Letters on Their Way

On this rainy Saturday morning, Sue and I donned our waterproof ponchos and bicycled over to the post office to mail off the letters from our students to their pen-pals in America.

We scrupulously filled out all of the paperwork, paid our money, and packaged 120 letters apiece into boxes - one box for Abia Judd Elementary, and one box for Mile High Middle School.

This is another one of my classes that sent letters to Ms. Corbett's class at Abia Judd Ementary.  This is my class of advanced English students.  This class will stay with me for another 8 weeks, then they'll finish with their English studies.  At that point I'll get another group of students that will just be starting their Masters programs!

On the home front, we're raising tadpoles as our science experiment.  After harvesting hundreds of frog eggs from a local pond, they have now grown into some thriving tadpoles. So far we're raising them on a diet of frozen lettuce, which is the food of choice according to the internet.  Apparently freezing the lettuce breaks down the cell structure of the leaf and makes it easier for our hungry little grandchildren to digest.  In another few weeks we should have about 1000 frogs hopping around our apartment.  I can't wait! :)

Some of the other teachers came over from school today to play some RISK and eat pizza.  Sue and I realized that these newly graduated college kids are closer to Peter and Jack's age than our own! Omigod!

  
It has continued to be cold at school - last week was a high of 47 degrees Fahrenheit, and according to the Chinese mentality, fresh air is very important so the classroom windows are left WIDE OPEN with no heat.  So the classroom is definitely on the cool side!  According to local weather however, we will have a high on Tuesday of 76 degrees, which we're really excited about!

Next week is also Jack's 11th birthday, and he wants to stay in a hotel with a BATHTUB and have a soak, so we'll try to put that together this week. 

Letters on Their Way

On this rainy Saturday morning, Sue and I donned our waterproof ponchos and bicycled over to the post office to mail off the letters from our students to their pen-pals in America.

We scrupulously filled out all of the paperwork, paid our money, and packaged 120 letters apiece into boxes - one box for Abia Judd Elementary, and one box for Mile High Middle School.

This is another one of my classes that sent letters to Ms. Corbett's class at Abia Judd Ementary.  This is my class of advanced English students.  This class will stay with me for another 8 weeks, then they'll finish with their English studies.  At that point I'll get another group of students that will just be starting their Masters programs!

On the home front, we're raising tadpoles as our science experiment.  After harvesting hundreds of frog eggs from a local pond, they have now grown into some thriving tadpoles. So far we're raising them on a diet of frozen lettuce, which is the food of choice according to the internet.  Apparently freezing the lettuce breaks down the cell structure of the leaf and makes it easier for our hungry little grandchildren to digest.  In another few weeks we should have about 1000 frogs hopping around our apartment.  I can't wait! :)

Some of the other teachers came over from school today to play some RISK and eat pizza.  Sue and I realized that these newly graduated college kids are closer to Peter and Jack's age than our own! Omigod!

  
It has continued to be cold at school - last week was a high of 47 degrees Fahrenheit, and according to the Chinese mentality, fresh air is very important so the classroom windows are left WIDE OPEN with no heat.  So the classroom is definitely on the cool side!  According to local weather however, we will have a high on Tuesday of 76 degrees, which we're really excited about!

Next week is also Jack's 11th birthday, and he wants to stay in a hotel with a BATHTUB and have a soak, so we'll try to put that together this week. 

The Grand Canal

As I mentioned in the last blog entry, the Grand Canal is a man-made canal that goes from Hanzhou all the way to Beijing - the largest man-made canal ever built!  As I taught today, Sue took the boys along with Stefania to visit the Grand Canal museum and have a boat ride.

Some cherry blossoms in full bloom on the way to the canal...


(LEFT) Stefania posing with Sophie, and (RIGHT), some trinkets and treasures for sale on the canal bridge.


The kids on top of the canal bridge, ostensibly to wait their turn to ride on a boat.  What they were really doing was dropping popcorn on passing barges trying to hit various targets as they passed by.  Naughty Naughty!

 

This  man was selling kettle-corn, puffed rice, and some other types of grain.  He would put the grain inside this small barrel and add water, salt and sugar.  Next, he'd stoke the fire with more coal and wait for popping!  He had a billows (the box on the left) that would heat the fire.  Then he'd call out a warning to cover your ears and BOOM, the popcorn would fire into a windsock type contraption!


Some scenes from the canal...


Peter and Jack on the canal bridge, and Jack being silly, enjoying some popcorn.


The "Chinese" looking building is actually a giant houseboat.

The Morning Commute

Before the sun came up this morning, I was back on the bus to teach class again this week. I'm always intrigued by the traffic signals.  This long green one comes on telling the cars (I THINK) to pull forward into the intersection to prepare for an upcoming left turn.

The road we travel along each morning... It is nice that Hangzhou has English below the Chinese so we have some hope of reading the street signs!


A couple of school kids on their way... It is very common to see 2 people on a bicycle.  The most I have seen is FOUR!

We passed this bridge which is the termination to the Grand Canal, an 1800 mile long stretch of river  that is somewhat navigable (by small boats, anyway) all they way to Beijing!  It's a manmade project that was started in 450 B.C., and the longest manmade canal in the world.

Another of the waterways we cross every day on the way to school.  The weather is starting to warm up, and Spring is in the air.

 

Then we cross out into the farming fields, where the farmers are getting rich from raising fruit and trees.  Farmers' 2 story villas can be seen in the distance around fields with all sorts of specialty produce.

My classes wrote letters to penpals in the U.S.  Here are 3 of my 4 classes...


Some street scenes on the way home...


Finally back at home at sunset, where the construction cranes everywhere are especially noticeable!

A Workday Sendoff

Jack decided to go with Sue to work again today, so Sophie and I accompanied them to the local noodle shop for breakfast before putting them on the bus to work.

Here's Sophie - awake and ready at any time of day!

Some neighborhood scenes:  (LEFT) Here's a guy getting a close haircut from a barber without a barber shop.  This barber is there most weekdays and seems to do a pretty good business.  A quick and cheap way to get a haircut (less than $1 US!).  (RIGHT) We sat in a noodle shop this morning before the bus came to get Sue and Jack for work.  It's convenient because the bus stops right out front.


The bus came, but it turned right from the center lane and clipped a taxi.  After the damage was sorted out, the bus finally picked up Sue and Jack.

Turning right from the center lane (or left from the right lane) seems to be a fairly normal occurrence, where the driver's wishes are communicated to the world through insistent horn blasts.  The more likely a crash, the more insistent the horn blasts become!    After the crash occurs, the horn blasts of the two tangled cars stop, but then everyone else starts honking their horns because now they have to wait for the mess to get cleared up!  How many crashes have we seen?  Too many to count!

Here's Jack, in the classroom today with some of Sue's students.  I'm not sure how many marriage proposals he received today :).
 

The students wrote letters to American students in class, and now they have them ready to mail!  They're holding up the letters that are ready to send!

We hope to collect all our students' letters and get them in the mail early next week, and back in the U.S. kids' hands soon!

Helping Sue at School

The boys went to school on Friday to help Sue teach her freshmen.  On the way there, they saw all of these double-decker school buses lined up outside our apartment waiting to take the grade-schoolers away!  There are HUNDREDS of students here in the morning and afternoon crowding the streets with their parents on bicycles, so that cars can't get through.  Can't imagine what it would be like if all of those parents came in cars!

Once at school, the boys stopped by one of the other teacher's apartments to do some gaming.  Awesome!
 

Jack in class, helping a couple of students with their English lesson...
 

Peter read a story for the class...


Some of the girls, reading their letters from the 8th graders at Mile High.

This weekend, "Rebecca" and "Anita" came back to our apartment for some games.  We taught them how to play Monopoly.
 


Here are Peter and Jack, teamed up, but LOSING BIG to Rebecca (right) who got the hang of the game right away.  She is very good with money in real life and it definitely helped her in Monopoly!


Sunny and 60 degrees outside, so we made a trek to the local park.


The pond at the park contained dozens of frogs, which the boys really enjoyed harassing.  They caught several and released them.  We left the park with only a bowl full of frog eggs that we will use for our home-schooling experiments. "Hey boys, what do they TASTE like? " :)


Next, it was off to our favorite Japanese noodle restaurant - Sophie was grumpy and wouldn't eat, so Dad SPOILED her with a root beer float.  Way to reward bad behavior, DAD!!
 

We bought a cake to celebrate our 7th MONTH in China, and we didn't want to carry it all that way on foot, so Sue, Sophie and Jack hired a pedi-cab (a 3 wheeled motorcycle made into a small taxi) back to our apartment while the rest of us walked back.
 

Jack is surreptitiously learning and speaking Chinese.  He was in the store the other day with Sue and needed a restroom BADLY.  So he interrupted the conversation between Sue, struggling to remember the word for bathroom,  and the clerk, and asked where the bathroom was himself, in great Chinese :).   Oh the things pressure will do!