The trip back to Xian

For a town of 1000 people they sure do have a great train station.  On this train we do have a sleeping seat.  I can tell because the amount of money the ticket was.  No reason not to go on and have teacheres take you around the complex.

This is the middle bunk in the sleeping car.  

This is Zhang Kai and our new friends from Jordan.  They were in China to try and work out the details for a new fertilizer plant.  They were only on the train with us for four hours.  They said it was difficult traveling here because of their food restrictions.  I only have the one food restriction, if I don't like it I don't eat it.

They got off at Lanzhou and about 11 pm I went to sleep and slept pretty good all the way to Xian.  Once I was back in town it was time to go check on Dr. Murphy.  It is better to sleep in a bed even if it is part of the traim ride.

A relaxing cup of tea

On my right is the tea shop person and on my left is my new Doctor. He is not a bad Dr. because he did notice my blood pressure was a little low which is normal for me.  Spring time at the temples can only mean one things, the lilacs are in bloom.

They smell just as good here as they do in the USA.  I notice a lot of plants they have here and they are just like the ones we have in the USA.  After walking around the temples it is time to head across the road and enjoy the local park and drink a cup of tea. 

Because Dr. Murphy got sick I did not get to experience much of WuWei but I did to get meet the teachers at the local school, see a few temples, see older people out walking around, and to just sit and see what people do on a normal weekend. The tea was very good.  After a few hours of just watching life pass by, it was time to move to a fast food joint, eat, and enjoy the opportunity to set and watch the world pass you by.  Next stop some supper and then on to the train station.

More on the trip to WuWei

This is the view of downtown WuWei from my hotel room window.  I had asked Zhang Kai how big WuWei was and he had told me it was 1000 people.  He also told me he had a sleeping seat for me, too.  I think a few more people than a thousand live here.  Since our return train was not leaving until 6 PM we had some time to kill and decided to see the sites.  First lets go see some temples.

I have always liked the way these temples are carved.  They are really nice to see and to me very relaxing.

Just more of the same temple.  I have seen several of these temples in the short time I have been here and still enjoy them.  After this the next stop is to see the symbol of Chinese tourism.  Zhang Kai is very proud of this.

I will let the sign speak for itself.  The unearthed the logo of Chinese Tourism.  This is what put WuWei on the map.

 This is the symbol of Chinese tourism.  It is not this big.   It was actually less than a few square feet but this  is what it looks like.  It reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon horse.

If you are Chinese and showing the Wai Lao person around you may as well take a few pictures.  Wai Lao is the name given to most foreign visitors.  After seeing this sites it was time to move on to another temple and then tea in the park.

Talking to the students at the WuWei High School

After a 12 hour over night train ride, a short nap at the hotel, I arrived at the WuWei high school to talk to the students and say the magic words that will help them all to learn English better.   Just minutes before I am to walk in to a room of  at least a 100 students I find out that Dr. Tim Murphy, the person from CLC, that I am working with has just gone in for surgery to have his appendix removed.  I was just tired and now I am very concerned.  Dr. Murphy did not even  want to get a hair cut in China so I know that surgery was not top on his list of things to do.  I bucked up and did my job the best I could with these students and then had to figure out how best to get back to Xian.

After the students heard what I had to say and I answered some questions, I went to another room to talk with some more students. I answered questions and after it was over some students asked me to write something in their notebooks.  What was I supposed to write, "I'm just a welding instructor from a school in Illinois."  I was able to share some wisdom with them and I showed their teachers how to find the ICC Tumblebooks on the web and showed them the Merriam Webster on line dictionary.  If  they can use both of those sources then some of these students can improve their English skills.  Actually, I told the students that was really Da Shan, the famous star of Chinese television.  What you think Ava, do I look like him? After talking to the students I was taken across the street to enjoy a nice meal with the English teachers at the school. They were very nice to me and the food was very good.  I still kind of strange to be treated like that just because I came from the USA.  Hey I did my best and I did travel 12 hours over night on the hard train bench seat just to meet with them.  The teachers did say that they did not know about the web sites I shared with them.  I hope I did some good.

I did eat some of the best tofu I have had in China here.  I have had this tofu before but here is was crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.  The gelatin meat stuff was good also.  I had a salad that was great.  I enjoyed talking to all of them and I got a chance to practice some of my Chinese at the meal.

Once we had eaten it was time to try and find out how to change our tickets and get back to Xian and check on Dr. Murphy.  Last year a student on this trip also had to have her appendix taken out.  If I can change my ticket and not have to sit on a bench or stand up I will be happy.

What a weekend

I am boarding the train in Xian on a Thursday night to travel 969 kilometers to WeWei, Zhang Kai's, home town.  While I am there I will visit his high school, meet his parents, and ride a Camel.  I am traveling light and only have a few things in the back pack.  This will be a new experience for me. I have only been on a train once before and that was to travel from Kalamazoo to Peoria.  That train took 12 hours also but I am not concerned because I have sleeping seat on the train and Zhang Kai has a regular seat.  If he needs some sleep we will change places. I am an old person but every one tells me that I have a young heart, which means they think I am old.  To travel across China by train how exotic. At least I will be able to get some rest. We leave at 10:55 and arrive in WuWei at 11 am the next day.

This is my sleeping car.  The hard bench in the crowed part of the train.  Some how when we bought the tickets the fact that I would not be able to relax got lost in the translation.  Oh well it was only 12 hours and I have a young heart. When you travel on the train you can get the feeling that everyone there is old friends only to find out that no one knows each other and has only met because they are on the train together.  This was the old slow train, but it had a young heart.

I did make sure that on the return trip we had a sleeping seat.  I have never seen one but will find out more when we return.  I do know that on the bench seat I could doze for about 20 minutes and then had to wake up, move around a little, try and stretch out, and see if I could go back to sleep for another 20 minutes. You also look at your watch and go, "oh, jeepers it is only 3 am and we still have to ride this until 11 am."  The only thing you hope for is to have the ride be better once the sun comes up or for some one to leave at the next town and for the extra seat to be open.  How exotic is that?  At least you can smoke on the train.

Another trip this weekend, I think.

I may just do something really wild and crazy and go with John, the Chinese student that calls me Eric Teacher, to visit his home town, to speak with students and his former Laoshi.  He lives close to LanZhou, where the CLC students went last week.  I guess tomorrow we will get some train tickets and after a short 12 hour train ride we will be somewhere that I have never been before and may never be again.  I think we will leave late Thursday and return on Sunday.  I think we will get one bunk and one seat and then share the sleeping time.  I think I will need to move around some anyway and this way John can also rest.  I can experience the thrill of train travel in China.  I am sure this will be different but then that is why I am here to see new things and experience all that I can.  I had a late supper with John and Zhang Yao tonight.  Zhang Yao is the student of mine that plays the GuZheng.  We had the "yang yu ca ca" or the Chinese hash browns as I call them.  I like them and if I had my way I work crisp them up a little more, but they are good.  John and Zhang Yao were talking in Chinese and I could tell that Zhang Yao was talking about someone and something.  Right after she stopped I said, "Zhen de" the Chinese word for really.  That got their attention especially because I used the right tone and the right facial expressions.  There was a brief pause and then she asked me if I understood what she was saying and I laughed and said "no."  It is fun to be here and I so much enjoy talking with and being around the students.  After we ate I walked ZhangYao to her dormitory, I then  headed towards the hotel and walked by three young girls.  They said good evening and hello and I said Ni Hao.  I had never seen them before, that I am aware of, but one of them said to me, "you have been to Fujian."  Fujian is where Xiamen is and I was there to visit Xiaoling and Kevin Shu this weekend.  I am always amazed at what happens in Xian.  The power of the QQ.
After my class today I saw Zhao Sha Sha and talked to her.  She told me that classes start 20 minutes later now.  Which explains why I was so early to class today.  If you let things like not having someone tell what time you need to start work bother you, then China will drive you crazy.  I was talking to her about my visit to Xiamen.  She graduated from Xiamen University and has friends that work there.  Xiaoling gave me some snack food to try and I am going to share some with Zhao Sha Sha on Thursday. She is still surprised at the fact that I really enjoy Chinese food.  I showed her the cook book I bought and we squatted down in the hall way and she was telling me what was delicious and what was easy and that her father is a good "cooker".  I may be able to eat supper with her before I leave and I hope to learn more about what recipes are good ones in the book I bought.  That could be of interest to Chef Keith.  I will do what I can to get some good information.  Zhao Sha Sha thinks Americans eat hamburger and she is correct but not everyone eats hamburgers. Some of us also like hot dogs.  I am going to QQ her some pictures of Xiamen and some of the food that Xiaoling's parents fixed for me.  I am also going to share some stuff with her, the snack food that I have.  I like her.  She is nice to be around and with her English skills and my Chinese we seem to be able to communicate with each other.  I enjoy that because I have to work at talking with her but I know that we can communicate.  She was telling me that she has studied English for 8 years but the last couple of years she has not practiced and has forgotten somethings. I was very serious and told her what she needed to do the get better at English.  That is "hao hao xue ci, tian tian xiang shang." That means good study every day and you will get better.  That is what she emailed me on QQ and told me to tell the students.  I do tell them the only way to get better is to practice and I am trying to get them to practice over the summer.  If I can just get them to do something outside of class it will make a difference.  I am trying to get them to listen to NPR's five minute news summary and to read one of the news storys and look up the words they do not know and then use the on line audio dictionary for pronunciation.  If I can just get them to do 10 or 15 minutes a day outside of class it will make a huge difference.  I also tell them that is what I need to do if I am going to get better.  In my classes I think they try and teach you how to memorize things but not how to actually figure out what to say and how best to say it.  That is my opinion.

Hot and humid, perfect soup weather

The day was hot, humid, and I was in a restaurant that was not air conditioned, so I someone was to yell out, "Hey Grandpa, whats for dinner?", my first choice would not be hot soup and I don't care how many square pieces of pigs blood is in it.  That is what I ate because Xiaoling wanted me to try it.  The soup was good but it was a little too warm for soup.  She just feeds me stuff and feeds me stuff.  Eat, Eat, Eat.  It is part of the culture but sometimes I would like to not feel like a stuffed tick.

The squares of pig's blood do not taste that bad.  I had some this morning for breakfast. You get use to the food and in time it becomes what is normal.  I hope the cookbooks I got will be good ones and I can learn how to make some of the food I am eating now.  Tomorrow is the last day of the Labor Day holiday and I will be having lunch at Xiaoling's parents home and then she and Jian Gu will take me to the airport.  I will miss all of them very much.  Xiaoling's husband is a very nice man.  He is so calm. He is always a calm and steady person.  Many times when Chinese people talk you can never tell if they are mad, happy, sad, or what. As Dr.Murphy says,"I don't know what they are saying but it sure sounds important."  Jian Gu is just calm and easy going, even when Xiaoling is trying to park the car.  Back to Xian and the land of the dust but it will be good to see my students again, the ones from China and the ones from the USA.