The Golden Arches

Look what just opened in town! Oh the bliss of a Big Mac and McFlurry! We now have a Pizza Hut, KFC, and McDonald's. What more could we ask for?  (Starbucks, Chipotle, Panera Bread...)

A+B

One of the great things about living in a beautiful, mountainous, high tourist city like Lijiang is that the flow of foreign visitors who are seeking an adventure never stops. For some, this might seem overwhelming, but for Laura and I, we warmly welcome the idea of being involved in people's lives as they experience China for the first time (or second, or third, or fifth...).

And this is no exception for our friends Austin and Brit. Last night, we dropped them off at the train station after a 3 month stay in LJ. We didn't know them prior to their arrival in LJ (we had mutual friends in San Diego), but after these 3 months, we felt like we've been best friends for years.

A+B are also married with no kids. We would often stay up late playing cards, watching movies, and eating out. It was so fun being spontaneous with them. But our time together wasn't just entertainment based; we visited the countryside many times to visit friends, celebrate torch festival, and help with a health clinic. Their service and friendship this Summer will be greatly missed!

At Blue Moon Valley below YuLongXueShan

Torch Festival, ladies dressed up in traditional Yi clothes

Brit holding a little Yi baby

Austin during our mushroom hunting time on XueShan

Culture Acquisition

Laura and I have been in China for over 19 months now. Culture acquisition has been a primary goal of ours since day 1. We've read books, developed friendships with locals who can be honest with us about our cultural blunders, and we've spent an abundant amount of time in the rural countryside soaking up every nugget of information we can gather. I can honestly say that I'm feeling quite comfortable in a city that was once completely foreign to me. But, there are some things about China that I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to. For example, Laura and I went to a hole-in-the-wall noodle place for lunch the other day. As we sat and waited for our meals at a little miniature size table, the women next to me got these delivered to her by the waiter. It still shocks me.

Neighborhood Cheek Graffiti

Recently James and I invited our neighbor, He Ya, and her friend over for dinner and a game of cards. We tried introducing her to Mexican food.  I made sour cream, fresh corn salsa, and chicken fajitas. We even busted out some of our imported cheddar cheese!  James did a great job of demonstrating how to wrap everything up in a neat little bundle.  Ya was hilarious.  She took one bite before everything fell apart and spent most of the meal pushing the contents of her fajita around her plate with chopsticks.

After supper we played a card game called "dou di zhu," or "fight the landlord." It's basically a Chinese version of Scum or President played with three people. Normally it's a drinking game where the losers take shots, but as that wasn't the direction we wanted to go with the evening, we opted out of the alcohol.  Still, Ya insisted there be some form of punishment for losing.  She asked me to go get my eyeliner.  This is what ensued.
 

It amazes me that an unenthusiastically received Mexican meal and eyeliner can be bridges into deeper relationships with our friends here.  It's laughter and life together and the random things that He uses to build friendships.

School's Out!

James and I just finished our third semester of language study! Our goal is to be conversational in Mandarin after three years of school, and we find ourselves already at the halfway mark. Though it is easy to feel discouraged as we tackle this difficult language, I know we've come so far in our abilities to communicate.

This is Laura's final exam paper. She typed it out in Pinyin (the phonetic version of Mandarin) because we have only just begun to learn Chinese characters. Still, our teacher was pretty impressed!

Much of that is due to our language curriculum, GPA. We sought to learn like infants, and now we can talk like toddlers!  We also have to give credit to our amazing teacher, Melinda. She has been a patient instructor, an ever willing help, an insightful bridge to local culture, and a wonderful friend. She was recently accepted to a graduate program in another city and will be leaving us for two years! We are excited for her and this opportunity to further her education, but we are going to miss her SO MUCH.  Especially me.

As we study on next year, I know our goal to become truly conversational will only succeed if both James and I stretch ourselves in conversations and immerse ourselves in Mandarin daily. We hope to start watching soap operas (popular here) and news programs in Mandarin to pick up new vocabulary and culture clues. We plan to be stricter with ourselves while we speak with our Chinese friends--even if they can speak some English, we're going to do our best to communicate entirely in Mandarin. It's hard to follow through with some of these ideas, but we want to be good students.  We are so looking forward to the day when we'll fully understand and be understood!