The Little Things...... (can seem so BIG!)

This is from Karen. I have added the graphics from online. She'll send her own pictures when she becomes more familiar with the workings of her computer.

Roy, Karen, Ruth and Mike

August 22, 2010

Mike, Roy, Ruth, Rick and Suzanne came to the airport. I checked in my baggage—one was 45 pounds and the other was 46 pounds.

Suzanne and Karen

Roy, Rick, Ruth, Suzanne, Karen

As we were talking, Gary and LaRee Phillippi waved from the Delta check place. I introduced them to my family and we walked to the security point. We hugged and said good-bye. I did not get too emotional because all my emotion had been used up during the week.

Gary and LaRee Phillippi and Karen

We sat at the Delta terminal for a couple of hours—better early than late. We boarded the plane and flew to Los Angeles arriving about ten o’clock. We walked rapidly to the Tom Bradley International Airport and found China Southern and checked in. Next stop was security. There were so many people there; the lines curved around and around. We barely made it to the gate as the plane was boarding. Because of the construction, we took a bus to the plane. It was a huge plane full of passengers. We found our seats right behind Ruth Ann Prather and settled into the cramped places for a 14-hour flight.

August 24, 2010 (lost a day)

It was a long night. I slept occasionally and watched bleary-eyed as the monitor on the seat ahead as the plane headed north to Anchorage, Alaska then circled around over Russia and headed south to China. Gradually 7200 miles became 3500 miles, then 1000 miles, and then we landed in Guangzhou. It was so good to get out and walk around.

We picked up our luggage and went through customs and head for the domestic terminal to fly to Xi’an. This plane was roomier and the flight was only two and a half hours. We landed in no time. We collected out luggage and headed for the doors to wait for our waibon, Lin Zhu. She arrived a few minutes later and we loaded up the university van and headed for our new home.

It had been raining and the sky was overcast. We kept our eyes open to take in all the sights. The freeway system is very good. We arrived at the university and unloaded our luggage. Lin, our waiban helped us get our keys and take our luggage to our rooms. I was pleasantly surprised to see how roomy the apartment is. It had no supplies, except a few books from former teachers. Lin took us to lunch and we ate a Chinese dinner. There were so many different kinds of food—meat, vegetables, rice, and soup. I was full in no time.

August 25, 2010

I spent the day cleaning the apartment, specifically the bathroom and kitchen. It was pretty gross because no one had cleaned behind the refrigerator since it was put in. I have nothing much in my kitchen, so I am not excited about cooking. I had to clean the bathroom so I could take a shower. My first shower was interesting. The water was hot enough—in fact, it was too hot and I could not figure out how to adjust it. By the time I finished taking the shower there was water on the floor too. In order for the water to run out of the drain, it has to go uphill. I helped it by pushing the water toward the drain.

I had a piece of bread, a banana, and a glass of milk for breakfast. Everything tastes different—especially the milk. I had to force it down and I love milk.

August 26, 2010

I actually had a good night’s sleep for the first time since I arrived. I got up and got ready to go to the medical center to show my paperwork. There were ten of us in the van with all of the foreign teachers. Besides the four of us from BYU, there is a couple from Australia, and Sue Nibley and Dan. I was able to pass with the papers but some of the people had to get a blood test and/or a chest exam. Then we exchanged some money into yuan. It was a real process, including taking copies of my passport. I don’t want to do that again.

At 12:30 Sue and I sat down to lunch with the dean, vice-dean, and several teachers from the translation department. It was an incredible feast. First they started with a toast to welcome us. They all click glasses of Sprite around the table. Then lunch began. They just kept bringing in dish after dish. I tried to taste all of them, but I was not very successful. I was totally incompetent with chopsticks. First I was using the wrong end of the chopsticks. After Sue corrected me, the dean said, “Practice makes perfect.” It only got worse after that so the waitress finally brought me a knife and fork to my embarrassment. Then the dean ended up serving me food after I dropped the chicken on the table in front of my plate. Later I somehow lost my chopsticks and had to eat the dessert with my hands. The pumpkin cookies were wonderful! I wanted to eat another one. I was so excited to see the watermelon come, since that indicates the end of the meal. I was totally humiliated, but the teachers pretended now to notice too much, although there was a lot of Chinese conversation going on that they did not translate.

After lunch we met with April (vice-dean) and Leah (professor) and they explained our class schedule to us. I am teaching one class of Academic Writing that meets once a week and one class of Newspaper Reading that meets twice a week. That is six hours. I will also be teaching Oral English in the Department of Education. Looks like a good schedule. We talked about how they wanted the writing class taught. I did talked briefly to Leah about the Newspaper class.

August 27, 2010
Another day, another adventure!


I started working on my syllabi for my three classes only to find out that everything had suddenly changed. Sue found out that she had an emergency at home and will be flying out Wednesday to go help her son. Leah, the Chinese teacher who is helping me, came by to tell me that the department had made a decision to give me Sue’s classes and give my classes to someone else. I am terrified. I have been on my knees several times since then asking my Heavenly Father to help with this challenge. I know that He will.


Gary, LaRee, and Ruth Ann walked over to put money on our cell phones today. The young women at the store could not speak any English. We called our waibon and she helped a lot. Also, a young man who is a student at our university came in and explained everything to us. I ended up having to get a new number because the phone had not been used for over 40 days. That took us about 90 minutes to do a typically simple thing.


Next we walked to the Metro. This is a German store that is like a Costco in the U.S. I needed a few things for the bathroom. What I wanted most was a thing to put in the shower to hold my soap and shampoo. Oh well, I will survive.


We walked out to the street and tried to get a taxi. The first one stopped but couldn’t read the paper with the directions to the university or wanted a bigger fare. We waited for another five minutes. Another taxi stopped and he nodded yes and took us home. I fell like I am handicapped—I am. I cannot communicate the simplest ideas to someone. I will figure out a way. Everyone is so helpful.


August 28, 2010
I spent most of the day working on school plans. I made a power point for introducing myself, for the research lecture, and for a grammar exercise on adjectives and adverbs. Nothing fancy. I am worried about how boring it will be to lecture to the students for two hours. I only finished the writing class lesson plan; I still have to work on the plan for the history class. That one is more daunting to me than the research class.


At ten o’clock Leah and her husband came and picked me up to take me to the new campus. It is about 30 minutes away. It is very modern-looking campus with concrete buildings running horizontal and vertical to each other connected with covered bridges. A fourth-year student named Invy showed me all around the campus. She said that she would be in one of my writing classes. I have my classes in two buildings. On Mondays the classes are in the Student Center and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they are in the Technology building. All of the rooms are in multi-media rooms. Another challenge to me--the technology-challenged teacher. This whole experience is making me grow in so many ways.

Leah took me to lunch after the tour. We went to a restaurant a short drive from the campus. She ordered three dishes—one with chicken, potatoes, and peppers, one with eggs and tomatoes, and a vegetable. I am still not very skilled with the chopsticks, but it is permissible to eat rice with a spoon. The procedure is to use your chopsticks to pick up some food off the serving plates then put it in your mouth or in the rice bowl. The food was delicious.

As we sat down, I refused the tea that the waitress was pouring. Leah asked me why and I said that I did not drink tea. She ordered bottled water for me instead. Then she asked me if I was a Christian. Immediately the warnings from the people at BYU came to my mind, but I said yes. She said that she also was a Christian and a new convert. She asked me what church I belonged to. I stumbled a little and said the Mormon Church and then said the whole name of the Church. She recognized the part Latter-day Saint, and asked me if it was the same church that Steve Orton belonged to. He was a former teacher at the university. I said yes. She then said that she was Baptist. It was an exciting experience to share a familiar idea with her. I think she will be a wonderful friend to me.   

Please make comments on this. Although Karen cannot access the blog itself, the comments go directly to her e-mail account. Sidney