To make up for the last post which was far too long, this time I have many pictures and less words!

About a month ago there was a holiday in China called the Mid-Autumn Festival. We got a few days extra off and got to go site-seeing a little in Wuxi. 

Our assistant, Water, took us to a lovely ancient village called Huishan. The old houses have been restored and turned into an outdoor museum where people can wonder through and look at well preserved examples of traditional Chinese architecture. 

Here is one of the gates. These were built as victory monuments to successful leaders and military men to commemorate special events.

This is inside one of the old houses. The woodwork in the windows was amazing and many of the houses were filled with beautiful paintings, sculptures, stone carvings, and other pieces of art.

Water and me at one of the entrances in Huishan.

And Peter and me at one of the entrances. It is hard to really appreciate the details on the entrance behind us in this picture, but notice the little sculptures on roof, aren't they great! I think they are fish.

One of the ancestral halls we visited. 

This is not woodwork, it is made of stone... Impressed yet? I know I am.

This is the entrance into the Governors place and where affairs of the town where held.

And these are the statues of gods you had to pass when you entered into the Governor's

place.

Another example of the excellent workmanship of the Chinese stone carvers.

Many of the houses we visited had beautiful koi ponds in the back gardens, sometimes taking up the whole back of the garden, with only stone paths around it to walk around. 

Cool alleyways.

A canal runs straight through the town and back in the old days they would use boats, such as the one seen in the picture, for transportation, and also for trading. This canal goes all the way to Beijing.

And randomly here at the end is Peter holding up a plate of sushi that we made together:)

The End

A nice park close to our campus, making dumplings, and Shanghai!

There are a lot of exciting things that have happened here in China so I will try my best to summarize as much as I can.

Classes are going great. We start week four this Sunday, which I can hardly believe, it seems like I just started teaching. At the same time there is that odd feeling that this is how life has always been, and LA and BYU seem so very long ago. The students are bright and curious, but very, very quiet. The concept of raising your hand may be understood here in China, but if it is, then it is also a very scary concept. If you ask a question to the class you'll here mumbled replies but if you try to pinpoint where the answer came from everyone quickly looks down at their books. They will talk if you ask them to get together in groups or do pairwork though. Also if the picture is funny enough on the Powerpoint, then you might even get some voluntary comments from some of the braver students. Their favorite thing to do, however, is take pictures of their cool, hip, young teachers... especially Peter. Sometimes they will ask for permission to take pictures, and sometimes you will be standing in the front of the classroom when little "click" sounds start coming from the direction of the students. One of my students tried this subtler approach, only the lights where off in the classroom and her flash was on.

A week ago they had Teacher Appreciation Day in China. All over China students, and school administrations would be showing their appreciation to their teachers. One of Peter's classes sang Happy Teacher's Day to You (melody: Happy Birthday to You), and one of my classes gave me a muff that looks something like a mixture between a pig and a bunny. The same evening there came a knock on our door (which never happens) and a lady walked in with two beautiful bouquets, one for me and one for Peter. A few minutes later we received another knock on the door, and this time they gave us two bags filled with fruit. The flowers and the fruit were from the school because it was teachers day. We were very surprised, but also very thankful, especially since we had only been teaching for about a week.They are taking good care of us here.

Enough of stories with no pictures. Now let me show you some of the things we have been up to:

This is a picture of the lake close to campus, they have made it into a beautiful, scenic park. We went here after the sun had gone down because this was during our first couple of weeks in China when it was about 40 degrees Celsius, too warm to be outside during the day. See the little, green circle in the background? That is a Ferris wheel! There is an amusement park on the other side of the lake. We haven't been there yet, but it is on our list of things to do.

Here is an example of what the paths in the park look like. They are all made in this elegant Chinese style, with a beautiful Chinese gazebo placed to the side of it every so often.

A Chinese gazebo (These probably have another name)

The side of the path next to the lake was lit up with different coloured lights, usually I would find these kind of lights sort of tacky, but they actually looked really beautiful in the park.

This park is well known for its red wood bridge. That is what the people in this picture are walking on. It is a gorgeous bridge with beautiful gold inlaid carvings. Our Chinese friends also say it is a very romantic place. That blur with the blue t-shirt is Peter by the way. The others are Alice and Water, some of our Chinese friends, and our guides for the night. 

Proof that we both went to the park. 

A couple of weeks ago we learned how to make Chinese dumplings. Here is Peter holding up his unfolded dumpling.

The man standing is Walter (everyone just calls him Water). He is our assistant here in Wuxi and he has been a lifesaver, helping us open bank accounts, finding classes, understanding the systems, getting food at the canteens. Everything here is in Chinese and so if there aren't any pictures to guide us we are completely lost and rely a lot on Water to help us. Like we always say: "We need Water to survive". One night he wanted to make Chinese food for us, but since he can't cook, he brought one of his friends along who could. That is Micky, the girl you see in the picture. She showed us how to prepare the fillings for the dumplings, how to fold them properly, and how to boil them. Then Water taught us how to make some great, spicy dipping sauce for the dumplings. They turned out great! I am now ready to impress with my cooking skills when we return to the West.

Last weekend (catching up now), Peter and I went to Shanghai for District Conference. The meetings were for Saturday and Sunday so we decided to leave Friday night and spend the weekend there so we could see Shanghai. The train ride is only about forty minutes, but with the one hour bus ride to get to the train station, the two hour line to get a taxi, and the half an hour taxi ride to get to the hotel, the trip turned out to be more tiring than expected. We finally arrived at our hotel around 10 pm and we were ready to crash in our room. However, when we went to check in, they asked for our passports. In China, if you don't have an Identity Card issued by the Chinese government a passport is very important when doing most things. We had expected that and brought a copy of our passport, since our real ones were at the police station where they were putting in our temporary residency permits. Unfortunately, they not only wanted to see our passport information, but our visas as well, and when I explained the situation to them, that we only had those copies with us, we were told that we would not be able to stay at the hotel. This didn't really go over very well with me or Peter since we were both tired and didn't want to go out hunting for another hotel. We explained this to the lady, who then suggested we go to the police station to figure out the visa stuff. We also explained to her that that wasn't going to happen either. Finally, some higher authority in the hotel found a piece of paper we could fill out the details of our visas and that turned out to be enough, and we were allowed to go to our room. We were very grateful.

The rest of the weekend was spent exploring the popular tourist destinations of Shanghai. Here is a picture of the famous business area, which looks a lot nicer at night.

The Bund! Remnants of a European past. 

The faithful guide book that helped us on our trip.

Here I am outside the old town. Inside there were lots of little alleys and beautiful, old Chinese houses that had been converted into stores and restaurants.

For lunch we found this one place that looked kind of like a canteen and a food court. On one side they had all the food and the rest of the place was table and chairs. The best part about it though (since we don't speak or read Chinese) was that the dishes were all placed in front of you and you could just pick up which ever one you wanted and then go and pay for it. We had dumplings, wantons, meat on sticks, buns, rice balls, and maybe something else too.... It was a big meal.

Inside the old town, standing on a bridge.

This is a Taoist temple.

Taoist temple, in the main sanctuary.

The god of healing eyes. We took a picture of it for Peter. Maybe he won't need glasses any longer!

Outside the Taoist temple.

The door of the Taoist temple. 

It was a great trip! Shanghai is definitely a lot more western than Wuxi, and there are so many foreigners there. In Wuxi we usually get a little excited when we see someone who isn't Chinese, in Shanghai they were everywhere! And you could tell the city was used to it. The prices were western (expensive), the buildings were western (some, not all), and nobody stared at us.

Well, this has been a ridiculously long blog. We'll call that good for now. Until next time!

Yey! We have arrived in China! After a twenty hour trip (give or take.... probably give) we arrived safely at our new apartment. The very first apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Leverkus (aka the Leverki). There is plenty of room for the two of us and once we start filling up the walls with pictures it will look quite lovely (it will also help hide the flaking paint). Peter says "it is our little piece of Heaven on Earth", but only because I just asked him now and he was preoccupied talking to his sister on Facebook. 

We took some pictures to give you an idea of what the apartment is like! First of all we have Peter sitting proudly on our couch. It is the nicest piece of furniture we have! He is sitting in his favorite spot which is right underneath the AC (It has been in the high 90s ever since we got here and is supposed to continue to be this warm until October).

Just another view of the living room.

The kitchen is nice and spacious and came fully equipped with everything we need, including two butcher knives! We figured out how to use the gas stove by day three and have been making most of our meals here, such as noodles, pork dumplings, seafood dumplings (that left both of us with an upset stomach), a funky rice cake wok, and yesterday morning I even made pancakes! We invited our Chinese assistant to join us for breakfast, but I'm not sure what he thought of traditional American pancakes. Peter thinks he liked it. And I hope Peter is right. I was kind of afraid I was poisoning him because most Asians can't drink milk, and there was a cup of it in the pancake batter. He seemed fine the whole day though so I am guessing he was fine with it.

When we don't feel like making anything fancy we make Ramen. 

The toilet... not much to say, except that I am grateful it is western style and not a squatter. I've already tried out a handful of those. Luckily my days in the Norwegian forest have prepared me. I guess I should be grateful that I get to use real toilet paper instead of moss. Peter has yet to experience the joy of a squatter, but he promises to tell you all what he thinks when he does.

Finally, a picture of one of the views from our apartment. One thing we love here is how green it is! Hopefully we will have pictures up soon of the campus and the landscaping here. There are some beautiful little parks on campus with traditional Chinese architecture. Notice the man riding the scooter. That is an electric bike, Peter and I got one with the apartment and it is great! 

 That's it!