Leap Day

Here is a picture from the potluck!

Happy Leap Day!

Mine was filled with things.  We started this 'extra' day with a lunch potluck.  It was wonderful!  I went a little overboard and made 4 dishes, and brought boiled eggs for a 5th, but didn't serve it.  The food was delicious--a huge mix of Chinese and American food, as I made homemade macaroni and cheese, goulash, and black bean salad, and there was roast duck and soy sauce as well (which was the chinese side, not brought by me, though!).  I also made eggplant for the first time in my life.  It was really good.  I followed a Chinese recipe, and it tasted great.  I will be making it again!

The rest of Leap Day was spent rearranging many things in the center--my classroom is no longer a storage room!  And all of the teacher desks now have computers on them, instead of having 3 in the waiting room that are usually not used, and 2 in the teacher area that we fight to use...now we all have our own!  And that means that I no longer need to lug my computer back and forth if I don't need a Mac at the office...for newsletters I'll need to bring it, but other than that I can leave it at home.

I had 3 students today, and we talked about very different things in each class.  In one we did mostly grammar, in one we talked about Jeremy Lin and the great impact that he is having on basketball and also on the world with his good sportsmanship and wonderful conduct in the sport--not to mention a wonderful Christian influence on many young people!  With my last student I taught the story of the American Flag--what the stars and stripes represent.  He had never heard it, and was really intrigued.  He told me about the China flag, but didn't know what the stars represent.

I should be uploading my March newsletter soon.  It is formatted, I just have to add some text.

I am very excited for Hannah to get here!!!  She gets here on the 13th, and we are planning a get-to-know-the-new-teacher potluck the next day :)  I am so excited!  The potluck today was amazing, and I can't wait for another!

On the 17th (yes, St. Patty's day!) we are having an event from 12-2.  I have class from 10-12 and from 2-5, so that will be a busy day!  But I am excited.  It should be a good time.  I have 2 new students starting next week, too, so everything is starting to pick up!

This Saturday after classes, I am going to Hong Kong to visit some people.  I am visiting some supporters, some friends, and other people that I don't know but are from South Dakota!  I am very excited to get to see some people from home!

Ok, that's about it, I think!  Have a wonderful day :)  Enjoy every minute of Leap Day!

Wow--it is the middle of February!  I think I say how surprised it is that it's the middle of the month pretty much every month--but this month especially.

Today I celebrated my 6 month anniversary with Macau.  I am so excited to have reached this point, but I realized that that means that I am half way done with my 1 year commitment.  Before you ask, my plans for next year are yet to be determined, so stay tuned to hear about what God has planned for me and where He will send me :)

But on to the updates!

This month has been full of things.  I feel like I have been busy all the time, which is great.  It has included spending time with some friends both in Macau and in China, and doing last minute things which lasted a lot longer than planned.  I spent time with one of my students for the first time.  I got to spend time with his entire family as I helped his oldest son with a school project and then we toured the wine museum.  It was a fun day.  I also got to see lots of Chinese culture by eating at Chinese restaurants, visiting temples, and more!  

Classes have been fun--I have been teaching grammar to some students and TOEFL prep to others, with some other students who are doing other things.  But by far the most interesting are the free classes.  I have a children's class on Fridays, which is never boring.  We recently got construction paper with has allowed me to be a little creative with letting them make books of the lesson, and I have been asking them to tell the story in Chinese to their parents using the pictures.  Last Friday we did Psalm 23, and we drew a picture of a sheep, shepherd, and a background with various elements from the psalm, and it is great.  It turned out great.  The kids had lots of fun, and I think they learned something as well!  I had my friend and coworker Lily help me by teaching the lesson in Chinese after I taught it in English, and it helped with comprehension, especially since we have some kids with zero English ability!

Even though classes have been enjoyable, my favorite part is relationship building.  I spend a wonderful evening at a special Valentine's Day concert with a friend of mine.  She and I both got roses on our way in, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear the Italian opera music, which was translated on screens into Chinese, Portuguese, and English.  It was great.  Then we walked around the area of Macau that we were in and just had a great time 

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day: church in the morning, followed by getting ready for our social activity.  We will be having a "Wii love English" party where we play the Wii and also other games all while conversing in English.  Afterwards I go to the newly opened Hard Rock Cafe.  I think there was another thing or two on the agenda, but I don't remember!

**update** 

I didn't eat at the Hard Rock Cafe--time was too short, so we ate fast food pizza instead!  But the Wii Love English time was fun, and we had some great conversations, amazing food (Maggie cooked an amazing Pumpkin-Coconut soup!!), and some fun time with the Wii!

**end update**

Anyway, please pray for peace and serenity and wisdom, along with health, safety, and confidence :)  

Have a wonderful day, and God bless!!

Life's happenings.

It's a wonderful day in China!  Tonight I am going to a Valentine's Day concert with my friend Mandy.  I will then come home to a full house of people!  I have a family staying with me tonight, and I am excited because they have a baby: I hope to be able to spend some quality time with the baby--and the rest of the family too, of course! I just miss spending time with babies!

Classes are coming to an end for the week.  It's kind of exciting to experience the first week back to classes after New Year and to discuss with my students about what they did.  I enjoy hearing the stories and such of the traditions and the celebrations.

Mostly I am excited because our team is just really pumped up right now.  We had a training in China that I wasn't really excited for.... but as much as I hate to admit it, my boss was right: it was a wonderful thing for us.  We learned some things with teaching, but most importantly it got us pumped up about our team and about our work, and also got us pumped because we have 2 new teachers coming to Macau!  One just arrived--he will be here for 2 months.  He is a retired pastor from Canada, and seems to be very nice.  The other is a sweet girl from Illinois, Hannah!  She will be here for a year.  Serena and I are very excited for her to come to join us in the office.  We have tons of fun by ourselves in the office, but it will be even greater to have a 3rd young lady!

Another thing that we all got pumped up about was language learning.  We were revitalized in our desire to learn the language: Serena and Matt, Cantonese; me, Mandarin.  It's been fun around the office lately with lots of jokes and songs and what not.

We have a Bilingual (but this week mostly English) Worship service on Sunday (tomorrow), and Serena and I are going to be singing a song where the first part is just acapella and we are singing harmonies.  We sang it in China when we had training, and it was requested for us to sing it again tomorrow, so we are excited to do that :)

I can't think of other updates...for those of you who heard that I was sick yet again...I am better!  I have been drinking more water in these last couple days than I did in all of January, probably.  I am mixing the hot and the cold so that it warms me up on the bus and in my house and at work where...well...it's fairly cold.  But it's been melting the water bottles...not sure if that's safe or not, so I should probably just get a thermos or something...we'll see.

I just want to say that my "Macau Facts" page has had over 4,000 hits since I started the page.  Most are from Google Images searches, but it has been a blessing to know that people from all over the world are looking at the site.  Hopefully while they're there they are able to look around the website and see some more stuff besides just the pictures of Macau!  I know that I have had a few people actually message me to comment on some stuff, so this blog has truly been a blessing :)  Thanks to those of you who read it and are interested in what is going on here in Macau!

Newsletter Up

I just posted my february newsletter, so check it out!

I have some wonderful news:

Hannah is now past 70% funded, so can make preparations to come to Macau!  I am very excited for this to happen :)

Check out her blog when you have some time!  And help her reach the 100% mark while you're at it! :)