​Journal Entry #14: Thursday, May 27, 2010

Thursday was a slow day but one of anticipation, for the evening was to be my biggest presentation and maybe most important to date.  Every Thursday evening the American professors have been presenting a series of lectures called “The American Culture.”  The series has been an opportunity for us to tell a larger group of students about our way of life in America and more specifically the way of life about our weekly Sunday morning meetings.  These lectures are volunteer attendance for the students, but there are usually between 250-300 students in attendance!

​The first week I was here Edwin Myers spoke on the American culture of love and relationships.  I was then asked to speak on the American culture of success.  Of course all of our lessons have more to do with what the American culture should be as desired by our Father than what it might actually be within our national borders.  

I worked on my speech and PowerPoint most of the day.  The speech was scheduled for 8:00 p.m. in one of the largest classrooms on campus.  At 3:00 p.m., Blanche, a very delightful Chinese student, was going to meet me to convert some of my PowerPoint slides to the Chinese language characters so that the English and Chinese could be side-by-side on the screen.  She had her laptop loaded with conversion software so that she could type in the Chinese Pinyin language and then it would show up in the Chinese traditional characters of their language.  

I briefly stepped out for lunch by myself and I walked to the Noodle restaurant that has grown to be a mainstay.  No one speaks English but they seem to know what we want from our previous visits.   They now just bring me something.  It’s never been the same thing twice but it’s always been good.  In fact for what we pay it’s downright GREAT!  The cost is usually about ¥7, which is about $1.00 US.  Can’t beat it anywhere in the world!  

After lunch Blanche arrived and fixed my PowerPoint. I tried to tell her how valuable she was to this process and how much I appreciated her assistance.  But my words just seem to bounce off on a beautiful, gracious, smiling face that kept insisting that it was her pleasure! I then decided that because it was a late evening presentation (for me) I should take a nap and a late afternoon shower so that I would feel great when it came time for my unique opportunity.  About 6:30 p.m. I was ready.  I was getting antsy so I went out for a walk and ran into my Harding Students, Carey and Sarah.  We went and got some dinner and then I went to my classroom to make sure my PowerPoint projector and slides worked properly.  The room was warm and the day was very humid.  But after I got started, the effort seemed to delight the audience and I was on my game!  The talk went well.  I took questions and after about an hour and 15 minutes Amy and Amber, two of my student-hosts, walked me back across campus to my apartment.  Amy needed to make a phone call for me to arrange for our transportation to the high-speed train station the next morning for our weekend trip to Guangzhou and Hong Kong.  By any measure this was a slow day, but the lecture may have been the most important opportunity I’ve had while here the first two weeks!