Forced Family Fun

So every family has forced family fun. You know what I am talking about, the events that everyone in the family must attend, willingly or not, all in the name of "family bonding." I am not saying that this is a bad thing, in fact good memories come from these events.. Anyways, SMIC (the company my school is under) had one of these events under the name of Company Sports Day.

Now, most of you know that I love sports but this day put a new maning to competitive. Basically there were a couple thousand grown events ready to compete in random events that should be at a fun day at the park and are not really competitive, but people were here to win. Different departments formed the teams (I honestly don;t even know what departments were w/ us except for the CEO). Anyways, the events were quite amusing. There was a tug of war competition where people were more serious than I had ever seen. A race called the Centipede Run which was like a three legged race on steroids. Basically they tied people's legs together like a three legged race but instead of there being two people there were 10. The teams practiced for this event, came out in knee pads, and there was a mattress at the end of the course to catch the forward momentum of teams. Among other events was a 100 M run, jump roping (and yes, tis was with adults), some relays, and other things that I am not sure about.

The day began with the opening ceremonies in which all the departments marched around the track in different formations. Some teams dressed up in cheerleading type costumes and did cheers. Another team dressed up in black and yellow spandex suits and did like modified arobics on the track. There was a group of grown men dressed in camo that did some serious kung fu accompanied by people dressed as bugs bunny, a bee, and something else that I forget (it was a funny combination). There were also serious marchers that has the perfect one-two-one march down and their faces had stern, serous looks to them.

The best though was that my K1'ers represented the school and marched the track. They were so cute and I was so proud. They also did a dance in front of everyone. It was funny, b/c I was so happy to see them do it that I was kind of giddy. Anyways, here are some pics of my kids (they are so precious).

To my friends and family

John Piper in Future Grace writes of a massive oak tree that stands outside his window. While the tree is visibly massive from the ground up “what is not seen is the roots. That’s the way it is with roots. They support everything but they don’t get much attention. The more massive the tree, the more massive the root system. It’s there, and if we could see it then we would be amazed. We would understand why this tree is still standing after decades of wind and lightening and hail and heat.”

Now that I have been in China I have spoken to many people who have told me that I am brave for coming and adventurous and how proud they are of me for making the step and so on. People ask me why I came and how am I adjusting to life and all sorts of questions, and I have recently realized that the answer to all these questions is my support system back home, my roots.

Being away from my friends and family physically has shown me that despite me not being able to see my support system it is there. Like the roots of a tree, I can only stand because I know that I am supported from something so deeply rooted that nothing will make me fall, no matter what comes my way. The reality is that the strength of my support system has gotten me through many hard times and challenging times. Times when I felt so much loss that I didn’t think anything could fill the void; times of confusion when I couldn’t make sense of anything; times when I was scared and times when I needed to be grounded back to reality. I have been encouraged and lifted up and prayed for more than I know and have realized and have acknowledged, and because of this I am able to be where I am today.

And I realize that it is the people who have come and gone in my life that have given my roots to be strong and to trust and to know that no matter what happens someone will be there to catch me and support, no matter where I am, even if I am in China. Despite my questioning of faith and God I have had amazing people to remind me what it is to be a Christian and the unwavering promises of God. I have had people speak louder to me through their actions and their own struggles than any words could express. Without my friends and family I know, without a doubt, I would not be who I am or where I am today. Without the support that so often goes unnoticed and unrecognized I know that I would not have the strength that I do and the sense of adventure that I have.

And so I thank you. I thank you for being my roots; something so deep that I can’t even recognize it or know its depths. And so if you want to know how is it that I am adapting to life in China, know that part of the answer is you. The knowledge of knowing that I have a group of people supporting me and encouraging me along the way makes life here so much easier. And as my roots have gotten me through so much I know that whatever comes my way across the world I will be able to handle it and grow from it.

* Sorry for the sappiness of this post... I am in a contemplative state of mind :)

Links to my videos

Here are links to videos I made...

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om6aODvMOso
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXAc_LD2EzY
  

My hot air balloon ride

While in Yangshou some of my friends (Tarah, Janai, and Laura) decided to go on a hot air balloon ride. We were soooo excited because Yangshou is absolutely gorgous, you've seen some pics now so I think you would agree. Anyways, the day of the ride, which was supposed to be for sunset, it was hazy and cloudy so we debated doing it because we knew the view woud not be that good, but we decided to do it.

We went up in the balloon. It was pretty, but not too much visibility. We reached close to 3000 ft (910 meters) so we were super high up. Being that high is such an amazing feeling. I have not felt that free since I went sky diving. When you are up that high it is so peaceful, well, except for the sound of the gas to light the flame of the balloon.

After about an hour we saw the other two balloons going down to land, so we figured our turn was next. Well, we were right and the balloon started to descend. Going down was so beautiful because we could see more and Yanghou is so green and the division fo the field and rice patties are gorgeous. As we went down our balloon passed over a village and we couls see and hear the children yelling "Hello" and "Ni hau" to us, so of course we were yelling back. I did not realize it, bu Tarah brought up the idea that maybe we weren't supposed to land here. As I thought about it, the thought made sense since I no longer saw the other balloons and the kids and adults were really excited to see the balloon so close (something they probably don't normally see). Well, tha balloon went down there was a tree. The pilot attempted to get the balloon to go higher but there was no luck and we brushed the top of it. To be honest, it was kind of funny to think we hit a tree in a balloon. Instead of continuing to go up we started to go down into a rice patty. The balloon hit the rice patty and we were soon horizontal in the basket. But, we didn't land here. The balloon picked up and in front of us were some houses. Thank God we cleared them, but on the other side of the houses was a tree that we were not so lucky to miss. And, as you can guess, the basket made a direct hit into the top of the tree and branches. We were ok, in fact we were laughing hysterically at this point. By now we realized that the liot made a wrong turn, but he didn't speak English so we couldn't ask him. On the other side of the tree was a field which we went down in. The landing was not smooth at all. We hit once, bounced up a bit, and landed again on the side.

Meanwhile, through our attempts to land and us hitting the trees the village which we were over ran to see what the heck was going on. As we climbed out of the basket, laughing so hard that I thought I was going to pee my pants, there were about 50 kids, not mention a bunch of adults around us. The kids were so happy to see us, some of the adults were happy too, some were curious as to who the heck we were and why we were there, and others were less than thrilled. However, we really couldn't do anything except stand in their field that we crashed landed into. It was funny because we had some old lady yelling at us. We figured the crops were probably hers, so she was not too happy with us.

We thought it was pretty awesome; definately an experience and it definately made the ride worthwhile (despite the lack of visiblity). I mean, how many people can say that they rode a hot air balloon in China, hit two trees, ran into a rice patty, and landed in some random field in a random village? Not too many I assume.

Finally the bus found us. We found out through a couple that was on the bus that they spent 45 minutes looking for us and some random boy had to get in the van to show the driver of the van where we were. Our hypothesis that we were not supposed to land there was correct, in fact we found out we missed the landing area by about 9 miles. Anyways, here are some pics from the air and from the ground. Enjoy!

more Yangshou Pictures

Yangshou pictures