The Chinese boys staying with us have been fun. I wanted to facilitate their communication with their family/friends back in China. We have a desktop computer near the room where they are staying, so I created a user profile named "Alex or Ricky Martin", and made the browser default to Chinese script.
When I asked them about e-mail, they replied, "We don't use e-mail. We use QQ!" And thus began my education about instant messenging in China. QQ is the primary (maybe the only) instant messenging system used in mainland China. I googled "QQ Chinese" and found a good place to start. I thought that I would just download it, and away they would go. Maybe I chose the wrong download mirror, but it took a loooooonnnnnggggg time to download. They were happy though. Since I have administrative rights on that computer, and I had granted them limited rights, I downloaded/installed it on my profile, thinking that it would appear under their profile. I was wrong. Maybe the download had an option to "install for this user only, or for all profiles", but I didn't see it, since the site was in Chinese anyway!
Once it finished downloading the boys went to work, and I went back upstairs, and soon to bed. I'm not sure how long the boys were messaging. This morning, Ricky Martin gave me my own QQ number, with password and everything. My QQ name is David. He also told me that both he and Alex were already in my buddy list. I messed around with QQ a little at the office. It was a much faster download. It was all in Chinese, so I don't know what I'm doing. When I got home, I got on the computer at home, and tried to change the password (that's wise). The text about the boxes I was clicking on were all in Chinese--in short, I don't know what I did, but I can't login as myself anymore, either with the old password or the new one that I thought I was setting. I'll have to let the boys help me out.
I am translating for Weekend Intervention Program at Ozark Center, so I'll be busy all weekend. Rose will pick the boys up in a little bit at MSSU, then take them to an American Chinese restaurant (she has a coupon), then to Precious Moments. Tomorrow, Steve & Charissa (Rose too) will take them to Branson. They'll have lunch at Lambert's in Ozark, MO, then on to Branson Landing, and finally to Celebration City. They'll stay there for the fireworks, so even though I will be translating all day long, I'll get home quite a bit before they do. They should be pretty well tired out!
On Sunday, I'll translate early, then leave in a hurry to preach at the Spanish service at Christ's Church of Oronogo. Tonio, their minister (one of my students) is accompanying the College Hts. Christian Church short-term mission trip to Saltillo, Mexico, where he is from. I was going to preach for him one other time (Easter Sunday 2005), but I missed a connecting flight from Chicago.
A Chinese young man who is a believer and attends College Heights church (student at MSSU), Ellen Wohlenhaus and Anna Flory (who have taught English in China) will come over for lunch. The boys will want to watch the the final of the Fifa World Cup between Italy and France. About the same time, the Cubs are playing on TV as well, but I can't think of too many good reasons to watch that!
Another mundane matter: my scooter is now at the UPS Freight Terminal 78 miles from my house. It will be delivered to our driveway on Monday between 1-3 PM.
May you all have a blessed weekend!
DGF
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