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!

March 25 - Readers Theater, Engineer, Blood Test, Zoo, and a Cane

I can't help but think of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Ann of Green Gables when she calls the snowy, white blossoms above her and Matthew as she is first arriving at Green Gables, "The White Way of Delight."

The fragrance as we walk through here is so wonderful!

We finished the readers theaters in our class, but for the most part, we were rather disappointed in the performances.  They read them okay for the most part, but as far as putting any pizzazz into them, there was very little to commend them.  I know I only gave out one perfect score and David only had a few. 

I will tell you of a few funny parts.  One group was performing a play where the characters had to try and chop down a magic tree (Boots and His Brothers, if you are familiar with it).  The students had added some sounds to the play, but the sound of the tree being chopped down was the sound of a chain saw!  Maybe you had to be there to think it was funny, but it was.

Another part was in the play, The Golden Fish.  When the fisherman cast his net and caught the fish, the fish yelled out, “Help! Help!” Totally ad-libbed!  I give higher scores when they ad-lib.  It makes me think that they understand English better.

One group had found a video of Rumpelstiltskin online, so they copied it, and then they fit the script to the video.  Actually, the video was rather distracting to the readers theater part, but I listened to how they performed and gave them a score accordingly.  

Monday afternoon, David had to take some forms over to the Foreign Languages Department to let them know if we were coming back again or not.  It was rather sad to sign that we won’t be back next year, but it is for the better for us that we do.  It has  been a great experience at the university and in Jinan.  

Tuesday we went for our massages, and they did the cupping on my legs.  It is still painful, but not as bad as the first few times.  The cupping isn’t that painful, but the massage that they perform before to work out some nodules that have formed in my lower legs is painful.  I feel like it helps and makes it so I can walk longer without pain.

Our maid couldn’t come on Monday, so he came on Wednesday afternoon.  We had lunch with Eva at a good pizza place that we have found close to our campus.  They have been renovating some buildings across the street from the West Gate of campus, and one of the new places going in is a Burger King!  We are a little excited about that, because they seem to have more of an American style menu than the other fast food chains in China.  The others try to cater to Chinese tastes, so you don’t find some of the same menu items that you have in the US here.  At KFC, I have very few choices, because most of their menu items are too spicy for me.  The other Burger King that we have eaten at in Jinan is at a mall that is too far away to go there when we want something quick.

Thursday afternoon we didn’t have massages, so we went grocery shopping.  In the fruits and vegetable department, they had workers stationed with every different kind of fruit.  I hadn’t planned on buying fruit that day, but I think the workers all decided to see if they could get the American to buy from them.  The first young man had some watermelon samples cut up and offered them to me.  All the time he was talking in Chinese and probably telling me how sweet and delicious they were.  Well, they were!  I didn’t want a whole or even a half watermelon (when you have to pack everything in a hand cart, you pick and choose what you buy carefully), so I bought a small package that had been cut up already.

I headed over to the meat section, where I was getting some sandwich meat, and on my way to the checkout stands, I had to pass by all the other people that were trying to sell fruit.  The cute girl with the very sweet orange sample couldn’t be passed up either, so I bought four small oranges.  Next was the young man selling pineapples.  He had a small piece already for me and offered it as I went by.  Well, it was really good pineapple also, so I bought a small package of sliced pineapple.  Thank goodness I was at the end of the fruit section by then!

On Friday, David had to leave early for his blood tests to see how the new drug is working for his cancer.  He had to go fasting, so we delayed breakfast until he got back about 9 a.m.  He had promised to show the Wilkins’ how to get to the zoo, so they spent most of the morning at the zoo.  They even rode the giant ferris wheel! 

 

David said the that rhino was acting like he didn't want to be looked at.

Flamingos.

Camels and musk ox roaming together.  

The tiger at the zoo.

David met this man at the zoo.  He was there with his family and one of the women was in a wheel chair.  They met at three different times while they were at the zoo.  When David got on the bus to go home, he decided to get a picture of the two of them.

A view of the city of Jinan from the Ferris Wheel at the zoo.

A view from the Ferris Wheel.

While they were going to the zoo, I went to the hospital to have lunch with Dr. Tricia.  She didn’t have a very busy schedule this week, so she was free to have lunch.  We talked about a lot of things, and she was able to prescribe some Celebrex for my knee pain.  It is helping more than any of the other pain pills at this point.  She always sends me home in a taxi, which is nice.  It is more like an Uber taxi, so the cars are nicer than the regular taxis, which tend to be rather dirty.  

David went to teach the Engineers class on Friday and Saturday evenings.  When he arrived at the class, one of the leaders came to him and said that the students wanted to do an “English Corner,” where you just sit and talk.  The students asked a lot of questions.  David showed pictures from his phone about our family and life in the US.  It went over really well, and it is less stress on him, because he has less to prepare that way.  They did the same thing on Saturday evening also.

 

Talking with the engineers at the English Corner.

David with the class of engineers.

Eva bought me a cane to help me when I walk.  Boy, do I feel like an old lady when I use it.  On the way to Church today, though, the cane broke (the saying, “Made in China,” applies here).  It was a cane that had a little wider base, and it would move a little back and forth as you were walking, but the base was made of plastic, and the stick was made of aluminum, and the two weren’t compatible.  There was the option of just putting a regular “foot” on the cane, so I did that.  It’s still usable. 

This was David's view from the top of the Ferris Wheel.

March 17 - English Salon, Pi Day, DaMing Lake, Botanical Gardens

The first week of readers theaters is over.  I’m not sure why, but it seemed that our 8:00 classes hardly did more than just read the words.  Very little acting or props, just read the words.  The 10:00 classes were all much better, and we had a lot of fun watching them.  Maybe 8:00 was just a little too early for them. 

 

This girl made a beautiful poster to show the queen's palace in the readers theater play, "The Golden Fish."

During the readers theater of "Lenka's Little House" the students put up this slide in place of the father embracing his daughter.  So funny! 

The guy in the pink cape was the fairy in "The Three Wishes."  Their costumes are so creative.

In the play, "Boots and His Brothers,"  they have to try and chop down a magic tree that only gets thicker as the ax cuts into it.  I loved how funny this one was!

And here is the demise of the magic tree cut down with the magic ax.

After our massages on Tuesday, we decided to go over to the Wilkin’s and see how Jay was doing.  He had surgery on his nose last Friday and was able to get out of the hospital on Tuesday.  He seems to be doing well and planned to go back to teaching on Wednesday.  We got some groceries at InZone after we left their place.

Dr. Yang is David’s Chinese oncologist, and he asked us to come be a part of the English Salon that he has set up at Qilu Hospital.  Salon is an old term that used to mean a room in a home for a gathering of people, usually to discuss topics that they shared an interest in.  The topic at this salon is English. 

 

This is me with my former student, Joy.

Pictures after the English Salon.  I don't know who the woman on the far left is, but next to her is Ling Ling and Dr. Yang on the far right.

Dr. Yang’s head nurse, Ms.Ling Ling, and his main assistant, Dr. Liu, came in her car to pick us up.  We arrived plenty early, so they took us to the private dining area for doctors and nurses at the hospital.  It was interesting getting to this area, because the cafeteria is in the deep basement of the hospital.  There were big heavy doors that looked as if this area was once used for a bomb shelter.  As the hospital has been built onto, you can only get to certain places by certain elevators. 

They gave us some fruit and a chocolate dessert while we waited for the time for the salon to start.  I think there were about 30 people that had come to listen to us.  We told them about our home, talked about idioms, sang for them, and answered questions.  It turned out one of the girls that was there had been in my class five years ago as a sophomore!  Joy was her English name, and she had come to see me!  It was so sweet!  We  had a great time.  They had bought some pizza to eat after the salon was over, but we ended up taking most of it home, because we couldn’t eat that late at night if we wanted to sleep.

Thursday was Pi Day.  We had seen a sign at McDonald’s that was advertising Pi day.  I couldn’t read the Chinese, but I know when I see “3.14” with the yuan sign and then a number after that, I knew they were having a special for this day!  We decided that we would go there for supper after our massages on Thursday. We rarely go to McDonald’s, but we wanted to celebrate Pi Day!  The pies were Taro.  We tried to order the pineapple ones, but the language barrier was a little too high to get that through.

 

As we were coming home Thursday, I had noticed these three men trying to fit on this little electric bike.  They made it!  We had to wait for another bus, so I had my camera ready to catch a picture of them laughing away as they went down the sidewalk. 

The Wilkin’s and David wanted to go to DaMing Lake on Friday, so we all went together.  They don’t have classes on Friday and neither do we.  My knee has been feeling pretty good with the treatments I have been getting at the massage place, so I decided I wanted to go along with them.  We were looking for the first flowers of Spring.  I rested whenever I felt that I needed to, but as we were going back to our apartment for lunch, my knee was giving me a lot of pain.  I guess I overdid it.  I didn’t go anywhere the rest of the day.

 

We decided to go for a boat ride at DaMing Lake and so we bought our tickets and as we were getting on, this little girl came up to us and said, "Hello."  Most little kids won't do that.  Then, the whole family got on the boat with us  This little girl just loved David!

David wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens on Saturday, and so did the Wilkin’s, so they all went, and I stayed home and looked at the pictures David sent to me.  There weren’t as many blossoms as they had hoped to find there, but they had a nice time.

 

Botanical Garden.

Boats in the pond at the botanical garden.

Top of a hill near the botanical garden.

Botanical garden again.

Ferris wheel at the botanical garden.

This is the entrance to the botanical garden.

There weren't a lot of blossoms, but this magnolia tree was ready for Spring!

The engineers group that David was teaching last semester, asked him to help them for a few hours, so he went there Thursday to their opening ceremony for a short presentation.  They hadn’t been able to find another native English speaker to hire, so they asked David if he could do a little more for them.  He agreed to Saturday evening and then a couple of evenings next week.

 

The engineers group.  Notice the only one with the hat.  All the rest have hair...

David speaking at the opening ceremony of the engineers training.

Sunday we went to church as usual.  The Kelly’s from Weifang were here visiting with us.  They have a cute little one and a half year old girl that made church more interesting with her cuteness.  

After lunch, we went to the hospital to visit with Dr. Tricia for a little while.  She is helping to do some evaluations on foreign medical students and wanted to make certain that her English on the paper was clear for the students.  It’s nice that they give them an evaluation in English, even though that may not be their first language either.  Chinese is still harder for them.  Dr. Tricia always gets a taxi for us to go home.  Sure makes the day easier.

March 10- Quiet Week... Until Friday

The campus at SDU is starting to come alive with blossoms!  These are some of the most fragrant flowers.  I feel like Fernando the bull as I walk by and just smell the flowers.

 Our week has been busy with teaching and some of our usual activities.  This week we assigned the reader’s theaters for the coming two weeks in class. We think it’s so fun to watch the students become creative with how they present each play.  They don’t have money for props, which are not required for the plays, but it does make them more interesting.  I hope to have some fun pictures for next week because of the readers theaters this week.  

As David got off the bus before his class on Wednesday, he took a picture of the scooters that were coming down the scooter path on Jingshilu (Tenth Ring Road).  Some roads, like busy Jingshilu, had a path for walkers, scooters and then the road is left for the cars.  Most of the time, the pathway for the walkers is just walkers, unless a scooter decides to drive there also!

Sometimes it is really hard to get across the scooter path to get to the city buses because of all the scooters going by.

We had a rather frustrating start of the week.  The government decided to mess with our VPN’s, so we couldn’t check Facebook or our gmail accounts.  There were some big wig meetings happening, and so they always mess with the VPN’s when they do that.  It makes it hard to want to stay in China when they do that.  I just don’t understand why.

We went to our massages on Tuesday and Thursday.  I had the cupping on my legs on both days, and David decided to try it on Thursday.  He has had some pain in his right knee and when the orthopedic surgeon checked it out, he said it was just the joint getting older and told him to take some glucosamine sulfate pills.  He wanted to see if the cupping would make a difference in his knee.  The cupping was really painful for him.  Mine is still painful, but not like it was the first few times. Now he is trying to decide if he wants to have them do it again or not.

On the way home from our massage Thursday, we were very late getting finished, and we had to stop at the Hanlin Hotel to give a member who was going to have surgery the next day a blessing.  We had to make a quick stop at the nearest KFC to grab something to eat before we went.  

We started tutoring Michael and Stone again on Friday afternoon.  We had a good lesson and then played a game of "Go Fish."  I don't know if "Go Fish" or "Old Maid" is their favorite, but they worked hard, so we had a few minutes to play a game before they went home.

Later Friday evening, Helena came by for a visit.  She had a former student of mine with her.  His name is Allen, and he was a student last fall semester.  I had helped Helena with some suggestions for studying English so she could pass the IELTS exam.  We all had a nice visit and I forgot to get pictures with them.  

Saturday, David and I went to the children’s library again. David brought his guitar, and we sang some songs with the children after the director read some stories to the kids.  The children that had been there last week were very excited to see us again.  The director told us that word had spread that some Americans were coming to the library, and so some children were coming from a long distance to see us.  It was fun interacting with the children.  We did “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,”  “If You’re Happy and You Know it,” and “If You Chance to Meet a Frown.” 

This is the director of the children's library reading to the students.

 

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.  They know the song already, just not the English words.

The director's son came up and let me hold him for a minute.

If You're Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands.

Eva had to be at the Hongjialou campus in the morning.  When she was finished, she met up with Yi Bing and her husband (Bob’s parents that we helped tutor last year) and had dinner at a dumplings restaurant for a late lunch.  Eva was constantly interpreting between what Bob’s parents were saying and what we were saying.  Bob messaged us this week to say that he had been admitted to a prestigious program at UCLA for the summer, and then he would be going back to Duke in the fall to finish his experiments with his professor there.  It is quite an honor for Bob and Shandong University, because he is the only student to date that has been admitted to both Duke and UCLA.  He’s one very smart young man!

Saturday lunch with Eva, Yi Bing, her husband, Zina and David.

This pot of water is right at your table in the restaurant that we went to with Eva, Yi Bing and the husband.  It sits down in a "well" that has a convection hot plate in the bottom.  You turn on the hot plate and when it starts to boil, you add the dumplings and let them cook.  

Lotus root.  

This is a type of white fungus.  I will miss eating these types of fungus when we leave China.

 

As we waited for Eva to get her car to take us home after the dinner, I noticed that there were wedding pictures being taken at the Catholic Cathedral across the street.  

The cathedral.  Magnificent architecture!

Late Saturday evening, we got a message that Kathy Guo and her son, Hanson, were in Jinan and would come to church.  We were excited about it!  Kathy and Hanson were here five years ago when we were here.  It was great to renew our friendship and see how much Hanson has grown.  He was only nine years old when we last saw him.  He likes living in Canada.

Here is our group from Sunday.  David, Zina, Hanson, Kathy Guo, Sue Stubbs, Nancy Rounds, Bonita and Daniel Quillin.