P.R Chinar

Well the October break has officially started for EVERYONE else but our college and a few other colleges. It was crazy when Weifang has realized they had a few cases of "H1N1" the city literally shut down. There was hardly anyone out.....(which is quite crazy considering Weifang is 800,000-8.5 Million haha depending on who we ask!) It does help with not spreading it, because Weifang was known as a "breakout city" which basically means there are infected people here. But there hasn't been anymore reports and although I had alot of students missing this week because they had to go to the "hospital" our college hasn't had any reported cases with the swine flu...yet. Granted our students go to the doctor for everything. So not only did they cancel the break but the one day they gave the students off for National Holiday (Thursday) because of tradition...they are making the students make up those classes on Saturday because they do not want any of the students leaving....and if a student does leave, they will not be allowed back into the college until after this H1N1(swine flu) scare is over. Insane! If we plan on traveling, which we do, we just don't tell anyone! They still have us check our temperatures twice a day and if we leave the campus the guards are ready with their infared gun to check our temperatures before we can enter the campus. We actually have met quite a few foreigners while we have been here. We went to a dinner celebrating the 60th anniversary of P.R. Chinar(our students always put unnecessary RRR's into ALOT of words so it is a joke with us!) and all the foreigner teachers were invited. I was surprise of how many there were, and from all over the world. We went out with some teachers that were all about the same age the other night. There was 7 of us. It was nice to talk to other Americans. Then we met another older couple from Canada at Mcdonalds getting some icecream and they were really nice. They are getting paid 7,000 RMB a month! I can only imagine haha we get paid 3600RMB which we though was pretty good. She gave us some contact information for when we come back!!!! We will probably come back after Adam gets his Bachelors and stay for a whole year and then find a job in China or in the States and go to Law school or something! We don't know! We do love China even in all its craziness, we love being here. Adam said that if we live here he would make enough money to fly the "Grandparents" over! (But we probably won't be adding any more grandchildren to the bunch for alteast a few years!!) But we will still fly Mom and Dad over! Maybe when we stay for a year! Some of the things that I don't want to forget is some of the things that we see....I wish I could upload pictures but I will just give a list for now!
 
~Chinese Driving! It is insane!!!! No way to describe it..one day Kayt and I are going to sit on a corner and just video it.
~Our students wear glass frames but pop out the lenses! It is quite a popular trend at our college.
~They wear these contact lenses with a black ring so that their eyes look bigger, and they have contacts with designs on them, stars, circles, and swirls.
~We love their fashion! What they wear and all the English translations that make no sense! A popular shirt says **BOYS NEED YOGA TOO**this one actually makes sense.
~Funny translations not only on clothing but billboards, advertising, anything!
~Gloried mullets- A-line haircuts with the bottom layer of hair kept really long. The boys love their hair, and have pretty cool hair styles! I will try to be more bold and take pictures of them.
~The English names they come up with! For example; {Boys} TripO, Leaf, Deamns.song, Prin, Bach, Michael Scofield, Aio, Iverson, Rock, Momo, Knight, Fenly, Dragon, Pitt, Harley, Yuma, Kaka...{Girsl} Princess, Mochica, Shasha, Flora, Ciliffi, Allen, Owen, Banana, Shadow, Clear, Polaris, Memory, Fancy, Napolean, Delone, Wenly, Anrow, and Matinda!
   If anyone is prego here is a list of names for ya!
This is just a few of the things that make us laugh!

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*~*China News*~*

Here in China the H1N1 flu virus(swine flu) is causing quite a scare! We have to take our temperatures twice a day and everytime we leave campus we have to have our temperature taken before we are allowed back in. I don't know what happens if you do have a fever but hopefully I won't find out. They cancelled the biggest holiday break where every one got a break for the National Holiday and schools were let out for a week. Our school and a few other schools cancelled it. We were really looking forward to that week long break and already had a trip planned but our school said we were not allowed to go. We are upset and our students are upset. It is very frustrating as the break was supposed to be next week and the travel guide already purchased airline tickets.....So we are just going to use them later. Last year we never really felt the restraints of a communist country, this year is a totally different story. Numerous internet sites are blocked and although I can access some blogs through some loop holes in the system it always brings up crazy wierd stuff on the site readers. So that is from me and sorry! The flu is a huge scare....the trains are empty the malls are empty, the streets are empty. They really are trying to shut down China until this flu scare passes. So students aren't allowed out barley at all(not that they were really allowed out before)from campus, we have restrictions of traveling. Last night a few of students were "rioting" and throwing trash out their windows and not going to class, but if the school finds out about that they would be kicked out of the college. Qingdao University where  our dear friends teach from the BYU program have three confirmed cases of H1N1 and have cancelled classes for this week but they haven't cancelled the break...yet. It is just really interesting to be here and feel the differences from last year. We still love it and are having a great time. I love the United States of America. I am a proud citizen and feel so blessed to claim that great country as my home.  

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"Physical Examination"

Adam and I are getting settled in China again. Really it doesn't seem like we left for 7 months, other than some of our favorite eating places are gone..which is really sad because we only had a few. haha :<  It feels good to be back. We went and got our physicals for our residency cards this year! This way we can go in and out of China however many times we want. So we went to the doctors office and I thought it would be a normal physical....you know pee in a cup and check your blood pressure or something. NO! We(Adam, Me, and Kayte) went to this run down clinic with vials and blood in a clear garbage hanging out in the hallway(scary). We had to fill out a form and as we starting look down it had all these things for the Dr. to fill out. Weight, height, vision, heart, blood pressure, knee jerk...and then it started mentioning other things! Like liver, spleen, lungs, breasts, anus, abdomen and the lists go on...We were getting kinda nervous for this examination, then an American girls walks in from getting her blood drawn pale as a ghost and almost passes out. First thing they did was draw three vials of blood. I am an A type + or - they didn't say, and none of us passed out! Then we went in for a ECG. First they put these metal bracelet looking things on my wrists and ankles and then I had to lift the dress I was wearing to my neck and the girl put some clear liquid on my chest and then put some suction cup things on my chest and monitered my heart. It was cool to look at the results and then when we gave her back our results she switched Adams and I's up and we tried to tell her she was putting his results on my medical history file but she said it didn't matter! haha ok. Then we got an ultrasound of our liver and spleen. Adam tried to joke with the Dr. and asked him if he could see a baby haha he didn't think it was funny. Then we got an x-ray of our lungs to make sure we didn't have Tuberculosis. Last we got our heart and temperature checked. He only checked my heart for a few seconds and then filled it out. Who knows if it is accurate! But I think we passed! We have been hanging out with Thomas, Katie, and Kayte. It has been a lot of fun. We went to a dinner that night with all the foreign teachers and college Dean and had yummy delicious chinese food- duck head, chicken feet, stomach lining, whole fish and shrimp, and lots more! They had us each say something and Adam gave his toast in Chinese. He is amazing! They were in awe of his progress. They couldn't say enough of his chinese skills. I am so proud of him! Everywhere we go the Chinese are amazed at how well he speaks. He has only been learning Chinese for a year. He took one semester before we came last year and then we were in China for 5 months and then we didn't really have time to study too much the 7 months we were in the states. Adam is really good at everything he does, no exaggeration! He is just amazing!
 Sunday we woke up really early to go to church! I must have been really excited because I was up at 3:30a.m and couldn't get back to sleep! We decided to try to do it in one day. We left our apartment running, I was grabbing things on my way out, my shoes weren't even on because were were running late. Kayte was going to bring a cake but luckily she didn't. We left at 6:15a.m and ran through the whole campus. Truly we are so blessed because a taxi was waiting outside the gates and was starting to pull away when we were close enough to wave him down..still running...we got it and made it to the train station and me Thomas and Katie there with enough time to sit down for literally 1 minute! We got on the train at it left at 6:37a.m. It takes about 2 hours to get to Qingdao. We then have to wait in line to get our tickets back home. We got the fast train back home! It is so nice and only takes an hour. If only it was running that early to get to Qingdao from Weifang. We then walked almost a mile(it felt like that in my heels) to get a bus. We then ride an hour bus ride to church and made it just in time for sacrament. I love going to church. There is such a strong spirit. It is worth it to smell like a train station and the long day to go to church. I love our Branch Family. It was good to see our friends. I wish that all the BYU teachers could have stayed just one more year but am glad that we can atleast see them when we get back to the states. We did meet the new teachers and they are very nice. Jane and Roger had everyone over for dinner. It was a party. Roger is the Branch president and I volunteered to start playing for primary!.......I think my hand shot up before I realized I haven't played the piano for a very long time! Last year the one time they asked me to play for Relief Society I played the intro and then just sat at the piano while they sang. :> But someone had left a keyboard, so I will be able to practice every week. It will be a good skill for me to practice. Please pray for me! haha

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Back in China

Adam and I made it back to China! I can update my blog through my e-mail and I can still get comments but I just can't view my blog or comment back! Adam and I flew out Tuesday night and went to L.A! I was nervous about our luggage because last year we left it in Canada because everyone told us that we didn't need to re-check it! So when people told us that this time I wasn't so sure. We ended up not re-checking them in Korea like we thought we would have to, but it was all there in Qingdao! I was so happy. Our flight from L.A to Korea wasn't too bad. It was thirteen hours! The airline was nice. We even got steak and potatoes for dinner! I slept most of the flight. I didn't even watch a whole movie, and they even had a great selection! We got to Korea at around five in the morning and our flight left at 8:45 a.m. It is a nice big airport but it was wierd because it was totally empty until about an hour before our flight left. We got to Qingdao where James(our foreign teacher guy), Thomas (Adam's cousin) and his wife Katie met us! We were way excited to see them. It is going to be so fun to have friends here! We then went to lunch with them, Wendy, and Kayte(another English teacher here). Adam and I slept and then met up with Kayte, Thomas, and Katie to take them to our favorite soup place and.........it was gone. :< All the buildings were torn down. We have only been gone for 7 months but so much has changed. It is great being back though. Our apartment is just how we left it except for a little dustier! :> Thomas, Katie, and Kayte were so happy to have Adam around to speak Chinese! It is very nice to be able to have a translater. It was fun telling them all the things we like to do, and places we like to go. We already bought some movies! We plan on going to church this sunday! I am so excited to see the BYU teachers that stayed from last year. We are going to do it all in one day. It takes 3 hours to get to church so it will be a long day but we will see how it goes. We are excited to be here and have another exciting adventure in P.R. Chinar!   

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