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!

The Great Fall on the Great Wall

Well, we've been off the internet for a while because our service was a bit limited over the past 3 or 4 days. But, we are back with another update of our adventures!

This past Saturday we had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall with our friends. It was amazing. If you ever make it to this part of the world, we highly recommend it! Our adventure began with us loading the bus and driving away. Then we turned around to go back because we'd left someoene behind. Oops.

The Great Wall is about an hour and a half drive outside of Beijing. It was nice to get away from the city for a while and see some of the countryside. But before leaving the city we drove past the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It's excititng to think that just one year ago the city was buzzing with Olympic activity.

Once at the Great Wall we made a bee line for the bathrooms. On the bathroom door was a sign saying, "Bathroom is bad. Go west." Since we didn't have our bearings yet we depended on the Chinese-speakers in the group to help us find the west bathroom. Mission accomplished!

To get to the top of the Great Wall (which is on the ridge of a mountain) you have three options: 1. Walk, 2. Chair Lift or 3. The Gondola. As mentioned above, the Wall is at the top of a mountain; that ruled out #1 for us. I have a bit of a fear of hights, so that ruled out #2. We went the more expensive route and paid our 40 RMB to ride the gondola, or sauna as it turned out to be. The gondonla "pods" are small enough that you can only fit in four people. There are two very small windows, so on this hot day it felt like a true sauna inside.

Once on top of the Great Wall we began exploring. A group of us decided to go to the very end of this particular section, which involved climbing up. But, the Great Wall does not go simply up. It's built on a mountain ridge so it follows the ridge as it raises and falls. So, up and down we went. We found a lot of great nooks and crannies along the way.

At the end of this particular section is a long staircase that goes up, up, UP! We figured that we were still young and healthy, so up, up, UP we went... panting all the way. At the top of the long staircase was another shorter staircase, but this one was much steeper. Remember how Annie is afraid of heights? Yep, this was a challenge! At the top we enjoyed taking pictures. In one we posed as the attacking Mongols. (We later found out that the wall was built after Mongol attacks and to keep them out. It was the Manchurians who were able to surpass the wall. Oops.)

Getting to the top of this big wall was quite exciting. Looking down at how far we had to walk back was sobering. So, off we went. This time down, down, down. We weren't stopping to take as many pictures on the way back. Maybe it was because we were slowly becoming drenched with sweat. This doesn't look as good in the family album.

Our final destination on the wall was the Alpine slide that you ride back to the bottom of the mountain. Fun! When we were about a quarter of a mile away from the slide I mistepped and had a glorious fall. The Great Wall is full of uneven steps and missing tiles. I found a missing tile and rolled my ankle. Now the fun challenge was getting off the Great Wall after my "great fall" with an ankle that was continuing to swell. Thank goodness for husbands! Brian was on one side, I had the wall to lean against on the other. A few of our friends caught up with us and lingered behind too. What great friends! Eventually, we made it to the Alpine slide. You're not supposed to ride it if you are injured. The attendant noticed my limping and started to protest (I think) in Chinese. This was one of the only times I've been grateful not to know Chinese! My friend who did speak Chinese well said something to the man as I was pushing off and sliding off the Great Wall.

In the end, we made it back to the hotel, sweaty and a little dirty from falling flat on my face. I had to lay in bed with my foot up for a day, then was off for an x-ray the next day. Thank goodness nothing is broken! The friends who live in Beijing even had an extra pair of crutches for me to borrow. I'm still limping a bit, but on the mend now.

I still remember sitting on the floor of the Great Wall feeling quite stupid for falling down and telling Brian, "I need a good story for this because basically I just fell." Brian, mater of factly, looked at me and said, "Annie, you're on the Great Wall of China."

An Update from Beijing

Well, it's been a while since we've updated. It's difficult to capture all of the experiences that we've been having. Sometimes our two weeks in Beijing has felt more like two years. We've had the adventures and challenges of learning more of the language, getting around on public transit and the basic survival skill of getting food. Here's a little about what we've been doing:
Man vs. China: Maybe you've seen the t.v. show "Man vs. Wild?" In this the host is dropped off in the middle of a wilderness and must do what he can to survive. This is what has happened to us in some ways. Our leaders have wisely refrained from coddling us and showing us how to perform basic life skills. Yes, they've given us aids, but they've also just let us free to roam through Beijing, learning as we go.
Getting food has been an adventure. We were given a Chinese/English paper menu with many of the common dishes found in China. We were let loose on the restaurants around our hotel. Quickly, reports came back of the restaurants that had either an English menu or a picture menu. A few times we ventured into an unknown restaurant to find out that they only had a printed menu in Chinese. In these cases we held up the menu and asked in broken Chinese, "What do you have?" After a fun game of pointing, nodding and conferring with our dinner mates, we made our choices. We've yet to find something that wasn't delicious. Our new favorite food is a dish of stir-fried eggplant, potatoes and green pepper. Hao chi! (That's Chinese for "delicious!")
Shopping at the supermarket is another challenge altogether. We quickly recognize brands that can also be found in America: Dove chocolate, Oreos, Skippy, Lay's potato chips and Pringles. We've were also surprised to find products from Bimbo, a Mexican pastry company found throughout L.A. Once we pass beyond these recognized brands we have to resort to a new method we like to call, "What's in the picture on the package?" This was how we found strawberry-flavored Cheetoes! And, they were quite tasty! We've avoided anything that has a picture of a shrimp on it. Some recent fun finds have been: chocolate chip cookies with strawberries or cherries, crab flavored Pringles, chocolate swirled peanut butter, apple-flavored soda, and many more. We are enjoying trying the different types of Chinese snacks too. We're eating a lot of banana chips, dried hawthorne (also called haw fruit), coconut bread and little chocolate cookies that are shaped like mushrooms. They're the only mushrooms Brian will eat. :) In all our searches we have yet to find the elusive Nutella. We found a German version called Nussa but haven't tried it yet.
Please check out our webpage for additional updates and pictures. We'll continue with more of our China adventures in our next note…

Life in Beijing

Well, after a 12-hour flight we made it to Beijing! Because of our flight times, flight path and crossing the international date line we had 23 hours of daylight. By the time we got to Beijing we were really ready for good sleep. But, we know that the best way to beat jet lag is to stay up until at least 9:00 p.m. (local time) so we don't wake up in the middle of the night. To do this we went out to the grocery store and bought some colas to keep us up. Even with the caffeine in our system we could only make it until 8:30.

After three days in Beijing we are settling into a new pace of life. (We are here for three more weeks for training.) Our first day was spent exploring the city with some Chinese students who are studying English. We had the best guides! Galen and Olive were very sweet and very helpful. We were able to see some of the most popular sights in Beijing: Tiananmen Square, the Drum Tower and Wangfujing Street (shopping!!!). Part of the challenge of the day was spending time using public transit. The subway in Beijing is very easy to navigate, and the busses stop often. We were very impressed.

Since then we have learned a lot in our training classes. Part of our training was in how to order food at a restaurant. We are having fun with that! Speaking Chinese and reading Chinese are two different animals. We have only been focusing on the speaking part so far and are quickly learning how important it is for us to learn how to read it as well.

All in all, we are having a lovely time and enjoying the new friends we are making. We'll keep you posted!

We're almost there

After much time of preparation and planning, we are about to finally leave for Asia! We are very excited and can't wait to share our adventures with you all. Please forgive our absence on our blog. Internet access will be limited when we are out of the country. But, we hope to be more faithful with our blog now.

Have a lovely rest of your summer! See you online!

A Day Away

This past weekend we had the chance to get out of Los Angeles. Of course, L.A. is so big that it took us two hours of driving to get out of the city. Yet, we triumphed on our drive south towards San Diego.

We found it a little funny what a vacation really was to us at this point in our lives. We have been so busy lately with our preparations to move overseas. Just a week ago we finished a class we were taking that lasted 16 weeks. We were so thrilled to be done with homework... and then the box arrived. The box contained all of our training materials for our TESOL training this summer. Each of us have six books to read and about as many papers to write before we start training in late-July. So, in the midst of all this we just wanted some time to really enjoy doing nothing much.

Brian had some plans up his sleeve. He knows that one of my favorite things to do is to go to the movies. But, in L.A. that can cost anywhere from $11-$14 per ticket. That's a little out of our current budget. Lucky for me Brian won a work contest at the coffee place where he works. Since he sold the most pounds of coffee in the month they awarded him with a $25 gift card to the movies! Brian is such a good husband that he let me choose the movie. I jokingly suggested the chick flick "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." He wasn't too excited but was willing to go. See, great husband! In the end, we saw "Star Trek" and used the extra money on the gift card for some ice cream (one of my other favorite things) at the concession stand.

On Saturday we slept in! This was a great treat for me since our 16-week class was on Saturday mornings, I hadn't had a chance to sleep in in quite some time. I hope that one day we will have children, and at that time I know that sleeping in will be a thing of the past. So, for now I'm going to really relish it!

After lunch we went over to La Jolla. Brian had pre-paid for us to rent snorkels and masks to explore this cove where there are a lot of tiger sharks! They are the little ones that you can pet. When we arrived at the rental place they told us that the visibility was really bad that day, but they would give us a big discount on renting a kayak. We agreed! When we told them we'd have to go back to the car to get our wallets to pay for the upgrade the guy looked at us and said, "Don't worry about it." Yippee! We only paid $14 for the snorkels and masks but got to rent a kayak for the same price (normally $45). I love a bargain!

Next, I squeezed myself into Brian's wet suit. It was made for a man and took a little cajoling to fit my German-heritage hips into. I'm so grateful Brian brought the wet suit for me because the California ocean is never very warm. Once we were all suited up we headed to the beach and out to sea on our kayak.

What a beautiful day it was! Along the coast near the beach are caves where birds are perched on all the ledges in the rock. They kept swooping just over our heads. On one of the rocks was a huge family of sea lions. There must have been thirty of them! It was so fun watching them. The alpha sea lion was barking at the people watching. There were a lot of baby sea lions. Some were fighting, some were just playing in the water with their momma sea lions. Ah, nature! How we love it.

After we returned our kayak we decided to swim and play in the waves. Brian taught me how to body surf! I found it challenging to swim and play in the waves without my contact lenses being washed out of my eye balls, but somehow managed to end the day being able to see. The waves were great on this day. What a joy it was to really take advantage of a beautiful beach in California before we leave.

On our way back north we visited a friend for dinner and ate our weight in bread sticks. Yum, bread sticks. This is one of the many foods we will miss while in China. We're also going to truly miss all of our wonderful friends and family.

Now, we are back to L.A. life, the box of books and all the preparations to move...

Ten Weeks from Tuesday

Soon, we'll be saying "goodbye" to this...

and this...

and this...

... and saying "hello" to this...

On June 30 (ten weeks from Tuesday), we will be driving out of L.A. to start our journey towards Asia! Upon leaving L.A. we will be visiting family as we roadtrip from the West Coast to the Midwest. We are super excited to see our family again and look forward to treasuring those times together prior to our departure.

As we get closer and closer to our time to leave L.A. we have come to both appreciate and be annoyed by L.A. at the same time. We have already begun eating at restaurants that we know we won't have in Asia. Last night was Arby's! It was delicious. Normally, we don't eat such unhealthy food, but we keep saying that we're trying to absorb as much American culture as we can in our last weeks here. That's the same excuse I give for my current addictions to "American Idol" and "The Biggest Loser!"