Monday, March 31, 2014

15 Reasons You Should Date Erika D

Looking for love in all the wrong places?
Want to find a girl who is beautiful, kind, and smart?

Look no further!

Here are 15 reason you should date Erika D, in no particular order:

1. She's adventurous. Now, you may be thinking, “Well, duh... She lives in China. She has to be adventurous.” True. However, her adventurous nature goes way beyond just relocating to a foreign country. She is spontaneously adventurous, which is either crazy or awesome. She is willing to go on a journey with very little notice, and she'll squeeze every drop out of that adventure. This is also true in the seemingly small things. Did I forget to make copies for my class tomorrow, and now it is 11:00pm, and I need to go to the copy shop across campus? Erika will go with me just to go out for a walk and be there for a friend. Opportunity to ride a tandem bicycle? She goes for it. So, she is spontaneously, selflessly, philanthropically, and vehicularly adventurous. What a mouthful.



2. She's athletic. Bowling, basketball, badminton, ping-pong, football, bicycling, running, volleyball, tennis, etc. You get the picture. She can play and excel in any sport she attempts. On the basketball court, she is nigh unstoppable, sinking both 3s and jump shots.

After playing in the rain, our hands were filthy!
Bowling? We went bowling a few days ago, and Erika got five strikes in a row!!! That must be called an ostrich or something. In all honesty, Erika is not perfect, and this happens occasionally when she bowls:

But, she just laughs it off and keeps going


Speaking of sports, Erika is also very talented at filling out sports brackets. She won our team's football bracket, and is in the lead for March Madness. Not a bad skill to have.

3. She's musical. As I type this, I can hear Erika practicing her ukulele through our shared wall. She only purchased it about a month ago, and can already play two whole songs! Aside from this, she has a beautiful singing voice, which she lends to classics such as “The Beard Song” and “Come Home to North Dakota”

4. Speaking of North Dakota, Erika has some serious state pride, even rivaling this here Texan, which is a pretty big feat. She loves North Dakota, LOVES it, from its bitter winters and varied topography, to its fresh rhubarbs and 'special' vowel pronunciation (Ask a North Dakotan to say bag and root.) North Dakota sure does seem like a magical wonderland to me, the way she talks about it. And, because of her love for this rectangular state, I can now wear a NDSU t-shirt while drinking tea from a North Dakota mug, making my mornings quite sublime.

5. She has a grandiose lexicon. Occasionally she may be verbose, but her verbosity comes from a genuine mental storehouse containing multitudinous words for every occasion. How many pulchritudinous and beguiling women do you know of that can employ words like “plethora” and “perambulate” in everyday conversation? Not many, I'm guessing.

6.  She is a writer, and has so much talent for writing. Currently, she is working on her first book. I received the honor of hearing a little piece of it, and it is SO GOOD. This girl is going places. I would not be at all surprised to go into Barnes & Noble in the next five years and purchase one of her books, that is provided Barnes & Noble is still in business. Maybe I'll just read her book on my Kindle.

7. She loves to read. Mark Grist wrote a poem called "A Girl Who Reads" Here is a snippet:

What do you go for in a girl?”
Well, um, I feel quite uncomfortable, the air left the room a long time ago,
all eyes are on me.
“If you must know, I like a girl who...reads.
Yeah, reads.
Who needs the written words
and who uses the added vocabulary
she gleans from novels and poetry
to hold lively conversation
in a range of social situations.
I like a girl who reads,
whose heart bleeds at the words of Graham Greene...or even Heat magazine.
Who ties back her hair when she’s reading Jane Eyre
and who goes cover-to-cover with each Waterstones 3-for-2 offer.
But I want a girl who won’t stop there,
I want a girl who reads,
who feeds her addiction for fiction
with unusual poems and plays that she hunts out in crooked bookshops
for days and days and days.
She’ll sit addicted at breakfast,
soaking up the back of the cornflakes box
and the info she gets from what she reads makes her a total fox.
Because she’s interesting and she’s unique
and her theories make me go weak at the knees.

8. She is a thinker. She likes to stay informed about life. When Erika goes for runs, she listens to Albert Mohler's "Thinking in Public" or a sermon. Me? I usually go for the Rocky soundtrack.

9. She loves people, not things. Erika loves people. She pours out herself for others, inside the classroom and out. She willing to sacrifice for others, so often putting their needs above her own. If the girls basketball team has practice at 7:00am on a Saturday morning, Erika will be there to help out. If a student needs extra help in class, they are free to come to her apartment and have a one-on-one. She is a giver. Along with loving people, she decidedly does not love things. She has a loose grip on her possessions, always trying to think of ways to live more simply.



10. She can cook! We will have meals together sometimes, and she is a great chef. Just the other night, she made a curry squash soup that was delicious. Her other triumphs in the culinary arts include lemon broccoli chicken pasta and waffle cookies. Erika has figured out how to turn the waffle-maker into a versatile kitchen tool: waffle cookies, waffle sandwiches, waffle s'mores, waffle hash-browns, etc.


11. She is easy-going. When life gives her lemons, or spilled pancake batter, she laughs it off. 


12. She is willing to have a random dance party. Now, I'm not saying that she has great dance moves, but she lets go and will dance around my apartment with me to unwind from a day. She has some special talent dancing to the song “Rasputin” by Boney M., but you'll need to ask Emily M for evidence of that.

13.  She is ambitious. I've already mentioned that she is writing a book, but she also just ran a 1/2 marathon a couple of days ago. Looking into the future, she has so many big dreams and goals, and she pursues them. Life is not passing her by; she is truly living it!

14. She is gorgeous. 

She makes date milk look good:

She makes goofy glasses look good:

she makes pomegranates look good (well, those kind of already looked good on their own, but you get my point)

15. She loves the Father. She has a humble heart to know Him more, and that is more beautiful than anything on this list. 

Bonus #16 - She has great goofy facial expressions

 

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Words Words Words (3/27/14)

You see, real freedom is not liberty to do what we want or the absence of distress. Real freedom is the deep-seated confidence that no matter what, the Father will provide everything we need (Phil. 4:19). The person who believes this is the freest of all persons on earth, because no matter what situation they find themselves in, they have nothing to fear (Phil. 4:11). But the only way for sinners like us with a bent towards unbelief in Him to find this kind of freedom is by experiencing repeatedly His delivering power and His faithfulness. That's why we are to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds (James 1:2). These trials are setting us free. The Father's word to you in this story and all the crises you face is this: "Do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but Mine" (2 Chron.  20:15)

- Jon Bloom

Midnight In Paris

Recently, I saw the movie "Midnight in Paris." It has been out for a few years, but for some reason I'd never heard of it. I think it is wonderful. The story is interesting, and the characters have depth. Earnest Hemingway is hilarious. I would definitely recommended it.

In addition, the soundtrack is incredible. I've listened to little else over the past couple of weeks. It has some typical French music, some piano diddies (sp?), plenty of jazz, and some really fun Cole Porter songs.

I had been thinking that I wish someone would have recommended this to me sooner, so I am going to recommend it to you. Watch the movie. Listen to the soundtrack. Be happy.



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Beijing Happiness

A friend recently told me about the four types of happiness in ancient China:

1. A desert getting rain after a long drought

2. The first night you are married

3. Having great success in an exam or challenege

4. Seeing friends in an unfamiliar place.

I got to experience this last kind of happiness during my weekend in Beijing. 

I had known that I would need to go to the Capital sometime this semester for an appointment with the Embassy, so when my BCF (best Chinese friend) told me she was needing to go as well, we made a plan to go together.

The first thing to greet me in Beijing: a subway performer
We ended up staying at separate places because that was cheaper (free!). I got to stay with a wonderful friend who is also with my org. We had so much fun at her house, baking fresh cinnamon rolls, watching Dr. Who, cooking meals, and dancing and singing along with show-tunes.

The ingredients are ready (thanks to the amazing Amanda)


Before they went into the oven. Coincidentally, I didn't take a picture AFTER they came out of the oven, because we were too busy eating them. :)




On Friday, I went to the Embassy. There were hundreds of Chinese people waiting there for a visa, and I only saw two other Americans. Everything went smoothly, though, and I should have a new passport soon.

the line outside the Embassy

Friday night, we visited Renmin University and helped the team there with an English Corner. This team does such a good job with their English Corner, and I got many wonderful ideas. It was also good to see friends. I'm so blessed to have two countries full of friends.

On Saturday, Song and I met at the Summer Palace. We met a new friend outside, and then journeyed together through the complex.


What I have learned, though, is that almost every Chinese scenic destination is just full of stairs!! We climbed thousands of stairs that day. We also took a ride around the lake in a paddle-boat.


Stairs Stairs Everywhere!



That night, we went to Peking University to visit more friends (who had no idea I was coming!) The look on their faces was priceless when we arrived. I wish I could have captured that on camera. We took a tour of the campus and then went out for Yunan food.

Miguel de Cervantes
With Old Friends
Yunan fish - yum! (and spicy!)
Now, I'm back in Zhengzhou, back to normal life... as normal as life in China can be.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Words Words Words (3/9/14)

XIV

Batter my hear, three-personed Lord; for you
As but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, shall never be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

-John Donne

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Same Same, but Different (Pizza Edition)

A couple of former students asked if they could come over and visit me for dinner a few nights ago.

They brought dinner from a new little pizza place on campus. By little, I mean little... like the size of a closet. A woman in there has a small oven and makes pizzas one by one. The name above her little hole in the wall shop is "Rain Pizza."


the menu



Imagine my surprise (not really) when the girls brought the pizza, and this was what the box looked like:


That's right... Pizza Hut Pizza! So, as of now, our campus has a fake Burger King, fake McDonald's, fake Dairy Queen, and fake Pizza Hut. The fake BK, MD, and DQ all server pretty much the same thing: chicken sandwiches and fries.


Chinese pizza is similar to American pizza, but they use far less sauce.  I have to admit, though, that this fake pizza was quite tasty.


My two dinner buddies!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Visit to My BCF's Home

When I returned to Zhengzhou after my conference, I received a message from my BCF (best Chinese friend) that she was in the hospital, and had been for several days. They had found a lump and were going to do surgery to remove it. I asked if I could come and visit her in the hospital, but she said it would be best to visit her home once she was released.

So, about one week later, I took the bus downtown, transferred a few times, and found her family's apartment. Her parents and brother welcomed me graciously, along with her adorable little niece.

Then, we began the work of making lunch.


Yes, I once again made jiaozi. This time, though, her father showed me a new way to fold them, AND IT IS GENIUS! I was folding like a pro (well, maybe not quite a pro) before long. 



Her mom made mini jiaozi for the little girl. That took a lot of skill! 


Our feast in the end. It was delicious! Her father even made his own sausage! This can give you a picture of a traditional family meal in China. 


After eating, we watched a little bit of the Olympics. Curling was the only sport showing at the time, so we switched to a documentary called "The History of the World." It just so happened to be speaking about ancient Rome, and even showed the One who died to save it. What an amazing opportunity for conversation with the whole family.

Then, my friend and I went back to her little room, did some online shopping for Chinese textbooks, and then curled up for a nap on her bed. I really loved this moment, because I felt a sense of belonging, which is a rare feeling for me where I am. I treasure this friendship.

Next week, my BCF and I will journey to Beijing for a few days together. I'm so glad to have a napping, online shopping, and travel buddy.