China Scenes

Arrival at Bejing Airport. There were still signs of the Olympics everywhere, although the airport was very quiet. I am sure it was very busy just a few days before we arrived. At this point we had been up for about 24 hours. It was a long day!














At the gate to our apartment area. We love living here. There are few other foreigners except the other couple in our program and a couple from India. We are immersed in the Chinese culture and did not see another western person, except at church, for almost three weeks after we arrived in Nanjing.









We live on the fifth floor of our building. This is the view from our windows. It makes the climb worth every step--except for the last climb at night. Our building has less than 8 stories. Anything with more than 8 floors is required to have an elevator so many buildings stay under that limit. However, as you can see, there are taller buildings around. Construction is booming and sky scrapers dot the skyline in the downtown areas.







One day we went for a walk to Xwanwu Lake, about a1/2 hour walk from our apartment. It is a beautiful lake area in the middle of Nanjing--a city of 7 million people. The streets are crowded but the minute you cross under the old city wall, you find it very peaceful. Jim often runs here in the early morning. It has lovely gardens, walking paths, islands, an amusement park, and paddle boats.




A word about food. We have had some very interesting meals. Tomorrow night all the foreign teachers in Nanjing are invited to a huge banquet. It will be interesting to see what is served there. This is one of the more tasty dishes we have had, although it looks a little strange. It is called squirrel fish because the head looks similar to a squirrel's head. (Don't know if you can see the "ears" in the picture or not.) It is turned inside out, deep fried and the meat is picked out of the center. It is quite tasty.



We continue to love our adventure here. Will add more pictures another time. I think I have sort of figured out this "blogging" thing so hopefully will post more often.

We are in China

We have been in China for the last three weeks. It has been a wonderful experience. Our apartment is pleasant, we are both teaching now. Jim has started his classes in the graduate school. I have two English writing classes that I will keep for the semester. My other four oral English classes are freshmen so they will not start school until the second week in October because they have military service first. So I accepted some temporary oral English classes for the Materials Science and Engineering department. I have two classes of undergraduates, one of graduate students and one of "young teachers." It has been more work that I had expected, but I have enjoyed the classes and I hope their English has improved. Four weeks is not long enough to cover much, but they are more comfortable speaking English for me now than when I started.

People here are amazing. We have been treated so well!!! Our neighbors have brought us gifts, people have taken us out to dinner and on sightseeing trips. We have tried so many new foods, and we like most of them. Eels are a case in point. Once we got over the idea of "eels" they tasted like any other fish cooked in a spicy sauce. We are also getting more proficient with chopsticks.

This past week-end was the mid-autum festival. It is held at the full moon in September. The tradition is to get together with family, view the full moon and eat "mooncakes." These are small pastrys about 3 inches in diameter and 1 inch high. They are quite rich and are filled with various things. We had heard that you have to grow up with them to enjoy them, but the ones we ate were quite tasty--not something to eat every day, but a wonderful Chinese tradition. Of course, we did not purchase any. We were given them by just about every Chinese person we know. We probably have a years supply.

On Monday Kevin and his family came to see us. We were so excited to see them. We went sightseeing together here in Nanjing at the Purple Mountain. It is a huge wooded hill with various monuments, memorials, etc. and some hiking paths. It was delightful to spend the day together.

I hope to get some of the pictures ready for my next entry. It has taken us so long because we had a problem accessing the blog. All the instructions come up in Chinese so it took a visit from Trent to get us on the right track.

We are looking forward to our first long trip in China. We will fly up to Urumqi in the northwest part of the country and work our way back as far as Xian where the famed terra cotta warriors are located. Then we fly home. It should be a great adventure.