David & Zina Cox: December 2 - Shopping, Shopping, Decorating!

David took this picture of one of the beautiful leaves on the Qianfoshan Campus.

There really isn’t much to say about Monday, so we’ll move on with the rest of the week. Nancy Rounds wanted to shop at Carrefour after our very successful trip with Bonita the week before, so we decided that Tuesday afternoon would work for both of us. She didn’t know what bus to take, so we took bus 16 up to the stop near the Hanlin Hotel and met her there. We then got on bus 79 that would take us to Carrefour.

Sometimes we go to this market for food. It used to be that people would park their trucks and vehicles on the side of the road and sell right from their vehicle. It was pretty messy all the time. We decided to stop there earlier this week and saw how they had cleaned it up. They were also in the process of painting these murals on the buildings. It looked like they had a set of templates that people could choose from for what they wanted their side of the house to look like.

We found a lot of things that we wanted, and David and I wanted to go over to a market that has some souvenirs that we were looking for, so we invited Nancy to tag along with us. We found some of what we were looking for, but not all. We had a fun time and then rode a bus back to where Nancy could catch her bus home, and we could continue home.

Our bus ride to the Hanlin Hotel takes us by this scene that they have been working on for the last few weeks. For some reason, they feel they need to protect these bushes and some trees during the winter, so they build this lattice work and then...

Cover them like this...

And this... There are even some small trees that they build a little cocoon for. Just can't seem to get a good picture of them.

On the bus ride to the Hanlin, we were sitting behind two nice ladies that were chatting away with each other. I noticed that as we got near to a certain stop, they were starting to get a little more animated, and they talked to the person sitting in front of them by a window that could open.

At the next stop, the window opened, the ladies, with the help of the man by the window, handed down a sack of something, and a bagged box was handed in to them. It was all done quite smoothly in the time that we waited at the stop. David and I applauded them, and they looked back at us, and we all had a good laugh.

This little cutie caught David's eye while he was waiting for Nancy and I to shop in the nuts and dried fruits shop.

Wednesday evening, David had English Corner. He tried out a new game with them and got some feedback. It was a harder game than the Heads Up game. It is similar in some ways, but with idioms instead of pictures. We had wanted to use it in the coming week if it worked out, but it takes too much time. We can’t seem to find a way to work out the difficulties, so we are not going to use it this week.

We played the Heads Up game in our classes this week. It was SO FUN!! The students started out slow, because the rule was you can only give clues and answers in English. By the end of the game, their words were coming easier and the laughter was abundant.

More Heads Up.

It is a little awkward with the desk situation. They are bolted to the floor, and so it is hard to get around in a circle, but they do the best they can.

Both David and I went to Dr. Tricia on Friday. His right knee has started bothering him so he wanted to have the orthopedic doctor check it out. The doctor just told him that he was getting old and losing the cartilage. He gave him some of the same pills that I am taking that seem to help with arthritis. I hope it helps him.

After the doctor checked him out, David left so he could go have lunch with Eva. I stayed so that I could get the shot in my knee and have lunch with Dr. Tricia. She wanted to talk about some English words and what the difference was between them, like trousers and pants, shirt and blouse. She sure loves learning English!

We left fairly early on Saturday so we could meet Eva and go do some shopping. Last year, she had taken us to a shopping mall that we found a lot of great bargains at, and I wanted to go back there to look for some more bargains. We had a fun day of shopping and made some new friends along the way. As I was trying on some coats, people would stop and stare. Some would ask questions and Eva would answer them. Some asked if I was a movie star!

This girl is ten years old, and she was brave enough to speak a little of her English with us. So sweet!

After I had made my decision on what to purchase, the ladies of the shop wanted pictures with us. The girl had her arm around my waist. Her mother is behind her. I think the other woman is a relative also.

Mother and daughter with Eva in the background and me sitting. They insisted that I sit at this point. They also gave me two free scarves with my purchase. They wanted to sell me some shoes, but I lifted up my foot to show them what size shoe I would need. They laughed, because they don't carry ANYTHING that big.

One more picture. These little stalls of goods to sell are packed in every inch with products.

I still had some purchases to make, and David was getting loaded down with all the bags, so we found him a place to sit with all the old people and went off to make the last purchases.

After all the shopping, we headed to one of Eva's local restaurants near her home. They had this minced pork sandwich that was cooked like a panini. Very tasty!

Eva enjoying her panini and our soup.

The owners were so thrilled to have some Americans eat at their restaurant, that they had to get pictures! He told Eva that he was going to frame it and put in on the wall at the front of the store.

After Church on Sunday, we had a great lunch and visited for a while. David was given tickets to a concert by one of his students for Sunday evening. She even took the time to translate the program for us so that we would know what was going on!

One of the sweaters that I bought for myself.

David enjoyed buying some new "finery" for himself. I think he's ready for Christmas.

We went to the concert and it was rather noisy, and we didn't have anyone to interpret anything for us. David's student wasn't performing until the last act and we were kind of bored and tired of not knowing what was going on, so we left after a little more than an hour. We stayed for this violin performance.

This is called a "Cross-talk." One of them is the main story teller and the other person plays off of him. If you know the kind of routines from "The Smothers Brothers." it's rather like that.