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.