From Grits to Chopsticks

For those of you who are still waiting to be released from the grip of winter, come to China!  Spring is here:Even with our busy schedule, we try to stop and smell the flowers (even the scary ones):There are big duck decoys floating at the park,“bubble angels” watching over financial marketing schemes,and children training for heavy construction jobs:There are teams of women planting vegetation alongside the roadway into our apartments:and new plants carefully arranged in the drainage ditches:Along with our students, we welcome you to Kunming, “The Spring City” of China!

After an extended visit in the States, it always feels like we’re starting over when we come back to China.  It especially felt that way when we walked into our apartment at 2:00AM, only to find that the electricity had been turned off.  Our freezer was full of spoiled food:The next day, we found out that the power company had shut off the electricity due to a negative balance of less than 10 cents.

I’m also starting over with a new class of students this semester:For the first time, I’m teaching at the new campus of our school.  Like many universities in China, our school is building a second campus outside of the city to accommodate its growing student body (we have doubled in size over the past five years, now with 20,000 students):The pink buildings in the illustration above are now complete and in use while the others are under construction: While the main campus is only a 10 minute walk from our apartment, this new campus is a one-hour very bumpy bus ride away.  Fortunately, all of my classes have been grouped onto a single day (Tuesday), so I only have to make the trip once a week.

Many things change when you’ve been gone from China for almost 3 months.  Road construction can be a burden, but when it provides access to your apartment, it is a welcomed improvement.  For the past two years, our front road looked like this:

When we returned a week ago, it looked like this:And today it is paved with painting and tree planting underway:

While this might seem trivial to some, it means that we will soon be able to walk to the main bus stop without cutting through the garbage dump!

After some major downsizing in Georgia, we rented a 22′ truck, hired some big, strong guys to load it, and drove it to our new place in SC.  It was a cold moving day with snow showers:

We were thankful that everything fit into the truck, and the next day we headed east:

Our new “patio house” (on the left end) is connected to four similar units and should require very little maintenance:

Upon arrival, Susan was finally able to unpack some of her kitchen items after five years of storage…

…. and I was able to move my remaining basement and garage stuff into this 4×5 storage unit attached to the back of the house:

The new house is small, but it gives us room to store what’s left of our things while providing a place to call “home” during our brief visits back to the States.A new chapter has begun…

After spending time with our kids over the Christmas break, we returned to our house in Georgia and began the difficult task of sorting through 30+ years of stuff which had been stored in our basement during our past five years in China.  Our goal has been to dramatically downsize, sell our house, and put the remaining stuff into a small storage house:

Some friends came to take away our extra furniture and other stuff.  We also hauled van-loads of things to our church thrift store and the Salvation Army:Thankfully, Timothy and Caitlyn were able to help out part of the time. There was much to clean, organize, and paint: I also took advantage of the beautiful weather to clear the trails from our backyard to the adjacent mountain biking area and post “For Sale” signs at the entrances:

We loved living in this house, but recognize that it’s time for a new chapter in life.  Hopefully, the new residents will enjoy the place as much as we did!

In 2014, Stephen and Jessica hosted the family for a pre-Christmas holiday in Miami.  It was great to enjoy the warm weather together at the Seaquarium, zoo, Everglades, beach, and Keys.  
Afterwards, we drove up to Pennsylvania to spend more time with the grandchildren (and their parents): As we get older, the contrast helps us appreciate why some people choose to retire in the south…

Over the past four years, we’ve seen a huge change in recognition of Christmas.  Initially, we had a hard time finding Christmas decorations, but now, some major stores have plenty of inventory:Some hotels and stores are now emblazoned with Merry Christmas (in English):And we even saw a mechanical Santa encouraging people to buy stuff:Although some things are changing, we still live in a largely unfamiliar, foreign land.  During Christmas, we remember The One who left the comfort of heaven and came to our planet, bringing light and life to people living in darkness and death.Merry Christmas from us and our students!

We’re just finishing up classes for the Senior students at our university.  Here is a photo of students from my International Business and Law classes:To stimulate participation in my class, I give students “small money” when they ask or answer a question.  They can use these “dollars” to bid for items in an auction at the end 0f the semester.  Susan shopped with some students and bought this “minion” hand warmer…… which drew the highest price at the auction (70 “dollars”)!

Here are the students after class with some of their purchases:We also participate in an weekly English Corner in our school.  Last week, we talked about the Thanksgiving holiday and let the students sample some cranberry sauce, pecans, apple pie and pumpkin pie:

In addition to discussion circles, we often play language games with the students: As you can probably tell, we spend a lot of our time with students!

Spread across Yunnan Province are 26 different minority people groups, each with their own culture and language.  To give visitors more understanding of these unique minorities, Kunming has provided a “minority village” on the south side of town.  Each group was invited to design their own miniature community and showcase what they consider to be important.

The small villages show specific elements of how their people live, work, and worship.  The houses are unique to the landscape and weather patterns.  Examples include the standard square stucco house of the Bai people:The thatched roof houses of the BuLang people:

the lodge home of the Hani:

and the round tent-houses of the Mongolians:

Inside the houses are typical kitchens, living, and sleeping spots: Many of the villages hold a daily performance of their traditional songs and dances.  We arrived at the BuLang village when they were performing:

The minority clothing is brightly colored and beautiful.  Here is Susan posing with a JingPo girl:Susan then switched roles and donned a Miao costume:The surrounding environment is a peaceful place for a Sunday afternoon outing.  The cliffs of Western Hills and dragon boats reflect off of the surrounding waters:Wherever you travel around the world, you will always find that people recognize the existence of God.  And in the Yunnan Minority Villages, you will see that every group chose to include a sample of their religious practices, mostly forms of Buddhism or other attempts to fend off evil spirits: An interesting contrast is found in the Miao village:

A couple of months ago, we traveled north of town on a Sunday afternoon and took a walk at the Black Dragon Pool park.  The pool is a deep spring of clear water filled with hungry koi:The park is actually quite beautiful, laced with trails and landscaping.  This couple was splitting bamboo and building new fences to line the sidewalks:

As we explored further up the mountain and off the beaten path, we came upon this old temple:It felt somewhat like an abandoned set for an adventure movie: You never know what you might find in China!

It’s what we do – eat lunch with students and friends.  The restaurants in our part of China are inexpensive and the food is interesting, providing a great opportunity to connect with people.  We often take students to this restaurant because it has quiet tables upstairs:These students chose some spicy stuff, especially the chicken in the center bowl with huajiao peppercorns:Many of our students are girls, leaving more food for me to eat!These students chose some foods prepared in the style of the Dai Minority people group in south Yunnan:Dai food is spicy and sour:and the broiled fish is really tasty:These students were mostly from the northeast, so they chose food that was a bit more tame:

While eating with some friends after our Sunday fellowship, someone ordered this baked sturgeon.  I was looking forward to trying it, but after I took the photo, most of it was gone:We went to a small restaurant with a student last week and had this bowl of very spicy stew:After eating too many peppers, it’s nice to have some home cooking.  Susan recently started making granola to mix in with my morning oatmeal:Until we moved to Asia, I never knew how much I would appreciate a homemade Chicken pot pie.  No bones, no numbing spices, no surprises!