Thankfulness

November – a month of thanks. I see a lot of people doing daily thankful for posts – so I thought I would just make a thankful list. There are so many things to be thankful for, even though sometimes I feel like there is nothing to be thankful for at all.

I have made a list of many of the things I am thankful for, and just thought I would share it with you.

I am thankful that He has allowed me to be a part of this really awesome adventure – that I finally found the path that He had waiting for me; because I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now. I am also thankful for….

My team – that He has put me on. We have been so lucky and blessed to be able to click so well. We work great together and, even with our differences, we are able to get along and support each other.

Students – all 280 (ish) of them. I just melt when they all start yelling my name as I pass them in the hall or somewhere on campus. They have so much excitement every time they see me, and I love each and every one of them. Even though we can’t communicate and I don’t know any of their names (not that it would matter, they never learned their English names anyway).

Co-teachers. I don’t know what I would do without them, other than not be able to ever teach anything. They have helped me become a better teacher over the past 2 months, and I hope that I can be an encouragement to them as we spend this semester together. I had a rough start with one of them, but as time has gone on it has been amazing to see the change in her and how well we get along now.

My apartment -- As interesting and “special” as it is, it is home this year – and I love it. They are redoing our walls this week, and we are especially thankful for that.

Our FAO -- and all that he does for us. He is an amazing man who works so hard to make sure that the foreign teachers have all they need, and he does it with such a servant’s heart.

Blue sky – it is rare, and when we get to see it, it is very special

Fellowship – it’s a biweekly thing, but it is always so good to get to spend time with brothers and sisters.

Felicity – our language tutor, such a joy to get to spend time with learning Chinese.

The Zhongbei team – our hosts this week and friends in this city. It is so nice to know other people here. It is a strange thing coming to a place and being able to count the people you know on one hand. Also, who we will be spending our Thanksgiving day/ weekend with.

My washing machine – it isn’t an American one. But it sure beats washing clothes by hand.

Heat – with the weather getting colder it is so wonderful to have (even if it is just a little) the heat on now.

Repairmen – aka our friends. They come to our apartment a lot. They come to check on the heaters, they come to fix this or that; they come and rescue us from flooding our apartment when the heater explodes.

The moon – I love being able to see the moon at night. Sometimes the sun is so covered by smog you can hardly see it at all, but it is almost without fail that you can see the moon at night.

Hot water – we went 2.5 weeks at the beginning of the semester without hot water, and now I know how much I truly appreciate such a small thing. This goes for water pressure in the shower too.

School cafeteria – even though we eat there a lot and the food is usually the same… it is free, and it is good food. It saves me from having to walk almost a mile to the grocery store.

My legs/ feet – what would I do without them in a place where all I do is walk?

Care packages!!!!! (and letters/cards)– these make my day/ week/ month. They are so wonderful, and they make me so very thankful for all the people at home that love me so much.

My family and friends at home – you guys are awesome. I miss you all, and I know you miss me too : ) But thank you for your constant support and Thoughts, and the fact that so many of you even urged me to go – not telling me that I shouldn’t, or that it was a bad idea. Thank you!

Skype – my connection with home. It is so wonderful in this day and age that we can communicate so easily (and for free!) from so far away.

There are still so many more things that I am thankful for, but I know that you are probably tired of reading this post – if you have made it this far, congratulations – so that is all I will be thankful for right now.

Life in China: A how-to guide... What to do when the heater explodes

That's right. EXPLODES. 

So, if perhaps your heater (that is run on steam and hot water) should break (maybe partly because you barely touched the screw/ pin that holds all that water in) and spray a geyser of hot water all over the place and flood your apartment... These are the things you should know.

Step 1.

Yell for help. This "adventure" would have been so much worse if the most amazing Sarah Roberts had not been there. 

Step 2.

Try to contain it. This isn't easy. You can put your finger over the hole, but be aware that the water is hot and there is a heck of a lot of pressure behind it. So while this method will work, it won't work forever. And by the end of it all you will have circles imprinted in your fingers from pressing so hard. My advice, find the pin if possible and try to at least put it back in the hole and use something (in our case, long underwear) to hold it in with. This is a lesson that took us a while, and caused many sore fingers. I was also told, after the fact, that a chopstick has been known to solve this problem as well.

Step 3.

While trying to contain it, call for help - you need someone who can turn the water off. Gerry was awesome and got us 4 repairmen (our friends - they come up a lot to check the heaters) up here in about 15-20 min.. that was a really long 15-20 min.

Step 4.

When help FINALLY arrives, let them take over and you begin the clean up process. Towels are a good place to start - also buckets. But your best friends are the broom and the sponge mop. So make a towel barrier (after you get all the water out of the living room and near the front door cleaned up - we had water all the way out onto the landing) and start pushing all the water into the bathroom so it can go down the drain. (You could enlist more help here, Chesney came to our aid and it was much more fun.) 

Step 5.

When all the water is cleaned up and your heater is repaired, begin on the laundry. SO MUCH LAUNDRY! Towels, bed stuff, clothes - all covered in plaster water... And when all the laundry is hung up to dry (cause remember you have no dryer) you can (if your mattress was thankfully spared like mine was - which is an incredibility in itself) put a sheet on the bed, find the only dry blankets left, borrow a pillow and go to bed.

Also, just an extra tip: don't run or walk too fast on wet floors... you will fall and hurt yourself.

This event happened on a Saturday night, in the middle of a 9 day work week. We are all so tired, but it definitely broke the monotony.

Enjoy some pictures of the aftermath.

It's a good thing they are fixing the walls next week, cause I destroyed them.

Demonstrating how we had to hold the pin in place. Notice the soaked clothes... I was drenched.

Wringing water out of my pants.

Chesney and her mop.