Home or something like it.

Here it is, THE APARTMENT TOUR. Our apartment is located at the cross streets of Yanping Road and Xinzha Road. Building 6. 9th Floor. This our side of Yanping Road...

And this is the other side of Yanping Road...

The path drive way from Yanping Road to our apartment....

The path to our apartment...

Our front door...

Welcome to our apartment! The entrance way...

When you enter the front door, the kitchen is just to your right....

But if you keep walking forward, you will end up with the dining room to your right...

And, the living room to your left...

If you continue to walk straight, you will end up in our hallway...

The first door on the right is the bathroom...

If you continue down the hallway, the first door on the left is the study/tech room aka. the third bedroom...

The second door on the left is my room...

This is the bed...

And this is the window seat...

And, the door at the end of the hallway is Sherry's room...

Yeah, so that is our apartment! And here are a few pictures of the view from our windows (1) from my bedroom during the day (2) from my bedroom at night (3) from my bedroom during the day and  (4) from the study room during the day...

On a foundtional note...

Have you listened to Chris Tomlin's "God of This City", Tim Hughes "Everything", David Crowder "How He Loves", Matthew West "More", or Matthew West "The Center" recently. If not, you're probably way to busy to pull them up, but they're the songs that have been getting me through these last couple weeks. Because when I listen to them, they refocus me and remind me that God has purpose and presence wherever I am and wherever the people I love are and that I want to want to be apart of His will for wherever I am. And when, wherever I am or whatever I am doing is really getting to me, they remind me that I am loved so completely by the Almighty God and He loves me perfectly and that I'm not just "here" going through "all of this" because He wants to be mean to me and because he can, but because He is making me into the amazing person that He created me to be. And, it hurts sometimes, but it's like Vince Lombardi said, it's about "doing what you don't want to do, in order to achieve what you've always wanted to achieve." I want to be the person God created me to be, and it might suck sometimes getting there -- but, it's totally worth it.

Little bunny foo-foo hoppin' through the forest... did I say bunny? Ha. Sorry, I meant chicken.

We escaped. But, then it was off to training at Daqian Eco-Resort located at No.1 Xiyangdian Village, Zhujiajiao Town, Qingpu District, Shanghai 201713, China. Check it out:

Daqian Eco-Resort (Polly, Claudia, Annie, Kirsti, Bernessa, and Leila) 08.25.2010 We walk, we walk, we walk. Walking to our six-person villas in the woods.

Conference Room (Annie, Leila, and Samantha) 08.26.2010 

The training schedule was pretty rigorous. 

7am wake-up if you planned on eating breakfast

9am-12pm morning training modules

12pm-1pm lunch in the dining hall

1pm-5pm afternoon training modules

5pm-6pm dinner in the dining hall

6pm-9pm evening training modules

 

Just before leaving Daqian, we found out something that we did not know about Annie. We knew she liked dogs, but we did know about the.....

....Yeah. The CHICKENS!

Whistle while you work!

Watch the video! 

Okay, so one day my VPN would not for the life of me connect and I had to resort to browsing the Chinese internet. While browsing, I remembered that you can download music for free from google.com.cn and decided to check it out and I stumbled across Wang Lee Hom's "Sun Washed by the Spring Rain". Gah! I love the sound of the song, even though the lyrics do not really apply to me. Here are the lyrics:

王力宏 - 春雨里洗过的太阳
Wang Lee Hom - Chun Yu Li Xi Guo De Tai Yang

分开之后另一年的春天
fen kai zhi hou ling yi nian de chun tian
记忆也像下雪一样溶解
ji yi ye xiang xia xue yi xiang rong jie
那些有你在身边的影片
na xie you ni zai shen bian de ying pian
呼的一声飞的老远老远
hu de yi sheng fei de lao yuan lao yuan
-
In the spring of the year following our break-up
Memories have melted away with the melting snow
Those films with you beside me
Have flown far far away with a whoosh

爱在夏天过完之后锁在秋天
ai zai xia tian guo wan zhi hou suo zai qiu tian
捱过冬天之后的我好了一些
ai guo dong tian zhi hou de wo hao le yi xie
雨后的天上 彩虹出现 衬出一片蓝天
yu hou de tian shang / cai hong chu xian / chen chu yi pian lan tian
-
After the summer, love became locked inside autumn
After winter passes I became a little better
A rainbow appears in the sky after its rained - bringing out the blue of the sky

我在淋过一场大雨之后的晴朗
wo zai lin guo yi chang da yu zhi hou de qing lang
那是春雨里洗过的太阳
na shi chun yu li xi guo de tai yang
每个冬季带来失落 伤得多深
mei ge dong ji dai lai shi luo / shang de duo shen
然后忽然看懂云的形状
ran hou hu ran kan dong yun de xing zhuang
-
I'm standing under the clear sky after a heavy rain has passed
It's a sun that's been washed in the spring rain
That winter brought about loss, how deeply it hurt
Then suddenly I saw the meaning of the cloud's shapes

If you listen to the rhythm of the pouring rain
If you listen to the rhythm of the pouring rain
那是春雨里洗过的太阳
na shi chun yu li xi guo de tai yang
每个冬季带来失落 伤得多深
mei ge dong ji dai lai shi luo / shang de duo shen
每个呼吸都是新的芬芳
me ge hu xi dou shi xin de fen fang
-
If you listen to the rhythm of the pouring rain
It's a sun that's been washed in the spring rain
Every winter brought about loss, how deeply they hurt
As each breath brings a new fragrance

流下的眼泪 留下了智慧
liu xia de yan lei / liu xia le zhi hui
爱情会天亮 也一定会黑
ai qing hui tian liang / ye yi ding hui hei
世界会等我 它问我冬天过去了没
shi jie hui deng wo / ta wen wo dong tian guo qu le mei
-
The tears that poured down, left behind wisdom
Love's dawn will break, but darkness must fall also
The world will wait for me, it asks me, 'Has winter passed yet?'

Searching for a place to rest our heads...

The apartment search, thanks to our cohort-mates Samantha and Leila, was a fairly smooth process. Our first day in Shanghai, we went apartment hunting in the Jing-An District in the evening.

Sherry and I looked at three apartments:

the first one we liked the price and the look (2BR + 1B), the second we were okay with the price and liked the layout more (3BR + 2B), and the third was totally out of our budget and so nice, except we would have had to buy a lot to complete the apartment (2.5BR + 2B  + balcony).

At the end of the day, we decided to sleep on it and decide in the morning.

We decided on the SECOND apartment! And, we were able to negotiate the price down 500 yuan per month.Signed the paperwork on Day 2 in Shanghai...

... And this is our apartment! Located at Yanping Lu and Xinzha Lu. Building 6. 9th Floor. Apt. 905. Suite E.

A tour of our apartment is COMING SOON!!!

You make me cry!

This morning I woke up just in time to hear my phone die. Amazing, right? Because, I was able to get up and plug it in to charge so that I would not be without a phone and more immediately, that I could be sure that my alarm would go off so I won't be late for work.

Anyways, I was so awake when I got back into bed that I just decided to start getting ready. Did morning routine, threw in some bible study, and as I was collecting my required teaching supplies for the day, my eyes ran across:

And you know what, I READ IT!

Worst/Best idea ever! It totally made me cry. And, I don't cry pretty. I cry ugly. But, if even just one of you is praying for me, I am so very thankful! I love you and I miss you. And, I want all the best for you even when I'm not there to share in it with you right now.

Ethan, from Shanghai!

Just got home from work... and the cutest thing happened today!

Before my last class started, my student Ethan came up to me as I sat in the front of the classroom and kissed me on the cheek! Aww, so cute!

Then he said to me in Shanghainese, "Do you speak Shanghainese?"

To which I responded by turning to my TA and saying, "What did he say, Betty?!?"

I told him that I did not and he went to sit down.

A couple seconds later, he spoke to Betty saying in Shanghainese, "I wish she [me] spoke Shanghainese, because I don't like foreign languages. [Pause] I wish you [Betty] spoke French and she [me] spoke Shanghainese!"

Shanghai Qingyi Kindergarten aka QY, Qibao (09.18.2010) This was taken the second time we did bookwork in the Grade 2 classes. Ethan is the one at the top, center.