The rest of National Week

So I spent the rest of the holiday hanging out at the Wai Ban with people. I did alot of shopping in town, and one evening Abby, Jess, Dan, and I went for Indian food. It was lovely. I really enjoyed hanging out with Anna and Katrina and other people that I didn’t really know before SST. Anna has been a wonderful roommate. I’ve loved getting to know her. I’m sad that we won’t be roommates any longer. Tomorrow we all move to Eastern Campus, and I’ll be with Claire and 2 other Chinese roommates. Another day during the break, Jess, Meryl, Zeb, Abby and I went to the underground market and then the “antiques” market. It was a lovely day spent with good friends. On sunday we went to church and sang a pitiful rendition of 606 in front of the congregation. This was partly my fault maybe because I gave the starting note, but it seemed right, so maybe we flatted badly. Anyways, it water under the bridge. At one point a Chinese woman tried to reach the pulpit, but was restrained. She was talking angrily in Chinese, and she definitely was talking about us. We were all seated at the front of the church, and we felt really awkward about that. Then we got a tour of the attached seminary and then a talk about the church in China, and a bit about the seminary. It was interesting to hear about the difference between the registered church in china, and the “underground” church in China. If you think about it, the churches we go to are registered in the US. The Chinese government doesn’t prevent the “registered” church from worshipping, or converting people, or believing what they want to believe. There’s also no reason to smuggle bibles into China as some churches in the States do. There are Chinese bibles printed here and sold cheaply because all the materials are donated. That evening I had a dance lesson, and we started learning a dance from Tibet. During the lesson, a young Chinese man who is interested in improving his english came and interpreted for us, and during a time when he wasn’t needed, I noticed him practicing waltz. After class I struck up a conversation with him about ballroom dancing, and was trying to see if there are ever any dances on campus. Way lead to way, and he offered to teach me more waltz. I’m so excited to be dancing again. We’re having our first lesson on Thursday. And get this. He’s the amature champion of Sishuan Provence! How sweet is that. So yeah. I should go to bed now. Goodnight from the Middle Kingdom.

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