Xi’an, China –
We are back in China! We spent a wonderful month seeing children and grandchildren, visiting friends and loved ones, and eating our faces off in the U.S. at all our favorite locations. The time spent with everyone was amazing! Thank you for your enthusiasm for our adventure!
Life has been busy and crazy since returning to Xi’an. Our flights were great and we arrived with
all luggage in tow this time which was a great surprise! We arrived quite late so by the time we got
home it was 1 am and we were wide awake…argh!
For some reason, the jet lag seemed a little worse this time than the
first time, but gradually we are getting on this time zone again.
We entered our apartment and to our amazement (and
surprise), the entire apartment was covered in a thick layer of grey dust. It was unbelievable! Our black couch was grey, our brown floor was
grey, our clear dining table was grey….you get the picture! Everything was disgusting! I couldn’t even think of going to bed until I
had wiped down most everything except the floor…that would have to wait until
morning, and in the morning light you could see exactly everywhere we had
walked in the apt! Whoa! After all the cleaning the rags were
black! Oh my…is that what we are
breathing??? Yup!! You will be happy to know we purchased some
real lung protection masks while in the states, however, dad read that unless
we have masks personally fit to our faces, they do little to help keep the bad
air from our lungs. I figure any
protection is better than no protection.
As the weather warms and the coal burning for warmth stops, the air will
hopefully get better and better. The AQI
(Air Quality Index) continues to be our
biggest concern here, everything else is great!
Since returning, we have learned that XISU (our university) has some major changes planned for the next 5
years. The current foreign faculty
housing that we live in will be torn down along with several other old and
unused buildings adjacent to our facility, to make space for a high rise
building which will house the foreign teachers and Chinese teachers in the
future. The Chinese teachers live in a
different location than we do right now so their accommodations are not at
risk. The foreign faculty housing is a
big problem. The administrators are now
in the process of deciding what they should do with all 60 of us! Big problem!
So, we worry a little about our
situation and what will become of us for Fall semester when we return. BYU is very aware of the situation and have
asked us what we would like to do going forward. We have told them to put us wherever they
need us. We can stay here and help in
the housing transition process or possibly go to Beijing where they are in need of a lawyer
for CFAU (China Foreign Affairs University).
We are happy with either outcome.
Stay tuned…we should know in a month or so where we will be next
year. Always an adventure!!!!
I heard a few funny things in class last week. I had the students sharpen their interview
skills by pairing up and interviewing each other about their Winter Holiday. Then they “reported” their findings about
each other. One animated girl was
talking about how her partner was excited to see her little sister, and knowing
how much her sister loved “cats” she thought it would be a good idea to bring
one home to surprise her. She explained
how she packed it into her suitcase and went on the plane home. I was startled at this point and asked the interviewed
girl directly, “You packed a cat in your suitcase?” To which she replied, “Yes!” With a shocked looked on my face I asked
again, “You actually put the cat in your suitcase and closed it up and sent it
on the plane?” She again answered, “Yes!” I was dumbfounded by this and asked, “Was it
alive when you arrived?” She looked at
me strange and said, “What?!?” I knew
then we must have some kind of communication barrier going on. I asked her to please spell cat on the board
for me. She wrote k-i-t-e. Oh! A
kite!!! Thank goodness it was a kite in
the suitcase and not a cat! I corrected the
interviewer’s pronunciation and she continued with the story. “So after arriving home and giving her little
sister the new cat (wrong pronunciation again but I at least knew what she was
talking about), she tied the cat to her back and went really fast so it would
fly.” Looking at the other girl again I
asked, “You tied the kite to your back and ran fast? Wasn’t there any wind?” She replied, “There was wind but not enough
to get it to fly so it worked better on my back. My sister was on my back also and it made her
happy to not have to run and run anymore.”
Again, I’m trying to imagine it all in my head. Now she has a kite strapped to her back and
her little sister is also on her back.
Wow! This is hard work flying a
kite! Suddenly it hits me, if cat were
kite, then maybe, just maybe back was bike! Oh my, the joys of trying to decipher the
language really has me puzzled at times!!! And what makes it even more funny is that they
both understood the wrong pronunciation, in fact the entire class understood
what was being told and I was the ONLY one that was lost!!
So, we begin week 3 with the students tomorrow. Time seems to be flying by so quickly. We will be home before we can blink!
We love what we are doing! Come see us! The weather is starting to warm up and the last few days we have seen some blue-ish skies!
Drop us a line!!!!
