A Nanchang Weekend

My favorite time of the week is when Jodi and I help lead a study of the Word with three other Chinese sisters. I learn so much, especially from their perspectives. Recently I shared about how my dear grandma had passed away a year ago. Later in the day I got a wonderful text message from one of the girls. She wrote:

"I'm worry about you about i wish you are not feel so sad because of your grandma. because God need her. God wanna have her company. because she can bring many joys for God! and she also see you and bless you in heaven."

Speaking of text messages, I enjoy collecting a list of ways students and friends here spell my name in text messages to me. Some of my favorites: Rolla, Alura, Lurau, Lauara, etc. - basically any word that involves l's and a's.

In other news, the weather has been much milder now - about in the 50s, not the 20s and 30s, which is nice. Jodi and I went on a bike ride and explored some more of our fair city. There are always crazy and amazing things to discover. Today we found a rather creepy place.

We rode along one side of a gigantic lake where people have been haphazardly buried in little, tall mounds facing the water. There was tons of trash, dried up weeds, and old sticks of incense that had been burned on top of the graves. We rode further along and discovered "Ocean World." I found out it had been built just about 6 years ago, but the whole place was already falling apart. It had a huge, empty Victorian-style building, and a big pond for dolphins that didn't exist.

Even further down the deserted narrow road we came upon a mile-long park that had probably been built in the late 1970s or early 1980s, but had long since been abandoned. It was a very communist-style park (if there is such a thing), with random statues of heroic-looking people, tons of concrete pads to dock boats, and crumbling stairs all over the place. There were also a couple of rainbow-colored bridges, and a pile of old boats that now were half sinking into the lake. Everything was amazingly overgrown and eerily quiet.

Jodi and I had a great time taking pictures and plotting creepy movies. I've left you with a few pictures, so you can enjoy the sights for yourself. :)

And please continue to think of our students! At least two students have died of H1N1 on our campus now. It's just incredibly sad, because they probably don't even get a chance to survive with the lack of money, medical care, and sanitation.