We're back!

To Hong Kong, that is.
Let's talk about China.

We were there for 11 days so forgive me if I can't remember the order of some events or if this entry just seems like one big jumbled mess.
There was a typhoon that was supposed to hit the day we left Hong Kong to travel by ferry boat to the mainland. Seems like an adventure right!? Well it was underwhelming. I was pressured into taking Dramamine because apparently everyone on this team gets motion sickness. So we all took loads of pills (just kidding) and embarked. The water was a little rough, but not bad. I don't even think it was raining. I was drowsy. When we arrived we were welcomed by our wonderful translators/hosts/friends Hilda, Gloria, and Mandy. We drove to the church that we stayed at for the rest of the time. It was a large building, very tall, and we stayed on the fifth floor. No elevators. 96 stairs.
Our meals were all prepared for us by a cook that lived at the church. They were all so delicious. We got to eat lots and lots of veggies which I had been craving and I was so relieved that we didn't have seafood at all while there. I was getting so tired of eating so much strange seafood in Hong Kong that it was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, about half our team fell due to stomach troubles and they were pretty much out of commission for a good 3 days or so. Thankfully my iron stomach was fine.
I loved how structured everything was in China. When we arrived, Hilda gave us all a printed schedule of everyday we were there broken out as to what was expected of us every hour of everyday. I love structure! It was so nice compared to all the uncertainty that we deal with in Hong Kong. Everyday we would wake up and have breakfast at 8:30. Usually Rebecca, Kristen, Rachel, and I would make a McDonald's coffee run in the morning before breakfast, and a couple times we bought our own breakfast from vendors on the street. It was awesome and so cheap. After breakfast we would have an hour or so for team time, as well as some time set aside for planning for classes. Lunch was at noon and then the students arrived at the church around 2. We ran VBS style classes, which wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it worked out fairly well. There were 90 students total and they were broken up into 3 groups by age. The youngest group was 5-7 years, then 8-11, then 12-18. The most challenging thing was how to present the same material to all age groups and still have it hold their interest. I led the music class. The youngest kids were so easy because even though they couldn't read and they didn't have any idea what they were singing, they tried so hard and they would always do the motions. The oldest group was the easiest to communicate with and they were so good, but I could tell how disinterested they were in singing the same songs that the little kids were, so I had to mix it up a little bit. We sang for about half the class and then we would play some sort of game like musical chairs or something. They loved musical chairs because the first time we played, the coolest kid in the class named Bruce Lee got up and started playing the guitar instead of me playing music off of my ipod. In addition to Bruce Lee there was also a Michael Jackson (who could actually moonwalk, the day we did the story of Peter walking on water, MJ moonwalked on water) and Jackie Chan. These three boys were so funny and so helpful with translating stuff because their English was really good. The middle aged kids were the worst. They were so out of control and I had no idea how to keep their attention. We would play games but they would just yell and terrorize each other. Especially the one kid that I nicknamed Tom Riddle. Once, when playing musical chairs, he ended up winning, but all the kids were complaining about how he had been cheating the whole time. I was confused because I thought I had been paying attention the whole time, but when we played again I watched him closer. He would, very subtly, but very effectively, shove, drag, throw little children out of the chair before he sat down in it. I'm not sure how he did it without them getting upset or anything which is why I named him Tom Riddle because I'm pretty sure he was manipulating them using dark magic. The one way to get the middle kids to focus was to just ignore them and start singing. For whatever reason that always worked. They would stop screaming and just join in the song. I liked that about them.
The first day we taught classes we realized that only about half of the students had English names. So the next day, Adam and I took to naming all the ones that didn't have English name. It was awesome. It was so easy to remember their names after that, because I had named them in the first place! Except there were a few that I could never remember, and I could tell that they were very offended when I forgot because I was the one who picked it in the first place. I wonder if Adam (Bible Adam, not team member Adam) ever forgot the names of the animals he named when he was in the Garden.
I roomed with Catherine and Mandy at the church and I'm so glad I did. Mandy and I became really good friends. She is starting her 3rd year of college in Jiangmen and she's studyng international trade business. She also loves Spanish so she thought my Spanish Bible was awesome. She taught me some Cantonese and every night before going to bed she would come to me with a list of questions about the English language that she encountered in that day and I would go over everything with her. Most of them were just words she didn't understand, but it was so much fun trying to explain some of the English slang she overheard us using when talking with each other. So now we have our lives all planned out- next summer we will both get an internship is Spain (don't worry, Amy it won't be during your wedding) and then when we graduate we will both move to Hong Kong together. Ok, so it's a long shot, but at least I have options.
In the evenings, I taught an adult Bible study/English class with Luke. There were 3 college-ish aged girls that showed up regularly. I think this was my favorite part of the trip. We didn't do a whole lot of lesson planning, but we mostly just came and talked about whatever they wanted to talk about. Generally some stupid aspect of American culture that they were curious about, and then we would try to explain how even though that is an American cultural norm, it wasn't necessarily the way that Christians were called to live their lives. It was so much fun to get to know them and to build relationships with them. I feel like that's what I was hoping for when I signed up for this.
That's about it for our mainland trip, that I can remember anyway... I would post pictures, but I'm not typing this on my computer so I don't have access to all my pictures, but within 24 hours I will post some. That is a Laura McLeran promise.

As far as the rest of my time in Hong Kong, I will be teaching a group of about 18 middle school students every morning from 9:15 until noon. I started this morning, and it was great! The students were shy at first but by the end of the class they were interacting really well. My lesson was way too easy for them, but I'll be ready for tomorrow with something challenging. I'm excited to work with the same students everyday for the next 2 weeks.
I hope all is well back home, thanks so much for the continued prayers. It means so much to me!