"The world is charged with the grandeur of god..."--Gerard Manley Hopkins

So yesterday we finally got to meet my friend, Thomas, who I had only really known through email. Thomas is from the United States (somewhere in the south--he's got a pretty thick accent), and I met him through Gary at the AAC. Whenever we had a question about Weihai or China or anything like that, he always helped us out; we emailed, skyped, talked on the phone, everything. So we were very eager to meet him. We called him up, and he told us what to tell the taxi driver to get to his apartment. We're sort of out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by all this industrial stuff, and we didn't really realize how hard it can be to get a taxi to the city center where Thomas lives. So we started walking, hoping we would find one of the three-wheeled cars that we have taken to get back to the school from the grocery store. We hopped in one and told the driver where to go. He just looked as us. His face was really red and his eyes were all bloodshot. He looked as clueless as we did. So we called Thomas, who got his landlord to give directions. Turns out the little, three-wheeled cars don't go into town. They exist just to drive around in the more rural (or in our case, wasteland-y) areas. So we all smiled and said thank you and jumped out to find another cab. This time we got a "real" taxi--it said "taxi" right there on the car, even!--and he took us right to Thomas, who was standing outside waiting for us.

He was easy to spot--another foreigner in a sea of old Chinese men, hanging out, smoking and celebrating Chinese new year. Because he's a foreign teacher, too, it's only natural to compare our surroundings. He lives in the thick of it--like China smacked him in the face--in an apartment that looks really dirty and compact and crummy on the outside, surrounded by men on bicycles who sing "trash, bring out your trash" or "get your shoes shined" or something about a menial service they are offering. He also lives close to all of the bustle that is the downtown area. We walked up a few flights of stairs to his apartment. It was awesome! He has so many rooms. Rooms. But then again, he chose to live off campus, otherwise his set-up would be similar to ours. We met his wife, Marina; she's Russian and is awesome! She is so bubbly and energetic, and she took care of us the second we got there--coffee, candy, you name it. Thomas got out a map of Weihai and started telling us a little bit about the history of the town. Turns out it was under British rule from (approximately--don't quote me on this) about 1900-1930ish. There are still little areas of town that have some dominant British architecture, and luckily for us, we got to see it. Thomas is cool because he can explain things without being pretentious or condescending. We learned so much, but I never felt like he was talking down to us.

Thomas also showed us all of the different mountain passes he has climbed throughout Weihai; you could see his little hand-drawn notations all over the map, which was all ripped and worn. Cool. Marina kept saying "Oh Thomas--now you have more people to suffer through your mountain climbing...Oh Thomas..." She was so funny! She kept sharing all these little wisdoms, prefacing each one with "It's like we say in Russia, blah blah blah..." They were really cute together. It was nice to even just hang out with them. Instant friends. We also got to see (on the map) all of the different potential weekend trips we can take. There is a ferry that goes to other parts of China, there's a ferry that goes directly to Seoul, there's a little island that we can go out to and ride bicycles, there are two different Korea towns, etc. It's nice to look at a map of our town and think--wow, I can go there next week if I want. Hell, I could go there tomorrow!

We decided to hop into a different taxi and go look at some water. We knew from looking at the map that Weihai is pretty much surrounded by water on three sides, but we've yet to really see it. Well, we saw it. We drove right along the coast, just like in those commercials where you see people driving sports cars on the shoreline in California. Except we're in freaking China! We were curving in and out around these mountain passes, past tiny fishing villages and AMAZING views. Never in my life would I have imagined that I could live somewhere as beautiful as this. Never. And there we were, in this tiny taxi, laughing, exploring and taking it all in. Wow wow wow. China rules! We kept stopping at all of these little stop off points to look down at the water and cliffs. The whole time Marina kept saying "Thomas, is this my mountain? I think that this one can be my favorite mountain...", except that by the end of it she had claimed 4 or 5 mountains. There are plenty to go around. Thomas kept pointing up to these massive peaks and saying "I climbed that one a few weeks ago, and on top of that one there's an amazing view..." It's cool to think that we'll get to go hiking with them, to the top of these super impressive mountains--Thomas even got paid to give mountain tours to foreigners over the summer. He said that there were all these people who had climbed over passes in Mongolia and really exotic locales, and the entire time he was giving the tours he was thinking "wow, you guys are in much better shape than me. Why am I giving the tour?", but it's pretty cool that he got to do it at all.

We drove to all of the different beaches that we can go to. I can't believe that we are only a cab ride away from all of this! There are different buses that go to the little fishing villages, too, so when we are more comfortable and more adventurous we can take the bus. We talked about getting bicycles and riding all along the coast together--I can get used to this. I will get my three-wheeled bike! They cost about as much as a large pizza. Really, I'm just in awe and overwhelmed. And Rory--well, Rory couldn't be happier. We're like freaking little kids out here, so curious and eager to explore! Hell yeah! Okay, that's out of the way. Around each mountain pass, there are all these spots where fisherman cast their nets. There are also little shops where old Chinese men still make wooden boats by hand or where they repair the larger boats--it's like we're living in a freaking PBS special!

We finally got out of the taxi to walk along the largest beach in town, golden beach. It is surrounded by hotels (including a 5 star hotel, Jamie, hint hint when you come visit us, or when any of you come visit, really) and all these apartments that are vacant right now but will be full of folks during the summertime. Rory and I had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped by Marina and Thomas' friend's house. Their friend wasn't home, but her two children, Zoe and Daniel (?) were. They are from New Zealand, and they have the cutest little voices. The little guy was playing all of these computer games and telling me that he picked the wrong car for the fruit loops game. It was cute.

After that we decided to eat some hotpot. We've heard so much about the hotpot from our friends in Chongqing, where hotpot is famous (with an emphasis on the "hot" part), so we were ready to chow down. Marina was stoked to drink some beer with us--I guess Thomas isn't a beer drinker, which is okay, too. So we called up Cecilia and some of the other girls from school to come meet us. We've pretty much decided that hotpot rules! You get all this raw meat and vegetables and whatever you want, really, and you throw it in this broth stuff that is cooking right on the stove in the middle of the table. The bowl was divided into two parts (what a novel idea!)--one side for the super spicy broth and one side for the not so spicy. So we ate and ate and ate. And the whole time this cute little girl, who had been tutored by both Thomas and Marina, kept coming up to our table and entertaining us. She was putting napkins on her head and playing with everything she could find, and it was so funny. Her mother kept coming over and fetching her, but that didn't ever last long. She kept coming back and hanging out. Too cute!

Thomas and Marina invited us to church with them today to meet the other foreigners. We told them that we weren't religious, but we wouldn't mind meeting up with them afterwards. Thomas quickly explained that it was a very informal gathering, with singing and hanging out. So we were all going to go, just to meet some of the others, but then we found out that we had a special luncheon planned today. That is a whole nother blog, lemme tell you.

When we finally did get back to the homestead last night, my bag was there! Yeah! What a great day! The strap that I had initially repaired didn't quite hold up through all the flights, but at least all my stuff is here now. Makeup! Sweet makeup! Happy girl!

I can't believe that we are here. I mean, I have to believe it, because we are surrounded by things we've never seen or even fathomed before, but good lord! There's no way I could have ever prepared myself for this. They don't have views like this in Missouri! I just can't wait until tomorrow, because I know we are going to be blown away yet again. And I am so thankful that we get to do this. So thankful. Oh boy...