Firmness

Every night as I fall asleep on my Chinese bed, I contemplate the word firmness.  Those of you who have slept on a Chinese bed know why.

In my contemplation of the word firmness I decided to look it up in the dictionary.

Dictionary.com: Not soft or yielding when pressed; comparatively solid, hard, stiff or rigid; securely fixed in place

Foolish Dictionary*: That admirable quality in ourselves that is detestable stubbornness in others.

As I laughed at the foolish dictionary’s definition, I was struck by the truth of it.  Why is it that we admire stubbornness (calling it by a name of some random virtue) in our own lives, and despise stubbornness in others?

I hope that as I live in this new culture, I will leave behind my desire to remain securely fixed in place.  I hope that I will not remain firm and unyielding.  Rather, I hope to bend and flow and grow in this amazing culture that astounds me daily.

*The Foolish Dictionary: An exhausting work of reference to un-certain English words, their origin, meaning, legitimate and illegitimate use, confused by a few pictures.  By Wallace Goldsmith

My firm Chinese bed

Finding Rest in China

Tea! More waitress please!

Ok…by the title of the blog you may be able to tell that my Mandarin may need some work…

In other news, WE MADE IT!!

We flew from Denver, Co to Newark, NJ (for a 7 hour layover). Once we were all good and tired, we boarded the plane for our 14-hour flight to Beijing! Let me just say, you can watch a lot of movies in 14 hours. Also, you learn to eat on command. For example, a flight attendant comes by and asks if you want food, you auto-reply yes, start eating, and then contemplate as to whether or not you are hungry….in that order.

After arriving in Beijing, we hauled our weight in luggage out of the airport to the hotel. And let me tell you, there is a lot of luggage for 50 people to move to China. After finding our room and getting settled in, we headed down to dinner at the hotel restaurant. 50 of us then uncaringly stuffed our faces with food, which we weren’t sure we recognized, while trying not to fall asleep and jab ourselves in the eye with a chopstick. And ummmm my chopstick skills after 48 hours of no sleep are, well, they are messy.

With the travel adventures behind me, I now look forward to so many amazing discoveries in this extraordinary country!

Bus to the airport...a little crammed.

Great friends seeing us off in Colorado!

Three Degrees of Separation

I have finally arrived at the University of Northern Colorado for orientation! Today I went from Greenville to Detroit to Denver. At Denver I waited for hours with other people for our bus, where we then again lugged our weight in luggage (with a broken wheel) to the bus for our hour long trip to Fort Collins.

At the airport, on the bus, and at UNC I made an amazing discovery...there are only three degrees of separation for all team members.

Examples:

• I met Jake who went to language school with Elisa
• I met my future Harbin teammate in Greenville, SC for coffee (neither of us live in Greenville)
• Beth's friend's cousin is here (or something like that)
• Wheaton seems to always be a connecting point in some way

Literally, I feel as if I have a random connection to everyone here...

However, I must say that Moody is not well known out here. I was sitting at dinner and overheard someone say, "I was reading the bios and one said that she was a Moody grad. What's that mean? That she hated every class but graduated anyway?" Much laughter abounded...*Sigh*

Dwight*...sometimes I wish you had had a different last name.

*D. L. Moody was the founder of Moody - hence the name. (in case you didn't already know)

Checklist

I have a verbal rut that drives some people crazy...my over-usage of the word "check!" I love checking things off lists. Saying "check" helps me mentally add or subtract something to one of my hundreds of lists. I have mental, digital, and paper check lists.

One of the many lists I have is entitled, "Things to do before China." I have been checking things off like crazy. Below are some of my checked off items.

• Write Philosophy of Teaching Paper - Check
• Get Ears Irrigated - Check!
• Spend time with friends and family - Still checking
• Write thank you notes - (I would say check, but this one spawned a whole new list)
• Go to Doctor - Finally Check (yeah this took about 9 checks to complete)
• Eat Chickfila - Check (checked that one about 4 times just to be safe)
• Buy Coffee Press - Check!

I still have roughly 35 checks to go, but the good news is that the lists are getting shorter.

If you were leaving the country, what kinds of things would you need to check off your list? Can you think of anything I should add to my lists?

Also, I thought of some checklists for you, my friends.

• Sign up for Skype and find Lizzie
• Read about Harbin, China
• Give Lizzie one last hug 'cause you love her

Feel free to add to the list!

Common Responses

At this point I have told many, many people that I am moving to China. I have received so many different reactions that I thought I would share some of them with you.

My Statement: "I'm moving to China."

Responses:

• "Say What?"
• "Oh that's...nice."
• "Cool!"
• "Why?"
• "Do you know Chinese?"
• "Where in Japan are you going?" (my response, "Uhhhh")
• "You are going with blonde hair?!"
• "Hey, you'll be tall for the first time in your life!"

My Statement: "I'll be living in Harbin, China."

Responses:

• "Where?"
• "Oh, that's cold!"
• "I have a lumberjack song for you."
• "Now where is Siberia again?"

Perhaps I'll post the responses to the statement, "I'm from Indiana" once I get to China.

The Power of One Thousand and One

We've all heard about the Power of One. Now at ExactTarget you hear about the Power of One Thousand.

This week, I learned about the power of One Thousand and One.

My friend Megan is on her way to Kenya. She and her husband will be working to help widows and orphans by providing aide and education. ExactTarget coworkers rallied behind her and hosted a service auction (what's that you say: It's an auction of people's times, talents, and services to help Megan be able to serve those in Kenya)

With the power of one thousand, Megan moved closer to her goal.

At the auction, I had hoped to buy some graphic design time. Doing so would allow me to have some awesome email templates for my newsletters all the while helping Megan - Win Win!

However, I was outbid.

As I resigned myself to the loss, the winner came around and informed me that he had bought the graphic design services to give to me. I literally could not believe it. With one bid, he helped Megan and then turned around and helped me.

With the power of one, I was helped and encouraged.

That is what the power of One Thousand and One is all about. Sometimes it takes a whole group of people working together to accomplish a goal...
but at the same time if each person is looking for ways to help the person laboring beside them amazing things can happen.

Interested in rallying behind Megan? (or just learning more?)
Go to: www.lcms.org/dooms

Good Bye

The month of goodbyes has begun. With that, I have started contemplating the word, “Goodbye.” Why must we add the “good” to bye? We do not have to say “Goodhello” so why must we say good bye?

My conclusion: Because we all know hello is intrinsically good whereas bye rarely seems good. So we add the adjective good to the word with the hopes that we can will it to be good. For example, your mother never needed to say, “Would you like some good brownies?” But she would have had to say, “Would you like some good brussel sprouts?” Even as children, we knew brownies were good by their very nature, with or without the adjective, and we knew the brussel sprouts were not good, with or without the adjective good. (and while our moms were bringing us these mythical, supposedly good brussel sprouts didn’t you always wonder if the unicorns and other mythological beings could serve them?)

Therefore, we say goodbye to help us believe it will be good. We say goodbye hoping the word will bring about a truly good bye.*

With that, what does a true good bye look like?

I believe my goodbye will truly be a good bye. Why? Because only good things are inspiring the Bye. I’m leaving to do something I am incredibly excited about. I’m leaving so that I can work with some amazing people. I’m leaving to begin an adventure that few ever dream of. I’m leaving with the support and encouragement of those I love. I’m also leaving knowing that this is not a separation that will last forever.

With all things considered, I will wish all of you a Goodbye knowing that it is truly a Good Bye.

*Side note – the same argument could be applied to “Good Morning”…just saying.