This was an adventure for the first week and a half of training. At least I'm better prepared for emergencies out in public!
Wood slats and minor padding made for bruised hips and long nights.
Some summer facilitators bought a chipmunk off the street, let it out of its cage in their room, and while trying to catch it accidentally pulled its tail off. Poor chippy!
When the rain poured in, the dormitory flooded. At one point over half of the hallway had 1-2 inches of water in it. Chinese architecture at its finest
This cat kept fighting with other cats, eating our food, and scaring dozens of Chinese girls. So, we did the most logical thing possible. We put it in a box, got into a taxi, and took the cat 2 miles down the road to another university where it would no longer be a nuisance!
I like my new camera. A lot.
There is a beautiful park that is a 10 minute walk from campus.
The bottom part of a lamp post.
This is my Vietnamese friend Christine. Although we only got to hang out for two weeks because she was summer staff, we discovered the first day we met that we were both Calvinists. We became really good friends after that.
Another flower, and if you look closely you can see a bee hovering a few inches from the flower.
Flower in bloom.
I guess Vietnamese people can jump!
There are mulitple black swans that live at the park.
Christine also had a Nikon D-slr and liked taking pictures of me taking pictures..
Some sweet birds decided to pose for us.
A delicious egg pancake with cilantro, chives, for breakfast. It was about $1.
Two of the Chinese staff at the summer palace. Yumei on the left and Yao Yao (Chris) on the right
A lion at the summer palace.
On a terrace at the Summer Palace.
One of the many beautiful buildings at the summer palace.
I guess white guys can jump a little bit too. :)
At the park with the stereotypical Chinese peace sign.
Sunset at the lake in the park. I wish I could say I took this one, but I was busy with training when Christine went to the park. Gorgeous!
You'd think that within the Summer Palace, where thousands of tourists visit each year, that Chinglish wouldn't be present. Nope.
It was quite a steep, hilly road.
Riley and Elizabeth are our young married couple from Ohio. They both went to Marshall and are huge Giants fans. They also podcast Mars Hill sermons. Good stuff.
A little deceptive advertising... We were pretty disappointed
A photo of the “Quaranteam” during one of our first days of training.
On our way out to lunch.
Snoopy in China?!
A content group after eating at a local Mexican place. Riley on the left is stuffed, and his wife is in a food coma about to fall asleep!
We spent over 2 hours cleaning dishes and other kitchen utensils to put in our new kitchen. Notice the attractive pink gloves that dan is wearing.
The small, but very capable kitchen.
Here is half of the students getting their picture taken after the graduation ceremony.
Yume, in her traditional Chinese dress. She is only here for the summer, and will soon return to to teach foreigners Chinese in Shanghai. She gave me a few lessons and is extremely patient with my subpar pronunciation. I wish she could stay longer!
This is Sarah. She is also part of the full-time staff, and is a lot of fun to talk to and learn Chinese from.
We have an awesome projector in our community room. We recently got Chinese take-out, bought those large bottles of beer for 38 cents, and video-casted a sermon from Dan's church in Dallas. Putting “fun” back in “Fundamentalism” baby!
Our new room accomodations are a great improvement. (Don't mind the pink hamper... I have yet to find anything more manly!)
OUr own personal sink and shower.
My room.
The Chinese building manager closed the gate to our temporary dormitory compound at 11pm at night. Thankfully there was a window on the first floor that we could sneak in and out of if we were out too late. This was appropriately named “the Narnia Wardrobe” where we could escape to a “different world”
We were treated to a fancy Chinese dinner during training.
