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.