Fun times in Another City

Before the marathon, my friends and I got to go to another city to do some sightseeing. We spent about a day and half in this city before heading to the marathon city. In this city, we went to an urban planning museum, saw two famous parts of the city and got to eat some yummy western food. My friends live in another city in East Asia, so it was fun to reconnect with them and see some great sights at the same time.

Here is a model of the city we were visiting at the Urban Planning museum. It is estimated that this city has 19 million people...alittle bigger than Winston-Salem.

Here are some of buildings in this city...

Here is the whole group. From left to right: Jessica, Joseph, me, Grace (my roommate), Ryan, and Martha.

The Road to the Marathon...

As I write this, my marathon training is done and my bags are packed to go run the marathon. I can't believe it is already time to run the marathon! Training for a marathon in a different country is quite an interesting experience...not that I have ever trained for a marathon in America that is. Most of my long miles were on these roads we nicknamed "the government loop". The reason we call it "the government loop" is because that is where the city government is building all of its new offices. It is a stretch of road that can be anywhere from 6 to 8 miles depending on which side roads you add or take away. I have grown very fond of these roads simply because they are very wide and they practically have no cars on them...which is unheard of in this country. I have had some very interesting experiences on the these roads, some of them include:
- Seeing a man walk his goat...I think the goat was more surprised to see me than I was to see him.
- A dog get hit by a car...not a good day. I saw the dog run away after it got hit, so that is the good thing.
- Many locals staring and gawking at me. I can tell you what they are thinking already...."WOW, a foreigner AND she is running!" After they got over their shock, they would show me a thumbs up and cheer me on.
- I got chased by three dogs. One dog a local man shoed away while on this electric scooter, another decided he was too lazy to catch up with me and the last one took one sniff of me and thought I didn't smell good enough to eat.

Here are some pictures of the roads I ran...



Here is picture of one of the places I stop for water. It isn't quite the local Sheetz station in America, but it does the job...

Marathon Help Mates...

I can't believe I am at the end of the training for the marathon. The marathon is in less than a week!! I am kind of surprise how ready for it I am...I am not sure I am ready to run it or ready for it to be over. Many things have helped me along the way, here they are:


These are fish oil and vitamins. The fish oil has helped my joints from hurting and the vitamins have protected me from sickness.


This is a gel pack. Gel packs are full of caffeine and calories. I usually start taking them at mile 8 or 9. They help me go those extra miles when I feel like I have already run out of steam..


This is a countdown chain my friend Shelley made for me. It is a countdown of the last 7 days before the marathon. Each ring represents a day and each ring has a scripture written on it. She was so sweet to make it for me. This symbolizes the encouragement I have gotten from friends that I can do this.

But I think the Lord has been the most help of all. He has made it possible for me to run all those miles and without Him I could not do it...

Weekend at the Lake

A couple of weekends ago my friends and me went to a lake about 1.5 hours away from my city. It is one of the only lakes in this country where the water is clean and clear. You can actually swim in the water, which is unheard of here. While we were at the lake, we did some hiking, some four-wheeling and spent sometime just hanging out.

Some facts about this lake is:

There is a lost city in the center of the lake which dates back to sometime B.C.
There used to be a submarine training center at this lake.
It is the second cleanest lake in this country.

Revolutionized my life here...

Here is a picture of my PDA with language software on it. When I am stuck and can not think of a word or don't know a word here, I pull out my trusty PDA and without fail it comes to my rescue. If someone is saying something to me and I am not sure what they are saying, I again pull out my PDA, get the person to write down the word they are saying and low and behold my trusty PDA acts as my translator. I am not sure how I lived life here without it. I really think it has revolutionized my life and my learning here...

Thanks Christina Tucker for giving me the PDA!

I am not in East Asia anymore..

 

 

Since I have been back in my East Asia city this year, there have been rumors that we were getting a Papa John's and a Dairy Queen. We were all skeptical of whether it was going to happen, but this week we heard from people who went to the restaurant! We went into the big East Asian city on Sunday, so a bunch of us went to lunch at Papa John's and had dessert at Dairy Queen. It was such an American great food day! Also, we were excited because we found out that once a week they will have one topping personal pan pizzas for less than $2 (in American money). This is great because Papa John's is more pricey in East Asia than it is in America. Also, we were quite surprised because we found an L.L. Bean store in this same shopping mall. When we looked at the stuff inside, we noticed that the prices were more than they are in America. The backpack I bought online was $27, but in this store it was priced at $40.

 

 

Retreat with Fellowship

 

A couple of weekends ago, the ladies on my team and me went on a retreat with the International Fellowship (our church) in our city. Some women from Arkansas came and spoke to us, lead praise and worship, they cut our hair and taught seminars on making bead necklaces and taking photographs. It was a really good time. I really enjoyed the praise and worship. Also, God spoke to me during two of the sessions. The first night they spoke 1 Kings 19:1-18. What really spoke to me is that God doesn't comdemn us. That Elijah came to the end of his struggle and that there was a new beginning. God was still there for him. God does not say we are second rate. That He is there for you after your failure. Also, on the last morning they spoke on "Mother of Nations". God spoke to me in that I can be a "mother" or "mentor" to other people even though I do not have children. I also got to hear about the lives of other women around this country. That was very humbling. Also, I got my haircut and learned more about taking photos. These are some of the photos I took on that weekend. All and all it was a great weekend!