I have started a personal blog, but it won’t be as visible as this blog has been.  It won’t be protected, and the posts won’t be imported into Facebook, but you can have the posts emailed to you if you’d like.  If you’d like the link to it, just drop me an email at juliekhull at gmail dot com, or leave me a comment at the bottom of this post.

It’s been an amazing adventure, and I’m so thankful for everyone who kept in touch and prayed for me along the way.  I did my best to chronicle my time in China between the summers of 2007 and 2010, and the journey has been incredible.  Thanks for reading along the way. 

再见！ Zai jian!

For some reason, Western white people think it’s cool to get Chinese characters permanently inked on their bodies.  I just ask that if you’re thinking of doing this, please get a second opinion on a decent translation from a Chinese reading/writing/speaking person.  After all, if you don’t keep it forever, it’s going to be painful to get rid of.  If you want to be amused, there are countless examples of foreigners’ Chinese tattoos here.

But back to my story.  Several weeks ago I was in a restaurant and I noticed that the man at the table next to me had some fairly prominent tattoos on his arms.  Upon a closer look, and pretending I wasn’t as interested as I actually was, I saw that he had some not-small Chinese characters on each forearm.  The characters nearest to me were 复印.  I felt sorry for the guy, because I don’t think he realized that his right arm said “to duplicate”… as in “to make photocopies.”

So… word to the wise… consult your trustworthy Chinese friend before you get your Asian ink.

First, I need to mention how awesome it is that I’m wearing a hoodie on August 27 because it hasn’t reached 70 degrees yet!  2002 was my last fall season in NJ and I’m looking forward to autumn this year.  What can I say… Ohio and Beijing just aren’t the same.  I do hear more of summer and its 90-degree weather are around the corner for this weekend so I’ll have to wait a little longer for fall to arrive.

I’ve been home in the US for eight weeks now.  I’ve been doing other things and visiting people I haven’t seen in a long time, but primarily I’ve been looking for a job.  So far I’m still unemployed but I’m waiting on the results of an interview that I had last week while I continue to look for work.

Other than that, I’ve been thinking about how much of a privilege it is to be able to attend church freely.  Most people in this country will never experience anything else, but when that freedom is taken away for a while I realize how important it is to be able to openly meet with people who are like-minded in faith.  So many people in this world can’t do that and life in the US is really the exception to the rule.  There is a baptism service this weekend at church, and I can’t help but wonder if the significance of baptism is lost in our culture today because in many parts of the world to be baptized means to be estranged from family and culture and sometimes even results in death.

So all that to say… the adversary has different tactics in affluent north Jersey than he does in China or in the Middle East.  Instead of restricting our freedom, we have more freedom than we know what to do with which tempts us to be lazy and complacent.  It’s easy to skip small group or church because life gets busy, or the night before was really late, or you’ll just go next time.  It’s hard to imagine life any other way since life in NJ is normal to most of us, but don’t let stuff, entertainment, and the American Dream get in the way of following Christ.  Seek Him and His priorities so that keeping up with the Jones’ doesn’t sneak in and take over.  There are millions of people who are without our choice on Sunday mornings to sleep in or to go to church, or to go to the movies or to tithe.

Beijing is sending me off with clear blue skies today.  I will surely miss my life and the people here, but I’m looking forward to the next thing Father will bring me to.

Goodbye, Beijing!

When I turned 23 we went to an Indian restaurant and Anna asked my friends to write down some advice for me.  I then had to guess who said each thing.  I saved a few of them and they made me smile as I read through them and remembered, and I thought you might enjoy them, too.

If you caught something every time you went out on the lake, they wouldn’t call it fishin’.  They’d call it catching.

The best advice is this: Don’t take advice and don’t give advice.

Keep your friends close and your roommates closer.  They know your secrets.

Save water.  Drink beer.

“The only thing to do and good advice is to pass it on.  It is never any use to oneself.”  Oscar Wilde

Beware the jabbertalk, my son – the mouth that during class doth run. (?? I never figured this one out ??)

People will not remember what you do as well as they will remember the kind of person you are.

Don’t be afraid of getting older – you only feel old if you let yourself.

Don’t take any wood nickels.

Don’t worry too much about life, you’ll never get out alive.

What God hath forgotten, stuff with cotton.

Never lie, cheat, or drink.  But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love.  If you must steal, steal away from bad company.  If you must cheat, cheat death.  And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.

If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
But if you hit a man with a fish, he’ll shut up.

( Eight days left in China. )

These final days are filled with goodbyes to students and teachers, last luncheons, and dinner parties.  Instead of leaving directly for America, Anna and I are taking a few days off to debrief, relax, and process before we journey back to our hometowns.  Hainan is China’s southernmost province, an island in the South China Sea around the same latitude as Hawaii.  We are optimistic about our trip even though we’ll be there during monsoon season at the height of the summer’s heat, haha.  It will be great to spend a few days away from our usual surroundings in order to prepare and think through leaving.

How do you begin to process and work through three years of life in a place such as China? you might wonder.  I don’t exactly have an answer to that, and I’m wondering the same thing.  It’s both sad and exciting.  All of us who are leaving in the weeks to come would covet your thoughts as we transition mentally and physically into the next thing, especially those of us who aren’t sure what that might be.

(right-click to enlarge)

“Bearded Beanie” hat: the weirdest thing ever?

In this area there haven’t been too many street vendors on the main roads since the Olympics, something about beautifying the city and whatnot.  They’ve been popping up more and more lately, although they aren’t as commonly seen as in other parts of the city.  The other day my Mom and I were sampling some grapes I was about to buy when the guy started pedaling away as fast as he could before the chengguan could get him.  The chengguan are a certain kind of police that give street vendors a hard time since, technically, street sellers are illegal.

Then tonight we were walking back to the school after our Sunday team meal and I was poised and ready to buy some cherries when the guy started up his motor and drove off down the street as fast as he could.  I guess the chengguan were on the way again.

hou = back

jie = street

nan = boy

hair = child

“Enough is such a wonderful word.”

Love consists of a commitment which limits one’s freedom — it is a giving of the self, and to give oneself means just that: to limit one’s freedom on behalf of another. Limitation of one’s freedom might seem to be something negative and unpleasant, but love makes it a positive, joyful and creative thing. Freedom exists for the sake of love. If freedom is not used, is not taken advantage of by love it becomes a negative thing and gives human beings a feeling of emptiness and unfulfillment.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.