New Experiences

I have stated this many times in this blog, but I am been so happy and grateful that I have been able to overcome many of my fears. I am grateful that I have gained much more self confidence so that I can do many things and try many things.

Once a month we go visit our friends in Chengyang. When we first started going, we only visited with one family. Now it has evolved to visiting 4 different families and one single lady at the same time. It is so much fun. I am actually getting to where I can stay and talk for hours instead of the one hour I used to stay. I am much more comfortable being with people, well most people. There are still some people that I struggle to spend time with, but this too is changing.

  

We went to a new place last night. It was unusual and wonderful. We got to BBQ our own meat and food. These new wonderful experiences make me feel so loved by my Heavenly Father, my Savior, my husband, my family and my friends. 

Even though I am far away from much of the turmoil that is going on in the rest of the world, I see it all as I check the internet. I am saddened by all the things that have happened in Paris and many other places in the world. Being with my friends here helps me to feel peace for my family while we are away. It helps me to realize that there is still good in this world.

Here are a couple of pictures of the delicious food. This may be one spot to have friends visit when they come to China.

Friday the 13th

In America, Friday the 13th, has always been considered a day for bad luck. I have never really taken much stock in this. In fact, 13, is one of my favorite numbers along with 9 and 21. Today is Friday the 13th. I definitely no longer think that Friday the 13th is a bad day. In fact, this Friday the 13th has been one of the best days I have had in China. I have had many great days, so for this to be the best, you can imagine it was a very wonderful day. I don't even know if I can put it into words, so that you can feel what I felt, but I will try.

I was able to sleep in this morning until the hour of 7. I am usually up between 5:30 and 6:30 during the week, so I feel lucky when I can sleep until 7. Had a lazy morning until 9:30. Then I went with my friend, Shelly, to a store called "Metro". It is like a Costco. There I found cheese (real cheese from Ireland) in a big package. Normally I pay about $6 for 8 oz of cheddar cheese here. I have had to buy it in these small amounts because I could not find bigger packages. Today I found a 2.5 kg package. I splurged and bought it. Cheese for a while now. Yeah!! I was also able to finally find me some bread pans, so that I can make an actual loaf of bread in my new apartment. I was so excited and happy.

After I got back from shopping with my friend, Gary and I went to meet another friend, Abner. We went to see the new James Bond movie, Spectre. It was a great movie; lots of action with a good story; not a lot of swearing; the Bond girl actually wore pretty modest clothing. A good time spent with Abner. He is our Chinese son.

Then the day just got better and better. Gary and I took a walk to get some dinner before he went to do his tutoring. We had delicious Korean barbecue. Yummy. We parted ways after dinner. I headed in the direction of the school. It was a nice night, only a little rainy, so I decided to walk. Gary headed to the bus to get class. I have always loved the rain and I love to walk in it.

On the way back to school, I passed a couple of cute little girls playing in the rain. They said hi to me and were so excited when I asked if I could take their picture.

They made me smile! I was feeling so happy and so grateful to be in China at that point and it got even better. 

There are so many times when I just do not have any idea of what the Lord has in store for me each and every day. I cannot comprehend how much he knows each one of us and how we can all be instruments in the Lord's hands.

I was continuing my walk back to campus, when I saw this lady pulling a dolly with a big box, a little box and a suitcase on it. It looked heavy from where I was. I got this feeling that I should ask if I could help her. Unfortunately, I did not immediately react. It took a couple of more times for the Holy Ghost to prompt me before I went over to the woman and asked her if I could help her. I should also note that she had a backpack on, too.

I was right the boxes were heavy. I cannot even imagine how she got that far from the long term bus station to where she was walking. It was heavy for the both of us to pull. As we walked, we started a conversation. A little conversation that is. She speaks only a little English and I speak only a little Chinese. She asked where I was from and if I was teaching English. I said yes, I teach English at Qingdao Da Xue. She said she had a 16 year old son. She told me the bigger box was filled with Yantai apples.

We walked for about 6 blocks. Then I helped her pull the dolly up to her apartment. It was on the 6th floor. It was very difficult. I don't know how she would have done it by herself. She may have called her son to help. I was happy to help her. It made me feel so good inside to do it. Her name is Zhong Yan and her son's name is Liu Haining.

Of course, as is Chinese culture, she invited me into her home to meet her son. She had me come in and sit for a bit. She opened her boxes and gave me some Yantai grapes and Yantai apples. It turns out that she works in Yantai while her son lives here in Qingdao. She comes home every Friday and goes back to Yantai every Monday. Her husband is a sailor. He is in Europe right now. Sometimes Haining's grandmother comes to check on him. Zhong Yan is a doctor. It always amazes me how many families have to go to another city for work.

I forgot to tell you. The box filled with apples weighed 25 kg. It had about 150 apples in it. No wonder, the packages weighed so much.

We took pictures and then they asked if I had eaten dinner. This is the Chinese way to ask you to eat with them. I had already eaten, but she was so excited to have me come with them that I said no. I told her I would be happy to go with them to dinner. Haining wanted to go to McDonald's, so that's where we went. I had a Big Mac. Tastes just like at home.

It was wonderful to listen to them speak in Chinese. I was so content and happy just to be with them. We went home together on the bus, a very crowded bus. They sent me home with a bag of grapes and a big bag of apples.

 

I just couldn't help but marvel at the blessings of the Lord. If I had decided to take the bus back I would have never had met them. I would have not been able to do some service and help. I would not be feeling so blessed, happy and at peace if I had not listened to the Spirit and helped her. What a great day to be alive and what a great day to be in China!!! I am truly blessed!!

Almost Winter

China uses the Lunar calendar as well as our calendar, so their first day of winter is different than ours. They actually celebrated the first day of winter on the lunar calendar on Sunday night. A friend of ours took us to dinner to eat dumplings. This is a must on the first day of winter. It means luck.

Because winter is coming soon, I wanted to take perhaps my last fall walk of the year. Badaguan is the best place to go. It is beautiful, peaceful and relaxing. I was walking by myself, so I had my headphones on listening to LDS music. As I was walking, looking at the beautiful trees, and listening to beautiful music, I was able to feel the Spirit. What a wonderful day it turned out to be!

I love fall!

Taian and Taishan

We spent the day in Taian hiking on Taishan or Mountain Tai. I love hiking and walking in nature. It always bring me peace and helps me to remember how blessed I am. I can feel closer to my Heavenly Father while I am in the mountains especially, even when there are a lot of people. 

Many of our students and friends had been telling us we needed to go to Taishan and hike up the mountain. They say the best time to go is in the evening. You start hiking at about 9 pm and get to the top about 2 or 3 am. Then you rest until it is almost time for the sun to rise. Then you get up and watch the sunrise. They say it is beautiful. Because of this I had a picture in my head of what it would be like to climb the mountain. I was thinking of our mountains back home in Utah and how I hike in them. I pictured our hikes up Adam's Canyon, walking through trees and brush on a dirt and rock trail.

I was forgetting, however, that China puts stairs on their mountains, so the more people can climb them and it helps keep the environment better. It helps keep the people in the place they want them to be. It keeps extra trails from being made.

It was still a beautiful place and we were still able to see some great views and feel some peace despite the crowds and the smog and clouds. It seemed at times like we were in heaven because we could not see anything below us, so it looked like we were in the air.

You first take a shuttle bus up to a certain point. From there you have a choice. You can do the hike and walk up 8,000 steps to the top or you can take a cable car up to the top to look around. Gary and I decided it would be a better idea for us to take the cable car up and then walk down the 8,000 steps to the bottom. The ride up was fun. Here are a few pictures. There is also one closer to the bottom with our group that took the cable car.

This is us at the top where the cable car and the steps meet. It is not the actual top of the mountain. There is some more hiking you can do once you get to this point. If you look to the side of me, you will see people going down the stairs. This is where you head down to the bottom. The rest of the pictures are of what there is at the top of the mountain. We are able to walk around and see beautiful views, meet new people and enjoy the wonders of nature created by our Heavenly Father and Savior for us.

Notice the name of the street. Heavenly Street. Again sometimes it's like you are in heaven.

This is a tradition. You run your hand along the characters which gives you luck and then put it in your pocket. The Chinese thought it was great that we were willing to do it. They took many pictures of us.

 

These two boys were so funny. Some friends of ours got a picture of the first boy giving me a kiss on the cheek. He was so excited to be able to get his picture with me and give me a kiss. They are friends and though it was such a great thing.

These pictures are from the way down. We decided to take the steps down instead of taking the cable car. We were adventurous. It was 8,000 steps. It was actually pretty easy to go down. The stairs did seem never to end though.

We made it to the bottom in less than an hour. We felt very good. That lasted until the next few mornings for Gary. Then he was really sore. I ended up not being very sore which was nice for me.

We had a wonderful trip to Taishan.