Thailand Vacation

02/02/2015    We rate hotels by their breakfast buffets and this one in Bangkok was pretty good.  But the internet was not so good.  And then some bomb went off a few blocks away the night before.  Oh, well, rebels and all that.  Our guide called herself “Ten”, which is probably much better than calling yourself a "Two".  :-) The first stop was the Royal Grand Palace from the 18^th century kingdom of Siam.  Remember “The King and I”?  The real story took place here.  Unlike simple, classic Greek architecture, every doodah, curvy, pointed building and temple on the compound was decorated inside and out with either tiny ceramic or mirrored tiles or gold leaf, or carvings.  There was no surface that was not covered.  And thousands of Buddhas everywhere.  Why do they have to have so many – can’t just one do? 

Look at the elaborate roof lines!



Gold Leaf Temple

Mosaic tiles on the walls

Every surface is covered or carved

One of the temples (Wat Pho) held a very large reclining Buddha inside and ancient plaques depicting how to give a Thai massage.  They consider it their first medical university.  We ate a great lunch on a docked boat.  Anne reports it did have western style toilets, but when flushed, air came up out of the others (along with a spray of whatever else was in your toilet bowl).  Afterwards we hopped on a smaller skiff that took us on a tour of the canals of the Chao Praya River (they call it the Oriental Venice).  We were let off for a while to climb the temple along the riverside called Wat Arun, part of which was being restored.  That evening we were treated to dinner and a show.  The Thai food was great but some of our teachers actually fell asleep during the show.  It featured highly painted, exotically costumed dancers performing traditional Thai dances.  Basically they strike a pose, then move very slowly, then strike another pose.  The makeup was so heavy and they are such beautiful people that we were half way through the show before we realized one dancer was a man.  And he was playing a male role – took us that long to figure it out.  They were the ones with shoulder pads.  And they can really bend their fingers backwards. 

Toes of the reclining Buddha

Elaborate roof lines at Wat Arun

S - L - O - W Dancing  (guys are on each end)

02/03/2015     Today is Leanna’s Birthday – what a happy day when she entered our lives!  We are so glad we got to spend some time with her last week.  Today we were taken to the Dangerous Market.  It is an “icky” market like we are used to only this one is set up over a railroad track.  A train goes right through it 8 times a day (and has for the past 30 years).  The shop owners barely pull in their awnings and move their tables to just allow for the train’s size as it passes and then set up shop again.  It’s an unlucky tourist who stays too long to seal the bargain.  We were told there are several deaths each year from the train.  After that we were taken a long ways out to the Floating Market.  We’ve been here before on our way back from New Zealand.  While there are shops all along the waterway, people also go up and down in long skinny boats, selling their wares.  Anne was thrilled to find a pair of simple sandals in her size for when the weather heats up.  That night several people, including Clyde, went out for an authentic Thai massage.  Five of us went for the massage, two guys and three ladies.  They stared by washing our feet with a salt rub and warm water, very relaxing.   Then we were each taken to a separate, curtained stall and were given some pajamas to change into.  After we had changed, the workers pulled the dividing curtains back and the five of us were lying next to each other on thin mats.  The lights were low and soft music was playing.  The lady who worked on me was small.  They start with your feet and legs.  The motion they used was like kneading bread.  She used her hands and elbows when working on me.  They started gentle but got more intense as they progressed.  They worked on my feet, legs and then my hands, arms, shoulders.  They even did a scalp massage on me.  I rolled over on my stomach and she worked on my back; this is where her feet got into the action – walking up my spine!  I sat up and she worked some more on my back and tried to twist me certain ways.  I guess I’m pretty stiff, because I started to laugh and told her I don’t bend that way.  After the 90 minutes were up, I was very relaxed, but my lady had had a good workout. 

The Dangerous Market

The Floating Market

 While in Bangkok we had the privilege of visiting the bridge made famous in the movie “The Bridge Over the River Kwai”.  It is based on a true story where US service men (and other Japanese prisoners of war) during WWII were forced to work on the Thailand-Burma railway.  But we were told that the movie version wasn’t exactly how it happened – who would have guessed!  Afterwards we visited a museum dedicated to the story of the railway and the POWs.  It was very well done and we wished we had more time to study all the displays.  It was very sobering.  I think there is a movie out about it now called “The Railway Man” with Colin Firth.  Approximately half of the 700 US POWs there died working on the railway.

Bridge over the River Kwai

02/04/2015     Today we caught an early flight to Chiang Mai in the northern part of Thailand.  From the airport we were taken to the hotel but it was still too early to check in so we left our luggage in the lobby.  The tour guide for this city took us to a really lame museum about the city.  The bottom floor was closed, the top floor was undergoing renovations so we couldn’t go there.  The ground floor had a few relics but no signs or descriptions in English.  We were supposed to be given lunch but the guide had failed to plan that one so we were each given a few coins and told to fend for ourselves.  Our next planned activity wouldn’t be until lunch the next day.  We were not a happy bunch.  Maybe we could have used some free time at the end when we knew our way around, but we had just arrived.  Some of our group took naps, some women got their nails done, and we unpacked.  It was maybe a little less than 3 start hotel – tile floors instead of carpet (nosier) and bad internet connections.  We ate Pad Thai noodles from a street vendor for lunch and dinner.  Clyde got a little uncomfortable after the second round because of some peppers he put in his dinner. 

02/05/2015    With no plans for the morning we slept in and we ate the adequate buffet breakfast.  For 20 Baht each we took what can only be described as a “paddy wagon” (a small covered red pickup truck with two bench seats in the back) to the walls of the old town.  We walked through a couple of temples.  One place let us ring their giant gong.  Awesome.  Running out of time we decided to hire a tuk-tuk to take us to three more temples and then back to our hotel.  Five of the other BYU teachers had signed up on their own to pay for and take a Thai cooking class that morning.  Since they were going to eat what they cooked they didn’t come back for the lunch that was included in the tour. 

Banging on a Big Gong

A dragon being eaten - or emerging?

Night Market

We all met in the afternoon and were driven to a place in the mountains that the royalty used for a summer home (but they are too old now).  It is called Phuping (sometimes spelled Bhuping) Palace, but is pronounced “pooping”.  We all had to come up with a few jokes about that as we walked around the lovely flower gardens.  After that we were driven to the Phrathat Doi Suthep – a gold domed Buddhist temple.  We took a cable car up to the mountain top but a 306 step dragon-headed serpent staircase down.  Once again – lots of Buddhas.  One of the “treasure rooms” reminded me of something out of an Indiana Jones movie.  For dinner we had Thai food at a lovely outdoor riverside restaurant.  Chiang Mai has a very nice Night Market – much quieter and more organized than HK.  Our hotel had a free shuttle bus to and from so we gave it a try.

At the "Pooping" Palace

Clear skies and bright gold buildings

The Serpent Staircase

02/06/2015     Today was Elephant Camp.  There are preserves in the hills that take in old or wounded (think land mines) elephants.  They also raise and train others.  The entry fees help go towards those efforts.  We were first taken by ox cart to an old village.  We each got a turn to drive the cart.  On the way we purchased banana bunches and sugar cane to feed the elephants.  While we were waiting for our turn we saw truck loads of soldiers on manuers marching around the hills and doing target practice.  Two people at a time were positioined in a box on the elephant’s back while a driver sat on its head.  We were taken up and down hills and through a river to the elephant training camp.  Here they showed us elephants doing tricks like dancing, playing with balls (basketball and soccer) and watercolor painting.  They were really good at painting scenes of trees, flowers, other elephants, and then signing their names.  These painting were later sold to tourists.

Driving an Ox Cart

Riding an Elephant

A painting Elephant

We ate lunch at the camp and then were taken on a bamboo raft trip on the Mae Taeng River.  We had a guide at the front and one at the back, each with a pole to move us along.  They let us take turns using the pole.  It was very peaceful.  From here we were taken to a nearby refugee of sorts camp called the Long Neck Village.  This group of people fled Myanmar and now live off tourist money selling crafts.  The women start wearing neck rings at age five and add more as they get older.  Some say it is for beauty or cultural identity and others say it was started to protect women from tiger bites to the neck.  Whatever.  They let the ladies try on some modified ones and they were extremely heavy.  It actually depresses down their clavical and shoulders and they end up with really weak neck muscles.  We visited an orchard farm where they are grown on a hanging rack without dirt (like at Epcot Land exhibit).  The roots are watered twice a day and sprayed with a liquid fertilizer once a week.  When we were told we’d be going to a cultural center for dinner and a show we all groaned a little thinking it would be slow dancing again.  And it was but they also included a knife balancing act that livened things up a little.    

Riding the River 

Anne as a Long-Neck

Knife balancing act

02/07/2015     We had to check out at 5:15am.  We loved Thailand and would like to go back and visit the beaches there sometime.  Since we were too early for the buffet breakfast we were handed a boxed breakfast.  Wonderful Thai airlines again so Anne was able to watch two movies:  “The Good Lie”, and “The 100 Step Journey” and liked them both.  We were flying back to China to meet up with another set of BYU teachers to continue on with the next planned tour – to Vietnam and Cambodia.  We landed in HK, took the express train back to Kowloon station, a bus to the train station, and then a train to Guangzhou, and the subway to the hotel.  We were very tired and slept well.  

Hong Kong - Part 2

01/27/2015 After seeing Leanna safely off at the airport, we took a bus to Lantau Island.  We were hoping to take the skyrail cable cars to see the famous Big Buddha, but wouldn’t you know, the cable service was closed for maintenance that day.  So we had to figure out a new way to get over there.  We found a bus station and a bus (thank goodness so many people in the HK area speak English) and took a twisting but beautiful ride to the Po Lin Monastery.  The air was clear, the sun was shining, it was up in the green covered mountains, and except for the tourists, far away from civilization.   At the top of the hill (268 stair steps) is the 85 foot seated bronze Buddha.  We walked up and looked around and thought it was pretty impressive.  Back down we went to an over-the-top, gaudy main temple.  It was new and clean compared to many we’ve visited in China.  We ended up back at Miss India for dinner and a little more night market shopping (or mostly just looking).

 

Big Buddha

Po Lin - Bright paint on outside

Po Lin - Gold covered on the inside

01/28/2015    Disney Day!  There is a small Disneyland park (just the Magic Kingdom part) on one end of Lantau Island, near the airport.  It’s in a beautiful setting with tree covered hills.  We took a train to the island and then the Disney express metro to the park.  In the cars the hand grips and windows were shaped like Mickey Mouse heads.  Everything was typical Disney quality except one side of the Main Street was just a painted façade and also most of upper stories of Cinderella’s castle (see below).  The Asian young men bought and wore hats with animal tails and the girls wore ones with ears.  They will wear them on the regular streets here too.  The weather was perfect and the crowds were manageable.  We went on all the rides, saw the two shows and two parades and stayed for the fireworks.  Our favorite ride was a version of the Haunted Mansion called Mystic Manor. 

Handgrips - Disney doesn't miss a trick!

Even the metro windows had the MM shape

Maybe they will add on someday

01/29/2015   We took the opportunity to sleep in for a change and then went to the HK Maritime Museum.  It was well done, all about the history of the area and its ties to shipping.  It was full of model ships from ancient to modern and detailed the ways they worked and communicated.  We then took the city buses around HK island (much cheaper that the tour buses).  Back at our hotel Anne went to the on-site salon and had her hair cut.  At least there she could communicate.  She had it cut shorter than usual knowing it wouldn’t get done again for a while. 

By now the other BYU teachers and the CTP directors had arrived and our training meeting started in the evening.  At this point BYU was paying for our hotel room for the next three nights and the breakfast buffet.  Because BYU first paid for our trip over to China and then our school reimbursed us at the end of December, we had to repay BYU – in cash.  We were carrying 10,000 yuan in 100’s – it was a big stack and we were glad to finally pass it on.  That evening we all went out to watch the “spectacular” light show.  Getting there as it starts might be worth it but waiting an hour to keep your seat isn’t.  Afterwards some of us met at Starbucks for hot chocolate and brownies.  I hope neither item tastes that bland in the U.S. 

01/30/2015   We had to get up early to enjoy the all you can eat breakfast.  Afterwards we all took the Kowloon subway to the HK Temple to go on a session.  We got to have a brief meeting with area leaders, after our temple session, in the church meeting house across the street from the temple.  Afterwards, we were treated to a wonderful late lunch at Dan Ryan’s on HK Island and then released for the day.  I think we returned to our hotel for a rest while others went shopping or sight-seeing.

01/31/2015   We had to rise early for the breakfast and then catch a Star Ferry trip to HK to the Church Administration building.  All BYU teachers were required to come up with a two minute teaching idea presentation that was then video recorded for future training purposes with new teachers.  We were reminded of the rules of our employment and how to conduct ourselves.  They also had a drawing for prizes and Anne won a travel clothes steamer.   We returned to our hotel room to collect up all our dirty clothes and take them to - what else?  A Chinese laundry!  It cost 42 HK dollars (about 6 bucks) and was ready by that evening.  We ate at a Pizza Hutt and took one more look at the street markets.  We would be leaving the next day so we packed up our suitcases.

02/01/2015   (Sunday)     The Church scheduled the combined China International District Leaders conference on the same weekend to overlap with the BYU teachers training.  It was held in the temple ancillary chapel.  Three GA’s and the China District Presidents were there.  Some of the BYU teachers had been asked to speak as well.  It was a very uplifting meeting.  The wife of the one the GA’s mentioned living in Beijing several years ago where they had two holes in the WC.  One you showered over and one you didn’t.  (Hmmm – I believe that is still common in some places here in China…)

After the church conference we returned to our hotel to check out.  Some of the teachers were staying in HK to extend their vacation, some returned back to their homes in the states for a short visit, others went on with tour groups.  Those with limited means went back to their schools.  We returned to the HK airport for our trip to Thailand with 8 other teachers.  Thai airlines is the best.  They made us wait on the tarmac for quite a while to collect delayed transfer passengers but we got to eat delicious food and watch current movies from HK to Bangkok.

Our Daughter's Visit

01/18/2015   We were so excited to have Leanna fly in on the 18^th, the same non-stop flight we took from San Francisco.  We were still staying at Raffles at that point and I think she liked it.  She had her own room with black out curtains and a TV to help with the adjustment in time change, and her own luxury bathroom.  The shower alone was the size of some people’s entire guest bathroom.  She is young and made the switch from night to day look easy.

 

01/19/2015   We paid extra for an additional buffet breakfast so we all could eat together.  After that we took turns each morning.  We started the tour with a trip to Tianfu Square and the giant Mao statue.  As soon as we popped up out of the subway, people started asking to have their picture taken with Leanna.  Instant celebrity!  Next was the Wenshu Buddhist monastery, a step back in time to an older China.   Inside the complex are temples, monks, gardens, etc.  You don’t notice or feel the big modern city around you.  We walked around the nearby alleys with their stalls and snacks and saw a little old lady doing a cute dance.  Even though Leanna is several inches shorter than us, she was at least a head taller than a lot of the older people living here.

Leanna and Mao

Daddy and Daughter at Wenshu Monastery

Mommy and Daughter with the Pandas

We continued on to the Lotus market, a humongous mass of shops and sellers clustered near the railway station.  You can see every means of transporting goods there – amazing what you can pile up on one person on a bike.  It is an assault on the ears and the eyes, but has to be experienced.  Next the place where the woman sells DVD’s out of her apartment.  I think Leanna was getting a little leery of us taking her to sketchy places.  A home cooked meal of pork roast and mashed potatoes helped.  That night we watched a DVD she suggested called “The Imitation Game” about the man who broke the Enigma code in WWII.  Very interesting.

01/20/2015   Today we just repeated the schedule we took Steve and Betty Ann on.  We think Leanna enjoyed seeing all the pandas up close and personal.  But since it has been three trips there for us in just a few months, it became “seen one panda, seen them all”.  She did not appreciate the game of chicken we had to play to cross the busy highway to get to and from IKEA.   I do think she was truly impressed with the size and scope of the Global center, which is saying a lot considering she lives in NYC.  We walked all around the indoor water park, now closed and drained for the season.  It is an entire resort all by itself.  Peter’s Tex Mex for dinner then back to the high rise to put a tired Leanna to bed. 

01/21/2015   Today is Bethany’s 35^th birthday (our oldest daughter).  We love her dearly and can’t imagine our family without her.  She has a kind heart and does so much for others.  We took Leanna to the antique market in the morning, thinking she might like the jewelry but she wasn’t really into the ethnic looking stuff.  She did find a little seated Buddha statue.  The Sichuan museum is nearby so we looked at a few displays of old crockery and new embroidery and silk brocade handiwork.  Lunch consisted of fresh fruit and cookies bought at a grocery store and eaten in a park.  The weather here (and the unusual lower levels of pollution) was a welcome change for Leanna.

In the afternoon we toured the Qing Yang Taoist (also known as the Green Ram/goat) temple complex.  We stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home.  Leanna loved seeing the weird things sold in the meat side.  She also got potato chips and Oreos in unusual flavors to take back home and share with her roommates.  She braved another DVD hunt with us and we watched “Into the Woods” that night.  She fell asleep in the middle of it somewhere.

01/22/2015   And it came to pass - It was our last night in the surreal world of the high rise as the Mitchell’s would be returning tonight.  We packed up everything thing, left our suitcases in the apartment, and requested the maid service to come while we were out for the day.  Jin Li Street is a reproduced “old” street strictly for tourists, but well done with moon bridges over streams, small shops and even an “opera” house.  After some shopping we treated Leanna to lunch ("really, really" good food) and a show – a little Sichuan Opera.  People were having their ears cleaned at the tables while we waited for the show to begin.  The Opera is really like Chinese vaudeville with several short acts of music, dancing, and comedy.  It ends with the face changing thing that is always impressive.

Leanna at Jin Li Street

Some people are so small

Mmmmm - Chinese Dishes

We came back to Raffles, drug all our suitcases to the bus stop, squeezed on the bus, and arrived at our true abode.  You will just have to ask Leanna what she really thought of the place, especially compared to her few days at the high rise.  For dinner we treated her to fish flavored fried eggplant at our favorite hole in the wall restaurant around the corner.  She watched some of our Sherlock DVD’s and slept on our couch.

 

01/23/2015   Last minute laundry before our big trip.  School is out here but we took Leanna to the nearby old campus anyway just to see what it was like.  I think we ate something for lunch there.  Probably just Clyde ate something and Leanna and Anne had ice cream on a stick.  It’s usually jam packed with students, a sight to see in itself, but most have gone home for the break.  In the afternoon we took her to the “icky market”, a must see for travelers.  Along with fruits and veggies, frogs, turtles and eels, there are recently demised animals in all stages of gore.  We took her on a last look of the city going all the way around the city on a bus on an elevated lane.  Too bad this was a smoggy day so you couldn't really see much.

 

1/24/2015   Leanna finished up the Sherlock series as we repacked for Hong Kong.  We took a taxi van to the airport and arrived at the HK airport that evening.  The airport is on an island.  We had to get some HK dollars out of our ATM (7.7 to $1 USD) and purchase train tickets.  We eventually ended up on Hong Kong island, (there are many that make up “HK”), then took the Star ferry across the harbor to our hotel.  They wouldn’t let us put three adults in a room so Leanna got her own room.  We ate at a very crowded McDonalds that night and did a little walking around.  Anne bought a much needed, nicer camera than the one we've been using for years.  We were so surprised at how many non-Asians we saw.  We are used to being the only ones and getting stared at, but now we were staring at them ourselves, just hadn't seen that in a while.  It was a diverse mix of languages as well.

1/25/2015   Sunday.  Steve and Betty Ann Curtis were also in HK by now and we met up with them to catch the subway to church.  We went to the chapel on the Kowloon (mainline) side, right across the street from the temple.  The service was in Cantonese so we only stayed for Sacrament meeting.  We changed our clothes there and someone recommended we take a one hour hike (with steps) up the nearby Lion Rock Hill.  It turned out to be a very hot day and a very steep climb – I don’t think the Chinese believe in switchbacks – it was stair steps all the way.  At some point Leanna and Anne gave up and went back down.  Clyde kept going and reached the point where the signs advised turning back.  We met up up at a lovely park near the bottom where we should have just gone in the first place.  From there we could see how high the peak really was.

View from the path to Lion Rock

Hong Kong Temple

Victoria Harbor from Kawloon

On the way back we stopped at the Ladies/Night Markets that were right out of every crazy Asian themed movie you've ever seen.  Jammed packed stalls with little room to pass by other tourists, everyone yelling and bargaining.   Shop owners were asking “copy watch?”, “copy purse?” meaning they were selling name brand knock-offs.  Leanna is much better at the bargaining thing than we are.  (Must be that NY attitude.)   We ate dinner at a dump of a place right in the middle of it called “Little India” and it actually tasted pretty good.  We next claimed spots on the promenade an hour early and caught the “spectacular light show” across the harbor.  The buildings on the HK side are lit up in sync with some music and a few lasers go off on the tops at the end of the 13 minutes.  It was OK but I think they should leave the word “spectacular” off the travel brochures. 

Hong Kong across the harbor

The Bib Bus Tour

The back side of Hong Kong Island

01/26/2015   After breakfast at McD’s we took the Star Ferry across to HK and paid for a Big Bus tour.  There are cheaper ways to do this yourself, but it was Leanna’s last day and we needed to get the broad exposure.   There are two lines, one for the route into the country side and the other for the city spots, hop on hop off, so we just signed up for both.  HK Island is like NYC on one side and Hawaii on the other.  We road on the open top of a double decker bus and it was a pretty wild and winding affair.  Complementary headphones commentary told us what we were looking at and a little history.  The back side has beautiful, uncrowded beaches and high-end resorts.  We got off at Stanley, a little sea side town with a quiet market.  Anne was able to buy some clothes here that actually fit her.  We walked to a little beach and took some pretty pictures of Leanna on the rocks.

Part of the Big Bus tour included a boat ride in the harbor on a sampan.  We saw living arrangements from fancy yachts to simple house boats.  We also went past a floating restaurant.  

Floating Restaurant

Back on the bus we continued the tour to the city side.  We hopped off at the Peak Tram station and got in a really long line to go up Victoria’s Peak.  The Peak Tram has been hauling people up the steep incline for over a century.  For the people who live up top, this is how they commute to and from work.  It was like some slow railroad thrill ride as you are pulled up at an unnatural angle.  It ends at the Peak Tower, a sort of mall at the top.  We walked around the top and saw stunning views of the city and harbor below.  Being pretty hungry by now, we were able to get a table by a window at Bubba Gump’s when someone with reservations didn't show up.  It was cool to eat while watching the sun go down and the city lights come up.

Going up the Peak Tram

View from Victoria Peak

Dinner on Victoria Peak

If we thought the line to come up the peak was long, we were in for a surprise at the really long line to go back down.  And it was colder then too.  But the ride down was just as fun as the ride up.  Another bus and a ferry and we were back on the Kowloon side.  We took a stroll along their waterfront promenade with the Avenue of the Stars – kind of like their Hollywood walk of fame – where famous Asian stars left their hand prints.  They have a famous statue of Bruce Lee.

City and Harbor at night

It was Leanna’s last night before returning to NYC so she was in a funk.  But to make it worse, when we returned to the hotel and could check emails, she found out her flight had been canceled due to bad weather on the east coast.  They were expecting the “storm of the century” and all of the New York airports were shut down in advance.  She originally had a non-stop flight to NYC.  We spent a few hours panicking until she was able to be re-routed to Chicago.  From there the airlines would see about getting her into New York.  She had to leave messages with her roommates and bosses about what to do in case she couldn’t make it in.  She really didn’t want to have to spend the night in the Chicago airport.  I don’t think she got much sleep that night.

 

01/27/2015   We went to the airport and just hoped all would be well.  A very nice United representative met us at the airport and talked Leanna through all her options.  She stuck with the Chicago choice and it turned out OK.  By the time she got there, the “storm of the century” didn’t materialize and she was able to go on to NY eventually.  Unfortunately she also had to go into work the next day.  They don’t call it work (instead of “fun”) for nothing.  We sure loved having her here and being able to show her our life at the moment.  We hope she was astounded and impressed with our abilities to survive and thrive.  

Time off from Teaching

01/01/2015   Happy New Year!  The January 1^st new year wasn't really a big deal here.  They are saving it for the Chinese New Year in February.  But there was a noisy band playing in the outdoor commons area.  We just pulled the heavy black-out curtains and ignored it.  And there is a stack of DVD’s here that we have to catch up on. 

We have heard from the school that we (and the Hadds – the other BYU couple) have been assigned exclusively to the Joint School Program for the coming semester.  (This is the premier program for the university; tuition is ~4x regular tuition.)  This means all the freshman and sophomore students – the ones who had such poor attendance last time.  We are being given a class work book (untried) and were promised that it will improve attendance.  (Maybe – maybe not?)  The university may or may not give the students 1 credit.  It may or may not be tied in with the grade they receive from their Chinese English teachers.  The good news is that Clyde and Anne will be on the exact same schedule.  If too few of the students show up, we will combine our classes.

01/10/2015   Since we are in the nice apartment, we have the opportunity and permission from the owners to share this blessing with others.  With that in mind, our friends from Houston, Steve and Betty Ann Curtis, were able to come and visit us.  They are teaching in Xi’an where the Terra Cotta warriors are.  Clyde convinced them to sign up for the BYU CTP when another couple dropped out at the last minute. 

The Curtis’ arrived Saturday night.  As we expected, they were pretty impressed with this place, even though they have a huge home back in Houston.  This is just so much better than the school housing either of us live in here in China.  It was fun to catch up with their lives and compare situations.  Who has the worst apartment, worst bosses, worst class schedule, or best city, best Branch, etc.  I guess misery loves company.  J

01/12/2015 Monday was Anne’s birthday.  We had forgotten all about it.  I guess that is what happens when you are busy.  We are aware of the days of the week (Sunday/Monday/etc.) but not the dates.  She was able to talk with her mother and siblings.  To our surprise, the social manager of this complex rang the doorbell in the evening.  She had brought a cake for Anne’s birthday.  When we first came here to the apartment, the Mitchells had to check us in and we were required to show our passports.  The manager got her birth date off of that - that is how closely we are monitored in this country.

Betty Ann wanted to see things new to her in our city and do some shopping.  Their city of Xi’an is ancient (used to be the capital of China) and full of history.  Ours is relatively new with very little historical relics.  We started out with the Giant Panda Research Base as that is the number one tourist attraction here.  It’s kind of like us taking people to see the alligators in Brazos Bend back home.  You take a lot of pictures of the first few you see, and then after a while they all look alike.  But the Panda Base is located in a beautiful park like setting.

Just napping in a tree

The floor and walls are  made of granite in the Global Center

From here we went to IKEA (yes, the same as in the states) for lunch and for Betty Ann to do some shopping.  Next was the Global Center, the world’s widest building.  They were impressed.  It has to be seen to be believed.  They must have taken down an entire mountain for just the granite used in there.  We checked it out from top to bottom, from the water park to the ice rink to the IMAX and more.  As is was Anne’s B-day, the Curtis’ insisted on treating us to dinner - we ate at Peter’s Tex Mex.  What would we do without that restaurant chain?

01/13/2014 Steve hadn’t been feeling well since he arrived.  Clyde took him to the wet sauna and that seemed to help.  He needed a day off so the guys stayed home and watched DVDs.  Betty Ann and Anne went to the gym and then out shopping.  She wanted to see some of the stores where we can get (for a price) American food items.  And then Anne took her to a place where someone sells DVD’s out of an apartment.  A young, single expat gave us directions but it still took some deciphering to get there.  Not the best part of town, the two of them must have really stuck out.  In fact, the door to the apartment opened up before they could knock. (There were closed-circuit TVs monitoring who approaches.)  This place had quite a supply, even stuff still running in theaters in the US.  Betty Ann stocked up at less than $1.50 per disc.  And from what we can tell, they are very good quality – not a movie where you see someone walk in front of the video camera to get popcorn.  Anne purchased DVDs of the three seasons of the BBC/PBS series of “Sherlock”.  It has been great watching them all in a row.  We've liked them so much that we've watched several of them again and again with Jerry and the Curtis’. 

Peter’s Tex Mex has an off shoot restaurant here called Grandma’s Kitchen.  We went there for dinner and had the biggest, juiciest real hamburgers we've had for a long time.  If you are willing to travel and pay a higher price, you can survive here.

01/14/2015   The Curtis’ flew back to Xi’an but not before Betty Ann squeezed in one more shopping opportunity.  She had really taken to the loaf whole-grain bread we could buy at a chain bakery in the mall below the high rise.  Wanting to take some home with her, she had Anne walk her down to the shop.  Since they were indoors the entire time they didn't bother to put on coats.  Unfortunately the store was out of the bread she wanted.  In a mix of English, Chinese and sign language, she insisted they call around and find another store that did.   Anne caught the name of a street about a mile away, near the American consulate.  In the interest of time (they had a plane to catch) and to warm up, the ladies took off running and found the store and the loaves she wanted.  We enjoyed their visit and they enjoyed a little moment of R and R in luxury before going back to their real life.  

Our daughter, Leanna, is flying in to visit us in a few days from NYC.