Happy Birthday, Ann (or reflections from a refugee from China)

You are invited to my birthday party on February 13,Thursday, at 7 p.m. at our son Peter’s house in Greer, SC. (Send me a message and I will send the address. 717 660 9321) This is the first time in forever that I have been in the U. S. for my birthday. For a few years now I have lost 12 hours of my birthday as I cross the International Dateline on   our way back to China on this day. However, this year I am here!! And I am throwing myself a party! Now, if you want to see the “rest of the story” as to why we are still in the States you need to open our blog and read it. I have delayed writing about our situation because everything is still unfolding and happening very fast. About a week and a half ago we were told that Peking University (as well as all the other schools and any large gathering) was closed until further notice. We were told not to return right now and nearly all of our organization as well as other expats that we know either were already   in the US like ...

Return to School Delayed!

So, as the scene unfolds on media, so also our circumstances are changing. Peking University, our Beijing employer, has informed us that the start of the semester is being indefinitely delayed. It was to have started on Feb. 17 and our tickets are for Feb. 11. We were told not to cancel our tickets yet, but it seems inevitable. There is discussion about conducting classes online, which I suppose can be done from almost anywhere. (Rick is contemplating how one can teach oral English with required oral presentations online. Haha) Personally, I am finding this delay very hard to accept. After this long ‘vacationing’, I am quite ready to return to my home and hold still and unpack. I am ready to return to my very meaningful work. But then I have spent most of today realizing what an ungrateful wretch I am. The Lord orchestrates it so that we are out of harms way, and do not have to go through the uncertainties of lock down, lack of supplies, and maybe even evacuation….and instead I a...

New Year and Coronavirus

Happy Chinese New Year! Today is the beginning of the ultimate Chinese holiday. It means traveling home to see relatives, eating delicious food, handing out red envelops full of money as gifts, and generally relaxing. Many big cities are usually almost closed down as people gladly return to their villages of origins. ….except there is a coronavirus outbreak. 12 cities around the epicenter have been closed down and people everywhere are being told to just stay in place. One could easily wonder how a government could close down 12 cities with a cumulative population of about 35 million. However, having lived in Beijing for 3 years, I have no doubt at all that it is quite possible. Transportation will simply stop running. If there are no airplanes, busses, and trains, that pretty well leaves only cars, and although the number of cars has greatly increased they still are not usually used for long distance travel. So I have no doubts at all that the citizens in the Wuhan area are simply s...

Visiting on Christmas

I have been struggling how I can at least be able to knowledgeably greet the other 11 families who live in our apartment. I have played around with inviting everyone for a meal, but that is not realistic, both for space, and cultural appropriateness. So last night I suddenly thought about taking a small bag of left over candy canes (left over from sharing with our students), and knocking on every door for Shang Dan Kwai La. Merry Christmas. So Rick and I did this at 6 this evening, Christmas Eve our time.   Only 3 families were home, out of the 11! I left the candy with a note on the other doors. No more than “Merry Christmas”, but I feel like maybe I have at least been faithful to   a vision. It is quiet here. I made part of the Christmas Day supper for tomorrow night with 6 friends at our house. We went to the bank to exchange some of our yuan to USD for our trip home on Dec. 31. We teach all morning tomorrow. Strange way to spend Christmas, but what is appropriate for...

Pearl Market

The snow covered everything by morning to a little over an inch, but it was melting by the time we went out at 11. Today we took our once a semester trip to the Pearl Market. It is a huge multi-story two building complex of wholesale items. It is really quite remarkable. There are certainly plenty of jewelry choices as the name implies: gold, silver, jade, pearls, etc. I really do not know anything about prices on these items, but my impression is that many of the shops are looking for massive bulk sales for export, or at least resale. We went looking for luggage. Because it was cold, I dug out and put on an extra layer of leggings under my blue jeans. My Chinese doctor would be very proud of me. She, as well as most of my local friends, are just appalled if they run their hand over my leg and realize that I am only wearing one layer of clothing. It is true that it helps my arthritis but if the rooms end up being hot, I start to suffer from too   many layers that cannot be conven...

Snow and Thanksgiving

It is snowing. It has certainly been cold enough lately to snow, but we are next to the Gobi Desert, so it is usually not humid enough. We were in our Friday study, and during that hour, it started and a skiff was all ready covering everything. The people we were with were excited. Me, not so much. Biking in snow is OK, but not my absolute favorite. I bet my Thanksgiving meal was different from yours. No turkey, no stuffing, no green beans, no sweet potatoes, no pumpkin pies. We did have mashed potatoes, I think. We were at a buffet with the chuch family. There were individual bowls of mashed potatoes with carrots and corn mixed in. They were not hot, but not cold either. It may have been potato salad?? We also had sesame chicken, beef and onions, mixed whole vegetables, toasted white bread and butter, rice, noodles, watermelon, tangerines, and cookies. A Chinese friend we were with said, “Oh, this is not as heavy as a Chinese meal.” I looked at the bread, rice, noodles, potatoes a...