Life in the "fast lane"‏

Dear Family and Friends:
What a week we have had ! ! ! We have been to Beijing and back and had many visitors as well as teaching our wonderful Chinese students.
Last week Liz, Zoie, Trudy and Lily came to the apartment for lunch and I served them pasta/shrimp salad as well as peanut butter and honey sandwiches. They loved the food and they were so much fun to entertain. Such happy, appreciative girls. The following day we had one of Dad's class monitors, Cindy, come for lunch and I served spaghetti with garlic bread. She is an older student and she did not like the food as well and only ate half of it. I personally like my students the best - they are so appreciative and loving! By the way,
way I am NOT prejudice to my students at all! The same evening, Kay, Paula, Dawn and Ellen came for their first visit. They are all Freshmen as well and they are so full of questions and ideas. I love to have them come to our humble little apartment - they think it is wonderful.
Thanksgiving day we flew out to Beijing at 6:45 a.m. and it was one of those long, busy, good, days. I was so thankful for the busy schedule - it left no time to think of home and the things we were missing....We shopped till we literally "dropped". We ate at TGI Fridays and at the best Sizzler ever. No turkey...... And, it wasn't even missed - only the good times and family were missed. As we sat at the restaurant and talked of family and the many things were thankful for, I thought of all of you and the fun you were having together. How I missed you! I love you all so much and I realized (again) how very much I love you. You are the most precious thing I have. If every material item I own were taken from me and I still had all of you, I would be rich indeed...Please know that I think of each of you daily and you are individually mentioned in my daily prayers.
Beijing is gorgeous and the most beautiful, large, clean, city we have visited. The Great Wall is breathtaking and everything we dreamed it would be. The Olympic "Water Cube" and "Bird Nest" was awesome. Tiananmen Square is impressive as is the Forbidden City. My favorites were the fabled Summer Palace - the resort home of the Dowager Empress "Ci Xi" and the Temple of Heaven. I will go back to Beijing before I leave China - there are so many things to see and I need to spend more time there. Oh - and we had the famous Peking Roast Duck for dinner one night :( yuck..
We also saw a fantastic acrobat show - unbelieveable........
Our time in China is passing fast. We have been here for 4 months now and I feel like I am part Chinese. I love these people and their customs. They have such a love of family and I feel such a kinship to them. I truly believe that they do not look any different than my own family, who I love so dearly. They have the sweetest spirits and I see much love in their eyes. They are so dear to my heart and they will always remain there. They have the cutest sense of humor and they see humor in all things. I love being with my students - how privileged I am to live among them. I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the opportunity we have to be here.
Our week is filling fast with many appointments to have the students in our apartment. They love to speak English in a private setting, and we welcome them here. I have found the neatest little shopping area with many vendors and I will venture there tomorrow with my friend, Nona. I have made friends with several of the "merchants" and I love to go visiting/shopping there. Neither one of us understands the other - BUT - we do manage to deal. I love it....
Oh - almost forgot to tell you about our harrowing ride home from the airport Sunday night!!! Our plane arrived right on time and we all picked up our luggage but Julie Miller, who lost her suitcase AGAIN....Anyway, we were told that there would be a driver at the airport to transport us to our University and we were gleeful thinking that we would arrive home early. WRONG. The driver appeared to know where we were headed, but we should have suspected something was amiss when we all loaded the bus and he just sat in the
drivers seat and did nothing...He spoke no English and we spoke no Chinese. We telephoned Wu Yu - our travel agent - and he told the driver to take us home. I am not kidding when I say that we did not recognize any of our surroundings as we headed toward the city. The bus appeared to have no shock absorbers, only one gear and the driver kept pushing the gas pedal and then taking his foot off the gas pedal - lunging us back and forth, to and fro...As we were riding along, we noticed that there were no headlights on and finally he turned them on. Each time he would brighten the headlights and then dim them - they would go different directions.....Unbelieveable. We rode on the most awful, frightening, road that was very dark and dingy. Big ruts in the road and the road was all torn up and uneven. This ride seemed to go on and on. It usually takes us 30 minutes to get to our University from the airport and after we had been travelling with this dude for about an hour, we came to a sign that read "Laoshan Campus of Qingdao University" - a satellite campus of the University!!!!! We were MILES from our part of the campus. We telephoned Wu Yu again and he "yelled" to the driver, and we were on the road again.... This time, we were delivered to our apartment at 11:45 p.m. How silly of us to assume that we would arrive home early - in China............
Oh well - life in China is NEVER dull and unexciting. How dull and mundane our lives could be...
Much Love to everyone,
Mom