Happy Independence Day (again) to all the Americans reading this! Which, I suppose, is everyone (except maybe Jess!). Today was incredibly eventful. I woke up at 6 and worked on my paper journal. I also chatted with several people, as it's the best time to get a hold of all my friends. Mom and I figured out we should Skype (which I'm looking forward to in an hour and a half or so), and we drew silly pictures on the chalkboard in our common room.
We all got prettied up for church, which is on the first floor of the building we're living in. Keep in mind that this is the British version of naming floors, which means that the first floor over here would be equivalent to the second floor in America. So we just had to go down the stairs and there we were for church!
It's almost entirely in Chinese, and we had a couple translators to help us understand what was being said. The order of the liturgy is the same at home, which was a great comfort. I can't imagine not having the Lutheran liturgy. It's such a part of my life; it's something I've always known. It's how I worship, and I wouldn't want it any other way. We sang hymns in English while the Chinese people sang in Cantonese. It didn't sound the best, but we made it work. I can't go to a church service and not sing. I mean, I'm Lutheran after all! During the sermon, all of us short term missionaries headed out to the children's church. It's kind of like at Good Shepherd, when all the children are invited to the narthex with the non-preaching pastor to hear a simplified version of the sermon with a song. Lynnette, one of the GEO's, gave the lesson on becoming Fishers of Men, which was what the Gospel reading was. The kids were very cute, and it was nice to see how to run a Bible study here with the children. We sang a bunch of songs I remember from my preschool days, with "Oh the Lord is good to me" changed so "and the apple seed" became "and the rice paddy". The kids did a little craft, and then we headed back into the church for the rest of the service. We were introduced to the congregation, which was pretty cool.
This may sound kind of strange, but I was expecting everyone to mispronounce my name. I mean, I've had other foreigners mispronounce "Catherine" because the 'th' sound is non-existent in many languages. However, the Chinese who have said my name kind of say it "Cathreen", with the 'th' and everything. It's pretty interesting how my preconceived notion was so wrong. I suppose it's because a lot of these people might have learned English when they were very young, when it's easier to learn different sounds they might otherwise not be exposed to.
After church, we went back to the Chinese restaurant Rachel and Roper took us to our first day. I ordered the same thing, and Adam and I came to the conclusion that it's our new comfort food. Fried chicken and ramen noodles. Something I can always fall back on.
We hung around the school for a bit, including the little garden inside the gate we use to get in and out.
After that, Roper took us to the shopping center further away, which is pretty much a set of maze-like interconnecting malls and a bigger grocery store. It was pretty crazy packed, kind of like America on Black Friday. We happened upon a stage set up, with microphones, people in folding chairs, and several cameras, including a video camera. We couldn't understand what was going on, but we thought it might be a debate. Luke asked a man if he spoke English, and the man explained that they were going to be talking about government retirement benefits, so either it was a debate on the subject or some press conference, but we're leaning to the former. We talked with the nice man a bit more, explaining what the heck a group of westerners were doing in Tuen Mun. He was really surprised, even with the fact that we were teaching in the schools in the area, that we were actually living in Tuen Mun while we worked here. That makes sense, really, with how completely out of place we are here. I'm getting used to it, but every now and again something like this will happen to remind me that westerners don't ever come to Tuen Mun except as English teachers. It's very obvious who we are in this area, so we have to be even more careful about what we do or say.
I don't mind that, not really. If you think about it, one should ALWAYS act as if people knew exactly who one was or what one represented. I wear a cross; I should always be cognizant of the fact that simply by wearing that I am automatically assigned certain expectations and I should do my best to be a living, walking witness in my daily life. I admit that this is a poorly run aspect of my life. I'm not perfect, no one ever is. But hopefully, with this reinforcement, I can come home and be far more aware of how my actions affect people. I'll be around people who look like me, but I can still be a witness for the Lord.
We happened upon a bakery, and Roper bought a cake (which we haven't eaten yet) for our Fourth of July celebration. I bought a green tea sponge cake, which was VERY good (I fear future visits. It's not expensive, but I didn't come to Hong Kong to eat sweets all the time!), and some sort of pastry with "watermelon paste" that I might try tomorrow for breakfast. After that, we grabbed some bubble tea (though I opted for strawberry green tea), and we all swapped a sip of flavors. The only one I didn't like was the vanilla milk bubble. The others made me want to drink the whole cup! And at around $1.29 in American dollars, you can bet we'll be going back a lot. I heard it's like $4 in the States, so we were really excited.
We came back, having an adventure on the light rail system. The octopus cards are the greatest thing ever. You don't even have to take it out of your wallet to scan the microchip.
When we got back, Roper ordered pizza from Pizza Hut for our INdependence Day celebration. Lynnette, Megan, and another Adam (we call him the "other Adam" and he's actually in Seminary in STL right now!) came to celebrate with us. Pizza Hut in Hong Kong is JUST like in the States, so it was a nice slice of home (and I just realized that bad pun, forgive me). Except they have seafood pizza. Which... yeah, no. Not going to try it.
Megan then gave us a crash course in EFL teaching, which was VERY helpful. I learned a lot I was worried about, so I'm quite happy about preparing now. Still nervous, but I have more of a feel of what I'm to be doing. Then we had cake that Megan brought, and we sang the Star Spangled Banner together as we cut it. The only thing that would have made it better was if we could have had some sparklers. But all kinds of fireworks are illegal here, so it was a no go. After that, we had another crash course from Lynnette on the mass transit system. I'm still horribly confused, but hopefully after I ride it a couple times I'll figure out what it is I'll be doing. I don't plan on going anywhere by myself o it, so I'll be fine.
After all of that, we had a devotion, talking about the Bible verse from church, and each of us explained how we got into the mission field in the first place. It was very nice, hearing everyone else's story and sharing my own. It's kind of strange, because I"m a bit older than the others, but it's not like I"m a decade older or anything. This is very much a "college age" trip (with the exception of Roper and Rachel), I've noticed. Very interesting.
And here I am, updating my blog and waiting for mom to come home from church so we can skype.
And as always, click the link below for more pictures! Oh, and you can always click on the picture to view a larger version.
This is why I hate point and shoots. My pictures are always so blurry.
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