Soap, Tigers & Flute!

It feels like FOREVER since I've posted an update.  After returning to China it felt like we were on a non-stop bullet train going at an extremely fast pace.  I’m hoping that now we have passed a few crazy weeks, I can be better at posting.  It may have just been the craziness of a new semester.  

LAMP SOAP

So, what has been happening here?  School is going great.  We are super busy with preparing lessons, giving lessons, revamping lessons, trying to come up with new ideas for lessons, etc.  It is a little more difficult when we are not given a curriculum to follow.  We have to come up with all our own lessons and we are gradually learning what works and what doesn't, hence the revamping portion from time to time.  But, we love what we are doing the and students are wonderful.  Truly, the best parts of this gig are the amazing students we are privileged to teach and get to know.  We recently did a project with our students that required some research on BYU and the degrees that are offered there.  It was incredible to hear the research they came back with in regards to the motto and theme from BYU, etc.  Part of the presentations included them talking about what facilities are offered here at XISU.  One girl talked about the “canteen” where they eat all their meals.  Her power point presentation (ppt) showed a picture of a yummy bowl of  noodles and broth.  It was labeled, “Lamp Soap.” It looked much tastier than lamp soap, in fact, it looked a lot like lamb soup!

SPRING & ZIP LINE

Spring is definitely here in Xi’an.  I spent an entire day going from park to park enjoying the blossoms and beauty all around.  It was amazing!  There were people everywhere enjoying life! 

One park that I love is called Qujiang and is situated around a beautiful lake.  Every time I've been there I have trekked to the top of a hill with tower that has a zip line across the lake.  No one has ever been there to let me zip line….except for this last time.  I drug a friend along with me to the top, thinking we would not see anyone up there, but lo and behold, there was a little Chinese man sitting in a hut having breakfast.  I motioned for him to come out and then pointed up, hoping he would realize what we wanted to do.  He hesitantly came out and gave me a slight nod, which I took for a full on YES…so up we went!  It was a whopping 80 yuan ($12.85) to fly through the air across a beautiful lake.  So, of course I went!  I have to admit I had a few reservations when I saw the contraption that was going to hold me onto the cable, but took a deep breath and went for it anyway.  It was awesome!  When I finally reached the other side, a small Chinese man was waiting to grab onto my leg as I flew by, to stop me before I slammed into a crude plywood wall with old carpet stapled to it.  He DID catch me…thank goodness!  It was worth the ride!!!

MORE ON TAXIS

We have decided that 1 out of 5 taxis stop to pick up foreigners here in Xi’an.  For some reason, it is almost impossible to get taxis to stop for us.  I think they just don’t want to risk having to take someone somewhere that can’t speak the language.  But, we always go prepared with a paper in Chinese indicating where we want to go, so I wish they would just STOP ALREADY!!!  I have noticed that they WILL stop for foreigners that have grey hair.  However, I’m NOT going to go grey just yet.  I’ll walk first!!!

RACCOON OR BADGER?

The other day I was ironing and looking out the window when I saw a very large, what I thought was a raccoon, wandering across the grounds!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  We are in the middle of the city!  Later, another teacher here said he saw the same animal but believed it to be a badger.  Since I have no idea what it really was, I’m just going to call it a “Badcoon” and hope I never come across it in the dark! 

CREATIVE COOKING

Did you know you can make almost anything in a crockpot?  The other we had a gathering and I made a 7 layer lasagna in our little crockpot.  It was pretty darn good!!!  Everyone was quite impressed with  how it turned out.  We definitely have to get creative with our cooking skills here. 

TRAVEL IN CHINA

We have taken 2 trips in the last 2 weeks.  Since there was no school for Qingming Holiday (grave cleaning day) on April 4-7^th, we signed up to see more of China!  The first trip was a 3night/2day cruise on the Yangtze river.  We went from Chongqing past Wuhan to Yichang.  Then we took a bus 4 hours back to Wuhan to fly home.  Quite an adventure. 

The Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world.  Along with the Yellow River, the Yangtze is the most important river in the history, culture and economy of China.  For thousands of years, people have used the river for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war.

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world.  Due to the construction of the dam, ships must be lifted or lowered over 300 feet. Because of this height, the water pressure required for a single lock would be too much for one gate to withstand. Instead, the dam uses five locks, each raising or lowering the vessel about 65 feet.  

The two sets of staircase locks, one moving downstream and the other upstream, each consist of five stages and each can handle vessels weighing up to 10,000 tons.  From midnight to 3 am on the last night of our cruise, our huge boat went through this series of 5 locks, each transition taking about 45 minutes.  Pretty cool...but a little noisy.  

Now before you get too excited, just remember that a “cruise” in China is very different than a cruise in America.  We flew to a city called Chongqing (chong ching).  It is about a 1.5 hr flight south of us.  We had a pretty good chuckle when we were checking in at the airport…when the check in lady asked dad where we were going he suddenly had dyslexia and said Qingchong (ching chong).  The lady asked him again and he repeated the backwards name.  She looked puzzled.  About this time I realized what was happening and told her the correct name.  She looked relieved and chuckled to herself.  We called it ChingChong for the rest of the trip.

Upon arriving in Chongqing, we met up with 30 other BYU teachers from all over China and toured the city for the rest of the day.  The highlight was a visit to the Flying Tigers museum.  Flying Tigers was the nickname of the first American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-1942.  The Flying Tigers helped fight against the much stronger Japanese Air Force, shooting down over 2600 Japanese aircraft.  This cemented a profound friendship with the Chinese people while fighting side-by-side in the Anti-Fascist War in China.   Being the immature child I am, it was really hard for me to concentrate during the tour because our guide must have said “Frying Tigers” about 2600 times.  It NEVER became less funny, in fact the more she said it, the funnier it became! 

After the city tour and well into the evening, we boarded a pretty big boat.  We were hustled into the big dining room where our tour guide informed us we would be in rooms with twin beds (something that is conveniently left out of the information BEFORE the trip) and that if any of us wanted to upgrade to a nicer room with a nicer bed, we could do that now.  Jordan’s hand shot up instantly.  Surprisingly, we were the only ones that didn’t want twin beds.  Strange.  Anyhoo, we toddled off with a little gal to go see what rooms we could upgrade to.  There were two choices, an executive room which still had 2 twin beds, but offered a slight bit more room (hardly noticeable from the regular twin room), OR the Presidential Suite with the ONLY kingsize bed on the boat.  You can probably guess which room we chose, and since it was a last minute change and no one had booked it, we received the deal of a lifetime and it only cost $300 p/person for the 4 day trip to upgrade.  It was a NO BRAINER!  It would have been a really great trip if it would have just stopped raining.  It was a deluge for the entire trip.  So, the nice private deck with lounge chairs just sat there taunting us for the entire trip.  Sad.  We did have one day where we took a little side trip in a smaller boat and luckily, it stopped raining for exactly 40 minutes while we were on that small uncovered boat, exploring up a small tributary.  All in all, we gave it a solid 3 out of 5 possible stars and only because we had the presidential suite to kick back in and feel spoiled for a few days.  We had a living room, den, dining area, large bedroom and bathroom.

Two funny stories on the boat:

First story:  There was a motion sensor light in a small hallway leading from the bedroom to the living room.  Since the hallway was quite close to the bed, if I rolled over too quickly in bed it would blast on a spotlight that would wake the dead!  We would have to either lay there for 5 minutes until it went off, or try the ninja technique and head over to the off switch and then sneak at a snail’s pace back to the bed and try to not set off the motion sensor again.  This was difficult and quite frustrating as we are not very good ninjas.  WHO puts a motion sensor light in a bedroom??????

Second story:  One morning I received a phone call in the suite.  Here was the conversation: 

Me: Hello?

Them: Get you flute.

Me: Get my flute?

Them: Yes

Me:  I don’t have a flute.

Them: Get you flute.

Me:  What flute?

Them: Yes, get you flute.

Me: Uh… wo bu ming bai (I don’t understand)

Them:  One minute prease.

After consulting another employee…

Them: Bring you flute?

Me:  You want to bring me a flute?

Them: Yes.

About this time Jordan yells from the back bedroom, “Maybe they are talking about fruit!”

Me to self:  OH!  Duh!!!

Them: Ok? Bring you flute?

Me:  Yes prease!

The last day of the trip Jordan got quite sick as did many others on the boat.  It was good to get home and back to teaching.  

I will save our 2^nd trip for another posting.  It is getting late and I need to get to bed.  Jordan already has a 3 hour head start on me! 

Until next time....

cindy

You put a cat where?

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!!!!

The 12 Days (After) Christmas in China...

Christmas Eve & Christmas were very strange this year since we spent it teaching our classes.  Not that teaching was bad, just different on Christmas Day.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, they do not celebrate Christmas in China other than giving each other an apple on Christmas Eve that symbolizes Peace & Happiness for the coming year.

So, since things are a little backwards and weird this year, I will share with you "The 12 Days (After) Christmas!"  This was written by a cute little young couple that are newly married and living here for one year on a scholarship student assignment.  They sang it for us at our White Elephant Party this year and received a standing ovation!

(See my explanation/clarification notes at the end of the song...)

The 12 Days of Christmas (in China)

Lyrics by Jarek and Kaylee Buss

On the first day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Air you can see and not breathe

On the second day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the third day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the fourth day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the fifth day of Christmas a student said to me,

MY NAME IS AIR

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the sixth day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Six singing trucks

PLEASE CALL ME DOLPHIN

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the seventh day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Seven cars a-honking

Six singing trucks

MY NAME IS EARTH

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the eighth day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

*HHHHHKKKKKK*

Seven cars a-honking

Six singing trucks

APPLE IS MY NAME

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the ninth day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Nine ladies dancing

*HHHHHKKKKKK*

Seven cars a-honking

Six singing trucks

I CAN’T SAY MY NAME

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the tenth day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Ten hours to download

Nine ladies dancing

*HHHHHKKKKKK*

Seven cars a-honking

Six singing trucks

CALL ME T-REX

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the eleventh day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

Eleven squatty potties

Ten hours to download

Nine ladies dancing

*HHHHHKKKKKK*

Seven cars a-honking

Six singing trucks

HIS NAME’S BAD BOY…? (Seriously?)

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe

On the Twelfth day of Christmas dear China gave to me,

A billion people staring

Eleven squatty potties

Ten hours to download

Nine ladies dancing

*HHHHHKKKKKK*

Seven cars a-honking

Six singing trucks

PLEASE CHANGE YOUR NAME!!!!

Four panda suits

Three baby butts

Two rock hard beds

And air you can see and not breathe!

My explanation.... 

1st Day - The air quality in China is nothing to laugh about!!!  It is BAAAAD!!!

2nd Day - I have not slept on ONE soft bed in China...not ONE!!

3rd Day - I LOVE the little baby butts!  Everywhere you go the little children have wide open crotch pants and while walking behind them all you see is 2 little bum cheeks!  Seriously, so cute...but that also means that with cute bums comes lots of wet spots and other spots on the pavement that you really try to avoid. 

4th Day - You can pretty much buy anything made to look like a panda (purses, shirts, vests, hats, etc.)

5th Day - Chinese students choose their own English name and sometimes they are just plain weird and we have NO idea where they came up with the name.  

6th Day - Singing trucks are everywhere...garbage trucks play "It's a Small World" and the street cleaner trucks play "Jingle Bells" 24/7.  

7th Day - no explanation needed...1.4 billion people, 80 million cars and far less parking spots available.  

8th Day - a common sound heard all the time, everywhere on the streets is a perfected hacking/clearing of the throat with a solid and swift spit to the pavement.  

9th Day - at night you can see gatherings of women in public squares in front of schools, shopping centers, etc. dancing together for socialization and exercise.  

10th Day - internet....bad....download....not....good.....

11th Day - western toilets...nope!  Squatters...yup!  I'm getting quite proficient but still despise it.  

12th Day - wherever we go, we are an oddity and attract attention.  We do our best to not embarrass ourselves or you.  ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!  Or as we say here in China, "Sheng Dan Kuai Le!!!!"

Final Exams, AQI & Frozen Toes

Xi’an, China  - December 22, 2013

Well, I can hardly believe that it is almost Christmas!  We have been in China for 4 months!  Time is flying by and before you know it, we will be back in the USofA for a wee visit during the Chinese New Year Holiday!  It is good this is only a year assignment with a break in the middle, because I obviously need to build up my ability to be away from our children and grandchildren for extended periods of time!  It definitely is not easy.

This week will be like any other….teaching.  They don’t celebrate Christmas here in China, at least not the way we do. Traditionally, for Christmas (if they know anything about it at all) they will give each other apples.  As one of my students explained to me, “The apple is all about the heart and when we exchange apples, it means we wish you love and peace.”

We will teach all week without a break for Christmas Eve or Christmas, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I LOVE these students!  They are some of the greatest and most beautiful people to walk the earth.  Seriously, they have such pure and gentle hearts. 

This past week I gave my final exams.  I sat down with 3 students for 10 minutes at a time to just listen to them discuss a topic, determined by me.  A week prior, I gave them a list of 14 topics that I might ask about, but they could not know which topic or who they would be paired with.  I wanted absolute vulnerable speaking so I could get the best sense of their speaking level.  It is hard to assess a student when they memorize or read their presentation.  This was an amazing experience!  As I asked them questions, I always ended with the same 2 questions:     

 1.  Tell me about an experience or memory you have as a child.                                               2.  If you could only use one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

I was blown away at the stories I heard… some funny, some sad, many uplifting.  It was a chance for me to really see who they are for a small moment and feel of the great love that God has for them.  It really was amazing.  I can’t even begin to describe the feelings I had and how many times I was on the verge of tears.  I love teaching!

Now, a few more things about China:

TREE BEATINGS

Towards the middle of October, it was not uncommon to walk along the road or through the campus and see older women with long sticks, beating the branches on trees.  At first I thought it quite odd until I realized what it was all about.  Of course, why wait for the leaves to fall naturally from the tree when you can beat the leaves out with a stick!  It is so much easier to rake all the leaves from one tree at the same time, right?

WEATHER and OPEN WINDOWS

The weather has of course gotten quite chilly.  We have been hovering around the low 20’s for the past several weeks.  At first I thought this was a welcome relief to the intense heat we had upon arrival in August, but after a few days, I was longing for the heat again!  Our classrooms have one small heater along the wall, which is in no way adequate to heat an entire classroom paved with cold tiles.  Many of the students huddle around the heater and hold onto the pipes for warmth during the 10 min break we have during our 2 hour class period.  The strange phenomenon is that even though the students are freezing, they all feel it necessary to open the windows and allow the fresh (not so fresh…see my next heading for AQI) air inside the classroom.  It is back to the same window routine but reversed.  Now I close it and they open it, I close it and they open it.  This was reversed during the hot periods when I would open the window for some air flow (because there is no A/C) and they would close it.  A student finally explained to me that you must “fight a cold with the cold” and hence the reason they open the window for cold air to flow in.  I guess they must also fight the heat with heat.  I’m still trying to figure out the logic.  By the end of the day, I’m frozen from my head to my toes.  Needless to say, I’m buying some warm boots and long underwear as soon as I get to the states where there are sizes to fit me!

AIR QUALITY INDEX (AQI)

You may have seen on world news that we are having some of the worst air pollution in history right now.  My phone has an app that I check daily to see how bad/good our AQI is and for the past week it has been reading 500, which is absolutely hazardous to your health.  However, my phone app tops out at 500, so we checked online instead and found that we are currently dealing with 650+ here in Xi’an.  It looks like we are walking through fog, that is how bad it is.  Just for some context, an AQI above 100 is generally considered unhealthy — over 300, and we’re talking about a serious hazard to health (i.e. it can be lethal).  Many people wear face-masks out and about.  China, burns a lot of coal and is the largest consumer of coal in the world. Most of China’s coal is burned to produce electricity, and for industrial uses such as making steel. So, we are trying to keep safe and not breathe too deep, if that is possible.

MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT

During our training we were told that NO ONE in China has a dryer.  That was challenge enough for me!  We dealt with no dryer for a few months until I realized that Jordan's clothes were getting saggier and saggier.  With no dryer heat to shrink cottons back to shape, he was looking a bit droopy.  So, we did our research, found a cute little Chinese gal that speaks English to help us and ordered a dryer from Beijing.  The shipping was a ridiculous amount 8 RMB ($1.32) and the dryer itself was a whopping 1600 RMB ($263).  Best present EVER!!!!  My laundry has never looked better (at least in China) and Jordan is no longer a sagger-bagger!  Woo hoo!

May this week find you all enjoying the magic of Christmas and the peace it brings.  We love you all so much and miss you at this time of year.  Merry Christmas!!

 

      

Food, food, food!

Jordan is turning Chinese! 

Weds night dinner at Village Cafe

Teachers, their children and friends

Sheraton Thanksgiving Feast

Best dessert of the night!

Thanksgiving Times Two...

12.1.13 – Xi’an Update

It is time for another update.  Especially since it is/was Thanksgiving time and I need to let you all know what I’m grateful for!  I am SO grateful for (in no particular order):

…All of you and the incredible individuals you are.  You all make me so happy!

...Wonderful children that are living amazing lives!

…Beautiful grandchildren that are healthy and happy and being raised by loving parents.

…Good health and strength over here in China (we need it!).

…Jordan.  He is amazing and I love him dearly!

…Real Chinese food!  It is SO yummy!  Nothing like the US Chinese food.

…Good friends and family everywhere! 

…This beautiful world.  I’m in awe of it most every day of my life.

…The gospel and the joy it brings to my life. 

…Our opportunity to be on the first of MANY missions to come. 

…A 2” piece of foam on our bed so we can have a little comfort at night. 

…The rain because it clears the horrible pollution out of the air here in Xi’an for at least a day!

…Tender mercies that come daily in various forms. 

I could go on for hours…. Just know that I am so grateful for my life and the opportunity that I have to be alive every day and enjoy every minute.

Life continues to march on here in Xi’an.  We are finding the weeks fly by at the speed of lightening!  I guess because we are so busy, time is just gone and we find ourselves at the end of another week and then the end of another month.  Pretty soon we will find ourselves at the end of another year!  Crazy how fast it goes!

FIRECRACKERS

Have I mentioned how many firecrackers are always going off in China?  It seems that every other hour or so, firecrackers are being set off to announce or celebrate something.  The sound of pop-pop-pop constantly fills the air here.  They LOVE their firecrackers!  The tradition of lighting them off says that the loud noise scares away evil spirits so there will be success in whatever area of life they are celebrating.  Seriously, they are sounding off all the time!

SPICY FOOD

Anyone who knows me and knows me well, knows I have never liked nor been able to handle spicy food.  Well, something drastic has changed in my life… I LOVE SPICY FOOD!  “What?  How can that be?  You were such a whimp before!”  I know… I can hardly believe it myself.  Spicy food is so good!  I can finally taste the flavor of spicy food and it doesn’t just burn, burn, burn.  The red peppers added to most everything here have such a good flavor.  I’m completely baffled by this new phenomenon!

MORNING TRUMPET

Every morning at precisely 0650, a trumpet plays in the distance, awakening all the students from a restful slumber.  Can’t you just hear it now?  I’m usually almost ready for the day by the time it goes off each morning and I look forward to hearing it faintly through an open window.

MASSAGE 

We found the BEST massage (neck, back, arms & feet) place here!  It only costs 20 RMB ($3.20) for one hour!  It is amazing and a weekly ritual for me now.  I took Jordan once and here are his comments:  “First, they put your feet in boiling hot water to soak which must be equal to Chinese water torture, then they start the physical abuse by trying to manipulate your torso into positions it shouldn't be in and pushing on some areas so hard that you feel your entire body go numb, after this they begin to shave your feet and trim your toenails with a scalpel that could scare feathers off a turkey!”  Ok, so he didn't actually say it like that, more like, “first the water torture, then the physical abuse and then the knife.”  But my way is so much more descriptive!  Anyway, to all that I say, “And what’s not to LOVE!”  It will continue to be a weekly ritual for me. 

MOVIES

Movies are interesting here.  We have yet to go see an actual movie in a theater, mostly because we have no idea where to find them and the one that we did find was not showing any US flicks.  We have however, been able to find several movies at little vendor stands along the streets.  It is like reaching into a goody-bag and not knowing what you will get when you open your hand.  Our favorite by far is when you can definitely tell that someone has been sitting in the back of a theater recording the movie.  Definite signs of “in-movie-theater-pirating” are: 

1.       The sound quality is so bad you have to learn to read lips or use earplugs when it all of a sudden goes LOUD.

2.      The beginning of the film seems to be in black & white but it is actually kinda greenish in color.  The color gradually gets better and worse.

3.      There are no beginning or ending credits.

4.      Occasionally the lens cap goes on but you can still hear the movie.  When the threat of discovery is gone, the lens cap comes back off.

5.      And our all-time favorite is:  You can watch people get up from their seats, go out to the bathroom (or for popcorn maybe) and then several minutes later you can watch their shadow return to their seat.  One lady had an up-doo (men, that is a hairdo that is on top of the head) as tall as the Eiffel Tower and it was very comical in shadow form. 

THANKSGIVING

Our Thanksgiving was a wee bit unconventional, but nonetheless enjoyable after a long day of teaching on Weds and Thurs.  We started a day early on Weds evening with a Foreign Teacher Faculty dinner that I organized at a nearby café.  We had 28 people in attendance.  The café actually prepared a real Thanksgiving Dinner for us with turkey, dressing, small potatoes (not mashed but still excellent) and a wee amount of gravy and cranberries.  Although a little more gravy and cranberries would have been awesome, it was a great dinner for only 88 RMB ($14.50)

On Thursday night we had a Branch Thanksgiving Dinner at the Sheraton Hotel Buffet.  A little pricier than Weds night but equally as good for 99 RMB ($16.50).  The Sheraton caters to foreigners and on Thursday night, they rolled out the red carpet.  Not only did they have a giant roasted turkey with dressing and gravy, they had a large pork leg and MANY other foods including: sushi, tacos, salads, fruits, cheeses, regular Chinese favorites and the BEST dessert bar in town!   

So, as you can tell, we have not lost our sense of humor or wonder.  We enjoy every day as if it were our first here and see the time passing VERY quickly.  Although we miss you all like CRAZY, we are content knowing that we are here doing a positive work that will change lives, hopefully for the better.  

Love you all SO much and hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. We missed being with you and hope you could feel our love across the miles, WISHING YOU THE BEST THANKSGIVING EVER!!

Singles, Scooters & AQI

November 11, 2013

Happy "Singles Day"!!  You may be asking yourself, "What the heck is Singles Day?"  Here is a brief explanation from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/11/11/singles-day-chinas-online-shopping-holiday/1697299/

"Singles Day was begun by Chinese college students in the 1990s as a version of Valentine's Day for people without romantic partners. The timing was based on the date Nov. 11, or "11.11" — four singles. Unattached young people would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to woo that special someone and end their single status. That gift-giving helped to turn it into a major shopping event as sellers of everything from jewelry to TVs to cars saw a marketing opportunity and launched Singles Day sales.  It is China's answer to Cyber Monday in the United States — the day after Thanksgiving weekend, when online Christmas shopping begins and merchants have their busiest sales day."

Now for an update:

We are still loving China!  The greatest part of this entire experience is working with the university students and trying to make a small difference, some how, some way.  Every day we have opportunities to teach good, wholesome principles within our lessons on English.  It is amazing how much you can weave into English instruction!  The students are kind and happy despite their difficult circumstances.  I recently did a lesson focused around problem solving that opened my eyes to the real life students live, outside of class time.  I first reminded them that they were attending a fabulous university, but even great schools have a few things that could be better.  We listed those things on the board.  They were then required to form groups of 5-6 and become a business that would work innovatively to solve one of these problems.  It was difficult to get them to stop thinking like students and start thinking like a business, outside the box, wanting to grow their business.  A few of them finally caught the vision of seeing endless possibilities to solve problems, while others never could get past the fact that the school doesn't have any money to make changes, therefore, no changes can really be made.  It was a great activity and got them using their problem solving language skills, which was my goal, so despite the actual outcome of whether they solved the problem or not, they used English.  Hooray!  I thought you may be interested in some of the problems they face on a daily basis:

1.      Dorms are small with 6 to a room.  No space to store the things they need.  Nowhere to  study.  

2.      No Air Conditioning in dorm rooms.  No ceiling fans. 

3.      No hot water in dorm buildings.  They must use large thermos jugs to go and retrieve hot  water from a hot water house, carry it back and sometimes up 6 flights of stairs with no  elevator.

4.      No private showers.  There is just one large shower room like we used to have for PE. 

5.      No wifi and poor internet.

6.      Electricity is turned off from 11:30 PM – 6:00 AM.  Hairdryers are never allowed. 

7.      Only one set of washer/dryer facilities per building of MANY students. 

The list could go on and on.  Suffice it to say, I have nothing to complain about….ever again. 

AIR QUALITY

You may have heard on the news about how bad our air quality has been of late.  Yup… it is BAD!  I have an AQI (air quality index) app on my phone that I check regularly, as if it will protect me somehow.  I see how bad it is and then hop on the bus and head out to school to teach.  I suppose I should be wearing a mask around but it just doesn't seem realistic to do so.  So, I will hope and pray that my lungs keep working! 

CHINESE

Our Chinese is coming along nicely.  We have Chinese class twice a week (Mon & Thurs afternoon) for 2 hours each class.  By the time we leave class our heads are about to explode!  It is seriously crazy awesome!  We come home and put up post it notes all over the apartment to try and learn the words and phrases taught that day.  Then we do our best to repeat and practice them with each other as often as possible!  It is really fun and we are enjoying learning the language SO much.  We get a slight feel of how our students must feel because our teacher refuses to use any English in class.  We get scolded if we use any English.  She is tough!  She will say words in Chinese and we must write the Chinese character and pinyin (their words in our roman alphabet) plus the tone of each syllable.  The four different tones are quite difficult to detect and master, as is the pronunciation of letters and combinations of letters.  But, we will NEVER give up!  We love it!!!

CREATIVE PIZZA DELIVERY

A couple of weeks ago, we had pizza party for our little Branch here at our apartment.  Jordan was in charge of getting the pizzas. The closest pizza place is Pizza Hut and is about a 30 minute walk from here.  He took one of our members, a 23 yr old named Joel from Argentina and who speaks pretty fluent Chinese with him to place the order to be picked up later that day.  When it was time to go get the pizzas, they walked out to the main road and found a scooter guy who was waiting to give someone a ride.  At this point I must tell you that there are scooter dudes waiting at the exit of every subway, ready to give any paying customer a ride to wherever they want to go in the city.  None of them are legal or authorized to do so, but no matter, they do it anyway.  So, dad and Joel hop on one scooter together (yes, now there are 3 grown men on one scooter), with two on the seat and one on the small luggage bar.  They ride to Pizza Hut, ask the scooter dude to wait, they then pick up 6 large pizzas, everyone jumps back on the scooter and in no time, they are dodging cars and trucks while holding 3 large pizza boxes off each side of the scooter.  My only regret is that I don’t have a picture.  There is always next time!

WEATHER

The weather here has begun to turn cold.  I finally had to put my skirts and sandals away and start wearing real clothes.  Our students are always concerned that we do not wear enough clothing to keep us warm.  While it was still hot, I would open the windows for a breeze (no AC in the classrooms remember?) and they would close the windows.  Now that it is cold, I close the windows and they open them!  They all wear big coats to class and then open the windows.  I just can’t figure it out.  I wouldn't be so opposed to them opening the windows if the air quality were better.  One day, the air quality was so bad outside that when the windows were open, the thick smoggy air rolled into the classroom and it was foggy’ish in class.  That is when I put my foot down and said, no more outside air in here today! 

Take care and know that we love and miss you all like crazy!!!!!!!

 再见  Zàijiàn