We got new doors:
Didn't have to use the booby trap I set up. We made it through two nights without any locked entry doors. The bad guy burglars never showed up again. The doors were both not in condition to be locked and therefore essentially open because they were broken so badly, but a big noisy (falling metal pots and pans) surprise (to awaken us and to scare the begeebers out of them) was into whomever would enter without permission.... Didn't happen though. Dana actually thought it was a great idea.
They installed two new doors on both our apartment and the Watkins' down stairs. We are now living in style. Out of something bad, come's something good .....eh?
I just finished doing the dishes, so Dana says we should get a picture of our new doors. Sorry I have a wet front. But hey, the dishes are done.
We love our new doors. Got a cool new peep hote. We even got a door bell button on the outside which looks cool ---- doesn't work though.
The following pictures are of a young teacher from Zibo, more about her and our time with her after the pictures.
This is Sharah Meservy, our guest and an English Teacher in Zibo about 45 minutes away by fast train. She was our guest for two days. We had fun as you can tell especially on Budda Mountain and at Black Tiger Springs, where she hammed it up and climbed all over the artwork for the best shot. She is a BYU Theater graduate. Could you guess?
As always, Jay
Dana will write more here... "It is time to move on from our last interesting but unwanted adventure. This event is called a break in or a burglary, and is just one of a thousand and one adventures we have had here in China. Those other thousand have all been positive, even great and often amazing. On the up side, we did get the two solid, new doors out of it and though we lost two computers and a video camera, we lost nothing else and we were not injured. I was in the middle of doing videos for movies in each of my classes, using the PHASE songs and I thought that I would not have to do them now, but the students have risen to the occasion and are figuring other ways to video them. This is really special because I was not sure if they even wanted to do these video projects.
Let's go back a few days and talk about what great adventures we have had. Sharah Meservy came to visit us from Zibo. She is a young woman who I visit teach via email and phone. She has not had the chance to go to an actual Sacrament meeting in 10 months. Well, on Easter Sunday, Jay and I went to Zibo by train and held a sacrament and testimony meeting with her. She works every Sunday. We invited her to come and visit us here in Jinan so we could show her the beauty of this big city. So, she came this past week for three days.
It was really fun. First we showed her all the wonderful places, some we had not really seen and she helped me with my English classes. We were working on the music DVD, so after a short lesson introduction, we all went outside and Sharah taught each of the boys how to do the waltz. She danced and talked in English with each of them. She is a darling girl and they were all excited about it. I taught the girls and wished that Tanner was here to teach them. He would have been a Rock Star that day.
In the afternoon, we would take her to someplace that had American food (Pizza) and then tour around Jinan. She loved to pose for picture shots. I told her she should be a model because she made each picture so cute. I have decided I need to start doing it when Jay wants to take a picture of me, so be ready for some really interesting pictures.
The most fun time for me was going to the Big Golden Budda Mountain together. When we got there I was not happy because there was no golf carts on this day to take us up the mountain. So we started the long cimb. Since I have been in China I have always wanted to hitchhike, but it isn't a Chinese thing. (Remember, when Jay and I were dating in San Francisco, we did it a lot, and once Grant (my younger brother) and I hitch hiked from Provo, Utah to Portland, Oregon for my older brother Scott's wedding. I still have great memories of those hitchhiking experiences.)
Well, back to Budda Mountain. As we were climbing I was getting tired and I decide to try to hitch hike. Two cars just drove by and look at me (with my thumb out) like I was a strange foreigner. Then car number three stopped and offered the three of us a ride. There was not room for all of us, so the car behind gave Sharah a ride. (They worked for the government on their way to work.) Instead of going to the Big Budda, we ended up going farther up to the top of the mountain. It is this wonderful place where we had a picnic lunch and got some really great Jinan Smog pictures for Sharah. She forgot her camera and so we took pictures for her which gave us some great ones also. After that we went to one of my next favorite places in Jinan, Black Tiger Springs. That is another blog.
Now on a really positive not, as we were leaving our eating area a little girl ran after us and asked if the wallet she had in her hand was mine. I had left it on the table. Talk about a blessing, because the wallet had many important things in it and I wouldn't have discovered it was missing until after we had arrived home. I still feel really blessed about that.
As always, Dana
