We are becoming more brave...

Hi All, Burton again asked me to drop a note about being invited by my students for lunch yesterday. It was quite the lunch - many things we had never thought of trying - surprise - not any more - and some of them are even good - we had sea cucumber and abalone soup, raw trout and salmon with soya sauce and wasabi, cod, eel, shrimp, some little tiny fish - the whole thing - full of eggs, cows tongue, sharks fin soup, and some vegetables that are about as hard to recognize - spinach, bokchoy, pumpkin, onion, and many ???s. Burton did find Haagen Daz for dessert - and they gave you about 1 teaspoon full for who knows how much - it seems to have been at a price of 368 yuans each for the 5 of us. Oh, My. That is a lot for over here - about $65. each - we eat at our normal restaurant for about $2.50 together and bring home enough leftovers for 3 more dinners. Unique foods - we think they do this on purpose to us to see if we will taste it. Better get back to work - have to teach the children tonight - I'm never on top of that one.

I'm behind on my posts...

This is a message from Stacey.

I have not posted much in a while. I apologize. Here are a few pictures I have received.

The first four below are from the "Royalty Weekend" that the parents had a few weekends ago.



At least 17 courses....



Below are displays from the Flower Show location. Budda is one.

The show was over, and the flowers frozen, but it is a great site.






Below is Zhongshan Park that was built by the Germans in 1921.

It is a 15 minute walk from here.



The building Burton teaches in at on the Laoshan Campus. It is called building #4.



Burton at the front of a class at Laoshan.

Primary Presentation

Hi All, Burton asked me to tell a bit about the Primary Presentation yesterday. It was an amazing experience. It was mostly in Korean with the kids singing some songs in English - maybe 5 or so. All the talks were in Korean. Sister Yoon started off by saying a few words (which we could not understand but felt Very strongly) by her wonderful spirit. Then the kids took over and she went off with her baby - who at 1 1/2 is still tied to her back but he was very tired and she didn't want him at the front.

The kids took over and did the program with the music leader and a few notes on the side of the wall. They sang songs, gave talks - no notes anywhere for anyone - no music anywhere for anyone - we were all in tears - the spirit was so strong, even little Sam ( our local hyper child - he just turned 3) gave a talk by himself - and sang a solo. Nearly all got that chance as there are only 9 children. We talked about it and said we have never seen a better presentation with such an overwhelming spirit EVER. It was really a blessing to see. We loved it and said it made our day very worthwhile. These saints have very little but are so strong in spirit they know the Lord will bless them if they do his will. So worth all the trip to China to just see this.

Some Photos of our Weekend of Royal Treatment.

We have been having a few issues with our camera and computer - I think things are working now. Here are a few pictures of our weekend of royal treatment. Below is a picture of Patricia and I standing at the entrance to a small mountain hike we went on.




The Buddhist temple in the background was about half way up the hike.



More photos to come...

Royalty for the Weekend

E-mail written letting the kids know about the parents travel plans for the weekend.

November 6, 2009

Dear Family

We do not know how this works, but we are going to a nearby city of Weifang this afternoon, maybe train, maybe by bus. Our friend Charles called Wednesday nite and invited us to go with a student from my Wednesday class to Weifang Friday and Saturday. It seems there is some kind of vegetable fair going on this weekend.

I did not recognize the student’s name, but if Charles was going, it seemed alright. Then Charles cancelled going, leaving us wondering.

Today, about 10:30 AM, I get a call from an older well travelled lady in my class, saying this was organized by the Foreign Student Office, and that a bus would pick us up at 2 PM.

I guess we are going. Pat gets finished at 12 and David Blake gets here about 1 PM. They claim the Hotel will be fine and that it is being paid by ?.

That's China.

Later that morning...more information...

November 6 & 7, 2009

The saga gets better. I am sitting at my computer Friday morning about 10:30 and I get a telephone call from a student in my Fushan Class (Monday/Wednesday) asking when we will be ready, as she is coming to pick us and Blakes up to go to Weifang in a University bus, with William. So we are on, but still very much unsure of the agenda. She arrives at 2 PM and off we go to Fushan campus and meet the bus. William is there, as well as another senior lady, who works in the Foreign Student Department, as well as my lady student. We head out for Weifang and go very fast on the freeway.

AS soon as we are out of Qingdao, the countryside became very much flat and farmland. The farm land continues the whole way, most small farms, some were corn fields, some are winter wheat and some are vegetables. As we get closer to Weifang, they are greenhouses appearing everywhere, literally hundreds of them. The government has planted many trees along the road, several rows back towards the fields, all in uniform rows and mostly without leaves. There are farmers everywhere, putting rolls of some kind of insulating material on the tops of the greenhouses, and doing other tasks.

We approach Weifang, but don’t realize that we are going another direction to Qingzhou a smaller, newer city about 40-50 miles away. We are met by a contingent of people, including my “student”, who it turns out is the senior financial manager in the region, and as we learn later, many of his staff are with him. We are lead to a very fancy small hotel at the foot of a small mountain with Buddhist and Taoist temples on top.

We are treated like royalty at the hotel, with several young ladies escorting us to our rooms and everywhere else we needed to go. They actually were stationed outside our rooms, in case we needed something. Shortly after our arrival, we were taken to a lavish private dining room, where we were soon met by the local group, including my student and several of his staff. My lady student and the other female passenger are all part of the university administration. They are both going to Europe/Russia by Monday on educational business.

The meal consisted of no less than 24 items including all kinds of delicacies, some which were hard to look at, let alone eat. We tried enough, to show we were polite. There were many toasts given to the group and to each other. It became apparent, that we should have brought gifts, but no one seemed to know in advance what was to happen. We were told that they had intended to invite us earlier during the National Holiday week, but we had travel plans.

The Vegetable Festival which we were told the reason for the trip has already past. The Flower Festival had also passed and the flowers were now frozen. Our rooms exceeded the 5 star rooms on the previous trip. We retired early and got up for breakfast at 7:30 Am, followed by the hike to the top of the mountain. Immediately after the hike we headed to a local museum and saw some ancient artifacts. Upon departing, our host gave each of us a beautiful wooden box with a copy of the exam we had seen inside the museum. This civil service exam was written in 1598 and had comments written on it by the Emperor, because it was so well written. The paper is about 12 feet long.

We then went to the site of the Flower Festival, a beautiful location on about 70 acres, The pavilions of all the Provinces and 14 countries were still up and the flowers (frozen) very much in place. The USA was there as well as many major countries, but no Canada. Maybe next year. It is a permanent venue, with annual shows.

Lastly we were taken for lunch at a very nice restaurant, in a private room, only 17 courses this time. We could taste most of them, without dire consequences. We were then given two boxes of Snow Pears, with about 100 pears in each. What are we going to do with that many. We were then given a further escort out of the city, but my student, and didn’t have to pay tolls or obey traffic rules. All in all, it was a magnificent 26 hours. Especially when you think, this student travels at least two hours one way to get to my classes (twice a week). I have another student that travels 3 hours by bus and taxi to get there.

That’s the report on that one. I guess that student will get a passing grade (for sure).

The Silk Road Tour

October 2, 2009 ‘The Silk Road Tour'

We are fortunate that the travel agent Marvin Wu lives in Qingdao, so he picked us up at the apartment and took us to the airport in his very nice SUV. Even though the traffic was light, it took nearly an hour to get there. Marvin made sure that we got on the right airplane, bound for Shanghai. Apparently, there was no direct flight to Urumqi, so even though Shanghai seemed to being heading East, it was there that we went. Met two other couples from Shanghai heading West , but on a different flight. A total of 28 people had to come from different cities, including a father and daughter, friends of Marvin Wu coming from Australia (Tyson 12 and Dad “John” a medical doctor), Beijing to be coordinated, all arriving at different times in Urumqi (pronounced “you rumchee”).

We stayed a very nice 5 star hotel, the Majestic, which had all the required amenities.

October 3, 2009

We traveled by bus to Heavenly Lake, about 100 Kms through basically desert at first, territory that could have been in many places in the USA or Canada. There were many people living in “Yurts”, the round tent traditionally the home of Mongolians. We were able to visit one up close.


The route to Heavenly lake takes one up 33 hairpin turns and very scenic. Nang bread was discovered at the base of the lake and became a tour favorite food. Basically a flat round bread about one foot in diameter and can last for days as a traditional food of the local people.

We took a short boat ride on the lake, observing several temple, or pagodas around the lake. You can actually rent a Yurt as a hotel. It could compare to lakes in the mountains at home. Very peaceful. We eventually returned to Urumqi and visited a large Muslim mosque. This area of China is mostly inhabited by Muslims and are called the Ughur people (pronounced “weegur”). The have a lot of special rights, although not enough in their minds. They do not learn Chinese until grade 5 in school and are very much a separate society. In July there had been a serious incident in Uhrumqi, where 200 people were killed by the Uhgur people, causing a lot of concern.

Because the Muslim market closed early, our travel guide found a delightful evening show and dinner, put on to demonstrate the Uhgur culture. It was very nice, even though we did not understand the spoken parts. Stayed in Urumqi a second night.

October 4, 2009

Today we traveled by bus to the “Turpan City” area, also called “Turfan” to visit the ancient city of Jiaohe and the ancient well irrigation system. In addition we visited an Uhgur family who appear to raise grapes for a living. They have a very comfortable home and surrounding property.



They are likely considered well to do. This is still a very much Muslin/Uhgur area. Transportation is more often by bicycle, or small motorized truck.

The Ancient City of Jiaohe was built on an elevated area between two rivers. The elevated area is several hundred feet above the rivers and had steep cliffs, being a veritable fortress as a result. All of this area forms part of the areas known as the “Silk Road” traveled for centuries, via camel, on foot or by donkey.

The Karse irrigation system is ingenious being 1400 years old and without it, the area would never have become capable of supporting life. Basically wells up to 100 meters were dug at higher elevations (below mountain areas) and then tunnels connecting the wells led to lower elevations and eventually the water flowed in to the city and adjacent areas. The wells account for 30 % of the water used today, the balance by modern wells and pumps. Stayed in Turpan that night.

October 5, 2009

Today we traveled by bus to several areas, including the Tuyugou Valley and the Ancient City of Gaochang. In Tuyugou we walked around the village area and toured a local residents home. Very humble, but seemingly happy. We observed clothes being washed in tubs at the house and in the stream. It is very hot climate and people often have their beds outside, because the house are too hot at night (cooler outside). Wood is very scarce, so it is stored on the flat root tops, both for storage and for insulation as well as a fuel source. All in all a very peaceful area, but isolated today.

The Ancient City of Gaochang is accessed through very quaint country roads and Ughur villages. Again very Muslim in nature, very humble, almost no cars. There are lots of other nationalities in this area. Because of the National holiday, there were lots of children around. We rode to the Ancient City via Donkey carts. It covered a huge area and was a central city on the Silk Road some two centuries ago. The desert winds erode the formations of the buildings over time, but much remains.

The final chapter of the day was being taken to the train station, 50 kms out of town for an overnight ride in a “soft sleeper”, meaning there were 4 beds to a compartment, and actually were quite comfortable. It seems that the railroads did not follow the Silk Road in this case. We got on the train at 9 PM. There were lots of non orientals in the train station, from all over the world and going different places. Jack, our very capable local guide left us here.

October 6, 2009

Arrived at the next train station at 4 AM (the town of Liyuan), but the next city, Dunhuang was 2 hours (100 kms) away by bus over a very rough road, the National Highway #312, (which had been a very good road up to that point). Henry was our local guide, a very quiet spoken, but efficient and determined guide who got us where we needed to go, even though this group can be easily distracted and fails to listen much of the time. They are just like school children, seem to have to be told multiple times. Most tried to sleep on the bus, but it was difficult.

After a breakfast in the next hotel, we traveled to the Gobi desert (that fabled place we have all heard about). It is mostly gravel, not sand. The morning trip was to the Magao Grotto area. They are located 25 kms south east of Dunhuang. A huge system of caves (Grottos) along a high cliff wall built by Buddiist monks starting about 2400 years ago. We had an excellent and well informed local guide. There are a total of 492 known caves, many not accessible. In the ones we visited, there were huge Budda like statues carved in each one. 50,000 scrolls, or paper records were discovered in 1900 an subsequently many of those records were taken by primarily Europeans, and are now located in museums in London and Germany. They refer to those as thefts”.

The day was capped off by a visit to a sand dune area on the edge of Dunhuang where we were taken for a camel ride, albeit very short.


Huge mountain like sand dunes containing an Oasis and Pagoda were interesting and scenic. There were ultra light plane rides and tubing down the dunes as other options.


This certainly adds to the record of unusual activities. As to be expected, the weather was hot and sunny. We have a lot of very good meals of various, but edible kinds. Coke is deemed to be the “health protector”, killer of unwanted things.

The final activity was to catch an airplane from Dunhuang to Xi’an (home of the Terra Cotta warriors. Just prior to that, we visited the obligatory “government” store to view carpets and other items, all of course for sale. We purchased a small, but beautiful silk rug (1.5 m by 40 cm?). I am sure it was a bargain, because the price was reduced by two thirds? We took it with us, wrapped very small. Earlier, we had purchased two smaller rugs and had them shipped to Canada. We shall see if they arrive.

October 7, 2009

Arrived at the Dynasty Hotel in Xi’an, which was also a very nice 5 star facility. The weather here was rainy and/or smoggy, but pleasant. The morning found us in heavy traffic and a new local tour guide “Cynthai”, a capable well spoken young lady. We traveled to the Wall, 14.7 kms long around the city. Spent some time walking along some of the wall, observing the moat and surroundings. They claimed it was the only completely walled city in the world. Most of the city is now outside of the wall.

From there we traveled to the home of the Terra Cotta warriors, stopping for lunch along the way. This was a most unusual place. The government has done a magnificent job of creating facilities including 4 large covered buildings over the Terra Cotta Warriors, which have been excavated to date. Many foreigners and locals were visiting (still Chinese National Holiday). Well worth going to see, even if one takes into account the human tragedy in lives and money.

Each warrior looks different.


This one is constructed of wood and was on display at the Beijing Olympics.


Do I look like a great warrior or what?


October 8, 2009

Flew home early this AM to Qingdao, with Betty, met by Marvin and personally driven to our apartment. Good to be back and time to get back into lesson preparation.

Celebrating 60 Years of Communist Rule

China is celebrating 60 years of Communism.

The picture of the lamp post below is a special wrap around cover they have placed on many lamp posts down town. There are all kinds of flower displays by the government and by private businesses for the celebration.

We are off school from Oct 1 - 8, going to Shanghai, Xian, and Urumqi, See if you can find those places. Xian is pronounced "she-an"but as two words.

Some Pictures

Zhangio Pier near the campus where we live. Many tourists visit here.




View from Zhangiao Pier of Naval Museum.

Our first week of classes (and so much more)

Patricia and I gave the Sacrament meeting talks today, on an assigned topic. We typed out the talks so the interpreter would have a written copy. It turns out he prefers to listen and translate. He told me he could not see mine, although I had a second copy for him with large print. You can see that he would rather listen and give the "gist" of what he has heard.

At church there are 5 teachers (2 couples and a single sister) that travel from Wei Fang (a 2 hours train ride plus a 1 hour bus ride).

Patricia had YW with her one student. She is a delightful young lady, who with her family, live in China, because her father believes it is important that the children learn Chinese. They may move to the USA next year. It is a challenge to have all the different classes in this apartment (very large), especially when you run classes in English and Korean separately.

School went very well for the first week. Patricia did extremely well. I attended her classes, as there was not a conflict in times. She attended mine on Tuesday AM, Wednesday and Thursday PM. Next week we will have to go it alone. Saturday, we spent most of the day preparing and organizing lesson plans for the rest of the month, Patricia has five days of classes and I have 3 and four depending on the class.

We have found in our classes the students are very polite and willingly do what we ask them to do, like impromptu speeches. I have 78 students registered in one of my classes plus some keep showing up. A fourth year undergrad student asked if he could join the class too. (the class is meant for PhD students. Most of the classrooms are equipped with mics that the teacher carries around. Unfortunately for Pat, she showed up and the mic wasn’t working but the A/C was working hard (and loud) and she ended up speaking quite loudly. One of Pat’s 8:00 AM classes was sleepy on one of the mornings and she made them do a chant in hopes of waking them up – it seemed to work and the students also appeared to enjoy it.

Each student is required to take an English course while working on their under graduate degree, one while working on their masters degree and one while working on their PhD. One of the students has perfect English but she is still required to take the course.

In addition to our teaching assignments at the university, we (mostly Pat and the lady downstairs) are tutoring a few younger students from the age of 10 years old up to a 15 year old. This will be done in the evenings and one student is on Saturday.

It is mandatory for freshman students (male and female) to train in the army /navy for 3 weeks before school. They march a lot and we have watched them get better as they have practiced.

October 1 is the 60th anniversary of China in its present political form. Apparently there will be huge celebrations. We travel to Urumqi, capital of Zinjian Urhur Autonomous Region on Oct 2, then travel to a couple of places in between, and then on to Xi'an, where we will be for two days. I managed to find Xi'an on the map. Twenty eight people are scheduled to go. Some travel is on an overnight "soft sleeper train".

In the previous post I showed you a picture of the big green thermos that we use to haul water from the main level of the apartment building to our apartment on the second floor. Well it is no longer – it came crashing down (while full of HOT water) and shattered into what we think was about a million pieces. We keep finding little bits of it on the floor even though we have swept up many times since.

We found ourselves in a place called, “Computer City.” This is a place with about 150 shops all selling pretty much the same computer type equipment. The couple that lives downstairs bought an ink cartridge for their Epson printer and when they tried to put it in the printer, the computer screen told them they didn’t have an authorized Epson ink cartridge – they put it in anyway and seems to be working.

Here is an interesting fact – did you know that Qingdao has more shipping going in and out than any other city in China? When Burton takes the bus to his class in Laoshan he goes along the coast and sees a lot of freighters. It is also a pretty ride.

During the lunch hour some people will lay down on the cement sidewalks (or benches) and take a nap – even though there is grass right beside them.

There is a tiny grocery store that we shop at. It is about a 6-7 minute walk from the apartment. An older couple owns it. It is a “hole in the wall,” but they are very nice. They sell things like tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, mandarin oranges, and eggs. There is a tiny restaurant next door that has good food. There are about 4 tables inside and four tables out on the sidewalk. It isn’t always super clean. For example – if you drop some food on the table – you don’t eat it. We can both eat there for $3-4. Some of the dished they serve are shredded potatoes with a vinegar type sauce, an onion salad that we enjoy, a chicken and pineapple dish, and a tomato and egg soup (sort of like an omelette). We don’t really care for the shrimp because the eyes have not been removed.

One place that we do enjoy eating at is good old McDonalds. It tastes the same and is about half the price. :)

In Hot Water

We continue to become familiar with our surroundings and navigating through the city. Here are a few more pictures of how our life has changed from our comfortable surroundings in Calgary. Below are two pictures:

-the first is of a thermos that is used to transport hot water from the hot water tank on the first floor

-the second is the hot water tank where we get the hot water to fill the thermos so we can wash the dishes in hot water.

Our drinking water is brought upstairs (we live on the 2nd floor) by the lady manager.





Some people from the university came to visit us at our apartment to drop off material that needs to be covered in class. The couple standing beside us (Blakes) live in the same building and are teaching here as well. We are told the three red balls in the background (top right hand corner) were used to send signals to the ships in the sea.



Traveling around we have noticed there are a lot of Buicks here and the only other GM product we have seen are a couple of Cadillacs. All of the taxis are Volkswagons. We passed a local beach and saw a ski boat and a few wave runners.

The campus we live on (and where Pat will teach at) is older and smaller. Pat has a short 5 minute walk but 6 flights of stairs to climb to get to her classes. We saw the newest campus yesterday and it was very nice. I (Burton) have classes there 2 days a week and will have to catch a bus at 7:00 AM to get there by 7:50 AM for my 8:00 AM class.

Oh, and I was able to find one of my favourite treats here...OREO cookies.....yum....

Teaching Assignments

September 1,

We went to the department store (Carrefour) today by ourselves on the bus both ways. We had more household items and food to get. Had chicken strips at KFC and they were good. Bot a Swiffer only to get home and find it was missing some pieces. It is a major job to take it back.

Our immediate teaching supervisors came to our apartment and we found out that classes at the PhD level do not start for another week (September 15). They presented us with student and teacher manuals for each of reading/writing and speaking/listening classes, both of which are to be covered. There is a lot to digest and hopefully use.

Patricia won the draw of campuses; she gets to stay here (the campus we live on) for all of her classes. The only downside for her is that her classes are all on the 6th floor and there is NOT an elevator.

Patricia will teach a 4 hour class on Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 8 - 12.
She will teach the same subject to each class and her students are environmental.

I get to teach at the other two schools/campuses.

Monday - a 4 hour class from 8 - 12 at Fushan Campus,
Tuesday - a 4 hour class from 8 - 12 at Laoshan Campus
Wednesday - a 2 hour class from 1:30 – 3:30 at Fushan Campus
Thursday – a 2 hour class from 1:30 – 3:30 at Laoshan Campus

One group are Chemistry and Environmental Engineering students and the other are Business Administration students.

Playing Catch Up

This is Stacey, Burton's daughter. They are having difficulties accessing and adding to the blog in China so I will be adding to it until my parents are able to from China. The entries come from e-mails I have received. Enjoy!

August 30, 2009

We cannot access our blog or anyone else's at present. That may change when somebody who knows more comes on the scene. That's China.

Today was our first experience a Church, very unusual, but still the true gospel.

We made contact with the Branch President Saturday evening, via the cell phone left in the apartment, with his cell # programmed in. He is a returning teacher at another university where there are 7 member teachers (5 through BYU).

Because we were unfamiliar with the route and the bus system, and church being 15-20 miles away, we (meaning 4 of us who live at Ocean University of China/same apartment building) decided to take a taxi, which we flagged down about 10 minutes away (no such thing as calling a taxi or going to a taxi stand) and we gave the driver (who did not a word of English) written in Chinese by our friend Charles Yu (whose status is unknown to us) the instructions. After a while it became apparent the driver was lost and becoming frustrated, but we did get there. The cab fare was 36 RMB (Yuan) or about $5.40 for a 30 minute ride.

Next week, we think we could manage the bus for about $1.25 (covering both ways).

The meetings are held in the home of a Korean member family (the Kongs). They live an an area which seems to be inhabited by foreign nationals and is very beautiful and the apartment is very large, with a big living room which becomes the main meeting room. The security guard for the complex followed us right to the front door to make sure that we were in fact legitimate and welcome.

There were 11 teachers and about 25 Koreans (plus) including several samll children and one non member. We held a 2 hour block of meetings including the joint priesthood/relief society lesson from the Joseph Smith manual. There were 3 talks one by a child in Korean, interpreted by his father, his wife and one English teacher. Almost everything was translated. The sacrament was administered exactly as you would expect. After next week, when the Branch reorganizes (with the arrival of all the teachers) they will go back to a 3 hour block, including primary.

The Church provided the chairs, books and all the other supplies as well as one room which is reserved as the Branch President/clerks office. The Church assists with the rent to allow such a place to be used.

For those who have been to Switzerland, Qingdao is like that, i.e, a major bank on every corner. A marvelous and new city (without pollution)

Shucks, after 3 days we don't speak Chinese yet.


August 31

We went for medicals this AM (had been warned it was a possibility). It was very efficient. We took a taxi there, arriving about 8:30 AM. We had to fill out several forms, give copies of passports, visa and photos. Then had 6 different exams done in the next half hour (blood pressure and a few other pokes, eye test, blood sample, ultra sound, ECG and xray) all recorded on computer. Cost about $50.00 which University may reimburse.

Getting bold, took a bus to Carrefore and bought food and several household items, but had to take the taxi back because of the purchases.

It is embarrassing on the bus to have people (both young and female) insist on giving up their seats for us. We assume that our grey hair does it (respect for the elderly?).

We decided to buy some new sheets that fit (the existing ones did not hang over the edge at all). A new set with pillow cases, very good quality, (and large enuf) cost about $22.00.

Still no word from the school about specifics on class sizes or much else.


September 1, 2009

The buses seem to run all day, every day, every few minutes, at least in the busy areas.

The cost is 1 kwai, slang for yuan or rmb. Sometimes it is 2 if the route is long, but we don't know how they know. Most buses have a sensor that reads your pre-charged bus passes, but others don't (and we don't understand which is which yet). A yuan is worth about 15 -17 cents, so pretty cheap. One card can be swiped for several people.

We have a map with bus routes marked, but it rather faint, so it is sometimes hard to read.

We have a meeting this PM at the far away campus Laoshan to learn the number and location of our classes. There is a school bus between campuses, which may be free, but doesn't run as often. It is about a 20-30 minute walk from our apartment. Students seem to be arriving around here for the start of classes next week.

Below are a few pictures of our apartment.

Keeping ourselves busy...

We had a 9 hour layover in Seoul and getting our pictures taken was something we did to help pass the time. What do you think? Is red our colour?

And We're Off.....

Well, we made it! (to the airport!) Now there is a 30+ hour trip to reach what will be our new home for the next year or so.

Graduation - Final Packing and Preparations

Graduation day finally arrived on August 14th and we successfully completed 100 hours of training to become more proficient at Teaching English in China. We returned to Calgary on August 16th to get serious about finalizing all other matters pertaining to our departure from Calgary - house, cars and family.

Our Graduation photos are attached, our cars are sold, our kids are gone and we are about ready to start this new Adventure. Since all our acquaintances are asking why we are still here we are updating now that we actually leave on Wednesday August 26/09. We fly from Calgary to Los Angeles, from Los Angeles to Seoul, Korea, and from Seoul to Qingdao, China.

They Sure Know How To Make Us Tired

August 4 - We had a 2 hour Power Point Training last night. We attended the "advanced" class and were able to learn a few more tricks. Remembering will be a challenge. Some teachers use it all the time. One teacher says that he will be sending weekly lesson plans, music, videos etc. for all who want it.

We had two hours of instructions from previous teachers who have a lot of experience in all sorts of things. The teachers from yesterday had all been professional teachers at the college level. More than half of the new people have never taught school.

August 5 - We are going to a Chinese dinner and will watch a movie called, "To Live".

August 7 - We had a talk today from the District President of Beijing. He has lived there for 14 years with his family and is a lawyer. He now works for the National Basketball Association. Basketball has apparently become very big there.

Continuing Adventures in Utah

Here is a photo of Lindy's 2nd birthday. Family gathered to celebrate with pizza and an ice cream cake. We will miss many family events while we are gone but will do our best to keep in touch.

We were fortunate to attend the last day of the open house of the Oquirrh Temple. On our way to Provo, we stopped at the Draper Temple. During our 2 week stay in Provo will will be attending intense training and receive helpful information for our stay in Qingdao.

The Journey to Utah for ESL Training

July 27 - We left Calgary and stopped in Lethbridge to visit the Glenns. We continued on and stopped in Raymond to visit Irene Jensen (we found Margaret Heggie, the "retired nurse" working there). In Dillon, Montana we encountered heavy rainfall. Visited Fairmont (Montana), which is on our Time Share List.

July 28 - We left the I-15 at McCammon, Idaho and travelled via Lava Hot Springs and many points along the way, including Bear Lake, Montpelier, Paris (saw the Tabernacle) and took a long twisty road to Logan, finally arriving at Hedmans about 10 PM.

Found our travel to China itinerary on the email the next morning. We fly out of Calgary August 26 at 7:10 pm heading to Los Angeles. Then it is on to Seoul Korea and finally arriving in Qingdao on August 28 at 2:55 pm (local time). This means it will take 29 hours and 45 minutes from the time we take off in Calgary to the time we touch down in Qingdao, China. The distance travelled will be 7543 miles! It will be quite the trip.

On Going Preparations

On July 8th, we attended the Chinese Consulate to pick up our passports and almost did not get them because of a Political Demonstration at the Consulate. We were able to get our passports stamped with a fancy looking visa endorsement.

The time is flying by and it seems harder to focus on what needs to be done. The Stampede has come and gone. We drove to Vancouver July 9 and came back on July 12. We were entertained very well and had excellent weather for eating fish, fish, fish, (so fresh and soooo good) - outside even. We loved the hiking we were able to do, beautiful scenery everywhere.

We want to add a picture of our family (even though we are missing Breanna - Born May 10/09). The picture was taken in Canmore last September when we were all together for a Run in Banff.

Here is a photo of Breanna. She is 2 months old in the picture.

We have each been given tentative assignments for teaching at this point. They have let us know that we will each be on a different campus teaching 3 oral english and 3 written english classes per week. Exciting. We expect to meet with the teachers we are replacing next week to get first hand information (the Salmons).

Visa Applications

Our next step was to obtain documentation from China (evidence of permission to come to China and work). These documents were received by Courier from Provo. We then completed our part of the visa application form and off we went to the Chinese Consulate in downtown Calgary. It looked much like the Canadian Passport office with many people waiting holding their number designating their turn. We sat by a Chinese lady who saw our paper work and asked what we were doing. She had been an English teacher in China for a number of years before coming to Calgary.

The closing time was about to expire but we were called just in time and submitted our paper work. The next step is to pick up our passports from the consulate, hopefully with our visa endorsed.

We had not seen the Calgary Stampede Parade for a number of years so decided to attend - a couple of parade photographs are attached.

Second Post

We have found some power point presentation material from BYU and have tried out some of it. We have a text book for use with the new version of power point (2007). The BYU material is a couple of years old and maybe the previous power point version.

This is a slow grind for us older learners. Maybe there is some hope yet.

We have to work on motel reservations for the two weeks in Utah. It also is time to visit the Chinese Consulate in Calgary to see how to apply for a Visa (tourist/working).

The Ongoing Preparations

We will be getting to know Summer and Charles (both from Qingdao) more this month. The teachers that are there (Salmons and Taylors) will be leaving soon. Their time is nearing an end and our time is about to commence. Wow. It would be fun to get together with them and hear their stories - oh well, maybe when we are also finished teaching.

First Post

As part of preparation to teach English in China, we determined that some formal classroom training might be helpful. Patricia located several optioned in different cities, but we selected a 6 day course at the University of Calgary, classes to occur 3 consecutive weekends.

Our instructor, was an interesting, former, overseas teacher, currently teaching at a Junior High in Calgary. His practical experiences were quite useful in understanding what we could expect. The class was made up of 25 students, 22 of whom did not yet have a specific job or location secured but all were interested in the possibility of teaching in a foreign land.