn't know what I was getting into, where I was going, how many students, their english level, etc. Even as I left my house today I was just like "okay I"m just going to do another thing"... When I first got there I still didn't know where I was, what I was doing, etc. I had to call my friend to come and get me. When I was waiting outside the apartment complex (bigger than my university) an old man with no teeth was trying to talk to me... Now I can understand some chinese but understanding an old man with no-teeth is difficult. Anywho, my friend came and we were walking through the complex, I began to realize that these people had never seen a foreigner before, she describe this complex similar to a Village. As we were walking I was waiting to come upon some bigger building which would be where we were going to share about Christmas. Nope, just in an apartment! I walked in and actually I think i might of scared some of the children, haha! My heart broke as I walked into an apartment, smaller than mine, filled with 30+ students. See this isn't just a school, actually its a tutoring place where some of the students are really poor and they don't do well in school so these people who run this place charge them what ever their family can afford, about 10RMB (less than 2 dollars) for tutoring in English, Math, and Chinese. 

They were soo amazed that a forienger had come into their school. They were so shy and at they same time they were so interested in what I looked like, how i sounded, what I was wearing, etc. At that moment I heard God saying
"See Karen, I have great things in store for you, Christmas isn't about YOU. Yes Christmas is about GIFTS, the greatest... You are so privileged to be able to share that with these kids. Love them as I love you, look at them as I SEE YOU, pray for them" 

So the morning went on!! We played some games like Pin the star on the tree, Santa Beard game (hilarious, look at the pics:-), and pass the present. There wasn't time to let EACH student go so I would pull their names out of a stocking I had brought with me. Every time I would pull a name I would look out and see the kids staring at me hoping I would call their name. The simply smiles and laughs that they had were so bright they could light up the whole house which by the way had minimal lighting and heating. I brought a couple prizes and gifts for the winners of each game they were so filled with joy.

Then the best part came... I got to share with them about my CHRISTMAS traditions... Thanks mom and dad for being parents who every year read the REAL CHRISTMAS story you have given me so many opportunities to share HIS love with so many people. I can't just openly talk about the good news but because it was a tradition in my house I was able to read from this great book the REAL story of CHRISTmas about when CHRIST was born. Isn't that awesome. The kids were so silent as they listened. Did they understand every single word? Probably not, but they heard it, and I believe God was there and is there!

After the Christmas story I let them ask some questions about anything, a way for them to practice their english.. A funny question was "MS Teacher, how old are you?" I said How old do you think I am.??.. the student responded "18?" haha :-) Before I left I asked if they would like to take a picture with me, and within 5 seconds the kids had almost trampled over me, they wanted to be so close to me and take a picture. haha

As my friend and one of the teachers were walking me to the bus stop they were saying things like "YEah some of the kids have really never seen a foreigner", "I've never seen them smile so much", and "The kids love you"... As I listened to them I thought
"How could I of missed this opportunity, who cares if I thought I was busy? God doesn't care about the business of life he doesn't fill our adgendas so that we can becoming crazy people. God wants us to share the news of his LOVE to all people"

I know this blog is pretty long now and if you have made it to this place CONGRATS! ! ! However, now I want to challenge you... Don't make Christmas about YOU, don't even make it about the business in your life (Kettles, gift giving, traveling) Remember its about HIM... SHARE the real news of Christ with WHO EVER you come in contact with. Don't hesitate to be used by GOD. Allow him to lead you and to share the greatest gift ever given.

Her name was Lollipop!

 We were playing Pin the Star on the Tree!

 Reading from the Good book!

 Reading the Christmas story that my dad always read to me!

 Can you find me? haha More pictures are posted on Facebook! Please keep them in your thoughts!

Roller Skating in China, yup an exerience.

Every time I get in a taxi here in China, i wonder what type of experience I will have. Just last week i was going to the grocery store and I needed to go quickly so I asked my taxi driver if he could go realy fast. Wow was that the wrong thing to say.. My driver went crazy, he started squeezing in spacese which looked impossible. I had never been so close to other cars then at that time. He also decided it was appropriate to go against the traffic to simply get around a car that was not going as fast as he would like. haha, I guess that is what I get for asking him to go fast. At one point I think he even touched another car but it didn't matter he just kept going. ha CRAZY..

So why do I tell you about my taxi experience? Well as we were skating tonight I realized that they skate like they drive. My roommate and I went to the new wall where they have a skating rink haha.  People continually were going the wrong way, you get pushed, people come so close to you, you see in front of you an extremely small space and you think "SURELY no person can fit through there, and the next thing you know someone goes right in that space, maybe they even knock someone over.. haha Oh and the best part, people will be going so fast that they decide to make some sort of noise as if they are honking.. haha I love it!

Funniest thing from tonight. So just like in their driving, people sometimes run into you or whatnot. Tonight I totally felt like I was a hockey player, haha! Okay so I was skating and of course everyone is looking at me because I was one of two foreigners there (the other one being my roommate). Anyways this guy totally ran into me but I didn't budge I just kept going however he bounce of me so hard and ran into the wall as if I had just slammed him into it. It was quite funny, I couldn't stop laughing.

Well this was the first weekend that I had kind of free, it was a great feeling just to relax and have fun! I have been extremely busy recently and I don't see that much of a slow down in the upcoming weeks. However, I am continually grateful for days like this where I can see Gods handiwork in his unique creations. How great is our God? I pray that I will continue to see his work around and in my life, also I challenge you to look at things as God would... don't just look at the negative side but see what God does and be grateful for his handiwork. God is working and is teaching me daily to have patience to and to see things as he does.. This world, just like the skating in China is CRAZY, things go on and come so close to hitting us or making us fall. However, our God is bigger and better and while there is craziness he gives peace, Yeah our God truly IS great!

Well here we are!

So, I know I"m pretty much a terrible blogger, sorry. So much has happened sense I last blogged, where to begin? Don't worry this won't be too long I'll just give you all the inside scoops on some big things that have happened recently.

School has started and man it has been going amazingly well. My classes are fun, cute, challenging, encouraging, and did I mention cute yet? haha.. So my kindergarten class does not have any native English speakers and until the past couple days none of them could say anything in English. So through out class I would be spoken to in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and French.. But the kids are sooo Cute that I couldn't help but smile. (Sorry I can't post pictures, but yeah I can't post any of my students the whole confidentiality). The 2nd Grade class has been growing and growing and man they are just as cute as can be. It is the one age where I can do nothing wrong in their eyes. I mean I say "line up" and they jump for joy... haha If only my secondary students could be like that at some points.. haha So other than the heat everything is going amazingly well! when i say heat i mean i was burnt so bad that i was overheating, highs of 105 with the real feel of 117 yeah crazy like i said.

Volleyball Practice has also begun, I am again coaching the High School girls. I have coached many of them for 3 years, it has been such a great time watching them grow and continue to excel. This year is going to be a great one for the volleyball team, no joke! Oh and Also choir started and this is something I'm not so comfortable leading but G has been faithful in providing good songs and students who are great singers and willing to learn.. I am soo blessed!

Last Thursday - Saturday we had fall camp for our students. Fall camp is a time where we take our students out to rural area and just get to spend time with them and share the Good News with them. We also get to take them on different activites. One was repelling, I Love repelling, such a great analogy with how our faith is. Sometimes you just need to lean back and trust that G is there, you can't always see him but you CAN feel him. Just like we do when we repel, we can see what is below us or behind us but we can trust that the rope is there for us. Yes we have to keep ourselves in the correct posture but if we just let the rope be in our hands then it will guide us down the mountain. We have to keep God in our hands or I should say ALLOW him to hold us and he will guide us down any path.. YEAH its scary and it can be frightening but we MUST Trust to rope and those who have gone before us.. See they can do it, they made it safely , God promises to never leave us nor forsake us. isn't that great. And look at all of those who have gone before us, they made it and so can we!

Needless to say Fall camp was great not just for the students but also for me!
Last sunday after fellowship I went to Wuchang, about 2 hours away, to play badminton with some friends. It was uber fun, we played for about 3 hours : - ) Yeah I"m working on improving my serve, I can stay up with the competition during the play time but man my serve is 7/10 times TERRIBLE. After badminton we went to this All you can eat "Fish Hot Pot" So basically its a boiling pot of water and you can have endless fish and fish heads.. Along with endless vegetables all for 22 RMB (3.5 dollars) Man it was delicious, I love fish here. The only downfall was that i twas an extremely hot day so eating HOT POT was a little crazy, but I loved the fellowship with friends and the yummy fish.

Oh man I have so many stories I could tell I just don't want to bore you all too much : - )

Okay that is all for now, oh I have added some pictures from the NEW mall that just opened near us, 5 minutes by bike.. It is crazy nice, like a western mall there is even Air conditioning inside.. Okay enjoy..  I will try to be better and will hopefully blog on a more regular basis :  - )

If God sends us on stony paths, He provides strong shoes (corrie ten boom)

First day of School (and a little bit before)

Well today was the first day for our students to finally be back at school. What a great time it was! As the students walked up the stares I realized how much I had missed them and how excited I was to be teaching them!

SO last weekend I got a phone call from one of my Chinese friends, he asked me if I wanted to come and watch some people play sand volleyball at this pretty big tournament near my house. I of course said yes, well when I got there I was actually ON a team, oh boy! So there I was the only white person and the only girl playing in the mens league. We had such a great time, I was sore for about 3 days but the tournament was for sure a blast. It was great at one point our game was the only one being played and everyone was around our court cheering for the 1 WHITE person, they kept saying in Chinese "LETS GO foreigner ! haha...

I was SO tired that I slept through a good friend birthday party, I think that was a little due to jetlag, and the tournament, I felt pretty terrible. However, like I said it was a good friends bday party so she was totally understanding!

Monday-Wednesday we had meetings at school along with lots of PREP for our class rooms. Oh man my class room/area is a mess. As I have mentioned before we share our school with a Chinese elementary school.... Well every year they seem to take more and more away from the outside open area, where we do PE. So we used to have a field in front of our school however, now it is completely torn up with a few strips of concrete down the middle. There are many workers daily out there however, I'm still unsure of what they are doing. Well when I saw that I was like "oh its okay at least we still have the circle area". The next day I went to work and BAM, there they were buidling another shed, straight dab there in the middle of that circle area... So I'm unsure of where PE classes will really take place, we can go to the tennis court but half that time that is filled with chinese students. God has def. talk me the word flexibility and HE has given me great ideas exactly when needed, I will continue to realx and trust in HIM.

Tomorrow is Friday, which this year MWF are my busiest days. I have 8 classes plus Open Gym times, and starting next week we will have Choir practice after school. Which God has once again been faithful. Last year the choir consisted of 7 people, 3 high school girls and 4 middle school girls. As of today choir this year has 15 people singed up, 8 high school students (notice i didn't say girls) and 7 Middle School students. I'm so excited for this year in choir as I am excited for this whole year in general.

Okay my last thought for this post has to do with Christmas. I was thinking of places that would great to visit, and def. on top of my list is to someday go to Australia..... I decided okay I'll just check out the prices and see how expensive they are. To my surprise I found tickets for 4,000 RMB for round trip. (Less than 650 dollars) ... So I am currently looking for someone to go with my to Australia, if you are going or want to go or think you could do it.. LET ME KNOW! I seriously would love to go.

Thanks again for keeping up to date with whats going on in my life.. More to come, probably next week. ZAI JIAN !!!

--What greater joy is there than training the mid and forming the habits of the young? ~ St. John Chrysostom

Sun Burn, OH YEAH!

Well,

I've been home now for a totally for 2 complete days and yes the adventures have already begun... haha Today's post is not going to be too long but I just wanted to let you all know about my last day or so.. : - )

Last night after I went to the gym, in which I saw all of my friends there. Basically the people at the gym are my second family, love them. So I brought back shirts for them from America and they loved them, Golden (the cycling instructor) was wearing his today, fit perfect especially with the big smile he had on! Anyways after the gym I went to see my friends at the fruit stand, Dave (the owner) was so surprised to see me and excited. I'll probably talk a lot about these people throughout the year they are people that I am in contact with on a regular occurrence.

So today started off on a good note, haha! Our school was having a staff picnic and fun day at this park in which I THOUGHT i knew where it was... SO i decided I would just ride my bike and meet everyone else there (they were taking a bus). I knew it was at least 25-30 minutes away, I gave myself plenty of time to get there. Well I wasn't planning on taking the scenic route for an hour.. haha yup, I got lost and I couldn't even remember the word for "Park" in chinese. . . Oh man it was a mess, on that trip my sunburn began... hahaha When the picnic was over I successfully made it home in 30 minutes. To my wonderful surprise during the ride and picnic I turned into such a deep shade of red, hahaha!

Well tonight I went to the cycling class and then a new friend from America asked me to stay at the gym for a Yoga class, so yeah I stayed... Let me tell you, I'm pretty terrible at Yoga I started laughing out loud at one point! ha

Jetlag is actually doing pretty well, sleeping through the nights just getting a little tired around 10:00 am haha oh well!

Okay I'm out for the night just thought I would let you all know that somehow i still managed to get lost tonight! The picture attached is of the fruit guys sporting their shirts, in which they put them on immediately after I gave them to them!