From Grits to Chopsticks

As the sun rises over our new city, it’s interesting to think that it is just setting on our old one.  What will happen on this new day?  Of all the things we have been given, time is a precious commodity that cannot be bought or recovered, so we hope to use it wisely.

After two days of classes with almost 100 students, it’s obvious that I get to face every teacher’s dilemma in duplicate.  Not only do I have a group of students with varying technical capabilities, they also have a very broad distribution of English comprehension capability.  This fact was brought home to me yesterday while walking across campus with a friend (after a lecture which I thought was particularly engaging).  He asked what I thought about my classes and students, and then proceeded to tell me the reflections from two of his roomates (who are in my Tuesday class).  It turns out that they didn’t really understand anything…

So, after my last class, I asked the students to rate their English comprehension of the lecture (using an anonymous voting method).  The results confirmed the student’s small sample, indicating that I will have to split each class into an English lesson, followed by a business lesson.  Should prove to be interesting.

For the past 20 years, the “first day of school” were words reserved for our children.  That has all changed now, and today, complete with backpack and laptop, Mark headed out the door for his first day of classes at the university.  His schedule is packed on Monday and Tuesday with classes running from 8:15AM to 5:00PM.  While this will provide some time and space for preparation and other activities near the end of the week, it makes for two very exhausting days of teaching.  He has 100 students and plans to spend a lot of time with them in the second half of the week.

Sunday night was lantern festival, the final day of Spring Festival.  The fireworks began before 8:00PM and exploded all over the city skyline past 10:00PM.  The Chinese definitely like their fireworks!  The debris on Monday morning was also quite impressive...

We’ve spent a lot of time lately traveling around the city to visit friends and accomplish tasks.  The picture below shows the major modes of transportation for us: bus, taxi, and walking.  The bus is cheap (~$0.13) but often doesn’t go directly where you want, requiring a lot of waiting time and transfers.  While the taxis are everywhere, it is amazing how often they refuse to take you to your destination, presumedly because they either don’t know the route or they doubt that a return fare will be available from that particular place (we keep a stack of business cards to tell them where we want to go).  On Saturday, we were spurned by four different cabbies before we found one willing to take us to a particular coffee shop.  At the end of the story, we spend a lot of time waiting to travel from place to place.  Perhaps when we get settled down, we’ll get some bikes or a scooter.

After facing some challenges and doing some rescheduling these past few weeks, we finally got onto the plane Monday morning and started our journey.  Before leaving for the airport, a group of friends showed up at the house to send us off.  You know that they must be very special friends to come to your house at 5:30AM on a Monday!  One of them,  Susan Power, successfully negotiated the Atlanta morning rush hour to get us the airport in plenty of time and was gracious enough to take Timothy back to GA Tech – thanks again Susan!

Our four flights went well (Atlanta to Minneapolis to Tokyo to Beijing to Kunming).  We had to stop overnight in Beijing between connections to accommodate the schedule.  Capital Airport hotel was OK, but as usual we needed to insert our “Thermarest” pads into the traditional Chinese beds to soften the hardness.  We were also assigned a room with twin beds and felt we would not be able to explain to the front desk that we’d rather not sleep separately!

In addition to the free airport shuttle, the hotel rate includes a breakfast.  The options for breakfast food are interesting in China, and often include things that many Westerners might not want to wake up to, including green veggies.  This is further evidence why we brought a few dozen instant oatmeal pouches for use during our first weeks of the relocation process.

When we finally got to Kunming, we were met by Angie, a very helpful new teacher in our city who has already lived in another part of China for two years.  She took good care of us, getting us safely to our hotel and setting up dinner with some more new friends.  It’s great to know people that speak English AND Chinese!

On Thursday, we joined a friend in an 8th floor apartment to get internet access (yeah!).  While reading e-mail, the room began to sway back and forth.  We looked nervously at each other, remembering the recent devastation by the earthquakes just north of here, motivating us to quickly descend the stairs and head for lunch.  Based on the news report, it was caused by a 5.1 magnitude tremblor 75 km away (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-02/25/content_9505930.htm).

Thursday night, we joined some Kiwi friends (Stephen and Janet) for dinner in their downtown apartment.  In a departure from traditional Chinese fare, Janet prepared a Greek dish for our enjoyment (Moussaka).  They moved to Kunming from New Zealand 18 months ago and still remember what it’s like to be newcomers, so we appreciate their kind assistance as we get connected with the culture.  As you can see from the photo of our evening bus ride over to their apartment, things can get pretty crowded, so it’s good to plan your exit a few stops ahead of time so that you can start squeezing your way to the back door.  The price is right (1 RMB each ~= 15 cents), but the taxi fare (~$2) that we paid to get back can be well worth it if you’re on a tight time schedule (or still recovering from jet lag).

By definition, we will be ready to take off on Monday morning when our first flight departs from the Atlanta airport.  But as expected, there is still a bunch of stuff to get done before then.  I suppose that the things-to-do list will always expand to fill the available space before starting a trip like this.

Timothy joined us for the weekend and has been a big help.  After helping clean out the garage and basement, he spent most of Saturday afternoon doing something he loves – working in the yard.  The weather was beautiful and the yard had been neglected for most of the winter, so he pruned, raked, swept, and hauled away trimmings.  We have some big trees in the backyard, and the sea of leaves threatened to swallow him.

Jimmy and Nancy also came over to help us clean and pack things away for safe keeping in the basement.  In spite of our efforts to skinny down our stuff, there are still a bunch of boxes and containers down there basement.  Hopefully, we’ve put the most useful items near the front of the pile and done a good enough job of labeling to find things to bring over to China when we make our next trip.

And then, there’s the quandary of trying to pack everything we think we’ll need into two suitcases and a carry-on bag (each).  We’ve moved a bunch of times, but this is the first time that we have to squeeze all of our things into such a small space.  Shipping of goods to our new city is quite expensive, so we’ll probably end up buying things with a low value/weight ratio.

Some of our family members have been faced with tough physical challenges lately.  A week and a half after his return from Tanzania, Stephen passed out at his apartment.  Upon admission to the hospital, his red blood count was determined to be very low (hematocrit below 20).  Nine days later, after receiving 5 transfusions and numerous tests, he was discharged without any major medical intervention.  Two significant findings: his B-12 levels were low, impairing production of new red blood cells, and some duodenal ulcers were found.  Interestingly, these ulcers which were diagnosed as the probable source of blood loss, had been recently healed.

We were fortunate to be able to spend 5 days in Boston with Stephen and his girlfriend Jessica during this time.  All of the heavy snowstorms passed to the south of us, making travel much more manageable.

A few days after we returned to GA, we got word that Susan’s mom had fallen and broken her hip.  The next day, we drove to SC to spend time with her in the Lexington Hospital.  Her surgery seems to have gone well, but it looks like there will be a long road of recovery ahead.

A few weeks ago while staying home for the weekend, Timothy claimed that he was awakened early in the morning by a chicken clucking and squawking around on the back porch.  Assuming that he was just suffering from the effects of a few bad meals at the Georgia Tech Cafeteria, we humored him and went about our business.  When he said the same thing the next day, we began to wonder if there was some validity to his claim.

A quick talk with our neighbor brought up a reasonable solution.  We have quite a few wild turkeys in the woods behind our house and they will often come walking through the neighborhood.  Perhaps a juvenile turkey was hanging around near the backyard.  We figured that young turkeys and chickens might sound similar.

Yesterday, I walked around the house to take some photos from different angles (required for the renter’s insurance policy rider).  While taking a picture of the right side of the house, I noticed something moving in the lower right corner of the photograph (click the picture to expand):

As I walked over to the house, the culprit ran under the fence into the backyard.  We stared at each other, mutually wondering what the other was doing here, and I took her picture as she ran around the corner of the deck stairs.  There really was a chicken in the backyard, somehow scratching out a meager existence during the cold winter months.  According to the font of all knowledge (the internet), there are indeed feral chickens that live in warm climates, but apparently, they can survive in North Georgia too.

A few years ago, Virginia (our late golden retriever) wouldn’t have permitted such a squatter on the property.  But since we’re in the process of reducing our food inventory, it might actually be a good thing to have the bird in the backyard.  If things get really desperate, it’s good to know that there is potential for at least one more good meal.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve continued the process of packing and sorting things to clean out the house and prepare it to be occupied by the new residents.  Thankfully, those new residents are good friends with only minimal furniture, so we should be able to leave a number of the heavy items in place during the transition.

After a quick trip up north to drop off our minivan, Laurie came back to GA to help us load a moving truck full of furniture and miscellaneous stuff to haul back home.  While some of the things are pretty nice, there will undoubtedly be a lot of leftovers for the mother of all garage sales in the spring.

Unfortunately for Laurie and Jeruid, the Budget truck that I rented started to have engine troubles about 30 minutes into the ride back to PA.  After about 6 hours of struggling, they ended up stopping in Knoxville where a mechanic informed them that the truck would be out of service for at least a day.  Fortunately, there was a U-Haul dealer close by the dying Budget truck, so with the help of cousin Alex (who graciously left the UT-Florida basketball game near the end of the exciting 4th quarter), they were able to transload the contents and get back on their way.

We’re still getting vaccinations in preparation for our new environment.  During today’s session, we took some shots while getting some shots.  While Susan prefers to look away, Timothy either smiles or acts a little crazy.

This week, we celebrated our final teenage birthday, with Timothy having his 19th birthday on January 6th.  It has been colder than normal here in Georgia with a dusting of snow last night and a low temperature of 15F.  On Timothy’s birthday, we went for a hike out the back door and down to Lake Allatoona.  On the way, we crossed the footlog over Blankets Creek.  Since I’ve gotten wimpy in my old age, I picked up a big stick to provide a little extra stability.

Over the last few years, the lake level has been unusually low due to drought conditions.  2009 saw a return to normal with rainfall amounts significantly above normal and floodwaters rising above the mountain bike trails.  But as is routine for this time of year, the Corps of Engineers lowers the lake level about 15 feet below normal to prepare for potential spring flooding.  The low lake level makes for an interesting walk on sandbars, rock banks, and mud flats.

Fortunately, the recent cold has frozen up the muddy flats and standing water pools, providing enough stability for a nice walk.