Out of the Frying Pan and into the Classroom

Into the Chinese university classroom

Our Dept. representative, Jonathan (Chinese), came over to visit Sunday afternoon after our arrival with another foreign teacher in our tourism department, John from Clemson, SC.  John lives above us with his wife Chris from Australia. John taught one of the classes last year that I am teaching now so he was a great help. He also claims to have located the best fried chicken on the planet in Xi’an. He will take us there before long. We asked to have my schedule changed so that we have the same day off. Suzanne has Friday off and I have Thursday off. No promises were made. We arranged to meet Monday AM for John and Jonathan to show us to our classes. I was expecting classrooms like an American university. We found no ability to use PowerPoint, no dry erase but basic chalk boards with a box of chalk at the teacher’s desk. Welcome to the 80s. This is of no consequence for my classes and I will get along nicely without those things. Suzanne was assigned a computer lab. This seems like a waste of a native English speaker, but it is what it is. She was not too happy about the techno side of it. To make matters worse for her, she was greeted Monday AM with Mao’s revenge. Bad bacteria are everywhere here, it gives a new appreciation for the phrase; “Put that down, you don’t know where it’s been”. I have washed my hands more in the last week than I have in my entire life! There is no 10 second rule in China. If it hits the floor, you don’t even think of putting it in your mouth.



First Day of School

Classes started bright and early Monday morning after our arrival on Thursday. Class periods are two hours long here. The periods are from 8-10 AM, 10AM-noon and 2 PM- 4 PM. The university closes from noon to 2PM for lunch. We ride a foreign faculty bus from the old campus where we live to the new campus where the students live and attend class. The bus leaves our apartment complex (imagine 2 East German concrete cell blocks) at 7:20 AM. We arrive after a ride that rivals anything at Six Flags just before class at ~ 7:50. People in America would actually pay for the thrill of riding a Chinese bus. Quite exciting to have your bus making a U-turn in front of another bus while dodging pedestrians, scooters and bicycles holding entire families, or maybe they’re dodging us! Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and hope for the best. Usually, the driver with the biggest vehicle wins!



In our introduction classes we both showed pictures of our six children. We get a lot of woooos, but when our picture with 19 grand kids comes up; you should hear the “WOW!” In one class when I said that Suzanne & I had 17 grandsons and two granddaughters, I heard: “That’s not possible” from the back of the class. We were concerned that we would be considered irresponsible, but it is well received. We were surprised to find so many of our students have a brother and/or sister. Families of three children are not uncommon, but then they are not that common either. There is a hefty fine for having the second child, but apparently some find it worth it.

Dr. Mullins' Public Speaking class and Professor Mullins' computer lab

Rich’s classes on Monday and Friday are “Extensive reading” for third year students. At the end of the year they must pass an exam where they have a period of time to read a passage and answer questions. This class prepares them for the exam. They read a passage in class from the text. Rich will read it and time himself – a native speaker- to see how long it takes. Then he gives them about 25% more time to read it. Then the class discusses any words that they don’t know, and he answers questions about the text. Not a lot of prep for him. He gathers vocabulary and idioms and is a bright smiling face in class. Rich’s other class is a public speaking class, on Tuesday and Weds., for second year students, and it is a little more challenging. Few people like public speaking, and even fewer like it in a foreign language.

Suzanne’s classes are “Listening and Speaking” computer lab, and “Daily Conversations”, both for freshmen.  There are four 2-hour classes of each, so luckily only two preps. All freshmen students had two weeks at the beginning of school of military training before they started classes. They seem happy to be getting to know each other and enjoying classes. Suzanne is the first foreign teacher for most, if not all, of her students. 




The security guard loved being in a picture

 

Our university is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this weekend and we have had a mandatory invitation to attend on the celebration Saturday. The invitation was complete with matching t-shirts for the faculty!  We figured it would be a faux pas not to attend. There were two hours of boring speeches in Chinese. We did each get a miniature Chinese flag. They are proudly displayed in our dreary apartment hiding a dead Bonsai tree (if it, in fact, has ever been living!).

 

Japanese style

We attended an art exhibit showcasing the students of the art department that began in 2010.  We enjoyed the art as we were guided through the exhibit by one of the artists, 19 year old Joshua. He was assigned to be the translator for one of the BYU teachers assigned to an art class whose students do not speak English well enough. There were pieces from the Impressionist period, the modern era plus some traditional Chinese art.

Joshua and one of his entries

Most of the Chinese students use an English name. Some are very creative.  Each class has a Sunny, a Lucy, and a Vicky. Rich has students named Nine, Wind, Joker, Milky, and Star. Suzanne has Andro, Silence, Meteor, Every (all girls), and a boy named Frostbite. The seasons are all well represented—Summer, Spring, April, May, and Winter. Many pronounce their names a little differently, as well, and finally our ears are getting more accustomed to the accents. At the very least, it makes class a little more interesting.

We’re off this week for a school holiday, the week of Autumn Festival.  We’ll be touring some of the far west reaches of the country, following the silk road of Marco Polo’s time.

Leaving the USA -- Arrival in China

Our last fling iin the USA before departure was a family gathering at Zaxbys in Conyers. Gathered with us were the Mullinses, Ogdens and Heatons. It was a miracle the building was still standing after our grandsons finished. We had a great last visit with hugs and kisses all around. Leaving was one of the hardest things that I ever did.

 

Benjamin drove us to the airport where we unloaded our four 50 lb. suitcases plus two carry-ons each. We had a bit of a struggle getting the bags to the check-in counter by ourselves, but we are so independent and cheap that we managed it somehow.

We had a very nice young man checking us in who was impressed with Suzanne’s story of a granddaughter born just yesterday and that we were volunteering to teach in China for a year.  Of course one of the bags was overweight by 5 lbs. but he didn’t charge for it. We felt lucky on that one. As we approached security I looked at our boarding passes. I had requested an aisle seat for us and the adjoining one. We were assigned seats A & C for the flight from Atlanta to Seoul, Korea. It was the long leg of 17 hours. The thought of a snoring Korean next to us on the leg was annoying. But I figured that perhaps we could trade the window for the center seat or at the worst trade the aisle for the center seat and we could at least sit together. We patiently waited for Zone 4 to load figuring that all of the overhead storage would be gone by the time we boarded. The nice ticket agent had moved to the boarding area and greeted us and wished us a pleasant flight. He was our last contact with America since it was a Korean Air flight. When we approached our seats, I looked at the seat number on the boarding pass and at the seat, back to the boarding pass and back to the seat. That nice young man had upgraded us to business class. We had seats that actually lay down for sleeping!. We had more movies than we could watch; we had more food than we could eat, although they were strange food items. We never enjoyed a flight as much. I didn’t want it to end. I knew at the end of this flight, I would return to being an economy passenger.  After 17 hours, however, I was ready for it to end. We arrived in Seoul at 4:15 AM local time and had an 8:15 flight to Xi’an. The airport was not very well sign posted so we followed the crowd to immigration to have our passports stamped. After passport control we found ourselves in the unsecured part of the airport with baggage claim and ground transportation. That is not where we wanted to be! We went back in and found a Korean Air info desk that sent us to the departure terminal. We were trying to make our way back to the departure gates. All of the security check-points were closed.  There was no A/C, there were no English signs anywhere, and a sign on security check-in #1 said open at 8:00 AM go to Check-in 3 after 10PM. We go ~ 100 yards to check-in #2 and it says open at 7:30AM, after 10PM go to Check-in #3. When we arrive at Check-in #3 ~ 100 yards further it is closed with nothing in English at all. I asked a guard, who spoke no English, where to go through security. He pointed us to security check-in # 4. You guessed it, about 100 yards down the terminal. Of course, upon arriving at security check point #4 it was closed with no English signs posted. At this point, being a guy who gets pretty steamed when I make a foolish mistake, I was dripping with sweat, my 24 hour deodorant stopped working hours ago and I was in a pretty foul mood. We went back to Check-in #3 to wait it out. After about 30 minutes of steaming, and thinking about how if we were on the Amazing Race, my error could have cost us $1,000,000, a few security agents arrived and opened up check-in #3. Traveling with 2 laptops and an I-pad is cumbersome at security points; they all had to be poked at. Then there is the small matter of a titanium hip. I always get lots of hands-on personal attention. Security took much longer than usual and we had quite a hike to our gate. Suzanne was very observant and found a trolley that we could load all our stuff on while we walked about 30 minutes to our gate.  We walked by our arrival gate. It was only about 10 gates from our departure gate. Our Korean adventure had used up much of our 4 hour layover. It certainly was not boring. Our flight to China was uneventful. We sat next to a Xi’an native who lives in New Jersey with her American husband. She was traveling home because her father is very ill. She told us how difficult it was to get an emergency visa to return to China. The Chinese consulate in NYC said that she should have planned the trip in advance. I think we should follow that advice and plan all of our emergencies.

We touched down in China on time and hit the gate ~ 10:50 AM Thursday, September 6, Sarah’s birthday. I had managed to not lose our passports. Our bags arrived after about 30 minutes at baggage claim. I was afraid that we were supposed to take them through customs in Korea and they were still sitting on the belt going around in Seoul, but there they were. We made our way through the “Nothing to Declare” gate and were greeted by our waiban (handler of foreigners). We loaded our stuff into a University Van and drove the 1 hour to Xi’an International Studies University – Old Campus, where all of the foreign teachers live. The university had to check our passports, visa etc. and we went to an “office” which was more like a cleaning closet to pick up keys for the apartment. I had to pay 200 ¥ (about $30), but of course, we had not yet visited an ATM. There was a kind American teacher passing by who loaned me the cash.

We toted our stuff to our second floor walk-up and looked it over. The walls are chalk white. I say chalk because the white rubs off.  It is probably toxic white lead paint. The floors are a dark wood laminate that sounds ticky when you walk on them. But, WE HAVE A/C!!  The water was only a mild brown when it came out of the faucet. It is better now. We have a 20 Liter water bottle in a cooling stand that we replace for ~ 9 ¥ (a little more than $1). The big bedroom has a king size bed but no A/C – That won’t do. We changed the king bed into the smaller bedroom with A/C. The bed nearly fills the room. The door won’t close because it hits the bed. We found ~ ½ inch of dust under the beds when we moved them. We had to hold our breath as we cleaned the floor.  We worked at unpacking and feathering our nest until we could stay up no longer. We passed out and had a new adventure waiting for us the next AM – the Chinese Health Department.

Our Lving Room ~ 8x10

University Botanical Garden off our rear balcony

Kitchen, the box on the left is the washer

From our front balcony

We met at 8:30 with our waiban and two other foreign teachers that had just arrived and headed off to  the health department with our medical forms from our competent US family doc, our chest X-rays, our EKG results, and our comprehensive lab reports from outstanding US clinical laboratories. But China is very thorough and wanted to make sure that we were not going to be a public health nuisance while staying in their beautiful land. The line was about 100 people long. We waited while our waiban took our stuff to be examined by a Chinese official.  Whether it was a government official or a medical official, I don’t know. They did not like our X-rays so they had to be repeated. We hauled those bulky things all the way to China for nothing. The other folks had to do more stuff to get the official red stamp of approval. They stood in lines for EKGs, X-rays, Medical checks, BP etc. We were special, we just had X-rays. Good thing we’ve finished our family because it was probably a big dose! Friday was consumed by the visit to the Health Department but our waiban treated us to a late lunch in the faculty dining room. It was CHINESE FOOD! Who would have guessed. My right hand developed a cramp from my attempts at chop sticks. Suzanne seems to have figured it out, but I am not so coordinated.

We had the weekend to poke around our neighborhood. The university is surrounded by a wall. There are three gates, all staffed by security. There is no checking of anyone coming or going but the security guys are there to move the cones out of the way when the university bus comes through. The wall does keep out a lot of the city noise, and we do live in a nice green space.

On Friday night, the daughter of one of the Italian teachers gave a piano recital at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music. She had a performance in Xi’an, then one in Beijing, and then back home to Italy.  It was raining like a tropical storm, but the foreign teachers all walked ~ ¼ mile to the bus stop and boarded a bus with about 500 Chinese to go into the center of town. When we were told to get off the bus, we headed back into the storm and hiked ¼ mile to the recital hall. It was packed, it was humid, and there was no A/C. Well, there probably was A/C but too expensive to use it!  We found seats on the front row and enjoyed the show. The return trip was just as eventful, rain coming down sideways, water in the street deeper than your shoes. Suzanne had three very ugly blisters by the time we arrived home.

Saturday we found a grocery store called Metro. It is about ¾ mile from the apt. It is a Chinese Sam’s Club, except not! We found cheese, a Chinese form of Nutela, peanut butter, bread, milk that does not require refrigeration, yogurt-- the essentials of life. It, of course, was still raining but just a bit.

Sunday was truly a blessing. We meet with our branch in a former hotel on our campus about 100 yards from our front door. The other BYU teachers in town have to taxi over to our campus. They say it is about 35 minute ride. They are closer to the city wall and the Muslim Quarter. It sounds like an interesting place, but I digress. Our branch consists of six teachers at XISU, seven other BYU teachers at two other universities in Xi’an; an old fellow ~ 70 perhaps, that came as a BYU teacher 10 years ago and has a Chinese wife and a young couple with 3 children < 8 years old.  Our sacrament meeting was great; each of us came to the podium and talked briefly about our favorite hymn. Then we sang it. My favorite was # 102, Jesus Lover of my Soul. I said how special it is to me because we play it together as a family quartet. Suzanne chose one that has a double life – Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy. We left our meetings feeling the Savior’s love.

 

The Adventure Begins

Our adventure started in July 2011 when we visited the China Teacher Program offices at BYU and interviewed with the Evans. They serve as the Deputy Directors of the program. The thought of living in China for a year to teach English sounded so exotic. We had visited China in 2010 and enjoyed it very much. They even had teachers in our favorite city, Xi'an. We sent in our applications in December 2011 and settled in for the wait. We heard in April that we had been accepted and were assigned to Xi'an International Studies University. We were to report for training at BYU on July 30, 2012.

 Suzanne went to the optometrists for a new glasses Rx to take to China and received the bad news that she had progressive cataracts in both eyes.  She had to schedule surgery for each eye and wait for the followups. Things did not go as smoothly as she would have liked, but at least she can see out of one eye and can hear out of the other.

We started off from Snellville, GA on the morning of July 26, 2012 with my sister, Emily Jones, our granddog, Bella to deliver to Suzanne's sister, Charlotte, in American Fork, UT, Suzanne & I. Thirteen hours driving time later, three numb butts arrived at Emily's house in Webb City, Mo. On day 2 we toured the rebuilding of Joplin, Mo one year after the tornado struck. The community was well on the road to recovery. We arrived at Charlotte's in UT after two more hard days driving.

The training lasted for 10 days at 10 hours a day to give us the 100 hours necessary for a Teaching English as a Second Language Certification. Classes started at 8AM and lasted until 8:30PM Monday -Friday for two weeks. There was not enough time to leave campus for meals so we became very familiar with the Cougar Eat. We had classes on the theories of learning language, teaching writing, survival Chinese, Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese government,  the LDS church in China, PowerPoint, grading software, how to wash vegetables in Clorox to avoid the runs, bla, bla, bla. My poor old brain was in overload by about day 2. I reached my saturation point earlier each day. We were advised to bring a pillow to sit on for the classes. That was a bad sign.

We celebrated our 41st Anniversary on August 11, where it all started, the Salt Lake Temple.

August 11, 1971

August 11, 2012

We somehow survived the training ordeal and made the return trip to GA to make our final preparations for departure. We needed to clear the house for our house sitters, prepare my collection of vintage Saabs for hibernation, pack our allowed four 50 lb suitcases, hopefully hold a granddaughter from Ocie, update the will, deliver two uplifting and emotion packed sermons in church and in general get our affairs in order.

All those music lessons paid off!

We enjoyed three days of family gatherings August 24-26 with all members of the Rich & Suzanne clan present and accounted for. We swam, had a bonfire, made great music, had a baby blessing, we ate great American food, held babies and celebrated being together. We made some great memories to last until we meet again.

14 Adults, 17 boys, 1girl

We had a few additional hiccups that were very challenging and disruptive. However, with the Lord's help, we managed to overcome the obstacles to departure. Our escape was set for Sept 5 00:30 hours from Atlanta. (That's midnight 30 for you non-military types).

Next instalment from China!