China Journal

2 1/2 weeks in Kunming.

2012-01-28T05:58:00.000-08:00

There are purses every where, but on this trip I feel in love with the ones that look Chinese. I bought the three I am holding. They were made by this young man. He has done many for famous people. There pictures are on his wall inside of his shop. This outdoor market was something.
We are back from 2 1/2 weeks in Kunming, what a wonderful experience. It is a great city to visit, and our hostel was amazing. The above picture were a couple from Holland. We fixed them pancakes for breakfast before they left. We had some nice talks with them and enjoyed their company in the hostel very much.
This is the mall that was right below our apartment. We could get on the elevator and go down to the first floor and have a lovely evening looking at all the expensive shops that we would never buy anything in.
This is the new furniture they brought into our room. We loved looking out the window every night. The lights in the city were beautiful.
This is one morning when we got up, found it was a lovely warm day and heated out to see the sights of Kunming.
You can see a little mark where out apartment is at. In this picture we are on the 6th floor at a very lovely park area.
We went to this really big lake and when we first got there we rented this little car. We used it for just 30 minuets because we discovered that we could move faster walking.
Always in search of western food. Okay, I am always in search of Western food. We found this very nice restaurant by the University. They had many good place because of the foreign students that go to school there.
I spent 4 hours with Li, she taught me how to make these really cool strings grafts. I think it would just be easier buying them, but now I know how to make them and bought the material to do it.
This is a group of young ladies that were dressed up for some reason. They were on a walk through the out door market. This market was right across from our hostel, and it was great.
This is one of many statues in the main shopping area. Whole streets are closed off from cars and you can walk freely back and forth across the street.
One of the greatest things to do while in China, is to go and see the shows. This one was 2 hours long and it was amazing.
It had been raining a little before we went into the show. It was only two blocks away from our apt. and it was truly amazing performance.
This was Green Lake. It was the holidays and everyone was there enjoying the dancing and the beauty of the place.
A view of the lake.

These are how the chicken are taken to the open market. In this case the open market was along 3 blocks of the road. Everyone selling chickens. They were really big.

More Days in Kunming

2012-01-12T21:39:00.002-08:00

This was Sunday of day 4. We got up in the morning and got dressed for Church and then we listen to two General Conference talks. I would have been nice to have sacrament, but that will have to wait for two more weeks. At 10 AM we went to see the Stone Forest. Something Jay has always wanted to see in China. It was really beautiful and of course we had to buy a hat.

We were able to go with two really great students from Italy who were staying in our hostel. The are students at a University in Shanghai. When we get home we plan on getting together with them and fix them some Western food. We are able to answer any question they asked us and that was so great.

More Days in Kunming

2012-01-12T21:39:00.001-08:00

Vacation In Kunming

2012-01-10T03:12:00.000-08:00

This is us at our hostel in Kunming. Today we were told it was a apartment building, but whatever it is we sure do like it.

Our second day here we went to the Yunnan International Culture Center, it is lot like the Polynesian Culture Center in Hawaii. It shows the 26 different minorities here in China. Most of them live in the South of China.
There are so many different types of hats. Each one represents the different groups at the Center.

4th Christmas in China

2011-12-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS --

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

This is Gloria, one of Dana's students and she just loves Santa Claus.

These are my crazy English classs students. I think I was tired at this point. What do you think?

Cookie Making in our apartment...for the Christmas Party later.

You can see that we have had a fun time at the Christmas Party which we threw for our

English students here in Wuxi, China. They helped Dana make 850 cookies and place them in little gift bags for the student who came. Also, they brought small gifts to exchange and they did that too. The photos with Santa were very popular as you can imagine where this is the first time most all of them have ever seen Santa Claus in person. Now they all believe in Santa and he is not just on TV or in the movies they see...

This was yesterdays tour in Wuxi of a place called Turtle Head Park. It was a fun time for Dana and I as we took a ferry to the island and saw many buddas and budda things and enjoyed the day as you can see from our photos, even though it was cold. This one looks a little upset with us taking his photo.

Sleeping Budda. Colorful female one, and big too.

They are everwhere.

A Ferry boat.

This is the LDS church meeting house in Suzhou, and where we travel to each Sunday for one hour by taxi. Last Sunday about half were gone for the holidays. We fly out on January 4th for almost three weeks winter, (Spring Festival) vacation in Southern China in a city called: Kunming. We hope it is warmer there.

The Branch Christmas breakfast was so fun and we helped flip the pancakes etc...and we ate a lot too. Our branch is so talented when it come to food makin...

FLIPPIN PANCAKES...

We went shopping for pearls and also found this stone necklace quite cheap. It cost about $10.00. When I asked what the stones were because they were really pretty, she looked in her ielectronic nterpreter -- Turquoise. I bought two necklaces with stirling silver, magnetic clasps. She is double tying all of the stones on four strands of cord. Below...

Brother Doug McGregor, is also living off and on in Wuxi. He is in our branch and we went shopping with him for pearls and gifts. He has a driver who drives him wherever he wants to go. b. This woman here, he met on the plane over, who was from Suzhou, and she offered to help him go shopping and she was very helpful that day. The man is the just a parking attendant.

We bought these pearls and have an order for more... They are beautiful. They cost about $35 - 40. american dollars for each set. They are cultured, real pearls and are here in abundance.

My birthday party in my English Class on Dec 15th was a bash and the cake was delicious, and everyone got a piece.

Kirk and Midge Evans visited us from BYU China Teachers program and took us out to dinner at TFI Fridays...in Suzhou. We wish we had one of these in Wuxi. Maybe some day.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Thelin Family Reunion in Portland, July 4th.

2011-09-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

THELINS UNITE. We all came together at a local church park/pavilion and had a wonderful reunion. There was a program, games for the kids, a wonderful barbeque and pot luck. It was nice to talk with our family. We had a good attendance in that Julie, Ron, Dennis and Jay were in attendance. Beverly was traveling to Canada and so we were able to meet with her later in the summer.

USA -- A Visit with Emma, Tammy's Daughter.

2011-09-11T18:01:00.000-07:00


This is one of the glass pendants my Dad, Conan, made.		My mom, Vanessa, braided the hemp necklace part. It is really nice and is one of many they have made for sale.

Peace Out! Below is my Grandma Darling and Pop Pop who came to see me for a few days in June in Eugene, Oregon.

"Come on in, the water's fine!" Emma Phillips

The beach in Florence, Oregon

Emma: 9 years old.

Emma's cousins: Jacqueline and Jerika.

This is where my Dad blows glass and makes his beads, pendants and beautiful jewelry.

LISTEN -- and you can hear the ocean......

Yah, I hear it! Emma is 9 years old now. She was born on May 4th, so she will be 10 in May.

Summer in USA--Visit Tiffany's Family, Portland, Oregon.

2011-09-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

CHINA: END OF 3RD YEAR.

2011-05-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

Finishing up the school year.

Here Dana is in her English class and teaching her students to "SPEAK ENGLISH!" She is an excellent teacher and her students love her.

Jay's classes did drama (skits) this week using the items he provided to the class. They had a ball and really enjoyed the change from their previous, tedious and tiring engineering classes.

This past week, we had three more Christian students from Ghana come to church in our apartment. We had a nice lunch afterward. They are cool.

This was taken on Chinese outfit day at church. This is kind of a Jinan twig "once-a-year" tradition. The twig group photo is priceless however...

Judges at the speech and debate contest---in English.

We entertained a little too.

We took our classes bowling at the big Sofital Hotel bowling alley here in Jinan. It is the only one we have found. We got a great discount rate and most of our student were able to learn about bowling, play two games and have a group photo taken there. The cost was: 8.5 yuan per game with free shoes, or about $1.20 american. They each paid for their experience. They loved it and learned how to bowl. Almost all, about 99%, had never bowled before, or even seen a bowling alley. However, one of the male students bowled a 161 and took the prize -- five more free game coupons.

We went shopping in Qingdao on our vacation there last week with 9 other english teachers. This was a glass shop with giant glass diamonds for sale... I bought a few.

Dana and the others shopped for pearls. They found a lot of them and bought a lot too.

In Qingdao, at the quad in front of the Catholic church, there were about a dozen brides and grooms doing wedding photographs... This couple was willing to pose for us. They all had the same color and fashion design from a rental shop.

We travelled by fast train. In Qingdao, we all stayed in an Elder Hostel there. They are quite inexpensive and quaint. This one is in an old observatory. They served us breakfast up in the top. They had a pet dog. He was the center of attention and even demanded service from the front desk...

On our tour of the Qingdao bay, Dana helped a newlywed couple take their cruise photos...

Back in Jinan, the huge, new shopping mall across the road from Quan Chung, town square is beginning to look like "Noah's Ark"...don't you think?

China Culture

2011-05-04T19:27:00.000-07:00

Differences in culture.

Every day is a new adventure. We love it here in China.
Here we are visiting Zibo (about 2 hours away by bus) and walking the "Qi Great Wall",
re-furbished, but left over from the Qi Dynasty.

In Zibo, we were treated by our university, to a day there, and to tours of two glass and ceramic factories. The workers were fascinating and busy. Despite the danger, all 20 of us tourists mingled with the workers and took photos as they dodged and wieved around us to get their products completed while they were still hot.

Morgan Jones and Jay went exploring one day and ended up in the top dome of one of twin commercial buildings downtown. It was open and so we went in a took some photos there.

This is the other twin tower with it's matching dome.

We enjoyed "Red Leaf Valley" near Jinan, by taking a city bus there for a day tour with Luci and Morgan Jones, our neighbors.

Morgan and Jay went to the rock show in Jinan. There were interesting rocks and things there. These rocks look like meat. They were really hard meat however...maybe it is petrified meat.

"Fools Gold". This is a big specimen for sale... "Pyrite", I remember from my geology class at BYU 45 years ago.

Jay was fascinated with these colored rocks. He bought three of these which are shown in the photos. A Red one, A Green one and a Yellow one. Why?

Here Morgan is observing the rocks for sale and how he could get this one home. A suitcase would be too small... Perhaps as a carry on! Are these even legal to own in USA? Probably now.

Some more rocks for sale... Lool close up and you will see some interesting geodes and unusual rocks for sale.

There was a lot of specimens of Petrified Rock. This is one of the larger ones and in perfect shape. It was for sale, but for a huge prices... and again how to get it home? Do Chinese have new cars? YES. They have anything they want to import. Many have new cars, Cadilacs, Audis, BMWs or Hummers.

Jay took a photo of his class room this year. It is a new one with good media facilities. This is the first year it is being used. It was recently remodelled.

Dana is shopping and here she is considering buying some dates on a stick. They are dipped in liquid sugar syrup which dries hard. They are quite good, especially the mandarin oranges ones.

Dana with her new Chinese dress and new wig.

Jay at the RT Market shopping. See they are all smiling.

Lydia's Italian Restaurant is close the main campus and here the whole group of English Teachers are dining out.

Shopping at what we have dubbed "Costco", an outdoor wholesale market place on the far west side of Jinan. Bus #115 goes there. It is an interesting cultural experience to shop there. Most things are available in bulk and at a relatively low price. Dave and Sue Alexander and Morgan and Luci Jones accompany Dana and Jay.

This is the "Water Boy" and his wife. He delivers water to our apartment when we call. It costs us 9 yuan per large bottle. 7 yuan is one US dollar.

Smile!!!!

Learning Chinese

2011-02-26T02:12:00.000-08:00

A Toast to the Host.

Worn my new red jacket to church today. Church was in my apartment. We had 12 people over for church today. Then we all stayed and enjoyed a wonderful lunch together and sang some chinese songs.

See the many cans of Sprite. We all drank sprite Friday night at our special twig night out with David Chun, et al.

The place was a large party room which David Chun had reserved and invited us to.

HOT POTGood Food.

This is Dana writing today. We love our blog and the opportunity it gives us to share our stories and adventures with our family and friends. It also makes a written and photographic record of our love for and our life in China.

I am really proud of Jay who has really taken an interest in learning (mandarin) the local language here. He is doing quite well and surprises me often with his ability to communicate with the people. He has learned and sings a couple of popular Chinese songs for his students, at parties or school activities, or for anyone who will listen, in Chinese!

Here he is last Friday night at a wonderfully delicious (Hot Pot) dinner, toasting the host and his Chinese friends who treated our English teachers group and thanking them for the wonderful meal and their hospitality. He really has a lot of fun with it. I cannot understand him and the other teachers cannot understand him, but the Chinese people seem to be able to. What do you think? He says he has a long way to go. We all rely on him in when travelling, eating out, shopping and in the open market place.

Learn to Like Things.

2011-02-04T00:42:00.000-08:00

Fresh Fruits are best.

I have always loved them. Strawberries are in season here. They are delicious but have a very short shelf life. But in addition to tropical fruits and vegetables, I have learned to like many other things here. One of the recent ones I have found in China is: Wonton Soup.

These fresh strawberries were at the open market today...

Jay discovered this wonderful wanton soup at a hole in the wall, little, lunch place, and I am standing in the photo below with a lady who begs for a living and instead of giving her money I bought her some soup instead. I had some and she loved it too. It costs only $3. RMB per bowl...less than .50 cents American. We try to do this now with beggars. It is really quite fun and a new twist for them.

I would throw this picture away because it really isn't that flattering of me, but when I gave three of those people wanton soup who were also begging and then she asked me if I believed in God? Of course we can say yes to that without getting in trouble, but then she told me that is the reason I have a good heart. Of course I had to say yes, that is probably true.

These are the bowls they are filling with soup. It is either 3 RMB or 6 RMB depending upon the size and number of wantons. The 3. bowl is really more than enough, but I love this stuff, so I like to get the big 6. RMB one. This is where we eat. Of course we are the only foreigners here so they really watch us try to consume their food with chopsticks and giant spoons...

This day was really cold, but the soup was really hot. This is the little lady asking us for money.

Here they are preparing the freshly made pork wontons to put in the hot soup/water.

Now we have found another place to eat some interesting and new things many of which I have really learned to love. Another place is in the new shopping center across from our apartment/campus. It is a new Thai restaurant called "RAIN". I love their coconut soup. But at this place, we quickly discovered that they have great spring rolls, but best of all they have lettuce wraps. This wonderful lady sitting with us -- is Gwen Bardsley, from Provo, who is eating out with us. She also teaches English here in Jinan. She is doing very well and she is clearly happy here. Look at the food! It was so delicious...and now she knows it too.

Below, this is Jay and Dana. Gwen is taking the picture this time. It is great to find more and more Chinese food that we can eat quite cheaply and enjoy while we finish our last 6 months here. We are scheduled to return to Provo at the end of June, 2011. See you all soon. Please comment on this post to see if anyone is reading it. Who are you out there?

Is anyone listening?

NEW YEAR'S PARTY

2011-01-23T23:44:00.000-08:00

SHANDONG UNIVERSITY:

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT NEW YEARS PARTY.

We were driven to a local hotel ballroom. We soon discovered that they really know how to party. Dana and I were asked in advance, to perform a number on the program. We prepared, practiced and danced to the music of Anne Murray: "Could I have this Dance -- for the Rest of my Life?" which is "our song" while a DVD played the music and the words on the big screen over photos or our life from marriage to the present. It was a big hit and at the end of the night, we were called back on stage by the department chairman and we were awarded "2nd prize" in the talent competition and handed a red envelope full of cash. What a great night. We had no idea that they gave such prizes to the participants in university programs...you see, it seemed like it was just an LDS Ward or Stake New Years Program! But, this is China. They have money to spare I guess and even more money to loan I hear...

Dinner was...well Chinese Food. We are already finished here...

"Could I have this Dance" for the Rest of my Life? This is our song!

Rockin it!

The student staff number one prize! They were so good. They rocked the house, with the 79 year old, retired, former department chairman (center) ...as their lead rock star.

The awards ceremony with kids placed on stage...for photos.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire...wannabes

The Dance from India. These are Chinese students though. They worked up this number for the New Years program.

Photos with the faculty kids...

The above was a photo opportunity with the department chairman next to Jay and the vice chairman next to Dana.

These students were program participants, on the program committee and were all Engineering students, staff, and faculty. These three were my former English Class Students. The woman and the man one each end of our group are getting married to each other later this year. HAPPY NEW YEAR. December 31, 2010.

WHAT'S "HOT POT" IN CHINA?

2011-01-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

SCHOOL IS OUT.
School is ending and on the last day of classes, we took a class photo together. These are my students:

The above class was my biggest last semester...

You can easily see how big my classes were this past semester...

The above photo was at our apartment on Sunday night for English Corner...

The short video below, is "Adam", one of my best English post graduate engineering students this year. He is a good friend and a pretty good English speaker. He is quite a guy. Listen to his presentation of his final oral exam called which I entitled: "Teach the Teacher." Can you understand his presentation? Drop a line and comment.

We are headed into the season of "Spring Festival" in China. This is the big "Christmas-like" celebration where families have their annual family reunions. During these reunions, they, together as a family, clean the house, cook some delicious foods, and watch TV. Fireworks, yes, Fireworks all day and all night long. HAPPY SPRING FESTIVAL!...

Thanksgiving was Grate...ful!

2010-11-27T22:25:00.000-08:00

Have I done any good in the world today?
Our class this past week was on Thanksgiving. We taught about the history, the culture, and the foods like turkey which they do not have the chance to enjoy in China. They do not have turkeys for sale here and the Chinese do not like turkey. We taught about Thanksgiving traditions, and family activities. Then we had a kind of special exercise where the students stood one by one and expressed their gratitude for the things they were thankful for in their lives this Thanksgiving. It was really special. Then we assigned them to write with an attitude of gratitude -- a letter to their parents. This turned out to be a grateful day and a good idea. Most of our students, 99.5%, have never written a letter to their parents for any reason...let alone a thanksgiving letter. That fact made this English lesson unique and English writing assignment/experience emotional for everyone, including us.

They turned in all of their English letters to their parents so I was able to read every one of them and they are so special, sincere, and emotional. Thanksgiving celebration and family activities are now something to build on and to begin new family traditions. It is also a newly introduced western holiday which they have all agreed should also be an annual Chinese family tradition.

We had prepared letter forms for them to write to their parents...of course we also had written a note to their parents on the form letter too. We mailed the letters for them a week before Thanksgiving so they would arrive on or about Thanksgiving day.

Here is one of them:

Dear Father and Mother, I'd like to thank you and actually I'm always grateful to you. Thank you for letting me come to this earth. You gave me the chance to experience such a colorful and wonderful world. Thank you for raising me up and always forgiving me. When I was a little child, I knew I was a naughty boy and I often broke things, but you never blamed me for that because you knew I already felt so sorry and was afraid about my mistake. You had a strong belief that I would correct these faulty behaviors one day. Thank you for giving me a happy family. That was a great contribution to my physical, emotional, and psychological development so that I could be a normal individual rather than a uneducated child. Thank you for doing me a favor when I was having difficulty. It's so kind of you to support me all the time and respect my own choices. You act as light towers on the road to my success. I remember one day, mother asked me: "When was your happiest day of your life?" I answered: "I'm getting happier and happier". However, now I suspect maybe the happiest time in my life was being your child. I love you. Yours sincerely, Benjamin

This photo above shows our teacher's note to the student's parents. The feedback has been excellent as they tell of their parents call to answer their letter and to tell them of their love as well. We will do it again for Mother's Day! Thanksgiving time is when English teachers can really know that they are making a difference here in China...when the students learn and excel not only in English, but in learning about western culture and then trying out new and unusual traditions. We know that we have done some good in the far east today.

They translated thier English letter into chinese characters before turning them in.

They are really proud of their letters. Their parents loved the letters!

Kirk and Midge Evans from BYU arrived in Jinan to observe the teaching styles and expertise, and then took us all (Jinan's BYU English teacher group) out to dinner. Hamburgers, salads and brownie desserts were on the menu! Does it seem like we are always eating?Sunday's "Linger Longer" lunch is a weekly tradition in Jinan. We love this time together and the food is western cuisine...and the best meal of the week for most of us.

Luci Jones tripped and fell and bonked her head above her eye. What a cute "Shiner" she got. It has all healed up by now though, so it is no more. She is okay!

Barbequed Pulled Pork Sloppy Jays. Ya gotta love it. Gwen Bardsley says "Hi".

At Zhujiayu, an ancient Chinese village, we found a lot to look at. This was a culture shock and a step back in time. This lady below was spinning yard on an unbelievable spinning wheel. and I thought my spinning wheel at home which I brought back from Finland 43 years ago, was old because it was owned by an vanha iso iso aiti (great grandmother)... but it looks new in comparison to this one. And this one worked pretty well.

This aggressive sales lady is selling chinese fast food, a kind of corn meal pancake with vegetables inside. The food name is unknown at this time... I will try to find out.

Corn hung to dry... Good fortune, Good Luck sign. It is corn drying season again.

A long weave....This one is really long.

Student show and tell. This engineering post graduate student brought his engineering project which is made with no nails, glue, or staples. It is make to snap or clip together. That was the assignment from his professor.

Show and tell "Happy Time" knick knack box. She did a good job of telling where she got it, who gave it to her, what it is used for and all about it. She loves it and it is the most meaningful and memorable gift she has ever received. I like it too.

At the new Home Furnishing Center we visited today, I caught Dana was out front, just horsing around.

The Zhujiayu tour group of English, Japanese, Russion, Spanish, and German Teachers and Mary, our boss and her staff. This was a free tour by the University and they treated us to a really good Chinese Food lunch while we were there and we also went to the open outdoor market together for about an hour. Group Smile! It was a fun and an educational day. We look forward to the next tour... Winter break is coming on the first of January through the first of March. We will have time to travel. We are making our travel plans, reservations and booking travel arrangements. We are going to Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanjing and spend our time there.

Jason & Tanner's China Visit

2010-11-03T00:20:00.000-07:00

THE GRAND TOUR.
Jason and Tanner Thelin, from Alpine, Utah, came to visit us in China. They stayed about 10 days and visited Beijing and the sights there including the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, but the the most fun was at the Beijing Silk Market where the sales girls were determinedly agressive in their sales techniques... One of them actually told Jason that if he did not buy something from her little store, she would kill him. I think it was just to get him thinking... He did buy a lot from her though. Others told him they wanted to marry him and have his baby... He declined all offers. All this aside, Jason was a good shopper and he was pretty firm, even strong and eventuallly learned to walk away to get the best bartered prices. Tanner learned quickly and he and I had a code we used with each other for the ultimate bartering conclusion. It was "W. A." Translated to English it means "Walk Away" now! We really had a good time there.

Qufu was the place to visit as it is the home of Confucious and the location of the burial place for the Confucious family. We enjoyed the city, the food, the tours and the horse drawn carts.

These are the torture stairs where wives, concubines or any disobedient children or their friends would have to kneel for long periods of time or until they had learned their lesson. Tanner would not kneel on this thing. He would not even try.

This photo is not only way old with a loooooong history, but it is an optical illusion painting that has a path which always leads to you no matter where you stand. Pretty awesome because it was really true as we moved around it.

Qufu modes of travel.

We climbed the Quan Fo Shan Mountain to see the BIG GOLDEN BUDDA IDOL.

The three seater bikes were cool.

Tanner climbed to the Budda landing for a miniature photo of him with the BIG GOLDEN BUDDA.

PHOTO OP...discovered by PopPop.

Tanner was instantly famous as everyone wanted their photo taken with him and like a Red Headed Rock Star, he gave his time and energy to that task. This is only one of the groups, then they all wanted individual or small group photos with the All American Boy.

This went on for a long time... and then re-ocurred later too.

This is the Big Sports Park in Jinan where the National Games were held last year. Dana and I attended the diving competition in this Water Cube-like building.

Chinese food dinner with them at the "Golden Hans" Buffet in Jinan. This was kind of a knockoff of a Brazilian Barbeque. This young 21 year old fellow is our Macintosh Computer consultant in Jinan. He learned to speak English by watching western movies. His English name is James Mac

This was cool when Tanner came back with a plate for of yummy vanilla cream from the buffet and after diving in, he exclained: "This is quite what I expected, it is not vanilla cream, I think it is Salad Dressing!"

Dessert Yummies... by Jason.

Our Brazilian Barbeque waiter carving off a slice of a leg of lamb for each of us...

We travelled by Bullet train to Qing Dao where we met the "Yellow Sea" as seen here. We took a boat ride around the bay.

Jay speaking chinese with some students on the boat. They like to talk English to him and he likes to practice Chinese on them. They act as his Chinese teachers.

Again, Tanner clearly enjoyed being a poser with these 3 girls on the Bay Tour we went on...

Jason went first and told them about his business and his new products as you can see my the power point presentation, (so now the trip is tax deductable I think) and then Tanner (16) lectured to my Graduate Students in my Class for about 10 minutes about American culture, his family, his life and his Eagle Scout Project and they just loved it. Both Jason and Tanner were a good teachers and now this foreign university lecture experience could be part of Tanner's growing resume'.

At the West Market in Jinan,shopping in China.

Jason bought a wig for his wife here... He enjoyed shopping too as you can tell.

Dana and I at the Silk Market where we made good friends with our sales ladies. They also think we are "Rock Stars" I think. but silver haired ones.

Below, we stayed in aYouth Hostel in Beijing together for a real Chinese cultural experience. It was really fun. We had four bunk beds in our little room with a half bath.

The Great Wall was fun to visit again, but it was reallly cold and we all had to buy hats. Sadly, I had worn shorts and I caught a lot of stares and comments about that and I bought another winter fur hat.

Mormon Crickets - Lunchables

2010-10-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

Silk Worm Larve on the side. Fast Food Lunch in China is a cultural exchange program for westerners. We found some delicious oblong cantalope (crunchy) and decided to indulge in some fast food today. Fruit is so good here in China. This snack on a stick cost 1 yuan, about $.14 cents, each. Here is Dana, Jay and Joseph snackin...and loving it. It is the fruit currently in season and it is so crunchy good.

We have enjoyed having Tiffany and Joseph Lowe visit us for a week here in Jinan. They stayed at our house with the written permission of the Police Department, so they were legal.

Now this is it. We found these oh so interesting barbeque items in the fast food section of the outdoor market. Yes, Mormon Crickets who found their way to China...and ended up in the roasting oven and on the barbi. They go well with just a few of the adjacent roasted silk worm larve. Ya gotta try them. Actually, I still have to do that too, as we all passed on these because we were not that hungry at that particular time. We took a picture which was enough for us to remember to go back when were were starving. The early Utah pioneers probably should have thought this protein food source through a little more thoroughly, now don't ya think? This type of daily barbeque would have solved more than one problem for them.

There are lots of variety of drinks and ice cream bars here and they are very inexpensive and great tasting.

We were searching the area and fell upon some fast foods that were unique and looked oh so tasty. These are some more.... What are they? Guess on the ones you do not recognize in your comments.

Chinese Pizza wannabe...

Guess what this snack is...Little baby squid snack packs in glutinous rice ball packages...kind of like a complete Chinese Happy Meal.

These will make your mouth water if you look at them close up, so click on the photo and take a closer look.

Steamed Bread or Bouzi...are always delicious.

Whatever...you want, they have in fast food. These are a wide variety of items threaded on Chinese Barbeque sticks which are placed over some wood charcoal and roasted to taste....Yum, Yum.

These boiled snacks are everywhere at night for the late night date.

???? I don't know... Do you?

Shrimp on a stick, plus some tofu or bread on a stick for barbequing Chinese style.

Crawdads on a stick....Everything in China as far as fast food seems to be on a stick.

These little crabs are not yet on a stick but may be any minute. Good Luck Guys.

Chicken parts on a stick. These are edible and even palatable when they are warm. Chinese food is so good when you are hungry you know. Please comment so I know who is reading these rambling oppinionated remarks and real life original photos. Thanks.

DAY TRIP TO RED LEAF VALLEY

2010-10-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Jason and Tanner are coming to Beijing this Friday night. We will go to Beijing and meet them at the airport and then stay two days in Beijing to see all the sights there. Then on to Jinan by the fast train late Sunday night. They will stay a week or more with us. We are so excited to see them and hope their long intercontinental flight is a good one. See you soon guys.

The Red Leaves were out this year when we went to Red Leaf Valley with Morgan and Luci Jones... We took a city bus (3 yuan) all the way to the site (1 hour) and then a taxi (40 yuan total) up the mountain to the resort. We enjoyed walking the site and took a golf cart part of the way. It was beautiful with the fall leaves and this is where we "RELAXED OURSELVES"...as they say in China.

Yes, this is a BLACK SWAN. Dana loves swans.

This is the tunnel into the Bird Sanctuary which is entirely covered with netting.

We are Back in China!

2010-10-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd Year Teaching English.

We have been back in our apartment in Jinan for one month now. We are having a ball.

When we flew in to Beijing we had to stay over night. The beds were hard, but we must be getting use to it because we slept quite well.

This time we brought back of lot of American stuff to Jinan to make our last year a little easier and fun.

We enjoyed our daughter Tiffany and Joseph coming to China for a week and staying with us. We travelled to Beijing to meet them and to for them to tour. We really had a ball showing them around and buying stuff in China. They are great and so adventurous to come for a week without their 4 kids who stayed at home in Portland Oregon. The kids were in daily contact with them by Skype and that was fun to see too. Watch for their blog posts (The Lowe Crew) coming soon, to see all of their and our China Adventures together. We love you guys! G
lad you make it home safely.

Pictures to follow if we can get more of them over the GFW with photos which are not vaulting over very well yet. We are getting it to work better now...

We shall overcome.

Jay and Dana
Jinan, China.

Please comment if you get to see this post.

Is anyone out there?

Going Back To China.

2010-09-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

On our way to Seattle today...

...past Mount Rainier.

Dennis had ahis 8th birthday party last night and we all enjoyed the party.

James was the cook. Yum.

The pirate treasure cake was awesome, arrugh.

We are on our way...BACK.

We are now in Seattle at the airport, on our way back to China for one more School year teaching English. We depart on a 12 hour flight at 9:00 pm tonight. We will stay overnight in Beijing and then fly (2 hours) to Jinan on Saturday morning. We should be at our apartment there by noon Saturday.

Winterizing the Homestead

2010-09-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

Preparing for Winter.

Jay is in the stocks at the Island Park Dinner Theater on a night out with Boston and his Grandma. We have a great meal of Prime rib and all the fixin's and a great comedy play.

Throwing a few horse shoes before we close the Homestead for the winter and until next year...

Because of the expected deep snow (3 - 4 feet), the tables are turned.

Toys, beds and 4 wheelers are stored in our new storage (bully barn) after the gas is drained from the carburators..

Boston's last swim in the ole Swimming Hole with Grandma.

The outdoor kitchen's sun roof is placed vertically for the winter, and overything is covered and tied down...

We put a new little door on the E-wok Village Auxilary kitchen. It is cool now.

Dana decided to make a summer roof over the stage. It is nice and keeps the rain off the stage when grandkids are performing.... What about the audience??? Oh, they are toasty around the camp fire nearby.

Summer Vacation with the Grandkids.

2010-07-08T01:11:00.000-07:00

There are more.

Dennis and Zak were found in Austin Texas and we wanted to add them to this long list of Grand children... Dennis is the one in the mask.

Family Reunions:

... gave us a chance to get re-aquainted with our children, their families and our grandchildren... Malibu is right at home in front of the camera. Give her a wig and she will make it work!

Maddison is teetering...at 17! She is the oldest grandkid and always will be.

The Lin Family Reunion...in Portland, Oregon.

The newest grandkid is Tammy Lee Thelin (1 month)

Lilly Thelin

Jackson Thelin (2)

Tiffany & Joseph's family with James & Karen's also and Dana and I

Jason and Vanessa.

Jerusha and Trenton found some mutant but delicious Oregon strawberries.

Tammy Lee Thelin is in awe with everything that is going on...

Lilly, Jericka and Emma

Da Whole Gang.

Now who wants to wear the Chinese clown wig? Jerusha?

Mallorie?

Trenton?

Malibu?

Jerika?

Jacqueline?

Jennedy?

Or Boston??? What do you think?

Conan made big bubbles for all see.

POP POP and Emma. (7)

Grace Thelin, Age 10

Boston with fan.

Malibu goes penny shopping with Grandma Darling for China souveniers.

The big boys went crabbing at the Oregon beach. We caught three and ate them really fast. Delicious!

POP POP and Abby.

Grandma Darling and Tammy Lee.

Grace and Tammy Lee.

Tanner. We are finally home in the USA with the Grandkids

James and his new (third) daughter, Tammy Lee Thelin

One of Tammy's older sisters is Jerusha. (3)

Pop Pop and 2 year old Jackson Thelin

Fast Silk Screening by 3-woman

2010-06-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

Da Mac is Back.

After the break-in and theft of our two computers and video camera, Dana was a little down, but today she has her new apple macintosh laptop to chew on. It is not new but used, in very good condition. We feel that we got a good deal on it from one of her techies named James, who fixes our computers for us and helps us keep them going in China. We bought his. She loves it and her projects are back on track. Can't you just tell?

A monsoon at the West market today and we were there to experience it. What a floody floody.

Jay spied some nice leather goods and bought a couple...during the floody. We are coming home soon you know...

We can learn a lot from the Chinese.

We have a small garage t-shirt business at home. This one is different. A skilled three man/woman team can put out a lot of silk screened t-shirts fast. This team we bumped into at the west market in Jinan was making screened shirts as fast as they could go. They did not have a huge investment in screening machinery, or even a large dryer. You can see how do it and how they lay out the shirts to dry. Everything is done fast, efficient, and with lots of labor ... and love.

"SMALL DIMPLES" Chinese Love Song

2010-06-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

One week to go. Smiles all around.

At West market we found a three person silk screening process going on and took some photos. Pretty quick, Pretty slick. Need 3 people though and as you see no dryer...

Singing today.

Jay sang in Chinese today in his English Class to demonstrate that students can learn to sing in English and should do so... Clearly it is not impossible if you really want to learn to do it and you practice it and if anyone cana do it if you will just try!

LEAVING CHINA - JUNE 16th

2010-06-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

Going home soon.

We have mixed feelings leaving our students behind as we get ready to fly out of Beijing to San Francisco and then on to Salt Lake City. We so enjoy these students and their warm, harmonious, and kindred spirits. We will miss them and their caring so much about us and taking good care of us.

One of my medical students gave me this photo of one of their patients who needs to stretch his skin to provide more patching and grafting skin for his burns. This is not me or Dana, but a medical demonstrator patient of our students. These students are learning to do these type of procedures and eventually become medical doctors in China.

This is after church last Sunday and it is the last photo of this years Jinan Twig, a small but somewhat independent twig off of the Beijing Branch. We have enjoyed this association and all the fun activities we have planned. Dana was the Twig Activities Chairman and Jay was the Jinan Group Leader.

This is the final class photos for some of our English Classes. We teach post graduate Engineering students and Medical students... Can you guess which they are in each photo?

Our academic advisors took Richard and Jay out for an end of the year Chinese lunch and toasted almost everything we could think of. We were treated royally. And, yes the food (fish, etc.) was delicious.

These are Dana's Freshmen medical students.

We are coming back to China on September 2nd for one more school year, our third. We have our round trip tickets in hand.

We Gotta Get On With It.

2010-05-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

We Got New Doors.

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

Life is Great and Definitely Interesting.

2010-05-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Perhaps before you read this, you should read Jay's blog below first. This is Dana adding my feelings.
I feel sad that someone would do this but I am not upset, I just feel bad that some mother has to feel sad about their child. I had to remind Jay that in Utah we have had 5 cars stolen and a few bikes, and that what we lost were just things. Perhaps because of this experiences I will learn to do movies on a PC. Jay hopes I will lock the door better, but this happened not because the doors were unlocked. Luckly our cleaning lady had done a really good job of locking both doors and so we had great prove that someone did break in.
Each of the Chinese people we worked with on this theft have been really great. The police were really nice and because our cleaning lady had just cleaned the apartment that morning they were able to get some good finger prints. She does a wonderful job dusting, which I consider a really horrible job and don't do. Everyone feels so sad and sorry that it happened to us. I of course kept making jokes and wanting to clean up the crime scene. I didn't until we came back from the police station, okay This is the first time in 20 years of the foriegn teachers teaching at this university that this has happened. I think it will be the last. I really am not worried, this is a wonderful save place and I feel lucky that nothing bad happened.
How grateful I am for my own father who taught me to look at the best in all situations. When we had a fire in our home, when I was a teenager, he came walking up the driveway and the first thing he said to my mother was, "I never like the ceiling anyway." So my Mac was starting to make strange sounds and I was worried that it wasn't going to make through the next 4 weeks. Also, they are going to get us a new door and we now get keys to the other door. We will be using that one, it is right across the hall, until we get our new door.
I am really sad about the camera. We had just shot some really good video during the day with my classes, and that was taken along with the camera. I still have a lot of old material. Actually when I was cleaning this morning I found the two other cameas that really are junk. Luckly our pastports and visas were at our Wybans office and so they were safe.
Now Jay will have to share his PC with me and that will probably be the hardest part about this whole experience. Not bad if you ask me. All in all, I look at this whole experience as another adventure to see how we will reack to a difficult situation. As always, Dana

WE GOT ROBBED!

2010-05-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

They took our 2 Laptops and 3 Cameras.

Jay lost his 17" Dell laptop computer and Dana lost her 17"Macintosh Laptop computer. They had all of our teaching materials, ppts, video clips, movies, and projects and complete student information on them. Dana also lost her nice and expensive, HD Sony Movie Camera she has been using to make movies of her class activities these past two weeks, plus two little digital Kodak cameras.

So we are pretty disgusted with the whole thing... We are here to help them learn English and to become better people. We have felt very safe here, but it is hard to love them today. We will again in time. We never thought that anyone would do this to us, but here are the photos of what we came home to today in our apartment. We filed a police report and went to the police station to file a theft report, give our mugshots and fingerprints so that they could eliminate ours from the ones they collected in our apartment. Hopefully they will find the bad guys soon and get our equipment back. Or, it already may be in Siberia. I did day that when they find them, that I would like them in jail for a long time in Siberia.

The door was broken and pried open with a tool like a pry bar.

We hae gone to bed without locks on these two doors as they are busted pretty bad. So I have made a booby trap for anyone who tries to enter. They will be sorry this time...

Oh, don't stop by and come in without knocking -- okay?

These were bumbling idiots who did not take the video projector, Dana's external hard drive, our internet hub, power cords, 300 GB USB Drives etc... I think I actually came home while they were in the middle of their heist, and they must have had a lookout, so I feel pretty lucky that they ran with what they could carry fast, before I got to the door. They are luckier though as I would have given them some of my Canadian Hockey Cross Checking and High Sticking! I am a BIG and ANGRY man.

Today really sucks! I am still up and posting this at 1:00 am...way past my normal bedtime...but like my sister Julie in Washington state, I am kind of wired!

Love you all.

Jay & Sleeping Dana.

MOTHER'S DAY IN CHINA.

2010-05-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

MOTHER'S DAY IS COMING!

We took a 4 day trip to RiZhao by the sea. We went with Richard and Paula Watkins, our neighbors and fellow English teachers here in Jinan. We had a great time. We went by bus.........

Don't we all look happy?

Bought another new hat. Cost is aways about 3. dollars.

Send Chocolates, Diamonds or FLowers!

TAI CHI exercise/practice by Paula while her husband video taped her. Notice the little vendor lady who stepped up to kind of mock her...or maybe to just exercise also.

Dana always find the wedding dresses in the hotel.

Beauty..... What can I say. I told my class when I showed them these photos of our trip today, that this bride is really beautiful -- almost as beautiful as my wife. They all agreed.

A whole family at play at the Bamboo Forest.

Girl playing the Erhu, a one string Chinese violin.

Fun at the Bamboo Forest recreation area.

The famous RiZhao figurine by the marina.

I came upon someone's wheel barrow at the beach.

Dana always finds a wedding. The brides are always so beautiful and small..

SEND FLOWERS, MAY 9th.

A Sugar friend. She (Christine) and hersugar company, import raw sugar materials and processes them in China and ships sugar worldwide. What a sweet job.

Two Buddas...?

Richard always wants the best photo shot...so try this one.

Two Buddist Buddies.

MOTHERS DAY IS THIS SUNDAY.

This little video clip below from an old TV series has a whole new meaning to us here in China. We are not allowed to discuss our religion with anyone! This is a totally different kind of mission. Hope this post brings a little cheer. However, we can and do send flowers!

WHAT?...FRUIT DUMPLINGS?

2010-04-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

SWEET APPLE DUMPLINGS.

This is Ella, an Engineering student here at Shandong University and an one of our English students. She was hired to be Richard Watkins and my technical assistant to insure that our computers and electrical system is on and working in our classrooms each day. So she arrives before we do and turns on the computers, sets up our audio video systems, for powerpoint presentations, movies, pictures and such and checks the sound to the speakers. Those university computers are all in Chinese. Then at the end of our classes she returns to turn off the system and to turn the lights off and lock up our class rooms. She is an excellent "Teckie".

I took this photo as she left the classroom last week. She came to our apartment with several other English students last Sunday night for an historical event: The initial making of "Fruit Dumplings". Such has never ever been done in China. In fact, Ella stated that Chinese would never have thought of doing what we did to Dumplings. They would never put anything sweet into a dumpling. They just do not have such radical and weird things in China. Well, I decided to do it anyway and have been telling my students about my plans for a few weeks. They all said that Chinese would not like them and would certainly not eat such things.

I realized that I was going against the status quo, the government, and Chinese culinary rules.

So we made up a good tasting grated apple pie filling from scratch (my original recipe) with Ella and the rest of the students. We made two kinds of fruit dumplings: Apple and Peach.

This is the apple dumplings. Essentially, they are mini apple pies, deep fried, with powdered sugar sprinkled on top, but here everyone calls them dumplings. They are sweet!

Try this one, up close! The students whipped up a batch of fresh cream into "Whipped Cream", and then they dipped these little dumplings into that white, unknown substance and tasted them. You guessed it... They all like it. The peach ones were not quite as good, but when dipped into the whipped cream, they also downed all of them too.

WAR CRAFT MASK: At class last week, the students had "Show and Tell" This one guy brought his mask he made in his dorm room of one of the players in the computer game -- War Craft. They all play this games late into the night. I tried it on. He made it with paper, little rolls of cardboard and duct tape. I think he did a pretty good job considering it was adjustable to fit any big or small head. It looked pretty cool. He is an engineer and a pretty good artist I think.

Dana went out and just bought a new fridge. She just wanted a new one and saved up for it. We now have two fridges. The old one is in the sewing room and is overflow for food storage, for cold water storage and drinks. We like cold drinks in the hot weather. She paid a lot of money for it, $1000. yuan, about $140. American. We really like the new fridge as the bottom half is the freezer with lots of freeze space.

COUGARETTES IN CHINA?

2010-04-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

DANCE NIGHT.

These two video clips below are downtown in Jinan last Saturday night. I like to dance. The Chinese love to sing and dance. As you can see, they have many interesting types of dances, dancers and dances steps like this one... Teach these catchy dance steps to your kids. Let's all learn this one. Got the music in ya? Do you like to Dance? Give these ones a try!

THESE (ABOVE PHOTO) ARE SOME OF MY TYPICAL GRADUATE ENGINEERING ENGLISH STUDENTS WHO ARE LEARNING ENGLISH BY PUTTING ON A SKIT TODAY. I BROUGHT IN SOME PUPPETS AND A BAG OF THINGS FOR THEM TO USE TO HELP THEM TELL THEIR STORY. THEY LOVED THIS DAY BECAUSE THEY GOT TO BE KIDS AND PLAY TOGETHER AGAIN AS KIDS DO.

Journey to Laizhou, China

2010-04-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Pineapple Season.

and boy are they sweet, and boy do they taste good.

We were invited to travel (4 hours) to Laizhou which is north of Jinan and on the shore of the sea. We went at the invitation of one of Dana's medical students. Both of us were to present a 3000 word paper to a group there. We were asked to go, stay overnight and present in the morning. We were treated very well by our hosts and we enjoyed the trip and Laizhou.

Presenting our papers. They were medical research papers full of medicalease and huge words, and complicated by being written in traditional Chinglish/Half Chinese/Half English. Try and read that someday kids. It is a fun read out loud at a Family Home Evening kids. Try it Tanner. I will send you some Chinglish.

Dana and Wendy, read one by one...and accomplished the company's goal.

This was our audience. They were not doctors as we had imagined. They were elderly people who had come to hear about some new medical research and resulting medicines for Diabetes and Hypertension. Then they were asked to buy the products. The had never seen an American or any other person that Chinese...so we were quite the novelty and they were all very gratious and kind to us too. Dana and I talked later and decided that we were kind of a draw or incentive like monkeys at the zoo and they had come to see us and hear us talk. They understood no English however, so the translator girl (we named her Wendy) told them what we were reading to them.

This is the company manager as we were leaving the conference room. I think he was really happy to have us come, although his demeanor is not showing it. Hey, we are happy though.

On the way out of Laizhou, the car broke down as the clutch linkage broke and we limped into a garage to get it fixed...so Dana and I went for a walk and saw this cool tractor with a 50 foot trailer flat bed on back.

She also met this garbage man cleaning the garbage up and thought he was really cute. What do you think? I think he looks like the guy I got fleas from last year. So, I stayed back.

These are the lunch we received as we started to leave town, andour hosts stopped at a fast foot chinese place to get us some of the famous, Laizhou Donkey Pies. They look like tacos to me, but tasted like Donkey, I guess. Dana would not eat them, but did take one bite. I ate one only...You can only eat so much Donkey, and I have heard that "You are What You Eat."

This is our house in Jinan before we left for Laizhou. It is Spring and it is warming now.

Richard Watkins and Dana and I went to a place we have named: "Home Depot". It is a series of hundreds of small shops which cover several acres. The place was closed as we arrived late, except this one shop. We went in and got what we came for. Three long 35 foot extensions cords. I was able to talk in Chinese enough to tell them what we wanted and to ask them to assemble them, and then pay and leave...of course I was talking to them all the time while they were working in Chinese. So, they know all about our family, kids, grandkids, our ages, and names, including our Chinese names. They have our card now. They are now good friends and we took our photos together. They also took photos. When we left, we had such a good feeling about this adventure. I call this friendshipping, store contacting and spreading the spirit of a positive life with our Chinese friends here. We cannot help but love these people. They are just great...all of them.

DOING THE BUNNY HOP

2010-04-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

Dancing the Night Away.

We are doing the Waltz here. An opportunity to go dancing last weekend came to us from a Chinese Medical Doctor (Adam) and his wife (could be Eve). They picked us up in their "summer car" and drove us up to a new high rise apartment complex with a club house. There Paula and Richard Watkins and we enjoyed a Dance Night in China.

DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY -- Well until 10 pm.`

The above is the "Bunny Hop" kind of a conga line dance.

This is Adam and Eve. They were so kind to us and really a lot of fun. The really like to dance. Their friends, relatives, and family also came to enjoy the activity and to sing and dance.

Dana got into helping this young lady look good. She made some bows and bright colored silk hair adornments for her to dance with. She liked it and she looked good.

This is were you dance in the round, round and round and round, I think...It was fun though. Everyone did it.

Here, Paula teaches the dance where you flail the silk scarves around while sort of flaunting it or strutting your stuff. Scarf strutting, flailing and flaunting caught on quickly.

Richard and I did a pretty raucous rendition of the "Twist" -- like we did last summer -- Twist again...and again...and again... Boy was I twisted up the next day. My back was sore for two more days. But I have fully recovered now. Richard had no ill effects. Of course, that could be because he is in better physical shape. Oh yah, Richard is 75 years old!

Dana had some of her students over to our apartment to ice the star sugar cookies for the campus student fund raiser for the dought victims in southern China. Millions of people are without water there. It is a biblical dought/famine.

Dana made up a treasure trove of sugar cookies, banana bread, cinnamon rolls and small loaves of bread. Then the students iced the cookies and took all of that stuff over to the central campus to give away with a small donation to for the thirsty drought victims, which in the final analysis was all coordinated through the international Red Cross.

There was a lot of stuff... The banana bread loaves are inside the aluminum foil wraps.

Dana and I were invited to go to one of the best elementary schools in Jinan where we taught two classes the he, she and it English lesson (Pronouns) to these eager students. They were so excited, even hyper agitated. Their teacher had to get after them for their misbehavings. But I also played: "Oh Suzanna" on my little harmonica for their entertainment and they all knew that song. The visit was a hit.

Dana taught the pronouns and demonstrated them with real people... Look closely at their faces to see their sincere delight at our visit. You would think that we were some kind of celebrity.

Richard and I rehearse for our planned wind instrument show later on this month. Richard plays the imaginary trombone and I play and imaginary trumpet. We sound pretty good with these two unique instruments, harmonizing like we try to do...

Richard actually plays the clarinet and very well as a former college (USU) music teacher, so this one was not imaginary. Dana and I found this tie for him when we were shopping in Hong Kong. It really suits him doesn't it!

And now link to the Bunny Hop video clip below. The person in the front of the line is supposed to be the leader right? Dancing is Fun!

Chicken Paws

2010-03-26T03:49:00.000-07:00

Chicken Feet, Ya gotta love em.

At the Dinner last night with the Doctors, they asked us if we would like an order of Chicken Paws? We said we knew what they were. We all laughed at because they are chicken feet...and the Chinese love them. Here are some photos of Chicken Paws...we took to show you.

Kids, have a look.

Here is a tasty five pack of chicken feet for your lunch pail...or for on the go.

These are at the market cleaned and ready to cook. Notice the claws. They are interesting eating. Remember the people here love these and pick the bones clean...then spit out the bones and the toe nails. This is one little cultural difference between the East and the West.

Cooked Chicken Paws...ready to eat.

Another recipe of cooked chicken paws...ready to eat.

Still more...

Dana is selecting an individual lunch box paw or a fast food snack. They are seasoned, cooked and ready to eat. These are quite cheap too.

Would you like to try one? We will bring some home for you if you let us know how many you would like.

Checking out.

We found our new favorite drink in 4 different brands and containers. We will try them all to see which ones are the best. They are all Apple Vinegar juice/drinks...and they taste really good. Try one today!

We Ate Ostrich Today!

2010-03-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

Check One off --

Da Bucket List

I have wanted to do this someday and had it on my bucket list. We actually ate Ostrich meat tonight at a nice Chinese Restaurant with a group of Doctors from a large hospital here in Jinan. They were great fun and so nice to take us out in gratitude for some favors we had provided to them, when we were invited to be visible Americans inside their clinic when some VIP guests came though on tour. We agreed to do this because we are friends. They simply reciprocated tonight. It was great fun too.

But, first, a photo of my bread making day on Tuesday afternoon. I wanted to be creative in the kitchen and made some really good bread and a couple of hamburger buns for dinner that night. They were excellent hamburgers with all the trimmings. This just goes to show that you can do anything in China. If you cannot buy it, get it, or if they do not have it anywhere, just make it yourself. You can do it.

NICE HAMBURGER BUNS EH? My bread really turned out to be the best I ever made... and I am not bragging. It is a fact.
The meal was simply scrumptious.... That's China!

It was a little heavy to pick up a piece of watermelon with chopsticks. Dr. (Professor) Zho sat at the head of the table... He is the head cardiologist in the new hospital wing and has examined and treated me a few times.

The hot soy milk drinks tasted just like you would think raw soy milk would taste like and made things interesting and they made for some great toasts...all around. They look like milk shakes, but they are far from such.

This is the spicy Ostrich chunks mixed with potatoes and peppers.

Doctor Tricia has an Ostrich chunk on her fork... Oh yes, we taught them how to use forks.

One of the dishes we tasted was squid which was served with squid meat rolls along with bunches of squid tentacles. Dumplings and a watermelon, fruit plate ended the meal.

So, check 1 off my Bucket List. We were treated to such an interesting formal, yet fun, dinner party with the Hospital staff. They took us to a private room in a nice Chinese restaurant. The highlight of the dinner was the dish of meat which we struggled to identify after first tasting it. It tasted pretty good. I asked if it was several meats including if it was dog? and they said no. Finally after a lot of feathered, long necked, large Australian desert bird descriptions, we learned that it was Ostrich meat and it was really quite good. Even Dana ate it. It was a little stringy and could have passed for turkey breast, but not exactly -- and with the added spices, it was well camophaged Ostrich.

We also had black, spiny sea cucumbers in a fish soup, sea worms with cucumber salad, Deep fried Pork short ribs, sliced pork sausage, scrambled eggs with little red, popping fish eggs mixed together, tender bamboo shoots sliced, sweet and sour shrimp. We ate pickled summer squash, followed by hot soy milk toasts of love, happiness and prosperity, all around. They had some trouble understanding that we did not want alcohol, beer, wine, tea or coffee. We announced that we did not drink those drinks as it was bad for our health and they are all doctors, so they agreed and drank what we drank. The Sprite we finally ended up with, was great until the doctors stated that it contained a lot of sugar. I said: You're the Doctor! and they all laughed.

We finished it all off with a fruit plate and then a plate of Chinese green vegetable dumplings dipped in garlic and vinegar. It was really fun as we joked, laughed and enjoyed the party, trying all the time to speak Chinese, much to their delight. I learned how to say "You look as Beautiful as a Flower" before coming and used that one everyone including the male doctors. At least, they understood me and they laughed. It was fun. Then they took us home in their mini van.

PHASE: Alive and Well in China.

2010-03-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

JUST A PHASE IN CHINA.

Dana's PHASE (Peers Helping Advance Self Esteem) leadership Program at Shandong Universtiy, Jinan, China:

This Group of students could perform the name game without missing, the longest of any group.

Here their knees are touching and they keep with the beat of "Let The Name Game Begin"

Each group has a leader who has been trained to do "Listening" Leadership Activities.

If you have done PHASE in the past in Utah, you remember the part where you have to talk to someone you know the least. Instead of talking about Panic, Hope, Achievments, something they have seen, or what is entertaining, they change the conversation to talk about their hometown of JINAN and just what makes them Joyful, feel Important, Need things, remember their Ancestors, or what makes them feel Necessary in their lives. They must do this activity in a circle, face to face. There are no carpets to sit on in the classrooms, so I bought some material for one classroom in one of my assigned building for those groups to sit on...as you can see below. They love it.

In Building 9 the halls are too dirty so this is these English Class groups that have stools to

circle--ize on.

Students sit on some of my 31 stools in various outside class locations on the first floor. Right now it really cold here in Jinan but in just a few weeks, we will be going outside into the warm air to do our group leadership PHASE activities.

We are short 31 stools so I have 3 groups sit on part of the desks so they can form a odd shaped circle.

It has been exciting to see this PHASE Leadership program work with my 200 Freshmen Medical students. They are developing some great Leadership skills that I hope will help them as they use their English in the years to come. First semester they learned how to brain storm. This week I watched as they applied what they learned last year as they work with their groups. I am so proud of them!

CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL IN JINAN, CHINA

2010-03-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

USING THE BUS --

Dana, Paul and Jay went to the outdoor market place we have dubbed COSTCO. It is a wholesale market where you can buy in quantity and for wholesale prices. Dana decided she wanted 17 more folding chairs for her students to sit on when she takes them outside for class. She does that often. They love it too. Now she can add these folding chairs to the ones we have already and the grand total is 31. These are very common chairs for use in China.

Dana on the bus with her treasure (17 folding chairs).

Now as we attempted to take the whole lot off the bus, the straps broke and the whole pile of chairs ended up off our hand truck and on the concrete. Did we allow that to get us down? No way. We all just laughed. Jay decided that photos of the disaster were most important, while Paula guarded all of our other purchases, Dana was assisted by a kind man who was going our way. He was very helpful in getting these back on the hand truck, tied down, and then on to our campus and home.

This really was a fun day because afterward the four of us teachers went out for Dinner at the Golden Hans, a great western buffet similar to the Golden Coral in Utah. Similar in that it has a few choices for westerners and western drinks. They bring you hot pinapple, beef, pork, chicken hearts, bacon, link sausage, beef intestines and squid on the long metal skewers. It is a German theme place where they serve pictures, no--pitchers of beer. Luckily they had a great variety of soft drinks and soda.

Wheat Grinder: This lady agreed to grind up Paula's wheat she bought at the outdoor COSTCO market. She ground the whole 1/2 bag (35 pounds) of white, hard wheat. Then she dumped the flour back into the same bag and Paula hauled it home on a small hand truck on the bus. So, we will have fresh whole wheat bread this weekend I expect. There is nothing better. Have you ever tasted Chinese bread?

THE CATHREDRAL: This is inside the huge Catholic Church on the other side of Jinan. We finally went there to tour this place and we got some good photos. It was a cold winter day and when we entered it was about 10 degrees colder inside. There is no heat in it. We both commented on how cold it was inside.

It was quite beautiful and the architecture was stunning. The gray block exterior has a very familiar look you may recognize as Dana entered into the "WEST" entrance to the church. In Utah, this would have been the east entrance I think. Does it not look like the east entrance?

What does this place remind you of? Taking your ideas and comments....please.

It was a beautiful tour and one in our own hometown here...Jinan.

LANTERN FESTIVAL IN JINAN, CHINA

2010-03-06T00:53:00.000-08:00

DATE WITH THE CHINESE ONCOLOGIST.
On one cold night a Chinese Medical Doctor (Radiologist and chemotherapist at Qilu Hospital which is across the street from our campus) friend named "Adam" stopped by, picked up Richard and Paula Watkins and Dana and me in his new Honda mini van. What a beautiful car. He had procured tickets to the local Lantern Festival at Baotu Springs Park in Jinan. We were glad to bundle up and go with him and his family to celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival.

There were many robotic actors performing around the park. Lights were on everywhere and in every thing. The long history of China was represented in the theme of the park. Most were Chinese Lanterns.

We took a lot of photos in the dark. These children were cousins but acted like brothers and sisters. They kind of constitute the extended family for all festivals, vacations, and family activities where the families are small with only one or two children.

Baotu Springs is a beautiful park with bubbling springs and clean, clear water...

This crane was unique in that it has silk worm cocoons pasted all over it's body. It was kind of cool. Everything else, lights, actors, robots was covered, not in plastic, but with silk.

Unique way of decorating trees with lights...

Dana was warm in her rabbit hat during the Lantern Festival.

This is the natural bubbling springs...Baotu Springs.

It was warm under our fur hats tonight. We were glad to have them. It was really cold. But, we had a wonderful cultural night experiencing Chinese holiday: Lantern Festival with a Chinese family.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

2010-03-04T16:39:00.001-08:00

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2010: THE YEAR OF THE TIGER, THE YEAR OF THE CAT, THE YEAR OF THE KITTY.

We found stores and stores full of all kinds of heavy duty fireworks for the local people to buy and blow up to celebrate the happiness and good fortune of the year of the tiger. We were suprised at how cheap they were and how large the firecrackers were. The package of larege sized firecrackers in my hand was priced at 12 Yuan divided by 7 to get dollars, so approximately $1.70. They were wrapped so that they could be all exploded in rapid sequence with one light of a match. They were loud and dangerous and everyone had to blow some of them up in order to guarantee a prosperous and lucky 2010. They were Smokin Pollution Makers?

We took these for Joseph to see. He will be so excited and wish he were here. They are cheap Joseph. No size or danger restrictions and no limits! Can you believe it? These people are so free to blow themselves up I guess...but still free.

This is a roll of firecrackers, M-80's I think.

ROLL UPON ROLL STILL TO BE BOUGHT, AND THE PRICE GOES DOWN,

NOW THAT THE HOLIDAY IS OVER.

We finally found a Subway Sandwich store in Xian. They have one. There are no such stores in Jinan. Of course Jinan only has about 6 million people. We went a couple of times to remember just what real, healthy, fresh sub sandwiches taste like. It was wonderful.

Now this unusual electrical installation is a permanent one. In China, you would expect it, but I was surprised to find this photo at the check out counter of Home Depot, yes a real, actual, western store with everything you would want to buy...just like at home. This installation was feeding the Home Depot computers and the plug under foot is running a display. The wire has been fitted into a shallow crack in the concrete floor and then the wire was caulked over... Look closely. I don't think this would be allowed in the states. Oh, there is no OSHA in China.

Starfish Thrower Orphanage, Xian, China

2010-02-09T21:19:00.000-08:00

STARFISH THROWER ORPHANGE

Have you ever heard the story or watched the video of the little boy who was caught throwing starfish which he found dying on the beach, back into the surf? He was told by an unsympathetic passerby that there were clearly thousands of them up and down the beach and that there were clearly too many of them to make any difference. He continued to throw them one by one, back into the ocean exclaiming: " It made a difference for that one!" You know that what he was doing, by himself, was indeed making a significant difference in the lives of a few of those where were in need that day.

Dana is excited about her new hair... Gray? Is she or isn't she?

You can tell which one stole Dana's heart. This is Carolyn. She needs a Grandma... Even more, she needs a Mommy. She has this thing she does, where she blinks both eyes at us several times and of course you do it back to her. She loves it. I think she is "double winking" at us. Then she laughs with all of us. This is Carolyn. She is one.

This is Amanda, who runs the place. She is the CEO. Last year she received the BYU humanitarian award and travelled there to accept it. She tells us what needs to be done. Some volunteers come for a month or two, and stay in the volunteer housing she had prepared for volunteers. Most volunteers come for a day or two or three.

This is Jack. We are here at the Starfish Foster home in Xian, China, where we are volunteers helping with the care and keeping of 53 babies at this time, all between one month and 3 years. They are so cute and quickly take hold of your heart. They are wonderful and so much fun. We love the babies and have been working hard to improve their environment and the volunteer/guest housing for the many volunteers who come here to help. We have been busy and have accomplished many projects that were needed.

This is Carolyn with Grandma Darling.

It is certainly a joy to help these kids. This is Anna. They are so loving and in need of love.

There are many Nannies. They each care for about three kids. Feed, love, change, hold, take naps with, and then do it all again and again.

This is Justin. Most of them have serious medical conditions and Amanda and her staff are continually working to get them strong, to repair physical defects, and to schedule as sundry life saving surgeries they need before they can be adopted and leave this place for a better life with a loving family.

This is Joseph.

Anna again. Volunteers love the babies and hold and talk to them as much as possible. The babies really like the volunteers. The volunteer is JoAnn Forbes from the BYU China EnglishTeachers Program in China.

This is a baby. What a cutie. He needs about three heart surgeries and a surgical repair of his exposed bladder -- then he is done and ready to go...

This is Julia being held by Gigi.

Six of these kids have been notified that they are being adopted and are waiting to leave and getting mentally prepared to go to their new homes all over the world.

Tristan and Josie. Their most serious need to for parents. They all want to be adopted and to live with a loving family. They have no family. The Nannies are hired to care for them and the volunteers fill their time with love and affection, but they need a Mommy and a Grandmommy.

They are seriously in need of parents. This is Carolyn again.

One of these is Alice and one is Justin. Our hearts go out to each of them as they struggle to live, grow, and develop in this temporary, seemingly crowded nursery/orphanage. There are babies everywhere. Try to Imagine 53 kids in your house at one time, all under the age of 3.

You can find out more about how to adopt these kids and about their nature and medical and adoptive issues at the websites for this agency. Need some more information???

See: http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/

http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/

http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com/

chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

THE STARFISH THROWER FOSTER HOME ROCKS. THESE KIDS RULE.

Beautiful Hong Kong

2010-02-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

This is the entrance to the famous Stanley Market. We enjoyed a couple of hours here. Prices were really good, because they would give in to bartering. We are good at bartering after living in mainland China for a year and a half.

This beautiful tree hotel building is finally done.

This is another photo of the finished Tree Hotel.

This is the Tree they built the Hotel around. The Tree Hotel is finished. We saw it started last year and it is finished now. It looks great.

MONSTER BUILDLINGS. This is the tall tower in Hong Kong. It has a short tower next to it to befriend it. It is a happy tower. It is a Monetary, Financial Office Building.

Here are the two towers in Hong Kong. They are good friends. They are so high that it is hard to imaging building them...

We flew back to Jinan after our 10 day vacation and BYU China Teachers Conference in Hong Kong. We enjoyed our three days in Macau. We loved the conference. We had a blast. We really enjoyed the Hong Kong Temple every day for a solid week. It is good to be back home for a few days in Jinan (4 days). Today we flew to Xian to help at the Star Fish Thrower Orphanage and to see the sights such as the great wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors here. We are staying in the volunteer housing at Starfish. We will blog our experience here with the 53 orphans under 3 years old. Six of them have just been adopted and are waiting to be picked up soon. There are babies everywhere. We will help where we can to organize, move things, build things, do plumbing and cleaning, but mostly handle and hold and love the babies. We are in for a real treat. There is work enough to do here. See the websites to learn more about what we are about this next 10 days. We really feel blessed to get to do this! What a treat!

More fun in Honk Kong

2010-02-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

WE met the missionaries in This beautiful place is Repulse Bay over the mountain from Hong Kong. This house on the far right is one of the branch members homes. It is white and on the beach and has several floors facing the beach. It is prime real estate. We were told that it's value is approx. $20 million dollars.

095 In Kowloon, we notices that many nice cruise ships park here and the ferries take them across to Hong Kong. We love the ferry rides.

094 Guess which one of these high rise Hong Kong buildings is the church...

075 This is the photo we took from their balcony, only 1/3 of the way up to the top floor. It is too high for us to feel comfortable.

019 We know that this is Spring Festival and that it is a lot like Christmas in comparison, but this is kind of ridiculous. Does this smack of Santa Claus or what? This man was selling something and asking for donations. Santa doesn't do that! Yes, he takes photos with the kids.

Hong Kong Trip Continued

2010-02-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

The New Building we saw under construction last year in Hong Kong is done and it is beautiful.

These are some strange little decorator squash which we came upon at the Stanley marketplace in Hong Kong.

At Stanley Market, we came upon the home of the Hong Kong Salvation Army, or at least one of their outlets.

On the rich side of Hong Kong, we visited these apartment buildings and met with some friends on the 13th floor of one nearby. The allowed us to take pictures from their balcony and invited us to stay for dinner. Yummy. The huge architectural hole in this apartment complex has a square hole which goes though the building, is an escape route or something like that we are told, to allow the evil spirits or bad dragons to get through the building and not remain inside or I guess try to get in...

Hong Kong Trip

2010-02-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

We are in HONG KONG. We bumped into an American business man from Provo, Utah. His name is Kelly Olsen. We talked with him on the ferry across the bay. He is one of the 5 principles of Tahitian Noni. He told us that Noni juice is being sold inside mainland China and Hong Kong. He was a kind and friendly man. We told him that we had attended one of our grandchildren's piano recitals in his Orem Tahitian Noni Business Complex. It was nice to meet him. Love that Noni Juice!

Chinese Spring Festival is upon us and love is in the air. We are on a two month winter vacation from our University English teaching. This is in Kowloon, across the bay from Hong Kong.

Jay and Dana in Xiamen on tour of that large Chinese city.

Hats like this are sold to tourist. You seldom see any Chinese wearing such hats. This one had my brother Ron's name on it. I saw this same hat at another vendor for the same price of about $2.00 American dollars, but it was spelled: Ronalddino. Which one is correct? Interesting to me as an English teacher and a personalized products man.

Leaving for the Orphange

2010-02-05T03:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Everyone.
We have been home in Jinan for 4 days. When we set up our travel planes for Holiday break we planned on being gone for nearly 2 months. At the end of the Hong Kong Conference we decided that we needed to go home, regroup and then go to Xian to do some volunteer work at the a place called chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com. We aren't quite sure what it will entail, but we know it will be a live changing experience. Those BYU teachers who have done it have told us this. We will be their for 10 days and then it will be back to Jinan and getting ready for our last 4 months of this wonderful Chinese adventure.

Hong Kong Temple Trip

2010-02-04T14:45:00.001-08:00

This is Temple patron housing. They are building a wonderful new one that will be ready the first of March, but this is what we were able to stay at. It was really great for a number of reasons. First it was free.

Here is the kitchen in Jays apt.

2nd we got to exercisers. We had to walk about a 1/4 a mile up a hill from the Temple to get to it. Of course that meant when we left we did not come back until we were ready to go to bed at night. This place had no internet so we would go to Festival Walk Mall and look at our internet.
This is my room(Dana). I was able to have my own little room that I shared with another person. I got to sleep on the bottom bunk.

3rd we were able to stay with the most humble special individuals. They had all travel far to get go to the Temple and were so eager to go to the temple every day. They came from Beijing, Outer Mongolia (where the church is really growing), and India. It was a little crowed but very sweet and were very grateful to be able to say there. 4th we were able to go to the Temple every day. We did at least 2 sessions a day plus family and marriage sealings. There are a lot of senior missionary called to come to hong kong to work in the temple. Dad was in the men apt. and I was in the womens.

Here is a picture looking out of Jays apt. group from Mongolia, 519 is my room. I was able to have my own little room that I shared with another person. I got to sleep on the bottom bunk.

With the Mongolian group there were these darling children. two of them were 9 and 11 and they had never seen the ocean so we took them out of lunch with their Mormon tour quide and then we took them to the other side of Hong Kong with the most beautiful beaches/
Our first night at patrons housing there were just 5 of us. Myself and wonderful girl from Beijing and a girl getting married to a young man from SLC. she was from Taiwan and had attended BYU Hawaii and her mother had come to Hong Kong for the marriage. Dad had stayed in the mens apt with the young man and his father and the next day we attended the sealiing and dad was one of the witnesses.
This last picture was Dad and I leaving our patorns housing and heading for the BYU conference. We were really excited about being together again, but so grateful to have had that special expereince with such fine people.

Goats milk anyone?

2010-01-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

When we were recently on vacation in Xiamen, South China. I took some fun pictures in downtown.
It appears to that goat farmer brought the goats to town by van to sell fresh goat milk. Yes, this has to be the icing on the cake for the strange things we have seen. We just saw sheep lungs for sale at the market two days ago. Yes, lungs, that was strange too... Lung casserole, steaks, stew ... how to cook? Anyone have a good recipe?

Now, this farmer and his wife brought the freshest goat milk to town. This probably is a self serve goat milk station. The goats are clearly ready to be milked. They are even anxious to be milked. They have milk to give. Farmers do not give it to customers however. They sell it and the fresher, the better.

The farmer simply milks the goats, sells goat milk, takes and fills orders with fresh milk. A lucky day happen stance sighting like this could allow you to milk the goat yourself. In any event, there is no fresher goat milk anywhere in the world market place. Don't you agree?

Mmmm, Goats milk anyone?
Jay Theline

Wonderful Travels

2010-01-19T17:29:00.000-08:00

If we don't end up coming back with BYU in Jinan we are looking into teaching here, in Xiamen next year. This place is made up of many islands. Xiamen is the largest and the one we are on Gu lan gu Island is smaller and a little like Carmel in California, Chinese style. We have had such a wonderful time here and have meet some great people who are willing to help us if we come here next year. It is quite close to Hong Kong and of course my favorite place Guilin, a place I would love for you to see. The place we are staying at is quaint a little like what you would see of college students staying in while on a trip through Europe. The first room didn't have much of a window so I upgraded it to $6 more a night and we have a window that looks out on to the street. It is on the second floor from the window, but on the first floor from the building. There is a place right next to us that is really cool, but it is about $60 to 100 a night, this one is $27.

Each day we have something great happening. Sunday we went to church at a young couples home and I had the opportunity to give the closing prayer on the telephone meeting (virtual meeting) skype meeting, all over China. They use Skype or you can us the telephone and they have Sacrament meeting and Priesthood / Relief Society one week or Sunday School the next week, always Sacrament meeting. We have the largest Branch in the world, it takes in most of China. It was this cute family with two little boys. They are here while she finishes her Dr. degree, he finish with his law degree this last year. He has a job when he gets back to LA this summer. They both went to Taiwan on their missions so they both speak Chinese. They live right on the ocean in an apt. that is really good price. So if we come next year we will hopefully get a place on the ocean. On our way back today the Gu lan gu Island we meet another couple, she taught on another island that is part of University and I think that is where we would teach and she said she would help us if we came. They have a really small twig here, like 4 couples, and that is always changing.

We start every day thinking we are on a mission and that we need to do a humanitarian project or tracking (without talking about the gospel.) It makes our days a lot more fun.

Jay has had a cold but have been making him drink ginger (we had to talk to someone who could speak a little English to give us the right name for ginger) That was fun and we got to see a lot of interesting place on Xaimen Island. Jay got a stomach flu one night and sometimes being sick in a place where very few people speak English is a little hard, but then we also know how to pray and that to help a lot. We do enjoy being together and only doing things together.

When I was in Hawaii I learned to do toasted cheese sandwiches with the iron. So at the beginning of our stay in Xiamen I went and got a iron these are some pictures of Dad making a sandwich.

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Xiamen, China, on the eastern coast, is warm and wonderful to visit. We have stayed for 10 days and enjoyed the weather and the sun and surf. No swimming is allowed as all the water, including the ocean there, is too polluted. The scenery is just beautiful here.

Chinese love art and we visited this art museum and took a gaggle of photos of pots and plates, etc. This was in a small tourist city near Suzhou, called Zhouzhuan where were there for only day tour.

Jay at the fruit market in Gu Lang Yu, an island off the main Island of Xiamen. We were intrigued by the size of these two fruits: One is a giant Mango and the other two are giant tangerine oranges.

We arrived in Suzhou, China by train. Trains are cheap.

A Brass wall mural in the ancient house of the ruler of the town of Zhouzhuan.

In Suzhou, we saw this handicapped Chinese man riding in his wheelchair, a motorized trike which was really cool.

Jay wants a wheelchair like this one if he ever needs it.

On the train from Shagahai to Suzhou. The trains travel at abouit 100 miles per hour. It took about 25 minutes to get there by train.

This scene is in Xiamen where we enjoyed a tourist park which great views. The only problem was that they charge Jay $15. yuan for a small bottle of water. Usually it costs $2. yuan in town. This constituted a serious international incident in his mind. He has never forgotten that price gouging incident and is determined to file a format complaint with the Department of Tourist Price Gouging.

People's Square

2010-01-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

Well we were in Shanghai we went to the People's Square.

The square

We found all these papers hanging down with Chinese writing, we found they were advertisements for marriage that parents had put up to help their one child get married. on the paper there was things about their schooling, how much money they made, what they owned and drove and so on.

I guess it works because there was a lot of people hanging things up and then writing down what was said on them. Most of them were for people over 30 - 35. This woman knew English and was explaining everything to us.
This one with all the people around the one man was setting up marriage for their children.
Jay and I had a wonderful time and took a ride around Xiamen, it has some of the most beautiful beaches. It really is a lovely city.

More Pictures of our adventure

2010-01-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Ferry to the island, free for the ride over, to Gulangyu Island, 75 cents of ride back to Xiamen

Everything is brought by these little boats to the island.

Once here the stuff is pulled by hand carts to varous places. We think that is where we got the idea for the first hand carts.

The only way to get around is golf carts about 1 to 4 dollors around the island or to walk.

The island is always clean, it reminds me of Disneyland.
--
Dana Lee Thelin,
Shandong University,
Jinan, China

The Bay View Inn

2010-01-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

Bay View Inn. Where we stayed.

At Bay View Inn the first floor is the hostel part and the rooms are really a good price. Each level up get more expensive. They showed us the one that was $90 a night and it was really nice with a Jacuzzi for a bathtub and painted really nice and a wonderful deck off the room. It was on the 4 floor. Remember in China they do not put in elevators until they have 6+ floors.

Our room and me pumping up our air mattress. In Suzhou we lost our pump so after sleeping one night with out our air mattress we knew we needed to find a new one. The island is really simple. Lost of tourist shops but no hardware stores. Well we had some one write down the word for air pump in Chinese and we set out trying to find one. It was great to get the help and us doing the acting of what it was like and finally after going down a couple of back streets we found an bike pump. It is hard to believe we found it, because bikes are not allowed on the island.

The island at night

An amazing underground aquarium.

Far end of the island-- we took a golf cart to see this lovely garden area

This inside the garden. We thought this monkey wall caves would be a perfect place to play steal the flag.

Dana Lee Thelin,
Shandong University,
Jinan, China

Pictures of our travel fun.

2010-01-14T20:24:00.001-08:00

Each day we would walk to a new China experience. On this day we walked a short ways to a wonderful park.

Since we had the day to see the city so we went to another garden park (Budda) It was quite nice and had this beautiful painting of the history of Shozuo.

Doing my favorite thing, talking and acting in English to the people on the street to find what I am looking for. I am amazed at how many people we have been able to help us. This group actually took use back across the bridge to this place. We bought tickets for the next day.
The bike that took us to a place to find a bus for a trip. This is the one that we nearly ruined his tires with our weight.
Discovering what we call New World shopping center in Jinan, small shops with everything half the prices.

Discovering what we call New World shopping center in Jinan, small shops with everything half the prices.

KFC in the 1 mile mall with streets and stores behind the main part.

old town on one side and new town on other

city center in Shozuo mall

At one of many statues in the mall (down at the bottom)

Jay reading in our apt. in Shozuo = it is in the English style as is the whole hostel.

outside of the room on patio off our apt.

opening the door and walking into the apt.

Women cleaning clothes and veg. at the city well.

lovely garden that goes on forever

boat ride, leaving dock

we stayed in the old town that was had cannals running every direction

where you can come and get water from the well on our street

I need my pocket sewn and this lady had a little shop on the canal to do it.

We saw a lot of work going into fixing up the old part of town, that was exciting to watch. Instead of knocking down the old buildings and putting up sky scrapers they were trying to re-fix the wonderful old parts of the town.

Cuba in China

2010-01-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

This adventures starts with the fact that I have had 3 days of dumplings and have decided I have had enough Chinese food and it was time for something else. So we set off on the ferry and met a man who helped us find the bus to Carafar, Like Walmart, with a food store.
While shopping for some basic survival food: Peanut butter, jam, cheese, bread, butter, a iron to make toasted cheese sandwiches, hot chocolate and some bread we meet two girls who were their buying the rest of the French bread. They told us that the were working at a Cuban Restaurant.So that is where we went. The one girl Katherine was from Columbia. We had a wonderful meal for about $10. We also thought it would be great to honor our sons who sing to also take a moment to sing a song. Why not...there was only us in the restaurant.