August 31-September 25, 2009

Note: As you can see we did not get any postings done while we were here this trip. We are sorry for that but are trying to catch us once again.

August 31, 2009 – we are back again in Beijing. Our plane ride over this time seemed quite a bit shorter as we slept quite well on the plane. We stayed up the night before leaving and helped Rhiannon (our daughter-in-law) can 17 quarts of pears and 36 quarts of peaches. That was so rewarding but also tiring since we had to get up at 3 AM to get ready and catch our 5:30 AM flight out of Boise.
I mentioned to Floyd on the way over here that it seems strange, when we are flying this way it seems like we are going home and then when we fly back to the US it seems like we are flying home. We are starting to feel like we have 2 homes. It sure makes it nice though.

September 1, 2009 – I finished unpacking and started with some of the computer work I put off just before we left from Idaho. It is good to have the time to get things done over here!

September 2, 2009 – I got to get my computer work finished up today that needed to be done for my church calling and everything emailed out. What a relief!

September 3, 2009 – today I stayed in apartment, did computer work and watched TV. Just a relaxing, no pressure day.

September 4, 2009 – rained all morning. I stayed in apartment most of the day doing computer work then walked to the store to buy some dinner and groceries. I walked the long way around the block to avoid the beggars that are usually by the store. They know just enough English to say “Hey” if you try to get away from them and then when you say “No” to their request for money they sometimes ask “why not?” I will sometimes buy them some rolls or fruit but I will not give them money.

September 5, 2009 – it rained again today a bit, not enough to keep us indoors but the humidity did. It was 77 degrees outside with a relative humidity of 78% which makes it feel like it was 89. That is certainly enough to make you stay indoors with the air conditioning on. We did odds and ends of computer work and laundry.

September 21, 2009 – there have not been a lot of thing happening this trip so I have been somewhat lax in writing. I will try to fill in a few highlights of this trip with no exact dates.

I have felt a great urgency to do several things with my time while I am in China with fewer interruptions than I have back in the U.S. I will try to address each of these as best I can.

Chinese language – this is one of the most taxing things I have undertaken in a very long, long time! I have finally gotten to the point that I have a lot of aha moments which something will become clearer but I am nowhere near being able to even understand the conversations being held around me or to be able to speak it outside the apartment other than just general greetings. I know it is good to work out some of the “cobwebs” in my mind but it is also very frustrating at time. I sit working on the Rosetta Stone website until sometimes my head just feels like it is going to explode. Then I walk away for a little while and then come back and resume. The more I learn, the more I find that I still need to learn. I can see where this could be a full time (many hours every day) thing for many months to get to where you can speak or understand some conversations. I am determined though and will keep working on it.

Camera – a few years ago Floyd bought me a very nice camera, a Canon Rebel XT, so I could adventure into something I really enjoyed which is photography. I have taken many very good pictures but have not really ventured into seeing what my camera can really do. He challenged me lately to learn more about it and how to make my good pictures into great pictures. That too has taken quite a bit of my time over here. The more I learn about it also, the more I see I still need to learn!

Genealogy – I have always had some interest in Genealogy and have done some research but I have always been kind of hot and cold on it. In the past we have made a trip back to Arkansas, where my Dad’s side of the family comes from, and gathered a great deal of information. After that trip, my daughter Terri put most of that information into the computer and helped me organize it. Unfortunately, I haven’t done very much since then. Recently, my daughter Lacee called me and asked me if I could help her mother-in-law work on some of her genealogy that she has been researching and has hit a dead end. I told her I would do what I could. Well, I guess she opened up the floodgates as it goes. I asked a friend over here to help me put a few things together that I had found on the Internet that I could not directly link to her. She showed me places I did not know existed and has me totally hooked again. I have found a great deal of information for her, which I hope will enable her to research differently and be able to find her own ancestors. I also started back up on my family to see what I can find. WOW, I have found all sorts of ancestors that I had no idea how to search for them. I am afraid that this too will take a great deal of my time.

All in all, with the 3 previous things I just wrote about I am talking about things that could take my every waking hour so now my job is to budget my time and be able to do all of them and still be able to do the things that are needed to be done, i.e. housework, cooking, canning, helping with grandkids, etc.

Great Wall Trip – we had the greatest opportunity this trip to go to the Great Wall of China on Saturday and Sunday, the 12th & 13th of September. I have heard of it many times before but until you actually stand there face to face with it, it is truly unimaginable! Of course we actually only got to visit one very small portion of the wall but as you can tell when you see the pictures of it behind us, it goes on as far as the eye can see. What a blessing this trip was for us, it was not just your ordinary mundane tourist trip…it was actually an annual trip which was called “BYU Alumni, and Friends, annual Great Wall Excursion”. It included about 170 members of the church over here at this time. We left from our church building, in 2 tour buses, at around 9:30 AM for about a 2 hour drive up to the wall. There was also another 2 buses coming from another location where many members live. We left the trip up to the drivers, not always a good thing as we found out. It seems that one of the drivers called the Inn where we were to stay and asked for and wrote down directions there. The other driver said he has been there many times so we took off following that bus. After about an hour and 45 minutes the lead bus stopped. They had encountered a steel beam across the road between 2 trees saying anything that could not go under it could not go on. Apparently there must be a bridge or tunnel with a height restriction ahead. Unfortunately, the buses were a few inches too tall so we had to back up a ways and turn around in the road to go back. This was no easy task; you remember the 3 point turns you had to make in Driver’s Ed.? Well this was probably at least a 6 point turn, in a big bus (that probably held about 40 passengers). Wouldn’t want to be them! So, then we had to backtrack quite a way back and then go the right way. Our 2 hour trip actually turned into a 3 hour trip. Ugh, the hard part was that the leg room was non-existent! My knees were smashed into the seat in front of me! By the time we got there, my knees were really hurting!

We got to the Wall at about lunch time, checked into our rooms and ate the sack lunches we brought with us. We then had free time until 6:30 PM, dinner time, to rest or explore the Wall. We opted to explore the Wall. WOW, wow, wow is all I can say. We did not make it all the way to the top before I had to stop and come back down. We rested many times on the way but it was still more than I could handle. It was hot and a very steep climb. Actually, it was very different in different areas, some areas were level, some had steps that were probably equal to about 2 to 2 ½ steps and other areas it was on an incline and still other areas had steps that were only less than half of a normal step. This really taxed your muscles! The view was breathtaking though!

That evening dinner was furnished as part of the trip. We ate at the dining hall at the Inn we stayed at. Chinese Cuisine (American Friendly kind) was served. It was very good and enjoyed by all. It was served the typical Chinese way. Plates of food were brought out and placed on a large glass lazy suzan in the middle of the table so all could have access to them to dish up onto their own plates. Most of us ate with chopsticks. I did notice a few of the new people, ones that have just gotten here to start teaching English in the universities, had a few problems with their chopsticks but they had the determination to stick with it and learn!
After dinner, we met in the large open air Amphitheater for fun and games. After the games they shot off fireworks, and then had a bonfire and dancing. It was great fun, everyone enjoyed themselves! Then off we went to go to bed for the night. Our room consisted of twin beds, TV and dress with a small bathroom, with a western toilet! Their showers were a bit different up here. The shower head was open to the middle of the room, the floor and walls were all tile so you shower in the middle of the room. There were no shower enclosures or shower curtains. Really different! Floyd tells me it is this way in many of the hotels he has stayed in as he travels over here.

The next morning we met for a light breakfast at the dining hall. Their breakfast was different than Western breakfasts. It consisted of meat, fried eggs, fried bread, tomatoes, cucumbers and bread slices.

breakfast we had our Church meetings in one of the courtyards between the rooms. There were about 150 in attendance (apparently some of the people who came up for Saturday and Saturday evening when home after the program). It was a great meeting and you could really feel the Lord’s presence out in the middle of China with just the natural outdoors all around us. We then hopped back on the buses and headed back to Beijing. This time it took only 2 hours on the bus. I was apparently tired so I slept most of the way back so the trip seemed even shorter.

We felt so blessed to be able to go on this trip and not just go on an ordinary tourist sight-seeing tour up there where you don’t know anyone. We were surrounded with friends and others of our same faith!

Renovations for 60th Anniversary of China – the week after we leave, the country will be celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Revolution. All around us they have been readying the city. They have been painting, cleaning, hanging out flags, hanging banners and lanterns and planting flowers. Apparently they will be celebrating it in a really big day. In fact, everything shuts down and everyone has a mandatory 8 day holiday. (I am sure some things will be open still like hotels, grocery stores, etc. but it will be a national holiday like we have in the US where government things shut down).

We had the opportunity to go out to dinner with Floyd’s boss over here. He is from Korea, so he, his wife and son and Floyd and I went to a Korean restaurant close to our apartment. They asked us what we liked so we told them we were open to most things so they ordered food kind of family style. This was quite a unique experience! I found that my taste pallet is not used to the unique fermented vegetables that are part of the Korean foods! They are not something I would want to try again. Many of the regular meats and vegetables were very good though. All in all it was an enjoyable evening to try yet another culture over here.

We also went out to dinner with Wilson (Floyd’s co-worker and interpreter) and his wife. They took us to a very lovely restaurant in downtown Beijing. This was a dinner show with Chinese opera, magic and some other forms of Chinese entertainment. The food was fabulous and the entertainment was lovely, quite different than in the US but still enjoyable!

Once again we leave September 25th to head back to the US. We do so with mixed feelings. We are anxious to get back home but sorry to leave this home each time. It is bitter sweet! We are growing to love the country more and more each time we come over here.