WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES TO TOWN

Christmas started early for us. As our classes were ending and our final exams would be during Christmas week, we had to start early. We both organized pollyannas in our classes. The students loved the idea, and the cleverness and thoughtfulness of their gifts, which were to be no more then 7RMB (1 dollar), was amazing. The exchange of the gifts was a fun day for everyone. We told them that they had to be American for the day. When you give a gift to a Chinese person, she/he sets it aside and opens it later. One student explained to me (Renee) that if I give someone a gift, that person knows it is wonderful because I gave it. Besides, the friendship is more important than the gift. I explained to my classes that half the fun of gift giving in America is watching the person enjoy opening the gift. So we opened the gifts one by one to many ooohs and aaahs. In my (Rich) classes the students sang Christmas songs, and we joined with Renee's classes to sing some carols together. We even tackled "The Twelve Days of Christmas," which turns out to be a great oral English exercise. Some of Renee's classes planned a Christmas party, which included games that often were creative and challenging. Maybe Renee will become a game player.

One of the party highlights for me (Renee) was a nativity pageant. I guess the students remembered that I said in America we always had a nativity pageant in our church to remind us of the story. Well, this one included a pregnant Mary, sound effect of knocking at the door of the in and a baby's cries, and an adorable angel of the Lord. It was wonderful. Another prelude to Christmas was two of my (Rich) students -two Chongqing men (men from Chongqing men are famous for being good cooks) - came to cook us a meal. They and we enjoyed the evening. On the Tuesday before Christmas the department also gave us a dinner to make the season bright.
Christmas eve was a special time. We had been asked by the Evangelical church in town if we would sing. Of course, we would. We try not to turn down any offers or requests. We prepared to sing in English and Chinese "What Child Is This." The show at the church is a party where this evening 17 groups danced or sang for the congregation. (For some reason it reminded me of Amahl and the Night Visitors when the shepherds entertained the Three Kings.) We were number 15 on the program. We were only there by grace because we missed the rehersal since all the announcements were in Chinese. But we did it, enjoyed it, and were well received. After this we went to a Club. One of my former students had invited us to come. She sings there every night. We enjoyed a little Christmas music, colorful lights, and an appreciative Chinese audience.

Christmas day brought a morning of classes. After class two of my students took us to lunch. Then we went back to our apartment where students visited us the rest of the afternoon. Many of them brought apples which is the standard Christmas gift (Apple is Ping guo - ping means safety, peace) Some of them stayed and talked and we enjoyed the afternoon We ushered them out around 5:00 because the 5 American foreign teachers were going to go out to dinner together. Dinner wasn't so great but the company was, and most of us wore Santa hats to add to our image as crazy waiguoren. (foreigners) The proprietor asked us to sing a Christmas song, and we obliged with We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Between Christmas and New Year there were some major events. Saturday brought an English event on the public square. Renee and I sang "When Christmas Comes to Town." If you don't know it, look it up. It's from The Polar Express and the Chinese know it. But the highlight of the day was Renee's play, a version of "A Christmas Carol." That play was several months in the making. We (Renee) had auditions, singing and dancing, a cast of 40plus and headaches like you wouldn't believe. I was hoping to include non-English majors, which happened, but it also meant that scheduling rehearsals was a nightmare, since very few things are scheduled in China. It's all sort of "spontaneous." Amyway, after obstacles too numerous to mention, we finally had a chance to perform. The conditions were less than ideal, and the result was a little less than ideal, but the Chinese are fond of saying that the process is more important than the product. And Scrooge "peaked" at just the right time. That evening ended with salsa. cheese dip, and tortillas tasting better with a homemade Harvey's Bristol Creme -- all courtesy of Ron, a native of Arizona.

Sunday we spent seven hours outside in very cold weather. (No wonder I have a cold). Students from City College and the local Family Church took us to a village where they put on a Christmas show for the townsfolk. It was fun to see the back courtyard of a farmhouse transformed into a stage. Great to see the countryside and those who work in it. Wonderful to see the students give themselves so freely to the gathered crowd. In return for all of this we received a lunch. Simple, but tasty food. We were told they slughtered a pig for us.

Tuesday brought another dinner to celebrate the coming New Year. Thursday was my debut as a wedding official. One of the men at the gym where I study Tai Chi asked me if I would take part in his wedding. They gave me a script and for a week I practiced each day. The wedding must have had about 500 people, but I knew only a handful. I gave it my best Chinese which people say they could understand; Renee's tutor,who had written the script for me, said it exceeded her greatest expectations. I felt good about it too.

New Year's eve we went to a masked ball at the school. It was only the third dance of the entire school year because most activities have been canceled ostensibly because of the threat of flu. The dance was just like all the others, but because we had not had one for awhile we were glad to take part. After this 6 of the 8 foreign teachers - this time the Russians joined us - went to the Club to hear some music and to usher in the New Year. To our surprise it was almost empty. The band, though, and my friend the singer entertained us. About 10 minutes to midnight, they had the countdown. (We think they were trying to think of some polite way to get rid of us. After all, it is not their holiday and they wanted to go home and to bed.) and we celebrated. The westerners sang Auld Lang Syne and the Chinese appreciated. We took over the stage and sang some more songs. By the time we left, we had to wake the gatekeeper up so we could get back into the school. A memorable New Year.

There are more stories and events, and people but too many to tell. One of them will surely be told later. It was a very festive time for us, unlike last year, which was very quiet. Next year in America:)

This term Renee asnd I are both teaching seven classes/fourteen hours of classes a week. This is a normal load for Peace Corps teachers in China. Also, Renee and I both have all sophomore classes. She teaches at Hong He where we now live. I teach three classes here, but four classes in Xing Hu where we used to live. I take the bus three times a week. But as you remember Xing Hu is beautiful and we have friends there among teachers and students. Renee comes once a week to visit and we eat with some students.
Various things break up the time. Renee is working on producing a play of A Christmas Carol in English (a monumental task, by the way, in a land where no schedule ever remains the same for more than a few hours and we have yet to have everyone at a rehearsal and we don't know where and when we will perform. Oh, my! But I figure none of the effort is wasted. The students have had a lot of opportunity to hone their oral English skills.) and I continue to enjoy my tennis and ping pong and tai chi. Then we have a few regular activites - a trip to a big store in Chongqing once a month, English Corner, dinner with students, church, and lots of casual social interactions. One weekend we went to Chongqing to the Anti-Japanese War Museum (War of Resistance against Japan Museum) The curator wants to change the name. I have been working on their English signage.
Then last week we had four days and three nights in Jiangjin. Jiangjin was where we were last summer to teach the teachers. We were invited to come back and visit the teachers , see what they were doing, and share some more ideas. It takes some planning and effort to do this as we had several classes to make up and plans to be made in order to go with everyone's permission.
The visit did not go exactly as we had envisioned. We visited mostly primary schools. At each school one of the teachers gave a demonstration lesson to a relatively small class with multimedia equipment. They did great, but we did not see a typical Chinese teaching situation. Then Renee and I did a lesson. It was Thanksgiving time so we talked about giving thanks and did a song. Then we met with the teachers. At each school they had invited all of their English teachers and other local teachers to come to observe the lessons. In each school we had twenty or so teachers watching us and talking with us. We were surprised to like being celebrities. (Actually, I wasn't surprised. I have always liked being a celebrity:) At each of the schools we were greeted by swarms of kids, some even wanting autographs!
One afternoon we went into the countryside and up a mountain to see a tea plantation and take a wet walk. On the way back we stopped at a school. The students obviously were not used to seeing foreigners. Instead of running towards us, they stepped back from us. Our first attempts at greeting them failed. Finally, one of the Chinese with us took my hand and shook it. Then a few students were brave enough to timidly do the same. Another experience for us.
Another aspect of the trip was to visit with Mr.Li, his bride-to-be Shelly, and Summer. They were the people responsible for us this summer. We had become good friends and looked forward to spending time with them. We enjoyed our visit a great deal. Mr. Li and Shelly have now planned for their wedding to be January 10. We will be going back to Jiangjin to join in those festivities. We feel like matchmakers because we kept urging them all summer to plan the wedding for while we were here and when we would be able to come. They have done it.
Now to get through the holidays so far from home, the hardest part of being a volunteer in China. (Well, other than BEING in China, which never ceases to be an adventure.)

National Day and Beyond

At the beginning of October, we had an eight day holiday. It was a combination of National Day (October 1st) and the Mid-Autumn (or Moon) Festival, which is determined by a lunar calendar. This year it fell on October 3rd. It is advertised to be the day of the largest and fullest moon of the year. Families try to be together, but if they cannot, they look at the moon and think of one another. To take advantage of this unusually long holiday, we began to consider many possibilites. We wanted to do a little traveling, but our ideas seemed too expensive or too difficult. Finally, we were invited to join some of the other foreign teachers on a short tour in Hunan, a neighboring province. We decided to say "yes" because 1) they were going to a place we were interested in seeing 2) the price was affordable 3) we would have a chance to get to know the two Russian teachers who would be going -- along with Rich, me, and Selia from California -- Marina, a vocal teacher, and Oleg, and artist. The trip was arranged through Marina and some contacts she had with her government representatives in China. So after attending celebratory ceremonies at our school and watching the televised self-congratulating celebrations in Beijing of modern China's birth and phenomenal progress, we were off on an adventure over which we had no control Not our style.

The first challenge was at our school gate. We needed to get to a rather remote train station in Chongqing, about an our away by bus. We had a plan to do that, but we were accosted at the gate by several Chinese who seemed to be offering us a better plan for transportation. We should have known better, but we were drawn in for a time. Fortunately, some helpful students wandered by and clarified the offer for us, which was not a good one. So back to our original plan. We arrived at the train station about 9:30 p.m. and had some supper. Then we waited for our tickets to arrive from an unknown Russian representative. We got a little nervous when train departure was only about 20 minutes away, but in the nick of time, a lady arrived with the necessary documents. It was my first time to be on a sleeper train. We had been warned that traveling by train would be terrible, but this train was clean and fairly comfortable. The bunks are six to a compartment, a compartment being open to the aisle. I was lucky enough to be assigned to a bottom bunk; Rich had a top. Selia had the middle, which was a little claustrophobic she said. But I slept well. One strange thing was that the train stopped frequently, sometimes for an hour. Later we decided that it had to go through many tunnels and the tunnels only had one track, so the trains had to wait for the opposing traffic to pass through before they entered.
The next morning, after about a 12 hour ride, we arrived in Feng Huang, an old city that bore some resemblance to Venice. There we met our guide and our fellow travelers, all of whom were Chinese and most of whom spoke only Chinese. That was our first big challenge.

After lunch we spent the afternoon wandering the streets and shopping at the various outdoor stalls. We quickly learned that both Marina and Oleg were experienced shoppers and knew quality. Whenever we asked ourselves, "Where's Marina?" we always answered "Shopping."
THen the frustrations of touring began. We waited almost three hours for our bus to take us to the next destination, 5 hours away. When the bus came, it soon broke down. We pulled off the highway, and the bus driver fixed it with a screwdriver! He wasn't about to slow down after that, and the five hours were reduced. We arrived at our hotel at midnight, survived the mad dash for rooms (nothing assigned), and fell asleep. The next morning we would see Zhang Jia Jie, a famous mountain park.

The next morning I missed the start time by a few minutes because I had misunderstood the instructions, and I was embarrassed. I think our guide realized then that she had to be more careful to make sure we understood inmportant information. She made sure after that that we were watched over a bit.
Zhang Jia Jie was outstanding. It is most famous, I think, for its strange rock formations. Rich and I decided to try the cable car lift to the top and then walk down.
Considering that it was a national holiday week, the wait for the cable car could have been much worse than it was, 2 1/2 hours. People were friendly, though, and the time passed pleasantly. The ride was worth the price; we rode very near to the rock formations and felt like we were going to crash into one just before the we reached the top. The ride down, after some snacks, began simply enough, but after what seemed like a thousand hundred steps down and up and down, our leg muscles were screaming. And they screamed for several days. Squat toilets were excruciating. We even had to think twice before getting up from a chair. Ah, well. We're not as young as we thought we were.
The second day at Zhang Jia Jie we walked for 7 kilometers along a lovely stream. Picture the bike path along Ridley Creek but with fewer trees and mountain on either side. It was a great place for families; children could safely wade in the water and skip stones to their heart's content. By this time we had formed a friendly companionship with one of the families, a dad and a mom, a little boy, and a grandma. They showed us many things along the way, including sonme new taste treats at the periodic food stalls.
Satisfied, we had our final meal in Hunan and prepared to travel back to Chongqing. This time it was a two part train ride. The first train was extremely crowded, but we did have tickets and thus seats. We had been told that we would receive our tickets for the sleeper train when we exited at Huai Hua, another Hunan city, but when the time came, no tickets materialized. Long story short, our whole group was able to ride the train with no tickets, taking the beds of people who had just left the train. Our Chinese friends kept saying "Follow us, follow us," and what else could we do? Many people had to know what was happening -- the ticket takers, the conductors, the exit managers. I have never felt so Chinese as I did that night. Who knows the truth of what happened to our tickets or the money that was supposed to purchase them, but we did arrive home safely with a story to tell.

Now it's back to work. We are trying to get ourselves organized to do a little entertaining because we need to reciprocate for many kindnesses, but time moves so swiftly.
That's probably a very good thing:)

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Our daughter is trying out a new blog address, and we may do the same if this one does not behave any better. Of course, it is not the blog's fault nor ours either, just the censor's. Ah, well.Classes have started well. We were surprised that Rich would not be teaching his junior teaching major class again, but instead would have sophomore oral English classes, as do I. Last year, when we lived on the Xing Hu campus, he traveled on the school bus every day to teach his classes in Hong He. This year, of course, now that we live on the Hong He campus, he rides the school bus three times a week to teach some classes in Xing Hu. So much for logic. However, there are some benefits. Being forced to travel to beautiful Xing Hu is not so bad, especially on the school bus which bypasses the city and especially on the newly paved road. Also, we still have many good friends at the old campus, and Rich has many opportunities to seem them. I think I will try to go back one afternoon a week just to check in with some of my friends.

Wednesday afternoons are free at the moment, and last Wednesday we decided to go back to the zoo.

You may remember that we visited last year albeit without our camera. This time we were determined to make a pictorial record of our sight-seeing adventure.
You may also remember that the zoo, which is the largest in China, has two parts -- a walking part and a riding part. This time we started with the safari section. After being asked to "wait a moment," a standard phrase here, we were supplied with a driver and a translator, and a van. For about 45 minutes we meandered through several fenced areas populated by lions and tiger and bears and many other animals. The driver was terrific. He knew where all the animals liked to snooze, so when we could not see anything, he would bang on the side of the car and Presto! an animal would appear. The animals roam over large areas, most of them fenced. However, the bears can come right up to the van.

When one poked his/her head through my window, I thought that was a little too close for comfort. We wouldn't have minded a little closer look at the majestic mountain goats and gazelles. When we arrived at the giraffes, we got out of the van and we were close enough to feed them. Have you ever noticed how beautiful the giraffe's eyes are, almost as if they were wearing makeup?

After the conclusion of our trip with lots of photos to show for it, we proceeded to try to fulfill our second goal, to see some live animal shows. Last time we missed them all. As we approached an information counter, someone drove up to us in a tram. It turned out to be Song Bi, a young man we had met last winter on the 501 bus. He invited us to hop aboard and let him be our guide. The first stop was a performance of tigers and bears, a wolf and some chimpanzees. The tigers and the wolf jumped through hoops of fire. The chimpanzees had a tea party with Western style knives and forks. The bears danced, but we could not believe they were really bears because they had such a human shape, like someone dressed in a bear costume.

Maybe Chinese bears are a different body type that we are used to seeing.
We stayed around for awhile and watched the attendants play with a baby chimp, and then rode off to the next show, the seals. There were five of them in the act, but one was rather contrary. We could not decide whether it was trained to misbehave or perhaps was just being introduced to the act. They did some clever tricks, but the performance needed a climax. It just ended.
This time when Song Bi picked us up, he asked if we would like to see the zebras. We had been thinking that we should head toward home, but why not see the zebras first? Were we glad that we did! The zebras turned out to be a baby zebra, only one month old. He was being tended in a small enclosure under the shade of a tree by two young men. One of them the zebra clearly regarded as her/his mother. We were invited in to stroke the baby's coat. Sooo soft, like silk. While we were there, some young ladies happened by for a look. We decided that the baby zebra could be something of a babe magnet.

We then drove by the hippos and a few more beautiful tigers, and it was time to leave. What a lovely afternoon.
Students here like to comment that the weather in Chongqing is "changeable." No kidding! 90 degrees one day; 65 the next. Today is rather lovely but in the sun it is hot. One week it was nearly 100 degrees; no one moved if he didn't have to. We do miss spring and fall. And all of you as well.

GENERATIONS

China continues to block blogspot. I hope this censorship ends as the situation in XinJiang normalizes. It will make writing our blog much easier.

After our travels to Jiangjin, Chongqing, Nanjing, and Shanghai, we settled in Istanbul, Turkey for sixteen days. While visiting our daughter the main activity was playing with the grandchildren. Good work if you can get it. In the morning Renee and I worked with Rebecca and Joshua on producing lapbooks (google lapbooks; you will be surprised). Renee and Rebecca did one on various ideas about China. Joshua continues to focus on transportation so our book was on the history of transportation and the current modes of transportation in China. We worked each day with their ideas and gathered information before we made our final product. The second morning activity was walking along either the famous Istanbul pedestrian street, which is about 10 minutes from their apartment, or through the local neighborhood to visit friends or shops. We got to know the baker and the butcher pretty well. The walk ended with ice cream so everyone got home happy.

The afternoon included the big meal of the day. The family sat on the floor around a circular table and feasted. Grandmom and PopPop sat on the couch with a tray table. After clean up it was time for the park or craft show. The craft show was the fourth annual and for the kids the highlights were a glassblower and a pottery maker. There were looms and other things as well. It was interesting and the kids chose to go there several times. The usual destination,though, was a park. We sat under a tree and the kids played with balloons or ran around. Eventually, they would go to the playground where they climbed and swang and slid to their hearts content. The playground also had adult equipment and I got some good exercise as well.

While we were in Istanbul, we visited a long time Turkey missionary who would like to swap houses for a year. We talked about the possibility. A couple of times we went to the sea and walked or took the ferry across to Asia or around the Golden Horn. The setting is gorgeous and you could enjoy it for a long time. A couple of times we rode the Tunel, an underground which has long existed in Turkey. One day I took a Turkish bath - a few elderly men were enjoying it as well. It was great to see a real one rather than a tourist trap. In the neighborhood there was the barbershop and the local men to sit and drink tea with and there was a monkey which Samuel liked to watch (and with help feed and pet). We also worshiped twice in a church under the sponsorship of the Dutch queen. It is next door to the Dutch embassy. In English. How sweet it was!

We flew back to Shanghai from Istanbul after 16 wonderful days and went almost immediately to Wuxi. Wuxi is a city north of Shanghai. We had been there in 2006 and met a family where four generations lived together. I had hoped and we have tried to get back so I could interview them. They agreed and graciously enabled us to come, stay, and be cared for like royalty for five days. It would have been a great China experience even without the interviews. The family is super and were so helpful and cooperative, thinking most often of our comfort and needs rather than their own.
I was able to interview the men of the family in each of the generations. I was able to get a story of one family's progress in China. Through them I heard about the War with Japan, the Liberation of China, and the Cultural Revolution as well as the great economic change that grew out of Deng Xiao Ping's economic reforms.

We returned home to a new apartment on a new campus and have been entertaining our friends since we arrived. One event of personal significance was my (Renee's) birthday. We celebrated for several days. On the big day itself Rich and I rented bicycles in the morning and tooled around the campus. It was a bad day for campus riding because the students were arriving and the thoroughfares were clogged with cars and taxis, but we survived. We had lunch at the new canteen and had fried chicken, a rare treat. In the evening we invited the other foreign teachers to join us at one of our favorite eating spots, the one where we can order mashed potatoes -- no butter but almost a taste of home. Two days later we traveled to our old campus and ate birthday noodles with several of my former students. The birthday noodle is long, long, long, a symbol of longevity. Last but not least, two of my students brought me a lovely bouquet of lilies. I enjoyed every minute.
Now getting ready for the new school year is the challenge. Classes begin in just one more day.

IF IT'S TUESDAY IT MUST BE TURKEY

Since the summer holiday began, we have been on the move. We have been to Cha Shan, Chongqing, Jiangjin, Baisha, Nanjing, Suqian, Shanghai, and Istanbul with visits planned back to Shanghai and to Wuxi before we return to Yongchuan. We are attempting the blog from Istanbul because of the trouble working on the blog from China. We have taken this opportunity to edit the last blog entry, and our son will appreciate it if this works for us and the pressure will be off of him for awhile.

With school out and student gone we planned several outings, but most did not happen. We did go to Cha Shan (Tea Mountain). We had been there in winter and wanted to experience the cool of the bamboo forest in summer. We did the climb again with our friend Becky from the DVD store and with Xiao Wan the friend we made on our first climb of the mountain. It was a good day as you can see from the forest picture. It was also a

good day at the top for seeing, but not for pictures as you can see as well. We will see if there is a third trip up Cha Shan.

In Chongqing we stayed with other Peace Corps volunteers. We ate western food and lived it up. ON the Fourth of July we went with one group to center Chongqing for Subways and ice cream and then to another group for a roof top party. Through Renee Vetsch's waiban we got tickets for our trip to Turkey. We spent a morning at the Anti-Japanese War Site Museum . strange title but an interesting place dealing with Chiang Kai-shek. Matt Lord ha

s done some work for them and he wanted to hand that off to me. I picked up some translating and some editting to do for the museum located on the top of a lovely Chongqing mountain.

We spent two weeks with three other Peace Corps Volunteers doing our Summer Project in Jiangjin, which is located a little over an hour from Yongchuan. We worked there with leaders

from Baisha Normal School and 120 teachers from Jiangjin County (rural). It was a hot two weeks, but the friendships were warm so

it was "cool." We were treated like royalty at every level. We made many new friends and our QQ (instant message) list has swollen. We loved the teaching and the people. We tasted the specialties of the area and they were to our liking. In town we also made friends --two of Renee's students and one of mine and also the owner of the internet bar we used and his good friend, an army officer. Maybe we will be back to Jiangjin to visit again. While there, we spent a day in Baisha, the leaders' hometown, another hour drive over very rural roads. We saw the Yangtze River and their campus and a lovely garden in the center of a middle school which graduates those who become the local leaders.

After we returned to Yongchuan, we spent several days packing up our apartment to get ready for the move to the new campus, not a nother university, just an other campus of the same university. Then we began our travels, first to Nanjing, where our niece lives. Our trip to Nanjing started off badly with us almost missing our bus to the airport.

BUT it all worked out. We arrived in Nanjing safely and found our way to the university. We had a great two days with Laurel and Chad and their two kids. We loved the time, meeting their friends and playing with the kids. One morning we went to an exhibit about the Rape of Nanjing, which is still a vivid memory in China. We were both humbled and proud to be reminded of the faith

fulness of Christian missionaries who refused to be evacuated during the Japanese invasion and did their best to save as many Chinese lives as they could.

From Nanjing we took a bus ride to Suqian. It is a relatively new town and is prospering even in this economic environment because it is a focus for growth in its suburban Shanghai area. The visit there was spurred by Ellen, one of our Family Church Yongchuan friends. She wanted us to see what it was like in her hometown. Again, the family rallied to make our stay more than comfortable. Among the relatives was a non-uncle uncle

who had a car and became our chauffeur for the three day

visit. We taught English one morning in the church's summer school. We toured the sites of the town and experienced how differently each province treats religion. It was a good experience for us. We have more to tell if you ask. Again, we tasted the specialities of the local cuisine. One t

reat was dumplings which were made by the extended Ellen family on their farm. I enjoyed the meal, but even more seeing the old commune

- housing, fields, outbuilding, outhouses, roads, equipment - and getting a sense of how that life has changed and impacted individual people and families.

An incredible day got us to our plane on time and we were off to Turkey. Lee met us at the airport and after a Metro ride to the end o

f the line and a taxi ride, we were in their new and most interesting neighborhood. We have been in our glory most of the time being with the grandchildren. We play and work with them. Lee continues their homeschooling year round so we have been part of that. Both of us are working -- Renee with Rebecca and I with Joshua -- on lapbooks about China. That experienc

e has reminded me clearly of how differently children learn. Their home neighborhood is centrally located so we walk regularly on a popular pedestrian way, and have taken the Tunel and the ferry to the Asian side of the city

. In the afternoon we go to the park and all of us get some exercise. It is no easy feat raising four children in two and a half rooms and entertaining guests as well. My favorite part of Istanbul is the friendly people. I bought a pair of pants that needed to be hemmed. I walked the streets looking for a tailor. Eventually one guy directed me. Two little old ladies did the work - no money - we talked (I think that is fair to say even though we did not understand each other's language) about our families and where we are from. They love their hometown. Then I met the TV repairman who had directed me to them - he got a book and showed me on a map where the women were from and where he was from while we had tea. Of course, that brought the workmen from across the street and more hometowns and food and.... eventually that led to lunch in the workshop and many new friends before I headed home.

I do not even know if it is Tuesday. Renee says it is Wednesday. For the second evening in a row, we all walked to Taxim Square and enjoyed a craft fair. The children were fascinated by the glass blowers and the potter and the weavers. They seem to take long walks with ease and almost no complaining. That is quite a blessing.

SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME

Hope you enjoyed meeting our new friends in the last blogs? We have enjoyed every one of them and more. A few of our friends here want to make it into the blog as well. Two of them are the art students I have lunch with on Mondays and then tutor in English . Their big test was in late June - hope they did well. Renee and I have shared one class. The Freshmen class I had last term she has had this term. It has been good to have these students in common. Many have become friends, especially the boys.

At the beginning of May, Renee went to Nanjing to visit her sister

Melanie. Melanie was in Nanjing because her daughter Lau

rel had given birth to their second child, Victoria Grace. Renee was able to go and visit Chad, Laurel, Melanie, Victoria, and her big brother, William, who is himself just a toddler. What a

great opportunity. Renee got to spend time with Melanie and also hold the baby.

On May 28 was the Dragon Boat Festival. It is celebrated here in China by eating sweet sticky rice wrapped in some sort of greenleaf, not bamboo but like bamboo. We got to eat that, zong zi, several times that day with students and with two families. On our campus, because we

have a lake, they also held dragon boat races. There were 16 boats. The crowds gathered early.

The campus was closed to outsiders, who had to watch from one end of the lake. We could get pretty close to the action and people hooted and cheered. No one seemed to care who won.

Taking part is more important here in China.

We spent the day with friends, and we were able

to feel a part of the Festival. The Festival has

a bit of a strange history. It celebrates a wise civil servant who drowned himself out of sadness for the fate of his kingdom and his inability to help effectively. In the story, the dragon boat

s were sent out to search for his body and people threw zong zi into the lake to feed the fish so they wouldn't feed on him At least, that is one story.

This second semester my secondary project has been to start a men's group. I invited my English Teaching Major boys to meet with me. We met six times this term.

We met and talked about teaching and the role of men in China and America, played ping pong and badminton; watched Rocky and had a good discussion about Phialdelphia, underdogs, and film making, and, of course, we shared a meal together.

The picture is minus Dwayne and Steven, but you can see it was a good group. Renee, not to be outdone, began meeting with a group of girls for lunch on Fridays. The girls come from various backgrounds, but are mostly tied together by Renee's friend Serena. (Rich thinks he is my motivation. Ha!)

Renee and I have both lost weight, but we are not always

sure how that has happened. Many activities these last months have involved eating. 1) Two senior girls visited us and brought the makings for dinner. It was a great meal, and it was interesting to watch them work at prep

aring it for us. 2) Another dumpling adventure took place with our neighbors and friends, Sally and Ji. We spent a morning helping making the dumplings and then shared the feast. The grandmother was the boss

, but we all had our hands in the makings. 3) We have become friends with the local Catholic priest. Wang Fang has said he would visit us and he did. We shared a meal with him and the translator he brought with him f

or fear he would have to speak English. 4) Another group of meals dealt with our class monitors. We both invited them to a dinner. (Now "not to be outdone by Richard did motivate me to eat with my monitors:) We planned our menus, reserved a room, ordered the food, and led a meal. The monitors were suspcious that we could do this, but surprised by our ability to order a good meal and make the arrangeme nts. The night of our dinner, I/Renee was joined by one of our voluntee

r friends from another site. The students definitely enjoyed her beautiful young face.

One last event before the break for summer was a boat outing on our lake. Four of my boys

from HongHe invited us for the outing. On a hot day we boarded a raftlike covered boat and paddled our way around the lake. It was good to get another view of the beautiful campus and fun to share the ride and then dinner with the boys.

Excitement on the ride was provided by another student who was fishing along the lake. When he saw us he stripped down to his underwear and swam out to us. No swimming allowed, of course, but that only added to the excitement. A great time was had by all.

Graduation is a bittersweet time. The term ending, friends leaving. Graduation here means that each department will have a party for its graduates. We were invited to several of these parties P.E., art, music, dance, landscape design. Notice which one were were not invited to? The P.E. celebration provided a formal invitation and a place at the head table with the head teachers. They provided us with flowers as well as all of their teachers. At one of the art celebrations I got to sing "You have a Friend".

I (Renee) had a chance to tutor one of our teacher friends in English for a few weeks. His name is Duan Qiang; he is a vocal teacher and performer. I think I mainly succeeded in encouraging him to open his mo

uth and speak. I don't know that he learned much new info, but he did become more confident. Also, quite by accident, I discovered the efficacy of showing/assigning movies to my classes and

using them as a basis for discussion. When the students have something to talk about, they do much better, especially if they are in a small group. I wanted to help them understand something about the Civil Rights movement in America; I used

The Great Debaters and Remember the Titans, both of which star Denzel Washington. The third movie, on which I based our final exam, was The Miracle Worker, the story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. The Chinese students are very sensitive emotionally; that movie wiped them out. Movies are very accessible here online.