Halloween in China

It began a week early with my agreement to visit a middle school private tutoring class on a Friday night.  I met the teacher, John, and we walked over to the class of 7 eighth graders.  Fortunately the other BYU China teachers have shared their Halloween ppts. And film clips.  So I dressed up like a witch, complete with hat, cape, fingernails, and horrid nose.  The kids loved it; everyone had to have their picture taken with me.
I showed them everything I know about Halloween, sang a song, showed them scary film clips.  Then we played Bingo.  They thought it was great fun.
So I went through the same scenario all 9 classes, during the week before Halloween.  I scared a few of them with my costume and hairy spider, and isn't that the point of Halloween anyway?  Scaring people and saying, "Gotcha!"
Thursday night we were in charge of English Corner, which is a social gathering for anyone who wants to practice their English.  We showed them our video stuff, then played Bingo and had a cakewalk.  I printed Halloween symbols on some orange card stock, cut them out, had them laminated, and Tim taped them to the floor.  Then we played Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and made them walk the circle.  I had made chocolate cupcakes (from scratch), so each winner got one.  They were a big hit.  When we ran out of those, we gave away our stockpile of "moon cakes " which are a holiday specialty around here. But we weren't sad to see them go.  We also made little ghosts out of lollipops and Kleenex.  There were about 60 students, and they all had a great time.  Some even found a few small pumpkins to carve, complete with tealights.

By the time Halloween Saturday rolled around, it was raining and we were partied out.  When the rain stopped later in the afternoon Tim was hankering for a McDonalds dinner--fish fillets and fries.  Then he had a banana split at Dairy Queen. Yes I had a chocolate almond Blizzard (they threw in some raisins).  Then we found an English movie in 3-D--"Antman". We liked it, even though it cost $15 a ticket.  We picked up a few items from Walmart and found a bus to home.

By the way, both Walmart and the grocery store had a few costumes, masks, hats, and other Halloween paraphernalia for sale, even though they don't really understand what it's all about.  Do we?  We just like to dress up, decorate, and eat candy.  Anyway it was fun to see pix of our grandkids all decked out in their Halloween duds. Happy Halloween!  Onto Thanksgiving and Christmas, hopefully.

Letter from mom to Kids

This is a letter Susan e-mailed to her kids.  I hope she doesn't mind that I added it to her blog.  It contains some nice information about church experiences, dad teaching double classes, and Halloween creativity that I thought she'd want to remember later...  Julie

Hello Dear Ones,

Seems like awhile since I’ve written a personal note.  I’m behind on the blog, but trying to catch up.  Our calendar is filled nearly every minute.  Soon I will write about the Terra Cotta Warriors and our excursion with Mr. Gao—which lasted 16 ½ hours on Wednesday. We were supposed to go to some waterfalls, but detoured to a city where the Chinese revolutionaries lived before and during WWII, including a museum for Chairman Mao, and his home and several others in the caves.  Stay tuned for that in the blog.

In the meantime we had a district conference today—which is like Stake Conference.  Only we dialed into Sat. night meeting from our home and listened.  Then we went to church today and phoned in and all listened together.  Themes included:  the importance of families, and family history, the atonement, and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy—which is my encouragement to you.

After our meeting today, our Branch Pres.’s daughter was baptized.  We had a sweet program, including a letter from her grandma in U.S. and singing of “I Am A Child of God” in both Spanish and Japanese.  I shed enough tears to fill the font myself.  We had hoped to use the swimming pool at their apt. Complex, but that was closed. So they filled the large round bathtub in the master bedroom and performed the baptism.  There was even room for all 30 of us in the bathroom! (We could have put our whole apt. in that bathroom.) The spirit is very strong in our little meetings.  We truly know the Lord is here with us.

I made her a little ribbon bookmark and a card using some paper we brought, and cut out a rose off a printed paper sack. We really have to be creative here. 

Elder Russell Nelson  spoke in Beijing on Thursday night.  No earth shattering news, but he did bestow an apostolic blessing on the saints in China—particular for protection—which he knows we need while/when crossing the streets!  Fortunately there are walking bridges out of both the main gates of the university, and the stores and restaurants in our neighborhood are on our side of the street.  I only cross the street once a week when I go to the Dutch bakery for delicious treats.

We are gearing up for a Halloween party for our English students on Thursday.  I bought round suckers and kleenex to make ghosts, and made chocolate cupcakes to give the winners of the “Cake Walk”.  And we’ll play Bingo and show some ppts. And video clips.

Some of you know that Herb, our neighbor had to fly to Beijing this week to have his toe amputated.  He has diabetes and it had turned black with gangrene.  Guess who the university asked to sub for him….Yes, DAD.  And their classes are taught at the very same time, next door to each other.  So dad starts in one class, gets them writing, them scoots over to the other class and gets them going.  I hope they find another solution quickly, because he’s going to wear out at this rate.  NO way he can handle both classes with  essays, etc.

Anyway,  Pres. Nelson also said “this life is about doing hard things; that will make us stronger and bring us closer to Christ.”  So I guess we shouldn’t shy away from hard things, but it would be nice to have a rest now and then….

You all know grandma Taylor is on hospice.  So Dad is preparing to lose her.  It will be a blessing in many ways, but still sad. We feel very far away, but close when we hear from you or get to chat occasionally.  We love you all very much, and miss you lots!
Mom

First Day Teaching

I survived!  I walked the 35 min. To a mtg. With my dept. at 10:00AM.  Then found someplace to make some copies.  Dad and I bought snack/lunch at the student center, ate on a bench outside.  Then I went back to the office, (we share one), took a short nap, and appeared at my class.

We teach for 2 hours with a 10-min. Break in the middle.  I used my intro ppt., and did my quilt demo.  It went very well, my flash drives even worked!  The students are darling.  They are eager and co-operative.  Yes they have cell phones.  They speak quite well and seem to understand what I am saying.  I took pix of all of them with their name cards. This class had 25 girls and 3 boys, 2 of whom called themselves Vincent. So now one is just Vince.

Then I dragged myself back to Subway. The lady remembered us and gave me a straw for my can of coke this time without my asking.  Next door we found a delicious looking bakery.  We bought little square quiches and a small loaf of berry streusel bread.  Can't wait for breakfast.  They had a little decadent square chocolate cake (I hope it's chocolate) that I'll go get for dads birthday.

Then we met up with a student-friend of the Winders.  She came home and showed us how to use the washing machine (interpreted the cycles) so that's our plan for tomorrow,  no classes, so I'm hoping not to walk anywhere!

We're adjusting pretty well.  The weather is hot and humid, but lots of nice shade trees everywhere we go.  We took a taxi across town Saturday night to meet other BYU teachers for a traditional Chinese round dinner.  It cost us $8.00 for the taxi driver each way, but only $5.00 a piece for dinner.

Well my eyes are falling asleep. Dad is already in bed.  We're still jet lagged so wake up at 4:00 AM.  Dad has arisen and gone over to campus and run around the track early.  Then he still has energy to walk to class or Walmart or whatever.  He's amazing, and has taken good care of me.  He still wraps my foot.  It is healing, but swelling a bit too from all the walking.  I think I'll check out the bus for after my late class on Thursday.

 

People are very nice and friendly.  They try to be helpful and understand, even if it's mostly sign language. Be ever grateful for your blessings--like soap, warm water, paper towels, and TP in public toilets.  I think I'll hang a bottle of hand sanitizer around my neck.  They sweep the streets often ( with a broom). But no one has washed a handrail around here this century!