Christmas Service

We had two opportunities to "carol" for Christmas. One was in a Protestant Church in Jinan (lower right) which was packed with Christians. We were amazed how many filled the church. We sang a medley of Christmas hymns on their program Christmas Eve as did some other groups. We sang carols on a square near a Catholic Church on Christmas afternoon and attracted quite a group of picture-taking spectators.



We also had the opportunity to visit a couple of schools in a somewhat remote village near Qingzhou, about a two-hour drive from where we live. We took athletic equipment, notebooks, pencils, erasers, etc. and candy to a school for the deaf (upper right) who invited us to share lunch (upper left) with them and to a school which has both a kindergarten (note the beds for naps, lower left) where the 3 to 5 year olds were warmed by one small coal stove in the room (lower middle) and an elementary school through grade 6 where students sang and performed for us in gratitude for our donations to them.

It was a nice way to spend the Christmas holiday and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

Lots and Lots of Students!

Fortunately, a couple of my students wanted an individual picture taken with me which facilitated making a better collage of the eight classes I have taught this semester. Most of these students are post graduates in some field of medicine. They come from all over China. Shandong University is a rather prestigious university and all are quite thrilled they were accepted here. Many have already been here for 5 or 6 years.


They will all be taking a final exam from me next week, right after Christmas. I have 280+ students. Susan has close to twice that many. Most of them wear their winter coats in the classroom during this colder period but it is quite comfy for me without mine on. We have had a wonderful semester together and I will miss crossing paths with them on campus because supposedly next semester I will be teaching on one of the university's other 5 campuses while Susan remains on this one. The commute for me will be about 45 minutes one way by bus.

Beijing and the Great Wall

We left Jinan after teaching our classes on Thanksgiving morning and boarded a train (lower and upper left) for Beijing where we enjoyed a buffet Thanksgiving dinner that evening. We visited the normal tourist sites the next day including Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (upper center) and the Temple of Heaven and Great Wall (lower center). Our favorite stop was the dedication site (lower right) where Elder David O. McKay dedicated the Chinese realm during his world tour in 1921. This spot was only recently pinpointed in 2004 by our first mission president and others and was something we didn't want to miss.

Thanksgiving Play Performance

Lowell had the students in each of his eight classes perform a play the week of Thanksgiving. The play was about a former minister in the Church of England who quit as minister and joined an independent church. He was subsequently imprisoned and was eventually exiled from England and sent to America. It is a true story about John Lathrop and took place in about 1634. The students had a fun time performing the play even though it was not well practiced and some of the parts were long. They got a lot of practice with the English parts and performed relatively well. Lowell was surprised how much effort many had made to memorize their part between the final dress rehearsal and the actual performance. We try all kinds of things to motivate the students to improve their English.

Fall Is In The Air

We recently visited the Red Leaf Valley with some of the other BYU English teachers to see the changing leaves. The day we went was very misty following a night's rain the previous evening so the views were not far reaching. It was beautiful nonetheless and we had an enjoyable time. Lowell ran into some of his students who had chosen the same day to visit this location, but didn't think fast enough to get a picture of them.



Susan and some of the other American English teachers were very excited to acquaint their students with the customs surrounding Halloween, so they spent a whole class period indoctrinating them. Some of the teachers (who live in a hotel) actually decided to decorate their rooms for the occasion. One had a spook alley. Others did apple bobbing and other interesting games. They were flooded with students that evening who came "trick or treating." We tried some crepe-like items for lunch one day which we saw being made on the side of the road (upper right). Many local people get their "fast food" this way. Susan has a group of students over to our apartment most every Friday evening for an "English Hour" (lower left). We recently had our directors, Kirk and Midge Evans, from the BYU Kennedy Center, here in Jinan to check up on us. They invited us out to a nice dinner in a local hotel (lower center and right).

Jinan, City of Springs

We had the opportunity to take a boat (lower left) ride down a canal from Black Tiger Springs across Da Ming Lake and back on a circuitous route to the point of our beginning one night last week. Jinan is known as the City of Springs and there are some 72 of them around the city. We hadn't been able to visit any of them yet, what with our busy teaching schedule. Nights are cooling off now so we are glad we got on this canal trip before it gets too cold. At one point down the canal we entered a lock where the water was blocked off and our boat lowered to the next part of the canal before we crossed Da Ming Lake and then enjoyed the reverse process (lower center) as we returned to our original location.

University Anniversary and Confucius

We recently attended some celebrations in conjunction with Shandong University's 110th Anniversary. They really put on the production! There were spotlights, TV camera, gala costumes, dancers, singers, and so forth. The celebrations went on for over a week in several locations. We attended two majors ones. The university had really been spruced up to impress all the dignitaries and foreign guests visiting for the event. The campus fountains were working (first time we have seen them on - lower left). We also recently visited Jinan Central Square which has its own water show set to music and lights (lower right)


We went with a group of foreign professors (some from Japan, Spain, Russia, and England) on a tour to Qufu, birthplace and final resting place of Confucius. We saw some temples which are over 1,000 years old and a tree (Susan is standing by it) which is over 1,800 years old (and still growing) in the temple complex where Confucius used to teach 3,000 students. His tombstone is shown here as well. The horse cart and the "tricycle" were seen in the city of Qufu (which is in Shangdong Province and about a two hour bus ride away from where we live).

From the Gobi Desert to Xi'an

In Dunhuang, we each rode one of about 500 camels for about an hour and went to an oasis in the Gobi Desert called Moon Lake (shaped like a cresent moon) which is really quite amazing because for 100's of years it has continued from a spring while the sand dunes have never obliterated it. We also visited a grape and raisin plantation which has been in this particular man's family for many many generations. He and his extended family hosted us and explained how the whole process works. (He is seated to the right of our tour guide leader, Marvin Wu, in the photo top left).



We left Dunhuang and flew to Xi'an, ancient capital of China, and saw the famous terracotta warriors which were unearthed only recently. There are still hundreds of them that have yet to be excavated . We also attended a production commemorating the songs and dances of the Tang dynasty. We enjoyed the festive costumes and energetic performance of the participants.

The Many Faces of China

We have just come back from a 7-day trip to Urumqi, Turpan and Dunhuang in northwestern China and from Xi'an in central China. It was a long and event-filled week. We did this with about 50 other BYU English teachers during the National Day Holiday for China. In Urumqi we were among many Uygur (Wee-grrr) people, a minority group in China. They speak their own language to each other on the street, but most know some Mandarin which they are required to learn in school. We visited the remains of some ancient cities one of which was actually dug out of the ground rather than being built above it. The Uygur people are of Turkic descent and their language is similar to Turkish, but is written in what familiarly appears as Arabic. Signs are in both Uygur and Chinese.

Yeah! The Moon Cakes are Gone!

We are actually happy that Mid-Autumn Festival is over. This is the moon cake festival and we have had our fill (lower right). They are kind of like the old fruitcakes that people back home used to take around at Christmas. Everybody gave them away, but few seemed to want to eat them. It is the same with moon cakes.

Lowell is pictured here standing in front of our apartment building. The scroll of excess electrical wires is our "landmark" to let us know we have reached our building (since many look very similar). Here are some of Lowell's students and the class he alone (no one else seems to have access to it during the week) uses on campus to teach all eight of his classes in.

Teaching in Earnest

We have begun teaching in earnest now. Our campus celebrates it's 110th anniversary next month, so it has its own personality and many of the buildings (including the one lower right which Lowell teaches in) have been around a long time. Others are a bit newer like the Administration Building (upper and lower left). When it is smoggy, which it often is, it has a bit of the Harry Potter feel (at least that is what Susan thought when she snagged some of these pictures.

At Home Again in China

We are getting settled in our new accommodations. We live in a dormitory on campus which is actually two units combined to make it more roomy for the American teachers. It is quite nice and actually huge compared to where we were living in Hong Kong. Susan has started teaching and Lowell starts next week. Her classes are averaging about 50 students each. Maybe we can actually do this.

We were invited to stay for a light dinner after our group meetings the first Sunday. Two of the couples live in a hotel near their campus and that is where we will meet each week as well as where we will generally share a potluck dinner with the other couples. This time there was a member from Bolivia who is here teaching high school and a nonmember from Australia who coincidentally also has the last name of Bishop, There is also a widow who has been teaching now for six years and she is over 70 (the redhead in the picture).

Ready, Set, Go!

After two weeks of intensive (100 hours) training at BYU, mostly in teaching English as a second language, but also some survival Mandarin Chinese (different from the Cantonese we spoke in Hong Kong), we will soon be off to Shandong University in Jinan, China to begin teaching university students for the school year. Not at all intimidating, right?

We were with approximately 50 others (mostly couples, but some are single individuals) for this training and we will get to see all of them again next February when we go to Hong Kong for a seminar and our sole temple visit during the next nine months.



The group below are some of the couples we will be associating with on a weekly basis in Jinan even though they will be teaching at other campuses than the one we are assigned to. Two couples (missing in the photo), the Miners and the Joneses, are returning again this year and so had already received the training. We will be living close to the Joneses who will orient us once we arrive.



(L to R rear: Charles and Nancy Rieben, Lowell and Susan Bishop. L to R front: Truman and Carol Leishman, Marlene and Fred Simes)