Where to begin with an update? Things have been very busy here in a tiring but great way. I suppose we can begin with the present and then take a look back.
This weekend, some of the workers at the school took a night train to and from Kunming. We did this to take a physical exam that is necessary for a specific Visa. The trip began at 8:30 when Bro. Dom picked us up near our apartment to bring us to the train station. We arrived, got through the ticket check/ security section and then waited a few minutes to board. It was all rather painless! There were four girls and myself traveling with our group. The sleeper rooms have 4 beds and a door that can lock. So naturally I was in a room separated from everyone else. When we first got on the train, I was the only person in my room and the train left the station the same way! At 11:30, the train stopped in Dali and I had three passengers join me. But they were pretty quiet and that was very nice! I think the girls stayed up late and talked about girl things, but I can’t say cause I wasn’t there! We arrived in Kunming at 6:30 the next morning. We groggily waddled out to the curb and caught a taxi to our exam. Other than being stuck in the arm with a needle that process was also pretty painless! Afterwards we caught the subway to the Metro area. No, not the metropolitan area, but the area that has the store Metro in it! There is also a Burger King, an H&M, and a Starbucks! Metro is like a Sams Club or Costco, so it is a very nice store to be able to visit and get things from. So, we spent 10 hours walking around, chilling in Starbucks, and possibly watching some people avenge for their second time. We got back this morning, and the sleep was much better on the trip back! So I will practice and study for choir practice tonight, and help clean the house! We are very thankful for a safe trip!
Thursday I took my drivers test. I had not taken it because I knew it would consume time and I wasn't sure if I needed it yet since we don't have a car. But, because Ian and Candace left their vehicle here, and we wanted to take a teacher trip at the beginning of next year we decided to go ahead with the process. It began with regular paperwork stuff going back and forth to government buildings trying to persuade them that my vertical drivers license was simply an under 21 license that had not expired yet. The problem was that it looked differently than their recorded VA license. I knew that the process would finish with a written exam so I began to study. At first I was quite nervous because I could not find a good way to study. But I did find many blogs and comments mentioning the difficulty of the test. It is a 100 question test chosen randomly from a pool of 900+ questions. You must score a 90 or above in order to pass. So I really began to study! I found a website (http://www.chinese-driving-test.com/) that had questions on it, but i had no way of knowing if these were even the right questions to study. Then, Wednesday, I finished my paperwork to take the test and they scheduled me to take it at 9:00 the next morning. So I made a mad search to find the correct questions to study. I was able to find a document that contained the questions with the correct answers. I started separating the more difficult questions in order to study the ones that would be harder. While I still wasn’t positive that these were the correct questions, they did line up with the questions from online, so I felt pretty good about it. I had taken the practice test Wednesday night until I could get a 100 on it. Then I took it again twice the next morning and got a 100 on both. Turns out that the questions were exactly the same! So I was able to get a 100. Later that day I brought the paperwork in and received my License!
I was also able to take my boys, and Jewel’s boy hiking on a mountain the other day. That was a great opportunity to spend time with them outside the classroom! We’re going back to America in three weeks. This has been an awesome but fast year!
