2--Marcia will leave, Ashely will come

Thursday, May 13, about 6:15 am

Ni Hao, wei:

Wei, pron. way, is another kind of greeting--it sort of means 'are you there?' They answer the phone this way.

Little snippets of things to tell you this time. Some mornings around 9:30, I hear a drum beat, with cymbals. I look out the window and it is women dressed all in the same colour--sometimes carrying a banner--in Chinese of course. They are all carrying drums, or cymbals, with colourful small flags attached to the drumsticks. The rhythm is great, and the motions of the drumsticks/flags are all kind of choreographed. One day, I saw a huge rubber cow at the head of the 'parade'. On one occasion we were at Miss Yang's for lunch when this went by, and I asked what it was. It is advertising! This day, they were advertising milk. An advertising parade. Very pretty. Sometimes the advertising is done from a mini-van with loud speakers. I much prefer the people and drum version.

DVDs--I had heard that there are many pirated DVDs in China--I have actually watched several of them. How I know, is the picture is there, the subtitles are there, but the subtitles are behind other subtitles that belong to a different movie! The quality is poor. Recently I was watching one called "man on Fire" with Denzel Washington. It was pretty good! Near the end the digital things started breaking up, then it just stopped, and the credits from the other movie came on. I never got to see the ending--I think there was about 10 or 15 minutes left! It's pretty funny sometimes reading the jackets of the DVDs. The title of one, for example "The Foreigner" with Stephen Seagal--all the hype of the movie on the jacket, but on the back the English description of the movie is describing "Chocolat". Still, it's better than nothing!

I have been to two wedding dinners in the last week. One was a man from the Dept. of Education. The other was one of our students. I'll tell you about the one with the student, since I know her a bit better. A couple of the teachers went, and another woman, a former colleague of Xiao Ting's. The other woman's name is Kelly, and the bride is her niece. We arrive at a big restaurant around 6 pm. The bride and groom are all dressed up--over-full make-up for both of them. The bride has false eyelashes (always--not just this bride), they have sparkles on their faces and hair--even the groom is made up a bit. (NOTE: I happened to see a program on Chinese TV where the make-up for weddings was being shown--for both the bride and the groom--mostly for the photos--a huge deal!) Anyway, the bride is wearing a traditional Western style gown--white! The guests come in and sit down--people are not dressed up like they are at home. They wear blue jeans, or just everyday wear. ON the table are snacks of peanuts, sunflower seeds, candies. There is tea, beer served. The dishes--about 10-15 different ones--start to appear. During the course of the meal, the bride and groom, who are not sitting anywhere, go from table to table with drinks, greeting each guest and thanking them for coming to help celebrate. This time the bride is dressed in traditional Chinese red. By the time the bride and groom get to the end of all the tables--this time there were about 15-20 tables, with 10 people at each table, the dinner is over. The bride and groom stand at the door and say good-bye to everyone as they leave. I was home by 7:30! During the dinner though, I asked Kelly a bit about Chinese weddings. I have never been able to get answers before, so this was good. The actual wedding is a non-event. There is no ceremony. They go to a government office, and with their parents' agreement, and the declaration of their love for each other, they get a license that says they are married! That's it! This can be anytime before the wedding feast. In this case the bride and groom had been married for about 2 months. The day of the feast, the bride spends an hour getting makeup done. The bride's family hosts a big lunch for a hundred people or more. The bride wears red for the lunch. The groom is at the lunch. After lunch, the groom and the groomsmen take the bride away (I never found out where. After awhile, the bride spends another hour having makeup done and they 'go for photos'. The bride is now wearing white. After that, the groom's family hosts the huge feast at dinner time. The bride changes clothes quite a few times, from red to white and back to red again during the day. The couple does not receive wedding gifts, but red envelopes containing money. I gave the bride one of these red envelopes, but I was told it would be returned to me. The Chinese say they respect their teachers like they respect their parents, and they would not accept a red envelope from any teacher. It was their honour, not ours, that we attended the wedding feast. At least I was not surprised or hurt when the red envelope came back to me. This was a fun dinner to attend--about 10 of her current classmates were there, so I knew some people. I put to use some of the Chinese toasts I have learned--about happiness forever, good luck forever--I said them in Chinese of course. What a civilized way to get married!! I think it's much better than the stressful way we do it. When I told Kelly how we do the wedding thing, she couldn't believe that everything happened all on the same day!

Some students from Class 1 invited us to go up a mountain one day. The drive in a mini-bus, with 12 people in it, took about 20 minutes to get to the base of the mountain, then about an hour up this incredibly rocky, broken up road. We stopped at one point, on a stone bridge, near a tiny village, because the road was blocked. A construction truck was having its tire changed. So all traffic was held up for about half an hour--it didn't seem to be any big deal; we just stood or sat by the side of the road and chatted, but as soon as the truck was back in action, everyone piled into their cars and the horns started honking! It wasn't like anyone could move any faster than they were. I think it was the power, or the habit maybe, of leaning on the horn! Finally we reached a temple grounds part way up the mountain. This was as far as the van could go. We did not go into the temple here, but started walking up the mountain. This was called Liang Hua, or Lotus, Mountain. There are just over 1000 steps to the very top. Worth every step! At the top we could see everywhere. We could see Ningdu in the distance off one side, and farmlands, villages and other mountains off the other sides. The sky was clear and blue, the air was fresh, but the view was a tiny bit hazy. Over the tops of some mountains we could see the Mei River winding its way through the countryside. At the top of the mountain was a TV station--small, but there were people working there. We climbed out onto some rocks, of course took lots of photos. The view was spectacular! All too soon it was time to go down again. We were going to have lunch at the temple, but they didn't expect so many people that day (a bus came while we were at the top), so they didn't prepare enough food. We would have had to wait for over an hour. That would have been fine with me, but everyone wanted to return to Ningdu. So we ended up eating at Xiao Ting's sister-in-law's restaurant again. An absolutely wonderful day--this was in the May holiday, on a Tuesday. Marcia did not go because she was still sick. Actually I think she had pneumonia. She had a severe cold, was so tired she couldn't drag herself anywhere. She only took 3 days off school. Her cough was wicked and she said she was coughing up all kinds of stuff. She is better now, but she missed a lot of activity.
May holiday was 2 days for us. This was good, because if we had the regular 7 days, we would have had to work the weekend before and the weekend after to get the holiday.

Saturday, some students from the other class invited us to visit Cui Wei Mountain. It is a very famous mountain in these parts. We took a city bus to a little park at the bottom of the mountain. We went to the bird park. Peacocks, turkeys, beautiful red birds, ducks, baby peacocks. The male peacocks strutted their stuff for us. Contained in this bird park is a little 'bird show'. There are trained cock-a-toos, some mackaws (sp??), and a huge beautiful parrot! The woman showed us the tricks the birds could do. One of the tricks was to take a specified amount of money out of our hands. People handed me various denominations of jiao and told me to hold it in a fan, like cards. The parrot flew and landed on my arm, waited for me to tell him which one to take--he would take the right one and fly away, back to his owner/trainer.

Continuing up the mountain, we saw an emu and an ostrich. We also heard there was a wild pig and some monkeys, but we didn't see them. It had rained steadily for 3 days preceding this, so the steps and pathways were a little slippery. We could not climb to the top, it was too dangerous they said. Anyway, we kept going--lots of things to see on the way. The view was amazing. The air was clear!! This time there was about 15 students with us. Marcia was too tired to climb very far, so 2 students stayed behind with her while the rest of us went on. We came to the actual Cui Wei Mountian, which is a karst-like mound. Very tall. To get to the top one must go into this tiny crevice where there are metal rungs between the rocks. It is dark and narrow, and this day was very, very wet because of all the rain. We decided not to go to the top. We could save that for another day, when the other foreigner arrived. We arrived at a Taoist Temple, called Jing Jin Cave. The temple is built right into the mountain--walk behind it and we are under the roof of a cave which looks out over a beautiful valley. There were beautifully carved seats and tables out of some kind of dark grain wood. On a 'stage' there were over a hundred bells all hanging. Every bell made a different sound. There was no one there at that time to play the bells, but they looked like they would sound beautiful. It was time to go as everyone was getting hungry. There was a bus waiting at the front of the temple that took us back to where we started at the bird park, where some students had left their bikes. The bus took the rest of us back to town, where we found Marcia and the other two students having lunch. We joined them. This was the last weekend Marcia would be here, so as many were with us as could make it.

May 5, according to the lunar calendar, is the first day of summer here. According to tradition, everyone eats eggs that day. There is a festival at night--of course I heard extra noise, but didn't know what it was until the next day. On May 5, a student gave Marcia and I each a boiled egg, in a small, loosely woven basket-type thing, which we were supposed to wear around our necks. They said all the children do that. I kept it around my neck for about a minute, then since I was to teach another class before lunch, took it off. I ate the egg that night, as required--I don'tknow what she boiled it in, but it was the best boiled egg I have ever eaten!! And I still have the beautiful little hanger the egg came in.

We asked Xiao Ting about the new foreigner. Where was he or she from, when was he/she arriving, where would he/she stay? There was a lot of chat in Chinese, and we never got the answer! This was Monday. Marcia was leaving Wednesday. Monday night I got an email from Jennifer telling me the new foreigner was arriving Tuesday night, her name was Ashley and she was from Canada. I happened to see Marcia and Xiao Ting shortly after, told Marcia, and Xiao Ting said, oh yes, I forgot to tell you. And Owen is coming too. Well, maybe she never would have told us!

Ok, now on to yesterday--Wednesday. This week, Marcia has been receiving all kinds of little gifts from the students. She and Xiao Ting, Miss Yang and a driver were going to be leaving Wednesday morning for Ganzhou, about an hour and a half from here, where they would visit the sights of Ganzhou, and Marcia would leave Thursday morning for Shanghai, spend a day and a night there, then leave for Seoul, spend a night there, then go on to San Francisco, and on to Denver. Well, things change. Some things could not change, such as the times of Marcia's flights; but Wednesday morning turned out to be a big celebration! We were to meet at 7:50 for photographs--all the students, leaders, foreign teachers. We went to the gates of the Department at 7:50 am, and were led to a big room. Microphones, chairs, the whole works. We had been warned the night before that we may have to say a few words. Two of the students acted as MCs--one spoke English, the other translated into Chinese. Owen and the new foreign teacher had arrived. Three foreign teachers, 2 leaders, 4 Chinese teachers, and Owen, all sat at the 'head table'. All 3 foreign teachers spoke--a student on behalf of all the students, Xiao Ting on behalf of the teachers. As I looked around the room at these students who work so hard and who have become such a huge part of my life over the last 3 months, I saw many of the girls in tears and had a hard time holding back my own tears. Poor Marcia. Even the new foreigner, Ashley, said she had a hard time holding back, just from the emotional energy in the room! Flowers were presented to each of us. They talked about how hard we have worked, how devoted we are to our jobs, our students, and how much they have learned. I talked about how much we have learned from them, how they welcomed us with open arms. I said I would explain that term 'with open arms,' in class this afternoon. I talked about why this was both a sad day and a joyous day. I told them about being a foreigner in a strange place, and how Marcia and I kept each other company during the times when we needed to feel a familiar language and presence. I also told them that 2 and a half months ago, I had introduced Marcia to my favourite Chinese candy (many of them knew it--marcia had told them), and I reached into my pockets and pulled out 2 large bags of QQs "for the road". That broke up the emotion a bit--everyone cheered and laughed, including Marcia. QQs are like ju-jubes, but smaller, softer, and they are fruit flavoured. They taste just like the fruit they represent. Gifts were presented to Marcia--after the speeches, outside for many photos. It was now almost 10:30 am, and the students had the rest of the morning off.

Owen came to my apartment for while. It was so nice to see him. It was like seeing family! He said he would have a meeting with the director of the Bd of Ed.--he happens to be Xiao Ting's husband. Owen says Mr. Xie is the director, but he thought it was Xiao Ting who ran everything! Owen told me it was 80% certain that I would be able to stay here in Ningdu. Soon it was time for lunch. At lunch a business meeting was being held between the director and Owen. When the meeting was over, the car arrived back at school to pick up Marcia, Owen, Xiao Ting and Miss Yang, who would all go to Ganzhou together. Owen told me at this time that it is now 100% certain that I would be able to stay here--in the same apartment. Yippee!!! he said his contract was not with individual school, but with the Department of Education, and they wanted him to send 15 foreign teachers. They would place foreign teachers in all the schools in Ningdu county. I don't know where I will be teaching next semester--there will not be another teacher training program right now. The Department will tell me which school I will be teaching in. At least I can stay here, and not have to pack and move again!
Meanwhile, Marcia's luggage was being loaded into the car--many students were crowded around to say good-bye--many, many tears. The students have become like our children and just before Marcia got into the car, she gave me a hug, and said for me to look after them for her. So many tears!!

We had classes yesterday afternoon. Ashley wanted to sit in on my classes--I didn't want to follow a lesson plan, because it would mean that one class would be way ahead of the other, so I asked if anyone had any questions about the day's events. Someone said, yes, ask Ashley questions. So she took over the class, then we went to the next class and answered questions there, too. This was good! The students asked her many, many questions--they welcomed her with open arms as they had Marcia and I many weeks ago. She seems like she will be ok. She smokes, but Marcia and I let her know right away that this was not good. Owen had already told her not to smoke in front of the students. Not too many women in China smoke, yet they want to take on some of the ways of the Western world. A foreign woman smoking would be introducing a thing to China that is not yet very common. She understood, and said she has been trying to cut down anyway. I'll let you know how this unfolds.

That's it for now. I'll be sending more photos in a day or 2. In about 2 more weeks, the photos I send will approximately match the email I send.
Meanwhile, keep the emails coming--keep well, keep happy, and keep smiling!

Love, Mom/Judy

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