The night before my internship...

Writing has been therapeutic, and at the moment, hopefully a way to calm my nerves. I am deadly serious when I say that I am extremely nervous about my internship. I honestly don't know what to expect. In my devotions lately, I've been discovering that I do not have enough faith, and I don't execute things out of faith. Most of the time it's like, okay, I think God is telling me to go here, but I end up covering my eyes and wince as I follow. It's not really faith I guess; there's too much doubt as I go through with the actions. My heart isn't entirely there.

As a result, I have come to the conclusion that the Lord has definitely been generous with me. I have done many things that should have reaped dire consequences, but the Lord is both a merciful and gentle God. I am punished, no doubt about it, but He lays a gentle hand on me. It could have been far worse.

So, as I sit by my computer, unable to watch the men's figure skating programs that my roommate purchased on iTunes, I just needed to unwind. I feel like my mind is spinning out of control sometimes with worry and doubt, but somehow in the end, I trust that the Lord will provide. I just don't know how, and that is what worries me sometimes, the unknown. I have trouble wading into vague waters.

But for the most part, today has been a rather productive day. Granted, I probably should have relaxed, and I count the "sleeping in" portion as the relaxation part, but all in all, it was a rather successful day. I managed to mail Lauren's package of stuff. Although at the start I encountered some trouble with the rice cooker, but thankfully China Postal is a system you can bypass with pitiful looks and sheer confusion. My only concern at the moment is that it may arrive as a shattered piece of cookware, but it is out of my hands now.

I walked back to my flat, and was struck with the idea that I should time how long it takes to get from our apartment complex to the bus stop (just in case). Well, this was definitely divine inspiration, and I am thankful that the Lord reminded me, because I walked to the bus stop, but then realized it was going in the opposite direction of where I needed to be. I recalled arriving there with Uncle Dan's cousin, but since we took a taxi to the law firm, I never actually made it there by bus before. As a result, I began a long search for the proper bus stop (luckily this was not tomorrow). I finally located it, and spontaneously decided to conduct an experiment. How long does it take for the bus to arrive? From the first Bus #67, I waited for the second and timed the waiting interval. It took about 5-6 minutes. However, I wanted to at least average the results, and waited for a second bus. I waited a full 20 minutes until finally the third bus arrived, of which I decided to board and make the full trip. As Google maps had indicated, it took about 10 minutes to arrive (on the dot), and about 13 minutes to get back. During my experiment, I observed that Bus #31 is the most frequent, of which sometimes 3 came together (twice), and often 2 would come simultaneously. It was rather odd, but I pray that tomorrow I can board the bus without any issues. It was packed at one of the lowest hours of the day! I am highly concerned, and will leave a full hour before I need to get there, just to be sure.

I walked back from the bus stop, and somewhat timed the trip (though the stop watch has frequently stopped itself, so I am not sure how long it will really take). I then picked up groceries from Times Groceries, tissues from Suguo Convenience Store, and a 50 Watt light bulb from a local "everything" shop (basically, any appliances you can think of to fix something in your house is there). I began doing my devotions, when Kamla came home, and we took our bikes to get fixed. Her bike got a flat tire yesterday, and to our amazement, the 叔叔 fixed her bike in no time, and only charged her 2 RMB. I myself on the other hand, had far more problems. My left hand break would not budge, the seat was rusted over, and my wheels needed some air. However, after much work (mind you, he was very careful about everything, testing the break until he was satisfied), he only charged me 10 RMB for everything. This is when I love China! The people are so practical and find ways to help you save. I guess this is a form of customer's service in China that is actually rather 普遍 popular.

We then rode our bikes (or in my case, rather shakily rode over as I have not touched a bike since the 8th grade) over to the dry cleaner's. The lady there is super nice, and has never yelled at us once for the dirty jackets we bring her. She is extremely helpful, and I'm sure she probably charges us a little more for being foreigners, but I figure it's worth it. I'll call it my tip since she's so nice. My thighs were aching though from riding the bike. I am pretty sure it's because I'm just that out of shape, but I think part of it was that the bike was also pretty small, so it made riding rather difficult (plus there was only 1 gear). Oh well, it's good exercise, so I'll start working out those nonexistent muscles of mine!

We came back and had dinner, and I ended up finishing my devotions of the day. All in all, I would say I was pretty productive today. I'm going to turn in a scholarship online (slim chance of me getting it, plus the amount is little but it's worth a shot), and work a bit on my LSATs before heading off to bed. *sigh* I'm trying...