May 26 - Hot, Golden Rooster Mountain, BYU Spectacular, and Sad Farewell

When David and I were walking home from buying groceries on Monday, we saw this little patch of wild strawberries growing in one of the groves of apricot trees on campus.

Last week, I was asked by a text, if I would mind having some government officials come to my classroom.  A delegation of government officials that are over education were coming to Shandong University on Tuesday and wanted to observe teaching in a foreign teacher’s class.  Not sure why I was selected.  David also received an invitation to a meeting with these officials at 10:40 that day, but he had to decline, because that was the time he was teaching.  He offered to end class early, but they said no, that he should stay with his teaching.

I was already for them to come, even had a small gift of some BYU pens to give them.  Fu Yawen, the person who contacted me about them coming, was there outside of my classroom waiting at the time that they were supposed to come, to tell me that they were delayed about fifteen minutes.  That was okay by me, because the activity would be starting about then, and that is always more exciting to see than the powerpoint that was going to set up the activity. 

About the time that they said they would be there, Fu Yawen came back to my door to tell me that the officials were running so far behind, that they wouldn’t be coming after all.  She had a gift to give me for being willing to have them come to my classroom.  I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes.

We went to the English Salon at Qilu hospital on Wednesday evening.  We sang another song, went over some idioms, and then played a game called “Talking Cards.”  We have a list of questions that coordinate with numbers and suits on a deck of cards.  We usually have the students line up in two lines and do kind of a speed dating thing.  They need to talk about the question that is on the card for two minutes with each other.  Because this was a smaller group, we decided to just divide the group we had into two groups.  David had one group, and I had the other. We went around in a circle and answered the questions that came up.  It was a rather fun evening and went late.

Jinan has been really warming up.  Thursday, the temperatures got up to 100º F!  I was glad that the humidity was only about 16, or it would have been almost unbearable at that temperature.  We didn’t really feel like going out in the heat, but we had our massages scheduled for that afternoon, so we headed out in the heat.  

The place was pretty quiet, because we were the only ones there.  The lady with the red had showed up wearing a new purple hat, that she was going to show off.  None of her friends were there, so she started making phone calls and talked for a while.  It seems the heat had scared off most everyone else, so no one was coming.  After her last phone call, she came over, rubbed on my legs for a little bit with the person doing my massage and then left.  We took a taxi home this time, and were glad to get out of the heat.

Arriving at the park by Golden Rooster Mountain.  David, Zina, Tresa and Sophia.

 David and Carol had set up a hiking group for Friday.  She was sad that I didn’t get to go last time, so she knew of a place where they could hike, that I would be able to sit in some shade in a beautiful place and wait for them.  With how hot it was on Thursday, we were a little afraid that we might have to call it off, however, the temperatures had cooled off to the low 80’s so it was a good day to hike.

The mountain they went to hike was called “Golden Rooster Mountain.”  Jay and Tresa Wilkins came along with us, and also our friend, Sophia.  We met Jay and Tresa at the bus stop on the west side of our campus and rode the buses that we needed to get to the area south of Qianfoshan Mountain to meet Carol and Sophia.  We were a little unsure of the stop to get off at.  Tresa was sitting by a woman who was trying to ask her some questions.  Through a translation app that Tresa had, she asked “Do you know what stop you need to get off?”  Tresa asked a younger person on the bus to help.  Soon, the whole bus was  trying to help us get off at the right stop.

Our Instructions were, “Get off at the third bus stop after the Qianfo South stop,” and a Chinese name in Pinyin was listed.  The woman and all the people insisted that we needed to get off at this second of the three bus stops.  We just couldn’t seem to tell them that it was three stops past that stop.  We decided that we better get off or risk Sino-American relations!  One woman even got off with us.  David called Carol, who talked to the woman.  Carol then told us to just stay there, she would be there soon, and then we could do to Golden Rooster Mountain together.  When all was gotten straight, the woman got back on the next bus and continued on her journey.  It was so kind of all of them to want to help, even if there were some communication errors in the process!

Crossing the bridge to get to the mountain.  Last wave from David and Carol.

Another view of the bridge.  People were fishing from the bridge.

There was a really nice shaded area with lots of benches and even a nearby restroom if I needed it.  Carol even talked to some of the people asking them to look out for me.  I had brought my Kindle with me and had planned to just have a nice morning of reading by myself.  I waved the rest of our group off and after they were out of sight, I sat and was going to get into my story. 

A man was in one area playing a saxophone.  A few grandparents were there with some grandchildren and others were just sitting enjoying the fine morning that it was.  A woman in a blue dress had been over by the man playing the saxophone.  She came to sit by me and tried to talk to me.  I told her my few Chinese phrases to explain who I was and why I was in China.  She kept talking some more, so I got out my translation app and tried to use it.  It is rather frustrating to use, because even though I have a great data plan, I can’t always get China Mobile to pick it up.  I could get a few things translated, but not a lot.  Through gestures and some pictures, we had a nice time.  She even called her daughter who had gone to school in Australia and asked her to tell me that, if I needed anything, she could have her mom call her, and she would try to translate it for her.  It was a very sweet conversation.  I showed her pictures of my family. 

An older gentleman came over and wanted to talk to me, but he didn’t know English and my app was not working well.  The lady in the blue dress told him about me.  He stayed around for a while.  There were some little girls dancing to the saxophone music with either their mothers or grandmothers.  I went over closer to them and took some pictures, they were so cute!

When the girls were finished dancing, they came over to get their pictures with me.  Then the lady in the blue dress wanted pictures, and while all the pictures were happening, the older gentleman came over and got video of all that happening.  

Mothers, grandmothers and daughters dancing to the saxophonist playing. 

This girl really seemed pretty good.

The little dancer knows how to pose!

My new friend in the blue dress.  She gave me a gift of some lotions and a jade blade to apply them with, a traditional Chinese head and body ache cure.

After about two hours, David, Tresa, and Jay came back. I had hoped that Carol or Sophia would be with them, so I could have them translate some of the things that the others wanted to know, but they had to leave, so we said good-bye to all the Chinese people that I had met and headed back to our part of Jinan.  

One more pose at the start of the hike.  Carol Wang, Tresa and Sophia.

Some dragons carved into the rock.

Carol poured some water on this sculpture to show the dragon and the water flows into a small pool.

Sophia at the top.

Views of south Jinan from the top.

New homes in a new area.

Fun place for a stop.  It's all cement.

I thought this development carved into the side of the mountain was interesting.

David on the trail.

After having lunch at Subway, and buying some nuts and treats at the nearby nut store, we parted ways and went home.  Daniel Quillen was coming over, because he wanted to look at the student store that sells SDU paraphernalia.  He wanted to get some things that had logo from our university because their university doesn’t sell anything like that.  David took him over to show him where the store was.  None of the sweatshirts and T-shirts were big enough, so he just got a hat.

One of SDU's commemorative plates for sale.  320 RMB is about $46.

This plate is even more beautiful, but if is almost $70!

Friday afternoon, we had fun tutoring Michael and Stone.  I’m going to miss those two boys when we go home!

We were up early on Saturday headed to Beijing.  Jackson, a Chinese friend who helps David get taxis to the Qianfoshan campus on Mondays and Wednesdays, went out to the west gate to help us get a taxi to the train station.  Sometimes it is hard for us to just flag down a taxi, because they don’t always stop for Anglos that they don’t think can speak Chinese.  With his help we had plenty of time to get to the station and wait for our train.

The trip to Beijing was good.  Two and a half hours went by fast because there was a young family on the train.  It was a husband and wife, with her mother, and their two small children, also going to Beijing for the weekend.  The five-year-old boy was not afraid of us, and as a matter of fact, he was the one who said “Hi” to us first!  David had fun playing with him, but also speaking with his dad who had quite good English.  The mom was interested also, but she and her mom were busy taking care of things between the two children. 

Our little friend on the train.  He was reaching around the back of my seat to touch me.  One time I reached back and tried to catch him.  It turned out to be his uncle's knee and the boy thought that was hilarious!

 We met Gilbert, Lulu, and their son, Marcelle at a very nice restaurant.  The taxi driver didn’t know exactly where to drop us off at, so he showed us a gate to go through, and we started to look for the pictures that Gilbert had sent us, but we couldn’t find the gate.  We showed the pictures to some men that were walking by, and one of them was able to tell us in English where to find the right door.  We had a lovely lunch with lots of interesting foods!

After lunch we went to a park called, “Ri Tan” park.  Ri Tan means the place of the sun’s power.  It is a place where the ancient emperors would go to get power from the sun.  It is a pretty park.  We went to explore the park, but is was really hot again and very humid.  Lulu and Marcelle went to an area for kids to play, while we went to see the platform of the great energy.  The heat was starting to get to me, so we went to find a little tea house where we could get out of the sun, and the heat, and get something to drink.  The tea house was cool, and they had cold things to drink.  We sat and visited for an hour until the heat lessened and my face was not so red from the heat. 

The story on this panel tell about how there were once seven suns in the sky. The archer on the far left shoots all but one of the suns down.  There's more to the story, but I don't remember it.

We are posing at the north gate of the place of the sun's energy.  The north, south and east gates all looked about the same.

This is the west gate.  Much larger and more carvings.

They won't let you in to the place of the sun's energy, but they say you can feel it through the gate.  When the emperor would want more power, he would go and stand in the middle to take the power from the sun.

Getting a picture with Marcelle.  He decided to do a funny face for us.

 Another purpose for us to go to Beijing this weekend was because of the BYU Spectacular that was happening there.  Forty years ago, BYU was the first university to perform in China after China first opened up to the world again.  The BYU Young Ambassadors came and performed then.  They recorded the show, and it was played for many years on China television.  It helped to open the doors for the China Teacher Program to come in also. 

The Spectacular had 203 people from BYU come.  Vocal Point,  The Young Ambassadors, Living Legends, BYU dunk team, Cosmo, cheerleaders, ballroom dance, and the orchestra all came over.  The show was phenomenal!  The final song was a well-known Chinese song sung by all the students.  The Chinese woman who was sitting next to me exclaimed that all the performers were singing in Chinese, and it was clear what they were singing!  Great job, BYU!! 

 

They divided the program into seven different sections and each one had a different Chinese character associated with it.  I was wishing for English subtitles in it, but the program wasn't for us, it was for the Chinese people.

Getting on stage for the grand finale.

We met many of the teachers from the CTP there as well as Aaron Tran and Nancy Rounds. Gilbert and Lulu were concerned about us getting around in Beijing, so they hired a taxi for us for eight hours to use to get us to our hotel, to the performance, and then back to the hotel after the performance.

Sunday morning, we met Gilbert and Lulu at a restaurant famous for its Chinese breakfasts.  We weren’t sure that it was really much different from many of the other Chinese breakfasts that we had had, but we know that Gilbert and Lulu know good food places, so we went there for breakfast.  

While we were eating, it started to rain.  It was pretty light until we decided to leave the restaurant and go down an old street to see the drum and bell towers.  Then the heavens let loose and anyone who was still outside, whether they had an umbrella or not became drenched.  We quickly saw the bell tower and the drum tower, and then Gilbert suggested that an ancient lake that the emperors used was close by, so even in the rain, we walked to that.  We were already wet, so what was a little more rain?

Our rainy picture at the bell tower.  The bell tower is at one end of the square.  They say that the bell tower rings to call in the new day.  The drum tower is at the other end of the square (we were facing it) and the drum call the end of the day and brings in the night.

 We got to a place where we could see about ten feet of the lake, but I needed to find a bathroom.  The closest one was down the alley that led to the lake, so I took off to find it.  The alley opened up to a larger view of the lake and then rain started to let up at little while we were there, so we could get a better view of the lake.  

Our rainy picture at the lake.  

At this time, it was getting close to the time to head to the train station, so we went to wait for the taxi under the shelter of a large eave of a bank building.  We all rode in the taxi to the train station, and while we were on the way, it finally dawned on Gilbert and Lulu that this would be the last adventure in China, unless we make our way back there for a visit, or they come to the US!  It really seemed to hit them hard.  It hit us hard too, but we already knew this was the last time, so we were more prepared for it.  When we arrived at the train station, Lulu stayed in the taxi, so that they would be able to use it to go back to their home.  Gilbert walked us into the station until the place where we had to show our tickets.  He stood there for a long time after we had hugged and went through the gates looking at us with such sadness.  This is the first of many sad goodbyes for us.

May 19 - Game Week, Red Hat, Library and Shopping

We pass the entrance to the botanical garden on our way to the massage and they had it blocked off for a couple of weeks.  They took the fence down and revealed a brand new flower display.

In our classes this week, we had game week.  We used several games to help them learn to be more comfortable while using English.  The students all seemed to be excited about the games, and they had a lot of fun!  For some of them, it was probably the most English they have voluntarily spoken in their lives!  

 

Pictures are up on their foreheads, ready for another round!

Making sure they can all see the cards.

We played a “Fruits and Vegetable” guessing game of two rows and the first one to tell us the name of the fruit or vegetable that comes up on the screen gets the point for their team.  Another game is called, “Would You Rather?”  This game shows two possible choices on the screen.  They have to choose one of them and then tell the rest of the class what their choice was.  We only have selected students speak on each choice.  The fun is that some of the choices are things like; would you rather sleep with a snake or a spider in your bed?, and would you rather find true love or a suitcase filled with five million dollars?  Some of their answers are hilarious and the whole class gets into it.

The last game we played is called, “Heads Up.”  We have cards with random pictures on them.  The students hold the card to their foreheads without looking at it.  The other students have to give them clues in English about what it is, and the student must answer in English. I love how the students enjoy these games and start to feel a little more comfortable speaking English.

 

Some get really creative in how they get the cards to stay up on their foreheads.

One of the pictures in the game is a bottle of Coke.  One of the groups gave the clue of black fatty water for the clue!  I asked them why that clue.  They said that is what they call it in China.  A lot of people don’t drink it in China, because they think it will make them fat.  It’s not a drink that most of them choose, but I do see more people drinking it.  Quite often that is the drink that we are served, because they believe that ALL Americans drink Coke and sometimes Pepsi.  I’ve personally never cared for the taste of either drink, so when I am served it, I sip some, but rarely drink it all.

David had English corner on Wednesday evening.  He had quite a few more there this week than the last week.  After he got there, several students wanted to play the Heads Up game, so he quickly came home and got it.  

 

David English corner.

Look!  Professor Cox is taking a picture!

Thursday at the massage, the same lady with the Red Hat from last week came.  She had on a different outfit and showed it off to all.  She allowed me to try on the hat, so we got pictures of that.  She has a personality that lights up a room when she comes!  She might be a little outrageous, and that seems out of character for most Chinese, but she sure is fun!

 

So I tried on the Red Hat!  What do you think?

Everyone got a big kick out of the fact that David and I linked arms for this picture.

All week long, David and I have been putting in long hours of reading the Interview Summary reports that came in last week.  David finished his about Wednesday, but I still have about 50 of mine to do.  I have about that many more students than he does.  That’s what I did most of Friday while he went to several doctor appointments.

This is how part of the Chinese massage that we get goes.  The little boy is the son of one of the massage people.  The massage girl, Xioa Ye, is trying to get the little boy to do it like she does.  That's our friend, Carol, getting her massage.

The first appointment for David was a blood test for his cancer.  The numbers are really good for him right now, so that was positive.  When he came back from that, we had planned to go to see Dr. Tricia together, but my stomach wasn’t feeling great, so I decided to stay home.  David had a wart on his toe that was bothering him.  Dr. Tricia was able to get him to the dermatologist to get it taken care of, and then he stayed to have lunch with her at the hospital.

Michael and Stone came in the later afternoon for tutoring.  We really like these boys.  They bring a lot of fun with them, sometimes we have to curb it a little, but they seem like little sponges that want to absorb everything we are giving them.  

Saturday morning, we went to the little children’s library and sang some songs and read them some books.  We are the library’s grandma and grandpa.  That is what the children call us.  Those who are more familiar with us are getting a little more confident in interacting with us and love it when we come.

 

I was reading Duck on a Bike to them.  They seemed to get into it well.

David reading the The Hungry Tortoise.

                                                  Old McDonald is a favorite!

This mother wanted us to sing a song for the adults.  She asked if we knew 500 Miles.  We did, but didn't remember all the words, so she found them online and we are singing it together.

In the afternoon, some of the other BYU teachers and Aaron Tran wanted to go to the West Mall.  We decided on a time and met at a bus stop where we rode to the mall together.  The Wilkins had not been here before.  It is a little different than some of the other malls in Jinan, so it is a fun experience to see.

As we were shopping around, shopkeepers that I had interacted with and bought things from before would wave to me and show their recognition.  When we went to the toy store, I think the lady thought I wanted to buy some more dolls, so she was about to show me the dolls, but we were there looking for something for some of the other teachers, so I had to indicate “no” to her.  She still had big smiles for me. 

We stopped by a store that sold jewelry.  I was buying several pieces and David was looking at some watches.  He likes a watch that lays fairly flat on his wrist, and he tried one on that he liked.  He paid for it, but then one of the workers brought out some different watches.  He liked one of them even better.  Since we had Aaron with us to translate, he was able to ask if David could trade the watch he had just bought for the new one that he liked and negotiated a good price for that.  David is now the proud owner of this new watch that he paid about $27 for!  It is what he has been looking for for several years!

 

David's new watch!  The day of the week has English in the morning and Chinese in the afternoon!

On Sunday, we went to the Wilkins’ apartment for church.  The Quillen’s were in Qingdao this weekend, so we decided to let the Wilkins’ host church this week.  It was a great meal and a fine discussion afterward.  David and I gave talks in Sacrament Meeting.  It was nice to have everyone’s support there for our talks.

The following pictures are of an elementary classroom here in Jinan.  We were surprised because this is a new thing to have a colorful classroom and desks that aren't bolted down to the floor.

We didn't get to go there, a friend of ours sent these to us.  There are only 42 students in the classroom (down from the 60-80 that we had heard about in previous years).  The students are still taught to rise and speak when they are called on.  A nice show of respect to the teacher.

May 12 - Fun with a Red Hat, English Salon, and Hiking

The beginning of our week was pretty usual and calm.  We taught our classes, ate our food, and started grading the written papers that the students had turned in.

David took this picture on his walk by the moat.

We started our classes in the new building this week. It is pretty exciting for the students because this building has all the new bells and whistles.  I have a nice double screen smart board in the front of the class that I can either present my Power Points on or use like a chalkboard with a tube of liquid chalk.  There is also a screen that I can use to see my Power Points so I don’t need to look back at the smart board. 

 

There was a calendar on the board and this student found that she could move it all over.

These girls had a great time drawing pictures on it and erasing and then drawing again.

These three were drawing pictures and at the last, he drew some Chinese characters.  I didn't recognize them.  They could have been his name, a saying, or something obscene and I wouldn't have known.  

There are also four interactive boards along the sides that can be used for collaborative projects and are not connected to the master computer, but have a USB port.  The tables are made so that the individual sections can be pulled apart and configured in many different ways.  The desktop is a trapezoid shape.  My students thought it was really cool, so do I!

Wednesday was the English Salon at Qilu Hospital. We did a presentation on families and then played a game that we call “Heads Up.”  We had a set of cards with random pictures on them.  We divided those who were there into two smaller groups.  Each person in the group has to take a card and hold it up to their forehead without looking at the picture.  The other people in the group have to use English to describe the picture to the person and the person with the picture on their forehead needs to guess what the picture is.  Of course this is all supposed to be done in English.  We all had a fun time doing this. We actually went about a half hour overtime, because we were having so much fun! 

 

This was my group playing "Heads Up."  Trying to explain what was on the picture on her forehead.

Dr. Yang was in this group with Dr. Liu, another guy and Sun Bo.  

On Thursday, we went to our massage in the afternoon.  We had to wait for about 15 minutes before there were massage tables ready for us.  While we were sitting there, a woman with a beautiful, marvelous red hat comes in the door.  She has the biggest smile on her face.  She must have known a lot of the women there, because when she showed the hat to them, there was a big uproar of approval with several of the others also trying on the beautiful red hat.  

 

This was the wonderful red hat lady and her new outfit.

One of the other ladies that tried on the hat joined us for this picture.

Evidently this woman had also bought a new dress and sweater to go with it, because she went to a back room and changed.  When she came out, I gave her a thumbs up, because it looked great, and David stood up and bowed to her!  There was a lot of approval from the rest of the group, and then they decided that they wanted pictures of her with us.  Another woman who had also tried on the hat got in on the pictures.  It felt like a big, noisy party for a while.

 

The two-year old son of one of the workers was there while his dad worked.  At first he was afraid of David, but he finally warmed up to him.  David is showing him pictures of our grandchildren and he loved it.

Our friend, Carol, was free to take David for a hike in the mountains near her home in Southern Jinan on Friday and our tutoring had been cancelled allowing him to go.  He invited the Wilkins along, and Carol had her dog and one of her friends along, who also had a dog.  Both dogs are well-trained and cared for.  One is a big poodle and the other is a police dog.  I needed some more pain medicine from Dr. Tricia, so I went to see her and have lunch there.  David and the Wilkins met for lunch at Burger King and then took the bus to go meet Carol. 

 

Carol with Jinan in the background.

Jinan from the top of the mountain.

Jay Wilkins piled up these rocks for a memorial of the hike.

This was the other hiker with his dog.

The dog is Carol's dog named "Candy" with Jay.

They had a great time hiking, and Carol took them all back to her place afterward.  It started to rain with thunder and lightning, so they stayed there hoping that the rain would let up.  When it finally did for a little while, they got on the bus and headed home.  It started raining again and David wanted me to meet him with a jacket and an umbrella.  Personally, I don’t care for thunder and lightning, so I was glad that it mostly stopped when I had to leave to go meet him at the bus stop.

  

Waiting out the storm at Carol's house.

Rain on the window.

Yam chips!  YUM!! 

All day Saturday, we stayed in the apartment trying to get the students’ papers graded.  It is long, boring, and tedious, and we are not done yet, but we still have a few weeks before we have to turn grades in, so it’s all good.  We had been piecing on nuts and snacks all afternoon to try to stay awake and get as much done as we could, but we decided to go out for supper anyway.  

When we got down the stairs, Pam Holt and Robbie Greenwood were there talking to Lynn Harrison.  Robbie and Pam used to teach on our campus, but they moved the departments that they taught in to the Qingdao campus, so they had to move there also.  Lynn teaches on our campus with us.  We stopped to talk with them for a while. 

By the time we were finished, we were too late to go to the canteen, and since we weren’t really that hungry, we decided to go get a smoothie at the little cafe called, “Gate Coffee” that is here on campus.  We were able to get a strawberry smoothie and that satisfied us for the evening. 

I came back to the apartment, but David wanted to get more walking in.  He went to the bus stop and got a bus that would take him to the moat so he could walk along the path there.  He met a man on the bus on the way that spoke English quite well.  They had a nice conversation until the bus stop came up.  Then a nice long walk along the moat.

 

This was also along the moat in David's walk.

People by one of the many springs in Jinan.

Sunday we went to Church.  We had a special Relief Society meeting for the women.  We usually just call in over the phone lines, but we decided to use a new app that has video capability to be able to see each other as we talked about mothers and motherhood.  It was a great experience despite a few small hiccups with technology.  Lunch afterward was delicious and fun!

I don't usually drink Sprite for the fiber.  It has me concerned.