Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Mailings
We mailed a letter to mom and dad today and a standard size envelope costs .98 cents! The postman said with the right postage you can just stick it in the mailbox, no need to go to the postoffice.
China Address
Here is the address to mom and dad if you ever want to mail them something.
Ernie and Pat Suggs
Ernie and Pat Suggs
International Cooperation Office
Tianjin University
#92 Weijin Road, Nankai District
Tianjin 300072
P.R. China
Monday, September 26, 2011
Skyped!
Yay, we finally got to SEE and TALK with Mom and Dad this morning!! Me, Jodi, and Traci, plus the kids of course, got to conference for a while, then we had separate calls with them. It was so great to see them and hear their voices!!
Mom clarified what Dad emailed earlier about coming home to see grandparents with grandchildren. Where they live is all employee housing for the university. Many of the Chinese professors have their parents live with them and they help care for their kids. Every evening when the professors are coming home, the kids and grandparents wait outside. The toddlers wears squeakers in their shoes, it's VERY common and makes a cute sound when they walk. The babies all have open/split pants so when they go to the bathroom, they just "go" where ever!
It was really fun to get to talk with them and we've scheduled another time later this week, can't wait!!
Mom clarified what Dad emailed earlier about coming home to see grandparents with grandchildren. Where they live is all employee housing for the university. Many of the Chinese professors have their parents live with them and they help care for their kids. Every evening when the professors are coming home, the kids and grandparents wait outside. The toddlers wears squeakers in their shoes, it's VERY common and makes a cute sound when they walk. The babies all have open/split pants so when they go to the bathroom, they just "go" where ever!
It was really fun to get to talk with them and we've scheduled another time later this week, can't wait!!
Sept. 26th, from Mom
Hi girls! ( I hate this computer. I write and then it deletes!) We had lunch at the Rel. Soc Pres. house. There were 13 of us. She made lasagne and salad and bread and ice cream and gingerbread cookies for dessert. It was wonderful! Her husband works for a solar co. here and they have a big house and a maid. Their house was built by the Honeywell co, in the 80's and then China asked Honeywell to leave so the houses are mostly rentals now. They rent theirs, but her husbands co. is closing down here and they are going back to the states, the end of Oct. I'll be sorry to see'em leave. She is a most wonderful person!
So yesterday we took the Bullet Train to Beijing. It's 55 mi. away ,but took us 30 min. on the train. Eight of us went - The Boren's who live on the third floor and the Farrell's and Johnson's who live about 20 min. away. We took 2 taxis to the train station. The other taxi got lost so we took awhile to all get together again. The train travels at 180 mph by magnetic track. It travels about 1/4 in. above the tracks. It's about as noisy as an airplane. We were in first class!
It cost about $10.00 US. But well worth it!
On the way home Nelson Boren and Dad counted about 150 construction cranes between Beijing and Tianjin! Construction is crazy here. Most of the new buildinds are at least 30 stories high and there's 10 in a group. Nelson said that China has half the cranes in the world.
We went to the Silk Market. It's a 6 story bldg.full of vendors selling everything imaginable in little cubicles. The salespeople are very enthusiastic. Dad tried on a coat and first they quote you an outrageous price. Then you haggle. She wouldn't come down to Dad's price and she was pulling on his shirt to keep him in the store. She pulled his shirt out of shape! He didn't buy the coat either. Later he bought a sweater to wear under his black coat. He also bought a new D&G suit for $60.00.( it might be a knockoff but it looks nice)
I bought two Pashmina shawls for $9.50 each. Shall I buy more? We are definately going back!
We ate lunch at O'briens gourmet sandwiches. The pizza they made was better than the sandwiches.
We got home at 5:00 exhausted. The taxi ride from the Tianjin train station to our apt. took longer than the bullet train home!
Tijuana taxi drivers have nothing on the chinese! Mr. Toad's wild ride is like a stroll in the park these guys are CRAZY! There are no rules. They honk their horns and move to the next lane, not even a lane mostly they drive down the white line. Surprizingly, there are very few accidents and the cars aren't dented! I'm amazed that there aren't a million people killed each day, especially the bicyclists and pedestrians.They're all over the streets and pedestrians have no right of way at all. Everyone tries to run them down.
We haven't seen any bugs. Just mosquitoes.We had one the other night that kept us awake and under the covers for a long time. Every night I make a mosquito sweep to look for any before we go to bed. One of the couples has mosquito netting over their bed. But they don't make me itch like the ones at home.
Our ward building is a 20min. taxi drive away. Some members travel for an hour. We have about 35 members and we meet in a house that the church rents. The house is in a big compound of houses. We've gotten lost both times we've gone. There are 4 kids in Primary, 3 from the same family.
The ward is English and Korean. So there is always someone speaking in Korean to translate,and they sing in Korean too. Same hymns just a jumble of English and Korean. Dad was made the Young Mens Pres. today. He has 2 Priests. That's the total Young Men. I'm going to substitute in YW next week, for all 3 of them. There's about 9 in Relief Society. I lead the music.
We had a new girl come today,Tuamyah. She goes to our university. She's from Samoa and is here on a scholarship to study for a year, and then she'll study Chemistry in Beijing. So all of her classes are in Chinese, which she is learning. She joined the church in June and her family has shunned her for doing so. She's 20 years old.
I'm watching the trash-picker outside. At least 3 have come by since I started this e-mail. All day they come by and pick through the trash cans to gather plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Then the Cardboard collectors come by on their bikes and holler out as they go through to collect cardboard and packing material. It's as an interesting economy.
The little babies really do wear split pants. Can you imagine disposal diapers around here? Whew! The children are potty trained by the time they're 2 so that they can go to pre-school, if the parents can afford it. Preschool goes from 8-5 every week day.
They don't have ovens or clothes dryers because it wold be a national waste of energy.
OK, this is long enough. I love you all so much. Say your prayers! XXOO Mom
So yesterday we took the Bullet Train to Beijing. It's 55 mi. away ,but took us 30 min. on the train. Eight of us went - The Boren's who live on the third floor and the Farrell's and Johnson's who live about 20 min. away. We took 2 taxis to the train station. The other taxi got lost so we took awhile to all get together again. The train travels at 180 mph by magnetic track. It travels about 1/4 in. above the tracks. It's about as noisy as an airplane. We were in first class!
It cost about $10.00 US. But well worth it!
On the way home Nelson Boren and Dad counted about 150 construction cranes between Beijing and Tianjin! Construction is crazy here. Most of the new buildinds are at least 30 stories high and there's 10 in a group. Nelson said that China has half the cranes in the world.
We went to the Silk Market. It's a 6 story bldg.full of vendors selling everything imaginable in little cubicles. The salespeople are very enthusiastic. Dad tried on a coat and first they quote you an outrageous price. Then you haggle. She wouldn't come down to Dad's price and she was pulling on his shirt to keep him in the store. She pulled his shirt out of shape! He didn't buy the coat either. Later he bought a sweater to wear under his black coat. He also bought a new D&G suit for $60.00.( it might be a knockoff but it looks nice)
I bought two Pashmina shawls for $9.50 each. Shall I buy more? We are definately going back!
We ate lunch at O'briens gourmet sandwiches. The pizza they made was better than the sandwiches.
We got home at 5:00 exhausted. The taxi ride from the Tianjin train station to our apt. took longer than the bullet train home!
Tijuana taxi drivers have nothing on the chinese! Mr. Toad's wild ride is like a stroll in the park these guys are CRAZY! There are no rules. They honk their horns and move to the next lane, not even a lane mostly they drive down the white line. Surprizingly, there are very few accidents and the cars aren't dented! I'm amazed that there aren't a million people killed each day, especially the bicyclists and pedestrians.They're all over the streets and pedestrians have no right of way at all. Everyone tries to run them down.
We haven't seen any bugs. Just mosquitoes.We had one the other night that kept us awake and under the covers for a long time. Every night I make a mosquito sweep to look for any before we go to bed. One of the couples has mosquito netting over their bed. But they don't make me itch like the ones at home.
Our ward building is a 20min. taxi drive away. Some members travel for an hour. We have about 35 members and we meet in a house that the church rents. The house is in a big compound of houses. We've gotten lost both times we've gone. There are 4 kids in Primary, 3 from the same family.
The ward is English and Korean. So there is always someone speaking in Korean to translate,and they sing in Korean too. Same hymns just a jumble of English and Korean. Dad was made the Young Mens Pres. today. He has 2 Priests. That's the total Young Men. I'm going to substitute in YW next week, for all 3 of them. There's about 9 in Relief Society. I lead the music.
We had a new girl come today,Tuamyah. She goes to our university. She's from Samoa and is here on a scholarship to study for a year, and then she'll study Chemistry in Beijing. So all of her classes are in Chinese, which she is learning. She joined the church in June and her family has shunned her for doing so. She's 20 years old.
I'm watching the trash-picker outside. At least 3 have come by since I started this e-mail. All day they come by and pick through the trash cans to gather plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Then the Cardboard collectors come by on their bikes and holler out as they go through to collect cardboard and packing material. It's as an interesting economy.
The little babies really do wear split pants. Can you imagine disposal diapers around here? Whew! The children are potty trained by the time they're 2 so that they can go to pre-school, if the parents can afford it. Preschool goes from 8-5 every week day.
They don't have ovens or clothes dryers because it wold be a national waste of energy.
OK, this is long enough. I love you all so much. Say your prayers! XXOO Mom
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Sept 21st From Dad
Things are settling down a bit. We have our 15 & 16 classes today.
The kids have all been great, but the differences in their ability to speak English are vast.
What is funny is that I ask them what kind of music they like and it is pop to country to rock to soft to classical. One kid said they really like pop and I asked what singer or group but she could not name one, so I saidLady Ga
Every day we come home 5:30pm the street where we live is full of grand parents holding their little grand children. It is so neat and they let us talk with them and they waive to us and they have the neatest shows. Some even make noise when they walk..
The kids have all been great, but the differences in their ability to speak English are vast.
What is funny is that I ask them what kind of music they like and it is pop to country to rock to soft to classical. One kid said they really like pop and I asked what singer or group but she could not name one, so I said
Every day we come home 5:30pm the street where we live is full of grand parents holding their little grand children. It is so neat and they let us talk with them and they waive to us and they have the neatest shows. Some even make noise when they walk..
We as a group are going to take the Bullet train to Beijing
Love, Mom & dad
Love, Mom & dad
Monday, September 19, 2011
From Mom 9/18
I've been awake for hours!! I have a cold and I can't breathe. My computer has skype but no internet, we're fixing that today. Life has been a llittle hard here. We're so busy, my schedule is twice what it should be. I have 16 classes, over 500 students. And food is a constant..what are we going to eat and where are we going to get it and how are we going to cook it..oh my. love you all!!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
From Dad July 16, 2011
We just had our first homemade meal. Not to shabby.
Just read our scriptures.
Make sure you finish the old testament by Christmas.
You cannot believe all the cars, bikes,trikes, scooters, other weird road vechicels, & people using the roads.
No one stops. Lots of horns but no squealing tires, no road rage. People just
keep walking, bikes keep going, keep going and people keep
walking. It is something you have never see. It is bizarre and different.
Win Farrell and Marv Johnson both bought 3 wheel electric scooters, $400.
They are really nice and can seat 2 of us plus storage in the back.
Anyway, away we went. It was wild. Mom won't ride in one.
Wish we had a little more money, I would get one and sup it up.
They have to take in the battery in every night or it will get stolen.
They have a big U lock for it.
By the way, to give you and idea of how small the apt is. Our walk in closet at home is larger than our
bathroom The shower includes the toilet.
There is a nice outside enclosed room next to our bedroom that we can use for drying our clothes.
Our kitchen is about the same size as the bathroom. We cannot both be in there. The 2 burner stove top is
actually outside in a screened in area. it has large windows on all 3 sides and a nice big lighted vent over the
stove.
Off to church tomorrow to meet everyone.
Love to all.
Dad
Just read our scriptures.
Make sure you finish the old testament by Christmas.
You cannot believe all the cars, bikes,trikes, scooters, other weird road vechicels, & people using the roads.
No one stops. Lots of horns but no squealing tires, no road rage. People just
keep walking, bikes keep going, keep going and people keep
walking. It is something you have never see. It is bizarre and different.
Win Farrell and Marv Johnson both bought 3 wheel electric scooters, $400.
They are really nice and can seat 2 of us plus storage in the back.
Anyway, away we went. It was wild. Mom won't ride in one.
Wish we had a little more money, I would get one and sup it up.
They have to take in the battery in every night or it will get stolen.
They have a big U lock for it.
By the way, to give you and idea of how small the apt is. Our walk in closet at home is larger than our
bathroom The shower includes the toilet.
There is a nice outside enclosed room next to our bedroom that we can use for drying our clothes.
Our kitchen is about the same size as the bathroom. We cannot both be in there. The 2 burner stove top is
actually outside in a screened in area. it has large windows on all 3 sides and a nice big lighted vent over the
stove.
Off to church tomorrow to meet everyone.
Love to all.
Dad
Friday, September 16, 2011
Sept. 15th, 2011
Hi Beautiful Daughters!! Today is Fri. so we don't have classes. We went to bed early last night and tried to sleep in this morning. We were invited to dinner last night at Howie and Stacy's . they live on the 5th floor with their 3 children - Sam is 7, Mary is 5 and Jake is 18 months.Just think of those logistics...five flights of stairs (there are no elevators) with kids and groceries and everything else. They also can't get their kids in school, like they were told. the children need to know Chinese to go to school/.They came with a different company than BYU. There are lots of ways to get to a foreign country to teach English. They're from Kentucky and Howie made a stir fry with vegetables over rice. It was good.I took pictures to e-mail to you , but I can't get an internet connection on my computer yet. The outside of our apt. looks like a N.Y. tenement! Tapie came to visit yesterday. He said our apt. is fantastic! We had lunch at KFC
again. Wed. I had aPBJ for lunch and dinner. Shopping is really hard. Everything is written in Chinese. You should have seen me trying to buy bleach! I opened every bottle to smell it.
Dad finally got the TV to work today. There is actually an English channel. We also watched the Chinese version of the game show where the contestants go through an obstacle course over water and jump on things. The Borens are here we're going shopping!!
LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU ALL !!!!!! XXOO
again. Wed. I had aPBJ for lunch and dinner. Shopping is really hard. Everything is written in Chinese. You should have seen me trying to buy bleach! I opened every bottle to smell it.
Dad finally got the TV to work today. There is actually an English channel. We also watched the Chinese version of the game show where the contestants go through an obstacle course over water and jump on things. The Borens are here we're going shopping!!
LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU ALL !!!!!! XXOO
Thursday, September 15, 2011
1st day in China
We're not in Kansas anymore!!!We arrived Tues at 11:00 am and started teaching on Wed.(today) at 2:00to 5:30, two classes. I have 8 classes of freshmen and 8 classes of sophomores,but they alternate each week. So the classes I had today I won't have for another 2 weeks, but next week I will have another 2 classes. We only havea class every other week.It's very confusing, to us and the students!I'm beat! I ache all over. HAve pity on us Melanie. We finally got drinking water tonight. They deliver it in 5 gal. bottles , but you have to be home to get it. We were gone all morning talking to our English advisor over the English Dept. and going to a print shop and finding our classrooms! Then we walked home and had pbj's and walked back to class. We have to walk everywhere and the pedestrian has no right of way! There are bikes and cars going in every direction and the cars honk and just change lanes. It's crazy! We walked to a store ,like wal-mart yesterday and today, but whatever you buy you have to haul home. I had a pbj for dinner tonight and for lunch too. Dad had a banana for dinner. It's horrible, ALL of the writing is in Chinese, so you have no idea what to buy! Our friends, the Borens, ate out the other night and Jeanne was picking up a piece of meat with her chopstick, and it was a chicken head! She screamed! The weather is very humid, I"'m sweatin' like a dog! But we're so tired. Dad already went to bed and I'm going too. Love you all!! XXOO Mom
Greetings from China!
Here is the first email sent be mom and dad....
Well, the eagle has landed. We are here in our apt. The whole apt is about the size of our bedroom.
The shower and toilet share the same space.
The Borens made dinner for us. We ate about 6:30pm but is it is really like 3:30am for us.
We also found out that we have to teach tomorrow and that mom has 2 extra classes to teach.
We both teach 2pm-5:30pm M-Thur and now she has to teach in the morning as well a few days a week.
All is well.
Mom will write more later. Let everyone know we got here and are eager to meet our students.
I have all freshman and your mom has both freshman and sophomores.
Love, dad
Well, the eagle has landed. We are here in our apt. The whole apt is about the size of our bedroom.
The shower and toilet share the same space.
The Borens made dinner for us. We ate about 6:30pm but is it is really like 3:30am for us.
We also found out that we have to teach tomorrow and that mom has 2 extra classes to teach.
We both teach 2pm-5:30pm M-Thur and now she has to teach in the morning as well a few days a week.
All is well.
Mom will write more later. Let everyone know we got here and are eager to meet our students.
I have all freshman and your mom has both freshman and sophomores.
Love, dad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)