March 25 - Readers Theater, Engineer, Blood Test, Zoo, and a Cane

I can't help but think of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Ann of Green Gables when she calls the snowy, white blossoms above her and Matthew as she is first arriving at Green Gables, "The White Way of Delight."

The fragrance as we walk through here is so wonderful!

We finished the readers theaters in our class, but for the most part, we were rather disappointed in the performances.  They read them okay for the most part, but as far as putting any pizzazz into them, there was very little to commend them.  I know I only gave out one perfect score and David only had a few. 

I will tell you of a few funny parts.  One group was performing a play where the characters had to try and chop down a magic tree (Boots and His Brothers, if you are familiar with it).  The students had added some sounds to the play, but the sound of the tree being chopped down was the sound of a chain saw!  Maybe you had to be there to think it was funny, but it was.

Another part was in the play, The Golden Fish.  When the fisherman cast his net and caught the fish, the fish yelled out, “Help! Help!” Totally ad-libbed!  I give higher scores when they ad-lib.  It makes me think that they understand English better.

One group had found a video of Rumpelstiltskin online, so they copied it, and then they fit the script to the video.  Actually, the video was rather distracting to the readers theater part, but I listened to how they performed and gave them a score accordingly.  

Monday afternoon, David had to take some forms over to the Foreign Languages Department to let them know if we were coming back again or not.  It was rather sad to sign that we won’t be back next year, but it is for the better for us that we do.  It has  been a great experience at the university and in Jinan.  

Tuesday we went for our massages, and they did the cupping on my legs.  It is still painful, but not as bad as the first few times.  The cupping isn’t that painful, but the massage that they perform before to work out some nodules that have formed in my lower legs is painful.  I feel like it helps and makes it so I can walk longer without pain.

Our maid couldn’t come on Monday, so he came on Wednesday afternoon.  We had lunch with Eva at a good pizza place that we have found close to our campus.  They have been renovating some buildings across the street from the West Gate of campus, and one of the new places going in is a Burger King!  We are a little excited about that, because they seem to have more of an American style menu than the other fast food chains in China.  The others try to cater to Chinese tastes, so you don’t find some of the same menu items that you have in the US here.  At KFC, I have very few choices, because most of their menu items are too spicy for me.  The other Burger King that we have eaten at in Jinan is at a mall that is too far away to go there when we want something quick.

Thursday afternoon we didn’t have massages, so we went grocery shopping.  In the fruits and vegetable department, they had workers stationed with every different kind of fruit.  I hadn’t planned on buying fruit that day, but I think the workers all decided to see if they could get the American to buy from them.  The first young man had some watermelon samples cut up and offered them to me.  All the time he was talking in Chinese and probably telling me how sweet and delicious they were.  Well, they were!  I didn’t want a whole or even a half watermelon (when you have to pack everything in a hand cart, you pick and choose what you buy carefully), so I bought a small package that had been cut up already.

I headed over to the meat section, where I was getting some sandwich meat, and on my way to the checkout stands, I had to pass by all the other people that were trying to sell fruit.  The cute girl with the very sweet orange sample couldn’t be passed up either, so I bought four small oranges.  Next was the young man selling pineapples.  He had a small piece already for me and offered it as I went by.  Well, it was really good pineapple also, so I bought a small package of sliced pineapple.  Thank goodness I was at the end of the fruit section by then!

On Friday, David had to leave early for his blood tests to see how the new drug is working for his cancer.  He had to go fasting, so we delayed breakfast until he got back about 9 a.m.  He had promised to show the Wilkins’ how to get to the zoo, so they spent most of the morning at the zoo.  They even rode the giant ferris wheel! 

 

David said the that rhino was acting like he didn't want to be looked at.

Flamingos.

Camels and musk ox roaming together.  

The tiger at the zoo.

David met this man at the zoo.  He was there with his family and one of the women was in a wheel chair.  They met at three different times while they were at the zoo.  When David got on the bus to go home, he decided to get a picture of the two of them.

A view of the city of Jinan from the Ferris Wheel at the zoo.

A view from the Ferris Wheel.

While they were going to the zoo, I went to the hospital to have lunch with Dr. Tricia.  She didn’t have a very busy schedule this week, so she was free to have lunch.  We talked about a lot of things, and she was able to prescribe some Celebrex for my knee pain.  It is helping more than any of the other pain pills at this point.  She always sends me home in a taxi, which is nice.  It is more like an Uber taxi, so the cars are nicer than the regular taxis, which tend to be rather dirty.  

David went to teach the Engineers class on Friday and Saturday evenings.  When he arrived at the class, one of the leaders came to him and said that the students wanted to do an “English Corner,” where you just sit and talk.  The students asked a lot of questions.  David showed pictures from his phone about our family and life in the US.  It went over really well, and it is less stress on him, because he has less to prepare that way.  They did the same thing on Saturday evening also.

 

Talking with the engineers at the English Corner.

David with the class of engineers.

Eva bought me a cane to help me when I walk.  Boy, do I feel like an old lady when I use it.  On the way to Church today, though, the cane broke (the saying, “Made in China,” applies here).  It was a cane that had a little wider base, and it would move a little back and forth as you were walking, but the base was made of plastic, and the stick was made of aluminum, and the two weren’t compatible.  There was the option of just putting a regular “foot” on the cane, so I did that.  It’s still usable. 

This was David's view from the top of the Ferris Wheel.