According the theFreeDictionary.com Fall means:

1. To drop or come down freely under the influence of gravity.

The last time I checked gravity pulled downward, so can someone please explain how the snow is FALLING sideways out my window.

Everyone is speculating a warm burst for Wednesday this week but I’m not that optimistic. My only prayer is that come March 15th when the heat for all of China gets turned off the government takes pity and leaves it on. I can hope can’t I, and hey they did turn it on early this year due to severe weather up North.

I know here I am complaining once again about the weather but to be fair, I’m getting use to it. Really I just needed a few rather poignant lessons in layering and proper winter attire which usually means donning rather less than attractive outerwear. On a whole I don’t mind as I know I will always return to my toasty apartment and be able to thaw in a matter of minutes. With the heat off I’m afraid I’ll have no respite for my frozen marrow.

Just a quick glance into my life, for a person who loathes snow to a rather unhealthy level at times how is it I always manage to end up in cold snowy places? Rexburg, Id – Jacob Lake, Az – Weifang, China Who is booking my travel arrangements? I should fire them.

A turn of luck delayed Bonnie’s departure from Weifang just long enough for  me to say goodbye. We all met up Wednesday night for dinner. Bonnie decided on our usual, Weifang Family Restaurant. Wendy and Peter joined us along with Tina, Steven, Anna, and Kelly. We had a delightful evening and great food.

Even though the semester is shaping up to be fun filled, Bonnie will be missed greatly. I’ve come to rely on her excellent Chinese food vocabulary heavily. Needless to say I had her help Wendy write down all my favorite dishes so I won’t starve once she leaves.

Bonnie and I had many great afternoons in Weifang even if they were not always productive. To be honest it was just a relief to have someone to go into town to see during the week. Bonnie I think you should stay, really why go back to England to your family, friends and comfortable life?

Have a safe flight to New Zealand and Enjoy a good curry for me when you finally make it home to England.

Kelly and I landed safely in China yesterday. After 36 hours traveling I was relieved to finally get back to my apartment and pile my bags in the entry way, mind you half are still sprawled there as I dug through to get out the few things I needed. 

My trip home was worth all the trouble. It provided a much needed relief and a fresh start to the upcoming semester. With a roommate now and a new found determination to learn Mandarin it is already shaping up to be a great semester.

The trip began with me eating my words I gave the previous day to my friend Maria. When dropping her off at Bakersfield to head home I’d teased her about the Prop-Plane at the Airport. I’d never ridden in one and hoped never to have to. Everything comes back to bite you I’ve learned and sure enough before I knew it i was boarding a Prop-Plane to LAX. It was everything and worse I’d imagined!

Upon exiting the Prop-Plane my purse broke! I’d always made fun of luggage and bag stores in Airports, I mean come-on by the time you are getting onto the plane shouldn’t you already be packed!! But here I was stranded with a broken purse still facing another 24 hours of travel, I was willing to pay anything for relief! I found a tacky Hollywood bag at Hudson News and headed to my next gate to settle in for a long layover. Poor Kelly, we were to meet up at LAX and catch the same flight to Beijing together. She got stopped at every security check and pulled aside for further scrutiny. We tried to change seats to sit together but it was a full flight.

As they began boarding we ran to Starbucks for a last meal. Fiji water, blueberry scones and shrink-wrapped turkey sandwiches. I found my seat and was relived to find yet another window seat. I’m sticking with Expedia, since adding a window seat preference, that’s all I’ve scored on flights through them. I’m finally learning the trick to sleeping on international flights, oh another dozen and I should be a pro! Flights went smooth. In line after costumes I ran into the Sorensons, the BYU teachers from Jinan. I had ran into them going through security at LAX when flying home in January. We all had breakfast then headed to our domestic flights.

The puddle jump from Beijing to Qingdao was quick and James was waiting at the luggage carousel. It was intriguing watching Kelly’s reaction to Mainland China on the two hour drive home. I felt relieved to be done with flights and back into a normal routine. Qingdao to Weifang seems to be practically a Tulare – Visalia run most weeks.

James took us out to lunch before heading to the apartment. Lunch was wonderful. I’m thrilled to no longer be the novice with chopsticks, knock on wood. Kelly is reminding me of all my first experiences that have now become casual everyday events. Lunch was a usual conglomerate of vegetables, meats and tofus, chopped, diced and sauced up! With a hot bowl of noodle soup for the main course.

Once back on campus and in the apartment I finally felt I could relax after 36 hours of travel.

It’s good to be home and settled back in!

The grapevine is a wonderful if not inconvenient thing at times! It is probably best that we discovered this little treasure trove so late as I would have gone broke making purchases and then had no way to get them all home.

Katie had been told by Kelly who had been taken by Charlotte who had been taken by Daria who had been brought by someone to this little painting school downtown.  They produced originals as well as reproductions of contemporary as well as traditional works of art. It sounded too good to pass up so we got verbal directions to a side street without any specific address.

Can I just say if you ever have to find a little place with no address,  only verbal instructions to go by, in a foreign country in which you really don’t speak the language, Katie and Thomas are the two to go with. They can find anything. We hopped on the bus, Thomas found the stop and we began looking in window fronts for what we wanted. We soon found a small school but when we walked in a children’s calligraphy class was in session. The teacher soon directed us further down the street. He didn’t speak English but between the three of us we are getting quite good at charades. We discovered this was an annex of the school but we were looking for the main building.

Just a sampling of what we browsed through

We soon found the main part and headed in. Again as it was Saturday classes were in full swing. Drawing classes downstairs, with still life, and calligraphy classes upstairs. We met the director who turned out to be the contact Kelly had mentioned.

She happily took us on a tour then led us back to the annex to look at paintings.

I was a little shocked when she started pulling out manila envelops with folded paintings. Katie saw my hesitation but reminded me that Kelly said their mounting jobs were phenomenal and all imperfections would vanish in the mounted work. We hungrily sorted through works with Xiong explaining their origins.

Some were originals by local artists or professors others were replicas of the great masters. Katie and I started forming piles of possibles. Prices ranged from ¥10 – ¥80 for the paintings with a flat ¥30 mounting fee.

I soon found two pieces I just couldn’t live without and three small flower pieces that I thought would be a beautiful gift. I arranged to pick up the mounted works the Saturday before I was to leave for America.

(3 graces/Lady with Blue / Flowers)

Second choice was still beautiful!

When I went to pick them up I unwisely  agreed to browse through their new works with Katie. I fell in love with yet another piece and agreed to purchase if they could rush mount it before I left on Tuesday. Xiong said she could and I hastily agreed.

I returned Monday afternoon to pick it up, to find a rather distraught Xiong. She told me she had written something down for me to read as she wanted to make sure I understood it all. She had had to send the piece to a friend to be mounted that weekend because he husband had been out of town. It was mounted and ready to go when her friends shop had been broken into and robbed. My piece along with others and cash had been stolen. There had been two Cherry Blossom works and so she quickly mounted the other and had it mounted to give to me. She felt awful and apologized profusely. She gave me this piece free of charge with an additional flower painting.

Second Choice was still beautiful although that first piece was AMAZING! So now I have no excuse for empty walls. I mean really with the prices hoovering around $12 for portable art lookout next semester.

I sadly realized on the bus ride home this evening that besides my Nativity blog, I’ve not written about Christmas in China. Where to begin, humm, maybe that’s why I’ve not written it I have no idea how to.

The Reason for the Season. I have the star of my scene.

 With the nativity saga my baby Jesus did arrive in time. I got it two weeks ago actually. It was just a single piece and didn’t warrant a bag I guess, so I just slipped it into my coat pocket. It always caught me off guard when I would slide my hand in, I’d finger the object for a second to figure out what it was.

It is now on my coffee table and will most likely stay there through January. A reminder of home. Mom would you take some pictures of my favorite nativities so I will have them for next Christmas. Children’s Christmas Pageant, the Russian Nativity and don’t forget the Black Bears.

Christmas lights are up all over the city but that really isn’t Christmas that is just typical tacky Chinese decorations, they are up year round. Surprisingly for a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas beyond apple exchanging there are quite a few decorations up. Of course there only seems to be one set of window stickers in all of Weifang.

(add picture)

Surprisingly my students are quite familiar with Christmas and its customs. It is strange though when you talk to children they know who Santa is but they will tell you straight, “Santa doesn’t come to China”. Don’t tell and American child that they would be horrified he is suppose to go to every child.

All though they know the traditions they do not participate in them. The only gift they really give is an apple. The apple is a symbol of peace.

Christmas music has been playing in the stores for the last few weeks. Most songs are in English and sometimes you can even close your eyes and just focus on the bustle and almost feel like you are back in the US, then you get one good whiff of that China smell and you are right back here.

Christmas is most definitely a unique experience in China.

Okay I just realized how long this was, I needed to vent. Sorry, I obviously got carried away

Ahhh! I’m still cooling down.  A 45min bus ride turned into a two hour ping-pong game! We were suppose to have one last shrimp fry before Adam and Dantzelle took off. Okay so the journey started at 5:20 I decided to go ahead of Adam and Dantzelle as I didn’t want to sit around until Dantz finished classes. I was half way to Jusco (supermarket) when I realized I didn’t grab the money I had laid out, crap okay just skimp at the store.

I was trying to get ingredients for Easy Almond Roca for the Christmas Party this weekend. I needed to use Katie and Thomas’s toaster oven so couldn’t put shopping off. Chocolate is so dang expensive here. Don’t even try finding chocolate chips so I settled on a Y20 Dove bar got the rest and tried to find a bus direct to the University, this is were all my troubles began.

I should have just walked the extra two blocks and grabbed the 16 but no I wanted to be lazy. I called Katie and she told me the 52 would work but I would have to transfer to the 16 once I got to DongFong Lu, okay I can do that. Well obviously not. As warned the bus went down shady back allies but got back on a main road headed east. I thought it was the wrong street but I noticed that the 16 ran parallel so I jumped off, NEVER CHANGE your answer. That was something I learned in Elementary always go with the first answer second guessing is ALWAYS wrong.

I got off and tried my hand at characters. I knew the characters for South Gate (南门) found the stop four away and waited for the bus. Mind you I take full responsibility for the following adventure but the Chinese sure are not helpful when it comes to directions! Let me lay out what I know, Katie and Thomas work at Weifang University which in Chinese would be Weifang Daxue. They live outside the South Gate which is Nan men. Okay so logically put the two together and you get their stop right?!? Well the bus stop sign had a stop that read Nan men, I assumed (yes I know what assuming means) as Weifang University was a big place in town they were just dealing with gates. I hopped on the bus and asked the Driver Weifang Daxue nan men. He said no and point across the street to the opposite bus stop. The 16’s are tricky here there are two 16 routes both will eventually pass the University South Gate.

That is when I should have gone with my first answer yet again. I knew which direction I wanted to go. So why I was letting someone direct me differently when there was obviously a language barrier is right up there with getting in that cab with a stranger. I crossed the street and looked at the board again okay, I’ll give the driver this much to get to the stop marked Nan men I needed the opposite side of the road but turns out I was reading the wrong stop. I figured this out 15 min later when I realized I was back on the street I started on, back at Jusco. My heart sank, I called Katie to figure out what had happened, that’s when I found out all though it is a University they don’t call it Daxue it is Xueyuan or College! What the heck! So the bus stop I needed was on the original side labeled, Weifang Xueyuan Nan men. What I can’t figure out is why the driver didn’t catch my drift when I said University (Daxue). Daxue Nan men should at least indicate I want to go to a school. Turns out Nan men bus stop is a shopping mall. COME ON PEOPLE work with the foreigner here please!!!!!

I get off cross the street and broad yet another bus. This one was the right one I knew for sure as it was the bus stop I should have just walked to in the first place! By then I was completely exasperated with the whole situation but mostly at myself as I should have just gone with my first instinct.

I’ve come to realize I can gauge my mood by the volume level on my Zune. It is normally at about 6 while riding a bus. By the time I made the final switch I was on 14. 20 is when I buy a ticket for the next plane out of China. Excessive today, yes, hormones aren’t helping anything. To top it all off I missed my stop as I was too absorbed in self pity. So what should have been a Y2 45min ride was Y4 2hour ping-pong game across Weifang. By the time I reached Katie and Thomas’s I was on 16 and then Katie asked for the bread crumbs I’d promised to pick up. Whoops, Katie is just to gracious she was on the ball with a substitution and not a hint of frustration.

So lesson learned always go with answer number one. NEVER EVER EVER change your answer.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?num=1&t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111339267398628592226.000474994180243f527da&ll=36.682428,119.089469&spn=0.003932,0.006856&z=17

I found my college on Google maps. I’ve flagged some places around town that I usually go, you can view them by clicking on the Goooogle pages in the search box on the left. You might have to zoom out to get the picture to come up.

 I met up with Wendy at 8:40 this morning. The chairman’s daughter and her classmate met us at the at t

 

Wood-Cut station, amazing details.

 

Watching the printing was breath taking, the maticulous efforts that are applied are awe inspiring to say the least.

 

The kites are made from thin sheets of silk. The paint is applied one color at a time let each color dry before applying the next.

 

Bamboo framework, all done by hand from selection to completion.

 

 

 

All the kites are handmade. The large one was Y600, reasonable I felt after seeing the entire process.

 

Yi, me & Yi, the wood-cuts on the door are protective deities to keep evil spirits from entering.

 

Intricate Paper-cuts, handmade

 

"Original" Ming Dynasty home.

 

Yi & me, can you see our personal stoves?

 

Hot Pot, it just might be my new favorite.

 

Driver, Yi & Wendy

 

Lobby, Largest Kite Museum in the World

 

My favorite kite in the Museum. Gold meddal winner at the Kite Festival.

 

An international kite donated to the Museum after one of the International Kite Festivals

 

a Ledgendary kite that is recognizable all over China

 

How many old men do you see? (answer: 3)

 

An aerial of Weifang, really if only I could expereince such a clear day.

 

Cabbage is a winter flower here, it does provide beautiful color in an otherwise dull landscape.

 

I never asked what this particular pagoda is currently used for but my guess is observation.

 

The path ran right along the water, more than once I gave Wendy a scare by walking too close to the edge.

 

______ Park, I just loved the Pagoda.

Today was delightful. From start to finish it was a great.

Well as long as it’s foggy its too warm to snow, right!? It has been a little foggy a few times but when I looked out the kitchen window this morning it felt like home.

Out my Kitchen window. The Cantina isn't even visible.

View from my Bedroom.

At least Christmas will have the same foggy feeling as home. I am learning my weather limits here. If I move somewhere cold again, knock on wood, I want to go dry cold. I think I would be able to handle that better. This damp cold just seeps into your bones and makes warming up a real chore.

I know that by writing this post I relinquish the right to claim that I will freeze to death this winter. I do reserve the right to complain about the cold weather and remind all those at home that it is bone chilling Sibierian winds I must fight daily to survive.

The only reason I'm still here.

  About a month ago people began discussing the coming Winter. It soon became apparent that I was no where near prepared for what was to come. As a California girl through and through my thin blood could not comprehend the temperatures they were discussing nor the wind chill factors they all dreaded. The Idahoans and Utahans in the branch soon took pity on me and began helping me outfit for the winter. Victoria was the life saver, she lent me this beautiful bad boy for the winter. I must admit when she handed it over I almost laugh it was so light. 100% down this baby is. I always thought the only way to get warmth was weight boy was I wrong. Nothing gets past this coat, now if only I could get a pair of pants made of this stuff.  

Outfitted for winter! Still taking donations.