Hello everyone!
So right now things are going really well for us. This of course is all due in part to the CEO and his kindness and watching over us.
Lisa had been reminded by a friend to continue journaling and spending time with her DAD and relying upon Him. She had been trying to do things on our own strength and just found herself like Paul, not doing the things she wanted to do, but lacking the strength neccesary to change. Of course, we can't do it on our own. That really brought about a change in her to realize the need she had and to return to journaling and hearing/listening/ communicating with DAD.
Also, we are seeing a real answer in more men coming to our studies. Lisa had been asking about that for quite some time. The answer to this is showing me to ask in order to receive in faith as well. I remember seeing its work over us when we first got here and had so few problems at first, until we could settle in.
So, that has been really neat to see the men coming. A movement always requires strong men. Always, we were encouraged, knowing that this semester we may develop friendships with new students, and that has been the case. The students that we used to see (my students) are now pretty busy preparing for their IELTS test and we have not seen them. That has been sad,but of course, that happens right? And as said above, it only served to bring us into contact with new people.
We are excited for this summer back home, though I'm sure it will also be a very busy time of work, vacation, side-jobs, raising support in order to return, and seeing family/friends, and importantly, preparing for our work here again. We hope that those friends reading this will be able to see us in person soon this summer!
-shane and lisa
2009年5月5日星期二
Lisa's Birthday Trip: Chongqing
Some pictures from our trip to Chongqing.
The local styles of Lisa Miller Traditional costumes Lisa posing with a colorful poodle
The local styles of Lisa Miller Traditional costumes Lisa posing with a colorful poodle
trying a traditional instrument of minority groups
Hello everyone!
We are slowly trying to stay up to date with our blog and posts. We hope anyone and everyone reading this is doing well!
At the end of April, Lisa and I went on our last stretch of adventure and traveling by flying out to Chongqing, China which is the largest city in China. (I know, you would think Beijing right? :) I think that is it up there in the 2omillion category or something, which is pretty impressive considering the largest city in the world is Mexico City and that was around 26 1/2 million. )
So, one of the many good things about China is that the Hilton's over here are not that expensive. I had looked up some of the Hilton's in China and chose this place. It ended up being a beautiuful 5 star hotel for about $40 USD/night. I got it on a really good deal with my credit crd though. I had to book it way back in Jan during a winter sale that they were having. I was hoping to take Lisa there to go on a river cruise along the Yangtze river to see the three gorges.
What we quickly realized is that Chongqing is only one of the major starting points for the river cruise. The shortest cruise they had was a 2 day cruise, and we had already booked our hotel each night. So, we did what I would like to call a "Lisa vacation." Haha.
As some of you may or may not know, my idea of a vacation is to do as much as we can and to see as much as we can, and take as many pictures as you can. That way I will have it all there to remember.
As a child, I did not go on hardly any vacations, so now when I do, and esp since we are paying for it and I don't know when we will ever be there again, I want to really see and experience that place. (This of course caused some difficulties with the travel weary Blair and Debbie when they came to see us last month! Haha)
But, when we realized that our main reason for going to Chongqing was the gorges cruise and it was no longer available, we then decided to just try and stay around the hotel and enjoy its many amenities.
So, we just relaxed and had an absolutely great time just spending time alone together. No cell phone or work to do. Just time with the two of us. We swam in their pool, enjoyed the great bathroom, huge comfortable bed, tv, etc.
We actually ended up spending more there on food than we did on our hotel stay! Haha. Well,the first night there was free with my hotel points, and with that, you do not get breakfast included. It almost makes you wish you had paid for the hotel, because the cost of breakfast alone is around $100RMB/person. So there goes your savings right there, haha.
But, the first night we were there, we indulged ourselves in their seafood buffet. Being as we paid quite a bit for it, we took as many huge shrimps as we could, had excellent pork spare ribs, which were amazing, and cheesecake, and more.
We were definitely trying to fulfill our sterotype of fat americans as we got plate after plate! Haha.
The funny thing too about it was that the third night that we were there, I was joking with Lisa that they didn't like us anymore. The first night that we were there, the staff was excellent and would take our plate away right away. However, after seeing how much we could pack away the first night, it seemed like they were trying to stop us from eating them out of house and home. Haha. The plates began to stack up on our table. Yet, we weren't going to let them get the best of us. I went up 3 times to get a small slice of cappucino cheesecake. It was amazing! (And don't think the cheesecake factory. These pieces were small, so my three were like one slice at cheesecake factory.)
They had had a mexican theme that night, but we were pretty disappointed by it. Lisa actually had to make tacos when we went home just to make up for it. The rest of the buffet was good though.
All in all, it was a great trip. We plan to hopefully go back next year though to actually do the river cruise. :)
We are slowly trying to stay up to date with our blog and posts. We hope anyone and everyone reading this is doing well!
At the end of April, Lisa and I went on our last stretch of adventure and traveling by flying out to Chongqing, China which is the largest city in China. (I know, you would think Beijing right? :) I think that is it up there in the 2omillion category or something, which is pretty impressive considering the largest city in the world is Mexico City and that was around 26 1/2 million. )
So, one of the many good things about China is that the Hilton's over here are not that expensive. I had looked up some of the Hilton's in China and chose this place. It ended up being a beautiuful 5 star hotel for about $40 USD/night. I got it on a really good deal with my credit crd though. I had to book it way back in Jan during a winter sale that they were having. I was hoping to take Lisa there to go on a river cruise along the Yangtze river to see the three gorges.
What we quickly realized is that Chongqing is only one of the major starting points for the river cruise. The shortest cruise they had was a 2 day cruise, and we had already booked our hotel each night. So, we did what I would like to call a "Lisa vacation." Haha.
As some of you may or may not know, my idea of a vacation is to do as much as we can and to see as much as we can, and take as many pictures as you can. That way I will have it all there to remember.
As a child, I did not go on hardly any vacations, so now when I do, and esp since we are paying for it and I don't know when we will ever be there again, I want to really see and experience that place. (This of course caused some difficulties with the travel weary Blair and Debbie when they came to see us last month! Haha)
But, when we realized that our main reason for going to Chongqing was the gorges cruise and it was no longer available, we then decided to just try and stay around the hotel and enjoy its many amenities.
So, we just relaxed and had an absolutely great time just spending time alone together. No cell phone or work to do. Just time with the two of us. We swam in their pool, enjoyed the great bathroom, huge comfortable bed, tv, etc.
We actually ended up spending more there on food than we did on our hotel stay! Haha. Well,the first night there was free with my hotel points, and with that, you do not get breakfast included. It almost makes you wish you had paid for the hotel, because the cost of breakfast alone is around $100RMB/person. So there goes your savings right there, haha.
But, the first night we were there, we indulged ourselves in their seafood buffet. Being as we paid quite a bit for it, we took as many huge shrimps as we could, had excellent pork spare ribs, which were amazing, and cheesecake, and more.
We were definitely trying to fulfill our sterotype of fat americans as we got plate after plate! Haha.
The funny thing too about it was that the third night that we were there, I was joking with Lisa that they didn't like us anymore. The first night that we were there, the staff was excellent and would take our plate away right away. However, after seeing how much we could pack away the first night, it seemed like they were trying to stop us from eating them out of house and home. Haha. The plates began to stack up on our table. Yet, we weren't going to let them get the best of us. I went up 3 times to get a small slice of cappucino cheesecake. It was amazing! (And don't think the cheesecake factory. These pieces were small, so my three were like one slice at cheesecake factory.)
They had had a mexican theme that night, but we were pretty disappointed by it. Lisa actually had to make tacos when we went home just to make up for it. The rest of the buffet was good though.
All in all, it was a great trip. We plan to hopefully go back next year though to actually do the river cruise. :)
2009年5月1日星期五
Chiang Mai- Part III, Flower Festival
Chiang Mai being so amazing, it requires several separate entries. This is our last full day there- at the flower festival. We had moved out of our very inexpensive hostel and into a moderately priced one, which showed in the very quaint arrangements. It was a dutch hostel and they had expensive (well normal american prices, but for us expensive) and delicious food. Shane even enjoyed Shepherd's Pie. Suekoilya went ahead of us to Phuket, so thus began the part of the trip with just us. Fortunately, that day began a three day "Flower Festival" which we took advantage of, and it reminded me of the Maryland state fair in its atmosphere, but add a whole fleet of floats made entirely out of flowers. It was such a beautiful thing to see and best part-it was free! After traipsing all over town looking for laundry, we found this great fair.
A very old temple.
They had foot massages at the fair- so I had to jump in on that!
Even better...they had ICE CREAM and SORBET for 10 bhat- for us thats like 2 yuan (very reasonable even for us) and for you americans thats like 30 cents. I, needless to say, had 3 cones.
This is our last day in Chiang Mai, on the way to PHuket for the last week of the trip. On the way to our tuk-tuk towards the airport, I tripped on a hose that was left out on the steps, carrying several heavy bags. I severely hurt some muscles in my foot/ankle. Now, 3 months later, I am much better but not totally healed. I am not sure if I will be.
Didn't want to end on a bad note...I LOVE this picture of Shane and I at the festival, and a reminder of sort of a second (or 3rd) honeymoon.
Bankok- Part II
After leaving Guangzhou, Shane, Suekoilya and I embarked on a late night flight to cross over into Thailand. OH, that first blast of warm air was wondrous! (Even though it was 2:30 am in a foreign country in which we didn't speak the language). We learned quickly that if someone is TOO eager to give you a ride, they are planning to rip you off big time. A guy followed us through the whole airport, first trying to sweet talk and then angrily yelling that his price was reasonable. Finally we found one lone metered taxi out of the airport and found our hostel (which was quite nice, btw).
Here is the "black buddha". When we inquired why he was, in fact, gold-looking, the temple worker explained that people buy small, real gold sticker-like things to stick on the buddha in an area they are having trouble or pain. This is how they ask him to heal them in that area. If you look carefully, you will see his skin is not smooth. Notice the entire buddha is now covered many times over in gold. Thats a lot of people...
We went on a personal book tour of Bankok to see some more of the reality- where the people live who aren't living in the high rises.
Suekoilya and I on our boat tour. It is the beginning of february and we are quite warm and content, even with the breeze of the water, in our t-shirts.
Of course, the infamous Tuk-Tuk ride. We always took a Tuk-tuk because they were generally cheaper and a perfect size for 3 people to squeeze into. It would have been slightly terrifying, had we not already been living in China.
Yay-authentic Pad Thai! And actually affordable too-40 thai bhat or roughly 7 rmb. (Which is pretty standard for our lunch/dinner price). We found that at each new location, the prices went up. (For you rich Americans, thats about one dollar.
Here is the "black buddha". When we inquired why he was, in fact, gold-looking, the temple worker explained that people buy small, real gold sticker-like things to stick on the buddha in an area they are having trouble or pain. This is how they ask him to heal them in that area. If you look carefully, you will see his skin is not smooth. Notice the entire buddha is now covered many times over in gold. Thats a lot of people...
We went on a personal book tour of Bankok to see some more of the reality- where the people live who aren't living in the high rises. 
Suekoilya and I on our boat tour. It is the beginning of february and we are quite warm and content, even with the breeze of the water, in our t-shirts.
Of course, the infamous Tuk-Tuk ride. We always took a Tuk-tuk because they were generally cheaper and a perfect size for 3 people to squeeze into. It would have been slightly terrifying, had we not already been living in China.
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