Week Eight

There isn't anything really big happening.  Mostly we are teaching our classes and walking throughout Xi'an.  Kim was really sick last weekend with a bad cold and I think he had a sinus infection.  He still is battling with a cough from it.  But because he was sick and we were  watching general conference at church, we stayed home and watched general conference in our apartment.  After a session of conference, I went out walking on my own while Kim slept.  While out enjoying the beauties of China, I had an overwhelming feeling of God's love.  He has given ALL of us this beautiful earth.  We will not live long enough to see it all, but I am so grateful for what I have been blessed enough to see.  There is beauty everywhere.  And God loves his Children all over the world. 

These flowers smelled so good.  You just want to stand and breath in the air.

I'm not sure what this was, but there was a amphitheater in the middle. 

These horses appear to have gotten into more than they bargained for.  😂😳

 For at least a mile, there was this green space area down the middle of the road.  Like a park dividing the lanes.  This is what China is excellent at...making their grounds beautiful.

Later in the week when Kim was feeling better, I took him to show him the area I had walked through on Sunday.  We ended up turning down this street and walking until we got to this great big Park.  It was beautiful.  

Not only do they paint beautiful murals on the walls but they also plant flowers and other plants.

When we left the park, we got on a bus with no idea where it was going--we only knew it was going towards our apartment.  When it turned a different direction, we got off.  We were close to the subway so we grabbed the metro and finished our journey home.  That is one of the simple pleasures of being here in Xi'an. We don't have to worry about getting lost. We can always figure out how to get home.

There is a big snowball bush (tree) on our campus where we live.  It's been blooming all week.  Sooo pretty.

Back on the new campus where we teach, these girls were having a great time shaking the tree and making a huge pile of flower petals on the ground.  They were taking loads of pictures.

 We had lunch with Huili.  Huili teaches in the Business Department at the same university we are at.  We met her last year.  I ran into her by accident a couple of weeks after we returned.  It was so fun to see her reaction to my being here.  She was ecstatic.  She got her doctorate degree from BYU and is working with a couple of retired professors from BYU.  They are helping her and some other professors on how to best do research.   After lunch, we were walking Huili back to her class and we were on the way to catch a bus home.  We ran into Grayson, and then Nicolas and another one of Kim's students from last year.  We had a short visit and a photo before heading on.  

In class this week, our text book topic was real estate.  So I made an activity where as pairs they had to sell the house they presently owned (I provided a house printed from Zillow) and they had to buy a house from one of the other couples in the classroom.  It was a very loud exchange but they all seemed to really enjoy it.  What did they learn from it?  That people in America have BIG HOUSES!  For sure, our housing situations are much different than theirs.  

It was so fun to watch them.

The last thing I'm adding this advertisement. Forty years ago the Young Ambassadors came to China and performed.  Now, 40 years later they are coming back.  They will be performing just down the street from us.  We are so excited and are hoping that some of our students will have a chance to go and see them.  And it's more then the Young Ambassadors.  They are bringing all the performing groups.  It really will be SPECTACULAR!

Have a great week everyone.  We love and miss you all.  We will be home before we know it.  We are half way there already.