Another week here in China

Hello again to whoever is reading this. It is another beautiful day here in China. The weather is a pristine as it could ever get. Slight overcast, 70 degrees, small breeze, and just the right amount of humidity. I hope it stays this way for a while but most likely it won't.
This past week we just stayed in Hefei. We got to know the place a lot better and explored the downtown area a little better. It is a huge city we found out, over 4 million people and it just keeps getting bigger. We went to a market the was giant to begin with then found out it also hand a huge underground labyrinth of little shops. We found some cool stuff for real cheap. China make Mexico look like an overpriced department store.
For lunch we went to KFC. I really don't know why but we did it to see what it was like. We had some falafel like wraps and pineapple shish-kabab but it all came to about 6 dollars. That is very expensive. Later on in the afternoon we ate at a street vendor wok type place and had some amazingly good spicy beef noodles for 3 yuan, about 35 cents. We will eat more of the small Chinese restaurant instead of the American fast food. Healthier, tastier, and a lot cheaper.
We hung out on walking street which is kind of like the Vegas strip but just stores instead of casinos. and then went back to our school. we walked to the local spa and all had massages for an hour. It is a nice fancy place and it cost around 5 dollars each time you go. It was my first time paying for a massage and it felt great but I like Aundi's massages a lot better. They really work your knots and sore muscles hard here and at times can be very painful.
Teaching at the school is still going great. the kids are learning and they are still completely crazy. They are quite the rowdy bunch of first and second graders. We teach them Monday through Friday for 2 hours in the afternoon and then the Elementary kids for 40 minutes a day sometime in the morning Monday through Friday. This gives us the weekends to ourselves which makes it very nice. We are going to do some more traveling with our weekends. Traveling is a little expensive here. Nothing compared to traveling in the states though. But we can't go everywhere that we would like to go to. But we will be able to see a lot of pretty things while we are here. we have already seen so many amazing things and look forward to our next big weekend in two weeks to go somewhere. It is still up in the air on where but we will know by next week.
We are doing great. we finally kicked that cold that we got in St.George before we left and We have been running on the track that is 50 yards from our door. I'm hoping that they fill the pool sometime soon. It is right next to our dorms and I hate looking at a nice 50 meter indoor pool that is completely empty. I would like to do some triathlons when I get back so I'm hoping to get some training here.
Here are a few pictures as of lately and we hope you enjoy. Thank you for your consideration and for reading our blog. Hope you have a wonderful week.
With regards,
Ted & Aundi

Pictures for Kassie!

That's weird, why is this monk holding this sign?
This is to tell my Kassie Happy Birthday! I couldn't send you a present, but I can send you some pictures. I hope you had a great birthday.


P.S. the creepy child mannequin say Happy B-day too.

Puzzling translation of the week

Here is an interesting dish....We ate at this restraunt and were astonished to see what was on the menu board! Needless to say, I opted out of this one.

The warriors
Our ILP group above, and part of the Mosque below.

Our Xi'an Trip

Last Wednesday we left on a night train to Xi'an. I think in total the ride was about 16 hours long. Fortunately, we were asleep for the majority. Sleeper trains are a bit cramped, but they are the best way to travel. I fell asleep to the sound of the mother below me singing her baby(and me) to sleep. I woke up to a man sloppily slurping his soup, and what sounded like an old man coughing himself into his grave. The countryside outside my window was absolutely gorgeous. We passed through miles and miles of farmer's fields. Terraces were cut into the hillsides, every possible bit of land was farmed. I learned so much about the Chinese just by watching their lives through my small window. They bury their dead above ground, in huge cone shaped mounds with only a white flag atop to mark it. Graves could be anywhere. I saw them in the middle of fields, atop hillsides, and next to rivers.

Xi'an was really cool. It is a city with about 8 million people. We stayed in a youth hostel run by a guy named Jim Beam.....isn't that the name of some sort of alcohal? I think so. The hostel was really nice, a lot cleaner than our own living quarters. Our first day in Xi'an we went on an official tour. We went to a factory where they make Terra cotta warrior replicas, then we went to a museum with ancient artifacts that date hundreds of years B.C. . After the museum we went to a hot springs, which served an ancient emperor, and his concubines. It was really beautiful, but we didn't have time for a soak. After that we went to see the Terra Cotta warriors. It was really amazing. I never really realized how huge this place was until we got there. To this day, they are still excavating the site, and finding new warriors and artifacts! The first pit we went to was a covered area, bigger than a football field. The terra cotta warriors were everywhere, all neatly in line, all different from eachother. Each face is a unique face! Along with the warriors, there were terra cotta horses. There were two other pits, not quite as big as the first one, but still just as impressive. There were some warriors that were outside the pits, under glass so you could get an upclose look at them. The detail is amazing. There is fine grid detail in the soles of there shoes, and the hair on their head is braided, you can see every strand. It was incredible. After we saw the warriors we went to the tomb of the emperor who created all of this. I can't remember his name, sorry. I was expecting to go underground and see some decadent beautiful tomb, but that wasn't the case at all. The tomb has not been excavated at all. To this day, it is an undisturbed mound. When I say mound, I mean a hefty sized hill. The people of China refuse to excavate his tomb because they believe, and have some proof that it is highly protected. In ancient writings it is said that there are mercury pools along the perimeter of his grave. It also says there are automatic crossbows hidden and ready for fire. Our tour guide informed us that they have seen the mercury pools from satellite in space. Because of this proof, and the possibility of other booby traps the Chinese have not, and probably will not excavate it. Ted and I stood on top of this mound, and drooled at the idea of what riches could be underneath our feet.

Our second day in Xi'an we spent in the Muslim district. We went to a beautiful ancient mosque that is hidden in the middle of this huge city. After that we spent the rest of the day exploring and haggling in the marketplace. We bought a really cool Mah Jongg set, and also a chess set. We also got our last name carved in character on a stone stamp. We picked out the stone, and watched a lady carve out our name in less than five minutes. It is really pretty.

Our first trip was really fun and exciting, and we look forward to our next one, which is in about two and a half weeks. I think we are going to Bejiing. Yippee!

Yours,

-a.

Here are the pictures that we posted a week ago. They were having problems, I guess.

One of the many puzzling translations we encounter. I think I will start a weekly segment just to feature these.

Regarding Comments

Thanks for the comments everyone! It took me a while to figure out how to publish them, sorry. It should be good now! Peace.

Hello There

Hi,

Everything is great here. The past week has been tons of fun. We have gotten to know the place a lot better. We have also found out how to ride the packed full buses. There is lots of pretty places around here and many things to do.
Yesterday we went to the temple market and Aundi bought a really cool Mao messenger bag for 3 dollars and we had an awesome meal for a dollar a person. it was these crazy good dumplings and dipping sauce. the best meal we have had here. we then walked over to the city park which is very beautiful. I will post some pictures of it. There are these crazy monkey guys who have these monkeys tied to a rope and have them do flips. It looks like the monkeys have a very cruel life but Aundi gave them some change anyway. I chose not to support monkey torture. It was still something new to see. They have fruit you can buy on every corner, all for about 15 cents. Either fresh strawberries, pineapple, candied crab apples, or fruit shi-kabobs. also cotton candy. It is a lot cheaper than Disneyland but we haven't found any churros or anything like that yet. I don't really trust American hot dogs and definitely not the hot dogs they have on the street corners here.
The park had very pretty walkways and islands. Pictures won't do justice to the beauty of it. we spent most of the afternoon walking around there. they also had a beautiful Art exhibit on display. Most of the paintings where done in water color and I was amazed at what they could do.
We had sacrament service again over at the kindergarten school across the street. it is compose of all 9 teachers. It is really neat. We can never quite last the whole three hours. Me and Steve are the only Priesthood brethren and the Priesthood meetings can get rather boring. They are still very spiritual meetings and are fun because everyone is rather close with one another.
Every thing else is an adveture and we are having a great time every day. This week we will be going to Xi'an wednesday night and be back Sunday night so we can teach on Monday. The weather is a beautiful sunny day. Thanks for reading our blog.
With Regards,

Ted & Aundi

There is Fire and Light in the New Year

This past Sunday was the last day of the Chinese New Year. These people really know how to celebrate. There has been random outbursts of fireworks ever since we arrived nearly two weeks ago. On Sunday, there was constant fireworks from six in the morning, continuing late into the night. It took me a while to figure out all the new sounds here, but the fireworks were an obvious one. A bunch of us went to downtown Hefei, to see the celebrations. It was a blast (no pun intended). There were huge fireworks going off everywhere, people were shooting off bottle rockets left and right. Little kids ran free with sparklers waving wildly in the air. None of these activities were controlled by any sort of official. It was a free for all. If this sort of thing was to go down in the U.S., there would be cops everywhere. I found out later that there is only one police department for this whole province! Anhui (our province) is about the size of Virginia.
Saturday we went to the Temple market in downtown. People stared at us like we were celebrities. Shopkeepers waved at us and pointed to their merchandise, "hey, hey" they said, that was about all I could understand. We would shake our head and say "Tai gui le", which means "too much". That was all they needed to understand. We didn't buy anything there, which is good. Despite what we told the Chinese, everything was really really cheap. We went inside the temple that was in the middle of the market. At the top of the temple we overlooked the city. As far as we could see there were apartment buildings and skyscrapers. It is hard to grasp how huge this city really is, but it makes New York look wimpy. From sun up, to long after the sun goes, down the horns of cars, motorcycles, taxis and buses blare. There seem to be no rules on the road. If there are, they are all broken. There is no regard for lanes, or signals, or stops signs. Pedestrians most certainly don't have the right of way. We rode in a taxi once, and I think if you are walking across the road, it is a rule that the taxi drivers speed up and try to hit you.
Teaching is great so far, I don't have a lot to say about it yet. I will say that the kids are very energetic, and very smart. It is challenging to keep their attention, but so far, teaching is very rewarding.
Our new favorite pastime is playing Ping Pong. We play as often as we can. The kids are really good, the teachers are better. Yesterday a teacher, named Linda, invited us to play with her and other teachers after dinner, at a special indoor teachers table(most of the tables are outside, and they are made of concrete). She kicked our trash! She beat me, Ted, and our friend Steve. We are getting really good though. It is Ted's goal to be able to beat my dad when we get home, I think he'll have no problem. Speaking off the pong, I hear the tables calling me....Zaijian! (Bye)
-a.

Hey everyone, this is Ted writing today. it is Saturday morning and we made it through the first week. It was very fun. The children we teach are crazy. The first day they just ran around like madmen. they are getting a lot better. Teaching is fun and we plan our own lessons so we like to spice it up. We teach everyday next week but we will try to travel somewhere next weekend.

Today we are going to the downtown market. The school is about 20 minutes from downtown. They have a nice temple there and you can get a lot of stuff for very cheap. Everything here is so cheap. We all went out to eat at a restaurant and the total came to ten American dollars for nine of us. they have these Twinkie like pastries but much better than Twinkies that I love. And the candy is incredible. the small market store here has more candy than Costco.

I can see about 25 cranes just by walking outside. there are sky scrappers going up left and right. They are all surrounded by tall bamboo scaffolding. The drive from Shanghai was 8 hours of 30 story housing complexes. It is amazing to see so many people and still at night it is very quite. maybe when we go to downtown it will be a lot more busy. where we live it isn't bad at all. but there are still tons of housing buildings suronding the area.

There are tons of bikes and scooters everywhere.

I have to go right know so I'll update you some other day