JINAN ORPHANAGE VISIT

HAPPY NEW YEAR KIDS!


On Friday a group of English Teachers prepared gifts bags and visited the local Jinan Orphange. We had a ball and the kids loved our visit and that we played with them. They love my harmonica and juggling acts. They loved their gift bags which had three dollars in Chinese money attached to each gift.

The got the gifts and opened the candy and cookies and ate them as fast as they could and threw the wrapping paper including the money on the floor. We could see that they have no interest in money or wrapping paper.

One of the English Teachers dressed up like Santa, a thin Santa with a real beard. Some could not believe it was really him and pulled at his beard.

MOST WANTED - CHINA

WANTED.

LOST BOY IN CHINA!

DOES ANYONE KNOW THIS BOY?

WHO DOES HE REMIND YOU OF?

**IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO HE IS OR IF YOU ACTUALLY KNOW THIS YOUNG FELLOW, PLEASE PROVIDE IDENTIFYING INFORMATION IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.

END OF SEMESTER. YAH!!!

FINAL EXAM DAY.


YES, WE HAD OUR FINAL ENGLISH EXAM TODAY, 50 QUESTIONS. THIS IS THE FIRST CLASS OF EIGHT CLASSES TO TAKE THE TEST. IT WAS QUITE EASY AND A LOT OF FUN AS I ADMINISTERED IT BY POWER POINT AND THEY LIKED THAT.

ONE OF THEM BROUGHT A SANTA HAT FOR ME AND SEVERAL OTHER NICE CARDS AND GIFTS. THEY ARE SO SWEET AND ENJOYABLE TO TEACH. THEY ARE VERY APPRECIATIVE AND KIND.

NO CLASS AFTER DECEMBER 31 UNTIL FEBRUARY 16TH FOR ME. WE ARE GOING ON SPRING VACATION TO HONG KONG ON THE 13TH OF JANUARY AND AFTER THE TEACHERS CONFERENCE THERE, WE ARE GOING OUT ON OUR OWN ON THE TRAINS OF CHINA TO SEE THE WORLD. WE ARE LEAVING ON A GREAT ADVENTURE. WE'LL TAKE SOME PICTURES....

RT&B PROGRAM FOR DANA'S FRESHMEN CLASS

It was a good thing they did because it gave me the idea of how my 120 Freshmen students could wear some type of costume for the RT&B song. With the yellow head bands for the boys and the red plaid ones for the girls I was ready for a miniature Spectacular.

It didn't go exactly as I planned. When I got to the Freshmen Club house they told me that we hadn't registered for the place. I decided I am a Foreigner (American). I will just fix everything up and get ready for the performance. Well I did, and the students started showing up and before I knew it, it was over with.

I had one of the BYU English professors scheduled to come as Santa, as he had a great suit and everything, but somehow that wasn't able to happen and so Jay came and played the familiar roll, and the students loved him and they got to perform for him and the evening went well. I had to remind myself that my students would only remember the spirit of the night not how perfect the performance was.

I do have one soon to be famous video clip of me using my loud Director's voice. I didn't want to use the word yelling, but if any of you ever participated in a PHASE Spectacular with me you know what I am talking about.

I really had fun.

Dana

FRESHMEN PUNISHMENT: WALL PAINTING

ATTENTION DOCTORS -- USE YOUR CELL PHONE IN CLASS--GO TO TIME OUT-- PAINTING DANA'S STAIRWELL WALLS.



Last week in class, after warning my
students that if they were caught using cell phones in class (Freshmen) I would take away their cell phones and they would have to come over to my house and paint to get them back. Well, two of my favorite students did that and so on Saturday they came over to paint my stairwell hall. They are both Dr. or medical majors and so they brought their Dr. labcoat shirts and painted my Apartment stairwell. It was so Cold and I felt a little bad. But they were so excited to do it, they had never painted in their life. They did a good job and had a lot of fun doing it and laughing about it. Their other class mates were coming over for a leadership class and so they wanted to keep painting until they came.

We had to teach English classes on Christmas day and I gave a final exam in the afternoon. It really was a party. They have all learned the song RT&B from the Provo PHASE program that I directed, and I am going to have all my Freshmen class come (120 students) to a Campus Club House auditorium and finish up all the actions and then they are going to perform it there and I will videotape it and then post some of their performance on my blog. It is my effort to remember that past and to have a little bit of a Provo SPECTACULAR.

I have come to love Papaya. I used to not like it because it smelt like throwup to me, but now I add a little orange juice on top of it and now it is my new favorite fruit. It costs me about $1.25 for a big one.

CHRISTMAS DINNER PARTY, JINAN CITY

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JINAN.

THE CITY GOVERNMENT INVITED ALL FOREIGNERS LIVING IN JINAN, TO A CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR, WHICH ALSO INCLUDED THE PRESENTATION OF CITY AWARDS AND RECOGNITION.

THEN A WONDERFUL AUTHENTIC CHINESE DINNER WAS SERVED IN SEVERAL COURSES. THE EVENING ENDED WITH A WALK ACROSS THE MALL TO A LARGE THEATER WHERE WE ENJOYED ANOTHER CHINESE ACROBATICS SHOW. IT WAS A GREAT TIME FOR US AND AN EXCELLENT FREE DATE.

WE ENJOYED THIS WONDERFUL GALA AND DINNER, AND ONLY DANA LEFT HUNGRY.

I WORE MY BIG AMERICAN SUIT AND COSSACK FUR HAT WITH DIAMOND TEDDY BEAR ON THE FRONT...

THE MEDIA LOVED IT AND JAY PARTICIPATED IN A LITTLE FRIENDLY COMPETITION TOSSING TOYS INTO A BASKET WHICH A PARTNER WAS HOLDING ON STAGE AND CAME AWAY A WINNER. HE RECEIVED A RED CHINESE KNOT AS FIRST PRIZE.

THIS IS DANA WITH MARY, OUR LIASION WITH THE UNIVERSITY. MARY IS THE CHIEF OF THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE AT SHANDONG UNIVERSITY AND OUR WAIBAN. SHE IS A GREAT HELP TO US. SHE IS REALLY NICE TOO.

THE FOOD WAS INTERESTING. THERE WERE SEVERAL BOTTLES OF BEER AND CHAMPAGNE, BUT WE ASKED THAT THOSE BE REMOVED AND SPRITE BROUGHT TO OUR TABLE. WE LOVED THE SPRITE. IN FACT, IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF THIS BANQUET. I THINK THEY MUST LAUGH A LOT AS THEY PLAN WHAT TO FEED THE FOREIGNERS.

HERE IS A PHOTO OF THE SILK WORM LARVE WHICH WERE COOKED AND SERVED TO US. JAY TRIED ON FIRST AS ALWAYS AND ANNOUNCED TO DANA: "YOU DON'T WANT TO TRY THAT!"

(CHECK IT OUT CLOSE UP. Click on Photo...) WANT SOME OF THIS?

OTHER ITEMS ON NOTE: A LARGE BAKED FISH, A GARLIC SALAD, DEEP FRIED DARK CHICKEN, SEA CUCUMBER (SLUG) IN A SEA WEED SALAD, A CUCUMBER DISH WITH BABY SQUID, HOT SESHUAN STYLE VEGETABLES WITH RED JALAPENO PEPPERS, BIG CHUNKS OF BEEF BACK BONE WITH A FEW SHREDS OF MEAT LEFT ON THEM. JAY ACTED AS THE QUEEN'S TASTER AND TRIED EVERYTHING, AS A SERVICE TO DANA. HE THEN GAVE HER RECOMENDATIONS ON WHAT WAS EDIBLE OR TOLERABLE.

QingDao, by the Yellow Sea

Pearl Market, Here we come.

We are ready.

If we travel by Bullet train three hundred miles, averaging just over 100 miles per hour, how long with it take us to ... to get hungry?

We started off by traveling by taxi to the wrong train station. Then we found a little trike car to take us the 10 more miles to the right train station. This was hoot to be in and we laughed at the adversity. We laughed and laughed. We laughed so hard that we were almost late for our train because the little blue jelly bean car went about as fast as we could walk and the driver was turning off the engine at every stop light. This car was about to self destruct as well, as it sounded like it was on it's last breath of life.

The train ride was smooth and really comfortable. We read books. Jay has great novel in tow. It is called "California Gold".

We stayed in the dorms at QingDao University for $150 yuan per night for two nights. REmember to divide by 7 to get the US dollar amount....Thereby: a little over 20 dollars per night. We had a nice place and the bed was great although a little hard.

One of the main reasons to go on this trip was to go to the Pearl Market there. Pearls are plentiful and and prices are good. Dana bought a sack full of pearl necklaces.

That night we went to Student Plays at the University. Some were in Chinese, some English, but the capper, the real surprise, was the one in French.

New shopping hat for this city.

Great art there, except I could have thought of this one, and done it in Marshmallow. It would have been better.

The clock tower in the photos below showed this sign clearly for all visitor to see. It explained the clocks and how they worked. Spell Check would have been a real good idea before going the sign shop.

QingDao is beautiful in the summer. I took a picture of a pictures...

The old church...It was on our tour.

I found this old lady doing a watercolor painting of the church in the far away corner. I peeked in with my camera....

The are lookout and communication towers on the mountain top. I joked with my students that these looked like alien space ships and that they should be prepared to see some aliens in town now...

The old museum was the place were MAO stayed overnight. It is historic. We even saw his bed in the photo below. WOW!

End of Museum Photos...

We tried to get in to see the Catholic Church which is here, but it was locked. Got some photos though...

At the little street meat market. This guy was cutting up pigs. I learned this week that in China, Donkey meat is one of the best tasting meats... I have yet to try that one. Have not even seen any donkeys here. Where do they get their donkey meat?


The sign was outside the Buddist Temple and I did not see it until after I took the photos inside the Temple during one of their meetings... Again I was kicked out and told "NO PHOTOS!" But I had my photos already. Again, a lot more than Spell Check is needed on this sign. Joss sticks are the incense candles or sticks they use to send up prayers to heaven. See photos way below this one...

The old Prison was fun to see. We toured the entire thing and had a great time in Prison.

We went to QingDao, City by the Yellow Sea. We saw the sights there.

At the Buddist Museum and Temple, Dana found the Golden Tree. Yes all the leaves are fake and Gold. They were glued on. Get it to make a golden tree to worship. There was a small three leaved piece on the ground and I asked the Guards if I could have it as a memory thing and they said yes, take it. So I have a piece of this tree and I did not steal it.

At the beach of the Yellow Sea. We were quite cold as it was blowing and about 35 degrees F.

The famous QingDao Dock.