Things I ate in China

This is a list from my jeornal. It's been growing as the trip goes on.

Pig skin - Kinda looks like half-inch-thick slices of glass. Tastless. Very hard to pick up with chopsticks.

Fish balls - Not fish testicals. Don't worry. Like meat balls but with fish meat. Very tasty.

Prawn eyeballs - I wasn't really supposed to eat them but I just picked them off. They were delicious.

Seaweed - Really good. Esspecially with oil and a bit of salt.

Milk tea - can be okay or really good. The gooey balls at the bottom are a little strange at first.

Green tea ice cream - Not horrible, but not good either. Bleah.

Green tea pumpkin seeds - Icky!

Green tea latté - good and gross at the same time.

Squid - pretty good, takes a while to chew though.

Kimchi - bleah. Spicy and rater untasty

Pickled raddish - like kimchi, but tasty.

Seaweed soup - good if you get past the "I'm drinking a tide-pool" thoughts.

 

Octopus balls - Once again.  Not male parts of an octopus but rather dough balls with parts of an octopus inside.  So yummy.

 

Octopus - the tenticles have a weird texture with the little plunger things.  And they're purple and look like they could just wiggle right off your plate.  But after you get past that, and have the patience to chew something for a long time, they're great.

 

Chicken feet - I never planned to eat this.  Never.  One of the toes were broken off so I only saw these nice-looking, long orange things with crispy orange-chicken like fried stuff.  But I put it in my mouth and there were toes bones.  So I spit them out and realized what was really in my mouth.  It was disturbing.

Back to Kona

Hey!  I'm back from China!  Sorry I haven't been blogging lately.  I've missed it but blogspot is blocked in China and I just didn't feel like using th other one, it was hard to use.  Anyway I have so much to write about everything.

It is sooo good to be back in Kona and see my good friends again.  I missed them so much, and it's just wonderful hanging out with them and hearing all their amazing stories from their different travels.

I really can't wait to go back home to Washington though.  I really, really miss everybody so much.  I miss dill pickles.  And couches.  And having a house big enough to be alone.  And my pets.  And seasons.  (well, China has seasons, but I was there during winter.  Winer sucks.  That doesn't count.)

But I'm almost home.  I'm yearning to come back yet I want these past few days visting with my friends here (and the Alarcio's on Honalulu in a few days!) to pass by slowly and sweetly.  I want to savor every last moment.

I want to describe coming back to campus first since it's so recent and fresh in my brain.  I got to the airport after long flights, and I was so out of it.  I felt almost like my body was buzzing.  I felt so weird.  I'm one of those unusual people that no matter how tired I am, I just cannot fall asleep on planes.  After a twelve hour plane ride, then a six hour one, plus the airport time in between, and the jet lag, I was super tired.  Anyway I got to the airport and I saw the Mozambique team, who I didn't know was gonna be there to greet us.  I was super surprized and stolked to see them again, but I was so out of it I felt like I was too in shock to really take it in.  Everybody started squealing and hugging eachother, and I actually might've shed some tears, but I can't remember.

It seemed like forever to get in our vans and get all our bags back (the wheels fell off one of mine) and get back, and find out what rooms on campus we were supposed to stay in, or whether some people had to stay in a hotel.  When we got to the campus there was a warm breeze, and I could feel it brushing against my legs and arms and sandal-feet.  It felt strange and wonderful to have my skin not be covered by so many layers anymore.  I could smell flowers and see everything around me so familiar, and it felt so different then China.

There were people greeting more people and standing around talking, but I didn't feel like doing anything like that.  I just kinda nervously paced all over campus, feeling so weird and overwhelmed by everything.  All these feelings of missing China, and realizing how much I've changed, and how much everything felt so different even in such a familier place, plus not sleeping for a day in a half, all just seemed to hit me at the same time.  I didn't know what to do with myself.

I finally went to the prayer room, where it always makes me feel so happy and peaceful.  I stepped in and saw several people scattered about reading their bible or praying, and there was worship music playing softly in the backround.  It felt so sacred in there, but warm and welcoming at the same time.  I went outside, and heard somebody silently playing guitar in the grass faraway worshiping.  I popped back in for a minute, taking it all in...  People were worshiping and praying so freely, everywhere, and you could feel God's presence thickly all over.  It was something I didn't feel in China, where you have to be careful where you worhip and what you talk about, and there aren't hundreds of people worshiping and praying all the time in one place.  It was so overwhelming and wonderful.  I hate to admit to crying, but I'm pretty sure I cried.

Later that night when I got back to my usual self, Faith and I went out to Denny's around 1 AM and shared stories with some of the Mozambique people about what happened in the different places we were in.  It was just a time of joy.  And laughing over all the funny stories both of our teams had.  And oh, the food!  The food was sooo good.  Anyway after we got back we probably stayed up till like 4 AM...  And then I slept in till like 3 PM on Sunday.  I was out of it.

I was happy to find that I was back in a room with all my old roomates I had during lecture phase.  None of them were on the China team and I missed them sooo much.  Only Dahea was home so far, and I was so happy to see her, and couldn't wait to see the rest of them.

Throughout Saturday all the rest of the teams came home.  I was asleep when Africa and New York came home so I randomly popped into them one-by-one during the evening.  Then at 7:30 PM, Saturday all of us went down and waited for the last team to come, Brazil.  When they came all of our class was finally together again and we just all hugged and yelled and hugged some more.  It was incredible.

Monday started with morning worship.  Everybody gathered into the Ohana Court (the big area) on campus and we all sang and it sounded so amazing.  It felt incredible to be worshiping with so many people again and with so much freedom.  Class was great, lunch was eh, afternoon I felt like crap.  Took a nap, got some fluids and ibuprofen into my system...

Then was ministry night.  Every Monday night on campus we all go to the prayer room and worship together.  Everybody goes absolutely nuts and it's the most amazing feeling ever.  There's about a hundred or so people crowded in the room, jumping up and down, but it sounds like a thousand people singing.  It's the loudest sound ever, pulsing through your whole being, and you feel the vibrations of people dancing and jumping about coming from the floor to your feet.  But the loud sound doesn't hurt your ears.  It just surrounds you and moves you like being under the surface of the ocean when a big wave hits.  The piano player started going off and playing by ear making up this new song in the middle of everything, the exact thing that I love to do, and the whole music team all started improvising and making all these new melodies that just fit perfectly.  It feels like you're getting this teeny-tiny peak of what heaven will be like, and it makes me so exited.

It's like when so many people are gathered in the same place.  And they've all been reunited after this huge life changing thing.  After we've all been all over the world, so far away.  And we all come back together and realize all of what we've done, and all we'll continue to do, is for the same reason; this incredible, amazing God who loves so much.  We all come together in the place and we all sing at the top of our lungs and just surround ourselves with beautiful music and sounds and rythm, all so spontanious at times but never wrong.  It sounds so perfect.  And feels so perfect.  It's like God is the very air you breathe and when you feel him that much it's like you realize you're so done with breathing dirty air, and all you want to breathe now is Jesus.

Anyway, yeah...  I'm back in Kona and feeling so revived.

Engagement Pictures

A couple days ago Vickie Chu, a person on my China team, had her boyfriend vcome visit before we all left for Chiners.  I didn't know either of them that well but I could tell they were wonderful together.  They are so funny and adorable.  A couple days after he arrived they both came all smiley and secretive looking to one of our team meetings and said they had an announcement at the end.  Well I kinda guessed and looked at Vickie's finger and there was the prettiest ring on it and I was just like "YES!  I knew it!"  So sure enough they were engaged, and then they asked if I could take some engagement pictures for them before I left!  It was totally last minute and pretty funny.  It was like two days before we left and I was taking a nap and Vickie came in and woke me up, and bam, we took pictures.  :-)  It was sooo much fun.

At the airport.

So I'm sitting in the San Fransisco airport right now.  We had a long flight from Kona last night and got here at 4 AM and haven't left since.  My next flight is to Beijing, then to Dalian.  On the way here I watched two movies that were pretty good.  I don't know the names.  I barely got any sleep though.  I'm very tired right now and I hope I can manage to fall asleep on my next flight!  The few hours before I left yesterday I was panicking so much because I found out all my stuff couldn't fit into my bag, and I had to get rid of a bunch of stuff, and I couldn't figure out which to make a carry-on and which to check, and I wanted to bring my ukulele of course, and OH I was panicked.  But I'm fine now, with two very stuffed small bags.  Everybody is teasing me because my ukulele is stuffed full of underwear.  Yes, underwear.  It was a last-minute, desperate attempt to make my bag zip closed and it was the first thing I thought of!

I'll try to catch you guys later.  Love you all!

FAQ's

I remember when my mom needed to know something on the internet, and I just told her to go to the "F A Q's" and she had no idea what I was talking about.  "What are effaykeeyoos?" Because painfully obvious things to my generation are just not painfully obvious to my mom's generation I guess.  :-)
Anyway, FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions, and since I've been getting a lot of FAQs from back home I'm gonna try to answer them here.

What is YWAM?  YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission.  It's a bunch of youngish people coming to know more about God, and then go out into all the world and make God and His love known everywhere.  Not just by telling people about God, (we don't want to be preachy by the way, we're not like going around shouting "Repent!" like you might think we would) but by just trying to help communities around the world.  Depending where we go, this could mean different things.  In Africa for instance, that might mean taking care of babies left near dumpsters, providing them with clean water, and building houses.  While in Sweden, it might be getting up in the middle of the night and handing out free hot chocolate and talking to lonely homeless people.  In New York it might mean trying to be warm and loving to people who might be really successful but feel super cold and lonely amidst the busy and hurried lifestyle.
Right now I'm doing a DTS, which stands for Discipleship Training School.  It's where I come here, in Kona Hawaii, for three months for the lecture phase, were we get awesome intense training about the bible, and God, and life and such.  We pray where we should go, and then after the lecture phase, different teams go out into different countries and live there for three months for the outreach phase.

When are you coming back?  The very end of March or beginning of April.  I'm not exactly sure.

Where are you going?  China.  We'll be staying in Dalian for most of the time, and then partway through some of us will go to DanDong.  If you want to find it on a map, it's up near the right, kinda near the top, near the North Korean border.

What are you doing there?  We're not exactly sure of everything yet.  Mainly working with university students, helping them with their english, and just trying to build relationships with them.  We were also thinking of possibly starting up a cafe where people can just come and chill, like people do at starbucks back home.  Because there are coffee shops there, but not many coffee shops that are for hanging out, not just buying coffee.

How can I keep in touch with you while you're there?  Don't plan on a whole lot of keeping in touch.  Phoning the USA from China is super expensive, as well as talking on Skype.  Facebook will most likely be government blocked.  I will try to keep in touch by email, and try to keep people up-to-date on what's going on here, but internet is costly and limited, so I'm not sure how often or quickly I will keep up with it all.  But that doesn't mean stop sending me emails.  I will read them every chance I get,and I'm sure I would totally appreciate hearing from you all, it's just I might not to get back to every one right away.

What kind of place will you be staying in?  In a hotel at the base there.  We have one bathroom for fifteen people.  So yeah, pray for that.  It will be super mega freezing cold.  The food is supposedly super tasty but might be hard on our digestive systems.  I also heard everything is super inexpensive there, especially clothes, which I'm really happy about.  :-)  I don't know a whole lot more about China, but I'm sure I'll find out a whole lot once I'm there.

When are you leaving for China?  December 28th.  We'll be flying a night flight to San Fransisco, and then to some major city in China (I think it was Beijing but I'm having a mind-blank) and then to Dalian.  Airports and flying for like two-three days.  It sounds sucky, but I really love airports and flying so I'm super stoked!

Will you be in danger?  Kinda maybe sorta.  China is a communist country where Christianity is still illegal, so I have to be very careful about what I say and do.  Wherever I go something could happen to me, but guess what?  Something could happen to me in New York, or in Hawaii, or even back home.  I believe God wants me to go to China for a good reason, and as long as I be careful and smart, he's a good God and will protect me.

Do you like it there?  Yes!  So much!

Do you miss home?  Yes!  So much!

How on earth did you get the money to do all this?  My grandparents had a stock in apple saved up, and that payed for a big chunk of it.  Other then that my family prayed and asked people, and my friends, family, and church have just overwhelmed me with their support.  I have a small church, and nobody in it is super rich or anything, so the way that group of like fifty people sent me thousands of dollars to have this incredible opportunity has just blessed me beyond whatever I imagined.  People back home, both my biological family and my church family, Madison Community, I love you guys so much.  Thank you!


If you want me to answer any more questions, leave a comment below and I'll answer it.  Thanks for all your prayers!  Love you!

Anew

What if you just packed up everything and went somewhere new where you didn't know a single person?  Would you keep to yourself?  Would you want to make a lot of new friends or just a few?  What would it be like to just go somewhere totally new, and have everybody meet have nothing to go on for their impression of you?

I've always wondered those kinds of things, and I'm almost at the halfway mark, three months, and I've found out a bit.

It's different.

At home, almost everybody I meet has something to go on.  "This is Amanda, and she's from Washington, where it's rainy and cold."  See and just from being from Washington you'd probably think "She probably doesn't mind rain, and she probably has a few flannel shirts, and I wonder if she likes Owl City."  But here people might hear I'm from Washington, but besides the few people here that are from the place, they don't know what on earth being from Washington says about me, because they have never been there.

Here people have no idea who my family is.  They don't know my parents, or my sister, they don't know my pets.  They have nothing to go by.  It's kinda cool, but weird as well, to have people just see me and nothing else.  It's like starting fresh.  But it's also strange to have people not know things about you that I've always just kinda expected people to know.

It's just so weird having to explain some things.  Like when I say something really off the wall, some people still act surprised!  Or when they find out I have played a lot of interments, not just piano.  I'm always thinking "Duh, I'm a Stangland.  We all play like at least five."  But people here have no idea!  They all think I'm outgoing, because they haven't seen me be painfully shy during my younger years.  They don't meet my more outgoing sister, so they have nothing to compare me to.  Or I keep saying these inside jokes everybody knows back home, and people here just give me the strangest look!  Super weird.

But you know what?  It'll probably be super weird going back home too, because I'll be used to living here, (Or soon, in China!) and I'll probably have picked up all sorts of little traits that I'll bring back.  Like I know there'll probably be times where somebody will say something and I'll do that YWAM finger-clicking-flick thing or shout SHABBA!  Or say COMPROMISE to everything as a joke.  My jokes and habits have changed.  I think I've only made a "that's what she said" joke about two or three times since I've been here.  Well, at least out loud...

Animals

Something that has been burning on my mind for a long time is the question of how we're supposed to treat animals.

I absolutely love animals.  My first word wasn't mama or dada, it was "kitty".  I love not only dogs and cats, but rats, elephants, snakes, birds, bugs, pretty much everything that breathes.  I find animals absolutely fascinating.  I know a lot of people probably like animals a lot too, but I'm not sure they feel it the same way as me.

Like take a couple weeks ago.  Near campus there's these wild pigs that eat all our cafeteria leftovers.  They live out in the fields, eat tons, and live nice long lives of happy fatness until we kill them.  Now as far as eating meat goes, I don't think it's wrong, and as far as slaughtering pigs go I think it's wonderful that they live full happy lives out in the wild before they die.  Anyway our school leader and a bunch of the guys wanted to have a "man bonding" experience, so right before thanksgiving they all went down and caught the pigs with their bare hands and killed it, and we all feasted on it the next day.  I guess that's not a problem.  The pig tasted really good.  But I was baffled by how much joy it brought them.  When it was time for the guys to volunteer to go down and help kill it, they got super exited.  Like they started hollering and talking about how epic it would be.

Now this I don't get.  Because if I was there I'd probably cry, not even joking.  The thought of anything dying just isn't something I think is worth celebrating.  The thought of the pig being caught and struggling to get away until it finally got knocked out and cut open made me very sad.  I'm not calling it wrong, they did it in a very humane way in which the pig would be killed painlessly and quickly, but I just don't understand how anybody could watch a living creature die and think it fun.

I hate it when anybody or anything feels pain.

Even bugs.  People burn them alive with magnifying glasses, or pour salt on slugs, and I think it's just simply very mean.  Even if those animals are very small and simple, they have nerve endings and little brains, and they can feel physical pain.  I'm not saying bugs shouldn't be killed if they're threatening you.  If there's a mosquito near me, I'll squish it.  But I won't do anything like squish it half-way and watch it just suffer for a while longer before dying.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you must kill an animal, do it respectfully and quickly.  Is that asking too much?

Something that has always bugged me is how whenever I speak up about animals rights, or get sad about how animals around the world (especially on may farms that are in charge of our meat and dairy products) are being treated, Christians, not most people in general but Christians like me, always say something like "I think you should be more focused on people."  They go on to say that child abuse is way worse then animal abuse, or how it's horrid when people are more focused on preventing seal clubbing then saving unborn babies.  Well you know what?  That's totally true!  It's bad when people care more about seals then babies, and child abuse is worse then animal abuse!  But how on earth is that relevant?  Do people really need to point that out as if talking about being kind to animals is saying that we shouldn't focus on people?  I never ever said that humans don't come first, so it's totally unfair to assume that just because I think animals are important I think people are less.  That's just putting words in my mouth that were never there.

When God first made the world, he made us as leaders and caretakers over all creation.  He let Adam name all the animals.  He looked down on everything He made, people and creature alike, and said that it was very good.  There are more verses in the bible that suggest He loves and cares about individual animals (Take Matthew 10:29, for instance).  Throughout the bible but especially in Psalms it tells us again and again the the beauty of nature reveals and proclaims his majesty and beauty.  Which I can totally relate to.  Time and time again whenever I would doubt God was real, I would just go outside and look at the colorful sky, or my favorite strong tree, or a delicate little insect, and I'd be reminded that no, of course something this lovely and complex surely isn't the result of a random accident.  I believe the beauty and uniqueness of nature and animals point out how glorious God is, and they bring God joy just be being themselves.

Most people would think it offencive to say God is much like a dog.  And I admit it sounds bad.  But stay with me here when I say that I personally see so much of God's character in a dog.  Dogs are fiercely loyal and extremely loving.  They love you the same no matter what.  NO matter how I've acted during the day, no matter what crap I've done, as soon as I walk in the room Kylie and Gus, my two little corgis, are going to love me and welcome me EXACTLY the same, which is with utmost enthusiasm.  And that's just how God is!  I look at other animals and realise they too proclaim the glory of God, perhaps by showcasing his different characters.  God is beautiful, like the most exquisite butterfly, like a sinewy Arabian horse, like a colorful fish.  God is graceful like a jungle cat.  And everywhere he goes beauty fallows behind Him like a dew filled spider-silk web.  To say God created animals for food only is just silly.  People, he created animals wonderfully and carefully.  If he meant to make them only for food, he would've just kept making a bunch of manna with legs.

I wonder, is it wrong to think so highly of animals?  I've asked God exactly what he wants me to think about them and the only answer I get back is that he loves them even more then me.  But still I don't know if my opinions about animals are too off, mostly because other people, especially Christians, just don't agree.

Many Christians I talk to believe that animals are souly made for food.  I believe that while God does give us permission to eat meat, it wasn't his original plan, and even animals like cows and chickens have a purpose that's so much more then just being food.  Most Christians believe animal rights don't really have a place in our endeavors, because focusing on human injustices is so much more important.  I believe that while of course they're more important, caring about the treatment of animals doesn't take away from how much more I care about things like preventing child abuse and aids and world hunger.  Most Christians believe that animals are kinda like little affectionate robots without soul or reason.  I believe that until somebody comes up to me with a bible verse specifically stating that this isn't true, animals do have souls, maybe not souls that need redemption like ours but souls nevertheless.  Souls that have an at least an innate understanding of God.  I see birds sing in the morning and lambs dance in the spring for His glory.  I loved and knew my old dog Django like he was a person, and I believe that he's in heaven enjoying the bliss around him, not just a dead bit of bones buried in my backyard.

I know this post was controversial and many people might not agree with it.  I'm very open to any other opinions one might have to bring more wisdom to this topic, so please don't hesitate to comment below.  I think I have it set so you don't have to sign up or anything, you just type it in and presto, I can see what you have to say!  :-)