Saturday, January 15^th – ICE SKATING

I woke up refreshed this morning and ready to start the day. Lydia met me at 8:45am and brought me to the lunar market to buy fruit (The lunar market link will connect to a blog created by 2 teachers currently working at New Day). The morning was COLD and per Lydia, most of the vendors and shoppers don't come until later, when the weather warms up. But since I needed to meet with the foreign volunteers to go skating, I went early to the market and was still able to buy lots of yummie fruit. As I picked out mandarin oranges, an elderly lady graciously showed me how to pick the sweet ones. Maybe my internal cluelessness showed externally? Perhaps it did, and because of her, I now possess the life skill to pick out sweet-tasting mandarin oranges. 

After I dropped off the fruit at the apartment, I met up with the foreign volunteers and we headed into Beijing city (~ 1 1/2 hour drive from New Day). We went to a man-made lake (I do not recall the name), that is completely frozen over in the winter, where people can skate. Elisha and I walked around the shopping area before we ventured onto the ice. I managed to decipher the signs and communicated with the workers, but it was a challenge, especially since they looked at me and automatically assumed I spoke Chinese. We decided not to ice-skate or chair-skate:

but bicycle-skate:

I have not ridden a bike in 6 years (unless you count Tuesday evening when I rode on the back of the bicycle) but here I am, riding a bike, in China, in the dead of winter, on ICE! It was an interesting experience =), not one I think I will repeat. (Thanks to my mom for knitting these ultra warm leg-warmers that kept me toasty.)
~~~

Sunday, January 16^th – REINFORCEMENT

I attended a BICF service in Beijing with many of the foreign volunteers. It was wonderful to be in the presence of other believers and worshipping the same God. One woman shared her testimony of God bringing her to China to work and changing her life in the process. It was very inspiring. She reminded me that God's plans are perfect (Jeremiah 29:11). 

After the service ended, I went out of the meeting room to look at the book table. I ended up buying the Bible, with the text printed in pinyin and in simplified Chinese characters. I was so excited. Now I have a way of "reading" the Bible in Mandarin and learning Mandarin in the process.

I had lunch at Pizza Hut with some of the foreign volunteers. It was a strange experience to be in Pizza Hut, in China. I do not eat Pizza Hut when I'm in the U.S. and since it seemed strange to eat pizza in China, especially since my favorite cuisine is Chinese, I instead ordered a rice dish that tasted pretty good. Towards the end of the meal, a server stopped and asked if we wanted to refill the pitcher of Sprite. It took a few seconds to process what she said, and I needed clarification, but I finally understood that it was a free refill. We were quite pleased with the refill as we had been nursing our first cup of Sprite for most of the meal.

After lunch, I met Wu Jie (the driver) and we went to the airport to pick up Elaine. During the car ride, we made small talk. I wish my Mandarin language skills would be at a much higher level than they currently are because we were only able to have very basic small talk =\.

Elaine safely arrived on Sunday afternoon. Prior to returning to the apartment, we stopped off at a large supermarket, Merry Mart, in the BDA (Beijing Development Area) to buy groceries. Elaine and I realized we have even more in common as we enjoy grocery shopping. It was fun exploring the aisles, figuring out the differences between two similar-looking products, and loading up on fruits and Chinese snacks. We returned back to the apartment and planned to walk the 10-15 minutes to the yummy noodle shop place, but instead we were invited to a simple dinner by one of the foreign volunteers. He, his wife, and their children were having sandwiches.  So... Elaine's first meal in China was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich followed by oranges for dessert (and also eating the fleshy part of the orange which contains high levels of vitamin C - something new we learned).

The weekend was just what I needed to be renewed. I enjoyed glimpses of China by going to the lunar market, bicycle-skating, and shopping at the supermarket. Attending the BICF service was refreshing and the testimony by the sister reinforced God's plan for me to serve in China at this time. I am thankful Elaine safely arrived and look forward to serving and getting to know one another.

In His Service,

Angela