"Will a foreigner get shot on the street in China?"https://www.quora.com/

Will a foreigner get shot on the street in China? Clive Green , lives in China (2007-present) Updated Aug 15 Yes, I am afraid there is a very high chance indeed of getting shot — especially if you are a western foreigner. Perhaps somewhat unusually, the shooter will actually ask your permission, and even ask their own children to stand next to you before they shoot you! Also, gangs of TV reporters sometimes roam the streets, looking for interesting foreigners to shoot. (Scroll down if you feel upset …) https://www.quora.com/ I am quoting off a Quora posting for today! You do understand that it is a joke, a play on the words “shoot”.   A photo is shot. I laughed because it is absolutely true. At times permission is asked. Other times you just become aware that the person ahead of you in a line is taking you as part of a selfie. At one point a group of us as foreigners were waiting together at the subway and a lady came by, stood there, and took a few minute

Moon Festival Celebration

Today is Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival. It is the second most important Chinese holiday, second only to Chinese New Year. The harvest moon is full and family is to gather at a round table and enjoy each other as they eat.  It comes at a strange time to have a vacation when school has only been in session for a week. (I had students email me my 150 essays to grade while I "rest".) It is one of the most very ancient festivals.  We have received our share of Moon Festival greetings and of course Moon Cakes. “While there have always been different variations of moon cakes across Asia, including some savory ones, the classic sweet pastry most closely associated with the festival has been made the same way for centuries: salty egg yolks stuffed in paste made from lotus seeds or beans.”   http://time.com/4492595/mid-autumn-festival-lanterns-moon-mooncake/   Mmm….yuck. Really, some of them are palatable. We enjoyed a lovely buffet with our fellow team mates, as close to family as

How Do We Deal with Noise Pollution?

You hear about air pollution in China, and yes, it is pretty awful. However, those of us living in certain overseas country feel the noise pollution more acutely.  I am lying on my couch on a Sunday morning at 8 a.m. Rick is still asleep. Suddenly from the apartment next to me a Jack  Hammer kind of noise erupts. It has to be immediately on the other side of our living room/bedroom wall. It sounds like it is in the same room with me. Now there are hammering and sawing noises. VERY LOUD.  This is not at all the first time that this apartment has been victimized by these sounds. Two different team mates have lived in the apartment for the past year and these noises have disrupted countless team meetings here. (They also attest to the fact that it goes on early morning and late nights as well.) This is a year's worth of noise. What takes a year to renovate? These apartments are only one bedroom and very small. The building is not being torn down and rebuilt. It is just a tiny apartmen

Change of Blogpost Title to "Asiabeatitudes"

For reasons related to national local activities, it seems wise to change the title of our blog to "Asiabeatitudes". I am worried that I will loose contacts this way, but I think it is necessary. Help me pass the word, please, and plead for help for many who are being persecuted.

Talk to Daddy for Us

We need your help. Many of you know that we had a study with friends last year. It was the book of John. This had become the highlight of our week. Well, this is a new year and things are moving rather quickly here. Houses of worship have been closed recently, etc. Today we talked on social media with one of the leaders of the closed venue who has always helped us find a location for our study. His comment was that at least he was free.  We have had no success at all in finding a location, and he has no suggestions. At this point we are just waiting for Daddy to take care of this, because we are completely stalemated. Please take it before the throne so that we know what to do next. Thank you for being careful in how you comment.

Economic Predominance

We teach oral and written English at Beijing University (or PKU). This is the premier university in China, and maybe most of Asia. (Think Harvard, Yale, Oxford, etc.) I often feel that we are here under false pretenses. Yes, we have doctorates and have taught for 40 years, but our degrees are in special education and human behavior, not teaching English. Our life has been spent in very humble, (and fulfilling,) circumstances. We are not ambitious people. We sometimes look around and wonder how we ended up here. When we off-handedly mention to our friends in China that we teach at PKU, they are very, VERY impressed. We are not quite sure what to do with that because it is not how we have been lead in our journey up to this point. I am reflecting on these things having just read an interesting article about the growing pre-eminence of China in the economic world: " What's happening with China's economy? " https://www.quora.com/  I am going to include an infograph

Making a Promotional Video in Beijing

What an interesting experience! On Thursday, we received a phone call from the executive director of the Peking University housing complex where we live. He asked us to participate in a promotional video for housing at PKU.   We readily agreed and signed a contract. Afterwards we questioned a bit, because we could not read the contract, but decided it must be legitimate. Thus, we spent most of this afternoon being videoed. First they came and put on our make-up. The lady spent a long time on my eyebrows and hair. She did nothing to my eyes or add blush. I assume differing cultural emphasis. We then went down to the reception area and pretended to check-in to our apartment, again, ….and again. Just like you see when you make movies of making movies. Then there was a segment where 10 people crowded with the cameras and the lights into our small apartment and they took pictures of us reading and playing a Chinese chess game, that we had to fake understanding.   We progressed

Finding Cardstock in Beijing

The goal for today was to replenish our supply of card stock. We need this in order for the students to make name tags that stand in front of their seats in class so that we don’t have trouble identifying our 150+ students that we only meet once a week. It is a wonderful system and works very well. However, one has to find the cardstock. We knew this was a problem and had ferreted out some here in June before we left for the States so that we knew we would not need to bring some back. It is fine to buy in the US and bring back, but it takes up weight and space and is also the wrong size for printing purposes in China which uses A4 metric size paper, (like the rest of the world) rather than 8.5 x 11 inches.   We are preparing for classes which start next week and don’t have quite enough to meet our needs.   It should be simple, right? We started the journey by going to the 5 story one block huge clearing house for everything computer. We try not to go there. In order to bike, one mu

Christian Young People and Social Justice

Last night, we accompanied the Canadian short term group that was here for 4 days to the airport. I made 3 meals for 10 people. An accomplishment that I know my children will still not believe, particularly challenging without an oven and only 2 burners. I think maybe it takes more administrative ability to do this than actual cooking ability, in which I am limited. However, what I bring away from their visit is not about community and eating. It is rather about hearing these young people reporting their future plans and the support they have from their college. Prairie College is in Three Hill, Alberta. Coincidentally I graduated from High School at Prairie in 1971. I only attended my senior year, but it was a life changing experience. It was a group of tremendously loving and commitment teachers and students. At that point Prairie Bible Institute was known as one of the very most conservative institutions in North America. We could not talk to people of the opposite sex, even i

The Great Wall

Rick visited the Great Wall today. We have ridden under the Wall, and have seen it from a car, but have not stood on it until now. (This is a shameful admission. We have been in China for a year and a half. It takes an hour on a bus to get to the wall. It is one of the marvels of the world….and we have not visited it. We just are some of the worlds worse tourists, and have trouble gearing ourselves up to spend the time and energy to do things like this.) Rick accompanied our ERRC team leader and a group of 6 students from Prairie Bible School in Alberta, Canada who are visiting us. This is the first stop on their trip to 6 month assignments ranging from places in Africa to places in the Far East. Truthfully, there have been very few times that we have contact with short term teams. I know that I cannot do the walking necessary to tour them around, but I can feed them. So I am feeding 10 people for the next 3 days. Good thing I have a crockpot and an instant pot. I can do this without

Chapter 2 (cont.) “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

We continue to search for an agent to help us publish our book. As time allowed this summer, we applied, emailed, talked, etc. I don't think we made much progress. Following this blog is still the main support to prove that our book is marketable. If anyone has suggestions as to how to progress to find an agent, please let us know. BLESSED: Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness: The Healing Power of the Beatitudes Chapter 2 (cont.) “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4 Forgiveness Have you carefully looked at Mark 11:25? 25   “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Or Matthew 6:14 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” This says that we are the

Internet/Bike Squeaking/Bike Collision/Bike Tire

Well, we have had less frustrating days. It is September 1. We did not keep track for when our internet payment would come due, and I guess, today is the day. We were confused why the internet was not working this morning, but finally were able to log on to our account and even if it were in Chinese it obviously had a 0 kwai (one of the Mandarin words for dollar) balance. We were up early with jet lag, so waited from 5 a.m. until 6 a.m. and then went down to the reception area of our building. They said come back at 8. When I went back I paid for 3 months. (I certainly can not complain about the internet. It is reasonably fast and only $7 US per month). But there was confusion as to whether we were getting the University discount, or the housing prices where we live. I really don’t know which one it ended up being, but that took 2 more trips to the reception and an IT man coming to the house before it was settled.  (As I said, though, I still don’t know which section we fall in.)