Adventure #4

This is for my granddaughters when they think they're having a bad hair day.
This adventure was not planned. Joan and I both needed haircuts, so we went together. I demonstrated the hairstyle I wanted to the Chinese guy in the shop.They only speak Chinese, but I'd had good luck the last time I was in there. From the front it looked like it was coming along fine. Even when he got out the shears, I thought he was just going after the annoying neck hairs. But no! He shaved 3 1/2" above my hairline! What! I was horrified!

I look like a bald mannequin with a wig on it! If I keep my chin up, and wear turtleneck sweaters & a wide scarf, I can leave the building. But I'm not going to leave the building! I don't want any more adventures for awhile!

Adventure #3

Adventure #3 has to be coming home from the previous adventure, opening my door, and having smoke come billowing out. I had left a pot of chicken/stock cooking for chicken soup. And I was so sure I had turned it off! Oh, dear! Joan and Dale smelled the smoke and came to check on me. They took the pot out onto their balcony. I opened all my windows for a few hours. Another neighbor loaned me a fan. By 11:00 most of the smoke was gone, tho the smell remained and is still there after 2 days. I left everything open for the four hours we were at Church on Sunday, too. It was so cold (20-25 F), it took the rest of the day to warm the place up. The smell is getting better.  Too bad I didn't think to get a picture. But at that point I was so mad I didn't think I'd be sharing this event. Now it's just a funny story.
My brother Scott just sent me a quote: Humor is just emotional chaos remembered from a safe distance.

Adventure #2

My friend and next-door neighbor, and me. The metal basket in front of us is a brazier burning indoor charcoal.

Not sure about the bird cages. They didn't have birds in them, altho birds are a very popular hobby here.

So fancy!

In our effort to see the sights of Qingdao, Joan and I got in a taxi and showed the driver the address of a restaurant we had heard of. As he sped off we realized that we really didn't know where or how far we were going - hence, how much it would cost us. Qingdao includes out-lying towns like LA, so it could have been quite a distance. Also cab drivers sometimes take advantage of foreigners and take the l o n g  way. But before too long, we got to the supposed street, but couldn't see the restaurant. But the guy made us get out anyway. We were going to ask in some other businesses, but just then a group of young Chinese people passed by and we ask for their help. They looked at our directions and one of them said "Follow me please" Oh good, he speaks English and he is being so kind. He took us half way down the block and into a restaurant. He took off his coat and took us to a table. That's when we saw his name tag and realized he was dressed the same way as the other waiters.  He worked there, had just got off work and was meeting some friends to go out for the evening. After he got us settled, he put his coat back on and went out to find his friends. We were so grateful that we ran into that particular group of young people with that young man in their midst, and so grateful for his kind assistance. The place was beautiful! Can you see the multi layers? I love the upper level cubicles. We were on the main floor. We had a great meal for under $15 - 2 meat dishes, dumplings and tofu/egg/cabbage soup. It was supposed to include entertainment, a foot massage, shoe shine, and a puppet show. Wow! Interesting combination!  That's what attracted us to the place, but unfortunately we were too early and we missed out on the show. Maybe we can go again.

Adventure #1

"While six of our group are preparing to go on a 2-wk cruise, my next door neighbor and I decided we would go see the sights of Qingdao. Our first excursion was to an old Lutheran church built in 1910, when this town was occupied by the Germans. The whole area has German architecture. I wish we could have been here for a Christmas service or concert.
Here we are bundled up  against the -10C temp.

The grand metal doors

Large hall seats 1000











We climbed up many steps into the bell tower

And saw the bells and clock works

A very nice first day!

 I woke up to lightly falling snow on Tuesday. It makes me so happy! Here are pictures from my window and on my walk to class. They say it hasn't snowed here for five years, so everyone was pretty excited! I love the white mustache on Lenin.

 

Some spots of Christmas around my apartment:

 Do you like my lamp turned Christmas hat rack?!

 And a Chinese winter scene that looks a little Christmasy.

           Merry Christmas
       from China everyone!

Chinese Dumplings

These are 5 cute girls from my Sophomore Reading class. They took me to the Qingdao Museum one day. Then they decided I needed to learn how to make dumplings. They brought pork, onions, and ginger. I had the rest of the materials.

Here's a demo of the rolling process:

They're very good at it. I couldn't turn out round dough to save me.

Some dumplings ready to cook.

They sink to the bottom of boiling water.
When they pop to the top, they're done!

Two of the chefs.










Notice the clothes - Layers of cuteness!

Nothing is plain. This one has fur at the top, then lace, and knit designs - to cook in.

Another fancy, detailed outfit!
My friend Kris came to learn the art of dumpling making.
Dumplings seem to be a part of every festival in China. These girls are lucky that their mothers passed on the art. And I'm lucky they would come teach me!

A Qingdao Thanksgiving

We postponed our Church Thanksgiving dinner so more people would be able to attend. It didn't seem to matter much since we all taught on Tgiving anyway. We ordered tables on Monday and they came the morning of our dinner! Yay! Before this we just held food on our laps whenever we had a dinner.

Some things that were hard to find - Turkey!, pecans, jello, whipping cream, canned milk, pie pans, 9x13 pan, ovens for turkeys & pies (we have toaster ovens), cranberry sauce, and Jiffy corn bread mix. We finally managed to find or borrow everything except the Jiffy mix. We found an import place, but everything is very expensive - i.g., Jello cost me about $3.50 for a small pkg.

Two of our YSA girls (our Branch missionaries)

The three on the right are nonmember friends that they invited.

An overview of the dinner in our Sacrament meeting room. The beautiful ocean view is right out those glass windows.

The family in the foreground have an oven, so they agreed to cook the turkeys and two of the pies. The older couple (Akiyoshis) at the back of the table are Japanese and just started coming to Church again.(That's cute Moko, who just agreed to be a VTer. And next to her is Mimi, the Fr Canadian who translates my English into Chinese for Moko who's learning Chinese. Crazy!)

The couple in the center is our Branch President and his wife - Dale and Joan Campbell, my next-door neighbors and Joan is one of my best friends. On the outside is Kirk and Midge Evans, our instructors from the BYU training we received last summer. They are traveling around China visiting each of the 80 BYU China Teachers. They will also be at our Hong Kong training conference in January.

Two more couples who came over with me in August, the Murdocks in front and the Granvilles in back.

A wonderful Korean family living here. Hyun Ah is my 1st counselor in RS. Their son Terry (16)  is our translator in Sacrament meeting. Isn't she beautiful!

Shelley Zhang(Chinese) and Peter Hwang(Korean) and their two daughters.