Venice of China

This week was Chinese labor day and we got another holiday. We went on tour and saw the Venice of the East. It was such fun, relaxing and great friends.

AnnaMarie, Tyler, & Katie visit

We had a whirlwind week with AnnaMarie, Tyler & Katie. Without a doubt, Katie was the favorite fascination everywhere we went. People wanted their picture with her and they wanted their child's picture with her and some even wanted to pick her up. The first 2 options were fine, but this being picked up by strangers was a screaming no no. We all got quite the laugh out of it. It was such fun and here are a few pictures.

Spring Break

For spring break we went on a river cruise down the Yangtze to the 3 gorges dam project. It was relaxing, fun, and very interesting. Here are a few of the pictures--

90th Anniversary Celebration!

This week is the 90th anniversary of Nankai University and the English department, as well. There will be a week long celebration and it kicked off with an opening ceremony. Wynn & I were the MC's with 2 cute students. We did our part in English and they did their part in Chinese. It was an incredible talent show and we expressed our appreciation for the opportunity to teach at such a great university with such wonderful students. It was an evening to remember. China never ceases to amaze us!

Letter fro m Dad 3/21/09

Dear family and others of concern:

Yesterday, mother and I were at the market picking up some vegetables for our dinner. On the way out, I met one of my former students, a very nice young girl. She said to me, "do you remember me? I said, "of course I do." She asked, "what is my name?" Well, I knew it was either Apple or Cherry. I couldn't remember which one, as I had both an Apple and a Cherry in the same class. So, I replied, "I know it is either Apple of Cherry". She said, "I am Cherry." I replied, "well, I knew you were a fruit, I just couldn't remember which one." Uh oh, that didn't sound right. I'm sure glad she didn't understand.

I also had to go to the super market to get some hamburger. When I got there, is all they had was some large chunks of beef just laying out in the open on a tray. I tried to talk to a lady, but she didn't seem to want to be of any assistance. I just needed them to chop me some beef, into hamburger. No one wanted to help me, so I just grabbed a chunk of beef and pulled it apart with my bare hands, I tore off the excess fat this I didn't want, and handed the beef to the butcher and motioned for him to chop it into hamburger. He said no, but he got some young boy and told him to chop it. The boy wasn't happy, but he did it because he had to. I then went into the back room to wash the meat off of my hands. The head butcher guy saw me in his back room and went into orbit.. Well, this is China, where else am I going to wash the meat off my hands? I finished washing my hands and told the head guy, "have a cow" and walked out. He glared at me the whole time the young man was chopping the beef, so, I just smiled at him.

In about ten days, mother and I are going to take a boat trip to the Three Gorges Dam. It is a three day trip. There is a National Holiday that lasts three days, so the trip was planned around thet time. We are looking forward to it. We will take a two or three hour plane ride to get to the place where we board the boat. It's not a very big boat, it only holds about 150 people. Well, the river isn't very wide probably only 300 feet or so. I don;t know how deep it is, but it couldn't be too deep. We are told that we will see a lot of different Chinese culture along the way.

Well, Tyler, Annamarie, Katie and Sportette will be arriving mid April. We are really anxious to see them. We're still planning our trip. I hear that Katie isn't all that fond of traveling. Well, we will do all we can to accomadate her. She waves to me and throws me kisses on Skype.

Mother and I went to Beijing last Friday. We had a great day. We shopped at the Pearl Market and ate dinner at Sizzler. Well, I know that Sizzler isn't exactly your favorite place to eat in America, but it is dang good here. It seems that is one of the only real American food places in China. Well, except for McDonalds and KFC, which is horrible here. We shall always be greatful for Sizzler here in China and I probably won't eat there again the rest of my life, unless I return to China in the future.

You must improvise here, you do what you have to do. We ride our three wheeler when we travel, we lay our laundry all over the apartment to dry, since there is not such thing as a clothes dryer in China, and we wash our dishes in the bathroom. Either in the wash basin or the tub, but never the toilet. Our kitchen consists of a small refrigerator, a hot plate and a microwave. We are darn happy to have each of them. Brigham Young had none of them. Poor guy. There is generally no such thing as heat in the college classes, and certainly no air conditioning. You just dress up, or dress down. But the buildings have a roof on them and if they leak, the custodian brings a bucket to catch the water coming through the ceiling. They give us the best they have. It's OK. I am going to ship a three wheeler home to America when we leave. Mother has already informed me that she is not going to ride in the back of the three wheeler when we get back to America. How soon she forgets. One day she is so thankful for the three wheeler, the next day, she says, "no way."

Mother and I both spoke in church today. Our talks went well. Our topic was faith. Mother always does better that I do. Tomorrow evening, I am going to hold my night class in our apartment. We are going to eat tacos and spaghetti. We will have our school lessons while we eat. The kids are really looking forward to it. I only have twelve students in this class, but some will bring their friends. We will probably end up with fifteen or sixteen in attendance. Mother will be with our family home evening group while I hold the class.

Well, I hope all is going well for each of you. Have a great day. I love you all,

Dad

Letter from Dad 3/08/09

Dear Family and other's who are willing to read this letter:

This has been an interesting week. I finially have my schedule worked out. I think I told you, I now teach four classes on Monday, and one class on Wednesday morning. I like this schedule. Mother and I had lunch with the lady that I work closely with in the English Dept. She asked me to meet with the English teachers who teach in in the English Dept. I said OK. I went to the Department at 2:00 P. M. Only two teachers were there, one was my leader, the other was mothers leader. I had small talk for a few minutes, then the lady who mother reports to, asked me this question. "We want to know about religion) Well, you know we can't discuss religion and they know it. The lady said, "during the recent presidential elections, we were told that Mr. Huckabee was a Mormon. The only thing we know about Mormons is, they have several wives. I replied, "oh." I said, well, Mr. Huckabee is not a Mormon, but Mr. Romney is. I then said, let me tell you about my religion. We are taught to honor, obey and sustain the law. The law here in China is, we don't discuss religion. "Do you want me to live my religion?" She said, are Mormons Christians. I replied, "yes." What about all of the Christian religions, why are there so many? I replied, "they teach what they think is rigtht." I did not discuss religion with them, except as aforementioned. I then said. "You invited me here to discuss the English teaching methods I use. I am willing to do that still. However, you must understand, we will never discuss religion." They agreed. The next week, I was dis invited to meet with them. Was this a set up? Absolutely!

While I was there, my advisor told me that the department was not happy with me for changing my Thursday morning class to Monday evening. (my class loved the change) I replied, "whose not happy?" I want to meet with them. I said, "life is too short to be unhappy" Tell me who they are? Finially she said, "no body." Ok if someone ever again gets unhappy, tell them I want to meet with them. I will put a smile on their face. "OK" she said. Enough of that, I left

. On Thursday we went to Beijing. We had District Conference on Saturday and Sunday. When I got dressed for the Saturday afternoon session, I found that I didnot bring msuit pants, only my jacket. We;;, all I have to wear to conference are my levis. I've never work just levis to church before. I just laughed. Well, I put on a white shirt, a nice tie and my suti jacket. Oh, along with my levis. I met several others in the lobby. They looked strange at me, but no one said anything. I guess they thought this is the way I go to Conference. They were however, very nice levis. I had just gotten them from the dry cleaners and they were pressed very well. OK, I get in a cab and go to conference. There are three others in the cab with me. Well, I didn't have the courage to go to conference in my levis, so I found a mens clothing store and bought a pair of slacks that matched my suit coat. I paid dearly fort them. Cost me twenty eight bucks. I could have bought them for five if I had purchased them on the street. Well anyway, I head back to conference. I walk in. The same people who saw me in levis, now see me in nice church pants. Still no one says anything. Neither did I. Well, at the evening session, i see a lady (the branch presidents wife) I notice that the shoes she is wearing, don't match. One is black and one is blue. Well, I guess she had somewhat the same problem that I had.

It was a good conference. We had two General Authorities in attendance. The session was broadcast all over China by telephone transmission. Members all over China could dial in and listen to the conference. This was the first time they had broadcast the conference to other areas.

The chapel is on the 4th floor of a hotel. On the main floor is a Dairy Queen. About half way through the Saturday Evening session, I was falling asleep. I thought to myself how good a Blizzard form D. Q. would taste. I got up, and told mother that I was going to the bathroom. She said to me, "don't even think of going down to D. Q." Well it was a good idea, but the thought never lasted. I went to the restroom and came back and sat down.

Traffic in Beijing and Tianjin was pure gridlock. It took us over and hour in the cab to get from the train station, to our apartment. Glad to be home.

Happy birthday to Brit and Scott. Did you get my present yet? Well don't worry, it's not my birthday until October.

While in Beijing, We went to the pearl market. Got some pearl necklaces and some purses for some of Ashleys friends. I also got a pair of Oakley glasses. They were given to me by the lady at the pearl market. She sells them.

Well, time to go to bed, and I am very tired. Will write more later. I love you all.

Dad

Wynn & the girls--

The week with our family was just such fun I can't let it go without putting up one reall good picture of each of them. By good, I mean typically "China tourist." Next week school begins, so I'll have to keep the memories and get on with real life again!!

Traveling with the girls

We went to see the terra cotta warriors and had such a great time. We begin with a 3 hour flight and ended up on the hotel couch waiting for our guide--

Week with the girls!

We just had the most wonderful week with Tricia, Emily, Ashley, and Amber. We spent two days in Tianjin showing them our daily routine and neighborhood and shopping. Then we spent two days in Xi'an seeing the city wall and Terra Cotta warriors, and then 3 days in Beijing at the wall, summer palace, Olympic venues, pearl mart, & silk mart. It was just such fun and they left happy and tired. Here are a couple of pictures of all of us and sometimes our guide is in the pictures.

KFC= Excellent Hospital Care!

Dear Family and others of interest:

A lot has happened since I last sent a family letter out. A couple of weeks ago, We traveled to Hong Kong for teacher training. We were in Hong Kong for 4 days. Hong Kong is very beautiful, very expensive and a lot a very tall buildings. It is a very clean city. Most of the items sold in Hong Kong are imported from P R China. After leaving Hong Kong, we traveled to a town just across the border from Hong Kong. Mother got very sick from food poisioning. We were not able to travel with the rest of our group on that day. We stayed at the hotel. Mother didn't seem to be getting any better, so we took a taxi to the hospital. A fellow from the hotel went with us to speak Chinese for us. The Doctor checked mother out, and then said she would need some I. V.'s with medication in them. The doctor gave me a prescription. I went to an area in the hospital and got the prescription. I also had to pay to check mother in. It cost me 72 cents to check her in. Well, that was rather expensive in as much as there was no heat in any part of the hospital. I had to pay about $18.00 for the four prescriptions. They consisted of four I. V.'s and 4 bottles of something to put in the I.V.'s. Along with that, the pharmicist gave me some needles to put into mothers hand and some needles to go in the I. V. She told me to go start the I. V. I said O. K. I don't know how to start an I. V. though. I go into a room. there are about 18 or 20 people sitting on a chair, all with an I. V. stand in front of them, and all of them are receiving an I. V. This is what you call a shared room. Well. they take mother into another room across the hall. It is a room with a bed in it. No heat, and two doors wide open leading to the outside. The nurse tells mother to take off her shoes and hop into this icy cold bed. I tell the nurse the mother is cold. She brings in 4 bottles of hot water. Puts two near her feet, and one under each arm.. Well that keeps her somewhat warm. The doctor sees that I can't start the I. V. so someone else comes in and starts it. I go outside to get mother a glass of water. Outside of her room in the hall, is a dead lady laying on the bed in the hall. No one seems to be to concerned, and the dead lady didn't seem to mind. I bring mother in her glass of water. I then tell mother that I am going to go back to the hotel to get some warmer clothes for me and her. I walk outside the room and pass the dead lady. As I am passing her, she raises up and yells something to the nurse. Scares the be jeebies out of me. I realize she is not yet dead. But now I am almost. I go to the hotel and get some warmer clothes. I also go to the post office to mail the stuff that I have purchased so far on the trip. I mail it to the USA. I go back to the hospital. The almost dead lady is still in the hallway. This time I keep my distance. I go into mothers room. The first I. V. is about 1/4 gone. Going to slow. I go get the Doctor, and show her it is going slow. She speeds it up a little, and leaves the room. Mother says that if I go to KFC and buy the doctor and the nurse some chicken, they might pay more attention to us. I go to KFC. I take the chicken into the doctor and nurse and give it to them. The Doctor comes back into mothers room, and puts the I.V. into high gear. It worked. I go back to KFC and get the doctor and the nurse something to drink. I return and give it to them. Now mother has her own private nurse. Not a bad deal for 96 cents. Well, by now 4 hours has past and we are only down two I. V.'s We have two I. V.'s to go. We also need to catch a plane to meet up with our group. The plane leaves at 8:00 P. M. I tell the doctor. In my best Chinglish I know. She understands and says , "no problem." She speeds up the I. V. By now, mother starts to feel a whole lot better. Finially 6:15 comes and we need to go to the airport. The doctor says mother doesn't need all of the last I. V. I ask the doctor how much the bill is. She says that I paid the bill at the pharmacy with the prescriptions. Well, I figure the price was right. Total cost for an 8 hour stay with medication was $18.72. Well, I'm OK with their charges. Mother gets up to leave her hospital bed. The doctor takes out the needle out of the back of her hand. I tell the doctor that I am going to hail a cab. She says, "mayo, mayo, mayo. means no, no, no" She tells us that her husband is taking us to the airport. We get into her husbands car and away we go. We get to the airport on time and make our flight.

We sure can't complain. The hospital wasn't much, but what they had, they gave us their best. The doctors husband wouldn't take any payment for taking us to the aiarpot. Oh, by the way, the dead lady was gone when we left the hospital.

The rest of the trip was quite uneventful. It was a great trip and we saw a lot of China that we had not experienced before. I purchased a bunch of items that I had not seen here in Tianjin or Beijing.

Yesterday, I was riding my three wheeler. It quit. I knew the problem, the battery had become disconnected. I opened up the battery compartment, took the connection off and used my needle nosed pliers to pry the brackets apart a little so they would make a better connection. In the process of prying the positive and nevative wires apart, I touched the positive and negative connections together with the plyers. The battery really started sparking. I tried to pull my plyers off the battery, but to no avail. The plyers were welded to the top of the battery connection. Now my bike won't go at all. I proceed to take the battery out of my bike, (plyers and all) and hail a cab. I get to the bike shop. I show the owner my battery and the connected plyers. He laughs. He knows what has happened. All this time the taxi driver and the bike shop owner are deciding how is the best way to make the necessary repairs. It only takes a few minutes to repair the battery connection, but my 26 cent plyers still have a part of the old battery connection welded to it. The bike shop owner starts to qrind down my plyers. The taxi driver watches the bike shop owner grind down my plyers. The taxi driver doesn't like the way he is grinding down my 26 cent plyers, so the taxi driver takes the grinder from the bike shop owner and the taxi driver shows the bike shop owner how to properly grind the battery connection off of my plyers. They argue back and forth how the best way to proceed would be. Finally they finish and hand me my new Chinese plyers. They now look like they came from the 12th century, but they work. Ok well, this is china. I ask the bike shop owner how much I owe him, he motions nothing. I try to pay him ,but he won't take anything. We load my battery back into the taxi cab and away we go back to find my bike. It's still there, right where I left it. (only because there was no battery in it, and no one wanted to steal it when it wouldn't run.) I hop on the bike and away I head for home. Well, another day in China.

We are very excited that the four girls are coming out tomorrow. (Ashley, Amber, Emily and Trisha) We can hardly wait.

Well, that's all for now. I love you all. Dad

Pictures to go with blog below!!

So scared and so sick!!

On Tuesday afternoon of our trip, I started to feel sick and then I got so ill. I can't remember when I have felt so terrible. We decided to spend Wednesday at the hotel while the group went to see the pertrified forest by bus 4 hours away. The tour guide told the hotel manager to check on me and if I wasn't getting better to take me to the hospital. He came up about 9:30 and meet me flying to the bathroom to throw up nothing, but I couldn't seem to quit. He said he'd get a cab and to come down to the lobby immediately. I dressed and used a doggie bag to heave into. Well, the scariest experience turned out to be a highlight in my love for the Chinese people. He took me to the emergency room, we paid 75 cents to check in and the doctor examined and tested me for about 15 minutes and said I had food poisoning and needed an "infusion." I thought that meant a shot to stop the nausea and agreed. Next thing I know, I am in a "private"

room which was usually used for short term emergencies like stitching and etc. I saw they had hung 4 bottles of IV stuff to give me, so I laid back and spent the next 8 hours under their care. I greatly put them out and inconvienced them at every turn, but they were so wonderful all day, trying to meet the American's needs. We had to be at the airport at 6 to join our group and the dr. was worried about the bad traffic and so she had her husband (chemical engineer) come and drive us to the airport. The room next to mine was where I should have been--3 beds, the next room had 11 beds and one gal was in the hallway because they were out of room. It had no heat and was freezing so every 20 minutes or so they would bring hot bottles of water and put them on my feet and under each arm. I think you can tell what all of the pictures are except the "trough" which is the bathroom. Yes, you just squat and use it. I needed it 3 times and the nurse would walk me and the IV bottle down the hallway, which opened to the street. These 3 ladies were like angels and took such good care of me and I ended up feeling so much better!!

SW China!!

We toured SW China for a week where the temps were in the 50's & 60's. This is marvelous, because it is the "big cold" in Tianjin where it is -13 and a Siberian breeze blowing on and off. We saw some unique and beautiful China and had a blast--

Hong Kong

We spent a week in Hong Kong for training from the Kennedy Teacher's Program. It was so good to connect with old friends who have been having their own "China Experience." We learned so much and got to spend the morning in the temple. Here are some pictures of the time we spent in this amazing city.