Sometimes you gotta go where everybody has your back

This morning a customer handed me a heavy, Dwight D. Eisenhower silver dollar to pay for his morning cup of coffee.  It's rare to see any coin worth more than a nickel, much less a full dollar.  As a matter of fact, I don't think I've EVER had someone pay with a Dwight-buck before.*

It reminded me of when I lost my first tooth.  I had a small coin collection at the time, and it was the biggest coin I had ever seen.  I still have the collection, a variety of nationalities and denominations, some with holes, some with beautifully lacing vines, or birds with unfurled plumage.  A Dwight-buck isn't a very pretty coin, just a giant bald head.**  But it has a nice sturdy heft, the kind of dollar that sends a postcard to Uzbekistan instead of buying a bargain burger.***  I laughed as I remembered my dad, a coin aficionado, telling me about the bald man on one side and the liberty bell on the other.  I held it up for my boss/friend Randy (angry_barista) to see, smiled and tossed it in my till.****

Half an hour and 300 lattes later, there was a lull in the early morning flow.  Randy shook out a fresh garbage bag, and said, "Did you hear what that guy said?"
Me: What guy?
R: The guy by the garbage a while ago.
Me: .......?

So the story goes:
When I showed Randy the silver dollar, the man by the garbage saw it and joked to Randy,
Dude-Man: Do you think she even knows who Dwight Eisenhower is?*****
R: Um...yeah, I think she knows exactly who that is.  She's actually very smart, and she had her masters.  She's a teacher.
DM: Oh, um, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend...
R: Yeah.

At this point in the story, both of my coworkers were sticking up for me before I could even think to be offended.  And THAT was my take-away this morning: sometimes when strangers are stinkers, you're lucky enough to be surrounded by friends that have your back.  Talk about a early-morning feel-good!



*Not to be confused with a Schrute-buck

**My apologies if you're an Eisenhower fan.  Or bald.

***That's an aliteration.

****He's not so much "angry" as snarky, and committed to good coffee.  SERIOUSLY.  Gooooooood coffee.....

*****For the record, my typical customers are fantastically nice people.  I love the good natured people of my store.  This guys was an anomaly.

Bible Blitz

New Year's resolutions are a good thing.  Somehow, mine tend to solidify a week or so after New Year's, which kind of defeats the purpose.  A new year, a new start....unless of course, you're a little late.  Luckily for me, there is not one, but TWO New Year's Days in China: January 1st, and January 31st (this year).*  By the time we got to the second New Year's Eve, my list was ready.

My little house dressed up for New Year's

As usual, one of the items to make the list is 'Read the Bible regularly.  Teaching has taught me the value of clearly defined goals.  Knowing my propensity and love for intense projects and extremes, I came up with a plan I've affectionately dubbed, "The Bible Blitz."  In the month of February, I'll attempt to read the entire Bible, roughly 300+ chapters per week.

Disclaimer

This is not a good way to study the Bible.  It's important to take time to reflect, ponder and pray as you read.  My long-term goal is to build Bible-reading into a habitual part of my day.  I don't suggest reading this quickly.

Bible reading (like so much of life) is like coffee.  The sweetest, richest, most caffeinated coffee is cold brew, which soaks for a loooooong time.  French press is hot, and full bodies, and brews about 7-8 minutes.  The coffee is ground finer and finer for each method of brewing, until you reach the espresso stage.  It takes 13-20 seconds to pull two shots of espresso, the caffeinated equivalent of a cup of coffee.  Similarly, the richest and most rewarding way to study the Bible is when you take your time.  Sucking down several large mugs of espresso every day is a terrible way to live!  But a bit won't hurt.  One month of blitzing through giant cups of Biblical espresso.  Yes.  This is what's happening.

The Bible I brought to China was a translation recommended to me by one of my favorite professors, The New Jerusalem Bible.  This is my first time reading some of the apocrypha!**  As a protestant, I've been raised with a Bible that has 36 books in the Old Testament, and 27 books in the New Testament.  These new additions pose a few problems.

1. It messes up the books-of-the-Bible song I learned when I was 7.  I sing this song in my mind every time I look something up!  This also makes it difficult to know their relative position within the published text.
2. The books of the Bible aren't in chronological order.  Unless it's explicitly stated, I may not be able to place where in history the story is taking place, which is huge drawback.
3. I've been taught to doubt the authenticity of the apocrypha.  I will need to weigh this teaching carefully, or it may color my ability to accept the text well.  It's amazing how many church fathers debated the veracity of different portions of scripture.  Luther even doubted the canonicity of the Gospels!
4. I've never been taught what I "should learn" from these scriptures.  Frankly, I find this a little exciting!  For the first time, I'm coming to the Bible as an adult without preconceptions or memories of sermons, good and bad.  I get to experience what new Christians think and feel, and draw my own conclusions. (Which I will verify in March once I have time to research.)  It's going to be great!

I created a reading schedule based roughly on theme, chronology, and breaking up the books I find monotonous.***  The apocryphal books were scattered at random, a wild card or two for each week.  The plan ended up looking like this.

The first picture shows my weekly reading goals. The second pictures delineates exactly how many chapters I should read each day.  As per most Bible-reading plans, I decided to divvy up Psalms and Proverbs to get a little poetic goodness every day.

February will be a month of reading, praying, preparing for this semester and the upcoming transition coming this fall.  I am entirely aware that I'm likely to fail at this massive reading binge.  But even if I fail, I'll still be spending hours in the Bible.  I don't see a loss.



*My brother wished me a "Happy fake New Year's" that morning, which made me laugh!  Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, which I have a hard time wrapping my mind around.  Instead of being based on the earth's rotation around the sun, it's based on the moon's rotation around the earth. It doesn't align with the solar calendar, so it's hard for me to figure out.  Luckily there are cell phones apps for that kind of thing.  Take a look at this Lunar Calendar Description and this Moon Phase Calendar.
**Take the time to follow this link!
***All scripture is valuable.  Not all of it is interesting.  Look into your heart.  You know this is true.  If you disagree, you must have not read the entire pentateuch.

The Birds of St Sophia

I'm currently sitting in Haerbin China, sipping a Chestnut macchiato in Starbucks, looking out the window.  The sky is clear and blue, with sunlight glinting off the curved copper domes topping Russian buildings.  My toes are painfully numb, while my hands are swelling with the sudden heat of this delectable macchiato.  I hope for the sake of Americans everywhere that chestnut flavoring is not limited to Chinese consumers.  I try to savor it slowly while my toes come back to life.  Hordes of Chinese traipse up and down Center street, while buses trundle under thin metals arches that span the road lined with spindly, naked trees.  As I wandered the city taking pictures yesterday, I noticed that I passed over buildings and monuments in favor of the winter trees.  I have always found leafless trees impossibly beautiful, their exposed skeletons lacing in a myriad of intricate patterns, the structure and strength of the tree refusing to die in the cold.  In a bare tree, willpower and hope are enmeshed.  Outside this window, I see a giant ice sculpture next to a Russian bakery. This American coffee shop is next to my favorite clothes-store in Asia, which is Japanese.  The street is lined with Chinese restaurants and culminates in a town square featuring beautiful St. Sophia, an old brick church topped with dark green domes sprouting golden crosses.  An old Chinese woman sells bags of corn for the birds - I can almost hear her say 'tuppence a bag.'  At her whistle, a flock of white doves take wing, swirling around the spires perfectly synchronized.  My toes are warm enough to feel now.  There are few moments in life as delightful as this!

CSL and Coffee

Today I headed to the coffee shop at the end of a quiet weekend to escape final lesson planning in my bedroom.  I bought something baked that tasted amazing (no, I don't know what it was called - I'm illiterate now, remember?), ordered a latte and headed upstairs.  It's interesting; even hot drinks are served with straws.

Anyways.  I worked on my computer, sipped my latte, and watched as the baker piped icing onto cake after cake, smoothing it down, edging it with shredded coconut, and swirling designs on the top.  Then I watched an animated conversation between a man at the counter (the boss maybe?) and one of the bakers.  My ears still struggle to decipher Chinese, but it was pretty obvious this woman was deaf.  I watched as they talked, laughed, and signed back and forth.  I find this process interesting any time I see it, but it was particularly interesting to watch it associated with another language.  It made me wonder: if ASL is American Sign Language, then are they using....CSL, or Chinese Sign Language?  Does China and America use similar hand signs for the deaf?

I have no idea, but when I went over to take a picture of the cake, I did my best to sign to her that it looked beautiful.  Chinese people are usually pleased whenever I attempt to speak some hackneyed Chinese, but she about jumped out of her skin when I tried to sign!  (Thank you, Switched at Birth and Adam Molatore for giving me the most basic handful of signs!  Oh gosh....that pun REALLY wasn't intended, but so appropriate...)  It was such a cool moment.  We swapped pictures and smiles and went back to our duties.

In other news, many of the people who drive mopeds wear full-faced flat visors.  Sometimes the visors have an iridescent sheen that reminds me of a fly.  I've decided they look like Boba Fett. 

The first coffee shop in china!!

I have been in China for 3 ½ weeks, and for the first time I finally feel like I’m sitting in a coffee shop!  It’s a glorious little place on the far side of Two-head Statue square.  (Guess what the statue looks like?  You all are so smart!)  It has the right quiet ambiance, with plants all over the place.  There are white table tops with wood-colored accents, and quiet music playing.

If you’re imagining a 70’s-ish Bond lounge, you’ve got it about right.

This place may sound a little unnoticeable…unless you compare it to the rest of China.  China is LOUD.  Horns, music, cellphone ringing, and the talking volume of the average person is twenty decibels louder than ANY American.  Next time you hear an angry Chinese person, know that they’re not really mad – probably just talking about the weather or children.  Even cellphone rings are impossibly loud.  Of course, if your phone rang at an American volume, you would never hear it in the cacophony that is Xinzheng.  Quiet has been a much-sought-after but seldom-found thing here.  But in this little corner I’ve found a place to just sit a while.

You see, other places to eat are more like restaurants; they’re for visiting.  LOUD visiting.  And you don’t linger in those places.  Also, when Chinese people do linger, they don’t sit.  They squat.  I am not skilled enough to do the Chinese squat.  It may sound a little ridiculous, but I watched a toddler learn how to squat today.  Just like walking, squatting takes some practice before you can do it well.

A random girl just walked up and took a picture with me.  Oh my vanity!  You see, it’s not always flattering.  Usually I think, “Right now?  I am NOT the loveliest of people right now,” especially because I know the picture will be sent around to all of their friends to show off the foreigner they “met.”  I will say this about it though – the Chinese have guts.  Others try to be subtle and take videos of us ‘laowai’ (good –ole foreigner) with their smart phones as we walk by.

You know, for my whole life I’ve just been ‘a white girl from the burbs.’  But HERE…. I am the schizz.  The exotic woman with the giant blue eyes.  It’s so strange.  Sometimes it makes me laugh, especially if people do things like walk into walls or crash their bikes.  Other times I think, ‘I’m eating a piece of bread.  WHY are you watching me?’  It’s very strange to look someone in the eye and wave at them, and have them not realize that you’re talking to them.  On my way to the coffee shop I passed a group of old men jamming on traditional instruments.  I would have loved to stop and listen, but two of them were staring at me dumbfounded (without missing a beat), and to stop would have been awkward….

Other awesome things about this coffee shop: it smells right, and it’s clean.  From what I see, nothing is broken and it smells like coffee and bread.  This is different from most places.  For instance, the noodle place smells like noodles, soup, and whatever just got dumped outside.  That’s kind of the standard here – life kinda smells like whatever got thrown out.   Trash pickup/dumping is irregular, and small children don’t wear diapers – they take care of their business outside.  (WHAT?! That’s gross, you say.  Right?  From the Chinese perspective: ‘WHAT?!  You wrap your child up so they’re stuck in their filth?  Then you wipe it off with your hands??  That’s vile and disgusting.’  Think about it – no diaper waste, no washing cloth diapers, no wipes, powder, diaper-rash, Desitin….)  This makes for  quite an aromatic after-dinner walk.  I invited some “culture students” over to my apartment last night.  The first thing they said was, “Wow, I like the smell in here!”

WIN.

Back to coffee…

I was a little concerned as I watched the shots die, but this is actually the best coffee I’ve had since landing in China.  I think this may have become my go-and-sit place.  If you think having a ‘go-and-sit place’ is silly, try moving to another country and spending hours doing computer work…in your room.  Lame.  But THIS place….it reminds me of Rachel and Anne.  And there’s another win!