Monday, September 1, 08 – Dad – Today was to be our first day of teaching at the new campus. Up at 6am, prepared for the day and made sure we had everything. We decided to team teach these eight classes until their British teacher arrives. We should be with them from two to three weeks. We will just have to wait and see if they get their visa’s straightened out. We got to the bus by 7:20am which would take us to the new campus about 20Kilomiters away taking approximately 30 minutes. But, this day there was a terrible traffic jam on the main street. Our driver drove over in the oncoming traffic to get through. It is a mass of confusion seemingly little to no traffic rules. None that I could see anyway. There is so much confusion out on the street – people do not have the right of way and cross anyplace, bikes and motorbikes are all over the place. (A definite experience for all to enjoy.) We arrived late (5 min) receiving a cell phone call from the dean of the college – nothing we could do about it. When arriving at class we got an ovation from the students. There were approximately 30 students in each class with a very high percentage being girls. We taught two classes today; two hours each and the same subject, oral English. These students are in the tourist industry department. First we introduced ourselves and gave a brief overview of our lives, then we passed out pictures of our family and a copy of the Sunday funnies that I had purchased and brought with me. We then discussed the rules of the class, had them stand and in English tell about themselves. We wanted their name in English and Chinese; where they were from; jobs which they have held and what they did on the summer vacation. After that we gave them some tongue twister sentences and an assignment to write an itinerary for mom and me to go on a tour to Beijing and back to Xian. It was fun to be with them. They are eager and willing to learn English. They are all here by great sacrifice of their parents. Upon arriving home, we ate lunch with the students in their cafeteria. Mom had cold beans with peanuts and cucumbers; I ate fried rice. Very tasty. Later in the afternoon we went shopping with the Orton’s while they purchased a clothes washer for approx $250. The evening was spent in preparing for tomorrow. A nice sunny day – I could see the blue sky!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008 – Mom – What a delight it has been to teach these classes. All of my anxieties are gone. The students are so excited to have a “native” American speaker. We taught two classes today and one girl invited us to her home town which is nearby because it is so beautiful. Yesterday, we were invited to go to the Garden of Paradise next Saturday with about 6 of the group – we may end up with more than that going with us. After we arrived home, we ate fried rice in the student cafeteria. Then took a little nap J. We have learned of a nice department store, so we decided to walk there. It was about a 30 minute walk in the rain. We bought a new iron. We are looking for another cushion for the bed. We know there is one at Metro. There are no traffic rules here. There are traffic lights that everyone seems to obey, but driving on the wrong side of the road, walking down the middle of the street or turning left from the right hand lane seem to be very commonplace. We had to cross one very large and busy street, but we dodged the traffic and made it okay. On our walk back because of the rain, there was water running down the streets and puddles were deep and being splashed by cars. It was a very eventful walk. We also discovered a KFC. We went inside to get out of the rain and look at the menu – not much looked like what we eat except a bucket of chicken. Cost $10.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - Jeremy’s Birthday and Liz & Jeremy’s Wedding Anniversary– Dad – Again, our classes are a pure delight to teach. They are so teachable, genuine and anxious to please the teacher. We teach two classes each day except Friday. The first class is from 8am to 9:50am then the second class is from 10:10am to 12 noon. After each class we pack up and move to the next class which is usually up another flight of stairs or in another building. We are currently teaching in the tourism department until the freshmen complete their military training then we will be in the education department. We are just substituting until two teachers arrive from England who are having trouble getting their visa’s. We take a school bus each morning at 7:20am, arriving at 8am, then we return at 12:10 to the old or main campus where we live (approx. 30 min ride). We went to the student cafeteria (one of four) to eat today. I had fried rice and vegetables and mom had steamed rice, beans and potatoes with meat. Mine was very hot (spicy) and mom’s tasted good. Late this afternoon I had arranged for a courier to come and get our “tour” check and send it to the tour guide through a secure system. It cost $3 to send a $1960 check for our upcoming tour to the northwest of China. We will be following the “Silk Road” where in ancient times silk was transported across northern China into Russia to Europe. It should be fun – especially the opportunity to ride a camel. The evening was uneventful.
Thursday, September 4, 2008- Mom – Earlier, I said that they seem to obey the traffic lights – well, some do and some don’t. Our bus this morning was waiting with other cars for a red traffic light when bicycles, motorcycles and vans just went around us and went through the red light. The usual two classes this morning (each class has been a different group of about 30-35 students), so we have met about 240 students this week. We had scrambled eggs and toast for lunch and then went exploring. One of the foreign teachers from Lebanon told us about a delicious Korean bakery and explained where it was approximately. We found it, but not before we had decided we had walked too far. It was the last building before our predetermined “turn back” spot. It was about a 30 minute walk. Everything here is crazy with so many people and things and it all looks very dirty. The people are friendly and smile a lot when we say “ni hou” (which means hello). I now understand why they said not to send anything in the mail. We went to the post office to mail our absentee voting application and that was an absolute headache. We waited in line or shall I say “waited in a crowd” for about 20 minutes, then handed the man behind the window our envelope. He asked for something (we couldn’t understand him), Ross handed him money and he kept the letter and the money. We didn’t see him stamp anything. We really are in a different culture and enjoying the experience.
Friday, September 5, 2008 – Dad – We have no classes today. Our schedule for our substituting excludes Friday and we like it. This morning we used Skype to call all of the children but only got four home. The rest received messages on their cells or home phones. At 8am we took a van along with many of the foreign teachers to get our physicals in preparation to get our permanent visa. We really didn’t have to do anything since we had had one in the USA. Upon returning home we, along with the Orton’s, went to a restaurant and had ham and eggs. In the afternoon we walked 1 ½ miles to Metro, a store for foreigners and the upper crust of China and purchased a 1 inch mattress to help soften our bed. In china they sleep on a hard mattress with no padding. In the evening we went for a walk and shared a popsicle. Watched “home alone 3” with popcorn. A nice sunny day.
Saturday, September 6, 2008 – Mom – Another sunny and pleasant day. It was also an eventful day. Our Branch President asked Dad/Ross if he would help with the audit of the branch before our district conference which will be September 28. We decided Dad was asked because at the time, we were the only couple with the internet working and a printer. Also, in the morning we received a phone call from Aaron (one of our colleagues in the Education Department) because he wanted to bring us our schedules! FINALLY!! He came bearing a gift from the Dean of the department which was a very fancy box of Moon Cakes. They taste like fig newtons to me, but are in celebration of the Moon Festival. From Google search, I learned that the “The Moon Festival is an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. With the full moon, the legend, the family and the poems, you can't help thinking that this is really a perfect world. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival. The Legend is that Change Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival.”
Our schedules begin October 7 with each of us teaching 2 classes each on Tuesday thru Thursday from 8am to 12noon. Dad has something a little different on Tuesday, which is still unexplained. We are thinking it may be like a study hall, where students can come and talk with him. At 4:00pm, we met 4 students from our Tuesday 10:00 class, of which we are the substitutes, at the main gate of campus. They took us in a taxi to Tang Paradise (that is pronounced “tong”. It is much like a very large park of the time period of the Tang Dynasty (618 BC to 907 BC). It is a very beautiful large park with trees, lakes, bridges, pagoda-type buildings with artifacts and museums inside. In the evening, they had a light parade with floats decorated to show the different dynasties in China. Then the climax was a laser light/water show that told the story of some Monks who traveled to the west and returned. It was very amazing. It was over about 9:00pm and then we walked out of the park with the other thousands of people and everyone wanted a taxi to go home, but our clever students finally got us one and then took us to dinner, where they ordered and paid for some porridge and dumplings. The porridge was a very sweet soup with everything you can think of in it to include peanuts, rice, leaves and stems. The students said it was sweetened with honey. It was good, just a different taste than what we are used to. The 3 different dumplings (pot stickers before they are cooked) were filled with mutton, beef and shrimp. They are steamed. It was very good. I had trouble with my chopsticks, so the students asked the waitress to bring me a Chinese soup spoon (it looks like a little ladle). They were so fun to be with and they wanted to please us and show us their city. I wanted to hug each of the girls but refrained – maybe not next time though. Another taxi home and in bed about 11:15pm.
While we were sitting and waiting for the laser/light show to begin, Dad received a phone call from a Brother Bayles, 2nd counselor in the district presidency. He called Dad to be the 1st counselor in the branch presidency. He apologized for doing it over the phone and asked Dad to call back when it was a more convenient time. Then, he talked with me and asked if I would support Dad in this calling.
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