Been Around and Back

I have to apologize, my second half of my stay in China I became very lazy and didnt update my blog. Let me give you the short version of what happen in my last six months in China. I traveld a bit spent some time in Mongolia-amazing place. After my contract was over my friend Tony from the US came and visited. We traveled around for three weeks and went to Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Lijiang, Tiger Leaping George, Kunming, Guilin, Yangshou, Hangzhou, and finally Shanghai. I have been back in the US for 5 months now. I am leaving in a few weeks to do some traveling in Brazil. I have started a new blog because obviously The Caucasian in Asia wont work in Brazil. My new blog is not going to be so regional. Check it out. http://thepaletraveler.blogspot.com

Christmas Letter

Below I have put up my moms annual Christmas letter. So if you are just reading this you will know lots of info about my family. Happy reading!

Dear Family and Friends

You may think it is funny to receive a Christmas letter in February-but, isn’t a nice surprise. As most of you know, Ed and I spent Christmas in China with Ryan. Ryan, the child that held on to me around the knees when I left for work, decided to go to Qingdao, China to teach English for a year. Needless to say, it was a very different Christmas.

Before we left for China, we did manage to have Christmas and Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day with all the other kids. (Contrary to what my friends said, I still got to cook!!) The weather was so beautiful we managed to have a wiener roast, bonfire and several walks and scary rides on the golf cart at Lefty’s Lake during the long weekend.

As we arrived in China on Christmas Eve we found a country of paradoxes-High rises and hutongs (old town), cars and bicycles, Open-air markets and Walmart. We got to see both the old and new by visiting Beijing, Qingdao and Shanghai. Beijing is the capital of China and we visited Tiananmen Square, climbed (and rode up) the Great Wall, saw the Peking acrobats and got to help make Chinese dumplings in a real Chinese home.

In Qingdao, we visited Ryan’s school. One adorable, young girl thought we could understand Chinese and told me a whole story in Chinese. I had a blast leading them in Heads, Shoulder, Knees and Toes. We also went to a Chinese Christian/Lutheran Church and witnessed Christianity in a different language but still feeling Christ’s love. Right afterwards, we visited the beer factory. (Can you tell the Germans occupied Qingdao at one time?)

In Shanghai, the New York of China, we shopped in the old market while sipping on our Starbucks, visited the Shanghai Museum, the Yu Garden and saw thousands of bicycles. We visited the Water Villages, where people still live on the canals much like they did for thousands of years.

Other highlights of the trip were me putting soy sauce on my pancakes, Ed trying to trade jokes (half Chinese, half English) with tour guides, Ryan surprising every shop owner when he spoke Chinese and getting me some good buys and some very crazy taxi rides. Of course, Ryan choosing a very wonderful restaurant to spend my birthday atop the city and giving me a beautiful tea set was very special. However, the best part of the trip was getting to see Ryan, sharing his new world and meeting all his many friends.

Don’t worry-our celebrations are not over. Ian is engaged as of New Year’s 06 to a beautiful smart young lady named Jessica and the wedding is scheduled for July 21^st 2007. (Mark your calendar.) They are living in the beautiful, quaint town of St. Charles, MO. Ian just received a promotion with his company, Quilogy and Jessica is enrolled in Lindenwood Univeristy. Ms. Ryan (2) got her own bed but still has Ian wrapped around her finger. (and the rest of us, too) We love them both. We are so excited about the wedding and I hope all of you plan to attend.

Eric is still working on the basement (much to Michelle’s dismay) but is making great progress. He has been a bit distracted because he has decided to go into business with his dad. I am hoping Eric learns the insurance business fast, so Ed can retire! Michelle is busy being a cheerleader mom as Erica finished her second year as a middle school cheerleader. Erica is a true teenager with a cell phone and lots of friends. However, she still finds time for shopping with her mom.

Leigh, Grant and kids are loving living in Norwalk, Iowa. Taylor fell in love with Leigh Middleton dolls and grandma got to buy her one for Christmas. Just like in the commercials, the look on her face was priceless Will fell in love, too. He has fallen in love with Ms. Ryan. He hugs her (around the neck) every chance he gets and Ms. Ryan does not seem to mind if the hugs get a bit rough. She is in love, too.

Steph and Rick are in Wichita Falls, TX and Rick just received a promotion and is officially a squadron commander. We drove to Texas in October and got to see Brian play Texas football and dress up in his ROTC uniform, eat at Chase’s school on Halloween with all the kids dressed up and listened to both play their guitars. Grandpa is working on purchasing a tank or retro fitting the golf cart so all the kids do not get hurt at the lake. It is scary to watch them drive across the dam like it is motocross!!

As most of you are aware, my dad died unexpectedly in December of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. I honestly cannot explain in words the pain of his death. However, I do know there will be plenty of well-built mansions in heaven with Daddy there to help God out. (That is IF God has the right tools!) A special thanks to all of you for your continuing thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time.

When we were in China, we visited many shrines, tombs and temples. Each had a stone, tree, statue or something to rub, pat, or give money to bring us good luck, long life and/or prosperity. I am so thankful to feel the love of Christ without ever having to do anything other than ask him to be apart of my life. We are so blessed to live in America and know God.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Valentines,

Love Tricia and Ed

Rents to China

Just incase you are a causal reader of my blog or don’t know me. The picture above is of my parents and myself. When I made my decision to come to China my mom also made a decision that they were going to come visit. My dad lobbied for Cancun but later decided that the trip to China would be all right. I bet my parents in Beijing on Christmas Eve. We stayed in Beijing three days, after which, we returned to Qingdao the city I lived in. I introduced them to my friends and my lifestyle in the city. After a few days in Qingdao we went to Shanghai. Although by this time I think we were all a little tired of being out in the cold, which made me wish that we would have made the last leg of the journey to the tropical Hainan Island. I won't fill you in with to many details because my mom is preparing the next blog entry and she will provide them. Having my parents here was very nice but I did have a feeling of worlds colliding. My Dad had a difficult time using chopsticks and my Mom had a difficult time bargaining. I have decided that she has invented a new style of bargaining I titled the "deer in headlights" style of negotiation. The people that work in the shops would try to convince my mom to buy something and she would just stand there and not say a word. The people at the shops would become frustrated and eventually come down in price. I have to admit that in my time in China I have become a good bargainer. One example is when my mom wanted to buy some pictures. It was a four picture set each showing the same scene but in a different season. The lady had my mom convinced that 150RMB for each one was a good price. I stepped in and spoke to the lady in Chinese and her face immediately dropped. She realized right away that I must live in China and I know how much things cost, and therefore was not going to be cheated. I talked to her for a while and after a few fake walkouts she sold it to us for 100RMB for all four instead of the original 600RMB that was originally decided on.

I have put a few pictures on here. The second one is of my parents eating Beijing duck at a very nice restaurant in Beijing. We met one of my Chinese friends that I met in Qingdao there. This was also the first time in China that they used chopsticks. The picture below is of one of my classes that my parents came and dropped in on. I have to admit that this class is one of my favorites. It is a beginning level class of 4-5 year olds, plus one adorable three-year-old girl who does not have the concept of different languages and loved talking to my mom in Chinese. Check back on here because there should be another post up soon. Although I will not be the author of that one it will be my mother. Think you for everyone who reads my blog. I really enjoy the comments that I get from people. It is nice to know that people actually read this thing.

Quote of the Week

"Ni de fu mu ye wai guo ren ma?" Translation "Are your parents foreigners too?"
-One of my TPR students when I told them my parents was going to visit.

The Legend of Dan Chao Fan

About my second month in China one of the foreign teachers that I work with was telling me a story about one of his students. Each of the students in my school are given an English name. Typically the foreign teachers give them common names such as Eric, Tom, Bill, etc... Sometimes, however, the students will take it upon themselves to come up with a quality name. Which results in students that have names like Basketball, 11, Matrix and a boy named Sue (ok I admit I gave that name). One of the teachers had a student that named himself after one of his favorite foods--Hamburger. Now as far as I can tell Hamburger was a quality student. His choice in names inspired me to come up with my own Chinese name. I decided I would choose one of the few Chinese words I knew at the time, Dan Chao Fan, or Egg Fried Rice in Chinese. I kind of joked about it. Then I told it to my elementary age students and they thought it was just about the funniest thing they had ever heard. After that students that I didn't have in class would walk up and call me Mr. Dan (Mr. Egg), or Dan Chao Fan Laoshi (Egg Fried Rice Teacher). Eventually the older students caught wind. I had one teenager come up and ask me, "Are you the one they call Dan Chao Fan?" Soon it got to be to ridiculous, when the school staff started asking me why the kids were calling me Dan Chao Fan. After class the students would introduce me to their parents as Dan Chao Fan Laoshi. Every time I walk into school the staff looks at me, smiles and says, "Dan Chao Fan hao ma?!!!" or Egg Fried Rice how are you?

Anyway I just thought you all might think that story was amusing. I'm sorry I havent written anything in awhile. The main reason is I haven’t been on any exciting trips in the last few weeks. I have just been hanging around Qingdao teaching, watching movies, and studying some Chinese whenever I get some motivation. My parents will be making the trip to China in about two weeks. We are going to spend a few days in three cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao. I am really looking forward to it so remember to check my blog so you can read about how everything goes. I think my mom is excited but my dad is a little jin zhang (nervous). With only six months left of my time in China I have started thinking about what I want to do when it is all over. Anyone have any suggestions? I have been exploring several possibilities such as going home for awhile and then teaching in another country like Thailand, Brazil or Korea; finding a teaching job in Missouri; or just move back and see what happens. Let me know what you all think, or if anyone has a job offer let me know. As always I love hearing from people from home whether it is on facebook, email or comments on here. Let me know how everyone is doing.

The picture above was taken on the great wall. When I was there I was wearing my Cards hat since the third game of the World Series was being played. When I was up there I saw a guy wearing a Tigers hat. I found out that the Cards had won the third game on the great wall so I got the chance to talk trash to the guy. Good times.

Doing Some Seoul Searching

The time period around October 1st is China's national holiday. Most people in China have a break off from work during this time period. Leewen English School gave all the foreign teachers a week off, which is my first extended time off during my trip to China. At first I wanted to go to Beijing and see the major sights there. However, after talking to several of the teachers that have been in China longer than I have, I discovered that Beijing will be ridiculously packed during the holiday. One teacher described her trip to Tiananmin Square as standing shoulder to shoulder with Chinese people the entire time. Not wanting to battle such a mass of people some of my fellow teachers and I decided to check out other options. We managed to find a travel agent that could speak English, which was a major feat in my mind. After weighing our options we decide that, for the money, a week in South Korea would best quench our wanderlust. On September 25th I was off to see my second country in Asia. After landing in Incheon we paid for a shuttle to our hostel in Seoul. I have discovered that hostels are the way to go. We paid $13 dollars a night to stay in Seoul when a hotel would have been much more. My first impression of Seoul was a good one. Looking out the window of the shuttle at night I saw the lights of a booming City of 11 million people. I also noticed that when we were on a high point of the freeway I could look out over the city and see several red fluorescent crosses sticking up over the city, some places more than six at a time. I knew that Christianity was fairly widespread in South Korea but this still struck me as a surprise. I remembered reading somewhere that the main proselytizing came in South Korea during the time of Japanese occupation during WWII. While the Japanese were treating the people very harshly the Christians came in and provided food and medical supplies. It was obvious looking at all the crosses that the South Korean people did not forget the generosity of the Christians during that time period.

On my third day in Korea I found a fortress in my travelers guide. The book didn't say much about the fortress just what direction I had to go in to find it and a picture of one of the gates. We went to where we expected to find the fortress we discovered that there was a 4 kilometer hike up a mountain to get to it. I decided that wanted to test my woodsman skills and head up the hill. It was a challenging hike. A little different than the climbing the hills of north Missouri. About half way the other two people said they were hungry so I made a make shift bow and arrow out of branches and bark and tried to find a squirrel, but then I remembered that they don't have Squirrels in China so they probably don't in Korea either. We eventually get to the top only to discover that the fortress was a huge wall that surrounded the entire mountain top. Inside the fortress was a town that had been there since the 7th century. We were very lucky to find out that there was actually a cultural festival going on in the town that is only once a year and happened to be during the time we were there. We showed up just in time for the opening ceremony and the parade. We hung out there for awhile and then treated ourselves to some Korean style BBQ, which is one of my favorite things I have eaten since I have been in Asia. After walking around we found out that we could have simply taken a bus to the city and avoided the three hour hike. Although I am glad we didn't because the way we found the city and fortress was an experience in itself. We were just walked out of a forest and found a cultural festival! The picture on the top is from the Eagles nest of the fortress. One side overlooked Seoul while the other was of hills and mountains. If you look at my photbucket site you can see more picture from the festival. You can also see some videos that I took of the festival. I will also put up a video I took of some old guys break dancing to some Korean pop music in the subway. It might just be one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life.



This picture was taken at a Korean restaurant with no tables and chairs. One of the tour guides told us that along time ago in Korea houses had huge stone floors. The houses were heated by building fires underneath those floors. The people who wanted to stay warm had to sit on the floor and did not have any furniture. The ceilings are also typically very low to hold the heat in. Many homes today are still heated with the same technique, but instead of using fire below the floor they use heated water pipes.


Thanks to everybody who reads my blog. I apogize that it takes me so long to update it. I want to make sure that I have something interesting to talk about when I post. Anyway I really enjoy getting emails and facebook messages from people telling me how they are doing. Also I have to many stories about Korea to fit in one post so check back and I will have another Korea post up shortly. If you cant find the link to my photbucket site it is at the very bottom of the page for some reason.

Quote of the Week:

A Korean person, a Japanese person and a Chinese person go to Heaven to talk to God. God tells them they can each ask him a question and he will give them the answer. The Korean person goes first and ask, "When will Korea win a World Cup?" God replies "ten years." The Korean leaves happy because he will get to see his team win a world cup. The Japanese person steps up and ask "When will Japan win a World Cup?" God replies "80 years." The Japanese person starts to cry and yells, "I won't see Japan win a World Cup!" The Chinese person steps up and asks "When will China win a World Cup?" After hearing the question God starts crying and says "I can't see, I can't see!" -A joke of of my Chinese students told me and he thought it was about the funniest thing he had ever heard.

P.S. I didn't really make a bow and arrow and try to kill a Squirrel in Korea.