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The Chinese celebrate many holidays over here in the east, and one of the biggest is National Holiday during the first week of every October, where Chinese patriotism abounds. You may have heard that the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival 春节, each January (or February, depending on the lunar calender) is the world’s largest . . . → Read More: Western China: Lanzhou & Xining          8 comments  Chinese Culture, Photography, Social Issues in China, Teaching in China, Travel  Baoji, China, Chinese New Year, culture, ESL, Islam, Lanzhou, Ministry, Muslim, National Holiday, Pollution, Serve, Teaching, Teaching English, Tibetan, Trains, Travel, University, Xining Good news! I was asked to do an interview for China Travel Net to be their featured blogger this week. Not a huge deal, but still pretty cool nonetheless! You can read it here as well as check out China Travel Net and visit loads of other cool blogs about China. Enjoy and God bless! . . . → Read More: China Blogger Spotlight Leave a comment Blogging, Chinese Culture, Christianity, Faith, Shanghai, Teaching in China, Travel China, Christianity, Church, Faith, God, Jesus, Ministry, Shanghai, Teaching 
My winter vacation has officially started as of January 8th, and it worked out astonishingly well as my dear brother Drew K and his wife Megan, along with Megan’s sister Amy and mother ‘Mama J’ flew into Shanghai within hours of the commencement of my new found freedom. I spent as much time as I . . . → Read More: Shanghai Daze, Xiamen on a Shoestring, and Dongguan on a……? Leave a comment Chinese Culture, Travel China, Chinese, God, Guitar, Jesus, Ministry, Pray, Prayer, Shanghai, Worship 
Many here in China know that Shanghai was the host of the 2010 World Expo, which just wrapped up October 31st and lasted six months, kicking off in May. This is a multi-billion dollar event where countries around the world come to and build a pavillion showing off their latest and greatest. The Shanghai Expo . . . → Read More: World Expo & Beyond! 世博会！！ 2 comments Chinese Culture, Shanghai China, Expo, Faith, God, Jesus, Ministry, Pray, Shanghai, Sports, Worship 
I write to you now, from a Korean Jimjilbang, or Korean bathhouse as translated in English. For the past few hours, I have been relaxing in the various saunas, hot tubs, steam rooms, and pools this place has to offer. And, might I add, the hot tub area has segregated mens and womens floors, for one very important reason: No clothes allowed. Yes I did it, dont try to imagine it but just know it as a simple fact. It was really relaxing actually, and a very interesting experience. When in Korea, right? Some of you may be jealous, or disgusted, but both parties are probably wondering why I am soaking it up in the lap of luxury on this little excursion. Surely there must be a good reason, right? Yes there is. One being it only costs $10 to stay here all day, and I can sleep upstairs in the sleeping room on a mat with a heated floor. Sounds kind of nice actually, Im looking forward to it. As you can imagine, spending a night here in Seoul can be costly, so this seemed like the obvious choice for a frugal traveler such as myself. The hot tubs and saunas are a nice bonus, I wont deny that. Why Korea? Why not? The 90 days on my China visa was about to run out, so I needed to leave the country, Ive never been to Korea, I have friends there, I like new places, new foods, new sights, new sounds, walking around naked in a bath house..er wait, scratch that last one. For those of you who think its weird, its actually quite common here. Its where families go for a day or two to just unwind and relax. They have an arcade, internet bar, all sorts of restaurants, snacks, massage, Brillo pad body scrub, you name it! Id definitely do it again, especially for 10 bucks! Anyways, my China visa is good for one year, but I have to leave every 90 days and come back as its only a tourist visa. And my school that I will be working at in Shanghai will change it into a 1 year work visa so I dont have to leave, but it doesnt officially start until September 1st. My visa was up on the 21st of August, so I missed it by a few days. Oh, well. Guess Ill have to go to Korea, I thought. Ive spent about a week here, and fly back to Shanghai tomorrow morning to immediately begin teacher training for the upcoming semester. Your prayers are appreciated as there are still lots of unknowns about where I will live, who I will live with, and what my schedule will be like. Im hoping to find some great fellowship ASAP, and some cool roommates to share an apartment with. So without further ado, here are the highlights of this beautiful country that boasts an amazing cuisine, when you can do enough hand gestures to actually order something that is PS: Special shout out to my friends Leslie, James and Sara for letting me crash and show me around the country! I admire your hearts for the Lord and I will be praying for you indefinitely for God to bless your ministries! James and Leslie took me out for some Dak-Kalbi (sp?) Its a local dish in Chuncheon, a city about an hour and a half east of Seoul. Its made with super tender chicken, cabbage, rice cakes and special red sauce. Im not 100% sure about all the ingredients, but it was amazing! They fry it up right in front of you, then you put some in a lettuce or sesame leaf, wrap it up and enjoy.
Dont you just want to eat your screen right now? Then they made a skin coat of rice that was fried, then topped with cheese and rolled up into a delectable little rice cheese roll, also amazing. I didnt have a bad meal in Korea, if that helps your imagination. This is Sara, Leslie, Me and James. They played host, and did an amazing job! Made my time in Korea very unique. I also had a chance to meet up with Taylor and his wife Ashley on a day trip to Seoul. Taylor used to teach in Qinhuangdao with me for ELT Edge. He has now moved with his wife to teach in Korea for two years. It was awesome to catch up with him! Went hiking at Seoraksan National Park in northeast Korea. It has the highest peaks in South Korea and a big Buddha statue to boot. Although South Korea has a lot awesome things going on for it spiritually in Christianity, it still also has a lot of the traditional folk religions, as well as Buddhism. Some more statue shots. Here I am halfway up one of the many peaks. Saw some people rock climbing, I was a bit jealous. It looked like quite a challenge! They were working their way up all day. A few more shots for you to take a gander. View from the top. The only thing there was a small cave with some Buddha statues in it for worship.
Back down at ground level. These are a few shots of the river that cuts through the valley, and some of the falls created by it. Cool mossy area. There you have it! Despite language barriers (which can sometimes be the most fun and interesting part), a good time awaits for all in South Korea! Id recommend it to anyone, especially the food! Thats all for now, thanks for reading and I hope to hear from anyone whose been following! Lift me up as I head back to China and start many new beginnings, and please dont hesitate to send me your prayer requests as well! PEACE. piese auto 
These last few days have been nothing short of amazing. The other night we got to go a small house church in Harbin. We got to worship with the Chinese brothers and sisters there, and just chill out, hear their stories, pains, trials, and questions. Lots of seekers; thats one thing I love about the Chinese people is their brutally honesty and directness. It was really cool talking to them and spending time with them, I dont even know how many times Ive shared my testimony this past week. The opportunities are plentiful here. The American group here working with them are amazing too, so bold, and so driven. Its been one of the most encouraging things Ive seen here in China. It tempts me to come here and join in the the good work in this city. This place is huge, nothing too out of the ordinaryl, close to 10 million people, but something about it speaks volumes. Im glad to have this opportunity to travel here, see whats happening, and spend time travelling with the college students who volunteered to come up to the summer camp as translators. Most of them are not believers, but with this spirit of service, I can see the wheels turning. Nonetheless, I am getting super excited about this year, wondering what awaits me in Shanghai, glad that I will be staying in China. I only pray I can find a minstry there like they have here. Im sure He will provide. Yesterday..O boyyesterday. All 12 of us went to visit the world famous Harbin Siberian Tiger Park. After arriving there, we quickly took our picture with the one month old baby tiger. Then we went into the ticket line where we were pleasantly surprised by the sign that had both English and Chinese. To our surprise, the English version said admission was 65 Yuan, and the Chinese said 90 Yuan. Usually its more expensive for foreigners, so this was quite opposite. So I gleefully walked up to buy a ticket, asked her for one in Chinese, to which she politely replied that I pay 100 Yuan. I informed her of the sign and yadda yadda yadda, but no luck. I got a few of the Chinese translators to come up and plead my case with her. She wouldnt budge. This is also typical here., so I just paid the 100 Yuan and got on with it. Chinese debates can go on for an eternity without ever reaching any point of rationality or common sense. I learned a long time ago to not ask why, unless Im ready for a gigantic waste of time. But without further ado, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The Menu. The only words that came to mind were Jurassic Park. They loaded us up into a caged bus, and they had one other guy who drove around in an SUV with a full cage. All the caged areas had safe zones, where the gate would open and wed drive in an area fenced in with no tigers, just four other gates to choose from. There were hundreds of tigers, it was insane. We got a chicken ready, and they flocked to us instantaneously. As we drove around in a circle, they chased us as Jack, one of the student translators with us, dangled a chicken out the bus. Waiting anxiously for lunch. Then we released the chicken.. Two tigers leaped and grabbed it. This one got half.
This one got the other half. It was awesome. They tore the chicken in half easier than I could tear a spider web in two. Some white tigers, albinos I think..
Feeding the tigers beef strips. They jumped right up on the bus, claws in the cage and all. Close ups. They were like a swarm of bees on honey. This was the duck guy, he threw the ducks out from his spiffy little SUV. He was 100% crazy, his method to get the tigers away was throw a firecracker out, the tigers would jump then he would step out and whip the duck into the pond. One of the tigers was right behind his truck when he threw one out, I thought it was going to get him. A person wouldnt last a minute in there. And it wouldnt be the first time a person found themselves as the end of some tiger canines at this park. Getting ready to pounce on the duck who couldnt fly away. You have to watch the video to see what happens next. When I get a good internet connection, I will upload it and send the link out, I keep getting errors now for some reason. Its a must see. O ya, they had a Liger. Yes, they are real. Theres only about a dozen in the world, due to the rarity of it happening. Ligers inherit gigantism from a male lion and a female tiger. Tigons on the other hand, a female lion and a male tiger suffer from dwarfism. No tigons here though. But i can vouch, this liger was friggin huge!
Me and Federer (his chosen English name) and myself with Faye, some our student translators. Julia, me and Eve, then Jack, me and Alice, more of our student translators from the south. They are all awesome, I love em.
Ed and I, he is a cool brother from the states living here in Harbin, doing some awesome things her for the L*rd. Glad I got to run into him here and know him. The trainer, Dustin, and myself with the baby tiger. Dustin teaches down south and brought the group of college students up to help us translate at camp this summer, and kindly invited me to this little excursion to Harbin. Hes a really cool brother whose encouraged me a lot the last month, and you can be lifting him up too in you pryrs, as well as the ministry down south. piese auto |
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