Day 22 - Potatoes and Copies

Day 22

David had class this morning.  I went over just at the end of his first class and stayed for the beginning of his second class.  Then I went in search of food.  I’m looking for potatoes and not finding any in at these smaller sidewalk vendors.  I’ll probably have to go to RT Mart and see if they have some there.  The sidewalk vendors sell what is in season at the moment, and I guess the late season fruits and nuts are what you find right now. 

We went to the paper shop and got some more cardstock paper.  We are doing information cards that we have the students fill out so we can get to know them better and he was running out of them.  In the teaching building that is closest to our apartment, there is a little store that a couple runs.  He makes the copies and she sells the food and things for students.  After our first trip there to make the copies, David had forgotten to pick up his original, so he printed out another copy for today.  We walked into the shop and the man turned around, grabbed David’s first original!  I realize that there are not many Anglo teachers on campus, but to have him save the copy and give it to us when we came in was great!  We shared a laugh, which aside from the numbers for money, was the best way to communicate!

My class went better for the most part today.  Still having some technical issues with the computer, but it is mostly because I can’t read Chinese.  At one point, the students’ eyes seemed to be starting to glaze over because we were going over terms and vocabulary and it was getting pretty dull for me, too, so since David had just arrived with his guitar, we put up the words to Country Roads and had them singing.  They sang somewhat, but a lot of cell phones came out and they were either just taking pictures or recording it.  Chinese students like to applaud. 

Thursday is the Moon Cake Festival, so we don’t have to teach the rest of this week, except David has to teach on Sunday to make up for the classes that the students will miss on the Friday.  He has to teach 2 Sunday’s in a row because of this holiday and the National holiday from Oct 1-7.  It is interesting how they decided that at first the graduate students wouldn’t have to make up the missed classes and then all of a sudden, they have to make it up.  This is China!

Day 21 - David's "First Day" and Lunch with Sherry

Day 21

David headed off to class and came home 15 minutes later.  Seems there was a change in the schedule for classes and he has to teach Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Still has 16 hours, but the days were changed without telling him, except on a schedule that was written in Chinese… welcome to China!  We had planned to go to dinner this evening with Sherry, the girl who helped me with my class last Wednesday when we came too early, and she said it would be better for her if we could go to lunch instead. 

We met Sherry at the campus South gate and took a taxi to a huge mall they have here.  I should have taken pictures of it, but it was spacious!  Seven floors and two parking levels in the basement!  There was a Cantonese style restaurant here that she wanted to treat us at.  We ordered a large lunch and enjoyed the food.  Some of the new foods that we ate at this lunch included: jelly fish, lotus root and lotus bulb and black fungus.  Liked most of them; might eat them again.  We also had a great time talking with her. 

This was the remains of our meal.  Yummy food!

She wants to practice her English because she is hoping to go to the US for her Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Management.  She has to pass a test that says her English is good enough to qualify for this, so the more she practices, the better she will be.  She hung on every word that we said and if there was a new word, she wanted to know the meaning and usage.  Such a lovely, bright young woman!  After the lunch, we had to walk a few blocks to catch the bus back to the campus and we walked by one of the many springs that Ji’nan is known for.  It was beautiful and such a respite from the extreme heat and humidity of this day.  Sherry came back to our apartment with us and we showed her pictures of our family, home and our visits to many of the places that we have visited in the US. 

The springs that we walked by.

Beautiful!

Lots of people were there trying to cool off a little.

Because it was so hot, I had to rest and cool down for a little bit.  This is the first time we have turned on the AC in our apartment.  It is not very effective because it only cools the small living room, but it did help to give me back a little energy that the heat had zapped out of me.  We needed to get a new ink cartridge for the printer, so we braved the heat, which had started to cool, and went in search of one.  We were successful and once again, a picture was worth a thousand words.  We have started printing off pictures of things we want and show them to the people and they point us to the right stores where we can find what we need.

The stores here are interesting.  Any place there is a spot that they can set up a little shop, they do it.  You will find things crammed in every little place.  In the space of one block, you could have two China mobile stores, a couple of banks, several street vendors; five or six clothing shops (at least!), some restaurants and several other stores that will sell electronics.  Talk about Capitalism!!!

A Fig Lesson

Day 20

David had his first day of teaching here at Shandong University today.  He started at 8 a.m. and except for three short 10 minute breaks, he was teaching the whole time until Noon.  He felt it went well.   The classes are 2 hours long, so the first class went from 8 to 10 and the second was from 10 to 12 noon.   I came at the start of each class while he was doing his introduction of himself, and then I went out to do some errands.  He took his guitar and found a few minutes at the end of each class to sing a song.  He wanted them to sing with him, but the students were rather shy about singing along.  Not sure how many of them really knew the words or the tune to John Denver’s, “Country Roads.” 

We ate lunch at the canteen with David's co-teacher, Danny, and had a hard time finding a place to sit.  A student spoke enough English to say that we could sit at his table with him.  He actually had pretty good skills in speaking English as we talked to him more.  He is from Kazakhstan and is studying to go into public relations.  We had an interesting visit with him.  

I needed to get some fruits and vegetables today, so I went to a couple of the street vendors and bought some stuff.  I passed by one vendor that had these small green bulb-like plants that he was selling.  I did not know what they were and since I don’t know Chinese for, “What is it?” and he didn’t know the English for, “It is a _______,” I wasn’t sure what to do, but I came here to try new things and not be afraid.  I figured if the Chinese were eating it, there might be some value to it.  (Although, they do eat the bean of the ginko tree and I’m told it’s rather bitter, so I won’t be trying that.)  

I bought 6 of them.  The vendor put 10 in a bag and because of my apprehension; I put 4 of them back.  Some were softer than others.  I brought them home and just before dinner, I decided to peal one and cut it open.  I chose one that was a little firmer than the others.  This is what it looked like:

I was not sure whether it was edible or not, but my all-knowing husband looked at it and said, “I think it is a fig!”  Okay, so that I don’t look too dumb here, I have never, ever, ever in my life seen a fig outside of a newton!  So who is the first one to try it?  Not David!  Yes, I tasted it.  I wasn’t too impressed at first, so I came to the trusty computer and Googled, “figs.”  It said that the mushier ones were the riper ones and unless they were oozing stuff or were moldy, they would be the better tasting ones.  So, I got the mushiest one I had, made sure it was not moldy or oozing stuff, cut it open, and tried it.  Yes, I liked the flavor of that one better.  So that was my lesson on figs for the day. 

We went for a walk after dinner and stopped at a vendor that was on campus.  They have pomegranates here that are not the nice red color that we see back in the States, but more of an orange-yellow color.  I wasn’t sure how to pick a ripe one of these either, but I did my best, trying to remember what I had read a long time ago, and we will open that one up tomorrow.  

Sunday Day 19

Day 19

We took a new route to the Hanlin Hotel for Church, which was District Conference this week.  It took a little less time than the route we had taken last week.  Conference was good.  Ended a half hour earlier than expected, but that was okay.  Had fun getting the potluck dinner ready and then a good time visiting with everyone. 

On the way home, we decided to take an even different route than the others.  It involved a little more walking than the other route, but we were home within 45 minutes from the time we left the Hotel, so that was good. 

We were so tired last night when we got home, that I didn’t want to wait for the videos that I had taken to upload, so I am adding them to today’s blog.  There were toys up by the Golden  Buddha that kids could ride.  The monkey was run on a battery.  The horse one was the girl using her feet to push it.  That’s the toy that I want!!

Day 18 - A Saturday of Adventure

Reclining Buddha.  Not sure why they were all draped today.

Another big Buddha.

We loved this sign!  Some of the translations they come up with are hilarious.

The climb to the Golden Buddha.

He is huge!  I believe he is the largest Buddha in China, but that may be just what Ji'nan wants to say...

Day 18 - A Saturday of Adventure

We had planned to get an early start today, but we had to wait around for our water to be delivered.  After the delivery, we hopped on the bus to meet with the Clark’s and see their apartment.  It has some nice stuff in it because it has had BYU teachers in it for so many years.  On the bus ride over, we were not sure what stop to get off at exactly.  David had to stand most of the way and couldn’t see out the window very well to watch for the stop that had been described to us.  A Chinese woman who teaches 10-12 year olds in school started talking to us and when we tried to tell her which stop we wanted, she said she couldn’t help us much because she was unfamiliar with this area of town.  She was so kind that she went to the bus driver and asked him which stop we would need and then she watched out for the stop and made sure that we got where we needed to go.

This is an electric toy that children can ride.  Cute to see.

Today’s adventure was to go to Thousand Buddha Mountain.  I guess there are a thousand Buddha on the mountain, and I know we didn’t see all of them, but we did see a lot.  I’ve got lots of pictures to add to day.  There are stairs that you can climb, and climb, and climb, and climb, and climb… well, you get the idea.  There are several that are super big and we walked all over to go see the biggest ones.  Then we found that we could ride a gondola (ski lift) to the top, and since our feet were all pretty tired by this point (and it was a pretty hot day here in Ji’nan), we did that.  It was a fun ride and people coming down were all waving to us and saying either “Hello” or “Hi.”  They know that English word and even if they don’t know any others, they will say it.  It was fun.

At the top is quite a view over the city of Ji’nan.  Ji’nan is like Utah Valley, where it is surrounded by mountains and so the pollution just gets trapped in the valley and it takes a pretty good wind to clear it out.  You couldn’t see as far as it was to our campus or DaMing Lake.  We walked around and saw the buildings up there.  Some more brave people came up to us and were very welcoming.  We rode the gondola back down and went back to the Clark’s apartment and they invited us to stay for dinner. 

Tonight was District Conference, so we rode with the Clark’s to the Hanlin Hotel where we meet and enjoyed the conference.  We had planned to stay a while and play games and eat goodies, but we only ended up eating the goodies and talking.  We have all had so many adventures in the first few weeks of being here that we just have so much to talk about.  We needed to get back to our apartment, so we left a little before 9 p.m.  We got a taxi to take us back because the busses stop running at 9.  The hotel helped us get a taxi and then they told the taxi driver the wrong address to go to (There are 6 Shandong University Campuses), and when he pulled up to the wrong university and we showed him the address card that we keep to let them know our address to take us home, I’m sure he let out a string of profanity (that I am more than glad that I couldn’t understand) and took us to the right campus.  We wanted to be generous with what we paid him because he had already turned off the meter, and to I handed him 30 yaun, but he handed back 5 of it.  It has been a long day full of adventure again. 

We have seen all sorts of odd flavors of potato chips here.  I decided to try the cucumber flavored ones today.  Interesting, but not sure I would buy them again.

The first Buddha we met.

Second, Buddha

Third Buddha.

Fourth Buddha.

We liked this one because of the deer by his side.

Sixth Buddha.

Seventh Buddha.

We still had all this way to go and we had only encountered about nine Buddha at this point.

This one fascinated us because of his long, long eyebrows.  Don't know if anyone has ever really grown them that long, but that's what it showed.

View of Ji'nan from the top.

More of Ji'nan.

And again.

Interesting to see this tree growing out of the side of the wall.

Buildings at the top of Thousand Buddha Mountain.

Day 17 Orientation Meeting and Pizza Hut

Day 17

Started the day hoping to talk to Alisa.  She had her final dress fitting this afternoon (morning here) and I had hoped to be there via Facetime, but that didn’t happen.  She sent me some pictures and it looks gorgeous. 

Worked on some lessons this morning.  Sister Elise Britton, Branch Relief Society President called and she talked about some of my duties now as the Group Relief Society Leader.  It still scares me a little, having to set up Visiting Teaching and be the “care-taker” of this group of women here.  David and I had an orientation with the other new Shandong Central Campus teachers.  Wayne and Libby Clark were also invited since they are the only new teachers at their campus. 

After the meeting, We and the Clark’s walked over to the Pace’s apartment.  We talked for a long time and then decided to go out to Pizza Hut and experience it Chinese Style!  It is more like an upscale restaurant here.  It was still pizza, but you could order all sorts of salads, soups, drinks, desserts and even some rice dishes.  It all tasted good, but it was rather expensive compared to other Chinese food.  Then David and I went to RT Mart to grab some groceries and saw Stan and Nancy there in the checkout line.  Caught the bus for home and went to bed.  Exciting, huh?

Day 16 - Finding the Copy Center

Day 16

David had a meeting with his supervisor and co-teachers at 9 a.m.  I worked here at the house doing laundry and dishes and working on my next lesson.  My students are all headed on a medical path and will finish in 5 years from now.  The first lesson is all on getting a job and learning to interview and I don’t think it is really relevant to their situation, so I have to adjust the class for their needs, I believe.

We went to lunch at the Canteen and then went to find the copy center that was supposed to be in the teaching building closest to our apartment.  We found it.  It was inside a little shop that a man and his wife run where they sell all sorts of little things for the student – soda pop, water, notebooks, pens, treats and……. Copies!!  The woman had a cute little baby that was about 3-4 months old.  I walked over to the baby and got him to smile at me.   Once again, the parents seem really happy when you notice their children and especially that I got the baby to smile at me. 

After we took the copies back to our apartment, we went to the streets to find a new wallet for David.  We had seen some vendors on the streets earlier, but I think they only come out on the weekends, so we had to settle for getting some bananas from a street vendor and then some bread and yogurt at the Uni-Mart.  We can’t find milk here that we are okay drinking (they like to add stuff, grains, vegetables and who knows what else to their “milk”), so we have become satisfied with a drinkable yogurt that has a good flavor.  A woman in the store was trying to “help” us decide with yogurt to get and pointed to the Olympic rings symbol on the one container.  I’m sure she was very proud that this brand of yogurt was a sponsor of the Olympics.  She spoke no English, but we communicated anyway, smiles and pointing are very important!

I made BBQ spare ribs in my new crockpot for supper.  Very yummy!  I had been looking for brown sugar and finally found it, but it really is just white sugar with molasses added to it.  So it was easy to add it to some ketchup and make a quick and easy BBQ sauce for the ribs.

 

They have these large rocks all over campus.  Some have words written on them and some are just rocks.  We haven't found anyone on campus yet that can tell us the significance of the rocks, but I'm sure there is one....  Hmmmm.... we are in China.....

This is a park that we walk through on the way to the canteen.  It has a pretty walkway.

We don't know who they guys are that are depicted in the statues, but they are in the park, too. Wasn't sure how close I wanted to get to him, at least he is dead...

Still don't know who David is standing by.