On the day that I was scheduled to leave Wuhan on my trip, I found out from my roommate David that he is not staying in Wuhan anymore. He has decided that it's in his best interest to go back to the States. In many ways I'm tempted to blame myself because I'm sure that I at least in some way contributed to that decision, but I know I wasn't the deciding factor. Even though David planned our entire vacation, he decided that, to save money, he was just going to go home and skip the trip. He left while I was traveling, and it's not the same anymore. He was a crucial part of our team, and he will be sorely missed. With him gone, those of us who are left are going to have to work that much harder to do the work. So it was with a heavy heart that I left Wuhan. I was leaving alone, but I was fortunate enough to discover that three other FoC teachers (two from Wuhan) were leaving for Hong Kong on the same train as me, so I was able to have a little cheer from them, at least.
I got to Hong Kong, and after checking in I had to go by myself. I was meeting up with Hannah Ricke and Amanda Woomer, who were my traveling companions for Nepal. They arrived shortly before the plane stopped boarding, so I was getting nervous, but we made it in time just fine. When we arrived in Nepal, we had to pay for a visa, but once we got that figured out we were very well taken care of. After we left the airport our trekking guide (named Kishwor) met us and showed us around Kathmandu a little. We changed our money into Nepalese rupees, and we met Ishwar, the owner of Vista Trek company. (If any of you are thinking of going to Nepal, I highly recommend traveling with them.) We sat down for tea and went through the details. Unfortunately, I seem to have had some sour milk in my tea, and my stomach was upset that night. That was when the trouble started.The following morning, I woke up with the same stomach pain I had experienced the previous day, but we were scheduled to start our trek that day. I had a vested interest in viewing Mt. Everest (considering that I paid money to do that, and also considering that I don't know when--if ever--I'll return to Nepal), so I decided just to power through it. I haven't been that sick in a long time, anyway, and normally when I get sick I can just ignore it and it goes away. That turned out to be a singularly bad idea.
I lost the previous night's supper while I was in the airport, and after that I figured my sickness must have passed. I really wanted to brave the mountains and see the beautiful sights, especially since that was David's dream, and he didn't get to go. We took a small airplane into the mountains, and away we went.
I was fortunate in that we had a porter who carried my large bag (which I had intended to leave in Kathmandu) and our guide carried my small bag. Because I was still feeling ill, I decided it would be a good idea not to carry my bags. Our first stop was in the village we landed in, so we didn't have to do any real climbing, but I didn't have much of a stomach for lunch. We hiked for only about three hours or so that day, and it was mostly downhill or even, so it wasn't much of a problem. That night, though, I didn't fair quite as well. I slept hoping that I would feel better in the morning.
predicament because that hadn't happened to him before. He convinced me to go up to a viewing point of Everest, in his words, "slowly, slowly, slowly." That night he called his boss to order a helicopter.
I am forever indebted to my guide Kishwor. After he started noticing just how sick I was, he started walking with me every step of the way. He could have been walking with the girls, who admittedly were much more upbeat than I, but because he knew I needed it, he stuck with me the whole way. I was also very fortunate to have him with me because I got to see Mt. Everest a day earlier than the girls did. That day also had a spectacularly clear sky. It was wonderful--except that it was hard for me to stand and look.
That night I made it back and just rested. I took it easy and went to bed early. The following morning we took a hike to a viewing point of Everest (whose name in Nepali is "the roof of the world") and visited a museum before taking a short hike to the helicopter landing platform. There Ishwar (the boss) and his wife met me. I got in the helicopter, and we actually went closer to the mountain, near Everest base camp, before we went back to Kathmandu.
The loneliness continued after I was released from the hospital. They let me go because they told me insurance would pay for it (which wasn't true at all), but they didn't give me back my passport, and neither did they tell me the exact amount I owed them. I don't know how they expected me to pay them back. I don't know when the girls got back, either. I was mostly recovered by then. I was mostly just trying to figure out how to get payments done. They wouldn't accept a credit card unless I had the physical card on me. In the end I am once again indebted to my father. Thank you so much, Dad. He wired me the money via Western Union, and then it was just a matter of finding a place that would let me pick it up the day before I left.
I did a little shopping during my time in Kathmandu. After our guide came back with the girls, he showed us some interesting places around the city, including a monkey temple. I bought a book and a dress for Ivy, and I did a little exploring of the area around our hotel. On the last day our guide picked us up and brought us to the boss's house for supper, where we met his family and reviewed our trip. I have to say that the service Vista Trek offered was excellent, even if my stay in Nepal didn't go that way. I was thoroughly impressed with the way they treated me, and the price was reasonable, I thought. We said our farewells, and then it was on to Malaysia.
We met up with Miss Ivy in the airport. It was her first time away China, and having spent the last several days feeling very lonely, I was very excited to see her. Our plane arrived at about 3 am, so I bought some coffee when I realized that I wasn't going to fall asleep again. In the morning we took the bus into Kuala Lumpur, and we spent the next few days exploring the Central Market, the Petronas Towers, and doing a lot of shopping. Ivy bought new shoes for the beach and sunglasses. I bought her Aladdin pants (which can function as either a dress or pants), a swimsuit, and a shirt, in addition to a flag for me. We walked through almost the whole city in one day. Ivy was not a huge fan of the food, so we splurged a little money a couple times to buy (expensive) Chinese food.From Kuala Lumpur we went to Langkawi, a Malaysian island off the coast of Thailand. We planned to spend a nice relaxing time at the beach. When we arrived at our hotel, the clerk informed us that we would have to pay extra since David forgot to cancel his room, and the hotel has a very strict policy in that regard. When we tried to ask questions to clarify, she got very defensive. I honestly believe she was quite rude to Ivy in particular, because we were just asking questions for clarification and she acted like we were insulting her somehow. Anyhow, she managed to sell our room for all but two of the nights that we were there, so it ended up being not that big of a deal. Our first night also happened to be Chinese New Year (the biggest holiday in China), so we called Ivy's parents to talk to them for a couple minutes.
During our time on the island, we were essentially divided into two groups. Amanda and Hannah generally traveled together, and Ivy and I went everywhere together. I tried to teach Ivy how to swim; we explored together for fresh vegetables for sale so that she could (once again) cook. We read together, we went shopping, we watched TV/movies. We napped. We walked along the beach looking for seashells or examining the wildlife. We watched the sunset a couple times. During one of my attempts to teach Ivy swimming, I had her flapping her arms wildly to try to get her to push with them while she swam. After a few seconds of that she complained of a sharp pain in her wrist, but when I examined it, everything looked fine and we couldn't see any problems. About ten seconds later she was even greater pain, and a red mark started to show up around her wrist (almost like a bracelet). I decided then that we had to get out of the water and take a break. We walked back to our hotel, but Ivy washed it off in a sink on the way back. As it turns out, that was a bad idea. The locals at the hotel were able to tell us quickly that it was a jellyfish sting, and that she should definitely not wash it with fresh water. We were told to get vinegar to put on it; we wound up buying limes because it was just the acid that was essential. After about 5 minutes of soaking her wrist in lime juice, she started to feel a little better, and after about 20 minutes, it was better enough to stop. After about 24 hours or so, the sting went away.
After our time on the island, we took a flight back from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur before we returned to Hong Kong. During our entire trip our airline (AirAsia) gave us literally nothing; we got no checked bags, no in-flight movies, no changing seats on an almost empty plane, no in-flight meals, no free drinks, nothing. Because we didn't get checked bags for free, we were forced to carry on everything that we would ordinarily check on an international flight. That was a lot of things for me because I had to pack for both winter hiking in the Himalayas and summer beaches in Langkawi. Well, our flight from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur was domestic, so they aren't always as lenient as other flights, but I assumed we would have no problem since I hadn't had any problem on the way so far. I was wrong. In the airport I was told that I was going to have to check my bag after I had already cleared security. I was angry, and made it clear that I felt that way. I argued my case with the airport staff and explained the situation. They did everything they could to make me feel guilty, but I thought the least they could to was cut me a little slack considering I had fit my bag in four times prior to this flight, and I was flying a total of six flights, all with the same company. They didn't think that was reasonable, though, but they finally told me they would let the flight crew decide because I had flown with them so much in the space of a month. The flight crew made a bigger deal out of getting my bag in the overhead compartment than they needed to, but in the end it fit no problem. I'm still kind of annoyed by how I was treated.Anyhow, from Kuala Lumpur Hannah, Amanda and I flew to Hong Kong while Ivy stayed an extra day in KL. Amanda went back to Hangzhou from the Hong Kong airport, so after she left, Hannah and I were alone. We weren't exactly sure where our plan had been to stay since David hadn't told me of anything, so we assumed that we could stay at the retreat center, Hong Kong YMCA. When we got there, we were told that wasn't true, however, and we had to call down to Asia Lutheran S*minary to figure out where we should go. We took the subway to ALS, and we figured out our plans from there. I was bl*ssed to stay with the West family. Aaron is a new Hebrew prof at ALS, and he and his wife have three young kids. It was fun, and they were very hospitable as hosts. The next day the retreat began, so after that everything went more or less according to plan.
During the retreat, I had a meeting with ALS about being one of their first two Anglo students to be accepted into the program in mainland China. The ALS faculty are still working out some of the details, but their idea is that I would start taking classes with the Chinese students in the fall of 2015. It would be a four year commitment after that, so I would graduate in 2018, and after that I would almost certainly be placed in China as m*ss*onary. This is a fine option, although if I went back to the States, I might be required to take remedial courses as my training would not be the same. I think this might be easier for Ivy, who wants us to end up back in China some day. The other option is to go to WLS in Mequon, possibly as early as this coming school year. Right now I am literally torn between the two decisions. I don't suppose I should list all the pros and cons of each school here; instead, I will simply ask you to pr@y that G0d leads me to the best decision according to His good will.
All too soon the retreat ended, and we had to leave our fellowship and return to Wuhan. Ivy and I took a train back, and somehow by sheer coincidence, we ended up being in the same car as three other FoC Wuhan teachers. That was great. We made our way back to Wuhan, and I've been busy since then. Ivy has had plans of people that we met, and I've been busy trying to come to a decision, as my decision of whether I want to come back with FoC is due at the beginning of March. Ivy and I celebrated Valentine's Day by going out for lunch, seeing the movie Frozen (Ivy absolutely loved it), meeting a friend of hers for supper, shopping around a little, and coming back to my place to watch a movie. It was a busy day, but it was great.
I start school next week, and my schedule will be much busier then. I'm using my time off to try to plan for the upcoming semester, but in China, plans are often made at the last minute. I have an idea of what I'll do, and I've been asking other teachers for advice. My schedule will be busy again once I get into the swing of things, but I hope to update her at least when I make my final decision...and when I get engaged (NO, I am NOT engaged yet!). Please keep not only me but also all of China in your pr@yers. Pr@yers for all of you. I miss you all.
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