Author: cinglish

On a scale of 1 to 10, yesterday was a minus 3. I got sick before we left with a sinus thing, and I’ve never felt so hammered by jetlag. Because it’s graduation weekend at Cambridge, all the hotels were booked, and we’re staying out of town at a truck stop! The roundtrip taxi fare into town is more expensive than the hotel room. Our handicapped-accessible bathroom is outfitted with only lukewarm water, and the air conditioning is broken. The crowning blow was that I left my purse in the “restaurant” last night and didn’t discover its absence until 5:30 this morning.

But here’s the good news: John just showed up with my purse, passport included. And the REALLY GOOD NEWS is that Ben and Chelsea are having a little daughter! So I’m going to put my game face on, count my blessings, and try to enjoy this place.

I blogged yesterday. When John added a great picture, the blog disappeared. Sorry you missed it.

Yesterday we toured the Capitol with our very own guide, Leslie Durham. She was good–knew answers to all the hard questions. Fun to see her in such a mature role.

Then Gage and I walked around the Tidal Basin to visit the Jefferson and the FDR Memorials. Beautiful day for a walk, although it went on a little too long when we had to detour for construction. We did find, however, one perfect tree of cherry blossoms in the midst of green cherry trees. I felt like it was just for me.

We didn’t have tickets, but we talked ourselves into a group going to the top of the Washngton Monument.

Gage is the perfect sightseeing companion–he ambles, so I’m not forced to jog everywhere we go. Of course, that could be because he has a cold and really doesn’t feel very well, but it works for me.

Dinner with Leslie at a restaurant specializing in crabcakes. Gage thought they sounded disgusting, so he ate a whole chicken.

Hi all,

We’re in DC, and the weather is perfect! John and I got here in time to participate in the street festival portion of the Cherry Blossom Festival. Lots of fun, food, and people–very few cherry blossoms. Still, it’s something I can check off my bucket list.

The big news so far is that John and I had our eyebrows threaded. Yes, John got an eyebrow makeover. His head must feel 2 lbs. lighter, and he looks so young and handsome.

John will be spending the day with us today. If we ever get Gage out of bed, we’re probably in for a full museum day, ending at the Viet Nam Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial after dark.

Clark and I are atop a high-speed train hurtling toward Chartres, where he wants to see the cathedral. Now that his responsibilities are done, he get to choose the itinerary. He’s chosen to spend the whole day tomorrow in the Louvre.

Nantes wasn’t anything special. I toured a pretty boring castle. I don’t think Micah and Audrey would have wanted to live there. Maybe Riley….

Between free breakfasts and hosted dinners, our only food expense has been for Clark’s diet coke, to which cost we have to add an additional 50 cents, which is the cost to pee here in Europe.

Jill, you’re invited for birthday dinner on Sunday. I think I know how to fix escargots!

Right after I last blogged, Andy (Garcia, you recall) asked if he could get on the elevator with us in the hotel, or if he should wait for the next one. We begged him to join us, and I stood touching arms with him from the 3rd floor to the lobby! Clark chatted him up (and down) and promised to look into the traffic problems in Los Angeles for him. He (Andy)was on his way to a screening, and he smelled really good. Pretty fun.

We spent the next day traveling by train to St. Malo, France, where we boarded the ferry for Guernsey Island. It was a 3-hour trip over, arriving at 10 p.m. John had to get up early and return on the 8 a.m. ferry going back, since had a dinner to attend in Nantes Sunday evening. He basically just escorted me over and went back in the dark….what a guy!

I went to church in Guernsey. There were 7 others besides me. I met a cute Portuguese girl there who is on a 12-month contract as a nurse. She had a car, and she and her roommate took me all over the island. We visited a museum in a tunnel dug by the slaves during the German occupation, which is documented in the novel, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” The book is what piqued my interest in Guernsey, and I loved being there at the site of the events that were described. The people on Guernsey hadn’t heard of the book, with the exception of a 17-year-old boy inthe branch who spent last summer working at the Nauvoo pageant. He remembered hearing about “the potato peelings book,” but hadn’t read it. I wanted to leave them my copy, but Clark was reading it by then and wanted to finish it.

I started back to France (Guernsey is English) yesterday. At St. Malo I took a bus ride out to a small harbor so I could view Mt. St. Michel from a distance. Then after two train changes, I was surprised to see John waiting for me at the Nantes station. He took a chance I’d be on that train, met me, and off we went to a river cruise dinner with his group. I didn’t even get to change clothes.

So today is my one day in Nantes. I’m probably going to spend it doing laundry and taking it easy. We’re having a great time, but the days are long when dinner lasts until midnight.

On a serious note, Jim Smith has prostrate cancer. He was scheduled for surgery yesterday, but they postponed it because of a clotting problem. So, along with Laurie’s sister’s family, remember Uncle Jim in your prayers.

Love,

Mom

I forgot to report an interesting conversation with a Chinese PE teacher on one of my commutes. When I said I was from Utah, he said, “I know about Utah…the terrible tragedy of the insects.” He explained how the birds ate the locusts (I couldn’t convince him that they were crickets), and told me he had read about it in his textbook! Andrea reported that her guide in Xian also knew the story. I find that surprising.

Today is a national holiday. No one is working except me, and I’m grading 42 final exam papers. It’s going slowly. We were served the special holiday food at breakfast (stuff wrapped in leaves to commemorate the food that was thrown into the river to feed the hero who had commited suicide.)

I watched a granny helping her grandson to pee through his slit pants. Instead of choosing a tree or bush, which abound all over this campus, she had him stand on the porch and pee against the door of the foreign students’ building. I really don’t think she was making a statement, but I thought it an odd choice of location.

Well, I’ve stalled long enough…back to the test papers. So far the results are what I expected, but I’ve been given pretty strict instructions about the final grades.

Oh, one more thing. At the local fruit stand where I get my bananas, they now have cherries and strawberries. I was picking out some strawberries this morning, and the women got mad at me for picking out the ripe ones. She scooped them off the scale and threw them back into a bowl and yelled that I had to buy the whole thing. Since I’m leaving in the morning, I didn’t want that many. I just said “Duibuqi,” and she softened and told me I was forgiven. A nearby guard was impressed with my Chinese. Mind you, I could never think of the right word or phrase when I was here before, but the oddest words keep coming to mind at the appropriate times. Sometimes I even amaze myself! (It proves that my long-term memory is better than my short-term.)

Zaijian

Where to start?

Last night we attended a George Bernard Shaw celebration sponsored by the Foreign Language College. I can’t possibly describe it–you’ll just have to imagine “Pygmalion” performed by Chinese actors speaking English with both Cockney and high British accents. It was amazing!

This morning I arrived on campus early to give the final test, and I found students outside the library door, ironing their clothes. They were taking them off a clothesline, and had the ironing board set up on the sidewalk. Inside the library, there was a group of girls doing makeovers on each other.

I was relieved that for the final I was assigned a “TA” bouncer to keep the students from cheating. This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone in administration call it like it is. It was so quiet in the classroom that you could hear a pin drop. I haven’t graded all the papers yet, but it looks pretty much like I expected–a full range of scores.

This afternoon, to celebrate the end of our term, Andrea and I got massages at the TrueMart (Walmart) department store. I have never been hurt so badly by such a tiny person. It will be interesting to see how I sleep tonight; I’m just now getting adjusted to this time frame.

Tomorrow’s my last day. I’ve turned down offers from students and an old friend from the Branch so that I can finish grades, then just wander around and take final snapshots. On the technical level, I’ve successfully kept all my electronic toys charged and fully operable!

If I could just video the “aerobic” guy in the park for Adam, I’d finish on a real high note. I’ve been back several times, but never seen him again.

I’m looking forward to squeezing my grandkids…

I went to church today, and actually reconnected with people I knew here 13 years ago! I arrived an hour late, though, after a detour through the Catholic Church. The taxi driver dropped me at an unfamiliar site (one can’t drive in to the building, but must walk in from a main road.) When I showed the guard at the gate my map, he was as confused as the taxi driver. But then he mimed “praying hands,” I nodded yes, and he directed me to the second floor of a hotel. I knew it wasn’t the right place, but he insisted on accompanying me. And they were really happy to welcome me into the fold…but they were Catholics.

After church I enjoyed a conversation with a taxi driver who spoke not one word of English (OK, he knew “Obama”), and yet we discussed politics, China’s Expo next year, Japanese cars, and my age, and we shared a package of shortbread. At the end of the ride, he opted to “keep the change” (there’s no tipping in China.) Great fun.

If I haven’t mentioned it, both KFC and Mcdonalds deliver food here (on bicycles).

I met Susan and Andrea at Yuan Garden and then made them ride the bus home with me so they could experience more the conditions of the masses. They both kept asking, “Are we there yet?”

My leg is much better today, and I’m ready to tackle my last week of teaching. Time flies when you’re having fun.