Oh, what a day!
So yesterday I had to tell 王蕾 (Ray) that I had to go to Nanjing and when he asked why I told him that I was going to church. So he said to meet him at 7:30 am and he would take me to the train station. By the way, as a side note, I basically froze all night last night. This meant that I didn't sleep all that great and I was really tired when I had to get up. So, I met up with him, and it turned out that he had waited for me to come down before eating. It was fast Sunday, so I just told him I had already eaten since I didn't want him to feel like he needed to encourage me to eat; nor did I want to get into the discussion of why I fast. It just was too early to try figuring out how to explain something religious in a secular way. Anyway, we left for the bus stop, but as we walked there the bus we were looking for drove off. So, we waited for a bit before he decided to just take a taxi. It's only a 5-10 minute drive from my school, so it wasn't too bad. When I got there I saw Chris, Aimee, and Savannah waiting there since we're all in the area Dantu (丹徒）. Basically it's just like an area of ZhenJiang that's on the southern end. Well, I went up to the window to get my train ticket and realized I didn't have my passport with me. See, last time I was here I didn't need my passport for train tickets and stuff. Apparently that changed. So I called my liaison and he walked back to the square. He called the principle's driver to come pick us up then take us back to the school and then back to the train station to catch the 9:00 train (we originally were supposed to meet at the train station at 8:00 am to catch the first train that came after that). On the way back to the train station he told me that there is a church in ZhenJiang and so "next time maybe you just go there". I had to try explaining that the churches were different, which is very difficult sometimes when they don't understand anything about church to begin with. Anyway, I figured it out and we got our tickets to the train 10 minutes before it left so by the time we got inside it was already time to line up to go to the train platform. Anyway, we made it on the train and got to the subway alright, but then we had to figure out where the right staircase for the direction we wanted to go on line 1 was at (they separated them in two areas). So long story short, we finally made it to church just in time to sing the last line of the sacrament song. Next time we'll know where we're going, so it'll be easier to get there on time. :)
So, church was really nice. It was really cool to hear the testimonies of the people who have been living in China for awhile. We also got to meet a lot of them and start getting to know the people we'll be meeting with every week. I have to say it was really nice to actually meet with people because even though it had only been a day, I think most people were feeling a bit alone. So it was good that we could all meet up and talk about what happened our first day with the school and stuff like that. Anyway, I have to say that if today was any indication, no one seems to sing any louder than like a whisper almost, so when I actually sing at what would normally be a regular volume, it felt like I was singing super loud. We'll see how it goes next week- hopefully I don't end up sticking out too much. Oh, and after church ended a lady came up to Kirsten and I and asked if we could help out with Primary next week (her playing piano, me leading). So, that should be fun.
Aimee and Savannah were supposed to be back at their school by 3:15, so I went back with them to just make sure they could get back alright (the first time tends to be more confusing and stuff). Anyway, when we got our tickets we were told that the next train with available seats wasn't leaving until 4:30. So we got to wait. Since we knew we would have to wait for 2 hours, we decided that it was an "ox in the mire" situation and we bought McDonald's so that we could break our fast and sit inside instead of out in the cold. Well when it got to be about 3:45 we decided to go find our way to our gate. I found some seats while they went to the bathroom, and I happened to sit across a boy about 14 years old. He started talking to me with the English he knew, and when I said something in Chinese after a bit he was excited and we just had a nice conversation. It's really cool that I can just have a conversation with a random boy in the train station and it doesn't feel weird at all. In America, that type of thing always made me feel a bit weird, but here it just seems normal. Anyway, he helped us know when to go line up for the train. When we lined up for our train car, we briefly met another guy who was also in our car. Well, once we got off the train and found our bus stop, we discovered that he was actually going on the same bus we were. Since I hadn't actually taken the bus that morning, I was a little wary about recognizing when to get off, especially since I took a different bus than the one we were originally going to take that morning (according to my liaison, I could take either one, and Aimee and Savannah were taking this one). So I asked him if he happened to know where my school was at, and it just so happened that he was also getting off where I needed to go, so he said to follow him. When the time came, we got off and just started walking. I got to talk to him quite a bit and it turns out that he is a college student in Nanjing but he was coming home for whatever reason. Anyway, we had a really good conversation and it just reminded me again of all the wonderful people there are here in China that are so willing to help. He walked me all the way to my school gate. I'm not sure where he was headed after that, and I don't know if the school was actually on his way or not, but I'm really grateful he was willing to help a foreigner who didn't really know the area.
One random tidbit is that many of the people I've talked to today have asked me how many years I have been in China (usually this is followed by me talking to them in Chinese for a couple minutes). When I tell them I've only been here for 2 or so weeks, they're all really surprised. I have to say this made me feel SO much better about my Chinese, especially after feeling like I didn't understand anyone yesterday.
Anyway, the rest of today was mostly just me catching up on blogging, etc. I'm still behind, so I wrote this in Word, and I'll post it after I get the rest of the Beijing trip written down.
Well, until next time! 再见！
So yesterday I had to tell 王蕾 (Ray) that I had to go to Nanjing and when he asked why I told him that I was going to church. So he said to meet him at 7:30 am and he would take me to the train station. By the way, as a side note, I basically froze all night last night. This meant that I didn't sleep all that great and I was really tired when I had to get up. So, I met up with him, and it turned out that he had waited for me to come down before eating. It was fast Sunday, so I just told him I had already eaten since I didn't want him to feel like he needed to encourage me to eat; nor did I want to get into the discussion of why I fast. It just was too early to try figuring out how to explain something religious in a secular way. Anyway, we left for the bus stop, but as we walked there the bus we were looking for drove off. So, we waited for a bit before he decided to just take a taxi. It's only a 5-10 minute drive from my school, so it wasn't too bad. When I got there I saw Chris, Aimee, and Savannah waiting there since we're all in the area Dantu (丹徒）. Basically it's just like an area of ZhenJiang that's on the southern end. Well, I went up to the window to get my train ticket and realized I didn't have my passport with me. See, last time I was here I didn't need my passport for train tickets and stuff. Apparently that changed. So I called my liaison and he walked back to the square. He called the principle's driver to come pick us up then take us back to the school and then back to the train station to catch the 9:00 train (we originally were supposed to meet at the train station at 8:00 am to catch the first train that came after that). On the way back to the train station he told me that there is a church in ZhenJiang and so "next time maybe you just go there". I had to try explaining that the churches were different, which is very difficult sometimes when they don't understand anything about church to begin with. Anyway, I figured it out and we got our tickets to the train 10 minutes before it left so by the time we got inside it was already time to line up to go to the train platform. Anyway, we made it on the train and got to the subway alright, but then we had to figure out where the right staircase for the direction we wanted to go on line 1 was at (they separated them in two areas). So long story short, we finally made it to church just in time to sing the last line of the sacrament song. Next time we'll know where we're going, so it'll be easier to get there on time. :)
So, church was really nice. It was really cool to hear the testimonies of the people who have been living in China for awhile. We also got to meet a lot of them and start getting to know the people we'll be meeting with every week. I have to say it was really nice to actually meet with people because even though it had only been a day, I think most people were feeling a bit alone. So it was good that we could all meet up and talk about what happened our first day with the school and stuff like that. Anyway, I have to say that if today was any indication, no one seems to sing any louder than like a whisper almost, so when I actually sing at what would normally be a regular volume, it felt like I was singing super loud. We'll see how it goes next week- hopefully I don't end up sticking out too much. Oh, and after church ended a lady came up to Kirsten and I and asked if we could help out with Primary next week (her playing piano, me leading). So, that should be fun.
Aimee and Savannah were supposed to be back at their school by 3:15, so I went back with them to just make sure they could get back alright (the first time tends to be more confusing and stuff). Anyway, when we got our tickets we were told that the next train with available seats wasn't leaving until 4:30. So we got to wait. Since we knew we would have to wait for 2 hours, we decided that it was an "ox in the mire" situation and we bought McDonald's so that we could break our fast and sit inside instead of out in the cold. Well when it got to be about 3:45 we decided to go find our way to our gate. I found some seats while they went to the bathroom, and I happened to sit across a boy about 14 years old. He started talking to me with the English he knew, and when I said something in Chinese after a bit he was excited and we just had a nice conversation. It's really cool that I can just have a conversation with a random boy in the train station and it doesn't feel weird at all. In America, that type of thing always made me feel a bit weird, but here it just seems normal. Anyway, he helped us know when to go line up for the train. When we lined up for our train car, we briefly met another guy who was also in our car. Well, once we got off the train and found our bus stop, we discovered that he was actually going on the same bus we were. Since I hadn't actually taken the bus that morning, I was a little wary about recognizing when to get off, especially since I took a different bus than the one we were originally going to take that morning (according to my liaison, I could take either one, and Aimee and Savannah were taking this one). So I asked him if he happened to know where my school was at, and it just so happened that he was also getting off where I needed to go, so he said to follow him. When the time came, we got off and just started walking. I got to talk to him quite a bit and it turns out that he is a college student in Nanjing but he was coming home for whatever reason. Anyway, we had a really good conversation and it just reminded me again of all the wonderful people there are here in China that are so willing to help. He walked me all the way to my school gate. I'm not sure where he was headed after that, and I don't know if the school was actually on his way or not, but I'm really grateful he was willing to help a foreigner who didn't really know the area.
One random tidbit is that many of the people I've talked to today have asked me how many years I have been in China (usually this is followed by me talking to them in Chinese for a couple minutes). When I tell them I've only been here for 2 or so weeks, they're all really surprised. I have to say this made me feel SO much better about my Chinese, especially after feeling like I didn't understand anyone yesterday.
Anyway, the rest of today was mostly just me catching up on blogging, etc. I'm still behind, so I wrote this in Word, and I'll post it after I get the rest of the Beijing trip written down.
Well, until next time! 再见！
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