I have taken the opportunity to celebrate Halloween for the past three days. Friday I dressed up in my costume for my students at SEPIS. I was only teaching two classes that morning, but most of my students got to see me, because all of my classes are on the fourth floor of the same building. We had a good time talking about Halloween and learning about the American cultural traditions of the day.

I was also invited to some Halloween parties on Friday night and Saturday and Sunday. I was very busy going from place to place, but it was nice to have this time to celebrate one of my favorite holidays.

I decided to be a "Rainbow" with "clouds" for Halloween, so I went to my tailor with a picture of a dress to ask her to make it. I took two Chinese friends with me (Jenny and Chelsea). The tailor said she couldn't make it because it was too complicated and she had never made anything like that before. She was afraid she wouldn't do a good job and I wouldn't be happy. So we left and went to another tailor I have used in the past. The second tailor was happy to make the costume to my design specifications.

Next, I hired a make up artist to help me with my make-up. This woman owns the shop where I have gone in the past to have my nails painted. She usually does make-up for women for their weddings. We negotiated a price and she agreed to come to my apartment at the school to create my "look" each morning (Friday, Saturday and Sunday.)

Here are the pictures. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you had a great Halloween and that you had lots of Trick-or-Treaters. I didn't have a single one, for some reason.

It was a good time! I think six other foreign teachers dressed up in costumes for their classes at SEPIS. We drew quite a crowd during the break when we gathered together for a group photo. All of the students came in a mob to take photos of us with their cell phone cameras!

A few times, I had to leave the campus in my costume and hail a cab. I had no problem getting cabs and the drivers just smiled warmly at me and told me I was beautiful. I explained that it was "wan sheng jie" and they understood. I even visited my friends Frank and Christy so that their little daughter, Hannah, could see me in my costume. She wasn't scared of me at all-- just very curious to see her "American Auntie" looking so different. Here is a picture of Hannah in my hat.

I can't wait for Christmas!!!!!

written by  Warner on November 1 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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Every time a driver asks me if I have climbed Taishan I feel so GUILTY for living and working in Tai'an for seven months and for not having climbed Taishan. With my limited Chinese, I could only reply, "No. Weather not good."

I could never reply that I was waiting for the perfect day to climb the mountain. Clear skies, no rain. A full moon. Even I wondered, when would it come? A friend from the English corner suggested I climb Taishan during the Mid-Autumn festival or during the National Day Holiday. He said that the moon would be large, the sky should be clear and the air would be crisp. I decided to try.

"Shan" means "mountain" in Mandarin Chinese and so "Taishan" means "Mount Tai" or the "Tai Mountain."

Legend has it that those who climb Mount Tai will live until they are one hundred years old. One of China's "Five Sacred Mountains", it is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal, and is the most famous of the five mountains.

In ancient times, the first thing for a Chinese emperor to do upon ascending to the throne was to climb Mount Tai and pray to heaven and earth for their ancestors. In my research I found that 72 emperors from different dynasties are recorded as having made pilgrimages to visit and climb Taishan. Today, Taishan is a popular tourist destination, especially during the Mid-autumn festival when the sky is known for being clear and the moon is full. There are many temples and buildings built on the way up the mountain. Here is a photo of some of the other tourists who made the night climb with us to see the sunrise.

Many famous Chinese people have climbed the mountain including the first Chinese emperor, Confucius, and Mao Zedong. While watching the sun rise, Confucius was quoted as saying “the world is small,” and Mao as saying “the East is red.”

For climbers today, there are four routes up and down the mountain: the East route, West Route, the Peach Blossom Ravine Route, and the Tianzhu Peak Route. People who don't want to climb the 6,293 "official" steps along the East Route can choose to ride a bus along another route to the half-way point and then take a cable car to a point near the summit. Then they can walk the few remaining steps to the famous outlook points. (This is a photo of the most famous outlook point on the mountain to watch the sunrise.)

According to Wikipedia, climbing from the base of the mountain to the top can take two and a half hours for a "sprinting hiker" (who would pass 99% of the other climbers) to the comfortable 7 hours it took me (sitting down and resting for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.)

That's right! You read that right! I did it! Bottom to top! On foot. No bus. No cable car!

My friend Vivi came from Tianjin on a train by herself just to climb the mountain with Andrew and me. She is only 16 and it was her first train trip. Vivi and I met when I was there teaching this summer. Andrew is from England and is working here in Tai'an in his uncle's tinsel factory. Yup, you read that right. "Tinsel" as in the stuff you put on Christmas trees. He is a recent University graduate and always comes to English corner on Saturdays. The three of us had a great time!

We climbed the day/night of the Mid-Autumn Festival / Mooncake Festival (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake for more information.) We had mooncake on the summit before our short nap while waiting for the sun to rise. To be honest, I don't remember thinking or saying anything profound you would want to put in my memoirs. I tried to keep the: "It's freezing!", and "I'm exhausted." comments to myself. All kidding aside though, I remember thinking of Malachi 1:11 throughout the climb.

Vivi and Andrew kindly let me set the climbing pace--I was the elderly climber, you see. Here are Vivi and Andrew resting (during one of our many pit stops) on the way up the mountain. The girl in the purple hoodie is one of three Chinese "friends" who attached themselves to our small group and walked most of the way up the mountain with us. It was a good opportunity for them to practice their English. (A boy and two girls.)

It was very cold at the top of the mountain during the night and there were vendors who would rent you a coat over night. The cost was a deposit of 100 RMB ($14.64 USD) for our three coats and then 10 RMB to rent each one ($1.46 USD) to rent each one. We originally rented three, but then, after Andrew fell asleep, Vivi and I were still FREEZING and so I went back and spent the extra money to rent two more coats to cover our legs.

Here I am near the cable cars before our descent.

On the way down we decided to take the cable car half way and walk the other half. Here is a picture of the cable car system over the valley -- so beautiful in the sea of clouds that morning. Some days the fog and clouds are so thick that climbers can't see the sunrise. They only can see the "cloud sea." My friend Stuart has done 4 night climbs and has seen this "cloud sea" each time. He has never seen a Taishan sunrise. I was very lucky to catch the sunrise on my first trip up the mountain.

Locals from Tai'an are entitled to purchase a "discount card" for only 50 RMB ( $ 7.32 USD) which enables them to climb the mountain as many times in a one year period as they would like. This card also gives you "free" admission into the Dai Temple as many times as you would like to visit. It is really a very good price. Students get a half price admission, but that is still more than the price of the card, and only entitles them to one trip up/down the mountain. As a teacher at SEPIS, I was able to buy one of the "discount cards." So in theory I can climb the mountain every day if I want to.

I don't want to.

But I could.

If I wanted to.

At any rate, I'm still resting three days later ---. I am so GLAD that I have a week to recover. I didn't think that 34 was that OLD...................

A: nahsiaT

written by  Warner on October 5 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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One day I went walking near the Dai Temple and met a man who had two pet crickets singing to each other from their cages.

A few days later, I bought one for myself. However, I evicted him and now he lives downstairs in the kitchen on the first floor because on the first morning I had him when I awoke I thought I had a girl cricket and that she'd had babies!!! Apparently little ants like to visit him. They are so small that I thought they were baby crickets! His cage isn't as ornate as the one pictured above. Also, he is more green in color. FYI: Crickets eat fruits and vegetables and flowers off the trees and only the male cricket "sings." The cage is about 4.5" tall and 3.5" or so at the base. A cricket and cage costs 8 RMB ($1.17 USD). I really don't have very good luck with pets, do I?

There is a fantastic fruit and vegetable market near the Dai Temple as well. There are fruit vendors right outside of the school gate as well as a wholesale fruit market within a block of the school; however, I prefer this market. I like to go there (even though it is far from the school) because I think that the produce is fresher and the merchants give me a better price. You can also buy freshly cracked walnuts, fresh seafood, spices and many bulk grains there.

However, here is a lovely picture of one man who sells lettuce near my school --just up the road toward the bus station. He was happy to have his picture taken and to have it posted on my "bo ke" or blog. I think I will have a print made for him. Across the way from his vending spot on this day were some painters painting a building. I thought they were very brave compared to the painters in Omaha. In Omaha they usually use a scaffold!

And finally, out and about-- in my classroom:
China passed a law fairly recently (in the past year or two) which is designed to reduce trash by encouraging people to bring their own shopping bags with them when they shop. You are charged a small amount if you take a bag from the store and don't bring your own. There are also many men and women who make their livelihood by driving about the town on their carts collecting recyclable materials. I have never had anyone tell me that this idea of "conservation" OFFICIALLY extends to paper conservation as well; however, my students are SUPERSTARS at paper conservation. The first day of class I gave an assignment for the students to write two sentences about what they do in their spare time. Here is an example of the paper they took out to use on that in-class assignment:

I don't mention this to embarrass this student. I am proud of her and my other earth-conscious students! According to www.cia.gov fact book information China's population is 1,330,044,544 (July 2008 est.). Can you imagine what this beautiful country would look like if everyone just pulled out a new piece of paper for a two sentence assignment? You're doing a great job China!

written by  Warner on September 16 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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This summer I travelled for the first time using a "D" train. The "D" trains are the fastest trains in China. I took one between Tai'an and Tianjin, Tianjin and Changchun, and Changchun and Beijing. Here are some pictures of the screen inside the train which let us know how fast we were travelling, the outside of the train (with a redcap posing with my luggage because it was extremely heavy due to the 3 dictionaries I was carrying for the bootcamp) and a view out of the window as we rode at 242 km/ per hour -- appx. 150 miles per hour. It actually didn't feel as though the train was travelling that fast-- no faster than driving down I-80, really. Mmmmm... does that say something about how fast I drive on I-80?

Beijing was lovely, of course. It is the capital city of China and I felt I would be remiss if I came all the way to China and then did not spend a week or so there visiting the top tourist destinations. My first three nights in Beijing I stayed in a traditionally restored "Si He Yuan", which is a compound of houses around a square courtyard. These courtyard homes are representative of ancient Chinese culture. The hotel was beautifully furnished with antique furniture and beddings in the style of the Ming Dynasty.

It was a little pricey for my budget, so, the last three nights in Beijing, I stayed in a fantastic youth hostel near Tiananmen Square. (The Tiananmen Sunrise Hostel, which just opened this year.) I booked a private room and bathroom and I think that I stumbled upon the best hostel in town. They had great food, laundry services etc. and the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful. I also met a lot of cool travelers from France, Germany, Canada, Spain, America and other countries while hanging out in the lounge. There is little to no Western-style food available in Tai'an, so every meal I ate in Beijing was "non-Chinese" food. I think I ate Indian food at least 5 times and fish and chips twice. I had an omelette for breakfast everyday at the hostel. I was in food heaven in Beijing. I even stumbled across a Coldstone Creamery -- but got there 3 minutes after it closed. I almost cried from disappointment.

Despite the great food in Beijing, I struggled emotionally during my time there and wasn't very happy. The people in Tai'an have been wonderful; they treat me as a local and the cost of living is reasonable. In Beijing, I was treated as a tourist and the prices seemed exorbitant. If they even picked me up, taxis took me the long way to places because I didn't know where I was going. Often they just drove past when they saw that I was a foreigner, stopping farther on to pick up a Chinese person. That has never happened to me in Tai'an. The first taxi I took dropped me off at the wrong address on the wrong side of town so things didn't start off very well; I didn't know then that I should have asked for and taken a receipt -- I learned quickly. I also felt I was overcharged for everything and that was very frustrating. Chinese tourists I talked to said that they also get over charged when visiting Beijing and it is unavoidable if you are a tourist. On the other hand, I have talked to foreigners who live in Beijing and they say that these things don't happen to them when they live there because they aren't visiting the places where tourists go and that in other areas of Beijing this isn't a problem.

The Mandarin Bootcamp in Shijiazhuang was fantastic. I think I learned a lot. I was in the lowest level (Level A) and there were two levels above me (Intermediate and Advanced.) Though I was at the camp for 14 days, there were only 12 days of classes. Every morning I had oral Chinese class (9 am to 11:15 am) and in the afternoon there was a writing class (2 pm to 4:15 pm or so) and a Culture activity (4:30 to 5:50 or 6:00). There was homework every night. At the end of the camp, I wrote and gave a two minute speech (using notes) and wrote an essay in Chinese characters using 124 characters. My favorite part of the camp was the writing class because I learned about stroke order, the different radicals that make up the Chinese characters and what they can mean. We learned about 60 characters a day on average. It was a very intense course and gave me the boost I needed in my language learning. I'm pleased to report that I am now dreaming in Chinese! Since returning to Tai'an, I've noticed that my listening and speaking skills have improved considerably and I feel it was money well spent. The following picture shows my teachers at the school and my classmates. (That is me on the lowest rock in the pink hat!) The camp was held at a retreat center in a town near a hot springs in Hebei Province.

In order to get this blog out I won't be writing a detailed synopsis of my travels here. But if you have any questions about any photos you see please email me.

The first day in Beijing I was supposed to go on a tour, but it got cancelled by the tour company and rescheduled for Tuesday so I went on my own to a silk company store where they give a tour of the silk manufacturing process and then try to sell you silk duvets, clothing and other silk products at wholesale prices. Here are the pics. In the picture with me, the silk tour guides let me and some other tourists help stretch the silk fibers out over the frame used to make the duvets. That was fun.

The first night in Beijing (Monday night) I saw the Beijing Acrobatics Troupe of China perform at the Tianqiao Acrobatics Theatre. Here are some pictures from the show. I had a great seat in the second row-- but it was still very hard to get good pictures of moving gymnasts in the dark.

I took a day-long tour on Tuesday. My tourguide was "Lisa" and we visited The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, and The Summer Palace. We also went to a silk vendor similar to the one I'd been to the day before. In the evening I went to the opera. Here are that day's photos. There were tourists swarming all over the place and so it was hard to get a photo without someone in it. This first photo is from The Forbidden City and it gives you an idea of how crowded it was. The rest won't, because I made a serious effort to get photos with no people in them.

The Forbidden City

One day I went to the Great Wall and took a 10 km hike (trek!) between Jinshanling and Simatai. I don't know what I was thinking!!! I have walked that far before on a flat road, but never up and down stairs which were built on hills. There were some hawkers who followed the tour group trying to sell souvenirs. One of them "befriended" me (See picture below.) Despite losing 25 kilograms (about 55 pounds) in six months, I am still not in very good shape. After 1 km I was so winded, I sounded like I was having an asthma attack. To my knowledge I don't have asthma. I told her that I would buy her book about the Great Wall (a pricy souvenir at 120 RMB-- or the equivalent of $17.50 USD) if she could help me make it to the end of the walk. I was panting and huffing and couldn't lift my legs up some of the stairs because the rise was so high. When the Chinese designed and built the wall they didn't believe in a standard 7" rise for the stairs. It was a hot, hot day and there was virtually no shade along the way. She was kind and at times literally had to stand above me and pull/drag me UP the stairs. Our tour guide actually lent me his walking stick. I'd been too cheap to buy one at the beginning of the walk. Finally, at about the 6 or 7 km mark, another girl and I weren't feeling well and the hawker showed us a "shortcut" which wasn't much shorter, but it was through fields and so we avoided many stairs and hills. We were grateful. It is a beautiful walk, but if you ever take this tour, I think you should train for a marathon before you go!!! (:

All in all it was nice to travel for a few weeks and to have a bit of a change of pace. Still, it is good to be home in Tai'an. Back to the books..................

written by  Warner on September 2 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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Changchun is the capital city of Jilin province in northeastern China. It is the film and automobile city (with a huge auto industry and some really cool places to go and see films) and it is known for having a long, cold and dry winter and a warm and humid summer. Locals say that it doesn't snow a lot during the winter, but it is very cold all winter. I was there during the "dog days" of their summer and I found that the nights in the town cooled off considerably so that it was very lovely to go out walking in the city's culture square and around it's lake with the locals. I really enjoyed my three evenings in the city. Here are some pictures of people in Changchun in the big square and by the East Lake out enjoying the evening. I've also included a lovely picture of a boat which people could rent from a man to use to go fishing on the lake under the light of the moon.

Two women were walking with their dog. The puppy wouldn't cooperate for the photo, so this bystander helped with the photo. In the second photo, this boy was just enjoying an outdoor concert and holding his puppy while he watched. I asked him if I could take his photo and he beamed. He held up his dog's paw for the photo to say, "Ni hao" or "Hello."

There were many vendors out in the plaza as well as people walking around trying to get exercise. This vendor is selling balloons. I even saw people exercising as a group. There was a jukebox playing music while people jumped rope to the beat.

Near these benches there were some people enjoying the music two men played on their violin. One of them spoke very good English and we talked for awhile.

At the far end of the plaza there was a huge screen playing a MTV type music video. Many people were gathered around to watch the show.

At the East Lake, this man was playing his accordion by the lake shore. He was shy about having his picture taken, so he turned his face, but in the end, he was pleased with the result.

These boys were playing cards on the grass by the lake.

This is the fishing boat at the East Lake.

On the second day, I went to The Puppet Manchurian Imperial Palace, where Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), lived and worked during his reign. The Japanese occupied Manchuria between 1931and 1945 and during this time Puyi was installed as the "puppet" ruler of the so-called State of Manchukuo.

The Puppet Imperial Palace was built by the Japanese especially for Puyi to live in so that he could take part in political activities. As Puyi was the last emperor of China, this palace where he lived during his reign (1932-1945) is regarded as the last palace of Chinese feudal dynasties.

The main buildings of the palace grounds are built in Chinese classical, European, and Japanese styles and are named the Qinmin Building, Jixi Building, and Tongde Hall. They are breathtakingly beautiful.

There are two palace gates: Laixun Gate (which was a special passageway for Puyi and commanders) and the Baokang Gate in the west (which was the passageway for court staff.)

The Puppet Manchurian Imperial Palace was divided into two parts: there was an inner court and an outer court. For the most part, Puyi lived in the inner courts and conducted state business in the outer courts. However, tourist signs posted in Puyi's residence indicated that he was known to conduct business while sitting on the toilet -- mixing home with state and showing his contempt for the Japanese. I noticed that the Chinese tourists were most curious about these private details of his life such as the wax figures of his concubines. Another sign posted said that "During the Puppet Manchurian State, a Japanese hairdresser, kanada, came to serve Puyi exclusively. The cut hair would be wrapped in a piece of yellow silk, which was dated and numbered for storing. This was to show the preciousness of "dragon's hair." Very interesting.

The palace also includes beautiful gardens,

with man-made rocks, gazebos, and waterfalls, a fish pond,

air raid shelters, a swimming pool, a racket court, a golf course, a storeroom of paintings and books and other subsidiary facilities such as a greenhouse

and stables (hippodrome)

It was lovely to stroll around the grounds and see where Puyi lived, worked and set up places to worship Budda and honor his family.

written by  Warner on August 15 from Changchun, China
from the travel blog: Warner's Travel Blog
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On the first day of the camp the other English facilitators and I gave an oral English exam to determine the students' placement into classes. During the subsequent twenty days at the camp I facilitated two lessons a day and ate three meals a day with the student/teachers where I encouraged conversation; I also taught club sessions on the topic of travel.

The camp was held on the grounds of a firefighter training school and so there were lots of firefighter/soldiers marching around and learning to fight and put out fires (the fire was absent). Here are some pictures of the facility where the camp was held. There was a nice restaurant at the facility; there was also a man-made lake with two bridges out to the center and a pagoda in the middle and some geese; there was a gym with a swimming pool and more. The only drawback to the facility was that it was very remote and was located very far from the city center; however, this was by design to encourage the students to not speak Chinese and to only speak English. In fact, they had a monetary penalty system set up for those who were caught speaking English during the 20 days. I am excited about my Mandarin bootcamp coming up from August 16th to the 30th. I wonder if it will have such a system ????? I could be in trouble!

My new friends treated me to some traditional Chinese snacks. Here is a picture of one of them which my friend Vivi told me is called “茶汤" which is called "Chatang" in English. In English this might translate to “tea water”. However there is no tea in this snack. It is hot and a little sweet and I liked it very much. If you want to know more about it check out this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatang

After the culture street we drove to the canal to see if we could go for a ride on the huge ferris wheel, but it was too late to go for a ride. So we walked for a bit along the canal and I commissioned a few traditional folk figurines to be made in dough from a folk artist there. The figurines are known as mianhua or miansu. The dough itself is made from a mixture of wheat flour, honey, lard, powdered sugar and other ingredients that allow it to be easily shaped but also to last for years without spoiling. This ancient tradition dates back as far as the Tang Dynasty, 618-907 A.D. The characters I requested were from "Journey to the West", one of the most widely known stories in China.

Here is some information taken from Wikipedia about these characters from "Journey to the West" (based on ancient Chinese mythological novel, "Xi You Ji"). It is the story of a monk, (the figurine in the yellow gown wearing the "crown") whose character in "Journey to the West" is based on the real life of a famous, ancient Chinese monk, Xuanzang (602-664).

The monkey king is immortal and has a good heart and a playful nature. In Chinese the monkey king is known as Sun Wukong

In "Journey to the West" Zhu Bajie (Pig) gets himself and his companions into trouble by his laziness, his gluttony, and his propensity for lusting after pretty women. He is jealous of Wukong (the Monkey King, see big picture) and always tries to bring him down.

Sha Wujing (Sandy) usually has a red beard, but here he has a black beard. He wears a necklace of skulls. It is a cool story: a group of nine monks on a pilgrimage west to fetch some scriptures were killed by Wujing. Despite their pleas for mercy, he devoured them, sucked the marrow from their bones, and tossed their skulls into the river. However, unlike his other victims whose bones sank to the river bottom, the skulls of the monks floated. This fascinated and delighted Wujing, who strung them on a rope and played with them whenever he was bored. Such a delightful man!

written by  Warner on August 7 from Tianjin, China
from the travel blog: Warner's Travel Blog
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All of the foreign teachers have moved into a new apartment building (directly behind our old building) for about a month while our building is being renovated. I was amazed to see how much stuff I have accumulated during my five months in China! Some of this includes a vacuum cleaner, a blender, my china bowl from Jinan (former home of the now deceased goldfish), a stuffed panda, 4 plants, 3 electronic mosquito zappers, etc. It's surreal! I don't really know what I was thinking when I bought all of that stuff! The man who recruits the English teachers for the school came by our apartments to help with the move to the new building. He was also amazed by my "possessions."
"All of this, already?"he asked.

Several of us have been assigned to teach about 15 middle school-aged summer school students for a few weeks. I was given two units to teach (Units 4 and 10). These students are eager to learn and have a high level of English. I am enjoying the lesson preparation for the classes very much. We play games and sing songs relevant to the lessons and have a lot of fun in class. Because the class size is so much smaller than my other classes (I usually teach 42-69 students at a time) I can do many more activities with them. Here is a picture of one of the students wearing a pair of jeans I brought with me from America. They are a size 20. This is what size I wore when I came to China. The unit I was teaching that day was on "Clothing--Shopping for Clothes." We were discussing whether or not the clothes were "too big", "too tight", "too loose", "not big enough" etc. So, the students were trying on different clothes and using different adjectives to describe the clothes. I have now lost about 22 kg or 48 pounds. I weighed 201 pounds when I left the states on February 2nd.

On Friday, July 17th, four of us (foreign teachers) will be travelling to Tianjin City (near Beijing) to teach another summer school session for a few weeks. The students are actually Chinese nationals who teach English in the University/College system. They want to improve their Oral English. We have been told that we will be teaching 2 hours a day and eating 3 meals a day with these teachers for six days a week during this time period so that they can practice their oral English. On the seventh day, we will go on a group tour together.

After the summer school in Tianjin, I will travel to Changchun in Jilin Province (in Northern China). I have never travelled outside of Shandong Province and am looking forward to seeing other parts of China. It is supposed to be cooler in Northern China. I will probably also go to Beijing for some sightseeing. I don't think it would be right to be in China and not see the Great Wall and other sights in Beijing.

On August 16th I must be in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, to meet up with some people to head into the mountains to go to a Mandarin language camp. It will last for two weeks. It is an intensive language camp (classes are six days a week for two weeks-- six 45-minute periods a day, plus 2-3 hours of culture a day). I will return directly to Tai'an from the camp and resume teaching on the 31st of August.

Summer will be over before I know it! I'll keep you posted whenever I have internet access and something interesting happens. I am sure that I won't have access at the language camp. The school has already let us know this.

I am posting a picture here of a hat that I sent to my mom and dad. (I bought 2 of them with the help of a taxi driver. We looked for two days.) My dad saw a man in the "Wheat" blog wearing one of these hats and said that he wanted one. (He was actually joking, but I went out and bought him one, anyway.) It is on a boat on the way to Nebraska as I write this. I couldn't believe how difficult it was to find these hats!!!! The workers wear them in the sun and in the rain-- but as they aren't "fashionable" and they are very hard to find!

written by  Warner on July 14 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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Land Preparation, Planting, Growing, Cutting and Threshing are all steps in growing and harvesting wheat by hand-- which is how wheat is still harvested in my neck of the woods in China. All of these steps are hot, hard, labor-intensive work. You wouldn't catch me out there doing it-- that's for sure! However, I am impressed by the ingenuity and dedication of the farmers and workers who are working for their daily bread.

According to my internet research, a small field or patch of wheat, about 100 feet by 100 feet (10,000 square feet) will yield about 18-22 pounds of wheat after the entire process has been completed. The wheat looks like grass when it first comes up, and then it grows a "head" and turns yellow and looks more "wheat-y." The Chinese farmers cut the wheat with a razor sharp scythe.

The next step in the process is called "stooking." You use the wheat plant itself to tie it together into a bundle. The farmers carry these bundles to the street where they will do the threshing with the help of the entire community. This is how I have been a part of the wheat harvest in Tai'an!

The farmers spread their wheat/straw across the road so that cars, buses and other motorists can drive over the wheat to break it down.

The idea is to get the wheat out of the straw without breaking the kernels. On the way to and from school for the past few weeks, my school bus has been driving over the wheat patches on the road.

Then, the farmers come over and sweep the wheat over to the side, away from the straw part.

They use various sieves during this process. At this point the wheat is full of chaff---the fibrous outer shell that surrounds each kernel of wheat on the head. So the farmers toss the wheat up into the air on windy days to separate the chaff.

The wheat falls to the ground (because it is heavier) and the chaff blows away. Finally, the wheat is put into bags.

The farmers in the area are probably getting anywhere from 8 to 60 bushels of wheat per acre under a wide range of variables.

These fluctuations include planting density, amount of rainfall or irrigation, amount and type of fertilizer used, average summer temperature, and weather extremes. I took a taxi home one day so that I could get some photos to show you this process. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. One of the photos is a friend's. She took it in Zibo. (The first one.) I missed that stage in the process.

written by  Warner on June 22 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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I went back to the dentist on Saturday to ask about the numbness. The dentist (#2) said that it is nerve damage. It MAY resolve itself in a few weeks to one month. I will have my stitches removed this coming Thursday. In the meantime my students keep asking me if I am angry because I can't smile. I just tell them "wo hen gaoxing, wo hen ya teng" which means, "I'm very happy/glad; I have much tooth pain!"

Since then I called my dentist in America because I am losing a lot of information in the translation from Chinese to English. I wanted to understand more clearly what is happening with my medical situation. He said it sounds as though my nerve is either cut or bruised. IF it is only bruised it will heal with time. Hallelujah!

Please think of me friends. Everything happens for a reason. I seek WISDOM in this.

written by  Warner on June 8 from Tai'an, China
from the travel blog: Tai'an City
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2) An Old man made out of frosting：he has a high, protruding forehead, long and white mustache,and he carries a crutch or staff.
He is a spirit named "Shou Xing"(寿星）from a mythological story
"THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST", and his Chinese name is "Xi You Ji"(西游记).
He was alive for a very, very long time and is a symbol of immortality. Usually, people live for a long time,we call them “Shou Xing", "Shou" means long life, "Xing" means star.

3. Eight words: "Fu Ru Dong Hai, Shou Bi Nan Shan"(福如东海，寿比南山），
"Fu" means "good luck"; "Shou" means "long life"; "Dong Hai" means "east sea";
"Nan Shan" means "south of mountain". Together, these words are a birthday blessing, meaning, "May your good luck be wide like the east sea, and your life be very tall like the south of the mountain."

4.Pine tree: These trees are green year round, in every season-- they symbolize that your life will be always green and mean long life.

5.Deer: The Chinese pronunciation is "Lu"(鹿), which has the same pronunciation as “Lu"(禄). This word means "salary", "bless you rich". The deer has red on the top of its head to make it beautiful.

6.Crane: Any of various large wading birds of the family Gruidae, having a long neck, long legs, and a long bill. We call it "Spirit Crane". Its life is also very long.

This birthday cake was 2 layers and was so beautiful. I felt so lucky this day.