Chinese word of the day is 东西 (dongxi).
The phrase dongxi (literally east west) is the term used in Chinese to describe stuff or things. Ex. Let me get my things (dongxi) together. Those are my things (dongxi). However, the term should never be used to describe people.
Our former language teacher would say, "Never call people dongxi" repeatedly throughout our language classes. Since we are beginners in language, one day the mistake was waiting to happen. A simple misspoken pronoun changed a sentence from "What is that dongxi?" to "What are you, dongxi?" We heard the entire lecture again for the next hour that we are to never call people dongxi.
The phrase has since become so common that we often use the Chinese "dongxi" intermixed with our everyday English. If you ever hear us use "dongxi", we don't even notice when we are using the phrase instead of English. And we promise not to call you dongxi.
October 12, 2009
October 10, 2009
Volume 3, Issue 10
The semester has just flown by. We give midterm exams this week. Where has the time gone? Relationships with students are beginning to deepen to heart issues and other relationships are at the foundational stages. Please remember all these students as our time here this semester is limited.
Even with limited time this semester, we are encouraged to know the seeds planted, even in this abbreviated semester, are there being watered by teammates and by the Father himself.
Normal, What’s Normal?
If living in China has only taught us one thing, it’s that normal really isn’t that normal. Huh, are you trying to confuse me? No, but really, what is normal?
As we follow the Father, we are constantly asked, or sometimes required and commanded, to do things that we don’t exactly consider normal when viewed from the world’s eyes. Take for example, moving our young family to China or being prompted by the Father to give away $100 to a lady needing help in a 7-11 parking lot. Neither of those I would consider normal along with numerous other things.
Add living in China to the “non-normalness” of normal and then you really have an adventure. China throws curve balls almost daily. In 2008, the curveball was the lead up to the Olympic games in Beijing delaying our arrival in China by a month. Now this year, 2009, we have the lead up to the 60th anniversary of China increasing the security and posing some increased hassle for travelers and the H1N1 flu spreading around the world causing changes in procedures. To provide safety for teachers and students, our campus requires temperatures to be reported daily, travel outside of campus to be reduced, and visitors to our apartments limited to 1-2. Additionally, we are expecting the arrival of Baby #2 in December which further makes normal less normal.
While these changes to normal could cause frustration, we have come to adapt quickly to the changes and continue pressing forward. We will not let the changes to normal affect the work we are doing here in Harbin. We are assured knowing the Father’s thought are higher than our thoughts, his ways higher than our ways.
So the question becomes, when does non-normal and unexpected become the norm?
October 7, 2009
National Day Parade
October 6, 2009
Tuesday Morning Image
Now we have officially entered fall in Harbin. The weather has become a little cooler and the heaters are not yet turned on in apartments or other buildings. Long johns that had been in storage are brought out, cleaned, and maybe even worn depending on the weather. Please remember all those with so little as they prepare for the harsh cold winter brings to Harbin.
October 4, 2009
Mid-Autumn Day
Giant pandas are served mooncakes in Guangzhou on October 3, 2009, to celebrate the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of lunar calendar. The mooncakes were specially made out of bamboo powder for the pandas. [Xinhua]
We celebrated Mid-Autumn Day (or Moon Festival) along with all the other Chinese this year by giving and receiving mooncakes. While the name is similar, these are nothing like moon pies. Moon cakes are like an extra dense "hockey pucks" of bread/dough filled with red been paste, eggs, or if you are really lucky and find the rarest of all, filled with fruit (and them taste like a fig newton).
After talking with a student, we learned the moon cakes were traditional home made by families for the festival. Each family would purchase an expensive press that would mold the cakes into their puck shape before baking. The cakes are shared to family and friends to celebrate this day.
It often seems as if the tradition and ritual has won out of the actually taste of the mooncakes. Most families, students, business, and friends participate in a great mooncake exchange giving and receiving the cakes without really enjoying eating them. This same student said his class participate in the great mooncake exchange with each student receiving mooncakes from their hometowns that they would in turn share with the rest of the class, a sort of taste test. And of course, in my student's opinion, the mooncakes from his hometown were the best!
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