life for the week

this week, an american couple here had to leave town for a few days, so during the days, i have been hanging out with the 4 kids, helping with their school as needed (i'm ashamed to say that i could no longer do simple algebra. oh boy.) so today we went out to lunch with their (and my) chinese tutor. the little noodle shop that joel picked was a little hole-in-the-wall joint. barely room for a few tables, and cooking food in a way that could not possibly have passed any kind of food preparation standards. let's just suffice it to say that my prayer over the food was more than a prayer of thanksgiving.

The restaurant, with Nathanael still eating

 Me, Yantuan, and Rebekah

i am the worst updater ever. so sorry for the long delay!
in a lot of ways it feels like time is standing still, which probably explains partly why i have felt no rush in writing or journaling. i feel like i have forever. i also think a lot about doing it, and sometimes if i tell myself often enough that i need to do something, then i feel like i've already done it.

but the reality is that time is not standing still at all! in fact, as i went in this week to renew my visa after the first 60 days, i realized that time is doing anything BUT standing still. it is hard to believe that i only have 2 months left with my cousins, and then 2 months in asia after that. so with that slap of reality, here is an update. :)

i have not been terribly busy physically, but i have had a few fun adventures! i went to a wedding, but the couple wanted it to be as western of a wedding as possible. lydia was the flower girl. :) the wedding was nice, but i was not prepared for what happened after the reception dinner! as soon as a table had cleared of people, others swarmed in to collect the leftover food into plastic bags that they pulled out of their purses. it was insane! one lady pulled out a stack of like 40 bags! they gathered around our table waiting for us to finish. and it wasn't like these were really poor people either that really needed the food. the funny thing about it is that it couldn't have been spontaneous. it had to have been planned to some degree. "oh, honey, don't forget the plastic bags! we're going to need those!" people also pilfered the flowers from all around before the wedding was even over? the beautiful flower arch? picked clean just barely after the bride walked through it. and the drive standing by the wedding car? he is guarding the flowers on the car. literally yelling at people who were trying to steal the flowers right off it. unbelievable!

We also took a trip out to a village to visit James' family.  we spent a lot of time at the lake, where lydia and michaela swam and threw rocks. 

It was a holiday, so while we were there, there were all kinds of festivities, including climbing up a ladder of knives!

i have babysat occasionally for an american family with 3 little boys, and have also been spending time with and older couple. mary has been helping me to continue on in working my CR steps. she and dwight and i have also been watching a lot of movies together! they have introduced me to several of theirs, and i have shared some of my favorites.

in a little bit we have some guests coming over, so i need to go help get ready for them. i will post more later!