My First Sunset in China

If we ever see a sunset, it looks something like this:

That's my view out of my kitchen window. If you are on the ground, you rarely see much because there is always a building in the way. On this particular night, however, I decided to get my selfie stick and put my phone out the window as far as I safely could to get a bit of a better shot.

After doing that, I decided to climb on top of my kitchen counter to go out even farther. As I did this, I caught a small glimpse of something else. I changed the direction of my phone and shot these photos:

I had no idea that you could see the sky on the other side of that building from here. (Well, you can't actually see this without unsafely hanging out the window.....) This doesn't seem like much to you, but this is as much of a sunset I've seen the whole time we've been in China. So while I couldn't actually see the full skyline, I was thankful to enjoy more of it with my camera. This was a sweet night 😊. I recommend that wherever you are in the world, enjoy your sunsets!!

Comments

While We Are Waiting: Temples!

I love the temple. When I first learned of the possibility of us moving to China in December 2019, one of my first questions was "How can I leave the temple?" That question was answered in part during the closure of temples in 2020. However, when the joint venture was signed and Tom was officially offered the position in China in November 2020, I began fasting and praying that I would be able to attend the temple just once before we left. Our original flights were for July 7, 2021 and just a few weeks before that, our temple opened up and miraculously we were able to get 2 appointments for baptisms and 4 other appointments for Tom and I before our departure date. I can't express my deep gratitude for those 6 precious appointments. Then when we didn't obtain a visa in time for those flights and access to nearby temples was given, I took up a new hobby. Temple scheduling. The girls teased me it was a bit of an obsessed hobby; but since we will go ...

Bamboo Forest

There is a bamboo forest nearby. A few weeks ago we paid it a visit. It was about an hour drive and after we got off the freeway it was a meandering road through some cute villages. I started getting excited for some hiking and a lovely nature experience. I should have known better. This is China. If people will come, they will find a way to make some money. The bamboo forest was no different---it was a tourist trap. That didn't mean we didn't enjoy it. We did. It was a lot of fun. But our expectations were shot down yet again. (Pro tip, Darcee, drop all expectations, you're in China!) At the bamboo forest, you can see shops, get a hot dog at "Fatty Dogg WestCoast Hot Dog", (perhaps I should try it, my expectations may be happily surprised; but I highly doubt it) get measured 3 times, (in China, children's prices are determined by your height, not your age. When we came to China, both girls were under 150cm so they...

Food

Food has been one of the hardest aspects of our quarantine. Food is emotionally comforting, so we're missing out on that--especially the girls. We're not used to the smells. It is cafeteria type foods. Much of the time we don't know what it is. Always an adventure...not always a pleasant one! That said, incoming meals are the most exciting time of the day. Originally we were getting 4 meals a day. But the only thing the girls were eating from them was the rice and there is way too much rice in that container for one person. So we had it cut back to two. Breakfast is the hardest meal of the day. I already knew I didn't love Chinese breakfasts. Tom had told me that every breakfast he saw from watching quarantining videos had a boiled egg. I knew I could eat that if I had some salt and pepper. So I brought some. We're doing okay on the salt--supply wise. We're rationing on the pepper. I'm so tha...

This Great Work

Search This Blog