May 3 - 29, 2010

May 3, 2010 – We are back again in China. The flights went well. Such a routine now! It is warm now here, with temperatures in the 80’s today. We kind of have a routine with our unpacking since everything gets put away in basically the same place…different apartment but they are set up the same. We turned in early as we were tired from a long day.
Floyd had to hit the deck running this trip! We got in Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning he had to catch a flight out to visit with dairies and hold meetings. He missed his plane coming home as the people he was with did not allow enough time to get back to the airport. This did not sit well with Floyd as he was already tired from just arriving here and then got in much later than he was expecting.
One of the first things we noticed was all the Cottonwood “fluff” in the air here. It is earlier in the season than back home. We noticed an article and picture in the newspaper…we don’t have it bad at home compared to the picture!!! I am adding the picture to our blog as well as an album of various weather conditions so you can see how bad it really was. Luckily that was in another area of the city and our area had fluff coming down but not nearly as bad!
We have a lady we have gotten to know over here this trip, her name is Kathleen. She is taking a year off from work and is traveling around the world. She is spending 3 months in Beijing, touring and learning Chinese. etc. From here she will tour a few more Asian countries and is planning on going to Spain on her next leg. Our hat is off to her…for the faith and fortitude to go to countries by herself and explore. I am not too sure I could do it.
They have been doing a huge work project across the street, apparently replacing some sort of water or sewer line. It looks like they are trying to make a career out of it. Unfortunately they do a lot of the work at night when it is cooler and as a result we can’t open windows at night to let cool air in because of the noise. We also can’t open windows during day, even if it cooler outside than in the apartment because of the diesel rig they are using to pump water fouls the air so badly. The exhaust seems to come right into the apartment window.
Because people come and go so regularly from here, that is they live here for a period of time due to work, teaching English in the colleges or come to study abroad for a period of time and then leave, it is customary to have a “Closing Social” at our church or kind of farewell party at the end of the school each year. We had the pleasure of having it happen this trip and we really enjoyed visiting with everyone before they head back for the U.S. or country they were from.
The ladies over here in our church decided this year to have everyone submit their favorite recipes and make a cookbook. They asked if anyone would be interested in helping and with the graphic art background I have I decided to volunteer some of my time. It turns out that things had stalled with making an actual book due to cost of printing. I suggested the option of doing it electronically on a CD and it was decided we would go ahead and follow through and get it made. It kind of landed in my lap and I spent MANY, MANY hours pulling things together for it. It was truly a labor of love that I will finish when we get back to the U.S. and we can purchase the CD’s to burn it on.
We moved up a little in the technology world. We purchased a couple of iPod touches with miles from our trips. It is amazing how much you can store on them to listen to or read. We are enjoying them, especially where they are so compact and easy to carry.
Over here there are quite a few beggars that post themselves close to the grocery store near us. They hit up most of the foreigners. We refuse to give them money as they ask but are not afraid to purchase some food for them. There is one gal who is very friendly. She has a couple children and sometimes I bring some food from the store for her. She is always really appreciative and is respectful to us. If we tell her not today she will say thank you anyway. Many of them follow you and keep speaking Chinese to us trying to get us to give them something. This irritates me as I do not like to be badgered!
As you can see, I have not been very good again at keeping up the blog, sorry. I am trying to catch up and will have to make myself at least write an idea each day so I can go back and “fill in the blanks”. This trip has been quite uneventful and calm, I am really enjoying it.
May 18, 2010 – today is rainy and 81 degrees F.
We cherish our evening walks when Floyd gets home from work most nights. We see such a sweet Chinese lady who has had a stroke there walking in the park almost every night we go there. What a huge challenge this must be for her as we watch her struggle through each step, partly dragging her right foot to in front of her. We feel the enormous courage this must take to go around the park. We take it so for granted as we walk once or twice around the park and realize what a struggle and how long that lap must be for her with her limitations.
The culture here has a real difference of what is acceptable than what we are accustomed to. As we were going for our walk this evening, a little boy, about 6 or 7 years old was standing on the sidewalk seeing how high he could pee on the tree. Public urination for males of all ages is very common in China. We see this along the highways as well as in the neighborhoods. Taxi drivers will stop and get out and step next to a tree to urinate. They would be arrested in the United States. We also see public urination with little girls, but not as much as boys.
May 26, 2010 – we are down to crunch week again, we head back to the U.S. on the 29th. As always we do it with such mixed emotions. We love it here in China, love the people and the culture so we are sad to leave. But on the other hand we love the United States, and especially getting to see our family, so we are happy to head out again.
May 27, 2010 – Just after we finished dinner tonight, the power went out our floor of the apartment building. They got it restored a couple of times but couldn’t keep it on, so we ended up going to bed early as there was nothing else to do. Maybe the extra sleep will help make up for the frustration.
May 28, 2010 - Off 8 times in total throughout the night and early morning. Still not sure what has caused to circuit breaker to keep tripping. It made it fun getting ready and packing to go home. Power comes on…shower, power goes off. Power comes on…blow dry my hair, power goes off. Power comes on…flat iron my hair, power actually stayed on the rest of the day…yea!
We had actually extended our stay as Floyd had to visit 6 farms the last 3 days for a large international client they are working with. They are doing nutrition and management audits of the farms and will need to follow up with the reports and recommendations when we get back home.
May 29, 2010 – we got ready and packed early this morning, quite a miracle in itself! So I will take a moment and reflect on our trip this month. This seems to be one of the fastest months we have been here even though we actually stayed one day extra because Floyd had meetings on Friday this month so we leave on Saturday instead of our usual Friday. I guess when you keep busy, the time goes by faster.

March 20-26, 2010

March 20, 2010 – We have a sand storm today…from our newspaper back home - The Idaho Statesman it reads: BEIJING — Tons of sand turned Beijing's sky orange as the strongest sandstorm this year hit northern China, a gritty reminder that the country's expanding deserts have led to a sharp increase in the storms.
The sky glowed Saturday and a thin dusting of sand covered Beijing, causing workers and tourists to muffle their faces in vast Tiananmen Square. The city's weather bureau gave air quality a rare hazardous ranking.
Air quality is "very bad for the health," China's national weather bureau warned. It said people should cover their mouths when outside and keep doors and windows closed.
China's expanding deserts now cover one-third of the country because of overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought. The shifting sands have led to a sharp increase in sandstorms - the grit from which can travel as far as the western United States.
The latest sandstorm also hit the regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei, affecting about 250 million people over an area of 312,000 square miles (810,000 square kilometers), the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
As the sandstorm moved southeast, South Korea's national weather agency issued a yellow dust advisory for Seoul and other parts of the country.
Chun Youngsin, a researcher at the Korea Meteorological Administration, said the yellow dust was expected to hit the Korean peninsula beginning Saturday afternoon and it would be "the worst yellow dust" this year.
Some flights at Beijing's international airport were delayed but eventually took off, said a woman answering phones at the airport hot line.
China has planted thousands of acres of vegetation in recent years to stop the spread of deserts in its north and west, but experts have said the work will take decades.
"The challenges ahead are still huge," China said in a report to the United Nations in 2006.
The worst recent sandstorm to hit Beijing was in 2006, when about 300,000 tons of sand were dumped on the capital.
"The situation improved tremendously after that. Thanks to the mild climate and conservation efforts, Beijing had only one sandstorm last year," Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Meteorological Station, told Xinhua on Saturday.
The closest desert area to Beijing is about 500 miles away, in the region of Inner Mongolia, Guo said.
China's dust storms were at their worst in the 1950s and '60s after campaigns to raise farm and factory output following the 1949 communist revolution stripped the soil of vegetation.
Because of those campaigns, archaeologists have found that sandstorms are reducing some packed-earth sections of the Great Wall in western China to "mounds of dirt" that may disappear in 20 years.
Today we also had our Relief Society (women’s group for church) Women’s Conference here in Beijing. I had to go out in the sandstorm to catch a taxi, luckily it wasn’t as bad where we were as many of the pictures. We had a wonderful time with Katie Hoskin as our keynote speaker. She spoke on “Charity Never Faileth” and how that actually pertains to us now. After her talk we had the opportunity to assemble hygiene kits for those in need here in China. All the items were donated by the women and we actually were able to finish 270 kits and had many more that were missing some items. Each kit was in a 1 gallon plastic bag and consisted of: 2 hand towels, 4 toothbrushes, 1 tube of toothpaste, 2 bars of soap and 2 combs. What a blessing to be able to help others in this manner! We had a wonderful time!
March 21, 2010 – today we went to church as usual. The sandstorm is pretty much over today, just the remnants all over the buildings, streets and cars. Everything is covered in a layer of dust! Over the pulpit they announced the loss of a baby for the Jensen family. It seems that she was due to deliver next week but was not feeling any movement of the baby so went to the doctor. Unfortunately, the baby had passed away so they induced her to deliver the baby. Our hearts go out to them. We pray that the Lord will envelop them with his arms of love and comfort at this time.
March 22, 2010 – Floyd had meetings late tonight as they try to wrap things up on this visit.
March 23, 2010 – Happy Birthday to Floyd’s “little” sister, Dorothy Pena!
March 26, 2010 – we headed back home to Meridian, Idaho. It is good to get home and visit with the kids and grandkids. We miss them while we are in China and enjoy seeing them. Our flight was uneventful, we rested well on the flight so we felt good when we got home.

March 1-19, 2010

March 1, 2010 - Here we are back “home” in Beijing again. It seems like it is getting to be too routine. It snowed just before we arrived so there was some snow on the ground. We thought winter was over so we again did not bring warm enough clothes, Floyd left his heavy down coat at home and I just bought one on sale for next year and left it home also. We can make do though. I will probably not write in the blog every day this time but I will try to mention some of the things that happen from time to time.

March 7, 2010 - Our first Sunday here and we had District Conference, which is where many of the congregations meet together to hear area speakers. It was a great meeting! Our Area Authority Elder Chu spoke to us about why we are here. He challenged us to find out why we are here in China, he said we may think it is for employment but it is not. He said the Lord has placed us here right now for a reason and it is up to us to find out why. That was very thought provoking. I don’t believe we have found out why yet.

March 8, 2010 - We had snow again today, about 2 inches or so. Floyd had to fly off this morning for work and had to trudge through the snow for a block or so to get a taxi…seems there weren’t many to be found that morning! He finally found a taxi and had a fun ride to the airport. At one point the driver was going faster than he should and traffic stopped in front of him. He slammed on the brakes and still wasn’t going to be able to stop so at the last second he swerved and they sat cross ways in the road, but missed everything. Floyd did make it safely to Yinchuan, a city about 2 hours flight West of Beijing. It was very cold and Floyd said they walked in a snow storm as they visited the farm. They must not get many Americans in the town as Floyd said while they were eating lunch a group of school kids came to the window and peered through at him. He felt like he was on exhibition. It is really giving him a better understanding on minorities and how they must often feel. The cold and snowy weather is starting to get ordinary. They say this has been the snowiest and coldest winter they have had in at least 10 years, maybe more.

March 9, 2010 - I got to go out to lunch to a local restaurant with some of the ladies from church. I ordered a chicken salad (with raisins and walnuts) sandwich on pumpkin seed bread. It was pretty good but not spectacular, it sounded better than it really was. It was a bit dry. It is always fun to spend time just talking. Great lunch, great ladies! Floyd flew back to Beijing tonight.

March 13, 2010 – we spent the day catching up on computer work although we decided to take a break and get a bite to eat for lunch then go for a walk. We had a wonderful walk in the park and enjoyed watching everyone out enjoying the “spring” weather. It was actually a beautiful day…a little warm to wear your coat but too cool to go without it. Hmm, what to do?

March 14, 2010 – well it did it again. I looked out the window this morning and thought it was foggy and thought nothing of it. I then stood up and saw something funny over on the sidewalks so I went to the window to get a better look and sure enough it was snowing again. Somehow we missed the memo or something that it was going to snow. So we later trudged off to church in the snow. It was coming down pretty good but we thought it would taper off as the morning wore on and the temperature would rise like it usually does. Much to our surprise it continued snowing all through church. When we got out of church at noon it was still snowing and continued to do so until around 4 PM. Much of that time the flakes were very large and majestic looking, the kind that look like feathers floating down after a pillow fight. Floyd had a flight out in the evening to Hohhot (in Inner Mongolia) for work and was concerned about the weather. As it turned out his flight was only delayed, not cancelled like 3 others going to the same place. They were supposed to arrive in Hohhot about 7:30. He finally got to the hotel at midnight and had a 6:30 breakfast meeting. He said he was very tired.

March 15, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our first born – Terri Lynne (Hoisington) Grammer!!!! It has been 37 years now since we first became parents to our little “Trinket”. I can remember the day as if it was yesterday! So many mysteries, so much love…and so much WORK! I wouldn’t trade it for the world. She was our “prototype”, everything got worked out on her before the others came along. That has not always made her happy when she would say “I never got away with that” and we would reply “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t let them do it when we realized it was not that big of a deal”. We had learned to pick our battles or maybe there would be only battles and no good time. Funny how sometimes wisdom comes with age and experience.

She has been a delight to our family and a good example to the others. We love her dearly!

True confessions time… I have decided to make a quilt for each of my grandchildren for their 12th birthday. Sounds easy enough right? It should be, but I took on a bigger project with Katie’s quilt than I should have. It took me an entire year to finish piecing the blocks together – she has now turned 13…UGH red faced shame! To make a very long story short, I finished piecing it just before we came to China this time so I brought the top, the batting and the bottom layer with me. I promised myself I would tie 1 to 2 rows a day until I got it finished. I GOT IT DONE TODAY…YEAAAAAAAAAA! Now I just have to put the binding around the edges when I get home and give it to her. I must say it has truly been a labor of love! I hope she can enjoy it for many, many years!

March 16, 2010 – today started out rather normal then about 11 AM Floyd shows up back at the apartment after having left at 7:30 AM to go to work. It seems that the internet server was down and he had many things to get done that required the internet. Sure changed my plans around but it was good. Floyd’s co-worker Joshua and his wife asked us to go out to dinner tonight. This is the individual that just spent a year in the US being trained by Floyd and his co-workers. We went to a Korean restaurant near our apartment. I must confess when they said they were going there I quietly cringed. We had gone to dinner at a Korean restaurant with one of Floyd’s bosses on one of our other trips and I was not enthusiastic about the food. I was able to eat most of it but told Floyd I would not care to go back. Luckily as it turned out, there are 2 Korean restaurants next door to each other and they were taking us to the one we had not gone to. Thank you, thank you, and thank you! We had a fabulous dinner with many new things but nothing that I would call gross, some I took one bite of and went on to something else but nothing bad. Korean kimchi definitely has a unique flavor that you have to acquire a taste for. We had a very enjoyable evening and really appreciated the chance to experience their culture.

March 17, 2010 – Floyd had to go in to work this morning even though the internet server is still down; they say it might not be up until next Monday. He had a meeting with some people from the United States at his office early this morning. He came home again before lunch and we had an enjoyable afternoon together with him working out of the apartment for the rest of the day.

March 18, 2010 – the internet server was back up this morning so Floyd spent the whole day at the office. He has some training meetings he is involved in next week and was finishing preparing for those meetings. I just spent time of the computer and catching up on things.

March 19, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother Dan. Hope he has a great day! He lives in California and I do not get to see him more than once a year if he can make it to Oroville where we visit the rest of the family. We finished the day by “going out to dinner”. Actually I went over to a local Japanese restaurant and ordered Sushi to bring home for dinner. We ate it here and just watched movies for the evening. Very relaxing!

January 2010

SORRY! THIS IS FROM OUR LAST TRIP OVER, BUT I GUESS BETTER LATE THAN NEVER...ENJOY!

January 2010 – HAPPY NEW YEAR! We started the New Year in Meridian, Idaho furiously getting ready to travel back to Beijing. We had a lovely evening with the kids but did not stay up to see the New Year in. Our journey back on Jan 4th began very early in the morning, as usual. We have to get up at 3:15 AM in order to be packed and ready to leave the house for the airport at 4:30 AM. It was a foggy dreary morning and the drive was a bit slower than usual but we made it in plenty of time. Our plane was on time and we had the first short leg of our trip to San Francisco to make our connection with our flight to Beijing. We had about a 4 hour layover in San Francisco before our flight so we spent the time checking emails, walking and eating breakfast (it was way too early to eat before going to the airport!) As we checked our emails when we got to San Francisco we found that we had gotten one from a friend in Beijing telling us that it was COLD over here and to be sure to bring our long johns! Luckily we had gotten an email from the Beijing branch of our church the day before we left (since they are ahead of us) letting us know that church had been cancelled because of a really bad snow storm so we had already packed lots of warm clothes. This trip is definitely colder than our January trip over last year!

We had the wonderful opportunity to upgrade our tickets to Business Class seating because of the amount of miles we travel each year and got to see “how the other half” flies. WOW is all I can say! The seats were soooo nice, extremely comfortable and reclined like the recliners at home. The meals were also much better with real silverware, glasses and dishes as well as linen napkins. I don’t want to make it sound like I am bragging too much, just let it be known we slept much better than in coach as well as we were not as sore from sitting. I could get spoiled really quickly, but reality must set in…this will not happen very often as we do not always qualify for upgrades. Boo! Hoo!

Our trials started when we arrived at the airport in Beijing. Due to the bad weather (many flights were cancelled the day before from the snow storm) the airport lines were very, very long. Customs usually only takes about 10 minutes or so to clear but the lines were so long and there was a problem with a passenger in the head of our line. Apparently there must have been a problem with his visa as they kept working on him alone for about 15 minutes before they removed him from the line. Then it took us well over a half an hour for us to get to the immigration officer. We were already tired and this really tried our patience. Once through customs we thought things would go smoother only to get to the escalator and look down at the subway stop to take us to the terminal for our baggage…the whole platform was full of people! It took 3 subway cars coming and going to clear out the crowd enough for us to get on. Ugh, more waiting… patience wearing even thinner. So here we were packed in like sardines in the subway car only to have it creep along at about 2 mph instead of a regular pace of probably 20 mph, with stops every so often to wait for the subway car to pass in the other direction… patience wearing even thinner! Wilson, Floyd’s co-worker, called us just as we got off the plane and said he was just then leaving the office to come to the airport, that way he would not have to wait too long. Even with that he still wound up waiting for us for over an hour. Luckily the Chinese people seem to be a patient people! We did finally get to our apartment long after dark, very tired and hungry.

We noticed as we left the airport that the “snow equipment” they have for snow removal here is quite different than we have in the states!!! It consisted of men with shovels dumping snow into the containers they use in the baggage area on one of the carts they use in the airport then taking it a short distance away and dumping it in piles. Very ingenious…and cheap! We forget between trips what it is like on the roads here. For example, we got to an intersection where we had a green light and suddenly cars were turning left from the oncoming traffic and going right in front of us…not just one darting in but a whole line of 5 or 6 cars just kept coming…couldn’t get away with that in the USA.

We had about 6 inches of snow on the ground here and the temperature was about 15 degrees F on our arrival. It was beautiful to see all the snow but the cold kind of cuts through you. We did not leave the apartment that night to go grocery shopping, as we usually do, we made do with the food we had left behind in storage. Within a couple hours we were all unpacked, settled in and ready for bed!!!

A dear friend of ours, Doug Roberts, who we went to High School with in California, lost his wife to cancer just before we got back here to China. We did not find out about it until we arrived. Wished so badly that we could go to the memorial service but it was not possible to make it back from here to be there. Our prayers are with him!

January 7, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our grandson Max. It is his 5th birthday today. We had spent a bit of time with him before we headed back to China to wish him a happy birthday and give him a gift since we would not be there to celebrate with them.

One day as we walked home from the park, we noticed some of the street maintenance workers had a manhole cover open and were dumping the snow down in it. We really had to laugh at that one. I guess that is a really good way to get rid of it!

About 1 week into trip, they blocked Facebook again this month. Floyd figured out that we could get a special VPN (virtual private network) that would make it so we could access the site blocked by the government here. It was nice once he got it set up. I could get back on Facebook and not miss out!

The weather was bitter cold much of this trip. Floyd and his co-workers walk to where ever they eat lunch and then afterwards they often take a walk around the block. One day when they did that, Floyd said it felt like he had ”frozen eyeballs” when he got back to the office. I checked the temperature to see what it was during his walk. Accuweather said that it was 12 degrees F (-11 degrees C) with 29 mph winds (46 km/h) making the RealFeel at -16 degrees F (-26 degrees C). Floyd said he believed it was that cold.

January 25, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our grandson Elliot. He turned 4 years old today. We got to talk to him on Skype today and wish him a happy birthday. It is so nice to be able to see the kids on the computer!!!

Just before we returned home, Floyd’s co-worker, Wilson and his wife took us out to dinner to “celebrate” Chinese New Year a little early since we would be back in the States. They took us to a nice restaurant in Beijing, Chinese of course. It was one on those places where you cooked the food at your table. In the middle of the table was a burner with a large pot of seasoned stock boiling in it. You then picked several other items that they brought to the table on platters that you would then put into the boiling stock to cook. Once it was done, then you would pull pieces out and eat them. The waiter would continue to replenish the stock as it boiled down or was consumed as we dished up things from it. We had quite a variety of things at dinner. Some of the things we consumed were: pig brains, duck blood (it had been coagulated in a loaf and then sliced and had the consistency of tofu), lamb, mutton, red sea bass, tofu – 3 kinds, tapioca roots, sea floaters (sea weed - the long tubes with the bulbs on top that the kids pick up at the beach), dragons eye (a type of fruit), dates, cabbage, pork meatballs, mushrooms (much different looking then we are accustomed to), whole garlic cloves and various spices and vegetables. The air in the restaurant was full of the smell of spices. It even permeated our clothes and the next day when we went to the closet to get our coats, it smelled just like the restaurant. It was a very enjoyable evening and about as authentic as you can get. Yes we tried some of everything!

We returned to Idaho on the 29th. It was a very routine flight, but we did not get the luxury of business class going home. It was good to get back home to visit with family.