giving a shop clerk money

Even after more that 7 months of being back in the states it is strange for me to take money out of my wallet and hand it to a person money with only one hand.  In China the proper way to give a person money or a business card is to hold it in both hands and present it, so to speak.  Any time I have to give some one money I still feel awkward just handing it to them.  There are many differences between China and the USA but this is the one that has given me the most trouble adjusting to now that I am back home.  Ok it is also hard to eat out and not pay 2 dollars for a meal.

Mongolian Horse Milk Wine for Christmas

On Christmas Day at the Thomas family I brought my Mongolian Horse Milk Wine for everyone to try.  I had never had it before and it was a gift from my Dean in the English Department, and good friend, Zhou Sha Sha.  Her father gave it to me the last Sunday I was in Xian.  I actually like it.  It looks like the Bai Jiu but has a smoother taste.  For a horse milk wine it has a bit of a kick to it.  I am going to polish this off.  It was different this year at Christmas.  This year I was emailing people in China and wishing them a Merry Christmas or Sheng Dan Kuai La, as we say.  We got a phone call from one of JoAnne's students and she wished us a Merry Christmas.  I had many of my Chinese students wish us a Merry Christmas on our Q-zone the Chinese social network.  James Zhang, our Chinese exchange students sent me a message on QQ and wanted me to give everyone his best.  It is a little different each year here at Christmas.  My friend, Rob Rogers, a foreign faculty member at Xian, said the best thing about this time of year in China is that there is no this time of year in China.  Ah, but they have the Chinese New Year next month and that is this time of year only with 1.3 billion people.  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and I wish you all the best for the New Year, ours and yours.

speaking to the English Class

I has been a while since I spoke at the English classes of Prof. Paul Resnick.  I did enjoy talking about my time in Xian and what my experience of China was like.  Sometimes when I talk about China I get a little sad, because I really did like being there and being with the students and friends that I met.  This time my feelings were happy.  The feelings were happy because I really did like being there and being with the students and friends that I met.  I was so fortunate to have that opportunity and tried to share that with the students.  I don't think the students expected some one to come and talk to them wearing an old work uniform, wearing a large key ring, and having a maintenance radio in their back pocket.  When I told them they have many opportunities to do things at ICC, I meant it, because I was sent to China.  I talked about the food, the culture, the language, and the school system but I also told them that as a student they have so many opportunities if they just say,  "I would like to help or I would do that."  As I get older it does get easier to speak to a group.  What I did was the same assignment I gave my students, to prepare a talk for about 10 minutes on a student that is interesting to you.  Of course my Chinese students had never given a speech to any group on any subject.  It took me about a month of classes to get that bit of information communicated to me.  The school systems are so different.  I did enjoy talking about my hometown of Xian, China and will do it every chance I get.  Thanks, Prof. Resnick for asking me to talk to your students.  One less day that you have to prepare a lecture.

speaking about China

I am going to go over the list of questions that Prof. Paul Resnick gave me about China.  I need to sort them and figure out what ones to talk about in my 10 to 15 minutes.  I will be doing the same thing I had my Chinese students do for me in Xian.  The only difference is I actually have given a speech and my students never had.  They didn't have a clue how to speak in front of group.  The two systems of education are so different.   That is one of the questions I have been asked about, what is the Chinese school system like and how is it different.  I was also asked about how different is China from the USA.  I think I will hold up a pair of chop sticks and a fork and say this is how different we are.  It is easier to list how we are a like.  Take out a sheet of paper and label it from 1 to 2.  I think you can get it filled up but the second one will make you think.  I will list the questions I have been asked and I will try and post some answers.

Can you help me with me speech?

I got an email message from Zhang Kai asking me to help him write a speech that is due next week.   He is very nervous about this even though he is an English major at Xian International University.  Zhang Kai was not my student but he is a person that everyone knows and I went to WuWei with him to speak at his Middle School.  He only has to speak for three minutes but from what I found out, Chinese students do not do public speaking like we do here.   I had asked my students to talk for 5 to 10 minutes and teach me new Chinese words.  That is when I found out they had never done anything like that before, not in English and not in Chinese.  I am trying to help Zhang Kai as much as I can.  He wrote me the topic, "a world that has changed the world."    First thing I asked was, "Is this the correct topic?"  I think it may be a word that changed the world, but in China you never know.  We will see how this goes.  I do keep in touch with my students and I enjoy finding things that I think could help them learn more about the English Language and the USA.  I was not Zhang Kai's teacher but he calls me Eric teacher.  Many of my students called me Eric Teacher.  I did like that.  Now all I need to do find out the topic and try my best to help my friend.  We will see how this goes.

Speaking at Paul Resnick's class

I will be speaking about my time in China to the students of Professor Paul Resnick on November 8.  I will have to check the actual class and times.  I am looking forward to sharing my experience with the students. I was thinking it may be interesting while I am talking to try and do a QQ video chat so some of my students could see what an American class room looks like and the American students could probably see what a Chinese dorm room looks like.  Of course I don't know how to use QQ well enough to do that and I can not read the Chinese well enough to figure it out.
I am looking forward to talking about my time in China.  I am a product of the community college experience and I have been very fortunate to be able to maximize my opportunities while I have been at ICC.  I am going to miss being at an education facility when I retire.  What I like about my job is that I am at a college and I get to teach, be around the faculty, and the students.  A community college has so much to offer a person and it is affordable.  I have students in my welding class that use the classroom as an art studio.   You sign up for class and for 16 weeks you have a very good space to work, good equipment to work with, and a fantastic instructor.  The place is well ventilated and is heated during the winter.
Today the Chinese Club went to Chicago to China Town.  I would have liked to go but I do need to get something done for the Guatemala coffee project.  I am sure Ava will tell me about the trip.  I do need to get some supplies for hot pot and make Jiao Zi before too much longer. It has been a busy day time to relax and hope the Cardinals win.  Friends of mine, that I met in Xian, are going to be teaching in Riga, Latvia in a few weeks.  I need to find out more about that.  Matt Fuller was in China and I think he has a copy of the China Daily that has the printed copy of the article that Rob Rogers wrote about his time in Xian.  I have found travel to be so interesting.

Rob Rogers my Rugby Coach and his China Daily article

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-10/01/content_13830157.htm


I hope you find this interesting.  Rob is a good friend of mine and I always enjoyed having a beer with him and a cup of good coffee.

Rob Rogers writes about his life in China.

Rob Rogers, my friend and rugby coach, had an article published in the China Daily, China's English language newspaper.  He sent me the information and link on Yahoo.  I will get that information to you as soon as I finish using my netbook and get to the big Mac.

Speaking at the American Welding Society meeting

I got a chance to speak about my time in China during the September meeting of the American Welding Society.  It has been a while since I actually spoke in front of a group and it has been a long time since I have done a presentation about where I have been and what I did.   I could do it better the next time.  I showed pictures of welding in China, places I had visited, food that I ate, and just some things that I thought were interesting.  Ava Zhong went with me and listened to me speak and ate a steak.  I enjoyed the chance to talk and like I said, I could do it better the next time.  I how I get another chance.  I enjoyed my time in China and I enjoy talking about it.  One of the class assignments for my Chinese students was to give a presentation and use their talk as a way to teach me new Chinese words and teach me about their country.   I did not realize until the semester was almost over that my students had never given a talk in front of a group before, not even speaking in Chinese.  Some of my students did very well and many did a good job, considering everything.    Like I told them, "You have to practice."   
I practiced but I also brought Chinese hard liquor for my crowd to taste and had door prizes for them.  That always helps.

Here I am with the other members that have serve as a Chair of the Peoria Chapter of the AWS.

This is a picture of Phil England with his door prize, a Chinese style welding helmet, a pair of sunglasses stuck in a piece of cardboard.  Some of the people that I saw welding did not even have this much protection.  I do not understand why people do not protect their eyes but I am glad I work in the USA.  What is strange to me is that even in this country with all our regulations you can still see people doing things wrong.  At the Cougarplex, a contractor was grinding on the concrete floor and worked at it for over a week, no ear plugs and no safety glasses.  I know what he will say to his grand kids, "what." 

Thats me with the Chinese photo pose, the victory/peace sign.

QQ and my Chinese students

I am still able to keep in touch with my Chinese students, using QQ, a Chinese social network.  I have about two hundred people that can communicate with.  I use the netbook for this and check it for a virus many times.  It is not hard to get a virus in China or on a Chinese system.  The netbook is mainly just for me to use to email my Chinese students.  With QQ you can look at others peoples pictures and see what people are doing and my students look at the pictures I post and see what I did in China and what I am doing here.  They have seen the July 4th parade, our home, my college, the farmers market, and soon will see the orchards and the fall produce.  I enjoy writing to them and sharing some of my life with them.
I enjoyed my time in Xian but I really enjoyed spending time with the students.  I know my having a QQ number helped me get to know more students.  When I told my students that I had QQ, I think the students realized that I was not going to just leave and never be heard from again.  When ever I would ask a Chinese student if they had QQ, which they all do, their eye would open wide and they would say, "you have QQ?"  I gave out my QQ number to everyone.
I met a girl on the bus and she figured out I was a teacher at Xian International University, because I was an American, and I was on the 300 bus that takes you to Xian International University.  If I had been a tourist I would not be going that direction and I would not be on the bus.  We talked for about 20 minutes total.  The main topic is almost always, " how can I improve my English skills?"  I have sent her information on how to check on ICC's Website and use the Tumble Books.  We still chat on QQ and she is in Holland now.  I was chatting with a student on QQ and found out he was in my class but had never came to any of them.  He did show up for the last class.  Our conversation was like this, "who are you", "I am in your class but I have never came to any of them.  Sorry."  I said OK watch what the other students are doing and try your best to do your presentation for the final.  Every day in China something happened that made you realize that this was a new experience.  The experience could be a new food, a new smell, meeting a new students, seeing someone spit in the hallway at the hospital, seeing a city bus drive pass you going the wrong way on a city street, having a person yell out the window of the restaurant, "hey, tall man.", but every day something new and different happened.  That is what I really miss about China.  I can see new things here but it is not as exciting.  If you are driving a car that is probably a good thing.

No more cell phones

While I was in Xian I had to carry a cell phone because if a student needed to talk to a faculty member I had to be able to answer the phone and listen.  When someone is going to the hospital, you need to know that bit of information.  I was sending text messages as I was boarding the plane to return to the USA.  Since I have been in the states, I do not carry a cell phone or actually talk on the phone.  I just did learn how to check my voice mail at work.  When you don't do something for 6 months you tend to forget.  I am back on track now.  After six months I had three messages and all of them were current.  One was to check a reference on a student that had made the study abroad trip to China and one was to help out with a community project that was welding related.   I think I was a little late on the employment reference and I am sorry about that but he got the job and I was able to reinforce the fact that he will be an excellent student worker.
The community service project went well and I was able to, not only cut their steel rebar, but donated a marble top table to their garden area.  More important, while I was cutting the steel, they unloaded the table from my van.  I have moved that table for the last time.  I did not get any pictures but they did and I will post the link and share that project with you, when I get back in my email.

My first talk on my experience in Xian

On September 22, I think, I will be speaking to the Peoria Section of the American Welding Society, about my time in Xian.  I will talk about welding and the other jobs I was able to watch people do, while I was in China.  I will also talk about life in general, as I observed it.  This will be the first time I will get to talk to a group of people about what I did in China and what I got to see.  I need to go through my pictures and get them on a thumb drive so I can just talk about the pictures.  I did take pictures of people just working and going about their every day lives, and many of those people looked at me like I was nuts.  I will enjoy getting the opportunity to talk about a place that I enjoyed so much.  I even have treats, Chinese cigarettes, hard liquor, and I will put together a Chinese welding helmet, a pair of sunglasses stuck in a piece of card board.  You strike an arc and close your eyes.  The Chinese word for personal protective equipment is Mei you.   Mei you, pronounced, May yo, like in what you spread on a turkey sandwich, means "not have."  I have been posting a lot of pictures on my Q-zone, so my Chinese students and friends can see what I did during my time in China.  It is interesting for me to go back through the pictures and see what I did in China.  I will enjoy added pictures to the different files as I prepare for this talk.
I will give a talk that will be very similar to the final exam that I gave my students.  All my students had to teach me about 5 to 10 new words in Chinese and talk in English for 5 to 10 minutes.  It took a month to get them to actually understand the assignment.  These were college students but I found out that none of them had ever given a speech before, not even in Chinese.  The school system is different from ours, very different.  I told all my students to talk about something you are interested in and to practice you talk  until you are comfortable with it.  That is what I need to do, get my pictures ready and practice.  It will not be difficult to talk about China because I enjoyed the experience so much.  Did I mention I was going to have samples of hard liquor that I brought back from China.  I will have more details after the AWS planning meeting this week and will post the information on the blog and facebook.  I just hope the room will be big enough for everyone.

Q-zone and other things.

I have been busy trying to learn how to post pictures and blog on QQ, a Chinese networking system.  I am trying to share my life in the USA with the students and friends that I met in Xian.   I am starting to adjust to life back in the USA but more important I am busy on other projects and working towards my goal of retirement and moving to Silver City, New Mexico.  That is something I hope to do in June of 2012.  I will add a few things to this blog as time allows and things happen but I will be writing a new blog about a project that I am working on now, a solar coffee bean dryer for Guatemala.  I have been working to get a team of people at Illinois Central College involved with this project and we hope to come up with several models that could work.  What I know about coffee is that I like to drink it.  I hope to learn more about coffee, solar energy, Guatemala and more important meet interesting people that know more about all of the above than I do.  Once I get a name for the new blog and get it started I will let people know.

Link to a show that is similar to what we show at Xian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUnEKE1hgQ&feature=related



While we were in Xian we show an outdoor show that was visually one of the best shows I have every seen.  They would not let you take any photographs but in the West Lake area they have a show that is similar and visually is very interesting.  I thought I would share this link with you.  The show in Xian was different but still done on the water.  They could raise and lower the floor and the different lights.  It is hard to describe but it was amazing.

the cell phone

When I was in Xian I had to carry a cell phone.  That was the first time I had ever had one in my pocket every day.  If a student needed something, they had to be able to contact us.  I also sent my first text message in China.  It took forever but I got it done.   I remember our last day in China sending text messages as we killed time at the airport.  I was texting as we walked to the airplane because the phone would not work outside of China.  I have not used a cell phone since.  I have done a few video chats on QQ.  Some day I will get back in the swing and use a cell phone again, but not now.

visitors from Xian

Rob Rogers, his wife Ang and son, Min, stopped by Peoria last night to visit us before they drove up to Milwaukee to visit some other friends.  We when out for Bar-B-Que and this morning had waffles with real maple syrup, bacon, omelets, melon and cherries.  It was really nice to see them again and to have JoAnne meet them.  I do hope to see them again sometime in Xian.

You don't get a breakfast like this very often in  Xian but then you don't get a breakfast like this very often in Peoria. I am so glad they stopped by and spent the night with us.

hot day in central Illinois

A hot day like today makes me long for retirement even more than I already do.  To top things off our air conditioning quit working on Sunday.  The one problem I have about returning to Peoria and returning to work is that I miss being the English teacher in China so much.  But the English teacher could not have fixed the air conditioning and done it for 16 dollars.  I guess there is some advantage to being a "gong ren", or working person instead of the English teacher.
I have been in contact with one of the students that I met at the Wednesday English Corner in Xian.  The difficult thing about communication with the Chinese students is that I met so many people and was not able to learn enough names or you learn an English name and then do not know who they really are.  I have been emailing Ellen since I left.  She wrote me today that she was afraid to speak out even though she liked me.  I have told many of my students to practice a few sentences and get good at saying them and then you just have to force yourself to talk to foreign visitors.  I have always told my students that every day I walked in the classroom I was nervous.  I enjoyed teaching but I was always nervous that it would not go well and I could not help them learn.  But you just have to suck it up and try and try and try.  If I can get students to practice saying things like can I help you find something, or is this the first time you have been to China, etc.  If they would practice 10 sentences that would be "ice breakers" I think they would develop the confidence to then continue to talk with the foreign person.  They just have to force themselves to not be so shy.  I know how they feel because I have missed several opportunities to talk or do something for just that reason.  Something does not go well, you lose some confidence, and then you put your hands in your pockets and shuffle off.  It happens.
One good thing about being back here is the Guatemala coffee bean dryer project.  It is starting to develop and we are starting to get some more people involved.  I think we will have a good team of students and faculty to work on this and I hope we can develop something that will work or set the ground work for something that will work in the very near future.  Sometimes you have to get something built to see how to do it better.  Right now I need to get something built.  But that is going to make my days before retirement a little bit more interesting.
I am just glad the house is starting to cool off.  In Xian, in the classrooms you did not have air conditioning.  The last day I taught it was 98 and we had two over head fans and two windows opened.  Students were trying to give a speech and we had construction noise and the hallways are loud.   I felt bad because I was leaving and this one girl said to me, "smell", and I taught, "Of course I smell, it is hot, I am nervous and sad, I know I smell.  And then see told me one more time, "smell" and she did smell from ear to ear.  :-) , with a great big grin.  I will always remember my Life in Xian, and I will do it with a smell on my face and a tear in my eye.

The world is a lot smaller now

This horse on a flying bird is the symbol of tourism in China.  When I went to Wuwei, with Zhang Kai, I visited this park in his town that plays tribute to this horse being selected as the symbol of Chinese tourism.  My first week back at the ICC East Peoria campus I saw a small copy of the horse in the lobby of PAC.  I looked at it and smiled and said to myself, "I know what that is and I have been to the place where they found it."  To be from a small town in Illinois and to have the opportunity to travel to China has been a dream come true.  When you travel you get to see things and do things that you will always remember.  You get to meet people that you will never forget.

This lady is someone I will not forget.  See cleaned my room and she could read and write English and could speak some.  I could read and write some Chinese and could speak some.  If we both worked at it we could communicate.  I always enjoyed the days went she came it to clean my room.  Some days we would be on the computer on QQ or looked at facebook and working very hard to communicate with each other.  I do realize that if I could have just spoke a little more Chinese my time in Xian would have been so much better.  Hopefully next time I go to China I can speak, read and write better than I do now.  I just have to keep practicing.  I have her QQ number so I need to email her and practice my writing.  Even though some of the students were not great at keeping their rooms neat the staff did seem to like having us around.  When Dr. Murphy was in the hospital everyone wanted to know how he was doing and many of the them went to visit him.  They were really and nice group of people to be around.

yard work on a hot day

I will be doing some yard work today.  The only yard work I did in Xian was to play Rugby on the Astro Turf sports field.  I do need to do somethings around the house because it needs to look it's best if we are going to put it on the market in the future.  The experience in China was a good one and it has both Jo and I thinking about the next phase of our lives, retirement.  I thought about what Jo and I would do after the daily routine of clocking in and going to work was over.  I thought about that a lot in China, how nice it would be to return to China and teach a semester with JoAnne.  We could enjoy the culture, relax, met new people, and afford to eat out every meal if we wanted.  It is nice to only have to go to work and then have the time to do what ever you want.  No yard work, no house, no car, you don't have to cook if you don't want.  For a little while you are just free to enjoy your life and the people around you.  You can stay very busy, rugby practice, English Corner, sights to see, new lesson plans to develop, doing things with students, you can find more to do than you will have time for.
So this next phase of life, the retirement years, should be interesting.  We do plan to move to Silver City, New Mexico.  A little town of around 12,000 people that has everything you need in it.  It is right by a 3.3 million acre national wilderness area.   It is high enough up in the mountains to not be too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter.  I can start playing tennis again, and Jo can hang out with the artist folk.  That will be or base for future travels and adventures.  There are places we want to go and things we want to do and we do not have to plan those trips around a vacation for work.
The whole time I was in Xian people would ask what I missed most about being away from the USA.  I would say, "morning coffee," and the evening meal with my wife.  I really did not miss any of the food but I did miss drinking morning coffee, good coffee, not the instant stuff I did drink.  But I really did miss eating with JoAnne and talking with her in the evening.  That I did miss.  It was strange to be in Xian, around people that you develop a close relationship with and yet you realize that you have not touched any one for four months.  I have faculty friends in China that I miss dearly, students that I care about and still communicate with, staff members at the hotel that I saw every day, a whole lot of people that I was very sad to have to leave and yet for four months I longed to be with my wife and wondered what it would be like to return.  Of course I know that when I am away from my wife that I am not supposed to touch any one but it is strange go and do things and always end up at an empty house and to always wake up at an empty house.  It is good to be home now.  It is good to look at the calendar and be able to mark off the days until I can start life all over again.  I would hate to think I have to work another 10 years until I can retire.  If that was the case then I should have never went to China, because it would drive me crazy.  I need to get on some work clothes, pour a cup of coffee, and get some water and start on the brick wall.  One thing we are going to do in Silver City, is to fix things the way we want them and then live there and enjoy them.  It seems like we fix things to sell and then do not enjoy them long enough ourselves.
Guatemala, Mongolia, China, Guatemala, Mongolia, China.  Oh I forgot about Antarctica. Hmmmm.

My life is now back to normal.

I have been in the USA for almost 3 weeks and today marked the second full week of work, at my old job. A few weeks ago I was in Xian, China and I was an English teacher and now I do heating and ventilation. It is not too difficult to guess which job I like better.  It was so much fun to walk in to the classroom and try and help the students to improve their speaking skills.  At Xian everyone knows you are a westerner and that probably means you are a teacher, so you are special.  The students would smile at you and come up to you to talk or ask to sit with you at the cafeteria.  I enjoyed that interaction so much.
That does not happen at work now.  No one has asked to have a picture taken with me.  Imagine that.  I also notice how empty to campus is.  At Xian you had 16,000 students on the campus and they all were there.  They lived there with no cars to take them away.  The bells would ring and the students would empty out of the buildings and head to the cafeteria to eat and the place was just packed full of people.  You would walk up the last few steps to the upstairs dining area and the hazy and smoke of the food vendors would hit up in the face and make you cough just a little.  By the time you walked a few more steps you were OK and ready to eat.  I notice just how empty everything is here.  Where are all the people.
I also notice just how green everything is, how blue the sky is, and how fresh the air is.  In Xian it is dusty and it is polluted.  The trees are not as green and that is because of the dust and pollution.  In Xian you could look at the horizon and it would fade to gray, but not here.  You can see for miles here.  The sky is so blue.  I never really noticed just how blue the sky is until now.
Here people in cars only run the yellow lights.  Motorcycles are not all over the place and they are not on the sidewalks.  It is different here.  No food vendors on every corner.  Nothing to eat that costs 35 cents and tastes good.
I was thinking today that a few weeks ago I could say, "yesterday I was in China."  Soon I will be saying two months ago I was in China and then six months ago I was in China and then it will be last year at this time I was in China, only when I say that I hope to be saying it to someone in Silver City, New Mexico.   I have worked long enough to be able to retire and I do have other things to do that should be more interesting than work.  I have applied for an opportunity to travel to Mongolia and help evaluate their vocational school system.  That may happen but I will have to wait and see.  I am also working on a solar coffee dryer for Guatemala.  That project is in the works and we just need to build a system or two and then see how well they work and what improvements we need to make.  We also need to see about how to design simple hot water systems for the people.  So I have lots of things to do once I quit working and start retiring.  I would still like to return to China and teach.  I really liked doing that.  I enjoyed the students and the faculty that I met.  The Chinese people are so interested in the USA,  they are so polite, and just darn nice to be around.  The food is great and it is cheap.  China is so different from the USA.  We have nothing that is the same.  We talk different, write different, look different, eat different,  and yet we all seem to get along just fine.
 I want to travel as much as I can in the short time I have left but I do not want to be a tourist and just ride on the bus and then see the sights.  I want to live in the areas I visit, get to know the people, live like they do,  and I hope to be able to help them so that their lives are better because I was there.  I would like to think that my time in Xian did help some students to improve their English skills.  I know they have the information they need and can improve their speaking skills if they will do the important stuff, study and practice.  With a language you need to practice if you are going to improve.  I need to get the Chinese language on my netbook so I can written in characters and improve my Chinese language skills.  I also need to load pictures on my QQ zone so my students in China can see what I did in China and more important they can see what I do here.  I got QQ for one reason, to stay in contact with my students in Xian.  I also want to show them what life is like in the USA.  I know they watch TV and movies but the USA is not really like the movies.  No one is going to make a movie about the Eureka Fourth of July Parade.  But things like that are what America is.  So much of this country is small towns and farms and just common people.  That is what I want to share with my students, just how boring our country really is.  So come July 4th, don't disappoint me.
Actually I have had some culture shock the last few weeks.  I did not have a lot of trouble with culture shock when I got to China.  I knew it would be dirty, crowded and very different from here but I welcomed that difference and expected it.  It has been difficult to transition from being an English teacher to going back to punching the time clock.  Today was difficult because it was very hot, in the 90's, and you are in a work uniform,  up on the roof, in the heat working to find a leak in the air conditioning system.  I thought if I was in Xian, I would be inside a classroom with students, trying to figure out how to get them to talk,  and it would be in the 90's, because it is hot in Xian and they don't have air conditioning.  No one complains.  Just for fun in my best Chinese I would say,  comfortable, and smile.  I always was comfortable in the classroom, even when I was very nervous.