National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival

Happy Birthday middle kingdom!
China’s 60th Birthday!

Can you believe that it is October already?! For those of us in the China October brings spring festival and this year national day is especially important. October 1st was the 60th anniversary of communism (with Chinese characteristics). Yesterday the nation gathered around our televisions in the morning to watch the much awaited parade. For weeks prior to the 1st subways were shut down in preparation for the big day. No detail was deemed too small, from closing streets to keeping birds out of Tiananmen Square the past month has been filled with practices and drills. I have to say as we watched the thousands of Chinese march by I was awestruck! We could even see the planes as they went by from my porch. I had never seen any thing like that before and that was just the beginning. Later on that night we all gathered together to watch the fireworks, they were as you can imagine from the birth place of fireworks superb! They had dancer’s singers and numerous smiling children; the only singer I recognized was Jackie Chan who can sing surprisingly well! All in all October 1st was amazing it was as if I was watching history unfold China was definitely making a statement to its people and to the world.
Students oh my Students!
Students make my days full and interesting; one of my favorite things about teaching is all things my students say. Here are some of the little things that my students told me.
“Miss Q I look horrible!”-after seeing her face full of stage make up
“My eyebrows won’t wash off!”- A student trying to remove her painted on eyebrows after the performance
“I am hot to death.”- After coming in from PE to a warm classroom.
Here are a few that either came out of my mouth to my students or co workers!
“Never take mangos from small boy’s pockets.”-after a student pulled to mangos out of his pocket and gave them to me.
“No more fingers in your nose!”
“I said read not eat your English book.”
Walking Through the Hutongs.

The weather has been warm and for the most part it still feels like late summer. Katie, Brooke and I have been trying to take advantage of the great weather by exploring the hutongs (old style Chinese neighborhoods) that surround our school. One afternoon we decided to head out and explore and have a dinner of street food. As we wandered though the old streets we picked up some meat on a stick and two different types of flat bread. We carried the bread and meat to a nearby park. As we walked back I realized that I had a little friend following me, it was a small dog how looked like a cross between a large squirrel and an ewok masquerading as a dog. He followed us all the way to the park where he found other people to beg food off. While we were in the park we met a very interesting little boy his head was bandaged up but he was still playing like a Chinese Dennis the menace. As we walked past him he yelled in Chinese “Wa look at all the foreigners eating!!!” We then walked up to him and said hello in Chinese and asked him how old he was. His response was to say in Chinese “I hear you speaking Chinese foreigner” he then proceeded to smack a tree with a big stick. While we were eating he kept throwing this huge stick almost hitting people walking by and when his mother yelled at him to come back and stop throwing the stick he hit a bush and the stick bounced back and almost smacked him in the face. It made us wonder how he had gotten all bandaged up in the first place. We all watched him then I dared Katie to grab his stick and run. Believe it or not she did it and the look on his face was priceless we told in Chinese “Go get her” and just like that we made a great little friend by the end of the night we had made friends with his mother and the little boy. A simple walk in the hutongs became an adventure that made me fall in love with China a little more.
Lifting Up

Please lift up
· -Visas for Brooke (my teammate) and Kimber (a CTFer who works at our school) they need to get visas to return to China we are all covering their classes until their return.
· -Continued health as the weather begins to cool our students begin to share colds and the fear of H1N1 is rampant. This fear often leads to restrictions on our movement and a generalized fear of foreigners.
· -Our weekly study group has grown; please continue to lift up these women that he may make himself known to them. Also be lifting Katie and myself up as we plan these studies.
· -That there may be unity among brothers and sisters on our campus despite social and hierarchical divisions. We want to be able to foster community among all in groups on campus.
· -That the financial needs be met so that I can serve in China.
· -That the father continues to guide me as decisions have to be made regarding my future in China.
I miss you all and I would really love to hear from you all, my email has changed my new email is: Angelina.Quitasol@elic.org the old one will work for a bit longer however please email me at the new address I would love to hear from you! I hope that this letter brings China a bit closer to you and your family; I am so privileged to have you all in my life.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the L your G will be with you wherever you go.”
-Joshua 1:9
In His Grip of Grace, Lina Quitasol

Fall update!

I am so happy to let you know that I am once again safe and sound in Beijing China! In this newsletter I want to take you on an adventure, not just any adventure but one that begins as many adventures do on a public bus. Brooke Katie and I head out for this particular adventure on a humid hot day at the end of august. The sun bakes the pavement and our heads as we wait for the long awaited bus. We push the push the hair off our perspiring for heads and fan ourselves with the masses as we peer down the traffic clogged road. Finally the bus emerges on the horizon barreling out of the smog to stop neatly in front of us. We immediately push and are pushed aboard the bus only to be scooted of the bus by a bus attendant to who informs us that this bus doesn’t go to our stop but another will be along shortly. Finally our bus arrived and after pushing and being carried aboard the bus by a human stream of passengers we were on our way to the other side of town. But a bus ride is never a bus ride with out a few interesting sights along the way. On this particular bus ride I witnessed an older Chinese woman forcing a very unhappy dog into a pair of split pants (young children in china don’t wear diaper rather they wear pants that have a handy slit in the crotch) then placing the disgruntled dog into a rather large stroller. Later as we passed a large university I watched as a clown (complete with makeup and big shoes) make a call on his cell phone while clutching two dozen roses that were liberally dusted with gold glitter. Who was the clown calling we will never know I prefer to imagine that the clown was calling his girlfriend who was also a clown …. But that is a story for another day.
We had finally arrived at our destination yi jia jia jue or as we call it in America IKEA. Now you may view a trip to IKEA as a mundane even boring trip, but in china it is a chance for a unique intersection between east and west. For us the expat community of Beijing a trip to IKEA is like a trip to a theme park complete with food and fun and exciting thing to see. My team had decided that heading out to a huge store with free air conditioning was a perfect way to spend a hot afternoon, and as we found out upon entering the store we were not alone in our decision the store was filled with customers many of whom were there trying to escape the heat and humidity of late summer. As we made our way through the labyrinth like aisles we were greeted with many sights that you would never see in a stateside IKEA. It is common to see a person curled up in a display bed, shoes of and eyes closed taking a nap with complete abandon. In every department there are more people taking pictures of and with products than actually buy the product. Through the whole store there is a theme park like sense of euphoria, perhaps it’s the minimalistic furniture or maybe its just the meatballs but whatever is in the air the mood is light as if we were all on a collective holiday. The excitement of the day was too much for us so we pushed our beleaguered cart (three girl’s one cart poor cart) to the cafeteria to enjoy the interesting assortment of food IKEA had to offer. As we began to eat our mashed potatoes a strange and foreign sound begins to permeate the air. What was it? It was music and believe it or not it was live and it was not ABBA! As I strained my ears to hear over the clatter and crash of the dishes I could make out some very familiar lyrics. Then it was as if someone plugged in a speaker and suddenly we were surrounded by the music of Eric Clapton. As we stood there in the middle of IKEA and listened to live music pour forth it was the perfect way to end a surreal Beijing adventure.
I am so grateful to him for putting you all in my life. I had such an amazing summer getting to reconnect with some of you. I am so sorry that I wasn’t able to meet with you all; I would love to hear from you. I miss you all and would genuinely enjoy hearing about what your up to or what is going on with your families. We are planning to start teaching on Tuesday however with China it is always good to start with a plan B. Please continue to lift up our new teachers as they begin the adjustment period, also please be keep our students in mind as they leave their parents and move into the dorms after a long summer at work. This week we have been doing team building activities; please ask him to make the way known and apparent to us as we begin to discuss what the vision of our team should be. I have been so blessed with your support and faithful thoughts. I would to hear from you, you can email me:)

Fun at home!!

Have ya ever really mean to do something then in the hustle and bustle of life totally forgotten to do it? Well this is my forgotten chore! I set up a blog in the fall with the hope of having a new way to give friends a way to communicate and share the experience of my life in Asia. So Here is what is happening in my life right now. I am currently at home in the states enjoying the comfortable cool fog. It was a major change from the hot humidity of Beijing! It is so nice to be able to go to the farmers market and have some adventures with my family and Rocco the wonder dog!

Training days

So fellow bloggers i just started a month of training in palm springs but the hour is late and the day was very long so more tomorrow:)