Sight Seeing in Nanjing

Friday evening we went out to supper at the "Little Sheep" and had hotpot for supper. There is a burner in the center of the table and some broth is boiled in a big pot. Then as the meal progresses you add various meats and vegetables to the pot. It was the first Chinese meal that I saw Jackson eat anything at all.

Saturday we visited the Nanjing Museum and saw many beautiful items made of Jade, porcelain, lacquer or whatnot.

The Presidential Palace

On the Grounds of the Nanjing Museum

Pottery making in the Museum

Books written on Gold plates

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Trees in blossom on Campus

Monday was a sad day. We took Jeremy and family out to the airport and said good-bye. Then we returned to our apartment and had only lesson plans and marking to think about.

Monday evening we had classes. I had classes Wednesday afternoon and evening and Thursday morning. Bob had a class this morning.

We leave right away for our Yangtze River Cruise.

Jeremy, Julie, Kennedy, Jackson and Mickey

The weather has varied for the last week. We have a day of rain and then a day of sunshine. It was sunny on Sunday. We went to the other campus for English Corner. We had a singalong with Kennedy and Julie and then we divided into groups and chatted the rest of the evening. It was better having more people for the students to talk to.

Monday was cold and rainy. I stayed at the apartment and worked on marking and lessons while Bob went with Jeremy and family to Purple Mountain. They visited Sun Yat-Sen's tomb and the Ming Tomb. There were renovations going on at the Ming Tomb so they were unable to go inside. They came home very cold.



Bob and I had to teach a class each on Monday evening so Jeremy went with Bob and talked about resumes, interviews and jobs.

Tuesday morning all except Bob went to Shanghai. It was a beautiful day. Our first stop was the "Pearl of the Orient" (the TV tower). Bob and I had visited it last January when it was very cold which didn't prepare us for the hordes of people that were lined up to get up the tower. We didn't realize the length of the line-ups or we would never have paid and gone in. We were in line for an hour and a half and when we finally got to the top there were so many people you couldn't see out. We spent only a few minutes and then lined up to come back down.

Because we had spent so much time at the tower, we missed going to the museum as planned. We did a little shopping and spent some time at Yu Yuan Gardens. There were beautiful flowers in bloom and it was much nicer visiting than it had been in January when it was freezing cold.

Wednesday I had two classes. Bob, Jeremy and all went to the Presidential Palace and then Jeremy and his family went to the zoo. I was surprised to find out there were Pandas at the Zoo here in Nanjing.

Thursday Bob and I both had classes. Jeremy and Julie went shopping in the morning and in the afternoon after I returned I stayed with the kids and they went to the Massacre Museum

We went to Pizza Hut for supper and then Jeremy picked up the two suits and the shirt he had ordered from the tailor. Jackson also had a suit and shirt made.

Today it is cold and raining again. Jeremy went with Bob to his classes and Julie & I and the children went to visit the Silk Brocade Museum. We saw a piece of fabric 17 metres long that the museum had received an offer of $3,000,000 for. They rejected the offer because the silk is a National Treasure. We saw how they wove the brocade. In an 8 hour day a person can do 6 centimeters of brocade. We could have bought hand made brocade for $3,000 per meter. The machine brocade was about $60 per meter.

Jeremy had a lesson on Chinese toilet training when we were on the subway one day. (The Chinese infants and toddlers wear clothes with split crotches. When nature calls the parent justs holds the child away from him and the child lets loose.) There was a grandma holding and infant on her lap on the subway. Jeremy was standing right across from them. Suddenly the grandma lifted up the child and luckily Jeremy moved fast. The subway was not too crowded so no-one had to stand in the puddle.

Nanjing News for the Week

Last Saturday evening Sue-anne, Courtney, Nathan, Orson and I arrived back in Nanjing. We had a quiet day on Sunday. On Monday we visited Confusious market.


We ate at Burger King and then went to the Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream shop for dessert.

Monday evening both Bob and I had classes. Nathan taught my writing class (as well as the other two writing classes I had last week) and Sue-anne, Courtney and Orson went to Bob's Oral English class.
Tuesday we visited Sun Yat-Sen's tomb. Bob and I had been there last September and I was surprised to find that it wasn't as long a climb this time. I made it to the top which I didn't in September.

Wednesday Jeremy, Julie and family arrived in the evening.


Thursday I had classes in the morning. Bob had one law class Thursday morning and Nathan taught it for him. Nathan and Orson left Nanjing to go to Hongzhou while I was at class.

Friday we planned to go to Shanghai, but couldn't get tickets back that day. Instead we again visited Confusious Temple Market and walked to the Nanjing Wall. We got to the wrong place and couldn't go up on the wall. In the evening the children stayed at our apartment and ate cheese sandwiches and the rest of us went out for Chinese Food.

Well today had been a bad day. Bob and I went out to the airport to see Sue-anne and Courtney off. We got back and there was a very bad thunder storm. It was a dark as night in the middle of the afternoon. Nathan had a flight from Shanghai to catch his flight back home and the Shanghai flight was delayed two hours and he missed his connection so he is still in Beijing and will return a day late. We hope that Sue-anne made her connection. We haven't heard from her.
We hope things improve so that we can do things with Julie, Jeremy, Kennedy, Jackson and Mickey.

Sue-anne, Courtney, Nathan & Orson in China

Last Thursday Bob taught my 10:00 am class and I took a flight to Beijing. Nathan and Orson met me and then we waited patiently for Sue-anne and Courtney who arrived about one hour later. We went to our hotel, had supper and then retired for the night as Nathan and Orson had been up over 24 hours and Sue-anne and Courtney nearly as many.

The next morning we traveled to the Great Wall. It was a very cold day with lots of wind. Sometimes the wind gusts were so strong that I felt that I was in danger of being blown off the wall. The visitors from Canada were not dressed warmly enough and we were all ready for hot chocolate when we came down.

The afternoon we went to the Beijing Zoo and saw the Pandas and later went to the clothing market. In the evening we saw the Beijing Acrobatic show.

Saturday we visited Tian anmen square and the summer palace and we drove by the Olympic site on the way to the airport. We arrived in Nanjing about 9:00 p.m.

Fourteen more weeks (but who's counting?)

The rain has stopped and we had a sunny morning. The basketball courts are busy again.

Bob got assigned one more class so now he has five classes (well four and a half).

There was a lot of activity here on campus today. Too bad I can't read the banners to find out what was going on. There was a very old car (maybe a 1940 Dodge) and a jeep parked across from the library. Bob thinks they are making a film of some sort.

Last week-end we went to Shanghai for a district church conference and stayed at the five star Renaissance Marriott Hotel. It was a luxury hotel and I loved it - especially the soft king-size bed. Bob had points so we didn't have to pay for our room. However we ran up a big bill in the restaurants and I got my hair done in the hotel. We left Nanjing on Friday and returned Sunday afternoon.

I paid Canadian prices for the hairdo - even more because the cost of the perm didn't include a shampoo and blow dry. I can't figure out how the hair stylists charge here in China. If we go to the campus shop it costs us a dollar for a cut without a shampoo or $1.20 if we have a shampoo. If we go outside the campus they ask you if you want the $4.00, $8.00 or $12.00 cut. Apparently the cost has to do with the experience of the stylist. In Shanghai they showed me a long list of perm prices and I chose the lowest and I think I got a stylist who was just learning because she got it half done and an older lady came out and yakked at her and then took all the perm curlers out and redid it.

In the hotel there was a Japanese Restaurant and an Italian restaurant among others. The food was great.

We took the subway in Shanghai for the first time. It seemed more complicated than the Nanjing subway but it was cheaper than taking a taxi and we made it to the train station with no problem.

It is not so great to teach writing because every time I write something I hope my students don't read it. It is hard to write the way I tell my students to write. Possibly I am in over my head. Some of my students are writing the GRE and I have never had experience with that. They have to write an issue essay and an argumentative essay on the test. Perhaps by the end of the term I will know what an argumentative essay is!

Bob had an exiting experience in the food store last week. The fire alarm went off and all the fire doors came crashing down. For half an hour he was locked in a small place. The fire exits did not open. However, it was a false alarm; there was no fire.

This is China

Last summer at our training seminar we were warned that some days we would turn up at class and find out that no-one had let us know there were no classes that day. Well yesterday I went to the other campus for my 4:00 p.m. class and someone else was having a class there. He looked at my schedule and said there must be a mistake and since there were no students waiting for an English writing class I figured he must be right. After a half hour of phone calls back and forth with my contact for the department I found out that my class had been the day previous. I had missed two classes.

Last Saturday evening the four couples on our China Teachers program decided to go out for supper. Originally the plan was to go to Salsa (a Mexican restaurant) but it had closed down. We heard it had moved but couldn't find out where. Plan B was to go to "Hamburger Place" so we met there and it was closed. There was a Chinese restaurant a few doors down from Hamburger place and it looked very busy. We went there and were pleasantly surprised. We enjoyed the meal.

These past two weeks we have had rain and more rain. Friday and Saturday it cleared off but by Saturday evening the rain was back. One day it was clear in the morning but suddenly it was very dark out. There was loud, loud thunder the rest of the day. The students said there was hail on the other campus on Wednesday but we didn't get it.

Here in Nanjing people ride bicycles and electric scooters and the rain doesn't stop them. They have interesting raincoats that cover the handlebars of the scooter or bicycle. I have tried to get a picture of the raincoats on the following video.

Regular Routine

We started back to classes this week. I only had two classes and the students that I had were all students I had last semester and to tell the truth it was good to see them again. Bob had his English class this morning.

Bob's schedule has been changed and he has all his classes Thursday and Friday. Next week I start the full schedule. I have three writing classes with 40 students each in 2 of them and 30 in the other. My Oral English classes have 19 and 31 students respectively.

Here is a picture showing the thermos bottles lines up outside the cafeteria. They are each about 18 inches high. In all the staff rooms at the teaching building they keep a couple of these filled with boiling water. We have two of them in our apartment but have never used them. I used to wonder what all the thermos bottles were for, but I have come to the conclusion that since the dorms don't have hot water, the students get them filled at the cafeteria and leave them outside while they eat. The Chinese don't think it is healthy to drink cold water. I really feel sorry for the students living without hot water. They are allowed to go to the bath house once a week for a hot shower. We often see them coming out of the bath house in their pjs with a towel wrapped around their head.

Here is a picture of a bicycle cart. We often see ones with much bigger loads.