Journal Entry

September 29, 2011 Impressions and Observations

· When we sing at church it reminds me of singing in the overflow in the Westchester Building, wonderful acoustics add richness to the singing, like a few angels have been added.

· The older Chinese people choose to ignore you unless you stop and comment on their grandchild, then they are all softness.

· The young women even PHD students, many have the sophistication of Junior High students in their choice of clothing. A lot of them also carry around small stuffed animals on there purses of backpacks.

· The Chinese don’t slow down their speech, if they think you don’t understand them, they speed up.

· The waitress in a restaurant will point to two different items on the menu and if you don’t understand she will point slower, she is not speaking just pointing.

· Dad says the Chinese drive fast and walk slow.

· It’s against the law to ride a bike if you have been drinking.

· There are a lot of beautiful buildings but they are not maintained.

· In a few steps you can go from a first world country to a third world country.

· The students are concerned about pollution, the safety of their food, and their right to say what they please. Many of them speak of the loneliness of being the only child.

· In the evening everyone is out in the small plaza between the buildings visiting and getting a little air. Even though most of the plaza is filled with parked cars.

· Occasionally we will see two little children play fighting with each other with their grandparent and parents standing around encouraging them on.

· At 5:30 when classes let out the streets fill with students, laughing, talking and I’m sure grateful that the formal day is over. The street and food vendors are busy and many of the students buy their dinner off the street. We haven’t had the courage to try any street food but we are coming close. There is a marvelous little cooker that they crack what look like pigeon eggs into and then put a skewer down the middle and it’s this tiny egg shish kabob with some kind of breading. That will probably be the first thing we try.

· The desire for freedom is a deep longing for many, or maybe all but some do not have the courage to express it.

· My students ask if I think China is beautiful. And I say of course, but I also tell them that the Chinese people are really what are beautiful.

· It is fun to walk to myTuesday morning class, which is a little later in the morning, and pass by the kindergarten here on campus and see the children sing songs outside.

· The other day I say the cutest baby all dressed in pink. I thought what a cute little girl until I noticed that the hole in her britches was carrying the wrong plumbing. The children here start school at age two and must be toilet trained. No diapers here at least during the day. They just have a large hole sewn in the crotch of the children’s clothing. Grandma or Grandpa will just hold the child next to a tree or on the ground to take care of business.

· We learned a birthday round from the Children’s songbook in my freshman class. The boys were very hesitant that they would lose some of their “coolness” but by the end of the song they were sing with vigor. They had not sung a round before.

· One of my students introduced me to a traditional Chinese instrument that has two strings. They call it a Chinese fiddle. I was amazed one, at the diversity of the instrument and two and the large sound it produced.

· Three of my five freshman boys are as silly as junior high boys around the girls in the class.

· In China a man must be 22 and a woman 20 before they can legally marry.

· Most of my married students dated their spouse a minimum of four years before they married.

· I do not like going food shopping here.

· I think of all kinds of different people when I have different experience and say to my self “wouldn’t so and so get the biggest kick out of this?”

· Everyone does not speak English in China. I don’t know how many times we were told that before we came, but it surely is not true.

· We still haven’t figured out how to order water on our own so must depend on the kindness of others to do that for us.

· Our friends had to go to the hospital yesterday for kidney stones. I REALLY hope we stay healthy on this adventure.

Enough said.