Our classes are starting...

Ni hao y'all,
   Hope everyone is doing well. We had a good week here in Baoding. The weather was nice, but the air was very bad. Marianne met her new class this week. They are all teachers here at the university. It should be a fun class, but it might be harder for them because they seem to be very shy. Getting them to speak might be a challenge. I think once get some speeches under their belts, they'll be fine.
   My classes will FINALLY start this week. I'll have a two sections of freshmen that I'll meet twice a week. I am very excited about my classes. I'm about as prepared as I can get. I'm ready to get started. I've been helping out Marianne and the other teachers, so I have a good idea about how the students are, and how the classrooms work. The technology in the classrooms can be a big challenge to new teachers. We have to rely on the students to help us get the computer turned on, the projector on and the screen down. Also the computers in the classrooms are often full of viruses. Marianne lost a bunch of files on her flash drive last week. Luckily she had copies on our computers in the apartment. It is very frustrating, but we're learning how to get around these problems.
   Marianne cooked dinner for our colleagues for American Night this week. She made chicken sandwiches with bacon. YES, real bacon. The apartment smelled like bacon for two days. It was great. Its my turn to cook this week. I think I'm going to make some hot wings. I have to experiment with the hot sauce because I can't find Texas Pete or Franks, you know, the usual stuff. I'll let you know how it turns out.
  We love getting emails or replys on the blog, so keep them coming.
Ciao,
Paul



  

Central Park and other sites around Baoding

Today was a beautiful day in Baoding. The sky was very clear and the temperature was perfect. We took a bike ride to some new places around town. Here's what we found.

These two mules were hauling some pipes to a construction site. They were taking a break while their owner did some business.

No, this guy is not dead. In China, they have 'nap time' after lunch. A lot of people just stop what they are doing, and take a nap wherever they are. Not a bad idea, but this guy cannot be comfortable.

 We came across this beautiful park. it reminded us of Central Park in NYC so that's what we call it. We have our own names for many places around town. We spent a lot of time here watching all the things going on. Some toddlers came up to Marianne to check her out. Kids are the same everywhere. Here's what we saw...

Here is a group of people doing Tai Chi with swords. They were very graceful and lovely to watch.

This man is using a whip attached to a long broom handle to spin a very heavy metal top. There were a dozen or so men whipping these tops and they made a whirling sound like a swarm of bees. It was very soothing to hear. It looked like great exercise, except this guy was smoking while he was doing it. The whip makes a loud crack when it strikes the spinning top. It was cool to watch.

The Kite Man

There were many people flying kites. It was a perfect day for it. A little breeze and clear skies. There were the usual kind of kites you would see at the beach, and then there was the Kite Man. He was the Zen Master of them all.

After watching him do his ballet with his 100+ kites, he called me over to take over for a while. All these other people were there watching also, so I was a little embarrassed but it was very cool. He called Marianne over too, and she had a turn at the helm. We didn't crash them, thank God. He was very gracious to us, and it was a great way to end a nice afternoon.

These clear days are precious here in Baoding. Most days the dust and pollution can be very bad. So when we get a day like today, you just want to get out of the apartment and enjoy the day. To Rosalina Rodriguez and her colleagues at the EPA...Keep doing what you guys do to keep the environment as clean as possible. You all take a lot of flack for being strict on polluters, but you don't get enough credit for setting the standards for clean air and water so we all have a better quality of life.

Marianne sings Karaoke with the students

We were invited to a Karaoke birthday party for one of the students. Marianne was rockin' to the Beatles, Billy Joel, Adelle, and few other singers I never heard of. The students are very nice kids. They were a lot of fun to be with.

Happy Birthday!!

We had a great party for Marianne. The university provided the cake. It had bunny rabbits on the top because her birth year (top secret) was the year of the rabbit. The baker had to deep into their files to find that information. She got a nice sun umbrella and a clear visor to protect her from the sun. Women in China do not to get exposed to the sun.

Labor Day

There was no Labor Day holiday for us this year. We hope everyone had a chance to cook out and enjoy the nice weekend. It did rain here on Saturday, but it was a blessing. It cleared the air, and Sunday and today have been very nice.

The sunset was beautiful last night, but we could only see a little of it.

On these nice days, everyone just wants to be outside. These clear days don't last forever. The dust will return.

We did do some shopping on Saturday. You think going to Crabtree Mall on Black Friday is tough, you need to try the underground shopping centers they have here in Baoding. Lots of people, very warm and humid. Hundreds of vendors with everything you might need for your apartment. You are supposed to haggle on the price, but we have to get better at that. We need to know more Chinese to do it right. We bought a couple of stools and a lamp and we were outta there. I'm glad we had the stools while we waited for the bus.

I was worn out. Some of the local ladies thought I looked funny. Na you zen me yang? That's Chinese for 'So what?' Glad we brightened their day.

Once we got back to campus, we stopped in the cafeteria for one of our favs, Kung Po Chicken. Here's the chef making it up fresh.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day. Have a cheeseburger and corn on the cob for us.

No Horn Blowing!!!

Just another day in Baoding. Our classes will not start for a few more weeks, so we are preparing for our classes as best we can. We have been meeting students at various functions and making our way around the city. We're starting to do more things by ourselves without the help of a translator. That can be fun and frustrating. If we just keep a smile on our faces, things usually work out fine. People have been very kind and helpful. A few grumps, but not many. We were visiting the Governor's Palace in Baoding last Saturday and a lady and her daughter wanted their picture taken with Marianne. We are an attraction by ourselves. Little kids will stop and stare at us; old people too. At the grocery store, an older man wanted to look at Marianne's shopping list. He was very intrigued.

As we might have mentioned, the roads and sidewalks on campus have been all torn up because they are laying new pipes. The entrance to our building is the red brick entrance on the left on the photos. They are making progress on our part of campus, but the rest of the campus is still a mess. No, if you're wondering, Marianne did not crash her bike into the 'No Horn Blowing' sign. It was just collateral damage from a wayward front-end loader. I don't know the Chinese words for 'Whoops. My bad.'

Tonight is American Night for us foreign teachers. Cuyler is making dinner and Marianne is hosting the activity, which is Mexican Train. I think its ok to play Mexican Train on American Night.

Time for sports

So, guess where we went after a great lunch with some students (and a trip to have our pictures taken at the police station- just routine).

The students we went with were new to bowling but did fine. We took an elevator up to the alley which had about 10 lanes.It was fun.

Yesterday we decided we needed to get some paddles and try outdoor ping-pong. Many people driving by on their bikes liked the entertainment- foreigners, especially  2 tall old folks playing table tennis.