CHINA 1

Hello Friends,

Well, here I am in China. I am at an internet cafe. It is good to know that no matter where you are at in the world, computers still stink!!! I had my whole email written out and at the end, the lady cleaning around that computer next to me bumped a wire or something and all was lost. Yep, always love that...not!

For the time that I am in China this will be my email address. I will not be checking my other emails, facebook, or blog. The internet is watched pretty closely here. Which reminds me, there is certain lingo that you should not use when emailing me. For example, do not talk about why I am here or anything like that. You can you the words Father for the big guy upstairs and we talk to him instead of the alternative word. Also, do not mention organizations or other afflilations to the Father. If you are not certain if a word is okay or not, use *** in place of the letters. I can fill in the blanks.

Anyway, after about 58 hours of travel we arrived at our destination in China safely. A little jetlag and a bit hungry (some including myself chose to sleep instead of eating on a couple occasions). We checked into our hotel, ate a quick breakfast, had a little quiet time, and made our way down to the school that we are doing the cultural exchange with. The students and teachers are very welcoming and excited to have us here. I really enjoy their enthusiasm. Today, one of our team leaders, Holly and I went and spoke to a couple of the english classes about the US and Canada (Holly is Canadian). It was suppose to help the Chinese students learn more about our countries and practice hearing and speaking english. Well, I am not so sure how much they learned about our countries, but they now know what sports I like, how to spell my name, that Minnesota gets a lot of snow, and that if the applaud long enough I will sing Silent Night. However, I was very pleased when I found out that they were very surprised that I was a teacher (all of the team leaders are considered teachers) because they thought I looked like a high school student!! I told them, in my country that was a very nice thing to say!

As for me personally, the Father was good to me in our travels. I did not get nearly as motion sick as I probably should have. It helped that I took some of the dramamine and slept completely through our train rides. I after last nights sleep I feel refreshed and alert. So far, I love China. I find the country to be beautiful and the people even more beautiful. I think that China will hold a precious part of my heart after this trip. Also, for those of you who know me well, you will be impressed with this, I have sampled all the food that has been served to me. Alright, so it is only day 2, but I am holding onto that accomplishment for as long as I can.

Feel free to share this email and email address with anyone you think of. I am not able to access all of my email addresses, so this was the best I could do. Well, I need to say bye for now. I will try to get back in a couple of days.

Love you all!!

Mags

P.S. Fred, tell mom I love her!