From Grits to Chopsticks

Last week, our International Trade department graduated 280 students.  I’ve had the opportunity to teach about one third of them, and it was my privilege to join other members of our faculty and present diplomas.  The last time that I wore a cap and gown was 10 years before most of these students were born, and the gown that I wore back then was a bit longer:

Graduation here is not quite as formal as you would find in the States, but it was pretty special to share this day with my first group of students:

We took a bunch of photos after the ceremony.  Here are some of my students from one of the classes:

We have gotten to know many individuals in the last year and half.  Some have become quite special to us:

Last week, we had a new record crowd at English Corner: 19 students and 5 foreigners:

During a recent visit to a UNESCO world heritage site in our province, we came across some interesting signs.  Just in case you are tempted to somk, here’s a warning:

In the park, they have convenient cans available for disposal of organisms:

Finally, it’s too bad that signs can’t read:

Last week, we accepted the gracious invitation of a dear friend to come and visit him in the nearby city of Dali.  This gave us (and our niece Amy) our first opportunity to ride a Chinese train.  As you can tell from the large billboard in the train station, Dali is a popular destination:

We joined the mob exiting for train K6910 and boarded for the 6 (to 7) hour ride westbound:

There are two seating options on this particular train: “hard seat” or “hard sleeper.”  Since the hard seat compartment is usually tightly packed and has insufficient legroom for tall foreigners, we spent the extra few dollars for the sleeper car:

Each door along the left wall opens to a separate compartment holding six bunks, providing a reasonably comfortable spot for resting or reading:

Each compartment has a pitcher of hot water to prepare your lunchtime noodles.  Of course, we were the only ones on this train eating sandwiches:

The best part of a train ride (during the daytime) is the chance to enjoy peaceful views of the Chinese countryside:

Susan just returned from a brief trip to the States.  She was able to enjoy time together with her mom, daughter, and grandson:

At three months, the little guy is blimping out nicely:

While in Columbia, Elijah also met his Uncle Stephen for the first time:

Our niece, Amy, was able to accompany Susan on the trip back to China.  They met Mark and Timothy on their way to Kunming and spent a day together:

This evening while waiting for a greasy chicken sandwich at our local fast food joint, I was reminded again of how things in China are quite different than in America.  In this case, it had to do with the “seasonal” decorating scheme (in May):

Even though we’ve been here for over a year, many things still grab our attention.  At weddings in the US, it’s typical to decorate the church with flowers, but here, they decorate the limo:

Before I came to China, I falsely assumed that wooden shoes would only be found on Dutch feet.  One of our students has “flip-flops” that make a bit more noise than the rubber ones we grew up with:

People here are tough, especially the women.  When you see road construction underway, it’s typical that most of the crew will be women:

A few weeks ago as I prepared to give mid-term exams to my students, I did what every other teacher does – go to one of the local copy shops to make a few hundred copies of the test (our school doesn’t provide this service).  During final exam week, these shops will be mobbed with students getting advance copies of exams from the entrepreneurial owners:

When we’re not teaching or hanging out with students, Susan and I like to hit the town and have some fun:

I know that we’ve posted photos of trikes before, but it still amazes us to see how much stuff they can load on these things:

Finally, a blog like this wouldn’t be complete without a photo of interesting word usage.  When we saw this display of toilet paper at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, we laughed at how close the brand name is to “smell”:

During last week’s English Corner, we talked about birthday traditions in America and China.  We’re often amazed at the differences in the two cultures.  A question as simple as “When is your birthday?” can elicit an unexpected complication, in this case, the fact that many of our students keep track of their lunar birthdates instead of their Gregorian ones:

Many of our students mentioned that they were given an egg on their birthday (for good luck).  But food can still cross cultures, especially when it’s time for cupcakes and ice cream:

Remembering that I used to “clown around” at our own kids’ birthday parties, we also taught the students how to make balloon animals:

Of course, the easiest balloon animal to make is a snake.  The second easiest is a dog (or squirrel, or mouse, or …):

On Saturday, we actually went bowling with a group of students.  In the south part of town is a very large sports complex which has a 60-lane bowling alley:

We were pleasantly surprised at how nice the bowling alley was, although their heaviest house ball was only 12 lbs (vs. my usual choice of 16 lbs).  This was the first time for Samuel to bowl.  He was very teachable, and averaged 75 points per game in his three game series:

A good time was had by all, especially when they knocked ’em all down (yea Rickey!):

Every Sunday morning, we look forward to attending the international fellowship in our city.  The trip takes over an hour, starting with a ride on a city bus and then a walk through town.  Even on Sunday morning, the downtown traffic can get pretty heavy due to subway construction on the Beijing Road, as you can see in this snapshot from the top of our double-decker bus:

Although it’s impossible to capture the sensory overload when walking here, click this link for a brief video of Susan making her way through the crowd on the sidewalk:  Walk Clip

Somewhere in the distant past, I seem to remember the bliss of climbing into my car, pulling out of the garage, and driving wherever I wanted.  It was one of those things that we really didn’t appreciate at the time.  But now when we want to go somewhere, it can be a pretty significant task, especially if you are trying to get a taxi at rush hour:

We recently planned to meet some friends for dinner on the north side of town at 6:00PM (a 20 minute ride).  After being blown off by 5 drivers, we finally found a willing driver 50 minutes after we started our search:

Fortunately, taxis in our city have accurate meters and a reasonable price: about $4.00 for a trip into town:

Now that we have lived here for a year, we are beginning to figure out some of the more common bus routes.  The bus is very cheap (17 cents), but can sometimes get rather crowded:

When riding the bus in Atlanta, it might surprise and concern you to look across the aisle and see a man with a hachet, but not in China where such things don’t even draw attention:

When you can’t find a “legal” taxi, there is usually an unregistered driver who is willing to take you for a ride if you can negotiate a good price.  I am still baffled by the collective mindset here, where a huge crowd of vans all gather in one spot (even blocking lanes of traffic) to compete for customers heading to the exact same destination:

For 6 RMB, one of these three-wheeled jitneys will take you to places within a short distance of our school village.  It’s kind of like a taxi ride, only more “exciting”:

When all else fails, we walk – a lot.  Interestingly, one of the more popular places to walk here is along the train tracks:

It’s certainly the shortest distance between two points.  And while this practice might seem kind of risky to folks in the west, just remember that the movement of a train is far more predictable than most of the vehicles driving on the roads (and sidewalks) here.