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.