Jen and the Brownies, Cooking with Catherine, Packing and Flying

On Monday, David had work to do on his presentation for the engineers class that night. I needed to go to the store and get some things, so I took off by myself.  When I got on the bus, someone gave up their seat for me.  That is a common occurrence here, to show respect for elders and those with young children. The man I was sitting by wanted to talk to me.  I used up most of the Chinese I knew with him, telling him where I was from and what I was doing in China.  I know he would have loved to talk more but that language barrier was too high.

I was able to run my errands pretty quickly.  While I was on my way to catch the bus home, a man had stopped on the side of the walkway.  He was carrying filled water jugs after his trip to get the day's water at the Black Tiger Springs that were close to the bus stop.  It is cheaper for them to go to the springs and get their water, but it does make a heavy load to carry back to their apartments.  As I passed, he smiled and said in Engish, "Good morning!"  I was quite surprised.  Then he asked how I was, so I stopped to talk to him.  Since he had better English skills than the first man, I was able to tell him a lot more.  I was getting a little nervous that the bus I needed to ride back was going to come by, and since I was in a hurry to get back, I kept glancing at the bus stop, so he let me go.

Jen came over for her tutoring lesson after lunch.  David worked on Science terms with her and then when he needed to take a break, I made brownies with her.  We started by melting the butter in a pan.  I let her stir it.  Jen seemed fascinated by the melting butter.  Since she had just finished Science terms with David, I mentioned that it was a physical reaction and how even in cooking, we use science.  After all the ingredients were in and the batter was poured into the pan for baking, I told Jen she could lick the spoon.  She was confused by the word lick, so I demonstrated it for her.  She tried the first lick and the let out a noise that expressed extreme delight!  The look on her face was a delight to see!  David heard me laughing and came in.  He got the spatula to lick.  Then we got the picture.

Jen stirring the brownies.

Hard to fit two people in this tiny kitchen. 

Jen's first time licking a spoon! 

Jen and me, just before she left.

After David had covered the last of the math terms with Jen, the brownies were done baking, and we still had about fifteen minutes of time left.  We decided to play some card games with her while we ate our brownies.  Then we sang a song for her, and it was time to go.  We are going to miss her.  It has been fun working with Jen, a delightful girl.  After giving her a bag with several brownies in it and a hug, we said good bye and good luck to her.  I sure hope it goes well for her.  Jen is a bright, intelligent girl.

 David worked with the engineers each night.  Monday, they were supposed to do some reader's theaters.  After two of the plays, he decided that he needed to back off of doing all four in one night, so he went on to other activities.

Catherine is a Chinese girl who is working on her Doctorate in Education.  She became familiar with some of the women at church, and they invited her to eat lunch with us.  She has become a regular for lunch now.  A few weeks ago, I brought a pumpkin roll for dessert.  Catherine fell in love with it and wanted to learn how to make it.  I invited her to come on Tuesday so that I could teach her how.  We had a fun time working together.

Kayce had planned to come with her, but ended up having to teach an emergency class for about an hour, so she came later.  While we waited for the pumpkin roll to set up in the fridge, we played some card games.  Catherine had never played before, so we explained the game to her and had fun playing.  She was the one who won the second game!  We all enjoyed a slice of pumpkin roll and then they left, each happily fed with pumpkin roll.

Wednesday was our last day in China for five weeks.  We spent the morning getting things ready to go, laundry, cleaning, etc. We had made an appointment with a young man for some tutoring that afternoon, but we had forgotten that we were going to visit Dr. Tricia that afternoon, so we had to try and arrange a different time for him to come.

A man that David had met with before named, Samuel, wanted to take us out to lunch.  Samuel is a man that is connected with the Rain Education group.  The goal of their company involvement with Rain Education is to have better understanding between China and the US and the world.  They think that because David was in the Legislature, he has political connections that would help them.  Samuel was there with his "big boss," and we had a pleasant lunch and some interesting conversations.  They wanted to know more specifically how the Americans felt about North and South Korea working together to create a good Olympics experience.  When we were finished with lunch, they drove us up to Qianfushan Hospital so we could have our visit with Dr. Tricia.

Some of the lunch that we had with Samuel and his boss.  Lots of seafood!  

Dr. Tricia has had a rough week.  She realized on Sunday that it was the one month anniversary of her father's death and she was struggling.  She still feels guilty that she didn't get her father treatment earlier, and that it may have provided him with a few more years of live.  We talked for about an hour and she seemed to be a little more calm when we left.  She also had a gift for us to take home to our family.  It is a special type of chicken prepared in a special Shandong way.  We are excited to share it with our family!

We met Eva at the Yon Ho restaurant for supper.  She wanted to spend time with us before we left.  She had some gifts for us also.  More than 50% of our luggage is gifts!  Some we have bought and some we have been given.

David finished his class with the engineers.  He hopes that he gave them some skills to help get them through and be able to do their work. 

While David was working with the engineers, I was helping the young man that we had rescheduled from earlier Wednesday. He is auditioning to go to Columbia University in New York.  He is nervous about what to say and how to introduce himself in the interview.  We went over some strategies that I hope will help him.  He seems like a bright young man.  His goal in life is to become a film and play director.

Lily sent this tie for David and the scarf for me.  It is beautiful hand woven brocade silk.

We arrived at the airport in time for our flight and everything worked well for getting back to the US.  It is a long, long time of flying and waiting at airports.  It was hard to sleep before the flight, hard to sleep on the flight, and then hard to stay awake until time for bed in America.  These next five weeks will be late Christmas, family parties, a trip to see my dad, and hopefully, a LOT of (busy) rest!

Shanghai airport. Waiting to leave China.