Dinner with our Teachers

On Saturday night our language tutors came over to teach us to cook some Asian food. They made five different dishes and we made spaghetti and twice baked potatoes because they wanted to sample some American cuisine. They seemed to really like the potatoes but hardly touched the spaghetti. Afterwards they wanted to sing songs (L played the guitar) and since L’s teacher doesn’t speak English, we all sang variations of Happy Birthday such as Happy New Year and Happy Weekend. We also did a round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Then L taught them two praise songs in their language that we had learned from our Friday night group.

~A

My New School

When my dad came to visit us in December he suggested that I take a break from teaching for a semester or two to learn the language. At first I was completely opposed to the idea because I love teaching. But as L and I have thought about and discussed the idea for the last couple of months it has become increasingly clear that this is what I need to do. So, today I signed up and paid for my first semester of classes! I will go back to the school on June 12th to get the paperwork for my visa. At the beginning of September I will take a placement test to see what class I will be put into and then will start classes on September 10th. I will be in class from Monday to Friday from 8:00-12:00.

There are two very good universities in our city but after talking to a lot of people about the strengths and weaknesses of each one I choose this one. It is also the school where my tutor teaches. I love the campus. The buildings were all built in the traditional style and the trees are so beautiful.

~A

Hobbies

My hobbies are the paradox of my life. Though I only have four or five free minutes per day and barely have time to read, I feel the need to cram it with as much activity as possible. My first thought with spring approaching was gardening. This was a bit tricky since I don't have a square inch of land to my name. Instead, I bought four rectangle planters to hang off of my balcony (one of which cost me $1.25 to keep, see previous blog about our A/C for an explanation). It took me 6 days (30 minutes) to pour in soil, plant some herbs, and water them the first time. Now, I take two minutes per day, one to water and one to just look at my tiny growing plants, for hobby number one.

Those of you math whizzes realize that I must have another hobby since Hobby 1 leaves me with an extra three minutes per day, so I took up bike mechanics. This one is tricky since it is a little more time consuming. Generally if I touch a part on my bike I get my hands dirty and must deduct a minute at the tail end for washing my hands. Basically, once I arrange my tools, turn my bike over on its seat and handle bars and touch something it is time to set it back upright, put up my tools, and wash my hands. I’m determined to have a second hobby however, so I’ve started using time I don’t have, a dangerous game but I feel out of options.

“Why have hobbies at all if I don’t have time?” you pragmatists ask. There are two reasons, both fundamental to my personhood. First of all, I need time to not think. I need time not to think about the language, my research, getting from point A to point B. And yes, time not to think about Thursday night and relationships. These things are constantly on my mind and it is therapeutic to have just a few moments when I don’t have to think about anything important. And the second reason, I must at all times have a project, and not just any project, but something I can do with my hands. Something to work on. Something to improve. Or, maybe, something to mess up. It doesn’t really matter what it is. I contemplated buying an old house to renovate (I won’t go into details of why that didn’t work out, but I’m sure if you brainstorm you’ll come up with even more reasons than I did). I contemplated building a computer. I, briefly, even contemplated quilting.

Though there was nothing wrong with my bike to begin with, I started noticing bike shops around that sell specialty parts and started dreaming about how I could improve my own. And so Hobby 2 was born. I’ve done a bit of internet research to learn the ropes, got some tools, and then started tearing the thing apart. I decided that the first thing I wanted to improve was the gears. My bike had 18 and I wanted 27. To my delight I discovered that if you replace the gears, you must also replace the hub and derailer. And if you replace the hub you must also replace the rim. And if you replace the derailer you must also replace the gear shifter and the chain. And if you replace the chain you must also replace the crank case. And if you replace the crank case (I didn’t even know what that was two months ago) you might as well upgrade the pedals, right?

So for now, in the midst of the tornado called life, I have .0000689 acres of farmland (yes I calculated it) and an unrideable bike, and that is keeping me sane.

-L

Language Update

We have used the analogy of learning this language to be like climbing a mountain before. Two of our very wise friends who are also in the process of learning a difficult language have encouraged us to only look down the mountain at what we have learned instead of looking up the mountain at what is yet to come. How right they are. In my case glances up the mountain lead to serious hyperventilation.

But, when I think of what we have learned I am encouraged. When we stepped off the plane, I did not know a single word. Now I can give a taxi driver directions to our apartment and I can answer and ask simple questions. My vocabulary is also increasing. So far my favorite part is learning to read and write characters. It is so much fun to finally be able to read (parts of) signs around town. Illiteracy (even if it is in a foreign language) is a hard thing for an English teacher to stomach.

Right now one huge problem is my delay. It just sometimes takes awhile for me to process what the other person is saying and by the time I figure it out I either seem rude or the opportunity for conversation has passed. Please also be thinking about my ability to pronounce words correctly. Sometimes I know the correct word or phrase but because I have trouble with the pronunciation others still can’t understand me.

L is doing an incredible job. Last week we went to the tailor to get some things made and two (ex-pat) ladies with two very different problems latched on to him as their translator. In the end he was able to correctly translate both problems! We think we have now made a lifelong friend of our tailor out of the transaction as well.

Another huge achievement…he can order pizza and Indian food for home delivery.

~A

Birthday Cake

This is the (not microwaved) cake that we had for our birthday party on Thursday night!

~A

Microwave Cake

Since we don't have an oven yet, one of our friends gave us this microwave cake mix that she found at the grocery store. All you have to do is put the packet of mix in a cereal bowl, add an egg, and then microwave it on high for 1 minute. Surprisingly, it turned out pretty good!

~A

Wedding Dresses

One of our family friends just returned from the Sudan. While she was there she was talking to the people about how important it has become for the women to wear white wedding dresses on their wedding days. Some people will even delay their weddings until they can afford one.

The leader of the fellowship our friend was talking to said that he wished his group could obtain some white wedding dresses in different sizes and rent them out to couples. This would not only be a way to mnstr to others but would also generate some money for the fellowship. So, I thought that I would let you all know about this opportunity to bless the people of Sudan. If you would like to donate your wedding dress, just leave a comment or email me.

~A

Happy Mother's Day!

I am so thankful for our moms! They are both such examples of godly women who pour their lives into their families. Thank you, Mom and Mommy, for all you do to support us while we are so far away! We love you!

It was interesting to talk to our friends last night about Mother's Day. The younger people in this country are just starting to celebrate Western holidays. One of our friends said that he was going to call his mom but she would probably just say, "What's wrong?" Another friend said that his mom is a farmer and she doesn't have a telephone.

~A

Culture Night #2: Cinco de Mayo

Tonight we had culture night with seven of our friends. We figured since 25% of us Texans are from a Mexican background we would center a culture event around this theme. The idea orginially came from a friend...thanks Sarah! And besides, I am always looking for a reason to cook Mexican food! We had burritos (thanks for the recipe, Erica), beans, Mexican rice and homemade hot sauce. Best of all, A made a wonderful drink called horchata. If you have never had it you should immediately close down your computer, go to the closest hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant (fancy ones don't always have it), and order a 44oz. glass with ice. It is made with rice, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon and tastes divine. Okay, I'm off my soap-box.

Above are some pictures of A's homeade pinata and some of our friends trying to hit it (thanks, Clayton and Bethany, for the blindfold). They had a blast. My favorite part of the night was playing "community" Quiddler. Quiddler is a card game where you make words...English words, hence the "community" part. It was really fun watching the group help each other make all the words and it was by far the least competitive version I've ever played. We were also constantly asked questions like, "Is xay a word?" "Is clive a word?" "Is minkle a word?" "What does pild mean?" Another highlight was the lecture by A. Back home you would put friends to sleep by showing a PowerPoint filled with trivia about another culture, but here they eat stuff like that up and A did a really good job making it interesting for them. She taught them some Spanish words and some facts about Tex-Mex culture.

One more plug: we are still looking for creative ideas for our culture nights. Thanks again to all of you who have already given ideas...most of them are in the line-up for the next couple of months!

-L

Staying Cool

I should have gotten a picture, but I didn’t. The A/C installation guy was standing precariously on the outside of my balcony on a small metal frame he had just installed with two screws and was reaching below his feet to bolt the A/C to the frame. I asked him if he did that when he installed A/C’s on higher floors. He does…up to 17 stories. This was toward the end of the installation process and the mood was lightening up a bit. I came home to oversee the procedure when A called to inform me that they had forced open a locked window and broke the latch and our sense of security at the same time. After breaking the latch he had apparently pitched the broken part out the window. So when I arrived with a translator friend in tow I explained why they should buy and install a new window latch. They didn’t want any part of it and after much deliberation we had negotiated that they would pay $1.25 for the latch and I would buy and install it later.

Part Two: we had different ideas about where the outside part of the A/C should be installed. Again negotiations ensued and towards the end we were (comically in my opinion) negotiating over a few centimeters up or down. Why they cared in the first place I will never know. I simply didn’t want it to interfere with my herb basket that fastens to the outside of my balcony. Finally, in desperation, I threw in the towel, “If you just put the A/C where I want it you can keep the $1.25!” This ended the debate with them feeling very proud about their victory. After the tension I stood back and watched them work, realizing that they were really decent guys who were just overworked and underpaid for their feats of acrobatics that go vastly appreciated by the world at large. If I had gotten a picture I think it would have elicited two responses: “I can’t believe they work like that without ropes and harnesses!” And, “Hey, I think your A/C is a little crooked.”

-L

Charades

Sometimes living here is like playing one very long game of charades. Fortunately, the rules allow you to use as many words as you know. Unfortunately, we still don't know many words yet...especially words like "poison ivy," which is what A got several weeks ago while on a small excursion. For this challenge we took the tag team approach: A showed her rash to the receptionist at the counter. Then I drew a picture of a three leaf plant on a post-it note and A rubbed it on her rash while we both made the most pitiful "I'm itching" facial expressions we could muster. The ladies behind the counter looked at each other (really, imagine charades here and you will be right on track), mumbled among themselves, and then produced two packages.

Now it was their turn: one lady opened a box and revealed a packet while the other lady pretended to open the packet and pour it into a fake glass of water.

"Hot or cold?" I asked.

She used a word I didn't know.

"What?"

"Not hot, not cold."

Perfect, she understands the game, use vocabulary she knows that I know. The other box had a tube, which they took out and pretended to rub a cream on themselves. If they had been as adept at the game as us they would have done so with the most soothing "I feel much better" facial expressions they could muster, but oh well, we got the picture. The best part of this game of charades was the prize: A's poison ivy is in retreat after only 4 days and hasn't itched since!

-L

Holiday Week Part 2

We really need to get this holiday thing figured out. Today L and I both went to work (which for me is a 20-30 minute bus ride) only to find that we are still on holidays...

~A

Holiday Week

This week we had May Holiday which means that most people didn’t have school or work. The system here is a bit different than in the States. Instead of giving people “two weeks vacation” that they can use when they want to, everyone in the country gets one week off in May and one week off in October and then 1-4 weeks off during the February Spring Festival. The other difference is that part of each holiday has to be made up. Since we aren’t familiar with the system this means that I found out on Thursday night that I had to teach on Sunday afternoon and L found out on Monday morning that he should have worked on Saturday and Sunday.

The pictures above are from a tourist spot that we went to on Tuesday. A family from our fellowship invited us to spend the day with them and we had a wonderful time.

~A