Live from Oshkosh Wisconsin

From China to Oshkosh Wisconsin. It's been a journey. While I was in China I learned a lot by simply admitting ignorance and asking questions. 

Lately I've been feeling like this same motto can be used back home too. The only tough part, people are a lot less sympathetic. 

Thankfully I've some sympathetic souls who led me to this gem. 

Hughes Chocolates is a local legend in Oshkosh. Many of the members that I serve at Grace have lived in Oshkosh for their entire lives. After figuring this out, I made it my mission to find local hot spots. Many unique places have been brought up, but one place is always brought up. That place is Hughes Chocolates. Hughes is located in the basement of a normal home. There is a small red neon sign in the window which reads Hughes Chocolates Ltd. 

My experience with Hughes was hilarious! I pulled up in my car, and spotted the neon sign. There were literally three block filled with cars and a constant stream of people walking in and out. To a new police officer, it would look mighty suspicious. I went to the side door and looked down the steps. There were about 10 people packed into a tiny space, waiting in a line. I could see all sorts of machines used for making chocolate. A slight sense of nerves flooded over me as I got swept into the line. I had no idea what to order! I saw a few signs with prices and a few different products and I listened to order that sounded like an auctioneer calling out numbers. I witnessed 4 people purchase at least 8 lbs. of chocolate! 

I left the store that day with a measly 2 boxes of chocolate, but a huge smile as I felt like a local. 

Wal-Mart Makes Me Cry...

Beijing China is a lot different that your average Chinese city. It is very modern and very western. For instance within I can bike from my house to Wal-Mart, KFC, or McDonalds in 5 minutes! There are 7-11's all over the place, and I live in the college district which means there are a lot of poeple that can speak English. Conveniences like this have made my transition from America to China relatively easy. I have not had any catastrophically horrible experience. Ironically the closest I have been to having a meltdown occurred in Wal-Mart.

I had been in China for roughly 3 weeks when I decided that I would go and check out Wal-Mart. I walked into Wal-Mart simply for the experience. My first thought was, "Wow this seems small." I walked around and compared all of the minuscule differences to the Wal-Mart, I know and love. Finally, I decided I had had enough. I tried to walk out the door that I came in and a security guard stopped me and something in Chinese. Probably, "Young sir, this door has one purpose. It is an entrance. It is not exit.." I tried to explain to him that I did not know how to go out, in English of course. He laughed. I wondered in circles for about 15 minutes. I began to panic, I was hungry and sick of being in Wal- Mart. Finally, I came up with a plan. I put my cell phone to my ear, approached the one purpose door put my head down and walked out. I turned around and saw the security guard chuckling from door.

I would not be conquered by Wal-Mart. I returned and I discovered how huge Wal-Mart is! It is a 4 story building! I spent time mastering the escalator system and discovering the location of practical good. I compared prices, and I ventured into the food department and tried some new Asian delicacies. And then, I tried to exit. I spent at least 45 minutes trying to figure this out! I could not figure out how to get back to the street where my bike was parked. I walked in and out of many various exits. I wondered around the building. Finally I walked for 15 minutes from a strange exit to my bike.

I was miffed. I was frustrated. I couldn't understand how a store could be set up so illogically in so many different ways.

I returned a third time and at last conquered the Wal-Mart mystery. I wish I could describe to you some simple thing that I missed, but there is no simple catch. The place is huge and crazy.

Well, I am now a veteran Wal-Mart shopper. I can easily navigate the store. I no longer get overly flustered.

The last time I went to Wal-Mart. I was wondering near a group of Americans. This isn't all that uncommon in Beijing because there are a fair number of foreigners. We navigated the store together for about 15 minutes. I overheard them talking about the "ideal Wal-Mart experience" and critiquing the lay out of the store. Then I saw them venture into an employees only door. Finally, one of the men looked at me and said, "what are you doing here?" I told him that I taught oral English at a local middle school. We conversed for awhile and then he told me that he was one of the heads of Wal-Mart's international stores. His group had come to evaluate the Beijing Wal-Mart. They asked me how often I shopped at Wal-Mart and want my experiences had been like. I recounted for them an abbreviated version of what I just shared with you. I told them that it was really hard to find things because the store seemed very illogical to my mind. Then I said, "It doesn't make sense to me, but my brain works differently then a Chinese brain." They looked at me a little bewildered and said, "We are having the same experience that you had."

The Summer Palace is old but not that old…

On November 9^th 1987, I was born at Watertown Memorial Hospital to James and Stephanie Werner. I was supposed to be born on October 9^th, but I held on for another month. Anyone who is has ever doubted this tale should feel free to contact my mother, she's recently retired, and it sounds like life has become far too peaceful at Sonnenhügel. (It's a family name for our house, it means sunny hill in Deutsch)

On November 9, 2010, I was in Beijing China. I celebrated my 23^rd birthday recently. It was a great birthday. My friends helped me celebrate over the course of three days. During this time I got to eat at Outback Steakhouse, play pool at a bar, tour the summer palace, take a weeklong vacation, and talk to my love ones via Skype. I was also blessed to receive lots of happy birthday messages on Facebook. I have not been on Facebook much while in China, but it was really uplifting to read a few simple messages. It was also awesome to hear a message my sister and niece. Sometimes the simplest things are the most satisfying.

The Summer Palace was amazing! The most amazing part about the Summer Palace was the sheer amount of space. Micah and I spent 5 hours walking around and only saw a fraction of the palace. The Summer Palace made me feel the need to climb walls and jump from one rooftop to another rooftop. The design of the palace is what left a distinct image in my mind. It is all built around a lake but the buldings are set on different levels which creates many amazing views and unique staircases and towers.

My favorite part about the birthday excursion was taking pictures. Micah has amazing camera and he is a very talented photographer. He always brings his camera! Which means that the majority of my China adventure is well documented. It also means that I get an opportunity to try out a new hobby. Micah is great about offering to let me use his camera. Posing for pictures and taking pictures was a blast. The funniest picture that we captured involved an old pot.

Now, you need to realize that things in China are old, really old. Everything goes back to at least the 1500s. Well the Summer Palace is not nearly that old. Most things date to about 1900. Admittedly this is because the French burned the oringinal palace, but even that only dates to the 1700s. What I'm getting at is that most historic sites make you feel like if touch anything it's going to turn into sand. The Summer Palace just doesn't have that feel. This is why, when I saw an open pot I didn't pass up the opportunity for a photo shoot.

And this was the resulting photo. What made this photo extra fun was the laughter coming from the Chinese tourists who watched and laughed as we took these pictures.

New Skills

Lately, I have been working on acquiring two new skills.

1. In college, I took a course called "Introduction to Minority Cultures". The course is a required course at MLC. The main purpose of the class is to "raise your level of awareness". My personal interpretation of what this phrase means is gain an understanding of what it is like to be a minority culture in America.

My level of enthusiasm for this class was on par with reading a dictionary. It is one of those classes that receives a bad reputation because it's a required course on a specialized topic. Not everyone is interested in the specialized topic and the class tanks because few people have a positive attitude about anything the class offers.

I was of course suckered into doing as little as possible to get a respectable grade. One of the few things that I have retained from this class was a discussion about how different cultures viewed time.

On one hand there is American culture which is as strict about time as possible. If you are suppose to attend a meeting at 7:00, you should be there at 6:45.

On the other hand you have Hispanic culture which is rather lax about time. If you have a meeting at 7:00 its okay to show up at 7:15 or 7:30.

I focused on this discussion because I saw myself as someone who was meant to function in a culture where time was not so strict.

Well in order to be considered responsible and considerate in American culture a person must be on time!

I would like to sincerely apologize to all of the people that I have offended throughout my life. I am chronically tardy. I have been trying to improve in these area for quite some time. I would say that my problem has evolved from completely clueless and always late to apologetic and slightly late.

Recently I took huge steps towards overcoming this problem. I made myself a schedule on Microsoft Outlook! Complete with reminders which appear on my cell phone! I am quickly becoming a fairly timely person.

However, I'd like to tell you that I'm not in America anymore. The Chinese culture is about oblivious to time as a culture could possibly be. 15 minutes late is acceptable and expected. 30 minutes late isn't all that bad.

This should be a shocking picture for anyone who knows me. I show up to an empty apartment room 13 minutes beforehand. I set everything up. I patiently wait for 20 minutes and no one is present. I wait for another 10 minutes and 5 people show up. I wait for 40 minutes and as we are beginning 5 people show up!

I hope this picture of Matt Werner waiting in a room for people to show is satisfying. I know it makes me laugh.

2. I have learned how to write my bike no-hands! I love doing this. It's an obsession. I spend a lot of time on a bike and I spend a lot of time rejoicing in riding a bike with no-hands. It's an amazing thing to learn at age 22 on the busy roads of Beijing.

To be a teacher...

At last I've got an update.

I'm going to attribute my scarce blogging to impatience. The internet jugs a long at a very slow pace when attempting to access certain websites, blogger happens to be one of those sites. Recently the connection had sped up so I think that it will be fair to expect more updates.

Time is going by really quickly. It's hard to believe that it is already almost November. This feeling that time is moving so quickly hit me today as I walked into my school. The first day of school, my friend and roommate Ted brought Micah and I to school. It was a very overwhelming feeling to be entering a high school campus the same size as my college campus with twice as many children, all speaking a foreign language. Every single one between the ages of 12 and 18 and flying higher then a kite on the first day of school.

Today Ted came back with us for the first time since our first day. What a difference 2 months makes. Today I was leading Ted into school. Of the 2,000 or so kids that are on the campus, I know 450 of them. When I walk into school their is no longer a feeling of uncertainty, this feeling has been replaced with joy. It's exciting to walk into school and meet 450 eager 12 year olds who love to say, "Hello Mr. Matt!"

G()d has greatly blessed my teaching. I love to teach with Micah and our kids are so eager to learn. We have very few discipline problems, and most of our kids seem to be learning new things every class. I'm sure that our classes make a mockery of the teaching that is done in the U.S.A. Class sort of feels like a variety show featuring songs, stories, acting, inside jokes and made up characters.

This will be a time of my life which I'm sure will be in part defined by teaching. I spend most of my time teaching or preparing to teach. I am currently teaching 20 class periods a week and 4 studies. Soon I will start 1 on 1 instruction and might even start some tutoring.

Teaching the Word has been awesome. It's one of the coolest feelings to be digging in the Word and other sources in order answer questions. It's incredibly rewarding because I get to share simple truths with people who have never heard them, but most importantly want to hear them. At the same time my own f*ith is edified.

Teaching has been humbling. Here I am, a graduate from a very specialized college with almost no knowledge of science, math, politics, law. I teach lawyers, professors, and students from Peking (Harvard of China), Microsoft engineers. Each day reminds me of these words, "But G()d chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; G()d chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Chris Jesu, who has become for us wisdom from G()d that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

I think Him every day for friends who are humble. They are willing to sacrifice their prestige, in order to learn the Word. They speak in a language not their own, they cannot fully express their ideas, and they are taught by people who have far less prestige.

G()d is great.

Matthew James Werner

Great Wall

The Great Wall of China is massive. I don’t if all of you knew that but it’s huge. It winds and winds and seemingly never stops. It was one of the few tourist sites in China that I really anticipated visiting. I was unsure of what

it would be like to see the fabled wall. I’m sure that you could Google Great Wall jokes and find about a million one liners mocking the Chinese for building a wall to protect a country. I’m sure you could also Google image search the Great Wall and find a few breathtaking photos. These two distinctly different views were in my mind as I eagerly anticipated viewing t

he wall.

Well a few weeks ago I was privileged to go and view the Great Wall. I was privileged because I was able to go and view the wall in an unorthodox manner. Micah and I recently made friends with a Chinese man named Larry. We met Larry while playing basketball. We ate dinner with Larry once. The next day Micah and I were being driven Larry’s Mom

’s Car. She had no idea her son was taking two Americans to the Great Wall. Larry had told her that the car would not leave Beijing. The Great Wall is 90 minutes from Beijing. Larry had known Micah and me for two days!

Larry brought his friend Ted and we all went and saw the Great Wall. The Great Wall is a tribute to man power. It is a legitimate source of national pride. Many people died to create the Wall, but today it stands as a magnificent testament to the man power that only China can muster.

My journey to the Great Wall is a testament to the friendliness of the Chinese people. Two young men took their entire day to take two Americans that they hardly knew to the Great Wall. They drove us there. They took us to an amazing restaurant. They answered all of our questions. They took pictures with us. They helped us barter for t-shirt

s. There hospitality is something that I will never forget.

China.

Dear Friends,

I would like to welcome you to my blog. As many of you know I have spent the last three weeks in Beijing, China. I will be spending the next 10 months here, and while I'm here I would like to keep you all posted with the many things that have been going on in my life.

The last three weeks have been a blur, but here's the breakdown. I make it to China safe and sound. On the flight to Newark, my eardrum nearly exploded, but other than that everything went smoothly. The flight from Newark to Beijing was probably the most difficult part of the whole trip, simply because it was when reality finally set it. I was in a row of strangers on a plain full of Asians with a TV screen loaded with movies and a hot dog in a plastic wrap.When you have a hot dog in a plastic wrap, you can't sleep, and all the tension from leaving your friends and family behind hits what can you do but pr*y.

I love the food in China, I love the people, and I love my job. Currently my teaching job is rather cushy. I teach a total of ten periods a week! All the same lesson! Not only that Micah and I co-teach. Supposedly things will change. Micah and I are suppose to have our own classes and we are suppose to each teach 2o periods a week., but who knows if this will ever happen.

Friday was Teacher's Day. Teacher's Day in China is serious business. Every teacher receives a multitude of gifts. I received a crazy pen, a few journals, some awesome cards, a wooden key chain, a fake flower, and a feminine clover leaf necklace. What made it so much fun was not expecting all of these things.

My other full time job is always slowly gaining speed. Teaching from the Word is incredible. So far I have experience one study and taught one CSI class. Micah and I co-teach catechism. This is incredible. Our students are on fire for the Word. The fellowship warms your heart and makes you excited to be a Christian. The passion that my brothers and sister have is phenomenal many of them spend at least 3 hours at various studies throughout the week. Next week I think that I will be attending at least 5 studies and teaching 3.

I spend a lot of my other time trying to place myself in uncomfortable situations. I think that this has been an effective way to fledge into Chine culture. I have a few good stories from the last few weeks involving this third pastime. They include trips to the Great Wall, Wal-Mart, the Bird's Nest, the Watercube, the Beijing Zoo, and the basketball courts.

This is the reason that the background image for my blog is a basketball court. I've played basketball at least five times and these experience are just awesome. Basketball has been my primary means for meeting people. My experiences have shown me that sport is the international bond between males.

Ms. Ella Bella, I miss playing with you. Make sure that Dolly doesn't get out of hand and if she does you should probably put her time-out.

I pray that all of you are experiencing the riches of God's grace, and that God continues to challenge all of you in order that you place all of your trust in him.

Matthew James Werner