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| Had a small "party" with my kids. We worked on our art projects and watched some cartoons as a treat. |
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| I wore half of my costume to school and the kids thought I was the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland... |
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| But I was a mime and it was super fun. At our adult team party, I stayed in character the whole night, even through attempts of many sorts to break me. I spoke not once but communicated my heart out. |
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| Back home. A little smeared. A little tired. A lot thankful for my voice and my team here. |
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| I stopped on my way down the stairwell of the apartment to take a picture of the beautiful rising sun before my early commute to school. In front of my apartment entrance, happy to return home after a long day of school and errands. Seeing the sun shine through a dirty window, over a less than beautiful city, reminds me how the SON shines through everything. HE shines in us, through our dirty, less than beautiful lives. HE shines for us, when life feels smoggy and polluted. He shines over us, with his love, guidance, and illuminated path for our lives in all situations. Even when we don't know where we are headed. We just don't always take the time to look towards the sun/SON and be thankful. Most days when I can't see the Beijing sun through the pollution clouds, I sometimes forget that it's shining. I pr-y that, everyday I'm in Beijing, our ever-lasting SON continues to shine in my heart, through me, and over me. |
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| Here's my classroom. It's probably only 12ft by 16ft. View from the door. View from the back. When I'm not walking down the middle of my room I'm in front of that white board. The size of the room alone, brings many challenges. And right away 1 hour before school even starts I start to see 9 beautiful challenges/bl-ssings fill my classroom everyday. |
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| Here are a few shots of classwork. Monochromatic design artwork bordering our door. Poems for their Chinese teacher. Our "Thy Will Be Done" jar that I set on my desk every morning. It is beautiful to read/share their A.S.K.'s to HIM. |
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| There is a really old, ugly, abstract watercolor painting on my home "office" wall. I tried to take it off, but it is...wait for it... ...glued to the wall. Hmhm. So, I put two pieces of paper over it and sharpied/sketched a quick and positive daily reminder. When in China, put paper and quick reminders over old pictures that are glued to walls. |
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| Post-race and smiling but super tired and sore. |
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| And really the only injury to happen was, I lost a tooth... but not really, because this is not a tooth... |
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| It's a toenail. Forgive me but I had to share. I made this photo as acceptable as I could by keeping it black and white and not too focused. I've lost toenails due to running long distance before, but never two entire nails that came out like loose baby teeth. I should say like loose teeth that hurt like the dickens to pull out. I have more stories and memories of my race with 33,000 people. Many stories too hard to put into words. I will probably forget the pain of my lost toenails. I will probably never forget the memories of my Beijing Half. |
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| Today I made a good distance bike trip with some friends, to pick up my race pack for tomorrow! It was a beautiful day to ride bike and breath as close to "fresh" air as we could get. (bl-ssing) On the ride, I could sense the anticipation and excitement amounting in my friends for tomorrow... |
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| And yes. All this crazy stuff happens tomorrow morning at 8...oh boy. Hoping for a blue sky, sun shiny day - like today. I should probably not put myself in situations like this, where I find a race I would love to do and not train for it as much as I should. So, goal: Stay alive, don't get lost, and finish in one piece. You'll know that I'm alive and successful if I live to post another day. Keep us runners in your pr-yers! "just go." |
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| This is my normal route to my regular fruit and veggie stand. Down one street, this time by feet. Down an alley, Little time to dilly-dally. |
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| These are some shots from my walk to a grocery store to buy yogurt. I found some carrots on sale too! Seriously, it's still the little things that make my days a little better here. Gotta find them. Small blessings from HIM. The grocery store I go to is underneath the building on the left. Bikes line the streets everywhere. My wheels stayed parked at home for this trip. Felt an "on foot" trip was a good way to slow down and try to enjoy a small bit of my afternoon; it was. |
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| Finally did our 5k "Move 4 Mi$$ions" and it was awesome. We had to move it a week later than when everyone else ran, due to the pollution level in Beijing. There were about 20 people altogether. Chinese and American alike. Some ran, some walked some ran/walked. S'good. I ran to the park, to run at the park with two friends. PHEW! Might have to transport myself on foot more too now... My bike chain likes to come off all. the. time. I'm getting better at putting it back on, but I miss my reliable road bike back in Appleton... Biking on that thing when I come back to the states is going to be golden...especially on a country road with no people and fresh air....mmm. Brilliant. Yesterday, some of the teachers, including myslef, attended a meeting with another teaching group through which we were able to get our visas. More or less, we went to build relationships. Part of the meeting was a trip to a Garden Expo. Here are some photos from that day. Didn't have my good camera so all of the photos are old phone quality. Take or leave it. :) A little too tired to explain much of the photos, just imagine a giant area with lots of interesting ideas of what a "garden" should be like, and then multiply the weirdness by 7. There were some beautiful flowers. There were almost more fake flowers and backgrounds of trees instead of the real things. All in all, very unique, very Chinese, and very sad in the fact that many people probably were relocated from their homes in order for this to be built.    |
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| This whole in-cropping of flowers in cement leading up to an overlook of grey polluted sky, gave some of us an eerie somewhat sad feeling. We couldn't put our finger on it. It just felt off and made me miss natural nature and fresh air. So, those of you in America with clean fresh air: Breath in. Breath in deeply and thank the L-rd you live where you do. |
