Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Summer in China

First, I apologize for my lack in blogging, it has been one hectic/busy summer!

Second, it is strange to think this is my third summer abroad, I am starting to forget what a California native summer is like. I would have it no other way though :D

I am here to blog for you all and I am excited to share with you what has been happening this summer! I have posted a few times that the school let me be in charge of a summer camp, here at the school...it is in full force and it has been more successful then I even thought it would be! We have almost 100 kids enrolled and the CUI group has been fantastic!

The CUI group has been such a nice taste of home and I feel spoiled having them here, it will be a bummer to say goodbye to them next weekend!

My summer started off with a friend visiting from Vietnam! My good friend Mary lives there and we decided to go on a vacation together. We originally planned on going to Mongolia, but when one misses a train, that becomes impossible. So we ended up staying in Beijing for 8/9 days? I forget how long and it was a ton of fun! I loved getting to see Mary and having time to talk about our times abroad, we both made a leap to move to different countries and she has been a blessing since day one. It is nice knowing one of your closest friends is near by...the next trip is me going to visit her! Hopefully for spring break :) This was country number 5 (I think) for us to travel to together!

Here are some pictures from our travels!





Summer has been mostly uneventful, but exciting! The camp is going well, I love them all and I love the students even more! I am just preparing for next year and the school year that will begin in August and anxiously awaiting everyones arrival back to SZ!
Here is a group pic from the summer camp!!!


oh and how could I forget!! my friends Christine and Sandro and a few others were in the Dragon Boat festival a couple of weeks ago in Hong Kong! It was so much fun to watch and I hope next summer I can be apart of it! here are some pics from that!!





The new school year seems to be coming so quickly! The summer has gone by way too fast! I am preparing to move all my stuff into my new apartment and I am prepping it for the two new teachers, that I will be living with! I am excited about this opportunity to live with two girls that seem wonderful and I am excited for it!!

I also found out that my friend Christine will be staying in Shenzhen a bit longer, so I am glad that she will be around. I was starting to feel a bit lost at the thought of the girl who networks not being here! Still count 3 CUI grads being here teaching and loving life and doing His work.


Highs:
All the CUI folk here in China, it has been a huge blessing!
Getting to see Mary for a week!
planning my next set of trips
preparing for next year
Camp being so successful!
buying tickets to go see Maroon 5

Lows:
saying bye to friends at the beginning of summer
missing home
trying to get caught up on sleep

Prayer requests:
That I can go into the new school year fully rested and ready. I don't want to get burnt out!
For my visa to India, I have been having issues getting it.
My friends arrive back safely!
My new apartment and the new roommates!
2 people from the summer trip wanting to get jobs here, I may of found them something!


with love,

Ashley