Yes, the milk is weird here.

I can't describe it. It just... doesn't taste like milk from home.

What else is weird?

1. Definitely yogurt. Kids love to drink to yogurt. Guess it's really a yogurt-milk, but they call it yogurt.
2. Cereal. I'd pay $10+ for a box of imported cereal before I buy the same Chinese version.
3. Salt. Chinese salt tastes... like... metal. And it comes in a plastic bag. It's terrible for pouring!
4. Ribs. That's because they don't really have ribs here. Go to the butcher and buy ribs, if you're not quick it enough, they'll chop it up into bit-sized pieces before you can stay, "Stop!" in Chinese.
5. On the topic of meat... chicken thighs. Seriously, I have never seen chicken thighs for sale here. I don't even like them. But now that they don't sell them, I miss them. Or at least, cooking them for Josh. If you know what the Chinese do with chicken thighs, please let me know.

was force to do it...

i'm blogging because mai kao is forcing me to.

just finished a long weekend at church. spent all day saturday practicing guitar for church and then all day today at church playing. it was fun to play just electric guitar for church and not have to lead. its fun leading, but as all those who lead worship know, its even more fun to just play guitar and be on the worship team. i used my friends gear (the big green Line 6 delay, the purple Line 6 modulator, a tubescreamer and a volume pedal into a real sweet ampeg combo amp 1x15) and it was rad. i'm gonna pick up a line 6 delay when i get back home. also, i'm looking to get a Line 6 pod, b/c they are so convenient for travel and playing at home.

mai kao and i are really thinking hard about staying or coming back home. we have stability here, we are active in the church, we have our own place. if we go home, we have no stability, no place to call our own yet, no jobs and no idea where to come home to. its becoming much harder to make heart decisions these days if you know what i mean. when you're on your own, and taking good care of yourself, it is hard to just uproot and follow your heart, leave everything behind. i wish i could combine our life here with our friends/family back home. that would make things so much easier.

this year, i've been making some really good friends here. i'm really learning how to be a light in a dark place. also, i am glad my friends are really accepting of my faith, they even applaud it.

okay. i'm done.

love everyone. miss the babies. hello jean green (random shout out)

josh out.

Destiny

I've met someone right up my alley... and I'm excited!

We had a great talk with someone from our church who is building library media centers in Sichuan province, where the earthquake hit 2 yrs ago. They went in bringing a few books here and there, and thought that would be fine, but opportunities to partner with the people and place have been blessed and opened... There is a place and people are open to [Christians] helping and even the funds are there, but not people who know how to train, buy material, and develop educational spaces! I call this destiny because the place is called BaoBaoXiong... the same Xiong that's used for our last name (Xiong is Chinese means 'bear'.)

It's nothing really, but I'm happy because I've been looking for opportunities to really serve and use what I know and love. I've also been looking at short term missions trips since Josh will be in San Diego during the Chinese New Years, we I don't know if that will lead anywhere.

Don't you feel great that you know God? And thankful and amazed and happy?

Go JC!

New pix up.

These are from Thailand and Hong Kong. Korea pix will go up next week.

Waking up in Shanghai

Man, there's no bed like home's. You know what I love about most about our bed? My pillows! I use the cheapest pillow at Ikea. I forgot what it's called, but I know it doesn't cost much. I love it because the filling is really loose and fluffy. I might add, stress on the loose and fluffy. But for that reason, my head feels like it's on a puff of clouds when I sleep at night. I love it!!!

(Josh on the other hand, likes to sleep on the firmest, hardest pillows, aka, rocks.)

Waking up in Shanghai, it's still cold.

I think people who don't use/own cars and live here... their overall quality of life is colder. Serious. I think the best people who can understand this feeling are the commuters. I bet you all money that Isiah, Xay, and TD Xay's overall life is just... much colder feeling than yours!!! Ask them.

Whenever we get back from a mini-vacation, we're busy and tired feeling. I'll def. try to post up pictures ASAP.

Waking up in Seoul...

... it's COLD!!! but at least it's another sunny day.

We're staying at a guesthouse/hostel. It's literally a room at a house, which I kind a like. It's complete with the flowery asian wallpaper (even the Kong house still its!) oversized asian wall calendar, no shoes ever allowed in the house. it feels very... Korean! (as if i really knew what that was.) i'm glad i packed my slipper socks.

the carpet industry here in Korea must not be a lively one, cause they just don't do carpet here.

last night josh and i had a blast, enjoying the brisk night to its max. it included: coffee, looking at bakeries, soju, Korean BBQ in all its meat, lettuce, and kimchi'd goodness, lots of pojangmacha - the food tents/food stalls on the street, and awinding alleys (that's where the guesthouse is.)

Time to wake up Josh. Day 2, here we come!

Pix

Winning Josh, reading Josh, cute cafe we stumbled across, biker JOsh

Pass Go, Collect $200

That's how the rest of this week will feel!

Today we begin our Midterms. That means we only work till noon. Of course we also have more tests to grade, but we don't teach and kids go home early. YES!

We also have a 3 1/2 day weekend. So what better to do? We're going to Seoul! I'm quite excited. We haven't planned much yet, but I'm printing all my Korean basic phrases now so at least we can get around... sort of.

We just got Josh's laptop fixed. The hard drive blew out, and we were really scared because the most important files in our life were backed and stored on that computer. I fell like I remember Isiah saying once that we should always back up our files. Let me tell you now...

BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT FILES!

We're gonna go buy an external hardrive just for this reason cause I really don't want to lose my old college papers, programs, resumes, etc. etc.

RESPONSE TO POSTS WE'VE BEEN READING:

I really liked Yij Second's recent post on describing people in just 1 word. I think they were really on the spot.

Pajjar: You can give your friends these emails: mxiong.shsid@gmail.com or
joshuamongxiong@gmail.com. These our our work addresses, since this is a public post. It'd be great to meet more new friends in Shanghai, and when they arrive, we're definitely willing to help them out as best we can!

Jonah: *sigh* I knew he would like My Car. I really like a lot of the books the author writes (Byron Barton).

Glad Peter found a job.

Judy: I got my wisdom teeth pulledo ut too. All 4 of them cause they were impacted. Was knocked OUT! Even got codine afterwards for the pain cause I was a bloody mess. Hope you get better fast!

Bye for now.

Play... and music onwership philosophy

The song that has the most play on my itunes shocked me.

It's "she is" by Clazziquai and a song on the My Lovely Samsoon soundtrack. It has 17 plays! What the..?!! Have I really listened to this song the most out of the 879 songs I currently have on my ipod?

Almost all of the music we get these days (98%) comes from download loading through rapidshare. Getting new music is so easy that I've noticed Josh has a huge library of music. He has 80 G and maybe only one video on his ipod. That leaves room for a whole lot of music.

But I've concluded this: I'm not going to keep a song on my ipod if it has 0 play counts. I think that's just really silly. i admit, i've got about 100 songs that are currently at 0. i'm going to listen to each one of them to determine whether it will make the cut or whether it'll be put on the chopping block.

Next time you log into your itunes, check which song has the most play counts. how good can a song in your life be that you've listened to it that many times?

Things to improve

When we have kids, I'm going to try to be strict on them in these areas because now that I'm older, I wish I would have taken care of myself better when I was younger so I don't have to suffer now:

1. Teeth: Brushing teeth, cavities, eating candy, you name it. I'm starting to have teeth problems now at only 29 and if they'll even last me the rest of my life (however long that will be.)

2. Scrubbing in those unseen places: You know what I'm talking about. Like the armpits and behind the ears and inside your belly button. If you don't take care of these places as a kid, all the srubbing as an adult won't make the caked up kauv go away!

3. Learning: I'm going to try my best to teach our kids. The Hmong parents of our generation left all the teaching to our public school teachers. This makes sense, because probably 99% of them never learned algebra in 7th grade anyway, so they couldn't help us if they wanted. Being a teacher myself though, I see that teachers play only a minor role in a child's education and learning. It's my hope that our kids know a lot things (facts in the brain) and that Josh can help them be able to think critically (using this facts.) We really want them to have a rounded, world-wide view and understanding of life & God's creation.

These days, as we get older, life goes from great to the worst to good to not-so-bad so quickly. We think about everyone at home often. There seems to be so many struggles these days. We're not sure what to even say or do... Our course Josh and my easy answer is this: Hey, come to China. You won't regret it!

We look forward with hope and faith and prayers for this season of hardship to pass for everyone we love. We look forward to the new babies coming soon in the family, forward to Advent and Christmas season, forward to hear your praises about worship, church, and fellowship.

p.s. (this is josh speaking now)
check out this weblink and scroll to the bottom.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Events.aspx?x=mtgcom/protour/sandiego10-invitations

BOOYAH!!!

Magic Talk- by Mai Kao

To congratulate Mr. Xiong on his win, I devote this post to his favorite hobby right now.

1. I figure this must be his destiny, because the San Diego Pro Tour starts 1-2 days after the Chinese New Year. That means we'll be on our 3-week vacation anyway, so Josh doesn't even need to take vacation time to go.

2. He could have chosen to take a $375 cash-prize or a free plane ticket to San Diego. He chose the latter, which I guess is the better prize, since it's value is like over, $1200.

3. So he asks me if this win validates his game playing and money spending. I guess so. But since I'm a girl, I'm still thinking, Well, you only won once! Big deal. Girls are so evil and selfish, I know! Sorry guys.

4. Josh says the guy says his DCI points should go up like 200 points. I think that's great!

5. I told him to open his box that he won and sell the cards he doesn't need and give me the money, since he's been spending $ on cards like a crazy man lately.

6. We were thinking of like, going to Malaysia or something for the Chinese New Year. Aww, man! I don't think I want to go to San Diego with Josh. OK, let's be honest. I don't want to go or drop the money. So now what to do... what to do... ?

In the end though, I'm very proud of Josh. Like he says, it's the deck and the pilot that wins. He made some new friends, brought home some bacon, and he beat the CHinese National Champion. That's my Doodle!

PTQ Shanghai

today i played in the Shanghai PTQ qualifier for Pro Tour San Diego... and WON! holy cow. i still cant believe i did it. here is the run down on my day.

i arrived at the place to see about 100 people there to play.

my sealed pool was really deep. i was really tempted to go 4 Color Green with my two harrows and heart expedition, gladhearts and woodcrasher, but i didnt want to play a janky 4 color deck and run into mana problems, so i looked over my deck again and realized that my R/B was pretty awesome, with 7 removal spells and tons of fast creatures. this is what i decided upon.

1 bladetusk boar
1 goblin shortcutter
1 plated gigapede
1 highland berserker
1 tuktuk grunts
1 goblin ruinblaster
1 shatterskull ogre
1 giant scorpion
1 vampire vexmage
1 heartstabber mosquito
1 surrakar marauder
1 grulgaz vampire
2 vampire lacerator
1 disfigure
1 hideous end
1 burst lightning
1 inferno trap
1 spire barrage
1 slaughter cry
1 grim discovery
1 trusty machete
1 adventuring gear

9 swamps
7 mountains
1 teetering peaks

i won my first 4 matches in record time. every time my friends looked over at me, i was already signing the slip with a victory on it. after looking around and seeing the standings, i realized that i could just draw into the top 8 so i drew the last 2 games and found myself sitting at 4-0-2 and in my first PTQ top 8.

i sat down and my first pick pack one...hideous end...next pick, trusty machete!!! i had to really mess things up to do badly in this draft. my goal was to cut off black and red so i could be mega hooked up in the following packs. i picked up a murasa ally shooter guy and a nissa sellsword. pretty decent pack one.

pack two, pick one i pick a geyser glider...followed up with a burst lightning and punishing fire. nice...also, i manage to pick up two gobling shortcutters.

pack three i round out my deck with more allies and an adventuring gear and some bladetusk boars.

after the draft i felt really confident i had the best deck in the room. my friend josh said after watching me draft that i should already start packing for San Diego. i told him there is still a lot of playing to be done.

draft deck: TOP 8
1 trusty machete
1 adventuring gear
1 artifact puma guy
1 nissa sellsword
1 tuktuk grunts
2 highland beserkers
2 goblin shortcutters
2 surrakar marauders
1 giant scorpion
2 bladetusk boars
1 geyser glider
1 murasa ally shooter guy
1 grim discovery
1 slaughter cry
1 burst lightning
2 hideous end
1 punishing fire

1 teetering peaks
1 akoum refuge
9 mountains
7 swamps

match one - opp- B/W deck
he takes me down to one life but doesnt have the gas to finish me off and my bladetusk boars go all the way for the victory. i lose the second game to a 4/2 swamp walker. this was my first game loss of the entire day, but i wasnt too fazed b/c you really cant win every game. that would be insane. turn one, trusty machete...with a bunch of intimidate guys for the victory. off to the semifinals

match two- R/U aggro
this guys was really good. i get blown out of the water in the first game to his welkin terns, skyruin drake and my one misplay. i forgot to equip my boar with the adventuring armor and then attack and so was sidetracked one turn. also, i really had no chance against his awesome draw. game two, i just barely take the game because he isnt able to handle my intimidate guys with a turn one machete. i out race him.

game three of the match was my greatest playing of magic of my life. the game was a race down to the final two turns. the board is cleared except for his 2/1 recklass scholar with him at 4 life and me at 2. i need a top deck to stay in the game...any creature will do...i knock on the top of my deck and draw a geyser glider. awesome. i play him and my opponent gasps in shock that one attack from my guy will kill him, so on his turn searches for answers, taps his scholar for more outs and then casts another scholar. at this point i know that i need a top deck of glory to win the match and advance to the finals. the board position has him sitting with two creatures, one to chump block, one tapped. i'm only at two so if i dont win here he will be able to attack with his lone guy for the win. at this point the entire room is dead silent waiting for my topdeck...i draw a mountain, play it and swing for the win! my opponent is shocked and i walk off to the finals. two amazing top decks in a row, normally one top deck is crazy, but TWO?!? thats ridiculus...after the match my friends tell me that i just beat China's 2009 National Champ. the entire day i was totally calm but after they told me that after the fact that i had won, i began to get nervous...could i actually win this?

Finals - U/W
my opening hand is trusty machete, 2 surrakar marauder, bladetusk boar 2 mountains, 1 swamp. there was no way he could keep up. i won easily.

second game, opening hand: adventuring gear, 2 highland beserker, bladetusk boar, slaughter cry, mountain, swamp. i get lucky and draw into some lands and removal and he has no way of stopping my guys from running into him.

OMG! i just won a PTQ!!!!!! that was one of my lifetime goals and now i've just acheived it! i'm still in shock. i knew we were good MTG players but i didnt realize that our group of friends were capable of winning at this high level. i encourage you guys to go to these events, if i can do it surely you can do it too.

*all-stars of the day*

1. trusty machete, is the best card in limited. all day long it made my guys complete nightmares to deal with.
2. surrakar marauders and bladetusk boars, intimidate is total ace in this format
3. mai kao for letting me play.
4. my friend dennis for sticking it out with me the whole day and rooting for me hard to win at the end. also, with helping me play test and making me a better MTG player.
5. teetering peaks.
6. slaughter cry, it won me at least 3 games.

see you in San Diego.

Josh out.

happy halloween

sorry its been so long since i last posted. i've been lazy thats all.

this weekend is the first weekend i've had off of leading worship at church for a long time. so how am i going to spend it? i'm going to the shanghai PTQ on sunday! its a sealed deck format, and i feel i'm pretty good at that. my goal is to win. i'll fill you all in on how i did after the event.

I've been reading "Crazy Love" by Francis chan and i find it pretty engaging. we all know how Francis has a way with delivering the message in a straight forward and practical way. i love that about him. the book has caused me to really think about why Christians do things and is that really loving God, by feeling guilty for not doing "Christian" things, like devotion. instead he reminds us that devotion should come from love. if we really love him, then we should be devoted. he asks the question if we arent doing things out of love, like devotion, should we stop and reevaluate?

Mai Kao has been wonderful to me lately. she's been extremely affectionate and loving. thanks Jesus for M.K.

josh out.

Famous Twins

Matthew Fox in season 3 when he's got his beard = looks just like Bee!

Utada Hikaru when she competes in the Nintendo DS tetris challenge = her face profile is the spitting image of Pang Foua.

No joke, check these out!

completely BOGUS thoughts. don't be offended!

These aren't true in real life. Like the title of this post, these are really bogus. But upon personal reflection, I can't help but wonder or feel this way about these things

1. Deep down inside, I think I feel that left-handed people are slightly inferior. Really. I mean, when I notice or learn that some one is left-handed, I think, "hey that's cool! Wish i was left handed." But at the same time, I think, "What's with the parents that they let the kid be left-handed?"

Speaking of left handed, today, Josh lied to one of his students that his cousin Vipat could write with both hands at the same time. He never flinched once as they told this untruth. The kid bought it hook, line, and sinker.

2. Do black people eat sushi? That's total racist, I know! But I swear to you, I've never eaten in a sushi place, and ever seen a black person there. Never, not once that i can remember.

3. Having so many boy students, i can't help but think about them and gripe all day long. i've concluded, no wonder God created Eve. boys are seriously crazy and wild. major props to the moms who've raised armies of boys and had no daughters.

Phew!

Talk about long time no post! The real reason we don't like to post is because we can't seem to get Witopia to work, so will still have to use proxy sites like vtunnel to access xanga and blogger. It's no fun at all.

BUNNIES: Josh and I had lunch together the other day and as we were sitting there waiting for food, I looked out the window and asked, " Is that man selling dead baby bunnies?" He was wheeling this cart around and in a cage, there were little piles of white furry stuff. I knew it couldn't possibly be it, but I just found it amusing because being in China, he actually could be selling them for all we knew!

TL:We didn't have enough time in Thailand. I would like to go back some time. The only frustrating thing is that we don't speak Thai.

FALL: It's a beautiful fall in Shanghai, and we wish you all could be here. One of my daily things I love to do is walk around and look at the trees while listening to music. I've grown to love this place, and it will be sad when we leave it.

BIGGEST LOSER: Josh isn't exercising. He isn't losing weight. I'm ratting on him, like a bad 3rd grader. I'm exercising and trying to be mindful of my diet. But my ultimate downfall will be my love for potato chips and dessert. I ate a deep fried chocolate pie from McDonald's yesterday. How bad is that??!...must...fight...must...

CHURCH: Josh is pretty busy now these days with church. He's leading worship service or prayer service almost on a weekly basis. It tires him, but I know he loves it all the same. We're thankful that the prayer house has moved closer to us, so our evenings aren't so late.

DRAMAS: I'm currently tuned in to: You're Beautiful, Smile, You, and Autumn's Concerto. I protest Iris because I want to stay loyal to You're Beautiful. If you know what I'm talking about, you're awesome!

FOOD: I still love to cook for Josh, and I've begun packing bento lunches for him. You know what's the yummiest sushi? The kind that has a tempura of some sort in it! *sigh* It's too delicious.

MAGIC: Jost has spent a little too much money on Magic lately. He says it's an "investment." You know what I don't like about Magic investments? They lose value too fast for my liking!

MALAYSIA: I think Americans don't think much about Malaysia. But have you seen pictures of some places in Malaysia? I've never wanted to go to a tropical place, but we're definitly considering going here as a next trip!

OK. Bye.

Hello World!

We;re back, and it feels great. We're in Thailand, and that means we're back to unrestricted internet. **ahhh**

The joys of life!

End of September Update

These days, when we post, I write on behalf of me & Josh. He's sitting on the couch, telling me what to write cause he's too lazy to type. For a guy, I really wish he knew more about computers, cars, and took a little more initiative in management in our family of 2, i.e. finances, chores, etc.

Complain, complain, complain. I bet you guys are thinking, all women do is complain and never see the good things that a man does for her.

Sorry guys.

Josh speaks: This week I've done many sweet things for Mai Kao, like buy her things when I'm out. mmm.. cook for her. go on walks with her. and she rewards me with complaints. nice. i love her.

I'm excited for my fanball team. The only undefeated squad still left.

Buying a box of Magic tomorrow. I wanted to buy 2, but my better half talked me out of it.

Mai Kao says: Yeah right. I FORBADE him to buy 2 boxes. You alls and your magic is crazy sometimes.

What are we up to these days:

Well, we started vacation today. We'll be off for 1 whole week... 8 days of the National Holiday celebration. YES! And so, the day after tomorrow, we'll be going to Hong Kong through an airplane purchasing mishap. The upside is, we've decided to spent a night at a hotel that is supposed to be a life-sized exact replica of Noah's Ark! Right now, there's also a typhoon that is supposed to be around Hong Kong. Noah's Ark.... typhoon... coincidence? We'll let you decide.

Then after that, we're off to Bangkok for a few days. We're going cause the parents are going to be there. We're really excited to see them, even if it's only going to be a for few hours. Maybe Mom will stay behind while Dad goes to Vietnam, maybe not. Either way, Thai food in Thailand... HERE WE COME!

Hopefully we'll ge tto take lots of awesome pictures, etc. etc. No more illegal weird gifts for Geu. We'll try to find reasonable things for everyone.

We are good. We're not getting any smaller, unfortunately. Been trying to work out and the bodies are feeling stronger, but no major changes yet.

Oh yeah. I got a haircut! It looks really super Asian and Korean. It's short and... cute? Pictures will be posted.

We haven't been paid since June 30th. Can you believe it? Today we just got paid again. Imagine that... not being paid from June 30th to September 30th. Wow.

Lots of love. We'll post in Thailand.

P.S. I got my phone set up to call internationally. I can call home & $15 gives me 4 hours of talking time! Remember those days when we all used to use phone cards? Memories...

Pixes updates

Trying to update as much as we can. I'll be putting up our new pictures, although I can't change the "beijing and back" on our blog site b/c the proxy won't let us.

Well, well, well...

Because we have to go through a couple extra loops to get to Blogger, we just don't visit this site (or facebook or xanga) as much as we'd like to. it's only a few extra clicks & typing, but it just doesn't get done...

EXERCISE: In 30 minutes, Josh and I will be doing P90! Yes! Hey, all of you who are exercising, you should take pictures of yourself, so you can see your results. That's what it said in the P90 book. Like, 1 photo every 15 days or so! Keep it up. I've sorta started a pilates class with a few friends (a co-worker used to teach it, so now she instructs us), we've got P90 and I do my quickie: 8 minute abs and 8 minute legs!

FOOD: Bibim naeng myun = this is a cold buckwheat noodle dish. it's like Korean bun, except it's got sliced beef, cucumber, pickled radish, sliced Asian pears, a hard boiled egg, the red Korean pepper paste, and the sauce is a bowl of iced beef broth. IT'S GOOD, I kid you not! I am going to enjoy having Korean food after Korean church, whenever we go! Aja, aja YUM!

Right next to the Korean church, there is a donut place that claims it's got authentic, Chicago-style donuts! It's called, Donut Republic. Inside, it's even got street signs like, "Clark" and "Madison," etc. We first thought, There's no Donut Republic in Chicago! But when we tried the donuts... phew. Mans, dids theys tastes goods!

JOSH'S MAGIC: He claims he needs money. He's excited about the pre-release next week. He hopes to win it, so he could win a free box. Winner gets 26 packs. He's been fiddling around with a 5CC deck, post Lorwyn rotation. It's working pretty good, and he thinks 5-color is still alive. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: Sprouting Thrinax is the new Kitchen Finks. Josh has been play testing him and it's been consistently been one of the cards that you least want to see across the table. If you have a Jund-aggro deck right now, it is an automatic 4-of. That feeling that you got from cascading bloodbraid elf into finks is the same as bloodbraid into sprouting thrinax. Living China, Josh has become a much better deck builder. PEACE!

CHURCH: Josh led worship last week and it was great. (Well, at least the service that I went to.) A lot of the congregation said encouraging things to him afterwards. He hopes to continue to be involved as he was before.

FRIENDS: We went to our new friend Kashia Vang & his wife Esther's apartment after church. Josh says hanging out with him, he's very much like Kounay in personality. Example: After church, he said to Josh, "After service, I was considering coming up to you and saying, You did a great job. But then I didn't want you to get all boastful." Funny, huh? We had dinner with them and hung out with their kids. Nice times. He even gave us a tshuaj plant, the green leaves stuff that you put in boiled chicken. YUM! Hmong people are great.

JJO ending

Jungle Jump Off was a wonderful experience, and I hope we can continue to keep ties with our Wycliffe friends as long and best as we can. It's too bad no one else will ever get a chance again to have it, like we did.

Everyone that's been to JJO, can you plan on going to that closing event the first weekend of October? It would be so meaningful to everyone, even especially Uncle Ed and Melissa. I wish we could be there, but we can't. It's a little far away, after all.

Top 5 Offended!

These are the things that I still just can't get used to in this place:

5. Ankle nylons: Young women wear ankle-high nylon socks while wearing shorts or shirts. They wear them with flip-flops, dress shoes, and sandals. It's too Mommy-like FOB for me.

4. Funny smells: You're taking a beautiful, peaceful, nice walk and then BAM! An offensive smell coming from you-don't-know-where hits you. Let me tell you: It kills a mood real fast.

3. Cutting & invasion of personal space: Waiting in line at the grocery store, sometimes the people behind you try to cut you. They try to pass you so you have to block the lane. Or they stand REAL, REAL close right behind you. You know how in America, if the person behind you has 2 things to buy while you have a cart full of stuff, you would be considerate and let them go ahead of you? Well, I'd never do that here. Josh would probably laugh/tshev me if I did. Sad, but so true.

2.Hocking: People spit left a right, indoors and outdoors. They'll do it on the floor, waiting for the subway car. My third graders do it in the garbage can in class. It's sick because an 8-year-old is hacking loogies like my old uncle!

1. Public urinating: The other day, we were riding in a taxi by our house and in an alarmingly natural way I said to Josh, "Hey. There's a guy peeing through the fence." SICK!

Korean Church

Mai kao and i went to Korean Church today with Kash (our Hmong brother here in Shanghai). it was really awesome! totally early 90's contemporary worship, but it was so nice. everyone in Korea can sing! the worship team was perfectly FOB. i mean easily the best FOB band i've ever heard. all the songs sounded like Korean Drama songs but with Jesus lyrics. it made me want to cry many times.

They are so welcoming to their church. when new people attend service they make you stand up, give you a ROSE, and then the entire church sings a nkaus txhws xeeb to YOU! it was super embarassing and a huge blessing all in one.

afterwards we ate good korean food at a restaurant nearby.

josh out.

Friday Ramblings

Happy Friday everyone.

A week is done, and we look forward to the weekend. The days are blazing, but at night the wind picks up and it becomes really nice. Lately when we've been riding our bikes around the campus and neighborhood in the evenings, we've been reflecting on how much we really like living here. *sigh*

I confessed to Josh the other day that the new students this year are much better looking. It was a funny thing to do, but I didn't not want to tell him. It's not like I'm checking out high school students, because to me, they're just kids. But it's funny because some of them (guys and girls) are really cute & stylish and I think, What a cute person!

Ask Josh. He'd say the same thing. He says some of his students are so likeable, i.e. they are cute, they do their homework, they are hard-working, and they listen to their teacher! I like to listen to Josh's stories about his students. If you visit us, you should definitely visit some of Josh's classes as well as mine!

I will love my Fridays because I only teach 1 class. I've been relaxing for the last hour, and will get to work a little bit later. YES!

I've begun reading a book Xay let us borrow. It's called TRUE STORY: A Christianity WOrth Believing In by JAMES CHOUNG. I'll write up about it a little bit later. Josh is reading BLUE LIKE JAZZ by DONALD MILLER. He'll write about it a little bit later too.

Wishing you a great Labor Day weekend, that you are happy and healthy and striving to be closer to God every day!

Wednesday Post

I miss my old students. This year, I have almost all Chinese students. So sad :0( Wish I had just a few more Japanese and Korean students... Maybe we should just go teach in those countries next...

J/K!

My classroom is 2/3 boys. This is my conclusion: Boys are so tireding! The classroom dynamics are terrible when you have a lot of boys and not enough girls. This is making me second-guess my hopes on our own children... maybe having a girl is better than a boy. (Not that it technically matters...) But girls, I see now, are just, so much more pleasant.

We see everyone is gearing up for the weekend, with Laug Vern's npe laug party and all. Wish we could be there.

Church+Hmong People

Shanghai is beginning to feel like home. Mai Kao and i are amazed at how much at ease we feel here and just really love our lifestyle and the challenges/bonuses that living in the city brings. we are much more active here. I've already started to thin out by just being here.

Yesterday Mai Kao and I went to church and had lunch with a Hmong/French guy and his family. we had a great time getting to know Kashia, Esther and their two kids. We went out to lunch at the Brazilian steak house b/c thats where the kids really wanted to go. Its good to know some Hmong people in Shanghai.

church was really great as well. we had a guest speaker that spoke on the many questions you ask God and the awareness of His presence. it was exactly what i needed.

went to play at FNM, but only a few guys showed so we just played our constructed decks, which i prefer to do anyway. it was hilarious seeing the reaction of the Chinese guys to my Warp World deck. also, i'm glad that i bought all the M10 stuff in the states b/c here in Shanghai, M10 is completely sold out and it's super difficult to trade for any M10, especially lands. good call.

miss you guys much. we'll try to update as much as possible.

josh out.

Post too

Since Laug Vern asked us to post, I felt moved to post, too.

It's 2 am. Josh is sleeping, but I just woke up. Last night, I went to bed at midnight and woke up at 7:30 am. Thought my body has finally switched over, but got home today at like 6. Josh went to go get dinner and by the time he came back, I was asleep. Too drowsy to wake up to eat... 6pm - 2am, hmmm, that's 8 hours of sleep. Man, I'm in trouble!

You know what's really annoying? When you're trying to sleep and other people are making loud noises! Josh is really good at that these days. Like he brought kis electric guitar and he loves playing it. It's not plugged inbut he still plays is real loud and hard and it makes me crazy. And last night, I was sleeping and he was watching Cape Fear. I don't remember what that movie was since it's old, but it has lots of scary sound effects, and in turn, I started having scary dreams because I was sleeping and my ears could still hear the sounds.

How are we right now really?

HOT!

It's 97 degrees with a heat index of 111 and Shanghai is swampier than IL. It's survival just from one classroom to the next!

School starts on Tuesday. It's exciting. I have a class that is 2/3 boys; 7 out of 22 is only girls. I worried they will be very naughty or ADD like. Josh has some of his old students. We're both doing more work this year because we're returning teachers, but that's ok.

I wish we could respond to peoples' posts, but we can't. So here will have to do..

We'll start P90 after our orientation this week. (Saturday) Also, sculping exercises are my favorite. For you those of you who are doing P90, remember you have to take a picture of yourself every 2 weeks just like they say so you can see the changes. Don't forget to get Judy and Jimmy a copy of it if you out there can!

And we're so happy Linda and them can visit Mom and Dad. We hope that before the end of the year, or at latest next spring, Laug Vern and fam and Sarah will have a chance to visit them too. That's what they really need right now most, I think.

Love you guys so much!

BATTLE ON: Josh and MK vs. Jetlag and Mold!

We finished training today at 3pm and I took a nap. didn't wake up till midnight. Right now it's 5 am. can't sleep... can't sleep...

It's going to be a LOOONG tuesday. Jetlag... I'm trying to fight you, but this time around, you're too powerful!

Our flight a super delayed (twice) and so we got in after midnight. We were excited to be back 'home' but came to an apartment that was all MOLDY! no wonder my mom keeps freaking out about my hmong clothes getting moldy in storage at the basement of 680 stewart ave.

have you ever battled mold? It's SICK! there was mold in places we still can't figure, like it was all over Josh's cubs baseball cap. it was in between pillows, yet the blanket on top was perfectly fine. it attacked our couch covers, but thankfully on the couch itself. my lunch bag, some of the shoes, the table top which our oven sits on...

so our apartment is a mess till we clean and scrub it down... *sigh*

Xanga is still broken. So we'll be posting here like usual now. Peace. Have a good tuesday.

China, here we come.

We'll be switching back to this blog by the end of this week.

Just been spending last minute time with friends and fam.

Time has sure gone by fast.

FNM

yesterday Isialo and i went to FNM and had a great time. I brewed up my own little concoction and wasnt quite sure if it was up to the challenge of competitive play. I was pretty confident in how to play it and was doing quite well with it against Xay and Vipat's Tier 1 decks. so without further ado, here's my deck list, you saw it here first (i checked online and so far i could not find any decks that looked like it.)

Jund Spikes (named by Mai Kao)

1 lox warhammer
2 souls fire
4 maelstrom pulse
3 bituminous blast
4 bloodbraid elf
3 putrid leech
4 devoted druids
4 quillspike
4 nantucko husk
3 murderous redcap
4 kitchen finks

1 reflecting pool
2 mosswort bridge
2 vivid marsh
4 savage land
1 twilight mire
1 fire-lit thicket
4 swamps
2 mountains
7 forests

It's a hybrid deck. I combined the quillspike combo with some awesome jund cascade cards for some brutal beatings. I remember reading an article once on MTG.com about transformer decks where you play a deck that looks like one other deck but performs and plays completely different. So i decided to meld the quillspike deck with a jund aggro deck, if you want to see how this puppy did, continue reading...

Match 1 - Sam Boss? Bant Reveillark

game one- he mulls down to 5 and loses a long game of attrition. i dont really see much of his deck aside from tons of removal though and so i dont side in anything.
game two- my turn to mull to 5 and lose a long drawn out game again. tons of removal from him, but finally something that i can side against...reveillark! I side in 3 jund charms and out comes one of each from the combo.
game three - i wait for him to tap out and then play the combo for the win with souls fire dealing tons of damage to the face. MEOWW! (2-1, 1-0)

Match 2 - Shane - lightning reaver haste deck

i take 2 of three. i should have swept but i ran across some bad mana fixing second game. i'm also able to combo out on him in this game, but this time by attacking. This little kid was a jerk so i was glad to smash his face in. later on i find out that he is the worst ranked player in illinois AND the surrounding three states! what a distinction...if you cant be the best why not be the worst. imagine how a loss to this kid would have effected my DCI? (4-2, 2-0)

Match 3 - Isiah Xiong - Bant aggro

we didnt want to play each other, but because i lost one game the worst ranked player in the midwest i was pared down and played against Ikes who was 1-1 at the time. I reminded him that this wasnt a casual game anymore and we both went to work. These games all went into the later rounds and we both fought hard against each other. ultimately, the match was decided by my card advantage of cascade. once bant runs out of steam, its top deck mode, but one bloodbraid or bituminous and youre back in business. Ike's is fun to play against and brings out the best in his opponents. (6-3, 3-0) off to the finals.

Match 4 - Brandon Boss - naya aggro

first game his fatties are too big for me, but i'm able to almost stabilize, but just as i do, he fallouts for my last two life. I'm on my heals now b/c i lost my first match of the finals...gotta win out!
game two - i side in three terrors in place of one of each from my combo. i almost side out bituminous but decide against it. i get an early devoted druid and he gets a turn 3 woolly thoctar, on turn four he attacks and it is met by a one turn early BITUMINOUS BLAST! he looks shocked. the blast cascades into a finks. he plays other creatures only to be terrored, maelstrom pulsed or redcapped. My finks goes the distance.
game three - he plays out 3 early trace of abundances and some early fatties, but they are met by terror and bituminous blast into redcap. OUCH! he removes my creatures but because he's in top deck mode, i just plop down one creature at a time and see if he can handle it. every creature he plays i have a removal spell for and i slowly but surely knock him all the way down to zero life.
he's a good player, just not playing the optimal version of his deck. (8-4, 4-0)

Yay!!! I win FNM and get a shiny murderous redcap (cool) and six packs (definitely worth the 4 dollar entry fee). all in all, i never felt like my deck let me down. the reason i like this deck was because people just dont know how to play against it. they'll try to pithing needle the spike but then have to worry about the husk. they'll runed halo the spike or husk, but then have no way of dealing with the persist guys and maelstrom pulse. This deck has tons of removal and tons of outs which is why i like it so much. I'm thinking of changing the sideboard to transform this deck completely to Jund aggro in the second match after they have swapped in hosers for the combo, bloodbraid into ramgang! try to negate that! Thanks Ike for taking me, had lots of fun and it doesnt hurt to win either. MN here i come!

josh out.

Back home!

We won't be as regularly updating on this page. Now that we're back home, we'll be mostly updating on Xanga since that's where most people read regularly anywho.

Things we can't wait to catch up on:

• Food!
• Books & movies!
• Worship music
• Who's growing up (i.e. the kids we thought were kids are like, jrs and srs in high school??!)
• Hanging out like regular times with friends
• Just spending time with the parents

Time Travel!

Today, Wednesday July 1st, we get onto an airplane at 3:55 pm in Shanghai, China. On Wednesday, July 1st at 4:15 pm, we will walk off the airplane in Chicago, IL. POOF! Time travel. Amazing.

See you soon, baboons!

It's a small world after all

One of the teachers here we immediately became friends with is a Cambodian guy named Dan Khuon. (He's about... Xay's age.) Our first conversations were about lamenting the fact that Chinese people don't do Siracha sauce, lemongrass, limes or qhob poob. We knew he was from Michigan, but when he was really little, his parents actually lived in Chicago.

Well, we met his parents yesterday because they're visiting for a few weeks. To make a long story short, we get to chit chatting and then the dad goes, "I knew a Hmong guy named Mr. Lee." Which Mr. Lee could it be? Xaiv Dang Lee as in these people were Sarah Lee & Douachi's neighbors! What the..?!!? Dan's sisters played with the other Hmong girls that lived on that College Ave. apartment block. So we realize, it is indeed, a small world after all.

Crazy, huh?

Guaranteed Awesomeness

Go find this song: On Bended Knee by Boys II Men. Blast is as loud as your willing to... (listening in a car or with great headphones would be ideal.)

Guaranteed awesomeness.

Facebook can be disgusting...sometimes

I like facebook. i'm not an avid user and only check it maybe once every two weeks or so, but today i found it to be totally gross.

in my friends recommendation list i found someone that totally made me laugh and get sick all in one...his name is Soutchai Thor. the FOB hmong guy who macked on Ka all last year and my Ntxawm Yeng's brother. EWWWWWWWWW...Facebook has become....FOB?

grading tests...
Music is back on my list of things to do.

josh out

Today

Today was our last day of teaching. And we are happy. Can't believe it's been 1 year. My kids wrote in my yearbook and some memorable comments in my year book are: "I love your fashion."

Something hilarious happend to me. one of my 9th graders came up to me, looked me in the eye and passionately said, "I love you." And I was kind of floored so i looked her back in the eye and said back to her, "I love you too."

We've been watching Eli Stone lately. We finished the 1st season in 1 weekend. the show's great. can't afford to by the second season because right now we're down to our last dollars. They've taken our passports for what feels like way too long so we can get our new visas. problem is we can't go to the bank and exchange USD for chinese reminbi without our passports. so... we've got to make our last dollars stretch till friday.

we're excited to come home. did we say that yet?

We wonder...

what everybody looks like. Of course, the truth is we all still look the same. We've all looked the same for the past 5 years. Maybe 10. But still... Especially can't wait to see the kiddies. We've been looking at everyone's Facebook pictures, and it's been so fun.

June has been a fantastic month for us. What to say Lord? It's you who gave me life and I can't explain just how much you mean to me.

China blip of the day:

The drink of choice on the street milk tea. It's found everywhere. Tea plus milk plus giant purple nab vaam (tapioca) balls. You drink it with the giant 1/2 inch wide straws and at the end if there's no more liquid left, the nab vaam balls shoot through the straw like b.b.s into your throat as you suck them up. Like Isiah and his Double D's coffee, Josh will drink this stuff a cup a day.

maelstrom pulse?

does anyone have any maelstrom pulses they will sell me before i go online to get them? i need 2.

am i digressing as a person or getting better?

josh out.

Two Words:

RapidShare. Josh's new friend.

40 new albums later, I think we're thinking of driving to Denver this summer, just as an excuse to listen to music. And to log in our driving hours since we haven't driven for... oh... 10 months!!!

What would really be great right now is to be able to go swimming... agh... *sigh*

Bicycles, crazy taxi drivers, construction and holes everywhere, buses that will drive 4 inches from you... none of these really phase us anymore. The one thing we absolutely can not get used to are the ferocious mosquitos here! NO JOKE. These guys are a step up in the evolutionary chain of mosquitos. They are fast, smart, and will disappear right before your eyes, only to reappear 2 days later! We've resorted to using Glade-plug-in-like mosquito killer just to keep this place safe!

At the end of the day, God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good.

P.S. Looks like we are chaparoning the youth for Hlub this year! White Castle run? I don't think we can, since we shouldn't leave the kids. But Josh says we should.

6 more teaching days and 2 1/2 more weeks!

mai kao and i are counting down the days now. we are genuinely excited to come home for the summer and have been starting to plan for our summer.

some places we'd like to visit other than the BIG 3:

1. the Grand Canyon
2. Mt. Rushmore
3. Yellowstone
4. random trips on the weekdays when everyone is working.

more survivor...

we are in the works of planning survivor challenges for us all. it will test your brains and your brauns. and we are very excited for that.

i still love magic.
i've begun writing music again...
my guitar skills need to improve.
i miss my electric guitars.
terminator has just finally come out here in Shanghai, going to go watch it tonight, hopefully.

peace.

josh out

Plan

Instead of a guys versus girls obstacle course at camping this year, Josh & I are planning on playing Survivor!
We are so excited, we hope most people will play.

People will be divided in to 2 teams and each day, we'll have 2 challenges. At night around the campfire, there will be elimination. (A few people will have to be eliminated each tribal council,) until the last night, where the last few are left. Then all the people that have been kicked off will vote for the ultimate camping Survivor! What do you think? Josh & I are going buy things to make the trophy from here in China. It's going to be the best prize ever!

Well, if people will play, that is. Even if you won't, we'll bother you to play anyway!

MK out.

Hail to the...um...Hail

today it hailed hardcore...i got pelted in the head with a piece of hail that was about the size of a quarter. it hurt.

josh out.

p.s. 26 days

Hurricane Shanghai

mai kao is right. when it rains, it pours. it seems like no matter how well prepared you are for the rigors of life, it always has a way of sneaking one right under the chin. today i feel that way.

i got some very disturbing news today concerning two of my students. they were very good friends but someway, somehow they got into a really bad fight and one of them physically beat the other one really really bad. hospitalized bad.

it really hurts me more than i thought something like this would. i know i shouldnt think this way, but because i was the teacher of those two students, i feel as if maybe i could have done something along the way to prevent this kind of thing from happening. maybe i could have instilled some sort of advice or proverb into their life to keep them from doing this?

I pray that through the power of Jesus that their physical and emotional wounds would be healed. and that somehow through all this, He would make way into their lives.

when it rains, it pours.

josh out.

Super doses

When it rains, it pours!

RAIN:
I made quite a yummy chili the other night. After one spoon, he said, "Does your food taste funny?" I kept eating... no it didn't. It was acutually pretty yummy. So he started trying the other dishes, and he said they seemed to taste good, but to him it was really bad. I got him a new spoon, but he said it was still bad.

I was like, "Alright!" I took his spoon and gulped a big mouthful of his chili and WHAT THE..?!!?? Of course his food tasted bad! It tasted like a whole lot of DISH SOAP!

Have you ever really taken a spoon of dish soap? DON'T. I think it's gotta be some of worst stuff in the whole wide world. I was throwing up in the sink, while Josh was in the bathroom gagging and washing his mouth out. It's terrible because the soapy taste stays!

Funny thing is, couldn't Josh tell it was soapy? How could he even eat more than one spoon? Crazy guy!

It was strange, because I swore the bowl was clean and dry. It wasn't till the day after that I was getting ready for dinner again. I grabbed a bowl from our shelve and put some squash in it. Then I was confused. The whole bottom of the bowl felt greasy. In short, there was a puddle of dish soap in our cabinet, where we store our clean, dry dishes! How it got there, only the ghosts know...

POUR:

I remember how we prayed that God would give Josh the opportunity to serve in the church. As we get ready to leave, so many needs have come up in the house of prayer. That basically comes down to meaning that Josh is leading worship in prayer twice each week till we leave.

They also asked him to lead service, but he had to decline. Sometimes it's hard to encourage Josh, because I don't what it's like to lead worship. I also don't know what it's like to play the guitar for over an hour straight, and then some. I think God is really refining Josh right now. He's giving Josh a new perspective of serving in a church, and leading his people, and I'm thankful for that. Not living around a strong, supportive Christian community has changed me because I've been around the church my whole life. I think I'm seeing who I really am, and God is really testing both of our faithfulness.

We heard...

Bee & Jonah and them are coming down for camping. WE ARE EXCITED! We can't wait! 30 days, the countdown begins! Well, we know the weather will be hot, so it might be hard for the babies. But we hope EVERYONE that can go, will go! Can't wait for good times.

Experiment

When we come back home, we want to try the following, each at a different place...

"I'd like a banana split with no bananas please."

"Can I get a caesar salad, but with ranch instead?"

"BLT please, hold the bacon. Thanks!"

blogger now blocked for real

arg! we use a proxy now in order to get onto this blog. thankfully we can still post here, even though for some reason, we cannot post on xanga.

the down side is, we can't add pictures or links anymore.

today (saturday) was the first in a long while that we have ventured around the city. it was a great day-
i slept in till 11 am! (that's cause i stayed up till 4 am watching dramas...)

had xiao long baos (dumplings) for breakfast.

got 3 new pairs of glasses. (2 for me, 1 for josh.) The #1 thing that Shanghai does wonderfully, perfectly
right is glasses! 1 hour, prescription glasses, only $20 a pair. they test your eye for you on the spot, no charge. for any of you who wear glasses, this is a paradise... and addictive place to shop.

had Mexican food at a Mexican resturant. The owner was really nice and we got to chat with him. In all of Shanghai, this guy is a really from Mexico. But where did he live and grow up and go to school? AURORA, IL! Crazy, huh?

Josh is watching the Aliens series in reverse order: yesterday was Resurrection, tonight part 3.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Shanghai Nights

If you guys come visit us we will take you to the following places and activites.

1. eat awesome foods: the food in this town is pretty darn good and it has tons of variety
2. visit hangzhou: beautiful city located off a super beautiful lake. is the home of world reknown longjia green tea.
3. tai kang lu: an awesome artist community that has great restaurants and sells tons of super cute trinkets and clothing, artwork etc.
4. visit neighboring water villages: imagine venice in china (kind of, but on a poorer level, but cool nonetheless)
5. go for a bike ride in the crazy shanghai traffic.
6. mai kao and my favorite: eat breakfast street food.
7. take a weekender to Japan or Korea: whichever you like
8. hit up the fakes market and buy tons of crazy stuff
9. go get something tailor made for you at the fabric market.
10. cook dinner for you ala mai kao.

miss you all much and cant wait to see you all this summer

josh out

Oops...I did it again!

so i went to a constructed tourney today in shanghai. i wasnt too sure what the meta was, but i knew that generally, the meta was the same all around the world...thanks to the internet.

I went with my B/W tokens deck and hoped for the best. I'm going to spare you all the suspense and just say...i won...kind of. in the finals, my opponent offered me the first place prize for the 2 byes at the City championships at the end of the month. i wasnt planning on going to the City Champs anyway, so after a while of thinking and consulting my friend Dennis, i decided to take his offer and accept 2nd place. i dont mind. i told him (Eric) that he better win the City Champs because i gave him the 2 byes! all in all, for $5.50, i won 20 packs of Morningtide and a fatpack of Eventide. i know not the best of prizes but worth it for me. especially because i popped open a bitterblossom, reveillark, stillmoon and bloomtender! More than making up the expense.

here is the tourney match by match

Round 1 vs. BoatBrew
game one: his FOD goes all the way...lame ( in my opinion, FOD going all the way is boring.) Game 2 and 3: my tokens kick it into gear and he cant handle ajani+glorious anthem. at one point in both games he over extended playing both a siege gang and spectral procession right into my....Zealous Persecution. too bad. never overextend. 1-0 (2-1)

Round 2 vs. Mirror Match
Game one: he kicks it into high gear and punches out an army of knight of meadowgrain, KofWhite Orchid and spectral procession. my board is spectral procession, tidehollow sculler and knight of white orchid. he attacks with all of his creatures to activate his Windbrisk Heights playing another Flower Knight. i block all and then BOOM hit him with the Zealous persecution. his board is nearly empty, and my whole army is still there.

Game Two: Spectral Procession and Hideaway land smash face. my main deck Zealous Persecutions seem to be doing wonders! 2-0 (4-1)

Round 3 vs g/b elves
game one: he cant overcome the Bitterblossoms constant stream of tokens. he maelstrom pulses my glorious anthem instead of my BB. little did he know i had one tucked under my Windbrisk Heights. i won with a 3 land hand and not drawing another until turn 6! i'm glad the curve of this deck is so low.

game two: two kitchen finks wittle him down because he is transfixed on my ajanis (and rightly so). whenever he would kill my ajani, i would have one in backup. in that game i played 3 ajanis. the deciding play was on turn 4 i realized he missed his landdrop so i Zealous persecutioned his 2 llanowar elves at the end of my turn. it slowed him down enough for my dual finks+ajani synergy to take over. he used so much removal that game on just those two finks. 3-0 (6-1)

Round 4 vs. Boatbrew and my chinese friend Zhang. i told him i didnt want to play him and wished we saw each other in the finals instead of the semis.

game one: reveillark, reveillark! and figure goes all the way! i lose.
game two: i realized that all of the matches with boatbrew that no one was using volcanic fallout, so i decide to go super aggro and side in all finks and tons of spot removal...the Rock style. two knights and two scullers behind tons of spot removal and yet another ZP.
game three: t1-heights, t2- sculler, t3- knight of white orchid+sculler. his board position consists of two knights, spectral tokens and a figure level 2. my hand is 3 land and Zealous P. i act like i'm in big trouble giving him signs to all out attack b/c of his firststrikers and figure. i make the right blocks and then Zealous Persecution. he slumps down in his chair then nods at me that that was a good bluff. a few turns later, he fails to draw the wrath and i take 2 of 3 from my friend. 4-0 (8-2)

round 5 (explained above)
yay!

deck list:
4 fetid heath
4 windbrisk heights
2 caves of koilos
1 reflecting pool
2 exotic orchard
4 arcane sanctum
3 swamps
5 plains

3 kitchen finks
4 cloudgoat
4 knight of the white orchid
4 tidehollow sculler
4 bitterblossom
4 spectral procession
3 zealous persecution
3 path to exile
3 ajani goldmane
3 glorious anthem

SB:
3 mark of asylum
2 martial coup
1 Kitchen finks
2 celestial purge
1 elspeth
3 wispmare
2 identity crisis
1 zealous persecution

allstars for this tourney:

1. zealous Persecution: this card is the reason BW tokens is the deck to beat right now. it gave BW tokens the edge against rival token decks - GW and Boatbrew. if used correctly it more often than not is a complete blowout.

2. Knight of White Orchid: lets you keep 2 land hands. more importantly though on the draw, he ramps your mana up so that it seems as if you played. first strike came in handy too.

3. Ajani Goldmane+ Finks: your opponent cringes every time they see their hardwork trying to kill the finks go to waste. do they block and see the finks go Super Mario again or do they take the damage? i love giving my opponent difficult decisions to make.

4. WIndbrisk heights: the best land in standard.

i love this deck. it is super fun to play and mega dangerous. wow. its still shocking to see i did this well. basically, i'm just shocked that our group of friends that play magic at home are really this good? between Xay, Johan, Vern and I we have 8 victories. coolness. when i get home from china for good, we should start up a team and really tuned each others decks up for some serious tournaments.

josh out.

The Movies 2

What can we say? Completely excellent in every way. Perfect casting, they connected the new to the old Star Trek universes /storylines /timelines well. JJ Abrams is on a roll, and we can't wait for the next movie to come out.

At the theaters:

1. I brought a camera, to document the experience. Hmm.... Should we bring video recording cameras to movie theaters? Ooops! It didn't even occur to me till I was busted mine out, started narrating, and then the security guard in Chinese is yelling at me: Miss! No cameras allowed...!!!

2. Yes, we do have assigned seats. The ticket seller pulls up a grid, shows you the seats available, and you choose. It's like buying tickets for a concert, an airplane... etc, etc. Or all in short, assigned seats at the movies!

3. You get 2 popcorn options: rainbow colored sweet popcorn. Or the regular salty sort. Most Chinese go rainbow, most Americans go salty.

4. Other interesting things available at concession: dried squid, beer, Pocky, and dried prunes. YUM!

5. Since we went to the matinee show, we were almost the only ones in the theater. It was medium-sized, clean, and felt just like home. YES! Also, we saw a trailer to a Chinese movie that's about kung fu robots. I think it's like a Transformers meets Robocop type action movie.

The Movies

Star Trek came out today here. Right after work, we're going to the movies! I thought I'd write my 'pre-movie' and 'post-movie' comments here.

We haven't watched a movie in a theater here, yet. So I'm excited. We've been to a theater, just never actually bought the ticket and gone inside. (Well, technically, I saw 2 movies while I was studying here in China way back when. But that's too long ago, and the memories are almost gone.)

So here's what I'm curious about:
1) I hear the popcorn is mostly terrible. And I believe it.
2) I wonder how big the screen is, actually.
3) What is the atmosphere pre,during, and post movie?

I only have my average average expecations for the movie itself. As long as it's good, I'll be happy. I don't need spectacular, spectacular.

Birthday Day

Today Josh is 29. Happy Birthday, Dup Dup.

Please stop to think about him for just a second... think about who he is and about your friendship with him. Aren't you happy and missing having him around? I thought so!

I couldn't do anything special at all for him this year. In fact, he's probably getting out of a taxi right now as I write this cause he went to church to lead prayer in worship. (I couldn't go.)

But he knew it was coming. Last year was too over the top, and he knows I can only do super duper birthdays once every 2 years or so.

Josh is so easy to love. He's funny, he's sharp-minded, he's easy going, and hard-working. He gets along with all kinds of people and all kinds of people get along with him. He's 100% real with you and he's a such a simple and naturally, happy guy. He's slow to anger and so quick to forgive. He's easy to please, knows good taste and style, and is shameless to just the right degree. His heart is set on eternal things and you know it when he sings all alone in the room, just him, his guitar, and JC.

My birthday wishes for my better half: That he will grow a little more in wisdom and stature. That he will never fall away from God. That he has and ever-growing capacity to love and befriend others who don't know or understand Christ.

And I hope that he does great in the constructed tourney on Saturday. Fighting!!!

So close, but so far away...

We've been able to get on Xanga for a while now, through a proxy. We can view and read everything, but the down side is we can't post anything!

the job

Teaching here is a very rewarding job. We wish that we could transplant some of you teachers from home and come over here. These days, we don't get off of work drained or tired. We come home and share stories from the day. (Actually, we eat lunch together most of the days now, too.) Yes, at times things are busy, but it's so enjoyable.

For example today. I had to teach the kids the word "negro" because it's in this weekend's story for reading. They know black people of course, but still get a little bit confused about being "African American." So I go into this long tangent on being Hmong American, etc, etc.

Then, when they finally get 'negro' they turn to the only dark skinned girl in our class, an Indian, they ask if she's negro. They don't get it that she's not even close, until I ask a Chinese kid, "Hey! Are you Japanese? Cause you look Japanese! You must be. Black hair, small eyes. "

It was really funny cause they get really embarrassed. Ask a Korean kid if he's Chinese, a Taiwanese kid if she's Filipino... their reactions are really funny! They blush, they giggle, they turn away. And the class thinks it's funny too cause they're like, "Of course she's not Japanese!"

Josh brings his guitar to class every once in a while, and the his students love it. They ask for 'American' songs all the time, like Jason Mraz and Fall Out Boy. (yes, that's the popular music that teens here listen too.) Josh's kids totally like him. I think I would too if I were them.

here's to the coming home count down!

7 Mo Weeks!

can you believe it? its been 8 1/2 months since we left for China. We've had lots of ups and a few downs here halfway across the world but all in all, we feel really blessed to be here. we miss you all at home a lot, but China has been the best thing to happen to our relationship.

I love having my own place. i dont know how i did it all those years (aside from college) without my own place? when we get back to the states we definitely are going to try to buy or rent our own place.

this year has been a super eventful year. we've visited the Great Wall in Beijing, pit stopped in Seoul and Hong Kong, visited all of Vietnam, saw the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian, experienced life in another country, and served the church in Shanghai, ate lots of awesome foods...too much to say them all

whats on our definitely to do list next year?

1. Korea
2. Japan
3. Singapore
4. Africa
5. Mongolia
6. India?
7. Israel?

josh out

About food!

I like seaweed.

Conclusion: I think I've moved on to the next level of Asianess (as a Hmong person.)

The first time I ate seaweed, I was in 4th grade. We were studying culture or something, and everyone had to bring in a dish from around the world. (Typically, I brought in eggrolls.) But Justin brought in sushi. I took one bite of the stuff, gagged, did the almost-throw-up-thing, then spit it in to my hand and hid the chewed up chunk in my desk.

Fast forward 19 years and here I am. Seaweed in soup, seaweed in salads, seaweed sheets on the side to each with my rice, seaweed crackers, seaweed rice sprinkles. I even bought seaweed at the store the other day to try to cook myself.

Alara Reborn Release Party!

I havent posted about Magic in a long while so i thought i might share with you how i did at the Alara Reborn release party. Enjoy!

Last week i went on a quest...to win my local FNM by the time i leave Shanghai this summer. After having done so well the first two times drafting there i went on a slump of going 1-2 for three weeks in a row. although i wasnt playing poorly my drafted decks were just inferior to the cards these guys were pulling. on to the release party.

i picked my packs which consisted of AAARRR. i like this way of sealed much more by the way. after cracking my packs open, i realized that i had a good Naya deck, actually a really really good deck. here was my deck: Dark Naya (Naya+Black)

Lands - 16
1 jungle shrine
2 esper panorama
2 swamps
4 forest
4 mountain
3 plains
(i know the land total is small but the decks curve and my mana fixing more than made up for this less than normal land total.)

Creatures - 16
2 Akrasan Squire
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Topan Ascetic (foil - Johan)
1 Rhox Charger
1 bloodpyre elemental
1 wholly thoctar
1 steward of valeron
1 deathbringer thoctar
1 bloodbraid elf
1 marisa twinclaw
2 3/4 cip 3 damage to flying creatures guy ( i dont know their names b/c they are written in Chinese)
1 r/w tapper guy
1 r/g landcycler
1 w/g landcycler

Spells - 8
1 executioners capsule
1 obelisk of Naya
1 r/b borderpost
1 aura that gives +3/-3 to creature
1 Oblivion ring
1 bitumonous blast
1 lavalanche
1 colossal might

Planeswalker - 1 Ajani Vengeant
Total cards - 41

after constructing it, i was pretty confident that if i played without making mistakes i could do well, maybe even win it all...i was confident that my creatures would outclass the majority of decks i played.


Match 1: played against the local judge. he is a really good player and i hadnt beaten him yet. He always plays grixis, and was playing it once again but this time with an esper splash.

first game i curved out perfectly t1 forest nacatl, t2 plains ak squire, t3 mountain ascetic, attack for4, he lays down a super 0/8 wall, but then next turn i draw and play bloodbraid elf into wholly thoctar! ouch! his super wall can only block one guy so i swarm in for the win. game two i have him down to 3 life but then he gets out the Esper Akroma...he comes back via vigilance/flying/lifelink (akroma is akroma, shes good in any way shape or form.) game three i check my deck to see if the O Ring is still there to answer his akroma...yep it is...on to playing. i curve out perfectly again with almost the identical plays accept this time i Bituminous Blast his Tower Gargoyle, cascade into Bloodbraid elf, cascading into.....R/B borderpost :( you cant get them all the time...anyway his super wall can only block one guy of the swarm and i have ajani and a fist full of removal to answer any of his threats or defenders. I win. my deck was superior to his and i never once overplayed my cards...he's the kind of player that lives off the mistakes of others and so when he saw that i was playing well, he got totally flustered and i was able to use that to my advantage. he often over extended to kill a creature only to see i had another creature waiting to back it up. (1-0, 2-1)

Match 2: for the first time ever i was in the winners bracket. yay! i play against a guy who is playing a Naya/bant deck.

first game i curve out perfectly again, t1- ak squire, t2 tapper guy, t3- land cycle, t4- bloodbraid elf into topan ascetic. no chance. he was running elvish visionary and every creature he ran out there was met with either ex capsule, or the +3/-3 enchant creature. fast game one. game two, he gets mana screwed out of a blue mana and i easily romp him with a rhox charger and bloodbraid elf into an ex.capsule. win number two! awesome, my first finals match! (2-0, 4-1)

Match 3: i play against a guy i named Chang...we've been playtesting each other out with our constructed decks and he is consistently at the final table. he was really happy to see that i had gotten there as well and congratulated me on that. he's a great guy and a really good player...he's helping me to become a better player. before we sat down to play though he offered me a deal i could not refuse. he really wanted the release party T-Shirt that was awarded to 2nd place and so he asked me if i wanted to draw and take 1st place and the ten packs that come with, in exchange for him getting second place - six packs and giving me a vendillion clique. i thought about it for maybe 2 seconds and then shook his hand. (2-0-1) 1st Place!

i had finally done it! i won a real sanction event. how cool! reading Olivier Ruels starcitygames article about what tier you are really inspired me to become better. before today i was a 3 star player (out of ten - with 10 being reserved only for the hall of famers and most pros being on the 5-7 level), one who plays at the local FNM and plays competantly, but hadnt yet succeeded at the local level. once you win you move on to 4 star player. I had set out a goal to win a local FNM just a week ago...i did not figure it would be only one week before i acheived this goal.

the stars of the deck:

• Ajani Vengeant - of course! his ability to keep a permanent untapped is way stronger than it looks, permanently keeping their best creature out of the game. i never got to use his ultimate, but the lightning helix worked out just fine.
• Akrasan Squire - the early 5-6 damage he puts in makes it feel like my opponent starts out at 15 life.
• r/w tapper guy - his pinging was awesome and the tapping kept so many threats under check. excellent card.
• Topan Ascetic - first time i got to use him, he is so powerful its ridiculous
• bituminous blast- cascade is so good it feels like you are cheating.
• Colossal Might - the best pump spell in the block. just as good as most removal, maybe even better in the right decks.

the MVP - Bloodbraid Elf: she is as good as advertised and then even better. made my curve go from real good to crazy! cascading into a wholly thoctar? absolutely cruel. simply put, every game i got her out i won. yes that is correct, every game i got her out i won. you know how in basketball you need a great 6th man. well BBelf is like having steve nash as your 6th man. she is probably my favorite card from Alara Reborn.

i called mai kao and acted all sad on the phone to make her think that i had lost. then went home to see her...with my secret surprise. when i told her the news she was so happy for me and recorded a long speech of me explaining my deck. how cool. and then i let her open all the packs for me b/c of my dreadful luck...most of the packs where pretty bad, except for one that made it all okay. i popped open a Maelstrom Pulse! she sure is my lucky charm.

in two weeks is the Constructed tourney and winner gets 3 byes at the City Champs later in june. i've been waiting for a constructed tournament, b/c i'm more a player than a deck builder. 2 weeks to find out the meta! yikes.

it feels good to win it. i knew i was a good player but my results never showed it. it feels good to be able to finally turn the corner.

josh out.

Blogger Break...!

Whoa?! Batavia schools closed??!!?? Including Marmion? And CDC in Oswego school districts?

This swine flu business... we can't quite comprehend it cause it's very far from us.

But please wash your hands. Be careful. Cover your mouth with your sleeve when you sneeze or cough. Don't breath in other people's faces.

Peace and a vaccine for swine flu soon.

State of the Union

Church life has been picking up here in Shanghai. I've been super busy leading worship for the church and especially the House of Prayer. it's been a major blessing to lead worship for the SHOP. those of you who have lead worship before might feel the same way. when you finish leading worship, you are just completely wiped out...i mean, blanked in all ways, emotionally, physically and even spiritually many times. (depending on the culture of the Spirit - i just made that term up, copyright.$$$$)

BUT whenever i lead worship for SHOP, as i always tell Mai Kao, i come away blessed and filled with the Spirit. the closest form of worship to that which we will one day have in heaven is one that is Prayerful. when the people of God learn that worship/prayer go hand in hand the culture of the Spirit (in your particular gathering) will change from one boredome (lets face it, many of us are extremely bored of attending church, b/c well frankly put, its boring, God is not moving!) and going through the motions to one of service, to one of exhililaration, being blessed and seeing and hearing the Living God move. dont get me wrong, there are times when i dont want to go, but God always shows me i was wrong. He is so good. Amen?

Life at school...

teaching has become really fun. Mai Kao has always been an educator of sorts, but myself? not so much really. I finally feel as if i am able to control a class. I can stretch a lesson plan out if i need the time or i can come up with cool games on the fly if need be. its a fun and challenging job. if you love relationships and young people teaching is where its at.

Mai Kao and I...

You all need not worry about Mai Kao and I. We are doing well...actually, to be honest, we have never been better relationshipwise in our short time together. I love kissing her goodnight and coming home to a big hug. i love walking the streets of Shanghai talking to my best friend about anything candidly. I love that she spurs me on towards being a passionate lover of God. Man, God is truly good.

sometimes i look at my life and realize that i have it so much better than other people in this life. lately, i have not been taking that for granted. God has been putting a heavy burdon on our hearts to serve him in ways that demand more from us...in fact, demand all of us for little or nothing in return. we wont reveal yet what this is, as we are still awaiting word from the Big guy if this is really what he wants us to do. But i mean this is bring tears to your eyes heavy (in a good way of course).

I had a dream once where i saw a picture of two starving children in Africa and in that dream i fell to my knees and started travailing for the children of Africa...i started crying uncontrollable because God had shown me his heart for these people and showed me how much his people are hurting, both physically and spiritually. later on in that dream i told God that i would do anything for him and so in that dream God tells me to jump off my balcony...so what do i do? i listen to Him of course, and when i do i find that im not falling but FLYING! how cool is that? i dont know what that means, but it was an amazing feeling.

anyway, its getting long and so i'll let you all go...more to come later.

josh out.

Quite Long: Part 1

What is it like over here? We're sure you've been wondering. We haven't really taken time to share with you. As you could tell, our church is not so different than most American ones, except that the congregation is literally, international.

You know, it's not impossible for one to go to another place and think that they're gonna be able to do all kinds of excitingly, wild, amazing things for God. And when you get there, it's not what you thought at all.

It’d be silly to say we didn’t think that. We did a little bit. But honestly, we mostly really didn't come here with specific expectations. Our intent was not even to be ‘missionaries' in the traditional sense. We came here to live and work in another country, and open ourselves to the way the Lord is moving. It's like eating rice all your life, without ever having noodles. Do you know how awesome noodles are? Don't cut yourself short and only eat rice. This metaphor is all about your understanding and perspective of the world. It’s about understanding the world outside of your neck of the woods. (We'll talk a little more about this later.)

As we might have said before, our decision was really between China and time at IHOP (in KC). It 's best said that when we brought IHOP before the big man, He was silent. Silencios to the max. What happened instead is that He gave us both things, bringing us to the house of prayer in China!

The prayer room is the life and fuel of the church, and it is what sustains her. Be encouraged because no church government & politics/legalism, no human flaws, no personal problems, no disharmony, no lies or malice, and no conniving person can destroy the body of Christ if there is a burning ember of prayer that resides within your church. Those who are called to be these embers are satisfied by the entering the presence of God and they are sustained by the love of Christ. All they are are just really, really normal people living by faith.

In a church of well over 1500 people, there may be 40ish people that go the house of prayer here. Who are these people? I think Josh and I are amongst the youngest ones. Some are old, some are missionaries, many are professionals, and many are students. There are 2 things most notable: 1) We are amazed because so many of them are new believers. These are, like, Paul converted people, having come to know the Lord recently in their lives. 2) There are almost no husband/wife pairs.

That was a long intro, and a little preachy, maybe sorry... but to begin summing up a little of what we have seen since we have been here:

The Spirit is alive and well. People are joining up with the Lord, and his most fearsome warriors are the ones who you walk past everyday and are oblivious to the message of the Gospel, not the ones you sit next to in church.

Because we don’t speak the language, we don’t understand the people or who to go to, the Chinese church is still a mystery to us as it is to you. If He allows it, we will get to see the way He is moving, in the way Brother Yun tells about it. But our hope is to make a friend, and see a glimpse of the Body in this aspect.

Where is the enemy working these days? In the relationships department. The media and culture has distorted our perception of marriage. What’s the problem? The church is the bride and He is the groom! Messed up marriages and unbiblical perceptions of marriage will trickle down in to our faith, our relationship with Christ, and our church. There’s a war on the marriage front, and we’ve got to fight. In the church and as believers who are maturing, where the husband is, the wife must also strive to be there, and vice versa. Satan can put a wedge between you (and your spouse, friends, family, or church) in the blink of an eye, and don’t think that you’re safe from this.

** To continue in the next post **

New present

Today, Josh went to one of the first pre-releases in the world. (at least that's what he thinks.) He got a special shiny card: Dragon Broodmother. Way to go!

We trekked in the rain (w/o umbrellas), with a friend , to a part of town we'd never been. It was nearly dark by the time we got to a shady looking, hard to identify apartment building. The inside foyer was dark and grimy, with grey/black molding walls. Josh likens it to one of those, vampire-rave-like buildings. But the word on the street is, go down the hall, around the corner. Take the little elevator up. Go down a hallway again, around another corner and there will be an apartment...

It was locked when we got there. So we knocked... and on the other side...?

The complete opposite of the feeling we got from the building. A warmly lit room, lots of voices and laughing, and an apartment with its walls LINED with shevles of board games! From top to bottom, hundreds of them.

Yes, we finally found a gaming store in Shanghai. And this one operates out of an apartment in a discreet building off of one of the subway lines! There were 3 tables with games in progress, and it was fun to watch Chinese people so excited over board games! None of the games come in Chinese, so they always have their cards in sleeves and proxyed w/ Chinese translations. The store lady was super cool too. She said her favorite game was Powergrid. Which surprises us, cause she knows all about games! (More than Jimmy.) They had basically everything and more... It was like finding a treasure chest.

In the end, we bought Caylus. Josh and I played our first game tonight against each other, and I won by 2 points! It was sheer luck, but I'll take the victory. We're happy though, because we have a few other friends here who understand the awesomness of games, so they'll be playing with us as well.

Yes!

A new topic of conversation

But before I get to that, I want to keep talking about politics. But I'm sure that bores, oh, 95% of you readers out there. So we'll save this conversation for when we get home. Josh is playing smart these days, not willing to get in to a conversation where he doesn't quite know what to say or think. So my talk with him about democrats, republicans, Obama and policy didn't go too far. I mean, it's not like I know anything much. I know less!!! But, I want to understand and know more.

There's 2 things my brain just CAN'T quite understand: 1) government & 2) the stock market.

Anyways, we saw Bee's twin today! Tell us if you agree. He's famous now because he's in the new Wolverine movie. Great job, Bee!

Man, I want them to just keep on making comic book movies forever. I don't even care if they're bad. Well, really bad is another story. But I'll take my bad movie if I could see Ghostrider in real life. (BTW, Josh & I both liked that movie.)

And you know what? We still like Jackie Chan, in light of the media and peoples' taking whatever he said all out of proportion.

Peace.

We're On!

So Blogger hasn't been blocked after all. Phew! It really is strange, though. You'll wake up one morning, and find that the websites you were surfing just a few hours ago are now unvailable. Government...!


Speaking of which, I found this on Pastor Dave's blog. (I meant to post it the other day, but forgot to.)




These are the election results (county by county,) red for McCain and blue for Obama. Amazing, huh? All that blue elects a new president!


In light of Yij Second's frustrations with the government, I always tell this to Josh. The problem with young people these days is that they really don't know the difference between a democrat and a republican. How I've personally understood the difference for the past few years:


Democrats: Believe in a bigger government. That it should be involved in your life. This is so it can help take care of the people who can't take care of themselves. (Think: Community responsibility)



Republicans: Believe in lesser government involvement... Being 'free' and having 'liberties' is what we're all about. We're smart people, and we want to keep the money that we make with our two hands, thank you very much. (Think: Individual responsibility)



How these beliefs actually play out, well, I leave it up to you. But everything Obama's doing, it's very Democratic!

That said, we're sad to hear about peoples' frustrations with the church, in light of the happenings with Maplewood. But we can't help but think, Is this what the pastor alone decided? What about the church board? (Well, unless it's made of people who are in cahoots with the pastor!) What does the congregation think about all this? Isn't there a lot of people that go there? Do they agree with this or do they really have no say?

*sigh* Anyways, it's a new day. Have a good one.

We've Been Shanghai'd!!!

It's for real. China has now officially blocked some of the blogger sites...namely any site with content that might be controversial (wink, wink). that means that this will probably be our last post on blogger. hopefully not, but we are writing this with hope that we might be able to access our own page and still have contact with you all. i will try to write as ambiguiously as possible so that we might get unblocked again. (it turns out that my Dad was totally correct about this)

Could the Man really be coming soon? for the past year, i have to admit i have lost that sense of urgency that the HE will be returning soon. just lately, since joining SHOP that urgency has been returning. its still in the fledgling stages but we can no longer ignore the things that are going on in the world and the Body, our family and friends.

"how have we shown contempt for your name?"
"You place defiled food on my altar."

i read this today in the Book and was reminded of Frances Chan's message about offering garbage to the King. how long has the Hmong Body (heck, the whole body) shown contempt for His name? too long. He has proven time and time again that if one generation does not do the work set out before them that He will turn to the new generation. I am saddened by this deeply...i had hoped that we would have inherited the call more peacibly. I only ask that we all keep each other accountable and continue to ask Him to abide in us that we might do His work and will...We want to offer up sacrifices (our own selves) that are pure. Make this generation a generation marked by purity of spirit, desire for true knowledge and love and compassion for the things that truly matter.

Mai Kao and I hope that we will be able to talk to all of you soon. it is our hope and desire that you all remain firmly rooted and established in His love.

"Be joyful always, (ask Him) continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is (His) will for you in CJ."

we are thankful for being given a situation such as this so that we might know, even in the smallest way, what it means to suffer and be persecuted for His name. with each lash of the whip comes more joy that we might share in his sufferings and that we might understand him more and more.

Josh and Mai Kao out.

Awesome!

Dave Lee's sermon from last weekend... Here

It's the gospel. I've heard the gospel before, lots of times before. But these days, everytime I hear it, it's almost like new to me.

He starts off at the beginning making the point that we all know the gospel, and it's something we think we all know and understand. But if we were to go to church, and be asked to preach the gospel (unprepared, unrehearsed,) we'd be chickens with our head cut off. He's so right, and I feel like I am one of those people.

But this message helped me see again. and if you have time to listen to it, hope it does the same for you.

The Verdict, Part 1

It was all very strange. Since the English speaking dr. wasn't in, I had to have our foreign affairs officer (aka our boss) translate for me to a chinese one. and they've temporarily diagnosed it as an infection. i have to take a little white pill before i eat. then 8 of these other little brown ball pills after i eat. chinese medicine is wacky. and I don't quite trust it.

And they gave me advice like my mom would give me: "Koj mob plaab tes xob noj koom ntsim, xob noj mov kws muaj muaj roj. Haus dlej kub, tsi xob haus dlej txag." but pray that this will go away. or else i have to take some prescribed, stronger medicine.

On another note: Josh & I have been watching this show called, "Long Way Down." It's about these 2 guys, Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting Stars Wars) and his friend Charle Something. They motorcycle from Scotland all the way to the southern tip of Africa, Cape Town. It's pretty good, actually! Check it out, especially the guys.

Also, we're almost caught up on Naruto. Yes!

This weekend will be kind of a sad time for the Kong family. I almost came home. Do you know how close I was to coming home? I was 1 computer click away. Seriously. But when it came down to it, being home for 2 days... I had a difficult monday and tuesday, trying to make the decision.

We'll be calling around on Saturday. Later!

MK: Not so swell.

I haven't been feeling well the past few days. I think I really need to go see a doctor, and doing it here, I'm kinda scared. You know me, I'm usually big on taking care of myself, being healthy, etc. etc. But I've been having 2 problems that are rising higher and higher on my 'concerned' list.

1: I can't run more than 4 miles now. Whenever I do, afterwards, I have a terrible nagging pain in my lower back that almost leaves me unable to walk the rest of the day/night. What's wrong with my back?

2: I have been having major stomach digestion problems. Regularly now, after I eat, sometimes I get terribly bad stomach aches. My latest one was yesterday, and it hurt for almost 24 hours. Most of the time, it hurts so much that I can't walk. I used to think it was gas and indigestion. And a part of me still hopes it is. But now I'm scared it could be like, an ulcer. What if I have to get surgery? Josh tells me not to be so extreme.

So, pray for me for these 2 things right now. If the problem persists, I'll probably be going to a hospital within the nest day or so. (They don't really have clinics here, like at home.)

Thanks!