As Time Goes By

Thanks Wihongi Family for the care package.  Our first mail in China–we don’t even get junk mail here.  It was perfect.  Dad thinks he needs to hide the truffles from Mom; but we have agreed to share the truffles and foot massages.  The pictures by the budding artists and notes and letters are wonderful and charming.  We ended up hugging and crying together…for happy, of course.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

Note the little mousie hole in the truffle package….yummeeeeeeeeeey!

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We have begun our classes and are loving it.  The students are great.  We are even seeing students we had before.  In fact one of Dad’s past students said that I look younger than before.  Made points with me for sure.

 We are making our way around Beijing.  A big overwhelming market is Pan Jia Yuan (the Dirt Market).  It is open only on weekends and has many different and some unusual things.  Here are a few pictures:

And some high-pressure salesmen?

 

Here we are at the entrance:  pre-ordeal….

Fun times about and meaningful times with the students being had.  And, we are excited to have been called to be advisors to the Young Special Interests with the Colemans.  We will be teaching Institute for the next two weeks while they are in Egypt.  It looks like we will have lots of time with young adults–Chinese and otherwise.

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                     NI HAO (HELLO) FROM CHINA 

  

Yes, we are here in Beijing at China Foreign Affairs University with the China Teachers Program administered by BYU.  We are adjusting, happy, and fine-tuning our body clocks. While we miss our dear ones, there are so many rich  adventures and opportunities to serve  here as the institutional face of the Church.  We began classes this week (our schedules are Monday through Thursday).   Here are just a few of our experiences, so far.

All the freshmen go to military training for two weeks.  This is looking out from our balcony. There is a long line of busses and in the middle, straight out. It is very crowded with kids and very noisy.  The building on the right is where we have some of our classes.

 

Our teaching assignments, while full, are nothing like this fellow’s load, we might add:

 

And, as we go forward, because of our 2005-2006 year here and additional training at BYU in  August, we hope to have a smoother time than this fellow with his one no-tread tire.

ZAI JIAN for now.

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Hey, we need more ‘what is your favorite, or one of  your favorite’ memories or events from the recent reunion.  Some of you might have missed the last sentence in our previous post.  (Joe & Holly responded.) Anyway….we would love to see your responses.  This pic is one of the cute events (the water balloon toss), I think.

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It was wonderful, chaotic fun.  We loved it.  Check out this great sign that Graigg made for the reunion.  There has been some rumor of people wanting to ‘reunion’  annually.  Not a bad idea.  It was so wonderful to get together and play, work, sing, pray, laugh, cry (sometimes at the same time), reminisce, etc., etc.  Thanks to you all for making it so memorable. It will keep us ‘ol folks in fond memories during our China assignment.  James & Nat’s DVD was the best and the sign  (see pic) and lettering for the flags gave the Condiff’s a warm presence.

It was delightful to see the grandchildren playing together:  the babies, our ‘tween, the girls, and the little gang of five.  Thanks for delicious food and games and…well…just everything.  We love you family!

HEY…WHAT’S  YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE AND/OR EVENT FROM THE REUNION?

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Here’s a few more pictures from our cruise.  The first (formal night) shows ‘Dapper Dad’. Hey!  Remember Dapper Dan that many of you played with (to keep quiet) in sacrament–tying, snapping, zipping, buttoning, lacing, etc?  Anyway, the shirt is a blue pinstripe…and, he looked GOOD!

Here we are at dinner on the second formal night…our group loved it–if people did not dress up, they were not allowed to join everyone in the formal dining room.  It was fancy and quite enjoyable.

Now a bit more casual, here we are at the temple.  What a lovely setting and a nice time had by all.    The Church is so prominent in the Islands that all our tour guides knew where the temple and chapels were and the people who were members (even if they, the guides, were not).

So, of course, there are a few more pictures–we’ll probably add another installment later–we don’t want you to overdose on pictures of Mom and Dad.

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We enjoyed our ten-day cruise in French Polynesia.  Our ‘cruise crew’ as the kids call them were delightful to travel with–the Thorstensons, Taylors, and Jacobsons from our Ward. We visited Tahiti, Huahine, Raratonga, Raiatea, Bora Bora, Moorea, and back to Papeete.  Yes…needless to say, it was wonderful and we are pinching ourselves and wondering if we really went; it was so surreal. The tans are real…however, they will fade, but we have lots of memories.   We’ll post a few pictures because, as it is said, ‘a picture is worth a….’

Here is our cruise ship

And here we are in Bora Bora

One of our tour guides–boatmen, I’m convinced, is Bloody Mary’s Bro.

He was particularly ‘charming’ when he laughed and stuck his tongue between two of his top teeth (where at least one is missing).

Okay, Jon, I took your challenge…here is the first post.

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As you all might know, we have been  enjoying being docents at the BYU Museum of Art since last November.  We have our regular schedule every Tuesday afternoon.  We roam the exhibit and answer any questions, or engage patrons, etc, during our shift.  A lot of very interesting people come through and we continue to experience that ‘small world’ experience.  Last week Mary Lois Wheatley (she and her husband are probably the museum’s largest contributors) came through and it was delightful to speak with her.   We also take tours through on call.  Yesterday we took the College of Biology and Agriculture professors through.  Last night we took a group from our High Priests Group in our Ward.  Tomorrow night I takes a group from the Relief Society.  I’ve also enjoyed taking through some enrichment-day activity girls (reminded me SO much of our Bridget, Josephine, and Tazzie).

 These are just a few of the 170+ pieces that are in the Exhibit (Beholding Salvation) that we are involved with.  The exhibit follows Christ’s life beginning with pieces called “The Annunciation,” and ends with “The First Vision.”  Some pieces are contemporary, but many are hundreds of years old.  What a wonderful experience it is each week to spend time in the galleries with the Savior.  The  Rembrandt ‘Head of Christ’ and Block ‘Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda’ are, of course, two of the highlights.  BYU has an incredible collection (they own 60+ percent of the exhibit and the rest are on loan from various sources).  The Exhibit goes until the middle of June–too bad, it will be gone for our reunion.  However, there are other exhibits that will be available.

 Anyway, this is one of the things we are enjoying doing with our ‘time.’ 

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Well, as you all know, we ARE going back teach at CFAU (China Foreign Affairs University) in Beijing…but the campus will not be that hanging monastery–it will be the same one in Beijing and it will not be the PLA coats as our uniform…but the more mission-type clothes we wore last year.  Yes, James…you are right…beware of April 1st posts.  Heh, heh….

We are excited to get this great assignment again and are looking forward to having our lives greatly influenced as well as hopefully having a positive influence on 100′s of Chinese students and others at this pretigious University.

But before this happens, we will be hosting a fun-filled family reunion here in Provo (Dad calls it Happy Valley):  the weekend (at least part of) before the 4th of July to the 4th–and to as as long as any of you can stay. (Yes, we want input re your availability, etc…..)

 And, as you also know, we will be experiencing our first real cruise (other than the one down the Yangtze River) to Tahiti, etc., etc., in May with three other couples from our Ward.  Fun, fun, fun to come!

We are sure you all had a great Easter!   We love you all,

Mom and Dad

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Some of you may have heard the rumor, but it is official…we have received our assignment from BYU (and the Church) for the next academic year in China.  YEA!  We will be returning to China Foreign Affairs University where we taught before.  The difference is that they have built a new campus–as we may have told some of you, and we will be teaching at that campus.  It is a little more remote than the main campus as you can see on the attached picture.  We had the opportunity last spring to take a train ride and visit the site, so we are familiar with what our new surroundings will be.  Also, we will be required to adhere to new dress standards, which we tried on last spring, as well.

 The classrooms are a little different in design, as you may note (they are located just above Mom’s head).  It’s a little longer walk to get to them and the bath facilities are more remote–they are just to the left of Dad (it’s a little bit steep, but we’ll get used to it).

We wanted to let all of you know; we just got confirmation a few days ago.  So, wish us well and if you don’t mind roughing it a little bit, we will be glad to have any or all of you come and visit sometime during the year.  Let us know.

Love,

Mom and Dad 

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