March 9-15, 2009

March 9, 2009 – another lazy day in China. I got up, ate, went to the gym (I am trying to form a new habit!), came home for lunch, saw Floyd off to work (he did office work from the apartment before he headed to the airport to fly to Zhengzhou today), did grocery shopping, worked on the computer and just enjoyed my life here. It is amazing sometimes how easy it is to fill a complete day doing frivolous enjoyable things! We heard from our son Jeff via e-mail first thing this morning that there was a change in leadership in our Ward for our church back home. We were very excited about the change…3 new great men in leadership! We sustain them completely.

March 10, 2009 – again, no real schedule today. Got up, ate and went to the gym. In the afternoon I really started to hit the Rosetta Stone Chinese language tutor. I have worked on it a little here and a little there but have made a second resolution (along with working out at the gym) that I will work hard at it each day. Chinese is a very difficult language to learn but I am determined to do it as we will be here for the next 2 years. This is something very worthwhile. I am thinking the learning is going to be a VERY slow process, kind of a snail’s pace and I am rather impatient right now as I would like it to come to me very quickly. I know I have to be patient!

The Dairy Campaign meetings for Floyd started today. Since much of the first day was on a different subject than Floyd will be presenting for training and was all in Chinese, Floyd was given the opportunity to take a tour to a couple of sites in the area. He went to the Millennium City Park, part of Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden (http://english.51766.com/detail/scenes_detail.jsp?ent_id=dxgs). Millennium City Park, located on the west bank of Dragon Pavilion Lake, is a grand cultural garden. It covers an area of 600 mu (about 98 acres), and the construction area is more than 30,000 square meters (about 7.4 acres). The built area consists of several architectural complexes which are re-creations based on the famous twelfth century painting by Zhang Zeduan of 'The Qingming Festival by the Riverside'. Some pictures are available at this site (http://yeschinatour.com/china-guides/china-attractions/qingming-riverside-landscape-garden-kaifeng/pictures). He also went to the Shaolin Temple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaolin_Monastery), probably one of the most famous temples in China. It was quite interesting to see such old sites. A new album is posted with pictures.

March 11, 2009 – I changed things just a bit today, instead of going to the gym before lunch I stayed in the apartment and did computer work first. After a very worthwhile workout I came back to the apartment and worked on my Chinese again. I keep having very so small “Ahah” moments, and something will click. This certainly helps my resolve. I am going to have to take some time soon to finish my quilt blocks that I brought with me as my next class is going to be on putting the blocks together for the quilt top. I am excited to see what it is going to look like all together! It has been a long journey; we started the class last March doing a block a month.

Today was Floyd’s busy day. He started out by lecturing for 4 hours about dairy management to about 60 of his Chinese co-workers. After lunch, he continued the training on the farm helping his colleagues put into practice what they had been taught that morning. The hands-on training really helps reinforce the classroom instruction. That evening they had a big group dinner as they did most evenings. Many of the sales managers from the different areas invited Floyd to come to their area to put on additional training. He said right now he feels like one of the most wanted men in China, in a good way.

March 12, 2009 – when I looked out the window this morning I noticed the sidewalks and the pavement were slightly wet. This is the first rain (although very light) that we have had since we have been in Beijing. It didn’t last very long though. I had the same schedule today as usual, got up, ate and went to the gym. Then on the computer again, I am finally getting to the point of wanting to repeat the Chinese lessons over and over to try to absorb it and understand it. It seems like I get something learned but when I go back to it I have forgotten it again. Very frustrating! I know this seems like a boring life but I am enjoying being able to concentrate on 2 areas in my life that would be put to the back burner in “real life” back in Idaho. There are no deadlines or outside pressures.

Floyd had a little different role today. They held what is called a feeder group meeting. This is a meeting where dairy farmers have been invited to come into a seminar type meeting. They consisted of customers and prospects both. He spoke for 2 hours on how to help them improve production and profitability. About 200 Chinese dairymen were in attendance. The feedback he got was very positive. Many of the farmers had questions for him after his presentation. They are very hungry for Western technology.

March 13, 2009 – as I went to the gym this morning, I was planning on my usual hour and a half workout but when I got on the stair-stepper they were just starting a movie on HBO. It was one that I had wanted to see but never got a chance to. After I finished the stair-stepper I went on to the treadmill and continued watching the movie. Unfortunately when my hour was up on the treadmill the movie was not finished so I spent an extra half an hour on the treadmill until the movie ended. I think I may pay for it tomorrow. Boy was I tired coming home.

In the afternoon I made a pot of spaghetti sauce and a pot of vegetable beef soup. There are still only a few things I can make here because of not having an oven but I make the most of what I have and really enjoy it! I also spent a couple hours on the computer working on my Chinese…I am determined.

This morning was the last of the meetings for Floyd. Before returning to Beijing, he was given a tour of the Longmen Grottoes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmen_Grottoes). It is a fascinating area where the monks carved caves into solid rock and then carved many different figures in the caves pertaining to their Buddhist worshipping. The amount of work they put into this was incredible. There is a new album with pictures in it. Floyd finally arrived back at the apartment about 10:30 PM. It has been a long week for him.

March 14, 2009 – I was right, my leg muscles are sore today. True to the saying “Exercise is good for sore muscles” we went sightseeing today, since the weather is getting nicer. We went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Olympic area. I had so much fun taking pictures that Floyd had to keep reminding me that we had to press on so we could get finished before dark. He took many pictures of the structures in his trips to them but I like to take pictures of details so that is what I did. So much fun!!! The “Birds Nest” is HUGE, and very unique! Even the lighting around the building had the bird nest theme, very interesting. There was also a high rise building you could see from the Olympic area that was in the shape of a torch, it was very interesting also. I took pictures of it also to share. Pictures do not do it justice. By the time we finished today I think we walked about 8 or 10 miles.

March 15, 2009 – Happy Birthday to our daughter Terri today! It was good to go to church today and take a reprieve from our worldly schedule. A family that has been in the branch for over 7 years spoke as this is their last Sunday here. They will be moving to Taiwan. They will surely be missed as they leave many good friends behind. This afternoon we worked on the blog to get it ready to be posted and just spent time relaxing.

March 3-8, 2009

March 3, 2009 – today was a take it easy day, just unpacked the rest of our things and kind of organized. Watched a couple movies on the TV (something I NEVER get to do at home!), worked on the computer and just stayed here in the apartment.

Floyd was in the office today to get the agenda lined out for this trip. There is always a lot of planning and coordinating to do. When he is here he is very helpful to the company, but it does put some burden on individuals with the necessity of being available for translating. Next week he will be helping in a national training program, called a dairy campaign. He has a lengthy presentation to do on farm and animal evaluation. He had emailed the presentation over to be translated, 181 PowerPoint slides. He also has another presentation to a group of dairymen next week as part of the campaign.

March 4, 2009 – I stayed in the apartment most of the time, the air quality was quite bad today. It looked really bad but part of it was fog. I call it dirty fog, either way it was gross to look out the window and see it! I walked up to the grocery store to pick up some more things we will need. It is really different having to think about what to buy here, you have to plan things out specifically so you don’t have anything left when you leave…no extended food storage capabilities here.

Floyd will spend the rest of the week in the Beijing office finalizing the presentations for the dairy campaign in Zhengzhou next week and working on other issues for the rest of this trip. He will be gone to Zhengzhou all of next week, flying out on Monday and returning late Friday night.

March 5, 2009 – I got adventurous and went over to the Country Club at the hotel. We get a complimentary pass for one person with our apartment rental. Last time they put it in Floyd’s name so neither one of us were able to use it, Floyd because he was gone most of the time working and it was not transferrable so I could not use it. It is a very nice facility with a small but adequate gym (with probably 10 treadmills, 4 stair steppers and elipticals, 4 stationary bikes, weights, etc.), a large warm pool (my kind of pool, one that doesn’t make you gasp for air when you get in) and a hot tub. I will be using it frequently now that I got brave enough to venture over there on my own.

Floyd has both the presentations completed and translated so now he needs to practice giving them. He said it is much more difficult with a translator. First it takes twice as long and second because he can only do so much talking and then has to stop to allow the translator to catch up. It is very difficult to keep a consistent fluid train of thought going.

March 6, 2009 – Other than making another trip t the gym, today was very quiet. It is very different being here than at home. It seems like at home I always have a thousand things I can do, while here it is much more laid back.

Floyd was in the office again today to finalize everything for next week.

March 7, 2009 – We are finally starting to sleep better through the nights. It takes a little while to get used to the different hours. We are going to bed here when it is early morning at home and then getting up in the middle of the afternoon. The day started bright and sunny with no wind. The temperature was in the 40’s, perhaps into the 50’s later in the day. Since today was housekeeping day, which means they come in and clean for us, we took a walk to explore the area. We found another market where we can buy groceries. It is larger than the one we have been shopping at and has more selection. Between the two we should do quite well. We continued walking around the area and went over to the big park. With it being a nice day and the weather warming, there were a lot of people in the park. After we got back to the apartment, our pedometer said we had walked just under 4 miles. It was a very nice morning walk and adventure.

Tonight we had the Saturday evening session of District Conference, which is roughly equivalent to our Stake Conference, except in China it covers basically the whole country. Elder Kent D. Watson of the Seventy, and a member of the Asia Area Presidency, was the presiding authority. He was assisted by Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong, also of the Seventy. We had an excellent session, followed by the obligatory stop at Dairy Queen for a Blizzard – a Mango blast…yum, yum! Yes, they have Dairy Queens in Beijing. In fact this was is located on the ground floor of the office building that the church meets in. This was a special treat to be there for meetings on a Saturday as we usually pass it on Sunday but will not stop. We wonder if this was a prerequisite to the Church leasing the space to meet here – just kidding.

March 8, 2009 – This morning we continued with District Conference. Floyd had Priesthood meeting at 8:30 and then we had the General Session at 10:00 AM. We both went together for the 8:30 session as we did not want to have to take 2 different taxis to our meetings, so I got to spend some time visiting with others sisters and reading my scriptures before the second session. Again, both of these meetings were very spiritual. We went back to the apartment very uplifted and spiritually well fed. We had a leisurely afternoon of just resting and spending time together. It was very enjoyable.

March 2, 2009

March 2, 2009 – We made it to Beijing after a long, long trip again. This time was interesting though, I think apparently our ticket agent at the airport must have felt sorry for us, or maybe thought we deserved a little extra room because of Floyd’s Premier status, but whatever the reason was, she upgraded us to Economy plus. This gave us a little more leg room on our flight to San Francisco which was nice. The really nice part, and surprise, came when we got on our plane to Beijing! Our seats were in economy, but there was so much leg room in this particular side row that while seated with my back scooted to the back of my seat I could lift my legs straight out and not touch the seats in front of us. It was actually so much room I almost felt embarrassed, please note I said almost! It did have its downside though…we had to unbuckle to get anything out of our carry-ons…terrible, huh? LOL

It was a good flight with only a little turbulence, but way too many hours…three movies, three meals and a long nap to put things into perspective. We found out a day or so before we left Idaho that the driver for the company could not pick us up at the airport this time so we were on our own. We thought that couldn’t be too hard. But when we got all our bags, 4 large checked-in bags and 4 carry-on bags and headed out to get a Taxi we found it not too easy. We tried to convince one driver that we could put some bags in the trunk, some in the seats inside the taxi as well as some in our laps but the drivers just looked at us, shook his head and spoke Chinese to us, which we think they were saying they could not fit all of our bags into their taxi by the sign language he used. We finally wound up going in a van-taxi which cost a great deal more than a regular taxi. We had no choice though, walking was definitely not an option!!!

We are looking forward to whatever this trip brings to us. Keep watching, we will try to post each Monday with what has happened that week.

Jan 19-23, 2009

Jan 19, 2009 – today was another quiet day. Floyd worked in his “Home Office” this morning before being picked up by his co-worker, Wilson to travel to Yantai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantai) to visit some dairies and put on some training meetings. I walked up to the store for some groceries before lunch. In the afternoon after Floyd left, I exercised and began gathering things to get ready to pack for the trip home.
Jan 20, 2009 – today was the last time I will grocery shop this trip. I realized I needed to take inventory and use up all the food we have on hand and only buy what we need to finish the week. Some things we will be able to store at Floyd’s office but obviously nothing perishable. We found that many things we feel necessary were missing from things supplied with the apartment. There are no dishtowels or dishrags, no measuring cups or measuring spoons, no mixing or serving bowls, no paring knives, and nothing I can bake things in the Microwave oven. These are all things we take for granted here in the states. So I will be bringing some things from home and storing them at the office also. You really have to be at a different mindset for this kind of continued travel back and forth as we will be doing. I have to be careful not to wind up storing so much stuff in the office that it starts spilling out in the hallway…LOL.
Floyd visited a potential customer with the dairy team to provide training and technical support. It was a very interesting visit, but not sure if much will come out of it. The dairyman has some very strong ideas of his own. It reminded Floyd of the saying “Don’t confuse me with facts, my mind is made up.” After the meeting at the dairy, they went into the small village to have lunch. The place they ate at was a very old building with running water in only one sink. The restroom facilities were out back in an old concrete building. Floyd said they hadn’t even made it to the primitive stage yet. Imagine an outhouse with no internal structures. For lunch he had a variety of things. The specialty was dumplings. There were mushrooms, vegetables, pork, shrimp, donkey, beef, etc. He also had a dish that they called Chinese pizza. It was a mixture of shrimp, mushrooms, cucumbers and carrots mixed in a batter and then fried in a big flat disc like pizza. It was also sliced like pizza. He said it was very good.
Tonight, Floyd stayed in Lai Xie, a village between Yantai and Qingdao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingdao ).
Jan 21, 2009 – today the pollution is really bad as there is no wind to clear out the air so I will be staying inside all day. I took some pictures out the window showing how bad it is. One of the pictures shows the sun as it is setting through the smog…beautiful orange color but not healthy! You can compare the smog pictures with some of the first pictures I took from the apartment to show you the difference. I also took a picture today of one of the odd things you see over here all the time, I opened my window and took a picture down below at the sidewalk. You will notice numerous cars COMPLETELY ON the sidewalk, apparently the building owners sell sidewalk space for parking. Kind of gives a new meaning to the expression “If you don’t like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk!”
This morning Floyd visited a dairy that Cargill owns and did a training session at the farm for the dairy team. He flew home this evening from Qingdao in time to have dinner together.
Jan 22, 2009 – It is kind of bitter sweet today, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Beijing but at the same time I am ready to go home. I spent most of the day organizing and packing everything I could so as to not have to do it all in the morning. It is almost as hard to pack to go home as to come here. The suitcases were definitely lighter though, between eating the food we brought with us and leaving some things here. We wound up with 2 bags of things to leave in Floyd’s office, such as first aid kit and kitchen things.
Floyd finished up this stay in the office, doing reports, tying up loose ends and finalizing everything for the next trip over.
Jan 23, 2009 – we got up early this morning and ate then finished packing. The leasing agent for the apartment came and checked us out early but allowed us to stay until it was time to go to the airport. We just had to turn our keys in to the security guard downstairs when we left. Floyd’s co-worker Wilson picked us up and took us to the Airport. It was interesting fitting 3 people, 4 suitcases, and 2 carryon bags along with the 2 bags that were going to Floyd’s office in his little car, a Volkswagen Jetta! We did it though by stacking some and carrying some in our laps.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened at the airport, just the usual check in procedures before heading out to our gate. The gate agents were quite concerned about our carryon bags for some reason this time though. They kept telling us we would have to check one in at the gate and we kept telling them we had one small carryon and a regular sized one…they just kept fussing over it. It would have been really bad for us to have to check them in. Floyd’s bags were computer bag and his backpack with his work files. Mine were my regular roll on bag which had my computer, my CPAP machine for my sleep apnea and my big camera zoom lens and my backpack which had my camera, my purse and other personal items. We discussed it for a while and they finally let us take them onboard. We were not sure for a short while.
Our flight was uneventful and very long! We watched 2 movies, ate 3 meals and slept for a little over 4 hours and finally made it back to San Francisco. Then the problems started, on International flights (for anyone who does not know) you go through immigration and then you have to claim all your bags to go through Customs to have your luggage all X-rayed again, and then check your bags back in. Then you have to go back through security again before you head to your connecting flight. Well, as luck had it, our flight was a little late getting into San Francisco and our luggage took almost an hour to get onto the carrousel (although almost everyone else had theirs and had left before ours came in) and by the time we finished everything else and got to our gate…you got it WE MISSED OUR CONNECTING flight to Boise. They booked us on the next one but instead of leaving San Francisco at 10:30 in the morning, we were now booked to fly out at 2:30 PM. Just what we wanted to do, sit around the airport for 4 more hours after such a long flight! Then to make bad matters worse, because of weather, almost all the flights were being delayed. We finally got on the airplane headed home at 4:48 PM! That put us in Boise around 6:30 that evening. We started at the Beijing Airport at 11:30 AM their time (which is about 8:30 PM Boise time) the day before and finally got home almost 22 hours later. What an adventure! The ironic thing about the day, we think almost the only flight that went out of San Francisco on time that day was the flight we missed!
It is good to be home and get to see our sweet grandchildren again. It is rather strange to be able to drink out of the faucet again and to be able to rinse my toothbrush with tap water again. It takes a couple days adjustment on both ends of the trip!

NEXT TRIP: Our next trip is March 1st through March 27th. Until then, we hope you enjoy the postings from this trip!