Blog post 1 about the Fabulous Summer of 2010!!

I owe you all a deep apology. I have been lax in my communication. Busyness has consumed me but that is not an adequate excuse. Only a bad one. Please forgive me.

Many things have been happening on this side of the world. I have not reported to you about my summer holiday in the states and I have been re-enrolled in school and trying to figure out this new roll I am in. For I am no longer a newbie but still do not feel like I know what is going on. So let me begin.

(Jill arrived the end of July and we had an eventful and fruitful time traveling as well as just being together.)

(Jill Brought with her life size photo's of My Family. Here I am with them. Ben holding Henry, Molly, Mom, and Dad)

(Squeezing Henry's little cheeks even before I got to hold him)

(I am so excited because my family is here for dinner)

Jill was able to continue to train for her marathon while here, which kinda made me nervous but she is a bold and beautiful woman who every morning before 6am would set out alone in a different direction to run. We made our way to Dali and the Stone Forest. I introduced her to jiao zi (pot stickers) and she fell in love with them.

I impressed her with my limited amount of Chinese and I was pleased to find that when she spoke Chinese I could tell when she was correct and when she was not. (tone wise) We discovered that the ice rink in Kunming is not as impressive as it appears and that Jill doesn’t like sushi. We shopped until our arms were filled with good things. But mostly Jill was able to see what China is really like, who the people are who live here (both international and national), and experience what I experience every day.

(We ate Er Kuai [pronounced R Ke-why] a morning street food that is kind of like a peanut butter burrito.)

(My favorite Tibetan Restaurant has a cultural dance and music program and Jill caught some of my favorite dancers beautifully.)

(The man in the fur hat is my favorite male performer. The custom at this restaurant is that when you particularly enjoy a performer you are to place a white scarf around their neck while they are still dancing or singing. I always call dibs to give my scarf to him.)

(Jill and I chilling out while watching the wonderful performers.)

(Paper Christmas tree posted on the wall in the mall.)

(The McDonald's China man)

(Eating Shao Kao [street barbaque])

(Jill and I went to this upscale Spa in Kunming)

(The Spa provided us with clothes to wear while we were there. Arn't we cute?)

(This is my school.)

(The closest coffee shop to my house is called Chicago Coffee and it was a very popular place for me and Jill.)

(Jill using the coffee shop library- thank you fellow foreigners for The Babysitters Club.)

(The large cookie at Chicago Coffee.)

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!!!

(Some public Restaurants here in Kunming have signs in the bathroom say: no pooping and toilet paper. The toilet paper rule is universal here, but the number two is specific to certain stores.)

(The women in Yunnan carry their babies or children on their backs with these child carriers. This one I purchased for Molly and Henry-that story for another blog.)

(We went to the Stone Forest and got lost in the large maze among the giant rocks. I think we are looking for a way out.)

(This rock is called "Woman Waiting For Her Husband." Thus, so are we!)

(The Forest stretches out behind us!!)

(Here in Kunming there are a small number of Mid-Westerners from the States and we planned and participated in a State Fair.)

(Jill won first prize for her Largest Zucchini. I won second prize for my North Park Pride crochet blanket.)

(The Judges of the Fair Produce Categories.)

(Angie, Erin, Whitney, Me and Jill at the "Fair Grounds!")

(On the top of the Ferris Wheel is: Jill, Me, Faye, Whitney and Erin.)

(The public parks here are filled with odd sights and funny events. On Saturdays many old men congregate with their captive birds and sit and talk and play mazhong. )

(This is Kunming International School where the Hong's kid's go to school. I tried to tempt Jill into leaving her new job and coming to work here. Anyone else who wants to teach internationally just let me know.)

(Faith, Erin, Me, Bo, Song, and Caleb)

(We traveled to Dali and Jill became friends with a young deaf woman. Jill was able to communicate with her using American Sign Language. It was so precious. Gao cried.)

(We bought and ate bicycle made cotten candy.)

(In Dali, we went fishing using cormorants. These birds are trained to dive into the water, catch a fish and bring it back to their trainers. The birds are rewarded for the fish and thus fighting between birds for the fish does ensue.)

(Erin and Jill hiked up Dali Mountain.)

(Jill was interested in seeing a traditional Chinese cupping massage, my friend Nick agreed to have one done. The massage technician used heat inside glass cups to create suction and hypothetically draw out the bad blood into the skin and have the toxins released from the body.)

(Peanut Butter and dill pickles: special foods brought to me by Jill. Here we are having a picnic on the bus on the way to Dali.)

(Jill and I enjoyed bus chair dancing on the way to Dali.)

(Jill and I went to an outdoor museum that details the different minority groups that live in Yunnan Provience. Then we went to the giant musical dance performance of them all.)

(Us at the Ice Skating Rink.)

(On the double decker bus after a long day of shopping!!)

All your thoughts, notes, gifts, and hugs that Jill brought with her just meant the world to me.

Thank you!!

Stay tuned for a blog about my trip back home!!

i promise to return

I am sorry that I have been so absent. I am working on a very large blog post to come within the next two weeks. Thank you for your patience as well as your desire to hear more. I will return very shortly and I determine to become more faithful!!

Home Improvement!

I arrived safely back in China from the USA. Which, I will expound upon shortly but I promised I would share this video as promptly as I can. I was able to bring back some plumbing supplies from Chicago and have put them to use. Thank you for all those who have sympathized with me in regards to this bathroom issue and please enjoy the video.


Home Improvement-China Edition

Official July Newsletter!!!

Hello, Now that it is July I have been here ten months. They have been amazing months, filled with learning, wonder, confusion, frustration, and joy. I figure that now is a good time to share with you some of the strange things about China. Many of these things are daily sights or smells, some are just occasional, but all of them provide a moment of puzzlement or humor. Today is a story day!!

I was traveling on a bus the other day to an area of Kunming I had never been to before when suddenly the bus stopped in the middle of the road, under a bridge, where there was no bus stop sign, of any sort, and picked up at least 15 people who were apparently waiting for the bus. Who knew that this bridge was a popular bus stop?

Another bus story happened only a couple days before or after the one above. In the middle of the work week, in the middle of the busy traffic day, the bus passed a gaggle (7-12) women clustered around the middle of the road. My attempts to see what they were doing paid off when I realized they were scrubbing, using buckets of water and hand held rags, the white metal divider between the two lanes of traffic. Hello, traffic hazard? Guess not!

Motor bikes are a regular means of transportation and there are often funny things that I see happening on them. One of my favorite things to see is: two young men (twenties) riding a motorcycle together on the same bike. The other is to see a woman in high heels with her legs bent at a funny angle and her feet curved up to prevent her heels from snapping off.

This, leads me to fashion. Fashion here is also very odd. Usually, young women dress very formally, skirts, heels, and sometimes hats, however often these combinations do not match. Imagine: silver sequined slinky top with a black half jacket and black mini skirt over black leggings with sliver skulls and cross bones on them. Top that off with a plastic grey bag that could hold three Chinese children. Another example of strange fashion is the woman who is on the bus or at the market in her oversized t-shirt, sweat pants, house slippers, and hair curlers.

The most recent thing I want to share with you is more serious than humorous. Last Sunday I took my trash out and then waited by the bus stop for my ride to fellowship. As I sat there, an elderly woman came around the corner and sat in my line of sight with my bag of trash. She then proceeded to sift through it. Taking one thing or another out of my trash to put into her “take home bag.”

Here in China we throw our toilet paper into the trash and I could see her touching my filthy toilet trash in order to retrieve a couple of toilet paper tubes. I was in emotional pain as I watched her. What should I do? My offering her any type of monetary goods was not going to change how she makes a living or lives out her life. But what bothered me most was: why did watching her shake me?

I have had some time to process it and I think that the reason was because she willingly with anticipation was touching what was most ugly about me. For her she hoped to gain something from doing so. And this week as I have been wondering about it, I realize with thankfulness and wonder, that Father sees my ugliness all the time. He sees mine, He sees her’s and He loves us both despite it all. The difference is that Father wants us to gain from His work in our lives. She is why He came to earth and died. I am why He came to earth and died. You are why He came and died!! Your ugliness is seen by the Almighty Father, but He is willing to accept you and love you as long as you are willing to accept that love.

*I ask Father as I write this to open your eyes as well as mine to the work He desires to do in our lives.

*I ask You to ask Father: for my continued safety, my continual growth in Him and in learning, as well as for my travel plans in August as I come home to Chicago for my brother’s wedding. That going would be great and wonderful but that I would truly desire to come back to China.

I love you all!! Denise

Video of Chinese New Year!!

To view these exciting and somewhat scary video's of Chinese New Year that I took last Feb please click on the links below and download them. They use a VLC media player to play and may take a while to download but trust me when I say that the safety regulations in China are zilch and therefore the videos are high energy and very loud.


How We Feel About Chinese New Year Video


How We Almost Died

Chun Jie 2010

Sounds Like We Are In A War Zone

Long Lone Road.

I have this picture of the gorgeous Nebraskan plains. I didn't take it but a friend of mine took it. It is from the front seat of a car. You can see the road stretching out into the west (I imagine we are going west) and at the far end of the road you can barely make out an incline as if we are trying to go up to the mountains. But the picture clearly shows the empty golden fields of recently cut corn or grain on either side. Reminding the one looking at the picture that farming is indeed important and the center of Nebraska pride. I love this picture. I hate this picture.


I love this picture when I am in a good place. It calls me to adventure. Nudges me to do the right thing, to stay on the right path. The stark emptiness speaks freedom to my soul and draws a longing from me to see what is beyond the next corner. This long lonely road is America to me. With the deep blue sky and the bright greens of the ditch grass. The sparsely placed telephone poles and the occasional cow. Someones homestead far in the distance. This is Home. Goodness, life, joy, and wonder. It brings back road tripping memories from college and reminds me that all you need in life is for a good friend, some good wheels, and a really good mix of music to have a good day. This road evokes the vision of the windows rolled down, speeding at least 80 mph, and two voices singing at the top of their voices: "Cowboy take me away. Fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue. Set me free oh I pray closer to heaven above and closer to you. Closer to you." Hear Song.


I hate this picture when I am in a bad place. It tells me that I am alone. The mocking is so loud. There is no one who is where you are. No one understands what you are going through. It is so barren and sad. Not to mention that the cut fields suggest the coming of winter. The journey will never be over and I will never reach home. I struggle to see the next sign of human life and can only see the barest of evidence that there is any other life here. The distant cows seem to suggest a hopelessness that not even they would give me moral support. This is so monotonous and quiet. The colors' beauty is lost on me and all I can see is depressing hues. Darkness, like perhaps the storm is right around the corner. Everything about the picture is filled with loneliness. Desolation, fear, anger, friendlessness, the never ending sorrow of searching but not finding. It speaks of the heat of unshed tears, the tightness in my chest and throat when I have just said goodbye to my mom and dad for a year. It is when my heart is aching asking in it's quiet meek voice: " I don't wanna leave here, I don't wanna stay. Feels like pinching to me either way and the places I long for the most are the places where I've been. The Future seems so hard and I wanna go back." Hear Song.


Do you have something like this in your life? Something that is the best thing when you are doing well but seems to bring you down or taunt you when you are not?? What do you do with those things? Do you open a drawer and shut them inside where you cannot see them? Do you pin them up on the bulletin board so that you get as much joy as you can? For me it is collecting dust on my desk, covered by piles of other papers. Today I was reminded about it as I sat on the bus, way in the back, crying. It was the picture that came to my mind. China sometimes feels like this picture.


At times it (China) makes me so very happy, all I can see are the wonderful and hilarious parts. Other times I feel suffocated. Pressed in by all that is different, coarse, and dirty. These are the days when I say: China wins!! Today I go home put on some good music and sort my laundry. Blog and then go back out into the world to go to my language helper's for more language learning.

That is the key I think. Continuing on despite the way the world makes you feel. Doing what is right when you want to and when you don't . Choosing to be a positive citizen to those around you whether they are kind to you or not. Looking to the Only One Who Knows All when you don't know anything at all. Some days those small prayers are all you can do. One step in front of the last one is all you can focus on.

"I'm so very ordinary, nothing special on my own. Oh, I have never walked on water, and I have never calmed a storm, sometimes I'm hiding away from the madness around me like a child who's afraid of the dark but when I call on J-sus all things are possible." Hear Song.

Here I am, Plodding along here. Slowly but with the help of the One Above getting somewhere, even if I don't know where that somewhere is.

Picture by David Hutcheson.