Dancing with the Stars....

School is in full swing. With the end of the second week. I have met with all of my Oral English classes at least once, and my writing classes four times. Can I just tell you that I love teaching! I love teaching in China! I love teaching writing and English in China! It is the best feeling to feel comfortable in what I am doing. This was not the case during the first semester.

I had my translation students write introductory essays so I could get acquainted with them, see what their level of writing is, and check for grammar problems. They are excellent writers for the most part and have good grammar skills considering they are writing in a second language. But the best part is that I am getting some insight into their lives and the Chinese culture. It has been an eye-opening experience for me. I hope that it continues the rest of the semester. Of course, correcting writing takes more time so I will be busy every week, but the rewards are so worth it.

Let me introduce you one of my monitors. His name He Junlong or Kevin and this is his story (the parts in red). He wrote that he was born in a typical Chinese peasant family. I asked him what that meant and he said his parents were farmers. Traditional Chinese thinking is that his parents wanted a boy to support the family even though they already had three daughters. When Kevin was born, they knew their dream had come true. They celebrated their son’s birth by paying 5,000 yuan to the Chinese government as a punishment for having four children. To put that in perspective, I read an article in the China Daily this week titled “A review of the 11^th Five-Year Plan” that said the “rural income was 5,919 yuan, up 81.8 percent” as of 2010. Twenty-one years ago when Kevin was born, the rural income was nowhere near that amount. His parents paid an enormous price for their treasured boy child. In addition, his parents had been out of a job for a while and had had to rely on house rent to feed their four hungry children. Kevin is very caring and is kind to everyone. He is a living tribute to his parents, and I am very impressed with him. I am humbled that I am blessed to teach students like this—and he is only one of many. Can you see why I love my job!

Another Chinese adventure! I really had nothing of note to write home about until yesterday. Our weiban arranged a field trip to the Daming Palace National Heritage Park north of the city wall on the outskirts of Xi’an. I have missed a few of the monthly university excursions because they were scheduled for Sundays and I had church meetings, so I was excited to go on Saturday. Xi’an was the capital of China for several dynasties in the B.C. era. Hence the terracotta warriors, the pagodas, and other historic places. Currently China is trying to boost its international tourism industry, so it is starting to build more places for visitors to see. This site was discovered recently—maybe 1990s—as the place where this magnificent palace was built. Some people say this it is as big as the Forbidden City in Beijing.

We arrived at the park about 9:30 a.m. and immediately our tour guides came out to greet us. We were divided into four groups and asked to get on our 10-passenger tour carts. I noticed that there were photographers taking pictures of us. I guessed they are doing some kind of a PR spot on the news to get people to come to the park.

First, we visited a museum with interactive activities. All of the buildings on the grounds are very modern, and full of high-tech design. There are not many artifacts in the cases, but the visitors can do hands-on activities. For example, three of us took apart a vase and then tried to put it back together again. It took all of us and a little help from the tour guide to succeed.  We were enjoying all of the fun stuff when the tour guide told us it was time to go. Outside we found a musical area with one big bell and several small bells. Julie and I played songs on the bells with rocks while the photographers took our pictures. We sang: “Happy Birthday,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and “Army of Helaman” –all somewhat traditional American songs. Actually, “You Are my Sunshine” is a song known all over the world so the guide sang along.

We climbed into the buses again. I was in charge of making sure none of the ten people on the bus were left behind. They were a good group; I only lost the French and Italian teachers once and they were found quickly enough. We arrived at the next activity. There was an area sectioned off and several parents with their little children were hanging around. One of the guides told us it was Women’s Day and they were celebrating. If I haven’t told you before, Chinese babies and children are absolutely adorable. Sooooooo cute! These children were no exception. Suddenly the head guide said, “Dear foreign teachers, you are going to get a balloon and dance around like bunnies.” We looked at each other and said, “Really?” or something to that effect--maybe a little more negative.

No one would step forward so I walked up to volunteer. Whatever, I thought, I will never see these people again in my life. The blocked-off section was about the size of a school classroom. The mothers and children lined up and I walked into the area. Suddenly it hit me. We were the entertainment! The parents brought their children here for the day and one of the activities was to dance with foreign teachers! Ah! Now I understood. Gradually the other teachers wandered in.

Next step—to get one of the children to actually hold my hand and dance. I knelt and down and asked one of the children to dance with me. A darling little girl in a pink coat bravely stepped forward and put her warm little hand in my cold big one. As we paired off, the music started and we began to circle around the play area. Lucky for me, my partner (I will call her Angel because she looks like one.) knew the dance. I noticed that she was kicking her feet out to the side and hopping. I tried to mimic her and then I heard the English words on the music: “Left, left, right, right, left, right, go, go, go.”

With that little introduction and Angel’s guidance, we became the stars of the show. Most of the other teachers and children were lucky to walk around in the circle, but we danced all the way through. Plus, the guide told us to put up two fingers in bunny formation--which I did. I suppose I won the prize because the reporters all rushed over to interview me after the music ended. They wanted my name and asked me if I liked children. What kind of a question is that? Of course, I love children. Would I make an entire fool of myself in front of TV cameras if I didn’t love children? We took a group photo—“Cheese.” Afterwards I took a picture of Angel and another cute little girl. You can see them on my blog. That is what I get for being obedient to the tour guide. Then back to the buses.

Our next stop was a state-of-the-art IMAX theatre where we learned the story of the princess of the palace. It was an intense love triangle with a beautiful princess who is torn between loving the exotic, talented Prince of Khan and the handsome, brave Captain of the King’s guards. There were several wonderful fight scenes, in which the Prince of Khan finally wins and gets to marry the princess. So satisfying!

After lunch we visited another massive building with some ancient artifacts and two huge wall murals. These buildings are extremely modern, but their restroom facilities are a little strange to us as Americans. The bathrooms have no running water and one of the western toilets was being used by the cleaning ladies as a table for lunch. Unfortunately that meant we could not use it for the purpose for which it was originally made. I finally found a western toilet in this new building, which flushed but had no door on the stall. Instead it was resting against the wall nearby. Luckily one of the Chinese teachers from our campus came in the washroom and was kind enough to hold the door in place for a few minutes while I was in the stall. The sinks had cold water but no soap or towels.  I felt lucky once again.

Our last stop was to walk around the miniature palace grounds. This park is huge and they are still in the process of building it. I think they could put a million people on the public square and still have room left over. There were several Chinese visitors walking around and flying kites, but it was not crowded. For our final highlight of the day, the buses took us for a riding tour around the big man-made lake. By now our photographers were long gone and we were the only ones taking the pictures. It was a wonderful experience. I would love to go back, rent a bike, and just ride around the place for an afternoon.

We had District Conference this weekend. It was a new experience for me because we listened to the Saturday night session in our respective homes on Skype. On Sunday morning we had the final session at the hotel, followed by a fireside for the young adults. Bethany Britton was the only one who wanted to listen to it, so I offered my home to her. We listened to it together and the speakers were wonderful.  It was well worth the extra hour.



This is our tour cart with my group of ten and the back of our tour guide, Wang Zhou at the gate of the Daming Palace. She was shy about facing the camera.



Clothing from the era. Very sheer! Ooh la la!



The bells where we played the American songs. The reporters handed us rocks and took pictures of us while we were playing the songs. It is hard to know what the conservative Chinese think when we act like crazy Americans.



My little dancing partner, Angel. Isn't she darling? And so smart too! She is doing her bunny pose to show that it is the Year of the Rabbit.



Another little girl all bundled up standing with her mother. It was very chilly!



A replica of the throne from the Daming Palace. It might have been used in the movie.



Ruins from the original palace still being excavated.



Inside the massive hall in one of the museums. The mural on the far wall is of the Yellow River.

The huge public square where people are flying kites and enjoying the sunshine.



The state-of-the-art museum building. Very nice!



This picture and the two following are buildings from the miniature Daming Palace built to a scale of 1 to 15. You can't imagine how elaborate this is.



The summer party palace in the center of the man-made lake.



Back gate of the palace.