David's Big Adventure in China

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog. I continued to teach at the university in the 2015 fall semester but decided to retire from full time work after that. We were living on campus in the apartment provided to me as part of my contract so since I was no longer working there we had to move off campus. My wife wasn’t too happy about moving off campus since it would be a longer walk for her to go to her classes and for meetings but accepted that I didn’t want to teach full time anymore. We found a small apartment just outside the campus that was suitable and moved in mid-January. It’s a two bedroom unit with about 750 square feet on the 7th floor of a 30 story building. It’s in a pretty new building and it’s decorated pretty well so it’s comfortable enough. The second bedroom has been made into an office and that’s where we spend much of our time. The kitchen is tiny and it’s quite an adventure maneuvering around with both of us in there at the same time. The bathroom has a Chinese style hole in the floor toilet (which is what most Chinese have in their homes). This is the first place I’ve lived in China that didn’t have a western toilet. I don’t like it but I’m getting by with it. I’ve read that that kind of toilet is actually healthier. Most rentals here are furnished which makes the move much easier since we don’t have to move furniture but we still had quite a bit of personal stuff to move. We hired a truck and 3 guys to move the stuff for us and the whole process of loading, driving and unloading only took about an hour and cost us about $55 US.

We had a TIC (This Is China – a term foreigners use here to describe things that only happen here) event happen shortly after we moved into the new apartment. I got up early one morning and found that the power and water was off. We could see that it wasn’t just our apartment and so we went down to the management office and found out that the power had been shut off because the management company had not paid the power bill which they blamed on too many residents not paying the bills to the management company. The residents don’t yet pay the power company directly because the developer still owes the power company some money. The management company does have the ability to turn off the power to individual units if they don’t pay but for some reason they hadn’t taken that approach. Some residents apparently hadn’t paid their power bills and other fees to the management company for over a year because they thought the management fees were too high. Many people paid their bills that morning then within a few hours the power was restored and has stayed on since but who knows if and when it will happen again. TIC!

Since we were moving we decided not to do any traveling during the winter holiday this year but I did plan a trip to the states for myself in late March to early April to visit family and friends and take care of some personal business. My grandmother died suddenly and peacefully in March so I went to the states about a week earlier than planned to be with family and attend the funeral. She was about a month short of her 102nd birthday and was in good health mentally and physically up to the end. We all miss her but she had been ready to go for years and she passed the way most of us hope to.

Even though I’m not teaching full time anymore I am still doing some work. I signed a contract with a training company for some part time work but so far they haven’t asked me to do very much which is fine with me. I’ve also taken on some private tutoring. I seem to keep plenty busy and rarely feel retired but I have found more time for reading.

Well that’s enough for now. Until next time………

We took a high speed train from Nanning to Guangzhou on July 22. We spent the night in a bargain hotel ($15 for the night) near the airport and the next morning flew to Beijing, then onto LAX and then an overnight flight to Indianapolis. We enjoyed a week visiting family and friends before heading to Gatlinburg for a few days for our annual reunion with my Coca-Cola friends. We rented a 5 bedroom house in the Smokey Mountains and had a great time relaxing and enjoying the mountains. We also enjoyed a visit with former Edy’s buddy, Norm Downing and his wife Joyce. On the last morning there we had a bear saunter by the back door on the deck. He seemed to be looking for breakfast. After a few more days back in Indiana, we borrowed Mom’s car (thanks Mom!) and headed northwest.

Our first stop on this leg of our trip was just south of Chicago to visit my nephew Drew, his wife Annie and my niece Katie. Drew and Annie graduated from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University a few years ago and are teaching in Portage, Indiana. Katie will graduate from Jacobs next year and also hopes to teach at a public school. They gave us a tour of the school where they teach and we were very impressed by the facilities and equipment they had. The next day we headed for Minneapolis where we visited the Mall of America. It was impressive but not really much bigger than some of the malls we have here in Nanning. We went to see a movie while there and the cost was a bargain at $6 per ticket compared to the cost of seeing movies here in China (average cost of $8 to $10).

Our next stop was Wall, South Dakota near Badlands National Park. We toured the park, did a long hike and drove over to see Mount Rushmore which was quite impressive. We then headed to Billings, Montana where we spent the weekend with Loyd and Lynn Knudsen. Loyd and I taught together here several years ago and I went to their wedding which took place in LiuZhou which is a bit north of Nanning. Lynn is Chinese and has become an American citizen since moving to the states with Loyd 4 years ago. She has really adapted well to life in the states and spends most of her time chasing after their 4 your old son, Ike. She has become a garage sale junkie and my wife really likes garage sales since discovering one by accident last year so we had to hit a couple garage sales while seeing the sites of Billings. Loyd is managing a security company watching over oil and gas drilling locations which keeps him out of town most of the time.

After leaving Billings we headed to Yellowstone National Park. Shortly after entering the park we had to stop to allow a bunch of bison to cross the road. This happened a couple more times during our stay there. We did a late afternoon/ early evening hike after checking in to our hotel and saw the famous sites close to the hotel such as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and a couple waterfalls. We also got our first glimpse of a bear that evening. The next day we did an 8 mile, 5 hour hike starting near Old Faithful. We saw many geysers and hot springs. We were happy to stand near the hot springs since it was only about 30 degrees F when we started. We got to see Grand Geyser and Old Faithful erupt. The next day we did a couple hikes totaling 6 miles with a large elevation change which really wore me out considering that we were at an elevation of more than 6000 feet. The next day as we were heading out of the park we had to stop to allow a bear to cross the road in front of us. We drove to Laramie, Wyoming to spend the night then on to Denver the next day.

We spent a few days in Denver to recover from our hiking and to allow me to take a day trip to Las Vegas to renew my driver’s license. We left Denver to drive back to Indiana. It was our first time to experience the miles and miles of plains with very little traffic and very few places to stop. We made it back to Indiana in time to spend a few more days with family before heading back to China. Including our trip to Gatlinburg we drove over 5000 miles in about a month’s time. My mother’s car is more than 2 years old and only had 10,000 miles on it before we embarked on our trips. Bonnie shared the driving with me thank goodness and her driving skills continue to improve.

We’re now back in Nanning and classes start this week but my first class isn’t until next week. Here is the link to see pictures from our trip: https://davidsadventure.shutterfly.com/1303

This is a post that I wrote in June but apparently forgot to post on the blog site.

I work for the Foreign Languages College (FLC) here at Guangxi University. A few days ago there was a strange incident at FLC in which several family members of a former student brought the young man’s body to FLC and placed it on the floor in the lobby area. Apparently the story is that the young man was a student back in 2010 but left the school after an incident in which he was accused of stealing by other students and beaten by them. Apparently the student and his family filed a lawsuit related to the incident against the university which was unsuccessful. He may have been having mental health issues before and/or after the incident. There are practically no mental health resources here at the university despite there being more than 30,000 students on campus. Mental health care here in China is generally shunned. The young man was in his hometown and apparently committed suicide. The next day his family brought his body to FLC and placed it in the lobby apparently blaming the university for his death as a result of his troubles on campus several years ago. The family supposedly refused to leave and many armed police arrived and took them away and placed them in administrative detention.

There is a strong blame culture in China that whenever a mistake is made or something bad happens there must be someone to blame. Often this blame is related to seeking compensation and I imagine that the family of the young man will be trying to collect compensation from the school. It is really quite amazing how logic is stretched and bent sometimes in attempts to assign blame and collect compensation. Related to this are the extremes to which people or organizations sometimes go to deflect blame and responsibility. There was a case a couple years ago where a rich person driving a nice car hit and injured someone and instead of stopping and trying to help the injured person, the driver backed up and ran over the person to make sure she was dead so they couldn’t identify the driver and demand compensation. This is just an example that crazy things happen all over the world.

We’re now back in Nanning (not) enjoying the dreary, cool Nanning winter with the poor air quality. The AQI (air quality index) has been holding close to 200 for the past several days. Less than 50 is considered good, 151-200 is unhealthy and 201-300 is very unhealthy.

We had a great 19 day trip to New Zealand. It was a somewhat upscale group tour operated by Grand Pacific Tours with most of the travel being done on a large bus. There were 25 of us on the North Island portion and 32 on the South Island portion. It was a great group of people to travel with and most of the group were retirees from Australia or the UK. We stayed in nice hotels (3.5 to 4 stars) and had many nice meals. On most days breakfast and dinner was included. We had great weather most of the time with only a couple days of cool, rainy weather. NZ has a lot of beautiful scenery, lots of farms and farm animals (mostly cows and sheep), and not so many people. The population of NZ is about 4.5 million which is a bit less than Nanning, the city where we live. The cities and the countryside all seemed to be clean and tidy. I didn’t notice areas that looked trashy or like a ghetto. It seemed that most people had economical cars as I saw very few big SUV’s, pick-ups or premium brand vehicles. It’s a pretty expensive place to live or visit but the quality of life there seems very high. There are lots of parks and nature areas and they do a great job making it convenient for travelers.

I’m not going to write about all the things we did or the places we visited but some of the highlights were learning about the Kauri tree, seeing the Lord of the Rings movie set, learning about the Maori people and having a Maori ceremony and dinner, seeing the Southern Alps and glaciers, learning about the gold rush, taking a cruise through Fjordland, and enjoying a Scottish Haggis ceremony. If you’re interested in our detailed itinerary, I have copied the travel company’s itinerary below. To see some of the pictures from the trip click on the “Pictures!” link on the right hand side of the blog just under the heading “My Links”. Until next time……….

DAY 1: HOMEPORT – AUCKLAND (D)
Fly from your homeport to Auckland where you will be met by a Grand Pacific Tours representative and transferred to
your hotel. Once you arrive in the Main Hall at Auckland International Airport, having cleared Customs and
Immigration, look for your Grand Pacific Tours representative who will be holding a “GRAND PACIFIC TOURS” sign
standing immediately on the left as you come out from the Customs Hall at the first row of desks. For travellers
residing in Australia, please ensure you are wearing your personalised name badge on arrival in Auckland for
easy identification. Please reconfirm your dinner arrangements with hotel reception upon check in. Dinner on Day 1 is
not included for travellers arriving at the hotel later than 8.00pm.
Accommodation: Skycity Hotel Auckland

DAY 2: AUCKLAND – BAY OF ISLANDS (BD)
Today breakfast will be at 7:00 am and your luggage must be left outside your hotel
room ready for collection by this time. Please ensure the luggage tag provided in your
Documentation Pack is attached to the top handle of your main piece of luggage. You
will be met by your Tour Guide and Coach Captain to board the coach for departure at
8:00 am. Depart Auckland and travel to the Parry Kauri Park to see a magnificent
example of a Kauri Tree. Enjoy a visit and informative talk at the Kauri Museum in
Matakohe, then travel via Whangarei to Paihia, situated in the heart of the beautiful Bay
of Islands. Enjoy a guided tour of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, the location of the
signing of the treaty between the Maori tribes and the British. Two night stay.
Accommodation: Scenic Hotel Bay of Islands

DAY 3: BAY OF ISLANDS (FREE DAY) (B)
Today is a free day. Choose from the many (optional) activities available; including the
Cape Reinga coach trip via Ninety Mile Beach or a spectacular scenic flight. This evening
is also free and you may like to enjoy a relaxing dinner cruise (optional). The choice is
yours and your Tour Guide and Coach Captain will be available to assist.

DAY 4: BAY OF ISLANDS – AUCKLAND (BD)
This morning travel aboard a luxury catamaran to Cape Brett and the famous Hole in the
Rock. Keep an eye out for bottlenose and common dolphins before returning to Paihia.
Travel south via Whangarei to Auckland. This afternnon includes a visit to Sky Tower at
your leisure, one of New Zealand’s most spectacular attractions.
Accommodation: Skycity Hotel Auckland

DAY 5: AUCKLAND – ROTORUA (BLD)
This morning enjoy a city sights tour before continiuing through the picturesque
countryside to Longlands Farm & Restaurant to enjoy a delicious home cooked lunch
hosted by a rural New Zealand family. This afternoon travel to Hobbiton where you visit
the Movie Set from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy on a fascinating guided tour. Two
night stay in Superior Rooms.
Accommodation: Sudima Hotel Lake Rotorua

DAY 6: ROTORUA (B SD)
Today begins with a Gondola ride to Stratosfare Restaurant where a buffet breakfast and
spectacular views are on offer. Travel to the Agrodome where you see performing sheep,
a shearing display and sheep dog trial. This morning a tour group photo will be taken
which you may wish to purchase as a memento of your New Zealand holiday. Enjoy
some free time this afternoon before travelling to Te Puia to see the boiling mud pools
and awesome Geysers that Rotorua is famous for. This evening experience an
entertaining Maori Hangi and Concert.

DAY 7: ROTORUA – NAPIER – MASTERTON (BD)
Depart Rotorua and travel along the Thermal Explorer Highway to Huka Falls and Lake
Taupo. Continue to Napier known as “The Art Deco Capital”, where a city tour will
showcase an impressive collection of art deco buildings. Enjoy some free time to explore
the fascinating architecture before travelling through the Wairarapa, an emerging coolclimate
wine region.
Accommodation: Copthorne Hotel & Resort Solway Park Wairarapa

DAY 8: MASTERTON – GREYTOWN – WELLINGTON (BD)
Enjoy a leisurely start to the day before travelling to Greytown where you see the most
complete example of original Victorian wooden architecture. Drive through the scenic
Rimutaka Mountain Range into Wellington, then enjoy a city tour of the nation’s capital
which will highlight the history and culture on show here.
Accommodation: James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor

DAY 9: WELLINGTON – PICTON – BLENHEIM (BD)
Enjoy free time this morning to explore Wellington. Options include a visit to Te Papa,
New Zealand’s National Museum. This afternoon board the Interislander Ferry, cross
Cook Strait and travel through the Marlborough Sounds to Picton where you board your
coach for the short journey to Blenheim.
Accommodation: Scenic Hotel Marlborough

DAY 10: BLENHEIM – KAIKOURA – CHRISTCHURCH (BD)
Tour through Marlborough Country, famous for its food and wine, then travel to the
seaside village of Kaikoura. Continue onto the garden city of Christchurch for an
introductory city sights tour.
Accommodation: Quality Hotel Elms

DAY 11: CHRISTCHURCH – ARTHURS PASS – FRANZ JOSEF (BD)
This morning board the TranzAlpine, renowned as one of the great train journeys of the
world. Travel over massive viaducts, river valleys and spectacular gorges as you ascend
to Arthur’s Pass located in the centre of the Southern Alps. Board your coach and travel
to Hokitika, famous for its Greenstone before continuing to Franz Josef where time is
available to experience a scenic flight (optional, weather permitting) over the
spectacular glaciers. One night stay in the Douglas Wing.
Accommodation: Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier

DAY 12: FRANZ JOSEF – QUEENSTOWN (B)
See the snow capped peaks of the Southern Alps as you travel south along the West
Coast to Fox Glacier. Continue via the Haast Pass, an area of stunning beauty before
arriving into picturesque Queenstown, a year round resort situated on the shores of
magical Lake Wakatipu. This evening is free and you may choose to dine out at one of
the many fine restaurants. Two night stay in Lakeview Rooms.
Accommodation: Mercure Queenstown Resort

DAY 13: QUEENSTOWN (FREE DAY) (B SD)
Today is a free day. There are plenty of sightseeing options and your Tour Guide and
Coach Captain are available to assist. You may wish to enjoy the thrill of a jet boat ride,
a heritage tour of the scenic Skippers Canyon or get up close to a Kiwi Bird. This evening
board the vintage steamship TSS Earnslaw and cruise across Lake Wakatipu to Walter
Peak Station. On arrival sit back, relax and enjoy a gourmet barbeque dinner which the
chef will prepare in front of you at the Colonel’s Homestead. After dinner enjoy a short
farm tour then reboard the TSS Earnslaw for a sing along by the piano as you cruise
back to Queenstown.

DAY 14: QUEENSTOWN – TE ANAU (BD)
Enjoy a leisurely start this morning before travelling to Arrowtown, an old gold mining
village where you visit the Lakes District Museum. Continue to Te Anau, the gateway to
Fiordland. This afternoon you may like to visit the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves (optional).
Two night stay in Deluxe Rooms.
Accommodation: Distinction Luxmore Hotel

DAY 15: TE ANAU – MILFORD SOUND – TE ANAU (BLD)
Depart Te Anau for a fascinating drive to Milford Sound where you board your launch for
a cruise on this magnificent fiord. See the spectacular Bowen Falls and towering Mitre
Peak as you enjoy a picnic lunch onboard. This afternoon return to Te Anau where some
free time is available. Why not visit the Fiordland Cinema and catch a screening of the
breathtaking “Ata Whenua Shadowland” movie.

DAY 16: TE ANAU – DUNEDIN (B SD)
Travel via Gore and Balclutha to Dunedin known as the “Edinburgh of the South” and
enjoy an informative city tour followed by some free time to explore at leisure. Tonight a
Scottish evening will be presented comprising of bagpipes, great food, special Haggis
Ceremony and gift.
Accommodation: Mercure Leisure Lodge

DAY 17: DUNEDIN – TWIZEL (BD)
Travel along the Otago Peninsula to Larnach Castle where you will hear of the tragic and
scandalous history on a guided tour. Visit Glenfalloch Restaurant for a delightful morning
tea. Farewell Dunedin and travel to Oamaru famous for its limestone. Explore the
Victorian Precinct including the Loan and Merc restuarant, the Woolstore complex, auto
museum, shops, galleries and the Penny Farthing shop. Follow the Waitaki River and see
Lake Benmore as you travel to Twizel for your overnight stay.
Accommodation: MacKenzie Country Hotel

DAY 18: TWIZEL – MT COOK – CHRISTCHURCH (B SD)
This morning marvel at Mt Cook, New Zealand’s highest peak. The opportunity is
available to enjoy a scenic flight (optional, weather permitting) over the Southern Alps.
Continue to Lake Tekapo and view the brilliant turquoise water, visit the Church of the
Good Shepherd and see the Sheep Dog Statue before arriving into Christchurch. This
evening enjoy a farewell dinner with your new found friends. Your transfer arrangements
will be confirmed with you tonight (if applicable).
Accommodation: Quality Hotel Elms

I haven’t posted an update since the end of the end of the summer vacation because I’ve been working really hard this semester and because some of the things I’d like to write about I’ve had to self-censor to keep from causing any trouble for myself or my wife. The Big Panda is watching everyone very closely these days and I don’t want to chance wearing out my welcome here. My teaching load this semester was the heaviest it’s ever been. I had 22 periods per week which is technically in excess of the maximum according to my contract. I accepted it without too much complaining since overall the school has been pretty good to me. My teaching load for the spring semester is supposed to be back to normal.

I finished this semester a few days ago and am now enjoying 7 weeks off before the spring semester begins. This past semester included 3 Reading classes, 3 Speaking classes for non-English majors, a Writing class for juniors with no textbook and 65 students, and a Listening/Speaking class for a group of freshmen Engineering students that are part of a Sino-American program. The Engineering students are supposed to study here for 3 years then go to Central Michigan University for 1 year after which they will get a BS degree from both schools. This class was the worst group of students I’ve had in my time here in Nanning. They were quite different from all the other freshmen classes I’ve had here in that they were lazy and often late for class. Some of them could barely speak a simple sentence. I can’t imagine them being successful at a US university. The Writing class was also a big challenge because there was no textbook to follow and with so many students there were so many papers to grade each week.

We recently decided to sell Bonnie’s new apartment on campus back to the school. There are many problems with the buildings and the school did a poor job designing them and having them built. We don’t need the apartment as long as I’m teaching here since the school provides an apartment to me for free as part of my contract. They are in the process of increasing the retirement age here to 65 and I will want Bonnie to retire several years before that. I am concerned that if she retires early then the school will require her to return the apartment to the school. The apartments on campus are always owned by the school and you only buy the right to use them as long as you’re employed here or retired from the school. To use the apartment we would have to spend $25,000 to $40,000 to finish the decorating of the apartment including buying cabinets, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, appliances, flooring, heating and air conditioning, furniture, etc. If we sold the apartment back to the school later, they would not reimburse us for those costs. Thus, the decision to return the apartment.

We are leaving soon to go to New Zealand for a 19 day tour with a tour company called Grand Pacific Tours. We will be seeing both of the main islands and most of the transportation will be by bus but also some of it by train or boat. Until next time….

We’re back in Nanning after enjoying our summer travels in the states and ready to start the new school year tomorrow. We started our US visit in Jupiter, Florida with the 24th annual reunion of my former Coca-Cola colleagues. From there we went to Texas for a week and visited Dallas/Ft. Worth and Austin. It was Bonnie’s first trip to Texas and my first trip to Austin. During each trip to the states I make sure Bonnie gets to see parts of the US that she hasn’t seen before. We enjoyed seeing the sites in Texas, listening to live music in Austin and having dinner with two of my high school classmates who are married to each other (Phil and Leeann Hieger). After Texas we went to Indiana for some family time and attended my high school reunion which was a lot of fun.

We borrowed Dad’s car and drove to Rhode Island to start a New England tour. We spent time in Newport seeing the “cottages” of the gilded era and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. We drove out to Provincetown on Cape Cod, spent a few days in the Boston area including walking much of the Freedom Trail and hiking around Walden Pond, visited Salem and Rockport, and then headed up into Maine. We stopped in Portland, Maine on our way and visited with a former colleague from Dreyer’s (Michael Donahoe). We then headed on up towards Bar Harbor with a stop at Red’s Eats for their famous lobster rolls. They were good but not worth the almost 1 hour wait in line to get them. While in New England we enjoyed lobster bisque, lobster croissant, lobster rolls, and whole lobsters to ensure we got our fill of lobster. Of course, we enjoyed other seafood as well. While in Bar Harbor we spent time in Acadia National Park and did some great hikes there as well as enjoying the views of the coastline. One of the trails we hiked was called Precipice Trail and it was quite challenging with some metal ladders hammered into the sides of the mountain.

From Bar Harbor, we drove to Franconia, NH and did a hike at Franconia Notch before heading on to Plattsburgh, NY which is just south of the Canadian border. We then drove to Montreal where we stayed a few days with a former teacher/colleague of Bonnie’s. We took a tour bus to Quebec City and spent a couple days there enjoying the sites and food. It was my first time in Quebec and it felt more like being in France than being in Canada since French was the dominant language. After our time in Canada, we headed to New York City to watch the US Open tennis tournament. We spent all day the first two days of the tournament and half day of the third day watching many matches and seeing almost all of the top players. After we had our fill of tennis, we headed back to Indiana to spend a few more days before heading back home to China. All in all, we had a great trip that went according to plan and we enjoyed good weather almost the entire time.

It’s always good seeing friends and family, especially my parents and siblings. We got to visit again with my 100 year old grandmother and my 91 year old great uncle; fortunately they both still have sharp minds and can mostly take care of themselves. My great uncle still drives. We never know if our visit with them will be the last time we see them. Well that’s all for now, until next time……….

The spring semester is over and I’ve been in China for over 7 years now. I signed a new contract so I’ll be teaching for at least one more year. We finally got the key at the end of April to the apartment on campus that Bonnie has purchased. We haven’t started any of the finishing/decoration work yet and won’t start it until October or so since we will be gone for the summer and Bonnie will be very busy in September and early October. Since I signed a contract for another year we can stay in our current apartment until this time next year so we don’t need to be in a hurry to finish the new apartment. Our current apartment is comfortable enough, provided to me at no cost and is more conveniently located so we’re in no hurry to move.

In May, Nanning hosted the China National Gymnastics Championship and in October will host the World Gymnastics Championship. We went to see the last 2 days which were the individual event finals. I was amazed that about half the seats were vacant considering that the ticket prices were not that expensive (less than $15 per ticket per day for the most expensive seats) and Nanning is a city of more than 5 million people. We have purchased tickets to the World Championship for the individual event finals and the most expensive tickets cost about $45 each. Very affordable prices for such world class events I think. See the pictures by clicking on the link on the right.

About 3 weeks ago I got a call from someone here at the school saying that there was a Yao minority group festival taking place in a small town about 90 minutes away from Nanning that day and they were looking for some foreigners to attend. They like to have foreign faces at these types of events and the foreigners always get photographed and interviewed by the local media. I agreed to go and was picked up by a couple people from that town. The one who spoke English happened to be someone that I had met before because she was friends with a couple of the Americans that I worked with at the pig farm company. The town where the festival was taking place was near the town where we had one of the pig farms. We arrived late and didn’t really get to see much of the festival but the performances I saw were entertaining and showed aspects of the local culture. I was treated like a VIP and was ushered in to sit next to a fairly high ranking provincial official. There was an obvious police presence at the festival as I believe there is at any large gathering of people with the purpose most likely being to prevent or respond to any terrorist attacks and to make sure the gathering stays focused on its intended purpose. There was a German guy that we went to pick up to take with us but when we arrived to pick him up it turned out that he was a local Chinese. Someone got his phone number confused with a German guy’s number and called him to invite him to the festival. Because when he answered the phone the person spoke English he replied in English. He studied in the US for a couple years so he speaks English well and the person calling him didn’t realize he was not the German guy. It was a very funny situation and even though he wasn’t a foreigner he joined us anyway. He is an interesting guy and is the manager of a company that he may also own or be a part owner (often facts about these sorts of things are not very clear here). I had lunch with him a week or so later and he told me that his daughter, who is an American citizen having been born in the states, is living with his late wife’s brother. He said that his wife owned a company and after she passed away the brother-in-law forged documents preventing him from inheriting his wife’s company and that the brother-in-law also bribed court personnel to help him get custody of his niece. It’s a pretty strange tale and I have no idea how much of it to believe. It’s often very difficult here to sort out fact from fiction. I have posted pictures of the festival.

We will leave on the 16th to head to the states for the summer. We will visit Florida, Texas, Indiana, the NE/New England/Quebec Canada areas and also go to the US Open tennis tournament. Until next time…..

I finished the semester in the first week of January and then made a visit to Indiana to see family and friends. Bonnie’s semester didn’t end until a week or two after mine so I went to the states alone. I was there when the first of one of the many winter storms came through and it impacted my travel coming back home. My flight departed late from Indianapolis because the jetways were frozen and they only had one that was working. So I missed my connection in D.C. and had to spend the night there. When I arrived in Beijing my bag was missing so I missed my connection to Nanning because I had to deal with reporting the bag missing so I had to spend the night in Beijing. I finally arrived in Nanning after almost 3 days of traveling and my bag arrived the next day. Bonnie and I had one day together before she left with her mother to go to Shenzhen for a few days. She took her mother to a couple theme parks (Windows on the World and Splendid China) and a couple other scenic spots in Shenzhen since her mother had never been there.

We spent Chinese New Year Eve at her mom’s house. The fireworks were everywhere but not quite as bad as previous years. The government has asked people not to set them off due to the impact on air quality. The air quality has been pretty bad here recently and on Chinese New Year Eve the AQI (air quality index) went up by over 200 points causing the air quality to be very bad. In the past the air quality in Nanning has been pretty good and has only recently been a problem. The air in the university is better than most places in town I think but I did buy some masks for us to wear when we go out when the air is bad. There is a website that publishes the AQI and is updated several times during the day.

On February 9, we left Nanning and went to Siem Reap in Cambodia with a change of planes in Guangzhou. We stayed in Siem Reap for 4 nights and saw many ancient Khmer temples including Angkor Wat. The temples were amazing but after 3 days of looking at them I was on temple overload. See pictures by clicking on the link over to the right. We then took a bus for a 6 hour ride to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia where we visited the royal palace, the national museum, one of the famous “killing fields” and a famous prison from the Khmer Rouge era. There wasn’t a lot to see at the “killing field” but the audio narrative on the personal audio player made it a very somber experience. In addition to mass graves we saw a tree that was used to smash children against for quick killing. They held the children by the legs and swung their bodies so their heads smashed into the tree trunk. It never ceases to amaze me how cruel humans can be to each other. They killed the children of “traitors” because they didn’t want any family members remaining that might seek revenge. The Cambodian people seem to be so easy going that they just accept whatever comes their way. Cambodia is very underdeveloped and seems to be about 70 years behind the U.S. The highway between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh was a poorly constructed two lane road with a few stretches of it being dirt. The roads in Siem Reap were very poor and there was heavy dust everywhere being kicked up from the roads. Phnom Penh roads were better in town. Tourism is the second largest industry after textiles and it seemed the number of tourists was pretty high relative to the local population. It’s a very cheap country to visit; we paid $20 to $30 per night for simple but clean rooms with private bathrooms in hostels and the $30 room included a nice free breakfast. Food was very inexpensive as it is easy to get by for $3 to $7 per person per meal. Most restaurants offered a variety of local and western food.

After spending 3 nights in Phnom Penh we headed back to Siem Reap for two more days and then flew back to Guangzhou. It was about 85F when we left and it was about 48F in Guangzhou. The airport in Guangzhou apparently doesn’t have heat and it was only about 60F in the airport. We didn’t really have much in the way of warm clothes with us and we almost froze during our 7+ hour layover waiting for our flight back to Nanning. It has been very cold in Nanning since we returned home going down to 30F last night which is the coldest I’ve ever seen here. Even with the heat on in the apartment we can only get the temperature up to about 64F.

The spring semester starts next week so it’s time to go back to work. Until next time….

We’re now approaching the half-way mark of this semester. I’m teaching 4 classes of Oral English, Business English, 2 classes of Reading and a class called Communicative English to Vietnamese majors. These are all classes I’ve taught before so the prep work is minimal. After the semester is over in mid-January we’ll have 5 weeks off for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). We’ll spend most of that time here but we plan to spend 9 days in Cambodia which is one of the few Asian countries I haven’t yet visited. We will visit the states next summer.

I have mentioned before that Bonnie is buying an apartment on campus. She first paid the application fee in 2008 and they started construction in 2010. She began making mortgage payments in March of this year. In September they completed the construction on the eight 30 story buildings but it seems that it will be at least April before we can get the key and begin doing the finishing/decorating. A year ago we were hoping that we would be able to move into the apartment by Christmas this year. It now looks like it will be between June and December 2014 before we can move in. The school has a department that manages projects like this and it seems they are completely incompetent. They didn’t plan for parking for cars in the design (most households will have a car) and they apparently still haven’t signed contracts for connecting water and power to the buildings. There are both formal and informal homeowners groups and there are rumors of corruption in both. The informal groups mainly serve as a forum for information sharing and complaints. They also serve as a buying group for negotiating prices with vendors for decorating items such as tile flooring, bathroom fixtures, appliances, paint, etc. There have been accusations that some people involved in negotiating these group prices with vendors have negotiated a kickback for themselves. The formal group is supposed to communicate with the school and with the homeowners about progress and issues but they have communicated almost no information. It is very frustrating and a group of the homeowners sent a letter to the university president’s office expressing their complaints. The letter caused some actions to be taken but they are still waiting to see real progress. Keep in mind that this is all happening on a university campus where many of these people know each other and of course they all work together.

We are currently living in an apartment on campus provided to me as a foreign teacher as part of my compensation so as long as I’m teaching we have a place to live that is comfortable enough. I’m considering retiring from full time teaching at the end of this school year but may not want to do that if we can’t move into the apartment by the middle of July. Oh well, TIC – This Is China and such is life in China. Until next time….

The semester is over and we’re enjoying our summer vacation now. We started by flying to Harbin in the far north of China on July 16. We spent three days there as part of a group of over 300 teachers plus family members that went to Harbin from all over China on a trip sponsored by a publishing house which sells textbooks to the universities. The publishing house paid most of the expenses for the teachers and charged what seemed like a high price for the family members. Apparently more people signed up for the trip than they expected and the hotels had trouble providing enough food for everyone. There were quite a lot of bad manners being displayed in the dining rooms when everyone was trying to make sure they got the food they wanted. While there we went to a former volcanic area northwest of Harbin and stayed in a very nice resort hotel for 1 night. One of Bonnie’s colleagues complained that he didn’t have any hot water in the shower and when he called the front desk they told him that was because he was on the 7th floor and all the hot water was used by the rooms on the lower floors. That’s a typical China experience, to find a beautiful hotel and then learn that they either didn’t design it properly or that they operate it in a substandard way.

We left Harbin via a fast train to Shenyang and then took an overnight train to Baihe in Jilin province to visit Changbai Mountain. We spent the next 2 days visiting the mountain, making it to the top from two different sides to enjoy the view of the volcanic crater lake. The lake and mountain are on the border with North Korea and I actually stepped about 20 yards into North Korea on the top of the mountain in an area controlled by the Chinese and without any North Korean presence. There were armed Chinese soldiers present and they had a roped off area that tourists were allowed to enter on the North Korea side. There was no fence dividing the area.

We left Baihe via another overnight train (19 hours) to Dalian. One of Bonnie’s friends who lives there picked us up at the train station and took us to a hotel. He loaned us his car and we spent the next 3 days seeing the sites of Dalian and then having dinner with him and his family in the evenings. Dalian is a very large and pretty city right on the East China Sea. The traffic flows smoothly and there are very few e-bikes, motorcycles and bicycles on the roads. One of the sites that we went to and enjoyed was the Lavender Garden about 20 miles outside the city.

We flew from Dalian to Seoul, South Korea, and spent 3 days there seeing the sites. Seoul was very developed and had many western restaurants. The people there were very nice and helpful. We were able to get around almost exclusively using public transport and by walking. We then flew from Seoul to Jeju Island off the southern coast of mainland South Korea. It was high season there so there were many tourists with most of them being from China it seemed. We spent 3 days seeing the sites there before flying back to Gimpo Airport in Seoul then taking a 30 minute train ride to Incheon Airport to fly back to China. I found Korea to be much more like Japan than like China. The people were courteous, things were well organized and modern, and the prices were comparable to U.S. prices. I don’t really care that much for Korean food (but Bonnie does) so we compromised and had a few meals at western restaurants.

We flew back to China arriving in Qingdao which is only about an 80 minute flight. Qingdao was very crowded with tourists, dirty, noisy and not so exciting. We were there for 3 days and felt like it was 2 days too many. We were happy to leave there and went to Tai’an via train. Tai Mountain is one of the most famous mountains in China and many emperors went there to seek blessings after they became emperors. We visited Dai Temple the day we arrived which is one of the most famous temples in China. That evening we attended a performance at an outdoor theatre at the foot of the mountain. The performance was about the history of the mountain and about all the famous emperors that had come there seeking blessings for their reign. The stage was very impressive. It was made in the form of stair steps and was about 20 yards wide by about 40 yards tall. It had movable sections and projection of a movie from behind. More than 100 performers could stand on the steps while adding to the film being projected from behind. The next day we set off early to climb the mountain. After 4 hours of tough climbing and a lot of sweating we reached the top at about 10:00 a.m. We climbed about 3500 feet of elevation change. We took the gondola and bus back down since it was so hot and I was so tired. On Thursday, August 8 we took a train to Shanghai and then flew back home to Nanning. It was 24 days of travels and we were happy to be back home. See the pictures by clicking on the link on the right!