Happy Easter!!!! (Oh, Happy Day!)

Click Play (the triangle) to listen to the song... the lyrics are below the player... I think it sums up Easter pretty well!

Verse 1:
The greatest day in history, Death is beaten
You have rescued me
Sing it out Jesus is alive
The empty cross, The empty grave
Life eternal You have won the day
Shout it out Jesus is alive
He's alive

Chorus:
Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed

Verse 2:
When I stand, in that place
Free at last, meeting face to face
I am Yours Jesus You are mine
Endless joy, perfect peace
Earthly pain finally will cease
Celebrate Jesus is alive
He's alive

Bridge:
Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious way
That You have saved me
Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious name

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday!!!  Happy Good Friday, everyone!!!

Here is an Easter Playlist for you. (I couldn't check if all the songs worked because my VPN is making my connection really slow... so, sorry if some of them don't work!)

This morning some people from our community (school community, living community, fellowship community) got together to have a time of prayer, worship, and celebration.  The languages that were used this morning were English, Korean, Chinese, and Hebrew.  While we were singing, I couldn't help but think how it sounds to God.  It is such a blessing to be here because I'm getting a glimpse of what heaven will be like... with people from every "tribe and nation".

We ended our meeting this morning with a song titled "Celebration" (I think...).  It is a song which is sung in the Hebrew language.  So, we made two circles, one inside of the other.  The men were in the inner circle, and the ladies made the outside circle.  We "danced" to the song by going around in circles.  It was awesome and a great way to start the day!


Memory about Good Friday
When we are about to go on break or when we are nearing a holiday, someone will always ask (as a conversation starter) what are you doing for your holiday?  or what are some traditions your family has for (fill in the name of the holiday)?

Usually we can count on our friend Ben to ask such questions... but surprisingly, it was our friend Amanda who asked about Easter traditions last night.

Our Easter tradition is to go to church in the morning and then have either lunch or dinner with my whole family (g-ma, aunts, uncles, cousins).  I feel like this might be very similar to others' traditions.  When I'm home my mom still makes me an Easter basket.  This year it was like she sent me an Easter box (basket, box... it doesn't matter to me!)  It was Awesome!

What might be a little unusual is that my family (parents, bro, and sis-in-law) have a Good Friday tradition too.  Usually after going to the Good Friday service we would go to Red Lobster.  This is because my dad observes lent so it is the best restaurant for us to go to on this specific Friday.  (Being Baptist, we don't observe lent, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a good Fish Fry or our Red Lobster tradition).

Anyway, it can be hard not being able to spend this time with family, but I'm thankful for having a surrounding community who I can celebrate with!

I hope you all have a fantastic Easter weekend!!!

Follow-Up Story & the 4 Hour Ordeal

Follow-Up Story...
Do you remember the Green Leafy Bag story from the previous post?  If you don't, then go back and read it quick before you read further.

So last night I ended up throwing my keys down twice: once for Ash and once for Ben.  Well, I didn't know it at the time... or all day (I forgot my keys when I left the house this morning... yeah, it stunk)... but the card that I use to scan into my building broke!!!  :(   Sad day!

The 4 Hour Ordeal
Some of you who have been keeping up with my updates (before this blog) have heard me mention how humid it can get in Wuhan.  Wikipedia says (or at least said in 2009, when I first looked up Wuhan) that the humidity stays around 70%-90%.  As you can imagine that can wreak havoc on a girl's hair.

Now some of you are probably chuckling to yourself because it's not like I spend hours on my hair in the morning... some days its not even minutes...  BUT, now that I'm a "professional" I really can't be going into work looking like I have an animal on my head.

Thus, for the sake of being able to just blow dry my hair and be done with it, Ash and I decided to get our hair (permanently) straightened.

Here is where our story begins:
Ash and I arrive at the hair salon (called "Yes, I Do", and yes, it becomes the butt of many jokes on occasion) around 6pm.

Our friend Eva, who is Chinese and graciously acted as our translator for the evening, tells them that we want our hair straightened.  At this point there are probably like 3 or 4 people standing around us and one leaves to go get a person who speaks English... which was unnecessary because we just had Eva tell her (again) what we wanted.

Something you should know about China... nothing is straightforward... there is always some round about way to get something done...

First we're taken to the back to get our hair washed... I don't even know who washed my hair the first time... I don't think I ever saw him again for the rest of the night.

After my hair is washed guy number 1 starts working on my hair... we'll call him Mo.  He looks at my hair, pulling it from the top, side, middle, bottom, to get an idea of how its cut and such (at least that is what I think he was doing...)

OH!!!  I forgot to mention that in China the hair stylists are primarily male... yes, I know... kind of strange.

So anyway, after he gets a feel for what my hair does, he tells my friend Eva that he's gonna cut my hair.  ...definitely not what I had asked for, but I'm pretty chill about what happens to my hair, and his hair was actually really nice looking (unlike most of the other stylists in the salon who have their hair colored and spiked all over their head...), so I decided to trust him.

He takes his time cutting, and cutting, and cutting... it's usually pretty nerve wracking for a person who isn't used to cutting a foreigner's hair.

Then he dried my hair.

Then he thinned my hair (didn't really want that either... but once again... trying to trust him)

Then FINALLY, I'm ready to start the straightening process.

First step: put some conditioner stuff in your hair to make your hair really soft and elastic-y.  During this process I had guy number 2, we'll call him Curly, and guy number 3 work on my hair (I'd give guy number 3 the name Larry, but this is his only scene in this story... so he doesn't really need a name).  Curly started the conditioning process, but stopped a third of the way through to hand the job off to guy number 3/Larry.  He worked on about a third of my head, then passed the job back to Curly... not sure why... that's just what happened.

So after letting the conditioner stuff sit for several minutes, i get my hair washed.

Then I get my hair dried.  Curly is my primary hair-care provider at this point, but Mo keeps popping in from time to time... seemingly very concerned about my hair.

After it is dried, then it is time for the flat iron... it took them FOREVER to flat iron my hair!!!  During this time, the guy who was working on Ashley's hair came over to talk about my hair with Curly... he also, apparently, had the urge to touch my hair...

After the flat iron, then they put some more goopey stuff on my hair, this stuff essentially freezes the straightness. (Curly did all of this)

While I waited for the goopey, keep-the-hair-straight-stuff to set (10 minutes), Mo pops back in to make sure that my hair was straight.... thanks, buddy!  ;)

After 10ish minutes, it's time to wash the hair again.

After it is washed, Curly dried it.  I'm not even joking when I say this... I'm pretty sure it took him about 15 minutes to dry my hair (normally it takes me 5 minutes).  He used a round brush and was trying to get it JUST RIGHT!!!  (I really do appreciate their attention to detail... it comforts me)

So finally he finishes, and we think we can go... when Mo pops his head through the mirrors in front of where we were standing to tell us to wait... he wanted to do a once over on my hair before I left...

Mo starts blowing drying my hair, pulling, curling with the hair brush... etc.

Next thing I know, he gets the cape thing that goes around your neck to keep the hair off of you....
he wanted to trim up some of my hair again...  then he needed to blow dry again...

It seriously wasn't until 10pm-ish when we started to walk home!!!

It was a long experience, but I think it will be worth it...

Oh, did i mention that Ash and I can't wash our hair for 3 days... gross... I know!   (bleh!)

When I get a chance, I may post a video or two from this hoop-la!

***It's now Saturday April 23.  Here are some photos from that night.  Remember that you can click on the picture to make it bigger, if you so wish.***

You can see Ash and I in the process of straightening our hair.  Please notice that Ash has a piece of paper between her forehead and bangs.  She had to get her bangs straightened separately... but that is whole different story from that night...

Ash.  I have no idea what part of the process she was in, when this was taken...

Getting my hair straightened.

Another pic of getting my hair straightened.  You can also see our photographer/translator for the evening, Eva.

Wherever you go, There you are

The End of the Year is Near
Do smells ever trigger a memory in you?  or a time in your life?  Over here, the smells that come back after winter has passed remind me of when I moved here in July 2009.  Fresh out of college, scared to death (but also excited), and had no idea what I was doing (in regards to culture and school).  I'm able to look back and see how God was faithful through it all and the way HE has blessed me in this life.

As I look forward to the end of the year (only 32 school days left!!), I also have to face the future of China-life without two of my best friends over here....

As some of you know, the contract I signed was for 2 years and that is generally the length of all the contracts with my school (unless there are special circumstances).  In the winter of your second contracted year, you must decide whether you will stay or not.  Well, I decided to stay for another two years, but my roommate and another close friend have decided to go back to the States.

This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but you must remember that you have several other stabilizing factors in your life.  You speak the language of the country you live in, most of you live with family, or at least with roommates who you know will be there for a while.  You have different groups of friends: (neighbors, church, work...etc).

Also, the people I have connected with over here, I have connected with in a way that I never have with anyone in the States... which makes sense because we've gone through an extremely different/special experience together.

I don't think I'll ever be able to adequately describe life over here... Stability only lasts about a year over here, then you have to deal with people leaving and new people coming to replace them.

But I know that as HE took care of me when I first came here, HE will continue to provide for me.  (HE has already provided a great new roommate for me as well as the ability for me to stay in my current apartment [which is not the case for about half of our staff]).

Ice Cream Lab
So in my Physical Science Class we are learning about solutions and physical properties.  To introduce the idea of physical changes and such, we made ice cream today....

The procedures were pretty simple: put milk, vanilla, and sugar into a small ziploc bag.  Put ice and salt in a bigger ziploc bag.  Put small bag into big bag and shake.

Something I didn't think about, was to check the large ziplocs for holes...

IT WAS A MESS!!!!

By the end of class, there were salt "mines" all over the room... it was crazy!!  It was also awesome and I think some of the students were really grasping the concept!

Green Leafy Bag
I live on the fourth floor of a building.  Our building has one of those intercom things so when someone wants to visit you, they can ring up to your apartment and you can let them in by the push of a button.  My apartment's intercom doesn't work so our alternative method of letting people in the door is to throw our keys down to them.  (obviously we're too lazy to go open the door for them)

As you can imagine, throwing your keys from the fourth story isn't probably the best idea in the world for several reasons like: hitting a person, keys getting stuck in the bushes, things falling/breaking off the key ring...etc.

For these reasons, we started wrapping our keys in some kind of something to prevent any of the things listed above.

Well, when my friend called today to let her in the door, the nearest bag was a green bag with leaves... it never occurred to me that "green" and "leafy" was probably not the best decorative choice for this activity.

My throw ended up being really really lame and the bag landed in the middle of the bushes.  I wasn't really sure if Ash was going to be able to get the keys or not.  As I was watching from my window (apparently I was too lazy to go help her), I told her it was probably good that I put a bag around it, to which she replied in a sarcastic tone, "yeah, one that is green and has leaves on it!"  It was only then that it dawned on me that she kind of had a hard time finding where it landed!!!  haha!!!  Sorry Ash!!!


Chicken Parmesan/Eggplant Parmesan, Garlic Cheddar Biscuits, and Brownies
As mentioned in the previous post, Ash and I were supposed to have cooking class today.  Today we got a text from Korean Eileen (the Korean mom who we do the classes with) saying that she had to cancel.  Well, since I was looking forward to this meal, and the fact that I had made homemade Italian bread crumbs the night before, I decided to make the dinner anyway.  We invited our friend Ben over to help us eat the meal.  It ended up being a great night of fellowshipping and chilling... something I think the four of us (Ben, Ash, Claire - my roomie, and me) needed.



So after a full day and a great evening with friends, I'm ready to pass out.  Actually, I've started to drift off as I tried to finish this post (this is probably not a surprise to some of you.. haha)

Thank you all for your support.

Please keep me in your prayers as I prepare for my friends leaving.

Church, Seafood Hotpot, and Irony...

So first, let me tell you about yesterday (Sunday).

I had the opportunity to go to a Chinese wedding.  Even though this was my 5th Chinese wedding since I've been here, this one was totally different than the first four.

In general, most Chinese weddings go like this: the place is usually a restaurant or a hotel that has a restaurant.  During the actual ceremony, you sit at the tables where you will be eating later.  The ceremony involves quite a few speakers, vows, and a tea ceremony.  After the wedding ceremony, you start eating, and eating, and eating, and eating... pretty much you keep eating until they have to wheel you out of the place.  Near the end when everyone is almost finished eating, the wedding couple comes around to each table and toasts.  It is traditional for the couple to take shots with each toast, it's usually traditional for everyone at the table to toast with alcohol as well, but don't you worry all you CBTer's out there... I (proudly) sit there with coke or sprite!  :)  After the couple comes to the table to toast, then each set of their parents come as well.  After the toasts are done, then you're welcome to leave.

This was the first wedding I've been to over here that was held in a church.  The ceremony was actually very similar to a western wedding.  They lit unity candles, traditional vows were said, the groom had to kiss the bride (this is definitely not a Chinese tradition... the poor couple was super embarrassed when everyone was urging them to kiss), the couple greeted the audience on their way out of the church, then we all drove to a near by restaurant to have the reception.  The whole experience was really cool!  Here are some pics and videos... (yes, I know some of the pics are not of the best quality in the world...)

The outside of the church

view of the front of the sanctuary

view of the back and balcony of the sanctuary

The first time throughout the ceremony where they held hands... (this happened probably 3/4 way into the ceremony; before that they just kinda stood like stiff boards)

The couple's wedding poster

The Bride says her vows



At the reception - video 1



At the reception - video 2




Now to share my embarrassing story from today that also happens to hold some irony...
(this is a good one for illustrating the difficulty in living in a country that doesn't speak your native language)


As I was in the veggie market today, buying an eggplant, a random elderly man comes up to talk to me (in Chinese of course).  First he asked if my ipod (on my armband) was a device to make calls.  I told him no and that i can listen to music through it.   Then he asked me how many years ago I came to China. (now this is where it gets embarrassing)
So, I meant to say that i've been here 2 years (Chinese Pin Yin: "er nian").  Unfortunately for me that is not what my brain processed and instead, "er shi nian" popped out of my mouth.   (I told him I came 20 years ago.)  He looked at me in disbelief and said "zhen de" (really?).  I nodded....

It didn't even dawn on me what had happened until I already turned and walked away.  I mean REALLY?!?  Just when I feel like I'm progressing in my language skills, I make a REALLY REALLY stupid mistake like that.  So apparently I've just aged myself my 20 years.  Instead of being 23, I'm really 43!  I'm pretty sure my face turned beat red after I figured out my mistake...  urgh!


Of course, though, the story doesn't end there...

Near my parked bike is a place where you can buy, what I like to call, Trash Can Bread.  At a later date I will take a picture for you and describe it.  Anyway, it is a couple that owns the little stand there, selling the trash can bread.  Every time I go to the veggie market, I always buy at least one bread from them.

As I was passing their stand to get to my bike, there was a few people around the stand staring at me (this is a fairly regular occurance).  I could tell that they were talking about me...

So I get my bike, go to the stand, and I told them what I wanted (this, again, happened in Chinese).  Some of the people standing around snickered (another fairly regular occurance, mostly due to surprise).  As the woman was putting my bread in the bag, she said something.  I had/have no clue what she said to me, but in usual dazed foreigner fashion, I smiled and nodded.  So then one of the stand-byers made a comment about me not understanding, and instantaneously the couple who owns the stand snapped back to the person in my defense to tell him that I do understand Chinese!

Of course I had to chuckle to myself about the irony of it all.  I guess it's a good thing they didn't ask me how long I've been here, or they would've figured out really quick that I'm a 'ben dan!' (an idiot; literally translated it means 'stupid egg').

Anyway... so that was my Monday.  Tuesday is a work day then Ash and I (mostly me... love ya, Ash!  *smile*) are teaching Korean Eileen to make eggplant Parmesan, chicken Parmesan, and a sweet bread wreath.

Sha-la Light, Caroline, or Good Night?

This weekend has been terrific, so far.

Friday: After school three friends and I went to try out a new restaurant.  It was a Thai restaurant!!  It ended up being super, super good!!

Thai Spring Rolls

Yellow Curry with Chicken

Fried Shrimp, Pineapple Rice

Now we have a different restaurant to frequent!  (Yea!)

After eating Thai, we stopped at DQ for Claire and Eva, then later we went to Starbucks for Ash and me.

Sat, Talked, Laughed, Chilled... it was great!

It was raining when we decided to head home...

Waiting for a Taxi... in the Rain (Claire was going for a crazy face.... yeah, I'm not sure how to describe the face she got... haha!)

Finally, a taxi came...



Saturday
Got a shower, made a seafood pancake, and did a load of laundry.  As I was getting to leave the house, about 2-3 hours after my shower, my face needed to be washed again.

(Spring is wonderful and nice... but there are parts of it that I don't appreciate so much in Wuhan.  Warmth means humidity, sweat, red face, a weird-ish smell, and sink bugs.     *Sink bugs are these weird black bugs that get into my bathroom through the sink.  They don't serve any purpose, that I know of at least.  They're just really annoying.)

Anyway, so then I went to ECoffee and edited/created videos for a couple hours.

Sunday (hasn't happened yet)
I will be attending a Chinese Wedding on Sunday...

The Three (Main) States of Matter

So, I had my students create a poster that creatively showed the three states of matter with important information.... this is what I received from one of my students.  Take a close look at pictures he drew.

(click on the picture to make it bigger)

Haha!!!  Oh my students... they make me chuckle!!!  You can't say that he wasn't creative...   :)

On a different note: tonight we (Ash and I) had Korean cooking class.  We learned how to make Bimbimbop, bean sprout salad, and also seafood pancake.
Photos and videos to come... (it will just take some time to edit)

The Music Isn't Just in Your Head...

Depending on whether you have your speakers on or not, you may or may not be hearing music.

Things to note about the music:

1.  This is a very very small (and not exhaustive) list of some of my favorite songs

2.  "Those who trust" is a live version, and there is a little bit of talking before the song actually starts... hang in through the talking... it is a GREAT song!

3.  If your (internet) connection is slow, the songs might not be loading fast enough for them to play without stopping... if the music is annoying or stopping a lot, just scroll down to the bottom of this page and hit the pause button to make it stop.

4.  My roomie, who owns a mac, couldn't hear the music or see my player at the bottom of this page... thus if you own a mac, I cannot guarantee music for your enjoyment.

Thanksgiving Feelings

Okay, so when I return to my apartment from a day of work, I usually just stay in for the rest of the night... especially for the winter time.  Well, not too long after I had gotten home, my apartment-mate left, and so I decided to go on a bike ride to a nearby coffee house so I could spend some time reading and journaling...

Little did I know what I'd run into on my way out of my apartment complex...



Then I went to the bank to get some cash, and this is what I saw there...



Oh China, you never cease to surprise me!

*By the way, the title of this post came from the backdrop of the stage

"The Bane of My Existence"

So I heard this phrase several times over my spring break vacation...
When my friend said it, I had to ask her what the word after "the" was, because I had thought about the phrase before I went to Qingdao, but I thought it was "pain"... :)  Oh me and the English language... apparently we are not well acquainted with each other.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know that at this moment, the bane of my existence is the fact that I have to use a VPN to get on here and that my VPN hates me...

The Beginnings of Blogging with a Long Awaited Update

For those of you who use to get my update letters, I sincerely apologize for being completely lame this year in getting out updates.  I don’t know if I even sent out one update since this summer! 

I’m starting this blog in hopes that I will be more consistent with updates and the ongoings of my life in China.

In this post I will try to summarize what I’m doing in China for those who are new to my updates.  For those who have waited for a new update, I will try to summarize what’s happened in the past year.  (I will title these sections so you can skip what you want to skip)…

*Note: I will not and cannot promise to write with perfect grammar or spelling… essentially, I’m just not capable of it!  ;)

What am I doing in China?

I came to China in August 2009 with a company that has six international schools in China.  I was placed in the city of Wuhan, a city of over 9 MILLION people when I moved here.

I teach Middle School Mathematics and Science.  Specifically I teach Algebra 1, Pre-Algebra, and 6^th and 7^th grades Physical Science (last year it was Earth Science, and next year it will be Life Science)

I came to China with a mind and passion for building relationships with the Chinese people in my community.  I was involved in English Circles and Corners (yes, they’re different) and made friendships with people who owned stores in or around my apartment complex. 

As I progressed through the year though, trying to balance my interactions with the people here and first years of teaching became incredibly hard and I hit the proverbial wall.  So right now, my focus is on the students in our school (who are not all professing Christians) and the school community (parents, teachers, non-teaching staff).  I’m hoping that eventually God will lead me to a place where I can be solely focused on the people in the surrounding community… yes, that may mean that I won’t teach forever. 

I actually have a plan/dream/vision that I’ve been given and that I’m praying about… but that is for another time…

My life from May 2010 to April 2011… oh man, where to begin?

(In bullet points, for your convenience)

·         June

o   Two weeks home for my brother’s wedding

o   Two weeks back in Wuhan for Chinese language study, work (preparing lessons), and CR (community relations).

§  My CR: Ash (the first grade teacher) and I held a cooking class for some of the moms of Ash’s first grade students.  We also had a mom of one of my students come as well as a couple of our TA’s from the school (our TA’s are Chinese)

§  It was an awesome time of fellowship, laughs, and good food

§  Ash and I also were able to learn how to make a couple Korean dishes!

·         July

o   Two weeks in Mongolia visiting my family on this side of the world!

§  A great time of reconnecting and seeing the amazing work God is doing up north!

o   Back in Wuhan

§  Preparing to welcome the new staff coming

§  Preparing lessons

§  Met the new staff at the airport and showed them their new home for at least the next two years

·         August

o   Beginning of the year meetings

o   Start of school

o   Fall Camp

§  A time for the secondary students to connect

§  Our theme for this year is “Better Community, Better WYIS” – it’s been a great look at who we are as individuals, how we as individuals fit into this unique community, and how we as a school community can interact with the surrounding community

·         September

o   Ash and I started Language Swap

§  We started meeting twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with one of the mom’s of a student I had last year. 

§  We help her improve her English and she teaches us Korean

·         October

o   Conference in Beijing

§  All of the 6 schools in my company get together for a time of fellowship and professional growth

§  It was AWESOME!

·         November and December

o   One of the craziest times of the year

o   Thanksgiving break

o   Finals

§  Ash and I had made way too many cut out cookies… I think the total ended up being close to 200 cookies…

§  After my students took their final, I rewarded them with two cut-out cookies!!

·         They thought I was just a really nice teacher, little did they know that I really just wanted to get rid of the cookies… haha

o   Christmas Break

§  I stayed in Wuhan to celebrate Christmas with my apartment-mate and Ash, and a few others who stayed here.

§  It was a nice time to spend time in Wuhan

§  This also might have been the break where my apartment-mate and I walked from the far side of the city (called Wuchang) to the side where we live… it took us 4 hours.

·         January

o   Science Fair Month

§  Also known as the month of death…

·         Okay not really… it wasn’t that bad

§  *Note: the students and I spent countless hours doing their science fair projects.  The actual fair was scheduled for January 28.  The day of the 28, I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  I felt so bad that I had to leave the school before the science fair even started… it was really sad!

·         February         

o   Chinese New Year

§  2 weeks of vacation

§  Ash, my apartment-mate (Claire), and the student teacher from Cedarville (Kara) went to Kunming, China

·         A time of completely unplanned awesomeness

·         BEAUTIFUL city

·         The nickname of the city is “The city of eternal spring”

o   Amazing, right?!?

o   Basketball Tournament!

§  OUR HIGH SCHOOL BOYS WON 1^ST PLACE IN A DOUBLE ELIMINATION COMPETITION

·         Needless to say, we were ECSTATIC!!!

·         March

o   Math March Madness

§  World Math Day

§  Pi Day

§  Rubik’s Cube Competition

§  Sudoku Competition

o   Talent Show

§  A night full of our students and (some) teachers showing off their amazing talent!

o   ISC Science Fair in Tianjin

§  I had the honor of “chaperoning” the two students who were chosen to represent our school at the ISC Science Fair. 

§  Both students received the “Excellent” Rating on their projects… I was/am super proud of them!

o   ***I signed another two-year contract

§  Yes, you read right…. I have decided to stay here for another two years, at least…

·         April… finally!  ;)

o   Spring Break

§  I took this week to visit one of my friends who works at our sister school in Qingdao, China.

§  Qingdao was where the sailing (and I think the other boat/water sports) happened for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

§  A city where you can see both the ocean and unique mountains.

·         BEAUTIFUL!!!         

§  I had a GREAT time with Jen and her group of friends there!! 

§  It was an incredible trip in many ways… I think it rejuvenated me for the last stretch…

*This was in no way an exhaustive list, but I fear boring you too much if I write down such a list.  This might have been too long in and of itself.  If you persevered this far, I just want to say… THANK YOU!  You’re the best!!

From now on, hopefully I will be able to share more detailed information because I’ll be sharing about fewer events at a time. 

Thanks for your support!

Abs