Korea

I was able to go to Korea in early October to visit some friends who had moved there.  They are my former colleagues (from here in Macau).  It was so great to get to see them!

We were able to visit cultural hot spots, namely a palace and a preserved village. It was so cool to see what it used to be like.  I don't know if it would have been cool to live under a king or an emperor, but it was really neat to see the area and learn about the traditions.

The food there was delicious.  Most of the food was vegetables, and it was mostly spicy.  Every meal was accompanied by some sort of pickled vegetable and/or kimchi (which is pickled itself).  Most of the places where we ate served food that was cooked at your table.

One of the restaurants, however, didn't have that.  In fact, it was American: it was Taco Bell!  I was so excited to be able to eat at Taco Bell outside of America!  My Chinese friend who traveled with me had never eaten Taco Bell before, and was understanding when I said that it was my favorite fast food restaurant, because the taste was so delicious!

Something else that was super exciting was the baseball game.  We started off the day by going out to eat, but we had a 40 minute wait for a table.  Across the street there were some batting cages, so we crossed the street and hit some balls!  I hadn't played baseball in a LONG time, and it was fun to be able to do that!  Later that day, we went to a baseball game.  This game was so exciting!  Take the crowd from competative college basketball game and insert it into the baseball stadium.  It was jam packed, and the crowd was wild!  They were singing, dancing, clapping their inflatable clappers in different rhythms, and eating dried squid and Burger King.  It was so exciting to be able to be in the audience and watch a baseball game!  I didn't realize how much I missed that!

Something that I learned, by being there is how far I have come in China--with locations, the language, the culture, and more.  In Korea, I knew nothing, and I could have easily gotten very lost and unable to find my way back to the house we were staying at!  But it was such a great experience to be in a place where I knew nothing!  It helped me appreciate what I do know here!

Food!

Food has had an interesting part of the last month.  We have had people in and out of the center constantly, and it is difficult to keep it all straight!  But a common element is food.

Last month, I was blessed with the ability to invite some friends over for dinner.  I have 2 roommates right now, and they were willing to join us in a fun night of eating delicious food.  I invited 10 people to come over, but I was a little too late with my invitations, and only 3 were available.  So we had 3 people join us, and we had a wonderful time!  We played games (picture Apples to Apples and Phase 10 Dice), and we ate delicious food.  I have been in a pulled-pork craze ever since I found a crockpot stored in my kitchen!  We made pulled pork to eat with rice, and we made some delicious pasta with cream of chicken.  Our friends brought over some food as well, and it was a good time.  After eating the food, we went out to watch the fireworks that were going off that night.  It was so fun to be out on the town with some girls ;)  I had a lot of fun!

Another food event is an activity where the Church of All Nations came from Hong Kong to join us for a bi-annual social event. We ordered food from a restaurant to provide lunch for our attendees, and we used plates that were brought back from America.  This may seem like a small thing, but they were fall themed, and that is something that you just don't
find here!  It was SO fun to be able to use the pre-decorated paper plates and cups and napkins, and I was very excited. If you're looking for something to send in a care package, that might be it ;)  It was a successful event, and the turn out was great.  We had the PERFECT amount of food: there was enough for one more person to eat!  That is it!  We haven't had that perfect of a food amount in...well...ever!  That day was so busy, because we still had classes and other things going on, but it was a blessing to have them here. They were able to talk about different fall activities, and to discuss what is important to them in their lives, like Jesus Christ!

The same weekend, we also had a separate team from Hong Kong come to help us out with our Bible Study and Sunday morning worship.  So on Sunday we had a pot luck meal, and it was so much fun.  We made pulled pork (as I said, I am on a craze!), and it was one of the most talked-about dishes!  It was so different from Chinese food! The food attracted the people to come, and the Gospel was shared to them in the process!  The team had around 30 people on it, and it was fun to see them interacting with our students, sharing the Gospel.

More things with food have filled my time, but there have been so many that they have all melded together in my brain!

So much for that typhoon!

So Usagi came and went...but it went before it came in actuality.  It avoided us.  That is a good thing!  All of the school kids are sad right now, because we were expecting a day off of school, but such is life!

I don't have any 'after' photos, or even during, because pretty much all we got was wind.  It is howling through the glass doors that don't fully shut. Since I can't capture that in a picture, I didn't try.

We had a taco night tonight... Super Tacos for the Super Typhoon! We tried to watch a movie too, but the TV decided that this was a good time to stop working, so we don't have a TV anymore.  Fun stuff! :)  So we ended up playing Mahjong.  It was a fun night!

I hope that you all are having a splendid day as well!  I am going to go to bed soon, and if there is no typhoon in the morning, I will be off to do other things throughout the day, and enjoy my day off like I normally do!

P.S. I don't want to downplay this typhoon.  It is a really bad one.  It just missed us so it seems like a joke that we got all prepared and cancelled plans for something that didn't even come close! ;) Better safe than sorry, though!

Today's the day!

Our apartment's view!

So, today is the day of the typhoon.  It should be here sometime this afternoon or evening.

It's already started raining, but it is not so bad.  We already stocked up on a few more groceries than normal, in case we can't go outside for a couple days, and we bought battery powered lights in case of a black-out...and we already had plenty of candles.  Here are some 'before' photos of my view.  I hope to take 'during' and 'after', though I would expect that 'after' will look only slightly different, and the 'during' will be difficult to see... but I'll try!

We closed the gate in order to keep
flying debris out of our apartment!

Yesterday they posted a T1, and today we are at a T3.  A T8 will be posted later.  You can find the meanings of the T signals here. I know, it's Wikipedia, but it's correct this time.  We use the same system as Hong Kong.  I personally expect it to go up to at T10, but I am not the expert...we'll see.

Thankfully, even though it's a super typhoon (category 5 hurricane), it's lessened in intensity a little.  It's now classified as a severe typhoon instead.

If you want to follow Typhoon Usagi (especially if I lose internet to share updates with you), then you can visit Hong Kong's website or Macau's website...the Hong Kong one is more detailed, but the Macau one is the one I use more often because, well, I live in Macau ;)

A holiday, a super typhoon, and a make-over!

I have a few updates for you!

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival.  Actually, yesterday was the holiday, but today is the day that we all got off of work and school!  That is because the actual festivities happen at night when everyone goes outside to look at the moon and eat mooncakes and pomello and carry lanterns around the park!  I got to go around last night and eat mooncake and pomello and play games with my friends!  It was a lot of fun to be able to do that.

I'm including with this post some screenshots of Super Typhoon Usagi on its way to Hong Kong and Macau. It is the same as a category 5 hurricane. As you can see, the center is projected to hit just north of Hong Kong, and maybe 45 miles north of Macau. Here we won't have to be too worried, and buildings here are built more sturdy than in America. I'll keep you updated!

Over the summer I noticed that some of my links had disappeared from my blog...I have no idea how it happened.  I sent a message to support, but they decided not to reply, so now I decided that my blog deserves a make-over!  It's not as drastic as the last time that I did a make-over, but it's a new look!  I will experiment with the background and see if I can get one of my own pictures as the background instead of one the website provides.

Well, it's 11:30pm, and it's back to work tomorrow, so I should start getting ready for bed!  I will include a couple prayer requests for you to include in your prayers:  

• for 2 of my friends in particular who are searching for God's love, to have God find them!
• for me as I have been feeling under the weather lately and am finishing up my antibiotics without feeling better 
• for my roommates as they continue to adjust to life in Macau (one for 2 months and one for a year!)
• for the Super Typhoon heading towards land, that lives would not be lost...and if they are, pray that they have the knowledge and belief that Jesus Christ is their Savior so that they can spend eternity in Heaven!

"Alissa老师,你是罪人吗?"

If you can read the title of this post, you'll know that it is an interesting question.  For those who can't, it's titled "Teacher Alissa, are you a sinner?"

That is the question that I received last night at Bible study.  I teach children, and they ask me a myriad of questions.  Unfortunately, it's not always easy for me to answer, because the girl who asks the most questions doesn't understand English.  Thankfully, last night I had a friend co-teaching with me.  She is Chinese, so she was able to teach in Chinese and include me when needed.  Usually she will teach in Cantonese, but it came up that I know some Mandarin (the kids love the fact that I can "speak" Mandarin!), and they decided that they wanted to practice Mandarin in class that day.  I obliged.

So the questions kept coming.  I understood some of them.  We stopped the questions so that we could get the story in, and I told an anecdote about fishing...in Mandarin! It was using really bad Mandarin...my grammar was horrible and English words were weaved into it, but with my friend's help, the story came across.

After the story, the kids just started firing questions back.  A lot of the questions had to do with Mary and her state of perfection or imperfection.  They then asked if priests and pastors are sinners.  Then came the question if I was a sinner.  I looked the girl straight in the eyes and I said that yes, I am human.  I am a sinner.

I feel like we really got through to her.  She knows that I am an imperfect person.  I feel like that is important for her to know!

I try not to blatantly sin.  Always.  But especially in front of other people. But it is important for people to know that Christians are not perfect people.  They are not free from the bondage of sin.  The difference between Christians and non-Christians in regards of sin is that Christians are forgiven for their sins while non-Christians have not asked for forgiveness, and thus have not received it from God.

I hope that one day we will see this young girl be baptised.  She attends a Catholic school, but she comes to our English center most weeks, and hears what we have to say!  I am very excited that she has questions to ask us, and I feel blessed that I am able to have my friend join so that we have the ability to answer those questions in Chinese! :)

Life back in Macau

Life is in full swing!  I am back in the fine special administrative region called Macau, and I am back at work.

My apartment's occupants has increased three fold as I have 2 roommates living with me now.  It is exciting to be able to share stories, time, responsibilities, and cooking (making food for 3 people instead of 1!) with other people.  I am excited to experience having roommates once again.

Classes have started: I am on my 3rd day back today.  I have gotten a little ahead on my lesson planning, and I am excited for Saturday so that I will have some free time to hopefully catch up with some friends.

I don't have any pictures yet of life back in Macau, because I just haven't snapped any since I arrived.

I had spent 2 days in Hong Kong at meetings before coming back to Macau, and it was nice to be able to see all of the people that I work with who I don't see but a couple times a year.

It's been POURING rain lately.  I am so thankful for the waterproof tennis shoes that I purchased last year, because they have saved my feet from drowning in my shoes.

Since it didn't rain this morning, I went out and ran a little....and that's no lie.  It was a little.  I am not a runner, but I have found myself with a lack of exercise, so I figured I need to get back on track.  Please pray for me as I start that!

Today my new roomies and I went grocery shopping and we have a fully stocked fridge. I am excited to be able to have one of those--I can't normally eat everything in time to be able to buy a lot at once.

We also did a little rearranging in the apartment to make it a little more homey.  The only thing that is not working out is the laundry, as we have to hang it to dry, but there's really nowhere good to do that.  The balcony has a bar, but it's too high--I can't reach it.

Tomorrow I have to spend my morning/early afternoon at immigration getting my blue card renewal.  It was already approved and issued, but I was in America, so I wasn't able to go to get it right away.  I don't know if they had me enter as a tourist or if they gave me a paper that said that I have a pending work visa at immigration.  But I will get that tomorrow.

I think that's all that I have.  The apartment building that they are building across the street from my apartment has risen a few stories since I was last here.  By a couple, I mean at least 10.  They have large red numbers that show how high the building is.  The highest that I can see from my chair is 25, but it keeps going up. I have been looking out and watching the workers go up and down the elevator to the work floors.  The elevator is glass, so I can see them all as they're ascending.  Interesting.  I will continue my construction watching now...or go to work.  One of the two!

I hope that you all have a blessed week!