More Baines in Nanjing

On Saturday we went by train to Shanghai and met Amber, Darwin, Caden, Chloe and Owen at the airport. They were very tired after the long flight and we went right to the hotel so they could get some sleep.

Amber liked the hairdrier in the hotel

(It blew cold air)

Shanghai is a big city. We didn`t have time to get out and see any of it - just what we saw traveling between train station, hotel and airport.

Sunday morning we returned by train to Nanjing.

Waiting for the train in Shanghai

As we walked from the gate of the campus to our apartments Chloe noticed the trees and thought we were in Hawaii.

Back in our apartment

Help to set the table

Grandad's helper making pancakes

Merry Christmas

Hope you all have enjoyed a Merry Christmas today. Best wishes to everyone.

While you North Americans still have a few hours of Christmas left to enjoy, we here in China are ahead of you and it is Boxing Day.

On Christmas Eve after our classes we decided to forgo our usual Christmas Eve tradition of having Chinese food for supper. We walked over to Salsa, a mexican restaurant (Chinese style) but it was closed so we came home and had spagetti for supper.

I had classes all day yesterday (Christmas day). I left at 6:30 a.m. and did not return until 5:00 p.m. One good thing was that the heat was turned on in the teaching building last week. Bob came all the way out to the other campus on the bus to meet me and ride back on the bus with me. Then we went by taxi and met some of the other BYU teachers at a restaurant called "Henry's Home" where we had some good western food. Bob had steak which he said was the best meat he has had in China. I opted for pizza.

We went over to our friend's apartment and played cards and had dessert. When we arrived back here a few of the BYU boys had come Christmas carolling and were just going to leave as we got here.

Some of my classes had Christmas cards for me, some sent e-mail greeetings and all the students said "Merry Christmas".

All in all, Christmas does come to China!

Now our classes have ended and we don't go back until the 12th February. I still have exams to mark and grades to hand in. Two of my students had chicken pox and couldn't do their Oral English exam so I have to find a time when they can do that. They want to do it the days we are in Shanghai to meet Darwin and Amber, but that won't work.

We don't know yet what classes we will be teaching next semester, but supposedly I have an American History and Culture and a writing class. We probably won't know until the week before we start again. Yes, this is China.

Red Undies

When we go to the store these days we see many displays of red underwear - both ladies and mens. In China people wear red during his or her zodiac animal year and it is easier just to wear red underwear. Wearing of the red keeps bad luck from happening. This coming year is the year of the Ox, so if you were born in the following years be sure to get your year's supply of red underwear.

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "year of the Ox," while also bearing the following elemental sign:

• 19 February 1901 - 7 February 1902: Metal Ox
• 6 February 1913 - 25 January 1914: Water Ox
• 25 January 1925 - 12 February 1926: Wood Ox
• 11 February 1937 - 30 January 1938: Fire Ox
• 29 January 1949 - 16 February 1950: Earth Ox
• 15 February 1961 - 4 February 1962: Metal Ox
• 3 February 1973 - 22 January 1974: Water Ox
• 20 February 1985 - 8 February 1986: Wood Ox
• 7 February 1997 - 28 January 1998: Fire Ox

Here is a picture from the ads from the store where we buy our groceries.

Last Friday when we were going to judge the dubbing contest they said we were going to the "Legion Hall". At least that's what I thought they said and when I asked about Legion I found it wasn't the Legion Hall it was the "Lixon Hall".

Here are pictures of some of my students at the dubbing contest. They were taken as the prizes were awarded.


These two students were MCs. He is in my Oral English class and she is in my British History class.

The two pictures above are students from my Oral English Class. They dubbed to the movie "I am Sam."

The two girls are in my history class. This group won first prize, but I am sure it was because of the boy. They did the movie "Little Red" and there was a character in that movie who sang everything he said and he sang a western folk type song and the boy was wonderful at singing it. They asked him to sing it again when the prizes were awarded.

Dubbing Contest

Last night we went over to the other campus to be judges in a "Dubbing Contest". It was a contest where a four minute section of a movie was shown without the sound and a group of students would stand in front of it and dub in the words. They were extremely proficient and did a great job with the lip sync. There were 18 groups to judge and there were 8 judges - 4 Chinese teachers of English and 4 native English teachers. There wasn't one group that didn't do well. Luckily there had previously been run-offs because something like 70 groups originally participated.

I didn't really understand what was to happen so when the first group came on I thought that they were showing us the movie with sound and then the students were going it act it out, but about 3/4 of the way through I realized that the sound was coming from the students. They did scenes from such movies as "The Devil Wore Prada", "I am Sam", "Gone with the Wind", "Madagascar", "Shark Tale", "Lord of the Rings" and others. The performances were exceptional. However, it was funny to hear their Chinese accents come back as soon as they finished performing.

There were students from two of my classes who participated.

a better picture of the purple flowers

Wonderful News

This morning when I checked my e-mail, there was an airline itinerary from Darwin and Amber. They and their three children are arriving in Shanghai on the 27th and will stay until the 1st January. I can hardly wait.

Another week gone by

This past week I have had a cold and have been really draggy. It makes it hard to get things done and there is a lot to be done in the next two weeks. When I get my exams prepared I will feel better.

Last Sunday evening we did English corner again. The group is getting smaller - probably because it is getting closer to exam time. When we do English corner we leave our apartment at 4:30 p.m. and don't get back to this campus until 10:00 p.m. and the next morning I have 8:00 am classes and have to catch the bus to the other campus at 7:00 am.

We hope to get our Christmas tree and decorations up today or tomorrow. So far all we have is a decoration on the front door.

A word of advice to anyone who comes to China - don't bring envelopes or try to buy them in the stores here. We had some letters to send home and Bob finally found some envelopes in a store. We addressed the envelopes and got them ready to mail and I took them to the campus post office. The lady wouldn't sell me stamps and wanted me to buy stamped envelopes. The stamped envelopes are .5 yuan cheaper than the stamps. I didn't want to rewrite the addresses and said I wanted stamps anyway. Well she didn't have that many stamps so I had to go to another post office and got the same spiel about stamped envelopes. This clerk was willing to help me readdress the envelopes, but finally gave in and put the envelopes I had through a machine. Now we know why they don't sell envelopes in the store.

On Friday evening they turned the heat off in our building so they could check the gas. The heat came on next day but we were all day without hot water. It was good to get the hot water back on.

The weather has been very changeable lately. It was 20 degrees C. on Wednesday afternoon, but during the night it gets down to 2 or 3 C. above. It is hard to decide what coat to wear when you leave in the early morning.

December 13th was the anniversary of the 1937 Nanjing massacre and the sirens sounded for 10 minutes at 10:00 a.m to remember those who died in the massacre. Bob didn't know this was coming and he was somewhat alarmed when the sirens started.

They don't plant flowers in the flower beds. They put out pots of flowers in the beds and they look like flower beds. This week they have changed from the red and yellow flowers that have been up for the last couple of months. There are now flowers that look like cabbage and cauliflower plants. They are really very pretty and have frilly leaves.