A Post Thanksgiving Post

Though Turkey day has come and gone, it’s never too late to give thanks. This year I shared the holiday with several American friends here. We were able to find many of the usual foods, including a turkey and even a can of cranberry sauce! There’s ‘no food like home'. As we gathered around the table we participated in yet another traditional Thanksgiving ritual by sharing something we are thankful for.

This tradition always causes a dilemma for me; does one go with the cheesy, overdone, but very much true answer of “I am thankful for my family and friends, etc.” Or are these things assumed, leaving me the freedom to answer more creatively? Coming from a family that encourages both the cheesy, overdone-ness and creative answers I usually attempt to fit both categories.

After much thought, my answer this year was: the internet. It allows me to communicate easily with family and friends through email and webcam calls, plus a never ending source of recipes, news, American culture and free trials of “Dinner Dash”. It means that I can live here but still be able to be a part of things at home. It is entertaining, informative and comforting. (Thanks Al Gore!)

But the internet is just the beginning of the things I am thankful for: here are a few of the runners up.

I am Thankful for/that:
- My apartment stairwell lights are sound activated which makes climbing up the sixth flights more entertaining. "Clap on! Clap Off!"
- The Staff at the bookstore call stuffing: stuff
- Our cat likes to play fetch with her beanie baby cat (she carries it around by the neck and sometimes tries to share her food with her)
- The buses in Tianjin say “feel delighted on Public transport” along the side.
- My computer is red.
- Chinese food
- Late night games of Settlers of Catan
- Peach Juice
- Having my own business cards (that are spelled right in Chinese and English)
- That I don’t have to learn English! (and that it doesn’t have tones!)
- My fish Fernando is still alive! (4 months and still going!)
- Chinese food
- Bicycle men on the corners who will fix your breaks, oil your gears and sell you a bell for 50 cents!
- Fruit markets
- Though my clothes are few in number, my sweaters still cause envy among my classmates.
- Thailand vacations
-Our Aiyi (I have yet to find something she doesn’t know how to do)
-Chinese food
- Care packages from friends
- Friends that send care packages
- The Hippo song
- I can now communicate to the taxi driver where I want to go!
- Roommates who get excited about toilet paper tube craft projects
- Glitter
- Awkwardly translated Chinese (example: a teacher once asked if we would order a “baked pie” but in Chinese it sounds like “cow pie”)
- Awkwardly translated English (Example: wanting to say his cell phone number was in his wallet, my classmate somehow said that his cell phone number was in his beard, causing copious amounts of laughter and our teacher acting out pulling out numbers from an imaginary beard: highly entertaining)
- Even though I live in a highly polluted city of over ten million people I can still see the stars!
- Did I mention Chinese food?

Life in China is certainly never dull and I am very grateful I haven’t lost my sense of humor! Some days home feels very far way, but HE is faithful and I experience His grace in a new way every day. I hope that today you also experience some of the joys of living! And Give Thanks!