i know in my last entry i was ranting about shanghai summers. well, it is now 80 degrees. one good thing about shanghai (compared to dallas at least), is that it will cool off some before october. so keep your fingers crossed that this lasts for awhile.
i know the shanghai contingent of our family has been pretty quiet the last few months, but things have been really busy. planning a wedding takes a lot of work. so it is now a month until the wedding, and i think we are doing pretty good. plus it is summer here, which means all you really want to do is sit in front of the A/C. for those that don't know, shanghai gets really hot and humid in the summer (but not as bad as dallas), but the experience is much worse in shanghai because A/C is not as prevalent. for example, i have to turn on the a/c in my office every morning at 9am, which means it is half an hour before it cools down, and even then we have to use a fan and extra stand-along a/c unit just to make it bearable. and they cut the air off at 6pm, meaning the last hour or so of work is done sweating. i usually strip down to my boxers before i make it ten steps into my apartment after getting home. there is also no central air in apartments, so each room has its own unit. and i ride my bike to work, so you can imagine the state i am in when i get to work. soaked. chinese people don't sweat like we do, so i get some strange looks when i show up with my shirt already completely soaked. but anyway, enough complaining, it'snot so bad. i am sure some of the more senior members of our family can tell us a few things about living without a/c. it builds character right? and it makes watermelon taste so much better. the chinese eat watermelon in the summertime like i drink iced tea - all the time. and it is soooo good. it's not really summertime until you start eating watermelon after dinner every night. it is almost as good as a/c. and cheaper.
Shen rong and i have rented a place. we really like it. a major upgrade from where i was ($170/month to $550/month), but we thought, you know, you only get your first place once. rong is moved in, i will be moving in later. the video above is of the new place.
Ive realized I have the gift of Tom Sawyering people.
I agreed only to go solo with the rents as long as I had a project - which turned out to be painting the condo green. I talked it up the whole way there and got them so excited on the idea that once I got them started they never stopped. It was a sweet trick. We only planned on doing one wall but mom got so excited on finishing that we did the whole place.
I also have a new interst of handstands on the beach. We cleaned out the old furniture and wierd decorative things and replaced with pictures of us. We discovered Isabellas, a sweet breakfast place (we ate there every morning) that serves dads favorite - chile relleno - and 2$ breakfast burritos 18'' long. You can get a full meal for 3 for less than $10. Also we
discovered St. Piers, a sweet not-too-fancy place that occasionally has live music and has a big deck on the bay. In closing, cheak out mom in a bathing suit and her sun rash that she went on and on about, she worked hardest to not get any sun (100spf umbrella + 50spf sunscreen) but endedup most tan out of all of us. So Ill leave you with the Don Chaffer lyric of the day:
"now Jesus was a lover, he had fire in his eyes. . . that could burn away excuses and cremate your alabi's. . . he had a gaze that would expose to you all the subtle lies. . . that your soul permits your heart to tell, concerning all that it denies. . . " Chaffer 'Against the Window Pane'
So in e's theme of regaining that sense of wonder (SPI really helps in realizing that), I think about the subtle things in our hearts that we often feel but deny.
i got my cast off today. in case i didn't tell you, i broke the next to last little
bone on my right ring finger playing flag football. it was the first ten minutes of
the first game in a new league that was started in shanghai (the same group that
runs our basketball league). i broke it diving for this guy's flat - and in case you
were wondering, yeah, i got his flag. the incident forced me to visit a shanghai hospital,
which is never a good experience. how i got my cast: you go into emergency room, find the
bone people, they send you to the cashier, who sends you to register, then back to cashier
to pay, then in line to see the bone guy. he tells you you need an x-ray, so you romp across
the hospital campus, find the x-ray building, which is deserted, snoop around and find
someone, who tells you you need to pay first. go to cashier, who says you need to register again,
after which you pay again, then take your x-ray, then wait half an hour, get your picture, go back to
dr., who says you need a cast, then you go pay again for the cast, then you finally get
your cast. i have to say it is a pretty frustrating experience. maybe abi and david can
shed a little light on how this compares to the ER experience in the states, i guess
i haven't been in a while. but to be fair, i guess i can't say much positive about the
experience of going to the dr's office in the states either, where you wait 45 min in the
waiting room, then wait another 20 min in the examining room, then see the doc for 5 minutes.
and at least it is cheap at the chinese hospitals. i think my entire casting experience
cost about US$10.
so anyway, i have had this retarted little cast on my finger the last month, which has made
life extremely difficult. no, not extremely difficult. i know we all live priveleged lives
compared to a lot of the world, so we can not classify our lives as difficult. so the cast
added a few inconveniences to my life that i was not used to. i couldn't ride my bike and
had to take the bus. and it made typing difficult, also showering.
so the point of this post is that after seeing my finger today, i realized that it is
probably going to be a little crooked for the rest of my life (i already have crooked toes).
at first i was pretty upset about that, but then i thought, you know, who even knows how long the rest
of this life will last? i should be overjoyed if i get to spend another 50 years living with
this little crooked finger.
we should thank heaven above everyday for our health and for what we do have, because
every day is a gift. i have been blessed in so many ways that i can't believe i would consider
feeling sorry for myself for a little crooked finger. maybe this finger will be a reminder
to me to be thankful for what i do have.
this reminds me of another don chaffer quote:
"Mercy's born on every morning..."
-O Virgina
or something like that. maybe i will start ending all of my posts with don
chaffer quotes.
well, that was my thought for the day. i need to
stop now because my crooked finger is getting sore from typing.
-elias
Every one is broken baby - everyone in sight
Everyone is groping honey.. in the middle of the night
--Don Chaefer
I've realized you cant say a word to make everything perfect -- or i just havent figured out what that word is yet.
Truly everyone is sick in someway. . . Ha, why is it always the college student comming out with all the morbid stuff? But no, Maybe Im at that age where Ive figured out Im old enough to disagree with the way things are.
I dont know if it was the way things were at the camp, or the families where these boys came from, or the, just, evil that always seemed to creep into situations and these innocent little kids lives. I mean how can really fully protect them from harms way. I guess thats a parents greatest regret in having children - that they have to feel the paings of the world upon their sholders.
But no, I say if you are going to do it, you got to do it, meaning if your going to raise a son who is going to love God and not be rebellious your going to have to teach them obedience. And if you hope for your son to realize his hopes and dreams and be able to pick himself up off the ground when he fails miserably then your going to have to invest your lives. You are a reflection of your children. If you want to be proud of your children then you better raise them right! If you want your children to fully experience the fullness of life you better teach them the essence of life! The kids you have are going to experience the same sin, guilt, shame, sufferings that you had until you make a stand and say 'NO! Im sick of this sin and bondage and Im not going to have it anymore!' Then only when you break that cycle of continuous repetative slavery through sin then you will have that freedom that truly comes from Christ. "For freedoms sake Christ set us free". We have the power to stop the sin from passing on down to our children if we choose put an end to it in our lives. Our children and our childrens children are going to continue to feel the sin, and fears until we defeat them. Just as sin entered through one man, it has been inherited through every generation, but we can stop that sin through another man. Its all connected, our fears will be our sons fears unless we stop fearing.
Needless to say it was a bit of a frusterating but leanfull last week. It was harder not having a few friends to bounce things off of. But I'll leave you with the famous quote of the week:
"(I repeat) There is never a time when you do not flush."
so this is a really old picture, taken during SR, M and my's trip down to souther Yunnan province, a place called Xishuangbanna in chinese, near Myanmar (burma). this was a great sunset (picture never do a thing justice, do they?) after a nice bike ride through a small village, after a morning rafting trip down the mekong river. (it wasnt as hardcore as it sounds). maybe someday i will write more about that trip. what a great trip. anyway, i am sure most of yall have seen this, but i don't think it ever hurts to see it again. isnt this the kind of picture that just makes you want to thank god for giving us the chance to experience the beautiful world he has given us? i think one of the most tragic things is when we lose our sense of wonder about the world. i know i lose my sense of wonder many times a day, but then something like this just hits you, and you get this feeling in your gut that makes you want to laugh and cry and hug whoever is next to you. when does this feeling hit you guys? another time i get it is when i am enjoying a good meal with good friends and the conversation is just flowing, meaning and real, or when i hear a beautiful song with lyrics that really speak to me, like when don chaffer sings:
"when jesus raises up the dead, and gives sight to the blind; now there's a man that i can get behind."
-elias
this is a follow-up to the earlier wedding plans post. This is Hengshan Church, where we will hold the wedding. it is a beautiful old church, built in 1925 by missionaries in shanghai. they hold about 5 services in there a day, some for local chinese and some for the international community. the reception will be just down the street from the church.
my roommates and me after a trip to the sunglass store, sometime in march i think. that is fredrik, the swede on the left, and orion from chicago in the middle. yeah, we know we're cool.
i need to talk about Kowloon Ice House. this restaurant is right around the corner from my office and i eat lunch there three or four times a week. it is a small Hong Kong style cafe, complete with cantonese pop music videos playing on a large TV. and i mostly eat there because of their bing nai cha, iced milk tea. it is my favorite drink in the city (though i am not sure how healthy it is). they make it by adding milk powder to black tea, along with a healthy dose of sugar. the food is ok, it is actually pretty similar to american style chinese food; what i have in this picture would be your typical sweet and sour chicken. i usually go there and read, a wonderful 45 minute respite from the office. 
i get a rice dish and a drink for about US$3, which is a little more expensive than most chinese alternatives, but i am happy to pay it because it is much cleaner than most other restaurants and they actually have decent service. i go here so much that they recently made me a VIP customer, that means i get 10% percent off each visit (except when i get a lunch meal deal, which is almost the only time i go!!).
so even though this is the restaurant i frequent the most in shanghai, i wouldnt say it is my favorite. that may have to go to Guyi, a hunanese restaurant (mao's home province and known for its great spicey food) i have only been to once, but it holds a special place in my heart because that is where i proposed to SR; well, out on the steps of the restaurant at least. plus, they have great ribs and a great fish head dish.
-elias
Well, the people have spoken (ok, just Dad and Matthew), so here we offer some more wedding pictures to tide you over until you can see the rest. These were taken near Shen Rong's hometown. Some were at a park, and others were at an old town near her home called Tong Li.
We know Shen Rong is wearing a lot of makeup, but we thought we should make it clear that she doesn't normally wear any at all. She is all natural, baby! The wedding dress was borrowed from the photography company, she got her real one later on a trip to Suzhou. She has three dresses now for the wedding; at Chinese weddings, the bride usually changes outfits several times, so SR has one for Wujiang wedding, one for Shanghai ceremony and another for the reception afterwards. Pretty nice, huh, girls?
I am wearing my own suit in these pics, had it tailor made and the photography didnt have any clothes in my size. I think i will get a new suit made for the wedding.
In other wedding planning news, i have asked M to be my best man, and SR has asked an Indonesian friend of hers (Risah) to be the maid of honor. 
We have also asked Abi to be a bridesmaid. We are trying to decide who else we want to stand up there with us.
We have a cool venue picked out for the reception. It is just down the street from the church in an old redone villa. It is entirely enclosed with a nice yard area. a cantonese restaurant, called Abundant Green Garden, pretty sweet, huh? It has a nice deck and fountain with fish in it. So the ceremony will be at 10:30 am, with the reception following at noon - 3pm. we are still working on the plans for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
we are working on the invitations, but are planning on chinese-style, with english and chinese writing.
i know i havent posted in a long time, i will try to be more regular. but you know, we have been busy.
For anyone who doesn't already know, Elias is getting married in Shanghai, China on October 7, 2006. We are all excited and in the middle of making travel plans. The bride to be is Shen Rong, and they have sent this one picture from their wedding photos. We asked for more, but this is all we got. There is a wedding celebration in Shen Rong's hometown the weekend before and the church wedding at 10:30 am on the 7th. We hope they will be making a visit here soon after the wedding (Christmas is a possibility) and we will have a reception for them then. Be sure and offer comments to the news, they will enjoy hearing from everyone.
Here are the lyrics to a song from an old white guy, rapper/poet ....T Bone Burnett:
Blinded by the Darkness
The laws of man
They don't carry the same weight as the laws of God
Or the laws of nature. In the nomenclature
Do we want to inject the concept of sin
Into the Constitution. Is this really necessary
Does this not make you somewhat wary
Shouldn't sin be left to the laws of God
And to the laws of nature
Can we trust this to the legislature
And shall we trust sin to the wisdom
Of the criminal justice system
Which can't handle the criminals we have now
Why create a whole new class of them
Isn't crime dealt with by the laws of man
Isn't sin dealt with by the laws of God
If sin were dealt with by the laws of man
Everybody would be in jail for life in solitary confinement
With no one to go his bail. Or would have gotten death
Maybe I should save my breath
But this lunacy is bound to fail
But there would be no one to get the food
Or run the machines. Mercy on us dude
You shine your darkness on me
I am blinded by the darkness
In seven days God created evolution
When shall I expect retribution
From the counter revolution
You shine your darkness on me
I am blinded by the darkness
Not terrible profound, but kind of interesting. I wish I could link you to the song, but I think that might be illegal!!
Here is the latest from the Glenn's (at least some of us). We are once again the owners of a condo on South Padre Island!! We are not sure if it is a better investment than college tuition, but it sure is a lot more fun. We think Abi and David are a little concerned that we will spend our retirement and have to live with them. Oh well, CARPE DIEM!
Abi, Matthew, Kathy and I spent a long Memorial Day weedend there and it was great. I did a lot of nothing (I think with a little more practice I could get really good at it). Abi and Kathy worked on their yoga, new age dance moves and shopped. I have some concern that I may need to investigate a possible intervention or a 12 step program for their sudoku addiction. How many times can you count to 9 before you go crazy? Matthew got a good dose of the beach 
(see photos). Dr. Dave was too busy saving lives and practicing the healing arts to get away, and Elias said it was a little too far for a weekend trip. We need to plan some family trips so give us a call. Included are a few sample photos, but the good ones have been edited and omitted by the participants.
Hello from Houston, this is the long awaited Hoffman post. We have been busy: David with residency, me with a little work and several mini trips. We have been on the spring wedding circuit, three so far and more to come. see the pic of us, David has on a tux, he was a groomsman for one of them. (thats the groom in the background)
Our lives have been pretty stressful with Davids schedule and workload, so we are really focusing on the basics...be joyful in all things...trust in the Lord...but besides scripture my favorite quote right now is from a magazine and its perfect for our lives right now...
"You're doing one thing now-living your life. So live it right: Wear sunscreen. Never smoke. Get enough sleep. Exercise four times a week. Always be kind. Never lie. Laugh often. Don't tolerate less than you deserve. Let grudges go. Dream big. Remember that love matters most. Call your mom"
that was a great post by M about the archbishop's comments about the problems with the world. it really relates to what i have been thinking about the past few days. i just finished brian maclaren's (sp?) the last word and the word after that. the whole book is dealing with the issue of hell and rethinking the traditional christian view of hell. i have not thought through the issue fully at all, i just wanted to bring the issue up to see if anyone else had any opinions on it.
some of the main points that i came away with were:
- the idea of an afterlife/heaven/hell were virtually nonexistent in the OT. the idea seemed to be a new one in the NT, and most likely influenced by many other ancient near east cultures.
- Jesus actually does not talk about hell specifically very often; he often talks about the darkness, the outside, sheol, etc, but rarely hell in the way we think of the word. (i dont have the book in front of me so this is very rough).
- Jesus' focus was on building his kingdom in this world, making the world a better place (like what M was talking about), not just making sure we all believe some very specific dogma in order to get our behinds into heaven. look at the sermon on the mount, that is all about how we act (again, not looking at the text right now).
- God's desire is to save everyone, he does not want to see some weak little humans suffer for all eternity for a finite number of sins.
- Jesus discussion of hell may have just been a response to the pharisees, who talked about how the outcasts, unrighteous, unreligious would be sent to hell. however, Jesus turned the idea of hell back on them by saying God will welcome the despised, weak, outcasts into heaven. the book suggested that many present day christians have become like pharisees, saying that only those that agree exactly with what they say get a pass into heaven.
- Jesus is about bringing God's justice to earth now, which means helping the poor, getting rid of greed, ending injustice to the weak, poor, downtrodden. christians talk about everyone being judged for all the wrongs they did; but God's justice is not something to scare us into believing some doctrine - it should be something we welcome as an expression of god's love for us and that makes the world a better place, makes the world right.
ok, that is all i can come up with right now.
any ideas?
and oh yeah, i haven't mentioned it on the blog yet, but Shen Rong and i are engaged!
politics is love
can make you blind or make you see
make you a slave or make you free
but only one does it all
and its giving up your life
for the ones you hate the most
its giving them your gown
when they've taken your clothes
Its learning too admit
when you've had a hand in setting them up
and nocking them down
because love is not against the law
love is not against the law
no love love love
are we defending life
when we just pick and choose
lies acceptable to lose
and which ones to defend
because you cannot chose your friends
but you chose your enemies
and what if they were one
one and the same
could you find a way
to love them both the same
to give them your name
because love is not agianst the law
love is not against the law
no love love love
--Derel Webb "Love is Not Against the Law"
http://www.nobelitythemovie.com/
http://www.nobelitythemovie.com/nobelists.html
see coments
Kappa Upsilon Chi
Gamma Chapter
9:24 Officer elections begin with officer speeches.
· The newly elected president is Andrew Durrett
· The newly elected Internal Vice President is Sean Kissinger
· The newly elected External Vice President is Ben Johnson
· The newly elected Chaplain is Matt Glenn
· The newly elected Treasurer is Jon Jonse
· The newly elected Secretary is Kyle Marshall
10:01 The meeting ends in prayer
I wasnt expecting this, but it is exciting. I think I have alot to offer, but I know there are some doubters out there. It might be a heavy load for me, but hopfully I can have just as much fun doing this than doing anything else.
(whenever i am in beijng, i always make time to pay mao a visit)
the big event of the trip was the next day, when google was hosting a party to announce the chinese name of the company, which turned out to be a word that means "harvest song", a pretty strange choice in my opinion. but it was a pretty fun party. google CEO eric schmidt was there (pictured on the left), though i didn't get to shake his hand or anything. and "the Chinese bob dylan" (that's how he was introduced) cui jian - pictured below) played 4 songs at the party. and google gave all the guests google lava lamps! so SR has now been
introduced to lava lamps, as
My friend gave an infromative speech about john denver today, and how he got his name from denver's adopted son. at the sentimental parts, he gave me the signal and i started into "Country Roads", we finished the speech with rocking the class to a rendition of "Country Roads".. take me home, to the place, where i belong, west virginia, mountain mama, la di da my country home.
i started yesterday against Hardin Simmons on the bb team, a nice change.
well, right at this very second, i am drinking coconut pulp juice in my dorm room. I just got back from McDonalds and had a double cheeseburger with small chocolate shake and apple juice box.
this year is almost over and im not sure how to sum it all up. classes im taking-- post-communist politics, chinese economy, anciet chinese literature, and public speaking aaannnd public speaking. im making a C,A/B, ?, A, respectively. i think ill try a big push at the end of the semester to get em up. i had a great start to the baseball season but it ended with an irritating ankle injury. Im starting to work a little harder in school and everything else i do, so i guess im still getting readjusted to this way of life. im president of FCA and we just had a rally for this movement going around called Invisible Children. its just one of those things that goes around college campusses trying to save the world doing great noble things, which is what college is all about, joining movments and revolution for the sake of it riight? so we're right in the middle of it all, we had a discussion about our response to it in FCA tonight and it was great. so on the 26th a few crazy seniors got the crazy idea to walk from geogetown to austin and sleep out in the streets with teh rest of the country (only around college campusses-of course)- so im going with for no other reason than for an adventure. we plan to leave at 4/5 in the morning and walk allthewaythere.
I had last weekend off from bb so i went to a formal with a girl. here's a picture - the only picture I have to show, bc the only pictures i have are the ones people take of me and send me, -candid.
yes, i got a haircut, ive got mostly positive responses, so its ok, i havent buzzed it yet like ive promised everyone.
Im taking a maymester in political science so i can graduate easily with a political science major but working on an economics minor, we'll see about that. after june, ill see what flies my way, maybe an independent study, possibly another class, a mindless job, riding horses across the counrtyside-whatever, and im still counting on that family reunion at camp meeting!
