After a 14 hour plane ride to Korea, followed by 2 more hours to Bejiing, we made it to China. We then took a 19 hour train ride to Harbin. We started our journey on Tuesday and arrived on Friday. It was a long travel day to start the World Race, with very little sleep or food, but we made it. Over the weekend, we were given time to rest. One thing I love about my team leader, Will, is his “go get it” spirit. He plans at least one activity a day to help us get out of the house. So, on Saturday we traveled to Central Street, on the opposite side of town. It’s a walking street full of shops and people. We got on the bus and tried to figure out where to get off. It was quite entertaining to try to speak to Chinese people through pointing at a paper or broken English. One thing I love about China is their friendly spirits. They are always willing to help. Many Chinese people approach us to take pictures with us or say hello.
My squad mate Cabe will hopefully put a video up soon of what we are doing here in Harbin to give you a better idea of what my life looks like. Most things are very different from America. Crossing the street for example is quite a challenge. The road is about 6-10 lanes wide. There are no cross walks. Cars continuously change lanes and you don’t really know where they are going. We try to cross one lane at a time and stand on the white lines while we wait for the next lane to be clear. It’s eventful every time and tends to create shouting and running.
Our ministry started yesterday. We walk around Universities and try to meet students. Students are very easy to talk to and most know some E nglish. We walked around the campus all afternoon and made some good contacts. We will then follow up and eat meals with them or have coffee. Another thing we do is visit daycares. We walk up to a daycare and ask if we can play with kids. The daycare let us in because they can talk pictures. This way they can advertise “foreigners visit and teach English”. We made complete fools of ourselves this morning by singing and dancing in English and Chinese. I can’t imagine this being allowed in America. It’s amazing what privileges and opportunities we get as foreigners in China. I hope we can use this to our advantage.
Until next time…
