Hi Everyone:

 

Well, it is Friday evening here and we are getting ready to go on  weeks vacation to Central and Western China.  We leave tomorrow morning at 11:00 .  This was my first full week of teaching and it went very well.

 

Yesterday, we were invited to attend a Government celebration of 62 years of the Chinese Communist Party.   It was really a celebration.  Flowers for ever more and more Government dignitaries than you can count.   We we asked to sit next to the party leaders.  We go toasted (with their wine and our orange juice) at least 100 times.  Their wine glasses kept being filled up and our orange juice glasses kept being filled up.   At the end, we were more sober than they were.  There was tons of food and snacks.  In the end, they presented to us a large picture book of China and specifically Tianjin China.  I'm still not quite sure why we were invited but it was nice.   As we came in the door, they saluted us and bowed to us.  I guess I am finally getting the recognition that I have so long deserved.   No one ever salutes to me or bows to me at home.   When I got ready for bed last night, I saluted mother and bowed to her.   She didn't salute back.   No respect.

 

It is getting cold here.  The high today was about 55 F.   We each had to wear a sweater.  My Chinese students are really smart.   They write and understand English, much better than they speak English.  I told them a joke today, no one laughed.   I guess they don't appreciate Western humor.  It was a good joke too.

 

I try to go out for a one hour walk everyday.   I usually get it in.  My neighbor from SLC usually walks with me.  I am going to start going to the pool and swim, now that it is getting colder.  I have found a new breakfast that I like here.  It is two bananas and a glass of Chinese sweet milk.   Very delicious.  The longer that I have been away from America, the better the Chinese food tastes.   Today I had some cold vegetables with vinegar on them and some fried rice.  Was pretty good.  Like I said the longer I am gone from America, the better the food here tastes.  We are now starting to enjoy Chinese television shows.  I never thought that would happen.   When they laugh, I laugh.

 

Last Saturday we went to Beijing for the day.  We shopped fpr Winter clothing.  Those people must thing I am dumber than I look.  I was looking for a Winter coat.  They started at 2500 Yuan ($690.00)   I laughed.   They said "it is a good buy, just ask my partner."  I asked her partner and she confirmed it was a god buy.   I confirmed it was a good buy for them, but not for me.  I said "no thank you" and started walking off.   She yelled, "come back, I will give you a better price.  How much better?  2450 Yuan.   I offered her 50 yuan, $8.00.  She said "your joking"  I said, "no, you are joking."  she acted insulted, I start walking off.  "Come back Come back"  "How much"  I said.  2400 Yuan, I offered her 40 yuan.  Two dollars less than last time.  I said. "look you Ding Bat, you're trying to rip me off."  She doesn't understand.   Good thing.  I finally tell her my final price is 250 yuan, no more.  She laughs, I laugh.  She says "no way" I say good by.   She says "come back"   I say "take a hike"   She says" OK, OK"  I say "OK what".  I walk off.  She chases me down the hall with the coat, she says "OK".  I give her 250 Yuan  $39.00 and walk off with my new purchase.  I now have a new genuine knockoff Northface Winter coat.  That is the process of bargaining all day in Beijing.   Finally I have had enough and it is time to go for dinner.   We eat pizza and  try to go back to the Beijing South Railway Station.   Well. now I have a problem.   I have 8 people with me and can't find the Chinese words to tell the taxi drivers to take us to the train station.  Lucky for me, I have the telephone number in my phone of my Chinese partner, Marvin.   He lives 4000 miles away.  I call Marvin and tell him the problem.  He says, "no problem"  let me talk to the taxi driver.   I hail down two cabs and give each one the cell phone.   Marvin speaks with them and off we go.  We made it OK.

 

We had Bishopric meeting on Tuesday.   Much different than in the States, but much more efficient.  We held it via video conferencing.  The four of us.   Our Bishop was in Taiwan, I was here in Tianjin and the Second Counselor was in Tongu.   We got through very quickly.   You can get things done much faster that way than wasting time talking about nothing.   It lasted about 45 minutes.  After Bishopric meeting, I met with all of the Young Single Adults from our ward.  6 of them.   I say, "I will take you all out for dinner for our activity".  They like that.  I take them to the Chinese restaurant in our hotel.   It is closed, we go to another one, it is closed also.  It is 8:30 P. M.  Now, I know that the only one open that is close is TGIF.  We walk there.   The prices there are very high.  They haven't had an American meal for months.   They go for it.  When it is over, I am out $250.00.  No reimbursement from the ward.   They vote to have an activity every week.   I veto it.   I say once a month.   They agree, but decide to meet among themselves once a month also.  I bet they don't go to TGIF.

 

Well, not a whole lot more going on here.   I hope you have a great day.   I love you all.

 

Dad

Hi all:

 

I thought that I had it bad here, but after reading Dick's email from Kabul I think my life is great.   Today I had taxi cabs aim at me, yell at me, spit on me, honk at me, but no one shot at me.

 

A bus side swiped me, a bicycle rear ended me, I ran over a guys foot, came a gnat's hair from rear ending a lady who suddenly stopped in front of me.  (my brakes don't work as good as hers) and 6 cars ran a red light in front of me while I was trying to cross the street on my bike.   I still never got shot at.

 

I ate some food that makes dick's rations sound great, slept on a bed that was worse than concrete, got ate by mosquitoes all night, tried for two hours to get my email up, tried to make a telephone call, only to find out that my phone service was shut off, got called in by dean from the college of physics and given two more classes to teach.   I never even took physics, let alone taught it, and by the way they are PHD students.  Boy, life is good here.

 

Ran out of water, the toilet only flushes when it feels like it, my curtains in the apartment don't close, so night time the world sees in,  my only towel fell in the bath tub, the towel rack (which was held on by duct tape) fell off the wall and I found that I had to put a bucket full of water in the toilet to get it to flush.   Life is sure good here.

 

The television only works in Chinese, had 100 year old egg sandwiches for lunch.  Yikes  When you turn the air conditioning on the heat comes on and when the people upstairs in the apartment above us flush their toilet, it feels like an atomic bomb or an earth quake down here where we are.  A pizza here is a piece of bread with cauliflower, brussel sprouts and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on it, lightly.  It doesn't even kill the taste of the vegetables.  Man I like this place.

 

My text books are all in Chinese with English sub titles,  the holes in all of the side walks are not OSHA approved, cars and bikes going down a one way street the wrong way is OK. fish, snakes, and frogs jumping out of the water tanks onto the floor at the super market and two Chinese ladies slugging it out on the street corner.

 

Well, just another day in China.   It is nice to hear from each of you and hope you are all doing well.  China is great.   My love to each of you.

 

Wynn

Hi everyone:

Well. mother taught another day and I went to the market.  On my way I had to go down the one way street the wrong way again. There was no other way, as there was a large barrier going down the center of the road. Well anyway, here comes a guy on a bike and isn't looking. I honked and pulled over as close to the fence as I could. He still didn't see me.  Just at the moment of collision he looks up. Poor guy. He tries to move but too late. He crashes into me.  No big deal, my bike weighs 300 pounds, he is on a bicycle.  He goes for a tumble.  He gets up and mumbles something that did not sound complimentary and takes off.  So I take off also.  On the way home, I see an ambulance going my direction in the bike lane.  He has his siren on so I get behind him and he creates a path for me to go as fast as he goes.  I am going top speed, about 20 MPH.  All of the sudden he decides to stop.  He stops faster than I do.  I came a gnat's hair from rear ending him.  I had to go to the left side of him to keep from hitting him.  To make matters worse, he makes a left hand turn and almost runs over me.  Well, I guess if he had hit me, I could get a ride to the hospital.

Mother has gone to the Police Station with some dignitaries to get a lecture on how to conduct ourselves in China.  She told the leader that I was the one that should go to the Police Station because I have more problems that she does in how to conduct ones self in China.  I conduct myself very well, but there are a whole lot of Chinese who could take a lesson from me.  At the BYU training they told us not to try to change China, because it would not happen.  Well, I'll  just do
the best I can to survive.

Speaking of survival, today I cooked up a pot of hamburger soup.  It was very good.  There is enough left for a few more meals.  I went to the cleaners and also to the tailor.  These are little back yard shops, but they get the job done.

Mother has a day off tomorrow and I have the next two weeks off, so we will do something, not sure what yet.  I think that President Obama must be running this country because i get paid for the month of September, just by being here and I don't start until the first of October.  Not a bad deal, kind of reminds me of Lyndon Johnson's great society.

I went to the bank yesterday to draw out some money, but my debit card was missing.  The last time I used it was the last time I went to that bank.  I took an interpreter with me to tell the teller of my misfortune.  He pulls out a whole pile of credit cards and asks if any are mine.  I see mine of top.  Apparently if you don't take your card out of the machine within 15 seconds, the machine takes your card. Well, I tell him which one is my card.  He says prove it.  He wants to see my passport.  I go get it and show it to him.  He says OK, we will now put your card back into the machine and you put in your pass word and try to get some money out.  I say OK and do so.  I draw out 1000 yuan.  He says OK and gives me my card.  I was just happy to retrieve my card.

I went to the print shop a few minutes ago to run some copies off for mother.  She needed 70 copies.  They ran them off for me, the cost was about a dollar.  America could take a lesson from the Chinese.

I have had to re get use to all of the Chinese customs.  Chinese are the biggest crowders in the world.  While at the market, at least 17 people cut in line in front of me.  I wasn't in a hurry but if I were it would have made no difference.  While at the market, one person saved a place in line for five others.  When we get to the front of the line, 5 people come running with their carts She let's all 5 of them cut in front of me.  She smiles and so do I.

On the way to the market, there were at least 500 bikes in front of me and they were going very slow.  Finally, I get into the traffic lane. It moves about as fast as my electric bike will go.  I just stay in the line of traffic and pass all of the bikes and finally get to the market.  A lot of cars and buses honked their horns, so Just waved at them and smiled.  Just another day in China.  I love you all.

Dad

Saturday, August 27

Hi Everyone:

Today (Saturday) was quite a busy day. We are still buying things for the apartment and teaching supplies. We went to an outdoor shopping center, while there it started raining, so went to an inside shopping center. Bought a couple of things then went out to flag a cab. Well,  since it was raining, all of China had the same idea. It was not a pretty sight. Our friends stayed on one side of the street and
us on the other. The first one that flagged a cab, the others would come running. Time went by and no cabs would stop. Finally I saw a cab that was empty, but he wasn't about to stop. Last time I was here, I learned how to stop a cab. I went out in front of him and which ever way he tried to turn, I turned also and stayed in front of him. He came to a screeching halt and mom jumped in. I stayed in front of him until the other couple jumped in. After they all got in, I darted for the front door and he took off. Big dip stick. Lucky for me, about a half a block down the road he had to stop for a stop light. I ran as fast as I could and beat the light. I opened the cab door and jumped in. He was not happy, but, oh well, neither was I. I cussed him out all of the way back to the apartment. When we arrived at the guard gate, he refused to go inside the gate, so we refused to get out. We would out wait him. Finally he saw we were not getting out of the cab, so he went inside and spoke to the guard. I don't know what he said, but the guard motioned for us to get out. Not to be out done, I pulled out my Arizona Drivers Licence and flashed it in front of the guard and yelled at him. He looked like he had the fear of God pushed into him. He saluted me and motioned us through the gate. The cabbie then took us to our apartment. The bill was a little less than 21 yuan, a little over three dollars. I gave him 21 yuan and told him to keep the change. Actually  I tipped him 6 cents. Just another day in China.

Well, I went back to a market that had some American food. I found some corn flakes. I never eat corn flakes, but by now, I am not so hard to please. The box of American corn flakes cost me ten dollars. I think I will start importing corn flakes. I buy them in America for a buck fifty. I bought some heavy whipping cream for mother to put on the corn flakes and came home. For a quart of whipping cream,
the cost was under a dollar. That's a switch from America.

We went to an outdoor market that had several little outdoor restaurants. It smelled pretty good, but I couldn't figure what was in the stuff they were cooking. We decided to give something a try. It was some kind of fried noodles with  something like cabbage in it. It wasn't bad. After I have been here a while longer, I really won't be so hard to please.

Well, I hope you all have a good night sleep.  It is 3:45 A. M. your time.   (California and Arizona) an hour later for Minnesota. I love you all.

Dad

August 25, 2011

Hello all:

Well, I thought I would give you an update as to the happenings here. The flight on the way over was fine. The food was good, except Paula would not eat her sushi which was served at every meal.   I wasn't so hard to please and I ate mine and hers. We stayed on Seoul Tuesday evening and flew to Tianjin on Wednesday. We were picked up at the airport by 4 college professors. They each bowed to me. I have finally received the respect that I have so long deserved. (the bowing) When we arrived at the university, the guard would not let us in because the professors didn't have the right documents.   That meant we would have to walk three long blocks with 6 pieces of luggage. I remembered a way to get in. I pulled out my AZ driver's license. I flashed it to the guard and he waved us through. He even stood at attention and saluted me. Well, more respect. As we passed the last guard, I showed him my AZ license, he stood at attention and saluted me again. Now I think that I am an honorary member of the party. More respect.

We arrived safely at out apartment. It was nice. We unpacked and I realized that I didn't pack any socks. Well, I used the same pair two days in a row, then went to Carrefore and bought more socks.   They were more like ladies nylons, but what the heck, this is China. We unpacked the rest of our stuff only to find out we needed a few more things. We went to Carrefore and bought a router a printer and some ink. Now I must find someone who speaks English and who also can work on computers.

Finally the school send a young man over to our apartment to hook up the computers etc.  He hooked up the computers and the router. He refused to hook up the printer because that was not in his work description. I called the lady in charge and she confirmed what he said. She said she would contact another union and send someone to hook up the printer. Well, the computer guy bowed to me and hit the road. I bowed back and gave him a See's Chocolate.

I went to the bike shop to buy a three wheeler. The guy had moved and I could not locate him. I found a guy who looked like and American and asked his if he spoke English. He said yes, even though he was a Russian,  I asked him to ask where the last guy went. He asked and I found that he had only moved three doors down. Wow, my lucky day. I found the guy and ordered the bike. He wanted 2800 Yuan, but I negotiated for 2600 Yuan. A little over $400.00. Again my lucky day. I had brought another teacher with me and he bought one also. On the way home, I went down a one way street, the wrong way. Scared this guy to death. He was yelling something at me, and I don't think it was very complimentary.  There were three lanes going one way and we were going down the middle against traffic. The cars were honking and I waved to my fans, but my companion  was not overly happy. He
said that he was not going with me again. Well, I guess he will have to find his own way around from now on.

Yesterday we visited with the department head of the English Department. He gave us our classes and class schedules.  I teach two classes of excelled calculus, two classes of excelled pharmaceutical students and two classes of applied something or the other. Boy they got this all wrong, I never even took Calculus or Pharmaceutical stuff in school.

I tried to park my bike in the usual place, but got kicked out. I even pulled a Scott and 100 yuan didn't work, so I waited for him to leave and I parked there anyway. He should have taken the yuan because I parked there anyway.

Well, I've got to go give some stuff to the lady in charge. She needs our passport and some photos.  She may want to discuss the bike parking arrangements, or the lack thereof. I guess I will wait and see. It is time for lunch but mother isn't excited to eat any more Chinese food, so I may be eating corn flakes again. Well, better than nothing. Have a great day.

Love,
Dad

August 24, 2011

Hello,

We arrived safely and are nearly unpacked.  Dad has gone to get our 3 wheeler ordered.  We meet with the department chair tomorrow and get our teaching assignments.  It seems dad will probably have freshman after all and he is thrilled.  I meet the other person who teaches Soph--in fact, she is assigned as our "helper" teacher.  She is about 23 and studied for 3 years in Florida.  She is darling and would like to do some planning together..  I would really enjoy that.  Scott, thanks so much for the lovely dinner out and Emily thanks for planning such a nice time on Sunday.  I wrote in my journal that you all brought my favorite foods and that the goodie bags were the hit of the day.  It's amazing to me that we are here and it all feels so familiar and right.  Thanks for the love each of you gives to us.  It is what makes life worth living--

Love,

Mother