Today I was actually able to sleep until my alarm went off at 9:00am. Why? Because it was completely dark outside from the pouring rain, accompanied by lots of ominous thunder. Well, it was nice to sleep in, but I could tell right away that getting to church was going to be fun. You see, on days when it's rainy, the buses are few and far between (or at least it seems that way). Not to mention that the closest bus stop to Chung Chi College Chapel is a good 5 puddle-ridden blocks away. Still, a little thunderstorm wasn't going to keep me from going to church so I got up and dressed and walked down to the bus stop.
My original plan was to eat a small breakfast at Ben Frank's and get more cash from the ATM before catching a bus to the train station (closest bus stop to the church). However, the bus didn't arrive at Shaw College for 45 minutes so I didn't have as much time as usual. Instead, I decided to try my luck with breakfast at the train station with the unsavory notion that I would probably end up eating a "meat floss and cheese bun" or something even worse since the breakfast offerings at 7-Eleven are slim at best.
The good news is that, apparently, the actual restaurant at the station serves breakfast (I didn't know this). Unfortunately, they were sold out of the steamed pork bun and congee combo, which I would have loved. Instead, I had a ham & egg breakfast sandwich with milk tea, and it was decently satisfying. Once I finished breakfast, I trudged through the quickly-deepening puddles all the way to church and got there about 10 minutes before the service. I picked up my earplug & radio set, International Bible, and International Hymnal and went to sit down.
The service was beautiful, but I was confused throughout the first 15 minutes because there wasn't any English translation. I found out later that the usual translator is on maternity leave and the last-minute replacement was running late. That's OK, though. Stuff happens. Eventually, the replacement got there and I was able to understand everything (although the poor guy had trouble with the word "debauchery," not that I can blame him). The sermon was very insightful, concerning worldly duties versus spiritual duties and where our priorities lie. They even had children's church today. I didn't know so many families attended this church! It's about the size of First Methodist, but only half as full. Still, there were about 12-14 children there learning how to have Christian fellowship at school. Once the service ended, everyone went down to the church lounge for tea and "biscuits." I probably don't have to explain that "biscuit" means "cookie" here, but I did so now you all know.
I had a little bit, chatted in English with the visiting pastor and the organist, and then I was invited to come sit with a small group. Last week, I met a lady who told me to call her "Chen Chen," which I know is a nickname. She's in her very early 20s (so not much older than us), and actually works for the Chinese Language Center. She teaches Level 3 Mandarin so I'll probably have her as my teacher at some point. This week, she introduced me to a friend of hers named Veronica. Veronica started to introduce herself in English, but Chen Chen stopped her and told her that I was learning Mandarin, though I could understand it better than I could speak it. Veronica asked if it was all right to use Mandarin with me, and I assured her it was, even though I was a little nervous that I might not understand everything.
It seems my worrying was really for nothing. The three of us chatted in Mandarin for a good hour drinking lemon tea and eating chocolate biscuits, and it felt like a perfectly natural conversation to me...although I did have to stop here and there to think about how to word something or (once or twice) ask what a specific word meant. I know that it helped that we were speaking about simple subjects like where everyone was from, what we were studying, adjusting to life in Hong Kong (because all three of us are new here), and so on and so forth. However, I'm really glad for the opportunity to use Mandarin, otherwise I might have used English all weekend.
Eventually, I left church and was appalled at how much worse the rain had gotten. If I thought it was bad that morning, I was very very wrong. Even at the tops of the mountains, the roads had become rivers with water 5 inches deep. By the way, I was not at the top of a mountain. I was, in fact, at the bottom of one. Can you say bummer? Yikes. So I waded my way back to the train station, holding onto my umbrella for dear life against the unbelievably strong wind. I don't know why I didn't just close the stupid thing up because rain was blowing in from all sides. Eventually, I got onto a bus going to Shaw College expecting to finally be dry. Go figure, though, that I was standing in the one spot on the bus where the rain was blowing in. I gave up. There was no escape and I was already soaking wet. I folded up my umbrella and pretty much got power-washed getting off the bus. Then I realized that Travis was on the same bus, wasn't soaking wet yet, and didn't have an umbrella. I opened mine back up and offered to share, so at least one of us made it back to the dorm relatively dry. I'm still wet, by the way, and it's 8:00pm.
I really spent the rest of the day studying, eating some of my ratatouille for lunch, and then cooking some of my frozen shrimp & cabbage dumplings for dinner. Yeah, people in my family, do you remember those pot-stickers I made before I left that I spent so much time and had so much fun making? They sell them in frozen form over here in an unreal number of varieties and they're super-cheap. A package with 4-5 meals worth is less than US$3. Plus, they actually taste really good. Sarah, when you get back to Columbia, check out all the Asian markets because maybe, just maybe, they might sell them.
So, yeah, I didn't leave the dorm for the rest of the day. But can you blame me? The rain, the wind, and the thunder all got much worse the longer the day went on. We actually never saw any lightning, but I do believe that I have witnessed my first typhoon. Want to know what the real kicker is? This was a baby one on the typhoon scale. It'll be interesting to see what comes later this season.
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