01/01/2015 Happy New Year! The January 1st 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.
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