New, and welcome, circumstances bookended January 2012. Our first moments of 2012 occurred in Australia, a country and continent new to us. To celebrate the New Year, we delighted in Sydney's summer weather and spectacular fireworks display over a delicious picnic with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law. The last week of January, we moved into a wonderful apartment right across the street from our language classes. The new apartment had its own washer (so we didn't have to battle 1,000 other students for laundry!), its own kitchen with a fridge and stovetop, and best of all, a delightful British friend and roommate who blessed us with her company :). The days in between Australia and apartment, however, were more challenging.
Firstly, we scrambled to renew our student visas. The day we had to renew our student visas remains one of our worst days in China. If I remember correctly, we learned at 10am on Tuesday, January 17th that the campus offices would close the next day for three weeks for Chinese New Year holiday; when we did the math, we discovered the offices would remain closed past our original visa's expiration date. We therefore had until 5pm THAT DAY to complete all the steps necessary for us to get the paperwork needed for visa renewal. These steps included power walking one mile to the nearest bank to attempt to withdraw 18,000 rmb (approximately $3000) to pay our tuition, since the university would only take cash payment. When we discovered that the daily limit on our ATM withdrawals was less than that, we had to beg a friend (and power walk the mile back to campus to meet her) to let us borrow the remainder we needed, stat. After cobbling together the 18,000 rmb in cash, we had to run BACK to the original bank to pay tuition, wait 45 minutes in line, discover only when our number was called that we had pulled the wrong category of number, beg the teller through gestures and bad Chinese to let us pay tuition anyway, then finally complete the transaction. We then had to dash to another department on the other side of campus with our payment receipt so we could get the visa paperwork. We finished all of this, sweaty, exhausted, and near tears, around 3:45pm. Only 75 minutes ultimately buffered us from losing the legal right to stay in China.
After the drama of our first visa renewal, the middle of January 2012 entailed finishing up our first semester of language classes before the Chinese New Year holiday, taking our final exams, and not freezing to death in our dorm room. By that time, the dorm was almost uninhabitable. We could see our own breath INSIDE the room, and it's likely we were suffering the initial stages of hypothermia. As you can imagine, we were thrilled to move into our new apartment at the end of the month! :)
Though I'm tempted to dwell on the difficulties of mid-January, my journals actually highlight gratitude for our awesome Australia trip and the love we felt from our family and friends:
Thank you so much for the circle of encouragement we’ve had from family and friends back home. Their love means a lot, Lord. Thank you for their prayers. Please also provide us encouraging relationships here (January 21, 2012).
The Chinese word for "thank you," 谢谢 (xiexie), is repetition of the character "谢 (xie)." By itself, 谢 also means "gratitude." 谢 is composed of the sign for "speak/word," "body," and "arrow." My friend Elyn writes about 谢 in the same book referenced in last week's post. Regarding 谢, she notes, "gratitude is a pointer, much like the arrow that was put into the character. Gratitude is pointing to a blessing. We are grateful FOR something, and we have chosen to see it as a blessing."
Elyn also astutely observes that gratitude is a choice: we often cannot choose what happens to us, especially difficulties. But we can nonetheless choose how to respond. Do we respond with bitterness? Or do we respond with 谢?
My January 2012 journal entries offer 谢 for our time in Australia, for a Skype call with Brian's parents, for clean laundry. I 谢谢 God for our new apartment, for discovering suitable dentists and hair stylists, for a delicious meal at a Muslim restaurant near our church in Hangzhou, for blossoming trust with the other participants in our Bible study. It's relatively easy to thank God for the good, the beautiful, and even the banal.
Yet my journals don't reflect gratitude for what I learned through the difficulties of visa renewal that month, or living in the Chinese dorm. Even as I'm typing this entry, the Source of All Blessings is inviting me to offer 谢 for divine faithfulness through these challenges. So, here is that long overdue, and much-deserved, gratitude: 谢谢, Jesus. 谢谢.
Firstly, we scrambled to renew our student visas. The day we had to renew our student visas remains one of our worst days in China. If I remember correctly, we learned at 10am on Tuesday, January 17th that the campus offices would close the next day for three weeks for Chinese New Year holiday; when we did the math, we discovered the offices would remain closed past our original visa's expiration date. We therefore had until 5pm THAT DAY to complete all the steps necessary for us to get the paperwork needed for visa renewal. These steps included power walking one mile to the nearest bank to attempt to withdraw 18,000 rmb (approximately $3000) to pay our tuition, since the university would only take cash payment. When we discovered that the daily limit on our ATM withdrawals was less than that, we had to beg a friend (and power walk the mile back to campus to meet her) to let us borrow the remainder we needed, stat. After cobbling together the 18,000 rmb in cash, we had to run BACK to the original bank to pay tuition, wait 45 minutes in line, discover only when our number was called that we had pulled the wrong category of number, beg the teller through gestures and bad Chinese to let us pay tuition anyway, then finally complete the transaction. We then had to dash to another department on the other side of campus with our payment receipt so we could get the visa paperwork. We finished all of this, sweaty, exhausted, and near tears, around 3:45pm. Only 75 minutes ultimately buffered us from losing the legal right to stay in China.
After the drama of our first visa renewal, the middle of January 2012 entailed finishing up our first semester of language classes before the Chinese New Year holiday, taking our final exams, and not freezing to death in our dorm room. By that time, the dorm was almost uninhabitable. We could see our own breath INSIDE the room, and it's likely we were suffering the initial stages of hypothermia. As you can imagine, we were thrilled to move into our new apartment at the end of the month! :)
Though I'm tempted to dwell on the difficulties of mid-January, my journals actually highlight gratitude for our awesome Australia trip and the love we felt from our family and friends:
Thank you so much for the circle of encouragement we’ve had from family and friends back home. Their love means a lot, Lord. Thank you for their prayers. Please also provide us encouraging relationships here (January 21, 2012).
The Chinese word for "thank you," 谢谢 (xiexie), is repetition of the character "谢 (xie)." By itself, 谢 also means "gratitude." 谢 is composed of the sign for "speak/word," "body," and "arrow." My friend Elyn writes about 谢 in the same book referenced in last week's post. Regarding 谢, she notes, "gratitude is a pointer, much like the arrow that was put into the character. Gratitude is pointing to a blessing. We are grateful FOR something, and we have chosen to see it as a blessing."
Elyn also astutely observes that gratitude is a choice: we often cannot choose what happens to us, especially difficulties. But we can nonetheless choose how to respond. Do we respond with bitterness? Or do we respond with 谢?
My January 2012 journal entries offer 谢 for our time in Australia, for a Skype call with Brian's parents, for clean laundry. I 谢谢 God for our new apartment, for discovering suitable dentists and hair stylists, for a delicious meal at a Muslim restaurant near our church in Hangzhou, for blossoming trust with the other participants in our Bible study. It's relatively easy to thank God for the good, the beautiful, and even the banal.
Yet my journals don't reflect gratitude for what I learned through the difficulties of visa renewal that month, or living in the Chinese dorm. Even as I'm typing this entry, the Source of All Blessings is inviting me to offer 谢 for divine faithfulness through these challenges. So, here is that long overdue, and much-deserved, gratitude: 谢谢, Jesus. 谢谢.