Beijing weekend

I spent a long weekend in Beijing to visit the Chinese student, James Zhang, that lived with us three years ago.  While I was there I got to see a lot of the tourist spots in Beijing.  I finished my Thursday afternoon class, had a quick bite to eat, and got a taxi to the train station.  I took the over night sleeper car to Beijing ans arrived around 10:30 am.  When I got to Beijing I was little concerned about how I was going to find James' parents or how they were going to find me.  The train station is huge.  As the train rolled to a stop, I gathered my back pack and made my way out of the railroad car only to be met by a smiling face that said, "Eric".  That was James' mother and they had tickets that allowed them to meet me at the train platform.  As soon as I saw her I knew that this weekend would be a very good one.  They put me in their car and we were off to get James at his school. Before we left to visit the Great Wall we had a very good lunch.  The usual stuff, fish, soup, vegetable dishes, a gelatin fish mold, tofu, a very good bamboo dish, cows stomach, and the best donkey meat I will probably ever eat in my life.  The food was excellent.   We were ready to visit the Great Wall.  As you are driving out to the Great wall you can see it from the window of the car.  It is up on the top of the hills and runs as far as the eye can see.  It is unreal to look at.

As you are climbing on this and walking up the grades and it is steep you look over at the other hill and marvel at how they built something this long on this type of landscape.  It is like looking at the Grand Canyon. You look at the Grand Canyon and then you think that miles and miles in each direction is also the Grand Canyon. You look at it and then you realize just how special it all is.  We were here most of the afternoon and then went it to town to check out the Olympic Sites before we went to dinner.

 The Olympics in 2008 was a big event for China and people still visit the site and take pride in the fact that Beijing was the host.  It is still a interesting site to visit.  After this we had a very good meal at at restaurant that as had Chinese entertainment, Pekin Opera, magic, music, tumbling, etc. It was an enjoyable evening even after a long day and the ride on the over night train.  Tomorrow the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City.

I will have to find pictures of the Saturday things I did because here I am on Sunday morning at the Temple of Heaven.  We had dicussed this in class on Thursday and here I am at the place on Sunday.  This a very nice tourist site and public park.  You can pay and go in or you can just enjoy the outside area as a public space.  They were both worth seeing.  The main reason I went to Beijing was to see James and to meet his family.  I could not really be in China and not go see him.  He lived with us for a year and I did want to see him and see how he was doing.  I left Peoria as high school kid, and now has grown some.  He does seem to be bigger and the three years has been good to him.  He is in one of the best schools in China and is studying Electric Power.  He may transfer and study in England later but as yet he is not sure what he will do.  Having been here for four months I have come to realize just how difficult it must have been for him to come to the USA. Everything is different.  Our food is different, the way we live is different, our school system is different, the way we act is different just about everything we do is different.  We talked about that and I told him that I really did not understand just how different things were and I hoped he realized that we tryed to do our best.  He did enjoy his time with us and he still misses the Sunday morning breakfast that we all ate.  JoAnne's mother was with us on Sundays.  He got to play sports even though the team was not very good.  He said that living with us helped him to grow up.  His parents appreciated what we did for him and how we treated him when he was with us.  It was very nice to get to meet them, even though my Chinese was better than their English.

China has a great history and many wonderful places to visit and to see but what I like best about China is the people that live here.  This young man lived in our home for almost a year so of course I like him and wanted to see him again.  I have met a lot of people in the last three months that I like and would love to see again sometime.  People here are very friendly and open.  I have been lucky because as a teacher to over 100 chinese students I have been able to meet many students and many faculty.  I hope to continue to stay in contact with them using QQ, a form of Chinese facebook. I have two weeks left in China and as much as I look forward to returning to my wife I know that I will miss this place and the people that I have met.

Tucson, Arizona

I was on the computer this morning and I see Ava Zhong's QQ Icon dancing around.  That means she is on line only she is on the ICC science field trip to the Southwest.  I sent her a message she told me what she was doing. I knew that she was in Tucson, Arizona because I have been on the field trip myself.  The world has gotten smaller.

Good Friends in Xian

One thing I will miss when I return to the USA is seeing the friendship that so many of the young girls have for one another.  It is not usual to see two, three, and sometimes four young girls walking arm in arm or hand in hand around the campus.   Zhang Yao and Zhang Pei are very close as you can see by this picture.  Zhang Pei will do a study abroad in Korea and will leave Xian in October.  I have enjoyed the company of these two students and will miss being around them and being able to just observe their friendship.  It has been very special to me and I am fortunate to have had that opportunity. 

One thing about these two students if you see one you are going to see the other. They are that close.  It was a nice day at Cui Hua Shan park a few weeks ago and like I said it is not so much a hike as it is climbing steps.

These pictures are from Zhang Yao's camera and the ones her friends shared with her.  I had Tim Murphy check it the thumb drive on his computer and he found the two viruses.  He removed them and it was OK for me to copy.  You have to be very careful here in China because everything is infected.  They need more Mac's over here but I guess if they had them then someone would write a virus for them too.  Tomorrow I will take the train to Beijing and visit the student that lived with us a few years ago.  This train trip will be in the sleeper car.  I am taking the soft sleeper to Beijing and will probably return on the hard sleeper.  I will not be writing much until later next week.  I should have real stuff to show you, like maybe the Great Wall.

GuZheng fingers

This is how you play the Guzheng. You wrap your fingers with these picks and stroke the instrument.  It does make a very nice sound.  I enjoy the Chinese music a lot.  I will be going to Beijing on Thursday to spend time with James Zhang, the Chinese exchange student that lived with us for a school year, while attending Central High School.  It will be good to see him again, meet his family, and see things like the Great Wall.  When I return from Beijing I will have two weeks left in Xian and then we all return to the USA.  So much to do in a short time.  The students are a little loud tonight and we have other people on our floor.  I was concerned they would keep them up but some of the reason for the noise is the excitement of the new people helping them party.  Lao Wai, you can never trust them. 

Games they play in China

Between the meals I ate while learning how to make jiao zi at Zhang Yao's home, we took a walk around the neighborhood.  It was a pleasant sunny day and many people were out playing games.  When you live on the campus it is easy to forgot that Xian has older people that live here, also.  Here are some pictures of what they do. I did notice one man about my age doing some stretching.  He had his leg up on a rail that was at least five feet high and was bending over and touching his head to his shin area.  He was doing all this while he smoked his cigarette.  That is not something you see in the USA.

 Just a few pictures of how people spend a Sunday afternoon in Xian, China.

Making Jiao Zi

I went with Zhang Yao and Zhang Pei to Zhang Yao's parents home on Sunday to learn how to make Jiao Zi.  This is the walk way inside the apartment community they live in. Once we got there, around 10:30 it was important that I eat something and drink some beer. After all it is almost 11 am and, hey, who isn't hungry.

As soon as we got there it was time to eat.  Zhang Yao's mother had made two kinds of stir fry, some broad beans, summer sausage, strawberries, and a wonderful cucumber salad.  Everything was Hao Chi, or as we say very good, but the cucumber salad was fantastic.  It had some spice to it but not to much, and was full of flavor.  I am going to get the recipe because Zhang Yao is going to write everything down for me in English.  Because it is 11 am in Xian that means it is time to drink some beer.  The beer did probably help me relax a little.  I was probably as nervous as they were.  Three warm beers will help calm a person down, especially when they are the big bottles.  After some food and drink it is time to learn how to make Jiao Zi, or Chinese dumplings. 

 This is what the Jiao Zi look like after you make them.  You can also see the little round wrappers and the little balls of dough that need to be rolled out flat.  It takes some time to develop the technique you need to do this properly.

Zhang Yao's mama had the dough made and rolled out a section for the jiao zi wrappers.  She was fast and could make them so perfect and round.  I think she has done this for a while.  You make a few of the wrappers and then you stuff them with the filling; we used pork and vegetables.

You just put some of the filling on the wrapper and then fold it over and seal it up so that it will stay together when you boil it.

You just pinch them up nice and tight and set it down and make another one, and another, and another.

When you have enough made you can place them in boiling water and after you have added some cool water to the pot four different times the dumplings are ready to eat.

That is the best part about making the Jiao Zi, is the eating. After a dip in some garlic and vinegar sauce it becomes very difficult to stop eating these things.  I was able to eat a few because it had been at least an hour since I had any food.

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Working in the kitchen with Zhang Yao was a lot of fun. Actually she took the pictures and I was trying to learn how to make dumplings.  Getting to know the students here at Xian has been the best part of the job.  I am so luck to be here and I have appreciated every minute of it.  Even the week when Dr. Murphy was in the hospital was still good, stressful but interesting because we both have a better understanding about what international travel is really like.  Zhang Yao told me her parents were nervous and worried about what to feed me for three days.  After all it isn't every day an American welding instructor comes to your home.  Something tells me not too many Lao Wai, or foreign people have been in that little part of Xian.   After learning how to make Jiao Zi it was time for a walk.  I have been in China long enough to know that I needed to bring something to Zhang Yao's parents house, for a gift.  I was at the Metro on Saturday and decided to get some fruit.  I found some blueberries, some dates, grapes, and some cherries.  I just put them in the cart along with my bread and cheese and went to the check out.  The cherries were just under two pounds and were 195 yuan or 30 US dollars.  Tai gui, but it is a gift.  I hope they are good, oh I hope they are good.  After a walk it was time to eat again.  This time I got to see how she makes the vegetable pancakes.  They are good and very similar to the ones that we make.  The main difference is using sliced cucumber in them.  We don't cook much with cucumbers in the USA.  I have eaten several hot dishes here that have cucumber in them and I like it.

  After mixing the potatoes and cucumber with flour, water, and an egg she dropped the batter in the skillet and cooked it.  I would probably use milk but everything was good.  I don't think people realize just how much potatoes and corn they eat here in China. It is also strange that you can buy tomatoes here that have to be shipped in from some other part of China but they still taste like fresh garden tomatoes.  The stove top is a two burner propane assembly, very much like at Su Ling's home in Malaysia.  The cupboard had a very large open bag of flour in it.  Large like in fifty pounds and since it was just in an open bag I would assume there is no problem with bugs.  After the batter was made she added the spices and some green onion tops.  I do like these big knives that everyone seems to use over here. 

Cut the green onion tops and add them to the batter and you are ready to cook up a pancake. 

One thing about visiting some one in China, you are not going to leave hungry.  I was a very good day for me and I took the Jiao Zi that I made to Dr. Murphy and he also had some pancakes.  Tim and I relaxed a bit and drank the sparkling wine that I had.  It was pretty good to.  Nice way to end a very interesting day. Some times you really don't have to speak the same language to be able to communicate.

GuZheng concert

Zhang Yao is playing the GuZheng and Zhang Pei is holding the sheet music for her.  Zhang Yao and Zhang Pei are in my Monday afternoon class.  I will go to Zhang Yao's home on Sunday to learn how to make Jiao Zi from her mother and then we will discuss other food that I should be trying to prepare when I get back to the USA.

This what the sheet music looks like for the GuZheng. It is a little different from what I am use to seeing.

I have really enjoyed my time here and it will soon be over.  One nice thing about the Internet, even one as slow and unreliable as this one, is you can keep in touch with people half way around the world.  I do plan to keep in touch.  After all Zhang Yao will be taking a class in American Culture next fall and I should be a good source of information for her. Unless she needs to know about American Popular Culture and then I am a little old for that.  I do have some video of the music and well see if I can QQ it to Peoria.

It rained today

I don't remember seeing this many umbrellas in the USA.  But they sure are out in force here in Xian.  Of course the umbrellas do keep the sun off of you and that is something we could learn from the Chinese.

Duck head Hao Chi

This is for sure the best duck brain I have every eaten in my life.  We went up the street to have the Hun Tun Tang, or the Won Ton Soup.  I was asking what the other food was on the menu because I did want to eat the Duck Tongue.  I have seen it and hear it is very good.  One thing about China is if you ask about what a food is at a restaurant you may as well figure on eating it, because they are going to bring it to your table.

This is how you eat a duck head, or the Ya Tou.  It is actually quite good, or Hao Chi, but for two more yuan you can eat a leg quarter so you may as well get your moneys worth and have the leg quarter.

The top one is the Duck leg quarter, with tofu, an egg, bok choy and rice and for less that 2 dollars it is a great supper.  The one just under it is the chicken leg quarter and right below it is the Duck Head at 9 yuan. I am going back for the duck neck and the duck feet.  I have only three weeks to taste this type of food and I am going to enjoy this type of food every chance I get.

The reason we went here was to enjoy this simple won ton soup and a warm beer.  The weather here is cool and rainy so it seemed like soup weather to me.  Yesterday it was in the 90's and sunny.  Tomorrow it is going to rain so I will go to Zhang Yao's home on Sunday to make jiao zi and talk about food with her mother.

I don't know why you can't order this in Peoria?  Best looking duck head I have ever had.

dance class

There is no good reason not to go to the folk dance lessons on campus.  Dr. Stephen Sklarow, is the dance teacher.  He lives in Bisbee, Arizona and has been in China about a year now.  Maybe JoAnne and I can visit him when we final settle in Silver City.

I go to dance class every chance I get and I do my best; and JoAnne knows just how good that is.  But in Silver City we are going to have a couple of drinks and line dance until the cows come home.  Ain't that right sweet heart.

Thursday's Chinese Literature and Art class

In our Chinese literature and art class we got to practice writing with the Mao Bi, the ancient chinese writing brush.  The person pictured above is my favorite Lao Shi, Monica Pan.  She has very good English skills and is a very good teacher.  She is an English teacher here but is teaching the CLC students Literature and Art, because she can talk to us.  What I like about her is you can see just how much she enjoys teaching us about Literature and Art; you can see her eyes light up and her face break out in a smile as she is sharing her love of her country with us.  She will be able to visit CLC in October.  I would like to be able to travel to their campus to she her again.  If not I will always be able to connect with her on QQ.

The Mao Bi, is interesting to write with.  I may get one to take back and continue to practice.  I did like this exercise.

Moncia Pan is on the right and the person in the center is the real expert with the Mao Bi.  He is putting his seal on the writing he has just completed.   He did one for me that I requested.  Mine says Lao wai, or foreign person.  Some one asked what his seal was made out of and the answer was Jade.  We are getting a seal made for us using our Chinese name. I asked if ours was going to be made of Jade but that went over their head.  I assume it will not be but I can still hope.  My Chinese name is Ni Kou.  Which I choose in honor of our first exchange student, Nico Calibre.  In Chinese is means the mouth of a lion, or a lion's mouth.  But I picked the characters for the sound.  I thought that the characters for lion and mouth would make a better Nico sound than invader of lady's under garments.  That was another possibility for the Nico sound in chinese.  If I had wanted I could have selected the Ni sound that meant "invader" and the Kou sound that is a form of lady's under garments.  That is why if you get a tattoo here you had better do your research and make sure everyone understands just what you want on your arm.  I am not going to make that mistake again!

This is a picture of the CLC students at the end of class.  After the class I helped clean the brushes and then Pan Laoshi and I went to lunch and talked until I had to go and teach my afternoon class.  I do like many of the faculty that I have met here.  I like the ones that I can easily talk to and I like the ones that I have to work at my chinese and they have to work at their english.  I have met so many nice people here and I will miss them when I return.

The internet is working today, time to write

This is my street, right in front of the college.  I am on my way to the Xian Music College to listen to the HuQin.  I can say the Xian Music College in Chinese just as easy as I can say it in English, because I have practiced those words more.  Walking this way you can go to the barber shop, several restaurants, the Van Guard grocery store, the McDonalds for coffee, and before we leave, the KFC.  KFC is a popular chain here but it is Chinese food and not American.  So we are going to eat there to see what it is like.  I have only eaten Western food maybe 10 times since I have been here.  Today the sidewalk is not crowded.

I walk two blocks to the Van Guard store, get on the #14 bus and when it makes the first real left turn, I get off and walk back across the street, using the over head walk bridge.  I then continue to walk about three blocks and I am at the entrance to the Music College.  They have some type of music every night.  It is free and it is very good.  Some of it is Chinese classical music and some of it is Western classical music.  It is a nice music hall and the location is very beautiful.

You walk down this nice little street once you enter the college gate.  It is quite a change from my campus and what I see every day.  The trees on both sides of the road are big enough to cover the road.  I like it here. It is a nice and relaxing way to spend the evening.  A real calm before the storm of trying to get on a bus to return home.

This is the music hall from the front.  The street is behind it and to the right.  You walk about a quarter of a mile to get here.  Like I said it is a nice walk.  If you arrive at 7 or 7:15 you will have no problem getting a seat.  You will also get a program that you can not read.

The young lady on the left is playing the HuQin, an ancient Chinese stringer instrument, and the other woman is playing the Yang Qin.  I like both of these very much.  I hope to go one more time to hear some more Chinese music.  But I will leave in June so my time here is quickly passing bye.

The end of the Hospital saga

The whole ordeal  started with this admission slip stating that Tim Murphy needed to have his appendix taken out on Friday.  We ate at the same restaurant on Tuesday night and had the same food, the exact same food, off the same plates.  It is China.  The tofu was spicy.  Tim had asked me if I had any stomach pains when he saw me on Wednesday.  I was fine only I had known that I had eaten some spicy food.  I did not see him on Thursday because I was getting things ready for my trip to WuWei.  After I got in WuWei and was ready to walk in to a room to speak to students I got the call that Tim was in the hospital for surgery.  That is when I needed to change my ticket and return.  Some of our students and the Chinese students stayed with him to watch him and help him. By Sunday AM when I got there he was better but still uncomfortable.  Sunday night he ate and was better and each day after he got better until he checked out on Thursday.

This is the standard room at the GaoXin Hospital.  Tim did not have a room mate which was nice because one our students spent the night the first three nights.  For the most part everyone was very good about helping out, the students, the staff and the faculty.  Everyone was very good about this.

The person in the blue coat is the doctor.  They did a good job with the surgery and all that.  The lady is Sunny, and she is a Xian University administrator.  Everyone was very good about visits and helping with the medical translations.  You still have the communication problems and there are still questions that Tim has that will never be answered.  He still is trying to get his airline refund.  Because of the surgery he could not fly to ShangHai.  When he gets back to the USA he will have to work out things with his insurance.  On the other hand he was able to pay the bill in cash.  It cost around 1000 dollars for everything, surgery, doctors, the room, medicines, etc.  If you don't pay up front you don't get anything.  He broke a thermometer and he had to pay the 4 yuan to replace before they would take his temperature again.  It is a different health care system here.

This could be Ava in a few years, once see has completed her training at ICC.  I learned how to say nurse in Han Yu language so the stay in the hospital helped me with my studies.

The system here is different.  You pay in cash, it is much, much cheaper, family and friends still need to help you with things, like your meals.  The hospital has food but you have to go buy it and take it to your room.  It is a different level of sanitation.  The picture of the bathtub best explains the difference.  All I am saying is the Chinese health care and the USA health care systems are different. Bu yi Yang, not the same.  But Tim did get good treatment and more important the people here, I mean the people at Xian University, the people that we see and talk to everyday did care about him.  The maid staff that cleans our rooms asked about him and were very happy to see him return.  The one lady said she would help him do laundry.  Too bad for her because I had already done it for him.  Everyone was concerned about him and people went to visit him.  They really did care.  That concern was real because you can see it in their eyes and the expression on their face.  With a few people I could even understand what they were saying and they could understand what I was saying even though we both can only speak a little of each others language.  That is one reason why I will miss this place and the people that I have only known for a few months.  You don't get a chance to know people when you stay at the International Hotels and take a bus trip to see the sites but if you are fortunate enough to live in a country you will get a chance to get to know what that country is like, if you try.  This is a great place to be, as I have said before, "warts and all."

This is Tim having his first solid food.  I had to go to the cafeteria to order it and the cafeteria was closed even though the doors were open.  I had the two foods he could eat written in Chinese in my notebook and I used my best language to try and order it.  They could not communicate with me that they were closed.  One girl that worked there could speak English and would not.  I was tired and I was very steamed.  But I cooled down got my stuff and walked out in the the street to find a restaurant.  I walked in and talked to some people and we both understood what I wanted and I got Tim some supper and I had a free cup of tea.  I then bought Tim a bowl at the local shop because I didn't think he wanted to eat out of the take out bag.  You  can communicate with people if you try and if you have just a little bit of language skills and work at it.  What was so frustrating at the hospital was so easy on the street, especially when I said I had a friend in the hospital.

There he is fit and waiting to return home. Right now our home is the Heyuan Hotel and that is the way we think of the place.  One other thing about China, you get to wear your streeThat made it a lot better for all of us.