homeschoolbirdi-blog - Tumblr blog

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Wow, life has been pretty crazy these last few months. I've posted a lot of photos but as you can most likely tell, I haven't updated. I guess it's because aside from all the events and get-togethers that I went to, there wasn't much happening, and those events and get-togethers aren't really things I think y'all are curious about aside from a little photo+brief description post as I've been doing. I have a dear friend here, Clare, who writes an amazing blog. Her content is really great and not only lets you in on a little of her heart (or sometimes, a lot!) but also she is just a really great writer and pulls basically a "moral of the story" out and exposes it really well with examples of what's happening in her life. I'm the kind of person who tends to be so involved with what's happening at the current moment that I can't write about other things without feeling disingenuine, but I often feel too close to whatever I'm going through at the time to actually write about it... Perhaps I should just take the plunge and write about what I'm thinking about and dealing with at the time, so that I can try shaping my writing rather than just leaving it as it is. I suppose this post is rather like that, though I'm not sure that anyone reads this blog at all, so perhaps there is no point to any of this. I came to China with pretty clear goals for myself. I wanted to live abroad for a year, I wanted to earn some money. I wanted to sort of take a pause on college and the life of a student. I also had a pretty clear path for myself, and I envisioned a year of earning money and having a big-city experience and then returning home and moving forward from the point that I left off at, e.g. Heading into law school. What I didn't expect was for not only all of those ideas to change-- either drastically like my goal of one year changing into two with an indefinite ending, or my realization that I might want to not go to law school and all the possibilities that I'm looking at as alternatives to that. I also majorly did not expect all the ways that God would use my life and experiences here to grow me in pretty much every single facet of my life. It's hard to believe that I've been here almost ten months, and yet when I think in detail over all the things I've done and people I've met and gotten to know, it's kind of amazing that it all fits into ten months. I'm amazed at all that God has done for me in these ten months, and the challenges he's brought me through. In my first three months here I basically had two foreigners who I had contact with-- one was my coworker, the other was a friend I sat next to on the flight over from America. The latter friend was just here for a 6 week internship and so he left pretty much after we had just gotten to know eachother. Those first three months were really hard, loneliness is really a difficult struggle when you're abroad and don't live in the right area of town, don't know how to make friends due to your schedule (I worked Weds-Sun), and at that time I was also trying to change jobs. I went through two bouts of job searching- the first foiled by the company that I was working for at the time, the second was successful and I'm still at that job. This job change was absolutely wonderful because I fit my schedule around church, which has been absolutely perfect and I'm so happy I made church a priority when selecting my time off with this contract... But it was a rough first three months in that job as well, not because of the company so much as my location and workload... There was a little bit of overscheduling going on for the commute that I have to do. I would, on some weeks, commute about 25 hours and teach about 25 hours, and then have open chunks in the middle of the day where, yes I could do anything... But not really go home because it was too far from my next student for me to be home for a significant enough amount of time. So some weeks were almost like 60 hour weeks! Goodness, just thinking about those days makes me tired. In the end of October I moved, and it was a gigantic blessing. I lost about $900 US because of the scamming rental agent, but that is an experience that seemingly 90% of people go through when they come here, so while it was a set back it wasn't too frustrating to me, and God really sustained me throughout that time both financially and in strengthening my faith so that I wouldn't worry about my security. So I've been living in a better place since October and my workload actually decreased because some of my students escaped the winter's cold and are only just now about to come back to Beijing. So during the holidays I had extra time to hang out with people and I had a lot of fun going to so many different parties or just hang-outs with people. I really love my friends here and while it's hard to say goodbye to those who must go, it is so rewarding to invest in them because there are so many amazing people brought to Beijing. There's a saying amongst my church community here, "raw to ready"-- it refers to how most people are really raw when they come to Beijing, but God uses this city and all the good and bad here to shape and mold them, giving them skills and experiences that influence the rest of their lives. Living abroad really gives a different perspective on the world. Almost everyone I've met here is different in really drastic ways from how they were when they first arrived. An alcoholic having their sober-anniversary. A person who had no direction gaining complete confidence in their path ahead. A person who had a tiny world before opening themselves up to life and embracing the world in great big bites. And living abroad really makes you realize how much bigger the world is than you ever thought, and yet how the things you thought were what mattered really don't at all... Or how the common things of life can be what really deeply matters between people. How politics just never come up, but how loading a dishwasher can make someone cry because it reminds them of home. How you realize you've changed and you wonder if you want to accept these changes, or if you even have a choice. How you remember what you were like before you came, when you first arrived, and in the time since... How you used to be excited to see other foreigners, but at some point you simply realized that they are no more likely to engage with you than the Chinese people around you. How there are entire weeks, or weeks upon week of homesickness... You miss the sound of the coffee grinder in the morning, or the sound of rain on your roof because you don't live at the top of your apartment building. Your dog dies while you're gone, children in your life grow without knowing you, your friends get engaged and married and they have what you thought you were going to have, and you have what they thought they would have. How you look into the future and can't imagine the people who are in your life right now not being there, but realizing that when you move to your next step you will be the one leaving them... And it will be hard. But then you get coffee with someone you haven't had the chance to get to know and their life amazes you, and dang is it good hot chocolate that you're drinking because you stopped doing coffee a few weeks ago, when you were getting headaches without it. And then your friend goes somewhere where it's warm in the middle of winter and you see pictures, and you can't wait for them to get back so you can talk and enjoy their happiness and be happy for them. And someone is asking herself if she's going to let herself fall in love, and you're teasing her because she can't make up her mind. And you realize that there are so many choices you have about what you think and what you let yourself feel, and you stop walking in the middle of the street because the epiphany of choice is like something you've always known but it's taken you a long time to get it to this level. And then you almost get run over by a scooter because you stopped in the middle of the street and you're an idiot. All these and more are the life of an expat. It's difficult, but it's good. It's crazy, but it's wonderful. "Life is weird." I said to a friend the other day. "Life is beautiful!" He replied. Yes, life is weird and beautiful.

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My hair! Still love it even though the color has changed! A student's very creative project, super cute and she's so good at all these little things. My door is finally made up with important things. Keeps me smiling throughout the day. Did facial masks at a girl's night in (I need the group photo!) basically we were all ghouls for an hour. It was great. :) The gif is of Kid City (Sunday school) this last Sunday was super silly and fun! The team is so creative!

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Two fun events with the framily in Beijing! First was Star Wars, then Kaliyah's bday ballet! Life has been super fast paced ever since Thanksgiving... I can't keep up!

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Myles... :)

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Rhotic Vowel Harmony as the Ermahgerd meme, via imgur.

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Newest to oldest, oops! CCTV tower, panoramas of Beijing, Bek and me, my new air filter after two bad nights last week, the awesome gifts my family sent me, New Year's Eve with framily!!!

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My brain be like:

Spanish: Cuando yo estaba...

Chinese: ZAI NEGAAAA negaaaa negaaa wo-de jia... (在呢个呢个呢个～～我的家）

English: STOP FIGHTING! STOP!

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What're you some tools you recommend for learning mandarin? I need to pick it up for work

websitesyoyochinese.comchinesehacks.comcharacterpop.comchineseboost.comzhongwen.comchinese-grammar.comWikitravel Chinese phrasebookallsetlearning.com/chinese/grammarlang-8.comblogssinosplice.comblogs.transparent.com/chinesefluentu.com/chinese/blogappsSkritterChineseSkillMindsnacksStandard MandarinHanping Chinese

dictionariesPlecoLingueeLINE dictCambridge English - Chinese (simplified)Cambridge English - Chinese (traditional)YouTubeMandarinMadeEZOffTheGreatWallLearn Chinese NowA Laowai’s View of China & TaiwanotherMandarin PosterZhongwen Chrome Extension

祝你好运！~

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This hair is becoming my new fave thing! Sunset in the city.

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Clear air! Beautiful!!! Inspirational quotes.... #madeinchina

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Before and after! Photos are sequential. ;)

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dutch lecturer: do you guys wanna do grammar or talk about your hobbies today?

me: grammar

everyone else in class: HOBBIES HOBBIES HOBBIES

me: lol ok but grammar is my hobby

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Thanksgiving with the Tetelestai and Transformers small group!!!

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Thanksgiving!!!! I made 7 liters of eggnog!!!! 😅

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​itscoldIt'scoldIt's Cold IT'S COLD Art 💖

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As seen at Lady Market.

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Seriously... These are fake! Up close it is easier to see, but from a few feet away they are as good as the real deal! Speaking of fake candles, Mockingjay 2 had baaad fakes...