Kevin's Family Visit

Kevin and family arrived here on Sat. Dec. 27. They had been traveling since before Christmas so had no presents from Santa. Fortunately, he dropped off their stockings here so they were able to open presents when they arrived. There was even a stocking for us with American candy in it! Wow! Effie had also baked cookies & banana bread, made homemade caramels, and brought us a large bag of her homemade granola. We have decided that she can come any time she wants to visit.

I knew our counters were low, but I hadn't realized just how low until Trent volunteered to do the dishes. I walked by the kitchen and this is what I saw. Not only are the counters low, but you can see just how narrow the kitchen is. We didn't eat many meals here--too hard to cook for so many people. We managed breakfast and some lunches.

However, for about 75 cents you can go to the local noodle shop for lunch and get a filling bowl of noodles. Notice that we eat them with chopsticks. The approved way to eat is to use both the small spoon and the chopsticks to get the noodles to your mouth. Then you lift the bowl and slurp down the broth. The owner of the shop was delighted to see so many western people come for lunch in his shop. We probably doubled his take for lunch that day. Notice we are wearing coats. The shop is not heated.

Saturday afternoon some of us went down to the Confuscious temple area to look around. I had been there before so didn't take many pictures. However, here is Kevin "dressed" like an ancient Chinese scholar.

There were some new displays that looked almost like blown up plastic images. Nicole and Morgan decided to join the scholars in their studying poses.

Trent and Todd are standing next to the largest bronze statue of Confuscious in China. Note the stone carving along the steps. These are very common in China and depict scenes or dragons or whatever.

Inside the temple are many murals like this one, depicting the life on Confuscious. The colors are amazing, especially since they are all carved out of jade. They must be worth a fortune.

We stopped for treats outside the temple. These are found everywhere. They are usually haw fruit covered with candy (ala candied apples) like the one on the left. However, since it is strawberry season we can now find strawberries dipped in the candy like Nicole has on the right. The others are ok but the strawberry ones are yummy!!!!!

Sat. evening Steven (Wang Wei), the student I have been tutoring, brought over his girlfriend and we introduced them to the family and played Phase 10. I think they had a good time. I have enjoyed tutoring Steven. He will go to Australia next year to get his masters degree Hua Bing, the girlfriend, also graduates this year. She will try to find a job in Beijing and live with his parents and take care of them. "Filial Piety" is a common term here and means that the children take care of their parents. Parents scrimp and save to put their children through school and then expect to be supported by the children as they grow older. I found it interesting that Hua Bing had not even met Steven's parents, but she was willing to live with them and take care of them. The parents are probably not over 50. My personal feeling is that they should get married and she should go to Australia with Steven. However, that isn't the way things are done here.

I took the family to my classes on Monday. My students were so excited to see a whole family of "westerners" and had a wonderful time asking them questions. On Tuesday they went with Jim to his classes. Here they are with some of his students. These are all graduate students, even though they look like they're 17. I am always amazed at how young the students look.

In the afternoon we took the family to the kindergarten where we sing English songs with the 3-5 year olds. Here we are doing "London Bridge" with the 3-year olds. They love it, but it is difficult to get them to get in line. They all want to crowd in. Of course, that's the way things are done here. No one lines up to get on the bus, train, etc. Everyone just crowds. I think that is a result of living in an overpopulated country.

Here we are with the 3-year olds. It was Parents' Day so many of the students had parents with them. The parents all wanted pictures of us so we lined up for the photos. The most fun was when we had the parents do the "Hokey Pokey" with their children. They were not sure just how to do that, but the kids had a wonderful time showing parents and even grandparents just how it was done!!!

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.

Visit with Kevin and Effie

Last week we went to Suzhou to visit Kevin and Effie and the kids. What a wonderful trip! It was great to get away for a few days. We were a little nervous about catching the train, but we did ok. The signs were in English as well as Chinese (not a common occurrence here) so we were able to make our way with a minimum of trouble. The funniest thing happened when we came home. We arrived back at Nanjing about 7 pm. We wanted to catch a taxi to go home, but all the taxi people wanted 100 yuan (Chinese money). When we said it was too much, they dropped to 50. We had only paid 13 to go to the train station so we knew we were being cheated. We showed them our address card and wrote 13 on it. They shook their heads, no. So being "locals" we went down to the subway stop at the train station, bought a ticket to the next stop, got off, went out and hailed a taxi on the street. We got home for 14 yuan! We might be "western" but we are not stupid.

At Kevin's we ate "real" food on plates that match, with silverware that doesn't bend. We slept in a good bed and played with wonderful grandchildren. It doesn't get any better than that. We did do a little

sightseeing.

We went to a silk factory. This is a picture of a woman sorting the silk worm cucoons. They are sorted by size and quality. The best ones are spun into thread. The others whose color is not so good are used as filler for bedding.

After the silk worms are sorted they are "cooked" and then the silk is unwound and put onto spools. There are 8 silkworms in each pan and the silk thread is spun from 8 strands of silk. If you look carefully you might see the strands hanging from the girl's brush. The things at the top of the picture are the spools of thread that have come from the silk worms in the pan.

This is one of the looms that takes the thread and weaves it into cloth. The patterns are on cards--sort of like those old player piano cards. It takes all day to make just a few feet of cloth. I can't imagine how long it took to weave cloth by hand.

The silk that isn't pulled into thread is taken off the silk worms by hand and put over a stretching bar. You can see the worms in the pan and the silk laying beside it. The arch is the stretching bar. They put many layers on it and then move it to a larger bar and stretch the silk over that. The worms can be eaten, but the lady who was our guide said she had never tasted one. She had heard that they taste like peanuts.

After they have several layers on the large stretcher bars, they remove it, let it dry and stretch it out to go into the middle of a silk duvet cover. Here we are helping to stretch out a layer of silk. They put many layers on top of each other to make the filling for the quilt. It is an amazing process.

No, we did not buy any---this time. We will go back.

After the silk factory we went to an area where they do embroidry with silk thread. The street was about a mile long with little shops lining each side. Pretty soon they all looked alike. Here is a woman working on a lion. They put a pattern under the backing and then sew almost free hand from there. It takes up to a year to make a picture--depending on how big and detailed it is. We also discovered that there are many different qualities of embroidry, from very fine stitches to quite long stitches. We plan to go back here also.

The next day we went to the Humble Administrators Garden. Shzhou is known for its gardens and this is supposed to be the biggest and one of the best. It was huge and very nice. I've decided that gardens in China are like cathedrals in Europe. Each city has one, of which it is very proud. They are all unique, but after a while, they begin to look alike. Here we are at the entrance. Potted flowers are everywhere in China. In the summer it was petunias, now it is mums.

The gardens are always a combination of buildings, water, bridges, trees, grass and flowers. Here is a building that was built to look like a boat.

This was my favorite building in the garden. I loved the curved roofline. It is one of the most exaggerated I have seen, but I liked it. There is a well in the building so I think it is basically a well house.

After the Humble Administrators Garden we went to the North Pagoda. There are many pagodas in China, also. Often they have 9 stories. This is the second one that we've climbed with 9 stories. It gave us a good view of Suzhou, or it would have done if the day had been clear.

Here is Kevin's family in front of their house. They live in a lovely, quiet neighborhood with mostly expat neighbors. Their house is a 3 story-free standing home. It very nice and since they shipped most of their furniture over to China, it felt like home when we stepped inside. It was a wonderful week-end and we hope to have a better teaching schedule next semester so we can visit more often.