Just a Random Moment in China

Right now, I’m sitting in a loft room, four stories up in a non-air conditioned building in Langfang, Tianjin, China. It would normally be incredibly hot and humid, but it’s been a rainy day, and the air is a bit cooler than normal. With the windows open and fans running, there is a cool breeze blowing through. I sit at a table with my girls, Natalie and Kaylee, writing away.

In this moment I am hit by the reality of this Around-the-World semester and weirdness of it all. A quick scan around would reveal Dr. Norton and Kessler playing ping pong in the middle of the room while Josh and Jonah wait their turns to be creamed by Dr. Norton. Looking back to the corner, Reese and Jack battle their way to a win in fooseball while Jacob sits ready for his turn. A glance behind shows Erica, Dr. Santon, and Jarrett finally getting the TV to work for our movie night in Post Modern Lit class tomorrow night.

It seems like a random moment of people just hanging out and playing in a game room, while jamming out to 80s and pop music and singing like they might any other afternoon. This moment is different though. Something about it hits me in a way that only a handful of times ever do. I am content in this moment and could continue on here for a long time. It gets to me again just how crazy ATW is! How many college kids can say they hang out playing ping pong with their professor on a Sunday afternoon and then glance to the side to see their other professor doing push ups to keep up with the push up challenge that got started among our small community?

After an afternoon full of reading a sci-fi novel and travel writing guide, this feels like the perfect way to relax. Even while I sit writing rather than joining in on the games, I have this sense of joy and am glad to be here; not only because I am an awful ping pong player who would rather watch than play, but also because now I can feel myself taking in every little detail of the room around me and even the world outside the window I sit behind.

I can see the drops of rain still falling and the birds circling about. I hear each song and over 4 individual conversations going on, even as some get interrupted by yells of victory or defeat. I keep feeling the the ping pong ball hit me as I’m not far out of the line of fire. For once there is almost no smell: not of smoke, trash, or general pollution, and it is refreshing. There is just something crazy about being surrounded by some of your best friends and mentors in another country, in a random moment.

And now as the time has moved on during my typing, I find my friends are getting rather antsy to leave for dinner, so I will have to leave this moment. Here’s the great thing though, we get to go and create more. It’s only the end of week one. I have an entire semester ahead of me with these people and the rest of my team to keep creating memories and having the time of my life. We have huge experiences to look forward to together; things as big as the Great Wall yesterday and things as small as sitting in a loft room in a small city in China surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world.

What an adventure this life can be, even in the smallest of things! God is good, and I am blessed!