April 28 - English Salon, New Classroom, Happy Anniversary

     

Wisteria growing over the fence.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty usual for us this week.  The cleaning guy came, we went to our massage and shopped for groceries.

Jane joined us with our usual Wednesday lunch with Eva.  We decided to have “hot pot’ for lunch.  They remade part of the teacher canteen to a hot pot area.  Each person at the table has a little convection burner by your place with a little pot of water that you bring to a boil.  At a little buffet area, you can choose the foods that you want to cook in the hot pot.  There are different meats, tofu, noodles, and vegetables available.  They also have different condiments that you use to make your own sauce to dip your cooked foods in.  If you like a hot pot with some spice, you can put some hot sauce in your boiling water, or just in your dipping bowl.  Most of the sauces for dipping start with a peanut sauce.

                                      Eva and Jane with the Hot Pot

It takes a little while to cook the food and eat it.  That makes it a fun way to visit with each other as you are cooking your food and eating it.  I think the Chinese really like it, because you can gather around the cooking pot and just enjoy the time eating and talking.

Wednesday evening we were picked up by Lingling, Dr. Yang’s assistant and brought to Qilu hospital, so we could have the English Salon with them.  They fed us some really good pizza, and after singing with them and talking about restaurants, we did the game where we divide them into two groups and have them guess the name of the fruits or vegetables in English.  It is a very competitive game, and even Dr. Yang joined in to guess some.  He had someone come that needed him to take care of some papers for a little bit, but when he was finished, he was there enjoying the game with the rest.  They sent home two boxes of pizzas, that lasted us for four meals!

Earlier in the week, we had received word that they were going to move us to new classrooms after the Labor Day Holiday.  On Friday afternoon, we decided to go over and see where they were and what they looked like.  The building they are in has been recently refurbished.  Instead of the classrooms with the bolted down to the floor desks, we have movable tables, and chairs!  It also has a smart board, computer monitor screens, all over the room, so you can see it from wherever you are sitting.  

Our new modern classroom.  I'm here on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.  David will be there on Thursdays.  He has a class at 8 a.m. and I have a class at 10 a.m.

Computer command central.

 My problem with the new classroom is that instead of it being just across the street from our apartment building, I now have to walk all the way over to the other side of the campus (almost a half mile).  It has been hard enough lugging my bag in one hand and using my cane with the other, just to get the close classroom.  One day a week, I had to go over to a building on the other side of the campus, and I always had to stop part way over there and change hands carrying the bag and walk with my cane on the wrong side, until my right hand felt like it could carry it the rest of the way.  Now I get to do that four days a week.  I’m thinking of some other way to carry my supplies over, so that I don’t have quite the trial.  I will be putting a LOT more steps on my step monitor!

The smart board.  Hope I know how to use it.

Handy station for the marker and eraser for the smart board.

Saturday was our 43rd wedding anniversary.  We had planned to go to one of the malls in the afternoon to try and find a moisturizer with sunscreen in it for Jurgita, but it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we went in the morning.  The store we went to is called, “The Greenland Center,” and it carries a lot of foreign products, so when we need something like this, we go there.  We don’t go very often, just when we can’t find something at the other stores.

As we were about to enter the mall where the Greenland Center is, these kids were having a fun unique ride.

There were also trampolines in this area for kids.  

 On our way back from the Greenland Center, we decided to take the bus and stop at a fruit and vegetable shop that we like for some fruits for lunch on Sunday.  Then we stopped in to get our hair cut.  She did a really good job on David’s hair, but she got mine a little too short.  I had used my translation app to try and explain what I wanted, and she nodded her head.  Then she proceeded to cut off an inch more than I wanted.  Oh well.  It grows back.

We had arranged to meet Jay and Tresa Wilkins at Lydia’s Restaurant for lunch.  We were little late, because of the hair cuts, and we had to drop our stuff off at the apartment.  We had a fine lunch with good food and good company. 

After supper, Daryl Reeve, a guy from England and the Netherlands that works at Shandong University dropped in for a visit.  He is a fun character.  He likes to talk politics, but also just about any subject interests him. 

 About a half hour later, Daniel and Bonita Quillin came by.  She had bought a treat at the store that she knew we liked, well David really likes, and wanted to bring it over. She didn’t know it was our anniversary, so it became an anniversary gift for us.  It was a fun visit, they are such a fun couple.  It made what was going to be a quiet evening, one that was filled with laughter.

This was our gift from Bonita.

The treat looks like this.  It is quite greasy.  We aren't sure what they are made from, but we think it is flour, honey and lard with sesame seeds sprinkled on the top. 

 Sunday was the trip to the Hanlin Hotel for church.  We were just a small group today.  Because of the Labor Day holiday this week, the teachers have to make up classes for the classes that will be missed by the days taken off for the holiday.  The students don’t like it and neither do the teachers.  I think there are other workers that have to make up the holiday also, so it just stinks all the way around that they make it that way.  Anyway… life goes on!

April 21 - Lunch with Dr. Tricia, Tulip Festival, Church and Xueye Lake

She was just too cute to not take her picture!!

This week started off with a lot of wind blowing.  It was very blustery.  As we were walking to our massage place on Tuesday, I was hearing what I thought was a lot of birds chirping frantically.  I looked up at the sky but I couldn’t see any birds.  The wind was blowing really hard, and as we got closer to the sound of the chirping, we realized it was all of the motorbikes and scooters parked on the sidewalk that had been blown over in the wind and set off their anti-theft alarms!  

 

All the scooters and cycles were standing at the beginning of the day.  The wind didn't care! It was just funny to hear all the alarms going off.

Wednesday evening, David had his English Corner, but only had eight there.  They still had a good time learning and talking, but he had hoped for a few more than that.  

We had planned to have lunch with Dr. Tricia on Friday, so we went at 10:30 a.m.  She had the old orthopedic surgeon take a look at my knee again and was able to get me more Celebrex for my arthritis.  We had a nice lunch and a good visit.  Then she sent us home in a taxi, so we could have a rest.  Instead of a rest, we prepared for our tutoring time with Michael and Stone.

 

Snickers with hot chilis?!

A girl who audited my class last fall, contacted me and wanted to meet with me.  She has really good English skills, but wanted to take a class from an American.  Scarlett is trying to get into graduate school in the US and wanted some advice on what to do.  She also brought along a former student of David’s, his English name was “Pancake.”  We talked over what might be of value to them and some ideas for almost two hours.  It was a pleasant visit, and we’ll be meeting again with them.

Ever since David had been to Red Leaf Valley last fall and heard about the Tulip Festival in the Spring, he has been trying to make sure that he gets there.  A young man, Anthony, that has been coming to our Sunday lunches had said that he would take us in his car, but as seems typical with a lot of Chinese, it is a last-minute thing to set up.  We had talked with Eva, and she was able to get us set up with the woman who has organized other trips to Red Leaf Valley for us, and she got a small group together so that we could go.  Jay and Tresa Wilkins came with us and four Chinese women.

 

This was our group, from the left, Eva, one of the Chinese women, Tresa Wilkins, Jay Wilkins, Zina, David, and the other three Chinese women. These are the stairs that lead up to the gate to go into Red Leaf Valley.  With my trusty cane, I made it to the top, but I didn't want to count the steps!

Some of the flowers were planted in the ground and some were just potted.

They arranged for a fifteen-passenger van to pick us up from our campus.  The four other women and Eva were waiting at a place closer to their homes.  Traffic was terrible because of a lot of construction.  It was almost two hours before we got there.  It should only have been about an hour. 

 

Replica windmill.  Everyone stops to get their picture taken by it.

The token wooden shoe.  Little kids want to play in it.  One little boy peed in it.  They have the split pants to wear until they are potty trained.  He was in his split pants and it was time to go, so he did.

Lots of stairs to get to these places.

There were several saxophone players scattered throughout the garden playing beautiful music.  David and I even danced to the music for a little bit.

Here we are dancing to the saxophone music.

This young man was very curious about me.  A gentleman was sitting next to me, who is also a professor at Shandong University.  He had started talking to me and so this boy came over and started asking the question he wanted answered.  Then he got his little sister and brother over by me.  Then we had to take a selfie. 

David and I paid for the ability to ride the carts that they have to take you to different areas, so we got there first.  Eva, Jay, and Tresa walked and saw some great sites along the way.  David and I had time to climb to nearly the top of the tulip area.  We rode the cart down to an area that we thought they would meet us at, and then we waited for about an hour.  During that hour, we had lots of interactions with the kids and some of the adults who got there after us.  

 

As we were sitting in the pavilion area waiting for the others, these two little girls kept trying to get up the courage to come and talk to  us.  The one in the yellow shirt knew a little more English, and she finally got the courage to ask us some questions.  They still never came up close to us, but they sure kept popping up in places around us, sometimes hiding in the bamboo that was growing to the side of the pavilion.

This girl's mother kept prodding her daughter to speak English to us.  She was hesitant at first, but finally got the courage.  She asked where we were from, what our favorite colors were, and what our names were.  Then she recited lines from a dialog that she has to memorize and repeat at school.  She did very well, but I wondered if she really knew what she was saying and what it meant.  Her mother asked, through the daughter, if we could understand what she had said.  We told her it was very clear and very well said.

We decided to ride the cart to the next stopping area, and that is where we found Eva, Jay, and Tresa.  They had taken a boat ride! We grabbed a little lunch, and then it was time for us to get on the bus and go home.  All-in-all it was a wonderful day spent in the mountains enjoying the beauty, and the peace and quiet.

 

A pond by the pavilion.

This man had seen us sitting to rest for a while, so he came over and wanted our picture with him. He was very excited to do that.  I later learned that he was the father of the man that I was sitting by who was an English professor.

Sunday the teachers at the Hanlin were all gone except for Sue Stubbs, so we held church at our apartment.  It is halfway between the other two apartments,  so it made sense.  We also had lunch here afterward.  Aaron Tran wasn’t able to make the meeting, but he did come for lunch and brought three unexpected guests, Anthony, his wife, and another woman, Emily.  We had a great time and a good meal with good company.

David’s Chinese oncologist, Dr. Yang, had invited us to go with him and some of his colleagues to a lake that is south and east of Jinan.  The area has recently been annexed into Jinan, and they are building it up as a resort type area. 

Dr. Yang and one of his friends picked us up at 3 p.m.  The ride out to Xueye Lake took about one and a half hours.  It was nice to once again get out of the city and be in the mountains and by the lake.  Dr. Yang had his friend take pictures with this super nice camera.  We walked along a path by the lake and looked at the sun setting on the water.  I’m not sure what the purpose was of all the pictures of David and I walking with Dr. Yang, we may never know, but it seemed like he had a purpose for the pictures in mind.

 

Dr. Yang showing us this huge table that we were going to have dinner at.  It was beautifully carved underneath the glass.

Dr Yang watching David.

Sunset on Xueye Lake.

They are building this artificial waterfall near the lake.

Another view of the sunset.

Eventually seven of his colleagues and a daughter of one of them joined us by the lake, and we went back to the first place to have dinner.  Because it is by the lake, the majority of the dishes were fish dishes - fish dishes with bones in them - fish dishes that we have a hard time with the bones in them!  We tried toasted cicada bugs and toasted grasshoppers, well, I tried the grasshopper, David said he had squished enough of their bodies, that he wasn’t going to try them.  Now I have tried them, and I don’t need to try them again.  We also had turtle for the first time in our lives.  I guess if I was starving, I might eat it again, but only then.

 

Turtle feet.  It was really hard to get any meat off of them.  Very chewy.  Had to swallow it fast.

Roasted cicada for dinner also!

Let's not forget about the grasshoppers!  You pull the legs off before you eat them.

After the dinner, and lots of toasts (orange and peach juice or water, only a couple had wine), Dr. Yang asked us to tell some funny stories from our lives.  Being put on the spot, we struggled to come up with some really funny ones, but we did have some cute pictures of our grandchildren to show and tell stories about them.  After eight o’clock, we were driven home by Dr. Yang and his friend.  It was too late at night to write the blog and post it then, so it had to wait for Monday.

 

David is sitting with Lingling's daughter Sisi. Lingling is part of Dr. Yang's nursing staff, head nurse, I think.

April 14 - English Salon, Botanical Garden, and Library

Pink snow!  The blossoms are falling to the ground and it looks like pink snow.

After classes on Monday, I went to the acupuncture by myself.  David had to stay at the apartment so that the cleaning guy could come and clean.  The acupuncture went well.  I had a good talk with Kristen, the doctor’s student.  She is in her fifth year learning traditional Chinese medicine.  She has been trying to study English on her own, so she was thrilled to be able to talk with me, so she can improve her skills.  She mentioned how hard it was when one word could have four different meanings.  Take the word “address.”  She was amazed that I could just name off the four meanings so quickly.

During one of David’s classes on Tuesday, he called on a student to come to the front and read.  She jumped up with enthusiasm and came to the front.  David mentioned to her how he liked her enthusiasm.  She said back to him, “I like you!”

Tuesday, we had rain, not just a little rain, but lots and lots of rain!  We have to cross a street in order to get to our classrooms.  The street was a river!  It seemed like at least one and a half inches of water.  I walked back and forth along the edge looking for a possible shallow place to cross, but finally had to give up and just go across.  Got a little wet on my feet, but not as bad as I thought.

As we were coming home on the bus that afternoon, there was a little girl about four years old sitting in the seat in front of her grandmother, who was sitting by me.  I kept getting her attention and smiling at her.  After a few smiles back at me, she started singing the “ABC Song.”  She did as well as any four-year old would say in the US.  She started to sing it again, so I joined in and sang it with her.  She stopped in amazement that I finished the song.  The grandmother was thrilled that I was able to understand her and interact with her.

 

Lunch with Eva, Zina, David, and Jane.

We had our usual lunch with Eva, but had a surprise join us.  Five years ago, we had met Jane.  She was the one who arranged for me to be on the baking show at Christmas time.  Jane had gone to Canada shortly after the baking show was over, and we hadn’t seen her, because she decided to go to school and live in Canada with her husband and son.  She is back now to teach at SDU, so it was great to have lunch with her. 

Wednesday evening, we had the English Salon at Qilu hospital.  It was a fun evening.  We talked about all the holidays in the US and then answered questions about football and cooking a turkey.  

Jinan has a beautiful botanical garden, and the peonies are in full bloom right now.  We had moved our usual Thursday massages to Friday, so that I could have another session of acupuncture on Thursday.  The botanical garden is on the way home from the massage place, so it seemed like a great time to go see the peonies

This is near the peach and cherry orchard area of the botanical garden.

 There is a KFC in the middle of the gardens, so we stopped there for lunch.  We had been to the garden once last year and David had gone there with the Wilkin’s earlier this year, so he was pretty sure where to find them.  He was right!  It was beautiful!  So many beautiful blossoms and the aroma was wonderful!  

I call this "A Kiss of Color."

Japanese Maple was too splendid to pass up.

As we were walking toward the exit, we saw this children's play area.  There are tons of pigeons here, they know that people will feed them.  There is even an older woman who is paid to keep the pigeons in this area.  In the middle of the group of people standing there was a little girl that was trying to catch one of the pigeons.  

Friday afternoon is the tutoring with Michael and Stone.  We are having a lot of fun with the boys, and they seem to be doing quite well .  

On Saturday morning, David and I went to the children’s library that we have gone to before.  We sang some songs, and then I read a story to them.  Some of the children talked to us, but more of the mothers wanted to talk to us.  It seemed like the time flew by, because soon the guy who runs it was saying that it was time to go.  They can only be open for certain hours, and we were about fifteen or so minutes past that time.  

Sunday, we went to church with our Jinan “Twig.”  Had a fun lunch afterward.  They are moving the teachers at SDNU from the apartments that have been used for many years into smaller temporary quarters, so that they can remodel the old rooms.  At least they hope that the new rooms are only temporary.  We are dealing with China after all.  The new rooms don’t have any kitchens or clothes washers, so they have to use a “community kitchen” and a common laundry room.  It is a little awkward for them with the community kitchen, but they are adjusting to it.  Rather glad it is not us. 

Just had to get a picture of this jacket.  I'm not quite sure they have it right.