THORSON ADVENTURES

A New Chapter, A New Adventure

2010-07-05T20:08:00.001-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

What a crazy 6 months it has been! We apologize for silence in the blogosphere, but hope that you have been able to follow our photo postings on Facebook. It would take HOURS to recap all the amazing moments we've had with Annabelle and Levi over the past 6 months of their lives. They are a blessing and a gift and not a day goes by that we don't thank our Creator for our two precious gifts.

So instead of trying to recap the last 6 months, we'll simply start in the present and let you know of our new adventure on the horizon. After feeling called to leave our friends and college ministry at Salem E, we have been praying and looking for a new calling and new opportunity to minister to and serve with a church family. After a few months of searching and praying for a new adventure, we have accepted an assignment to pastor the people and community of Glenfair Church in NE Portland/Gresham area. We are VERY excited for this opportunity to get to know such an amazing group of people. The times we have visited and spoke with them, it is obvious that they are a welcoming and loving church that is seeking to reach others with the love of Christ and grow in relationship with God. It will be a great honor and exciting adventure to get to know them and live life together, as we seek to become more of the people God is calling us to be.

So now, we will be moving from Salem into the NE Portland/Gresham area. We will miss our friends and our apartment in Salem. We have been here for quite some time, so the transition will be hard, but it is great to have such an exciting new chapter to begin in our lives. We will also enjoy being closer to our family and be able to share our kids with family and friends.

We will begin our ministry at Glenfair this Sunday, June 11th, and would covet your prayers as we get to know the people and look for places to live. We are so thankful for so many wonderful and supportive people who have been praying for us as we seek to live the Adventure of life that God has laid out for us.

We'll try to improve on keeping you posted as to our life and the amazing new things that our kids are learning to do!

in Christ,
Ryan, Keay, Annabelle and Levi

Let The Adventure Begin!!! Our First Week With Annabelle Faye and Levi Robert

2009-12-31T18:16:00.001-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

This past week has been the hardest and best week of our entire lives. We have been blessed with two beautiful and healthy bundles of joy and they have not stopped amazing us and winning our hearts. Annabelle Faye and Levi Robert were born Tuesday, Dec. 22nd at 8:02am and 8:03am. Annabelle Faye weight 5lbs 9oz and was 18.5 inches long, and her 'younger' brother (born a minute later) was 5lbs 5oz and was 18 inches long.

Our first week with the babies was a whirlwind in the hospital of tests, feedings, visits from friends and family and the Christmas holiday in between. It has been wonderful to see and hear how supportive and excited everyone is for us; our kids are very loved.

They are growing and changing every day. There personalities are developing and we are getting to know them more both together and separately. We've had wonderful moments with each of them, laying in bed with their eyes wide open playing and smiling, and they are loving all of their grandparents, aunts and uncles.

We have had lots of help with feeding them, which takes place every 3 hours, and takes about an hour, so we have two hour windows in between to either sleep or attempt to do other things. It is a much more involved process than we thought, but now that they are eating healthy and growing, it has turned into a fun time with them and with those helping out.

Kealy is recovering great and we are both amazed at how much we can love two people. It almost hurts sometimes and our hearts are overflowing with love and with joy. As we begin a new year, we are so excited for this new adventure of parenthood and to have the privilege to watch two of God's children grow. We love singing and playing with them, snuggling and kissing their heads (which have a lot of hair on them, by the way) and looking into their beautiful eyes.

There is so much more to tell and many stories. We will do our best in the craziness of our new schedule to keep you all updated. For now, have a Happy New Year and enjoy some pictures from our first week with our kids.

Much love and gratitude,
Ryan, Kealy, Annabelle and Levi

Their first picture together

Being wheeled in to see their Mamma:

Mamma and Babies Together:

First Time in Carseats:

Home, Sweet Home:

Mr. Levi Robert:

Ms. Annabelle Faye:

Mother/Daughter Time:

Father/Son Time:

Father/Daughter Time:

Snuggle Time Together:

Our Family of Four:

Exhausted:

A New Thorson Adventure: Letter To The Little Ones

2009-12-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

Dear Little Ones,

Tomorrow is the big day! The day when we can finally hold you in our arms. We cannot wait to see you and to meet you and to have both of you as a part of our family. We have had so many wonderful adventures in this life together so far, but none will compare to the adventures we will have with you. You are already the lights of our life and we are overjoyed to be your parents.

We have spent the last 8 months getting ready for your arrival. We have dreamed and hoped, prayed and cried, and waited and prepared for this day to come. We will do our best to be your parents, to love you even in our weaknesses, and we promise to never ever leave you or love you any less than we already do.

We want you to know some very special things about this world you are about to come into. This world may look harsh and cold, full of war and pain, but it is actually full of joy and of peace. There are so many people who love you and will be with you as you grow. Not just us, but your aunt and uncles, your grandparents and great-grandparents, and our dear family and friends who are so excited to meet you.

Another reason this world is full of joy, peace and hope, is because of a special God that created you. This God loved you so much and loves us so much that He has created you to be a part of our family and to experience His love for you through us. He shares His love with you in lots of ways. Through the world He created for you to experience and enjoy, through the other people He created to love you and to be loved and through all the things you will see, think and feel during your live.

But most of all, the Bible (a very important book you will come to know and love) tells us that: "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...this Light was the Light of all peoples...and the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overcome it". This Light that has given you life is Jesus Christ. He is the King of this world and all creation and He is the one who has breathed Life into your beautiful hearts. He will always be with you and the Light that He is within you will never disappear or be overcome.

We love you with everything that we are and will be, with all of our strength and all of our hearts. You are more precious to us than anything in this world, even our own lives. We cannot wait to meet you, precious little gifts from God, and promise to always love you. See you tomorrow.

Your Proud Parents,
Ryan and Kealy

Update From The Thorson Family: Week 36

2009-12-16T22:49:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family!

This has been a very restful, yet exciting week! First, the big news: After our appointment with our doctor today, we have rescheduled our c-section for this Tuesday, December 22nd! We were in shock a little bit, but our now quite excited that the babies will be here in less than a week! The doctor feels that the babies are progressing along far enough to be delivered, and Kealy's blood pressure is continuing to escalate at times, so that doctor prefers to deliver sooner than later for Kealy and the babies' safety. At any rate, we trust our doctor and are excited about the babies' immanent arrival.

Kealy is getting used to be tested:

This past week Kealy has had a fantastic attitude and we have really enjoyed her time on bedrest. We have had wonderful moments of quiet and reflection as we prepare for our little ones to join us in our family. We have realized that the prescription of bedrest has forced us to slow down and enjoy one another, and having time to prepare for the babies. It has brought clarity during this advent season, realizing that, in the same way we are preparing space and 'room' for our little ones, we ought to be preparing room in our hearts for the Christ Child to dwell and live.

We've had some wonderful visitors this past week who have encouraged us and helped past the time. Our families have been very supportive and Kealy's mom even came down and gave Kealy a foot spa and made us lasagna for dinner on Monday night.

The spa treatment:

The finished product:

Now that we know that the babies will be here in six days or less, we have made a list of things that we want to finish before they come. Along with some Christmas shopping and last minute cleaning, we're putting together those swings and bouncies to keep the babies happy.

Trying to put it together, not one of my strengths:

FINISHED:

We are continuing to have tests done over the next six days to make sure Kealy and the babies are healthy, but barring any unforeseen changes, our little ones will be joining our family in six days, on December 22nd, 2009, at 7:30am in the morning.

Kealy's keeping comfy, waiting for the big day:

We would love to see you at the hospital or at home, as the holidays progress and you have time. We can't wait to meet our kids, and then introduce them to all of you. Stay tuned for the big day!

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy

Updates From The Thorson Family: Week 35

2009-12-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, this week we had a dry run. The first part of the week was absolutely normal, as we continued to prepare for the babies' arrival and the Christmas season.

On Wednesday, we headed to the hospital for a routine non-stress test (or NST) where they hooked Kealy up to fetal monitors to keep an eye on the babies' heartbeats to make sure they are moving and are healthy. After hooking Kealy up, we enjoyed watching and listening to the babies' heartbeats. The nurse was thrilled with the little ones's activity and was ready to send us home, when they began to be concerned about Kealy's blood pressure. It had increased to the point where she was in stage 2 hyptertension. We really had no idea what that meant, but Kealy felt fine and the babies' were great. However, they were increasingly concerned so they ran some blood tests. Again, we weren't really sure what they were looking for, but we waited patiently.

The nurse came back in and told us that Kealy's blood work was fine, but her blood pressure was high, so she needed to take it easy and rest in bed or on the couch at home and we would come back in a few days. I went out to get the car and pick Kealy up, but as I pulled up to the hospital door, the nurse was meeting me instead of my beautiful wife. She informed me that our doctor wanted Kealy admitted right away and that if her blood pressure wasn't lowered they would have to deliver the babies that day!

The next while was quite dramatic. They were rushing to get Kealy situated and on monitors, the nurse told her that she'd be in the hospital until the babies were born, I was frantically trying to call family members and figure out if the babies were coming today and all we could think was, "the dishes are dirty at home!"

Apparently they were concerned with Kealy's high blood pressure turning into a disease during pregnancy called preeclampsia that affects the nervous system and can be serious and the only cure is delivery. We prayed together and prepared for more testing and to see the doctor.

We were thankful that our doctor showed up quickly and reassured us that he simply wanted to observe Kealy for additional symptoms of preeclampsia and would prefer to avoid delivering the babies if at all possible. A little bit relieved, we knew we would be in the hospital overnight, so as Kealy got settled in, I ran home to prepare the house, try and pack what we might need and get back to Kealy before anything else dramatic occurred.

When I returned, I realized that everything had settled down and we were in for a lovely one night's stay at the hospital hotel! Kealy had ordered room service and the nurses were taking excellent care of her. We spent the rest of the day resting and Kealy enjoyed the great hospital food (really, it was good, I had a few bites). We enjoyed a visit from my mom, played some cribbage and watched some tv. Kealy's blood pressure continued to go down and the babies continued to do just fine as well. The nurses continued to monitor Kealy through the night, and she even slept surprisingly well. We had fun in the middle of the night laying their half asleep listening to the beating of our kids' heartbeats. That morning the doctor came to see us again and said that it would be okay for Kealy to be released, but on strict bed rest at home, and that we would need to come back on Saturday (tomorrow) for another NST and blood pressure test.

We checked out of the hospital hotel and arrived home at 11am. We got Kealy settled in and I went out again to get everything Kealy needed and wanted.

She's be doing a great job of resting and taking good care of herself. I am sure it is hard for her being on bed rest, but she has had a great attitude and it has been fun relaxing and pampering Kealy with anything and everything she needs. We've got all the dishes done (thanks to Michelle's help last night) and the house clean and laundry done, and still had time to watch that famous Christmas classic, "A Christmas Story". We've got plenty of work ahead of us when the babies arrive, so today and yesterday has been a time to rest and prepare for the 'not so dry' run that will be coming sometime in the next two and a half weeks.

The doctor told us he'd still prefer to let the twins stay inside of Kealy as long as they can, so we're shooting for the 30th of December when the babies are 38 weeks. But with the prospect of the next 18 days on bed rest, we wouldn't be remiss if they took the babies soon. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes as we wade through this final stage of pregnancy, waiting for the soon-to-come joyous moment of our little ones' birth.

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Updates from the Thorson Family: Week 34

2009-12-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We've reached a wonderful milestone this week! After a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with four days in Sandy and the beginning of the Advent season, we're at the point in the pregnancy where labor would not be delayed if Kealy were to have contractions. Fortunately, she has had no signs of early labor and is continuing to do a wonderful job of resting and staying healthy.

We had another ultrasound this Tuesday to examine the growth of the babies, as well as their positions in preparation for the big day. We found out on Wednesday at our doctor's appointment that the babies are healthy and growing. Our little girl currently weights 4lbs and 12ounces and our little boy weighs 4lbs and 5ounces. They even have hair growing on their heads! The doctor said these weights are great and that they are very close together which is great news. Their positioning in the womb is not entirely ideal. The baby girl is head down, which is good, but the boy is laying across her (protecting her I'm sure) in what's called a transverse position. Unfortunately, if they were to stay in that position for labor, their is a chance that, after the girl was delivered through the birth canal, the boy's leg or arm could fall into the birth canal, causing the need for an emergency caesarean. So, as of now, if the babies do not change position, they'll need to be delivered with a caesarean. There is still a possibility the babies might shift, and we're praying that they may, but we are glad they are healthy.

The next step is to continue to monitor the babies' growths and make sure they are receiving the nutrition they need. We will be going into the family birth center at the hospital for an n.s.t (non-stress test) weekly to monitor their health. At the 38 week period, if the babies have not been born, we have a scheduled caesarean on December 30th! Its great to know that there is an end date and that the babies will be coming sometime in December! (just in time to file for a tax credit and watch the Ducks win the Rose Bowl at the hospital).

We are so thankful that the pregnancy has gone well and that Kealy is healthy. The whole Christmas season has a wonderful new excitement and sense of adventure to it, as we await these new arrivals. They are some of the most wonderful gifts we could ever hope for. We're shifting our mindset to the 30th of December for our end date, and the longer the babies can stay in there the better for them, but we wouldn't mind meeting them as soon as healthily possible. Thanks for your prayers. Stay tuned for more weekly updates.

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy

P.S. We're curious if the babies will have red hair like their mamma:

or blonde hair like their daddy:

Hopefully they'll wind up better than us criminals:

What do you think?

Updates from The Thorson Family: Week 33

2009-11-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Today marked the 33 week milestone of Kealy's pregnancy. This week has gone by fast. We are looking forward to an important ultrasound next Tuesday, that will give us a window into the little ones' development over the past month as well as there positioning which is important when considering what type of birth they will experience.

After so many wonderful showers from family and friends, we've had a fun time trying to 'organize' the nursery. We have more and more things that we need in order to give the kids a good start. These are just a few of the wonderful 'gifts' we've been given.

During one of the showers, the participants 'created' these little onesies for the babies:

After a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner with the college students last night, we decided it was appropriate to put up our Christmas decorations, so that we could relax after our weekend with family this week. We enjoyed putting up our tree and other special homemade and family decorations.

We are so thankful that we've had so much time to spend together to prepare for this exciting new adventure. During this week of Thanksgiving, we've had chances to reflect on all the wonderful things God has blessed us with, as well as a renewed call to continue to be a blessing to others. Thank you for your love and support, we are so thankful to be bringing our kids into a community and family with so much love!

Stay tuned for more updates!

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Updates From The Thorson Family: Week 32 Upate

2009-11-18T16:57:00.000-08:00

Here we are at 32 weeks! According to the book the babies should weigh four pounds each. We just had an appointment and the babies heartbeats sounded good, the doctor had a hard time keeping track of the girl because she was moving around so much. Ryan could see both of them move as the doctor tried to get the heartbeats.

We have an ultrasound in two weeks to see the positions of the babies and to see the amount of nutrition the babies are getting. The next day we will see the doctor for results. We asked how much after the 36 weeks will be safe for the babies, if we would go to the 40 weeks? He said that they don't want to go longer then 38 because the nutrition and room often runs out and they don't need to go the whole 40 weeks. He also said that if I go into labor before 34 weeks they will try to stop labor, but after 34 weeks is okay. So the babies could come, anytime, but really two to six weeks is the window. That's crazy! We are so excited, it's really hard waiting. God is so amazing and we are thankful for so many reason. We are monitoring the babies movement. They are quite active and are now making my stomach lopsided. You may be wondering about a C-section, at this point we don't know. It will depend on the positions of the babies. But we talked with the doctor and all of us want to not do a C-section unless we have to, which is good that he agrees too. We are still talking Lamaze classes and learning what we can.

Ryan is the best husband, I got home today and he had cleaned the whole house, had a fire going and Christmas music playing and fresh juice to drink. Later that night he made me taco salad for dinner. Delicious! He is a hard worker and a caring husband.
Ryan also preached on Sunday, It's really nice that he got this opportunity to share God's word. I'm really proud of him and the man he is.

Updates From The Thorson Family: Week 28

2009-10-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

"This week your babies are 28 weeks! Any premature births from this point on have a very successful survival rate. Babies skill of the week: blinking. Yes, along with the other tricks in a growing repertoire that already includes coughing, sucking, hiccuping, and taking practice breaths, your baby can now blink those sweet little eyes."-What To Expect When You're Expecting

Hello Friends and Family,

From the Little Ones: This weekend our parents took us to the beach. We overheard them saying that this was their last chance to 'get away' before we change their lives forever, but we thought this was funny, since we were with them the whole time. We could tell that they were having a wonderful weekend. We could feel Mamma's happiness and the food that they ate was delicious for us too. We are able to taste everything that Mamma eats and wow, the clam chowder and garlic bread from that place called Mo's was really good. We also tasted some chocolate and snacks that we're sure we'll love when we get to eat it on our own.

One of our favorite, yet most peculiar, moments, was Friday morning. We heard the wonderful sound of the ocean that sounded a lot like the sounds from inside Mamma. We could hear Mamma and Daddy talking and having a wonderful time. For a while they stopped and just stood and we could hear the sounds of the ocean really well, they must have been close to the waves. It was a peaceful moment. Then, all of a sudden, we experienced the most wild ride we've ever had. We were being bounced around back and forth, bumping into each other. We had no clue what was happening! We heard them yelling and screaming and laughing about the wave that snuck up on them. They must have been okay. It was quite the wild ride though. We liked it.

From Kealy: Thursday I took a glucose test to see if I have diabetes, which is common check up during a pregnancy. At our appointment today the test results were good. We heard their heart beats today and the doctor said that our little boy was being active. The girl has been moving around too, but she's a little shy. Next week we have another ultrasound to see the weight of the babies making sure they are growing. They are about two in a half pounds according to the books.

Ryan was talking with the babies and they started moving as he was talking. It's really fun to see them move when they respond to our voices and our touch.

From Ryan: Today Kealy and I went to the pumpkin patch for the first time ever together. It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed every minute of it. We went out into the pumpkin patch and found some beautiful pumpkins that we are going to paint this weekend, one of our favorite fall traditions.

Oh yeah, and when we were leaving the pumpkin patch, down the road just a few hundred yards, I noticed something out of place. There was a camel walking around in a field. On closer inspection, we noticed that this property had more than one exotic animal! There were camels, wallabys and this zebra. Not something you see every day.

in Christ,
The Thorson Family

27 Weeks: The First Baby Shower...The Last Getaway

2009-10-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

This past week was an exciting time for us. The babies are continuing to grow and move around and we can feel and SEE them more and more frequently. We are 'settling in' to the fall season and getting ready for the Arrivals! We have a dry erase board with a list of things we want to accomplish by the 36 week point, just in case the little ones decide to come in December.

This past Saturday, our sister Michelle threw Kealy her first baby shower. The shower attendees were mostly women from our college ministry and church community and they had a wonderful time together. One of the games was a diaper raffle, where for every package of diapers the guest brings they received a raffle ticket. Consequently, we received two months worth of diapers, including this diaper cake!

After the shower it was fun to take the gifts home and organize them and put them into our nursery room. It is taking shape and fun to have a place to 'get ready' for the little ones. We LOVE our themes of ladybugs and turtles intermixed as the babies will be sharing a room together.

One of the funnest things the last few days has been to 'watch' the babies. At times when they are really active we can actually see them moving around. It is fun, having multiple ultrasounds thus far, because we can tell who's moving when. The boy is definitely taking up more space than our daughter, but she'll move around just as much.

This weekend we're taking a chance to 'get away' one last time. We have a chance to spend a few days near Lincoln City and so we are going to get away and enjoy just relaxing with no responsibilities for a few days. It will be nice to spend time together, continuing to enjoy one another and talking about how much life will change in the upcoming months.

Here's a fun photo series of Kealy's 'progression' over the last few months.

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

26 weeks!

2009-10-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
We had an appointment on Tuesday and got the results back from the ultrasound. The babies are doing really good and are in the 40th percentile for their weight and 50th is average for a singleton. We also got to hear their heartbeats nice and strong. Last Friday I went and got the flu shot that the doctor recommended. This next week I'll be tested for iron, glucose, vitamin D, and more. The Doctor wants to meet with us every two weeks now, now that we are in the third trimester and it's a twin pregnancy. They can come in 10 weeks which would be at 36 weeks and they would be healthy and full term for twins. Our goal is to have everything ready for them by the first week in Dec. because 36 weeks is Dec. 15. Crazy!!! We are so excited!

24 Week UltraSound and Back to Work!

2009-09-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!

This past week we got to see our little ones again. We had a scheduled, in-depth ultrasound during our 24th week. Future grandma Dottie and Aunt Michelle joined us for the ultrasound. It took a little while to get used to what we were looking at, but once we did, it was wonderful to see how much the babies have been growing. After almost doubling in size since the 18 week ultrasound, they'll be doubling in size again until our 28 week ultrasound in October. We were able to see their faces and arms and the ultrasound tech was measuring their heads, bellies and femurs to check growth and health. At this point in the pregnancy, our little girl is 1lb 7 ounces and our little boy is 1lb 5 ounces.

These past few weeks has also begun getting back into our fall rhythm. We were both so thankful for all the wonderful things we were able to do this summer and the amount of time we got to spend together. We are cherishing every moment together and looking forward to the day when our little ones arrive. Kealy started her first day back at subbing on Wednesday. She is going to continue to work as much as she is comfortable with and the doctor allows as the pregnancy continues. We're both going for flu shots today to keep her and the babies safe. I am back in the full swing of school. It is funny however, how unimportant all of those things seem in contrast to this great new adventure that is about to begin!

We are enjoying being able to feel the babies kick more and more and they are so very active. They really like it when we sing to them and read to them, responding with multiple kicks every time their daddy says hello. During the ultrasound, it was fascinating for Kealy to both see and feel the babies kick at the same time! I cannot believe that there are TWO human beings growing inside of my petite wife!

We are so thankful for how well the pregnancy has been going so far. Both Kealy and the babies have got nothing but good reports and we are thankful for all of your prayers as we continue to enjoy this adventure of pregnancy. Please continue to pray for the safety and health of our little ones and their mother.

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Here are some pictures from our most recent ultrasound. In them you can see the babies facial profiles and their heads 'snuggling' together.

(Our son's face and hand waving)

(Our daughter's face and hand waving)

(Snuggling together)

Babies Update!

2009-09-07T13:30:00.001-07:00

Hey Everybody,

This first part of this blog was written at the end of July: Thursday was the 17th week of pregnancy. The babies are healthy and starting to move around a little in there. They had visitors watching them at the last ultrasound/check up their grandma(Tanya) and their great grandma(Carol) and great grandpa (Dorn). What a good time. The babies were moving around, moving their little hands. We could see their little heart beats and even their spin.

Aug. 18th we have a two hour appointment at the hospital to find out the gender of the babies. It has been really hard for Ryan and I to wait to find out, we are so excited. Ryan just got back from Mexico with eleven other people.

Today's Writing looking back:
August 18th come and we found out that we are having a boy and a girl:0) We are so happy! The ultra sound was really fun to see them move, kick and yawn. About fourty-five minutes into the ultrasound the tech had me puff out my stomatch to get a better look. Right as I did we knew right away that it was a boy! I laughed and cried at the same time, I've never done that before because I was so happy. Ryan couldn't stop smiling. Once they were done looking at the heart, spin, skull, and much more they went onto look at baby A. Right when we saw baby A she had her legs crossed, what a lady:0) It took the tech awhile to find everything that they needed because our little girl was hiding. We didn't know that the tech was looking for the gender and all of a sudden she said "I think it's a girl?" Ryan and I look at each other and ask "you think it's a girls?" both of us thinking what does that mean? We looked at different angles and it really was a girl:0) How perfect! A wonderful little boy and a wonderful little girl!

The next two weeks we headed to junior high camp and high school camp. Ryan spoke at the junior high camp and lead music and the pit crew at the high school camp. He did a really good job. I'm really proud of him of the man and leader that he is. It was nice because we were there together. Right before camp Ryan got to feel the babies kick! It was really neat sharing that together. The babies have only gotten stronger in their kicks.

This last week we set aside it to be a Baby Week:0)

Monday: My mom, grandpa, grandma came down to help us set up the nursery and guest room. We panted the crib and changing table. Cleared out the rooms. It turned out really nice. They are fast movers, we got a lot down.

Wednesday: We registered at Target, Babies R Us, and Baby Depot in Burlington coat factory. It was a really long day but a fun one. We found the babies bed sets, high chairs, car seats, etc.

Saturday: Visited the hospital for a tour of the family birth center. At this point our plan is to deliver at the Salem Hospital.

We appreciate everyone's excitement for the babies. We are at twenty-one weeks and they are about 7 in long. We are over half way there!!! Five months down four to go:0). I feel so blessed and thankful.

Love,
Kealy Faye

Double The Blessing

2009-06-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

Yesterday we had our first ultrasound of the baby. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. As they started the ultrasound, Kealy and I were both looking intently at the small screen in front of us. Suddenly, a small white blob in the shape of a kidney bean appeared on the screen. "That must be the baby!" I thought to myself. Suddenly, however, it disappeared, and another white blob, now on the other side of the picture, appeared. "What's that?" I thought to myself. The n, the doctor uttered three words that blew us away: "You're having twins". Kealy and I were both speechless. We couldn't believe that there were two babies inside of her. We had become jokingly suspicious after being teased about the possibility and hearing about how many twins were in both sides of our family, but we never actually allowed our minds to go there. But true enough, we've received 'Double the Blessing'.

Honestly, we're both still in a little bit of shock. We went to Applebee's for dinner after the appointment to 'celebrate', but neither of us ate very much. I think we are just overwhelmed at the adjustment at this point, not to say that we are any less excited about the news, but still in shock, I think. Today has been a day of processing and realizing everything that will change. We did have a wonderful lunch with Kealy's grandparents, who brought us the TWO stuffed puppies pictured above. Fortunately, we both have the day off, so we are able to relax and process the exciting news. We are also so thankful that we have such a great community of support surrounding us for this new adventure.

The ultrasound showed that both of the babies are healthy and growing just the way they are supposed to. Their heartbeats are very strong and one of them even moved for us during the ultrasound. Kealy's blood work and tests also came back very positive. You can also see in one of the ultrasound pictures below that the babies are in their own growth sacks. The doctor said this was great news because they will each have their own 'space' to grow without risk of getting tangled together. Its so nice that they are practicing sharing space together already!

Thank you for your prayers so far. We would love for 'double' the prayer effort now, for continued safety and healthy growth as we continue to enjoy this pregnancy together. We have a more complete and thorough ultrasound in two weeks that will continue to help us monitor the growth of our two 'little ones'. Stay tuned...

with love,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson (plus two!)

Beauty in Bloom

2009-06-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

Hey...we're doing pretty good at the weekly update thing so far. We had a GREAT first appointment with the LPN at the OBGYN on Friday (like I know what all those acronyms mean). The nurse gave us a lot of great information and we were able to ask a lot of questions and get them answered. I'm sure they were all the normal questions she usually gets, but she was patient and very informative. We had all the questions about health, exercise, nutrition, etc. that I'm sure most couple's in our position ask. It was a fun way to begin the adventure. A week from today we have our first ultrasound of the baby. We are VERY excited to find out exactly how far along Kealy is and maybe even hear the heartbeat of our 'little one'.

We are so thankful for God's providence in moving us to West Salem last December, into a three bedroom apartment. We are really enjoying our place and I often find myself wandering into what will be the nursery and just sitting and dreaming. The other fun things about our place are the backyard and the garage. The garage because it gives us a place to play ping pong, and the backyard because it is the first time we've had a yard of our own to enjoy. The backyard has been especially 'active' and bringing forth some beautiful flowers, as you can see by the pictures below. We also bought some vegetables and herbs at a local Saturday market and planted them last weekend. We planted a tomato plant, zucchini, two kinds of pepper, some basil and sage. Hopefully
I won't kill the plants...

Thanks for all of your continued prayers and we will let you know next week how the first ultrasound goes!

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy

Trip To Boise+Pickles, etc.

2009-05-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

I think we'll keep trying to make a weekly update during our new adventure. Thank you to all of you for your congratulations and your prayers. Tomorrow the 'little one' inside of Kealy will be eight weeks along. We are excited for our first appointment with her doctor on Friday, even if it is only for a general examination and to answer any questions we might have (we've been keeping a list).

We had a wonderful last couple weekends together, traveling to Boise to see Mark and getaway, as well as spending Memorial Weekend in Seattle with our college/career ministry. It has been a bit of a whirlwind, but still great adventures. Here's a few pictures from the past two weekends.

Kealy is feeling well and we are both working hard to eat right and exercise. We have spent a lot of time at the gym and are enjoying navigating our way around Minto Brown Park here in Salem. We borrowed some books from the library that had some great recipes for pregnant mothers and are enjoying some high-protein strawberry milkshakes. All of the fruit in season has been Kealy's main source of snacks. As long as she eats consistently she feels well. That is a good thing since many pregnancies experience morning sickness at this stage in the game. We're hoping she continues to feel well. We picked up some pickles today at the store, just because its a pregnancy tradition, right? Kealy said they still tasted great! We're so thankful for this precious gift and are praying that the 'little one' will grow strong and healthy. We'll keep you updated on how the appointments go, thank you for all your prayers and excitement for us!

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy

Announcing A New Arrival Soon!

2009-05-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

Yet another adventure is upon us. We want all of you to know that KEALY IS PREGNANT! We are very excited about this news and to share this journey with each of you.

We found out about 10 days ago, just in time to surprise our parents on Mother's Day which was a wonderful surprise. Hopefully we've had an opportunity to contact most of you, but we wanted to use this blog as another way to announce the big news.

She is about six weeks along and we have our first appointment with the doctor on May 29th. Please be praying along with us that the baby is healthy and growing and that Kealy will continue to feel well and be healthy.

We are looking forward to reigniting this blog so that you can join us on this adventure of pregnancy and we can let all of you know how things are coming along.

We are thrilled to be adding another member to our family. It is something we have been praying and hoping for for a while and God has always been faithful in His perfect timing. We are so excited to start a new phase of life with 'the three of us'!

Thank you for you all of your prayers and support. We are so excited to bring our baby into a world and community full of so much love. We'll keep you posted!

in Christ,

Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Choosing Hope Over Fear

2009-01-20T17:18:00.001-08:00

Kealy and I both had the opportunity to watch President Obama's Inaugural ceremonies today. I've always loved history and government and we didn't want to miss this momentous occasion. It was a joy to watch a new era of American History dawn. Whether you voted for Obama or not, his presidency will be one of national interest and opportunity. My prayer is that those opportunities will be used for good, not for harm. That the American people will respond with love and servanthood and change and better America and the world, not because we have a 'hip' new President, but because something has changed in our hearts.

Even in my optimism I will try and balance a realism. There is only one man that can radically change the world and that man is Jesus. But God has given us the privilege of living in America and the opportunity to create change in His name. There were some great lines from President Obama's speech today. Some of my favorite were:

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. "

"we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned."

"what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage."

"This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. "

"Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

What did you think of today's events?

Christmas and California

2009-01-17T20:54:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody,

Thought we'd give you an update on a crazy Christmas and a foggy New Year! We had a wonderful, albeit, different Christmas at home in Sandy with our families. The snow made it quite different and difficult to get home and get around, but once we did, we had a wonderful time with our family, relaxing and celebrating the holidays.

Two days after Christmas we took off for a Thorson family wedding down in Southern California. We drove to Pasadena and spent the week enjoying the sunny weather, Rose Bowl atmosphere and spent New Year's Eve at Disneyland! We got the most out of our day and it was a great day to be there, with the Christmas lights and the festive atmosphere.
CALIFORNIA:

DISNEYLAND!!!

THE WEDDING:

We are enjoying the New Year and a new school semester, new apartment and exciting new things coming up. We will keep you up to speed and let you know what's going on in our lives on this blog. Happy New Year!

Apartment and Snow Pictures

2008-12-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody,

Wow! What a crazy week of snow we've had here in Salem, Oregon. We are so thankful we moved in when we did and, since there was no school all week, we've had the whole time to unpack and get 'settled in'. We had a fun week of Christmas parties with some great people, but we are ready to 'head home for the holidays'. We are hoping the weather will permit us to head up to Sandy on Monday. We had a magical time in Portland with some friends on Friday. We were walking the streets of Downtown and it was snowing, we saw Santa and had some great food and it felt like we were in a movie!

Anyways, here are some promised pics of our new place. I think we're on the verge of getting a new camera...

Kealy and our Christmas Tree:

Our living room:

Our backyard (I think its time to get a dog...Kealy's not so sure)

Santa's Village:

Our first dinner in our new place:

Our master bedroom:

Rest of the bedroom with our own bathroom!

The 'man room' (the study)

We're finding ourselves under the mistletoe often:

Fun in the snow:

A tree in our front yard:

The two love birds:

Moved In...Welcoming The Snow

2008-12-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody,

We have moved from keizer to west salem and we moved this weekend, just before the snow came. We found a cool, three bedroom duplex with a garage (for our ping pong table)! It was exciting to move and we were so thankful we moved on Saturday before the snow and ice came.

We had a ton of help and they were all such a blessing to us. Moving can be so stressful and time/energy draining, but we were blessed with some strong men and it was an enjoyable experience.

We put up our tree and started a fire in our fireplace and we are enjoying the snow...hopefully you are too.

Today is also our 7-year anniversary of our first date. We're going to celebrate by 'ice' skating in our parking lot!

For our first date, we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory, Ice Skating at the Clackamas Mall and then had ice cream at a view point in Sandy. I remember having a hard time driving because I couldn't pay attention to the road because of the BEAUTIFUL young woman next to me in the car. It was a day I will never forget!

We'll get pictures posted on the blog as soon as we get internet at our new place. Stay safe in the snow!

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A Promise Not To Promise

2008-12-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody!!!

Wow!!! Its been a while. I can't promise you anything about staying up with posts, since I've said it before and haven't followed through, but in following friend's of mine and their blogs, I realized how much I enjoy seeing what is going on in their lives. So we are making an attempt to blog more frequently, especially around the holidays, when so much fun stuff is going on.

We are continuing to 'live the dream' and working hard, but enjoying our moments together. Kealy is working so hard every day, substitute teaching. She has done it all. High school art, Middle School Math, Elementary school classrooms and working with mentally and physically disabled, I admire so much her flexibility to walk into any classroom and handle the class. Countless students tell her how wonderful she is and what a 'nice sub' she is.

The other nice thing about subbing is some of the days or half days we have to spend together. We are enjoying walking, playing wii and lots of other things together.

This week is finals week for my first term of seminary at George Fox. It has been a great term and I have loved everything I have had an opportunity to learn and think about. I feel like I am getting better equipped for wherever my education might lead.

We are enjoying our ministry and service with Salem Evangelical. The college/career adults are a blast to live life with and they are growing spiritually and we are enjoying building relationships with them.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving with family and are eagerly anticipating Christmas time and all of the fun things and traditions we get to do. We went shopping today and had fun together and are having a nice, quiet Saturday afternoon together, a peaceful day in the middle of the crazy Christmas storm.

Sunset today...we need a new camera...it doesn't do it justice!

Hope your Christmas plans are going well and that, in the middle of the crazy and hectic time of Christmas, that we would each remember what it is really about.

in Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Ode To Women In My Life

2008-10-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

This weekend I have been in seminary class ALL of Friday and Saturday! If it weren't for the long hours and not seeing my wife, I think I could do this all the time. It has been an amazing weekend and my brain feels stretched and filled with great ideas and new thoughts to chew on.

The class that I am taking this weekend is an intensive course called 'women in church history' and is a study of the different women from biblical times to current day that have shaped and molded Christianity, despite persecution or hardship. The issue of women in ministry and ordination of women has also been a great discussion and debate throughout the weekend and this semester.

As I have been sitting in class and hearing about these amazing women throughout history and also learning how my experiences and upbringing have played such a huge part in my understanding and belief of women in ministry and in our culture, I have been thinking back and appreciating so much the women that God has blessed me with in my life.

God has empowered and used women in my family to reveal His incredible nature and power of creation and love in families, marriage and communities. I have seen women in my family face tremendous adversity and overcome, battle challenges with grace and courage, and unconditionally loved and supported me and others throughout their life.

I could write pages and pages on the incredible things that women in my life have done, but here is the 'ode to women in my life' in brevity:

Annabel Hughes Thorson: My paternal grandmother; valedictorian in her high school class, a teacher and mother of three children, providing comfort, support and love to her children even after her divorce with her husband. I will forever remember and cherish the way that she lavished her love upon us and how she taught me to shuffle cards.

Margaret Prew: My maternal grandmother; a teacher, widowed forty years ago, she continues to love and care for her three children as well as faithfully serve in the community church of sandy. She has passionately and faithfully supported me and my siblings in all of our endeavors and even folded our laundry for us while growing up.

Carol Thornberry: my grandmother-in-law; another incredible women, she loved and cared for her three kids as a teenager while her husband was serving in the military. Raised them with love and unconditional support, served in the public school district and continues to be the 'matriarch' of her family, keeping records of geneaology and planning family outings and meals.

My Aunts: Amazing women who have taught and preached throughout the United States, each having tremendous impact using their gifts to shape kids and adults into followers of Christ. In Texas, California and Nevada, they have shared the love of Christ through words and actions.

Dottie Thorson: My mother; Words cannot describe what my mother means to me. She is a rock, a woman that stands against adversity and pressures and overcomes. A woman who has positively influenced not only our lives, but the lives of hundreds of children through her years of teaching. She has modeled to me a faithful wife, mother and follower of Christ. Her honesty and love of her family and her church our some of her greatest virtues and she loves us without end.

Tanya Atkins: my mother-in-law; A woman who held her family together through love and care, who has a passion and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and who cares for and supports her kids. She is a woman of great strength and great love and she is the one of the reasons I have such an incredible wife.

Michelle Thorson:My sister; A woman with one of the most sensitive and caring hearts i have ever seen. One of the most selfless women I know, she has been to more sports games throughout her life than most people. She has a passion for serving Christ and using her gifts to bring Him glory. She cares and unconditionally loves the people in her family and those around her.

Kealy Thorson:My wife; The most beautiful, loving, strong, courageous, caring, adventurous and amazing woman I know. The first woman in her family to gain a college education and master's degree, she selflessly gives herself to me and our marriage. She is sensitive and has an attractiveness of love and kindness that I have never seen. People are drawn to her spirit and her advice and love. She offers insight and truth into relationships and ministry that is invaluable. Most importantly, she is my best friend, the one whom I will spend my whole life with, sharing adventures, hardships, joys, struggles, victories and mysteries. There is none like her.

These women have changed and continue to change my life! Without them, my life is incomplete. Without them, the world would not have been affected by their love and courage and the tenacity with which they live life and serve Christ. These women, who fear the Lord, DESERVE TO BE PRAISED!

In Christ,
Ryan

Living The Dream

2008-10-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

Its interesting how we (at least me) try so hard to get into the everyday flow of life so that I can get used to a new schedule (creature of habit that I am) that sometimes I forget how much fun everything that I'm getting to do is. I was tired and a little worn out at the end of the day yesterday, and then I stopped and realized to myself, 'self, you got to do some really fun things today'. Sure they were a little tedious at times, but I got to hang out with fellow pastors at the church, share about our ministries, have lunch with a student, study ancient hebrew, learn about women in church history, hang out with my gorgeous wife, eat three great tacos from Taco Bell and hang out with ten guys talking about the Holy Spirit. What an awesome day! I missed the point when I was going through the day that the passions and things that I love most I was getting to do! I was so consumed with getting through my 'to-do list' and how busy it was that I missed the realization that I was 'Living the Dream'!

My hope and prayer in MY life is that I can take moments throughout the day and stop and realize how blessed I am by God. Kealy and i were talking at the beach on Tuesday just how many amazing experiences we've had together and what amazing relationships and family God has given us. It totally changed our outlook on our life, while we're still settling in and Kealy's finding a job she'll enjoy, that even though there are things we still WANT in our life, they have no comparison to the amazing things we already have.

Praise God for the gifts He has lavished upon us, and give me strength, Lord, to be appreciative and acknowledge the incredible gifts Thou hast given!

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

just some of our amazing family and friends:

A Day Of Joy

2008-09-30T22:55:00.001-07:00

Hey Everybody,

Ok! For real this time; we'll start posting more frequently. We're having a great time enjoying the fall weather so far this september, since we were in China a year ago this time and missed the beautiful oregon fall. Things are going well. I (Ryan) have started classes at George Fox Seminary and am enjoying beginning the process of working towards a Masters of Divinity. I am also doing some 'professional' blogging on the side and really enjoying it (see sidebar for blog links). Kealy has been so supportive of me going to school and is still looking for a great job that she will love! Someone is sure going to be lucky to have her on their staff!

We are having a blast serving the college/career students and adults at our church at Salem Evangelical! It is so great living life with them and being able to share about God's faithfulness in our lives. They have been so open and willing to share joy and heartache with us. It is a great adventure and God has been good.

Today we both took a day off and got away to the beach together. It was wonderful to be able to just spend the day together just the two of us. We went to one of our favorite places; THE BEACH! We went for a walk with our barefeet in the sand and arms linked. We even had fun and took some photos of each other and together, as you can see below:

On the way home, we experienced Starbucks' new 'Signature Hot Chocolates' and WOW! they were amazing. It could be difficult this fall and winter eating healthy with those incredible drinks just around the corner.

We enjoy living in Keizer and our apartment is starting to feel like home. We're getting into our fall shows and love hanging out together at the end of each busy day. God has been, and we trust, will continue to be faithful to us and we thank you for your prayers and support.

Keep an eye out on our blog and we'll begin to post more frequently and let you know about all of our adventures!

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Summer 2008

2008-08-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends and Family,

Alright, if you're still following along, thank you for your faithful blog devotedness. It has been a busy summer, its amazing how much faster paced things are here in the states. We had another incredible experience in Mexico with students that we are serving with in our college/career ministry, recently named "SOLD OUT"! We have both been busy working, Kealy was given a short term job at Newport Restaurant as a hostess and I have continued to work at Best Buy Costumer Service. We are preparing for the school year, looking forward to getting into a normal routine. Kealy is continuing to wait for a job to open up and I will be starting seminary school two weeks from tomorrow. We are excited for our future here in Keizer and the upcoming school year.

We celebrated our fourth year of marriage together on August 1st, with a fun weekend at Detroit Lake, a wonderfully romantic dinner and a fun time sharing and remembering the last four years of our marriage. We can't believe its gone by so fast. We love being married so very much.

God has continued to be faithful to us and we are enjoying immensely our service and experience with the college/career ministry at Salem E. The students and staff have been so willing to share their lives with us and we have done lots of things together this summer: A trip to Seattle, Mexico, Beach Trips and camping at Detroit Lake. We also got to enjoy a Thornberry family reunion (Kealy's side) and will be heading to Sandy this weekend to spend time with Ryan's family. We thought we'd share some pictures with you of this summer so you can get an idea of what we've been doing.

Keep an eye out for this blog, as we strive to be more consistent in our posting. Thank you, as always, for your love, prayers and support.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Ryan and Kealy with her brothers:

Kealy with her cousins and new second cousin, Jaden

A trip to the beach:

Fun in Oaxaca:

Ancient Indian Ruins:

Detroit Lake Fun:

Our anniversary:

Mexico...Here We Go Again!

2008-07-06T21:08:00.001-07:00

OUR OAXACA MISSIO '08 TEAM:

Hey Friends and Family,

Well, in less than 7 hours we'll be on our way with a team of twenty three to Oaxaca, Mexico to serve for one week with a feeding program, vacation bible school and construction. We are going to have a hard time sleeping tonight, that's for sure! Please pray for us and for our team, that we would be strengthened and protected, and that God would work through us and in us while we are there. You can check out a blog we have set up for the trip and you can find the site to the right of this post. We'll have internet access and will be able to post pictures and daily blogs chronicling the experience while we are there.

We hope each of you are having a great summer. Thank you always, for your love and support of us and each of our adventures. Your prayers and love are always felt.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Living Each Day

2008-07-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,
It has been quiet some time now since our last blog, I applogies. The last few months we have managed to find work; Ryan is working at Best Buy and at our church as the College/Career Pastor. We feel blessed to be apart of such an wonderful group. I substituted until school was out in June, the last month was at South Salem High School as the freshman P.E. teacher. I'm now working at Newport Bay now known as Newport Seafood and Grill. When we are not working we enjoy hanging out with friends and family. Monday's I get together with the girls and Ryan on Wednesday with the boys. Last week my grandparents celebrated their fiftieth anniversary at the beach with the whole family. G&G are great examples of a good marriage. Yesterday was my b-day, on Sunday I celebrated with family along with Ryan speaking at his Dad's Church in Sandy. I felt loved on my Birthday, thank you. This coming Monday we leave for Oaxaca Mexico for a mission trip with the college/career group. Ryan is going to start George Fox in the Fall to get his Mdiv.

I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own: it is not for man to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10:23

It has been interesting being back and where God has taken us in what we are doing. We want to follow God's footsteps wherever He might lead. God's plans are far greater then our own. That is were we find hope and joy. We are so thankful for many things and know that he will give us the desire of our hearts if we follow Him.

In Christ,
Kealy and Ryan

Continuing the Adventures

2008-04-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope you are doing well and experiencing the very best God has to offer you as Spring arrives this year. God has been so faithful to us since our arrival back in the states and we wanted to share about His goodness to us with you. Since arriving back from teaching English in China this past January, we have renewed our commitment to continue to serve as a part of the Salem Evangelical Church in Salem. We are so excited about the things God is doing in our church and we are so honored that God has given us a chance to be a part of the ministry there. Ryan has been asked and has accepted a position as the new college/career ministries director at SEC, working with college students and young adults as they strengthen their walk with Christ and search for His call on their lives. We are so excited to be serving in this ministry and are dedicated to allowing God to use us as He will in this next adventure.
We would like to humbly ask for your faithful prayer during the beginning of this ministry, that we would seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in relationships and ministry and that we would stay focused on what God has planned for this incredible ministry in Salem. As part of this new adventure, we have been asked to help lead a group of twenty young adults, along with four other staff, to Oaxaca, Mexico this July 7th through 13th. We will be serving in the city of Oaxaca for one week, doing construction, building relationships with believers there as well as reaching out to youth and adults in the community. We are extremely excited for the chance to be a part of this trip and have the opportunity to serve Christ through missions, as well as help develop young men and women in Christ and build relationships with them. We too, would covet your prayers as we prepare for this mission.
If, as you commit to praying for us, you are able and guided through the Spirit to contribute financially to our trip as well, we would humbly accept any gift you are willing to give. We are trusting that God will provide the funds to be able to serve Him as we believe He has called us to do. Our cost for the trip will be $2400. Any amount you are willing to give would be a tremendous blessing to us. A financial gift can even be tax deductible if made out to Salem Evangelical Church at: 455 Locust St. NE Salem, OR 97301, with a separate note signed by you expressing your desire to support Kealy and I on this trip. We are excited to see God provide for us financially, but more important, we request your prayer as we prepare to serve God in Mexico. Thank you for your love and support. May God continue to “...let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts” and “the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives”.

In Him,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A Defining Mission

2008-04-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,
We are back from Mexico safe and sound, a more blessed and at peace than we could have ever known. It was an incredible week and we feel so privileged to have been able to be a part of God's work down in Ensenada with senior high students from SEC during the week. As some of you already know, on our trip down to Mexico our team was involved in an eight car accident just outside of San Diego. Praise God that no one was seriously injured and safe. But what we are praising God for all the more was the way that the staff of the trip, our fearless leader pastor Garrett, and the amazing students who responded to the unexpected obstacle in our mission with a renewed desire to continue the trip and serve the people in Mexico we believed God was calling us to reach. God stripped us of any unpure motives or shallow desires for a 'spring break vacation' and turned the week into an amazing time of service and fellowship. Kealy and I were blown away by the maturity and joy of these senior high students, the love and patience that the staff showed them, and the way that the approximately 100 kids we put on VBS for in Mexico welcomed us and desired to learn about God's love. As much as Kealy and I were looking forward to helping serve on the trip and being an encouragment to students and staff, we found we were blessed even more by the students and had such an incredible time building relationships with such godly young men and women. It was a week we will never forget and will never be able to fully give testimony to, but God was great. He was there, He was active, and He was evident in the lives of our students and in the smiles and hugs of kids that we had a chance to love. Here is the trip in pictures. Have a great week.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy

Andale!!! Off to Mexico

2008-03-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Happy Easter! He is Risen! I hope that each of you is having a great weekend with family celebrating and remembering the hope that we have for eternity! I've been reminded this weekend that without Christ, life on earth is boring and pointless, but with Him and his conquering death for our sake, we now have HOPE! While we've had the chance to be in Sandy this weekend with family and attend a Saturday night service, we will be unable to be with family on Easter Sunday. But, we will have the chance to be with 'extended' family during Easter and the week of Spring Break as we have an opportunity to go to Ensenada, Mexico and serve the people there with Senior high students from SEC!

We are extremely excited to leave tomorrow, not so much for the 21 hour, two day drive to Ensenada awaiting us, but the chance to spend time with some amazing students and be able to learn how to serve them and the people and children in Ensenada we are going to serve. We will be helping the students run a vacation bible school with 50-75 mexican kids, do minor construction on houses of pastors and people in the area who need construction done, as well as being able to visit an orphanage (which Kealy is most excited about) and love on kids who need love the most. It is going to be an incredible week, not only to serve and be able to share Christ's love with people there, but to be challenged and stretched in our own lives, and watch God work in the hearts of the students that are going that we care so much about. We'll be out of radio contact for a week, but will be sure to get pictures and information to each of you still following along about an exciting week in Mexico. Please pray for safety for the group and that Christ would challenge our hearts and faith so that we may grow closer to Him! Happy Easter.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

soda, shamrocks, hockey and cherry blossoms

2008-03-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,
Its been a great weekend and early part of this week. The weather's getting a little wetter, but its springtime in Oregon so what's new? We've had a great time enjoying the rain together and enjoying our new apartment. Its a great location in Keizer and not too far from any place that Kealy has been substitute teaching. Our exciting weekend began on Friday when I got to go down to Monmouth and watch my brother Mark work out for some NFL scouts and he did a great job. Then, on Friday night, we had movie nights with students from our Church and watched some classics like Mr. Deeds and Transformers, as well as drank a lot of pop. Alex Noble and I did most of the soda-binging, as you can see below.

After recovering on Saturday from the late nights on Friday. We got to have lunch at two of our favorite restaurants; Red Robin and Olive Garden. Kealy's brother Casey had his birthday this week so we had dinner with the family. Sunday was another great day when we got to go see a Winterhawks game again with some new friends and the game went into overtime and a five round shootout...and there were three fights!!!

Last night, in celebration of St. Patrick's day, Kealy and I drove down to Papa Murphy's pizza and bought a shamrock pizza to have for dinner...okay, it was pepperoni and olives, but the shape was a shamrock!

I know am talking a lot about food, but it is mostly for the benefit of our friends in China, who we miss a lot, that said they would live vicariously through us as we get to eat all of the foods they miss while they are in China.

Another of my favorite things about Spring in Oregon (besides the rain) is the incredible cherry blossoms that are beginning to pop up around Salem this month. It reminds me of David Crowder's song about spring arriving to 'heal the ground'. This vibrant colors remind me of the beauty of God's creation and his desire to redeem our world from the winter we live in. I can't wait for that day, when every day will be spring and the vibrant beauty of cherry blossoms will be seen in everything as we worship the King together. Have a great Holy Week!

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Some pictures of the beautiful cherry blossoms in the Salem area:

Home, Sweet Home!

2008-03-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

After a great five weeks staying with friends in Keizer, Oregon we have finally migrated a half a mile away to our own apartment off Orchard court in Keizer, Oregon. Yesterday was our a moving day and we were blessed by great weather and family and friends that were willing to give up their Saturday (and their bodies) to help us move. I thought that we had done a pretty good job of downsizing and getting rid of a bunch of stuff before we left for the Far East, so I was quite shocked when we finally got all of our stuff back in a U-Haul for the eighth move of our marriage and I realized how much STUFF we have accumulated in just three and a half years of marriage. It was great, however, to see stuff that we had missed since before we left and it is really nice to have our own place that we can begin to decorate. We are already having withdrawals and missing the Jamison family (and their cookies) but we are getting settled into our place. Today was a great day at church as we began a building campaign for a new children's center and we spent the rest of the day just hanging out and slowly unpacking. We've made good progress so far and thought we get some pics up of our decorating and arranging. Its a nice big apartment and has a cool view of a pasture through our living room window. But the best part of being here in Keizer is that we are close to some great families and friends that are a blast to hang out with so we'll probably be bugging them more than they would like. Anyways, we'll get some pictures up tomorrow or later this week of the actual moving day. But here's some we snapped tonight after we got all but one room semi-set-up. We hope each of you has a great week as we prepare for Spring Break and Easter Celebration!

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy

Here's our dining room area

A nice and homey living room

Skinny but stocked kitchen

Our relaxing bedroom

A lot more work to be done!

Re-entry...one month and counting

2008-03-02T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Today was our 37th day back on American soil and I think we are finally begin to feel a bit 'settled down'. It has been so great being home and spending time with friends and with family. Hopefully we have gotten a chance to see each of you at least once, but if not, we want to see you!!! We have been doing pretty good on 're-entry shock' as they call it. We weren't gone for a long time, and I don't think there's really been anything major that has been hard. Sometimes we have a hard time remembering things (i.e. names, places, events) before China, which could just be a our brains on overload more than we think, and sometimes it is hard going to the store or restaurant where there are so many choices! The other hard part about being back is all the incredible food that we have been eating and people have been cooking for us. We are trying to eat healthy and are stomachs have definitely shrunk (a few days ago at lunch I ordered chicken strips and fries and only ate like 2 strips and a few fries) weird! But other than that things are going pretty well and we are having a great time here in Salem. We are looking towards moving into an apartment soon and Kealy is continuing to bounce around all of the middle schools in Salem-Keizer substitutue teaching.

As great and fun as it is to be back, there are some things we definitely miss about China. We decided to list a few:
1. All of the 'family' friends that we made in China
2. All of our Chinese students that are about to start the next term without us.
3. The family who owned a small minimart where we bought icecream and drinks
4. The same lady we always bought our fruit from
5. Cooking dinner for a total cost of $2
6. Having our three choices for dinner each night being; Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC
7. Only working 12 hours a week
8. Not paying any bills
9. Traveling to Hong Kong or other places on the weekend
10.Buying movies and video games for less than $1
11.Amazing hair washes and cheap massages
12.Going on lots of walks
13.Shopping at Wal-Mart
14.Hanging out with friends every night
15.All the time Kealy and I got to spend together

The great part about being back in the states is that we are able to do some of these things we some great people here too. The Jamisons have been so gracious and kind for letting us stay with them, and it has been so much fun continuing to serve and be a part of Salem EC. We are loving life and feel like we are right where God wants us. We hope you have a great week. Talk to you soon.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

BattleShip....Sunk!!!

2008-02-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

The last couple of days have been a lot of fun. Now that I have some time off with no work, we've just been hanging out together and with the great family we're staying with! Its been a lot of fun, having nothing to do. We are still getting some things done; Kealy is still subbing and I'm looking for some part time stuff, we had a great time with the college students last night and we are spending some time with fellow orient travelers tonight looking at pictures from Thailand. We are so thankful and grateful that we have a place to stay while we look for apartments and we have decided that Salem is the place where God is calling us to be. We are excited to begin to settle down here and continue to serve in ministry at Salem EC. Right now we're playing a crazy game of Battleship with Grace and Shelby Jamison...they've already sunk one of my ships :( Hope you guys have a great day. Here's some pictures of wild and crazy moments at the Jamison house!

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Sine Die--Unemployed!--Learning MahJong

2008-02-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Friday a surprising thing happened. I had know idea that when I went to work in the morning that it would be my last day at the capital. The legislative session that I have been working for was scheduled to continue until next Friday, and at that point I (Ryan) would be searching for further employment somewhere. But Friday, after a fourteen hour work day, full of running around, with short breaks to run to Subway and get dinner, we officially ended the legislative session a week early. It was a fun, but busy day. But now, my job is finished at the capital a bit earlier than I thought, but no worries, I guess I'll take a bit of a vactaion before seeing what's next. Actually, we've still got lots of stuff going on. Right now we are hanging out enjoying a quiet sunday night with nothing to do. We had a great weekend hanging out her in Keizer and yesterday we had a party celebrating the end of the legislative session at our friend Qin's house who worked at the capital with me. She is also from China, so we were able to share stories about our experiences and we had a great time together. She also taught us how to play the ancient Chinese game of MahJong. It was a complicated game to learn, but once we got the hang of it, it is quite fun. We enjoyed being back at worship in Salem this morning and are looking forward to doing bible study with college students tomorrow night at the church. Kealy is continuing to sub and I am going to begin looking for jobs and figure out where God wants me/us to be while here in Salem. We feel like we are getting settled in here in Salem and it is so much fun seeing everyone and spending time together. We do miss each of you in China that might be reading this blog, too, we think of you and lift you up often! We hope each of you have a great week experiencing God's goodness and faithfulness! Talk to you soon.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Watch out for lamp poles this week!

Up and Running!!!

2008-02-19T20:17:00.001-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Hope you are having a great week. Like the title said, another week is up and running! This week is flying by, things are over halfway done at the capital and we will probably finish sometime next week. Although I don't really mind, every day is one more day making money. We are really thankful that I have been able to work there during the month of February. It hasn't been too stressful, with time to think and read while still working and bringing in the dough. On another exciting piece of job news, Kealy got her first call tonight to sub tomorrow in the Salem-Keizer School District. She is going to sub at Waldo Middle School teaching at an ESL class for 7.5 hours. So we're pretty excited about that.

We're having a great time staying with friends here in Salem and seeing people that are so special to us. I'm also excited to fill in for Randy with the college group the next couple weeks and share about some of our experiences in China and look at Scripture together.

We feel like we're getting settled into America again, although sometimes there are memory gaps or I get stressed out over little stuff but we're getting better. Hope you all have a great week. Talk to you soon.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Happy Birthday Oregon!!! (and happy valentines day)

2008-02-14T19:43:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

That's right, for those of you Oregonians who don't know (and for others who aren't Oregonians that don't care) today Oregon turned the big 149!!! Working at the capital turned Oregon's birthday into quite the event. Cake, lots of people, and a speech by the Governor at the capital all made the day a lot of fun. Not to mention, oh yeah, its Valentine's day. Hopefully you are all enjoying your families or spouses or girlfriends/boyfriends, etc. during this day. Don't forgot the One that loved you the most too. We are enjoying Valentines with of course, each other, but also with one of our adopted families/landlords of our bedroom in Keizer, the Jamisons. We had heartshaped pizza and an incredible heartshaped cake that was delicious. My stomach is the biggest its been since we left for China, but every bite was delicious. Kealy and I are going to see a late movie just the two of us tonight, but it is fun celebrating Valentine's day with a family too. I forgot how crazy Valentine's day is at school and with kids.

Kealy goes to her substitute orientation tomorrow so she can begin teaching next Tuesday in the salem-keizer area and the 'special' legislative session is winding down. We are still praying earnestly for God's direction in our life right now, but we are really enjoying see friends throughout the state and here in Salem and getting back involved with some of the ministries we were a part of before we left as well as some new ministries that are evolving. We are excited to try and apply what we learned in China to our experiences/ministry here, but sometimes it feels like we never left. Still though, we definitely get fuller faster when we eat, which is probably a good thing! Enjoy celebrating Oregon's birthday and this special day of Love! Happy Valentines Day!

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A Week On Our Feet and Thailand Pictures

2008-02-10T18:22:00.001-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Just checking in. We have been here in Salem for a week and it has gone by really fast. We have kept pretty busy and we are having a great time here, staying with a great family that has been so willing to let us invade their home so that we have a place to stay. This week was my first week back at the capital, which was exciting and busy. It has been fun being back at the capital, where there are a lot of different things going on.

One of the best parts of this week was the chance we had to tag along this weekend with the junior high group from Salem EC and have a weekend of fun in Sandy, visiting the snow and swimming at the athletic club. I have never seen as much snow at Government Camp as we did this weekend. We climbed on the snow drifts and went down the hill on intertubes. It was a great time of being with a group that we love so much and seeing such great maturity and growth in the group since we've been gone.

We are continuing to try and see everyone and spend as much time with people as possible. It is so great to come home to so many people who are genuinely excited to see us and hear about God's faithfulness to us during our time in China. Sometimes it feels like we were never gone, because we feel so welcomed home. Enjoy our pictures from our time in Thailand. Have a great week, relying on God's faithfulness as you believe and trust in Him!

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Kealy rocking the moped!

Some of the beautiful scenery around our resort. We were next to a Nature Reserve so the scenery was beautiful.

One of the highlights of our trip, we got to ride an elephant together one day in Thailand.

Riding through the jungle!

After the ride, we got to reward our elephant with full, unpeeled bananas that he ate whole

My beautiful wife with a beautiful flower

Another exciting outing was when we hired a local fisherman to take us out to an island in the middle of the bay where our resort was. Here's Kealy, ready for the ride!

Ryan loved the water too.

On the island there were monkeys waiting for us, or for the bananas we had brought.

One happy monkey

A mama monkey with her baby.

Ryan's new friend

What a cute couple

Aye, Aye Captain!

On our next adventure, we took a canoe ride at sunset through the largest freshwater marsh in Thailand.

Our 'driver'

A picture full of beauty!

Overlooking the march, the border with the country of Myanmar is across the marsh.

The moon was bright that night

Boat ride number two, the fisherman showed us around the bay and took us to his fishing village.

The fishing village we visited.

More of the fishing village

A Honeymoon in Thailand and Home, Sweet Home

2008-01-29T15:53:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, in case any of you were wondering if we got stuck somewhere in the Pacific, we wanted to let you all know that we have arrived home safely in America! It has been a wonderful reunion with family already, a busy time, difficult to find blogging opportunities and and we can't wait to hug even more of our friends that we are so eager to see. Coming home was a reminder of how blessed we are to have the support and love of our family and friends.

Our week in Thailand was fantastic. We laughed all week about being on another honeymoon, since really all a honeymoon is is the joy of celebrating marriage and each other together and it was just that. Each day was the perfect mix of doing nothing and experiencing everything that Thailand has to offer. We were able to ride elephants, feed monkeys with bananas on an island in the bay, ride a fishing boat on the Gulf of Thailand and through a fishing village, experience an authentic Thai dinner and cultural dance, and we worked in a lot of just sitting on the beach, looking for shells and enjoying the beauty of Thailand. The people there were wonderful and friendly and it was a great time for Kealy and I before returning home. A time of reflection for God's faithfulness to us in China and a time of preparation and prayer for discerning His next adventure for us.

Here's our view from 'our table' at the resort restaurant

The view of the resort from our balcony
We returned home to the states after a long day of traveling. From Bangkok to Japan and finally to Portland. Thankfully all of our baggage arrived with us and made it through customs. We even got upgraded to the exit row for one of the legs of our flight. We have had a great time with our families, sharing photos and videos, gifts and stories of our time in China and the incredible things God showed us and the people we have had the privilege of building relationships with. We plan on continuing to see as many people as we can these first few weeks and if any of you are in the Sandy area on Saturday we are having an open house at 18500 Langensand Road from 2-4 PM.

The snow has been a wonderful surprise and quite the contrast from our time in Thailand. Ryan will be starting work down at the state capital on Thursday and we will be moving down tot he Salem area on Sunday after hopefully watching Kevin Boss and the New York Giants win the Super Bowl!

We hope to see each of you and continue to tell you stories of our time in China, as well as continuing to keep you involved in what is going on in our lives. Thank you so much, for your prayers and thoughts while we were in the Far East. We felt your prayers and your encouragement helped sustained us during our time there. We learned so much about God's faithfulness and the amazing things He is doing around the world. We love you and we'll see you soon.

In Christ,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

P.S. having problems posting pictures, will get more up ASAP!

Goodbye Nanning---Our Last Blog From China!

2008-01-16T04:29:00.024-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, this is it. Our last blog from Nanning, China. We really can't believe how fast it has come upon us for us to head to Thailand and then back to the states. These last few weeks have been quite the blur, testing students, buying last minute souvenirs, visiting all of our favorite spots and, most importantly, and most difficult, saying goodbye to all of our students and dear friends here in Nanning. We have tried to make the most of each day, hanging out with friends, going to our favorite restaurants, etc. but time seems to be running out. Tomorrow is our last final at the college and then the afternoon and evening will be spent with some of our dearest friends here that we have made in such a short time. Friday morning we head to the airport for a noon flight from Nanning to Shenzhen, a ten hour layover in Shenzhen, then a 11:30 PM flight from Shenzhen to Bangkok, Thailand. We are going to stay in a hotel near the Bangkok airport on Friday night because Saturday morning a car is picking us up and driving us the remaining leg of our trip, a 3 hour drive south to Hua Hin and the Dolphin Bay Resort. If you want to see where we'll be staying in Thailand for six days, you can check out; www.dolphinbayresort.com.

We're pretty confused emotionally. We are wrapping up here and leaving a place that we can definitely call another home. It is very hard to leave friends that we have known for such a short time, yet feel so close to. At the same time, we are very excited for a brief rest in Thailand before getting to come home and have a wonderful reunion with all of you, our family and friends. We are busily packing up and cleaning up our apartment as we speak, trying to fit all of our stuff, as well as souvenir and gifts, into our suitcases. Please pray earnestly that we will not be charged too much for overweight baggage, we are a little nervous about that!

We arrive back in Portland, Oregon on the morning of January 25th. After a week in Sandy with the family, we are going to be heading back to Salem for at least a month. Ryan is going to work as the sergeant-at-arms again at the state capital for their month long legislative session and Kealy is hoping to jump right into substitute teaching. After that the road is a bit unclear. Please pray that God would give us guidance on where He wants us to serve Him next.

So this is it, signing off from China. A day we thought would never come has come faster than we wanted to. God has been so faithful to us through our adventure here and we will be honored to share more about our time here and more pictures with you when we return back to America. Please know that our adventures together and this blog does not leave with our exodus from China. We have had such a good response from people enjoying the blog that we will continue to keep you updated on the adventures God is blessing us with. We will also find a way to get a blog posted while we are in Thailand and let you know how our 'second honeymoon' is going! Thank you for listening, praying and being so active in our experience here in China. Knowing you have been praying and thinking of us has been so very important to us during those tougher times. We can't wait to see each of you and give you a great hug. Talk to you soon.

With all of our love and strength,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Happy New Year--A Busy Year so Far

2008-01-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We apologize for the expansive passage of time between previous informational expulsions. We have been very busy hanging out with friends and trying to squeeze in every last minute of China that we can. We have also been busy relaxing! We haven't taught any classes for the last two weeks, which has been a little weird, but a good chance to reflect, rest, spend time with friends and prepare for the next adventure. We are slowly packing, trying to figure out how we are going to bring all of your gifts home and starting to get very excited for our five days in Thaiand as well. We celebrated New Year's eve with some of our friends and went to the 'Brazilian Barbecue', a buffett type restaurant where they brought different kinds of meat to your table, pork, steak, crab wrapped in bacon, so it was quite the treat and fun to spend time with friends ringing in the New Year. Most schools and businesses were closed for the two day holiday, but the real celebration in China takes place in February during the Chinese New Year which we will unfortunately miss. This past Wednesday we were able to do someting we have wanted to do since we arrived in Nanning...go to the zoo! The zoo in Nanning was a lot of fun and interesting to see the types of animals they have here. We even saw a dolphin show and an elephant and monkey show. The highlight of the show was the bears and monkeys that came racing out on their ten speed bikes zooming around the arena in circles! Seeing the elephants made us excited to ride them when we are in Thailand.

Beautiful purple flowers blooming in January!

anothe view of the park

After a few more days of relaxing and hanging with friends, enjoying doing nothing, we also visited the Green Mountain Park here in Nanning. It was a huge park full of open fields, forests, temples and other things. We didn't have time to see everything, but we enjoyed throwing the football and frisbee around with friends and then taking a minibus ride, that felt like a rollercoaster ride, around the park. We plan to go back and maybe even eat at the restaurant in the park. That's pretty much been our week. We don't really know where all the time went, but we have been spending a lot of time doing nothing, we watched the whole first season of 'Heroes' in three days and even bought a wii (nintendo game system) and have been playing that together. We are counting down the days until we get to see each of you and are excited to tell you more about the friends and adventures we have had here in China. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy

Our Last English Corner, Holiday Break, and "the Repairman was very SICK!"

2007-12-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

What a Day Friends and Family,

Last night was our final English corner at the college with some games and laughter. Before students showed up, the foreign Engish teachers were talking about the upcoming week and what days we thought we had off for the New Year Holiday. We all had different information about the days off. Ryan and I were told that we had Monday and Tuesday off but we needed to teach on Saturday to make up for Monday classes. They do this so that they have the days off consecutively together even if that means teaching during the weekend. But then they asked us to switch our afternoon class to Friday so that we could attend a English corner at the Middle school on Saturday. We said okay but then the college called back saying that we don't have to make up our classes on Saturday at all. Great! But the next day we talked she told us that we did not have to teach at all next week so that the students can study for the final tests. Okay, then! Then she said that the English corner at the Middle school was canceled. So that means that we don't have anything for a week in a half and we only have to give our finals the last week in a half that we are here. A week ago we didn't even know that we had Monday and Tuesday off but now we have a week in a half off. We're glad to have the time off to enjoy relaxing and hanging out with friends. Since we didn't know that we had this time off some of our students don't know what groups they are in for their final so somehow we need to contact those classes. Before the finals, we hope to take some pictures of each of our classes as a memory of each class. I'm really going to miss my students and the fun times we have had together in growing and sharing special qualities we have to offer. My students have been so wonderful to Ryan and I. I hope that they know how much they mean to me. I told one student that we will not return next term and she teared up. I really hope that we can stay in contact but a lot of my students don't have email, they don't have as much resources to computers as we do. My students have impacted my life and I cherish the times we had together.

--Kealy with one of her students and Elaine, a teacher from the Phillipines--

--Elaine, Kealy, Ryan and Appiah, a teacher from Ghana--

--Kealy with more students--

--Kealy and Appiah doing Kung Fu!--

Today we hung out with some true friends that we care about very much. We enjoyed bowling together on the sixth forth of a building in downtown Nanning. They even had shoes that fit Ryan and the other guys. We had a great time, it felt like bowling in the states. It's truly amazing the people God brings into our lives and the connections that can be made so quickly and unconditionally. The families we have come to know and love will always be close to our hearts and the times we have shared. We truly feel loved and accepted for who we are by our wonderful friends here in China. Later, we went to a Pizza Buffet that was greatly enjoyed and it even had free drink refills, which is extremely rare in China.

--Ryan staying warm in front of our new space heater--

Before we left for todays outing we had an experience here at home with our toilet. Our Western toilet was placed on top of the Eastern toilet leaving a small hole for our shower water to drain into. One of us flushed the toilet today and had a great surpise when our toilet backfired and stuff came flying out of the small hole from underneath our toilet, filling upour bathroom floor. We thought since it was coming from the Eastern part of the toilet maybe it was clogged so we descided to flush the Eastern part of the toilet but that only filled up the Western toilet with the unspeakabe. Let's just say it was hard to eat our next meal. So we called our landlord and they said they would fix it while we were out. When we got hope we found a note in the door expressing their concerns, the note said, "The toilet is ok now. But it was really very dirty this time. so much so that the repairman felt very sick. They want to give you some advice in case it happens again." And then they listed four suggestions on how to prevent toilet cloggage. We laughed really hard for a long time and are still chuckling as we write this. We feel really bad for the repair guy but the sewer system is a little different then what we are used too. Why would stuff come flying out of a hole in the ground when you flush? What a day in China. We are so glad that they came and fixed it.

What will tomorrow bring? We will keep you posted!

Love,
Kealy and Ryan

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year--ETA January 25th

2007-12-26T19:23:00.019-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas! We hope that your last few days have been filled with love and joy as you celebrate together. We have missed being near you during the holidays. We had a wonderful time here with our friends, relaxing together and enjoying the peace and joy of Christmas. We also had some wonderful and amazing food and our now rested with belly's full. We are stocked up on candy as well for rest of our stay here in China. Speaking of our stay here in China, we have purchased plane tickets back to Oregon and will be arriving home at 7 AM on the morning of January 25th. We are excited to be home and see all of you but we are also trying to take the most of the time we have left we so many wonderful friends here and students as well. We have only a week and a half left of regular classes and then two weeks of testing and then we will be off to the Dolphin Bay Resort in Hua Hin, Thailand for five days of relaxation and rest before returning home. We hope to ride elephants, ride moped, kayak and walk on the beach during our stay at the resort on the beach. It has been getting colder here so we are looking forward to the tropics of Thailand, but we also bought a space heater here and have been sitting next to it the last few days, watching movies we received for Christmas, as well as a video of the Wolves and my talented brother Mark, playing football, which has been a great treat. We will keep you posted as we continue to prepare for 're-entry' and can't wait to see all of you soon. Here are some pictures from our holidays here in Nanning.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Kealy with the staff of the salon where we go to get our hair washed (about twice a week)

Kealy with some of the wonderful gifts we received on Christmas from home and from ME!

One of our new best friends here in Nanning

Kealy and I with cameras ready on Christmas morning

Merry Christmas Day One--2 feasts in 2 hours and 'I want to sit next to the pretty girl'

2007-12-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We are trying our best to enjoy the Christmas holidays here away from you and creating new/different experiences while we are here. So Christmas will be in a three day installment for us while we are here. After a wonderful time with friends earlier today and a great Sunday afternoon nap, we got dressed up and went to the nicest restaurant with the best food around...Pizza Hut!!! Kealy wore a beautiful skirt and I put on a tie and suitcoat for the first time since arriving in China. We went to Pizza Hut and had a great feast with Pizza, soup, dessert and many other great foods fit for a king. We had a great time talking and sharing about Christmas' in the past and enjoyed each others company.

After arriving home from our delicious feast we got a call from our friends here at the middle school and they invited us to a christmas dinner they were having at one of the local coffee shops. We decided to go and wound up having another incredible feast. They barbecued corn, beef, chicken and had popcorn and icecream too. We had fun talking with many of their friends who are Chinese nationals. We talked about Christmas and they shared some Chinese words with us while we shared some more English words with them. They are enamored with Kealy's smile and told her tonight they she looks like, 'the beautiful women we see in the movies!' One of them named YaYa sat down next to Kealy and said 'I want to sit next to the pretty girl!'

Ryan enjoying one of our four meals of the day. Normally we don't eat this much:0)

Its been a busy and wonderful last week with lots of chances to spend time with friends and the next two days while be just as wonderful as we continue to celebrate Christmas here with our 'adopted' family. Santa Claus arrives for Kealy and I tonight and tomorrow morning we are going to open our Christmas gifts from family and each other. We hope the anticipation and excitement of Christmas is reaching your hearts as well. After our second feast it was cold walking home so we decided to skip the rest of the way. It was fun, but we forgot we were extremely full and hadn't exercised in four months!!! Have a great day...talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Hibernation and the joy of teaching

2007-12-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We've had a lot of fun this week playing Christmas games with our students, giving away lollipops and sharing the Christmas story. As you can tell from Kealy's jacket over her pajamas, the weather is getting colder here and we are finding ourselves more apt to be covered in blankets indoors watching West Wing than out and about doing too much. Although sometimes our concrete walls and tile floors are not great insulators and tonight it is actually warmer outside than in. We have been spending time with other friends in their warm apartments this week and they are sharing their Christmas goodies with us...peanut butter fudge, home made cookies with real chocolate chips and we shared our almond roca stash with them as well.

This evening we had our weekly English corner at the college and I (Ryan) had a nice time talking with some of my students and even got to expand on the Christmas story with some of them, which was really fun. While I was talking with my students I saw about six students walk up to Kealy and pull her out of the group she was in and they took her to the corner where they handed her a gift bag of Christmas presents from one of her classes. The bag was full of gifts and when we arrived home Kealy opened the bag. Inside was a Santa Snoopy that was really cute, a Santa and House snow globe, two suckers, Chinese friendship knots and a notebook. Inside the notebook, each student in her class had written a special note to Kealy, wishing her Merry Christmas, gluing pictures to their note, and telling her how beautiful her smile is and what a great teacher she is. The last note expressed the hope that we could share the notebook with people in America as well. It was a wonderful gift that has to be one of the best parts of teaching and a meaningful gift, when students write you to show their appreciation.

We have one class left each tomorrow and then it is a four day Christmas Vacation!!! The college gave us Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off without penalty and we are celebrating Christmas over the next four days with the college, each other and some of our wonderful friends here in Nanning who have adopted us for this Christmas away from you. We will keep you posted on our celebration festivities and hope that you are continuing to prepare your heart to celebrate Christmas, too. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

4 Days of Shopping, 9 Christmas Parties, And a partridge in a pear tree

2007-12-17T04:44:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We apologize for the expansive passage of time between our consecutive posts. Apparently the Christmas season here is busy as well. We have been enjoying preparing and buying gifts for friends, family and each other during this time. This past weekend we canvassed the town of Nanning searching for gifts. We always enjoy buying gifts for each other and friends and so we had fun time. Some of the places we went even had Christmas decorations up, which made our mood all the more festive. We were surprised how many stores had christmas trees in windows or santas in the shop. After four days of shopping its safe to say that I (Ryan) am tired and Kealy is just getting started! This week for our college classes we are throwing each of our nine classes Christmas Parties! We are playing games and sharing the story of Christmas. We have played Christmas bingo, Scattegories and sang the Twelve Days of Christmas and showed American decorations such as stockings and ornaments that have been sent to us from home. The students laughed when the bottom of one of the ornaments mailed to us from America said 'Made in China'. We have also obtained 'VIP' status at the local Pizza Hut. Now they know which booth we like to sit at (second floor, by the big window) what we order (onion rings, curly fries and the super supreme pizza), and we get free gifts or prizes too! It has been fun going in there often as a couple of students work their as well.

Our one big announcement is that, after a lot of prayer and discussion with each other, family and friends, we have decided not to renew our contract with the college here and return to Oregon sometime in late We have loved our time in China immensely and have learned many things, made new friends, developing a deeper love for our world and for America and grown closer together in our marriage and our faith. We feel that God is calling us back to Oregon to embark on a new adventure after completing the goals and experiences that we desired to have (as well as experiencing a lot of unexpected things) while in China. It will be hard to leave our friends here and the slower paced schedule of this interesting culture, but we are excited for the future, whatever it might be. We are not sure exactly what God has planned for our next adventure. I have applied for a position working with youth at our church in Salem, but a decision has not been made about that. Kealy will most likely spend some time substitute teaching, but that is as much as we know. Please continue to pray for us as we explore options and share our decisions with the college and our friends here. It will be hard for them to hear and hard for us to leave them after such a short time together. But we are so very excited to return to Oregon with new perspectives and ideas and an excitement and enthusiasm for whatever the next step might be. We also look forward very much to seeing each of you and sharing our experiences with you. Thank you for your love and support. We'll continue to keep you posted.Talk to you soon.

Good Health and Electric Bike Adventures

2007-12-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and family,

Just wanted to let you know that my dear wife is feeling better and is on the road to recovery. We had a fantastic time yesterday (Friday) with some friends here celebrating their daughter's one year old birthday party. A one year old birthday party is a very big deal in China, even more so than in the U.S., because the infant mortality rate here can be very high, so it was a special day and we were honored to be a part of it. Not only did we get to attend the party but we got to help set up ahead of time. We arrived at the apartment approximately 4 hours before it started and my first task was to go to the supermarket to pick up eggs, apples, plates, chips and forks for the party. I could have taken a taxi, but our friend had a electric bike that he said I could ride to the supermarket and back. So I hopped on for my first adventure of controlling my own transportation in China. Now, the one rule in China when it comes to traffic is that there ARE NO RULES. Not everyone really obeys the stop lights, no one puts blinkers on and NO ONE looks before changing langes. Luckily for me, the supermarket wasn't far and there was a seperate lane for motor and electric bikes. So I aggressively swerved in and out of lanes and dodged pedestrians and potholes through the streets of Nanning. I made it to the supermarket and went to park the bike outside. After the guy watching the bikes had to help me put the kickstand up on the bike, I finally found the door that led my inside the supermarket.

The supermarkets in China are an adventure in themselves. And for someone like me, with spatial oritentation disabilities, it was disarming and destabilizing. The initial entry into the supermarket doesn't feed you into an open area where you can see all of your options and pick your row, but rather weaves you in and out of different 'mini-stores' selling tea or medicine until you get past the electronics and household appliances and finally reach the food. Again, I have problems at supermarkets in the U.S. without my wife and she was busy helping back at the apartment so I was on my own. I was able to find the apples in the produce section, no problem. Then, after realizing the eggs were in plastic wrappers, not in cartons, I found those as well. The plates I had bought before so that was a breeze. But the...oh yes...I also had oil on my list. I finally found the oil aisle (say that ten times fast) and saw a row of different colors, shapes and sizes of oil. I think I called my friend who I was picking up the items for maybe six times while at the supermarket and he was starting to wonder if I would return at all... ever. But I found the oil that was 'about a gallon, with the picture of the fish and corn on it' after about ten minutes and victoriously headed towards the checkout counter when I realized I hadn't found forks yet. I went back to the area with the paper plates but the forks weren't next to them. I tried to ask a worker at the supermarket if they had forks, but my chinese is not so good, so i said 'chopsticks' in Chinese, which I knew, then tried to explain that it was forks i needed. After awhile of her thinking I was a crazy foreigner with no language skills, she said a word I recognized as forks and I said, 'Dui' which means, 'correct'. She said 'me you' which means, 'we don't have'. Exhausted and saddened, I phoned my friend for the seventh time and informed him of the bad news. 'But alas,' we conspired, Wal-Mart was new and next to their apartment. So I got to make two trips on the electric bike. After buying the goods, getting the kick stand back up (with help again from the guard) I navigated my way back to their apartment (again difficult with my spatial orientation disability) and set out for wal-mart. I arrived at wal-mart and the plate and utensil section I found with ease. But as I combed through the plastic utensils, I realized that they only had one packet of forks and the rest were spoons. The packets had eight forks and our friends were expecting fifty people, so eight forks would not be enough. I again, with my awful Chinese, tried to ask the worker where the rest of the forks were hidden from foreigners in desperate need of them, but of course, she couldn't understand me, and I think she began to try and explain to me that forks and spoons are the same thing. We came to an impass in our language exchange, and while she made a valiant effort, I realized my mission for forks had failed. But to the rescue came our flexible and forgiving friends who I called for the eigth time and they said, 'the spoons will work and buy chopsticks too'! Crisis averted, the world was saved and I returned triumphantly to the apartment, we set up tables and chairs and the party was a big success. It was fun to be a part of and see so many foreigners and nationals celebrating a birthday together. The food was outstanding and the friendships even better and I can now check off my list of transportation experiences in China; riding an electric bike through randomly dangerous traffic to the supermarket and sitting on a chair in the back of a truck delivering tables and chairs to apartments for the party. What a day!!! Thanks for listening. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Kealy and the birthday girl!

Back Online!

2007-12-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Sorry we have been radio silent for so long. On Saturday night our time, they added cable TV to our apartment complex, but accidentally cut the internet wire, so we have been 'disconnected' to the world for the past four days. We are finally 'alive' again, though, and able to talk and e-mail and post blogs. It was weird not being connected to everyone in the states, we definitely felt like we were in a different country and culture then. It has been a pretty 'normal' week here in Nanning. The weather is a steady 60-70 degrees with an occassional cool breeze. We are beginning to teach our students some Christmas songs and different Christmas customs, like decorating Christmas trees. On Tuesday night, our National friends, Celia and Amy, came up to our apartment and we played games together which was a lot of fun. Amy put on one of our santa hats, then brought up the fake tree from her parents apartment and decorated it in our living room. It was a lot of fun playing games together and we shared some English and Chinese words while playing. Unfortunately, this morning my precious wife starting feeling a bit ill and has continued to not feel well for the whole day. She has been in bed trying to rest, but has been nauseas and vomiting most of the day. Please be 'thinking' about her and 'mentioning' her to our mutual friend whenever you think of us these next couple of days. We are blessed to have a friend here who is a doctor and he is giving good advice, but its no fun watching the one you love the most feel this way, so please be thinking about Kealy today. We love you all and we are so glad we are connected to you again. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Weekend Plans

2007-11-30T03:02:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, after two weekends straight of traveling all over China, we're ready for a weekend of doing nothing! Well actually, we're not going to do nothing, we're going to eat junk food and watch movies all weekend. As you can see below, we were able to track down all kinds of snacks and movies all over Nanning this afternoon. The lineup includes: All three Indiana Jones movies, License to Wed, Night at the Museum, Stardust, Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean. Our refreshments include Snickers, Pringles, Doritos, Mentos, Oreos, Sprite and Pepsi! We may explode from a sugar overdose...we'll have someone notify you if it happens. Hope you all have a relaxing weekend before the rush of the holiday season is upon us. Don't forget to root for the WOU Wolves this weekend in the Rotary Bowl in St. George Utah! Gotta go! License to Wed is up first! Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

HMMMMMMM....looks good! Why don't you treat yourself too?

Truth

2007-11-27T02:18:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is nearing with songs amoung us and decorations glowing. We celebrate a day that is truly amazing, yet many people only hear the songs and see the decorations that look so pretty but they don't know the Truth. I enjoy the music and the decorations, but my heart aches knowing the Truth isn't among everyone or it gets overseen by the worldly decorations. Everyone doesn't get the opportunity to hear up front the Truth throughout the world. Please be thinking of others during this season of Christmas for the opportunities to be shared about the Light. Famliy and Friends, how fortunate you are in the freedom you have.

Please be thinking of people around the world and the Truth that means everything.

Traveling has been full of wonderful experiences but even more than that I have seen the need for the Truth in this world. May it come soon, to every ear and every heart.

Sincerely,
Kealy Thorson

Weekend with friends---Yangshou

2007-11-26T03:10:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, like we had mentioned, we had a great time in a city called Yangshou with friends this weekend. We spent three days in the small tourist town in the Northern part of Guangxi province. Yangshou is a popular tourist destination and backpacker's mecca, once visited even by former President Bill Clinton. Ever since we have arrived in China, our students have asked us if we have visited this area, so it will be nice to tell them that we now have. An added bonus was the opportunity to travel with very good friends that we have made since we've been in Nanning. They were great travel companions and it was fun to experience this part of China together. We stayed in a hotel just off a busy shopping street with restaurants and vendors, overlooking the famous Li River, which was more like a stream at this time of year, but nonetheless beautiful. We had a great time wandering the streets, buying souvenirs, had some great hot chocolate at a nearby cafe and watched some beautiful sunsets and moon rises. We also took a bike trip out into the Yangshou countryside, with unique mountain formations, beautiful rivers and orange groves. One evening, we also took a tour and watched cormorants fishing at night. We rode alongside a boat while we watched the cormorants fish. The spotlight was so bright that you could see them chase the fish in the water and the cormorants even perched on our arms at one point. We also experienced trains in China for the first time. They are much smoother than buses and it was nice to sit with friends and play games and snack on food as the countryside passed by. The train ride was long, but would have been much longer without fun people to be with.

A scene on the beautiful countryside bike ride

The Li River

We are tired now from two weekends straight of traveling. We are going to relax this week and enjoy more parts of Nanning, as well as continuing to foster relationships with friends and students. We hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and are earnestly preparing for Christmas. Have a great day. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

We're Back! We're Alive! Good Night!

2007-11-25T06:30:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We have arrived back from our exciting weekend in Yangshou. We had a great time with our friends, saw some beautiful scenery and enjoyed some fantastic hot chocolate. We'll get you more info tomorrow, but we're beat and need to sleep so...we'll talk to you soon. Have a great day.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Thanksgiving Love

2007-11-22T06:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We miss you all on this special day and we hope that your day is filled with love and with family. It is hard to be so far away from you during this time, but each of you are in our thoughts and prayers and we are thankful for your love and support while we are on this adventure. We had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving day here, as we are ahead on the time schedule, so our Thanksgiving day is over and its time for the Christmas Season to begin. This morning, we spent time decorating our apartment with lights and decorations. We had fun playing Christmas music and trying to make our little temporary home here feel Christmasy. We had hot chocolate and are about to watch a Christmas movie to start the season.

We are very blessed to have met some wonderful people here who invited us to join them for a Thanksgiving feast. Along with 30 or so other adults and children, we each chipped in and had a true American Thanksgiving meal. There was turkey, apple pie, pumpkin pie, cookies, mashed potatoes and many other dishes that made it a very special meal. Each of the people we have gotten to know are so very kind and loving and they feel so much like family already. It was enjoyable to spend time with them. We even each went around the room and said what we were thankful for, also a Thorson and Thornberry tradition. A lot of the kids are affectionately calling us 'shoe shoe' and 'aie' which mean, 'uncle and aunt' in Chinese. We enjoy the kids just as much as the adults! As we were leaving tonight, one of the boys even asked 'Where is Kealy Aie?' And when I tease him or tickle him he says, 'Stop it, Shoe Shoe!' We had a great time, although it was hard being away from home today, we were still able to enjoy spending time with friends that feel like family.

Tomorrow we are hopping on a train and leaving for a popular tourist destination with some of the friends mentioned above. We are going to a town called Yangshuo, Northeast of here about five hours by train. The scenery should be beautiful and it will be a relaxing weekend, strolling the tourist streets looking for souvenirs and enjoying the famous and beautiful Li River. We are also hoping to watch Cormorants fishing at night and maybe even take a bamboo raft down a part of the river. It will also be very fun to simply spend time with some friends that we enjoy being with so much.

We'll be radio silent for a few days, but we hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving celebration. We miss you, we love you, and we are so very thankful for your friendship and support. Happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Hanging with Celebs!

2007-11-20T21:25:00.003-08:00

Hello Friends and family,

Here are some more pictures from our Hong Kong Trip!

Ryan with Brad and Angelina

Kealy with the Commander-in-Chief

Wow! Yao is tall.

Kealy ready to get down and dirty!

Kealy shopping for souvenirs at the Ladies Market

Some beautiful flowers on a street corner

Kealy and Mr. Jones

Ryan's best karate stance

Hong Kong skyline at night

More views from the harbour

The hustle and bustle of Hong Kong

Talk to you soon,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Leaving Our Footprints in Hong Kong

2007-11-19T03:51:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We're back and still alive from our weekend in Hong Kong! We had a great time. It was a wonderful weekend and we enjoyed Hong Kong very much. It was so nice to be just another foreigner and blend in with people from all over the world; chinese, american, european, indian, middle eastern, african, all could be seen on the same street corner in Hong Kong, a truly international city! We highly recommend Hong Kong as a place to see on the globe!

Of course, our 'structured, but flexible' schedule turned out to be more flexible than structured at first. Our flight out of Nanning was delayed for two and a half hours, causing us to arrive at the border of Mainland China and Hong Kong after the border had already closed for the night. Fortunately, there were a handful of cheap hotels near the border, so we found one with no bugs or rats and hopped in bed for a quick snooze.

The next morning we got up early, crossed over the Chinese border, went through the Hong Kong border, then caught a train to Kowloong (the island north of Hong Kong island) then a taxi over to the university where our friend was staying. We were able to meet her and talk for a little while, but it is close to finals for her, so she hopped on the bus with us, took us downtown and dropped us off. There we were in one of the world's largest cities and we had no map or plan, but we did have no fear! We were looking forward to exploring a large city and of course, the people on the street spoke English and the signs were in English too. We wandered the city, enjoying the gigantic skyscrapers, some 70 to 80 stories high! We strolled around the city, enjoying the fantastic weather and the cool breeze. After lunch, we walked up the hill a ways and caught the Victoria Peak Tram. Hong Kong Island is on a mountain and a tram or trolley was built in the 1800s that will take you up to the top of the mountain and you can look down on one of the world's most recognizable skylines. We got up to the top and were blessed with little fog and no clouds. The view was fantastic and we enjoyed the quietness and romantic scenery. The area was quite touristy, which was fun because there were a lot of different people there, as well as Haagen Daas icecream and a wax museum that we explored and could take pictures with the world's celebrities!

Kealy atop Victoria Peak

HMMMMMMM...Haagen Daas

Sunset in Hong Kong

We watched the sunset, then enjoyed the skyline in the dark, then caught the trolley down, had a nice chat with a couple from Holland who were traveling through China, but wish they were traveling in America the second time because they absolutely loved America. They couldn't believe how nice everyone was in America!

We met Cathy and her boyfriend for dinner in a hustle and bustle restaurant in the middle of downtown Hong Kong. The food was okay, but we had a great time with them talking and enjoying the crowd, then afterward we walked the city and went to an area which was almost exclusively a place where foreigners hung out, so we enjoyed slipping into the crowd there. We also had our second icecream of the day at Ben and Jerry's! We then went back to our room and massaged our sore feet!

Hong Kong's tallest building in the back; the international finance center and a world war one and two memorial in the foreground.

one of the many forms of transportation in Hong Kong; double decker skinny trams!

On Saturday we slept in and got a slow start. We then went back downtown for a few hours and did some more serious shopping for souvenirs and gifts. There were lots of side alleys with shops and markets in between stores like Giorgio Armani and Gucci. In the afternoon, we took a harbour ferry to the island of Kowloon. On the tip of Kowloon is an area called Tsim Sha Tsui. It is the home of Hong Kong Hollywood and we walked the harbour and put our hands in Jackie Chan's handprints on the avenue of stars. The Hong Kong island skyline was also a sight to see both during the day and at night from the other side of the harbour. We also caught a subway to the 'Ladies Market'. Even larger shops and markets with a ton of people. It was almost suffocating at times, but we still enjoyed the shopping and the bright neon lights which are Hong Kong. We snuck into a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant for dinner and the table and seats were barely big enough for us to fit into but we enjoyed the authenticity of it. We bought some I LOVE HONG KONG t-shirts and headed back to the harbour area for the symphony of lights, when the Hong Kong skyline puts on a laser light show using the buildings and also, all of the malls had gigantic and extensive Christmas decorations already up, so that was fun to see. We went back early and grabbed snacks at one of the many 7/11s and enjoyed English TV and watched a documentary on Crocodiles.

Our last day in Hong Kong we slept in a little again, then hunted down Subway for our final meal. We have been craving sandwiches with Turkey and Ham, two things impossible to find on the mainland, and at last we found the one Subway in Hong Kong. We each enjoyed our sandwiches and people-watched for an hour or so. We finished our souvenir and gift shopping and, having just a little money left, found Starbuck's! We sat in comfy chairs, sipped our coffe and listened to Christmas music. A lot of the restaurants and cafes in Hong Kong are on the second or third floor away from the road and people so we sat at a window on the second floor and watched the people some more. It was then time to head home, plus we were out of money, except for a little money to purchase the Christmas CD we heard in Starbuck's! We caught a bus to Kowloon, then a train to the border, crossed both borders, then a bus to Shenzhen, then we waited for our flight, had a good flight, then caught a bus from a friend back to downtown Nanning, then a taxi finally to home! I think we covered all the modes of transportation minus horse and motorcycle! We probably walked 15-17 miles over the weekend and have the blisters to prove it, but we feel like we saw a lot of the city and we enjoyed just about every minute of it. It was great to see a big city, blend in with other foreigners and enjoy some of the foods we used to take for granted in the states.

We are teaching this weekend and sharing about Thanksgiving Day with our students. They are very curious about the holiday and its history so it is fun and a good opportunity to share with them. More about that later. For now, we'll talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A Weekend in the Big City

2007-11-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Sorry we've been slow-posters. Its been a busy week, getting ready for our trip to Hong Kong this weekend. We're actually on our way out the door right now, to lunch, then one more class, then we catch a taxi to the airport. But we wouldn't to give you our structured, but flexible itinerary for the weekend:

Friday:
Morning-Take bus to Aberdeen and explore harbour and city
Lunch-Take boat ride to floating restaurant in Aberdeen
Afternoon-Head back to Hong Kong central and take peak tram to top of Victoria Peak
Evening-Explore Victoria Peak and watch sunset, then dinner in Soho or Central Hong Kong

Saturday:
Morning-Explore Hong Kong Park, St. John's Cathedral and Central
Lunch-Downtown in Central
Afternoon-Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui and explore Promenade, Avenue of Stars, Golden Mile
Dinner-Restaurant on Tsim Sha Tsui
Evening-Watch Symphony of Light from Tsim Sha Tsui then take ferry back to Central

Sunday:
Morning-Go to 43rd floor of China Bank Tower for view of city, Explore Central
Lunch-Sheung Wan
Afternoon-Explore Sheung Wan, Back to Hong Kong University to explore and pack things
Dinner-Sheung Wan area
7:00-Catch bus to Shenzhen airport
11:00-Fly to Nanning

There it is. We look forward to getting some pictures up. Have a great weekend and we'll talk to you soon!

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Hong Kong Here We Come!

2007-11-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

Ryan and his Friday class

Hello Friends and Family,

As the title of the blog suggests, its true! We just bought two plane tickets to Hong Kong! Actually, we're flying into a city called Shenzhen, then taking a bus over the border to Hong Kong. The president of the college's daughter goes to school there and she helped us arrange coming here when we were still in Oregon and she has invited us to stay with her on the campus of Hong Kong University. We are going to fly out next Thursday and stay through the weekend. We are looking forward to seeing a big city of China and such a famous international place. If anyone has any recommendations on things we should see (or gifts to bring back), let us know!

We had a good time this evening together. Celia, Joe and Amy invited us for dinner called 'hotpot'. Similar to fondue, but any kind of vegetable or meat or tofu is thrown into a boiling stew and you eat as you go. It was fun trying different kinds of mushrooms, tofu and vegetables and they are always fun to talk with. Amy, the five year old daughter, even let me play her little kid electronic game so I could practice my Chinese.

Celia and her daughter, Amy

After dinner, the high school students here where we live were having a English performance and speech competition. Each class sang two songs, one in English and one in Chinese. Popular English songs were, "Loving You', 'You are my sunshine', 'Venus', You raise me up', and 'I can be your hero'! Then, different students would give speeches about friendship. We helped judge the competition and we were supposed to give scores from 1 to 10. So I gave scores of 7.35976, just for fun (hehe) It was fun seeing some of the students we have gotten to know here at the school a little bit. At the end of the competition, some sweet break dancers did a little number that was phenomenal!

On our way up to our apartment, we were ready for some Oreos and to watch the Unit. But you have to be on guard in China, because the second you relax, something crazy will happen. Our porch light was out, so we tried to open our door and we could see the keyhole. After fumbling around, Kealy asked me to try and I thought, in my manly pride, that I could rescue the day and get us into our apartment. Instead, I broke the key off inside the lock and the handle to the outside of the door fell off! We had a good laugh and Amy and Celia came up and laughed at me too, a humbling, but fun lesson. Amy even used the broken door handle as a phone and we talked in Chinese/English for a little while. Anyways, hope you have a great day. talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Silent Night

2007-11-07T06:05:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Its Wednesday here and Wednesdays have become our 'date night'. We try to have a night to ourselves once a week out on the town where we can explore. So tonight, we took the bus downtown and stopped at McD's for dinner, then went for a walk and wound up at Wal-Mart. We came back to the school and the whole block was pitch dark. The power had been out since this afternoon so all we saw were a sea of orange candles glowing. We decided to go for a walk around the block, since our apartment would be dark and we didn't have candles. After negotiating the rocky road, we stumbled upon a park where there were men and women dancing to music. Someone must have had a portable stereo, so we sat and watched people dancing in the middle of China on a silent night and looked at the stars, pretty unintentionally romantic! We have had a busy week here testing our students. It has been tedious, but fun too, sitting down with each of our 400 students each and learning how we can better teach English to them. Most of them just need more work on their pronounciation. They don't use gender distinictions in Chinese either, so a lot of the students call their father she's and their mother he's, but they are getting better. This past weekend was very low key, we went to a french restaurant with Americans in China on Friday. Quite the international night and the food wasn't half bad, no french fries, though! We're hooked on the show 'The Unit' now, after finishing Prison Break in two weeks. This weekend we are thinking about doing some more shopping at the bird and flower market and maybe even going to the zoo here in Nanning. Supposedly they have dolphins! We'll keep you posted. Have a great day.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Aye, Aye Captain!

2007-11-01T07:08:00.001-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Hope you had a safe Halloween! The weather continues to feel more and more like home each day...cold and rainy! Its more like a drizzle, of course, just like Oregon. We are not sure if it will continue or not but we are enjoying it while it lasts. So today we stayed inside and wore sweatpants and sweatshirts, drank hot choclate, and finished season 2 of Prison Break! Then tonight, we went to our weekly English corner at the college. We are always so nervous and not that excited to go, but every time we go, we have a lot of fun. It is tiring and a little intense with 20-30 Chinese students surrounding you for two hours, but we are learning to concentrate on one person at a time and really feel like we are developing some good relationships and they are asking good questions. We are also getting a lot of the same students each week which is great for building deeper relationships. We always look forward to a cold bottle of water afterwards as well. Two of Kealy's students we have become particularly fond of. They have given me the nickname 'captain' and everytime I see them, they stop and salute and say 'Aye, Aye Captain!' Its quite funny.

Tonight we were talking with the same studnets about bus etiquette in China and how, when the bus is crowded in China and a woman or elderly person or a foreigner gets on the bus, young men will get up and give them their seat. So Wei Ching, or Cola (his english name) told us a funny joke we thought we would share with you:

There was a young Chinese man sitting on a crowded bus in China. A young foreign woman got on the bus and was standing up, as there was nowhere to sit. At the next stop the man tried to get up and the woman put her hand on him and kept him from standing up. Five minutes later at the next stop, he tried to get up again and the woman put her hand on his shoulder and kept him down. A third time, five minutes later, the young man tried to get up again. The woman put her hand on his shoulder and said, 'where I come from, men and women are equal!' The young man replied, 'Hey lady, I've been trying to get off the bus for the last three stops!' (HaHaHa)

The other funny joke we've heard from a couple of Chinese students is, 'what is the only thing with four legs that Chinese won't eat...a table!" or, the alternative from Paul Lopez...two americans!

Hopefully those brightened your day. All the students were amazed to find out tonight that Kealy and I dated in High School, and even more surpised/shocked to learn that we got married in college! It is not allowed in colleges in China for men and women to get married, they have to focus on their studies or be 21 if they are not in college. Though they do have girlfriends and are quite silly about dating. One student told Kealy tonight, 'I have been struck by Cupid's arrow!' But he was too shy to tell her the name of the girl he liked. "She is one of your students," he said. When Kealy asked for the girl's name, he leaned in and said, "All in good time, Ms. Kealy."

Have a great day. Here's some pictures of Kealy teaching. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Kealy with the college behind her

Kealy and one of her classes

Happy Halloween--Its finally winter!

2007-10-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

The whole group wishing you a Happy Halloween!
Hello Friends and Family,
Well, I think today was the first day since we've been here that it was below 70 degrees! It was a beautiful 'Oregon' day. Cold with a constant drizzle! We felt right at home. So we celebrating by hopping on the bus downtown and walking about a mile to McDonalds (we figured we would exercise before we ate fast food) and we had a wonderful day wearing long sleeve shirts and sweat pants. Hope you all have a safe Holiday. Here are the promised pictures from last night.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy

SuperLee and E.T. performing a song for everyone!

A whole lot of smiles--Kealy and her students

The Tough Boys!

Kealy and the girls making 'jiao tze' (dumplings/potstickers)

Dinner for 15-A night with college students

2007-10-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Tonight we had 12 of Kealy's students over to our apartment for DINNER! We always loved having people over to our apartments in the states, but we were a little nervous about tonight, to be honest, hoping they would like the food we cooked, that we had enough, what would we talk about, what we do, etc. But the night was a complete success! We had one of our best times in China so far and so many hilarious things happened they are too many to count. It was relaxing and fun and the students were so kind and even brought some food and cooked some dumplings for us and with us. They said that this is what families cook together so we are family now! A Chinese tradition is cook two coins into two of the dumplings and if you bite into your dumpling and you have a coin, then you will recieve good luck. A little risky, but fun nonetheless. Kealy and I cooked them spaghetti with meat sauce, potatoes and eggs, and we introduced them to apples dipped in peanut butter! They loved the peanut butter. One student stole the bowl at the end and ate the rest, he liked it so much, his chopsticks were covered with peanut butter. We also taught them UNO and had fun playing a couple of rounds of UNO. Some students showed Kealy their pictures and we showed them pictures on our computer of you guys! We took a lot of pictures and video and they even sang some songs for us while one of them played a guitar. They sang us, Enrique Inglesias 'I can be your hero!' and Avril Lavigne, two popular artists here in China, and the girls also sang a beautiful Chinese song to us. We all laughed a lot and had a great time. Kealy and I also sang them a song...'Lean On Me'! We bought some Chinese candy for the evening to celebrate Halloween and we were explaining to them how kids dressed up in costumes and went around to people's houses asking for candy. Kealy rushed out the door with something in her hand and shut the door. She knocked and I opened the door and this is what we saw:

Kealy shouted 'trick or treat!' and all the students laughed for a long time. They also brought Kealy some special necklaces as gifts of appreciation for teaching them English and inviting them to our home. One necklace is for safety and the other is for everlasting friendship.

We're having some problems getting some pictures onto the web right now! Chinese internet! We'll try to get some other pictures from tonight later.

They were all so kind and it was so much fun to hang out with them outside of school. We had a great time together! Hope you have a great Halloween! Be safe, talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A Trip to the NEW Bird and Flower Market with a crowd of white people

2007-10-28T03:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Just wanted to continue to keep you update on our weekend activities. We had a good day today, it was beautiful weather and we could actually see blue sky! Pretty rare in the humid and cloudy south. We had the chance to go to lunch with our pizza hut friends plus a couple more at a restaurant in an area of Nanning that we had never explored before; a new bird and flower market with shops and restaurants in ancient Chinese style buildings. When you got to eat with large groups in China, you can get your own private room so you don't have to compete with the noise. So we had a nice air conditioned room where the kids could play (five of them) and we ordered different kinds of food like fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, pork and eggplant, which kind of tastes liked mashed potatoes. We had a nice time and I even got to hold the pizza hut baby, the 10 month old daughter of our pizza hut friends. She likes to dance on my lap and buzz her lips, its pretty cute:

Me with the pizza hut girl and our other new friend

After lunch we walked around the different shops and even found a shop which sold some really cool stuff for cheap, stuff we would like. We bought a wall tapestry made by a minority people in Yunnan that we both really like. Hopefully most of you will recognize the scene being depicted. It holds special meaning to us.

Also, we found two wall pictures that were written in Chinese that were scripture verses so we bought two; 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter or ai -pronounced I-in Chinese, which means love) and The Beatitudes (fu-blessing in chinese).

A beautiful girl in front of the beautiful new bird and flower market

We came back and hung the pictures up and cleaned the house. Tomorrow will be a busy day of teaching and we will be preparing our students for their conversational mid-term next week, where they will meet with us one and one and we will choose a topic and discuss it with them for two minutes. We are also going to share with them about Halloween and finally, we are going to have a pretend Business Expo, as the real ASEAN-9 country expo is in town this week. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go down and take a look. We'll try to get some pictures from that on here too. Hope you all have a great Sunday! Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

We're Lovin' It-A day at the city center

2007-10-27T02:14:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Today we got up early (for a Saturday anyways) and hopped in two or three different buses to finally make it to the 'city center'. In about the same time as it takes to drive from Salem to Sandy (a little over an hour) we can get from our apartment to the heart of Nanning, termed 'the city center' by all of our hip college students. Its the main area of Nanning, filled with shops and malls and parks and...McDonalds!!! We were craving McDonalds all morning and were hoping to even get there in time for breakfast (pancakes and eggs and hashbrowns, hmmmmm) but the bus took longer than we planned and we got there after breakfast time at 10:30 (breakfast ends at 10:00 here because they sometimes eat early lunches). But we were craving McDonalds so much and hungry because we hadn't eaten anything, so we decided to have lunch at 10:30 and man was it good, as you can tell by my face:

After McDonalds we wanted to just walk around and explore the city center. They were lots of malls and different side streets with shops and we had a great time people watching. It was Saturday, so there were a lot of people downtown, I think shopping is a very big deal for them. Plus, Renmin Park (People's park) is also at the city center. Renmin Park is frequented by the older generation of Nanning Chinese and there are many activities for them there. In the park, the men smoke and play different card games and Mah Jong. Also, there was music playing and people were dancing. At first it was a ballroom/tango type dance and we stopped and watched the dancers for a while. Then it turned into an electric slide/techno/tai chi type dance and we had a great time watching 60 year olds keep up with the beat. We even saw a guy dancing and smoking at the same time, maybe trying to counterract the effects of the cigarette?

The city center

We sat down to rest and realized that may have been a mistake. We began to feel like the animals probably due at the zoo as 90% of the people that walked by would take a four to five second look at us and stare. The other 10% probably just didn't see us. We decided just to smile and make due, we even took some pictures of them as they walked by, why not?

We didn't rest long and we were back to shopping. The stores were mostly shoes and clothes and I think they was a competition to see which store could play their music the loudest. Each store we passed had huge speakers and was playing their own song, so it was a little loud, but silly and we enjoyed it. Also, we stumbled upon and wedding dress fashion show in front of the McDonalds we had eaten at earlier. We thought we were being stared at! At least they were getting paid though:

After we spotted the golden arch again we were craving some ice cream. They have these 24 hour walk thru type things that sell different kinds of icecream like floats, REAL chocolate icecream cones and icecream cones with flavored swirls...I got grape!

We also found at neat store with some Chinese dining and tea sets and we bought a nice tea set with some money that my parents wired us for my birthday. Thanks Mom and Dad! We're really excited to have you all over for real Chinese tea and use our China Tea Set:

Tonight we went out to Zhongshan Lu (Middle Mountain Road) which is famous for its BBQ restaurants with Chris and Hua, some friends and teachers, for the final birthday celebration. Now when we say BBQ, its not the steak and chicken type, but more of a grilled spicy sauce cooking just about any kind of meat or vegetable you can think of. This was what we pictured China to be like. Large crowds and lots of outdoor cooking with tables and places to sit. We really enjoy spending time with Chris and Hua because, not only are they great friends and a lot of fun to hang out with, but they know the city well and of course, they speak English! So we had a great time and saw all kinds of different things we COULD have eaten, if we had chosen to: pigeons, fish heads, squid, vegetables of all kinds. In the end, we settled on beef, pork ribs, shrimp, oysters and a green leafy vegetable. It tasted great! We think it would be a big hit in the states:

Can you find the fishheads in this picture?

Kealy's eating pork ribs and I've got the vegetable thingy

Our good friends Chris and Hua

After the BBQ we went to the cinema to see if they were playing an English movie, but no luck, so what do we do on weekends in China...we went and got our hair washed! It was fun with Chris and Hua because we could talk to the people giving us the hair wash because they could translate. They laughed at how tall we were and the girl that did my hair said I was the tallest person she had ever seen and the girl doing Kealy said she loved her hair and her eye! I agreed with her.

It was a great day full of lots of interesting sights and fun moments. We'll get more pictures from today on the blog in the next few posts, but we wanted to share with you what we have been up to. Its 1 AM here and I'm going to get up at 4 AM to listen to the Wolves football team beat up on the Western Washington Vikings and also hopefully hear my brother break the ALL-Time record for TD passes by a quarterback at WOU. Congratulations bro and GO WOLVES!

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A Birthday Celebration

2007-10-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Today Kealy and I had a great time together, hanging out and celebrating life together. This morning, Kealy came and sat in on my one class for the day and it was fun to have her in class! It was nice to see a caring face. Then after lunch here at home (Top Ramen and bananas) we went downtown to have our massage. It had to be one of the best ever! The extra half hour really made the difference and we felt great, so we decided to just walk back towards our apartment, which is about 8 miles away, and whever we got tired, just hop on the bus. We wound up walking about four miles and had a great time seeing the city. The 9 country ASEAN business expo is this weekend, so the city has been spoofed up and decorated with flowers, lanterns, etc. and it looked beautiful. Kealy cooked a great dinner for us and tomorrow we are going to go back downtown again and explore (maybe hit McDonalds for breakfast and/or lunch (ah McGriddles!)). Then, some friends are taking us to have some BBQ. We'll be sure to get some pictures of the BBQ up for you, here are some pics from today. Thank you to everyone who sent birthday cards and salutations. We miss you. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy

Ryan Birthday Celebration

2007-10-25T01:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,
Tomorrow is my Sweet Love's birthday. We are going to get a hour and a half massage by two blind guys. They are supposed to be really good! The cost for an hour massage is 25 yuan which equals about 3.5 dollars. After the massege we will make what we know to be Chinese food (stir fry) one of Ryan's favorite meals here. The High School asked us to M.C. an Oral English Corner Game Night tomorrow night as well. We each will be in a different classroom with about a hundred Chinese students and some teachers, but we will be running the games. Fortunately, they provided the games. One is bringing some students up to answer questions to win a prize, the second is having students act out verbs that they are shown for the crowd to guess, and the last game is like Simon Says. Then they have time to talk with us afterwards and are given a topic that we provide. So, since we are going to do that tommorrow night we are celebrating some of Ryan's B-day tonight with ice cream, mentos, chips, and movies after we eat our breakfast/dinner meal of eggs and potatoes (another of Ryan's favorites). Someone needs to stop us before we get sick. Ryan's birthday will continue onto Saturday with finding him some birthday presents. It is a little difficult trying to get him some gifts without him knowing and being safe at the same time. Chris and Hua, the other foriegners here at the middle school, invited us to go have a BBQ to celebrate. So Ryan gets a three day birthday with lots of fun and food!

Today, when we went to the market to pick up food for today and tomorrow we saw some interesting things such as when we bought our meat they have all the meat sitting on the table without anything under it, flies are landing on some, and people come up and touch to see if they like it. Then, when we buy the meat he grabs it with his bare hands, slices it and puts it in a bag for us, never washing his hands. Then we hand him the money and he gives us back change with some blood and guts on it. One interesting thing we saw today was sitting on the table next to the meat we bought: a water buffaloe's brains. Also in the market we saw a dog that had met his maker and was being sold for dinner. We didn't know how to respond. INTERESTING!

On a lighter note, we are doing good. Yesterday I joined Facebook and have had fun connecting with friends. My Mom started a blog which is nice because we will be able to share pictures and stories with each other. In our day in age it is wonderful for us to stay in touch even though we are miles away, making it seem like we are close. Thanks!

Time to celebrate!
Love,
Kealy and Ryan

Also, we wanted to say hi to the Jamison Kids; Clay, Gracie and Shelby, who faithfully read our blog each day. We miss you guys!

Ms. Kealy and Mr. Ryan, May I ask you a question?

2007-10-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Its been a pretty 'normal' last couple of days, for living in China, that is. So we thought we would share with you about some of the teaching we have been doing this week. On Sundays, we usually plan out our lesson for the week together, and we only have to create one, 1.5 hour lesson, and we each teach the same lesson nine times to nine different classes. Well, this week, we decided we wanted to encourage the students to talk about something they knew well, so we decided that one of the topics would be movies! Also, because we realized while being in the hospital here in China how hard it is to explain when you are not feeling well in a foreign country, we thought we would also talk about 'seeing the doctor'. We planned our lesson and it was pretty packed, but we thought we would give it a try. So on Monday, the first lesson is always a little sketchy, because we're not sure how long certain activities will last or how the lesson will go. Without knowing it, Kealy and I started our lessons on different topics. We each have a slightly different teaching style, so we talk about the lesson but then plan/adjust the activities to fit our style. Well she had started talking about 'seeing the doctor' with the students, and by the half-way point, a ten minute break where we get to say hi to each other and see how class was going, she hadn't gotten very far because the students were so interested in the topic. I, on the other hand, had started with movies on accident and was having an equal amount of success. So we decided to teach our lessons entirely about the topic we had started on and we discovered a great strategy. Why not perfect a lesson on two different topics during the same week, and then the next week, we could switch topics and the other person already had an ironed out lesson that would work well. Brilliant! So during my movie lesson, I start out with asking questions that they in turn will ask each other: Have you seen any good movies lately? What kinds of movies do you like? What is your favorite movie? If you could be a movie star, who would you be? Pretty basic questions but it gets them talking English. We make a list of different kinds of movies and I imitate the genre. For example, with action, I play James Bond and get down on my knees and shoot a gun. For horror movies, I scream really loud and surprise the heck out of my students, its fun to watch their faces knowing I'm about to scream at them. I do a pretty good Kung Fu impression too that they laugh at. We then make a list of popular American movies in China; Titanic, Harry Potter, King Kong, Crash, etc. and a list of popular Chinese movies. I have them write the titles on the board in Chinese and then they have to explain the movies to me, what they are about, how old they are, etc. Then they have to discuss the major differences between Western and Chinese movies and they have some interesting responses. Then, at the end of class, they play a game where one person has a movie in mind and the other person has to ask questions to figure out what the movie is. We try to design our lessons to get the students speaking comfortably in English and also having opportunities to listen to us speak English so they get used to hearing a Native English Speaker. Finally, at the end of class, I write HOMEWORK on the board in huge letters and I wait and listen to them all groan! Its great! Then I write, 'practice speaking English'! And tell them in order to improve they have to practice outside of class. They all laugh and giggle and then I tell them to go away! Its been my most favorite lesson so far. Tomorrow, Kealy will tell you about 'seeing the doctor' on the blog, another great lesson.

Tonight we also went to English corner, a one night a week event where students can show up and speak English with us. Sounds fun, right? 30-40 students crowding around you bombarding you with the same questions over and over and staring at you trying to hear you talk. Its a little wierd. We both feel a little shy. Everyone is staring at us, not because we are skilled at something or famous, but because we were born white and in America. We, however, are getting used to it and learning how to concentrate on specific students and are having some good conversations with them. Tonight, some of my students even asked me about American politics, history and religion, so we had a good discussion and I think they understood the majority of it, so that was cool. They are all very polite and very eager to learn, but sometimes we feel a little overwhelmed.

We went back to the movie store and bought the first season of Prison Break for $1.50. It is very popular here and all of the students like to talk about it, but we've never seen it, so we bought it to catch up, and to have a way to relax and something to watch. Please pray for Ryan as he goes back into the hospital tomorrow for a check up to make sure the infection is gone in his sinuses. Check back tomorrow for Kealy's lesson! Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A view from one of our classroom windows

A view from the patio where Kealy and I take our breaks and talk

A night at the college--A basketball victory

2007-10-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and family,

Hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. We had the same and are enjoying a healthy balance of excitement and relaxation. We have been watching a lot of movies as a way to unwind each day and tonight, we even bought 14 pirated movies for a total of US $1!!!

As part of our effort to develop more relationships here in China we decided that, in addition to Thursdays (English Corner) we would go to the college one night a week and just 'hang out' with students. Tonight was the night and it worked out great, as two of Kealy's students invited her and I to come watch one of their intramural basketball games and one of my students invited us to dinner. So I met Kealy at the college after her classes and we watched her two guy students play basketball. They were really happy that we came and we had a great time talking and laughing with the girls that came to watch the boys play. The level of basketball was pretty good as well, about the same as college intramurals in the states. They ref their own games and everyone was pretty fair and they keep score but righting on the concrete with chalk! They came over a half time and they were losing to the freshmen and, after the guys asked us for tips, I asked them if they were worried that they were losing to the freshmen? He replied, "all in good time, Mr. Ryan!" and they came back and won! We also had a good time with Kobe at dinner. He shared with us a poem he had written and his English is very good, so we had a really nice conversation. He told us after dinner that he was 'proud to have eaten with us'!

Here are some fun pics from tonight.

Kealy with the girls at the basketball game.

some of Kealy's students in her classroom

Ryan with the victorious basketball team!

Also, on Sunday, we ordered KFC in Chinese for the first time, before we just pointed and hand motioned like silly foreigners, so it felt good to be able to order 'the real way'. Have a great day and we'll talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Life's Little Luxuries and a Birthday Dinner

2007-10-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

We have had a great time the last couple of days just enjoying daily life and continuing to develop relationships with the great people that are here. Yesterday we got to spend more time with our 'pizza hut friends', Americans, living here with a 3 year old son and 10 month old daughter. Kealy went for a walk with Tiffany and I got to stay and play X-Box with Brent. After a little Madden and Ghost Recon (video games) we all went to a Japanese restaurant! We laughed that we were eating Japanese food in China, since they are pretty similar, but it was quite good and we particulary enjoyed the fried rice. Today was a great Saturday to sleep in and the weather was nice and cool (low 70s). We went for a nice walk and lunch at KFC! Then, after lunch, for a total of $3 American money, we each got a 45 minute hair wash and massage and Ryan got a haircut and Kealy her hair styled. It is such a great relaxing and fun thing to do and so inexpensive also. We laughed and giggled for the whole hour as we enjoyed and relaxed.

This is Kealy buying one of our favorite snacks, watermelon from Hainan Island.

After our wonderful massage we walked around the block and I found some sandals that barely fit me enough to wear around the house. We also spotted some cute kids and they followed us for a while and we bought some ice cream for them and they thought that was pretty cool.

Tonight we were invited to dinner at the college to celebrate the birthday of one of the teachers from the Phillipines, Elaine! We felt so honored to be invited to her birthday dinner and she even cooked some food that they knew we would both have in common; deep fried shrimp, spaghetti and hawaiian chicken. All of it was delicious. Her husband Richard even brought out his guitar and sang us Filipino folk songs and we had a great time sitting on there porch and talking together.

After dinner we headed home and of course stopped by our favorite mini-store that we stop by each day for icecream, mentos, juice, and other snacks. They know us by name and the family that runs the store are really friendly, the guy even gave us some grapes today for free to snack on. One of the daughters has a one year old and she is trying to teach the child how to say 'aunt' and 'uncle' in English so she can call us that. Pretty fun. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Lantens and Cotton Candy-Nanhu at Night

2007-10-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family,

Another day and the attempt to obtain 'normalcy'. We are taking small steps each day, a chance to rest and then some adventure. Our piece of adventure today was dinner at KFC (okay, that was the easy part) and then a trip to Nanhu park in downtown Nanning to walk off the pop and fries from KFC. The park is espcecially beautiful at this particular time because of the Mid-Autum festival and National Holiday that recently occurred. The lake in the middle of the park is currently full of large decorations, called 'lanterns' by the Chinese but are more like giant displays filled with lights at night.

As you can see, the lights are beautiful and the displays are quite large. They line the walkway around the lake so we spent an hour just walking around the lake and enjoying the different displays. There were many other people there and the atmosphere was really enjoyable, plus the weather was a cool low 70s. We really enjoyed just walking the lake and people watching; little toddlers running around with shoes that squeaked, young couples flirting and holding hands and older men and women walking for exercise and clapping their hands as they walked. We sang songs and enjoyed the atmosphere of being in a park in China and trying to soak in the culture and the positive and relaxing atmosphere that permeated the park.

We even found a vendor selling cotton candy, quite the treat and so we bought some and ate it as we walked. We are trying to do something fun and adventurous each day and today was a success. We are enjoying all the free time we have together just to be together and hang out. We are also enjoying getting back into the schedule of teaching and getting to know the students more. Hope you had a great day, too! Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Keeping an open mind

2007-10-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, we got back into the routine today with teaching at the college. It was good to see all of the students after not teaching for two weeks and they were eager to see pictures from our trip to Sichuan. We took in the computer and showed them some pictures from the trip and they quite enjoyed them. This week we are talking about travel itineraries and they are planning two day tours of Nanning for our 'foreign friends' that might come to visit. So if anyone of you could see us, there will be about 100 different itineraries to choose from. They enjoy it and it gets them talking, it also gives us an idea of what else is in Nanning that we haven't seen yet and might want to explore. Kealy made her increasingly famous potato and egg meal tonight with some onions and mushroom flavor thrown in. Delicious! After dinner we went out in the dark and I got creamed by my wife in two games of PIG! We are trying to exercise and be active and regain our strength from the last two weeks. We are also trying to eat fruit for dessert instead of ice cream, but the ice cream here is really good. The fruit however, is also sweet and delicious. There are some great watermelons from Hainan island, a province in the south China sea and some orange/tangerine that actually has a green peel and looks like a lime.

As we continue readjust to our teaching schedule, we are working everyday on having an openmind and observing the interesting things that have happened to us with a positive attitude. Things are very different here, not bad or good, necessarily, just different and we are working hard at accepting and embracing those differences in hopes of gaining a better understanding/appreciating for the country and culture we are living in. Here are some interesting things we have seen that have made us laugh/gasp/puzzled:

-When standing in line for the Grand Buddha in Sichuan, Kealy felt something on her arm and looked down and the Chinese lady behind her was rubbing her arm and admiring her white skin and freckles!
-In the same line, we turned around and there were a group of Chinese tourists snapping pictures of us like we were celebrities or animals at the zoo and when Kealy was on her own on Huanglong mountain, two different random groups of people asked to get their picture with her. I think it is because she is so beautiful.
-On our long hike down from Emei mountain, we came across a man in just shorts in the freezing cold carrying a huge pile of umixed concrete on his back. He was exhausted and tired and a person next to us told us that he would probably make four or five trips up the 3000 meter mountain a day and make about 2 US dollars a trip. It really put things in perspective for us and whenever we get tired or frustrated, we remind ourselves we could be carrying concrete up EmeiShan.
-Traffic in China is absolutely crazy. The only rule is that no one follows the rules, its about getting in position so the car in front of you has to stop or they will hit you. Crossing the street is the same way and honking is frequent. In addition to this, some drivers, instead of taking a test to earn their license, just pay extra and are giving a license to drive. They chinese call them 'road killers'.
-Finger nail clippers are a common tool for fixing split ends in China and cardboad boxes are used for clipboards at the hospital.
-It is concerned 'bad for you' to eat fruit BEFORE your meal. It is considered a dessert.
-One wonderful thing about the Chinese, is that when you are in trouble or there is a crisis, they will drop everything they are doing to help you and will not rest until you are comfortbale or the issue is resolved.
-There is no concept of a line in China, you just have to get closest to the cashier or bus and get on.
-If you have a friendship with someone in China, than they consider you family. There kids will call you 'uncle' or 'aunt' and you are their 'brother' or 'sister.

We are experiencing so many different and new things each day, we wanted to let you know of some. We have many neighbors that visit us each night; geckos, the occassional, yet frequent, rat on our walks at night and tonight, after basketball, we were swarmed by about ten young boys who kept jumping up as high as they could to see if they could reach my head and so we stopped and played with the ball with them for a while. Lots of great adventures! We love you all and we miss you and we are glad you can share this adventure with us. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

One the Road to Recovery--Recaps from a crazy month

2007-10-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and family,

Alright, I think we're ready to jump back into the blogging world and get back on track. It has been a crazy last couple of weeks, but our Rock has stood firm and the waters are hopefully subsiding. Tomorrow is Ryan's last day going to the hospital for IV and anitbiotics, after that he will continue to take medication and go back in in two weeks for a check up to make sure the infection is gone. We are very thankful that we were able to get to a good hospital and the college has been very helpful in getting us adequate care. We start teaching classes again next Monday and so we are preparing lessons, hanging out and trying to continue to build relationships while we are here.

But we didn't want to forget to tell you about our trip! We had an...hmmm...interesting time. We saw some amazing parts of China and met some really neat people that we traveled with. Here are some brief highlights and pictures. We will provide a more detailed account of our trip on our travel blog over the next couple of days if you want to check it out!

-Three hours before we were flying out of Nanning, we found out that our tour guide for the trip could not get time off of work to go with us so we were one our own. We have already paid for the plane tickets and she promised to take care of us over the phone and set-up people to help us along the way, which she did.
-We arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan, a province in the mountainous region of China next to Tibet. The very first day was one of our favorites. We visited a Giant Panda Breeding Research Center, basically a zoo for pandas and got to see them close up and in all different stages of developemt, including some one month old twin panda babies. We also watched some adolescent pandas wrestle and play king of the mountain for fifteen minutes...one of the highlights.

-That evening, after exploring a temple, we went to a Sichuan Cultural show, with music, drama, some incredible hand puppet displays and the famous #2 magic in China, face changing. The magicians have masks over there face and with a twicth of the neck or blink of an eye there mask changes in front of your eyes, quite astounding.

-The next day went joined a tour group in route to visit the world's largest Buddha. 25 stories tall and 1200 years old, it was an architectual amazement. It was carved out of rock by a monk and took over 80 years in the 800s AD. We enjoyed getting to know two gentlemen from Singapore that spoke excellent English and were our 'unofficial' interpreters and friends.

Mr. Buddha himself

Our friends and 'interpreters'; Bruce and Darris

-The next day we visited the #1 mountain in China. Emeishan. We were expecting grandiose views and inspiring scenery, but instead had a long hike and a lot of fog. Nonetheless, it was cool and fun and we even got very close to some wild macaques.

-The next four days we spent traveling to the Northern part of Sichuan on the bumpiest road you can imagine for 10 hours. We were stopped by crazy drivers and goat herders, but saw some beautiful country and a glimpse of the Tibetan culture. Alpine lakes and beautiful colored water awaited us at 'Jiuzhaigou' or nine village valley. A national park of sorts, much like Yellowstone, which we explored for a day and a half. We met a chinese couple who spoke English and were very kind and we even dressed up in some of the local costumes.

-Though I wasn't feeling well and didn't go, Kealy ascended HuangLong (or yellow dragon) mountain, a heigth of 4100 meters, about 13,500 feet and hiked down for about four hours through limestone pools and majestic scenery.

Kealy, the mountain conquerer!

-There were many temples along our way and we got an interesting glimpse into the Buddhist community and its origins,backgrounds,beliefs,etc.

-We finally made it home after a week and crashed, hospital, etc. you know the rest. But we had a good time, nonetheless, we were protected and we learned a lot about each other and this crazy world! We love you and miss you all very much. talk to you soon. We are feeling better and more uplifted and have run into more potential for relationships to grow.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

No Better Medicine than prayers and friends

2007-09-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Just wanted to let you know that I am feeling much better. The hospital has shown us a place where we can get wireless internet and we wanted to give you an update. Initially after a few tests, etc., the doctors determined that I had a very serious infection of my frontal and maxillary sinuses. My nasal septum is also deviated (bent) and prevented the release of puss and other liquids so the pain and infection built up quite fast. They put me on an array of medicines and IV of antibiotics for almost four hours a day. They also did an endoscopic examination of my nasal cavity to determine if I needed emergency surgery. After examining the infection, they determined that no surgery was needed and that a consistant dose of antibiotics over the next week should cure the infection. A CT Scan, EKG, Lung and chest x-ray, as well as blood tests revealed that the infection had not spread throughout the rest of my body so everything seems to be contained. I have a occassional cough and am fatigued, but after three days in the hospital the infection is getting better and the doctors will send me back home today. I will still have to come into the hospital for four more days for 'nasal washing' (a pleasant experience) and more IV, but I do not need to stay here overnight.

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts over the past few days. It was initially a little scary, being in China with such a serious infection, but according to the doctors and our school we are at the best hospital in our province and many of the doctors here speak good English so they can give us detailed information. Kealy is taking very good care of me, and many people from the college and friends have stopped by to hang out and chat. We have felt your love and God's presence here and we continue to praise Him for His protection and thank Him for your love. We love you all and we'll keep you posted.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Please be thinking of Ryan

2007-09-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Ryan is okay but could use some prayers. We will be spending the next couple of days at the hopitel taking care of Ryan's sinus infection that got pretty bad. He is being treated and in a couple of days he will be good as new. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Climb Every Mountain

2007-09-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Well it has been quite the last few days. We had a great time this past weekend with a two day tour of a small town called Shanglin outside of Nanning. We traveled with a Canadian, a man from Florida and a man from England. Each were teachers that had been living in Nanning for a while and we enjoyed listening to their traveling stories and gained good insight into the best places to travel. We visited a beautiful lake called Dalong (Big Dragon) Lake, pictured above, and took a boat around and explored the lake. Afterwards we explored a beautiful cave and swam in a mountain river. We had a great time together and enjoying the incredible scenery. The next day we took a van up into the mountains of China and hiked up to a village that was up in the middle of nowhere. They were excited to see us and the village had some incredible views, as well as river pools with large rocks to explore. Kealy even played basketball with a four year old chinese boy, and afterwards he gave her some of his milk from a cooler.

While traveling with this tour group, we learned of another opportunity occuring this week to travel to the Sichuan province of China, a province in the western central part of China that borders TIbet. The tour is a week long and we weren't sure whether to ask for the time off, but the trip sounded so incredible that we asked and were granted the leave. But we have to make up the classes that we will miss, so the last three days we have been trying to cram two weeks of lessons into three days. Needless to say we are tired, but we leave tomorrow night for Chengdu and a week full of exploring; visiting a panda breeding center, seeing the world's tallest buddha statue, as well as visiting many natural wonders and cultural gems. You can visit our travel blog for an itinerary of our upcoming trip, as well as more pictures from Shanglin.

So, we will be offline for one week. We will miss you all terribly and if we get a chance might be able to send an e-mail from an internet cafe. We have been here one month, as of today, and it has been intense, but good. We are learning so much and growing together in our patience and our love for each other. We are learning to be flexible and realize that plans sometimes change and that life is good because we are together and we know that whatever we face will bring good. We love you and miss you.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

A Busy Week and Exciting Weekend

2007-09-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Wow! This week has flown by. We did so many fun and interesting things. Here are just a few:
-On Tuesday and Wednesday we had no classes because new students were arriving at the college. We did not have to teach, but we were still expected to be at the college. We thought we would be put to work helping students fill out paper work, etc. Instead, we were told we could walk around and all we had to do was 'meet the new students'. We later deducted that we were advertisements, a way to let the new students know that foreigners are here at the college. Needless to say we had a fun time walking around the college, meeting new students and getting to know more of the students we have in our classes. We had a lot of pictures taken of us and even were interviewed by the local news channel about our impressions of Nanning and the college. It was a long two days, but a lot of fun.
-On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had dinner with new friends. Celia again invited us to her home for dinner and she taught us how to make another type of dumpling that was delicious. We will be sure to teach all of you when we arrive home. A great party idea. On wednesday, we invited two other english teachers to our home for dinner; Richard and Ellen from the Phillipines. They are very kind and we had a wonderful evening talking with them.
-On Thursday night, we had our first 'English corner'. A chance for students to come and ask us anything they wanted and we simply talked with them in English. It was a fun informal time to talk with students and they were all very curious about America and our lives there and we were able to share with them more specifically about who we are and what our life in America is life. We look forward to more chances like that in the future.
-Today, we finished teaching our lessons on family. The students especially enjoyed talking about good qualities in a wife or husband. Tonight, we were invited by a man from Ghana, Appiah, who is a teacher here at the middle school, for coffee at a local coffee shop. Little did we know that it would turn into a staff party! Chris and Hua, our American friends were there, Appiah was there with his fiance who is also Chinese and a new teacher from Canada named Ben was also there. So there we were, sitting with two Chinese, an American, a Ghanian and a Canadian! Quite an almagamation of people from different countries but we had a great time together!
-This weekend, we are taking a tour of Shanglin, a mountain and lake outside of Nanning. We are leaving early tomorrow morning with a tour group of other foreigners in Nanning. We have never met them before, but we are looking forward to making some more connections. The trip is cheap and should be a lot of fun. It will be nice to not have to worry about how to get somewhere or what to order on a menu, at least for a weekend. Here is our projected itinerary, just to give you an idea of what we will be doing:
The backyard of Nanning-------Shanglin two-day trip

1st day: Starting at 7:30am, leave from Nanning Hotel and go to Shanglin. Arrive around 10:00am, and then go to Dalong Lake and Daling cave. We take the boat around the lake, and then go into a big cave. Afterwards we will have lunchtime.

After lunch we will drive to the mountain and go swimming in the mountain lake, have dinner there and stay overnight in the hotel on the mountain. We can enjoy an evening together with friends at the hotel.

2nd day: After breakfast, we will go rafting on the Yangdu River and visit a communist village and have their famous wild-fish lunch. After lunch we go by boat which is driven by rope, to visit Qinpai. After Qinpai we will go to Binyang for their famous acid noodle dinner (cost is extra), then come back to Nanning in the evening.

-Should be pretty exciting. We'll be sure to post some pictures on the travel blog when we get back! Have a great weekend, we'll keep you posted.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy

Happy Teacher's Day

2007-09-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,
Today we celebrated Happy Teacher's day here in China. Some students gave us cards, notebook, flowers, candy, and one class even sang a song in Chinese for me (Kealy). Everyone at the college said "Happy teacher's day!" as they passed by. It was fun! Instead of going home for our three hour break we decided to stay and have lunch at the college with some students and then walk to the park across the stree to take a nap on the benches by the river. It was a much cooler day because of the rain last night and early this morning. After our nap we went and I had cold water and Ryan enjoyed some ice cream. We also got our first paycheck, actually cash for the days we worked in August. Later this evening we went and sat and had some fresh BBQ vegetables and mystery meat, maybe beef, maybe dog? It tasted delicious.

This isn't a picture of what we ate tonight but it is similar. It is basically meat on a stick that is basted with spices and cooked over charcoal. It is very good.

We found out that the next two days we get off of teaching to greet the incoming freshman. It sounds like it could be an all day thing so we'll see how it goes, but it will be fun meeting the students and other faculty. We had a Staff meeting today and it was all in Chinese so our friend Kate translated some for us. We only have two more classes two teach the rest of the week and then it is on to Shanglin for the week. We'll keep you posted.

Until next time,
Kealy and Ryan

Beautiful Nanhu Park and an exciting weekend!

2007-09-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Sorry it has been a few days since our last post. We have had a fun and busy weekend and we hope the same for you. Congrats to the WOU wolves on their second victory this season! This last Thursday, we hoped on the 704 bus and rode it to Nanhu park for some relaxation and exercise. The park sits on a manmade lake in the middle of downtown Nanning and has a walking path all around the lake. Their are beautiful foilage and flowers everywhere and the walk was magnificent. We walked one half of the lake, probably one mile and the weather was fairly cool and comfortable for Nanning:

Okay, so maybe we're not walking here, but it was such a beautiful spot and I had such a beautiful girl with me that I had to prove that I was actually there and not dreaming.

There's that beautiful girl again!

Beautiful green palm trees and the city skyline behind.

We enjoyed our walk together and the good exercise as well. On Friday, we finished our classes by noon and went swimming again at the pool. We are trying to be active. We figured living in China could be the ultimate weight loss program: Walking and taking the bus everywhere, eating noodles and vegetables and a little bread for each meal, walking the equivalent of one mile of stairs a week and throw in a little extra exercise and hopefully its a healthy recipe...oh yeah, and sweating profusely all day long, that helps too. We still have our sweet tooths though, we found snickers and oreos at a Wal-Mart close by, so we will have to monitor our addiction closely.

On Saturday, we were able to visit the ancient city of Yangmei. Four of Kealy's students were kind enough to go with us and take us to this intriguing village 30 KM outside of Nanning. Check out the travel blog for pics and more info. Today we hung out and listened to the football game, cleaned the apartment and then went into town to explore. We enjoy sometimes just jumping off the bus in random places and seeing what is there. We bought a basketball and some ping pong paddles to play with here at the school because they have ping pong tables and hoops, more ways to stay active and interact with the kids. We celebrated our three week anniversary here with more high class dining at Pizza Hut and savored each bite of the warm and flavorful supreme pizza with real cheese...mmmmmmm. We even saved some for lunch tomorrow...mmmmmmmm. It is quite the treat. we also got caught in the rain again, maybe we should start carrying our umbrella, it is kind of fun though.

We can't believe we've been here for three weeks already. In some ways, its gone by fast, in others, it feels like we've been here forever. But we are continuing to adjust and are enjoying each other and each day is a new adventure. This week we are talking about families in our lesson plans. We'll keep you posted.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

"My Father is a Fish!" and "I feel sexy!"

2007-09-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,
Did the blog title capture your attention? Hopefully. We have had a good week of teaching classes and some hilarious things have been said. We thought we would give you a quick recap of some of the comical moments:
-Yesterday, in Kealy's class, one of Kealy's students was describing her family and what her parents do. She said, ever so proudly, that her "father is a fish". Kealy managed to finally stifle the classes laughter and the girl took it well when Kealy explained to her that the correct sentence is "my father is a fisherman!" a little bit of a difference.
-Today, when I was in class, we were talking about: "How do you feel? I feel..." and coming up with different emotions we feel. Some ideas were; I feel happy, sad, excited, terrible, nervous, in love, jealous, hungry, fantastic and the person suggesting the emotion had to act out what that emotion looked like so that everyone understood what they meant. One gentleman in my class stood up, threw back his head and gave a sneaky look and said, "I feel sexy!" We laughed pretty hard at that one too.
-Another comical situation has been the different ways that people have asked to use the restroom in English. In Chinese, I think they allude to something else because it is rude to simply ask, "Can I use the bathroom?" So here are some funny english versions of asking to use the bathroom:
-"I need to answer nature's calling."
-"I need to ease myself."
-"Can I have 30 seconds to myself?"
hard not to laugh at those, right?

Another hilarious thing about China is that some of the shirts that have English on them, simply have English on them. They don't have a rhyme or a reason, its just the fact that it has English on it that makes it stylish. The shirt above said:He play mahjong for long time, I never see him win except one, his name is zhu lian jin. I asked Chris if there was a secret meaning behind that statement, he said no. We saw a shirt that said "Abercrombif and Titch"...think about it. We saw a shirt that said, "Surfing championships" and had a picture of a cartoon character with a snow coat on and two bunnies hopping around.
So when we are feeling homesick, we try to recall this hilarious moments and curious things about the new culture we are adjusting to. When we are on the bus, which is very often, we sing songs, poke each other, copy each other, make funny faces...we figure the Chinese are already staring, we might as well put on a show! We also watch on the bus for what kinds of curious animals are brought on the bus with their human friends. We've seen roosters, ducks and chickens in potato sacks and boxes (I think their doom is sealed) and we've seen turtles and frogs in water bottles (not sure of their fate). We also saw a kid drop a mouse at the school down the stairs and slowly picked it up and poked it to see if it was still alive and we think we saw a rat in the shadows last night, maybe a small raccoon, who knows...we don't want to.
-We had dinner at KFC tonight, more high class dining. We had a great meal and listened and reminisced while the Backstreet Boys CD played over the speakers. They love the Backstreet Boys...and Titanic.

Hope these silly stories cheered you up. We miss you and we'll talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Too Much Fun To Count!

2007-09-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

It has been a wild last couple of days to say the least. We spent the weekend here after not sleeping well on Friday night. Saturday we watched movies and relaxed inside because it was very hot. In the evening, we met some new friends from the college, Richard and Ellen from the Phillipines and Kate and two English students took us to Nanhu park and we explored the park and watched a brief watershow.

From left to right: Kealy and I, Kate, a english student named Sunny and Ellen and Richard from the phillipines.

Tisting (one of Kealy's english students and Richard wanted to get a picture with the 'da gu se' (giant)!

-On Sunday, after listening to the Western Oregon Wolves gain a victory over the Bearcats, we went with our American friends into a new part of the downtown area. We experienced milk tea for the first tea, a cool, smoothie like drink with delicious flavor and they introduced to one of our favorite parts about China so far. For 10 Yuan, roughly $1.25, we each got a professional hairwash, scalp massage and arm and back massage. It was amazing. Besides being so cheap, it felt great. And, they will even style your hair for you afterwards for free. Angie, I think you should start offering this at your salon! After a morning of feeling a little homesick, a one hour massage for one buck was just the trick to relax us and enjoy the rest of our day.

They have you lie down on the table while they wash your hair and give you the massage. It felt great! We were all lined up during the massage so it was very fun talking and experiencing it together.

Here are Chris and Hua, are new American friends. They have been really kind in showing us around the city and what is good to eat.

-After the massage we went shopping for a little while and bought Kealy a purse to carry her things in. The mall was underground and was virtually all women's clothes, etc. I don't think they have anything in my size anywhere.
-After shopping we went and had some high class dining...at Pizza Hut! No joke, to the chinese, this is high class. They all use forks and knifes to eat their pizza and the restaurant was fancy and everyone was dressed up except us. Nonetheless, the pizza never tasted so good. We paid a pretty penny for it but it was well worth it.

-Today we started our second week of teaching. This week we are working on: Introducing others, How to answer interview questions, a favorite childhood memory and some tongue twisters. The classes are each very different but most are eager to learn English and enjoy Kealy and I.
-Tonight after class we decided to go swimming again. It feels so good to cool off in the pool and it is good exercise also. At the pool we had it to ourselves and while we were swimming, the heavens opened up outside and it was raining so hard that the outside pool was overflowing! THere was thunder and lighting every thirty seconds and it was fun to watch from inside the pool. The lightning here is only heat lightning, it doesn't touch the ground, so there is nothing to fear. It continued to rain constantly for the hour and a half that we swam and when we changed into our regular clothes, we realized we hadn't brought our umbrella. We contemplated putting our swimsuits back on and trying to walk the half mile to the bus stop, and a Chinese man even offered us his umbrella but we couldn't take it. Finally we asked the people at the pool to call a taxi for us. of course the line was busy! They could have given up and left us to the second flood, but they continued to call until they got through and a taxi finally arrived and took us to the front gate of the school. After wading, ankle deep, through the quarter mile new river that was our path to our apartment, we finally made it up the stairs and into dry shelter. Now we are sweating again! We are either drenched with sweat or rain, at least the rain is cool. It was a long day but a great one and very memorable.
-We have taken pictuers of some new food and I saw a new bird today, so tomorrow we will update those blogs. We think we have a three day weekend this week so we are contemplating going to Hong Kong or Guilin. We'll keep you posted.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Keeping Busy

2007-09-01T01:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

It was nice finsihing work are 10:00am and Ryan at 12:00. We met up with Chis and Hua our American friends for lunch and shopping downtown. Ryan went with chris to look at computer stuff and we went to buy Hua some fashionable clothes from a magazine, it is very common to have custom closthes made because it is cheaper. We met up and ate at a BBQ resturant and had some good cooking. It is a little different then what we know to be as a BBQ but the flavor is very tasty. Both Ryan and I enjoyed shrimp and fish when we don't usually like the the taste of sea food. We are growing in our food likes. We caught the bus back and poor Ryan was squished in the very back of the bus like an accordian, it was only bad because it was a full bus. Earlier that day Ryan got on a double decker bus and hit his forehead and the bus started to go and got Ryan off balance, what a sight to see for the Chinese. Our night was not done, we went to a coffee shop that our friends like to go to often, I'm starting to like the coffee more and more because they don't have any frappuccinos here. However, they had some delicious ice cream. We met some of the the American's friends and they were really friendly. Ryan can't handle coffee very well late at night he was up until 4:30 in the morning, luckly he kept busy making our triangle lake film together along with our behai trip into short clips. We are still trying to put them on Youtube so that you will be able to see it.

Today was slower but really nice as we walked around our campus and market area filming the life around us and the scenery. We picked up some movies and came back here and watched a really boring one. Tonight we are going to meet a couple from the Philipians who are also going to be teaching English at the college. Our friend Kate is coming as well and we are going to watch a movie in the park, we don't know if it will be in English or not, most likely in Chinese but you never know.

Even though we are meeting people here and hanging out with them, we miss everyone back at home and wish that we could be hanging out with you as well. It is hard missing youth groups, staff get togethers, Sunday hang out nights, and the first football game of the season. Seeing mark play and talking with family and friends in the stands. Fortunatley we can watch the game online. GO WOLVES! Thank you for continuing to think of us. We'll take some pictures tonight and you can see Nanhu Park in downtown Nanning. See you soon.

Sincerely,
Kealy and Ryan Thorson

Cooking on our own and swimming with caps

2007-08-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Another good day teaching here. It was a much warmer day with no thunderstorms. By the time I (Ryan) arrived at the school I was very sweaty and the students kept telling me to stand under the fan because I was sweating so much. All classes went well and we are starting to use the text books some in our lesson planning. it is a helpful guide and tool for the students. One student walked into the class before it started this afternoon and I was writing on the board and whistling, he said something in Chinese and I asked him what he said. He said I was a giant hummingbird for whistling in class! Pretty funny.

This evening we were preparing our first meal at home when we heard a knock at the door. We opened the door and in walked our five year old friend Amy with three icecream cones in her hand. She had brought ice cream to share with us and came in and we played guitar and sang songs while Kealy cooked our wonderful first homemade meal. We cooked beef, corn, carrots, broccoli and noodles with soy sauce in our wok and it was delicious!

As you can tell, I like the meal Kealy made very much. She even invited Joe, Celia and Amy over for dinner tomorrow night and she is going to cook for them, and me. Amy watched us eat our meal and played around us. She liked to play the guitar and she is very talkative. She knows that we cannot speak Chinese but she carries on just the same. She has even taken it upon herself to teach us Chinese. Tonight, we learned the word Yao Yo (Swimming)!

After dinner we went to the swimming pool with Joe, Celia and Amy. The pool is much like the ones in America and very refreshing. It felt good to get the stickiness off from the humidity. However, it is a rule in Chinese swimming pools that you must wear a cap when swimming to keep hair out of the water. So...we each bought our very own swimming cap!

We both got a kick out of each other in our caps! We had a fun time swimming and now we are relaxing for the rest of the evening. I don't have to teach a class until 2:30 tomorrow for 1.5 hours and that is my work day. Kealy has one class from 8:30-10:10 so that is it. It should be a relaxing day. We are going to plan our weekend and go to the market to buy fresh food for dinnner. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Make new friends and keep the old--Fun English Names--New Dresses

2007-08-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

The last two days here have been very exciting! We have started teaching english to the students at the college. We have the same students only once a week for 90 minutes, so we have 9 different classes. We teach the same lesson to each class so we have lots of opportunities to refine it and make it a good lesson. This first week we are practicing having them introduce themselves and share about their favorite food, sport, etc. Then, we have them write their English names on the board and it gives us a chance to learn their names and ask them why they chose that particular name. We have heard some very interesting names: Berlinda, Spring, Green, Rice, Dumpling, Esan, Johnson, Carlos, CoCo, Silence and many more. They all have a very neat reason for choosing their name and they are able to share why they chose it. Most of the students are very eager to learn English, they even give us applause when we walk in the class and at the end of the class, so that is very encouraging. We are enjoying teaching so far, to say the least. They are all very interested in American customs and holidays and how to make lots of money. Initially, Kealy and I both had an evening class once a week but they changed our schedule so now we don't have any evening classes. I have to teach on Fridays now but that is still good.
Because we had this evening free, we were invited to make dumplings with Celia, Joe and Amy, a very kind family that is in the same apartment complex. Celia is the school administrator and is the one that did such a great job decorating our apartment that we like so much.

This is a picture of us making the dumplings this evening. We put the mix in the dumpling and then fold them up and boil them in water for only two minutes. Then they are ready to eat.

This is Amy, one of our new friends! She is five years old and loves to come over and play. We play with the dice and practice counting the numbers in english and chinese. she speaks very good english for her age and is a lot of fun!

Also, last night, we had a chance to see Kathy, the woman who we met at Western Oregon which introduced us to the college and helped us work out the details of coming here. She is studying in Hong Kong, but her mother is the president of the college here in Nanning so she was visiting her family for the holiday that they just had, which was a kind of halloween. She is very kind and her and Kealy get along very well. She took us to a 'Western Style Restaurant' in Nanning. You can check out the food blog for a picture of the great pepper steak that I had. It was very good to see her.

We like living here at the middle school very much and we are meeting so many wonderful people. But with every friend we make we think of all of you that we miss so much and we are thankful that we can stay in contact with you.

Now...the moment some of you have been waiting for. Kealy's dresses arrived today and they are so beautiful. She looks fantastic in both of them and they are authentic Chinese dresses, tailor made for a cost of 60 Yuan, about $8! She wore one out tonight as we explored the city with Joe, Celia and Amy and went to Five Elephant Square. The pictures turned out okay. We are going to go back during the day and take more pictures of the fountain but Nanning is so beautiful at night. There are many lights and wonderful colors and a lot of people come out at night because it is cooler. There have been thunderstorms and a little rain with wind the last couple of days here so that has been exciting to see the heat lighting. I have been telling my students that my family name means 'son of thunder and lightning' and they think that is pretty cool. Here are some pics of my beautiful wife in her new dresses:

The dresses turned out wonderful and I wouldn't be surprised if she asked me to buy her some more! Which she know I will, especially for $8!

We are having a good week and learning to adjust to a new schedule, a very nice schedule which we enjoy. We love being here at the middle school and meeting new friends and spending time together. We also like the 2.5 hour lunch break in the middle of the day to eat and 'have a rest' or take a nap. We will keep you posted on fun and new things that we are experiencing. Tomorrow we are going to do some cooking on our own, so check out the food blog in the next couple of days and we'll let you know how it goes.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Wow! What a weekend

2007-08-26T04:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Sorry it has been a couple of days since our last post. We are still alive and still in China. On Friday, we were taken into town and had dumplings with four Chinese and a Japanese man, then taken to buy a cell phone. I think Mr. River was getting tired of us not being a home to answer our phone, so we bought a 300 RMB cell phone in China and now we can call anyone in China and they can call us. It came in very handy this weekend when we decided last minute to go on vacation to Beihai! The city of Beihai is on the Gulf of Tonkin, about 2.5 hours by bus. We hopped on a bus on Friday night and found a hotel we saw online. The taxi driver kept taking us to different hotels, trying to convince us we should stay there instead, but eventually he took us to our hotel. We had a great time together. It was good for our confidence to get out on our own and venture into China without any help. We had to do a lot of pointing and gesturing and we used our travel books and English-Chinese book. But we stayed at the Silver Beach all day, walking the boardwalk, swimming in the water and drinking coconut milk. We were covered by an umbrella and a hat for the whole day, except for one hour of swimming, but that was enough to burn our faces and shoulders. It is very hard to find sun tan lotion in China! We will post the pictures from our trip on our travel blog and you can go to that by clicking on the 'Traveling China' link to the right of this post. It seems that we are having problems posting pictures so we will get those up soon. We will also update the 'Fun Foods of the Far East' blog and you can see the meal we had this morning. Eventually, I will try and put pictures of the two birds I have identified in China so far so that all our blogs will be updated. We had a great time relaxing together and preparing for the week. We found out on Friday that we will start teaching tomorrow (Monday) so we have been preparing for that as well. We will each teach 18 45 minute classes a week. We got our schedule tonight. I (Ryan) don't have any classes on Friday! Kealy has one in the morning and she might see if she can switch it to Thursday and then we would have a three day weekend all semester long. The semester lasts 21 weeks with a 5 week break in between semesters. Sometime I will post our schedule but we each teach about 4-6 hours a day. They take a 2.5 hour lunch break and we each have one evening class a week and a English corner/club on Thursday nights. We will let you know how teaching goes tomorrow, we will probably start out with basic introductions and days of the week. If you have any suggestions on topics or teaching methods we should use, we would love to hear your ideas. You can e-mail us anytime, we check it constantly. Tomorrow we are having dinner with Kathy, the daughter of the president at the college here, who was a graduate student at WOU where we met her and arranged our teaching here in China. We are looking forward to seeing you again. Hope you all enjoy your Sunday, it was a good day here; palm trees, sandy beachs and my beautiful 'lao po' (wife) with me! Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

P.S. We found a movie store across the street in the market from the school that has new movies in English! We have already watched Fantastic Four and are watching Die Hard 4 tonight!!!