Summer is beautiful, water, trees, birds, and life. Ahhh. I realize now that the beauty of summer in that context only exists in places where when the news alerts you to a day of 85 with 30% humidity, you say, “what’s that?” Wuhan summer is definitely a wet one…and the first humid environment that I have ever lived in. You step outside and sweat forms along your forehead, clothes take hours to dry on a line, the air holds thick and saturated with the 8.5 million person expenditure of pollution… but still the lazy days of summer pass and in spite of the weather something makes those few months forever memorable.
This weekend I was privileged to travel out of my province to Yichang and tour some land along the Three Gorges.



The country minority life appeared quaint, simple, and pleasant with a majestic mountain backdrop. I saw women who were past old, wrinkled, ancient, spinning yarn, cooking vegetables, and sitting in peaceful reverie on who knows what…certainly not to their youth when they were young, beautiful, fancy-free and in love, not to the child rearing days of new appliances and an improved standard of living…they had always been sitting there, playing there, thinking there. They belonged as a part of the savage isolation that was beheld in such majesty. I felt no more connection than just a shadow passing through her land.
It was strange for me, a little nature girl at heart. I love wandering almond groves in full springtime bloom, sitting amongst a forest of trees swept up in the branches and the clapping leaves. I love stars, clouds, the ocean, and awe. Nature is my communion with God, the way that His glory unfolds blatantly before my eyes. For a reason though the wild beauty that I beheld was almost empty, eerie in a lonely sense and passing with a few photos I was contented to leave it behind.
Scanning some photos today I came across this one and stopped.


It jarred me in a way that was most uncomfortable because it is a place that my heart longs to be…just in this setting…a shaded backyard, fresh lemonade, birds, green, and a house that was probably not empty. People were probably there who wanted your attention, a clock was probably on the wall inside to signal that a church youth event began in about an hour, dinner probably needed to be made, children fed, music and champagne may have been chilling for a special date night. The picture speaks of nature as a part of community rather than a sole entity. My heart longs for communion, purpose, friendship, communication, and life! Stars are best shared on the roof of a house over lattes, wind is best enjoyed from a homemade wooden swing hanging on the old oak in the 2 acre front yard, mountains are enjoyed after a race to the lookout point or over a toasted marshmallow kiss by the campfire light.
I had so many dreams, longings, desires, and qualifications for my life but maybe I just need a potted plant, my Patrick, and a best friend.

Teaching

I've never thought about what it must be like for a teacher to grade but after today I think it is horrible. I have 3 classes of 35 and they each had one paper. It took me hours to finish partially because there were so many but I have another theory...Our University professors expected no spelling, grammar, syntax, or punctuation errors. The few that were present were easily marked. A teacher could breeze through a paper, grade on ideas, creativity and insight, make a quick comment and move on. My papers are composed with sentences that even a 3rd grader could not get away with. Once I pick up the paper I have to decipher what the mess of information means and somehow grade it as if it were a newspaper article. To make all of the corrections and re-word, punctuate, and compose English from their paper takes so much time and then I have to think of their ability compared with effort and topic idea to give them a grade. Something that is not even English can get a B or a C. It's too bad, but I'm expecting a lot from them.
I had one student write "Do you know Jesus Christmas?"** Another student wrote about how making out is "good for health" and went on to explain how it helps you burn calories when it is really passionate. Another student got a book of Chinese Proverbs and just wrote one after another to form paragraphs, and my favorite was the giant F on the bottom of a student's paper that just copied and pasted a Wikipedia article after several discussions on pledgerism. (eye-ahh) sound that we make in China that reflects exasperation.

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**Selection from the article on Judaism: "Do you know Jesus Christmas? He is now believed to be a god by many people all over the world. He created Christianity. The book for this religion is called New Testament. The book for Judaism is called Old Testament. It is believed that the rout of the great religion Christianity is Judaism.
In ancient times, Jews lived in Palestine and founded the kingdom of Israel and Judah. Later, they were wiped out by Rome. Jews suffered great oppress in Egypt, and Moses led them out. Jews want to learn from Moses, he crested Christianity"-student
Apparently this student did do research and cited internet articles...so that's what my professors meant when they warned about internet article reliability.

As many close readers can testify, I hate to go shopping. I don’t like malls, clothes, fashion magazines, or “cute” outfits. Of course I appreciate the clothes that I have when I send my mom to the store with my debit card, but to actually step one foot into a department store or a mall makes me cringe.
A few weeks ago I went to a Chinese mall with a girl named Emily. Emily was going to buy a tennis racquet and some socks. She knew exactly where to go for sporting equipment, the brand that he wanted to buy, and when we stood in front of the display of racquets my eyes wandered left while her eyes wandered right. To the left were the cheaper racquets for beginners. Automatically I began to read price tags, weights, and features to determine which would best serve her beginner needs, be most durable, and the most effective for the least amount of money. I chose one very light, simple frame that has the features my brother taught me to look for in a racquet. She moved her eyes from the right and said, "That’s ugly, I want this one." THIS ONE happened to be one of the most expensive top of the line racquets with special features for very advanced players, but it pleased her and with her parents credit card she purchased it. A realization hit me, I hate to make decisions. As a person conservative with money I don’t just go into a mall or a store to buy clothes, I go in and I am bombarded with questions: If I can only get a few things which best meet my needs, do I have things to go with this in my closet already, which colors do I prefer, is it durable, can I wear it past this season, is the expenditure of money worth the item I will receive in exchange…? Once I have answered most of the questions I come to the realization that my clothes look just like everyone else’s and ones that I already have, so why even buy new ones, and I walk out empty handed.
In China it is much different. I am still concerned about price (even though my American dollar has more weight here) but one thing is different, a certain type of clothes are a part of the marketable style. For example, in America the styles for women are as follows:

Little girls in America: mini skirts and sparkly halter-tops. They’re only 6 years old you reply, but their parents take them to Libby Lou to get dressed like a pop princess complete with make-up and died pink hair pieces.
China: Almost every little Chinese girl that I see is wearing a beautiful “Easter dress,” the kind with velvety tops and poofy tulle skirts with a shiny satin sash.
Teen through young adult: The Abercrombie grunge look also offered by Hollister and American Eagle is the only fashionable style. Sizes and cuts are way to small and low to fit the average American girl
China: Women appreciate beauty, high heels, and femininity. Sun dresses and pastel summer skirts are very popular as well as chic European fashion.
Women in America: Express, Banana Republic, Gap, and Anthropologie offer women’s clothing that is either marketed for the business professional woman or for classic quality. The unfortunate thing is that these clothes come with quite a price tag…if a woman wishes to look like a woman, it requires her to stop hoping that Target and Old Navy will start to offer women’s clothes that are not a larger rendition of youth grunge clothing, and instead they will have to accept price tags over $100.00 for some quality feminine articles.

Now I’m reminded why I hate to shop in America, clothes are too expensive when they are unique and pretty, and settling for mediocre is a waste of my money.
I have, since leaving America developed an interest in fashion and wanting to add to my wardrobe because the clothes are quality, inexpensive, and pretty. I found a sale the other day and for $58 US dollars I was able to buy 1 shirt, 1 dress, one sweater, one purse, and one wallet from a store almost identical to Anthropologie. When I compared the sweater with one from an American store, mine was about $15 and the one at Anthropologie was $140.00.
I will probably hate to shop again when I come back to America.

The Chinese Vincents are hopefully “on the mend” (I’m not sure why that phrase is used. It seems to be pretty clunky English). I’ve been sick for about 2 months with pneumonia and also a digestive disease that I was born with. From time to time it will act up and I will be unable to eat or drink anything and I went over a week without eating and a few days without drinking, which is why I had to visit the hospital two posts ago. I have prescription medication for my esophageal spasms, an antibiotic for the pneumonia, bronchitis syrup, cold medicine, and Ibuprofen for fevers. The good news is that I am not dead and the medicine makes me quite fun to live with. I’m never sure when I’ll make up a random song and belt it out or what spacey mishap I may find myself in.
I need to dedicate this post to my recent heroes.

1. Derek and Megan. Megan is bursting with energy and creativity, she makes the coolest scrapbook pages and I think everyone who knows her loves her! Derek is constant as far as I’ve known him, even tempered, lighthearted, yet with a random defiant streak (like against the home owners association and geekiness. He makes geeks cool because they outsmart the cool people.) Anyway the reason they have achieved hero status is because of Megan’s recent post. Read Here. It’s great that I have ideals but I love the action that I have seen in their lives…Megan runs, Derek takes Connor to NASA, they let their children be children, they encourage imagination, they enforce discipline lovingly, and they never pass up a moment to indulge in little things…for example they made us a package and Megan made a Jack Bauer CTU shirt. Was it a random impulse? Go to the craft store to make t-shirts? Sounds fun to me! They are just worth admiring on several levels.
Oh, and we get to live at their house in the master bedroom which I believe they are painting for us, right? ;)

2. Paul (my youngest brother). Many people would overlook him either because he doesn’t talk (mostly because he figures it isn’t worth his time), or he is very sarcastic and either countenance would not earn the attention of unimaginative people. Most people would probably comment on Michael (my older younger brother). Michael is great. He stands out, loves people, he’s encouraging, positive, smart, involved, and extroverted. But this is for Paul, because I get him. He offers the world something that too many people overlook. On the outside what may appear to be a die-hard football player with a sarcastic bite and a competitive drive is a person just trying to give people a little more of something to live for. He comments on my blog consistently. No one in my family comments or even reads my blogs except him. The comments are usually satire, which he uses for two purposes…1. To let me know that he has been here and that he has read. He cares about my life. 2. To give me hope that even difficult things can be made light of in a little brother way. He achieves laughter in the midst of difficulties. He is totally not a football punk because there are times that I am irreversibly sad and I’ll get a comment or an email from him and I just crack up with tears running down my face. I don’t need sympathy, I need the ‘ol football knock on the head with a little reality to get up and keep going. I love my brother and I think he’s hilarious. (Hey, do you remember your stinky sandals? Our friend Craig has some; too bad he isn’t five so we can threaten to throw them away like we did for you.)

3. To be continued because I have to go out for a bit…