Today is a snow day and all of my favorites are home with me (the hubby, the dog, and a cup of hot tea....but I am still debating the order...LOL). Today's post won't really be VISTA related unless you count that a VISTA is writing it! The weather is frightful and my cup of tea is delightful!
Before I was a VISTA, I was an online English tutor through a company out of Beijing. When the laws changed on their end, I suddenly found myself out of a job. Even more upsetting was missing my favorite students scattered all over Asia. Even now I am finding myself getting choked up because I am kind of sappy that way. Some of my students were regulars for almost my entire four year stint online. I watched them grow in their abilities and confidence. Their families considered me a friend. We exchanged packages. We shared pictures on WeChat. How does this relate to tea? One student in particular has kept in touch. Her parents begged me to continue teaching her but I am kind of a rule follower. In good conscience, I couldn't continue to teach her when it was against her laws. We do set up a weekly time to chat and it is great practice for her conversational skills. I refused to let the parents pay me money because, again, I don't want them to get into trouble. I love this family! My student and I love to talk about the differences in our cultures; one day we started to talk about tea. The next thing I knew, there was a box on my doorstep! It had a lovely tea set, bamboo tray and adorable stuffed tiger. This year it is year of the tiger though I did pause to wonder for a moment why I now had a stuffed tiger.
As a side note, my tiger is having fun having photos taken as I do my daily activities. He went to yoga class with me and he loves my loaded teas! I haven't named him yet. Any thoughts? Please comment if you have a great name!
Now I return to the tea! A second box appeared and it was full of fun new teas to try. My daughter is very tech savvy and she encouraged me to take a picture of characters on the packages. Did you know that you can highlight foreign words and copy them? From there I pasted them into google translator to know what adventure awaited me in each tea box. Yes, I plan to ask my student about the teas (good practice for her) but Chinese New Year and illness have derailed our plans to chat. We are also navigating a 13 hour time difference! Now that I don't have to get up at 4 am for work I find myself loathe to return to that schedule!
Today I broke open the first package and fell in love with the scent of the tea. It is such a clever packaging; a mandarin orange was stuffed with tea leaves and then wrapped in tea paper! The smell from the pot of tea was amazing!! I wanted to try the tea set and the bamboo tray but the hubby is speaking virtually at an online conference so I am happily drinking tea from my daughter's favorite mug. If she is reading my post today, I love you...and your mug!
My challenge to you today is to try something new. Maybe you aren't fortunate enough to have families send you packages of tea from China? If not, practice a new language! Duo Lingo is a free app that has many languages on it, even "dying ones". Try a new recipe? Study a new concept online? Make your snow day fun and give yourself something to anticipate so that you don't get cabin fever. Personal development is one of my favorite things about being a VISTA.
And of some have compassion, making a difference: Jude 1:22 KJV
All opinions expressed here are solely mine and are not a reflection of the opinions of the Americorp VISTA program or of City of Refuge in Columbia, MO.
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