Happy New Year

As many of you are just now starting to celebrate the New Year, Mai Kao and i are right now recovering from ours. this new years eve was one of the best we've had.

to celebrate the new year mai kao and i attended the evening service at our church and it was a total blessing for us. here are are few things that i have come away with from this service. bear with me, i dont want to get preachy, but these are a few things that God has really laid on my heart to share with those at home.

1. Psalm 27:7-14. look it up. regardless of our struggles, be vigilant in your prayers. be confident that you will indeed see the goodness of the Lord while you are alive. wait eagerly, expentantly for God to answer your cry for help. 2008 was a year that brought us a lot of heartache... this was a passage that has really helped us to pray about those heartaches.
2. our pastor said something simple that totally blew me away, "the Lord only expects from us what He Himself gives us." So when he tells us in the Songs of Solomon that we ought to desire Him, it is in fact because He desires us. when he demands from us loyalty and devotion, it is because He has always been totally loyal to us and devoted to us! Amen! many times we say God only gives us what we are able to handle, but we never look at it from the other perspective of God only wants from us what He gives us. be confident in the fact that God is on your side. He calls us to be more than conquerors because He has already conquered evil! we can do all things in Christ Jesus our Lord.
3. last night part of the worship was led by the youth group. i was filled with tears as i watched young people jump for joy as they sang songs to glorify God. we work with kids everyday and we love it! being able to shape a young persons life is a great thing. being able to shape a your persons life to love the Lord passionately is an even greater thing. as we watched in amazement seeing these young people's passion and maturity in the Lord, we were reminded of how much we love to see the Youth worship. i love how they worship with reckless abandonment, with innocence. this is easily one of my favorite things in life.

I hope some of these words encourage you this new year. please remember to pray for us.

josh out.

Christmas

Merry Christmas. We hope you are with the people you love. Or at least, with people who love you. Merry Christmas to especially these friends:

Isiah. Vipat. Boi-oh. (Our "if we were at home, they would be our Christmas Day crew")

Minnesota: Mom, Dad, the monkeys, bros and sisters. Laug Jacob and the Yangs.

And Johan &PJ.

Illinoise: The Changs (we miss you and love you), Vangs, Maiku & H, TS&Ah, Xay & TD X.

The girls: Tshab & PF & Nouster. And Pheng.

Stewart Ave. Shout-out: Judy and Jimmy.

The other fam: JonahB, the bros and TDs, and Mommy especially.

With lots of love, Josh and Mai Kao

Uncle Xeng and the Chinese Double take

its christmas eve here and mai kao and i have two things we've been wanting to share with you all.

#1 - at least 40 percent of the chinese male population looks like uncle xeng! every corner we turn we see an Uncle Xeng clone. its too funny. so far the two people from home that have the most twins are, Uncle Xeng and Puj Laug Vern. not trying to bash looks, i think they are both fine looking human beings, but it's pretty funny that if you consider that China is 1/6 of the worlds population than that means that 1/12 or 1/14 of the worlds population are twins of Uncle Xeng and Ligs. i know, it is indeed a huge revelation.

#2 - the chinese double take (mai kao's and Josh's favorite past time). whenever we are in public we speak English, well, because we're American. but whenever we do so, we always get curious Chinese people looking hard at us, totally confused that two totally looking chinese people are speaking English so well. you see the common public perception here in the EAst is that if you are american you are basically white, so when a non whitey speaks english perfectly, they are completely perplexed. after a while the novelty of hearing someone speak english in public wheres off and they start to mind their own business again. HERE is where the double take comes in, sometimes you cant express everything in English so you have to use Hmong, all the sudden mai kao and i will start speaking Hmong and those curious chinese people will stare at us super hard this time trying to figure out what we are... you can only imagine what gears are turning in their brains. total and utter confusion...you see, for chinese people, if you dont fit the public perception their initial reaction is not about trying to figure it out, it is total confusion. so nowadays, when mai kao and i are out we make it a point to speak many languages to vex as many chinese as possible. its really a funny game we play...

josh out.

p.s. Merry Christmas
p.s.s. QUIZ "Keep the change you filthy animal!" what movie is that line from?

Message to Geu

Don't you dare give away Naruto spoilers!!!!

AHHHHHH!!!!

A Mai Kao Post!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Sorry to everyone else who has to suffer through Josh's posts about his hobbies!

It's already Christmas, and I'm so happy because my students know that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. If there's one thing I'm thankful for, it's that I can freely and openly say that in class, and there is no offense taken or feelings of exclusiveness. Most of the kids actually are interested about learning the story of Jesus' birth, and understand the symbols that they see now!

I always like Christmas because it begins my favorite part of the Christian calender... going from Christmas to Lent to Easter/ the Resurrection.

Last week in church, the whole service was a Christmas play put on by other members of the church... adults, kids, and youth. It wasn't great, but it definitly was inspiring. You guys should go to another church near you (if your church doesn't have one) and watch a Christmas play. It'll remind you again of how great Christmas is. Jesus is real! And even non-Christians celebrate Christmas...! Even if it's for not the true reason, I don't care. There is still hope that someday, they will understand the true meaning of it all.

Have a good weekend, friends!

the groove

i've decided for the best that i wont buy any more MTG singles online and have them shipped here until i get back to the states. i've been reading a lot about new decks and want to play them, but really, what is the point in me having these ultra competative decks here playing by myself? there really is none. if i was home then it'd be totally okay, however, being 10,000 miles away well, its not really that smart. so i've confined myself to just buying packs and trying to get cards the old fashioned way. in the end it will have benefitted me more b/c it will have forced me to play cards that i wouldnt have otherwise played.

we are starting to get in the groove as far as teaching goes. things are starting to get easier and i'm starting to really get the hang of classroom time management. kids are crazy as always, but so am i. sometimes its hard to tell who is crazier in class, me or the kids.

christmas is coming and we are thinking about home. friends, church, family, the works.
can someone send us pictures of all the kids from home via email or some way other than xanga? for some reason we can't get pictures via xanga.

merry christmas,

josh out.

OK...i confess...i'm in love with Prison Break. and my top 10 as well.

there you go. i've gotten it off my chest. now i can talk about it freely. wow, what a relief to finally let it out?! currently, i'm near the end of the 2nd season. its getting pretty good again. nothing beats the first season where they are actually still in prison trying to break out, when everything was just a little simpler and a little complex all at the same time. the badguys in the first season are so much more cooler than the 2nd season. those of you who watch know what i'm talking about.

life has been pretty good for mai kao and i. the other day we woke up and walked around town and realized we really like living in Shanghai. its a great city to live in and a great place to save lots of cash. its like living in downtown Chicago but with the costs of living in Dixon. serious, it can be that inexpensive if you try...which we do a poor job of doing...but it can be done. when all is said and done, i will miss this place and season in mai kao and my life.

mai kao's cooking is off the hook!

these are some upcoming trips that mai kao and i hope to embark on this upcoming year. traveling around asia is pretty cheap if you can get over here.
1. vietnam (for the 3 week vacation in late Jan.)
2. S. Korea/Japan trip
3. Australia/Malaysia? hopefully
4. Israel...if we can afford it.

oh one more thing. last week we got a christmas tree and decorated it. we love it so much, we leave the christmas lights on all night long. in this season we are glad to have each other, but we miss our friends dearly. when sarah left to go back home, it really reminded us how much we love each and every one of our family members, cousins, nieces/nephews, friends who are closer than family, and church. keep us in your prayers and remember us when you are celebrating something.

josh out.

this next part is for the magic guys...if you dont want to read about magic you can skip this next part. its been inspired by the outlaw Xaycho Kong. my top 10 favorite magic cards. in no particular order.

1. Reveillark - i was never really a fan of reanimation until Reveillark. i've always known how cool reanimating something was but never how devastating it can be to your opponents. this guy is super annoying, when he is cast your opponent is caught in a Catch 22, do they kill him and let two creatures with devastating abilities come back into play? or do you let him fly over and smash you in to face for 4? either way you lose.
2. Avalanche Riders - possibly my favorite creature of all time. it took me months to find 4 copies of this guy the old fashioned way of going to stores and trading friends. how cool is coming into play, destroying any one land and then getting a creature with haste in return for R3 cc? probably way cooler than anything you've ever imagined for in a magic card! he's got an echo cost, but thats nothing a good blink cant take care of...he he. if land destroy ever makes a comeback as a viable deck, i will be on that train...
3. Mystic Snake - i love creatures with CIP (comes into play abilities) especially ones that get rid of stuff. this guy counters anything and you get a creature! his only downfall is his casting cost, but i've always been a fan of blue/green ever since the days of U/G madness.
4. momentary blink - who would have thought that making your creature leave play for a split second would be so cool? this card can be used for evasion, and cool tricks involving comes into play abilities...see the three creatures above!
5. Stasis - never has a card been a lock all in itself. its a hard to play against and play with, thats why i like it. i like cards that make me a better player, cards that force you to stop and think for a bit. with this card you have no choice but to stop and think about your slow death...b/c all your permanents will never untap again! too dirty of a card, thats precisely why i like it.
6. lightning helix - my favorite burn spell of all time. i am never sad to draw this card...ever.
7. shepard of rot - what? all your favorite cards dont have to be tournament staples. i've always loved how suicidal this guy is. with my suicide zombie deck of the onslaught era i posted nearly a 60% draw percentage with this guy...what i mean is whenever my opponent thought that they were going to win, i would tap this little bad boy and kill both of us right there on the spot. you dont know how annoyed my opponents would be that no one won.
8. wild mongrel - i love this creature. it ranks up there with tarmogoyf as one of the best 2 drops ever. period. your opponent is trying to shock it? you just discard a card to it to give it +1/+1. okay then, so your opponent tries to terror it? well, you forgot to mention to your opponent that you also turned it black! how annoying! i rode this guy all the way to game 3 of the finals of a tournament i once played back in St. louis.
9. Pavement - Terror Twilight, okay so this is not a magic card. its an album. i ran out of cards to post on okay? if you havent listened this album, you should. enough said.
10. oh i finally thought of another one...Makeshift Mannequin. instant speed reanimation. ridiculous with mulldrifter, persist creatures, and shriekmaw. in fact, many decks are tier 2 based just on the mulldrifter/shriekmaw/Mannequin interactions. thats just how powerful it is. also, a good budget card. if you noticed all my cards on my list arent expensive, except for maybe the reveillark. for the most part i;m a budget player so this card fits in real nice for me.

okay peace out for real.

josh out.

p.s. christmas wishlist
1. a black/white eventide deck. not the precon but a fully constructed one.
2. glen elendra archmages
3. poopy face.

JOHAN's done it again!

he has inspired me to start writing again. through all his videos he posts and his passion i've got the bug...God bless you Johan!

so far i have two verses i like that i feel i can share with you all and two choruses i like that i feel are congregational. unfortunately, they are all for different songs! dang it....

i've always had the problem of writing tons of parts and never being able to put the finishing touches on them...either by writing good lyrics with no good melody or vice versa or just not having a compelling enough chorus. but i'm plugging away.

i was doing some random worship surfing on YOUTUBE and found a webcast that has phil wickham himself teaching us to play his worship songs. what an awesome guy! in an age where you have to pay websites to get chords with lyrics from christian sites (b/c of copyright issues and money) we have a guy like Wickham who throws all that aside and gives up his "secrets" selflessly. in the end its about worshipping God. these songs have no copyright, they are all used to glorify Christ, the true owner of worship, and its songs.

hopefully, i'll have some finished goods to post on youtube for you all soon.

josh out.

Sickness and a Worship Tour?

3 boxes of kleenex, two rolls of toilet paper, half boxes of chinese cold and infection medicine, many 5 minute hot showers later...i am beginning to feel like i'm not part of the walking dead.

thats what i've felt like the last week...like i'm not really alive...as if my body was rotting away. i know it sounds kind of weird, but in this country you are never really healthy. its like you are in a constant state of rotting and sickness.

when i get sick, i dont get small sick, its like the real sick kind of sick that all you want to do is sleep until your back aches of sleeping and then you get up take a hot shower or bath and then go back to sleep kind of sick. where you all you want to do is sleep until you wake up not sick kind of sick. thats how i get sick.

its kind of difficult at work too b/c i've found out that i am the lecturer type of teacher and so i havent been able to lecture, so my students have been kind of weirded out by that too.

i've been practicing my magic skills and hope to come home and still be competitive. my goals are to attend at least one Grand Prix next year. if bleu permits maybe two, depending on location.

coolness. worship went well. i was sick the whole way through so i didnt really feel it, but i know God is doing good work so i am happy with it. JC you da man! one thing though, i really miss playing with the band. there is nothing like when the whole band is worshipping and the power of three electric guitar meet the POWER OF GOD! ha ha! thats funny! but true. look forward to leading worship once we get back. i want to embark on a worship tour across region 4 and 6 when i get back with the band. it would be super cool to use our vacations on the same week or two and go on a tour playing on different nights in Hmong towns across the regions. all former band mates invited. Jimmy and Johan could be our key speakers! super cool. i really think that can happen. give me feedback on this...if this is plausible. i think i would be so memorable.

josh out.

Sickness... all around!

We know how our grandmas feel! You know how they're suspicious and leary of Western doctors and hospitals? Well, I feel the same way about Chinese doctors and hospitals!

#1 Take for example Josh. He hasn't been feeling well, so he finally went to see a doctor at our campus clinic. His tonsils feel a little swollen, and he's had a runny nose and fever. What does he bring home? Penicillin. Penicillin???!!! Nobody eats penicillin for a cold, not-yet-the-flu sickness! He ate it, and it made him worse. I told him, of course! Cause the medicine's alive!!! (right?)

#2 Also, a phenomenon I still don't quite get is the IV drips. When you're sick, Chinese people often get IV drips at the hospital. My students get them. Our friends that have been sick have to get them. I know Chinese teachers that have had to get them. What a terrible go-to treatment everytime you have to visit the doctor!

OK, of course I'm being very general here. Don't get weird ideas about Chinese medicine. Bottom line all I'm saying is, I hope my immune system stays as it has been for the past few years and that I never get sick here.

My favorite meds that just can't seem to be found in China: Vicks vapo rub, Nyquil, and soft Kleenex.

Post Thanksgiving

As I write this, you all must be sleeping cozy in your beds from post-Thanksgiving food comas. If not, you are probably gearing up for the eating or shopping this weekend.

Our thoughts are all with you... Right now, I think about my family, Josh's family, and our church family. I also think about our friends... Messenger, Heidi, Josh's college guys, the Wycliffe family, and the list goes on and on!

Our Thanksgiving consisted of: quite sweet tasting sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce that was more grape jelly-ish than cranberry, spicy salads, and gravy-less turkey. Well, Josh also got a piece of meat that was really, seriously raw.

But it was Chinese style Thanksgiving none the less!

With lots of love, MK (and Josh!)

::EDIT:: By Josh

In hindsight, they should have made Peking turkey instead.

Josh's Magic

1/2 through the Shards draft, standings are as follows:

Players and decks are: Vipat (Elspeth), Geu (Predator Dragon), Isiah (Broodmate), Dlaab Peter (NAYA), Ntxoo Xes(Carrion Thrasher), Vern (Esper), Josh (Stoic Rafiq), Xay (Exalted)

Fun stuff update

Go karts: We took Sarah to go try the go-karts. Let us tell you... THEY ARE MEGA FAST. It's an indoor track, but you go so fast, you get cold. Josh claims at least, 30 mph. MK is doubtul of that. Each ride is 8 very long minutes. You can check out the print out at the end to see your fastest lap and the winner. But anyways, the only thing missing: The people who would love this the most- Isiah, Peter, and Xay.

Dunkin' Donuts: Here, DD's is a fancy place. Like, like an upscale, sit down cafe. It's really nice, and the service is super friendly, and the drinks look pretty. So this begs the question... how come it's in China, and not yet in Minnesota?

Arashi: We went with Sarah to the Arashi concert. (Japanese pop band.) It was fully, throughly enjoyable. Exhausting as well. Before the concert, some girls in front of us turned around and asked Josh, "Are you a fanboy?" It was very funny. He didn't even know what a fanboy was. Turns out, these girls are from Malaysia, and came here just to attend the 2 concerts (one on Sat, one on Sun). Also turned out, they are online subbers (you know, the ones that translate the dramas and shows for you!) and Sarah semi-knows them from the blogrings!

Anyways, my point about the concert is this: I have a suggestion for all you future architects out there: When building a stadium, you need to do 1 of 2 things: 1) Make twice as many bathrooms for the women as there are for men or 2) Make extra bathrooms for women and charge 1 dollar to use these nicer, pay by the use bathrooms. Why? Because at the concert, the bathroom lines were a mile long. 99% of the people there were women. The line was so long, Sarah and I did what made sense: We went to the men's bathroom. Lo and behold, it was full of women already. Funny thing is, Josh had to go to the bathroom, so even though there were women in there, he found a corner of the trough and did his business shamelessly. Funny.

P.S. GIRLS: Did you know guys' bathrooms have a trough that they pee in? And then there's a waterfall to clean it. It's the strangest thing ever! You gotta see it to understand. Although, Sarah did take a video of it.

Reflections on life, love, and the pursuit on happiness!

Life: We've been here exactly 3 months.
Love: Can't live without it.
The Pursuit of Happiness: I can't help but ask myself, Is anyone happy these days? And the answer seems to be... Nope. Not even me! So, what's the pursuit of happiness, really?

anyways.

Here's my real post!

Sarah's on a plane on her way to Tokyo. She visisted us for 10 days, and we walked, talked, and ate for 10 full days! She really will be missed. Somebody, please come visit us in the Spring!

Reflections: Next week will be Josh's first time leading prayer. In these past few months, not really having the body of Christ so close to us as it was at home... it's like being in a boat in the ocean and not knowing where you are going. You just go with the flow. And look what happens. 3 months go by. And nothing.

So this is like our wilderness. Life really does seem like an ocean. Some days we paddle really hard, and go the direction we want. And other days we just float and go wherever the water takes us.

There are days when we wake up loving this place. Confident that a year will go by, and that another year here is possible. And then there are days when the end of our time here can't come soon enough.

Until next time...! Enjoy our new pictures.

Sorry its been so long!

Since we last posted many things have happened...here they are as follows:

1. Sarah is here visiting us. we are having a blast just having her around. this vacation mai kao and i tried to make it as low stress as possible. i think we've been acheiving that, hopefully. right now as we speak, sarah is at the all day spa, like in those movies getting all manicured, massaged, hot tubbed up.
2. eating well. Shanghai has some really great international food. since moving here, i've found some new loves in the cuisine world. one of my new top 5 favorites is Indian. Turkish, Japanese, any curry dish, french pastries round out my new additions. oh and i totally forgot, dirty Chinese street food...if you visit us, you will definitely fall head over heels for the dirty street food. many of us feel it is WAAAYYY better than chinese restaurant food.
3. I made it on the worship team. now i just wait for when they need me.
4. mai kao and i have been working tons lately, b/c of midterms and getting ready for sarah's arrival. we wanted to have no extra work around when sarah got here so that we could just hang out and enjoy the company.

yeah, thats it. oh except one thing...MTG. i've been booster drafting with my box that arrived with Sarah. so far the Jund deck is destroying all the other decks. its just got so much removal, nothing can last very long on the board. also, my River Kelpie, Cruel Ultimatum deck is under way. i've been thinking of changing it to either an Esper build of just standard U/B instead of a Grixis build. that would knock out the cruel ultimatums, but i think it may make the deck better. I casted one against one of my decks here and found it to be absolutely as devastating as people say it was...but, without the expensive dual lands, i found myself always checking my mana to see if i've reached 7 mana of the right colors yet. i guess that can be a good thing too, the card has so much presence that it makes your opponent aware of mana status as well, kind of distracting them. i may run one, just for this purpose in future events, but more than two is way too much.

i have a small wish list for all you Magic people out there. i can fully reimburse you. here it goes:

1 river kelpie, 2 turn to mist, 1 cancel, 3 murderous redcaps, 2 torrent of souls, 4 Glen Elendra Archmage.

if you could scrounge these up for me it'd be great. hope the ryder cup hmong tournament shapes up well. the urge to play magic for all of you is back so that only means you are hard at work making your game and decks better. cools mans.

josh out.

trying out!

on saturday morning i am trying out for our church's worship team. i hope i'm a good fit for what God wants to do in Shanghai. i'm pretty excited. you all know me well, worship is what i love doing.

our house is 75% done furnished. i used to hate watching all those home furnishing tv shows but now i have to admit...i'm one of those house furnishing psychos! its true...i care tons about how my abode looks. its one of those things that i've found out about myself in shanghai.

Mai kao and i are doing great! we've been together for over 3 years now, but we have never been alone and by ourselves with only ourselves. this experience overseas has really glued our relationship together tight. we have always loved each other unconditionally and been wholly devoted to each other, but in this phase in our life, God has really taught us how to like each other and depend on each other fully. i love being her husband and taking care of her. i love it that there is no one else here who will watch out for her, and i am all that she's got. i would say it is the say on her side too. its pretty cool man.

about the presidency. from what i've heard it has been very grueling for our friends back at home and for the US. i am glad that its over, regardless of who won. mostly, i am glad that we all know that regardless of who is the PREZ, they need our prayers and that at the center of who we are is Christ, not our political views. God is sovereign, and this is who he has chosen for our nation in these times. HE is in control, so no worries man.

Johan, congrats on doing well at TNM. if i was IL i would be worried. MN is tearing it up and all i've heard is nothing from the IL front as far as mtg goes. right now i'm working on a RIver Kelpie deck. it will be arriving with Sarah next week so i'm pumped. i want to see how it interacts with Cruel Ultimatum. i'll let you know how it works out. right now i'm pretty bored of my decks here. my RDW shaman build is still tearing my other decks apart. i'm a still convinced that somehow the Enchanted Evening/Patrician's Scorn combo can be Tier One. it is missing one or two cards that makes it gel. maybe its already out there, but i havent found it. i spent the whole day at work thinking about how i can make it stronger...

okay, enough talk. drop a phone call in sometime, or just a small reply to our messages gets us totally pumped. its a far ways from home and whenever we get news from home, it genuinely excites us.

Congrats to Pheng and Nou. you guys will love marriage, its super awesome.

josh out.

FYI

Firstly, apologies in advance for Josh's explicit post that follows! (You know how he and his bowel movements are.)

And now mainly, the best way to reach us is this: call us through Skype through these phone numbers:

Select China as the destination country. (Country code is 86)

Our apartment: 021-6453-9174
Josh's cell: 150-2691-0484
Mai Kao's cell: 150-2691-0484

Try it sometime! We'd love to hear from you!

This week.... Our first batch of mail going out. Coming to a mailbox near you soon... China Air Mail!!!

Yellow Riot!!!

Lastnight, Mai Kao and i went to a punk concert. there was a Clash tribute band and let me tell you, it was SUPER AWESOME! if a clash tribute band is playing a gig nearby you MUST go. i cannot tell you how great the show was. it was in dingy place with tons of sweaty people, and the energy was off the wall. i realize this isnt the "ideal" for many, but if you want to see good punk, you cant go to stadiums. the feel of the soundwaves of distortion blasting off your body? nothing like it.

lately, my poops have been small, but they are super sticky. like i'll poop just a small turdlet, but it will totally smear the toilet! its weird man. i'll flush the toilet multiple times and that wont be enough to wipe the poop.

i cant wait for my box of shards of alara. its the most powerful set to come out since ravnica. ravnica is super powerful, how can you tell? b/c people are still playing ravnica based decks and bombs in this years extended. If shards has alreadymade a dent in Extended, it will totally dominate standard next year. so i cant wait for my box. that way i'll be all ready to duel you guys next year.

with my booster box i am going to have my own 8 man booster draft here by myself. i want to extract as much fun out of the box as possible. its going to be a standard 8 man draft with 8 total rounds. i will post the results in typical Josh Xiong analysis style.

peace for life.

jquan.

Huge hotpot

This hotpot kuas was so good. It's made out of fish and has zaub qaub in it... so tasty!! Look at the size of the pot compared to Josh's head.

I've taken up horseback riding in China!

Check it out!

Guitar

I got a perm!

Well, not really. But when the hair person said that, I was like, "Perm??! No thanks!"

Actually, what I really got was a permanent wave in my hair. I wake up, wash it, and go! It's pretty awesome. My hair is so straight that the haircuts I've always wanted would never work on me. So a light wave in my hair did the trick. (Leave it to the Asian hair pro.)

Boy, I wish you girls were here with me. I went alone yesterday, but it would have been so fun to go with you. I had a really cool stylist. This coming from someone who really doesn't go to the salons a lot. One of my colleagues here recommended this place. (Sidenote: Every guy that worked there looked like he came straight out of a Korean or Taiwanese drama. It was... weird with out Josh.)

Next time you see her...

Riley, we love you!

Please give her a hug and a kiss for us.

The lastest picture we've seen of her is on Johan's blogger. *sigh*

We climbed a mountain!

Yes. It's true. We climbed a mountain. Not like... with ropes and pegs like in Cliffhanger. But like... we hiked up this bad boy:

Mt. Huashan : 'The Number One Precipitous Mountain under Heaven'
One of the five sacred mountains in China.

Here's another shot:

All in all, it's absolutely not what we expected. Conclusion: We'll never climb a mountain again, unless you pay us.

Why you ask? Well, mountain climbing is not glamourous in any way. It's way more grueling than you expect it to be. And all you have to show for it, at the end, is nothing but the chance to say, "Hey. I climbed a mountain."

I'd like to take a moment to give a shout out to none other than Josh (aka Doodle.) The climb was basically all stairs, with a few flat paths here at there. The angle was on average... oh... between 50-85 degrees.

1/4 of the way up (FYI: the peak we climbed was over 5300 ft) and he was about... to die. He has a bad knee anyway, so we should have known better. But by then, we were some 1.5 hours in to it. I didn't want to turn back yet.

With a combination of the smog, being overweight, elevation, and not so great health, it was miracle he made it half-way. By then, I refused to turn around. (We started getting really grouchy and fighty by then, too. You know, high-stress situation and all.) I almost broke... I almost believed that we had no choice but to turn around, but I thought it would be seriously frightening going back down. Josh said he could not go on. But he had no choice, being halfway up and halfway down a mountain, and all.

3/4 of the way through, we met 2 Vietnamese guys that just... good Samaritans, SE Asian love? We don't know. It baffles us, but they were so loyal to us. They helped us get through the rest of the climb. They would pull us up when our legs were going to give, they waited for us even though we majorly slowed them down. And the crazy thing... They smoked cigarettes while climbing, and spoke almost zero English.

We made it to the top, and our 2 friends were waiting there for us. They were SHOCKED, yes, capital letters shocked that we made it. They thought the climb was so deadly tough, that we would unflinchingly turn around.

So that's our story. The view was beautiful. It was coldish. Took some pictures. And rode this very long, and scary looking cable car back down the mountain.

The End. Check out our Flickr pixes for more.

Not so serious post!

So, reading your Xangas has been very rewarding and fulfilling for the both of us. Keep up the posts, mans!!!

1 politics comment: Yij Second pointed out the fundamental differences between Republicans and Democrats in one of his recent posts. I know that most people really don't KNOW the difference between the big two parties; that it comes down their philosophy about the role and control of government in our lives. Good job man!

Anyways, sorry we haven't posted in a while. We've got lots and lots of pictures. So keep checking!

NEWS: Josh got a new guitar. He paid 700 RMB ($103) for it, a bag, picks, strings, a capo, and a great feeling in his heart. He has been so lost and lifeless without a guitar. I don't think he should go for too long of periods without it again. So our apartment is filled with his singing (which his voice is a little rusty these days) and his discovering old, awesome worship songs and Elliot Smith.

Josh speaks: I am also enjoying playing my new guitar on our new couch. We bought it from Ikea. It's pretty sweet. Umm... Now that we have furniture in the house, it feels a lot more like home and it feels a lot more comfortable. It's pretty cool to have a place of your own. I know this sounds kind of sad, but this is the first time Mai Kao and I have ever had our own place together. It's pretty nice.

I finally found a place that sells Magic cards. I only bought 2 packs. Why, you ask? CAUSE THEY"RE 38 RMB. $5.60 a pack!!! DANGGG. That's expensive.

We're also in the process of finding as many cool places to go, so when Sarah comes here, she'll have an awesome time in Shanghai.

Peace out.

Our job

We are thankful because God has brought us to this place. At this point, it seems like we'll be questioning and struggling with our reason for being here up until the day we actually leave the country... What we do know though, is that little by little, we have to pay attention to everything we do, and every moment we have and what God has to say through these things.



We've been reflecting these past few days, and we are thankful to be living in a non-Christian community. Johan posted this in Xanga... that we all should be more aware about our outlook as Christians to non-believers and how we are perceived when we represent Jesus. Of course this was in the context of politics... but it's exactly what Josh and I are were talking about just yesterday, in the context of life!

Keep the faith, friends. Live meaningfully!

Ba Guan'd

We've never had a real professional, paid-for massage in our lives... So we thought, why not?

Josh had a fantastic Thai massage and he so highly recommended it, I decided to get one the day after him. The masseur (Hans) came to our room and casually mentioned that if Josh wanted, he could get a Ba Guan treatment while I was getting my massage. For $7, why not?

Ba Guan is a really popular and ancient Chinese treatment that is used to clean your toxins and get your blood and energy flowing. It's the thing where they take a glass jar, light a piece of cotton or a match and stick it on your back. Lucky, Hans had just the regular plastic ones with a suction pump. It was much easier... and less painful.

It didn't hurt Josh at all. People with lots of toxins will get dark purple spots on their backs. It turns out Josh is a fairly toxin-free guy! He only had one dark spot, as you'll see in the pictures. He did get this mysteriously NASTY side effect though-- water bubbles under the skin. They say it's supposed to go away after a week. But we're not so sure... And we're too scared to pop them!

Enjoy the pictures.

Holy Xi'an!

Xi'an was awesome! the city is pretty awesome. its a nice combo of old time china with some modern stuff. Will post more in later. first some questions.

how did HC3 go? full run down.
how are things at home? Church?
MN peeps how youz doings?
dlaab peter can you write me a good descriptive reply on how you won the tourney? congrats by the way...you are always way too underrated. thats why i always try to kill you first in Multi.

Thanks for the package Hluas Pang Foua. its always super cool to get stuff from the states. now that we got our address book we can send all our friends stuff from China!

we have tons of pictures that we will post once mai kao gets home from work.

highlights from Xi'an.

1. riding bikes on top of the wall. super cool.
2. good eats.
3. getting a full body massage and suction cup medicine therapy from a Christian massuse named Hans. yes, folks, his name is really hans. those little chinese boogers are strong!
4. hiking the craziest mountain i've ever seen. there were times when we were hiking on an 80 degree incline! all we had were 3 inch wide foot steps and rusty chains to drag ourselves up! we climbed up literally thousands of steps.
5. visiting the terracotta warriors...cool history stuff.
6. taking a long as heck train ride that was super uncomfortable. 20 hours. we were so blasted, we flew back home.
7. apparently, you cant buy round trip train tickets in china. you can only go oneway and then try to purchase tickets returning. we tried to do this and the train tickets sold out so we opted for the faster and 10 times for expensive route in flying.
8. the hostel we stayed in was super nice. it was better than most hotels we've stayed at and the concierge service is amazing!
9. had a fun time with bleu.
10. mai kao and i prayed for HC3 and the band on top of the mountain. a shout out for jesus and the friends from china.

okay thats it man.

josh out.

People at HC3.

We know that a lot of our friends and family are at the HC3 Conference. We're thinking about you guys. You probably are still on your way there, or already tuning up your instruments to get tready to play right now. Have an awesome weekend... and tell us all about it.

On a Train half a world away!

we wont be able to post this week because we are going on VACATION! we'll be off tomorrow morning early to Xi'an for the rest of the week. we promise to take lots of pictures and have lots of fun.

it'll be good to get away from all the grading for a little while.

see you in a week!

josh out.

White Rabbit Candies

are contaminated. Well, at least here they are.

FYI. Just in case. So... maybe avoid them for a while?

Television Episodes Update

Battlestar Galactica: We are on Episode 4 of Season 4. We watch 1 episode a week with friends.

Heroes: OK. I'm still on Season 2, Episode 3. But I vow to catch up!

Naruto: I am on Manga #317. The computer died on me on the plane. I haven't had a chance to finish reading it yet.

We Got Married: It's Korean, and is a currently still airing. I have to admit. I really like this show. I really do. I thought it had a terrible premise. I don't know what compelled me to watch an episode... except I did. It's 'reality t.v', but of course there's creative editing. The redeeming quality I give it is that it's an insightful window into relationships and the nature of guys and girls. It's like, one of the only shows I've blatantly laughed outloud to in YEARS. I think only Isiah and Josh knows and have been around while I watched it. If I'm in front of the laptop and laughing a lot, it's cause I'm watching this show. All you drama folks out there... I say, give it a try. It's on mysoju.com, crunchyroll, and youtube.

Long time, no post

Well, at least it feels like a while since I've posted. As I'm sure we're not the only ones, I have to say we've been busy like crazy! Reviewing, giving tests, grading tests, and reports, reports, reports!

The weird thing is this. We have to work all day this Saturday and Sunday. We have school. And so do the kids. They ride the bus, and come to school on Saturday as if it were Monday. And Sunday is treated like a Tuesday.

This is the rationale: technically, we aren't supposed to get all of next week off. Technically, we're only supposed to be on vacation Wed-Fri because the Chinese National Holiday aka "Golden Week" is October 1. (Wed. is Oct. 1) Every working person is supposed to get 3 days holiday pay and rest.

Because everybody wants to have a full week of vacation for convenience's sake, we "get Monday and Tuesday off" for working on Saturday and Sunday. Then the 3 vacation days.

Does that make sense?

Sure it does. But to an American, all you can think is, "Everybody has to go to school on Saturday and Sunday. What the heck?!!?? That's SO WEIRD. This would never work in America. Ever."

I'll try to post up new pictures after tomorrow. I change them all the time instead of leave them on my Flickr account because I only have a basic account. I max out my 100 MB limit with n15 pictures at most.

Tomorrow night, we're going to an acrobat show. I mean, the most well know acrobat shows are from Shanghai and all! I've already been to one here before, but Josh hasn't. So I hope he has loads of fun!

HiYa! Chop! Have a good day, friends.

two calls in one night

thanks to those who called to talk today. it was great to hear old voices. especially jimmy. what started as an innocent contact phone call turned into a 40 minute conversation...hey,thats long for married guys!

it was also really great hearing Grace and Audrey. too cute. our littles.

this week is Monthly exams week. Mai kao said it best, "Monthly's are like the midterms for Midterms." yeah, its pretty funny. we arent stressed at all, but we are definitely working a lot. lots of deadlines and teaching.

teaching is a challenging job. its probably been the most dynamic job i have ever had. between the motivating and disciplining and the constant lesson planning, it never ceases to surprise you with all its twists and turns. maybe it has to do with the age group we are working with...or maybe it has to do with working with people in general. i'm sure people like Judy, Mao and Kong, anyone who works with the betterment of people are chock full of funny and weird stories.

next week mai kao and i are going on a one week vacation. this upcoming week is golden week in china and apparently, everything but service industries close down and goes on vacation. for this one we are going with some friends to Xi'an. its far out west (actually a 20 hr train ride!). xi'an is home to the terracotta warriors! yes folks...the mummy 3. its going to be super cool. mai kao's like,"i've already been there...blah,blah,blah." but i'm psyched. also, we'll be visiting natural hot springs to bathe, a town called Luo Yang (the largest concentration of shaolin monks in the world - where thousands of Shaolin Monks do kung fu every day in the court yard.) yes...shaolin. i hope i get to see different kung fu techniques, like iron fist (the one where you plunge your hand into flaming hot coals repeatedly) or various animal techniques.

its gonna be a blast. i hope.

josh out.

Cute Things Paradise

You probably knew it.

But this place is a Cute Things Paradise! Pens, pencils, notebooks, stickers, pencil cases.... you name it. I love the stationary store. Well, there are stores and stores of them... everywhere. So I guess I like them all. It's like... Too Cool, but at 10% or less of the cost.

Girls, you will be getting a wonderful box of cute stuff for Christmas, or even sooner! Guaranteed!

Check out this go cart track...

Teachers are going here tomorrow for someone's birthday. Man... wish you guys were here w/ me and Josh...

http://www.kartingchina.com/intro.htm

Friday Finally!

Every morning we have 'milk service.' That means each teacher gets a carton of milk delivered to their desk. It's really stressed here to take care of yourself, eat, etc. (It is a rule in the primary grade that students MUST eat lunch. I supervise lunch for my class everyday.) So anyways, in our staff meeting today, we were informed that the company producer of our milk is also one of the recalled milk companies in the "Bad Milk in China" story. I'm amused by the way they just casually informed us.

We were assured that our fresh, daily milk is not contaminated, though. That said, you all know I don't drink milk. FYI, milk in China does not taste like milk in the US. To me, it's like... a yogurt drink. But don't take my full word on that.

It's been a good week. I like my students for the most part. I think I have the best class. I'll try to take some pictures, soon. I did make one of my students cry a lot today, though. At this school, TESTS are so important. Major test scores account for 60% of aa 3rd grader's grades. (Almost 90% for middle & high schoolers.) There are 4 major tests: 1st monthly, mid-term, 2nd monthly, and final exam. (Think: 3rd graders have the same schedule as high schoolers.)

So, there is one girl in my class who has not turned in any of her homework. I wrote a note home asking her parents to check it, and make sure she turns it all in, or else it could significantly affect her grade. She started crying a lot because she has to go to Korean school at night and on the weekends, and she has so much homework. It depressed me a little.

School is very different here.

Anyways, next week is a major testing week. And then the week after, we have vacation for National Day. (Chinese equivalent of 4th of July, except the whole country gets a week off instead of 1 day.) SO, Josh wants to go to the northwest, to Xi'an, with some friends. On the way home, the plan is to stop at the China's most renowed Shaolin Temple. We visit the amazing complex temple & get to watch them do kung fu. So... that's in the plans. We'll see if we follow through.

Peace.

you know you are starting to get used to life in Shanghai when you feel perfectly safe in a taxi here. the driving here is madness...Geu and Xu would hate the driving here, and somehow would fit in perfectly too. everyone drives out of their minds, running every light possible, not obeying any rules of traffic. yet, it all works together somehow...there are almost never any accidents, or at least i dont see them or hear about them.

So Mai Kao and i are now almost fully settled. we still need a couch, rug and coffee table, but we realized that all you really need to feel at home is a fully stocked kitchen! this past week, mai kao and i devoted much money at IKEA and all the foreign grocery stores to stock up on kitchen wares and hmong spices/sauces. so this week we've been eating out less. i love mai kao's cooking, and she loves cooking. a win, win if i ever saw one. some stuff that we've made at home: tomato chicken, sausage/cabbage stir fry, spring rolls. good eats.

this is for Johan...a day in the life of JOSH XIONG...Foreign Teacher Extraordinaire.

1. school starts at 8:30, and teachers report to offices anytime before then.
2. monday and tuesday, i have 4 and 5 classes (out of 7 periods)...crazy days, all i do is teach, run to the next room, teach some more and hope that i dont pass out or strangle some jerky kid before the day is over. the next three days i only have 2 classes a day. right now in fact is one of those days...i use these days to lesson plan and goof off. unless i plan all my stuff before the weekend, Sunday nights are usually my busiest day, lesson planning and all the other time consuming stuff like grading, making copies, etc.
3. we are required for the most part to stay until 4:10, mon-thurs, and 2;30 on fridays. i've been putting this time to good use on my easy days and lesson plan for the upcoming days or even week.
4. most of our nights are at home...we probably go out on the town at least 3 to 4 times a week. for those of you who lived in Chicago, you know how annoying it is to trek to another part of town...mostly, you find out your favorite local shops and restaurants and hit those up often.
5. i kind of stopped pirating so much because our local dvd shop is bone dry right now. all the good movies have been bought by all us teachers! sadly, there are hardly any CD shops around. the only ones i have been able to find are street vendors who sell out of cardboard boxes...the selections are slim, but you can find some decent stuff out of them.
6. my most proud purchase was a Radiohead japanese import CD with lots of alternate takes on songs and a rare acoustic only song by Thom yorke, its a pretty good song too. currently, i am in the process of making a mix for all the lovers!

okay, its getting long. peace for life.

josh out

Not so serious.

So, the weekend is here AT LAST! One thing definitely doesn't change wherever you are in the world... one's love for the weekend. We have Monday off because it's the Mid Autumn Festival... a national holiday. It's like, one of the top 3 holidays in China. But since we're not Chinese, it's vacation for us!

Congrats to all our friends with new babies. I want to buy all the little tykes little kung-fu or chinese dress outfits. But we have to find them first.

A short moment to respond to comments... No, haven't had dog yet. Tonight, Josh is going to look for Friday Night Magic. Wish us the best cause it's easy to get lost in this place. I'm sure he will post as soon as he learns about the Magic scene in Shanghai. Jackie Chan is more popular here.

We've got the entire Battlestar Gallactica here. And Termintor Sarah Connor Chronicles, and all of Naruto Shippuden. But, unfortunately, Josh did not check and so Naruto's in Japanese, with only Chinese subtitles. (Anybody want it to resell?) It's true... everything here is pirated galore. It's safe to call it a copyright lawyer's hell (or heaven if you want to sue others.)

My goal: To read the entire Bible again while I am here. I encourage you to read it from cover to cover too, if you've never done so in your life yet.

serious!

I’m crying out for some love!

People here are really nice and they are very helpful. In fact, our colleagues have gone out of their way to help us get situated nicely in this country…still something is missing…
Today, was an easy day at work but I went through it with an odd feeling of something missing…amidst the conversations of political opinions in the office, people proudly talking about living lives of drunkenness, people taking the politically correct stance, complaints about Chinese school policies, missing an easy life, yelling at the waiter for making an innocent accident…etc…I find I’m missing more than random things I left at home….I miss words spoken out of love. The friend who wounds you to make you better. Iron sharpening Iron.

We went to church last weekend. It was really great. Like all of you read, we were really missing the fellowship that only the body of Christ provides. Brother Yun was right…God gives us fellowship so that when you are in the desert or alone in the mission field and are lonely, you can look back upon the good times you had with friends of Christ. But to continue on with the church point, the lead pastor spoke words of love that hit close to home…”it is not by coincidence that you are in Shanghai at this time in history, God called you here to be the face of the church in Shanghai in this day and age.” Wow. When I heard these words my heart melted. It is not by coincidence that this would be the first message I heard upon arriving in shanghai from the church. Its hard being away from our closest friends and family, but like the pastor said, mai kao and I are called here to shanghai to be the face of the church in this day in age.

In all my life I have never been surrounded by SO many people who don’t love the Lord or don’t know about Jesus or just blatantly dismiss Him. It’s hard to stay on the right path… But Lord, I will worship you no matter where, no matter what, and no matter the cost. Sometimes the cost is as simple as leaving home.(Abraham). But I expect big things for this city…upon arrival in Shanghai I haven’t been able to shake that chris tomlin song “god of this city.” Some historians say that for every era of world history there is a city that defines the era. For the next coming era, historians are already saying that Shanghai will be the defining city of the world. How cool would it be if Revival broke loose in Shanghai and this era was defined by the city that broke loose from the reigns of Communism, the bindings of the world and found itself set free from the Spirit of God!

So I resign to speak words of love…

New photos

We've put up some new pictures. We've got video, but still trying to figure out how we want to upload it.

Go to Flickr to read the comments. They're of some of the food we've eaten at the banquets and on the streets. Some of our bikes, and of the other most famous bike brands in China. We went to a big touristy spot yesterday- Yu Yuan Gardens. We didn't actually go to the garden, cause it's supposedly ridiculously busy.

missing worship

i'm missing leading the saints into worship. I firmly believe that God sent us to Shanghai so that i could learn how to worship Him even in the desert.

today, mai kao and i went to a pretty cool tourist spot in Shanghai called the YuYuan Gardens. its pretty crazy, they have thousands of Koi the size of my leg in a small pond. we'll put up the video so you all can see.

josh out.

Response to Xanga People.

1. Shong, congrats on winning your scholarship. We love to hear news like this.
2. Great to hear that Hillsong was awesome. We hope to visit Hillsong next year... in Australia.
3. Even though one person voted for Josh to win, he will destroy Kong's team by 20 points.
4. We hope to attend church this weekend. Glad you all are able to see each other and share about church news as well.
5. Happy Birthday Yumi. Happy Birthday Isiah. Happy Birthday Kakashi sensei. (Sept. 15)

Things I can't get used to just yet.

1. Living without a dryer. Air drying sheets is swell with me. But man, after only 2 weeks, I miss soft, warm, Bounce-fresh clothes.


2. Toilets with minimal water. [Normal in-the-floor Chinese toilet is below.] I'm not ungrateful, cause we have a western-style toilet! But the toilet has only 2 cups of water. (versus the half full toilets at home.) When you poop, it's like... all over the inside of the porcelain bowl. Do you get it? Sick, huh? I find myself cleaning the toilet at least every other day, for obvious reasons. (I live with a Xiong.) The only plus, water will never splash back on your booty.
3. Paper towels in bathrooms. Let me take that back. Cause there are no paper towels in bathrooms. Usually, I don't even use paper towels. But what gets me is that on our campus, instead of paper towels next to the sink, there's toilet paper! I mean, it's in a dispenser and all. Have you ever tried drying your hands with 1-ply toilet paper? It's very odd. And it sticks to your hands.

Josh has been sick with the Shanghai flu, and he is much better now than he was 2 days ago. We were given some advice by an expat teacher, though. It's called, the "Coke-a-day diet." This co-worker swears by this diet. He says there's something in Coke that cleans out your system, so you never get sick. The only days he's ever gotten sick, in the years he's lived here, has been during the periods of time when he didn't drink Coke. True story. Now, I am sitting with a bottle of Coke Zero right next to me. I've yet to be sick. Don't try this at home, kids. Our theory is that it only works in China.

Have a great day at work.

teaching is hard work!

big props to teachers. there is so much work involved. its not a stressful job, but you have to be super over prepared for a lesson.

i found myself the first day being completely underprepared and all my classes ended with me running out of material! so the next day i overprepared and whalla! all my classes ended on time.

i'm having a great time teaching and i really enjoy it.

josh out.

p.s. keep posting, it makes us happy to see our friends talking!

Cast Your Vote! (To all the Kongs...)

Chips here are not what they are like at home. At all. Take your classic yellow bag of Lay's. I bought a bag so excited, and when we ate them, we were like, "What's this...??!?"

We figured out the problem immediately. What are the ingredients?
From the bag: Potato, Vegetable Oil, Salt, Monosoduim Glutamate, Disodium 5'-Ribonucleotide.

MSG chips. Ah yes. If traffic doesn't kill us, it could be the MSG.

The flip side of this is, as you can see from our slideshow, Josh and I went on a chip frenzy. (Go to the Flickr site for a closeup of the pixes.) You won't believe the flavors they have here. We finally went to the store last night and bought as much as we could without looking ridiculous.

And so, feel free to cast your vote for the "Shockingly-best-tasting-chip-despite-its-name Award." Josh & my results will be posted soon!

Not so sad Saturday.

I can't quite remember what we did last Saturday. But yesterday, we did have a very productive day. The highlight being, we went and bought new bikes. It feels so liberating to be able to ride a bike, I even contemplated awarding the person who teaches Pang how to ride a bike $500. (That was just a thought.)

I don't feel like going down stairs to take a picture of it, since Josh is sleeping and it'd be funner to see him on it. So here is generally what Josh's bike looks like:



It's a small, fold-in-half, city bike. Josh was like, in love with it at first sight. I battled and we got it for just under $75. I was such a chicken because the bike guy was so mad that I showed them our empty wallet (Game plan: I would only spend 1000 yuan on 2 bikes, no more no less. So show them that I cannot pay anymore cause that's all the $ we've got!)

But in the end, we left with both parties smiling. I hope I got some of his respect for fighting for the prices. Good deal, huh? We got bike locks, a basket, and a bungee cord for books as well thrown in. I am contemplating buying these as gifts for some of the the close brothers, because of the ridiculous price. Josh tried to get me to buy a similar one, but I just wanted a regular bike with a basket and one that wouldn't get stolen. I think I'll buy one for myself before we leave China, and bring it back home new.

It's very scary for me to ride a bike on Chinese streets. I'm paranoid regularly, fearing for my life. It gets easier though. Now that we've got bikes, there's no going back. It is a lot of fun to cruise our campus on bikes.

After bike shopping, we went to lunch.

A very funny thing happened.

We walked in the restaurant and we were like, "hello?" Out comes the cook, who had just washed her face in the bathroom/closet. Water was dripping EVERYWHERE. She directs us to our table, still wet, then proceeds to wipe her face with the table cloth right next to our table. And walks back to the kitchen. Me and Josh looked at each other and were like, "What the..?!? Did she just do that? Geu would flip!"

Have a good weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!

I have it written on my calendar. We haven't figured out the mail yet. Like, where to pick it up... or even where the post office is.

So as soon as we do know, you all will start getting our special China Air Mails. :0)

Tonight, we have another banquet dinner. These things are fun because it allows you the chance to eat weird things that you normally wouldn't know how to order, much less eat.

Have a good weekend. And also, keep up the Xangas. It's sad when we get home and nobody's posted and we feel so far from you all! (Well, we are far from you, I guess.)

first calls today.

we made some calls out to people today. it was good hearing some familiar voices. my mom and judy's reaction was the funniest.

there is this wonton store outside of the school that sells some huge and very delicious wontons. my favorite part of Shanghai thus far has been the dumplings.

all this walking coupled with the heat has me shedding the pounds like crazy. its not like i'm not eating. the eating is good and i'm being fed well enough. for some reason, its easy to lose weight in another country. maybe its the water, or the air.

i miss playing magic.

need to get a bike. the first couple of days mai kao and i walked sooo much we had leg cramps and blisters. our feet is finally starting to get used to all the walking, but if we want to get anywhere we have to walk. it makes for a pain in the butt. when we were in the states we totally took it for granted that we could jump in the car and drive to 711 or some store. here, even though its close, you still got to walk there and it takes a lot longer.

did you guys see the pictures of the skyline? mai kao and i went out with the rest of the new teachers for dinner and a cruise along the Huangpu river and got to see some seriously cool skylines. i love chicago, but it's super small compared to Shanghai. in chicago, the sky scrapers stop pretty much downtown. in shanghai, they're almost endless. crazy.

josh out.

Hello Morning.

I'm feeling a little blue right now. I was supposed to call my mom this morning, but then Skype was acting really funny. It could be my computer. It could be the Great Firewall of China. Or it could be me and something I did. I kind of missed my window of opportunity, so I'll just have to try again tomorrow.

All my life, I've never been really close to my mom. I resented her and even cursed her in my heart through out my teenage years. I'm so sorry about it now. I was pretty dumb back then.
As I get older, I realize how much I love her and I want to be just like her.

I love my mom-in-law too, but I don't think I could be like her. I sometimes think He will make me like Ruth, in caring for my mom-in-law. If that's so, I can only imagine how awesome my life will be in my growth and knowledge and faith.

Mornings are the hardest for me. It hasn't even been a week. But I still wake up before the sunrises. And in all this quietness, I take time to talk to God now. Or at least I try. And I think about home and the things I love. And I hope that this teaching thing is not like... an end in itself. That it'll only be a means to get His work done. Thinkin' about you all. :0)

the house is beginning to feel homey.

we're finally starting to settle a little. not much but a little. each day that passes we pick something up from the street or TrustMart (the Chinese Walmart - which is Super packed sardines style ALL THE TIME) to furnish the house. a couple rugs here, a pillow or two there, a shoe rack, etc.

i've recently begun purchasing pirated DVD's on the market. the quality of some are pretty bad, unwatchable, but the low risk, high reward of it is just too good. you can get a copy of the newest movies out for 5 rmb...thats around 75 cents. to ridiculously cheap.

Mai Kao wrote about the anxieties of eating out. she's right. however, when you get it right....boy is it good. lastnight we had my favorite food so far in Shanghai. they are kind of like potstickers, but not wontonish...more like fried kalapaus. its got four elements to it that make it super delicious. first, the top is nice soft and bready. second, the bottom of the dumpling is pan fried til its browned and its crunchy. Thirdly, when you bite into it, you get a pleasant surprise of a little quas (broth) that tastes off the hook. and lastly, the pork inside the dumpling is amazing. four elements combined to make one culinary beauty.

We also went to eat at a HOT POT place. its kind of like chinese fond due. pretty good stuff man. the first few days the food we ate here was pretty average, but lately, wows mans.

josh out.

A great source of anxiety is...

eating out.

I mean, how can you eat if you can't read Chinese? Unfortunately, my Chinese is so basic, it could only get us fried rice or noodles or kalapaus or dumplings. It might sound like a lot, but trust me, it's really nothing.

We find ourselves walking and walking and walking, trying to figure out where we would like to eat because some places look scary, someplaces look too complex, some places we just plain don't know how to order!

The thing is, if they had a menu handed to you, we could just pine over it, but many places close to us have menus behind the register. So being brave and pointing to the beef vegetable dish is just too hard! You just stand there at the register looking kind of blank and confused.

We get our official teaching assignments today. Well, I already know I'm going to be a 3rd grade classroom teacher. I have a Chinese co-teacher-- her name is Grace. She seems very nice, so I'm excited to work with her. I'm in the Primary school, and will be pretty much involved with only this group of 20 kids. I'll be teaching English (+reading & writing), Social Studies, Science, and Personal Growth (health). I think I can do this. Well, I hope I can.

We had lots of lectures yesterday. Most of our students will be Korean & Japanese kids. So they taught about Korean-Japanese-Chinese culture and the differences between them. Old teachers warned us that some of the outfits students come to school in will blow our minds (i.e. girl in french maid outfit.) Also, don't be weirded out, i.e. boys giving group hand massages during class (which you have every right to stop because it's really distracting!)

My bruise has awesomely evolved, but it doesn't look like a Pokemon, so I can't really name it. We look forward to today b/c we have a banquet and get to do some sightseeing tonight. Yay!

Chinese Physicals...

are nothing like American ones!

You heard it here first... in this country, men have sonograms.

We are pleased to let you know that Josh is NOT pregnant. But it sure was a weird experience, jelly-lubed belly and all.

The other ordeal we unfortunately encountered was during the blood tests. You can see our battle scars to the left in our slideshow. This big bump appeared after Mai Kao got her blood drawn. And now the bruise is beginning to grow. Her arm is pretty sore. This never happens when her blood is drawn.

Josh got stuck twice. Once in the.... WRIST! (slit) The nurse said it wouldn't hurt, but after several excruciating minutes of gouging, she quit and tried the next logical place. The top of his right hand.

We also got chest x-rays. And our EKGs are OK. We now know our weight in kilograms and height in centimeters.

Boy. What a day. Our only consolation... Josh LOVES the cafeteria food. He thinks it was DAMN good. (Lunch: a giant square of rice, zaub nstuab kib, egg drop soup, rib, tofu patty, spicy chili shrimp with their heads still on.)

Have a great day, guys. We're thinking about you!

P.S. We'll soon set up some Skype dates for calling. We'll have to be online at the same time in order for it to work.

Pictures up

These are onlya few. It took me forever to figure out how to get these up. We have a Flickr account, so you can click on the slideshow if you want to read our comments or the captions. We'll try to post up our newest pictures every few days.

Unfortunately, I'm not a huge picture taker, and neither is Josh. (TD Xay & MayLee win for being the most picture takers we know!) But we'll try to change that.

I found our camera cord after all. I had labeled it a cell phone cord. But also, the weird thing about it is that it's a white cord. Aren't they always usually black? Xu had given us an Ipod dock for our wedding, and we brought that here. Everything Ipod-related is white, so I got the cords confused. All that said, all's good.

Oh yeah. Even though the pictures are darkish and aren't exciting, everything actually looks better in real life.

MK's top 10

Well, since Josh just posted, I wanted to post, too. There's so much to say and share! So I'll try to limit it. These things will be quite ramdon, so please bear with me...!

1. We're thankful we've finally gotten on the internet. This is like... our lifeline. (Well, apart from the Word.) Xanga is blocked right now. Maybe it won't be tomorrow. We do get our subscriptions via email, so we're still keeping up on your posts, even if we can't respond. We went to Best Buy yesterday to get the plug adapters, so we'ge finally got the laptop recharged.
2. Unfortunately, I left our camera cord at home. (Can't remember where I put it...) So we've got lots of pictures, but we'll have to go to Trustmart tomorrow to try to find that cable so we can upload everything for you to see.
3. Something Josh and I are trying to adjust to is the tv. We only have like, 7 working channels. But each channel has its own volume! What comes to mind: It would drive Peter nuts. It's super lound one channel, then the next one, you have to turn it up 50% to try to make out what they're saying. Crazy, but true.
4. We were really suprised by our apartment. It's really nice! There are 3 rooms... a bedroom, a living room/ kitchen, and a laundry room/ bathroom. We are really thankful we have our own washer/dryer. And the shower is awesome. We live in the New Building. (That's what it's called.) For all we know, they could have installed our door in yesterday. All the doorknobs and appliances still had plastic covering on them, including the little fridge. There's a layer of dust EVERYWHERE though. I've seriously gone in to full cleaning mode, but have been limited because I still need to buy some cleaner spray. Pledge & Glade & Pinesol is SUPER expensive here. Even the Chinese brands. Again, Ike, be sure to let Auntie know that those blue towels saved me! For all you K-Drama peoples, I feel like the girl in Full House.
5. Our saddest point: Our first morning here, we woke up early in the morning, like 3-4 am. We were really hungry b/c our last meal was at the Seoul Airport, a little bit after lunch time. We had no money, though, and the bank did not open till 9 am. We really didn't know what to do, so we decided to walk around. The combination of being moneyless and hungry and unable to sleep was really hard on us. And then it started to rain. We were so down... We missed home desperately, and really wanted to just be back in a familiar place.
6. It's humbling not being able to communicate. This is language skills learned at Jungle Jump Off, at its best. I'm thankful for the little Chinese I know. But Josh and I survived getting breakfast (which was very yummy, btw) and shopping (which we embarassingly learned the hard way that you have to purchase plastic bags or bring your own.)
7. We've met other teachers. But we still feel alone. There was this PK we met on the plane. He gave us so many awesome tips, and really encouraged us. But none of our colleagues so far are believers. We already find ourself longing for fellowship.
8. Oh yeah. We found a restaurant with dog. And another with donkey. So... we'll eventually let you know what we think.
9. Josh mentioned the dirtyness of everything. But truth is, it's only because our neighborhood is more old school. Our campus itself is really, really nice. And it's quiet and peaceful. (Well, it'll probably be different when the kids get here, but overall, they have curfew, and we don't!) We have our own forest, and the track is right next to our building. The campus was built as a school, turned into a prison during the Japanese occupation (there are bars on windows), but now it's a fairly prestigious school again. What he failed to mention is that outside of the school, everything it LOUD. It's like, at a level most of your ears have never heard before. NONSTOP noise. Everybody honks so you move over. Everybody calls out, people are on the phone. Stuff. Is happening. Everywhere!
10. I saw my life flashing before my eyes in thetaxi yesterday. I was on the driver side, so only I noticed how DANGEROUSLY close we were to smashing this car that our driver cut off. It's better for you to close your eyes sometimes when riding. Josh thinks it's really funny that motorcycles/moped drive on the sidewalks & the streets. You gotta watch out from behind you, beside you, and in front of you at all moments. Pang Foua would not have survived; she would surely be in a hospital somewhere by now.

That's all for now. Have a good weekend everyone. We have medical exams and start a week long of training on Monday. Hey, be sure to fill Mommy in on all our news, ok PF & TD? Thanks.

Peace!

It's 2:28 am in the morning...sleepless in shanghai

We just woke up an hour ago, after fake sleeping for a while in bed. Boy, if this is jet lag, we've got it at its best.

We've only been here 2 nights and we've already been SUPER sensory overloaded. Here are some early observations about Shanghai.

1. they werent kidding when they said there was over a billion people here. no matter where you are at there seems to be millions of people. not kidding millions everywhere.
2. i've come up with a term that describes the driving and bike riding in this part of the world..."Casually Wreckless". our driver who picked us up at the airport was driving over 120 km/hr on an 80km/hr road! i dont know the conversion is from the km to the miles/per hour is but, it was crazy. he was swerving in and out of traffic, tailing motorcycles, faces oncoming traffic fearlessly, passing people at 60 km/hr on small streets, etc. mai kao and i after about 5 minutes of this looked at each other without saying a word, nodded and then clicked out seat belts. people cut each other off all the time...and it even seems like they even try to drive into other cars.
3. our campus is beautiful. it's gated and so it makes you feel closed off from the rest of crazy Shanghai. the center of campus is absolutely gorgeous, imagine a beautiful row of fully grown trees and then you've got campus, times 3. we have (i'm not kidding) like 30 basketball courts.
4. China is super dirty. there are times when you are walking down the road and then some random super stinky smell smashes you in the face. mai kao and i were in an open market (which was pretty cool by the way) and we saw this lady chopping a raw dead chicken right next to a piece of fried chicken. we laughed and thought about how grossed out Geu would get.
5. there is an alley way market that is right by our school that is dirty as heck. we encountered some pretty hilarious and nasty stakes for poker. how about live eel for anyone? we've also got snakes, killed meats of all kinds, and some crazy looking veggies.
6. i thought about buying a bike, but after seeing how reckless peeps are out here...i'm kind of rethinking the situation out.
7. the ground here is really really nasty. at any given moment there may be chicken blood mixed with some sort of poop, fish guts and water. its so gross that tonight i had a nightmare about tripping and falling on the ground. i woke up super grossed out and opened up my packed luggage case to get my sandals out. i'm wearing them right now. in my apartment.
8. major props to auntie jovan for the small towels...they were super needed.
9. we miss our friends dearly. many of our coworkers are recent college grads that are still in the super party mode. we realized we were old when we wanted to just to back to our apartment and relax.
10. life is going to be fast paced, crazy and fun. keep praying for us. when you are away from the body of christ you start to crave fellowship. it seems that whenever you have a conversation with someone you listen more intently to see if they are a believer too. its weird, but true.

josh out.

Prayer Requests

We began packing at about 1 am last night, taking down all our paintings and signs and pictures. The room is starting to look empty...

If you are praying for us, here are a couple things that we're struggling with right now...

• Our health. I'm rarely sick. But for the past week, I definitely haven't been at 100%. I'm coughing, my voice has been on and off, and at times, I just don't feel well. Moving to a place that is different (tej fuab tej cuas txawv,) I'm already likely to become sick and have to adjust. Josh's foot is getting better. But this past week he had to take a break for about 2 days because of his recurring 'stupid foot.' (Muscle strains in foot.) Stacy (Tais Dlaab Adam) adjusted his foot yesterday, and it's a lot better. Josh also has a terrible cough. His blood pressure medicine makes it at times, painful for him. (I don't think he could live with this cough the rest of his life, if he has to keep up his meds.)
• Anxiety about leaving home. That God will infinitely increase our trust that things will be OK here. That I'll be protected from any feelings of guilt about leaving. That in the meantime, He will call us to intercede in incredible ways.

Thanks friends.

Just in Case

Personal day to day blogs will still be the same on Xanga. But we'll be updating here as well, for anyone who is interested in our adventures in China!