Mid-week musings

This morning I had two classes in a row. I'm getting more used to teaching and talking for 4 hours in a row. My voice only starts to go after about 3 and a half hours... Today I had my difficult class again and it turned out pretty fine! I had written a verse on a notecard that I kept with me at the podium while I taught. It was an encouraging reminder: "Always be joyful. Pr-y continually and give thanks whatever happens..." 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18. I tried to make sure all my thoughts were pleasing to Him, no matter what happened--even if the class went crazy or the blackboard fell off the wall. I enjoyed looking at that verse today more than the fascinating pictures of old communist leaders and their famous quotes that are plastered on the classroom walls.

Last night after our faculty meeting, I really needed exercise so I went running for a long time on the track outside. It was pretty dark, except for a couple of flood lights, so I was able to run around undisturbed. A couple hundred students were doing military drills in the middle of the track, but people didn't really pay any attention to me. At one point, two officers walked toward me saying something in Chinese. I think they maybe wanted me to leave. But when they saw my face they just smiled and waved me on. So I continued running around the track in the dark while hundreds of students drilled and shouted "yi, er, san!" (one, two, three).

Just another day in the life of a foreigner in China.

On another note, I've been reading a book about a man in the Peace Corps who lived in a nearby province. In this book he makes a bunch of observations I can relate to. One of the best is about how people love to honk their horns here and nobody notices anymore except for outsiders who aren't used to it. This little passage on this one aspect is so true:

"They honked at other cars, and they honked at pedestrians. They honked whenever they passed somebody, or whenever they were being passed themselves. They honked when nobody was passing but somebody might be considering it, or when the road was empty and there was nobody to pass but the thought of passing or being passed had just passed through the driver's mind... Nobody reacted to horns anymore; they served no purpose. A honk was like the tree falling in the forest--for all intents and purposes it was silent."

Pictures or stories alone can't adequately describe China. You have to hear it and smell it and breathe in the air and absorb it in your skin. It's basically a different world and I'm enjoying soaking it all in.