Sunday, March 15, 2015
Happy Ides of March from Jinan, China,
Hope all of you are doing well. We love you and can hardly believe that it is
the middle of March. Did you enjoy Pi
Day? We ate Egg (custard) Pie to
celebrate. It really is delicious and
available everywhere in Jinan.
It has been wonderful seeing your posts on Facebook. I will try to be better at that. We have many photos of our adventures that we
want to share with you.
This has been a good week.
When we arrived in Jinan at the end of August, it was definitely summer,
and was very hot. Gradually, the leaves
began to change, the temperatures dropped and the campus reminded us of what
fall must look like at Harvard or Yale.
By mid-November, we were cold and glad to have heat turned on in the
buildings and our apartment. Winter had
arrived. Though we never saw the snow,
there was a little while we were journeying in SW China in January. It was still cold when we got back just over
2 weeks ago, but magically, spring has decided to come to Jinan….so, we have
lived 4 seasons in the six and a half months we have lived in China. Amazing!
To celebrate, Richard and I went to 5 Dragons Park on
Friday. We enjoyed sitting on a bench,
watching the Chinese children and discussing our future together. As we walked around the park, we were awed by
the clear pond that held thousands of gold, yellow, black and spotted
fish. Though many meters deep, we could
see to the bottom because of the crystal clear springs that supply the water to
this and over 70 other springs in Jinan.
We watched the beautiful Chinese children throwing bread to the fish and
wished that our grandchildren could be here with us. Chinese families, just like American
families, love to take their children and grandchildren to the parks. Jinan has many beautiful ones.
On Saturday, we went to Quenching Park, across the road from
our campus. They had rides for all ages
and a pond with paddleboats shaped like swans.
The best view was from the walkway over the park. Only a few of the flowers were out, but there
are buds on the trees and within a few weeks, it will be glorious.
Our students this semester are amazing. Richard still has the master’s students as
well as 2 of my freshman classes (8 classes in all). I am down to 6 classes and loving the time to
prepare and de-stress.
Of the 8 BYU teachers in Jinan, 4 of us are going home at the
end of this year. The Welshes and
Burnetts, both from the Seattle area, are staying. The Robertsons, also from Seattle, will leave
when we do at the end of June. We have
really enjoyed getting to know them at our Sunday dinners and other
outings. It helps to know that you
aren’t alone. We are all living an
adventure of a lifetime that has opened my eyes and my heart to these wonderful
Chinese people and their ancient, fascinating culture.
Thirteen years ago, this August, our family moved from Salt
Lake City to Hurricane, Utah. Little did
I know then that my life would change forever.
I became an orchestra teacher, watched my last child leave home,
welcomed Jessica back from her mission then off to her new life, had wonderful
and exciting summers with our grandchildren and children living with us, lost
my dear husband and our children’s father, tried to adjust to my “new” life,
met and married my sweet Richard, inherited a whole new amazing family, learned
to sail (not very well), bought a house in Baja, retired and sold my home in
Hurricane and left a community that I will always love who sing my songs at
Peach Days at their production of “Come See Our Valley”, moved to China where
we are teaching at Shandong Medical University, bought another house in Las
Vegas and will soon begin our adventures there.
And, this doesn’t begin to tell about Richard’s “adventures.” I will let him do that. One minute you are young and suddenly you are
a grandma. Life is a GREAT
ADVENTURE! I hope you are all enjoying
the journey. We are so proud of you and
grateful to Heavenly Father for giving us such a good life…the best part is
YOU!
Love,
Mom, Carolyn, Grandma, Richard, Dad, Grandpa
No comments:
Post a Comment