It's been awhile...

It’s been awhile.

Hey friends and family.

I am really sorry that it has taken me so long to write since my lat update. Things have been beyond busy here. Actually, things have been quite busy and difficult. I’ll start from the beginning.

Our trip to Beijing and Xian was lots of fun. For me, it was a nice chance to see things that I have seen before. The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Place, the Pearl Market, they all looked the same but really they were quite different. Last time I saw them, I was a different person. I was single (and single-minded), 19, and I wanted to spend the majority of the rest of my life in China. Now, I am 21, about to be married, about to graduate college and move to Austin, and I find myself asking more questions rather than giving answers now. Last time I saw them, China was just beginning the process of preparing for the Olympics, China was different too. Now, China, this country that I love, is re-entering the world stage as a major player with a major role. It was been so interesting for me to see this country really market herself towards a western audience. More people speak English, spitting and littering on the street s against the law (sort of), and thus the number of foreigners and Starbucks’ in this country has more than tripled in the last couple of months. It’s crazy. Now I get to write one 6-8 page paper on it, and one 12-16 page research paper on families in China…. (If you are interested in the subject and are crazy enough to want to read those, let me know)

Speaking of crazy, I ate a scorpion. We were in Beijing at an outdoor street market where they are famous for selling fried scorpion. Some of the boys were trying to get the other boys to eat one and I was an idiot and said, “I’ll eat a scorpion….” Dumb. Well, I did and after that so did everybody else. They taste like popcorn.

I could write of all the beautiful things we saw and fun things we did, but I would rather just name a few. My favorite thing that we did was bicycle around the city wall of Xian. Xian is one of the only cities left that still has a city wall. It is about 14 kilometers around and very fun to bike on. We also got to see and take pictures of the Terracotta warriors in Xian. They were discovered in 1974 (I think) by a farmer digging well in the outskirts of the town. Now there are three excavation sites in the area. None are completed and after each day that passes there is more and more to see. We also got to meet the farmer that actually found the sites. We did plenty of other really neat things as well.

(The top picture is of two of the guys riding a tow seater bike around the wall and the second picture is of the first pit in the Terracotta warrior site.)

Since we have been back we have started our internships. I was supposed to be working with Hisense, an appliance etc. manufacturer here in China. The company has never actually had interns before and did not know what to do with us. We all wanted to teach English but instead we were stuck making copies. Thankfully, the staff at A&M recognized that we were not really learning anything and pulled us out. Everybody except for me was placed somewhere else. Now I am sort of doing a patch work of jobs from practicing English with four members of the staff from the department of liberal arts at OUC to a Tuesday Thursday proof reading job (I am currently at that job where

I have nothing to do and am writing this essay.) I am also tutoring a 15 year old girl on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

If I had nothing to do at home, this would all be ok. I am getting a lot of credit at A&M for this and so normally I would not feel like I am wasting my time. But with the wedding coming up in 46 days it is very easy for me to see all o this as a waste of time. B.J. and I have talked for days about whether or not to bring me home and we have decided that I will stay here. Even though there are a thousand things for me to do at home, we have decided that B.J. and our friends and family can do it together. I know that I am here for a reason. I have had several opportunities to share parts of the gospel with people in the last few days. I know that I am learning so much and that I will not regret staying, it is just hard right now because I want to be home helping and preparing. I really do trust God’s plan for me here, it’s just hard sometime. With that said, I really just want to say thank you to everyone who has been working with us in all of this wedding and moving stuff. You mean so much to me. I would not be able to be here without you. (p.s. yes, we did get a new apartment in Round Rock. It is amazing and B.J. did an absolutely fantastic job picking it out.)

Ok, just a couple more weeks and I will be able to see and hear from each of you. I love you all sooooooo much. Hopefully, my next update will be a good report of things that I have learned and things Father has done.

Pr. Requests

-Our team…. A lot of the guys are having a hard time.

-Me and Tory. We have been in close quarters for 6 weeks now. We are getting to know each other well and have recently started to talk more about God.

- Jack. A British guy who has been asking Tory and I a lot of questions about God.

-My classes. That they would benefit from such a young teacher. (They always tell me how young I am, I think I bugs them. In fact, one of my students was my Chinese teacher!)

-B.J. He is so amazingly talented and such a hard, smart worker, but there is a lot of work for him to do in such a short about of time. Also, pray for him as he starts his new job on Monday.

-My stomach. A day has not passed that I have not spent a considerable amount of time in the bathroom. I have been nauseous for days… and no, it’s not the scorpion. ;)