South Asia Trip: Day 3

Whoohoo! Leaving for the beach in a few days... so excited!

Here's Day 3:

On Saturday we woke up slow again and had our bible study in the morning. We are studying John and read John 2. We recounted Jesus’s first public miracle where he turns water into wine at a wedding. His mother, Mary, is actually the person who asked him to help with the wine shortage, and Jesus told her it wasn’t his time. She didn’t listen to him and told the servants to do whatever he said. Lud brought up the point that Mary obviously believed that Jesus could perform miracles and that more than likely she had seen him perform miracles as he was growing up. All we have to do is believe God can perform miracles and He really will perform them. We also thanked Him for setting up ways for us to meet the people He wants us to.

We decided that the girls would go eat with the girls Kayla had numbers for and the guys would go eat with Lud’s friend, Johnny. The girls we met up with were Christina, Vivian, Jane, and Wisteria. They were all so sweet and friendly. They were so willing to show us around Yuxi and took us to a restaurant they thought we’d like. We ate french fries with ketchup (it tastes different here), fruit salad, fried pea squares, and drank watermelon juice (which was really good!). Vivian and Christina took charge by carefully ordering us dishes that were not too spicy. I ate a kind of chicken curry with rice that was really good. We talked with them about life at the university and with two of them who are Christians we talked about when that happened and what it means for them here. We took a bus back to campus and they showed us the library.

When we arrived back from our outing, Lud and Evan were coming back from playing ping pong. Nemo and Jerbon arrived to take us to a park where there are carnival rides. We rode the bus and walked there. On the way we saw a beautiful sweets shop that we bought a few treats at. I had what kind of looked like a cinnamon twists. It was a very light, flaky pastry with sugar sprinkled on the outside. So good! When we got to the park we watched these elderly people play a one-stringed instrument and sing songs. It was a different sound than we hear in America! Then we watched more elder people do kind of a line dance but in a circle. I don’t think I’d ever get the hang of it, because they didn’t seem to be moving in any certain rhythm. We also all played bumper cars. It was really fun because it lasted longer than normal carnival rides in America. My car was pretty powerful too! We walked around this huge park for a while and then headed to dinner. At dinner we ate some roasted duck and had some steamed dumplings. The dumplings were very good! After dinner we walked back and tried to watch the Avengers, but the quality of the sound was not good. So, we taught Nemo and Jerbon how to play Phase 10 instead. They were very good at the game! I was the only person who got stuck on Phase 3 for like 5 rounds. Very frustrating for me!

As you can see, we had a very busy day with our local friends. Lots of walking and new foods! I am really enjoying my time here. We are also enjoying these free days before we start class on Monday.