trip to the BIG city

On Saturday, two of my teammates and I decided to take a trip to the Big city of Changsha. The purpose of the trip... get essentials/delicious food we cannot get in our city. We took the fast train at 11:00 and got to Changsha at 11:35 (you can't beat that... it is a 2.5 hour car drive)

Our first stop... Starbucks. Decaf Vanilla Latte. After we happily made our purchases, we walked in the direction of Daylight Donuts. BUT detour!! I smelled the sensational smell of Subway bread... and thus called for a lunch pit stop. Purchase number 2- Veggie Delight Sandwich. YUMMY!!


After the sandwich, we made our way to Daylight Donuts for dessert. Showing extreme self-control... I only bought one glazed donut and one to take home to Wes.

With our bellies full and taste buds extremely happy, we ventured on to Metro. Metro is the Sams Club of Changsha. It has many fabulous American things.
Purchases at Metro

- Canned Kidney Beans
- Canned Refried Beans
- 2 Cans Pizza Sauce
- 1 package of Pepperoni
- 1 package of Hot Dogs ( I love my husband)
- Ranch Dressing
- Decaf Tea (Blueberry and Orange)
- 2 blocks of Cheddar Cheese
- 2 bags shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- Ground Beef
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 box Nature Valley Granola Bars
- 1 bag of individually packaged boxes of Sun-Maid Raisisns
- Vacuum Cleaner!!
- Set of Sheets

And Guess what the fun part is ... Carrying it all back to Hengyang :-)

As we left Metro headed back to the fast train station... the girls and I started to talk about how you know you have grown up and your life has changed when...
Here are just two that I came up with
- You know your life has changed when you are SUPER excited about a Vacuum cleaner and you can't wait to get home and try it out.
- You know your life has changed when you travel to a city 2.5 hours away for cheese and beef

Packages of Love

Love for Wes and Me
Our good friends, Bill and Christine, sent an amazing Valentines Day package. Christine has an amazing talent of packaging with style. The whole box was beautiful... outfitted with Pink and Purple wrapping paper and crinkles :-) It was beautiful and certainly expressed love. Notice-- the beloved Cream of Mushroom soup ... yes it is amazing. Don't take Campbell's it for granted America (and Betty Crocker... she is another amazing one)

Love for Me and Tadpole (newest nickname for Baby Thomas)

My Mom and Karen have done a fabulous job to make sure I have baby needs met... you might be thinking... what possible baby needs do you have without the baby here yet...

First- Vitamins. I have always been and off and on vitamin taker... but while tadpole is growing... I am dedicated :-)

Second- Maternity clothes- now I know may of you are saying... Chinese people get pregnant can't you find clothes there... if you could only see the pregnant women here... in fact, that might be a new mission of mine-- capture the pregnant women of Hengyang.
The maternity clothes of choice-- Quilted Matching Set Pajamas. Yep... PJs. I don't understand it... but my Chinese friends tell me it is convenient for them to get out of bed, leave the house and then get back in bed. (I will try to capture the convenience and display in a future post)
My comment-- THANK YOU Mom and Karen for not making me look like this!! :-) I now have 2 Maternity Yoga Pants, Belly Band, Black teaching pants and a cute shirt.

Third- Important all time favorite snacks-- Lance Crackers. These are a necessity in life.

Forth- Karen sent a super cute outfit for tadpole. She calculated that the little one will be 3 months at Christmas and now officially has an outfit for the occasion :-) Super sweet.

Conference

Our time in Thailand is over and we have arrived back in Hengyang to many happy welcoming shop owners.

Many of you may wonder about our schedule and when we start teaching again... The Chinese calendar is very different than what we are use to in the States. Wes and I finished teaching on Jan. 7 and return to the class room on Feb. 21. During this time all students go home for the Chinese New Year Celebration. It seems as if Hengyang becomes a ghost town. The Chinese New Year is a numerous day complete celebration and the days before that are used for preparation. Fireworks, Food, New Clothes and the giving of money aid in the celebration.
Where were we during the craziness...Thailand. (Seriously... Chinese New Year is craziness :-)

ELIC plans the winter conference (called ATC) for all teachers and families to attend. During this time about 600 teachers (and children) serving in China, Laos, Cambodia, Mongolia, Vietnam and Thailand gather for refreshment. We have a time of singing, truth, teacher training classes and country updates. I was very privileged to be able to share about the four new believers we have in Hengyang.

The theme of the conference this year was Broken and Restored. We were privileged to have Michael Card (you may know him from music like El Shaddai or Love Crucified Arose) as our Truth Speaker each day. He spoke on the practice of worshiping through lament. He used Job, David and the Father's son as examples of how to worship through wilderness experiences. It was a refreshing look at passages we have read and reread.

My heart was touched many times throughout conference... but allow me to share just one thing resounds in my heart!!
Is. 42:16 -- I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do, I will not forsake them.

Thailand Zoo

Thailand has a great zoo!! One day, Wes and I took Trey (one of our friend's little boy) to see all the animals... and even feed them. Throughout the day we fed- Elephants, Hippos, Birds and we tried the Giraffes (they didn't like what was on the menu)
One amazing thing about the Chiang Mai zoo is the lack of fencing.
The Hippos were great. If you weren't careful... you could have literally fed it your hand. I do have to say... he had some STINKY breath!! I was tempted to feed him a Tic Tac.

Here are some of our favorite animals--

Monkeys-- these things have an incredible amount of energy... it was incredible how fast they were running.
The Stinky Breath Hippo
Koala Bear-- with a baby!! PRECIOUS

SURPRISE

YEP... that's our baby!
We are due Sept. 1, 2011 (almost 10 weeks along in pregnancy) We had our first appointment this week in Chiang Mai and saw our little one. The length and heart rate are normal! We will go back for another visit before we leave Thailand.
(Oh and something really cool... our doctors visit and ultrasound only cost $31 US)
Even though the little one is a total surprise ... we couldn't be more thrilled.

Thailand

Sunny Thailand welcomed us well!! It is 84 degrees (give or take) and blue sky and sunshine... a few things we haven't seen in a LONG time.
Our first day, Wes and I rented bicycles to check out the town. We rode all over Chiang Mai. It is a cute city with American food, night markets, Thai food and plenty of excursions.
We are here before conference with the Bart family (and Momma Gale - Jen's Mom who came for a visit from America)
Our first real excursion - The 7 of us went to Visit the Elephants, Orchids Farm and Butterflies.
Here are some pictures.
The Butterflies were beautiful... if you could find them. It wasn't quite like Duke Gardens (where tons of butterflies flood the flowers)
But here is one I found.

The Orchids were beautiful and plentiful!! The colors were absolutely amazing.

And the Elephants
They did a show that was super cute. Painting (yes, the elephants painted), playing soccer and basketball, throwing darts and showing there strength.
They are amazing animals.
My favorite part was after the show-- you could buy Bananas and Sugar Cane to feed the elephants.
Here we are with the elephant :-)

Hong Kong

Each month, Wes and I save one of our school income for travel. We just had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong for a few days. We stayed at a great place that is a retreat for people working in China and around the world called the Bethany House. The weather in Hong Kong is much nicer than in our home city, Hengyang. It was about 50 degrees and sunny (most of the time)

One super fun thing about Hong Kong is being normal. Normal meaning you are not pointed at, stared at or screamed at "Foreigner Foreigner" We blended right in (almost) And maybe the greatest of all... Western Food. It was great to have American food!! I made a personal vow to only eat American while in the city. Wes LOVED having a hot dog (a real hot dog) with Chili and Mustard.

You can see Starbucks in the background... Yes we visited a few time... Caramel Macchiato and Mint Mocha put a BIG smile on my face. Subway, Pizza, Burgers, Salads, Cereal... the list goes on and on.

The retreat center had a home-cooked meal for us each night that we enjoyed with other believers. The first night we walk into dinner and saw some old friends :-) We had no idea they would be there... but two guys from our training class were also staying at the retreat.
The four of us went on a Big Bus Tour of the City and enjoyed exploring Hong Kong together.

Hong Kong has to be the richest city I have ever been too. We enjoyed buying American food... but that was the extent of our shopping. Louis Vuitton and Armani on almost every corner, I simply took pictures in amazement.

The first day we saw 4 Ferrari's ... I decided it would be fun to take pictures of the nice cars we came across... Here is the gallery
Ferrari

Rolls Royce

Bentley

Maserati

Hong Kong was beautiful and clean. It was a nice get-a-way from China.
Here are a few pictures of the us and the city.


We were welcomed back to Hengyang with a snow storm. Even the police were having fun making a snow man :-)