New Update: iOs Brin's Life

So I suck at blogging. And updating people on my life in general.

But I've decided to overcome procrastination and updating my blog is the secret to overcoming that here in China. (Well, that and cleaning my room regularly.)

I suppose I have been lacking in the blogging department because I feel like I am totally lacking in the story department (not true, I live in China. Every day is a story!). However I have learned that even if my days are filled with a routine that doesn't involve adventuring in the usual way, there are still plenty of adventures that involve trips to the grocery store even.

So here it goes.

Recently, I have started working at another school. I volunteer at one school for like, an hour every day (and it's fantastic and I love my students to pieces) but after that, my days have been pretty empty. Well at an international school that is basically an English training center, one of their foreign teachers switched to part time and they needed someone to fill up his empty slots. Since my roommate teaches there as well, they called me up and I got the part.

I started teaching one class a week, to two classes, and now I am teaching five days a week at a school an hour away from where I live. And, I don't want to brag or anything, but the pay is really good. Like more than twice the amount I have ever been payed by the hour. It's an incredibly amazing blessing and I can't tell you how many times I have been caught praising the heavens by a national. It's great.

Switching from one school to another is a little difficult because the kids are less well behaved and the teacher in charge of me is extremely intimidating. I mean, I'm pretty decent at teaching on a normal basis now, but when she's in the room and I'm teaching, everything I know about teaching goes out the window. The good news is that on days that I don't teach with her, she seems to like me more.

They have weird classes and schedules and adjusting to it has been stressful, to say in the least. However, I think after this first week, I'm finally getting what's going on. It's an accomplishment.

By the way, I also found these amazing sweatpants for 50¥ and they are the most wonderful things that I have ever owned. I am wearing them right now, they are stylish, have pockets, are comfy, keep me warm, and they don't even look like sweats. They do that here because China is smart and understands the importance of feeling good while looking good at the same time.

Anyways....

Besides teaching at a new school and getting paid like a teacher should, I have found myself included in many other wonderful miracles. China is full of them, I don't care if they don't know that God exists, but China has plenty of miracles. Last Sunday, my roommates and I went to Burger King. Honestly, I was against it at first because I've been trying to keep the Sabbath day holy but something told me that we needed to go (apart from my growling stomach). We show up, get our order and I run upstairs to get us a seat. When my roommates came up, they had with them an American from Florida. We got to talking and somehow church came up. We had both just come from church and are both Christians. He said he has been trying to find a new church because he doesn't like the church he goes to currently. Well, we were thrilled.

We invited him to church the next week (tomorrow) and hung out with him for the rest of the day. (It also just so happens to be the primary program tomorrow.) The more we got to know him, the more we realized that meeting him was no accident. He said that just before he had come to Burger King, he had been in church and he heard a voice tell him to leave. Incorrect doctrine came up in the sermon and it didn't make him happy and he had heard to leave right that moment. The night before he had been craving a hamburger and it brought him to the Burger King close to his apartment (which isn't close to ours but the only one we know of in Suzhou). The circumstances couldn't be coincidental.

He seemed so interested in the gospel and it made us so excited. He told us on WeChat that he had been looking forward to coming to church all week. It makes me so excited! I can hardly wait for Sunday to come!!

Before you call me out on proselyting in China, let me clear something up. We aren't allowed to proselyte to Chinese nationals, but any ExPats, we have total, free reign to. I wish I had brought a Book of Mormon to give him!! I thought about it, not going to lie!

It's so weird to think that I only have a month left here in China. It's felt like I've lived here for years and still seems like I got here yesterday. I don't even know how to explain it. I think about the person I was before I came and the person I am now. Who was the Brindizi who stepped off the plane in Beijing and who is she today? There have been some really difficult things that I have had to go through, some of them I didn't think I could actually make it through them. Not having God's light engulf you everywhere you go can be really difficult. I suppose I had just been looking at things from the wrong angle because now I see his light everywhere.

The Chinese people are absolutely amazing. I mean, literally just five seconds ago, I was interrupted by one of my fellow Chinese teachers and she told me that the clothes that I am wearing right now are very beautiful and suit me very well. (Remember the sweat pants I am also wearing? Told you they are fantastic.) The Chinese teachers are also very concerned about my health. I have the tiniest cold ever and not one of them hasn't asked if I have a cold, and then suggested to drink lots of hot water (we drink soup, they drink hot water. Another thing China is genius at, I am converted to hot water). But these people have the light of Christ in their eyes and they don't even know it. They are so kind and welcoming and caring. They pay attention to everything and know you for who you are, even if you can't communicate.

I miss America like crazy. But I don't regret coming here one bit. The lessons I have learned and the people I have met have changed my life for the better, and that's not even half of it.

Happy 100 days living in China!!

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