The last two weeks have been a real exercise in patience, but they have also been wonderful! I got over jet lag extremely quickly, thank God.
The week after I got here was spent trying to meet the University application deadline. I thought I had until July to put in my application. It turned out that I had to turn it in by June 7. I spent four frustrating days frantically trying to assemble everything I needed and finish the application. I felt like everything was conspiring against me to keep me from finishing it! For three of those days, the application website was acting up, so I wasn’t able to do the online application. So, I decided to go down to the office and get a paper application. As fate would have it, they didn’t have any paper applications. Finally, on the last possible day, I got the online application to work and submitted everything. I ended up being in and out of the applications office every day for 5 days. Through all of those shenanigans, I had to keep reminding myself that this is simply how things work over here. If I start letting myself get frustrated and angry, I am going to have a bad time, because a person can always find something to be frustrated about!
The beginning of last week, I started full-time language study. One of my old friends from last year agreed to be my tutor 20 hours per week. I was a little skeptical at the start because I didn’t know if she would be a good teacher, but she has turned out to be wonderful! I am learning so much. Our agreement is that she speak only the local language during our class and only use English as a last resort when trying to explain something. Also, I am not allowed to speak English, and if I do, I am punished by having to write characters as homework. I’ll be the first to admit, the first three days were rough! I understood maybe 10% of everything she said, and I wrote a lot of characters! Haha! It really isn’t that bad though, because I love learning characters, so writing them isn’t that big a deal to me. I actually enjoy it! I’ve learned well over 100. I guess, in conclusion, I’ll say that so far I am not losing my mind yet. and I am absolutely loving language study!
Tomorrow, we are getting on the train bound for a week of meetings and training. It will be all the long-term people who are in Asia right now. I am very excited! You all can be praying that we stay safe on the trip and that nothing gets stolen. Also, you can pray that God would provide an apartment for me? I still have not found a permanent place. While I am able to stay where I am until August, I would love to actually settle in my own place. Thanks!