Who We Are

I realize with this whole moving to Shen Zhen, China adventure that I've never really explained the "Why?" behind what we're doing with our lives. And I'm not really going to. You'll simply have to trust that we're not merely crazy--we decided in August 2013 that we were moving to Asia permanently, did what we had to do to make it happen, and come August 2014, we found ourselves here.

However, in the absence of the "Why?" I thought I'd try to give you a better picture of "Who?" we are. On this blog, I'm much more likely to write about random topics and give you just bits and pieces of story, but let me give you a fuller picture here.

(A few shots from our adventures around Zhu Hai this week)

I'm a 23 year old with a B.A. in Mandarin Chinese and a cosmetology license. I err on the side of being nerdy in the book-smarts way, not in the fandom way. I was a TCK, my parents are technically expats, and I am happiest with weather above 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm passionate about words in general and language education in particular. I'm the kind of person who will wear wacky earrings and neon-colored tights just for the fun of it. I'm sometimes mistaken for being "fashionable," but I would never claim such a title--I prefer to be free to wear the clothes that I like best at all times. I  don't mind getting my picture taken and dance in public. I don't swear and I don't drink alcohol, and I'm terrified of policemen. I cry too often and I write about almost everything in life. I'm thrifty and I don't like spending money in general, but I believe in investing in other people and in experiences. I love planning parties and inviting people over to my house--hospitality is well within my comfort zone. I am that really annoying person who will paint every fingernail a different color because I can. I suck at every single sport ever invented and I can't sing or play any musical instruments. I'm a morning person, but I need my 7-8 hours of sleep so I usually go to bed fairly early.

He's Angel. A 30 year old bilingual R.N. who has specialized in burn care for most of his 5 years in the medical field. He's the kind of student who knows that a B is a perfectly acceptable passing grade and doesn't see the point in killing himself to get a perfect score. This burn R.N. has taken a pretty huge career change in order to embark on teaching English as a second language--thus far he loves the students and the fact that the shifts aren't 12 hours long. He's a former California surfer boy, the son of immigrants, who is happiest with the kind of weather where freezing to death is a very possible risk. He's the type of person who will steal your camera only to take 500 pictures with it during a 30 minute time period, and who will scare you to death with fake bats, spiders, and mice, but will also spend hours under your car trying to fix it. He likes nice shoes and large servings of food, and he'll eat just about anything. He's a speedy runner but he thinks soccer and basketball are more fun than running endless miles at a time.

We are not-particularly-newlyweds (going on 4 years, ya'll!) but we prefer to act like we are. I've been known to sit on his lap at family gatherings but no one seems to mind...everyone just calls us "the newlyweds," that's how we get away with everything. We met nearly 6 years ago on my very first day of college and became buddies who eventually decided to get married (it's true, "decided to get married" is a much more accurate description of our early days together than "fell in love." I only became comfortable with romanticish stuff post-marriage.). We're Christians and we believe every word of the Bible, and seek to have the way we live demonstrate what we believe at all times. Sometimes Angel's embarrassed of my awkwardness and sometimes I try to teach him social norms like, "Do not ask someone that you just met if they were breastfed as an infant. Also do not ask them how much chest hair they have." We're both competitive, but I know I can't beat him in any physical contest so I prefer to challenge him to games of the mind. We're both oldest siblings and between the two of us we have a total of 8 younger siblings, 1 sister-in-law and 1 nephew. On the whole, we're not actually very passionate about 'seeing the world'--we love 'home', we have simply struggled to identify where exactly 'home' is for us...though I already have an inkling that we're getting pretty close to it.

Now I'll open the floor to you all--whether you're a new reader or whether you've been around from the start, do you have any questions about us, our families, what happened to our giant pet bear, the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, or our new home in China? Ask away, and perhaps I'll be able to do a question-and-answer post soon!