Day Eight (By Mark)

Are you ready for a long blog? I will aim for under a thousand words. My first impression is that a once-a-week substantial blog post is a realistic goal. More than that is a luxury. My objective is to provide our friends and family a periscope into our new lives here in Asia and encourage them about our work.

We have now been in the megapolis of Beijing, China for a full eight days: 3 days in language school, one Sunday with BBC, two trips to Wal-Mart, and lots of time walking and riding the subway. There is so much to observe and think about. How do you summarize trading your life in the US for life as a language-learning pedestrian (I mean walking versus driving) pastor of an international church in one of the world’s great cities? We have traded a 3,000 SF house in the suburbs with a yard and garden and four kids for a 1,650 SF apartment on the 33^rd floor (29^th level J). There are kuai or yuan for currency instead of American dollars. We have traded walks past gardens for tending our own. And, last I checked, none of the kids stowed away in our luggage on the way here! It looks like it will just be Cheryl and I for the next nine months…

 This summer we had five cars at our house; in Beijing we have none. We knew all our neighbors on the cul-de-sac in Greenville, SC; in eight days we have had one 20-second sighting/interaction of our 33^rd (san shi san in Mandarin) floor neighbors. It was Bi-Lo and Wal-Mart for groceries in Greenville; here it is a combination of the most humble street vendors to a mid-size market to a formidable 3-story Wal-Mart near our language school that requires at least an hour to do it justice. And some of the street vendors know literally no English. Today I asked a street vendor for the price of half a watermelon.  He wrote down 4 ½ kuai (about 75 cents). Then I asked him for the price of a whole watermelon. He wrote down what I thought was 1 ½ kuai. What? Clearly I lost something in translation.  I guess I will work on my Mandarin…

Speaking of Mandarin – the Chinese speak lots of it. And they are quite good at it. And they speak it really fast. The good news? Our two language instructors (Liu Luyin and Tong Ting Ting) - both ladies – seem very cheerful, patient, and competent. They better be, because Beijing Mandarin sounds nothing like anything I ever heard in Greenville, SC. Well, maybe one word or two over the first week. Basically, the language school drill is simple: Up at 5:45 AM, take off at 6:50 AM for a 12 minute walk to Beijing’s Line 5 Subway at Beiyuanlu Bei in the north of the city. Take Line 5 three stops south to the Huixinxijie Nankou station at the intersection of Line 10, then proceed six stops to the west to Zichunlu station to exit for Dian Da (Beijing Open University) in the northwest central part of Beijing. The total trip is fifty to fifty-five (50-55) minutes door to door. We arrive around 7:45 and sit around talking and reading before our first class at 8:30 with Liu’ Luyin and two other fresh-out-of-college graduates. At 10:00 AM a bell indicates it is time for a 15-minute tea break. Down eight flights of stairs to a central hall for tea, coffee, cookies, and rushed conversations. Then back up eight flights of stairs for 90 minutes with Tong Ting Ting. She writes all the simplified Chinese characters and speaks Mandarin so fast you feel dizzy. In my head:  “Tong, laoshi (i.e. teacher Tong), how can I learn Mandarin if you only speak to me in Mandarin? I guess that is the point; she embraces the learn how to swim by being thrown in the pool method.  On Wednesday at around 11:15 I felt I had been dumped in a washing machine, placed on the spin cycle, and left for who knows what? And, then, once we have left you for a few hours, we might return. But I have to give our teachers credit – they’ve got us thinking, writing, speaking, and dreaming in Mandarin. And they have accomplished this with humor, grace, and cheerfulness. For that, Cheryl and are grateful. Prospectively, we will have two 17-week semesters this first year in Beijing.

Speaking of Cheryl, I have a new glimpse into my wife and her gifts, character, and graces. She has demonstrated grace and grit these first eight days. I give thanks to G for her. We have spent virtually all our time together in this first week, except for an hour on Wednesday. She has walked endlessly, climbed innumerable steps, been shoved and packed into the Line 5 subway at 7:00 AM on a least four occasions,  prayed like a real saint for family/friends/church/world, carried a fully-stocked backpack, read/listened to/written to Mandarin every day, used hand sanitizer daily, avoided tap water, washed dishes by hand without bemoaning the absence of a dishwasher, figured out how to use appliances with instructions only in Chinese characters, learned how to use a gas stove, entertained cheerfully, endured no vanity light in the bathroom, helped me get in bed by 10:00 PM most nights, up at 5:45 most mornings, never complained about the poor air quality that threatens every Beijing day, prepared to teach MKs home school chemistry beginning on Tuesday, etc., etc. I am so blessed!

Post script: I just saw that Cheryl spoke of many of the same things in her September 3rd post which I have just written about. If on any matter we differ in the description of our experience, please assume she is correct! :)