anecdotal update

Three brief anecdotes:

Emergency services in the States (particularly California) always complain about the lack of respect afforded them by the public. Well, Beijing is an entirely different story: an ambulance with sirens wailing barely made it past our hotel as we crossed the street this morning, stuck behind a customary logjam of buses at their stops, taxis picking up passengers, and other motorists doing their best to get around them. I felt bad for whoever the ambulance was going to pick up.

But you can't blame other drivers entirely, for only moments later, the ambulance came whizzing up the street the other direction after hitting a U-turn down the way... all the yielding in the world can't help when the driver doesn't know where he's going.

At lunch, I managed to get my first vegetables since being here. I realized KFC serves sides of corn, so I went to supplement my all-grease temporary Chinese diet. Lacking the picture menus that were there just two days ago, a helpful Chinese woman offered to translate my order for those behind the counter. I began to wonder, however, when I was told I would still have to pay three yuan for my order whether or not I got the ice cream with it (?!?). My suspicions were confirmed when I was handed an empty cone. (After a little further explanation, I was able to get a hunk of corn on the cob...)

I've finally found a situation in which rain can be a positive (if not preferable) circumstance- it's raining here again today, which has several desirous effects:

lower temperature
lower humidity
less smoggy skies in coming days

Now, you are all quite aware how the monsoons of the Oregon rain forest have made me hate basically any type of precipitation, so please don't accuse me of hypocrisy. In Oregon, rain only leads to rain, rain, and more rain (and green, but that doesn't do me any good, either). Here, rain presents the only chance to glimpse the sun, and that's the most important goal anyway, eh?

For dinner, we're heading to a Russian restaurant! Been craving Russian for AGES.

Hard Shadows

Today was the first sunny day since we've been here in Beijing. It was also the first day that I noticed hard shadows accentuating the architecture of the building that houses our rented office.

Our hotel is chock-full of English speakers, and it's clear that most of them are not here primarily as spectators. To keep it purposefully vague (for now), they're here for reasons similar to ours-- at least, our end goal is similar. The providential connections made even in our housing within the body are astounding.

For instance (and as a necessary aside), I met a man traveling with an intellectual group who also happens to be personally associated with a prominent clinic in the States. I mentioned briefly my (poor) experiences with chiropractors and orthopedists, and after hearing my story he gave me a real diagnosis (with prognosis) on the spot for my injury which occurred nearly four years ago. This diagnosis was far and away the best news I have received since getting notice that I was in the first place being scouted for football, for now I can begin to break what has become a veritable cage for all areas of my life. And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street!

At lunch, we dined with the manager of the business that has so generously and hospitably played host for us. This entity is primarily focused upon business, and while they must naturally remain mindful of their fiscal standing, their endeavor is to bring (quality) Christian materials to this land. For instance, during these Games they are responsible for the translation and printing of a great many informational pieces distributed by international groups in the Village and throughout the city; another massive project they've undertaken is to translate the Awana program for this society.

One can speak of missionaries who devote themselves to those things we pragmatically deem as 'ministry,' and I can judge that group neither individually nor as a whole. At the same time, one can look at organizations similar to our humble host and see that this business, which operates entirely within the law, within the secular and convoluted framework established by the hand of man, has been placed here so that when the sun blazes it will cast a hard shadow and not fade away like the mist of man.

A strange thing

A strange thing transcribed while I was holed up over the weekend. It would seem that the Chinese workers in the shopping complex beneath our office building have been replaced by other Chinese with perfect English. Since we have had the chance to be here for several days and therefore come to recognize many members of every staff, it seems in many cases that this is not simply a few of the same crew members who have extra shifts, but an entirely different front end staff brought into the McDonald's, the Pizza Hut, the coffee shop... and even the taxi drivers are miles better at English than last week (though that's more a result of exposure).

But it's great, because the Chinese are helping me with Chinese (I can sufficiently order my English Breakfast tea for caffeination) while I can help explain why we English speakers call "hoong cha" (red tea) black (we reference the leaves while the Chinese reference the water).

One world, one dream indeed.