A view of the altar for Easter

Spring is here in the capital city and along with it comes the wind! Yesterday and today have been very windy.  We’ve had a streak of incredibly beautiful days the past week.  I was loving the nice weather and it makes biking so much more enjoyable. Last week I took advantage of the lovely weather and biked 16 miles in one day!  On Wednesdays I teach for three-and-a-half hours in the morning, meet my Chinese tutor for one-and-a-half hours in the afternoon, and have a children’s B study in the evenings.  Each of these ‘appointments’ is at a different university.  I always bike to school but I usually take the bus to tutoring and to kid’s study.  So this past Wednesday, I decided I was going to bike everywhere and save the 0.40 RMB that it costs to ride the bus each way! 🙂  (Actually, it’s normally 1 RMB if you don’t have a transportation card.) I biked to school and then home, I biked to Chinese class and then home, I biked to kid’s study, then to compline, then home.  I wanted to see how far that was so I checked online and it was just over 16 miles! I think I’ll do it again. My rear end didn’t like me too much he following day but I’m sure I’ll be fine.  Actually, after I did my biking that day, I made a new biking goal for myself (besides not dying):  Bike around 4th Ring Road! While I was measuring my distance from last week I decided to see how far it would be. The distance around 4th Ring Road is just under 44 miles! I will let you know when I end up doing this and I will try to document it with photos!

Another biking mishap occured the other night.  I’ve been pretty confident on my bike and haven’t had much to report in the area of Beijing Extreme Biking. But, last week there was an incident on my bike.  I was coming home with my roommate from a lovely supper with a large group of my students.  On the last leg of our journey home we generally ride on the wrong side of the road for about a tenth of a mile. Biking on the wrong side of the road is not technically legal but everyone does it and no one enforces it.  We don’t even think about it really…no one does.  We were crusing down this side of the road when a young (20-something) woman tried to cross the road without looking.  I plowed right into her. I had no time to even think about stopping. We smash heads, she falls to the ground, her glasses fly off her face.  Hmmm….. Immediately, her friend says (in English), ‘you weren’t obeying the traffic laws.’ Ha! Then she said, ‘you were going too fast!’ Although I feel bad for taking a person down on my bike, part of me still thinks that people in China should be taught to look both ways before crossing the street.  What if it would have been a car crusing down the wrong side of the street in the bike lane!? (don’t laugh, it happens all the time.) She would have been in much more pain. Her friend did get my phone number, I presume to call me if anything serious happened.  Personally, I think she over-reacted a little. I haven’t gotten a phone call yet.

I think that traffic in general will always be a frustration to me.  No one watches where they are going (pedestrians, bikes, cars, buses) and the right of way goes to the person who gets there first or wins the game of chicken.  Twice in the last week I was shocked at the kindness shown by two car drivers.  I was in the bike lane on one road (going the wrong way again…gotta stop that) and there was not enough room for both of us to maneuver through. He actually waved me through!?! [shocked face] I honestly didn’t know what to do. Was this a trick? Hmmm….so, timidly, I went first and then he went. I was so amazed/shocked/dumbfounded that I sent a text message to two of my friends.  Then, just this past Saturday, a cab driver waved me through an intersection instead of pulling out as far as he can without hitting me like they usually do.  I don’t know why things in China still shock me.

I’m loving my students at the university.  The class that I have most often is my favorite! They are very fun in class and like to get together outside of class. This has been an extreme blessing in the area of evan.el.sm.  One of my students, Jeffrey, who I am fairly certain has a crush on me, asked me what sort of things I look for in a man. (This was after beating around the bush for a while about how my parents must miss me and must be worried about me and how I need someone to take care of me, blah, blah, blah…) I knew exactly were he was going with this.  So, I listed a whole bunch of things that I look for in a man to make it as hard as possible. One of those requirements was Chr..tian.  He said, ‘so, you want the same things as every other girl.’ I disagreed with him saying that not every other girl would want someone who is Chr..tian.  He said, ‘Okay. How do I become a Chr..tian?’ Haha! I asked him what he was doing the following night. He wasn’t available that night but he did join me on Saturday night at a B study. This was his first exposure to the BOOK and I think he was a little lost. I have to give the guy credit though. He came again on Tuesday and then again the following Saturday.

Easter Sunday morning we had a sunrise service. I was able to introduce another one of my students to HIS WORD that morning.  This student’s name is Sandy. 🙂  He wanted his name to be ‘Sandwich’ but I wouldn’t let him do that because Sandwich is not a name. (I suggested Earl but he didn’t go for that one either.) Sandy is super friendly and really polite.  He enjoyed hearing HIS WORD for the first time and meeting some other Chinese believers. He and Jeffrey both joined me on Tuesday for B study! Praise HIM!

We were blessed with 20+ people for our Easter morning service! Instead of our usual wrshp-in-a-circle, we had rows of chairs and an altar. As I write, I’m still enjoying the lilies that are sitting on the piano. The service was lovely with special music; clarinet, flute, trumpet, and soloists. We had a few guests with us that day also. One of the teachers invited a few of her students who were “Chinese” but have American and Canadian passports.

Last week, my students had a basketball game. The two classes played against each other and I took a few pictures. The weather was gorgeous and the game was a lot of fun! After the game, a few of my students, two of the other teachers and my roommate and I had supper together. 🙂

I’m a tad disappointed that I haven’t had much time to do any photography. I’m also having a hard time keeping up with my writing. I meant to update about a week or so ago but I ran out of time. I was pretty proud of my introduction to that ‘non-existant’ blog entry. (see below) One of these blog entries (to come) will be a day in the life of Amber. 🙂 I’m excited to do this!

“Ever since I arrived in China, people back in the states have been asking to see pictures of my apartment.  Well, folks, it’s not much to look at.  I mean, it’s fairly large and spacious, covered in tile and other hard, easy to clean surfaces, but at the moment it’s freezing cold.  About a week ago, the day that I found myself stuck on a not-moving bus for almost an hour in the rain/snow, the powers that be (whoever they are) decided that we no longer need heat in our apartment.  I was kind of excited at first because our apartment is usually pretty warm. Almost to the point of uncomfortable. I quickly changed my thoughts about the lack of heat while I was in bed sleeping that same night.  Brrrr. Currently, I’m wearing fingerless gloves, covered in a blanket, listening to the song “Carbon Monoxide” by Cake.  Every time I hear that song I think that it’s sort of like living in Beijing! :)”

The apartment remains a bit chilly, I’m still listening to Cake, and the weather outside is unstable. So not much has changed since my last attempt at updating! Ha! I’m looking forward to constant warm temperatures, blooming cherry blossom trees, and walks in the park with dear friends. I’m also looking forward to the random holidays coming up in May and June. I’ll leave you with some photos and two things I’ve learned from living in China. (I’ve learned more than two things but I wanted to share two of them with you.) 

1. The longer you wait to shower, the more beautiful you become to Chinese men. (This one never ceases to amaze me.) I showed up to class one day after not having time to shower.  A few of the men in the front of the room gasped (audibly) and said, ‘so beautiful!’ when I came into the room. If you ever want to feel really good, come to China and don’t take a shower.

2. Maybe means yes….or no….or maybe. It’s hard to say.

Here's a picture of the whole group for Easter Sunday. I believe a couple people are hiding. For those who are interested, this is also my home!

The group in front of the altar. The thing I love about Ch..ch in China...wearing animal print slippers!