Oh life. Oh how you are wonderful. Oh how you suck at times.
I need to keep this up better.

I've learned that I need to take time for myself. I'm not exactly sure when or where. But I need to. Or else I'm not sure I'll survive this semester. Between classes, work, internship and nannying, I am left with little time for myself, or friends for that matter. And I don't like this. The truth is, though, I love everything I"m doing in my life right now, but it's really hard to enjoy EVERYTHING when you have no personal time. I am a huge "Angie time" person. And more importantly "Angie-G-d time" person. These two aspect of my life have been...limited. And I don't like this.

Lesson of this week so far:
I need "Angie time" and "Angie-God time."
I need to talk to my friends. Life is too short to NOT spend time with people I love.

Goal:
Do morning devotions and read Bible at night.
Schedule exercise times into schedule. Don't let self skip these work outs. (3-4 times a week)
Call at least one friend a week to catch up.

God-
First, thanks for all the wonderful opportunities you have provided me this semester. Help me view these as huge blessings to help others and ultimately serve you. I need help, though. I need strength from you. Strength to make it through my day. Remind me daily (and hourly as needed) that I live for you. Serving these people is how I can serve you. You tell us that what we do for the least of these brothers we are doing for you. Remind me of this. Give me strength when I need it.
Help me to budget my time as I fulfill multiple roles this semester. Help me dedicate appropriate time to each of these roles and opportunities you have given me. Help me be the best: student, girlfriend, daughter, friend, nanny, intern, sister, care provider, Christian, church member, witness that I can be.
Help me look forward, not backwards. I do miss China. Help me allow myself to feel these feelings and not ignore and suppress them. And when I do feel this intense feeling of "miss" help me deal with it. Help me recognize the benefits of being home and not be jealous of the people who are over in China.
Be with my friends in China. Keep them growing, in YOU, most importantly. I miss them, dearly.
God, you're great. Help me remember this and have you be the LORD of my life, all parts of my life.
I love you with everything.
Angie


Oh I feel better right now than I did...30 minutes ago. Talking to God does help. A lot. Another lesson, not really learned because I KNEW that, but re-taught to me tonight.


Oh, and I cut and colored my hair. It's red-ish. And short. I love it.

Good night.

in HIM,

Angie

Well.
I'm home.
And have been here for almost one month.
...and
it
feels
wonderful.

So very very wonderful. I, once again, can't put into words how blessed I am. How many people I missed so deeply this past year. I think, at times, I suppressed some feelings of missing people, because, as some of us know, dealing with feelings and emotions is harder than just ignoring them.
Coming home has made me realize how wonderfully God has blessed me.

I had a little heart to heart with a friend the other day (on the back of his motorcycle :-) ) and I told him that is seems that I needed to be taken out of my comfort zone, away from all things familiar, away from the wonderful people in my life...to realize that I LOVE my life.
And ya know what, I'm okay with that.
I'm okay with knowing I needed that. God knew WAY better than I ever could, what's best for my life and for me and for my walk with HIM. And I'm thankful.

Do I miss China?
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES. So, so much.
I miss so many wonderful things and people on the other side of the world.
But I'm not letting those feelings surface...yet. Oh, don't get me wrong...they will. But for now, I'm enjoying being home. Loving seeing my friends and fam, loving eating cheese and cheering on the Brewers, loving driving my car and drying my clothes, loving...life. And standing back in awe at what a wonderful God we have to know what I needed in my life and that particular time.

But, here's a run down of my life, quickly, over the past month...28 days to be exact..

I landed in Chicago, where my parents and boyfriend greeted me...



I went to the Carrie Underwood concert with my poppa and cried when she sang "Temporary Home" and "Jesus Take the Wheel/How Great Thou Art"


I went to my first Brewer's game and sat in the front row with my cousins and mom, dad, aunt and uncle. Felt so good to be back there. Love love Miller Park and the crew.


I met Cora, William and Andrew Wakeman in Oshkosh for a day of fun...swimming and shopping at Walmart...Love this boy...


Made a trip to Wautoma to "camp" at Camp Phillip with Anna. Which actually entailed sleeping in the pop up outside the Wakeman's house. The Schaefer's came too. And it was wonderful. I was so so so happy to have girl time with some of the best friends a girl could ask for.
Anna, William and I:


I seriously love these ladies:


I went for a ride on Ian's new motorcycle. I was scared at first, but LOVE LOVED it. I want one:


Jordan and I celebrated our one year anniversary. Yep, that's right, one year. Wow. We did the same thing as we did on our first date...Brewer's game at nearly the same seats, ran into Reuben at the game, went to Sonic after....What a guy he is...
Same picture as a year ago


I went camping with Jordan and some of his friends and family. "Nelliefest"..is always a good time. We played bags, went on the boat, went swimming, went rafting, slept in, hung out...good times...
I love up North Wisconsin:




The boy's great too


I also made a trip out to Texas to visit the big brother. I love that place. Austin is one of the coolest cities I've been to.
We...
ate at many cool Austin original resturants...
-Rudy's in Austin...you eat off a piece of paper! haha
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-Mi Casa in San Antonio on the River Walk

-Chuy's, delicious Tex Mex in Austin


Did many things outside..
-Went to Round Rock Express game

-Saw some longhorns Lyndon B. Johnson's childhood ranch

-Hiked up this rock, Enchanted Rock

-Visited the Capitol building

-Went to the top of Mount Bonnell

-Watched the sunset at the Oasis


And..of course..
Tried on some cowboys boots..


All this in...28 days. I've been a busy girl. But loving life.
Now, I gotta find a job! ha.

Life is good.
I love America.
But more than America, I love the people who are in my life.
I can't tell you how thankful I am for these people that God has blessed me with.

One thankful girl, right here. Missing China more and more every day, but loving life on this side of the pond.

As always,
in HIM, who guides and directs our life. Took me to China and back. To teach me things I don't even know I've learned yet and many things I do know,

Angie

This girl is feeling a little stressed out...
What if my luggage is overweight??
What if I can't speak to the worker at the aiport to explain to them that I'm connecting to an international flight??
What if Leaf doesn't meet me at the aiport?
What if my phone doesn't work?
What if my hotel in Beijing is super ghetto?
What if?
What if?
What if?



The beach was a good de-stressor for the past few days, but now it may or may not be stress until I leave.

I have a feeling once I get on the flight on July 1st, right after saying goodbye to Leaf I will just cry and cry and cry. Cry of sadness. Cry of happiness. Cry of relief. Just cry.
Then fall asleep.
And wake up and be in Chicago.
One can only hope.

I just want it to be July 1 at 4:16pm and I'm in Chicago with my dad and Jordan.

"The L-rd said come to me you who are weak and carry around a heavy burden a heavy heart, I'll give you a brand new start. I'll take your load I'll set you free, come, come to me."

It'll be fine.

Father, be with me. I'm stressed. Nervous. Worried. Give me strength. Calm my nerves. You have shown me you are with me the past 10 months, of course you're not going to leave me now. Help me TRUST.
Amen.

"..and when I am weak YOU are strong."

(Thanks Camp songs for coming back to me now.)

Pr-yers for safe travels are apprecited.

See you all soon.
So long ocean!

in HIM, who WILL calm my fears and give me the strength,

Angie

Angie, "Wait...today is Thursday?"
Becky, "I thought you said Friday this morning at our hostel."

....this is life when you lay on the beach ALLLLLL DAY LONG.
You are too lazy to bargain the local fruit vendors for mangos and coconuts, so instead you pretend to be sleeping and then they eventually go away.

This is our life for the past four and half days.
Loving it.

We bought sarongs and had a photo shoot at the beach..










Taking the day off from the sun tomorrow, but we have been loving laying on the beach and swimming all day long.

in HIM,

Angie

 Oh my oh my oh my oh my.
So, I have been too busy to update this for awhile.  
Too busy, too emotionally confused.  Too many thoughts rolling around in this head to type them out... Too...everything.
But, after saying my goodbyes to everyone and everything I have come to love AND two wonderfully relaxing and reflective days on the beach, I have come to a few conclusions and feel like my thoughts are sorted out much much better.
So, here goes...

Philippians 4:6, "Rejoice in the L-rd always.  I will say it again, rejoice!"
This passage is SO hard for me to apply.  So we read this part at our last study parties.  And here I sit, while our friends are reading this, crying.  Crying because I'm so sad to leave these people.  Having such a hard time with this concept of leaving them...after teaching them about the Book, and just trusting that HE will provide for them.  HE will keep them near to HIM.  And while I know I am only an instrument (more on this later), it's hard to let go.  Hard to take a more hands off role in their walk with HIM.  But HE says "Rejoice!"  Yes, Angie, rejoice.  After we read that, Becky talked about how we are all feeling a little sad to say goodbye, but we can rejoice, why?  One of our friends said, "Jsus loves us.  He will take us to heav-n."  What a basic, but powerful answer.  Yes, maybe I'm feeling sad to leave these people, but I have the best and most important reason to rejoice.  Jsus loves me.  He will take me to heavn.  Rejoice.  And I can.  And I do.  

We also read, "I have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation..." (Phil. 4:12). Contentment.  Such a basic concept, but, again, so difficult to implement.  To truly be content.  We also read this part with our friends and at the end of one or our parties Lincoln, a friend, came up to me and said, "We are all so content to have gotten to know you, but not content to say goodbye to you."  And then I said, "But we can be content knowing that we'll meet again in heav-n someday."  (I say this as I'm crying....)
But, really.  I am content.  Not as content as I could be, but content nonetheless.  

This is one thankful girl. Leaving Yinchuan was hard.  Very hard.  I cried.  A lot.  And felt, just very sad, and weird.  I kind of didn't know how to feel.  Pure excitement to come home, fear of leaving, lack of trust, a heart full of trust...The weirdest mix of emotions ever. I have left people.  I have said goodbye to places and people that I love. But, this just felt so different.  So different knowing that I may never see these people again on this side of heaven.  Having such a bond with these people.  I mean our friendship was based on them wanting to learn about the Book. They got excited to study the Book.  The looked forward to our study every week.  HE bonded us together with them.  Trusting that HE will provide for our friends.  Knowing that if HE has chosen them, we will meet again.  They will be in heavn.  He tells us in John 10:28, "I give them the words of etern-l life.  NO ONE can snatch them out of my hands."  No one.  Doesn't matter if I'm gone out of their lives physically.  HE's still there.  And HE's the important piece.  NO ONE can snatch them from HIS hands.  This doesn't just apply to me.  But to those friends that I have grown to love.   I'm just one small piece of his plan for the f-ith.  And this girl is very thankful to be part of this plan.  What a wonderful privilege.  What an amazing experience.  What an eye opening opportunity.  Thanks, Father, for allowing me to be a part of this.  For allowing me to be your hands and feet.  I feel...so...humbled. 
Seeing the Holy Sprit work on their hearts has been so so cool.  Seeing the power of Gd and how HE works is so cool.
"As the rain and the snow come down from the heaven, and do not return to it without watering the each and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."  (Isaiah 55:10-11)
Yes.  HIS word is powerful.  I have definitely learned and seen this over the past 10 months.  HIS word will not return to him empty.  So thankful to have seen and learned this.  So thankful to be an instrument.  
Sometimes I think I learned more than my friends did this year.  Not only was this in HIS plan for THEIR walk of fa-th, but also for mine.  He used this year to grow me.  To teach me many lessons.  To show me HE is all I need. HE is sufficient.  HE will give me strength when I don't think I have it.  

Let's just say, this girl is very very thankful.  And wishes she was better able to put this into words, but can't.  Sometimes words just don't convey feelings and emotions very well.  

That being said, she's also sad.  I got so used to my life there.  Tuesday night=study.  Wednesday night=Study.  Friday night=study.  Saturday night=study.  Gonna miss that.  Gonna miss bao zi restaurant outside our apartment and Sunday restaurant, and monkey man, and the 102 bus and Nanmen, and Wenzhou, and comeback, and street food, and street shopping, and new city, and drink able yogurt, and public transportation, and the relaxing lifestyle, and the people.  Oh the people.  How can I not miss the people.  They are what make China wonderful.  Really.
Won't miss the smells, communicating with my boyfriend via skype, missing out on things back home, children peeing in the streets, garbage everywhere, throwing toilet paper into the garbage cans, Chinese toilets,  the inconvenience of public transportation..

Let me take you back through my last week or so in Yinchuan.  Other than doing lots of last minute shopping/packing/cleaning, we had to get our grades into our school after giving exams that we didn't know we had to give.  Oh well.  Got that taken care of.
For one of my classes we had an extra class after the exam so we went to this park in Yinchaun. It was fun to hang out with them outside of the classroom:


And my other class:



That night we had our final study party for Friday study friends. We wanted to do something outside, but we thought we might we in trouble, so we decided to forget that idea, and my mom had sent me twister in a package. So we played it. And it was hilarious. And so much fun. We laughed... a lot.


Was hard to say goodbye. Here are pictures of the people I have grown to love:
Group shot:


For our last women's study we went to KTV and had so much fun. We also read chapter four of Philippians, parts of it. This was our first good bye party. I cried the whole bus ride home. These girlies are special to me. Gosh, I get sad just thinking about it:


And here's some pics from our last Tuesday/Saturday study party. We had this party on Sunday. The day before we left Yinchuan. This was my hardest goodbyes. I cried so.so much saying goodbye to these people. I can't tell you or put into words how much these people have touched my heart. Wish you could meet them all:


NO ONE can snatch them out of HIS hands. Trust this, Angie. Trust it.

Our last night in Yinchuan was spent at one of our favorite hot pot resturaunts after leaving our study party. Then going home and packing up and finishing last minute things until about 3am. Had to leave our apartment at 6am. But, we did it. Got all our stuff safely to Sanya,Hainan and have been loving relaxing on the beach and just having some reflection time.

We were really excited to be on the beach:


This picture was taking on one of our many walks:


My view, ahhhhh:


Beautiful:


Loving Sanya and the much needed vacation after many emotional goodbyes. REALLY looking forward to coming home. REALLY.

Thought this post would be more organized, but it wasn't really. Oh well. Here are my raw thoughts. Well, a few of them. Got lots floating around still. Maybe write more later but for now, it's bed time.

Thanks for reading and for keeping up with me on this adventure. Can't believe it's almost over and I'll be in the land of the free in one week. Seven days. Wow.

HE is good.
Thanks.

In HIM,

Angie

Wow. So it's been a long time.
I think since getting on facebook, I've been less likely to update this, which is lame of me.
So, let me update you on my life recently.

Well, Jon was here awhile ago. He, Becky and I went to this place called "Tea Bra." It was supposed to be "Tea Bar," but ya know, they spelled it wrong. It was fun though. Lots of fun. WE were there all night...playing bananagrams.
Here we are, at Tea Bra, note the sign:


Also, I'm done with classes. Well, kinda. Technically I have two classes on Friday, but with one of my classes we're going to ZhongShan park and with the other we're playing basketball.
So exams went well with my classes. I had them each speak, which was a little redundant for me as I have about 550 students. But it was good. Glad to be done with that, though.


I also started packing. This is weird. Most of my clothes are packed up. I have one big bag full of stuff. Actually most of my stuff is packed up. My bedroom is starting to look empty. Although I refuse to take things off the walls until the last day. It's just too lonely if I take everything down.

So the other day, Becky and I were laying out in the sun. And I decided to go swimming. I figured the Chinese people swim in this little river, so I can too. I won't die, even though the water is brown. So i went for it. The water was so nasty, but it was fun.
This is where I swim, beautiful, right?:



Oh yeah, did I mention that those Chinese men who swim don't wear swimming suits. They wear their little underwear...or speedos if you're lucky. But it's funny, but nasty. I have definitely seen my fair share of Chinese men in their speedos. Definitely.

Oh yeah, and I've been doing some shopping lately. Mark and I went shopping on Saturday morning (Between my classes, because, yep, I had to teach this weekend..lame) But we went shopping and that was so fun. We had a good time making friends with some of the workers and searching and finding gifts for some people. Oh, I'm gonna miss shopping in China. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with shopping and bargaining in China. If I'm in the mood, I LOVE it, if I'm not in the mood..I ABSOLUTELY HATE iT. But lately, I've been in the mood, and well, my bank account isn't loving it.
Sometimes when I'm shopping, I feel like an animal in a zoo. Especially if I speak any Chinese. Pretty much everyone will stop and stare. This is something that I can ignore, but if I'm tired, I also hate it.
Good this I was in the mood on Saturday. Mark and I were definitely drawing a crowd at one shop. Everyone stopped to watch up talk to the worker, the hilarious worker.

The next morning, we met up with one of our study friends, Season, who took us to a place where we could get our ears pierced! I LOVE getting my ears pierced, I think it's so fun. And it's three kuai (45 cents). So, I got a few new holes in my ears. Now, I have very sensitive ears, so I have to have decent ear rings in, and actually once had to go to the emergency room because my ear rings were bad and infected my ears so badly. But, meh, go for it. Well, they pierced our ears with cheap earrings, of course. And told us that in three days we should change them to silver earrings (who knows what these were made out of...) So, I also got some silver earrings to change them. I was thinking I would try to keep these in as long as I could, but when they started to hurt/swell I would change them. Well, they lasted about 24 hours, and this morning I changed my earrings. I got five pierced yesterday, and four survived. One of them was bleeding pretty badly this morning and quite swollen, so I just took it out. Oh well, wasted 45 cents. I do, however want to get it re-pierced when I get back to the states.

Some pics:


I love this one:


Sherry, Me, Becky, Season and I at the ear piercing place:


Then, last night, we went out to dinner with our good friends, the Wei's. Little did we know that it was Sarah's birthday. We met them at the gate to their apartment and then went out to a restaurant for dinner.

Group picture:


Oh, and Mr. Wei and Grace got Sarah a birthday cake, so I taught them about our family tradition that if you talk when eating your birthday cake you have to eat under the table. Well, Sarah talked. So, she went under the table. It was funny. We all laughed a lot.



Sad to think that was the second to last time I'll be seeing them. Ah. I'm so ready, but yet not ready at all to leave.

Anyways, back to the fun stuff.

Today, Becky, Destin and I got massages. From the blind people. Becky and I got feet massages and Destin got fully body massage. Ah, the foot massage was WONDERFUL. My feet were loving me.
After massages we decided to walk around this park near the massage place. Outside this park they sell balloons. And I thought it would be fun to get some. So Destin and I bought a balloon. Ha. These balloons are definitely for children, but we had fun with them.

Girl day with balloons:


I wanted to let our balloons go and make a wish. Unfortunately, mine got caught in the tree. So my wish won't come true. And we spent awhile trying to get it out. Oh, but it was so so funny.
This park also had a water park. and a zoo. and a skating rink. But we just walked around. It's actually really pretty.

Then, tonight at study. well we had study. Which was great, of course. BUT, we were talking about traditional chinese medicine. And one of our friends is really into that, and so she ran home to get some of it so she could do it on us. Just natural stuff. So I got these cup things put on my back. First, she puts fire into the cup and then she puts it on your back...and it sticks. And the pressure builds up in the cup-thing and your skin rises into the cup-thing. It's supposed to relieve tension and pain where ever you do it. Oh man, I was dying of laughter because I said I would NEVER do this. I thought it would hurt, so badly, but actually it wasn't too bad. Weird feeling, but not tooooooo bad.



These marks will be on my back for a little less than a week. Ha.:


Here May is teaching me how to do this. See the fire, you circle that fire inside that cup and then put it on the skin. It's not hard. I can do it. Don't worry, she gave me a set, so I can bring this back home. If any of you have pain, just let me know. :-)


So tonight was learn about Phillipians chapter 3 and also learn Traditional Chinese Medicine. ha. Good combo.

Tomorrow, Becky, Mark and I are going to Sand Lake, which is supposedly famous. Should be a good time. I should head off to bed. After I finish watching the Bachelorette that is.

This girl has 6 days left in Yinchuan and 15 days left in China. Crazy. Ah. Excited to come home. Really am.

Livin' it up these last two weeks.

Love you all.

in HIM,

Angie

So, Becky and I booked our flights to Sanya!
Sanya, Hainan. If you haven't yet, you should really google it and see how wonderfully beautiful and relaxing our vacation will be.
But, this means we will be leaving here in 15 days. Yep, 15 days left in the place that I have come to call my home for the past nine and a half months. Wow.

The packing has begun:





Something I'm actually going to miss when I leave China, that I thought I wouldn't: hanging my clothes to dry. It makes my whole room smell clean. And sure enough, my 19 kuai clothes survived their first washing. :-) Happy about that one!



Time to get ready for study.

in HIM,

Angie

I forgot to mention and I CAN'T WAIT to hang out with my wonderfully amazing sister.
Popodyssey/Truth tour.
Nights with CoCo.
Grilling out at her apartment.
Shop in America without bargaining.
Decorate her apartment.
Get my hair done. Many different times.
Go to Brewer's game.
Ch-rch at Grace then Bloody's after.
Days at the Lakefront.
Reminiscing about China.
...Just hanging out.

Can't wait.

Wow. We've been busy. Legitimately didn't have time to update this. Let me fill you in on my oh-so-exciting life for the past few days.
Let me just say that this week FLEW BY.
So, Becky and I are ADDICTED to "One Tree Hill. When I say addicted, I mean spend days, full days watching that show. That's what we spent last Thursday doing. It was amazingly fun. But the show actually gets kinda scary. Well, maybe more like creepy. But, addicting. Let's just say I will never name my son Derrick. Nope. No thanks.

Anyways, the craziness started on Sunday. We started our day meeting up with a friend for lunch. Well, she came over and we exchanged pictures and then we went out to lunch. After lunch Becky wanted to get her haircut. So we went to the hair salon and she got her haircut. We spent the rest of our evening planning our exams.

On Monday morning we had exams at our first classes. Between classes I had a skype date. Then rushed back to school to do another exam in the afternoon. After class we met up with everyone for a dinner at our favorite Muslim restaurant. And by everyone, I mean Ted and Kim (from Beijing), Kim's cousin, and Becky, Eric, Mark and. It was delicious.
Our table FULL of food. MMMMMM:


After dinner we went back to our place for service. We weren't able to have service on Sunday because the boys had an English competition. So we had it Monday night all three of our visitors. That was fun. And nice. Just to w-rship with more people. I enjoyed that.
After service we went out for chuar, which is like meat on a stick, kinda of like shish ka bobs that are BBQ-ed. It's delicious. Dice game. Beer. Chuar. and Bing Zi. I love it.
Group picture:


Tuesday morning was more exams, between classes I skyped with Jordan. After my afternoon class, I came home and prepared for study, made dinner. Let me just tell you that I LOVE our Tuesday study. I know I know, I've told you. But as we get close to the end of the year I think I'm having a hard time thinking about leaving them. Each week, more and more people find out that I won't be here next year. So this week, we decided it was going to be picture night. So we took tons of pictures. Oh, and our Indian girls did a dance for us after our study. It was really cool. Love these people:
All of these girls were my students, first term. Three of the four are new to the Book. It's cool to share with them. So cool.


I LOVE LOVE this picture:


Special people.

After study, we decided to have a "girls night." Which started with chuar and beer and talking and ended with wine and chocolate and talking. It was definitely needed for this girl. I enjoyed it alot.
Ah, some of the perfect ingredients for a "girls night:"


Wednesday morning Jon Bare arrived from Beijing. We went out for lunch at our favorite Sunday resturuant that had been re done. And it looks so nice. We sat in a private air conditioned room. After lunch we went shopping at the "mall" here in Yinchaun. Spent a lot of time shopping, which was a lot of fun. I love shopping. If I'm in the right mood, I love shopping in China. Bargaining really is fun. Can be annoying at times, for sure, but I really do enjoy it usually. And this day, I enjoyed it.
After shopping, we went to new city and chilled in the shade and drank some yogurt. This is SO popular here. On almost every corner is a little vendor selling drinkable delicious yogurt with little umbrellas to sit under. So we sat under one and drank some yogurt and just chatted for awhile. Mmmm, they are so good. Really. I'm gonna miss this, a lot:


We also came across an awesome t shirt shop that sold a whole bunch of misprint t shirts and random shirts. We were looking at the huge clearance table that took up the whole center part of the store when we came across these awesome looking soccer goalie shirts. Too bad Kim and I don't play soccer Oh and that thing we're doing with our hands, in so Chinese. It's called "framing your face" haha:


After doing some shopping we had our women's study. Jon didn't come, cuz, we'll he's not a woman. Study was, wonderful as always.
After study we headed to meet up with the boys at a bar. It was a lot of fun. Mark and I got on "stage" to do this balloon contest. He was supposed to blow up the balloons and I was supposed to sit on them to pop them. But he sucked at blowing them up. But I was awesome at sitting on them. This is, unfortunately not a good combination.
This bar was actually cute on the inside. It reminded me of the rainforest cafe. We got a nice group picture outside:


Thursday morning we got up and I made a pancake breakfast for everyone. Mmmmmm.
After breakfast we all decided to do something touristy here in YC. Yes, there are some things. So we went to Xi Ta (West Tower). It's this tall tower, and we climbed up to the top of it. We had a pretty good view of the city. It was kinda creepy climbing up it, because it was like, attic stairs, up to the top. Some areas with lights, some without. But we made due. I was actually surprised with how much I liked it. Some highlights of the pictures:
Here's Xi Ta:


Becky and I with the tower:


At the top, the view isn't too bad:


The group at the top:


This was how we climbed all the way up to the top:


Xi Ta was fun. After climbing up that, we met the boys and Destin on walking street and were going to play laser tag with them. (I know! Laser tag in China!) Turns out, it's closed. Lame. We were pretty bummed about that. Epic fail. But we did do some more walking around/shopping. Then we walked to Nanmen, affectionately called TiananMini by us because I looks like a miniature Tiananmen Square. We ate a yogurt there. (I told you this is the thing to do) You can see Mao in the background:



And Jon got this picture. I love it. I love pictures that just capture life. Here we've got girl with sunbrella, on her phone, boots, nylons with shorts standing on TiananMini. I love it:


As I write this, I can't believe XiTa and TiananMini was just yesterday. Really. Seems like time has flown by this past week. Which is good.

Today was two classes/exams. Met up with Leaf for lunch between classes. Crashed on the couch for a nap before heading to the boy's for study tonight. Good night. Yeah, study is great.

I can't believe that in less than one month, 26 days I'll be back in the land of the free. Eating American food and hanging out with family and friends. Seeing Jordan and doing things like going to Carrie Underwood concert, camping, BREWER'S GAMES, preparing for school, going out for wine with Katie, movie nights with Cora...Crazay. That feels like a whole other life.
I won't be eating my favorite Chinese foods, taking the bus, loving loving studies, adoring my Chinese friends, being built up by them, having access to things like KTV and hot pot and XiXia beer, being a text message or phone call away from Leaf...
Crazy. I can't believe it. Lately I've been in this state of shock, I think. My emotions can't handle it. The pure excitement to come home. But the pure dread and sadness of leaving here. Of missing people and life here. Excitement that I have never felt before (let me tell you, absence does make the heart grow fonder in so so many respects) and fear that I've never felt before.
I'm ready, but I'm not to say goodbye. I'm tired of waiting, but I want to push it off. I want tomorrow to be July 1st, but I wish it was December 15th still. I feel...tired...of waking up everyday and having to work through the day because I just miss some things about home so much, but yet so revived after talking about the Book and after having study.
G-d you definitely give strength when strength is needed.
Anyways. That's just the surface of my thoughts regarding the next 26 days. Actually I have about 2 weeks here. Ah.
Give me the strength, Father, to make it. But also the courage to leave. To trust you have these people's souls in your hands. Not my hands. I'm just the tool. If you use me, you can use anyone. That's what I need...strength to press on and finish these next 26 days, and courage, courage to leave here, knowing you love my friends more than I do. Knowing that "No one can snatch them out of your hands." Knowing your presence in their life is 1,092,384,738,945,789,476,394,867 times more important than mine. Knowing that your presence in my life is 1,029,388,359,346,984,576 more important than their's in mine.
..Just a glimpse into the surface of my struggle. Thanks for the opportunity to battle this, though, L-rd.

Okay, it's 2:22am. This blog took me...a long time and three glasses of wine to write. Three glass of Chinese wine, but still. I'm ready to sleep. But I've got so many thoughts racing through this mind of mine.
Calm my mind and thoughts G-d. Please. I want to sleep tonight.

in HIM, who I'm learning to trust more and more with each new opportunity to do so, but who I'm struggling to trust with the souls of my Chinese friends, but really need and want to, so help me with this, Father,

Angie

Happy Memorial Day! :-)

Oh, and my life, yesterday, consisted of watching "One Tree Hill" with Becky. ALL day. Well, most of the day. I had a dream about the show. Wow.