What's in a name?

This week I had the privilege of meeting my Chinese students.  I found it to be a delightful experience.  They are sweet, helpful, excited to learn, and enthusiastic to get to know me as their teacher.   I also had the enlightening experience of learning their names.  Many of them have long-since chosen English names for themselves in prior years of their English studies.  They identify strongly with these names as it is what they have called themselves in English classes for quite some time.  Some of them choose an English name that sounds similar to their Chinese name, some just choose one they like, others think about meaning and significance, and still others may not choose a name at all – rather just an English word that they like.   I admit that I had to suppress laughter several times this week after being introduced to students named: “In” (not short for anything, just “in”), “Season” (not Summer or Autumn, just “Season”), “Ant” (yes, the animal), “Ritchie”, “Bebo”, “Celery”, “Yoga”, and the list goes on.   I’d like to take a moment here to at least impose some of the blame onto American celebrities because of their absurd child name choices – I mean, seriously, Gwyneth Paltrow, you named your daughter Apple?  Gwyneth, an apple is a food, not a name.  I mean, really, if Apple can be a name, then why not any other food – Mustard? Bacon? Raisin? Ground Beef?  Because it’s ridiculous, that’s why.  And so, it’s your fault, Gwyneth, that my student had the logical train of thought to assume that “Celery” was a valid name choice.  And Kim Kardashian – naming your child “North West”?  Really?  North West is a direction, not a name.  And so, it is your fault that my student thinks that the preposition “in” is also a name.   I could go on blaming various celebrities for their tacky child name choices, but there are some names I learned this week of my Chinese students that simply can’t be blamed on anyone: “Echo”, “Chaos”, “Grug”, and my personal favorite – “Erosion.”  That’s right folks, one of my students named herself after the environmental problem through which soil and rock are worn away from the earth’s surface.

Although I think some of the name choices I heard this week are very silly, I am still convinced that I, as a foreigner, do significantly sillier things on a daily basis.  As a result of that, I’m amazed and grateful that we are able to not only extend compassion to each other, but that we can actually build relationships as well.  I guess it’s diversity that makes us interesting, and grace is that makes us friends.  :)

Look around and you'll see reasons to smile :)

Powers for an easy life can be bought! And for less than $1 US dollar. Need I even say DEAL?!
(And all this time I really thought Super Man was super. Sad.)

Grape crackers? Talk about communion made easy!

Who could resist a Purple Potato Sandwich Cookie?

My cashews come with Zen. Bonus!

Mixed up Messages

When you burn yourself, do it carefully, please.
 

Sometimes that apostrophe "s" can make all the difference...
Though I'm willing to try a lot of foods, cannibalism is just taking it too far!! ;)

Arrival in Nanjing

I went to the grocery store to get an apple.  All I wanted was an apple.  I was successful in finding the produce section, selecting the apple I wanted, standing in line and arriving at the cashier.  But I was unsuccessful in the most important step: purchasing the apple.  Totally unable to comprehend what the cashier was trying to tell me, I decided that maybe she wanted the “Fuji” sticker to know which brand to ring up.  I returned to the produce section and pealed a Fuji sticker off one of the other apples.  Surely this is what she wanted.  No.  I was met with failure and frustration and had to leave the apple at the store as a result of my inability to communicate.  What I know now, but didn’t know at the time, was that in China you have to have your produce weighed by a grocery store worker and receive a sticker with the bar code and price before bringing it up to the register.  Such a simple act as buying an apple became impossible for me.  And in fact, I could recount many more such stories from my daily life here.

My team here in Nanjing has been incredibly welcoming, helpful, and generous to me as the new teammate.  My apartment is the most wonderful little place that I have affectionately named “The Bird’s Nest”, as it sits on the top level of the building and my windows look out into the tops of the trees. (I realized I could also call it “The Penthouse”, but felt that the first title was more appropriate. :))  One of my teammates donated a bike to me – which has been fantastic!  Another teammate gave me his old iPhone 3 to use.  One day, two of my teammates went with me to IKEA to purchase a bunch things for my apartment – which now looks great (if I do say so myself)!  Team members have also already invested meaningful time with me in which we’ve begun to build the basis of strong relationships.  The things I’ve listed here are really just the beginning of their generosity to me.  I could go on, but I’ll just say that I am so thankful.  It’s safe to say that I would barely be functioning at all here if it weren’t for them.  Today I was feeling incompetent in another such situation as the one recounted above, and I was just wondering how in the world the Father was going to use me here in China – a person with the functionality of a five-year-old and the language abilities of a one-year-old.   I thought, “How can I serve anyone else when I can barely take care of myself?”  That was when I listened to this message from John Piper (I did my best to write down what was spoken):

When you just want to throw in the towel, remember – you are helpless.  And you’re appointed to make it happen. It’s a wonderful position to be in. You can’t make it happen and it will only happen through you.  [The Father] doesn’t move around [zapping people with the Truth], He won’t just go over there while you ask: ‘Oh [Father] save my neighbor, save my neighbor.’  Go!!  Because there’s this amazing, thrilling, miracle of supernatural illumination; [The Son] is saying to Paul, ‘I send you to open their eyes.  And only I can open their eyes.  So be the agent of My power.’  We have this treasure in jars of clay in order that the surpassing power might belong to Him!  We’re all clay pots. Our words are never adequate.  You never come away from a [sharing] situation saying, ‘Whoa, I really did it good.’ Never.  You will always be a broken clay pot and there’s design in that. [The Father] wants the glory.  And He’s going to get it… for His power.

This message couldn’t have come at a better time, and it couldn’t have been more planned.  He knows exactly what we need, exactly when we need it, and often doesn’t give it to us until that precise moment.  What a journey of trust our lives are.  What a powerful One we serve.

My new wheels!

 

      One of my teammates donated this sweet bike to me! It's been fantastic to be able to whiz around campus and the neighborhood on this thing. 

      I've also discovered that while biking it is common to sing to oneself.  I haven't taken up the practice yet, but like the idea. :)

Delicious Dining

         Last week I had the privilege of being invited for dinner by a Chinese family at a large restaurant in Beijing that they manage.   I was allowed to tag along to this dinner because I am acquainted with someone who is close friends with them (and because of a couple of other reasons that are too laborious to explain in this blog post).  We ate in a private room of the restaurant and were served some of the most delicious food I have yet tasted.  The reputation of Chinese hosting was met in this family as the dishes just kept coming out.  Since every bite seemed to be more delightful than the last, I ate my fill. Near the end of the meal as I was slowing down, my Chinese host said something to me and asked my friend to translate.  Much to my mortification, she did as he asked, saying, “He notices that you have eaten much.”  I flushed red, feeling like a fat pig.  As we got in the car to go home after the dinner, I told my friend how embarrassed I was that I had evidently eaten too much.  I was relieved when she explained, “No, to the contrary, you honored him by eating his food and enjoying it.  You gave him face by doing that.”  So again, I will stick with my mantra that I have much to learn.  In my short time here, I have learned that China is a society that highly values the idea of saving face.  Protecting someone else’s reputation and giving them public honor is so important in this society that it can trump doing the logical thing or even the “right” thing.  As Americans, this concept is so difficult to wrap our minds around.  In our Asian Culture and Communication class we are learning so much about the fundamentally different mindsets of Eastern and Western cultures.  In Spanish, the word for foreigner is directly translated as “alien”, which I think is pretty appropriate for how I feel here.   I may be from a different world, but I am intrigued by this culture and excited to experience all of what life is here with eyes wide open.  

Peking duck - it was delicious! 

 

Just relax and listen to the calming sound of... drilling?

Long before I had arrived in China, I had been told about the inexpensive massages you can get here.  I love massages so much that I had plans to go get one before I even got on the plane.  You can imagine my enthusiasm when I found out that there was a good massage place right across the street from our hotel and that massages cost only six dollars!  Eager to experience this, I dragged my Chinese-speaking roommate across the street with me to set up the deal.  My roommate helped me with the logistics and left.  I was led into a small room with six massage beds and instructed (through actions) to lie down.   No sooner did I put my head on the pillow than began the earsplitting sound of drilling about five feet above my head.  The massage therapist continued her work unfazed, and the drilling continued for about 20 minutes.  I just had to laugh as it seems you never know what to expect in China!