Where in the World Have We Been?

After a long absence, we have returned to our blog page. And there was great rejoicing.

Many have heard of the Great "Firewall" of China. The official purpose is to protect the citizens of China from access to pornography. Great idea! But, it also prevented us from our blog spot, youtube and many other websites. Sad! Recently, we have discovered a way to access this blog again, so here we are! Again, great rejoicing.

We had a great first semester teaching at the university here. There were challenges along the way, including the loss of a family member and a very good friend. It hurt us to be so far away and not be able to attend the memorials and to hug our friends and family. But, the One who has called us here reached out to us in this time too. We had a few additional challenges. Annie's ankle is still not completely healed from "the great fall at the Great Wall" (see post below). Brian got food poisoning once, and Annie got it twice. Then there were the stresses of H1N1. Boo! Our campus took measures to protect the students by restricting them to the campus. Culturally, this is completely appropriate. But, after two months being stuck on campus all of our students were ready for the semester to be over. The school decided to shorten the semester so that the students could go home for the holidays earlier. Now our hope is that the gates will all remain open this semester.

As for teaching, Brian taught Sophomore Oral English. Annie taught Freshman Oral English. It was a lot of fun! We have some very sweet students and a few sassy ones to boot. We have enjoyed getting to know our students, most of which are from this small province where we live. We have made many new friends. We have also made friends with some others who are either graduate students or teachers in our department. A special thank you to everyone who sent us packages this semester. We were able to share the contents with not only our students but also our teammates. They all thank you!

After the semester ended we started a whirlwind, one-month vacation. (Our semester vacation is a total of two months.) Our first stop was Xi'an via overnight train. Oh, the fun of the local trains! We had many cultural experiences. In Xi'an we visited the Terracotta Warriors, which were quite amazing. We also enjoyed eating at McDonald's...many times. When we were in the States we didn't each McDonald's much, but we don't have one in our town, so it was quite a treat. We also visited friends and enjoyed getting to know them better.

Next stop: Beijing! We spent a few days in the "North Capitol," the direct translation. There we visited the Olympics area, some Western restaurants and an import store where we bought exciting things like Cheerios, tortillas and Milky Way candy bars. Yum! We rested quite a bit in Beijing too and were able to visit a friend and his family. They have a very cute little girl.

After this, we headed to the southern parts of the country to visit some very good friends. We had a great time just hanging out, playing with their two kids and playing Scrabble. We also enjoyed the abundance of fresh fruit!

Finally, it was time to go to Thailand for our annual conference. We got there a few days early so that we could go to the dentist and to the doctor to have Annie's ankle checked out again. It's amazing that in Thailand you can go to a hospital and see an orthopedic doctor for only $12.50! He gave Annie some physical therapy to strengthen her ankle more. We also celebrated our two-year anniversary...by flying through the Thai jungle on zip lines. This was not Annie's idea, but she overcame her fear of heights and had a great time. The jungle is beautiful.

Our conference was a wonderful time of catching up with friends and sharing stories and a time for us to be nurtured in an open environment. We felt quite refreshed afterward. We also had an opportunity to go with a group of friends to "Tiger Kingdom." There we actually pet tigers and lions! This is exactly what our mothers have told us not to do since we were children. But, once you pass the age of 30, you're a little more free. We found out that Brian's allergy to cats applies to lions and tigers too! He got a little red and sneezy after cuddling with the big tigers. He is quite excited that he can now list on medical forms that his allergies are: hay fever, cats, lions and tigers.

Our last week on Thailand we spent at a beach resort. It was very relaxing. We sat around and read books, swam in the pool, visited friends who were also there and made a trip to Monkey Island to feed the monkeys bananas. We had a long day of travel back to our home and have had a few days to rest. Now, we are starting to gear up for another semester. And, in a short 4 1/2 months we'll be headed back to the States for our summer vacation.

Happy Chinese New Year to you! It's the Year of the Tiger! Grr!