We always knew she had a dramatic flair...

For the past 2 months, Alice has been involved in play practice at her school.  Monday, Tuesday and Friday afternoons she stayed after school.  We are so fortunate in that there is now a bus (a NEW bus complete with the school logo on it!) for the kids with activities.  No longer does our driver have to make the extra trips into town to get her (a 2-hour round trip).

It took some getting used to, but now I kind of like that buses here look like caterpillars with antennae on the front.  Those review mirrors situated as they are allow for some pretty narrow passages.

But, back to Alice. 

 This weekend, the play "Backstage" was presented.  Alice played an "aging ingenue.  Oh, she was full of drama!  Self-centered.  Haughty. Clueless.  She spent quite awhile on the stage floor, in a series of dramatic faints.  Alice said it was quite the trick, learning to faint and fall without bruising important body parts.

(And I'm in the market for a nice pocket-sized camera as my camera is not up to the job!)

Alice didn't care for her "snazzy" dress.  The sleeves were itchy, and she had to wear hoops under the skirt. But it certainly added to her style!   And just for posterity's sake, that is her dad's arm as he handed her flowers.  Let it be noted.

 One of the really fun parts of the play was the age of most of the performers.  Tianjin Int. School does two plays a year, and because of the popularity of volleyball, most high schoolers opt to play on the volleyball team and do the spring play.  Since Alice has little experience, she decided to try out for this play, even though it would be mostly middle-school students (there ended up being one other high school student--Alice's best friend).  The middle school kids were SO cute!  And did a great job!   It's always a challenge learning lines and perfecting delivery, and when English isn't even your native language it can be daunting.  Sometimes it was a little hard to understand some of the Korean kids' lines.  But more often, the accent made it even better.

 For the Friday night performance, several friends from TEDA drove in with us.  And several of the Kennedy Center teachers that we know from church braved crossing the town by subway, bus and taxi.  They were smart--they brought along a couple of the Taiwanese youth from church who could help along the way. So Alice had quite the fan club in attendance. She had a great time, made a lot of friends, and got to let that dramatic self flow free.  

Way to go, Alice!

Girls' Camp in China

We experienced a new "first" this weekend--Girls' Camp in China!  Our church has a commitment to holding an annual camp experience for our young women, ages 12 to 18.  It can vary in length of time depending on the local circumstances, but is usually 4 or 5 days in length.  In nature and away from all electronic media, it is easier to connect with other girls and feel close to Heavenly Father.

Our girls' camp experiences have been in Iowa, with heat, humidity and tornado threats, as well as canoeing, swimming, and fairly tame hiking.

Things are a bit different here.

For one thing, the only "wildlife" we encountered was a teddy bear poodle with a collar and leash that wandered over to see what was happening.  And of course it didn't take long for Alice to be cuddling it.

 Some things were the same:  a night-time campfire with roasted hotdogs and s'mores.  Somebody paid big time for those items at the import stores!  

 This was an overnight camp and was held at the Goose and Duck Ranch in the mountains north of Beijing.  About the only way to get Alice there was with the driver, and Kevin and I decided to go along.  One thing very different--we had cabins!  With heat, running water, western toilets!!!, and almost-soft beds.  Wow!  (Did I mention the western toilets?!?)

We were comfy!  So, no mosquitoes.  No sleeping bags.  No tents.

 And the place was really cute.  But then, the fee was about the same as a fairly nice hotel.  

There's one thing that doesn't change, no matter where the camp is held:

sleeping chaos in the girls' quarters.

 I've been wanting to show the types of brooms used everywhere here.  Bamboo. Just tied together.

It doesn't seem very efficient to me.

 Yet it seems to get the job done.  At least as much as it needs to be done.

 The hike was also a bit different.

We started out in a parking lot, then got to ride gondolas up the mountain side.

 That silver snaky thing on the ground is a slide.  You ride the gondola up, hike around, then ride a tiny cart down the mountain--kind of like a luge run except no ice.  We were looking forward to that, but unfortunately, it began to rain and we ended up riding the gondola back down (with rain dripping in our faces)! Then came the real hike--the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.

 A brisk day, in the 40's (another difference from our typical summer camps), and

the fall foliage was wonderful.  The misty morning made everything surreal.

Just to show how steep some sections are!

 And when we got to the end of the reconstructed portion, we kept on.  Hidden in the trees on each side are the two sides of the wall.  Bushes and trees have grown up between the stones.  Occasionally, an intact stone stuck up to trip people.

 The girls held up their yellow (poncho) flag to commit to virtue as Young Women all over the world have done over the past couple of years.  I, unfortunately, was in the wrong spot to record this picture as Alice is behind a bush.  In my defense, there were others also taking this picture, and I was on a sharp ledge with nowhere else to move to, except over the edge.  Sorry Alice!  Maybe if the official picture is published in the Church News, you'll be visible. 

We were lucky the rain held off, and only began in earnest the last part of our descent.

Back at camp, hot chili and hot chocolate was wonderful as we all needed a quick warm up.

Then crafts, and a service project of fleece blankets for an orphanage,

supper, testimony meeting, and off to home.

Another successful Girls Camp as the Beijing girls (and one Tianjin girl) bonded and had a great time.

My thanks to great leaders with the vision to carry this off.

Flowers and things...

One of the things I was first attracted to in this apartment was the huge balcony area.  Do I call it a patio if it isn't on the ground floor? Yet it is tile and has a patio "feel".  I can't really call it a deck (as I typically would call an outside congregating area) as it isn't made out of lumber or something that looks it.  So it has taken me awhile to get comfortable with what to call it, and I'm sticking with "patio".  

Over the summer, from my first visit to the plant store in April, I've been planting, nurturing, pruning, digging up dead plants (a succession of petunias just have not liked ANYTHING I did), replanting, and watering, watering, watering. (And hoping someone was remembering to water while I was gone for six weeks--and yes, there were some dead things when I got back.  The miracle was that some were alive.)  

Two weeks ago, we got our first tomato, and there are several more on the two plants.  Within the next couple of days I'll be picking the green ones and letting them ripen indoors as we are scheduled to commence freezing temperatures.   (By the way, there is a small bird next to the planter that sought refuge on our patio.)

 I've brought in the lemon tree (covered with blossoms and a few small lemons!), the peppermint,

the basil, a geranium, and a lavender plant.  Oh, the fragrances!  

 But our apartment just isn't large enough for the coleus plants.

 And apparently, whatever I've done that the petunias did not like, the coleus plants DID like.

(That's just one plant in that pot)

Not too bad for my first year of container gardening in China!

Now I can hardly wait for next spring to use what I've learned this year.

And we even rode camels in the Gobi...

 Mosques.  Forts.  Monasteries.  We saw them all!  In traveling with a tour group, there are times when you think, "I'm tired!  I'm just going to sit on the bus and pass this one by (and maybe read a book)."  But then that little voice inside starts saying "but this might be REALLY cool, and you'll miss the only opportunity to see it."  So, we saw everything.  And were exhausted by the time we returned home at the end of the week.

One delightful place I almost missed was the underground water museum that showed how ancient people began digging series of wells connected by tunnels to bring water to small areas of the desert to grow crops and live on.  Part of it reminded me strongly of the San Antonio river walk--except here the water is a small brook instead of a river.

 As we drove through a small village, I could not believe the low standard of living.  I'm sure there is no plumbing in these huts.  And since it rains so seldom many of the roofs were just twigs and branches laced together.  Rainstorms are categorized by the number of drops counted on the ground, i.e, "that was a 15-drop rain".  Occasionally, we saw TV satellites on these huts!

 I think a highlight of our trip was riding camels.  We thought it would just be one of those "photo op" experiences, where you sit on a camel and have your picture taken.  Nope!  This was the real deal--an hour ride through dunes to a hidden oasis.  With 53 of us in the group, we went in groups of 5,

but some groups are faster, or slower, than others and soon a long line was caravaning along.  It was a beautiful day, about 72 degrees with a light, playful breeze.  

Our jackets still felt good.  I can say I would not have wanted to experience the area in the 100+ temperatures of summer, nor with a real wind blowing.  The sand was very fine and would definitely have been unpleasant if it were filling the air.  (On the next picture, notice all the trees of the cultivated area in the background.  The government has been planting trees for the past 30-40 years, in an effort to keep the dunes out of the city of Dunhuang. You walk through sand and then cross into cool trees!  It's almost weird.)  

 The ride was actually quite comfortable.  The saddle fit in-between the twin humps of the Bactrian camel, with a metal rod to hold onto when the camel was getting up or kneeling down (for mounting or dismounting).  That part was a bit crazy as the camel lurches to his feet!  Otherwise, the ride was a bit more rocking than a horse, but fun.  The camels were tied to one another, so there was no individual control.  However, a pair of women in one group TWICE experienced a run-away.  Somehow, one camel became detached from the one in front and off he went, searching for some growing scrub brush to snack on--and he led the camel behind him off on his adventure.  The two women were a little anxious at first, but then laughing as their experience turned from scary to gastronomic.  

 The end of the ride was at an oasis, Hidden Crescent Moon (as the little lake looks like a crescent).  There's a nice pagoda there (and souvenirs, of course).  And Alice fell in love with camels.  (Now that's a surprise!)  The rest of the trip she agonized over buying a stuffed camel to take home.  Fortunately, most were not really stuffed (and cuddly), they were styrofoam covered with hair.  Definitely NOT cuddly.  And most had weird-looking faces.  Not something you'd want staring at you in the twilight of your bedroom.  

 But then we found the ONE!  Cute face.  Cuddly.  At the airport, of all places!  And it was a reasonable price.  So we took a picture, made a memory, and left it there.  After all, who wants to carry that around the rest of the week?

 We flew from Dunhuang to Xi'an (where the terra cotta warriors are), which is the eastern end of the silk road--where the kings lived who sent silk westward to buy better horses to try to keep the Mongols out.  It seems that their horses were bigger and faster than the Chinese ponies, so the emperor sent for some Arabians and others, trading silk and spices for them.

   I enjoyed watching the desert from the air.  First the dunes, then barren, rugged mountains.  I was SO surprised to begin to see snow on the mountain tops, and then GLACIERS!  Ones that were actually moving down the mountain and joining with others flows.  But what happens to the water that melts in the spring?  There was NO vegetation nearby.  Apparently the water flows away, or sinks into the ground, or evaporates.  

 Who would have thought we'd be able to visit Xi'an a second time this year?  We saw trees with leaves turning color that were just beginning to leaf out when we were there in April.  And we had a good time.

 We did get to spend some time on the inner-city wall.  It is wide enough for cars to drive on, but as they don't do stairs very well, there is plenty of room for walking, or if we'd had more time, renting bikes and riding.  The air was extremely hazy, which was a surprise for this area is usually quite clean.  

It was all explained as we drove out to visit the terra cotta site, and farmers were harvesting their corn fields and burning the corn stalks.  Plumes of thick, gray smoke rose from plot after plot.  And made it so visibility was less than a mile.

 What a great week it was, spending time with my sister, seeing things I never suspected were part of China.  But after 6 days on the road, we were ready to go home to our comfortable beds and familiar surroundings.  Some of the hotels had beds so hard, the carpet on the floor would have been softer but as it was sketchy looking and not clean, that wasn't really an option.  We'd had 3 flights, 3 different buses, taxis, a train, donkey cart and camel ride.  Yup, it was time to return to normal life.

Further Adventures on the Silk Road...

    In city parks all around China, groups of people gather in the early morning to exercise.  Some elderly groups do gentle movements with their canes.  Some younger ones do a much more energetic aerobic routine.  Since we've moved here, I've wanted to join in a group doing Tai Chi.  But I'd either have to get up earlier (not happening!), or skip breakfast (and that's not happening either!)

   In Urumqi, our hotel room looked down onto the city plaza, and due to the time difference (Beijing time vs local time), it was EARLY.  So I got to join in a group of somewhat elderly folks as they methodically went through the tai chi moves.  One more check mark off my bucket list!

 China has just one time zone.  If you look on a map, it's obvious that there should be 2 or even 3 time zones.  I'd always been curious--do the people out west just get up according to the sun, or does business follow the official time?  The official time is "Beijing Time", but the locals' clocks are set two hours later.  So when I was ready at 9 a.m. it was really only 7 a.m. local time--and that's why I got to do tai chi!

 From Urumqi, we took a bus through a desolate arid area to Turpan (sometimes it's called Turfan),

a small city built at an oasis.  The Muslim influence was reflected in the architecture. Since this area is hot in summer, they've built vine-covered walkways, and now tempting grapes hang down.  

One place we visited was Jiao He, where centuries ago, this adobe city housed a significant Buddhist community.  Now it boasts cool formations and a beautiful sky.

It was so fun being with my sister.  I think it helped Alice as well, having her aunt to hang out with.

This also provided another example of the stark contrast when water was available. It was so lush-looking and productive!  With so many square miles of useless land around, what would this world be like if the rainfall was equalized and sufficient in every land?  No more dry Mexico, Arizona, or Nevada.  No more Sahara desert.  A great part of this earth is not suitable for habitation right now! 

 With our great bargaining skills, we did NOT get the hat for Kevin--seems he didn't really want it after all!  But we did get the cotton top for Alice.  Since our family has a year's experience in dealing with shopping here, we were in demand in asking about cost and negotiating a decent price for the scarves, shawls, dried fruit or trinkets that were purchased by the teachers.

    One night, our family decided we were tired of going with the tour group to another big dinner.  So we walked to the Muslim market to find something for supper.  A woman was making jiao zi (dumplings) and the filling looked good.  She agreed to cook some up for us, and we watched as she fired up a coal-burner.  So that's what the smell was in the air (a little like burning rubber.)   Then she brought out a won ton soup--which we didn't ask for, but it was really good--the woman said Kevin needed to add some meat to his bones.  Funny, she didn't say that to me!  Another vendor offered kebabs, probably mutton.  Delicious food!  Total price, less than $7.50 for the entire meal, with far more food than we could possible eat.  Little children walked up to us and shyly said, "hello!"  (their one English word).  And as we went on our way, they called us "peng you" or friends.  It was fun to get some of the real local flavor of the area.  

  From Turpan, we took a sleeper train. The travel system in China is VERY interesting.  We exited the train at a tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere, and a bus transported us to Dunhuang.  Later, as we explored the city, we noticed a large train station.  Huh??? Why did we need to ride a bus for 2 hours if there is a train station here?  Ah!  Because the trains go out from here but cannot come in.  At least that's what we were told!  

We visited a Buddhist holy area, the Caves of 1000 Buddhas, at Dunhuang.  The first few were amazing--one was 70 meters (about 210 feet) tall, carved into the cliff, then painted and decorated. Others were much smaller, but all were impressive, some almost 2000 years old.  As we went into cave opening after opening, we found that each Buddha was different--various races, male or female, and the guide would say that certain groups of people would pray to a particular Buddha that they liked best.  The ceilings and background were extensively painted.  Not being an artist, it is hard for me to truly appreciated, but Kevin wanted to stay and study things out.

Often, after a quick peek Alice and I would sit outside, enjoying the cool desert air. 

These caves are famous for the religious manuscripts that were found there--thousands of them, which are now found in museums in London, Paris and Moscow.  It seems that explorers came in the 1800's and promised monetary help for the monks who lived here and were burdened with keeping all these caves.  So the explorers were allowed to take the manuscripts, as well as many other artifacts.  It's unclear whether the aid ever came.  Although it is sad that those things are lost to the monks, in a way it was a good thing.  During the Cultural Revolution, anything religious was destroyed by the Red Guard.  In fact, it's amazing that these caves are still there.  The monks formed a human chain to keep the Red Guard out, and succeeded in defending their monastery.  Of course now China is very proud of their antiquities and readily admit that the Cultural Revolution was a mistake.  I'm glad these things escaped.