Like We'd Never Left

Ever since the day we left Qufu, I have been dreaming of going back.  I wondered if I had idealized the place in my mind, but once we arrived and saw our students faces, I knew that I hadn't.  Qufu, the tranquil hometown of Confucius, really is as special as I remembered it to be.

Such joy on their faces (and on ours)

We went to the classrooms to surprise the students.

We sat and chatted about their year and impressed them with our minimal Chinese.

As we walked around campus, we kept running into friends.  This is a postgraduate student that attended the yoga class I attended last year.

Bernie, the French teacher, who is a believer and taught with us last year and is teaching in Qufu again this year.  Next year she will likely return to France.

Chip gave his bike to these guys when we moved.  We passed them on campus, they stopped the bike, and ran towards Chip and attack-hugged him.

Ordering some of our favorite Qufu street food

 
Eating with our Foreign Affairs Officer from last year.  She worked to persuade to come back to Qufu once we finish language study.
 

One thing we love about Qufu is the the serene village life is just outside of the campus gate.  It's the perfect place for a walk or a bike ride.  Now that we live in a big city, it was nice to retreat into the solitude of nature.

 

Last year I loved visiting my students in their dorm.  I even once spent the night one of the student rooms (click here), so it was good to go back to the dorm and just sit and chat.

Outside of the dormitory--lots of laundry drying

These girls had just bought matching skirts off of the internet.  They let me join in the fun and try on one of their roommate's skirts.

The room I slept in last year

Some of the brightest students I taught last year

Singing Karaoke

Some of my former students invited me out for a night of singing karaoke.  We sang both Chinese and English songs.  We had a blast!  Note:  While I was singing it up at karaoke, Chip was out with students he taught last year, but we don't have photos from his excursion. 

Adding the Jazzercise moves to Rhianna's "Shut Up and Drive"

Singing "My Heart Will Go On"--undeniably every Chinese person's favorite English song

The girl in the black and white stripes was my running buddy last year. For old times sake, she and I went running late one night while I was in Qufu.

One of my former students lives locally and her parents both teach at the university.  Her family is generous and loved overfeeding us last year.  And they did it again!  They took us to a countryside restaurant where they grow their own vegetables and raise their own animals.  Food is served in little huts outside.  They ordered far too much food and we sat and talked for a few hours.

The student and her mother (who speaks very fast Chinese, but we did out best to keep up)

Their were lots of chickens and rabbits, but the pigs were the cutest!

Big momma pig with 15 babies

At Confucius Square saying some goodbyes before we caught our train

 

 

Of course, we have many more stories from the weekend, more than can be shared here.  Sorry if the photos seem monotonous to you.  They are precious people to us.  We left part of our hearts in Qufu.

Going home with bags of Qufu snacks to share with our Changchun friends!

Returning to our China Hometown

We are headed back to Qufu this weekend to visit our students from last year.  Tonight we will take a night train to Beijing and then a speed train to Qufu on Friday morning.  We will return to Changchun on Monday morning.  We are SO excited to see our students once again.  Please be lifting up this weekend--for meaningful conversations and reunions.

Language Victory:  I had to go to the ticket office four different days to get tickets for all four legs of our journey (not because there was a problem, just because this is how it works in China).  In the past when I have gone to get tickets, I usually reach a point somewhere in the transaction where I just cannot understand the person behind the counter and then search for someone in line who speaks a little English or who can explain it using charades.  But not this time.  This time I got the tickets without any problem.  If the trains I wanted weren't available, I was able to talk through it with the seller and find another train.  Better still, there was a Middle Eastern woman and Venezuelan man in line in front of me and they couldn't understand the ticket seller, and I got to help them! They waited for me after I was done purchasing my tickets and said, "We have more questions.  Can you help us read the ticket?"  This was a simple feat thanks to Lesson 29 in our textbook about train travel.  It is so exciting to see progress!

Our China Sundays

 

Most Sundays I go to church at a government-run church called Chang Ping. When I first started going last fall, I felt like I should attend, more than I actually wanted to attend--like going to church was the right thing to do, even if I couldn't understand most of the service.  The few times we attended in Qufu, we just brought journals and the Word and did personal study because the service was impossible for us to follow.  So I consoled myself by saying that here in Changchun, I would just go every other week.  And then I went once, and I loved it! The lyrics of the songs are on the screens and the more vocabulary I learn, the more I understand.  Songs are also very repetitive which is good for a language learner.  Slowly I am understanding more and more of the sermon.  And over time, we have made some friends that I look forward to seeing every week at church.

Church friends

 

This crowd is typical for a communion Sunday when the first service runs long and people wait outside for the second service to start.   

 

This photo doesn't capture how crowded it is inside, but often we are squeezed pretty tight into the pews with little leg room and no hope of getting out if you need to use the restroom (which I wouldn't recommend anyway because of the long lines and pungent smell).

We often go out for lunch afterwards with friends from church.  Here Elizabeth, her English nameis eating fried ice cream. (Note:  I am still adjusting to the updated blogger and I can't figure how to make my vertical photos slimmer. Tips?)

   

Last Sunday we did something a little different--we went to Chip's tutor's church--further from our home and out of the hubbub of the city.  People have referred to it as a "country church" but besides it's location, most things seemed similar to me:  crowded inside, lyrics on a big screen, order of service, etc.

Chang Ping does have indoor bathrooms, but I assure you that this outdoor one smelled far better.

Me, Chip, and his tutor in the youth room where she often cooks lunch for college students after church

Chip's Chewable: In China, foot binding slowly slips into history

Chew on this: In the village of Liuyi, China, there are only about 30 women left who followed a once-common tradition that was painful but also bonded mothers and daughters.  To read more, click here.

The Hope of Easter

In small groups, we and our classmates had our tutors over to our homes to celebrate and share about the Easter holiday.

We taught our tutors how to 染鸡蛋 (dye eggs). Both of these girls are new tutors this year, so it was their first time to dye eggs.




Getting creative!










I made sugar cookies and bunny-shaped breads that they decorated with icing.



Me, my current tutor, classmate Lauren, and a former tutor of mine


We shared the true story of Easter (in Chinese) using resurrection eggs and Chinese paper-cut images of the story. The two new girls did not know the story and were anxious to know more. The other tutors, a few of which are Sisters, were helpful with explanations.



Our Easter Party Group (minus Marty, the photographer, who took these great photos)


In other Easter festivities, the foreign believers in our city got together before Easter for a traditional Seder meal led by mine and Chip's small group.


And this photo is from Easter Sunday at the Chinese church. We were given boiled eggs with scriptures on them. How fun to share the hope of Easter with people experiencing it for the first time!