"T" in Tennessee!

An Interesting Day!

I traveled to my home country's embassy today to pick up some tax information and forms (thinking their sources might be better than what I could get online and hoping I could ask someone about the proper form to file as an American living and workin abroad).  I showed my passport to the Chinese embassy guard standing at the sidewalk entrance.  He let me through.  Then I walked up the empty line for U.S. citizens between two lines of many Chinese citizens.  I got to the head of the line with my passport in hand thinking that surely I'd be welcomed and ushered in right away.  Wrong!

Chinese Embassy Guard Guy:  Do you have an appointment?

Me:  Um, no.

Chinese Embassy Guard Guy:  Why are you here?

Me:  I want to pick up some tax documents.

Chinese Embassy Guard Guy:  So you're here for the American Citizen Services.

Me:  Yes!  Right!

Chinese Embassy Guard Guy:  Yes, you must wait until 2:00

Me:  Looking around at all the Chinese citizens being ushered through the doors, "This is my embassy but I can't go inside?"

Chinese Embassy Guard Guy:  That's right.  You must wait until 2:00.

Me:  Okay, okay.

Within 10 minutes, however, I was shown through amidst all the Chinese citizens seeking visas to visit the America.  I gave up my mobile phone, my ear buds for said phone, AA batteries in my purse (for my camera...uh, Seven's camera), and then put my purse on the x-ray machine conveyor belt.  Oops.  Seems a USB cord I had in my purse was also not allowed.  They put all my belongings in a plastic tray, gave me my number to claim it when I exited, and I was in! :)  I walked on through and back into the open air toward another entrance (past nice fountains) and was shown upstairs where I can get the needed tax information.  I got what I needed, reclaimed my possessions, and left. I never once saw an American employee in said embassy. ha  I talked to one guy who was there to add pages to his passport and he gave me good information on filing taxes.  As I left I looked down from the second floor (an atrium) upon all the Chinese citizens queuing up for their "interview" with a visa employee.  Many of them would be denied visas.  It's not a simple task to get a visa to enter the U.S. as a Chinese citizen.  "Do you have relatives living in America?"  "Yes!"  Boom!  Refused. Seems we are too afraid that they might take up residence in the States and not return.  Sad.  The Ayi (maid) at my place of employment has a brother who lives in Chicago.  She's been denied the necessary visa to visit him.  It's just one of many, many stories of visa refusals.

So I exited the Embassy and walked down the street to a supermarket that sells lots of import foods and bought lots of comfort food, including Goldfish, Mac & Cheese, chips & salsa, refried beans, tortillas, extra sharp cheddar cheese, and a Duncan Hines cake mix and can of frosting (which I'm going to attempt to "bake" in my crockpot).  I also bought, among other items, three cans of delicious ROOT BEER!!!!

Here's a couple of shots of the new CCTV Tower, which I was close to when I exited the bus from my trip to Tanshan last week.

During Spring Festival, some exploding fireworks caused a devastating fire in the building you can see through and behind the CCTV Tower. Seven tells me one firefighter died.  Tragic.  T.

Chinese Village Life, Part III

After a wonderful breakfast at First Son's house, we traveled back to Auntie's house where even more relatives would be arriving for a HUGE noon meal prepared by all the ladies!

Auntie's grandson (the one who picked us up at the train station), painted this for Auntie.

He also painted these doors, which when closed, face the cooking room so they are a bit grease stained.  Still, very beautiful to me! :)

Auntie's "living" room ceiling was plastered with factory sheets from an American product! :)  Very colorful and very interesting to see!  Let's hear it for "Four Cheeses!"

First Son's wife chops up squid for the noon meal.  You can also see bowls of clams and shrimp.  Delicious shrimp! :)

What a cool photo, right?  This is rural Chinese cooking at its best!  You can see the bowl of coal and also one of the ladies (most likely one of Auntie's daughters-in-law) feeding the wood fire underneath the HUGE cooking bowl.

Auntie, with her hand-rolled cigarette, presiding over the cooking.

Scallops and fresh veggies waiting to be cooked up! :)  It was to be a most delicious meal!  If only I could have enjoyed so much more of it!  I will definitely have to re-visit when not ill.

Auntie's chickens!  Thank you, little chicks, for such delicious eggs!

This is Auntie's back yard, where, in warmer months, she grows her own vegetables.  In the yard next door there were a couple of geese.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me when I first noticed them and decided to immitate their noises.  So you'll just have to believe me when I say that I was so successful that they turned around from walking away and came RIGHT UP TO ME next to the wall that separates Auntie's yard from her neighbor.  It was SO cool!

These are radishes which are hung out to dry in the winter months for cooking.  I said to Seven, "Huh?  Radishes are small."  But she assured me that these are radishes...perhaps a different species of radish.  Another of the very interesting sights that I was so lucky to be able to witness.

Wood in Auntie's front yard chopped, stacked and ready to fuel cooking fires.

Auntie, in her front yard, fiddling with her bicycle cart!  Her nephew, Hua, tells me that she is a very strong and resilient woman, which didn't take long for me to realize!  She is a true matriarch to a large family who follow in her knowledgeable footsteps!

This is Auntie's neighbor and they're growing melons in a homemade greenhouse.  The rolls of straw are used for insulation but on sunny days they are rolled up to let the sun in.

Back inside Auntie's house First Son and Second or Third Son (not sure) engaged in several lively games of Chinese chess.  The characters on the disks dictate how they can move...just like American chess.  It was interesting to watch them play.

Seven sits on the kang with Auntie's husband....and is about to pull out her notebook to write a journal entry!  Seven is such a dear friend and trooper!  These weren't folks that she knew at all....yet she traveled with me just to translate so that I could communicate with all these wonderful folks.  I'm indebted to Seven for so much.......but especially this visit because I wasn't feeling well at all and she really came through for me.  Spending the night in a Chinese villlage wasn't anything special for her since she's had this experience with her husband's family....but for me it seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity (except, of course, I fully intend to make this trip again before I leave Beijing. Just don't tell Seven! ha).

The laying out of the food begins.  There would be no less than 18 folks partaking so there was the short table on the kang where all the women and Auntie's husband ate, and an identical table of food set up for all the men....and me! :)

More happy smiles with two of Auntie's grandsons and a great-granddaughter in the foreground!

More delicious food continues to be laid out. This was my table...with all the men! ha

Lunch on the kang!

My tablemates!  All those seemingly empty bowls were full of baizhou (rice liquor) and we did a lot of gan bei-ing (bottoms ups) with me just taking sips! ha

This is Auntie's granddaughter with her youngest daughter, who was completely terrified of me! :)  They told me I was the first foreigner she had ever seen.  I know how scary that must have been for her so I made no moves toward her! ha  She honestly didn't know what to think of my big white face in the midst of familiar faces to her!  She was so very cute, though, and I would have loved to hold her!

Everyone was so great when I requested a "group" photo outside.  Can you spot the foreigner? ha

Everyone!  You know....I've had countless wonderful experiences here in China and visits to many wonderful cities....but this short 48 hour visit is TOPS on my list of most memorable experiences.  After this photo was taken, Seven and I were taken back to Tangshan where we boarded an express bus (2 hours) to Beijing, letting us off in Guomao and then we took the Line 1 subway back to our neck of the Beijing woods! :)  On the way to the train station, where we boarded the bus, we stopped at a china store. Seems Tangshan is somewhat of a "china" (as in dishes) capital of China.  Auntie's grandson bought me a beautiful red and black cow-shaped plate for me (to commemorate the fact that I am a cow, according to the Chinese zodiac, and this is MY year as the Chinese zodiac animal signs come around every 12 years....this being my 48th year).  You can be sure that I'll be packing it well and will display it proudly in America as a reminder of this wonderful visit! :) Loving Life in China, T.

Chinese Village, Part II

So I left off at Monday night, after a great meal (which, unfortunately, I could only eat a few bites of).  We soon drove a short distance to First Son's house where Seven and I would be spending the night. We didn't sleep on the kang.  We slept on a bed (but it was just as hard! ha).  First Son removed the big glass jar of snakes and baizhou (alcohol) because it sorta creeped out Seven! ha  Photos later of the snakes! ha

First Son's wife had prepared the bed for us with beautiful hand-made quilts (which are VERY warm).  And yes, that's my roll of toilet paper on the beside table! ha  The toilet was outside like in most homes in traditional villages.  They have electricity but no indoor running water in the homes.  Toilets are concrete slabs with a hole in the floor.  They are not bad at all; you just have to use your squatting skills and take your TP with you!

Seven warms up in front of the space heater.  We really did stay toasty warm the whole night, no problem!  I was asleep before 9:00 pm and slept well for nearly 12 hours!  It was needed and was a good sleep!  We woke up to snow falling!

First Son's beautiful Buddhist altar housed in their cooking room.  Notice the TV remote to the right? :)  They had satellite TV.  The pot between the food offerings (apples) is for incense burning.

Everyone has chickens for eggs and well, chicken! (the roosters).  I tried to talk to them with some American clucking sounds....but they were having none of my shenanigans and mostly retreated into their little chicken house!

First Son owned several sweet dogs...two of which eventually came up to me and let me pet them by my making the "tsk, tsk" clicking sounds that Chinese make to their pets.  They certainly weren't going to understand, "Here boy, here boy!" ha  This mama dog, however, was very protective of her little pups (so cute) and I did manage to pet one of the pups even though Mama growled at me, telling her pups, "Get away, get away, it's a FOREIGNER!" ha  I had to zoom in for this photo.  I was actually standing in the doorway of this room, about 15 feet away!

First Son's tractor.

I post this pic of the outdoor toilet merely to show my blog buddies what rural life is like in China.  These folks lead happy, full of love, rich lives and it doesn't matter to them that they don't have shiny indoor bathrooms.  I grew up visiting my maternal grandparents who never ever lived in a house with indoor plumbing.  They had an outhouse.  As a child, it was a scary place for me.  These toilets bring back memories of those days.....they're just not scary anymore.

First Son's cooking room.  You can see the microwave on the concrete floor and their freezer and cooking surfaces.  First Son's wife (sorry, but I don't know their Chinese names) prepared a wonderful breakfast for us before we returned to Auntie's house on Tuesday.

A pic of our morning snow!  It had pretty much melted before we left for Auntie's house.

And now the pics I'm sure you've been waiting for:

Seven says that the alcohol steeped in snake....is good for the legs.  I think she means that folks drink it for circulation.  First Son told me he paid 1300 RMB (about $195) for this jar of snakes with alcohol.  Very, very interesting to me!  I know you're wondering....but no, I didn't partake!  I have to say, life in rural China is SO very intriguing and interesting to me.  I intend to travel back to Tangshan and this village once again before I leave China.  I want to see life here in the warmer months. 

Standard Mandarin is spoken widely in China.  However, get away from major cities and there are many different dialects of Mandarin.  Even in Shanghai, the speech is different.  The dialect in this village was such that even Seven had some trouble interpreting what was being said.  Many times I would ask Seven to translate, upon seeing her smile and nod her head at things being said....and she would say, "I have no idea. I don't understand."  For the most part, however, she was able to translate sufficiently and speak for me to get my words across to my friends and new friends.  When I did speak some Chinese words to them, Seven had to translate my words because I'm really bad with using the correct tones in Mandarin.  I can say something in Chinese, and then Seven will say the same thing...and it all sounds the same to me....yet they understand Seven's words, not mine! ha

There's a great Part III that I'll be posting tomorrow night so stay tuned because I have great photos of all the ladies preparing a wonderful meal before our departure and more pics of Auntie's home and yard.  I'm off to watch my newest DVD acquisition, "Marley & Me!"  I've been asking my local vendor for several weeks if he has "Ma Li He Wo" (Marley and Me in Chinese) and he has always said, "Mei yo" (don't have).  Tonight he proudly showed me the movie so of course I bought it!  LL in C, T.

Life in a traditional Chinese village, Part I

So much to write about!  Monday morning, I had my alarm set for 7:30 as I would be meeting Seven at 8:30 to travel to the train station, meet up with my friend Hua's parents (who recently returned from America where they helped take care of Hua and Tracy's daughter, Amy, for six months), and then travel to Tangshan.  Life had other plans for me!  I was up at 5:30 (definitely not by choice) and making multiple visits to the bathroom!  It wasn't pretty.  Seems I picked up some kind of bad stomach bug which could have been related to some bad food (I'm just sayin'.....) eaten the night before.  In any case, by 8:00 am I was wondering if I was going to even be able to leave my apartment, much less embark on this planned adventure.  I decided that I MUST go.  Tickets had been purchased, arrangements had been made, and I definitely didn't want to disappoint Auntie (Hua's elderly aunt) who was looking forward to my arrival.  So I loaded myself up with Immodium and aspirin and we made our way to the train station.  I moaned a lot on the way! ha  But I made it to Tangshan!  Due to my early morning "activities" I was completely drained (pun completely intended) of all energy and all I could think of upon arrival was getting to Auntie's home and laying down on the kang (which is exactly what I did!).

Left to right, Seven (who traveled with me as friend and translator), Hua's mother, Hua's sister, and Hua's father!  I just LOVE Hua's mother's expression in this photo!  She's SO happy!

Me and Hua's sister.  I may look like I was feeling fine.....but trust me, I wasn't! ha  Hua's sister now lives in Beijing with her husband after several years in Germany where they lived and studied. 

Our train awaits!  It would be a 3 hour ride to Tangshan (by bus it's a 2 hour ride but more expensive).  We had to boot folks out of our seats! ha  You see, they sell "standing" tickets so folks claim seats hoping folks won't show up and our four seats were already occupied.  It was so strange to me to see folks standing in the aisles for the entire trip.  If someone got up to go to the bathroom or get water or go have a smoke, a standing person would sit in the seat until that person returned.  This is very common.  When we arrived in Tangshan we were met by Auntie and her grandson, our driver, and another relative.  Auntie's face just lit up when she saw her brother for the first time in over a year!  Auntie is 75 and has four sons and one daughter.  They all live in the same village with their families, which include many grandchildren for Auntie and four great-grandchildren.  In case I haven't mentioned it (although I think I have), I met Auntie when I attended Hua and Tracy's wedding ceremony a little over 3 years ago. 

Auntie was kind enough to ask me if I'd like her grandson to drive me around Tangshan first before continuing on to their village, about an hour away.  I said, "Ummm....." just before Seven said, "I'm very hungry!" ha  We had missed lunch during our travel so we all decided it would be best to continue on to our destination.  I mentioned that I had read about a memorial built after the devastating 1976 earthquake in Tangshan (which, as I mentioned, officially claimed over 300,000 lives but unofficially probably many more) and since we were driving right past it, we stopped for me to get a photograph (above).  Many kites were flying as it was a bright, sunny day.  We then drove to where Auntie's daughter-in-law was doing some food shopping for our dinner and picked her up.  We ended up with 8 folks in the van by time we arrived at the village.

Tangshan street life photos taken from inside the van. The folks above were sweeping up after the morning's open air market.  All the vendors who sell their fruits and vegetables had left.  You can see a couple of them wearing "Michael Jackson-like" masks on their faces.  This is also very common in China.  They are worn on bad pollution days, when you are sick (so as not to infect others in public) or when you are sweeping up debris on the streets.  After the food shopping was finished we continued on to Auntie's family's village.  It was sometimes a very bumpy ride due to roads that weren't exactly smooth paved surfaces.  I continued to fantasize about arriving and laying down. :)  When we arrived I sat on the kang for about 30 minutes before agreeing happily to lay down and be covered by a wonderfully warm quilt and dozed for about an hour as Seven ate sunflower seeds and chatted with family members as the meal was being prepared by family members.  I met several of Auntie's sons and family members, including her husband, before succumbing to some dozing time. 

Hua's father and his brother-in-law, Auntie's husband, sitting on the kang.  The kang is used not only for sleeping but also socializing and eating.  A table with very short legs (about 5 inches) is placed on the kang where the dishes are presented and everyone sits on the kang around the table for eating.  Sadly, I had absolutely no appetite and tried my best to eat a little.  It was ALL very delicious.  I just couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have had I not been feeling so bad. 

Auntie's home is a traditional Chinese village home.  She has lived in this home for several decades.  My photos might make Western folks think I was in the home of a poor person.  This is not true.  It's hard for Westerners not to judge the appearance of someone's home as an indication of their wealth or worth.  I can only tell you that I came away from this visit realizing just how very rich Auntie is.  She has all her sons and daughter living in the same village with her and she is surrounded daily by the love of all her friends and neighbors.  They share their lives with each other and wouldn't blink an eye when a family member is in need.  I call this a very rich life indeed!  They don't concern themselves with all the external possessions and conveniences in life by which many Westerners gauge a person's wealth.

This is the view of Auntie's living room (and I mean that literally....a "living" room) from sitting on the kang.  They took down those framed photos and brought them over to the kang and showed me many wonderful photos of Auntie and her family! 

Hua's mother and more of Auntie's family.....as more and more of them arrived at Auntie's home for the meal.  Beautiful, happy smiles!

That's Auntie sitting down with I believe one of her daughters-in-law.

This is Auntie's "First Son" whom I first met at Hua and Tracy's wedding ceremony.  Auntie has four sons and they are referred to as "First Son, "Second Son," etc.  Seven and I would be spending the night at First Son's home.  We enjoyed a great meal with everyone and then about 7:30 we left to go to First Son's home.  By 8:30 I was snug as a bug in a rug in a bed covered by a beautiful quilt and enjoying the warmth and drifting into a full 11 hours of blissful and welcomed sleep/rest! Incidentally, I had forgotten to mention to my son or my mother than I'd be taking this trip so when my mother called me for our regular Monday night call around 10:30 pm China time....I was dead asleep.  Seven punched me when my phone started ringing.  I staggered out of bed to get my mobile phone and was a little incoherent as I tried to explain to my mother (in very "sleepy" speech) that I had been asleep and that I was "out in the country."  She thought I said, "I'm out of the country!" ha  We hung up after only about a minute and then she called my son, who also had no idea where I was but assured my mother that I had probably said I was "out IN the country" (good son) and not "out OF the country!" ha  My mother called again the next night when I was back in Beijing and I explained everything to her! :)

I have many more photos but no more time tonight.  Only I could turn a 24 hour visit into a 3-part blog entry but that's what it's most likely going to be.  I have so much more to share about this wonderful family and their life in rural China.  So for now....nighty night!  T.

Tanshan in Two Days! :)

I am so very excited.  You see....when I traveled to China 3 years ago to attend the wedding ceremony of my friends, Tracy and Hua (who now live in Indiana in the States), I meet a wonderful lady who is Hua's Aunt.  She and I quickly became "friends" even with the language barrier.  She is Hua's father's sister and I just really got such a kick out of interacting with her.  With translation help, she told me that she would really love it if I could one day visit her home.  I actually thought that would never happen as I had no idea I'd be living in China in the near future.  Fast forward a bit over 3 years later....and it's going to happen! :)  I will travel on Monday morning with my friend, Seven, and Hua's parents to go and visit Auntie.  We'll go by train to Tangshan in Hebei Province (which is also the province encompassing Beijing so it's only a 2 hour train ride from Beijing).  Then we'll take a bus for about 30-40 minutes to Auntie's home in the rural countryside.  Seven and I will spend one night in Aunti'e home (sleeping on a kang with other females) and then return to Beijing on Tuesday (as we both have to return to work on Wednesday).  I can't wait!  Being able to travel with Chinese citizens to places in China is so very special for me and makes me realize just how fortunate I am to know so many wonderful Chinese folks.  Did I say how excited I am? :)

Today was the last working day for one of our foreign teachers, Alisa, who is American. She will soon depart Beijing to spend a few days in Shanghai and then travel on to India before returning to the States.

So you know we had to serve up a cake in her honor.  You can barely see here that the cake says, "We Will Miss You."  It's this cake just beautiful? 

This is the "teacher's room" and that's Alisa in the brown jacket.  You can see the nerf basketball goal above Alan's desk. I brought that back from Big Lots in Knoxville! ha

Alisa makes the first cut through the delicious hard chocolate coating!

We will miss Alisa as will so many of her young students!  We wish her the very best in her future adventures!

I will not post again until my return from the countryside outside of Tangshan.  A bit of history about Tangshan is that it is a very industrial city and in 1976 (when I was a mere 15 years old) a devastating earthquake hit.  It measured, officially, 7.8 on the Richter scale.  Officially, 255,000 souls lost their lives but it is believed that the count was far greater than that (perhaps as much as 3 times as many).  The city had to be completely rebuilt.  A devastating earthquake hit the Sichuan Province of China nearly one year ago (in May, 2008) as you no doubt heard about.  Earthquakes are a natural disaster hard to foretell and prepare for.  Tomorrow, the panda bears that were removed from Chengdu and transferred to the Beijing Zoo will return to their home in Chengdu in the Sichuan Province.  I regret that I did not get the opportunity to see the Panda bears at the Beijing Zoo.  Then again, perhaps it means a trip to Chengdu is in my future.  Hard to say.  So little time left here for me......

Loving Life in China, T.

Fun With Colleagues!

This afternoon I met up all my colleagues for a time of fun and eating!  We met at the Xindadu Hotel where we enjoyed bowling, pool, ping pong, snooker, squash, swimming (for those that wanted), etc.  I arrived too late for the bowling but enjoyed playing ping pong (uh, table tennis, as they say here) and a little squash playing with my Center Manager, Cathy (which wore me out for the less than 30 minutes that we played! ha).  Then we all enjoyed a great buffet dinner together before going our separate ways.  We were celebrating the arrival of our newest teachers, Wendy and Bill, and saying goodbye to one of our teachers, Alisa.  Unfortunately, Alisa couldn't attend.

When Nyah and Wishing saw me trying to get an "action" photo of them playing table tennis, they quickly regrouped into a nice little photographic pose! ha

Wendy, Rachel and Becky play pool!

Cathy in action on the squash court!

Ivy prepared to hit an imaginary snooker ball as Shelagh and Bill look on! ha

I know absolutely nothing about playing Snooker.  I do know that the tables are HUGE!  Upon seeing the table, I remarked, "I've never SEEN such a huge pool table!" ha

Seven (and her mother joined us), William and Bill enjoy some food at the table where I was sitting on the end!  That's my bottle of orange juice.

Our two wonderful Ayi's on the left and Alina (our accountant) on the right. 

left to right, Wendy, Julie, Wishing and Nyah!

Rachel, Becky, Ivy, James and Shelagh!

Wendy, in green, with her kids, Brenden, Garrett and Aubrianne, and Tamara.  Tamara is fast becoming a favorite with Wendy's kids! :)  So nice to see.

Cathy and Simon toast!

Restaurant shots.

Leaving the hotel, Seven, her mother, and I shared a taxi back to our neck of the woods.  When I got into the taxi I noticed that the taxi driver was playing a tape of English lessons! :)  So on the whole ride home we talked with him about English and particularly the difference in the pronunciation of "doctor" and "daughter."  He had yellow post-it notes stuck on his dashboard of English words that he was practicing from his tapes.  We dropped Seven and her mother off and then when we got to my apt. the taxi driver wanted to give me the ride for free for helping him with his English.  So nice and so indicative of the wonderful nature of Chinese (it meant that he would have to pay the meter cost out of his own money).  I refused and insisted on paying.  I had him give me his mobile number and told him I'd call him for taxi rides in the future when possible and we could practice English together again. He was very pleased and I added a wonderful exchange with a Chinese citizen to my long list of great moments here in Beijing.

I stopped in at the supermarket for some needed food and noticed a new vendor set up beside my favorite local DVD seller (you don't even want to know how much I paid for new DVDs tonight! ha).  It was a Chinese muslim vendor selling a wonderful concoction of nuts and fruits held together by some kind of syrup that they slice off and weigh for the cost.  Of course, I bought some and it was/is delicious!

You can't see it but the whole thing is covered in plastic and they lift the plastic to cut off pieces.  The green part is actually raisins.  It's very, very good. :)  I had fun talking with these two gentlemen who were from the Xin Jiang region of China.  I noticed that several folks had stopped on the sidewalk to listen to me trying to converse with these guys.  They were trying to get me to buy more than I wanted to buy and I was showing them my wallet and that I had very little money! ha  It was really quite funny and we were all laughing.  LL, T.

Fabulous Dinner at Quan Ju De!

Tonight, Sunday, after classes, I was most fortunate to be invited out for dinner with a student and her mother (and a close family friend of theirs also joined us).  We went to a famous restaurant near my apartment called Quan Ju De (I think).  It's famous for its roasted duck (which everyone who reads this blog knows I dearly LOVE).  We also had a great shrimp dish and also asparagus with mushrooms and other great dishes!  Lynn, my student, will be leaving China in August, 2009, to do a year in American high school (11th grade) and I am SO excited for her.  She will have a wonderful time!  She's also a very accomplished flutist and hopes to study flute with a great American music teacher.  She and I will definitely be in close contact once I also return to America, just about 6 weeks after she moves there.  We don't know which state/high school she'll attend yet but we're hoping it's somewhere on my side of the States!

So this restaurant presents the duck whole to you (already cooked, of course) and the carver guy carefully cuts off the best of the succulent skin for you to sample as you wait for the carver to carve up the duck for consumption!  I was told it was fine to take some pics so here's some.  You should know that when they carve up a duck, they make no less than 90 cuts on the duck.  It's a very learned and important task and they do a very meticulous and great job.  The head of the duck is also presented for consumption of the brain and then they later return with a bowl of delicious duck soup made from the leftover meat and bones.  The soup is delicious!

They lay out the pieces of duck with crispy skin very carefully before transferring it to a plate for presentation at your table.

There's one thing for sure. This American will NEVER be a member of PETA!  The only thing I agree with as far as PETA is concerned is the wrongful killing of animals merely for the benefit of wearing their fur!  I have no shame in admitting that I believe certain animals were created for consumption.  Does that make me a bad person?  I think not!  Although, I must say....it's a little disconcerting to see their little duck heads.  Poor little, but quite delicious, duckies! :)

These cute little handmade flour duckies were filled with jujube paste and sweet and delicious!

These pastries are also very sweet and you can see the great shrimp dish! :)  I really love shrimp!

My student, Lynn, works on on a bite of the duck brains!

The duck head is split into and here, Lynn is preparing for a bite of the duck brains.  I also tasted a small bite of the brains.  It was just "so-so" as folks say here.  It wasn't unpleasant but also not so tasty to me.  It's said that the duck brains can make you smart...sort of like eating fish, which as we all know, is brain food. :)

What a beautiful photo!  In the middle is my student, Lynn.  To the left is her mother and at the right is Gina, the daughter of her mother's best friend and a University student in Beijing studying journalism.  We had such a great dinner and wonderful conversation.  I really love times like this when I can talk with and get to know my students better.  I am feeling very fortunate to have times like tonight even though they will make my eventual departure from living in China even sadder for me.  As for Lynn, however, I am SURE we will meet up in America and will talk often by phone in the States!  Lynn's mother drove me home tonight after dinner and I was practically walking on air as I walked into my apt. building after such a great time and feeling so very happy! Loving Life in China, T.

Happy Faces During a Training!

Recently, all academic and sales/support staff were trained on protocol for teaching our young ones (ages 3 to 6).  The training was good and informative but we also had fun! :)  We can thank our Director, James, for making it such a fun time when most folks cringe when being told they must attend "training."  Here's some pics:

Part of our training included the teachers playing the role of students (hence, the cute little stools).  Here's Alan from Australia introducing Mel the bird to his students and having them say "hello."

Don't we all look spiffy (and happy) in our new casual uniforms?  Everyone really got into their roles as "young students" and it caused more than a few laughs!

Our new teacher, Bill, takes his turn with the hedgehog puppet! :)

Seven takes her turn with the frog puppet!

ha ha ha ha!  James is laughing, as is everyone else....what the heck is William (next to Seven) doing here with his hands! ha ha

James had us all up and performing the "Goodbye" song! :)  He knows how to make a training session fun!

I had the most interesting ride to work by taxi ever a couple of days ago!  You see, I hate it when I take a taxi to work on the weekends (mostly I ride the bus on other days) and the taxi driver drives very slow.  I am prone to saying, while smiling, "drive faster, drive faster!  In Chinese, of course.  But on this ride, I needed to say nothing because this taxi driver drove like a bat out of hell! ha  I tried my best to sit in the backseat and look very nonchalant as he whipped in and out of traffic and came so close to crashing against many cars! ha  If I had registered a look of fear then he probably would have slowed down and I felt safe trusting his driving.  I got to work in 14 minutes flat! ha  A new record.  When I exited the taxi, I pointed to him and then at his steering wheel and indicating driving with my hands and then said, in Chinese, "AMAZING!" ha ha  He knew exactly what I meant and said, "thank you, thank you!" ha ha

I had dinner with Seven and her husband the other night at that great Muslim restaurant with the great lamb kebabs!  I initially ordered 10 and Seven and Joe ordered 15.  We polished them off very quick and I ordered up another 10!  I ate 18 of them in total!  Okay, there are only small bites of lamb on each stick but still...18? ha ha Each stick cost 15 cents! Luckily, my stomach reacted very favorably and it was the most delicious roasted lamb I have ever had!  I will definitely revisit this restaurant as many times as possible in my last months here.  Here's a slightly out of focus pic of the great lamb kebabs!

I have learned what the great spice is on this meat and that you can buy it in the supermarkets.  I'll definitely be bringing it back to the States with me and convincing my brother to try it out on some delicious meats in Nashville!  LL, T.

Randomness on a Monday evening.....

So the other day, I got off the bus and crossed to my side of the street and noticed this little fellow just sitting patiently outside a restaurant.  I pulled out the camera and zoomed in for some photos because....well, the little pooch was just so cute sitting so patiently on the sidewalk and all decked out in his finest.

His "master" was in the restaurant to the left and he was anxiously awaiting her return.

He seemed so sad.

He did stand up once to say hello when his little tethered friend walked by but he didn't budge from his place on the sidewalk.

"Oh when, oh when....will she come back to me?"

"Yippee, yippee!  I'm SO glad to see you....even if you are gonna put me on that leash again!"

And off they went....happily.  Okay...you know it's a slow photo day when you post no less than SIX photos of the same dog! ha  But it was fun watching him from a distance and see his human return to him! ha

Many of these kids are new students!  Who knew that I would love teaching teenagers so much!

Annie and Robert!  TB5B on Saturdays at 1:00 (this is for my own reference later in life when I will undoubtedly forget which class this is).

I love this girl! This is Nicole....and she reminds me a lot of myself at her age...although I don't recall wearing T-shirts with skeletons on them! ha  She has the most beautiful smile!

Clara and Linda clown around underneath the great American flag that their penpals sent us from California!  My penpal program has been a HUGE success with my students.  Cherry, next to them, seems a bit bored! ha  TB5B, Saturdays, 4:20.

James also looks a bit bored, but then there's smiling George, Nicole and Kevin!

What?  You aren't interested in seeing what the corkboard above my desk looks like? :)

Tonight I took Jeanette and her daughter, Nicole, to Outback Steakhouse.  They have taken me to dinner at many fine and varied restaurants in Beijing.  It was time for me to reciprocate with an American experience (Yes, Outback is an AMERICAN chain).  We took Line 1 to Wanfujing.  There's 2 Outback Steakhouse restaurants in Beijing.  We went to the one on Wangfujing that's located inside the famous Beijing Capital Hotel.

Coming up from the subway platform.  Incidentally, just before the Olympics here, Beijing installed x-ray machines in all subway stations so you must send your purse/briefcase/bags through it in order to enter the subway.  This is fine with me but I've noticed on many occasions that the employee charged with viewing the screen it not even looking at the screen! ha  It costs 2 RMB (30 cents) to ride the subway one way here.  About 6 months before the Olympics, they reduced the subway cost from 3 RMB to 2 RMB to encourage more folks to take the subway.  I never noticed any difference as it was just as crowded before as it is now.  During rush hours....forget about it.  You'll be standing up with no less than six other people touching you and when your stop is about to arrive...you must push your way through all the people in order to get off before the doors close.  One of the funniest videos I've seen was of the subways in Japan....where there are employees on the platforms whose job it is to push the people into the subway cars before the doors close! ha  It's not that bad here in Beijing....but I wouldn't be surprised to see "platform pushers" any day now! :)

Jeanette had her mouth full of "Alice Springs smothered chicken" when I snapped this photo! ha  I showed them how we eat baked potatoes here.....with butter, salt and in our case, a little cheese and sour cream!

That's right!  You can't have a meal at Outback that doesn't begin with a bloomin' onion!  We had a great meal and great conversation.  The manager came over several times to check in with us!  I remembered to tip at this restaurant, which is something you don't do in Beijing except at Western restaurants.  When I went to Tennessee for a visit in November, I treated some friends to a meal in Knoxville and didn't remember until the next day that I forgot to leave a tip!  It's something I'll have to re-train myself to do when I return in just 7 short months.  My favorite part of eating at Outback, where the food is JUST like home...is the salad with real ranch dressing.  I must say, however, that I have learned to enjoy thousand island dressing here, which I thought would NEVER happen in my lifetime! ha  I also now enjoy pomegranet (sp?) juice (yummy) and....get this....cantalope juice!  That's right my American friends....your cantalope hating friend now LOVES cantalope! ha  I even have a bottle of cantalope-flavored gum in my purse right now!  They say your palate changes every 7 years so I suppose I was due for some new food likes!  I eat many vegetables and things here (such as tomatoes and scrambled egg) that has really surprised me!

Wow.  Just seven months left in this amazing city in which I live.  I really must start making my "must do/must see" list soon!  I pass by places nearly daily for the past year and a half that I keep saying I want to go to and never have.  I need to do something about that.  LL, T.

Revisiting the Beijing Sculpture Park, Part II

So where did we leave off?  Oh yeah......pics of the kids (both big and small) playing on the playground!

Aubreyanne (sp?) contemplates the slide.  She's Wendy's youngest.  I interact with kids here in Beijing on nearly a daily basis.  But interacting with English-speaking kids is different and it was just so much fun to walk around with them and talk with them.  They're amazing kids.

Tamara and Seven (and all of us) deliberately ignored the signs on ALL the playground equipment saying "NO ADULTS!"

We paired up Wendy's 3 with 3 adults and off they went to the bumper cars!

Mommy, Mommy, let ME drive!

We didn't ride the carousel but I loved this pale blue color.

Happy smiling folks!  The lady at the top between Tamara and Bill is Wendy's Ayi.  She helps take care of the kids and is a lovely woman.  On this day, even though it was her day off, she came to the park with Wendy and the kids and helped out a lot with them.  Seems Wendy has found a wonderful Ayi.

Bill sits on a sculpture by an American artist!

My favorite sculpture in the park.  It was Wendy's favorite too.

The sculpture to the left of Alisa was called "Useless Metal." ha

Big silver praying/preying mantis!

Love this one!  It's my second favorite now...which I totally missed on my first visit to this park.

Tall apt. buildings and a couple of whales!

A lovely girl.

Interesting.

After our adventure in the park we headed to a little Muslim restaurant I found in an alleyway near a McDonald's.  We stopped at the home of Ronald McDonald to get the kids some "familiar" dinner items, which they loved.  Happy Meals! :)

This photo tells the story of an American mother of three who arrived in Beijing less than a month ago and still hasn't adjusted to the difference in food items here. :)  Not every ex-pat can come here to live and immediately have their digestive system cooperate and be happy.  Wendy is one of the unfortunate ones who need some time to adjust.  She's a real trooper though and after we settled in at the restaurant with the kids happily munching on burgers....she realized all that we had ordered up (lamb kebabs, spicy chicken with potatoes and noodles, fried rice, breaded pork.....and just didn't want to risk it.  We assured her it was perfectly fine to zip around the corner and also get her own meal from Ronald McDonald! ha

Here's the great chicken/potatoe dish with the rice to the side in the bamboo bucket.  At the top of the chicken dish is one of the plates of delicious fruit we ordered.  We also ordered up kebabs of roasted lamb at 15 cents per skewer.  After ripping through 10 in no time flat, we ordered 10 more and those went just as quickly.  No time for photos! ha  It was the best roasted lamb I've had here so far!  Unbelievably tasty!

Hands reaching for food!  This place/food was delicious and so inexpensive.  Six of us feasted on all these dishes and we each paid $3.00 for the experience!  THIS is something I will miss terribly when I return to the States.  Having a meal here with friends is truly a shared experience as everyone dips from the same big plates of food.  See that tiny plate with the orange soup spoon (oh yeah...we also had a GREAT tomato, dropped egg, and cucumber soup that was delicious)?  That's my little plate.  Mostly, folks eat straight from the dishes and it's really okay.  You pick up bites with your chopsticks and you're eating only the food that you pick up.  It's not like you're stirring up the food on the plates with your chopsticks that you've eaten off of.  That's bad table manners here and I try to remember that as I have sometimes rooted around with my chopsticks for pieces of meat in dishes! ha

Leaving the restaurant, we checked out some local fruit.

These were undoubtedly some of the biggest strawberries I've ever seen!  The weird spiny thing hanging above is a durian!

We went our separate ways after checking out the fruit and our great afternoon together ended.  Such fun we had!  LL, T.

Rest in Peace, Mildred Payne!

I was going to post the second half of our day at the park tonight but sadly, learned that a dear friend in Knoxville, Tennessee has passed away.  "Aunt Millie" was a dear friend and was exactly who I want to be when I grow up! :)  Mildred was a friend and also a member of my "girl's group" who would occasionally meet a great Italian restaurant in Knoxville for good food, conversation and much laughter!  She lived a long FULL life full of joy!  I will miss her dearly and feel very sorry that I can't be in Knoxville for her celebration of life as all those who knew her and loved her honor her passing.

Such a beautiful woman!

This is the last photo I took of Aunt Millie.  We all got together at our favorite Italian restaurant when I was in the States for a visit in November, 2008.  You can see Aunt Millie's hearing aids in her ears. I didn't notice that she had put them in and turned on her hearing aid, which made a very high-pitched noise when she first turned it on. I said, 'What IS that annoying noise????"  She just punched me in the arm and said, "Teresa, it's my hearing aid!" ha  And then Aunt Millie just laughed along with the rest of the group as I felt a little stupid for not noticing! ha

This is my wonderful group of friends and you can see Aunt Millie in her yellow sweater throwing the "peace sign" with everyone else!  She was such an incredible lady and EVERYONE, young and old, were so blessed to know her.  I'll miss you, Aunt Millie, and look forward to seeing you again in a place where you won't be needing any hearing aids! :)  Mourning her loss in Beijing, T.

Revisiting the Beijing Sculpture Park!

If you're a fan of this blog then you know I've been to this beautiful park before (with Seven, about a year go) and posted lots of pics.  But yesterday, I gathered up folks from my workplace and we had a great day at the park.  Our little party included myself, Tamara, Bill, Seven, Alisa and Wendy with her three adorable children, Brendan, Garrett and Aubreyanne (Wendy is a new teacher from the States who recently joined our little family and yes, her husband is also here in Beijing).  So when we all met  up at the entrance to the park....I gave them a very short history of the park (built in 2002 with over 2400 applications from 62 countries which resulted in over 200 scultpures from 40 countries)....because, you know, I LOVE to play tour guide! ha

The backsides of our little  crew! :)

I've posted this pic on my prior visit to this park.  Still....I LOVE this piece of art!

The red color that you see is a reflection of Bill's red jacket as he was standing nearby!

These guys were amazing!  I took a video of their expertise with this traditional Chinese art and will post it on youtube soon! :)

Wendy's kids enjoy checking out this mirror art!  It was SO nice to interact with her kids. I interact with similar-aged kids often here in Beijing. But these kids are American and I SO enjoyed having conversations with them.  One of her sons asked me, "Have you ever been to Hawaii?"  I said, "As a matter of fact, I have...and I was about your age when I visited Hawaii."  "He said, "My sister was born in Hawaii!"  I said, "That's so cool!"  Then he said, "Did you know that they want to make Puerto Rico a state?"  I'm thinking, "How old ARE you?" ha ha  Such smart kids!  Wendy has a lot to be proud of when it comes to her kids! Such wonderful little people!  Great job, Wendy!

Lovely.

Frontsides.

In the middle of this huge park....there a large playground for kids...with a merry-go-round and rides! The playground is wondeful and we all enjoyed watching Wendy's kids laughing and playing and, dare I say...acted like kids ourselves! :)

Big kid Seven!

Big kid Bill!

Brenden swings!

Seven locates her inner child and SWINGS!

Garrett contemplates how to get down.

Leave it to Seven create some "fun" drama! She was actually swinging from some sort of contraption!

Tamara...on top of the pirate ship....totally plays up the "I'm the King(Queen) of the world! :)

More later, folks.  Time for bed here. :)

A Relaxing Day

Today was a nice off day from work.  I slept late and then finished up Twilight, only to launch right into the second book in the series, New Moon.  Such good books.  I washed clothes and made yet another great beef stew (I know, I know, you're tired of hearing about all my crockpot adventures! ha).  While the stew was stewing and the wash was washing...I decided to head down to YuQuanLu subway stop to check out which subway exit would be the right one for folks joining me tomorrow to revisit the International Sculpture Park.  We'll gather at the entrance to the park (about 10 of us, including our new teacher, Wendy, and her three young children) at 1:30 pm, spent a few hours in the park looking at all the sculptures and enjoying our day off together....and then maybe dinner at a nearby Muslim restaurant I recently discovered.

I walked down the street and jumped on the bus for a couple of stop to get to my destination.

To the left of the photo you can see the bus stop where I was heading.  Two guys biked by and I tried to get my camera out quick.  Didn't work so well.  But I wanted to show you that many, many things are still transported by 3 wheel bicycle carts here in Beijing.  Sometimes they are piled so high with objects that it's beyond belief they can be cycled.  I've seen many older men struggled to pedal with very heavy loads on their bicycle platform.  And in my neighborhood, in the warmer months, folks pull up to street corners with horse and cart selling their fruits and vegetables.  I always feel very sorry for the horses....who stand there on the pavement for hours, tethered to the cart, while their owners sell their produce.

Okay....moving on.  I jumped off the bus near the subway stop and noticed that a new pedestrian bridge is being built over this busy intersection to assist pedestrians in crossing the street.  Sadly, as you can see below....many construction folks aren't required to wear protective headgear or eyeglasses when welding.

I found out the exit to tell folks....and then walked around a nearby University campus and looked in lots of storefronts along the street.  I crossed the street on this bridge:

I walked a bit further....enjoyed some flattened and breaded chicken on a stick, then went inside ChaoShiFa for some diet Coke.  I saw this:

I never did see the "Man" Soybean. :)

After buying my diet coke, I crossed the big intersection (since the pedestrian bridge isn't finished which meant I had to yell at one car driver, "What are you gonna do? Hit me?? ha ha) and hopped the bus back to my apt. building...stopping off at a local bakery to buy some goodies for everyone to enjoy at the Park tomorrow.  Hopefully, lots of photos of all us folks tomorrow! :)  LL, T.

Students, Food, Books, and Movies!

I honestly think I have the very best of Chinese students in all of Beijing!  Okay..I'm probably a little biased ha  But I really do enjoy ALL my students and have grown so close to so many of them in the year and half that I've been teaching them.  I set up a penpal program with 40 of my more accomplished students with 40 kids in Sacramento, California.  My students are LOVING this experience and the students in California recently took a field trip to San Franciso where they visited an Asian Art Museum and Chinatown and had a great Chinese lunch, etc.  It's SO great to see such great friendships forming between my students and kids in the U.S.!  I am CONVINCED that THIS is the kind of thing that will bring about peace among all nations in the future.  Get our YOUNG PEOPLE involved!  They are not yet tainted by all the negative crap in the world....and are so glad to be able to get to know other kids from other countries.  Such a great thing for me to see and experience.  I took a few pics of one of my classes today....even though they were a little camera shy and tried (unsuccessfully) to use their coursebooks to hide their faces! ha

That's Teresa, Tony and Cathy (hiding behind her coursebook) and this is a close-up of Teresa!  She's a lovely 15 year old and when I first met her I said, "Hello, I'm Teresa!"  She said, "I'm Teresa."  I said, "No, I'm Teresa, what's your name?"  She said, "I'm TERESA!" ha  You see, all my students have English names and we call each other by our English names in all my classes. :)  Having no other students named Teresa, I thought she was misunderstanding me when I told her my name! ha 

Back to front, that's Nancy hiding her face.  Nancy is one of my shy students but a lovely young girl who is quite artistic and creates beautful drawings.  Next to Nancy, is Carol, Lilly and Alice. It took a few clicks of the camera to capture them without books in front of their faces! ha

As I prepared to leave work I noticed the beautiful sunset colors outside my desk window!

Call Beijing polluted if you want....but I'm telling you...from someone who lives here....we have many GORGEOUS days here!  And these were taken from my little office window behind my desk.  If only I could have gotten out and taken some REAL sunset photos!  I'll try to do that sometime soon!

After leaving work, I took the 851 bus and got off at Shidian (West Point Shopping Center) because I was craving a particular Beijing delicacy! :)

I'm not actually sure what kind of meat this is....but I THINK it's pork!  Who knows.  I only know it's very delicious and costs 3.5 RMB (.52 cents)!  The guy slices off some meat and in the silver bowl he mixes the meat with shredded lettuce and some brown sauce, spicy red sauce, another red sauce that seems to be ketchup, and chops it all up just great and then spoons it into a fluffy steamed bread bun and it is VERY delicious and looks like this.....before being devoured!

I'm telling you, folks, the split bun is filled FULL with this delicious concoction!  FABULOUS!  I took my purchase and went outside on the sidewalk to eat it.....honestly, to avoid stares as I wiped my mouth with my hand many times while eating it (ha ha) and then I returned downstairs at this shopping center to the supermarket where I purchased the makings of yet another great crockpot beef stew for tomorrow! :)  I also came across a DVD salesman AND a book salesman. 

If you know me well, then you know I'm one those liberal Democrats! :)  So not only am I looking forward to reading these books...I'm also very hopeful for what the coming years will bring to the U.S. with our next great Democrat President! I can guarantee you that just about EVERY Chinese citizen in Beijing knows that Obama is the current U.S. president.  Do you know who is the President of China? Probably not.  It's Hu Jintao.  Who?  President Hu, that's who (a little Beijing humor).  I'd like to meet him and tell him how much I like living in this wonderful city....but just as I've never met an American president.....I have doubts that I'll get to meet China's president.

My son has been telling him that I MUST see the movie, Slumdog Millionaire!  I've told him several times, "when I can find it....I'll  watch it!'  I FOUND IT! :)  I'll be watching it tomorrow.  I'll be washing clothes and taking care of business in my apt. tomorrow (cleaning, crockpot cooking, etc.) and then on Tuesday (another off day) I'm organizing a little adventure with co-workers.  I've told them to trust me with a good adventure.  Who knows?  We may end up hiking the Great Wall! :)  Then again, we may end up at the Beijing Ethnic Park or taking a tour of the hutongs by pedicab!  No matter.....it'll be great fun! :) 

Uh...that's right!  I can never buy just ONE movie (ha) so I also bought "What Just Happened," "The Iron Road," "The Last Templar," and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua!"  LL in C, T.