10--January,2003

On January 3d, our neighbor Mr. Su, came over for some help with a book he was proofreading. He was having trouble making sense of the passage which he did not understand. There were some lines missing in the book and that made the expression senseless. Dick did some research for him on the
X-Scanned: By Symantec Anti-Virus Scan Enginesubject, black inventors, and found information about the phrase that had caused the trouble.

It was quite interesting to find out that Elijah McCoy, the inventor of the "automatic drip lubrication cup", was the son of slaves who ended up in Canada, probably via the underground railway. McCoy was sent to Scotland to University and became a mechanical engineer. Returning to the US he was unable to get recognition and went to work as a steam fireman, machinist. etc. This is when he started designing machine components and among them was the drip cup which became standard equipment on locomotives and other machinery requiring constant lubrication. His designs were superior to anything else and soon, if someone wanted the best of a product, they insisted on "the real McCoy"! (What would we do without the internet and Prof. Google?).

While we were talking, Mr. Su alluded to lunch several times, and we finally responded and got our coats and shoes on. Once we were on the second floor, in front of Mr. Su's door, he hesitated and I guess no one was really sure what was happening. It was a little awkward, so I quickly said "are you going to join us?" and he seemed relieved and went inside to get his coat on and then we all walked over to the dumpling place. He told us the name of the restaurant was "Two Brothers". We always learn so much from this gentleman who is so well educated and so very interested in helping us. We tried to decide what to have for lunch, and I spoke up that it shouldn't be too spicy (like most Shandong foods are) because my throat was still bothering me quite badly. That's when Mr. Su piped up and said there is a vegetable that is good for your throat. At first we had decided on the corn and pine nuts, but to Dick's dismay, they didn't have any. So then we opted for this medicinal vegetable called Shan Yao, literally translated it means mountain medicine. It's a long root with white meat which is quite crunchy, almost like water chestnuts. It was served with meat and a vinegary sauce, really delicious. We have found a new favorite here again.

During the meal Mr. Su was telling us about some of the Chinese traditional medicine methods, mostly because I had expressed an interest in it. There is some very old wisdom in it, and then again, some folklore as well. He and Dick were sharing a small bottle of the white lightning, and had a very lively conversation. At the end of the meal, Dick asked Mr. Su if he would
be our Chinese teacher, and Mr. Su said he wanted to also teach us about the history and culture. We know that he likes to do that, because every time we visit, he shares a little more of the information. He has told us about the songs on the VCD of zither music, about the tradition of the phoenix playing in the chrysanthemums and the dragon being surrounded by pearls. He has told us some short versions of the old stories and some of the history so far. In addition to being a good source of information, this kind, sweet little man also has an excellent grasp on the English language. However, he admitted that he does not always get our meaning when we talk to him.

My response to that is that no one can learn a language in a situation where they are not exposed to the language being spoken. That's how the Chinese are expected to learn English, in a vacuum. They learn words and grammar till the cows come home, but they are not exposed to the language by living, breathing human beings who speak it all the time. This county has only the two of us, and we have to really slow down our speech for them. Any English they do get, such as movies, are usually translated for them. And then there is the English music sung by Chinese children, you can call that Chinglish. It's no wonder they find our language so difficult, almost as difficult as we are finding learning Chinese.

We have been working at that, but you have to imagine this. You want to say something in Chinese, so you look up the word in the English-Chinese dictionary. What do you suppose is there? Chinese characters, but no pinyin (the remained way to say Chinese words). So then, if you are brave
enough, you can look up the character in the Chinese-English dictionary and IF you recognize it, you can find out how to pronounce the word. This can take literally hours, because there are thousands of characters and quite often the first dictionary offers anywhere from 2 to 6 characters in the translation. This means that you can go through the process up to 6 times
before you may get a hit. And to boot, the second dictionary has such tiny print that we need a magnifying glass to read the pinyin and determine which tone to apply to the pronunciation. Now, once you have figured out what a word is in Chinese, don't think that that is the end of it. The same word, but different characters, can have dozens of other meanings. I don't understand how these people can understand each other!Anyway, we have asked Mr. Su to help us, and we will talk to the school about proper remuneration for his efforts. We have a feeling we will have to pay
him ourselves, though, but to get a rough idea of how much would be nice.After our lengthy meal, Mr. Su insisted on paying, and it seemed that Dick had really enjoyed the screech. He picked up the remainder of the bottle, which had about an inch left in it, and stuck it in his pocket. It's a good thing we were in a private room and that I was the only one in there, because I watched the stuff leave a trail as he was putting it in his pocket - it had no lid on it! So I quickly whisked it away from Dick and told him we really didn't need anymore at home, we still had 5 large bottles to finish (which we'll never do). I had a good chuckle at my husband's expense this time.

A couple of days later we were able to get some help to go to the post office. For mail to Canada we can do this ourselves, but this was to go to Owen in the south, and we needed someone to write the Chinese addresses for us. We had to send our passports to Owen to have the visa are renewed. So Dick went down with the school car and managed to get it done.

After lunch we decided to go to the market, as we needed some vegetables. It's always amazing how cheap they are, and how fresh. Now that the weather is cold, the vendors keep a lot of the more delicate veggies in bins and wrap them in quilts. The woman we bought from last time treated us well, so we went for some repeat business, which they always appreciate. We end up with freebies of garlic and cilantro and such. We spent Y6.70 and had a bag full of vegetables, and then another Y2.10 got us about 6 or 8 mandarin oranges.While Dick was picking out the vegetables, I watched a woman across the way kill chickens. It seemed like such a routine task to her, and she did it
quite quickly. The chicken's head would be pulled back and held over a bowl on the table, then she would run the knife over the chicken's throat a couple of times and let the blood drain into the bowl (they probably use it for something), and once the blood was drained and the chicken stopped
struggling, she threw the chicken down into a vat of boiling water. I watched from a distance, it's not the type of thing that a city girl gets too close too, you know what I mean?

After the market we decided to stop at the grocery store and pick up our regular goodies. There are some sesame squares that we really like as well as some other cookies, and then we always get oatmeal and brown sugar and other staple goods there. The staff is so friendly to us and they always try to help out where they can. This particular time there was a woman in the store, a customer, who decided she was going to help me. I reached for the sesame squares and she told me they weren't good, I should try the ones next to them. So I got a bag of those as well as our favorites. She followed us throughout the store and tried to tell me what's good. At one
point she figured I didn't understand (and she was right) so she came really close to my ear and yelled in it. I can still feel my eardrums burst when I think about it! It's so funny how people confuse hearing with understanding. We laughed about it while walking home.

When we got home we managed to fix the spigot on the (new) water dispenser which had started leaking. We didn't want a repeat of the episode in the fall, so we've decided to do as much maintenance ourselves as we possibly can. Being do-it-yourselfers is our nature anyway, so it felt good to be able to figure these things out.

Later we had a visit from Jessica and Amanda and Jessica's cousin who was very quiet. Jessica came to show us her pictures that had been taken on her birthday. They did make up on her and dressed her up like a model and she looked gorgeous. She also showed us some pictures of herself as a little girl. I was so impressed with them that I took a picture of the pictures. Then the girls asked if they could watch TV and that's when I realized that they were actually on their weekend off and had made an effort to come over so they could watch one of our new DVD's. Dick's sister, Iris, had sent us Lassie and we had promised the girls they could watch it next time they
came.

We watched it and they understood what was happening even if they didn't catch all the language. It's pretty much how we watch Chinese movies. You understand from circumstances what they are talking about, and the actions are pretty much universal. The girls cried when they thought Lassie had died, but there were sighs of relief when the good old pooch resurfaced at the end of the movie. They loved it!

Grace also loved it. She came over a week later to watch it. I love how she can be so totally at home with us. She takes candy from the dish and asks for coffee and if she can watch TV. It's like she's our own kid. The Grade 3 weekend happens only once every 4 weeks, and is usually alternate to the Grade 2 weekends. So this was Grace's day off. She wanted to see the movie, so we put it on and I watched it with her for a while. But I had my Senior classes to do, so I left her in front of the TV and Dick behind the computer and went to class.

I did one class and taught them "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea". Dick had done a poster for me with very meaningful artwork to explain all the words, and I taped it on the blackboard and managed to get them through the song in its entirety. They laughed and had a great time, but what they don't realize is that they are learning to overcome the "robot talk" that they have been taught up until now. Sometimes the teachers criticize me for talking to fast, but I tell them I have to teach the students to talk fast because that's how we talk. We don't separate our words or give full notes to every syllable like they do. We us rhythm, and these nonsense songs help
me to teach that. They had a great time again.

In between my two Senior classes I went into the teacher's lounge/office. I visited with the teachers there, and felt much better received by them since the Christmas dinner together. They always ask questions, and we had a nice conversation. Then all of a sudden I was told that I couldn't teach the next class because the students had to go home to get money for the next
term. Again, planning is not a requirement in Chinese schools, it seems. So I went home to visit with my little friend.

I got home to find Grace and Dick in conversation on the couch and watching some program on TV. The movie had ended and Grace had loved it, like I knew she would. She had coffee with us and we visited for a while longer. Then we decided that she should come for supper with us. She was very willing, so we all walked to Mork and Mindy's and we let Grace order. She told us that she likes meat, so she ordered some chicken and mutton and tomatoes, we thought. Well, it turns out she confused tomatoes with potatoes - no problem. The chicken was great, it came in a spicy broth with large leaves of gelatin floating in it. They were Grace's favorite, she said. I tried
them too, and they were good, not to mention what it has done for my nails. The mutton was actually tripe, which never turned me on much at home, but it was actually a tasty dish. We visited with Grace for a while and she told us that she had had a dream about being our child and living in Canada. I told her it could happen.

Mork and Mindy were doing some mulled wine, and we decided to buy a bottle from them and they gave us the ginger and other spices to put in it. Then it was time to get Grace on her way to her aunt's house, that's where she goes on her weekends. Going home is out of the question for two reasons: it's way too long for the day-and-a-half weekend they get, and she gets carsick.
So we walked to the grocery store on the corner, and Grace decided she would come in with us while we picked up whatever we needed. The store owner asked us where we got the bottle of wine and showed us the better wine we could get right in her store.

I bought some of the really good Dove chocolate bars, and once we were outside the store again, I gave one to Grace. I know she loves chocolate (this kid could live in Canada no problem - coffee and chocolate). Then we walked her to the "bus", which was actually one of the many three wheeled
bike carts that offer taxi services. We made sure she got on one and then we walked home. Another wonderful day with a little angel.

In the evening I tried to phone my daughter to wish her happy birthday, but still couldn't get an overseas call through. But at least there was a positive thing to it, the message came on in English this time and told us we were not signed up for the service. At least I now knew what was wrong, now we just had to get someone to help us with it. But, later that night I did manage to chat with Connie on the internet, so all ended well.

A few days later Mr. Lu came to the apartment to get my office key. The office they had given us at the school was now being used by some other teachers, which was fine by us as we preferred doing our office work in our nice warm apartment. He also asked if we would be willing to do an extra week of teaching in the week of Feb 6 to 13. We had no problem with that, but we haven't received anymore information about that. I guess if it's a go, it'll have to be last minute planning as usual.

Mr. Lu asked if there was anything he could do for us, so we mentioned the packages we still wanted to send home, but we got the usual blank stare about that topic. Then I remembered the phone, and asked him to help us register. He did so, but a few minutes later the phone company called to tell him that they needed our ID cards. We didn't have our passports as they had been sent to Owen, so I brought out the birth certificates. He took them so he could go to the phone company later that day. I know, most of you are saying "what are you doing giving away all of your ID like that?" and in Canada I wouldn't even dream of doing that, but here in China we have
complete trust in these people, and they still haven't let us down. We got them back the next day, no problem.

We went for dinner at Mork and Mindy's, but this time I took the camera. We knew that there was a billboard sign of our school on the building kitty-corner from their restaurant. I took some pics of the billboard and then Dick bought bananas. Of course Mork had to give us advice on the ananas. There were a couple of ripe ones that were OK to eat, but the rest were no good and we would have to wait three days before eating them. It's so amazing how much he can communicate with very little words. He is really a treasure.

Of course in talking about the bananas they had to know how much we paid, and then they brought out a scale to check if we got ripped off. Well, that's the scale that Dick has been talking about getting for as long as we've been in China. A collector never gives up on these things, you know.
So with the help of our trusty dictionary I managed to tell them that we wanted to buy one of these scales and that Dick has a collection at home. They said in three days, on the 17th, it would be there.The 17th was a Friday and I don't have classes on Friday, which means I was
now officially on my Winter Holiday. Dick had two more classes to teach, or so we thought, and then he too would have his holiday. However, while in the middle of his first class, he was interrupted by a teacher who had very little English. It seems that the kids were writing more exams today and Dick didn't need to teach his classes. So that means he's on his holiday
too.

We decided to go to the market because I needed to replace my knitting needles that keep breaking. We ventured to the market and bought some other little things and then decided to go to Mork and Mindy's. When we got there, the other man we still haven't identified, but we suspect he's
Mindy's older brother, came out with the long wished for scale. I asked how much it was and he motioned that they didn't want money, it was a gift. And what a gift it was! They showed us how to use it and how to read the measurements. It goes to 4kg on one side and then to 15kg on the other
side. It's a treasure we'll proudly display when we get back home, and even now it has a place on the wall in the kitchen.

We also have found some calendars that have beautiful Chinese paintings on them as well as the regular and the lunar calendar. One of them is hanging on our wall and a couple of them got wrapped up to go with the now really late Christmas presents.

We found out from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing that China Post does send parcels by surface mail, but we just have to find a larger post office to do it. So we have requested to be taken to Jinan so that we can send the stuff, but we've been told it will have to wait until after Chinese New Year because the car needs some repairs and is not roadworthy for long trips.
Well, we've waited this long and there's really nothing else we can do.

On the weekend Aaron called us to let us know that he is home for his holiday and to invite us, so we decided to go and visit his family on the 21st. We made arrangements to meet him at 3 pm. We were late leaving, so we would have to catch a bus. We met Mr. Lu on the corner of the main
street, and he asked us where we were going. We told him, and he informed us that any of the small buses would be OK to take and to pay one Yuan. We bought a box of grapes as a gift, to go with the bottle of screech that we had brought from home, and we waited for the bus. We got on the number 2, and paid our 1 Yuan each. But, when we got to market street the bus turned left. We decided to get off and walk the rest of the way, since now we had lots of time.

We walked up the street towards the department store, and noticed we were a little early. So we stopped in at the phone company to pay our bill. Then we went on to meet Aaron. Once we got to the department store we could see him smiling and waving and we quickly shook his hand and walked to his home together. He told us we shouldn't have brought gifts because we were friends, but we did anyhow.

He told us that there was a girl which he refers to as his "sister" (not his real sister) who wanted to meet us. She was an English major in university in Jinan. Her mother and Aaron's dad were classmates, make that desk mates, in school. That relationship carries a lot of weight in China, people carry these friendships on for life.

We were met by this girl and Aaron's mother at the door and we were told to sit down in the living room. Aaron did most of the talking initially. We were given tea in plastic cups and offered sunflower seeds. After a while the oranges came out, and you can't have just one orange. They peel them for you and you have to eat them.

Some time later the mother got up to prepare supper. Aaron also got up to help out a few times, and at one point carried out a large stack of bowls. Both Dick and I needed to use the bathroom (public outhouse in the compound, spotless I might add) and when we got back, food was already on the table. At this point I hadn't clued in yet, but this was restaurant food. I realized that the next day when I remembered that she had asked if this food was better than the restaurant food. It seemed to be prepared too quickly to be done on her one-burner stove outside, and she didn't have all those ingredients out there. No big deal, but it was cute that she felt she had to hide the source of the meal.

After we ate, the girl's parents came over and we had a great visit. We were invited to the father's jujube orchard and they wanted us over for New Year's. We got their phone number, and then I said we probably needed to have an English name with that. So it was agreed that we would pick one for the girl who had done most of the translating for her parents, the whole time sitting close to her dad and putting her hands on his back or on his arms. Dick mentioned "Margaret" and a couple of other names, all of them beginning with M. We finally agreed on "Melanie". She liked it. We made some good friends again. Mel's mother held my hand for a good long time and we had a great conversation with the help of our two young translators.

They arranged for a car to take us home because the buses only go to 6 pm. Aaron's dad is no longer working for the schoolboard (retirement age is now 50, apparently, and he is 51). Now he and a friend run a transport company. He came home quite late, and was happy to see us. I think he had been into some happy juice prior to coming home, though. No biggy, these people are happy no matter what.

We waited for him to visit a friend in the hospital and then the driver took us home. We had spent about 6 hours with these people. Their house was cold, the power went out for a while, it's a very basic brick cottage in a row of about five or six units, but the warmth and friendly hospitality was completely unbeatable!!

The next day I didn't have a lot of energy and decided to veg on the couch. That turned into two days of sleeping off a kind of flu bug that really didn't have any symptoms, just complete lethargy and aches and pains. After the two days, it came out as a bit of a sinus cold, but fortunately healed very quickly. Thanks to Reiki, I think.

A few days later, on the 28th to be exact, Mr. Liu and Mr. Zhang came over to our apartment with a bunch of groceries. They brought us a case of "wine", the white lightning kind, some bottles of grape wine, fruit and bags and bags of dumplings. We certainly wouldn't starve over the holiday. One of the fruits they bought us we still haven't identified. The Chinese name Mr. Zhang gave us was "you ganzi", it's a small green berrylike fruit that has crunchy meat and is very aromatic. I think it smells like vanilla, but Dick says it's nutmeg. It tastes good, but you can't eat too many of them all at once. Definitely an exotic item. The best identification we have been able to come up with so far is that they are Indian Gooseberries with all sorts of good health and nutritional value, high in Vit. C, a reducer of bad cholesterol, among other things.

While they were there, they asked if we could host a few of the teachers and we would make dumplings for a journalist to record on film. We said sure, and the following morning Dick went to pick up some stuff from the store. I cleaned up a little bit, and then the phone rang. Change of plans. We were now going to the countryside by car and we would make dumplings for supper
instead. They would pick us up about 2:30.

We walked over to the school gate around 2:30 and waited with Mr. Wong and Mr. Sun for the others to arrive. When they came we got into the car and we went for a drive in the country. Turns out we were headed for Mr. Zhang's home and we would meet his family and make dumplings there. We took a very bumpy shortcut to avoid the 5 day market that was in his town that day. Then we stopped at a place where an old man, an artist, lived. They took us into his home and we sat down on his antique Chinese furniture. Then he brought out the Chinese dolls that he makes. They appear to be made of gourds covered in clay and then paper. Only the front is painted in bright greens, yellows and pinks on white. They are weighed down at the bottom to give them the feature of being wobbly without ever falling over. We were told to pick two and we picked a large and a small one. Apparently this art is more than 400 years old in this locality. More treasures to bring home.

The next stop was at a greenhouse. Dick had asked some questions about the crops, so they took us to look at the greenhouses. These are constructed with wood frames covered with straw and mud to form a wall about 7' high and up to 200' long. There is a wood frame, over which poly sheets are
fastened. Over this, a kind of long narow mat made of straw is laid down with a rope system that allows it to be rolled up in the morning and down in the evening, from a ledge at the back of the structure.

We went into the greenhouse and were amazed at how warm they are. They were growing tomatoes and there were plants at varying stages of development. Because this winter the area had experienced a lot of fog, the tomatoes were not nearly as far along as they should have been. It was definitely
interesting to see, and the journalist didn't miss a beat in recording our reactions. I've come to ignore cameras very well these days. Can't do anything about the way I look, so why worry about it, right?

Next we went to Mr. Zhang's parents' house. He was so proud to have us go there. His parents were old, in their late 70's, but very healthy and strong. Mr. Zhang told us that he had a very large family. He has two brothers and two sisters and he is the youngest. There were a total of 14
people in his family, I haven't tried to figure out the math in that. There was a picture on the wall of his graduating class, and Mr. Liu was in it as well. Turns out it's that classmate relationship which is where their strong bond comes from. Now it makes sense.

We were asked to go into the kitchen and they showed us how to make the dumplings. We scooped the filling and put it on the little round noodles and then pressed the tops together. Next we pushed in the sides and then we had to do this butterfly move. Not sure if we did it right, but it was fun trying.

Then all of a sudden we were told it was time to go back. So I was made to sit down on the antique chair and Mrs. Zhang held my hands. I uttered the word "Nainai" which means grandma, and she motioned that she had seven grandchildren. She looked very proud. It's not many grandmothers in China who can top that number. Then the women started stuffing my pockets with candy and peanuts. They told us we were invited back for next year and then we said our goodbyes to the family. Oh, not until after the family picture. Now it was time to go.

Once back in Huimin, we went to Mr. Wong's father in law. We sat down at the little table with its trays of fruit, nuts and candy. I had just peeled an orange, which I never got to eat, and then we were told to help hang the posters outside the door. It's a Chinese tradition to hang two poems on the outside of the door and also something above the door. They usually refer to good wishes for the new year, and having a guest put them up is quite an honor. So Dick was asked to hang them, and I took the pictures, all the while being filmed by the journalist. Dick felt quite honored to be asked to do this, it's a real Chinese tradition.

The next stop was at the fireworks (open air) market. They shopped around for just the right items, and then we went back to the school. They set up the fireworks on the basketball court and also gave some of the sparklers to the kids that had showed up, Mike, Henry and a couple of little ones.

We then went back to make dumplings and have supper at our house. Mrs. Liu and another woman came over with their big bowls, one had filling and the other had dough. They rearranged the kitchen so they could work in it, and we now had dumplings well on the way. We did some more stuff for the camera and then made dumplings in the living room so they could shoot that.The dumplings were served, and some people ate one or two, but this was mostly for promotional purposes, so people now started to leave. They asked us to do a little interview on air, and Mr. Liu came up with the Chinese lines I was able to utter: Zhong Guo hen hao; Huimin hen hao; Guang Yuan
hen hao. Women shi hao pengyou. Zhu da xia xin nian kuaile. Translation is as follows: China is very good; Huimin is very good; Guan Yuan (school) is very good. We are good friends. We wish you all a happy new year. I had to do three takes to get it right, but we managed.

Then everyone left except Mr. Zhang and Mr. Sun. They ate a few dumplings with us, but we did most of the eating. We visited for a short while, and then they left too, but after they did the dishes for us. They also took the rest of the dumpling supplies back to Mrs. Liu, since they didn't really expect us to make dumplings and she was going to need her things.

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