At home and school and other things

I teach my classes on Jiangpu campus, a 45 min.(to a 1 hr. 15 min. bus ride, depending on the traffic) drive from where we live. The campus is in a lovely wooded area. It has many ponds, gardens, and trees. This is one of the ponds looking toward the library. I walk along here twice a week as I go between classes. It was beautiful in the fall, but is a little cold now. The pond had a thin layer of ice on it when I walked along yesterday. But it is warmer today so I'm sure it has melted.

A little further along I pass this area. Behind the water are dozens of basketball courts and a couple of tennis courts. Basketball is a huge sport here in China. Everyone--literally--is a fan of the NBA. Even little kids know all the teams and players. When I say I live in Idaho and it is just north of Utah, the people all say, "I know Utah. That's where the Jazz play." I'm afraid I disappoint them when I say I don't know much about the NBA teams.

This is the library. It is a beautiful big building. The students do much of their studying here. I don't know if it is heater, but I assume there is some heat to protect the books. Anything is better than the dorms which have no heat. The girls do have warm water for showers but not the boys. I ask the kids how they keep warm and they just shrug. I have figured out that most of them come from homes that have no heat either, so it isn't a big deal for them. It is for me. On really cold days (below freezing) I wear my winter boots, several layers of clothes, and my coat to teach in.

This is the foreign language building. I teach most of my classes here. The rooms have some heat, but the halls are frigid. When the sun shines it is warmer outside than in the halls. The building is 10 years old. It is nice and has computer and power point capabilities as well as listening labs and other necessities for learning a foreign language. The only trouble is that often things don't work very well. I get frustrated when I prepare a PPT lesson and the machine doesn't work. Sometimes they will change me to a different classroom, but sometimes I just have to make do.

As I come out of the building this is the scene that greets me from across the street. The trees are bare now so you can see the gazebos going up the hill. Last fall I thought it would be a lovely place to sit and eat my lunch. Unfortunately, they only sweep and clean the bottom half dozen steps so things are quite dirty and filled with trash. Too bad.

One of the most delightful things we do is volunteer at a kindergarten (actually a nursery school) where we sing songs in English with the students. We love the kids and they are so fun to sing with. They know all the songs we've taught them and especially love the ones with all the actions. The Hokey Pokey is their favorite. I laugh every time we sing it because they are so cute.

Sunday after church (which was held in the home of the Wadley family instead of in the hotel conference room where we usually meet) we had a potluck dinner and "white elephant" gift exchange. It was a really fun party and we had great food--western, not Chinese. The two Chinese kids are the son and daughter of our branch president and the other two are friends of theirs from Germany.

The "white elephant" gifts were to be something Chinese. Here is the teenage son in one of the families. He got chicken legs and duck heads. We all had a good laugh when he opened his present. Of course, no one wanted to exchange with him so he was stuck with them.

The best gift happened to Eric, one of the Wadley boys. His first gift was a purse. You can imagine how that went over with a 11 year old boy. He kept trying to get someone to trade with him. Finally, one of the other teachers took pity on him and said he wanted the purse. Eric was so excited to get rid of the purse. That meant he got to choose another gift. He looked around and chose one of the bigger packages and opened it.

You can imagine the look of amazement on his face when his gift turned out to be a live turtle. What made it even funnier was that the teacher who had taken the purse was actually the person who had brought the turtle. It couldn't have worked out any better if it had been planned--which, of course, it wasn't.

So what do you do with a turtle? Actually, the Chinese eat them and you can purchase them in the market along with live eels, squid and other assorted creatures. However, Eric plans to keep it as a pet. By then his dad was trying not only to have someone trade gifts with Eric, but offered to pay them to do so. No takers! So the Wadleys are now the owners of a turtle. It will be interesting to see what really happens to it.

THE HOME FRONT

I tried to take a few pictures of our apartment. This one is the view as we look left upon entering. We have no sofa, only the two black chairs. The lighting is so poor that we rigged up a lamp on the door frame by the eating area and can turn it on when we need to grade papers so we can read them with out eye strain.






Next I went down by the table and took a picture back the other way. The door comes in on the right where you can see the little rug. As you can see, we don't have much room but what we have is spacious and light in the daylight hours.

To get your bearings for the next picture pretend you are standing in the doorway on the left side of the picture and looking straight across the coat rack.

Now you see our utility area and bathroom. Next to the coats is the refrigerator and water dispenser. We cannot drink the tap water so buy bottled water. You will note that the frig is small--really small. Good thing we don't have to store much in it. Speaking of small, note the washing machine next to the frig. It is better than doing clothes by hand, but not much. I'm glad there are just two of us and Jim takes his shirts to the cleaners just outside of our gate. Laundry could get to be a problem with a large family.

Directly across from the washer is the kitchen. You can see how small it is--a one person kitchen at best. You can also see why the refrigerator is not in the kitchen--no room. I don't know if many Chinese people have refrigerators in their homes. Certainly not the ordinary people who live in the small places around us. Our apartments are very nice compared to what some of the people have.

This is our office. It is filled with books and materials left by previous teachers. It has been nice to have access to some of their games, lessons, and other things.

The doors go out to an enclosed "porch" where we store suitcases, etc. and hand our laundry to dry. On sunny days, it actually gets dry in a day, but sometimes it takes longer.

Here is the bedroom. It is quite crowded--only one person can get into the closet at one time--but it does have a good work station. I keep my computer in here and Jim keeps his in the office. The bed looks quite nice, but Chinese beds are very hard. They are a wooden box with a mattress on them. No springs are to be found here. I should have thrown back the covers so you could see that. Oh, well.

That's it for this time. I have been taking pictures of things we see on the street, and some of the people around here. Maybe I'll post that in a few days.

MERRY CHIRSTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!

Beijing Part 2

This is the observatory at the Summer Palace where royalty used to come to get away from the summer heat in Beijing. It is built around a large lake. From the tower, the emperor used to watch naval maneuvers on the lake. The Summer Palace has one of the longest covered corridors in the world, (2,500 feet), is adorned with paintings (8,000 according our guide) and was a beautiful place to walk. The observatory is built upon a hill made from the dirt excavated to build the lake. The hill is shaped like a bat, the Chinese symbol for happiness and there is a turtle shaped island in the lake to symbolize long life.

One of the interesting things I saw was people practicing their calligraphy. They had a long pole with a knob of rags tied on the end. They dipped the knob in a bottle of water and then made the Chinese characters on the sidewalk. One of my Chinese friends told me that this is how people who are interested in becoming "serious" calligraphers practice their art. I was fascinated as I watched them. Sorry the shadows keep you from seeing just how beautiful the characters are. Good Chinese calligraphy is truly an art.

Also at the Summer Palace was the stone boat. The top is wood but the base is made of marble, so of course it didn't sail anywhere. It was originally built sometime during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in a Chinese style, however, the top burned down and was rebuilt in 1888 in a western style. When it was built it was supposed to represent the government while the water represented the people. This meant the government would sail forever on the backs of the people, if it was benevolent. However, the boat faces the wrong way--toward the land--so it was never able to sail forever without running aground. Sure enough, the government didn't last forever.

After the Summer Palace we went to the Olympic area. It was so fun to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. We were able to go into the Water Cube. Unfortunately, they have turned the swimming pool, of Michael Phelps fame, into a fountain pool. There were pipes and spouts criss-crossing the whole water area. In between the swimming pool and the diving pool, there were chairs set up for an orchestra. We were told that every week-end there is a water and light show accompanied by the orchestra--ala Las Vegas style--and that it is very beautiful. Personally, I was disappointed because I wanted to see the original pool. The diving pool was in tact however, and it was fun to be there and see where the water activities took place. It looked just like on TV (of course.)

The most fascinating thing about the Water Cube was the construction. From the outside it looked like plastic stretched over hexagons. It looked rather like that from the inside also. At any rate, it was a beautiful and unique structure. The Chinese went all out to make an impression on the world, and they accomplished their goal

Here is Jim at the Great Wall. I was most impressed by this. I have always heard about the Great Wall of China and it was amazing to be able to walk along it and get such a sense of history as I thought about all the work, the workers, the guards, and just the people who had walked there before me. One of the good things about going in the winter is that the trees have no leaves and you get a sense of just how long and massive it really is. Jim is considering running the Great Wall Marathon next May so we hope to go back for that.

One of the fun things about China is what you see when you are looking for something else. We were walking through a park to go to see the Temple of Heaven and were amazed at the variety of people doing various things there. We saw small orchestras playing both western and Chinese music, a few choirs, people playing card games, and this group of dancers. I love the parks on the week-ends. You can see dancers, musicians, singers, skaters, and myriad other things. It is so fun!

This is the Temple of Heaven where the emperor worshiped on certain days each year. The Temple symoblizes going to heaven and incense is burned so the smoke will take the prayers of the emperor to heaven. The building was last used in the 1920's. The Temple was beautiful and freshly painted, courtesy of the olympics. We got there just at sunset so the light was perfect to catch the ornateness of the building. It is on a hill and we were able to see out across Beijing and watch the sun set. A perfect close to a couple of days of touring.

One night we had Peking Duck, along with a dozen other dishes, for dinner. I like Peking Duck; I had had it before, so kenw what it was like. The chef came to the table to cut it up and we were able to watch him in action. It was interesting to watch how he could get almost every bit of meat off the bones. We enjoy most of the Chinese food we eat, and this was no exception.

Our last evening in Beijing we went to an acrobatic show. I had seen Chinese acrobats on TV, but this show was truly amazing. The strength, agility and acrobatic feats of the men and women were truly breath taking. It was a perfect ending for our Thanksgiving week-end in Beijing.

A Beijing Thanksgiving Part 1

We have had some interesting Thanksgivings in our lifetime, but I must admit that this was one of the most unique. We flew to Beijing on Thursday--Thanksgiving--and spent the week-end there. We visited the main sights and shopped for good bargains. It was great fun and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Except for Friday morning, the weather cooperated and, although it was cold, the sun was shining and there wasn't any smog.

Here we are at Tiananmen Square. It is very large--you can only see a small piece of it.

From Tiananmen Square we crossed the street to the Forbidden City. Chinese Emperors lived here from the time it was built in 1406 until the beginning of modern China in 1912. It is an immense area of elaborate buildings, gates, and courtyards. The intricate paint decor has been spruced up for the olympics so we benefitted from all the work. This was a good year for a visit.

The buildings are said to have 9,999 1/2 rooms. The reason for that number is that heaven is supposed to have 10,000 rooms and the emperor is just below a god so he could only have 9,999 1/2. Our guide said in actuality there are somewhat over 8,000 rooms and that the other number is not a true number. Of course, I can't tell which is right. I know we just walked straight down the middle of all the gates and courtyards and it took us almost 2 hours. We only looked into a few buildings. Most were empty and cold, but a couple were set up as if someone lived there and they were opulent to say the least.

Some of the intricate painting on the buildings in the Forbidden City.

Along the edge of the roof line you can see some animals. They are imaginary and do not look like real animals. There are 9 of them. Once again heaven has 10 so the emperor was only allowed to have 9 to keep the evil spirits out of his palace. As you might know, nine is a very lucky number here in China. Four is not lucky because the word for four and death are the same, except for the tone. Our hotel in Beijing did not have a 4th floor. No one would want to stay on it.