First week in China

We had a lovely flight to China--long, but really okay. We were meet by 2 darling girls who brought us and our 8 pieces of luggage to the Foriegn Visitors apartments and helped us into a 5 room apartment. We have been given one of the 3 large apartments and the other 2 also have China teachers from our program in them, but they do not arrive until the 15th. We start teaching tomorrrow!! We have met daily with our friends from Logan, UT and had a great time exploring the surrounding area and finding places to eat. The food here is like PF Changs, but better and 4 times the portion sizes. Needless to say, we are loving it. We have some pictures to share, but I cannot figure out how to add them, so when one of my daughters calls and walks me through it, I will add them. For now, know we are well and very happy!!

Breakfast- Dad

Morning (Sunday)-- I ate oatmeal for breakfast. It was very good. It's not like to could eat a usual Arizona breakfast because there isn't such a thing. We are going to meet with another couple today and hold our own service. Mostly discuss a gospel subject. Most said that I spilled the milk this morning when I ate my oatmeal. I told her not to cry over spilt milk. (joke) Enjoy your evening and have a good night's sleep. Love Dad

Email from Dad

We are basically settled in. Our apartment is like a hotel. It has a beautiful lobby, and a guard at the lobby floor. We are on the second floor. There is no elevator. Mom and I walk about twenty minutes each way to our teaching areas. It is a very beautiful campus. Life here is less complicated. Most ride bicycles or small scooters. Heck with the cars, it's the bikes that you look out for. So far we have enjoyed the food. It is quite inexpensive. We have been shopping a couple of times and now feel like we are pretty well set up. Mom and I feel very safe. We walk a lot and if it is a long distance, we take a taxi. Most taki rides are about fifty cents. Today I went to a farmers market to buy some porduce. I came home with two large bags. The total bill was less than two dollars. We are told that we should bargain with the venders, but I don't have the heart to for that small amount. They deserve to make a profit. One of our students has been showing us around and speaking Chinese for us. She speaks very good English. She is a junior this year.. Mother and I teach very close to each other, so we can mostly walk to class together. We will not have church tomorrow, because the branch is closed down until mid September, when the Branch President arrives from the states. He is a teacher here also. I teach three freshman classes, but they won't start until about the 21st of September because they are on military training for three weeks, I am told. My three junior classes begin on Monday, as does mother's. It rained a little today which cooled things off a little. It was very pleasant outside. We are having a great time. Things are much differerent that I expected. The city is very modern, very clean and like I said earlier, like is simpler here. It is a very relaxing environment. We haven't eaten much of the food that the locals eat yet. I am anxious to start eating a lot of their vegetables. There are a lot of KFC restaurants here, but that is all I have seen so far, as far a fast food is concerned. Big stores like grocery stores and Wal Mart are usually located on three floors. You shop all three floors, then pay on the lowest floor. There are escalators going up and down to each floor. You just take your cart on the escalator. There are four zillion taxi cabs here. They are small, but very comfortabale. The drivers are very kind and considerate. You never tip here. Tipping is not an accepted custom. Well, I just wanted to tell each of you a little about where we are and what we are doing. Have a great day. I love you all. Love Dad

Email from Dad

We really like China. The food is very good, however we really haven't tried any real authenic Chinese food yet. We have been venturing out a little more each day. It is very safe. You don't have to worry about getting hit by a car or a bus, but you must look out for the bicycles. There are thousands of bicyclists. They are all good drivers and hold their own with the automobiles. We ate at TGI Fridays tonight. It was all right. The Chinese food is much better. We ate at our guest house restaurant the last two days. The average meal is about $4.00. The food is deeeelicious. Our apartment is like a hotel room. very nice. We seem to be very close to most everything on campus. I received my schedule today. I teach form 8:00 A. M. until noon, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I have the rest of the week to prepare and to help my students. I hope that I can make a difference in helping them learn English. It is Friday evening here, time to got to bed.

Email from Dad

I woke up this morning to find my pnone batter on the floor, along with the back of the phone. the battery had increased in size by about 4 times. I'm not sure just what happened, but I thin I'm about to find out. I'm not sure if I blew it up, or just a bad phone. Since I purchased the phone in China, I just naturally assumed it would work on China electrical current. I could be wrong. In any case, it didn't do the phone any good. I am going to get another phone this morning. I hope that will trade it in, but I'm not sure. We had a great flight over, and arrived here in good condition. We went to a restaurant last night right next to our apartment. (20 feet away. It was the dining room for the foreign teachers, or whoever else shows up to eat. Anyway, it was a chinese restaurant. The food was much like the chinese food we order in America. Very delicious. The servings are very large, about twice the size of servings at PF Changs. (or more) I orderered chicken fried rice, sweet and sour pork, some kind of egg with beef, and something like chow mein. It was all very good. When I received the bill, I was taken back. The total bill including a two liter bottle of coke was $9.00. No tip. I guess I could afford it. Oh, we also took with us a young college girl who spent the day with us helping us shop etc. We enough of that. Please call the family, tell them we arrived safely. Please tell them all to send me an email, so I can email them back. I donb't have email addresses on my computer. We are 15 hours ahead of you here, it is 10 A.M. Thursday here, so it is 7:00 P. M. Wednesday there. Love ya. Dad

Email from Mom

Dad's phone "blew" his battery out onto the floor last night. Here is my number--13821713022 I seem to be having better luck all around!! We have a bath tub and it is marvelous! It is way more expensive to buy food here and cook so it looks like we will be having most of our meals in the faculty club. Very similiar food to PF Changs. Loved it last night. Going to meet our ybon and get our teaching schedule--We both start Monday and dad has 3 oral classes of freshman and 3 writing classes as juniors. I can plan the writing classes because I have 3 junior writing classes as well--More later!
Love, Mother

OUR ADDRESS IN CHINA!

Hello friends,
We will leave this is a blog post so that if you are ever wanting to send a letter our way, you won't have to search high and low for the address-

Wynn & Paula Ferrell

Foreign Guesthouse # 206

Nankai University att; Juo Jing

94 Weijin Road

Tianjin 300071

PR China

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Last week of training

We had a fabulous and BUSY second week of training. They crammed what seemed like 4 years worth of information into these two weeks, and if we can remember half (a tenth?) of what we learned, we will be in good shape! We actually "graduated" at the end and we were given diplomas, WHAT FUN! We leave August 25th, so it will be at least a week before we get settled enough to blog again and show pictures of our apartment, city etc! We look forward to a blessed adventure and we are also looking forward to lots of messages from the homefront, so please keep us in your prayers and in your emails!!! MUCH LOVE!!!




(Note: Never too busy to talk to my grandkids! I was leaving class so Jaxon could sing me a song!)

Training to go to China

This is one of the fastest learning weeks of our life. We attend class from 8am to 9pm with a break for lunch and a break for supper. We have language instruction for 45 minutes, China history from the beginning until now for 2 hours, English language acquisition for 2 hours, how to teach English as a written language for 2 hours, ideas and suggestions that work for 45 minutes, and a different activity every night that teaches us about the "real" Chinese people we will be working with this next year. On Sunday we will have a 2 hour stake conference meeting and then the Chinese ambasador will come to speak to us for about 3 hours. We are so tired, but they tell us next week will be easier. This 2 weeks is certainly making us excited to be in China and get started. Paula will be teaching juniors and seniors--3 oral classes and 3 writing classes. Wynn does not know what he is teaching yet. There are 60 of us and they are very talented people.