November came and along with it came the snow!  Apparently, it does not snow like this in Beijing, ever.  This is what the veteren teachers keep telling me.  I woke up Sunday morning to a snowstorm.  I guess I should be happy because it made me feel very much at home on my birthday!  Actually, I woke up Sunday morning at 6:30 when I got a phone call from Meiguo!  My sister called me for my birthday and my niece and nephew sang to me. 🙂 🙂  It was very sweet!  The day was a great one in general.  We had our Reformation festival service with special music (flute, trumpet and guitar along with the regular piano).  After the service, we had a potluck, China style.  Actually, most of the food was of the American variety.  All of the food was delicious!

This week was a pretty great week.  Other than the usual class routine, my week was pretty uneventful.  It started to get really cold in Beijing.  Coats, sweatshirts, gloves and hats started to make appearances.  I was thinking just the other day about how happy I was not to be in Wisconsin or Wyoming where it was cold or snowy.  Then, BAM! Beijing is hit with cold and eventually snow.  It really wasn’t a lot of snow.  Everyone just kept commenting on how bad the snow was. 

Tuesday night study was interesting and fun.  We only had three people come but we had some good discussions.  I hope that more people will come to this one because I think it would be better to have a larger group for the discussion.

I led B study on Wednesday night.  It was a song study and we looked at a hymn that talked about being declared ‘not guilty.’  (390)  It was a great hymn but I think that next time I will choose something that lends itself to more discussion.  There was definitely a lot to talk about, but for some reason, no one would discuss.   After our study we had compline at our usual place and it was a really great night.  It is hard to describe to someone who wasn’t there so you’ll just have to take my word for it. 

Thursday was a good day.  I met Kevin for supper along with another one of the teachers.  We had fun going over the English phrases that he had learned during the day.  Sometimes I wonder what his teachers are teaching him!  He brought his guitar this time so that he could help accompany the song study.  I went with him to the apartment and then left to go to Greek class.  I think I caught him by surprise when I left because he sort of looked sad (like a helpless bird) when I walked out.  🙁  I want him to keep coming to the study even when I am not there. 

Yes, you ‘heard’ me correctly when I said Greek class.  It is pretty funny that I’m taking Greek class in China.  Shouldn’t I be taking Chinese class?  I hope to take a Chinese class also, but Greek is being taught by another one of the teachers and it was really easy to ‘sign-up for.’  🙂  The problem is that I cannot go to song study with Kevin.  I left Greek a little early so that I could go back to the apartment and then walk with Kevin to the subway.  When I got to the apartment, the study was still going so I popped in to one of the other apartments for a bit so they could finish up.  I eventually went back up to the apartment to sing through their song one last time with them.  After the study was over, Kevin played a song for us and sang. It was AWESOME!  I have a video recording of one of the songs but the file is way to big to post on the blog.  Again, you’ll just have to take my word for it!  After that, Kevin and I walked to the subway. On our way there, we got ice cream together at a little convenience store. 

On Friday morning, I met Mr. Wang so that he could pay me.  We were supposed to meet at his office at the Forestry University, but there was some confusion and ended up meeting at KFC.  This has been our meeting place every time he has paid us.  It seems a little sketchy but I just kind of go with it.  He is usually late but this time he got there before we did.  After that, I met two of my students for lunch on the Qinghua campus.  That was quite enjoyable.  One of them speaks English quite well and is really easy to talk to.  He understands sarcasm also which makes it even more fun!  We then rode around the campus on our bikes for a little bit and then I left when they had to go back to class.  I hope to do this again sometime! 

I’ve included a couple pictures from the snowfall.  I went to the park on Sunday afternoon to get some snow shots.  Enjoy!

We went to the park in the afternoon after most of the snow had melted.

This one is especially beautiful. It reminds me of Christmas for some reason.

An attempt at being creative

Mmmmm.....it was really beautiful there!