March 31 - Kindness, Eating with Eva, Hair and Shopping

A beautiful crab apple tree in full blossom on campus. Just can't get enough of the blossoming trees right now!

We think these are dogwood trees.  The blossoms come right out of the limbs of the tree and are so beautiful.  Did I ever mention how great it is to smell all the wonderful flowers on campus this time of year?

For our supper on Monday evening, we decided to go to the fourth floor of the canteen.  There was no one in line for the steak and hamburger entree, so we decided on a steak. The chef makes it right there and then adds a salad, spaghetti, some fries, and a fried egg.  David had gotten his first and left to go put it on the table he had saved, and would then come back to help me.  The chef didn’t have anyone else waiting for a steak, so he picked up my tray and walked it to our table for me!  I was so pleased with his kindness. 

When we were coming back from our massages on Tuesday afternoon, Eva had contacted us and wanted to have supper with us. She had a class to teach on our campus that afternoon, so we just went to the canteen, basement floor this time.  We are trying to figure out a trip that we can take with Eva during the Labor Day holiday on May 1st.  At first, it was only supposed to be the one day, May 1st.  Then the government decided to change it to be a longer holiday, so they declared that the holiday would be May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  That’s Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  If you have classes on Thursday, you have to make it up the prior Sunday.  If it is Friday, you have to make it up by working the Sunday after.  That is how they do it here.  No choice in whether you want to work on Sunday or not.  Fortunately, David and I don’t have classes on Friday, so we only have one day of classes to make up, but it still seems strange to do it this way.  With the long holiday, we want to go somewhere.  We didn’t get any decisions made before David had to leave and go to English Corner with 

his students.

Students talking, English only.

Some of the students at English Corner.

The game "Talking Cards" is played with a deck of playing cards.  You first select a card.

Look at the corresponding question that is on the paper.

Answer the question.  Easy and fun.  The students really enjoy it.

We usually have lunch with Eva on Wednesday after our classes, so we decided to go to a noodle restaurant that we have been to several times before.  We hadn’t been back since we came back after the Spring Festival holiday, because they have a couple of flights of stairs to go up.  Now that I have the cane to help me with the stairs, it is not the same barrier that it once was, so that’s where we went.  The people there were happy to see us back, they even asked Eva why we hadn’t been there in a long time.

Wednesday evening, we were picked up by some of Dr. Yang’s workers and driven to the hospital, so that we could lead the English Salon.  They took us to the doctors’ lounge and fed us a some fruit and cake before the Salon started.  Then they took us up to the room where they had more food waiting for us!  They had food for everyone that would stay and eat after we left, but they wanted to feed us before the Salon.  At the last Salon we told them we couldn’t eat the pizza they had provided, because it was too late in the evening for us to eat after we were finished.  Now we were trapped and couldn’t eat, but we were eating by ourselves in front of everyone.  We rather felt like we were zoo animals being fed, so the masses could watch us eat!

 

I found it interesting that the tiles that were starting to fall from the wall in the doctors' lounge were made to stay in place by tape.  If it works, use it!

We sang some songs and showed them a powerpoint on rodeos.  We encouraged them to ask questions.  One question was really interesting,  He asked if the cowboys who competed in the rodeo were slaves. He was thinking about the gladiators and how they were made to fight each other.  We assured him that these people were doing this for the love of the sport.

 

One of the foods they gave us at the English Salon was a Chinese style hamburger.  The meat is cooked right in the bun.

After the powerpoints, we divided into two groups and let the people ask us questions.  I got some more questions about the rodeo, but also about why I was using a cane, my home, and some other things that I don’t remember now.  

Thursday afternoon, I was on the massage bed enduring the cupping that they were doing on my legs, when one of the ladies finished her massage and was very curious about me.  I assume that she was asking the girl (Xiao Ya) who was working on David’s massage, about my hair, because both Xiao Ya and the woman started touching my hair.  They have asked me before if I dye my hair, and if I have my hair permed.  (Neither one have I ever done.)  As they were touching my hair, Xiao Ya said that my hair was beautiful in Chinese.  We have heard it enough times now, that we recognized what she was saying.  It was okay for them to touch my hair, because I know they have been curious about it.  

On Friday, we just stayed in the apartment.  It was a cold day and David was starting to feel a cold coming on.  With the radiators turned off, we only have electric heaters for heat, and it is hard to get them to really warm our place up. We had enough food with all that they had given us to take home after the English Salon, so we didn’t need to go out for food.  

We were stuck in a traffic jam for about 20 minutes where we hardly moved at all.

This man wasn't the cause of  the traffic jam, construction was.  He was just one of many not able to go anywhere.

We hadn’t made any plans for Saturday, but Eva sent us a WeChat message and wanted to know if we wanted to do something.  She ended up not having to teach a class that day, so we WeChatted with the Wilkins to see if they wanted to do something.  They were okay with anything we wanted to do, so we decided to go to the outlet malls at the north end of Jinan and look for bargains.  

David and Jay weren’t really interested in shopping and the mall is rather close to the Yellow River.  David has long wanted to see the river, so Eva told them how to get there.  They had a great walk and took pictures and then came back.  I was back at the mall where all the beautiful clothing was for the children, and I made some shopkeepers very happy!  Me, too!

They have a pathway that follows the Yellow River.

Part of a marina on the river.

In the background is a floating pontoon bridge.  

 There were really large vehicles going across the bridge!

 Jay got in the way!  (Ha Ha!)

In the bottom left corner is a tugboat that was ready to push a barge down the river.  David said there was a LOT of water going down that river!

We had lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant.  I didn’t want to stress my leg very much, so David and I went home, and Eva went with Jay and Tresa to Da Ming Lake and showed them some “secret” places.  From their pictures, it looks like they had a great time.

I was making banana bread for the dessert for our Sunday dinner Saturday evening.  The apartment was cold so the butter wasn’t softening very well.  I turned on my mixer to cream the butter and sugar and after a little while, I started seeing sparks and a bit of smoke coming from the back of the mixer!  Oh NO!  Not my mixer!!!  I had to open the windows and turn on a fan to get most of the smell out of the apartment.  I finished mixing the banana bread by hand and started baking the bread.  I guess I had the heat up a little too much (it’s in celcius) and I burned the bottom of the banana bread.  I was able to cut it off, and it didn’t affect the taste, but I was rather disappointed about the whole thing.

Sunday was church and a wonderful lunch with our small Jinan Twig.  Happy Sunday!