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Greetings to you from Beijing, China! So far my trip has been wonderful and exciting and I can’t wait to share with you all my experiences
and pictures.
July 3, 2006: Today I made my final preparations. I spent most of the day shopping and packing. Tonight I have to leave at 10 pm to catch a train from Fargo to Minneapolis and from there I will catch my plain to San Francisco. There is one problem however and that is that I will get to Minneapolis on Tuesday at 7:30 in the morning and won’t be able to leave until 9:30 pm.
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I finally arrived in San Francisco at 10:30 pm and I was tired. Sharon Seeberger, a member of the ERRC picked me up from the airport and we
traveled to here home in Redwood City. I slept the night and we began training the next day.
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July 5, 2006: Training began at Covenant Church in Redwood City at 9 am and we concentrated on the cultural aspects of China. Specifically, we talked at length how Chinese people think about the world, their families and many other concepts.
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It was a marathon session and in the afternoon we began to look at just how you go about teaching English in the classroom. After a long day
of training we met for dinner at what else but a Chinese restaurant to learn some eating etiquette. After this I went back to Seeberger's for a well-deserved rest.
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July 6, 2006: This morning we again began training with more information about how to teach our English material to Chinese students. Most of the time our main goal is just to get the students to talk as much as possible. The best learning happens when the students have to think about how they are going to express themselves.
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We spent the last part of the day watching several videos about China and it’s people. They were moving and very informational.
That evening we ended early to get rest and to finish any last minute packing problems. I managed to fit everything I needed into one suitcase!
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July 7, 2006: This morning we met for a prayer meeting and picture at 10 pm prior to our
departure to China. The flight will be nonstop from San Francisco to Beijing, a total of 11.5 hours.
During the flight they showed several movies and had some reading material both of which were in Mandarin so the trip began to get somewhat boring.
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Now the last few days I had been doing a lot of sitting and today was no different. There wasn’t a whole lot of room to move around the plane
so I spent most of my time planted in my seat. By the end of the trip I was really sore.
We left San Francisco at 2:30 pm and arrived in Beijing at 5:30 pm on July 8, 2005, 11.5 hours later. The trip from the airport to our hotel was interesting. The traffic is wild and people drive crazy here in China. We arrived at our hotel and settled in. After that we all ate together and then called it an early night. I was very tired.
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July 9, 2007: In the morning, I had to shower but the shower is very different in Beijing.
The bathroom is too small for a shower stall so they simply make the room waterproof and put a drain in the floor and away you go.
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Before heading off to Church we ate breakfast and this is no breakfast that you have eaten before. There were these fried long pieces of
dough about an inch in diameter and about a foot long. You take these and dip them in a soybean soup mixture. Apparently everyone in Beijing and throughout china eat this for breakfast.
Along with this we also had hardboiled eggs and bologna. There are also pickled “things” that are served along with breakfast but I didn’t eat them.
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This morning we attended the Beijing International Church and this was an adventure in itself because we took the bus there.
The Bus was very crowded and we had to stand for the first several miles. After about an hour trip we arrived at the church, which is at an international college. You need your passport to go there. We settled in and enjoyed the music and worship and the message was okay too. Things here are very different and a lot of the message is devoted to teaching and not necessarily forgiving sins or revealing deeper truths about scripture. But that is okay. That is what this preacher thinks his church needs.
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On the way back we stopped at a Mongolian hot pot restaurant. This is where they have a pot filled with broth and they turn on a boiler for
you and then bring in pieces of meat and vegetable. You then boil them and pull them out and eat them and after you are full you can sample the broth that you have made. It is fun and filling but
messy! I got food all over myself.
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After we ate we returned to the bus stop and rode home and had an evening to relax. I sat down with the book, “Luther on Vocation” but didn’t
last long and fell asleep. It seems I am still getting adjusted to the time here in Beijing. I fell asleep before dinner. Man, am I going to be hungry in the morning.
Goodbye for now,
Ryan A. Drevlow
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