Day 5, Continued –
It has rained for 2 nights and the sky is completely blue. We went to Baotu Xuen Springs, just across
the street from the North Gate of our campus.
It is a beautiful park with many pools of crystal clear water bubbling up
from underground. Jinan has many
springs. This one is special because
there is an outdoor theater and 3 buildings dating back about 200 years that
have statues inside that were made by following an ancient record they found in
this area. The statues seem to relate to
the family and their relationship with God.
It was a profound experience for me.
As we walked home, I looked up and saw the moon and some stars. Jinan is a beautiful city.
Day 6, Thursday,
September 4 – Adam Yang came to visit us today.
It was wonderful to see him. He
brought us a very large bag filled with different tins of moon cakes to be eaten
in honor of the moon festival this Monday.
He is such a nice man. We also
spent a good part of the day with Robin setting up our bank account and getting
our student card. He has been very
patient with us and we are grateful for his help. Been working on lesson plans and outlines for
next week. I am so excited to meet my
new students.
Day 7, Friday,
September 5 – We spent the day at the main campus in training with the other
International teachers. I thought there
would be many teachers, but there were only about 15 of us on 4 campuses. One teacher is from Russia, another from
Spain, one from India and another from Canada.
Mostly, we were from the USA and some of the teachers had taught all over
the world. We had a great meeting with
our wonderful Chinese University hosts.
They arranged for us to eat an excellent buffet at the on campus
hotel. Richard and I came home and Robin
came over and spent almost 3 hours helping us get our internet working
again. Thank you!
Day 8, Saturday,
September 6 – Today we had planned to go to on the campus tours with the other
teachers. Richard opened his email and
there was a letter from Du Chuan Chou (Mark Du) who was Joan’s student as a
sophomore medical student. He said that
he would be at our apartment at 10 am and wanted to take us to lunch. He had made a special trip from Beijing to be
with us, so, of course, we decided to go with him. He was so happy to see Richard. Richard is “family” to him and he lovingly
included me in the circle. Mark is now
an orthopedic surgeon in Beijing. We
thought that we would be going to a restaurant for lunch, but he took us to his
hotel and had reserved a gorgeous room with a large round table, padded benches,
and our personal waitresses. It was
incredible. The food was also
wonderful. But, best of all, he invited
his family members who live in Jinan to join us. I’m not exactly sure how they are all
related, but his two cousins (brother and sister) and her husband and their
father joined us. They were so
kind. We ate and talked for over two
hours. His cousins took us to their
family business called KTV which is a shop that has many booths where you can go
and record yourself with a karaoke background.
They are also interior designers for high class homes and hotels. Their work is exquisite. I would love to have them decorate our
home. They said that they would always
be there to help us and that we were family.
I am so impressed with Chinese people and their work ethic. I especially love how kind they have been to
us. I also haven’t mentioned the many
shops and food stands around our apartment.
It is such an adventure to be here.
-Carolyn Leavitt
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