Year of the Dragon

I am a terrible blogger. I’ll just say it like it is.

It’s been a month and nine… check that, ten days since my last post…

Wow. Sorry about that.

I guess it just goes to show how busy things can get. Goodness, how many stories I have to tell. Stories of date-orchards and Japanese hippie drum circles… home-made Christmas decorations and Hong Kong bus tours…  Shanghai shoe-designers and sausage-making… of purple dumplings… of my youngest brother’s current lack of clothes.

(Yes, he is, at this moment, running around the house. Naked.)

Some of you who have siblings are probably used to this display of otherwise unseemly behavior, but I view the practice as… well… let’s just say I still have a mild heart attack whenever the villainous child kicks open my door and stands there utterly unclothed. Which he does quite… often.

Anyway.

The stories I have to tell are numerous and full of most-likely unnecessary detail… too many to fit into the posts of an obscure Google blog. It’s strange, sitting here and typing away, as if I had any hope of being able to relay to you my adventures and misadventures… if only I had a movie camera in my brain… what a cinematic experience I could create!

But the truth is, I haven’t been creating the experience… I can honestly say that no happening, since the beginning of this grand chapter in my life, has been self-stimulated. I can only (and gladly will) give credit to Him for all the insane and wonderful occurrences that make life here as sweet, strange, and extraordinary as it is.

Another year has come and gone, and I can honestly say that each year of my life thus far has been better than the last. And 2012, the Year of the Dragon, seems to glimmer ahead of me as brightly, if not more so, than 2011 did. So much to do within the next five months of my time in Beijing, an already I’m feeling the creeping sense of impending end. How can this be? I’m not even quite halfway, yet!

Either way, without further overblown ado, I give you December.

December existed purely as a blur for me…

Most of the first half of the month consisted purely of Chinese Christmas songs… songs which all of the kindergarteners would sing for a host of enthusiastic parents as part of the Annual Kindergarten Christmas Performance. I found myself thoroughly involved in correcting the pronunciation of “jingle” and “bells,” while busily encouraging the youngest students not to leap off the makeshift stage at the first sight of Daddy (or as we say, Baba) with a camcorder. Altogether, the kindergarten’s Christmas performance was a success and truly a cherished memory for me, as it allowed me to grow and strengthen my relationships with some of the other teachers.

The other teachers who work at the kindergarten… describing them…where to begin? One thing I can say is that I deeply admire them all… No, more than that… I can honestly say that I have never met a group of people so soulfully beautiful and fearless in their love of other people, especially the children they are entrusted with day after day. The beauty of their hearts, and Christ’s presence therein, is evident in everything they do. These teachers and their lives have changed and spoken to my soul.

And I can’t even understand their language. That’s amazing in and of itself… that, for the first time, I have actually seen actions speak much louder than words. Something that we, in the Western world, could all learn a little more about, I think.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. There’s a power moving here. A power moving in the lives and hearts of the people, and whether you believe in God or not, no one can deny that China is on the brink. I’m not sure of what brink exactly, but, then again, who am I to know? I’m just glad to be here, feeling the ground shudder with the intensity of it all.

            With that said, I’m so thankful that I’ve had the chance to travel a bit, and actually see this amazing country in action. Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai were my three December destinations. The first, to meet my parents for Christmas, the second, to visit my also-travelling Chinese family, and the latter, for a week-long adventure with my cousins, Kyle and Rachel.

            I made my way to Hong Kong via train. An overnight train ride from Beijing… quite the experience! If you enjoy small spaces, the smell of insti-noodle, a lack of privacy, secondhand-smoking, Chinese opera, and enthusiastic, small monke- I mean, children, then I definitely recommend the ride!

Actually, in all honesty, I’d have to say that I truly enjoyed the experience… it was fun to be with my Chinese family, to see the countryside, to get a feel for real China, untainted by the comforts of city life or the internet. It was just me, my little bunk, and the constant chug, chug, chug of train engine as the tracks led us around rice-paddies, through villages, over rivers… all the while, the sounds of my brothers leaping precariously from bunk to bunk above me, and the smell of instant-noodle and cigarette smoke adding character to the air.

When we reached Hong Kong station, I reunited with my Daddy-o, and waved farewell to my Chinese fam, who’d be spending their holiday in Schenzhen, Hong Kong’s neighbor. (Thanks to the one-child policy, my brothers aren’t citizens, and therefore cannot be allowed off mainland China).

Dad and I made our way to the hotel in downtown Kowloon, right across the bay from Hong Kong island. While still a part of China, Hong Kong seems a world fully a part. With a largely foreign population, an insane economy, historical British influence, not to mention freedom, Hong Kong definitely stands apart. The islands’ mountains, ocean, and crowded city skyline seemed somehow to all fit together without any hint of incongruity; the tropical air, endless malls, shining buildings, palm trees and island ferries all seemed to somehow flow together in one grand sweep of bustling city. (Some of you may remember a scene in The Dark Knight where Christian Bale takes a theatrical dive off a huge, blue-lit building and swoops around like… well, a bat? Well, fun fact: the featured building happens to be the highest tower in Hong Kong!)

It was wonderful to spend time with my family, touring the city together, taking every chance we could to soak up all the familial love we had to offer… which was considerable. I seriously adore my parents.

Christmas finally came and…

…to be continued. It's 1 am, and I have some kindergarteners to teach in roughly 7 hours… wouldn’t do to fall asleep mid-lesson… but, stay tuned; like I said, “to be continued.” Love from Beijing…