Traveling

Now that school is out, I'm going to be traveling for the next couple of weeks. I leave in half an hour today to go to Tai'an, Shandong Province with one of my students, Blanche. She is going to show me her hometown. We will also go to Qufu and Jinan since both cities are very close to Tai'an. Qufu is the birthplace of Confusious and Jinan is the capital city of Shandong Province. I will get back on July 10 and then head to Qingdao. I will then go to Korea for a week. Yeah!! I'm really excited! One of the friends I have made here is from Korea and I will be going home with her. It'll be like having my own personal guide for the country. I'll add more to my blog when I get back and hopefully before I come home. Until next time folks.

Yummy food!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the food in China? I do. Especially this food called "Wa Shao" or something to that effect. I love it! Below is a picture of the restaurant making them. They were nice enough to look this way...actually they were laughing from the first picture I took of them. haha.
Four of my students came over to teach me how to make dumplings. It was quite the process...especially when I didn't have a table or any counter space...we made do with the coffee table and a small cutting board. Ummm...in case you were wondering...I'm not really a chef and it will take me awhile to become a pro at making dumplings.

From left to right: Lemoni, me, Nancy, and Apple. Apple was the pro at rolling out the dough and Lemoni was the pro at shaping them.

Primary children & Baptism

Aren't they adorable? The primary children in our branch. They are from 3 different Korean families. They were practicing a Father's Day song before church began.

The Qingdao branch had it's first baptism on June 21, 2008. The branch is barely a year old and the members were really excited to have a baptism. It was a daughter of one of the Korean families. She turned eight years old earlier this year. We had a portable swimming pool set up in one of the members apartments. As you can see, there was quite the audience checking out the pool. We had to fill it (and empty it) using buckets of water. What a process.
The Yoon family.
Emptying the pool or "baptismal font". I think that was the funnest part of the whole day.

Random pics around Weifang

Here's some pictures around Weifang. Check out the ladder below. It's made from bamboo. It's pretty impressive!

Eating melon-on-a-stick. They like to sell things on a stick here. It cost me 1 yuan (thats about 15 cents in US money for those of you wondering). Yummy!!
A man pulling a cart full of garbage. Common sight around here. I'm starting to get used to seeing things like that here.
Three of my sophomore students: Blanche, May, & Vera. I am going to Tai'an with Blanche June 5-10. She is going to show me around her hometown and to meet her parents...and neighbors...and friends...and anybody else who gathers to see a foriegner (she's forewarned me). :) I'm really excited!!

People buying watermelon. This is how I buy my watermelon; actually most of my fruit and vegetables. Notice the scale in front of the girl with the purple umbrella. My last watermelon this size cost me about 3 yuan (less then 50 cents). I love buying food here in China...even if just for the experience of it all!

My birthday

Anybody want to guess what this meat is?.....Any guesses? I tried it on my birthday last month.

It's mule. Yep, I tried it. It's now been added to my list of firsts. Talking of firsts, just last night I had chrysalis or pupa. For those of you who don't know, its that stage between a caterpillar and a butterfly. It was rather interesting.
This is my chocolate cake I had for my birthday last month. It wasn't bad, but I miss the chocolate cake back home.


This is everyone at my birthday dinner. Back row, left to right: James, my boss; Rock, Buiness English teacher; Wendy, English basics teacher; Bob, the other American teacher; Ms. Yoon, Korean teacher; a Chinese-Korean teacher (I don't know her english name). Front row: Lee Ha Na, Korean teacher; me; Jennifer, an American friend teaching an hour away at a middle school; and a Chinese-Japanese teacher (I also don't know her english name). It must have been good 'cause I haven't lost any weight...in fact I think I have gained weight. haha. (sigh) It's a shame they don't make clothes big enough for me here. Unless I buy 2 of the same thing and sew them together. Then it works. haha.

119 or 911?

In case of an emergency dial....119? Yep...you read it right. I had to take this picture because I thought it was pretty funny. Whether in China or the United States, for an emergency just remember the numbers '1' and '9'.

More of Beijing

Temple of Heaven: Built in 1420 AD and used by the Ming and Qing dynasties as they prayed to Heaven for a good harvest. It was renovated and expanded in the 1700's and restored in the early 1900's.





Here are some pictures of the Olympic Venues: The Water Cube, Birds Nest, and Olympic Torch (sorry its sideways. I couldn't get it to rotate.). I couldn't get any closer because they are locked down for security right now...and the area is still under construction.

The Sacred Way. Huge stone statues. They have 4 of each animal, 2 on each side. The first set is standing and the next set is kneeling. It was really cool to see. I'm thinking of bringing one home for a pet.

This is one of the Ming Tombs. There are about 15 of them. Tombs built for the Emperors during the Ming Dynasty. I forgot which emperor this was. He was buried with an Emperess on each side of him and then 26 boxes full of gifts or items they would need in the next life. We walked down about 4 flights of stairs to get to the tombs. The coffins and boxes would be in one room and just outside the room would have a throne for the emperor and each emperess.

Beijing, China

Okay, I'm finally posting photos of my trip to Beijing on June 5-9, 2008.

The next pictures are the Great Wall of China! There is a saying in China that you are not a great man until you have walked on the great wall. I am a Great Man!! The day was really foggy (or polluted, we weren't quite sure which one it was) so my pictures did not turn out really well. But at least I got to see the Great Wall! I told the rest of my group all I wanted to do was walk on the Great Wall. I did!! I can now cross that Wonder of the World off my list of places to see! )hmmm....I wonder if I can make it to the Taj Mahal or the Great Barrier Reef before coming back home...)

My friend Gayle. I would often stay with her when I went to Qingdao.

The unrestored portion of the Great Wall.

When I showed this photo to my students, they all gasped! They thought I was crazy for sitting on the wall. "You could have fallen!" they all said. Haha. I love to get reactions from them. Sometimes I take random pictures to show them, just to see their reaction. haha. It's great!

Tiananmen Square - Everybody has to have a picture in front of Mao. The next few pictures are of the Forbidden City. It has a total of 9,999 rooms...many of which I did not go in....even though I walked around there all day long. That place is HUGE!!

Rain

When it rains it pours! At least yesterday it did. It seemed like a monsoon hit or something. Good thing I'm not living in the south of China where they actually do have them. Anyways, I was craving some non-Chinese food, so I decided to head to McDonalds (you know, I've never had a hamburger here in China). The rain had stopped but there were huge puddles everywhere...mud puddles included since most of China is under construction. I thought about walking ('cause I could use the exercise and I like to walk) but then remembered that there is an underpass you have to go thru and it floods when it rains...so I caught the bus. It looked like everyone else had the same idea. The bus was crowded. The bus drove to the underpass and stopped. The driver said something in Chinese, and everybody started getting off. Ummm....I wasn't sure what to do. I must have had a confused look on my face because a lady looked at me and smiled and then said something in Chinese (like that's going to help me. lol). What could I do? So I did what everybody else did...got off the bus and walked through the underpass to the other side.

Now don't go thinking that I waded through the water...I didn't. I walked on a path under the railroad tracks to the other side. haha. It was pretty funny. Did I mention that the underpass has been underconstruction since I got here? Well it has. So the path I walked on was about 8-10 feet high and you have to walk around and over construction materials. haha. It was so funny...and everybody was doing it. lol. So I followed the rest of the people to the other side of the underpass. On the way I decided I might as well just walk, but when I got to the other side, the bus, #26, was at the bus stop. So I got back on the bus (nobody was paying, so I didn't either) and recognized my fellow bus mates. Come to find out, the first bus driver dropped us off and we were to walk to the other side of the underpass and get on another bus, because the road was closed off. haha. I laughed the rest of the night about it. That's China for you. haha.

In case you were wondering, I did make it to McDonald's and I finally had a hamburger. A cucumber hamburger sandwich to be exact. And.....I had a rainbow!!! (If you've ever been to Pace's Dairy Ann in Bountiful, you'll know what I am talking about). McDonald's is now selling rainbows...well sort of. It is made with sprite, not the fruit flavored drink....but it was close enough! Boy was it good!! I can now say I've had a hamburger in China. :)