Dawn's Blog

Just a little birthday shout-out to my niece Taylor. She's turning 4 today.  I'm a little bummed I can't be at her birthday party today, but I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures and I'm just glad I will get to see her (and the rest of my family) in exactly one month.

Yes, I am coming home in one month. For anyone reading this who doesn't already know, I'll be moving back to Indiana in the middle of July and I'll be working with the ministry at Bear Lake Camp. I am very excited about this.

But enough about the future. Let's talk about the past. It's been quite a while since I blogged last, and I've done a lot of fun things since then. At the beginning of May I had a long weekend that I used to go visit my very good friend Mozy (aka Ina) in South Korea. She is also teaching English there and it was really cool to compare and contrast the Korean and Chinese cultures and our experiences with them. We did some running and hiking, ate Korean food, and even met up with another friend from college who lived nearby. Here I am at the beach in Busan.


A few weeks ago I went with some friends on a weekend "kind-of camping" trip out in the mountains west of Beijing. We went rafting on bamboo rafts one day and then on small rubber rafts the next day - and had multiple water battles on both. We spent the night at the Chinese version of a bed and breakfast - a small hotel where we ate our meals and they started a camp fire for us. Here we all are (except the guy taking the picture) outside our hotel waiting for the bus to go back home.


My most recent adventure (last, but certainly not least) happened when the one-and-only Ashleigh (Sanders) Stall came to visit me all the way from America.  She flew stand-by and didn't make it here until two days after she had originally planned, but it was well worth it. We went to the Great Wall, the Olympic Park, an acrobat show, and the Summer Palace (my new favorite place in Beijing), as well as various shopping centers and markets. Ashleigh even got to teach some German to one of my Chinese students who is going to Germany for school. It was fun watching Ashleigh experience chopsticks and the outdoor market and squatty potties for the first time :). But I think she enjoyed it.

So far this has been an amazing summer, and I have a few more adventures (possibly the most adventurous yet!) planned before I leave. But the best thing about my time here has been the friendships I've made, and I have to say that I'll be very sad to leave the people here. I've learned a lot from them and they've made my adventures very memorable. So, one more month with my China friends, I hope its a good one.