My First Few Days in China

Still only the first week into my stay here but I must say it's lovely. I am hoping to meet up with an old friend tonight who some of you may remember me mentioning in my speech at Grace.

This morning was overcast and slightly chilly. Enough to wear a fleece! At 7:50 I got up to go meet my friend and her sons for a little excursion to the mosque. This morning is the end of Ramadan. The biggest mosque in Western China is here. Some pictures will be uploaded soon. 

As we got close to the mosque it started raining quite hard though, and as you will see in the pictures, thousands of prayer rugs were either ruined or soaked. More importantly though, thousands of people stood in the rain and got on their knees to pray to a god who isn't even real (not that they know that) and doesn't even love them. Makes me ponder how much I am willing to do and endure for Jesus. It was a great morning though, hanging out with my friend and the kids, taking pictures and meeting other friends I hadn't seen in awhile. Good times!

Some more things have come up since being here as well, one is my phone, phones do not work here! My smartphone that my good man Lucas gave me sadly doesn't have a SIM card slot so is useless besides playing games on here, and the international phone I got doesn't have Chinese characters as an option, so I can't read peoples texts!! 

So if anyone has an old iphone or smartphone that you are willing to donate to me that would be awesome! Or if anyone is willing to support me buying a used iphone also would work. I looked them up online and I can get a nice used Iphone 3Gs for $100 on Ebay and then my friend can unlock them to work here in China! I am also looking into selling my HTC evo 4g, anyone interested? It works well in the States:) For you guys I would sell it for $100, I think I could get $125 at least on Ebay for it. 

If anyone is even slightly interested in doing any of these options please promptly reply since I will be starting school in a week and a half and will need a phone then! I can use my international phone temporarily but It would be nice to have one that can use Characters as soon as possible! Thanks for considering guys! 

Xining already feels like home. It may take awhile to adjust to life in a completely different culture but since I have been here before it will be slightly smoother than you may think. For instance I can already eat just as loud as my fellow chinese without a guilty conscience! No need for manners when your not in the company of those who follow the rule of "manners".

Still waiting for my laptop parts to get in since my laptop broke last wednesday. It needs a new LCD screen cable. As you can see the computer works fine for which I am glad since I dropped it off a coffee table with the black screen as a result. All I need is a monitor to make a temporary fix as you see in the background though. Works well! 

PS I have a video of the apartment but it's taking way too long to upload so I'll try in a different email. Also I'll get pics of campus for you soon too!

God Bless,

Arls