Good bye Baoding

It has taken me a while to complete this last post. We said 'goodbye' to our friends and colleagues on Jun 16th and headed home. We'll miss them very much.

 Dean was at our apartment early that morning to help in whatever way he could. Never stopped asking questions, taking advantage of every minute he spent with us.

 Zhong (John) helped us in so many ways. He helped us board our first train in China. Making sure we had a place to sit on the train. He was always very concerned about us. He bought us an iron when our other one wasn't working.  He had a funny laugh too.

 Li Fong is a character. He loves foreigners. Never missing a chance to meet a new person and speak English. He helped me go to the hospital when I got sick. He was very assertive, making sure the doctors took care of me and that I knew what the heck was going on. I never would've gotten through that place without his help.







Shen Zhen Zhen (Felice) was our Chinese teacher. She had so much patience with us, and we managed to learn a little Chinese. One of Marianne's students once told her that she could understand our English better than our Chinese. We tried to speak Chinese when we had to, but it was a mess. We had a lot of fun with her. She was in our post about the Peach Blossom Festival. She helped Marianne with shopping a few times.




 Day-to-day living in Baoding was often difficult. Our problems with speaking and understanding the language was always there. Embracing the culture wasn't always easy to do. Many times during the school year, we were down and missing home, family, and friends. But we had our colleagues, Amber and Mickelle, that we shared this experience with. We shared our joys and difficulties with each other. We prayed together and shared meals each week. We're very grateful for their friendship. Two other foreigners we met along the way were Amy and Gino. Amy taught English in another university and she is from England. Gino is from India and we met him at church. He worked in Baoding. He loved coming to American Night for dinner and games. He was a lot of fun.

Emily (Shi Wanyun) was always a big help to all the foreign teachers. She was a great friend. Still is. Many times she rescued us when we locked ourselves out of the apartment, which we did a few times. Whenever we needed something she did everything she could to help us out. Dr. Ho was also a great host.

Through it all, the students made our time in China very special. We developed some very nice relationships with these kids, and we are thankful for the time we had with them. Here are some of them.

Thanks to all who followed our little blog. It was very nice to see the number of hits. We knew our family and friends were staying connected with us during this time away. Nice memories...Bye Baoding.

May travels and happenings

Hey,
   Hope you all are doing well. We are doing ok. Our time here is getting short, but there's still 6 weeks to go. We're trying to stay focused on the job at hand, but it's easy to drift back to Raleigh, being in the company of those we love. Soon...very soon.
   Marianne and I have been biking around town. We've been thinking about how we want to get around when get back home. Here's a few ideas:

I like these little vehicles. You can put them in the closet at night.

Marianne likes this option. I call it the 'Driving Miss Marianne' option.

A sign of warm weather here in China is the rolled up shirt. We're seeing this more and more, so summer is coming soon.

There was a Karaoke contest on campus last week. The winner sang James Brown's 'I feel Good'. This girl is a free spirit. I caught the last 30 seconds of the song.

Then all the performers sang the big finale.

Here's a couple of our students who came to the show.

Karaoke is very popular here because, other than the movies, its about the only thing to do for fun. So they sing their hearts out.

We went to Beijing last Saturday. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. We decided Friday to go, got our train tickets without any help, and had a great day in Beijing. The air wasn't too bad and the weather was very nice. We went to the 798 Art Zone in northeast part of the city. It was an old German made factory complex that was abandoned in the 1990s. Artists were looking for cheap places to work and display their work, so the area was cleaned up, and now its a nice neighborhood of workshops, galleries, restaurants, and coffee shops. It had a Brooklyn-type feel to it. It was a very nice place to send the afternoon. Here's some photos:

Marianne wanted to tickle him, but she showed amazing self-control.

This girl might be smiling, but I wouldn't mess with her.

He looks guilty of something.

Keeping our distance from the bird flu.

All for now. We'll have another post before we head home. See you all soon. Ciao.

Peach Blossom Festival

This was a week of a lot of bad news from the US and here in China. The bombings in Boston, the explosion in Texas, and the earthquake in Lushan, China. We have followed the news reports, and we pray for the families affected by the tragedies. Here in China, the quake was very bad with thousands of injured. The govt seems to be trying to do a better job than the previous quake that happened 5 years ago. That's what the Chinese TV is broadcasting. We have many students from that part of China. We don't know if they will try to go back home. I hope they stay here, but it would be hard for them.

We were invited to accompany 200+ primary school kids and teachers to the Peach Blossom Festival last Saturday. The students were from 6 - 12 yrs old. It was held in a small farming village west of Baoding. Out friends who went to the Holy Land with us and few ago will remember Sammy the camel in Jericho. I thought of Sammy when we saw this double-humper.

Of course it was crowded.

It was just like any other festival/carnival. Rides and food and plenty of peach blossoms to mingle with.

We had a great time with kids. The students are learning English, and they have never spoken to a foreigner before. So they were very shy about talking with us, but with a little encouragement they started to warm up to us. Marianne was very popular. This little guy was not in our group, but he really wanted to get Marianne's attention. His mother was very proud of her outgoing son.

 Happy faces.

Our faces hurt from smiling all day and having our picture taken so many times. When we get home, Marianne wants to get a pink phone cover with little ears like the girl on the right. She is one of the teachers.

The kids were very concerned that we had enough to eat, so they kept giving us milk and snacks. We brought some P&J sandwiches, but as you can see from the pile of snacks in front of Marianne we did not go hungry. Our friend, Felice, accompanied us on the trip. She is also our Chinese teacher and Mahjong teacher. She is a delightful young lady who has been a great friend to all the foreign teachers.

After the festival, we headed to a nearby strawberry field to do some pickin'. The students made sure that we had plenty of strawberries.

It was a long, fun day. We were pooped when we finally got back to our apartment. We made some great friends among the headmaster and teachers. One young man told me that I must've been very handsome when I was younger. I took it as a compliment, but Marianne and I had a great laugh when we were alone. My ego was a little bruised, but a little humbleness is good for the soul.

Have a great week, y'all. The semester is half-way complete.

Spring

Ni hao everyone,
   Sorry for the gap since our last post. Not much happening in Baoding in March. The weather was still cold, but not the bone-chilling cold we had in January and February. There were a few nice days with warm temps and clean air, but that was a rarity. The air has been pretty bad. We wear our masks whenever we go out. The new govt has been saying that cleaning up the environment will be a bigger priority in the coming years. It couldn't come soon enough.

   I forgot how long a month March is. April has finally come, along with Easter. Easter Sunday Mass included a marching band and thousands of firecrackers and rockets. It was certainly unique.

  Our classes are going well. Our students are getting Spring Fever, and so are we. We are thinking a lot about coming home. We have less than three months to go, so we're trying to focus on our classes and hopefully the time will pass by quickly. The trees are starting to bloom and things are greening up a little. We miss the Carolina spring, even with all pollen that comes with it.

  This past Thursday was a holiday, Tomb Sweeping Day. It's when you go to the cemetery and clean off the tombs of your ancestors. We had Thurs. and Fri off so we went to Xi'an. It is where the Terracotta Warriors are located. Its about a 30 minute drive outside the city walls of Xi'an to the site. Of course the tour bus we took had to stop at the museum and gift shop!

There are three pits. This is the largest one. Since it was a holiday, there were thousand of people there with a lot of pushing and jockeying for the best camera spot. It is an amazing exhibit. They said that less than 1% has been excavated. It will take them over 200 years to unearth the rest of the artifacts. That will keep people employed for a while. The building construction in the area near the site is booming. The roads are not always keeping up with the expansion. Traffic is a big issue, but doesn't seem to have the priority it needs. The tour took most of the day. We met a lot of other foreigners on the tour. I was nice to share experiences about working in China. Our story is not that unique. The other teachers we met told similar stories. In some ways we have it better than some.

When we got back to the city and went for a walk on the city walls. Here's a little of what we saw.

There is a Muslim Food Street near the center of town. It was packed with people.

This place looked like it was ready to explode.

We only had one full day in Xi'an. Would've like to spend another day biking around the city walls, but we headed back to Baoding.
 The door to the Xi'an train station was a little confusing. We did find the open door.

 Even though Thursday and Friday were holidays, we had to make-up the Friday classes on Sunday. All the schools had to do that. Its like that on every holiday.

Well, thanks for reading our post. Hopefully we'll have more to post soon. We miss everyone very much. We think about home everyday. Please continue to pray for us, as we continue to pray for you.

Semester Break - New Zealand

Kir Ora Y'all,
    Now on to New Zealand. After 6 nice days in Sydney, we were ready for more in NZ. We arrived in Auckland on Feb 4th and our good friend, David McBriar, was arriving from the US the next day. We've been looking forward to spending the week with him. It was good we had a day to get used to driving on the left side of the road.

David arrived on time and we headed off to Whitianga which is located about a 2+ hour drive south of Auckland on the Coromandel Peninsula. We did a lot of sightseeing, but you can't do that on an empty stomach, so we managed to have some great meals during the week. 

Here we are at the Mercury Bay Estates winery for a nice lunch and wine tasting. The Cab Sauv was very good, so we bought a bottle to take back the the hotel. This place was a lovely setting, overlooking Cook's Bay with the vineyards below us. The weather was great all week.

 One of the highlights to our stay in Whitianga was visiting Hot Water Beach. People come to this spot on the beach around low-tide. They dig holes and water bubbles up, sometimes its cool and sometimes its very hot. Marianne is digging our first hole. It turned out to be cold water, so we moved closer to the hot water.

After a few attempts we found warmish water and we were happy with that. Some of our neighbors had hot water so just combined them all into one big pool. We boiled our buns for about an hour before the tide  started to come in, and it was almost time for lunch. So we headed out to find David who found a nice shady spot to relax.

A view from our room overlooking Whitianga Harbor.

We took a boat tour of the harbor and saw some beautiful sights.

The water was so clear and blue. 

 We said good bye to Whitianga after a few days and headed north to Paihia. It is another beautiful seacoast town. Our accommodations weren't as nice as Whitianga, but we toughed it out. We took a ferry ride to visit another town, Russell. Here we are having lunch at the Duke of Marborough Hotel. It opened in 1827 as the first licensed hotel serving rascals and reprobates. Also, you'll be interested to know that the oldest operating petrol station and first church are located here.

Check out the tree on the far side of the hotel. It is a grand old tree.

The town is very pretty. It has a New England feel to it. 

We took one last boat tour of the Bay of Islands out of Paihia. 

Our boat actually went through the hole in the rock.

Some dolphins decided to join the tour.

We had a great time in Paihia, but the vacation was coming to a close so we had to head back to Auckland.

We had a great time in New Zealand. David was heading on to Brisbane and Sydney, AUS, and we had to get back to Baoding. We are so thankful for the time we had with David. It was a gift. We cherish every moment. We are re-charged, and we are underway with our classes. Pray for us this Lent and Spring that we complete the semester successfully and healthy. Hope you liked hearing about our travels. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Ciao.