The Walk

I went for a walk and found a campus with a beautiful walking path. There were huge lily pads in bloom. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was amazing! I don't know if I dare post this, but it looks like we will be able to move into our apartment on Saturday. We are really excited. We aren't sure if our shipment will be released from customs. But we do have a set of sheets, two towels and washcloths, and two bags of cereal that we brought from home. I have picked up a few food items and some plastic dinnerware. So we should be good to go!

One Of Our "Tender Mercies"

This is Lucy from France. She is the waitress I have talked about in my emails. We met her our first day here and she has been a "tender mercy." She speaks English and explained all the menu items to us and also the food on the buffet. We are hoping everything works out and we can move into our apartment on Saturday.

Craig's Update

Hello all from our temporary homeland, (China)

A lot has happened since Sue’s last update. As you are aware our experience on Tuesday wasn’t something dreams are made of. We went to JinTan again on Wednesday to meet with the local authorities and good news--the power was on. We arrived about 15 minutes early with our driver, Louis. Katherine was there along with the office manager who can’t speak any English or very little. By the time the doors open, there are about thirty people lined up on the stairs waiting to get in. They open the doors at 9:00 A.M. and all thirty of us are trying to squeeze through these double wide glass doors at the same time. Luckily for us, Katherine has been through this before and she takes Sue and I to a window where no one is at the time. Her manager goes and gets in line on the other side of the room that we are in. That is where you get all of the forms and paper work to fill out, etc. The door is locked for the room we are to go into and we have to wait for a few minutes for one of the staff to come with the Golden Key to unlock the door. They finally get the door unlocked and we get to go into this room where they have to take like a passport photo of you. Sue and I are sitting there, waiting for them to get the camera and everything ready, the computers on and so on. (One thing we have learned in a very short time is that no one here knows how to wait in a line if some one

is in front of you). Any way we are sitting there, and this little Chinese woman comes strutting in with a hand bag as big as she is in one arm and an umbrella tucked under her other arm. She is all of about 4 ft tall, very slender, probably less than 90 lbs. and throws her document down on the desk and is already to get her picture taken. The worker finally gets the equipment ready to go and then Katherine and the worker motion to me to come and get my picture taken. This woman has look of disgust on her face, and then it is Sue’s turn and I think there were a couple others there that were ahead of her and she just had to wait. If you have seen some movies of someone getting interrogated, this is kind of what it reminded me of. You had the reflective back drop behind you, a little stool to sit on, then two lights by the camera aimed toward you. You are not sure whether to smile or look un-amused or what! The girl at the desk is trying to get me to get my head turned to the right position; of course, me with my fluent Chinese don’t understand a thing she is trying to tell me to do. So finally one of the girls comes and grabs my head and moves it. And might I add, it wasn’t a gentle move. Oh, Sue had to remove her earrings and pull her hair behind her ears. We still haven’t figured that one out yet. Plus she has to remove her glasses, I get one of these looks from her that I know is saying, “What the %$@#&& have you got me into.”

We finish getting our pictures done and move out and go to the other side of the room now where there are some chairs for people to sit down in. Of course, Sue and I are the only ones sitting in them to start with. The office manger is in line and finally it is his turn at the desk. There are three stations at this desk that goes all away across the width of the room.  We have probably been there about 20-25 minutes at this point. Sue looks at me and says she is hot, I happened to have a bottle of water with me and she was able to get a drink. Those of you who know Sue, knows that if she is warm and not comfortable it is warm. Any way back to the story, the manager that is there with us is standing in line and getting papers out of a folder and talking to the worker, etc. There are about 15 people in space that is about 20 ft. wide. And yup, you guessed it, here comes this little woman from the photo room and pushes her way right up to the front of the group of people. There is a space about the size of a case of Diet Coke, and she just plows right into that spot. Her umbrella still tucked under the one arm and her shoulder bag in the other. Sue and I just looked at each and rolled our eyes and kind of had to chuckle a little bit about it. Just a little note about her standing in this line, she probably had to spend about fifteen minutes standing there before she was attended to. It was so funny because she would take her papers and put them on top of some one else’s and they would remove her papers and put them underneath. Enough about her. Sue and I finally had to go and sign a document and then get our pictures taken again. Katherine told us we were about through. We had probably been there close to an hour now. We were really kind of feeling pretty good about things, thinking that in five days we would have our passports and residence permits. Katherine comes up and motions us to talk and says, ”We have a little situation here.” Which means, “We have a problem.”  Apparently, on the 1^st of July. the law was changed and instead of waiting five working days for your permit and passports, you now have to wait 15 working days. So here we sit no passports, no permits yet, and still living in a hotel. Life is so good. It is a little unsettling being in a foreign country with no passport.

We did get some good news though yesterday, The real estate people had received the lease agreement back from Autoliv legal and there is a good chance that we will be moving on the 20^th of July into our new apartment. Just one day short of spending four weeks living out of a suitcase in the hotel. It has got to the point that yesterday, we did not want to even go look at the restaurant in the hotel to eat. Don’t know what we will do in the apartment, since we don’t have our residence permits or our passports to claim our air shipment out of customs. We do have a Official Stamped Document stating that our passports are being held by the local authorities. The real estate people say that they are trying to negotiate with the government to get our things out instead of having to wait that full time. We will let you know how that all goes

On Wednesday after we finished with the permits. I had my driver take Sue and I to work and drop me off at the plant site. Then he took Sue and our good friend, Cherie Sparks, for the rest of the day shopping, sight seeing, or what ever was their desire. The days get pretty long for Sue, just sitting here in the hotel. I am very proud of her and how well she is doing. By Friday and Saturday though of this week, she was ready to get out. Saturday we decided that we were going to go out and maybe try to go some place and do a little sight seeing and start to find our way around on the Metro, (subway) and maybe even try to do a bus ride. We had breakfast and came back to the room to try and plan our route, etc. By about 10:30 that morning the temp. was already at about ninety degrees and the humidity was above eight five percent. We finally decided it was just to hot to go. So we made a plan that we would leave at about three that afternoon and go to the Potato Bistro for a late lunch and maybe walk around and explore a little in area where are going to live. Our apartment is going to be really close to the Sugou market, (Walmart), Potato Bistro, McDonalds, The dumpling dive, etc. We spent about two and a half hours at the Bistro, just talking, eating, etc. When we got out to walk around a little, the heat was terrible.  We spent about forty to fifty minutes out and decided it was time to go back to the room and try to cool off.

I forgot to mention that on Friday night, Lane and Cherie called us and asked if we wanted to go out and eat. We were sure glad that we weren’t going to the hotel restaurant again that night. There were two places that they had heard of that they wondered about going to. One was Jack’s or the Masala Indian Restaurant Bar.  We decided to go to Masala’s. It was really quite good. When we came to Shanghai in March, we went with some friends of Lane’s and Cherie’s to an Indian restaurant there. So we kind of knew what the food would be like. We ordered a couple of appetizers, some Naua Bread, Lemon Rice, and three different types of Curry. Needless to say, we had plenty to eat and it was pretty tasty. Something different every now and then to try is good. We are really trying to broaden our cultural experiences. We woke up and got ready for church and was able to Skype a few minutes with Emily and the girls and Brian. It was so good to get to see and talk to them. We went down to get some breakfast before Lane came to pick us up for church. We got seated and were just going to get something to eat, when I ran into Greg Ferney. He is the Quality Manager at the plant site where I am working. He had just returned from Utah and brought his family here. They got here last night at about eleven. They have four children here with him and his wife. The oldest boy that is here just got his mission call last week and is going to Wisconsin. They were sitting in an enclosed room and asked us to join them. They are some way neat people. There are three boys here and their daughter. They have one son out right now on a mission. After breakfast we went to church and then had a linger longer or pot luck luncheon after. Sue and I, with all the facilities available here at the hotel, fixed a fabulous course of three bags of chips. And Sue did it all by herself. It was very good to have a variety of good old American food---PBJ’s, egg salad sandwiches, Hoagie Sandwiches, chips, salsa and deserts. The Ferney’s brought a big bag of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. Wellcome Mart, here we come! It has been a good day today. We have had a pretty good week. Hope by next Sunday, we will be living in our own place. We want to thank all of you for remembering us in your prayers. We love and miss all of you.

Quick note from Sue:

When I met Greg Ferney’s wife, Alayne, at the restaurant she said to me, “I met someone the other day who knows you. She asked me if I knew anyone who worked at Deseret Book in Ogden. I told her my really good friends’ son, Tim Bennett, was the manager. She said she was in there buying some things to bring on the trip and got talking to Tim. She told him she was moving to China and he told her about us moving to China. They made the connection that we were living in the same place. It really is a “small world after all.”

Housing and Residence Permits

On Sunday evening, we went with Tony and Sherry (the realtors) to look at another apartment. We were so disappointed about the apartment that hadn’t worked out and so we didn’t dare get our hopes up too high. The apartment was on the ground floor and had a little garden area in back. I am paranoid about being in a high-rise apartment (fire, earthquakes, heights, etc.) so I was glad it was on the bottom floor. I am not sure if I have mentioned in a previous email about some of the things that have to be negotiated for in the contract. For instance: oven (apparently they don’t bake), water purifier, water cooler (like the one with the bottles of drinking water from Culligan), dishwasher, full-size fridge, clothes dryer (they hang everything out to dry on the balcony area), international satellite TV, internet, parking in the underground garage, bathtub (we gave up on that one), dehumidifier, etc. The kitchen was about the size of my bathroom and I’m not kidding. There was a full-size fridge in the dining room and they will put a portable oven on a cart by the fridge. It was very nicely furnished. The one drawback, besides the small kitchen, is there wasn’t much room for storage. When I think about all the stuff we sent in our shipment, I’m not sure where we would put everything. Tony had two other appointments set up for Monday. I spent a good share of the night awake worrying about anything you could imagine.

Cherie got home on Monday morning from her trip to Bejing and agreed to go with us house hunting again. She is awesome! Tony and Sherry picked me up at 2:00 and off we went AGAIN. The first apartment was on the 14th floor, so you can about imagine how I felt about that. It was a nice apartment, but when I looked out the windows, I got dizzy. The next one had the same floor plan as the one we saw on Sunday. It was on the 4th floor. It had more storage. I asked Tony if there was any chance we could see the other apartment. I wanted Cherie’s opinion. He called the landlord and he said he would meet us in 20 min. It was so hot and humid, so we went to McDonald’s to get a drink and cool off while we waited. We were all sweating, but poor Tony. The sweat just runs down his face and he had to keep wiping it. Bless his heart! I posted a picture of us on facebook. (When I figure how to download pictures on this computer, I want to put pictures to go with the updates.) We went back to the apartment complex and met with the landlord. I told Cherie my concerns about the storage and the kitchen. We walked around and she gave me ideas about where I could put things. She was very encouraging (does the word “tender mercy” come to mind here)? It felt right. I told Tony to tell him we wanted it and to start negotiating the contract. That’s where we are right now folks. Keep your fingers crossed. It looks like it might be a go. Cherie and I went to lunch at the Potato Bistro and had a good visit.

Last night (Tuesday), Lane invited us out to dinner and fireworks for Cherie’s birthday. We went to a place called the Blue Marlin and had a nice, relaxing meal. Their son, Carson, and Mike Hart from work joined us. Now for the fireworks—it is totally unbelievable how they do things here. We wrote about the fireworks we went to at the Westover’s. That got Lane thinking that some fireworks for Cherie’s birthday would be a good idea. He took some of the Chinese workers to show him where to buy them. After dinner, we all piled in Lane’s SUV with Carson in the back. We drove down by their housing complex and found a place to light them. You should have seen Lane, Mike, Carson, and Craig. Let’s just say they ran around like a bunch of teenagers. I kept thinking that Brett would have been in all his glory to have been there. They were amazing! You name it—we had it, including a large birthday cake of fireworks.

There is so much I want to write about our trip to Jin Tan today that I don’t even know where to start. We were going there to get our residence permits. Now, you need to understand that these permits are a BIG deal. We have to have them before our shipments can clear customs, and I think before we can move into an apartment. Our air shipment is sitting in customs waiting for the residence permits. Once we get the permits, it takes five working days to process them. After that it will take another eight working days to get our shipment. So we are talking another two weeks at best. If we are able to move into the apartment, I did bring a set of sheets, two towels and washcloths, and two bags of cold cereal. So we should be set. Do you see why I say these permits are a BIG deal?

Louis, Craig’s driver, picked us up at 7:30 a.m. for the drive to Jin Tan. We arrived about 8:40 and waited for Katherine (one of the realtors) to arrive. The building was locked and didn’t open until 9:00. While we were waiting, a man came out of the building and said they had no electricity. Katherine came and we decided to wait until they opened and see what was going on. Well, as luck would have it, there was no electricity and they weren’t expecting it to come back on until about 3:30. Yup, you guessed it, no residence permits today! We made arrangements to go back tomorrow. Craig and Louis headed back to work and I went back to the hotel with Katherine and her driver.

The drive there and back was actually very interesting. We were on a four-lane highway in kind of a rural area. We could see people working out in their little fields. They haul their stuff on carts that look like a tricycle with a bed on the back. Some of them are motorized and some are pedaled. They are loaded and they drive right along the side of the road into town. It’s really hard to describe what I’m talking about. You have probably seen them in books about China. It is amazing how much stuff they can pile on them. I looked up and one of these carts was in the fast lane of traffic heading straight for us. I couldn’t believe it. And to top that off, a man ran across the highway in front of two cars. On the way back, there was a big van with two huge paper wreaths (about six feet in diameter) tied on the back. I asked Katherine what that was and she told me it was for a burial. When we passed the van, I looked inside and there was a casket, flowers stuffed everywhere, and it was packed with people. In front of the van was a truck hauling five gold cannons.  Every so often one of the cannons would go off and made a very loud noise.  Katherine told me that they are welcoming the deceased into another world.  She told me they believe that when a person dies, if they have been good, they go to another world to live.  I asked her if she was talking about heaven and she said, “Yes.”  I told her I believed that, too.  She seemed quite surprised.  I asked her what happened if they had been bad.  I didn’t exactly get what she said, but it was something like they didn’t exist or they didn’t go to another world.  I asked her if they lived with the devil, but she didn’t think so.  I told her I thought they still lived, but not in heaven (that’s the best way I could think to describe it to her).  She said I was very kind to believe that.  I asked her what they believed as far as little children who die.  She said they are angels and I told her I agreed.  You need to remember we are forbidden to discuss anything at all about the Church, but I felt like we had a good discussion.

One other little tidbit and then I need to close this: On the way home, a taxi tried to merge in front of us.  Our driver was determined this wasn’t going to happen.  I am sure the look on my face was something else.  The taxi was probably three inches away from my side when I looked out my window.  I thought we would get side-swiped for sure, but we didn’t.  I made it home safe and sound.  Now, if we can just get those blasted permits tomorrow!

Sunday Thought's From Sue

I would like to write about some of the people we have met since we have been here. Craig mentioned about some of the people we have met from church. He mentioned the man from Africa. His name is Jasper and I don’t know much about him yet.  He has brought a friend to church the two weeks we have been there.  Today his friend bore his testimony.  He isn’t a member, but a very devout Christian.  His name is Me Ko and I have no idea how to spell it.  He is from Libya and was telling about the persecution and hardships the people have endured over there.  They struggle just to find enough food to eat. He has lost many friends and family members with the conflict.  He came to China to go to college and get his degree.  I think it is in agriculture.  He told how hard it is to live in China being black.  He said no one ever said “hi” or asked anything about him except where he was from.  When he met Jasper (who is also black) he felt a connection to him.  I think they have had some pretty deep discussions about religion.  He has had a hard time with his schooling and those over him haven’t been very nice.  He said he found through hard work and obedience, he has been able to survive.  He is getting ready to go back to his homeland soon. (Just a little side note: He was dressed in a very classy linen suit that was kind of a pinkish red.)  Apparently, the black people have a hard time in China.  The people are scared (for lack of a better word) of them.  Lane was telling us that a lot of the Chinese don’t think there are any blacks in America. 

A Korean girl named Kim bore her testimony.  She said she was going to BYU Hawaii.  Her parents were at church and they wanted her to introduce them.  They live a three-hour bus ride from the church.  She was telling us how hard it was for them to come to church, but they still wanted to come.  They don’t speak English and wanted her to bear her testimony for them.  They were very nice, humble people.  I told Kim that my friend’s son served a mission in Korea and we also had some good friends in Newton who served in Korea.  Their faces just lit up.  I wish there was somebody here who could interpret for them.  I am learning how hard it is to be in a country where I don’t understand the language.

The others who were at church today were:  Boyd and Alauna Westover from Highland, Utah, and their seven children; Spencer and Tawny Streeter from Layton, Utah, and one son; Chris and Sarah Meeks from Canada and their three children; Yvonne Yu from the Philippines (the branch president’s wife) and her daughter Caroline (She is a YSA); Irene from the Philippines (YSA); Brad Johnson from Washington DC (YSA); Lane Sparks, Tracy Crump, and us.  That was the sum total in attendance.  As Craig mentioned, we just had a two-hour block. It will be that way until the YSA and Kennedy Center teachers come back in the fall. We went with the realtors (Tony, Sherry, and Richard) to look at one place today.  It might be a possibility.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with them to look at some more places.  I REALLY hope we can find something soon. Today has been a long day living in the hotel. (That is probably why you are getting two emails today.)  We are doing ok though.  When we hear about other people’s lives, we feel truly blessed!

Update from Craig

Hello to all, It is about 1:00 P.M. here, Sunday afternoon. We just got back from church, our block for the next couple of months has been changed to two hours. Most of the Kennedy Center students have gone home for the summer. The numbers are few right now. We had about 28 there today. We will have sacrament meeting every week and then every other week the Relief Society and Priesthood will meet, as well as the Young Women and Aaronic Priesthood. The next week, we will have Sunday School, and just keep going back and forth till the new students arrive. It is so comforting to know that there are church members wherever you go and that they have the same testimonies that we do, and that we can draw strength from them. We have quite a mixed branch, people from the USA, Korea, Canada, and a brother from Africa.

As you are aware, from Sue’s post we are looking for a house or apartment to move into. Those who say living in a Hotel would be fun, need to experience it. It is already two weeks here. We thought we had a very nice apartment ready to close on. Yesterday, I e-mailed our agent about what the status was of the negotiations and he called me and said that the apartment we felt really good about probably wasn’t going to happen. The people who own and or renting it out said that this is the first time that they had ever rented out an apartment and there were a lot yes and nos going on during the negotiations. They seemed very willing to meet our requests. After talking with Tony, our real estate agent, he said that this same landlord had asked to bring in some Chinese clients to look at it. Sue and I feel that they might not want to rent to foreigners. We are having a taste of what it might be like to be discriminated against. We aren’t sure that is the case,but it is sure what it feels like. Nevertheless, is was a real bummer to get this news. Here we were thinking that we would be moving out of the hotel in hopefully a week or. Now, we could be here for a couple to three weeks longer. That is not a pleasant thought. Tony, is coming today at 4:00 P.M. to take us to go and look at another property. Wish us luck!!!

Last night we went to the Westover’s home for a Fourth of July Bar-B-Que and fireworks. It was better than we could even imagine. We had fresh grilled hamburgers and hotdogs on real charcoal briquettes. Boyd, who is originally from Lewiston and Cornish, said he gets the hamburger patties at the Metro Market and they are so big that he makes two out of one. These hamburgers were still a nice piece of meat. The hot dogs are long and skinny. They have a little different flavor, but they were still a big hit for this Cache Valley Boy! We had all the usual trimmings: beans and dips, chips, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Alauna said that she makes her own pickles here. There are lots of cucumbers, but the biggest thing is to try and find the dill for the process. Nevertheless, it was a good night of food. Boyd said he had a few fireworks to help celebrate the 4 in good old USA style. We had to leave the housing compound and go out on the main street and towards the end of it to do the fireworks. I guess last year some of the neighbors complained that at 9:00 o’clock at night it disturbed them and their families. But it is okay to shoot them off at 5:00 o’clock in the morning. (I’m venting a little here). We get there and they are setting out these boxes in the middle of the road. There were probably ten to twelve starting with the smaller boxes and then going to the bigger boxes that held the fireworks in them. The big boxes were probably about the size of a box that a lawn mower would come in. He also had some handheld sticks that were like pop bottle rockets, only they shot out a charge that flew through the air and exploded. These sticks probably had 30 or more of these charges in each one of them. The little kids would hold them and shoot them up into the sky. We had to keep a close eye on them though. If they turned or held the stick down it could have been a disaster. Lane Sparks, a work colleague, had told us some about the Chinese New Year and the amount of fireworks that are shot off, it is amazing. They lit off a couple rolls of fire crackers that were all hooked together, probably about a thousand firecrackers in each one. These took about a minute to go through the roll. It was quite a sight and a lot of noise. They then started to light the boxes starting with the smaller ones and moving up to the biggest one. These were the aerial displays, the smaller boxes usually just went up in the air and made a loud bang. Just imagine that in each of these boxes are ten to twelve rows going both ways full of aerial display. As we progressed to the bigger boxes, these aerials had the bang and then sparkling streamers coming out of them. They would shoot off maybe one at a time or there would be four or five go almost all together. About 45 minutes later, our fire works were over. It was a real treat. When Sue and I get a little bit settled and a little more tech gadget educated, we will try to get some pictures posted for you to see. That ended our evening and Lane brought us back to the hotel for the night.

Last week it was really hot and windy and helped to clear the air some. It was fun to be able to look and actually see some blue sky and see for a couple of miles distant. The temp. was in the 90’s most afternoons, with the humidity in the high 80’s or 90’s most days. It was really nice to get the hot temperatures out at the plant site. Everything is still just a lot of dirt piled up and no paved roads. The week before we had almost the whole week of heavy rains. hot, humid, and rainy, not a good combination for us not so local folks. Things had really started to dry up. Then it started to rain this weekend again.

Work is going good, I am learning a little about being on the other side of the management chain. It will take some getting used to. The team I work with in the office is really fun and a bunch of good people. Many of them are very young, 20-30 ish. It is really funny sometimes in the office, as they are making phone calls. I think it is a Chinese custom to see who can talk the loudest. It is almost total chaos with about ten different conversations going on. Sue would probably say that I would fit right in with the loud voice when talking on the phone. Oh, just another little side note, I was in a meeting with about ten of my Chinese friends, trying to remember names and just getting to know them a little better. Come to find out, my nick name is Grandpa to a lot of them. Don’t know if I should feel honored or look for a burial plot.

Hopefully, by this week’s end we will have a place we can call home. It has been a hard adjustment for me the first week. I must admit I wasn’t prepared for it. Things are going much better now, but I still a ways to go. But better. We are missing all of you and feel your prayers in our behalf, thanks. We can really use them and need them. I love all of you that this gets to. I have learned in these two weeks that we have been here, just how blessed we are to live where we live and especially for the blessings and bounties that we enjoy. Never take them for granted. I am so much more thankful for all I have after being here. May God bless all of you and keep you and us safe. Send us emails as often as you can. They mean so much to us we look forward to hearing from you. I am trying to get Facebook figured out so I can post and try to keep more daily updates going.

Love,
Craig (dad) Sparky

Proud To Be An American

I saw a Facebook post of a girl from Newton with an American flag wrapped around her and it took me to a place I have been trying to avoid since I arrived in China. I have been sitting her contemplating what a privilege it is to be an Amerian. Anyone who knows me well, knows that the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday of the year. We always spend the week of the Fourth at our cabin in Bear Lake. It is a time of the year when we all try to gather together there as families. I love to get up on the morning of the Fourth and put my patriotic music in the CD player and turn it up loud for everyone to hear (much to the annoyance of some members of the family). Some of us like to get decked out in our patriotic shirts, etc. We always have a big cookout with all the food you can imagine. I love everything about the Fourth--the red, white, and blue, etc. EVERYTHING!!!

I skyped with some of the family at Bear Lake today. They were on the traditional trip to the Chevron on what we call the "Dog Run". (This name was derived from the "Poker Run" associated with the "Cruise-In" in Logan. The cars take a trip to Bear Lake the day before the actual Cruise-In and meet at the town square. We liked to go to the Chevron to watch the cars as they drove by and somehow we started referring to our trips as the "Dog Run.") We usually go around noon or one o'clock for a hot dog, soda, shake, or whatever. I am so glad they are up there and carrying on the tradition

The United States may have its problems and faults, but it is still the greatest nation on the earth. This has been driven home to me this past week as I have been talking with the realtors and others about their life in China. They have a hard life, but they know nothing different. They work hard to get ahead. They have been so amazed when I tell them about my children and grandchildren. When I tell them my daughter is expecting her third child, they can't believe it. They are only allowed to have one child.

When I first started this email, I was going to list all the things I could think of that makes America such a great place; but I kind of got side-tracked with my memories of the Fourth of July. I think it was good for me to write about it. I feel better and not so sad about what I am missing. So thanks for humoring me. One think I would like to put on my list is being able to turn on the faucet and drink the water. I miss that so much. We have 2 bottles of water put in our room everyday. We have to use that to brush our teeth and drink. Whenever we go to the restaurant in the thotel now they know we want ice water. When you go to a restaurant, you have to ask for cold water or they bring you warm. Lucy, the waitress from Sweden, told me we are the only people who ask for water. Everyone else has coffee or tea.

I am sending this Fourth of July post on the 3rd and will try not to think about it tomorrow. I am Proud to be an American and God Bless the USA!

Church in Nanjing

Yesterday, we went to church in Nanjing.  Lane and Cherie picked us up at the hotel.  It took about 40 minutes for us to get there.  It will probably take about an hour when we start riding the metro. I think Natalie forwarded a picture of our new meetinghouse.  It is held at the Yuhua Jingli Hotel.  There were 32 people in sacrament meeting including a newborn baby.  Most of the young single adults (YSA) have gone home, so the numbers are decreasing.  Nanjing is a university town, so a lot of the members in the branch are YSA. Starting next Sunday we will go to a two-hour block for the summer.  One week we will have Sunday School and the next week Relief Society.  The spirit was very strong in the meeting.  Lane and his son, Carson, prepared the sacrament and two men passed.  Tracy Crump was the first speaker and then Carson reported on his mission.  After that we had Sunday School and then RS/Priesthood meetings in the same room.  There were seven children in the primary and 3 in Young Mens/Young Womens  The people were very friendly and interested in who we were.  There was a lot of love and friendshipping/fellowshipping there.

One interesting side note:  In the Nanjinger, a magazine for the Nanjing expat (an expat is a foreigner—like us), under Faith Houses it has four entries for the expats. They are listed as Christian Fellowship, Korean Buddhist Club, Catholic Church, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Under the heading for the LDS Church is written: Mormon Service on Sundays at 10 am.-Foreign passport holders only.  The Christian Church also says the same thing.

After church we had quite an interesting experience.  A sister in the branch had asked Cherie if she had some totes she could borrow because she was moving.  Cherie brought the totes to church.  Carson took the metro home with Tracy so we could take the sister and the totes to her place.  Lane asked her for the address to plug into the GPS.  She didn’t know her address and wasn’t sure how to get there.  She said she had the address of the school she teaches at, so he plugged it in and off we went for the ride of a lifetime through downtown Nanjing.  Does “wild goose chase” ring a bell?  She always rides the metro and didn’t have a clue where we were.  She kept trying to call her husband to get directions, but he didn’t answer her calls or texts.  I felt kind of sorry for her.  We went up and down streets looking for the place.  It’s not like checking the streets out in Newton, Utah.  There are cars, bikes, skooters, people, etc. coming at you from every direction and every street looks the same.  There are little shops/stores up and down every street.  The mass of humanity is amazing in downtown Nanjing.  Eight million people live in about the radius of Cache Valley.  When we were about a block away from her apartment building, she started to recognize things and we finally found it!  We then started back to the Sparks’ for dinner.  By the time we got back, it had been about two hours from when we left the church.  Carson had been waiting an hour in the parking garage because he didn’t have his keys.  Cherie had invited a YSA (Brad Johnson) for dinner and he was waiting with Carson.  Needless to say we were very hungry.

Brad is from Washington DC and is an ESL teacher.  He graduated from BYU and came to China to teach English for a year.  When the year was up, he wasn’t ready to go home and decided to stay.  I’m not sure how long he said he had been here—a few years.  He told us about China and the different places to visit.  He has traveled through a lot of China.  He helped Cherie and Carson make their reservations for their trip Bejing and the place where the terracotta soldiers are (I can’t remember the name of the city.  They all sound the same to me).  They are leaving tomorrow morning and won’t be home until Sunday evening.  I am on my own for a few days.  We will have to see how that goes.  I am not sure how brave I am, but I might try to visit some of the historical sights in Nanjing.  We’ll see about that.

Today Cherie and I went with Sherry and Richard to look at the two places we have narrowed our search to.  On the way to pick up Cherie, I had a very interesting conversation with Richard and Sherry about only having one child and families, etc.  I will write about it later.  This email is getting too long. We looked at the two places and I think we have found the one we want.  Now, the negotiations begin.  We tell Sherry the extras we want and she negotiates with the landlord.  Some of the things the apartments don’t have in China that you need to negotiate are ovens, microwaves, clothes dryers, water purifiers, water coolers with cold water, dish washer, international satellite TV, dehumidifier, bathtub, and parking stall in the parking garage. 

Cherie and I went to lunch at the Potato Bistro again.  We had a nice visit and then I took a taxi back to the hotel.  I was glad to get back and try to get caught up on a few emails.  I am so thankful for modern technology.  I will write more later.  I am afraid I might have put some of you to sleep.

House Hunting Day #2

We met our realtor, Sherry Wang, at 9:00 a.m. for our second day of house hunting.  We went to the apartment complex where Tracy Crump, one of Craig’s co-workers lives.  The landlord was there yet to show us the apartment, so we went to see Tracy and his apartment.  He has a nice place and he showed us some of the decorations he has bought since he moved to China.  He is fascinated by the Chinese culture and has some nice things.  We then went to see the apartment.  The people were still living in it and we weren’t impressed at all.  Let’s just leave it at that.  I had a few adjectives I was going to use but decided I better not.  The second apartment was a little better but not much.  We were pretty discouraged by this time.  We really liked the third apartment.  It has been completely redone and everything is new in it.  It is located in the area I wrote about yesterday, by the International School.  The last apartment was new also, but is farther away from the Autoliv worker’s homes.  It was in a very nice complex, much nicer than the other ones.  I really didn’t like the furnishings though.  And I mean I really didn’t like them.  Could I just say purple velvet cloth headboard in one room and pink in one room—the list goes on and on.  We are going to go back with Cherie Sparks on Monday and get her opinion on the apartment, location, etc.  We are feeling a bit more hopeful today

After we got back to the hotel, we decided to go back to where I was yesterday so I could show Craig the area.  We went by taxi and it was quite the ride.  He got lost or was just driving around to make it cost more.  I think that is what he was doing, but Craig gave him the benefit of the doubt. Craig was trying to give him directions which was a disaster.  We finally got there and this time it cost 20 rmb or about $3.50.  We went to lunch at the Potato Bistro.  We decided to try their Mexican cuisine this time.  We both enjoyed our meals.  I showed Craig all the places Cherie and I went yesterday.  Our taxi ride back was uneventful and cost 13 rmb (go figure).

Sue Goes Exploring

Craig went to work and I decided that today was the day I was going to buck up and get out on my own and do a little exploring.  I left the hotel and headed out on foot to check out the surroundings.  I walked around the side of the hotel and down a little bit.  I found a bank and a little store right in the hotel complex.  I thought it was kind of funny, because when we asked at the front desk if they had an ATM they told us we had to go to the bank.  It was dark when we checked in and the clerk said we needed to go out the side door and down the street.  We thought it was like a block away or something.  The language barrier can be quite interesting at times (like most of the time).

After I came back to the hotel, I called Cherie and we made arrangements to meet down by the International School by the McDonalds.  This required me getting a taxi.  I went down and the bellboy got me the taxi.  I gave the driver a card with the address on and off we went.  When we got there, he handed me the receipt and I had no idea whatsoever how much it was.  I held up some bills and he pointed to one of them.  The bill was 13 rmb, which was about $2.50 in American money.  I waited for Cherie for a while.  I felt kind of inconspicuous, but I survived.  She rode the metro (subway) from her place.  We went to lunch at the Potato Bistro.  I wish I could adequately describe what it is like going to these places.  (Hopefully, soon I will figure out how to send some pictures.  The one picture I sent came from Cherie’s phone.)  We walked through a filthy entrance-way and got on a filthy elevator.  The bistro was on the third floor.  There was a patio and inside seating.  The place was really nice and the food was excellent.  I had a bit of an upset stomach earlier in the day and was a bit worried about eating too much.  I had pumpkin soup and a potato.  Cherie had pasta that looked good.

Cherie showed me the area.  We went through the open-air markets and then went to the Scugo which is a store like that Metro Store we went to.  Cherie took me through the grocery isles and pointed out the different foods.  She showed me what was good and what to avoid.  I don’t even want to discuss the meat department.  It makes me queasy thinking about it—and the smells, oh my!  When we walked past the meats that were cooked and for sale, I asked Cherie if she would eat any of it.  I won’t say what she said, but the answer is NO!  The bakery was right next to the cooked meat—poor choice of location because some of the baked goods looked pretty good.  Cherie bought a few groceries.  You bring your own bags and bag the groceries yourself.  You only buy what you can carry on the metro and then walk to your place.  We rode the metro to Cherie’s.  She has a nice home.  It is what they call a villa here in China.

Cherie downloaded some apps on my phone and showed me how to use them.  Craig and his driver picked me up on the way home from work.  They had a Western Bar-B-Que at the hotel and we went to that.  It was a buffet with Western food.  My favorite part was the European desserts. They had a band that was trying to play country music—Chinese style I guess.  When the band wasn’t playing, they played recordings of country music—a lot of Johnny Cash and some others.  It was a nice evening.

I felt like it was a good day.  I learned that I can do things that I never thought I would ever do.     

Dumpling Dive

This is where we had lunch today at the Dumpling Dive. It was a little scary, but good. House hunting went ok, but not great. The places we liked were a 20 minute walk to the subway. They say anything more than 10 minutes is not good. Craig and I tried walking it. It was about 85 degrees with 95 percent humidity. I can't imagine me walking that in the cold weather or the pouring rain. The subway or taxi is my only mode of transportation. We are going to look some more on Saturday.

The boy in the picture is Cherie and Lane's son Carson. He came to China right from his mission a few weeks ago.

Physical Fiasco

I am not sure how to describe the physicals that would do the experience justice, but here goes.  We left the hotel at 7:45 a.m. and picked up Cherie Sparks and Tracy Crump.  They were going to take their driver’s tests.  We drove to Chang Zhou, a city of about 3 or 4 million.  We arrived at the Chang Zhou Medical Center (I use that term loosely) at about 9:30.  We met Tony, our realtor/babysitter, there.  Cherie and Tracy went with Katherine and Sherry to take their tests.

The reason we need the physical is to get a Residence and Work Permit so we can live in Nanjing. First, Tony got us signed in. They needed our visas and a picture. Next, was the urine collection. They handed us a little plastic cup (emphases on little) and sent us to the restroom (if you could call it that). They were right next to each other. The woman’s had a squatter toilet, with a door that locked and sitter in the corner with no door. I waited for Craig and then had him hold the door. It was too early in the morning and I was way too freaked out to even think about using the squatter. There was one sink to wash up in with Kleenex to dry our hands. Nice. I wish I had pictures to describe this place. Don’t get it in your minds that it was like going to a health clinic in the States. Craig described it as a meat packing plant.

Next, we went to the blood draw.  I was really worried about this because we had to go fasting and I was afraid they wouldn’t be able to find a vein.  I have horror stories about blood draws.  There was a girl sitting behind a glass window.  I told Tony to tell her I needed a pediatric needle.  She just stared at me.  I then said to tell her a baby needle.  She pointed to a container with needles in them and there were pediatric ones, so I was in luck.  They were in sealed bags, so hopefully they weren’t contaminated.  I put my arm under the space in the window.  She grabbed it and wrapped the band around my upper arm and proceeded to look for a vein.  When she couldn’t find one, she started slapping my arm.  She was able to find a vein and I got this over with.  Because we had been fasting, Tony had a little snack for us to eat at this point.  Not sure what it was.

From there we were herded to the x-ray cubicle.  They wrapped a big thing around the abdomen and then took a chest x-ray.  The next cubicle was the ultra sound.  I lay down on bed with a cloth cover on it (which wasn’t washed between victims) and she did an ultra sound of my abdomen. We moved to the EKG cubicle and had EKGs on another bed with the same cloth.  Next cubicle was the blood pressure, color blindness test, eye test, and eye exam. The next place he took us was a room with 4 curtains around the cubicles.  I looked in one of them and saw a crude form of stirrups on the examining table and about had a nervous breakdown.  I thought, “Oh no, here we go!”  But they took us to the next cubicle where we were weighed and had our eyes, throat, and neck checked.  I left out that somewhere along the line they listened to our hearts (which probably wasn’t hard to find mine because it was beating so fast).

The ordeal was over.  That whole thing was completed in one hour!  We wait four days to see if we pass and then they will issue the permits.  Don’t know what to hope for.  If we don’t pass, they send us home with something wrong with us and if we do pass we stay.

Tony got word that they wouldn’t let Katherine and Sherry interpret the driver’s test for Cherie and Tracy.  This was bad news for them.  We ended up having to wait two and a half hours for them.  While we were waiting, we walked to the Wanda Mall.  It was huge.  It had seven floors with a cinema on the top.  We found a McDonalds and I was excited to see if I could get a decent soda.  No such luck.  I am officially just drinking water (warm I might add) now.  You have to ask for ice water or they bring warm. At this point I needed to use the restroom and was getting nervous about that.  I wrote an email when we were here before about the restrooms.  We went in and all of the stalls had squatters with no toilet paper.  The sinks had no soap or anyway to dry the hands.  I took one look at the situation and decided I would pass.  I couldn’t believe I had left my Kleenex and wet wipes in my backpack in the van.  I was so careful last time we were here and totally spaced it out.  Hopefully, that won’t happen again. We met up with the others at the Sheraton Hotel parking lot.  I noticed Cherie heading inside and quickly got out of the van to join her.  The restrooms in there were exquisite and very appreciated.  I couldn’t believe a mall as nice as the Wanda Mall had restrooms like that.We walked back to the mall and went to the Pizza Hut to eat.  It was a nice sit-down place.  Before I left Newton, I told the family I had had about enough pizza for a while.  Well, I was very glad to eat the pizza and it was delicious.  We even got ice water to drink!

We came back to Nanjing and went to the Metro Store to get a card.  It’s kind of like Sams Club, but near as nice.  We bought a fine items, including chocolate!  That was a treat.  We are heading out house hunting today and it is raining again.  Should be a drenching day.  I don’t think I will spend too much time getting ready. 

Welcome to China!

Greetings from Nanjing, China! We left Salt Lake City at 11:00 a.m. on Friday. On our flight to Seattle, I sat by an older woman from Beijing. We had a very interesting discussion. I wrote it all down on an email, but can't find it. I will send it later. From Seattle, we flew to Tokyo, Japan and then on the Shanghai. We got in Shanghai at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday night. We traveled from Tokyo with Lane Sparks. We were supposed to stay in Shanghai for the night, but when we got to the hotel they didn't have a reservation for us. So Lane called Cherie and told her we were coming to Nanjing and would get there about 2:30 a.m. So after all of that traveling, we drove another four hours to Nanjing. We got to bed about 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We spent the day at the Sparks' and then checked into our motel at 6:00 p.m. We hadn't had internet access, so the family hadn't heard from us for all that time. It was good to email with them and let them know we had arrived safely.

Craig went to work on Monday. He has a driver to take him where he needs to go. The drive to work takes about an hour. He leaves at 7:00 a.m. and will get home around 6:00 p.m. His hours will be better than at home, but it is still a long day. While he was at work, I spent the day at the hotel. We will be staying at the hotel for about two weeks. They have a breakfast buffet each morning. I was a bit overwhelmed by the food and wasn't sure what I dared eat. I settled for an omelet and some fresh fruit.

When Craig got back, we went to the restaurant in the hotel to eat. Our waitress was a girl from France named Lucy. I had noticed her when I ate breakfast. We were the only two blonds in the place. She was really friendly and helped us with the food. She was fun to talk to and very informative. She is doing an internship in China. This morning when I went for breakfast Lucy was there and explained more about the breakfast food. It was good to talk to someone in English.

When we got to the Cherie's, she told me I had already been assigned to go visiting teaching with her. She said we needed to go on Tuesday. One of the ladies we visit, Alauna Westover, had a baby three weeks ago and Cherie had arranged for us to take lunch to her. So Craig's driver, Louis, picked me up at noon and we went over and picked Cherie up. We went to a bakery and got some sub sandwiches to take. While we were in that area, Cherie showed me a couple of places she likes to shop and also the dry cleaners. We went to Alauna's. One of our other ladies named, Kim, joined us for lunch. She is about my age. She and her husband teach at the Kennedy Center. They have been here for a year and are going home to Provo soon. Alauna is from Highland, Utah. She just had her seventh baby. Her husband's relatives, the Westovers, are from Lewiston. We had a good visit. Alauna, Cherie, and Kim were able to give me some good advice and tips about living in China. It was certainly different from visiting teaching in Newton, Utah!

Tomorrow Craig and I have to get physicals in order to get a residence's permit (or something like that). I am totally freaked out by this piece of news. We are supposed to go fasting so they can do blood work. If finding my veins is anything like in the States, it should be a total nightmare--not to mention the other exams. Wish me luck on that one!

Thursday, we are looking for housing. It will be nice to find a place to live. Hopefully, our stuff will get here soon so we can get settled before I head back to the States.

It is the rainy season. It has rained so hard today that water is running everywhere. I am glad we had the driver today and we didn't have to walk to the metro (subway). Well, that's the report for now. Stayed tuned for the report on the physicals. I actually hope there isn't much to report about that.

It's Really Happening!!!

On May 28th, the packers came to get everything packed up for the big move to China. This was after weeks of preparation, LOTS of shopping, and late nights! We had to write down everything being taken and the cost. Emily and Natalie were a HUGE help with that and Paula was a big help with taking the kids so they weren't in the middle of things. In the end it all came together and the trailer is off to China.

BEFORE

Truck & Crew Arrive

AFTER

Set to Go